"As Inanna ascended from the underworld, the galla, the demons of the underworld, clung to her side. The galla were demons who know no food, who know no drink, Who eat no offerings, who drink no libations, Who accept no gifts. They enjoy no lovemaking- They have no sweet children to kiss. They tear the wife from the husband's arms, they tear the child from the father's knees, and they steal the bride from her marriage home..."
The descent of Innana
December 8th, 2137. Earth Central Time, Survivor's camp at the Server Farm.
Rosco patrolled the area with the motion tracker, also he had an old walkie-talkie, not the best communications device but functional at short distances inside the station. The thick walls of the server farm formed a Faraday cage which interfered with radio signals but as far as they used them inside there was no problem.
-"Bertram, I got a signal. Near the lobby" He informed Bertram, at surveillance.
-"Let me check, if it's Winters coming back, Thompson must open the door for her." Bertram responded.
-"Odd, tracker shown multiple contacts" Rosco said "Are you sure these things can detect anything outside the Faraday cage?"
-"They´re designed that way. If it can detect a rat inside the vents, it can track a large creature or a human being." Bertram responded "I don't have anything on video."
-"Keep checking, I lost it." Rosco said. "Thompson, did you copy?"
-"I'm here" Thompson responded "Too soon for Emily to come back, stay alert."
-"I don't like this, man" Bertram said, his voice tone was of concern.
-"Thompson, it's Doug. I'm picking up a signal inside the perimeter" the other lookout called from the other side of the camp.
-"Can't be, we've sealed all access. Liam, Emma, grab the weapons; meet me at the Server farm. Rosco, get back here" Thompson ordered.
Rosco rushed back inside the Server farm, revolver in hand. Thompson and the others were there already, forming a circle around the frightened citizens whom didn't carried weapons. Doug had the tracker on hand, still checking the signals.
-"Multiple signals, twenty meters and closing" Doug informed.
-"Multiple? It can't be the creature." Thompson said. "And how it broke through the blockade?"
-"I dunno, maybe they're looters. Opened a vent and want to catch us by surprise" Rosco said.
-"Well, let's give them a welcome party" Bertram cocked his gun.
-"This is insane, we should be united, not fighting each other for scraps" Emma said.
-"You saw what happened at the Terminal, what a little panic can do" Rosco responded.
-"Five meters, people. They're here" Doug was frightened, his eyes were like plates and the man was sweating.
-"C'mon Sinclair, this is not funny. Get out of that vent and talk, you asshole!" Thompson shouted.
-"Signal disappeared, What the Fuck, man?" Doug exclaimed.
He lowered the motion tracker and was about to check the batteries when a big shadow descended from the ventilation shaft behind him. Doug turned back and saw the creature lunge at him throwing a frightening growl. Before the man or the others raised they weapons, the alien pierced him in the abdomen with its tail. Suddenly everyone was screaming. Thompson, Bertram and Liam fired at the creature still holding Doug's body.
The low velocity bullets didn't have any effect on the creature. It swept its tail, throwing the body and with the same impulse, it cut Liam in two. Then grabbed a terrorized Bertram and jumped inside the vent again, the circle tightened and few more seconds they saw the creature emerge from a vent on the wall.
-"There!" Thompson opened fire again. It grabbed the nearest resident and drag her into the vent. "The son of a bitch is taking us one by one!"
A ceiling tile fell as one of the creatures jumped into the room. Again the bullets impacted it and the blood splashed on one of the civilians covering near it, the creature escaped. Not for long, it came crawling on the wall and grabbed Thompson, the man fired but was useless, the creature stung him and soon, the man disappeared inside the vent.
Rosco and Emma ran for the exit, the door was locked. The same bunker made to protect them became a deadly trap. Emma pulled her access tuner and tried to unlock the door, meanwhile Rosco watched, he heard the screams and growls from the server room. Between them, a Creature jumped, it went straight for Emma, Rosco was behind it and the man paralyzed with terror against the wall. Emma, she collapsed like a frightened animal as the beast slowly approached, as if the creature knew she would not defend himself.
-"Rosco, help me! Please!" she called, but Rosco was terrorized.
The creature brought its eyeless head to Emma's face as the woman can't stop sobbing and calling for Rosco's help, it seemed curious at the reaction of its prey, or maybe it just enjoyed the fear. Finally satisfied, the creature stung Emma with its tail and grabbed the woman back to the hive in the bowels of the station, leaving a traumatized Rosco behind.
- o –
Emily Winters consulted his watch. It was December 9th, 2137. Almost a day have passed since she left the camp for scavenge and now she had returned. The door closed, she called but there was no response from the lookouts or Thompson, something wasn't right. She used an access tuner and entered. The place was completely destroyed, server machines toppled, blood stains covered the walls, walking deeper inside, she stumbled with half body, and she recognized the horror expression in Liam's face. She found a few other corpses, Doug, Eric; the others had disappeared.
-"Oh no, What the Hell happened here?" Winters wondered "The creature must have come here after we encounter it in the Galleria." She observed the fallen grates from the vents.
After all preparations, sealing doors and vents, and they forget the air ducts overhead. She took the identification tags and put them inside her bag. She noted a blinking light on one of the terminals. A text message, there was a message from Rosco there, she read.
-"It took her and I couldn't do a thing stop it. First it tore through Doug. Then it cut Liam in half and threw him aside like a rag doll. Then it cornered Emma. I was in the shadows and it didn't see me. Emma was calling for mew — calling for help, but I couldn't move. I was too scared. I let it take her, but I'm going to find her. If you find this, arm yourself."
Winters deduced it could be survivors and they're either hiding, or like Rosco, crazy enough to follow the creature and try to rescue Emma. Emily wrote another entry for those whom could still be there.
-"I need some rest" she said to herself, "Maybe one hour or two, I really doubt the creature came back here for a while" and then she lied in a niche formed by a toppled server. One hour later, she grabbed whatever was left in the camp and she headed back for the Galleria hideout, intending to join with Cameron and Julia's group.
The transit car arrived and Winters pressed the button, a few minutes later, she arrived at the Solomons galleria station, she raced to Gillen's bar as far and silent as she could. Julia and Cameron weren't there. She had to find them; they said they were at the apartments so Emily headed for the elevators.
-"Hey you! Get out of here" A voice called. Emily turned and saw a man calling her from a closed shutter.
-"Shhh, please. Can you help me?" She said.
-"Get lost, we don't like looters" the man continued.
-"I'm not a looter, I'm a nurse. My camp was destroyed. My name is Winters" Emily clarified. The man considered for two seconds, then.
-"I'm Blyth, Maybe you can help us after all, we need a doctor."
-"I'm just a nurse, but sure, let me in" Winters agreed.
-"Not so fast, first, you have to do something for me before." Blyth said.
-"And what would be?" Winters asked back.
-"There are some of the automated janitors robots still roaming around the concourse, turn them off." Blyth explained. "The fucking robots open a way inside the camp each time they go into their duties. Shut them off and I'll let you in."
She found three of the automated robots and turned them off, only then Blyth let her in. Once in the camp, Winters learned almost all medic personnel have been abducted or killed, that was the reason they desperately needed a doctor, otherwise they wouldn't admitted her in the camp. She treated injuries ranging from cuts and concoctions to a gunshot. Looters were more paranoid every day, and the man said it were Sinclair's men those who shoot him.
After one day in the camp, she started to see a pattern. The food was scarce, the place stank of rotten garbage, and the survivors were more paranoid every day. Besides, the night before, Marshal Waits and his men followed a trace on the creature and hours later, only Waits had returned, the creature had killed them all. The people there were losing their fate in Waits' ability to kill the creature. She re-read her log entry.
-"I have been camped out in Galleria Mall for maybe twenty-four hours. The people here, they are scared, but they still believe that Marshal Waits will kill the creature. They forget other dangers. They forget themselves. People are turning on each other for food, for water. I cannot stay here."
-"It seems is safer to be alone" She said to herself, heading back to the transit station. She hadn't a plan now, but the Private wards and Bacchus apartments at Systech spire were his home, or maybe took an elevator and join Lindgard's camp.
At the transit station, she checked again the motion tracker. The place was deserted and dark, she was about to call the car towards the Habitation tower when a warning light turned on in the Engineering line, a car was coming from there. She hid and when the car stopped, she saw a dirty man came out, she recognized him: Rosco.
-"Rosco. Rosco, over here" Emily called him. "I read your message, where you had been?"
-"Winters?" the man looked confused "I… I was looking for Emma; I followed the creature into the vents"
-"Calm down, Rosco." Emily put her hand over his shoulder "Where's Emma, did you found her? Is anyone else alive?"
-"I don't know. I was following the blood trail inside the vent, and then something attacked me. Not the creature, something else, small" Rosco grabbed his head, closing his eyes, as if he had a migraine, and coughed. "I just remember waking up inside the vent hours later and there was a strange creature dead"
-"A creature?" She asked.
-"It was horrible, some kind of oversized scorpion." Rosco told her.
-"Its fine, Rosco. I'm heading for the Galleria, there's a survivor's camp there. We can stay there, come." Winters told the man.
-"I don't feel so good, need to puke." The man said, "Wait me here, I'm going to the bathroom." He walked towards the door marked with the symbol of a stick man, Emily followed him.
Winters waited. Poor man had been lucky but he clearly had survivor's guilt over the loss of Emma, maybe Lindgard would help him. At that moment, screams broke the silence in the cavernous station; they came from inside the bathroom. Winters ran and when she arrived, she watched Rosco lying on the floor, over a puddle of blood. Winters almost screamed when she saw the hole in the man's chest, ribs bent outwards. A tiny head followed by a serpentine body erupted from the wound, leaving a trail of blood from the body to a ventilation shaft.
-"Oh no, Rosco" Winters exclaimed. "That creature! How can it-?" Winters now realized how the creature could attack in different places so quickly. It assaulted the camp at the server farm almost and almost immediately it has appeared in the maintenance corridor at the Galleria. "It isn't fast, there's more than one" Winters thought "All the missing people!"
Horrified by the revelation, she puked. Now her only objective would be staying alive and if possible, escape the station, though no ships were available at the moment. Suddenly, she heard a chirping sound coming from the vent. "A rat, maybe?" She thought.
An eight legged, long tailed pink-yellow creature leaped out from the vent. Winters screamed, that must be one of the creatures who had attacked Rosco. She tried to run but she slipped on the wet floor. She watched in horror as the creature crawled towards her and she raised her arms. She grabbed the creature but its long tail coiled around her neck and she lost consciousness from the lack of air. The creature wrapped its legs around her face and Winters fainted.
Emily woke up hours later, coughing. The creature was lying dead besides her, its legs curled. Her throat burned, and she felt a slight pressure in his chest. Emily consulted her watch. November 11th, morning. "I've been unconscious almost twelve hours" she thought, and then remembered what happened to Rosco, whose body were at the far end of the room.
Emily Winters realized those little creatures were first stage monsters, planting an embryo like some kind of parasites. The creature which burst from Rosco's chest was a small version of the black monstrosity which lurked in the shadows, and now she had one too. Every hope of survival and getting back to Earth with her family vanished in a second, she cried.
The only option now was to end her life before the creature inside her burst, end her own in her own terms, but as she lacked the proper means, no sedatives and no weapons, she had one last idea. Back at the Galleria camp she learned Sinclair's group had been shooting people, maybe they can do the job and killed her, it will be quick and relative painless. Seegson security were bunkered somewhere up the same tower, she took the elevator, time was running out.
The forklift climbed out as the guard pressed the button. Outside the station's Rec room, Sinclair's men had sealed the two doors by welding steel bars. They didn't risk putting braces anyone could open. The only access now was the door in which the forklift sealed with heavy steel boxes as a bank vault armored door. The rest of the doors, vents and pipes were already sealed. Indeed, the Seegson security guys had turn the area into a bank vault. As Wi9nters arrived their people had entered and now only Sinclair and one of the guards were ready to seal the place.
-"Hey guys" Winters hailed. They immediately raised their weapons.
-"Stop right there, girl" Sinclair said. "The place is already taken"
-"I can see that" Winters said
-"Then get lost" Sinclair continued "Unless you bring something, you have to go"
-"I don't have anything at all. I have lost it all" Winters told them, extending her arms and throw them the empty bag.
-"We don't have a place for you then. We're closing the store, I didn't even want to shoot you and waste one precious bullet, they're scarce, you know?" Sinclair said as the guard entered, still pointing at Winters.
Sinclair pressed the button and the forklift start to descent. The door finally closed and Winters was left alone at the entrance. The motion tracker beeped and Emily saw multiple contacts there, slowly approaching. She remembered the same thing happened right before her camp was attacked. The creatures were about to strike. Emily walked towards the door and banged, trying to warn the people there. She heard voices, Sinclair's group were formed not only by security guards but by families, pounding noises came from below, the creatures must been crawling inside the vents under the floor. She ran, wishing all the firepower they had would protect the women and children inside, but knowing with certainty that they would not.
Time had runs out for all of them; the only thing she could do is write a final log and find a good place to die, the labs lobby had a wonderful sight of the planet and its moons. She headed there feeling an increasing oppression in the chest.
"I got here when they were sealing the sanctuary. I don't know what I expected maybe that they'd change their minds and let me in, maybe that they'd shoot me dead like everyone else on the station who gets in their way. They shut the door in my face. I can hear movements from the floor below me. I haven't got long. Sinclair and his people have Sevastopol's food supplies and much of its weaponry, but I heard the voices of children too. I'd wondered where the children had gone. Maybe they can keep these monsters from them. I hope they do."
- o –
December 11th, 2137. Earth Central Time. Gemini Exoplanet Solutions lobby.
The woman called Ripley left the lobby and continued her way. Winters looked at the empty medikit she had thrown. She picked it and an idea surged. The pain in her chest increased beyond tolerable levels. She prepared the needle and injected herself the air in the jugular artery. Death was almost instantaneous, her body fell on one of the couches, and after few seconds, her body convulsed and another of the tiny monsters erupted from her dead chest.