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Jack peered around the corner. He and Evelyn were inside a corridor of one of the apartment buildings. At the end, the somehow-living upper half of a woman's torso was adhered to the fleshy substance that had been spreading throughout the city. As the seconds passed, the substance began to grow over her, changing what remained of her body. Too disgusted to even look, and too low on ammo to put her out of her misery, Jack pulled Evelyn after him through another doorway.
They exited the building and emerged in a blood-stained street. Dozens of bodies lay strewn all over. There were fires everywhere. A few Infectors were hunched over several of the bodies. Four burning wrecks that were once tanks lay to the side of what had once been the main entrance into Government Sector.
There was still a stream of civilians trying to make their way to Government Sector, except they now numbered in the dozens instead of the hundreds.
"We got to move." Jack said. Evelyn nodded. Suddenly, a grate in the road popped open and a Slasher leaped out. Jack took off one arm with his Plasma Cutter, but the creature stabbed him through the shoulder. Roaring in pain, Jack swung the Plasma Cutter out, connecting with the Slasher's other arm. He fired, and the Necromorph dropped dead. Evelyn bent to examine his wound.
"How bad is it?" Jack growled. She frowned and applied a medpack to it.
"No arteries hit, but it's deep." Behind them, a dozen newly-made Slashers arose.
"We have to move." Jack warned her. With Evelyn supporting him, they hobbled towards the breached Gate One of Government Sector.
Inside, the atrium was full of dead E.D.F. marines and P.S.A.F. officers. There were a few dead Necromorphs as well, and there was a blood trail leading underneath a sealed bulkhead door.
[TRANSMISSION LOG]
[TYPE: AUDIO]
[TO: KELLER, J.]
[FROM: HAINES, O. (PVT)]
[Haines: Jesus, they're experimenting with the Necromorphs.]
[Keller: Shit…are they secure?]
[Haines: Yeah, they're stasis and cryo tubes.]
[Haines: Okay, I'm hacking the security systems. I'm going to try and do a hard reboot of the computer core. That'll take out any surveillance systems that the marines inside could use to track you. You better hurry inside, because once the system shuts down, you're only going to have a few minutes before the Necromorphs realize that there's nothing stopping them from storming the place.]
[LOG ENDS]
Government Sector was located in the middle-top levels of the Upper City. There were three large gates that allowed access to it, spaced evenly around a ring-shaped promenade, with malls and restaurants and other various luxury shops in it. The inner part of Government Sector was a security-heavy entrance facing Gate One. Once past the numerous security measures, one would find themselves in the corporate levels, full of offices and file archives. On the innermost section, there were lifts to the Spire, the true part of Government Sector. Here, Governor Olga Menshikov had her office, and this was where the E.D.F. and P.S.A.F. barracks/command centers were. There was also the control center of the entire station.
Owen checked his strange weapon. It was secured to his waist. He had also found a shotgun and Pulse Rifle in the trunk of an abandoned police hovercar. So far he had discovered two capabilities of the strange pistol. One of them was a powerful laser that seemed to be able to cut through most materials. He made a mental note not to use it near any exterior bulkheads of viewports. The second was a powerful energy burst that required a few second of charging, similar to that of a Contact Beam, but more of a 'wad' of energy than a line of it, yet just as powerful. Almost like a boltcaster. There was also a computer jack of some sort, though Owen wasn't sure what it was capable of.
Since Owen didn't know the rate of recharge that the energy cell had, though he guessed it was probably very high, he decided not to use the laser pistol unless it was necessary.
Right now, he was standing on the second level of the Government Sector promenade. One thing he had learned from serving aboard an E.D.F. vessel was that there were always chinks in the armor, much like the service tunnel he was facing. Using the RIG of a dead maintenance worker lying next to him, he opened the hatch and crawled inside. The shaft had a green glow to it, with circuit blocks lining the walls.
"Okay, Marker labs…" He glanced through a grate in the bottom of the shaft. Below, he could see scientists hard at work. In a sealed clear plastic box at the center of the room was a red crystal-like shard. Owen was sure that there was an energy field around it, judging by the shimmering air.
The next grate turned Owen's blood cold. The room below him was long, with stasis tanks lining the wall. Inside each of them was a Necromorph. It was clear that they had been made from Earthgov scientists, judging from the frozen tattered uniforms still on them. Several had a black-green necrotic look to them.
Finally, Owen found a room that looked promising; it was an observation/security office of some sort, and there wasn't anyone inside. With a few kicks from his boot, he knocked the grate off its hinges and jumped down. The office was hanging from the ceiling of a warehouse-sized lab. Below were rows of more stasis tanks and dozens of scientists and technicians hard at work. None bothered to look up.
"Okay, security systems." Owen began typing in commands, but the screen lock kept asking for a password. He glanced around the office. He had a friend back on Hera Outpost who was a security officer. He had decorated his office with mementos of home/turned it into a home of sorts. This office was much the same. There was a coffee maker in the corner, a bunch of pictures of presumably the officer and two small girls, probably his daughters, tacked up on the wall, and a disassembled submachine gun on the desk with cleaning equipment next to it.
Owen's friend had also, despite regulations, written down his clearance passwords on sheets of paper due to the sheer number of different passwords required when manning a security office, ranging from those needed to open weapons lockers to simple ones for initiating fire drills. After rifling through a bunch of handwritten files (who wrote on paper anymore?) and datapads, Owen finally found something promising. He typed in Nova193Eta into the screen. The password was accepted. Owen checked the surveillance feeds; there were dozens of E.D.F. and P.S.A.F. marines in riot gear forming a line behind the sealed bulkhead door. With a few more swipes, Owen was able to view the entire security detection grid, though he didn't see anything that would allow him to interfere with it without someone noticing.
Deciding to start at the surface, Owen did a quick glance at all main sectors of GovSec. One thing that interested him was a docking bay that was marked as UNOCCUPIED, but the mass scanner clearly showed a large vessel, the size of a corvette, sitting there.
Owen had a brief chat with Keller via RIG before settling down, informing him of the experiments with the stasised Necromorphs. "Okay…system shutdown." He searched through files before coming to one labeled DEFENSE PROGRAMS. They were programs for invasion scenarios of Government Sector. One of them was for if attackers managed to get to the computer core and there was the danger of them accessing the sensitive data stored there. Owen smiled "Activating Program Seppuku."
The moment his finger left the ENTER button, the room went dark. The computer screen dimmed as the data connection was severed. Within a few moments, emergency lights turned on. That was when the alarms started blaring. An automated female voice came over the speakers.
[WARNING: MAIN POWER IS OFFLINE. MARKER SUBJECT CONTAINMENT CELLS ARE OFFLINE. EVACUATE THE FACILITY.]
"Shit…"
[TRANSMISSION LOG]
[TYPE: AUDIO]
[FROM: KELLER, J.]
[TO: HAINES, O.]
[Keller: Owen, what the hell is going on? What are those alarms?]
[Haines: Ah…I might have made a mistake. Those stasis pods the Necromorphs were wired into the power grid that I just shut down.]
[Keller: Can you reboot it?]
[Haines: Uh…no. I kinda killed the system.]
[Keller: Shit. Hang on…the door's opening. Where do we go from here?]
[Haines: Wait…let me try to find something…let's see…3-D map of the facility…okay, there are motion sensors from when they first built the station. A bit old-fashioned, but they run on the solar panels, not the generator, so they should theoretically still be working. And…yep, they're still connected to the network. Just let me map them onto the hologram…right, now wave your hand or something so I can find you…there you are…oh no.]
[Keller: What?]
[Haines: Run.]
[Keller: I don't understand.]
[Haines: RUN!]
[Keller: Explain, goddamit!]
[Haines: The area behind you is literally a glowing red ball of motion. There's either something huge or a bunch of smaller somethings coming towards you!]
[Sound of roaring]
[Marcus: Oh my god…]
[Keller: Try a bit of both. Evelyn, run!]
[Sound of Plasma Cutters firing. A Contact Beam discharge is heard.]
[Haines: Don't go forward-the EarthGov forces are still there! There's a service tunnel to your left. Climb inside. I'll send you locations for a rendezvous as soon as possible.]
[Keller: Right! Evelyn, you first! Okay freaks, try some of this for size!]
[Transmission cuts out as secondary fire from Contact Beam disrupts the signal.]
[LOG ENDS]
Owen heard screams from below. Gulping, he glanced down. Dozens of the stasis tubes had been smashed open, and Necromorphs were slaughtering the scientists. One tried climbing on top of a still-intact tube, but its occupant speared her through the top. Several of the creatures jumped into an open vent.
"Shit…" Owen glanced at the security feeds. The EarthGov men behind the bulkhead were in chaos. Several of the creatures had attacked them from behind, and thrown the entire line into confusion. That, coupled with the hundreds of Necromorphs that were coming in through the now open bulkhead gate meant that the marines were surrounded.
"What the hell are you doing?" Owen glanced up and saw the security guard from the photo standing in the doorway, Pulse Rifle in hand. He raised his arms in surrender.
"Uh…" Owen considered reaching for his weapon, but figured the man would shoot him before he did. The guard activated his RIG link.
"Security, I've got an unidentified E.D.F. private in my office. He's…" There was a rumbling from the vent cover next to the guard. He turned to look at it.
"I'm sorry." Owen dashed forward and shoved the guard into the vent. The cover smashed, and a Leaper reached out and lowered its head over the shrieking guard's neck. Owen ran out through the open door, ignoring the guttural noises of crunching coming from behind him. Suddenly his RIG flared to life.
[TRANSMISSION LOG]
[TYPE: VIDEO]
[TO: UNKNOWN RIG ID]
[SCANNING…RIG ID FOUND. HAINES, O. (PVT.)]
[FROM: MENSHIKOV, O.]
[Menshikov: Who the hell are you?]
[Haines: I'm Private Owen Haines. Formerly of the USM Jerusalem.]
[Menshikov: One of the Key Subjects…Private Haines…do you realize what you've done?]
[Haines: Accidentally unleashed the experiments you have, not to mention opening the front door, and basically dooming you all to a horrible death?]
[Menshikov: You have a lot of nerve, soldier.]
[Haines: I was almost killed by a few of your men, so forgive me if I don't respect you, Ma'am.]
[Menshikov: Stand down. That's an order.]
[Haines: Did you not just hear what I said? I've seen what the Marker can do. My friends and comrades are dead, and it's you and the rest of EarthGov's fault! You can't control them!]
[Menshikov: Once we understand minds like yours, we will! Once we unlock how to protect ourselves from the Marker's effects, we will discover the road to unlimited energy…but you are no longer necessary. We have already secured enough Key Subjects to continue our research. I had hoped to acquire you, but if you continue to struggle, then you will be eliminated, understood? Now, stay there and wait for a squad to come and escort you to our escape vessel.]
[Haines: Like hell.]
[LOG ENDS]
[PERSONAL LOG]
[MILLS, A.]
[TYPE: AUDIO]
[BASTARD]
[Mills: I hope you're happy. This is your fault. Do you hear me?! You left us here with one revolver and no food…I HAD TO KILL HER, YOU HEAR ME?! SHE MUTATED INTO ONE OF THOSE THINGS AND I HAD TO BLOW HER HEAD OFF…she forgives me though. I see her right now…Yes sweetie, I know it hurt…wait, stay! How? But…yes, you're right…I'm going to join her, Mike. We'll be waiting for you when you come home so you can join us. Oh god…make me whole.]
[Sound of gunshot and something heavy hitting the floor.]
[LOG ENDS]
[SECURITY RECORDER, USM BELLEROPHON]
[VERNE, L (SGT.), GONZALEZ, R. (PVT.), FORD, A. (COL.)]
[TYPE: AUDIO]
[Gonzalez: I TOLD YOU, I DON'T-NO PLEASE!]
[Sound of something skewering flesh. Something heavy hits the floor.]
[Ford: Well, Lauren. I guess you're the last one.]
[Verne: G-go…to…hell, you bastard!]
[Ford: Tut tut…there's no need for bad language.]
[Humming noise.]
[Verne: Wha-…ARRGHHH! MAKE IT STOP! TURN IT OFF! STOP IT! PLEASE! SQUAD THREE IS ALIVE! I JUST TALKED TO JOHN ALLEN MYSELF! THEY'RE PLANNING TO USE THE EXECUTIVE SHUTTLE TO ESCAPE! AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAEEEIIIII!]
[Sound of blood vessels bursting and what sounds like liquid pouring out of a mouth. Body hits the floor. RIG flatlines.]
[Ford: Excellent. Hmm…Executive Shuttle. Perfect. Squad, get ready to move out.]
[LOG ENDS]
[PERSONAL LOG]
[MENSHIKOV, O.]
[TYPE: AUDIO]
[SITUATION DESPERATE]
[MENSHIKOV: No, leave it! This is Governor Menshikov to all remaining security forces. Abandon your current positions and make a tactical retreat back to the escape vessels. We are evacuating.]
[UNIDENTIFIED P.S.A.F. MARINE: Sir, regulations state-]
[MENSHIKOV: To hell with regulations! We're down to under a hundred men!]
[Sound of breaking metal.]
[MENSHIKOV: Shit, they're here as well. I'm sending an emergency broadcast to SECDEF. Marker Site 3A is lost. The orbital research station is being overrun as well. Be warned we are still onsite with Key Subjects and sensitive data. Do not initiate Base Contingency Protocols until we clear the station.]
[UNIDENTIFIED TECHNICIAN: Sir, something massive just ripped our communications array off. No out-of-system comms.]
[MENSHIKOV: Damn it! Did the automated distress beacon relay its signal before that insect did so?]
[UNIDENTIFIED TECHNICIAN: Affirmative. But it'll be logged as low priority and won't be viewed until-]
[MENSHIKOV: Oh it'll be viewed. Once they lost communications with Bellerophon, EarthGov Command would be monitoring all transmissions remotely related to the Proxima Centauri system.]
[Sound of metal breaking. Bursts of gunfire.]
[MENSHIKOV: Damn it! Evacuate the command center! Head for the Israel!]
[LOG ENDS]
Evelyn paused. "What?" Jack asked. He was stuck behind her, and while he didn't mind the view, the fact that they had just witnessed a massacre inside a break room through the floor of the vent several meters back had made him a bit antsy.
"Thought I heard something." Jack brought out his Plasma Cutter. "Never mind. Just an echo." They continued crawling forward.
"You know," Jack said as they passed a service tunnel intersection "once this is all over, we could take a vacation."
"Where, exactly?" Evelyn chuckled. She passed over a grate and glanced down "Whoa…that's high. Do me a favor and don't look down." Jack looked down. He wished he hadn't. All that was standing between him and God knows how far a drop was a three-inch-thick slab of metal. Jack closed his eyes as the world seemed to spin around him. Gosh, that was deep.
"Uh…as I was saying, we could go to Demeter Theta."
"What, the beach?"
"Why not? We could rent a cabin some place secluded. You could wear that green bikini I got you for-…" Jack stopped talking. He heard the hissing from behind him. "FUCK!" He rolled onto his back and found himself staring at a Slasher a few feet behind him. Snarling, Owen fired his Plasma Cutter. It sheared off one arm, but also cut through the ceiling of the tunnel. Owen winced as he heard the heavy steel bolts that secured this section of the service tunnel snap in two.
"There's more in front!" Evelyn's Plasma Cutter began firing. Weakened by the damage, the vent groaned.
"Oh shit…" With an ear-splitting screech, the vent gave way, splitting in two. Jack managed to grab onto a ridged edge of the broken half, but Evelyn toppled out of hers and began falling.
"NO!" Jack dropped his Plasma Cutter, the tool disappearing into the darkness below, and grabbed onto Evelyn's hand. Her fall was stopped short, and they were dangling over the depth that was the main airshaft of Perseus Station.
"Hang on…" Jack grimaced as the jagged edge of the metal began cutting into his fingers. Evelyn tried to pull herself up, but failed.
"It's too much weight!" She protested, "You can't hold the both of us!"
"Yes I can!" As if the universe was mocking him, blood began running down his arm as his grip tightened on the razor edge.
"Let go!" Evelyn screeched. Jack just shook his head stubbornly. Evelyn was sobbing now. Finally, out of desperation, she grabbed her Plasma Cutter and aimed it at her wrist.
"Don't!" BLAM. Jack was splattered with blood and he found himself gripping onto a hand and that was it. The rest of Evelyn was falling, her eyes wide in pain and sorrow. She disappeared into the darkness.
"Evelyn…" Jack crawled back inside the tunnel and clutched the hand against his chest "…Evelyn…"
Owen heard labored breathing and the sound of something dragging. Figuring it was one of the Necromorphs, he pulled out the laser pistol. Turning the corner, he came face-to-face with a Gauss cannon.
"Friendly!"
"Whoa!"
The Gauss cannon lowered and Corporal Jackson Nichols grabbed Owen in a bear hug. Behind him, John Allen smiled wearily. Chen gave Owen a high five, and they laughed. Owen's face fell when he saw Lena, in John's powerful arms like a newborn baby.
"How is she?" John shook his head. Owen glanced at her. Her face was pale and sweaty, her teeth clenched. The stump that had once been her lower leg was wrapped in brown-red-stained bandages. Her Pulse Rifle was slung over John's shoulder along with his Pulse Rifle and his FANG.
"We need to get her to a proper medical facility." Ashley explained. Owen nodded, and his mind returned to the mystery of that docking bay.
"There's a discrepancy in Government Sector's database concerning Docking Bay 13. Sensors are showing a ship inside while the file is marking it as unoccupied. Could be the escape vessel for the top government officials and scientists. Plus Governor Menshikov mentioned that she had an 'escape vessel' waiting. That would almost certainly have a top-of-the-line infirmary."
"Sounds good." John agreed, "Frankly, I'm done with EarthGov's bullshit. And Amirsaleh here isn't going to last long."
They found a wheelchair inside an emergency supply closet, along with some heavy-duty painkillers. With Lena in not-so-much pain, they made their way down the hallway, Owen pushing Lena's wheelchair. There were the occasional Necromorphs, but the remnants of Squad Three had no trouble dispatching them. Frankly, they were pissed, and often blasted the Necromorphs with more firepower than required. Finally, they made their way to the airlock for Docking Bay 13. They sidestepped the bodies of Governor Olga Menshikov and her men. None mentioned the gunshot wounds to their faces.
"See? If this place was unoccupied, the airlock wouldn't even open." Owen said. The doors hissed open and they found themselves in a pristeen white hallway. The emblem on the wall read USM Israel.
"Corvette…Veritas-class. Crew of forty-seven, minimum seven for bridge operation in case of emergency." John said, observing a hologram of the vessel in a wall terminal "We might be able to get past that by slaving some of the crew stations together. Heavily armed for a ship her size. Ablative hull armor. Two long-range nuclear missiles."
"That'll do." They made their way to the infirmary, which was fully-stocked. It had a Surgeon Droid Mark IX, which they activated and the mech immediately began to tend to Lena's wounds.
The rest of them went to the bridge. It was split into two levels; a higher command platform where the commander would stand, and a lower area ringing the platform. There were five crew stations on the lower platform and two auxiliary stations on the higher platform. "Standard operating systems." Jackson said, "I think I can pilot this thing." He turned to see Owen staring off into space "What?"
"Those dead people back there…it looked like they were moving towards the airlock."
"Probably trying to get aboard this ship." Ashley commented "So what?"
"Well, whoever killed them did so from mid-to-far range, judging from the splatter patterns on the wall." Owen said, "Pretty good accuracy at that distance. Suggests that they had training. And why would they kill those people if they were also EarthGov Intelligence officers?" Ashley sighed and began tinkering with the comm system.
"I think that you're thinking about this too much…wait…" She put on the comm operator's headset and began moving the dials "I'm picking up something…"
"What is it?" John asked. Ashley held up her hand and continued fidgeting with the dial before pressing a few buttons. She frowned.
"Semper…fidelis…" Her eyes widened as the last words came through "…to the doody of the loo." It was a childish prank, painted over a toilet back onboard the Jerusalem, done by a disgruntled soldier assigned to janitorial duty after "inappropriate acts" (the exact details of which involved a prank gone wrong and Commander Benson missing her eyebrows for a month). However, Captain White had taken a liking to it and removed the wall panel on which the statement had been written. It was hung up in his office. It had been forgotten by most of the crew, except for a few, including White…
"Hello? Captain White? Is that you?" Ashley said into the microphone "Repeat, is that you? This is Corporal Ashley Chen." The screen in front of her blared to life, and Captain White appeared through the static.
"Chen? Allen? Haines? Nichols?"
"Aye, aye, sir!" Chen said, barely holding back her tears of relief. John sat down, his eyes wide and his expression a gaping 'wow'. Jackson laughed and gave Owen a high five.
"I thought you were dead…when the Bellerophon crashed into the station…never mind. There's something you all need to know."
"Sir, we know about the order for Base Contingency." White nodded somberly.
"Yes, but I didn't know the exact details of the order. Had I known it included all of you, I would never have sent you over there. But what's more important is that we're not alone. The USM Orpheus came searching for us, and while she's in a sorry state, her crew is putting her back together. We have an escape vessel, albeit there's a 65% chance she'll blow up mid-shock, according to Captain Wagner."
"That may not be necessary, sir." Owen interjected "We have a working vessel in our hands, and it's heavily armed. Transfer the crew of the Orpheus to here. We could use the extra hands. There are lots of guns and missiles onboard."
"You're going to need them."
"Expecting trouble, sir?"
"No…but we can't allow that station to remain intact." He sighed and then continued, "There are fragments of the Red Marker from Aegis VII aboard. As long as they exist, the outbreak will continue aboard the station." Owen gulped as his mind filled with dread. So that was what those shards were.
"Sir…there's also one on the planet." White's face drained of blood.
"Then we have a problem…if there is indeed a Marker on the planet, the infection will spread regardless if you destroy the shards or not."
"Wait…what if we damage the station enough that it gets pulled out of orbit?" Jackson suggested, "Kill two birds with one stone."
"Are you kidding?!" Ashley protested, "The planet's already unstable! If something the size of Perseus drops on it, the entire planet might fracture! The explosion-"
"Then we have to make sure we're nowhere near it when it goes nuclear." Owen said. He checked the ship's engines "Not that we should even be considering this course of action at this time. The ship isn't even fueled."
"What?"
"Someone cut the fuel lines in the middle of the fueling process."
"Well then, we'll just have to reattach them." John said "Chen, Haines: Come with me. Nichols, stay here and watch over Amirsaleh."
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