Alright, starting with all references in last chapter. Opening was obviously the Flintstones, the Vital Attribute Tracking System = VATS from fallout, Because It's Midnite from the band Limozeen, Johnny's ID bears similar information from Nick Papagiorgio in Vegas Vacation.
Name: Bradley L. Simmons
Number: 48003
Age: 41
Race: Augmented Human
Residence: Settlement Alpha
Status: M.I.A., Presumed Dead
Next Surviving Relative: Dana M. Simmons (Wife), Jacquelyn M. Simmons (Daughter)
Processed by: Mortuary Associate 14, Solid State Research Station
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Who Made Who?
Intermission: Prayer Of The Refugee
Chapter 3: Invincible (Part One)
"Merge in to the fray,
Weapon out and belly in
A warrior, struggling
To remain, consequential
Who, why, how
Bold and proud
Where I've been
Here I am"
-Tool
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Solid State Messaging System V312.0
To All Devices With Staff Clearance or Higher
Sender: Overseer Ashtom
RE: Dr: Vale's Access to Storage Floor 13 and Labs
As I'm sure everyone knows, Arturo Vale is limited in access to all labs with clearance higher than A, and banned entirely from any level of storage below 13. Anyone witnessing him attempt to violate this council enacted order should immediately report it to your pod's administrator, or call for security using your device's alert function.
On a side note, the messaging system has been updated to include the I.A.P.E.s personal devices. Starting tomorrow at 0800, the I.A.P.E.s will begin shadowing their selected staff members for the first period of their stay on Solid State. Ms. Manto will resume production of Alpha level Bio-Chem production in Dr. Vale's absence, and she has been given clearance to begin testing of some of her own studies. Any concerns with her work may be filed to Ms. Veno or myself.
Mr. Osmanov will begin his training with Ryker and slowly progress to conditioning his ability to tolerate space walks, gravity field anomalies, and the particle rail.
In place of Sheldon Lee we received a runner up candidate, Johnson Van Crass III (he explicitly requested me to attach the "III" to his name). Now, to be honest, we have no "suitable" functions to match his… ambiguous fields of study, so please try to make him feel welcome and be prepared to explain your functions as best you can should he find something to take interest in.
Finally, in regards to the sighting of "the dark one", it has been investigated and revealed to be nothing more than shadows from testing of the particle rail. There is no danger involved with these sightings, and they are purely visual. Any questions or concerns may be addressed to me or level three lab staff.
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"What is that thing?"
Training his goggles on the object in question, the pilot shook his head as the scanning prompt was replaced with an error message.
"No idea," he said as the object began to flash, catching the attention of the two men at the makeshift campsite set up a short distance from a cargo ship.
Holding his hand up, the object flew from its place in the snow and into his hand. The eyes of his helmet flashed yellow, soon matching pace with the device before switching to red. Turning to converse with the other man, he motioned in the direction of the forest they were observing from. Quickly ducking out of sight, the pilot spread apart several branches of the red bushes to give him a hidden view point.
A shadow began to spread down the ramp of the ship, the large form of a third man appearing shortly after, taking long swigs from a shimmering, blue bottle.
"Hey, turn your radio on."
Puzzled, the soldier slung his rifle over his shoulder and snatched the device from his belt. Keeping the volume low, he thumbed the wheel to switch through frequencies before hearing voices interrupt the static.
"-and the preliminary results are showing a high lead content in the surface."
There was a faint gurgling sound as the larger man lowered his bottle and wiped at his mouth, his lack of a helmet meaning he was only being picked up on the microphones from the scientists.
"What's the risk of contamination?"
The scientists looked at each other for a moment, "Definite."
A faint sigh, "Alright, get packed up. We can't salvage anything from this planet, so we'll just have to call it a day."
"Yes, sir," both scientists said in unison while they turned to gather their equipment.
The scientist still holding the object had started collect a handful of papers before realizing what he was holding. Looking across the clearing, his helmet began flashing coordinates and trajectory lines before flashing green. Agreeing with the readout, he swung his arm back and tossed the object to where it collided with a tree and bounced into the bush where the pilot and soldier were hiding.
As soon as the device landed, hands sprang out and covered their mouths, keeping them from screaming and drawing attention.
"It's me," the voice said and released them.
"Shit, it's good to see you," the soldier said as he fell back to sit on the ground.
The pilot patted him on the shoulder, then moved to where the device lay in the snow.
Peeking through the bushes, the officer watched the scientists break down their camp, "What'd you find out?"
"They were talking about salvaging something from this planet," said the soldier, crawling beside him, "Talked about contamination, then they threw this device and started dismantling everything."
"Did you get Hopper-2 airborne?"
Glancing back to the pilot, he shook his head, "The fuel cells were torn apart when the tower collapsed. I drug them as far as I could so it wouldn't ignite, but we'll need one of the cells from Hopper-1."
The pilot nodded, "Better to have both ships mobile."
A faint beeping had started, drawing all their attention from the camp site and to the device at their feet.
"Let's get to it then."
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The station was unlike anything he had even imagined. He was explained that the structure was closer to the Sky Trek Tower except more than triple the size and several 'Observation Decks' on the same axis of the tower.
How it seemed to just float along in the middle of the abyss that stretched out infinitely before him was a mystery that he didn't want the answer to.
It was another ten hours before they reached a close enough distance to contact the docking authority, being too close to the station to risk a shift, they needed to travel by rockets alone.
"Eagle 5 to Solid State, contact," said the pilot as he slowed the ship to a crawl.
After a brief burst of static, a heavily accented Irish voice replied, "Welcome Eagle 5, this is Solid State. What can I do for you?"
"Eagle 5, requesting permission to dock."
"Standby."
There was a short pause before a beeping on their computer caused an unused screen to flash to life.
'Vessel scan in progress.'
"Permission granted, please proceed to Dock 12."
"Thank you Solid State, moving in to position," said the pilot as he hung his headset on the storage hook to his right while thumbing the intercom, "Attention passengers, please remain in your pods until we finish docking."
Being the only one who wasn't fighting motion sickness from having just awakened, Johnny pressed his face against the glass, struggling to see outside the porthole as it changed from the darkness of space to the blue, neon glow of the osmosis barrier as the ship floated into the hangar. The engines died down gradually, making him aware of just how loud they had been by the silence left in their wake.
It wasn't long before the pilots climbed down the ladder from the bridge into the cargo area.
The pilot handed a card to the co-pilot and walked to the first pod where he inserted the card and punched in a code, causing the pod to begin to stand upright, "Hanako Manta, welcome to Solid State. Any nausea you're feeling-"
While trying to focus his attention on the pilot, the co-pilot began speaking, causing him to turn toward the rising pod to the left, "Yuri Osmanov, welcome to Solid State. Any nausea you're feeling is entirely normal, please wait patiently while the-"
"Johnson Van Crass," the pilot said, as his own pod began to rise. He looked to the display and chuckled at something he seen.
"Welcome to Solid State. Any nausea you're feeling is normal, but please wait patiently while the medical crew escorts you for your brain scans."
Looking at the display again, the pilot grinned, "And you are gonna love it."
Johnny gave him a confused look as he stepped away, allowing the group that just boarded to become visible. Several were in bright orange CBRN suits and were escorted by two guards equipped with gas masks and strange looking rifles he hadn't seen before.
The scientists rushed toward the pods and began reading the displays while the soldiers hung back and talked with the pilots. Raising their left hands and turning them palm up, a blue hologram flickered to life showing an outline of the human body. With their right hands they began tapping on various parts of the bodies and swiping between menus that appeared.
After several minutes and the repeated crackle of the communicators in their suits, they unplugged the pods and began wheeling them off the ship.
Their first sight of Solid State without straining through the porthole of ship was much more disappointing. Dock 12 was as barren and empty as the runway at the base they left from. The walls looked of a normal steel that had not been painted, the floor was stained and speckled with fluids drained or spilled over its many years of use. The one thing that lived up to his expectations was that the doors slid open into the walls as they approached.
They winded through the corridors with walls and floors matching that of the dock, however there were black stripes along the edges where the walls met the ceiling and floor with an occasional white printed 'Storage 12' at intersections. The atmosphere seemed to pervade through the sealed glass of their pods, all three beeping frantically as the heart monitors began to climb. Eventually glancing back, one of the scientists touched a button at the front of their suit.
"Try to relax, we understand the situation, but if your heart rates climb too high we can't scan you and you'll have to stay in quarantine."
Johnny leaned back against the thin padded cushion of his pod and closed his eyes, allowing his breaths to linger and draw out smoothly. His was the first pod to stop beeping, Yuri's was the next, but Hanako's continued until the corridors widened in front of a bigger, more securely constructed door than the others they've passed previously.
The guards walked forward with the pilots in tow and put their two codes in to the keypad on either side of the door, allowing red, recessed lights to begin swirling to life at both corners of the frame. As it dropped into the floor, the bright almost blue light of a laboratory spilled into the dim, energy saving yellow of the corridor.
They were wheeled in, completely in awe of the roomful of machinery they were each connected to. The pilots were shown to empty pods that were in the far corners while the guards closed the door.
Scanning over Johnny's pod, the scientist froze. The crackle returned as he contacted the group with the private radio. Immediately, every scientist was in front of him, each pointing at the screen and the data it was showing before one of them hit the button to speak aloud.
"Johnson Van Crass, I'm afraid to tell you this, but you're immune to the gas used in hyper sleep. This is used largely here as an anesthetic, or to make patients unconscious for surgery."
He paused and looked to the others, who nodded for him to continue.
"This test is mandatory and very painful, we will be scanning you completely, body and psyche. You will eventually pass out from the stress and shock, but not before suffering the most severe pain you can even imagine."
Johnny let his eyes drift to the floor, "There's nothing you can do about it?"
Another glance to the group, "Well, we try to conduct the test as uninhibited as possible to ensure accurate readings. We can't give you and painkillers, but we will recline your pod and restrain you to prevent as much injury as possible."
Johnny was quiet for a moment, before nodding, "I'll consent to the test, but I don't want to be restrained."
"Ok, I understand. I'm sorry for what you're about to go through, but we'll make it as quick as possible."
Johnny nodded and began to prepare himself as best he could. The clunk of the pod dropping into place was deafening as he began to take deep breaths.
"Brain scan beginning in three, two, one," a computerized voice informed.
Johnny gasped in panic as the same gas from his time on the ship entered the pod.
"It's nothing," he said quietly, "I can take it. I can take it."
It wasn't, and he couldn't.
Instantly, his body was convulsing upward while the screams he meant to stifle erupted, the sheer volume of it almost throwing his head back against the padding.
"Stop it!" he screamed, grinding his teeth as he strained against the glass, his muscles feeling as if they were contracting a thousand times a second.
The veins in his arms began to bulge as the pressure in his eyes took away his ability to block out the static that invaded his vision. He began slamming his head against the glass and kicking at the bottom of the pod, finding nothing but sturdy and unbreakable surroundings. He began to feel the blood trickle down from the glass, a mix of the laceration on his forehead and a busted blood vessel in his left eye being the cause.
"No!" said a guard as he pulled away one of the scientists who rushed toward his pod, "It would just have to be restarted!"
Johnny's screams broke through the airtight seal of the pod and rushed through the room, nearly blocking out the frantic beeping of the computers.
"Pods four and five," another scientist yelled, "FEV in pods four and five!"
The guards quickly rushed to where the pilots were and read the display before running to a screen inset in the wall where they punched in a code causing two more SEVA suits to appear.
They quickly slid them over their clothes and purged the air inside the suits while the scientists fled back to the main door where they frantically began to input the security override codes. As the door slid started to open, one input another code, resulting in the computer's voice to inform them of Auto-Mode being enabled.
Once the door locked back in place, the guards opened the pods housing the unconscious pilots, and raising their rifles, began spraying them with a liquid that clung to their bodies and uniforms. Once the glass closed in place, they slammed the butts of their rifles into a plate of glass over a large red button and stood back as flames began to erupt inside the pods, completely obscuring the occupants who didn't even scream.
Rushing to check on the now silent Johnny, they found him motionless but staring blankly up at them. Looking from the steady, rhythmic trickle of the heart monitor, they nodded to each other and moved to join the panicked scientists in the hallway.
Longer than I was hoping it to be, but was overdue.
Thanks for reading.