The frozen metal creaked under our slow footfalls, and I could see a thick fog come from my mouth with each breath. The ice had formed a thin layer over most of the surfaces in the ship, and it turned the empty hallways into a glittering labyrinth of frost. Everywhere my flashlight shined became reminiscent of a disco ball. It would've been beautiful if not for the eerie quiet of the dead ship. We'd climbed two floors with nothing but silence and chills for company, and now we were approaching another staircase.
Ridge's rough face seemed to fit in the cold quiet, and the way he looked at the room, like he could see none of the beautiful shards I could see, made me realize how cold he can be. Marble on the other hand had a completely different interaction with the ice fortress. Her gold-nearly-white hair seemed to glow like the crystals around us, and even with her camo covering all of her, I could see that her skin seemed to shine in the cold. I don't know where the deep thoughts came from, but I considered them as we walked. This was the first time I'd been around them in a calm environment, it seemed logical that now would be when I'd analyze them.
"Gneiss, do you get a bad feeling about this?" Marble snapped me out of my thoughts, and I nodded my head.
"Yea, I've got a really bad feeling, but we're nearly there, so might as well not worry about it too much." I spoke my honest opinion, but realized by her reaction that she'd been looking for comfort, "Don't worry, we'll be fine. STORM has been in worse situations."
"Like what?"
"One time we ended up stuck behind enemy lines within a few miles of a nuclear blast. Back when the US went after Al-Asad, we'd been securing an HVT when the city went up, and we couldn't step outside for a week. We were living off of rations that were meant to last two days, and water that may have likely been radioactive."
"Wow, how'd none of you die?" Silence filled the hall for another moment as Ridge tore open the hatch for the stairwell.
"We used to have five members in STORM." I said quietly, and Marble grimaced, "We lost our first CO when the bomb went off, he shielded Ridge from the flash burn and bought him time to get inside. Then the day before our pick-up we lost our fourth. He had slept close to a window and a radiation spike cooked him while he slept."
"I'm sorry." She was quiet, and the cold, which I hadn't noticed while we spoke, seemed to sink back in.
"It was really rough on Igneous, but he plays it off by making jokes." I explained, and followed Ridge up the dark stairs.
"That's war." Ridge spoke suddenly, and I nodded.
"Yep, sometimes people..." I trailed off as we entered the mess hall, "die." The word rang across the hall. I'd wondered, as we walked through the ship, why we'd seen no living or dead. I knew why now.
Scattered across the mess hall were hundreds of slumped figures, coated, much like everything else, in a layer of ice. My breath caught in my throat and I stepped to one of them, and turned my SCAR-L forward. The flashlight on the barrel illuminated a face, listless eyes against a cold purple skin. The hundreds of figures were dead bodies, the crew of the Elizabeth.
"They were killed execution style." Marble was kneeling over another body and studying it.
"Someone hit the ship on the outside," I had a realization, "then came in, rounded up anyone who refused to surrender, and..." My voice trailed off as we glanced over the crowd of corpses.
"The room with the radar and voyage info should be just down this hall." Even Ridge's serious tone had taken a melancholy downturn.
"Let's get out of here as quick as possible." Marble followed Ridge down a hall, and I followed. We turned a few more corners, and then stepped into the radar scanner room. It was as quiet and empty as the rest of the ship. We each went to one of the large mounted servers on the wall, and started searching.
"Ridge." I called, and he turned to me, "The voyage recorder should be in slot Delta-12, right?"
"Yes."
"Someone got here before us then, because Delta-12 is empty." I pointed to the hole in the server, and Ridge inspected it closer. It was clearly meant to hold a hard drive, but was devoid of anything. Ridge cursed, and turned back to the mess hall.
"Of course! let's get back to the Ford, they'll need to hear about this." We turned back the way we had come, and Ridge again lead us to the Mess Hall. We slowed down when walking through, the air seemed heavier in the room, like each lost soul was trying to pull the ship down, and aimed to drag us with it. The two of the suddenly froze, and I followed their lead. We'd been on our toes the entire time, and it wasn't odd to stop at the sound of something clattering or a flicker of movement. The only thing I found strange was that they had turned towards me. Marble's face had drained of color, and Ridge turned, quickly trying to take aim. The world seemed to slow down as he made his movement. I looked down, and saw a single red dot on my chest, then I heard the gunshot, and was knocked backwards before Ridge could even manage to return fire.