Author's Note:
This is the final chapter of this story. I plan to do more stories in the future in this setting. Let me know what you think. Thanks for reading!
After quite a refreshing break, Emily felt glad to be back on the path to Station 2. Thinking about her first meal and first swim in her new life as a clone. She had several firsts in the last hour. Emily smiled as she looked ahead at Andre as he led the two of them through the twists and tangle of this strange jungle. She was getting more comfortable using large tree limbs as paths in the canopy's maze.
"About half a klick out now," Andre said, turning to check on Emily. "We should be able to pick up the station on comms soon." Andre paused and tilted his head, "Hey...do you hear that?"
Emily concentrated and tried to make out a sound over the noise of the jungle. There it was! Engines spinning up and lifting off. At first, the sound was faint but grew louder as it was heading toward them and gaining speed.
Looking up, they both saw two Kestrels flying low over the tops of the trees. As the fighters accelerated they broke the sound barrier. The noise rippled through the air, frightened parrots took flight from their perches. There were more sounds of ships taking off from the station.
"Something is happening at the station! Let's get there! Double time!" Andre shouted and turned to run.
Emily followed as best she could. They ran from tree to tree and swung on vines when required until they could see their destination. Station 2 lay on a plot of dry ground raised above the swampy floor of the jungle. They had cut the trees back to make room for the human structure. The perimeter had a tall security fence around the compound. Inside the fence, and taking up half the space inside the station, Emily could see a large grey concrete structure with a large landing pad next to it.
Emily's comms unit in her ear came alive as she and Andre finished climbing down a vine. They landed on dry, solid ground about a soccer field distance from the security fence.
"You two look human on our scanners, state your names and tell us what you are doing here," a voice spoke in Emily's ear.
Responding "I am Emily T-302. I am a survivor of the F.S.S. Budapest. I understand this is our rendezvous point."
"This is Andre CS-3975. We came down in the same escape pod."
"This is Charlie. Welcome to Station 2. We have been having survivors trickle in all afternoon. By our calculation, we have about half of you here now. The guard will let you in at the South entrance. Head straight to the briefing room below the main hanger. Hrothgar will want to speak to you. Over and out."
Andre slapped Emily on the shoulder and grinned. "Made it girl! Let's get inside."
After passing it through the gate and receiving directions to the briefing room, Emily and Andre entered the hanger. They strolled across the large cavernous expanse of that was empty, save one shuttle. There was a P model walking around the shuttle doing final preflight checks, and two troops carrying some equipment to the shuttle. Reaching the other side of the hanger they made their way down a set of metal stairs. Emily's head began to spin seeing how far the stairway reached down into the earth. She couldn't see the bottom floor. Lucky for them they only had to go down one floor. Leaving the stairwell, they crossed the hallway and walked into the Briefing Room.
The room was dark and had display screens at stations around most of it. In the middle of the room was a large holograph table for mission planning. Standing on the other side of the table with his hands folded across the small of his back was Commander Hrothgar. He was intently watching a large screen. It was showing three sets of aircraft heading away from the station toward red symbols on the screen.
A T-clone sitting at consol to his right said, "Red team will make contact in 5 seconds Sir."
"And Blue team?" the large commander inquired in a calm deep voice that sounded hopeful and tired.
"30 seconds till they make contact," another T clone to his left answered.
"Good. Put their radio feed over the speaker. I want to hear from them as it happens." Hrothgar stated as he stepped back to lean on the holo table. "I assume that is the Technician and the Scout that just came in," he said, not turning to look at them.
Emily started to speak but with him still facing away from them she hesitated.
The speaker came on, cutting off any attempt Emily might have made to confirm Hrothgar's statement. As the battle net came to life with chatter from the excited P clones, the T-clone sitting at a console on Hrothgar's left turned to look at Emily and Andre.
'Definitely a Cyrealian pod. We are weapons hot now with confirmation,' crackled a tense P model's voice over the radio. 'I have a lock. Firing two missiles!'
'Right behind you with two more!' said her wing woman, labeled Red 2, on the screen.
Two dull thuds sounded over the speaker followed closely by another pair of thuds from the 4 missiles impacting the Cyrealian drop pod.
'Station 2 this is Red Leader. We have fired 50% of our missiles. Preparing to saturate the area around the destroyed pod with plasma from strafing runs.'
"Turn on your gun cameras for strafing runs. I want to see what you see. If anything looks like it may have escaped, shoot the rest of your missiles at it. We cannot risk Cyrealians getting loose in this jungle."
'Roger solid copy.' Red Leader's indicator lit up as she spoke.
The display screen blinked then came back with two live feeds from the two fighters of the Red team. There was only a smoldering black hole in the ground where the Cyrelain drop pod must have been. The fighters came around for a strafing run firing plasma auto-cannons into the jungle around the wreckage.
"Andre, Thompson!" Hrothgar said as he turned to look at them.
Andre snapped to attention and said "Yes Sir!" so did someone else who had been sitting in a chair against the wall that Emily had failed to notice. Now that Emily's eyes had adjusted, she could see that there were about 10 or 12 others sitting near the far wall. The man standing to attention had to be Thompson. Obviously he wasn't a clone. He looked to be in his early 20s, and had a rust-colored flat-top with a tired face sporting 5 O'clock shadow. On his back was a radio with its antenna sticking up.
As the commander turned to face them the holo table came alive. A 3D map appeared. The glow of the table gave Emily the first glimpse of his features. He was in his mid-30s and had a blond crew cut. Hrothgar had a very strong jawline that sported a scar on his right cheek. His face was weathered and judging by the lines on his face he wore a stern expression most of the time.
"Let's keep this short. I need intel on the site the fighters just hit and the site that Blue team is about to hit." He pointed to the two places on the map designated by the red symbols. "Andre, you and Private Thompson are a team now. Thompson will be your radio relay so you can give live updates to us back here at Station 2. You are to spend two hours looking for any signs of life that suggest a Cyrelian surviving. We only have one shuttle left here at the moment. The other three shuttles are conducting an assault on a pod that landed in the northern plains. You will be going to the southwest target that Red team hit." Hrothgar pointed at the site on the holo table display. "I believe you know CS-2244 Rick. He and Corporal Ivanov will take the site that Blue team is about to strike." He pointed to the other crash site on the holo table. "They are already in the shuttle on the landing pad waiting for you. Get going and good luck." He motioned for them to leave.
"Aye Sir!" Thompson and Andre shouted in unison before turning to leave the room and run to the shuttle.
"Sir, Blue team is approaching the target weapons hot. Switching to their camera feed on screen now," the T-clone on the left stated.
Commander Hrothgar turned his impressive frame to look back at the screen just as the lead fighter fired two missiles at the Cyrealain drop pod. Then a second later four white streaks made their way to the target, as both fighters fired a salvo of 2 missiles. The first pair struck the pod and blew it apart sending bits flying in all directions. The second two missiles created a crater where the pod had been. The explosion set a massive tree nearby on fire.
"Have them strafe the area around the site to kill anything that might have crawled out," Hrothgar instructed as he shifted his weight and crossed his arms over his chest. He seemed to be trying to stare a hole into the display screen.
The T-clone on the left spoke into a mic at her consol, "Blue team you are ordered to strafe the area with plasma fire a few times to kill anything that may have crawled away. After that make a few slow passes to verify and return to base. Scouts are en route to track down anything that may have survived."
"Solid copy Station 2. Starting strafing run now" answered the familiar voice of a P model.
Emily could see the live feed from both fighters as they took turns firing into the jungle around the crash site. Light blue plasm streaks exploded into fire and electricity on impact with the massive trees. They flew slowly over the area surveying the damage and checking to see if any Cyrelians showed up on scanners.
"Station 2 this is Blue leader. We have done all we can do here. Negative on any signs of life at this point."
"Roger that. Return to base and rearm. We may need you back in the air in a hurry." Spoke the T-clone before flipping a switch and the display screen when back to the map showing 3 shuttles heading due north to the third crash site.
"I assume you are T302 Emily. Is that correct?" Hrothgar said as he turned to face her.
"Y..yes Sir." She stammered. Now that he was looking right at her she could feel how big and powerful of a man he was. Yet he exuded a stern fairness. Andre and Lucas had both respected him, she remembered.
"Sasha, here is your new partner," Hrothgar said without looking away from Emily. The T-clone at the right-hand console got up and walked over to stand next to Emily. "You two will help Kaylee. She has finished compressing the data drives from the F.F.S. Budapest. We are now ready to send that info to the fleet that is en route here as we speak. To send a data burst transmission that far, we need the comms array on the roof of this building repaired. A few minutes before you got here, I sent Kaylee to load the equipment needed for repairs into service Elevator C. It is the only one that goes all the way to the roof. You two go help her. The 3 of you should be able to have it up and working soon. Any questions?" After a moment of quiet, neither of them had asked anything. "Good, Sasha you know your way around. Lead Emily and Kaylee to the communications array. Get to it."
"Aye Sir!" They both said with a crisp salute before running off to help Kaylee.
Sasha and Emily caught up with Kaylee as she was loading the last of the equipment into the service elevator. "Hey girl!" Emily called to her friend.
"Heyy!" squealed Kaylee as she and Emily embraced. "Told you you would make it to Station 2!"
"Yeah, you did! How did your group fare getting off the ship?" Emily asked her friend.
"We made it obviously!" giggled Kaylee. "And I saw Andre and someone with a radio run to get on Jill's shuttle a moment ago! Where is the rest of the engine room team?"
"We are all that made it," Emily told her.
"What!? I swear I saw Brad make it back in time to join the attack on the pod that landed in the plains to the north!" Kaylee responded. "What all happened to the team?"
"Well… to make a long story short, Brad made it out in a different pod than us. Terrel and Stacy were not so lucky." Emily said sadly. "Tell me about your team."
"Ladies, please! Let's get in the elevator. We need to get to the roof. There we can talk as we work. The Cyreailans are at war with us and moments matter." Sasha said as she showed them into the cargo elevator.
"Ok, you're right!" Kaylee said as she reached for the button on the side of the elevator labeled roof. "As for how we did, well it was something to see the combat clones in action! We tore through the Cyrealians on the way to the mainframe."
"My goodness! I bet you were a little scared though!"
"Not really, once we had our first firefight or two," Kaylee shrugged. "I was surrounded by three P-clones who were eager to take a plasma round for me or even the Cyrealian's claws for that matter. They seemed kinda disappointed that all three of them made it to the mainframe."
"Yeah they don't really care do they," giggled Sasha, joining the conversation.
"That is an understatement!" Emily laughed remembering Courtney and the other P's she had seen.
"Yeah, so with them acting like eager meatshields I really had nothing to worry about until we got to the hanger." Ding. The elevator reached the rooftop cutting off Kaylee's story and startling her.
"So what happened in the hanger back on Pest?" Emily asked as she opened up the elevator service door.
Sasha picked up a crate and led the way to the comms array tower. Kaylee picked up a duffle bag and slung a backpack over her shoulder and followed while continuing her story. "After we pulled Pest we made it to the hanger easy enough. When the ship started to roll we opened the hanger door and there were 5 Cyrealians waiting among the fighters and shuttles. Everyone started shooting at the same time. Hrothgar's people and us and the Cyrealians. It was crazy!" Kaylee paused to look over her shoulder at Emily. She followed close behind carrying a toolbox and cutting torch. "Paul got hit during the fighting and went down before we made it to the shuttle. Some of Hrothgar's group were killed as well loading this equipment into their shuttle. We saw him from a distance kill a Cyrealian with a plasma projector while carrying someone who was wounded on his back. He then went back and picked up the crate that Sasha is carrying now."
Sasha spoke up, "The wounded man was Station 2's commanding officer. Commander Cyrus. He is alive but in serious condition down in the bunker's med bay. That is why Hrothgar assumed command soon as he realized he was the only one of command rank left on the planet." She turned to look over her shoulder at her fellow T-models, "This is the crate he went back for. It has the replacement parts for our comms. Our damaged communication array was the reason that he came here to survey the station and took Commander Cyrus back to the Budapest to get these very replacement parts. That is when the attack started." Sasha explained as they walked up to the Comms tower. "Well, here we are!"
"Woah what happened to it?" asked Emily surveying the damage. There was black scoring along the tower and the control box at the base looked like it had been burned.
"Lightning strike," said Sasha. "From the tests we have done, the coupling about halfway up is melted and needs to be replaced. But, that is an easy fix. The real damage is here in the control box. We don't need everything to work. Just the data burst transmission for deep-space communication." Sasha pried open the metal circuit box, showing a tangled mess of wires and circuits burned to a crisp. Some of the wires and circuit boards were clearly melted by the lightning strike.
"Yep. That there is your problem," Kaylee said with a fake accent.
"Yeah I'd say so," agreed Emily.
"Well, Kaylee if you could replace the data coupling that would help a lot. Climb about halfway up and replace the coupling burned out on the large black cable. Emily and I will start down here." Sasha said, looking at Kaylee.
"Sure no problem!" Kaylee said happy to not have to work with all the circuits in the burned box. She set her pack and duffle bag down and started to rummage through for a new coupling, and set of cable wrenches.
"Well, you seem to know about what is wrong here. Did you run the diagnostics yourself?" Emily asked Sasha while setting down her toolbox and cutting torch.
"Yeah, I was the one up here while Bethany was in the comms room below. We worked on this for a while to determine the extent of the damage before Hrothgar came down. We showed him what was wrong with this yesterday." Sasha recounted as she opened up the crate to show a new circuit board.
"There is quite a spectacular view from up here!" Said Emily as she straightened up and looked around at the jungle from her elevated position.
"Speaking of good view don't you two dare look up my skirt while I am up here!" Kaylee teased as she started her climb up the wireframe looking tower.
"First you aren't even wearing a skirt! Second, you can't tell me what to do!" Shouted Sasha as she looked up. Kaylee looked back over her shoulder and stuck her tongue out at them before continuing her climb. "Is she always a handful?"
"Yep!" chuckled Emily as she started to dig around in the duffle bag for the tools they would need.
"Well let's get to work. We need to send that data burst to the fleet that is on the way here. The sooner the better, in case the Cyrelains attack again before our back up gets here." Sasha said as she picked up the cutting torch out and put on a set of goggles. "So basically we don't have to fix everything now. Let's just get the main long-range array working so we can transmit to deep space. There is nothing in this system we need to talk to yet."
"Agreed!" replied Emily while pulling out some wire cutters. "So how do you want to do this?"
"Everything is fried in this box, so I am going to cut it all away. After that, since I have been up here several times and worked on the diagnostics, I will hook up all the input wiring coming up from below. All you have to do is worry about the output wiring and read the labels to feed them to the right place. How does that sound to you?"
"Sounds good. Start cutting!" Emily said turning to look away to protect her eyes. This is a very beautiful place, she thought as she took the time to look around at the jungle surrounding the installation. Off to the east, she could see a large flock of those four-winged parrot-like birds flying over the treetops. The breeze on her skin was a welcome relief from the heat. Then on the breeze, she could hear a sound growing to compete with the sound of Sasha's cutting torch. Turning to the southwest she could see two Kestrel class fighters approaching. About the time their engines were drowning out the sound of everything else, Sasha stood up and took off her goggles.
Both girls watched as the fighters made a full circle around the outpost. They could see the P models in the glass bubble cockpits that glinted in the sunlight. One of the P-models even looked over at the girls standing on the roof and waved at them. Her fighter slowed to a near hover and lowered her landing gear. Then both fighters descended to the landing pad, touching down in unison. Emily and Sasha had subconsciously walked to the building's edge to watch. Soon the fighters rolled into the hanger below and out of sight.
"Done cutting already?" Emily asked Sasha.
"No. I just fangirl with every fly by," Sasha answered. Then adding, "It never gets old."
"Yeah, they seem to have the best job in the Federation." Emily stopped talking as she heard the engines of two more fighters coming from another direction.
"That must be Blue team coming back. I think Red team just landed." Sasha yelled over the sound of the approaching Kestrels.
Emily nodded as she enjoyed the second airshow as these fighters also did a low slow fly by. Emily noticed the horseshoe-shaped shadows as they passed over the grass around the station. This time both P-models waved vigorously and laughed! Emily and Sasha at the same time realized that the pilots they were envying were not waving at them. They looked up to see Kaylee waving at them with both hands like a madwoman holding onto the tower with her legs.
Sasha and Emily looked up at her then at each other and started laughing, nearly falling over at their friend's antics. No words were spoken between them. The fighters so close would drown out any attempt at conversation.
Soon the fighters were on the ground and rolling into the hanger to rearm. As the noise subsided, Sasha called up to Kaylee who was at least 4 stories above them near the top of the tower. "If you love them that much just flash them next time!"
"What now you tell me when it is too late!" Kaylee called back. "Hey! Wait a minute. You can't trick me into showing you my boobies that easily. I know you are dying to see what they look like!" Kaylee jokingly yelled back.
"They look the exact same as mine!" Sasha yelled back to her.
"Yeah well then go look in a mirror instead of trying to trick me!" Kaylee yelled back with a smile.
"Wow, there is no winning with her is there?" Sasha said to Emily.
"Afraid not," Emily mused, still laughing in her head about the exchange. Emily walked back to the base of the radio tower to resume work. "She has seemed pretty giddy and excitable since we hatched."
"How long ago was that?" Sasha inquired walking back with Emily to resume their work.
"Uh, like just a few hours ago or something. Less than a day for sure." Emily said.
"Really! Woah! You are still brand new!" Sasha said wide-eyed.
"Yeah still have that new clone smell!" Emily teased. "In fact, I hatched at the same time as Kaylee. There were 5 of us T-models and 5 P-models as well. Pest woke us all up at the same time. "
"Really?!" Sasha said. They had made it back to the comms array junction box but Sasha was clearly not at all interested in work at the moment. "Just a few hours ago with 5 Ts and 5 Ps waking up at the same time. Pest? Was that an AI? Wait Pest...is that what you called the AI on the F.S.S. Budapest? I have so many questions."
"Yeah, I can tell," Emily smiled at her friend. "What would you like to know first and I also have some questions for you. But yes Pest was short for Budapest and we woke up after the Cyrealians had already boarded the ship. We were in cloning bay 3. 1 and 2 had already been attacked by the Cyrelains. The combat models were already fighting. They were woken up before us. We were the last ones hatched."
"Woah that is intense! I was hatched at a Federation installation planet side and completed my catch up and familiarization training with new systems for a few weeks before was assigned to a ship. I am 2 and a half by the way and was transferred here 6 months ago. Being here is by far better than being on a ship. But it is exciting to go to new places on a ship starting out, so I hear." Sasha said, hardly taking a breath. Stopping for a moment she asked, "What happened to the 4 other T-clones?"
"Oh let's see. One was shot in the back and then the back of the head within 5 minutes of hatching by some Cyrealains. I think her name was Debbie. Stacy had her arm blown off at the same time but died later when a Cyrealian stabbed her through her back, pinning her to a wall, before she was sucked out into space with the Cyrealian. Well her bottom half. I think part of her wound up in an escape pod with Brad. He is a combat model. And Veronica was shot in the leg then caught and eaten alive. Kaylee and I made it," Emily finished. Taking a momentary pause to think, she continued "Now that I say it all, it is kind of a lot to happen so quickly."
"Yeah, I'd say so." Sasha agreed still mentally catching up to what Emily had told her. "I bet none of the P-models made it." Sasha chuckled.
Emily knew the P-models had a deserved reputation at this point in her young life but was surprised when Sasha laughed. "Well, actually Jill and Courtney did. Well, Jill, did I guess."
"Oh P-605 Jill was with you. She is flying the recon teams in a shuttle right now. I saw her name as we planned that op. What about Courtney? You said that she made it but didn't."
"Well." Emily blushed remembering what had happened to Courtney. "Her fighter was damaged and she landed in the jungle with Andre and I."
"Oh yeah. Kendra directed her towards a pod that had landed near where she was going down. Kendra lost comms with her. We never knew what happened." Sasha remembered. "Things are falling into place now. What happened in the Jungle?"
"She...She uh...got eaten by a large pretty flower. And I don't think she minded." Emily said and looked to Sasha to see her reaction.
"Not surprised at all! We have lost so many P-models to the jungle. This planet is like a P-model fatal 'fun house'," Sasha laughed. "So she just walked up to it and fed herself to it then?"
"What!? No. It surprised her. It shot out sticky tendrils and stuck to her and pulled her in before slurping her down as she giggled and...had a grand ol' time." Emily paused before continuing. "Did you ask if she fed herself to it? How crazy are they?"
"Oh, girl you don't know the half of it!" Sasha started in, "I transferred in with the new P-models 6 months ago. The whole station was getting upgrades. I was installing new systems and stayed here to operate them when the Federation decided to increase the number of personnel on this planet." Sasha sat down in the shade next to the junction box they were working on and opened it up. "So we finally had new pilots. You know the girl Ps we have now. They were the replacements to the old P-models that everyone hated. That dude they cloned for the last P-model was a total douchebag and they were not even good at their jobs. For all their faults, these new P-models are so much better!" Emily could tell that Sasha genuinely thought highly of these new female P-models. " Anyway, we started to have some of them go missing. At first Commander Cyrus was like, well you know it is a dangerous jungle out there. Something unfortunate must have happened. He made a rule that they could not go out alone. They had to be in pairs. But we lost two pairs the next week. So at this point, we had 20 kestrels and 8 shuttles. We started out with 40 P-models. 12 extra for downtime off duty, etc. 10 had gone missing in the first 4 weeks leaving us with just 2 extra pilots." Sasha explained wide-eyed as she pulled out some wiring and an old crisped circuit board.
"Wow, so everything was peaceful and they were lost in the jungle then," Emily said as she handed the cutting torch to Sasha.
"Hahahaha! I am just getting started!" Sasha put on her goggles and lit the torch and started cutting. Emily turned again to shield her eyes and wondered what Sasha was going to say next.
Two minutes later Sasha had finished with the cutting torch and handed it back to Emily to put away. "So what else happened with the pilots here?" Emily asked. Her imagination had been running wild as she waited for Sasha to finish cutting.
Sasha started to pull old, burnt inner workings out to make way for the new parts as she continued her story "So Commander Cyrus had a full safety stand down and ordered the scout clones to hold a death by PowerPoint session to teach us all about the dangers of the jungle. We had some comm classes and basic first aid too. It was like a welcome aboard and jungle survival advanced class rolled into one for about two days. During that time no one was allowed to leave the compound."
"Sounds like he was doing everything he could to keep you safe," Emily stated.
"Yeah it was boring at times sitting there learning again what we already knew but we understood why." Sasha shrugged and hefted out a large piece of scorched hardware. "And all base personnel had to attend, even the non-clones. But what was interesting was during day two of the safety stand-downs, I was at the communications monitor when he made his weekly report. Apparently every station on this planet had lost at least a few P-models, some more than others. The Orbital station was the exception. But they said that this was a Federation wide phenomenon. Commander Cyrus even asked for some verification on this. What we got back was that Federation wide, all P-models had an inexplicably high mortality rate for unknown causes."
"Wow, so the Federation had no idea what they were getting into when they made these new clones then!" Emily exclaimed. "Hey, it looks like you are about done removing the old burnt parts. Want me to hand you the new components now?"
"Yeah but let's just get this one in first and send the message before we install the rest," Sasha said holding up the data burst modulator. Sasha picked up a wrench and two bolts and started to mount it into the junction box. "So after the base commander realized that it was a problem with the P-models and not everyone and that the Federation had already noted the issue, he asked for more P-models. The Admiral in charge of this sector said that he would send 20 new P-models within the week to Station 2 and the other stations would also be getting replacements as well for the ones they had lost...and expected to lose. And to expect a delivery of some replacement P-models every two weeks or so." Emily raised an eyebrow at that last bit. Sasha grinned, "Yeah you heard that right. But since the problem was known and was being handled off-world by the Federation, off duty liberty to go to the jungle was restored the next day."
"So just like that then?" Emily said standing there as neither girl was working at this point.
"Well we had to stay in groups and take a combat model with us but yes. Several of us clones and volunteers all were dying to get some new clothes from green vines...um…I can explain that later I guess."
"Oh, I am familiar with them! Got an outfit already actually!" Emily blushed at the memory of how she got the outfit.
"Oh, ok then!" Sasha said before continuing her tale. "We got to a place just a little way into the jungle to the west and found the two P models. The ones that went missing a few days before. Funny thing is that we may have saved them if we didn't have the two-day safety brief. But by then it was too late to get them out." Sasha leaned in and said "We all knew then that they had to have done it on purpose. They knew how these vines worked and we used this patch all the time. And if someone gets caught in one we can easily cut them out. For two of them to get stuck means that they had wanted it to happen."
"Are you sure it was on purpose?" Emily inquired intrigued now.
"Well, the vines are nearly clear. So we knew it was them. They had just barely started to melt. But laying close by were their uniforms. That had taken their clothes off before getting stuck to the vines, and folded them and placed them on the ground." Shasha had lowered her voice for effect. "One look at the four other P-models that had come with us that day and I knew. The way they looked at the two hanging there; I knew they were thinking about joining them sooner or later."
"Boo!" Kaylee yelled, and dropped the last few steps off the ladder, landing next to Emily and Sasha.
"OMG! Kaylee!" Shouted Emily
"You scared the crap out of us!" Sasha said still reeling from the shock.
"Haha, it was a perfect set up! You two were telling ghost stories about P-models feeding themselves to jungle plants and such, and not paying attention!" Kaylee laughed at them.
"It is true! You have to order those bimbos to stay alive!" Sasha claimed.
"Yeah, whatever. I know they are not exactly afraid of getting killed. But out of the blue like that, no way!" Kaylee said.
"Kaylee, Pest did say something about that to me in the gear locker back on the ship. I think this might be true. What did the Head Quarters say to Commander Cyrus about the... 'Problem'?" Emily turned to Sasha as she spoke.
"They told him to order the P models to stay alive," Sasha said.
"Did it work?" Emily asked.
"Kinda. The disappearances slowed down considerably. We did still lose a few, however." Sasha answered.
"That is too weird!" Kaylee said after listening to the conversation. "However, I am done with the coupling up at the top. The Comms array is ready to transmit soon as we get this fixed down here."
"Good! Let's get this finished then." Sasha walked over to the junction box and bent down. "All I need to do is hook up these wires at the base. Emily, can you hook up the output wires for me?"
"Sure. no problem." Emily said and picked up a set of wire strippers.
"I can get the rest of the components laid out with the bolts ready and wires pre-staged so it goes faster installing everything else after we send that data burst." Kaylee started to pull the other components of communications hardware out of the crate and began laying them out while Emily and Sasha finished hooking up the wires.
Soon they were finished and Sasha spoke, "Hey Kaylee, go let Hrothgar know we can send that message now. Emily and I will stay up here and see that it works alright. Soon as it is done we will start installing the rest of the comms."
"You got it!" Kaylee bounded off across the roof to the elevator.
Sasha flipped the main breaker switch inside the junction box before closing it then stepping back. "Well let's see if this works."
How will we know?" asked Emily.
"Well if we did it right nothing will happen except a small blue flashing light at the top. If we did it wrong there will be no flashing blue light. If we did it really wrong, expect lots of sparks!" Both of them chuckled.
About that time they could hear some more engines from a shuttle approaching. "That has to be the recon team shuttle. It will go back and get them in about two hours," Emily said.
"Yeah, the three shuttles up north are not due back for several hours yet. That is where Jacob is." Sasha shrugged.
"Who is Jacob?" inquired Emily.
"Oh, that is the CA model I am dating. We sneak up here on the roof sometimes at night." Sasha winked at her friend, before turning to watch the shuttle land. Soon the shuttle was rolled inside the hanger and out of sight.
"Well, any minute now-" Emily was cut off by a loud roar that echoed over the jungle. Both girls turned around to see a massive four-winged pterodactyl with a squid-like head flying straight toward them.
"Run!" Sasha yelled and took off to the elevator at a full sprint. Emily raced to keep up with her. Getting there they both hit the button repeatedly willing it to hurry. "Come on come on come on! Get here!"
"Kaylee went all the way to sub-level one to see Hrothgar as we told her! The elevator is not coming back in time!" Emily took off to look for cover as the beast landed on the roof and made a low hungry growl at them! "I guess they are dangerous then!?"
Sprinting to the other side of the elevator housing unit, Sasha called out. "Yeah, they eat 20 to 60 greenotangs a day normally! Yeah, that makes them dangerous!"
The Pterosquid looked directly at Emily and started to walk towards her. It was using its front set of wings folded into front arms as it crawled on all fours. It made another low bellow and its dozen or more tentacles quivered as they reached toward Emily. Her hiding spot was not working.
Just then a blue light started blinking and made a beeping sound. The Pterosquid turned its massive head surprisingly quickly and roared at the tower. "Sasha the transmission is starting! How long will it take?"
"Uh...30 seconds to a minute depending on how much data is being sent." Sasha peered around the corner.
Both girls saw the Pterosquid wrap its powerful tentacles around the tower. "Noooo!" Emily cried out. Just before a few small plasma shots hit the creature. Emily turned to see Sasha had a plasma pistol and was shooting at the beast.
Quickly the beast lost interest in the beeping blue light on the tower. It was full of rage now and let out a deafening roar and flapped its four wings at once and leapt over to where Sasha was.
Sasha let out a scream and threw the pistol to Emily. Emily picked it up as Sasha ducked under some pipes and conduit. The Pterosquid wrapped a long tentacle around Sasha's leg and pulled her from her hiding spot. It lifted her upside down in the air in front of its face. Emily shot and hit the beast in the side of the head twice and took off running knowing that the beast would give chase.
The beast let out a high pitched shriek of pain as it shrugged off the two hits. It let Sasha drop and turned to see Emily running away. Emily ran from it and the tower toward the edge of the roof! Getting to the edge she turned to face the creature and fired a few more shots as it rushed toward her.
"We have to keep it distracted until the data burst is finished!" Sasha yelled springing to her feet behind the beast. Then running to jump on its back, Sasha stabbed it with her knife while Emily shot it. The beast spun around and swept its wings over Emily's head as she ducked almost getting knocked off the roof. The Pterosquid bucked hard and threw Sasha from its back. She landed next to Emily who helped her to her feet. Finishing its spin the Pterosquid came face to face with both the girls at the edge of the rooftop.
The elevator dinged at that moment distracting the creature yet again. Sasha took off running to her left and Emily ran to the right and started to shoot at the Pterosquid as she ran.
A voice called out from the other side of the elevator housing. "Hello?! What is going on up here?" The person getting off the elevator couldn't see the girls or the Pterosquid because the opening was facing towards the tower away from the battle.
"Pterosquid!" yelled Sasha, as the beast rounded the corner to see someone dive back into the elevator.
Emily hit the creature in the side and the right wing with shots from the plasma pistol. The beast looked at her, determined to stop this painful nuisance.
With a loud roar, the Pterosquid took flight and swept over the roof, covering the distance to Emily as she made it to the corner of the building with nowhere left to go. Seeing that she was cornered she fired her pistol at the beast bearing down on her at speed. At the last moment, she leapt backward off the edge of the building, continuing to shoot at the incoming predator. The Pterosquid made it to the edge of the building as Emily started to fall towards the ground still shooting up at her attacker. With lightning reflexes, the Pterosquid snatched Emily out of the air with its long powerful tentacles. With a few beats of its four mighty wings, the creature was flying away from Station 2 with Emily firmly in its grasp.
Emily was shocked that the Petrosquid had managed to snatch her out of the air like that. She figured that she would be falling to her death right now about to splat on the concrete below. She had hoped to distract the predator just long enough to send valuable information to the Federation's fleet that was on its way to war. Now she was being carried off by a large flying predator.
One of the Pterosquid's tentacles coiled around her waist and gave a powerful squeeze forcing the air out of her lungs. The other tentacles went to work trying to find the weapon she had been using. Forcing it from her grasp, the plasma pistol fell to the jungle below as the beast flew further from the station.
Desperately trying to free herself Emily kicked her legs wildly at the animal. Aiming her heels at its circular maw she kicked it forcefully. Seeming to have an effect, the creature shuddered and moved her around. Instantly tentacles wrapped around her legs and still more explored her hiking shoes. She couldn't tell if the Pterosquid thought the shoes were another type of weapon or not, but quickly she found herself barefoot. Still, she kicked and tried to punch at the beast holding her.
Clearly growing tired of its meal's incessant struggles, the Pterosquid reached its tongue out and lapped at Emily. It wrapped around her neck and pulled her head into its mouth. With her head in its mouth, the giant creature ripped away her black tank top and khaki shorts. Quickly sucking her lean body down like a strand of spaghetti. Emily's arms were pinned to her side by her new fleshy confines. The insides of the Pterosquid's throat were tight, hot, and slimy. The creature's neck muscles undulated and squeezed her down further toward the stomach with a powerful rippling massage motion.
Emily had no idea what to do now. She was trapped and starting to enter the stomach. The events of the last few minutes played back in her head.
Had she made the right decisions? Sasha seemed to have lived. The person at the elevator had lived. Maybe she and Sasha should have gone down to the briefing room with Kaylee. No, then the Pterosquid would have just taken out the tower and the whole mission would have been a failure.
That was what she was here for right? To complete missions for the Federation that were too dangerous for non clones. Her mind raced as she fully slipped into the creature's stomach. It was a large cavity. She could hear the creature's heartbeat. She could feel the muscles flex around her as the wings flapped. Although the stomach was big she didn't have much room. It was full of other bodies. She reached out to feel one in the dark and noticed its four arms. Must have been a greenotang.
Her lungs started to burn. She was running out of air. Had she done well? Was this really her end? She had been woken up to make sure the data drives made it to the surface so Station 2 could send the mission-critical information to the fleet. She even took out an enemy warship on the way. With that, Emily decided to feel accomplished. She had protected her mission to the end and saw that it was successful. She became a bit woozy now from the lack of air. She could feel the wingbeats of the creature churning her in with the rest of the greenotang bodies in its stomach.
Slowly she started to lose consciousness. Soon she would be nothing more than calories and the Federation would continue without her. She had done her job well, she decided with the last of her brain power. Emily slipped away into oblivion as her body started to digest in the creature's stomach.
Beep...Beep….Beep….Booooop
Clunk...click….hissss.
A male computer-generated voice introduced itself. "Welcome to the F.S.S. Manila, T-481 Erica. You can call me Manny."