Chapter One
Death of a Spirit
Sirius System
Two Months After the Breech
The lights flickered on and off. The only sense of life on the entire ship. Once a teeming generation ship full of prosperity, Generation Carrier Cultus was supposed to be humanity's future; the saviour, the breeder of the neo human. Instead, all that lay was a massive graveyard floating away in Inner Space. Gary looked up at the lights, amazed that the ship still had some power. "Sweet, some power." Maybe he could find an airlock, or even better, survivors.
Gary dialed in his holophone, a transportable communication chip lodged in his suit that launched a projection of the caller on his heads up display. He reported his position back to the Galaxy Two.
"This is Thunder Bandit, coming in. Made contact with the interior of the ship." Gary panned the interior of the ship, keeping an eye out for anything fishy. He scanned the walls with a bio scanner. The readings scanned red and flashed negative. "Doesn't appear to have any signs of Graters. Moving towards the bridge, now."
The Graters were a rampant spaceborne sentient parasite, a mutation of Final Space poisoning originating from the breech that had freed Invictus. They virus escaped and combined with corrupted energy from Final Space, infected all life forms, transforming them into a horrific biomass, capable of hive mind intelligence and encumbering an entire planet. The lifeforms had wiped out over 70% of the galaxy in just six Earth months. They take over a planet, depleting its resources and use the planet as a space engine to breed. Invictus' form could not be sustained without massive instability, limiting his damage on space time itself. Invictus could only be in the contemporary dimension for a limited amount of time before his form would start to break down. It was in this instance that the Resistance banded together in the Galaxy to launch a counter attack on Invictus and the Titans, but with the Aggregate becoming nearly unstoppable, the Resistance could not enter Final Space and seal it off. More breeches opened, forcing the Resistance to retreat to the outer edges of the Galaxy. After the retreat, the Scutum Centaurus Empire, succeeded by the Lord Commander, moved in on the retreating Resistance, looking to the side with the Titans and Invictus, being corrupted by Final Space. The Resistance was on its back heel and retreating throughout the Galaxy, but the war had grown to a stalemate at the many breeches of Final Space scattered throughout the Galaxy and space time, with vicious fighting taking place on different worlds. With both sides being wiped out heavily by the fighting, and the Graters, those who could find a method of defeating them, would win the War and rule the Galaxy. Only then could the Titans be stopped once and for all.
"Roger that, Bandit. Keep advancing Eastward through the ship." The transmission was becoming distorted, and cutting out. "That damned thing should be in there somewhere." He took a deep breath and inhaled. "HOOOOH. Smells like a wet turd covered with sea sponge. I need a bath." He came across a large opening for a cargo bay and found himself in the main munitions room. "Somewhere familiar. Gotta head to the bridge, find out what really happened here." "Galaxy Two, located the munitions ro-" The lights suddenly turned off, the backup lights immediately readying and flickering. The light was dim, but the faint orange was enough to make fear swell through his body. He readied the charging handle on his auto blaster, his heart starting to beat faster and his hands growing clammier. It was as though the dead of space was right there on his body, like he wasn't even wearing a suit. "HUE, tell me when the last reported activity on this ship was." Gary's voice was shaky. "Reading... it appears this ship came from, Earth. The last signs of energy usage were 2 months ago. It was on course for the Orion Nebula." "Might have been just after the breech. Whoever did this... what could they have been after here?" Gary sighed, and looked steady. "Earth? You think there could be more ships like this HUE? I thought Cultus was the only one." "Unknown. It is perhaps possible that humans could have made more generation ships in the time skips we made." He couldn't back down now.
"Eyes on the prize" he whispered to himself. He moved out of the munitions room, unsure of what awaited him on the other side of the airlocks. Taking risks are what's gotten him this far, but he felt uneasy as he crept through the lifeless ship, well devoid of any normal life, or so he was about to find out. He moved through the halls, sweat forming on his forehead and dripping throughout his suit, scanning every corner for an opening. He turned around one corner, then zipped round another. There was no sign of anything amiss. He heard a slight sound behind him and spun, blaster raised. A horrifying creature emerged from the biomass situated across the hallway, dashing and filling up the hallway. "Gary, we are NOT alone." "I can see that, HUE!" The creature split into three different entities and charged him from all sides.
Gary fired into the corridor, slicing the first grater that was right on him in half with his. "I thought you said there was no sign of them!" Static. A wave of Aggregate mass emerged from the darkness in the vents, seemingly mutated survivors and creatures alike barrelling towards Gary's position. Blaster fire illuminated the corridor as he fought to repel the wave of demons. An energy pulse hit him and knocked him back, crushing the second grater into a red pulp. He flew back into a pile of boxes and crates, the oncoming mass dazed and stunned. Feeling his head pounding, he had a small window to escape. "Systems down, system reboot-" HUE was offline.
"Shit! EMP interference." He angrily whispered. "Signals dead", The mass slowly divulged into an evil sludge, like water creeping up on a body washed on the sand. It regained its senses and slowly approached him, seemingly aware of the strength of the astronaut, he scrambled to get back, firing into the mass until his weapon overheated. The mass recoiled back and hissed, retreating back looking for its next opportunity to strike. He scrambled on top of a pile of pallets, reaching for his holster and cooking a photon energizer grenade- "Here goes nothing- please do not blow a giant space butthole in the side of the shippp!". He leaped over the creature, throwing the bomb in its open mouth before it could jump up. The ion explosion created a radiant purple light, and vaporized the mass that was anywhere near it. Gary took cover as he dived through an open airlock, narrowly closing it before the blue-matter iodization could find its way in. Breathing heavy, he took a second to regain his breath. He couldn't let his guard down now, not without what he came to this floating cemetery for.
He noticed the headlight on his helmet was broken, with only the impaired HUD and helmet light illuminating the area. He felt something drip down onto his nose, and a sharp pain in his head, but couldn't quite reach it. The HUD chimed. "Systems online." "HUE my man! You're back! Scan my vitals. How am I holding up?" Gary coughed up blood and licked his lips. "You've taken quite a bit of damage Gary. You are suffering internal bleeding in your neck, stomach, and thigh areas. I will take a second to patch you up." Gary moaned in exasperated fashion- "Remember last time you tried to "patch me up", HUE?! I couldn't take a dump for a week!" The suit sent an energy surge through Gary's body, shocking his adrenaline glands and speeding up his regeneration. "OHHH MYY God. I hate that every time!"
He tried his holophone again. "This is Goodspeed. Come in to the Galaxy Two." Gary was relieved to hear a familiar voice. "We thought we lost you, buddy. We have interceptors en route to Cultus. Have you located the Artifact?" "Not yet Avocato. Almost got pulverized by sentient sludge. It appears the East Wing of the ship is contaminated, and we'll need to scorch it. I have a feeling the Artifact's at the bridge. Try and find a way in and I'll make my way up there. Be ready for what you face. Bring an extraction team armed with ion bombs. You won't be alone."
"Read you loud and clear Thunder Bandit. En route to your position in 5. Blue Lightning out." Gary recharged the blaster and checked his pouches. He had enough energy on him to last about a half hour at best. He had to get moving through this labyrinth of a ship. "HUE, where am I goin' now?" "Straight ahead Gary. We will need to get to the loading bay and take the ascension module." Gary made his way forward, cautiously and intentionally observing where, and how he placed his feet lest he were to trip on one of the many piles of blood and morbidity littering the floors. Only corpses, biomatter, and expended ammunition greeted his gaze.
He made his way to the upper deck, avoiding the lifts and enclosed areas, cesspools for contamination. He reached a room littered with pieces of broken equipment, and blood dripping from the ceiling. He felt a chill surge in his body. His holophone went dead again as he ran through another corridor. "Electromagnetic interference. My software is only able to withstand small flares for a certain period of time. I can only assist you with visual ques Gary. I am currently unable to receive transmissions."
"Great. Just great." Gary stumbled upon a large room filled with more blood, but something else caught his eye. It looked like the remains of a child, scattered in a pile of other bodies. There was blood all over the wall. " They were lined up like animals. An execution." The eyes of the corpses all pierced his soul, with the same kind of evil and lifelessness those the Lord Commander had. His hand went for his side-blaster as he approached the child carefully, afraid of making too much noise and startling this thing, as that's all he could use to describe it. Gary called out. "Hello? Kid? Thunder Bandit here. Won't hurt ya." The body did nothing. He slowly approached. Gary shone his light, fully witnessing the mangled state the body was in. Gary couldn't understand how something so lifeless could have eyes with so much darkness and uncanny sentience. "You seein' this HUE? Givin' me the creeps." As he neared its body, Gary realized the blood was coming from a laceration wounds all over the body. The child's limbs were hanging limply with one leg being a spawn pool of Aggregate mass. He knelt beside it, gently touching the arm. It felt frozen, like this boy had been dead for some time.. He put the hand back down as another chill passed through him. "This one didn't die like the others." He put an ion charge in the boy's leg, preventing any more mass from forming.
Suddenly a screeching wail echoed throughout the cavernous room. Gary jumped back, and turned around quickly. Nothing in sight. "What the hell"...
Explosions then rattled the walls, dust raining from the ceiling.
Another screech followed by a series of thuds and footsteps. Gary sprinted through the doorway and was stopped dead in his tracks when a body had been thrown at the wall, instantly crushing the corpse into a crumpled pool of blood and cadaver. "Gandal!" A yell emanated from down the corridor. A massive figure comprised of clumps of mass, with a seemingly endless number of arms, limbs and organs, loomed over him, its face assembled of different people and animals, unrecognizable. There were no words to describe the monstrosity he had laid his eyes upon. It stood over Gary menacingly, dripping blood all over his suit, covering him a brownish red liquid. It's first arm lashed towards Gary's throat. Gary rolled out of the way, narrowly evading the strike. He held his position, firing at its head, hoping the creature wouldn't take a step closer. Suddenly, the creature roared, its mouth wide open. Gary braced himself for death and looked it dead in the eye. Just as suddenly, the thing was hit with a laser shot, then another. It was startled, and turned around, diverting its attention. At the far end of the room was a tall silhouette sporting two distinguishable feline ears.
"Gary! Get the hell back!" Gary darted back to cover, and braced for impact as a an extraction team soldier lined up his ion laser and shredded the Aggregate monster like swiss cheese, exploding it into thousands of pieces of flesh, covering Gary and the entire room in Aggregate biomass. Gary stared wide eyed at the creature's lifeless body, he backed away slowly as he pieced himself back together. They laced the area with ion pods, infusing the area with scarlet radiation to eradicate all aggregate spawn and seal it off from any more of them. Gary's heart was still pounding, but he felt relieved to see his friend.
"Almost thought you were dead, man." Avocato ran to Gary and embraced him, helping him up. "Shit, I would've been if you didn't save my butt. This whole place is a deathtrap." Gary replied. "We lost Gandal to the, th-that monster." He couldn't help but notice the distress in Avocato's body language as he veered at the corpses - all he had known is war, but to see both a squad mate, and a young child, soulless on the ground, it made him think of his own boy, who had been long missing. He feared the Empire had taken him. "I found him like this. It doesn't make sense for him to be here." The boys eyes flashed a bright glowing color, like that of a shining sun. They both jumped back and pointed their weapons at the corpse, the entire squad on alert. "What the hell is that thing!" Avocato yelled. They noticed a sharp figure in the boys eviscerated stomach, filled with blood and inflated skin. The decomposed state of the body was a hard site to endure, nevertheless tell what happened.
A member of Extraction Team Opal slowly creeps up on the illuminated boy, and examines the body.
"No sign of vitals sir. The kids been dead for a while, but not as long as the others. He was alive on this ship after it got overrun."
"Look at his stomach, it's like he feasted on a table. Poor bastard must have been starving." a gunner chimed in.
Avocato was zoned out, too dazed by the boys body. All he could picture was his son. "It appears there is a book and readings inside of the boys stomach. It will require surgical extraction to preserve the pages entirely and avoid the gastric acid." HUE informed the team. "The artifact. He must've made his way from the bridge and hid in here, until the very end."
"Load the boy back onto the ship, Opal Team. We need to determine what exactly happened here, we could get them to clean him up. We're going back to the Eridanus Sector. There we'll regroup with the rest of the Resistance and discuss our next course of action." Gary told the crew. He radioed back in to the Galaxy Two. "Gary to the Galaxy Two, we got our hands on something that might help us, although it might not be what you're expecting." Avocato caught up to Gary as they were made there way out of the airlock.
"You want to just cut the kid up like that?" Avocato reacted. "We have to. We have a mission." He kept his focus. "That's a boy! Someone's son. "Do you have any other ideas?" Gary was growing irritated going back and forth. "Something that won't be wasting our time?!" his voice boomed through the airlock, rattling the rag tag fireteam.
"We see this shit everyday. We have been. What's stopping us from blasting open his body now? I'm doing him a favour, one less than the one who ended his life." Gary was making his way back to the airlock. "What if that was your boy?" Avocato replied. Gary stopped dead in his tracks. He whipped around, and firmly met Avocato's gaze. Eye level, Gary wasn't phased. "He's serving a purpose. We've all lost. All we have is each other. He's just another statistic in this war. Until we can finish this, many more like him will be lost. I'm not gonna let their sacrifices be for nothing." Avocato was angry, but he knew what his friend was trying to achieve. "He deserves a proper burial, at least." Avocato pleaded. Gary took a second, looking at the ground. He nodded, agreeing in silence.
Avocato didn't want to see the goofy, cookie loving buffoon transform into the ruthless de facto leader that the Lord Commander had become. But he knew that Gary would always keep his humanity. Gary had lost all too much, almost having to sacrifice his emotions to save his sanity. He longed deeply for Quinn, for Little Cato, for his father. The joy of seeing Avocato and Apricot, but he kept that glimmer of light close to his heart. He saw his mother again, so he believed he would see them.
Gary believed he would prevail, recalling in his fathers words. "I had only one regret when I left. I thought I was never gonna get the chance to see the man you would've grown up to be. And now I know, he's, better than I would've ever hoped." Those words stuck by him, he knew he had to be a leader. Step up to the occasion and be the one to inspire hope.
The team made their way off the ship, exiting through the shipping bay, and back to the Galaxy Two. After deploying seeker KVN's to scan the ship for any activity, all they discovered were more Graters. They scorched the G.C. Cultus by flying a kamikaze pod into the portside of the ship, using kinetic energy to veer its course into the star at the center of the system.
The team entered the bridge, opening the sliding doors. They were greeted by members of the Resistance. "Good to see ya Thunder Bandit" Mitchell slapped Gary on the back. "They did a number on ya. ain't it?" Gary took off his helmet and frolicked his hair for the first time in days. "Just a few scratches Mitch. Nothing crazy." A slim girl approached him and got close to his face, wiping his cheeks. "You look like shit." the girl told Gary. "If I hadn't known any better I thought I looked like a supermodel." Gary replied. "Just glad you're still alive" the girl said softly. Gary smiled. He turned and looked out the observation deck. "And Gandal?" The crew was silent. "He didn't make it. A giant Grater got him. Never seen anything like it." a soldier spoke up. "Damn it!" her face was flustered; she was frustrated. All of their reconnaissance missions have costed one life or another. Avocato put his hands on the girl's shoulder, trying to comfort her. Although Mitchell had never liked Gandal, as he didn't for care for the race of M'Batti much, he knew there would be a hole in the fire team for some time, and in turn, a hole in himself.
"We got our hands on this, Elena." Avocato informed her as the soldiers hoisted a cryopod with the boys body, somewhat preserved, still possessing the sharp figure inside his stomach. The girls face hardened, and she reached out to touch the cryo chamber, wiping away the frost covering the boys face. "Oh my word, poor thing." She gazed at the condition of the boy, wondering how the hell he could've been cut up like that. "Mitchell, get a table ready in the medbay. I want the room prepped for an autopsy." "Someone clean up poor Gary here. He needs it. "We'll get right to it." "Let's move!" Avocato and the group of soldiers moved hurriedly throughout the corridors, hustling the equipment to and fro.
Gary got up on Elena's arm. "Appreciate it Elena. You take better care of myself than I do." Elena couldn't help but force a little smirk.
"Everyone deserves to look good, even a dunce like you."
Gary chuckled as he and a Resistance crewman made their way towards the medbay.
-0-
They got a surgical table ready, and had the SAMES perform a surgical operation to remove the object and sow back up the stomach, to preserve the body. After cleaning the object and spraying it with ion blasters. They uncovered an ancient, hardcover book.
Avocato and Elena stood over the artifact. "The Enchiridion." Avocato was amazed. "Seems like just one part of it." he thought it was just one book. "You mean to tell me there's more of these things out there?"
"How many ever there are, if the prophecies are true, could unveil the real location of Spatium Infinitesimal." Elena was fascinated by the artifact.
"Does that even exist? We've been to Inner Space, and we just let a bloodthirsty Titan rampage through Final Space. The last thing we need is another realm to ensure that we really DO DIE this time." Gary reeled as he fixed the bandages wrapped around his head.
"The Spatium Infinitesimal has the basis for knowledge so far out of our understanding, we can find the answers needed to fight the Titans and destroy the Aggregate. Give our people some hope for the first time in years."
"We don't know just what the hell this thing is capable of. Let's get back to Gliese 2." Gary proclaimed. "HUE, Set course the Eridanus system. Let's find out what this thing can really do.
"Navigating, coordinates set."
The crew made their way back to the bridge, each manning their navigation stations and equipment. Gary dashed to the captains seat; reeling the exhilaration pilotsmanship had always seem to bring him.
"HUE, Lightfold!"
The Galaxy Two's lightfold engines spun up, and roared as they entered slip space and made their way to the Eridanus system.
On the other edge of the system, a lone cruiser was on a reconnaissance mission for the Scutum-Centaurus Empire, the successor to the Lord Commanders Army. They were observing the Galaxy Two and their dissection of the ship. An Imperial Leader stood at the bridge of his observation deck, scanning the holographic footage.
"Follow them, wherever they go. I want to know exactly what they uncovered on that ship!"
"Yes Imperialman Hyphul. For the Lord Commander!"
"All men report to your stations. Set course for Sector 74. We'll be going off the map!" Hyphul ordered.
The cruisers lightfold engines spun up, and roared as they entered slip space and entered the unknown.
