Sorry for the delay. Here's Chapter 7!

[MEDICAL LOG]

[WILSON, K. (DR.)]

[TYPE: TEXT]

[CASUALTY REPORT]

[On-Duty surgeon's report…]

[Over twelve-thousand RIG signals have been confirmed dead. We are receiving the wounded as I write this. Current patient log:

-233 DOAs

-125 in the ICU

-250 UTBSs (Unable to be saved)

-All bodies will be sent down to the City Morgue. Non-residents will be frozen for cryo-storage until transportation back to their homes is available.

-Recalling all off-duty medical personnel to report to Perseus Hospital.]

[Note: Investigate explosion at Cluster and loss of primary power. The emergency generators are online, but with the amount of power we're using, they'll drain in the next few hours.]

[LOG ENDS]

[PERSONAL LOG]

[ALLEN, J. (LCPL.)]

[TYPE: AUDIO]

[STUPID]

[ALLEN: We split up to finish our objectives quicker. That was so stupid of me. I take command and the first order I give separates us. Wasn't thinking. I found the deck officer. He locked himself in his office, but someone used armor-piercing rounds and blasted him through the wall. I found two dormitories with the same story. Someone's eliminating witnesses here, and it has got to do with those orders Private Haines and I found earlier. I'm headed back to the rendezvous point to pick up Amirsaleh and Kaufman. Then we'll grab Haines and make our way to the shuttles. Allen out.]

[LOG ENDS]

[PERSONAL LOG]

[HAINES, O. (PVT.)]

[TYPE: VIDEO]

[SURPRISE!]

[The video feed turns on. A young man in his early twenties and wearing a robe over a military-issued jumpsuit is smiling at the camera. It is Owen Haines, several months before the incident.]

[HAINES: Merry Christmas, Mom! Sorry we couldn't be there, but Captain White gave us all some shore leave to enjoy the holidays. Lucia came on the first shuttle. Speaking of which, we have some great news!]

[Lucia Ramirez walks into view. She is wearing a robe over some flannel pajamas. She is also holding a X-GEN4 Pregnancy Test. It reads positive.]

[HAINES: Surprise, mom!]

[RAMIREZ: You're going to have another grandchild soon!]

[HAINES: Don't worry, I'll call you as soon as I can to fill you in on the details…well, not ALL the details. Anyway, tell Marisa that I've called in a few favors and Major Milligan has decided not to press charges, but suggests that she re-examine the regulations regarding traffic protocols. Love you guys so much!]

[LOG ENDS]

Owen glanced around the corner and immediately wished he hadn't. "Fuck…that's a lot of them." He checked his ammo. Plenty of charges in the Plasma Rifle, 15 detonator mines, and 300 rounds for the Pulse Rifle. He also had the three swords strapped to his back, the two Colts, and the Plasma Saws. However, the equipment and his wound would slow him down, and the number of Necromorphs and the wide spacing between the stacks of containers meant that they could come at him from multiple angles. He glanced around again and found himself staring into the face of a Stalker.

"Well…shit." Owen blasted the Stalker's face off with the Colt and ran as fast as his equipment and his injured leg would let him. A few dozen Necromorphs roared as one and followed him, but that did little to help Ashley's situation since hundreds more surrounded her container.

The Necromorphs were gaining on him. Owen reached a ladder to the maintenance gantries and began climbing. The Necromorphs were right behind him, but it seemed they couldn't climb the ladder. That said, he didn't want to test if the Pukers could nail him from this distance. He reached for a rung when his ankle erupted in pain again, and found himself dangling by one arm. There was a weird half-gurgle/half-whine behind him. Glancing around, he saw the grotesque corpse of a baby staring at him, clinging to the side of a container. Its intestines had been mutated to become barb-shooting tentacles. It fired, and it was only the swords on Owen's back that prevented him from being skewered. That said, the impact knocked him loose, and he barely managed to catch a rung with his hand, but the strap holding the swords and Detonator was severed by the barb and they fell to the ground. Another burst of barbs severed one of his ammo pouches and knocked loose a Plasma Saw before he could re-secure the strap. Snarling, Owen reached for his holster.

He blasted the Lurker with a few energy rounds from the Colt and it was knocked loose. Forcing himself up, Owen crawled onto the gantry. At the far end was a bridge crane car. An idea formed in Owen's head. He limped over to the cab and hopped inside. He powered up the systems and grinned as the Necromorphs stared into the floodlights that suddenly illuminated them. A holo-display popped up over the cab cockpit, highlighting each individual container and its contents.

"Alright, payback time." The hydraulics whined as he lowered the crane arm and grabbed the topmost container off a pile. Exercise equipment. Perfect. Then he dropped it on the Necromorphs. The metal walls of the container crumbled and the plastic boxes inside shattered. 300 ten-pound weights and five cardio-vascular exercise rigs came tumbling down on the monsters, snapping bones and crushing skulls. A bunch of exercise balls knocked a group of Slashers flat on the ground. Ashley's voice suddenly came over his RIG.

"Owen, what are you doing? What on earth is that banging noise?"

"You ever played those old computer games when you were a kid where you control a crane over a dockyard and have to move the containers from one pile to another without dropping them on the dock workers? Well if that were the case right now, I'd probably be getting a GAME OVER screen now." He dropped another container on the Necromorphs. It shattered and five infantry Humvee frames spilled out, squashing a few dozen Pukers. Another container contained bowling balls and bowling pins. The next one had a tank. That proved gratifying to watch.

"Which one are you?" He swung the crane around, sending the arm swinging into the side of a container with enough force to puncture it. The claw stuck, and he swung it back around, dragging the container off its perch. It was shaken loose by the movement and its contents, 700 metal two-ton cylinders of D-rations, rained down on a group of Slashers before the smashed container crushed them.

"D-10023."

Owen swung the crane around and extended the arm. He found D-10023, surrounded by a dozen dead Slashers and with puncture marks in the doors. "I've got it." The claw arm lowered and grabbed hold of the container. Suddenly, the Necromorphs surged towards the container. Owen pressed the lift button, but five Slashers managed to grab onto the sides while another three climbed onto the top.

[COMMUNICATION LOG]

[TO: HAINES, O. (PVT.)]

[FROM: CHEN, A. (CPL.)]

[TYPE: AUDIO]

[HAINES: Shit.]

[CHEN: Owen, what's happening?]

[HAINES: Uh…you picked up some unexpected passengers. I'll try to shake them off.]

[Sound of roaring.]

[HAINES: Well, that didn't work.]

[CHEN: What do you mean? What's going on? The floor's tilting!]

[HAINES: There are three of the slashing ones on top of the container. A Puker jumped onto the side when I swung it. Upsetting the weight. And…ooooohhhhh…shit. It's burning a hole through the-]

[CHEN: -wall, yes I can see it. A little help would be nice.]

[HAINES: Okay…you see that top hatch? Climb through it. I'll keep them off you.]

[CHEN: What? No, wait-]

[LOG ENDS]

Owen brought the crane up next to one of the walkways, specifically a lower platform which he knocked off using the crane claw so that the remaining ladder section was up against the top of the container. He hopped out of the cab and ran over to the ladder. Unslinging his Plasma Rifle, he blasted two of the Slashers into oblivion. A burst of pulse rounds from the opening hatch took care of the third. Ashley climbed up and ran for the ladder. The moment she was off the container, Owen blasted the support cables. The container and the rest of the Necromorphs dropped.

Panting and wheezing, the pair collapsed onto the gantry. "We…have to…retire…soon…or…this will…kill…us." Owen gasped. Ashley just looked at him and burst out laughing.

"What?"

"Nothing. That is...if we survive this." Owen managed a chuckle and they sighed. The pair sat, watching the Necromorphs through the mesh-design of the gantry floor. Owen passed her one of the Plasma Saws.

"Thanks." She tucked it in her belt "So now what?"

"I tried contacting the Lance Corporal. He didn't respond. Signal was blocked" Ashley stared at him strangely before he remembered "Right. Forgot you didn't know. Allen's alive. Made it through and saved me from that swarm." Ashley smiled and her spirits rose.

"What about everyone else?"

"Sergeant Acker, Roland, and Lindsey are dead. Some beast in the tram tunnel ripped them apart. I know that Eric Greenberg from Squad Two is dead, and no one's been able to get in contact with Squad One. Also…we found this." He sent the orders he had downloaded from the dead soldier's RIG to Ashley. She read them and her expression hardened.

"Did White know about this?"

"He's the captain; how could he have not? But I doubt he knew about the Base Contingency Two orders. If he knew the reasoning behind that, then there would be no way he would have sent anyone over here." Their conversation halted as they saw a group of Leapers crawl out of a floor vent.

"Do you think they could get up here?" One of the Leapers sprang up onto a container, before jumping onto a higher one.

"That would be a yes." They scrambled up and dashed for the maintenance hatch at the far end of the gantry.

[PERSONAL LOG]

[KELLER, J.]

[TYPE: VIDEO]

[THINGS GOT WORSE/ME AND MY BIG MOUTH]

[The screen flickers to show the interior of a P-Sec shuttle. Inside are Sergeant Douglas, who is driving the shuttle, Keller, Marcus, Lack, Quinn, and two riot-gear-equipped cops.]

[KELLER: The Unitologists staged an uprising. A fucking uprising in the middle of this chaos. They stormed P-Sec headquarters; we barely made it out alive. Don't know how many other survived.]

[The screen pans to show Quinn tending to one of the officers whose arm has been cut off at the elbow.]

[KELLER: Kilmer was trapped under some debris. We had to cut her arm off with the Plasmas Cutter. Quinn cauterized it, but there's not much he can do. We're lucky she hasn't gone into shock.]

[Sound of rocketfire.]

[LACK: *Agitated* How many gunships can PSAF have mobilized?]

[DOUGLAS: None.]

[KELLER: We were-wait, what?!]

[DOUGLAS: Governor Menshikov has 'regrettably but firmly' denied any help whatsoever to put down the uprisings. That means no aerial support nor any heavy ground support. As such, I can't even get you guys a transport: the docking bays are on the Lower City, and all other governmental transportation is in lockdown. That said, if what you guys say about the station defenses are true, then getting a ship won't help you much.]

[Sound of Kilmer moaning.]

[QUINN: Kate's not doing so well.]

[KELLER: The other cop, Officer Williams. We ran into a pack of the creatures that got up here before the barricades were set up. Fought them. Lost all of Douglas's men except those two. That's how Kilmer got trapped. Anyway, Williams took on three of them, barely making it out alive, and he's been mumbling crazy stuff ever since.]

[WILLIAMS: They are hungry…they want us.]

[LACK: Someone shut that kid up!]

[WILLIAMS: Scattered…our flesh. Separated...no, this must not be so. You are all-]

[LACK: I swear, one more burst and I'll-]

[MARCUS: Jesus! Put the gun down!]

[Keller jerks the screen sideways, filling it with static. There is the sound of a scuffle, and the screen refocuses to show Lack seething in the co-pilot's seat, his Pulse Rifle in hand.]

[Keller: Major Lack started having these outbursts a few hours ago. I think it has something to do with the Marker.]

[WILLIAMS: They want our flesh…they want to make us-]

[DOUGLAS: Yeah, that's great Williams. Holy hell, take a look at this.]

[Keller crawls towards the cockpit. The Upper City is in flames. Dozens of police hovercars are seen chasing or fleeing crowds of masked Unitologists. An armored barrier has risen out of the ground around the Spire, otherwise known as Government Sector.]

[DOUGLAS: Hang on…do you see that?]

[Off in the distance, the black mass that is the USM Bellerophon is visible by the light of its engines. The giant vessel lumbers slowly towards the station.]

[KELLER: Either I'm imagining it, or they're getting closer.]

[QUINN: My god, they're on a collision course.]

[Douglas's RIG suddenly activates to show a helmeted cop.]

[COP: Sir! Unitologists have overrun the security outpost! They've overridden our lockdown on the Cluster! The shafts are open-WHAT THE FUCK?! Open fire! Open fire!]

[The RIG link breaks, but not before the crew sees the cop get torn apart by a Slasher. There is the distant sound of an explosion.]

[DOUGLAS: That was our last line of defense. They blew the Cluster. I have three hundred officers trapped down there now with no means of escape, and god knows how many terrified civilians are still alive in the Lower City.]

[LACK: Damn ship's getting closer.]

[QUINN: Who is piloting that vessel? We didn't encounter any survivors when we went aboard.]

[KELLER: Last time I checked, those things couldn't pilot ships.]

[MARCUS: Maybe those marines from that other Earthgov ship.]

[KELLER: Why would they aim it at the station? And how did-is it just me or is that thing accelerating?]

[WILLIAMS: They want us…]

[DOUGLAS: Shut up Williams! Docking Control, this is Sergeant Hiro Douglas of the 3rd Precinct. We have an Earthgov strike cruiser on a collision course. Activate gravity tethers and slow them down!]

[OFFICER: Sergeant, there's a problem in the Fusion Reactors...Governor Menshikov's shut down all power to the Lower City! Wait…all of the Public Sector is offline!]

[There is silence in the shuttle. Outside, the lights of the city go out, but the burning fires still illuminate the carnage. Suddenly, the thump-thump of the station defense cannons is heard, and the distortion of space is seen as the gravity tethers engage.]

[DOUGLAS: Good job, Docking Control. You had us worried there for a second.]

[OFFICER: It wasn't us! Someone just diverted power to the station defense grid and the gravity tethers.]

[The Bellerophon is hammered by cannonfire, most of which is absorbed by her heavy armor. A lucky shot strikes her amidship, and there are multiple explosions in her drive systems. Out of control, the ship barrels towards the Upper City. The gravity tethers slow the ship down, but not by much.]

[DOUGLAS: Shit, we're getting out of here. I-]

[WILLIAMS: Our flesh…make us whole…YOU MUST ALL BE MADE WHOLE!]

[MARCUS: Wait! Don't!]

[A scuffle ensues. Quinn grabs Williams and they move out of camera range. Sound of a gun firing. Quinn topples into view, holding his bleeding hand.]

[DOUGLAS: What the-]

[Blood splatters against the cockpit viewscreen as a bullet blows through his forehead.]

[LACK: That's enough. I should have ended this a while ago!]

[Lack stands up, rifle in hand.]

[KELLER: Jesus, would you both stop-]

[Multiple gunshots. The sound of two bodies hitting the floor. The sound of cracking glass. The screen darkens as the shadow of the Bellerophon blocks the light from the sun.]

[KELLER: Shit, we have to move! Evelyn, get in the pilot's seat! Kilmer, Quinn, grab onto something! We have to-]

[LOG ENDS]

"We're moving." Owen noted as they crawled through the service shaft back to the tram station. The hum of machinery could be heard. The deck lurched under their feet for a second.

"Yeah. Someone just reactivated the reactor." Ashley kicked open the hatch at the end of the shaft and they crawled out into the corridor.

"Okay, tram station is through that door." Owen said. They hurried to the door and found it sealed shut. Concerned, Owen used his Plasma Saw to carve a man-sized rectangle into the metal slab. They squeezed through.

"Agh…shit." Three dead Slashers lay on the ground. Next to one was an audio log. Dozens of Pulse shell casings littered the floor.

[PERSONAL LOG]

[ALLEN, J. (LCPL)]

[TYPE: AUDIO]

[TROUBLE ENCOUNTERED]

[ALLEN: Owen, if you hear this, then I'm sorry that we didn't make the rendezvous. After you didn't return, we were about to go after you when they attacked. We destroyed them, but more were coming from the corridor. We had to seal it, which meant cutting you off. We-oh shit, there's more coming! Owen, I'm leaving Locator beacons along our path. Follow them and try to catch up with us.]

[LOG ENDS]

"Locator beacons…" Owen activated his RIG's scanning feature. Sure enough, there was a beacon, a small metal flat circle attached to the underside of the bench in the passenger waiting room. Owen picked it up and attached it to his RIG. Activating it, Owen received his first waypoint.

"Come on, let's move."

They set off down a corridor. Along the way, they passed bodies of dismembered, or in a few cases crushed, Necromorphs. They arrived at the first waypoint, a gym. "Okay, the Locator is sending us through that door." Owen said, walking forward without actually paying attention to what was ahead of him. He slammed headfirst into the locked metal door.

"Owe! Jesus Christ! Why did they lock the door?" Ashley chuckled and walked over to the door and examined it.

"No one's used this in a while. Locators aren't that accurate. They just highlight the quickest path to the objective. Most likely they used a different path." Owen adjusted his Locator and the blue holographic line popped a few times pointing in different directions.

"Looks like the next waypoint is in the CIC. Combat Information Center. That's the deck underneath the executive shuttle bay. Those two pathways," He pointed to the ones on the far end of the gym "they go through the logistics department and senior command offices respectively. That one," He pointed to the door next to the locked one "Goes through the showers and exercise facility."

"The logistics department would have entire rooms full of data drives?" Ashley asked. Owen nodded

"Then we go through that way. Gather whatever intel we can." Suddenly, their RIGS crackled and a hologram appeared in front of both of them.

[TRANSMISSION LOG]

[FROM: FORD, A (COL.)]

[TO: HAINES, O. (PVT.)/CHEN, A. (CPL.)]

[FORD: Come in Squad Three, do you copy? Repeat come…*static*…you there?]

[HAINES: Colonel? Wha-…are you guys alright?]

[FORD: Affirmative. Status report, Private.]

[HAINES: Sergeant Acker is dead, sir. So are Fields and Nichols. Lance Corporal Allen is in command. We got separated from him. Someone's jamming our comms.]

[FORD: Tell me…*static*…us too. Squad Two has been wiped out. Found their bodies…*static*…by unknown hostiles. Everyone's okay here though.]

[CHEN: Sir, we received some interesting new data. Sending it to your RIG now.]

[FORD: …]

[HAINES: Sir?]

[FORD: It's worse than we thought.]

[CHEN: Sir?]

[FORD: Found some evidence of someone killing off survivors. We responded to a distress signal, but when we arrived, everyone was gunned down. Some already re-animated.]

[HAINES: We're going to the logistics department. Maybe we can find out some more about how deep this thing goes.]

[FORD: Belay that order, Haines. There's no time. We need to get off this ship. Try to contact the rest of your squad and rendezvous with us at the bridge.]

[HAINES…yes sir.]

[LOG ENDS]

"…"

"So, we're going through the logistics department?
"Definitely. I don't care what Ford says. I just lost most of my closest friends. If there are answers in there, then I want them."

[WELCOME TO UNITED EARTH GOVERNMENT COMMUNICATIONS NETWORK. HOW MAY WE BE OF ASSISTANCE?]

[ALERT-SPYWARE DETECTED IN MA-…ALL SYSTEMS NORMAL.]

[[HIGH-CAPACITY BANDWITH ENTERING STAGE ONYX ONE]

[SECURE SIGNAL BEING BROADCASTED]

[ACCESSING…CONNECTION COMPLETE]

[SECURE-BAND TRANSMISSION ENABLED]

[TO: REDACTED-CODENAME "SHADE", REDACTED-CODENAME "SPARROW", REDACTED-CODENAME "WRAITH"]

[FROM: "OVERSEER"]

[SUBJECT: ORDERS]

[ATTACHMENTS: 1A DATA PACKAGE]

[PACKAGE OPENED…]

[PER NAVAL CODE ARTICLE 17, SUBSECTION 3, YOU ARE AUTHORIZED TO INITIATE BASE CONTINGENCY ZERO ON MARKER SITE 1A AND THE ORBITING RESEARCH STATION. RETRIEVAL OF LEAD RESEARCHERS ON THE PROJECT AND ANY LISTED DATA IN MISSION BRIEFING IS TOP PRIORITY. LETHAL FORCE AUTHORIZED ON ANY CIVILIAN WITNESSES/SURVIVORS, PER BASE CONTINGENCY TWO. ANY RESISTANCE FROM EARTHGOV MILITARY WITH CLEARANCE LEVEL ONYX-FIVE TO ONYX-ONE IS TO BE PUT DOWN WITH EXTREME PREJUDICE. ALL OTHER MILITARY AND CIVILIAN PERSONNEL ABOARD TARGET CHIMAERA ARE TO BE PURGED AS STATED IN SECTION 4, PARAGRAPH 3 OF BASE CONTINGENCY ONE. REMAIN UNDERCOVER AS PART OF USM JERUSALEM CREW ALONG WITH TEAM BETA. OPERATIVES ABOARD TARGET CHIMAERA WILL ASSIST YOU. LEADER IS CODENAMED "MARX." COMMANDEER ESCORT VESSEL USM ISRAEL FOR EXTRACTION AS IT CONTAINS THE PROPER FACILITIES FOR ALL CONTAMINATIONS BY THE MARKER. ORACLES WILL BE ON HAND TO ASSIST YOU ONCE YOU ARE ABOARD.]

[TRANSMISSION ENDS]

[ERROR! ERROR! DATA FEED CORRUPTED…SYSTEM LOGS ARE BEING PURGED. BE REMINDED THAT ALL DATA PURGES MUST BE APPROVED BY YOUR SECTOR CHIEF AND-…SYSTEM RESET INITIATED. WELCOME TO UNITED EARTH GOVERNMENT COMMUNICATIONS NETWORK. HOW MAY WE BE OF ASSISTANCE?]

Next story will be up soon! Be sure to review and tell me what you think!