Chapter Thirteen
Amelia's dreams were often of things like moments with her husband, memories or fantasies. She had once dreamed of riding a great dragon over misty castles, and walking in dark, foggy woods. This dream, though, was odd. She dreamed of being wrapped in soft warmth. As if she was wrapped in a warm blanket. A warm, peaceful cocoon of utter safety and peace. A strange, almost surreal dream.
She came back to consciousness where she had dozed off, leaning against the wall in her E-T RIG. She wasn't sure how much time had passed, but she did feel a tiny bit better. She stood up and stretched a little. Amelia could hear raised voices, and went to see what was going on.
"This is stupid! We should be getting the hell out of here!" said a male voice. Amelia came into one of the other rooms to find Sammers talking with a few other people. Well, "talking" was a bit of a stretch. Sammers was trying to keep his cool.
"If things were different, I would. Don't you think I've considered that?" Sammers shot back. The man, who looked like an engineer by his uniform, looked haggard and dirty.
"We should get the shuttles and get the hell out of here!" the man argued. Warton took the moment to step in.
"And just where the hell do you think you'll be going in them?" Warton asked, hands on his hips. The man glared at him. "They're not Shockpoint capable, and they don't have cryotubes, either," the older miner pointed out.
"Anything would be better than waiting around for those things to eat us!" said a woman, taking the engineer's side.
"Or we could fly them up to the Castle and use one of their shuttles! They have Shockpoint shuttles, right?" said another man. Sammers looked like he had a headache.
"In case you haven't noticed, we haven't been able to contact the Castle since before this whole mess began. And as well, we know for a fact two infected people were taken up there, so the likelihood of there being more of these Aliens on board is pretty large," Sammers stated, irritation in his voice.
"And beyond that, trying to fly a shuttle in an asteroid field without guidance is suicide," said Tom, putting his two Credits in.
"Then what are we going to do?! Just wait here to die?!" the engineer shrieked.
"Doesn't that matter to you?! Don't you care?!" the woman asked, sounding close to hysterics.
"He does care, but he also has to be realistic," said Amelia. Everyone turned to look at her. She walked in, and looked at the printed display of a map of the colony on the table in the middle of the group. "If I know the CEC, when they haven't gotten word from either the Castle, or us, they will send a team here to find out what happened. We just need to sit tight. There's no way they will let as big an investment as this just go silent and not investigate," she said, trying to sound as calm and comforting as she could. "Right now, we need to be calm, and use our heads. We need to gather supplies, barricade ourselves and wait," she said. Tom nodded his agreement.
"She's right. Acting like chickens with our heads cut off won't help anything. We need to fortify our position, block any potential entry points, and make sure we're alive when someone comes," said the old miner. Amelia smiled at him, and Sammers looked grateful. Warton looked at him.
"How long do you think they will wait to send a rescue?" Warton asked. Sammers scratched his head.
"Well, there isn't exactly a standard procedure, but my best guess is, if contact was abruptly cut off, and they can't hail us, they may send a team out in as little as a few days. Maybe a week, I doubt more than two."
"Two fucking weeks?!" the engineer yelled, throwing his hands up. The others with him also looked upset.
"We can do it if we all calm down and keep our cool," Amelia said firmly, looking at the man, then Sammers. The engineer stormed off, along with the others. "Now, about supplies. What do we need?" she asked. Sammers tapped his RIG and looked at a holographic list.
"Well, we have enough tools here, and I think we're good for energy and ammo. But we'll need food and water, and those are not typically in large supply in Engineering," said Sammers. Tom nodded.
"Ain't gonna last long without those. Need to get over to Hydroponics or Food Storage," mused Tom.
"Provided you can get there without getting torn to shreds," Warton said.
"I'll go," said Amelia, shocking them all. She didn't look up as she studied the map. "There are likely wounded people in the other groups as well. Also, I want to try to find Russel and Judy."
"Amelia, no," Sammers breathed. She looked at him.
"We don't have much of a choice."
"Well, at least let someone go with you!" said Sammers, looking at Tom and Warton. Warton sighed gently and nodded.
"I'll go with her," he said, glancing at her. Amelia gave a very soft smile, touched by this.
"So will I," said Tom.
"No, they need you here more," she said softly. "You know what to do in this situation, and they will need that. But I do appreciate the gesture." Tom stared at her for a few moments, and gave an unsure smile. Sammers then looked at one of the P-Sec officers.
"Jasper! You're up!" he barked, and the officer looked surprised, and like he'd rather be cleaning toilets, but nodded.
"Lemme grab some more ammo," he said as he went to gear up. Sammers turned back to her.
"You just be sure to stay safe. We really will be sunk without you," he said and she could hear the emotion in his voice. She smiled as best she could and patted his arm.
"I'll stay safe. You make sure you do the same," she said, and Tom nodded.
"While you are out, we'll shore the place up and try and make sure no more of those demons can get in," said Tom. Amelia nodded.
"Good idea. I will also see about spare material to construct barricades and anything that we might be able to use to obstruct the creatures," she said as she hefted her bag of medical supplies.
Amelia looked around, and leaned in towards Sammers. "Sammers, I need to tell you something. In private," she said, glancing around as Warton and the others got ready. He hesitated, but nodded, walking a short ways away. "Sammers, I found one of the pods. In Medlab," she said. He stared at her in surprise and dawning horror.
"Amelia, are you-?" he asked, looking ill. She shook her head.
"I scanned myself, it didn't find anything," she replied. He sighed softly.
"How the hell did it get there? Where do the fucking things come from?" he whispered, rubbing his forehead. Amelia shook her head.
"I'm still not sure, but we need to keep an eye out for them, without causing any further panic," she said quietly, but urgently. He nodded.
"Is it possible the creatures put it there?" he asked, and Amelia frowned in thought.
She had seen them up close, and with how quietly they moved, it was a possibility. It was even more disturbing to think that they could have slipped right into Medlab silently, right behind her, and not been seen or heard. It made her shiver to think of.
"It's possible. Not likely, but I'm not ruling anything out," she replied as evenly as she could.
"We're still missing something there," he mused, but then looked at her as he heard Warton and Tom talking. "You need to get ready," Sammers said and gave her the best smile he could manage. Amelia nodded, then straightened up as a thought occurred to her.
"Sammers, what about the Stasis modules?" Amelia asked. At this, Tom smiled and showed her his left forearm, which was wrapped with an oily rag. He pulled enough back to show her the lens in his palm.
"I can't say about the others, but when the shit started to hit the fan, I ran and grabbed one. Since the others were gone, I think others grabbed what they could," said Tom. "At least, I hope so."
"Yeah, was a big relief to know we have one. I just hope the other groups got hold of them before the creatures did," said Sammers. Amelia looked at the floor in thought. She hoped so, too.
Jasper came jogging up and handed Amelia a full size mining plasma cutter.
"Here. Mills said to give this to you. They do cause some damage to the things, " he said and she took it gratefully.
"Thank you. I just hope I don't have to use it," she said as she clipped it to her belt, along with the spare plasma fuel cells. Sammers watched and looked beyond worried.
"So, how're we planning to get supplies back to here from Hydroponics?" Jasper asked as he checked his pistol and holstered it, then hefting up his Pulse Rifle.
"Hopefully, it will be the other way around. I need to treat any wounded there, and see if I can locate the other members of my team. But after that, we might be able to move people from Engineering to Hydroponics," she said. Warton nodded.
"But first, we need to scout out between, and see the layout and what's blocked. Makes no sense to move a bunch of people, only to find out a key route is blocked and the things are coming," said Warton. Amelia nodded, and Jasper sighed.
"Great," sighed the officer. Tom and a few other miners and engineers walked to the door with them, carefully unlocked them, and after a quick check, let Amelia, Warton and Jasper out.
"Come back safe," said Tom before closing and locking the door. Amelia's helmet unfolded from inside her RIG and snapped together, while Warton put his helmet on and pulled the visor down, the two eye slits glowing a soft blue. Jasper kept his Pulse Rifle up and nodded to them. With that, the small grouped headed off.
"So, what happened? Sammers nearly had a coronary when he couldn't get a hold of you," said Warton softly as they stayed low and as quiet as they could.
"I got knocked out in the lab. I went into a storage closet to get cells for a tissue cutter, and something ended up falling on me," she replied.
"Could've been that blast," Jasper mused.
"What blast?" she asked.
"Something went boom around the time the attack started. Don't know where or what happened," said Warton. This troubled Amelia.
While they were not in a pure vacuum, the atmosphere of Aerodyne was far from breathable, and an explosion big enough to be felt in other parts of the colony could have compromised the structure. There was no way to tell from just anywhere. They would need to get to Operations and see what happened since. Thankfully, they had lots of bulkheads in the event of such a rupture. There also were millions of potential causes in a mining colony for an explosion. She lightly shook her head and glanced up at the numbers, and looked down the next hallway. She motioned for them to keep down and stay close. She warily looked around a corner, and it looked clear. She motioned for them to go, Warton and Jasper on either side of her. The three of them stayed low and tried to be seen as little as possible.
"I don't like this," said Warton quietly, plasma cutter held forward and ready. "It's too quiet," he mused. Jasper nodded, tightening his grip on his Pulse Rifle. Indeed, the halls were eerily quiet.
"Yeah, I haven't seen anything of the slimy freaks in hours," the P-Sec officer hissed as they moved, coming to an intersection and glancing around before moving onwards.
"I did," Amelia said, surprising them. "I ran into two of them on the way from Medlab," she said in a low voice.
"Holy shit," said Jasper.
"I hid in a locker, got a pretty good look at them," she replied, focused on the way forward.
"Fuck. You're lucky to be alive," Warton murmured, keeping his voice down. Amelia said nothing as they came up to another junction. She glanced down a hallway, and saw debris blocking the way. It looked like people had hastily assembled crates and other things to slow down the creatures. Judging by the torn metal and bloodstains, it hadn't worked very well. Amelia noted the junction in her RIG, and they went straight to go around.
They passed many scenes of carnage, blood, broken doors or torn metal. They passed an open door with a very large bloodstain at the foot of it. Amelia motioned for them to stop, not wanting to pass by an open door to a dark room. Amelia drew her plasma cutter, just in case. The others got their weapons ready as well. They made sure to hug the opposite wall as they edged past, gazes fixed on the dark portal. Jasper kept his Pulse Rifle shouldered, ready to raise and fire. Thankfully, nothing charged out from the dark to attack them.
Instead, the attack came from behind.
Jasper yelled as he was grabbed from behind. Amelia and Warton whirled as the huge Alien grabbed the P-Sec officer by his arm and around his rifle with one hand, it was so huge. Warton drew his plasma cutter, aimed, but Amelia stopped him.
"Stop! You'll hit him!" she yelled. He aimed the targeting lasers at the creatures left arm, which was not holding Jasper, rotated the blade parallel to the floor, and fired. The plasma blast hit the creature in the arm, making it shriek, and releasing some acid onto the floor, but, to their shock, the tough exoskeleton was intact. He fired again, hitting the same spot. Amelia noticed, on the second hit, a small, yellowish-green cloud had formed in the air.
To their shock, Jasper convulsed, his eyes turning red, his nose and mouth bleeding, the skin on his face dissolving, as were his eyes as the Alien shrieked and dropped him, scurrying backwards in a disturbing manner unlike how any living thing on Earth moves. They watched as it disappeared into an open vent near the corner they had passed just moments before. Warton rushed to Jasper, who was on the floor, gurgling, the muscles of his face exposed. An alarm suddenly blared.
"Hazardous anomaly detected! Quarantine activated," announced the automated voice as red warning lights began to blare and spin.
"Doc, do something," he gasped. Amelia could only place her hand on his shoulder.
"I can't. He's already dead," she stated. He looked at her, then back to Jasper, whose body twitched, but was no longer breathing, parts of his skull visible through the dissolving tissue. His RIG sounded a flatline.
"I-I-I . . . I didn't mean-!" Amelia looked around, and pulled on his shoulder.
"Warton, keep it together! I still need you!" she hissed. He looked back at her. "We need to go, before more show up." He was visibly shaking, but nodded. They turned and moved quickly, ducking into an open room they checked to make sure was empty first. They hid behind some cabinets and stacked boxes and crates. A good move, as Amelia was sure she heard something that sounded like rushing footsteps, and not human ones.
"Wh-what happened?" Warton asked, sounding bewildered and lost.
"My best guess is the plasma vaporized the acid blood of the creature. Turned it into a mist," she replied. Warton covered his faceplate with his hand.
"My god. I . . . I didn't know," he muttered. She gently touched his shoulder.
"Nobody did. But he might have saved ours and other lives, because now we know that can happen," she stated. Warton flexed his hand into and out of a fist.
"At . . . at least it was quick," he said in a voice he barely kept steady.
"He instantly went into shock and unconsciousness," she replied, and Warton gave a shuddering sigh and nodded.
"Let's . . . get going," he said shakily, gathering himself up. Amelia nodded, and checked the door.
The alarms had stopped, which relieved her. She glanced up and down the halls, paused to listen, then motioned for Warton to follow. Warily, the two ventured out once more, this time Warton kept a more careful watch backwards. They stayed down and quiet, but, thankfully, they heard nothing. In some ways, that worried Amelia far more. That last attack had taken them by such surprise. The Aliens were shockingly stealthy for creatures so big. Amelia checked numbers on the halls, and directed their movements, trying to stay as low and out of sight as they could manage. Hydroponics was almost on the other side of the colony, and she hoped beyond hope that they might make it there without further incident. She kept reminding herself that there were only seven more creatures, then stopped when she remembered the pod in the Medlab.
Seven we know of, she thought to herself. Even so, the colony was large, so that did tilt the odds a little more in their favor, but an ounce of caution was more than warranted in these circumstances. They came to another hallway, and turned down it. Amelia noted the flickering lights and damaged pipes. The quickest way to Hydroponics was through one of the bars of the colony. Thankfully, the door was still active, the hologram white and read "unlocked". Glancing around, Amelia pressed the hologram and the door cycled to open. Warton was right next to her as the door opened, and they were shocked at the inside.
Tables were overturned, glasses were scattered everywhere, as was furniture. Chairs and tables had been used to try to barricade the room, and had failed miserably. There were numerous bloodstains. One, much to Amelia's shock and horror, was a trail where someone had apparently been dragged not just across the floor, but up the wall and across the ceiling, over to a vent that was torn open.
"Oh, fuck . . ." Warton swore, sounding sick. Amelia steeled her nerves and glanced around. She wanted to make sure there were no surprises, and kept her plasma cutter up. Glass crunched under her boots as she walked, water trickled from a broken pipe. It was quite clear the people had tried to hold out in there, at least for a while. Amelia rounded the bar counter, and saw a glowing holopad. Curious, she picked it up and read it.
I don't know how long I have.
Those things attacked. I heard alarms, then a bunch of people were screaming and running. At first, we didn't know what was going on. Then, one of them dropped down from a vent. It killed Josh right in front of my eyes, tore him to pieces. Then, it grabbed poor Lucy and dragged her into the vent. I can still hear her screams. We all ran, crammed into the bar, closed the doors and piled stuff up to block them from getting in. I can hear screams outside. We heard people outside, begging us to let them in. We heard those things, screeching like demons. I can still hear the people, screaming. We heard them pound on the doors, then they stopped. We still hear some screaming from outside now and then, some gunshots. We can't go out, but we can't stay. They're waiting for us to make a move.
I don't know how much more of this I can take.
Just a little while ago, I thought I heard something in the vents. People are scared. We're boxed in, rats in a cage, and those things know it. It's just a matter of time.
They're coming.
Amelia set the holopad down and glanced around. Once again, there was plenty of blood, but no bodies. She idly wondered for a few moments what they did with them, but put that aside. She wasn't sure she wanted to know. The unlocked doors were enough evidence at least a few people escaped, though she could not say how many. She adjusted the bag of supplies and looked at Warton.
"Come on," she said and they pressed on, exiting out the other door.
The rest of the colony was as messed up as what they had already seen, if not more so.
"Damn, this part got hit hard," Warton whispered, and she nodded as they passed a large conduit of wires and tubes that was broken and laying on the floor. She also noted the light was more sparse in this area. She noticed a few of the lights looked like they had been shot or shattered, somehow. With how many bullet holes and plasma marks she saw, she wasn't surprised.
They twisted and wound down the corridors of the colony, keeping down and quiet. While they had not encountered any more of the Aliens, she could not help but wonder where they were, and what they were doing. So much of their nature was still a mystery, save for very basic facts. They were still very much a dark mystery, drifting in shadows, just out of sight. Both figuratively and literally. Amelia peeked around a corner, and thought she saw movement, but the flickering lights could also make things look like they were moving when they were not. Once she was sure nothing was ahead, she motioned for Warton to move with her. They carefully moved down the corridors, trying to stay low and not out in the middle so as to present a target. They passed a few more ajar doors and scenes of carnage, but, once again, there were no bodies.
It was an immense relief when Amelia saw the sign for Hydroponics and Food Storage, and she couldn't help a relieved sigh. She noticed the hallway there was not quite in as bad condition as that outside Engineering. Still a mess, though. There was bloodstains, acid holes, torn panels and the lights flickered. She radioed Sammers.
"Sammers, I'm outside Hydroponics. Tell them I'm here, if you can," she said as she and Warton approached the large doors. Cheery images of people with fruits and vegetables adorned the walls, some splattered with blood or ripped or torn. A RIGLINK window popped up, hissing with static.
". . .melia? Not sure . . . ent through . . . breaking . . ." the transmission from Sammers hissed and cut in and out. She guessed there was enough damage between Engineering and Hydroponics that transmissions were breaking up. She sighed, and went forward and knocked on the door.
"It's Dr. Amelia Kyne! I have medical supplies! I'm here to treat the wounded!" she said as loud as she dared. They waited for a few tense minutes, then the door cycled and opened. They weren't surprised when a small group of armed people greeted them. They were armed with everything from Rippers, more plasma cutters, a few line guns, even a few force guns.
"Oh, thank god you're here," said an Asian woman, and they ushered them inside quickly, closing the door and locking it, just as a long shadow moved outside.
