On board Lucy
D'Avin
The moment they boarded, Lucy kicked into high gear to leave orbit of the station. D'Avin was impressed with Johnny's piloting skills. Though it wasn't a clean escape, the ship sustaining multiple damages - enough sparks to make D'Avin worried - at least they were out of there. His kid brother had skills he wasn't even aware of.
"Hey Johnny, good stuff!" he said over the com.
There wasn't, however, a response. Only static returned. D'Avin didn't take it to heart since it could have been all that crazy interference from the station that could have broken the tech. Besides, Johnny was probably busy pissed at Lucy getting damaged was fixing the ship like a mad little monkey. D'Avin would have to head to bridge afterwards, right after making sure Dutch was taken care of.
While the wound hadn't looked so bad earlier, it was in fact much worse than either of them had thought it was. The scarback though seemed to know what he was doing, already having pulled out a number of tools needed for sulturing.
They spent for the next long while trying to stablize Dutch, helping was Lucy's reports on her vitals.
All the while they were patching Dutch up, however, D'Avin noticed how pale Alvis was. The side wound he had was looking pretty bad, having bled through the makeshift bandage he had wrapped around it.
Lucy indicated that Alvis should take care of it. He merely nodded.
D'Avin stared at the injured and unconsious sleeping form of Dutch and felt the anger rise in him.
What the hells was wrong with those people? Why did they attack us?
But the worse of it was they had gone through all that craziness for nothing.
"Nothing.." muttered D'Avin aloud.
"Not for nothing," said Alvis, his voice sounding scratchy. He pulled out from his side bag a cube like object. "Picked this up while we were trapped in that cargo bay. Used a scanner from a dead guy to get it. We went through hell to get this thing. Damned well make sure we get something in return. Better be worth it."
D'Avin agreed. It had better be worth it.
"How are you holding up?" he asked, looking at the scarback.
Alvis paused for a moment. "As good as it gets."
D'Avin accepted that. Wasn't much he could add. "Good. I'm going to check on Johnny, see if he can boost Lucy's speed. Maybe get some insight on what the hells we stepped into on there. See if he managed to download some logs for us."
Alvis nodded and D'Avin made his way to the bridge of the ship.
"Johnny. What the hells happened down there?" he called out as he entered.
There was no response, only the low hum of Lucy's systems in the background.
"Johnny?"
D'Avin looked around the bridge. There was no sign of his younger brother.
"Shit Johnny, stop tinkering with Lucy for a minute, you can fix her later after you check Dutch. She's been seriously injured..." Still silence.
Looking around at the empty bridge, D'Avin suddenly felt a strange cold fear grip him.
Johnny wasn't on board.
Lucy lied to them. She had been compromised on Aldross.
"Lucy. Where is Johnny?"
"John Jacobis is not onboard."
D'Avin's heart stopped.
"Lucy. You said he wasn't on the space station. So he must have been onboard here." The ship's A.I. didn't answer.
"Where the hell is my brother?!" He didn't even realize it, but his voice had risen decibels.
"We left him behind? On the station, is that you're telling me?"
Silence.
"Lucy! Answer me!"
"I did not lie. I said John Jacobis is no longer with us on board the Aldross station."
No. He did not want to hear this. But he had to ask it. He had to.
"What the hell Lucy. Where is he?"
In response, Lucy initiated a feed on the main screen for what seemed to show the control centre of the Aldross science station. What D'Avin saw chilled him to the bone.
1 hour ago - Aldross Science Station
- Control Room -
Johnny Jacobis
Johnny stood inside the control room, that Lorey and Lyaff led him to; sheer awe was on his face. He couldn't stop himself from feeling his inner geekiness scream out.
The facility was top notch, the computing power on the computers would make tech lovers drool like a fool. This was the Utopia of tech world. State of the art A.I., latest gadgets and VR equipment from the quad. It was a dream place to be. Maybe the next time he took time off, he'd come visit this place instead.
Johnny worked on the control console to check on the wave signals that the scientist Lorey's was telling him about. She was right, there was something off about it. And while fixing it, Johnny was finding himself impressed with the Aldross's mainframe system. There were subroutines that were so advanced that just seeing them was a sight to behold. Johnny had to make a note of them, make sure that he could use them for Lucy. It'll be like brainfood for her. He wasn't sure, though, how much Dutch would love him after he implemented it, but Lucy would be pleased with the upgrade. He'd hear it later from Dutch, Johnny was sure of it.
Fifteen minutes in, Johnny started to feel something was off. Something in his gut screamed danger. He looked up several times at the petite scientist who seemed focus in her work and then to Lyaff who seemed to be bored standing to one side. Nothing was out of the ordinary. Everyone was acting normal, nice and calm.
The com signal was on and off, that was the only thing that bothered Johnny. But Elros had explained it had to do with the waves that the Aldross gave off. Yet it wasn't that which bothered Johnny, but it was just the interval of the snippet of conversations that the team or Lucy would respond to him. It seemed too fixed. There was a period of silence, and then something would come through the feed, though it seemed so perfectly spaced. Unnatural.
Because of that, Johnny couldn't help but run a sub diagnostic within their Aldross system. Johnny hoped that the scientist didn't take offense to Johnny's paranoia if they ever found out. It would most certainly show on their station's logs.
Not expecting anything from the diagnostic, Johnny was surprised when something did return; and it was alarming. There was a deliberate blocking signal being used. Subroutines that were used to give a mirage of base interference waves.
These people were not friendlies. His team was in danger. Johnny reacted quickly, adding in some backdoor code and attempted to connect Lucy to the Adross mainframe.
Johnny managed to get a few commands in before the petite woman scientist Lorey realized it. Instantly, she called out to Lyaff and the tall man sprang into action.
There was purpose in his eyes as he drew out from his boot to what looked like a very long dagger.
Johnny wasn't going to go down without a fight either, he went immediately for his gun on his holster, and fired it, not a killshot, but it would incapacitate him at least until Johnny could figure out what was going on.
To his surprise, no shot fired from his blaster. His gun simply let out loud whine with no discharge. Shit, was the first thought that came from Johnny's mind. What had happened?
"All charged weapons are inoperable in this control room." said Lyaff, smirking as he swiped his dagger at Johnny. Johnny made a dodge from Lyaff's attack, barely able to as the blade grazed his front, cutting a line straight through.
That dagger was well maintained, thought Johnny.
Lyaff was taking his time with him, Johnny could see that. The man knew that Johnny wasn't a strong fighter, maybe great with aiming his blaster, but not bloody hand-to-hand combat.
In the dance with Lyaff, however, Johnny managed to finally unblock the com link to his team. Lucy's was still on a feedback loop. Which meant whatever Johnny told it, it may still be in queue or simply not even sent at all. Maybe the whole time, it was the A.I. responding to Johnny and not Lucy. Lucy would be mad if it found out Johnny took another A.I. for her. She'd be so pissed.
What a time to be worried about an A.I. being mad at you, thought Johnny as he wiped cold sweat from his forehead.
Static broke through the com and finally, Johnny could hear words, words of extreme urgency come through.
"Johnny?! Johnny, do you copy? We need help. Please, Johnny, do you copy?" The pleading voice of Dutch. Desperation laced in her voice. Shots were fired. There was shouting, someone was down.
"Johnny!"
"Johnny?"
"Watch out!" Alvis.
"Back here!" D'Avin.
There was static again.
Fear gripped Johnny. How long had they been calling him? How had he not known? Because he was so preoccupied with his gadgets. He should have been paying attention. He failed in watching his team's back.
Johnny couldn't activate the com again. He had to move to the farside of the control room, to the side where only the lower level operations were operated. Lyaff wasn't just a man of brawn. He was smart. He had been maneuvering it so that Johnny would be trapped there, with no access to do anything.
Lorey, the petite scientist stood at the side, expressionless.
Johnny had a small hope that maybe she could do something. Perhaps change her mind and get Lyaff to stop trying to kill him and save the rest of his team.
"Lorey. Please. I don't know why you guys are doing this, but we're not here to steal anything from this station, if that's what you guys think we are. We're killjoys, were here for a warrant. We have shown this to Elros. Please. We don't have any quarrel with you."
Lorey looked at Johnny, and shook her head slowly. "You may have no quarrel with us, but we do with you. You are a company of killers. Murderers. The scarback that caused the death of thousands on Old Town, destroying the hopes of millions of people who worked 7 generations on the God forsaken moon so that they could have hope. Hope on Leith for their children. Your scarback, he was the cause of the destruction of Old Town. And you support him, you aid him in his destruction."
"My family were in that Town when it was bombed. My husband and my children. They are dead because of the lot of you," she finished.
"No, no, you have it all wrong." Johnny knew it. While not all of Old Town reacted the same way, there were families that grieved. Those that went to Royale were those that of a different mindset, they couldn't care less, so long as they had food and booze. There were, however, the other side, those who had hopes, had families. They were affected. And the propaganda that the Company spread out to shift the blame onto the scarbacks, some believed in it, while others called out on its bullsh*t. Clearly these people on this science station believed in the former.
"I'm sorry about your family, I really am," started Johnny, his hands held up in a defensive position as he looked pleadingly at her," but you have to know, the scarbacks, they had nothing to do with the bombing of Old Town. It was a plan that was made by the Nine and the Company. They wanted to break the 7 generation agreement, Lorey. Please, you have to listen to me."
As Johnny tried to convince Lorey of their innocence with what happened with the bombing of Old Town, he was aware of the dangerous space that was closing between him and the security guard Lyaff.
The tall pale man was far too close for comfort, but there was really nowhere Johnny could go, especially if he was trying to avoid the pointed tip of the man's dagger.
The woman looked at Johnny, her eyes firey. His words weren't reaching her at all, he realized.
"I would say that I am sorry that you have to die, but I am not." She stated frankly. "So many lives have been lost because of the scarback. By harbouring him, you are no different than the murderer; sheltering him from his crimes."
"You protect the man who destroyed generations of hard work," said Lorey, her face now twisting into one that was filled with both grief and bitterness. There were unshed tears that burned in her eyes as she spoke. "You live and breath while loved ones are lost, buried and forgotten."
Johnny really didn't want to die, especially for something they had been framed for.
"Like I said, I am very sorry for your loss. But are you sure they are gone? Maybe they survived? Communication into Old Town is difficult, they could still be alive, maybe -"
"I am an engineer," she snapped at Johnny. "I have my ways to log into their systems. THEY ARE GONE."
At the end of her statement was when Lyaff decided to make his move.
Lyaff lunged at him. Johnny dodged. But he didn't have much room or space to maneuver. Nor anything to defend himself from the man.
Think like Dutch, thought Johnny. Gods. He wished he could. Lyaff swiped at him again, this time it met flesh. Johnny could feel a burning on his side. Lyaff didn't stop there. He slammed his fist into the same injured side and Johnny went down to the ground.
Blinking the stars from his eyes for a moment, Johnny did all that he could to block what Lyaff intended, but he stood no chance.
Lyaff closed in and Johnny felt the bite of the cold blade. The man buried the dagger to the hilt into Johnny's abdomen.
God. It hurt. It hurt so much. In the back of Johnny's head, he couldn't help but have the complaint pop up in his head, Really? Knife through the abdomen, again?
Lyaff twisted the long blade once before yanking it out cruelly.
"Lyaff, just finish him off," said Lorey, turning her back, ready to leave the control room.
"No. He doesn't get to die so easily. People of Old town didn't all die from bombing. There are those who starved to death. Bled to death under rubble of fallen stones from buildings. He's getting a taste of what they felt."
"Fine. Let's go to the bridge's control room. I want to see if I can download the databanks from their ship's A.I. before we destroy it."
Lyaff nodded. And gave Johnny a good hard kick on the side for good measure.
"Sir, it has been done. Heading out," said Lyaff over on his com.
Johnny, in the meantime, gripped with all his might to consciousness. Lucy. Damn it to hell if they dared to lay a hand on her! And his team. Gods. Dutch. D'Avin. Alvis. They needed him.
He lay there unmoving for what seemed like hours, but only minutes had passed.
His team needed him. Dutch. D'Avin. Alvis. Lucy. They needed him. With strength he didn't know he had, he began to crawl towards to higher operative section of the console, all the way on the other side of the room. Damn it. No luck at all. As Johnny crawled his way to the console, he left behind a trail of blood.
Finally, he reached it. With all the reserved energy he had in him, he pulled himself upright, leaning heavily against the console. Blood stained against the hard surface of the controls, but Johnny didn't pay heed to it.
He had to re-establish the com signal.
Tapping on multiple keys like a mad man with ideas he didn't even know he had, he was able to break through Aldross's lock code and reactivate the com signal again with his team.
"Johnny?"
"Johnny!"
"D'Av?" he said weakly.
"Johnny! Get us out of here. The cargo bay, they've locked all the exits, Johnny! Do you copy?" Sounds of shots fired cracked through the com link. "Johnny!" It was D'Avin. There was a cry in the background, "Dutch!" Alvis's voice was worried. "Dutch, stay awake."
Onboard Lucy
D'Avin
D'Avin wanted to look away. He felt deep well of anxiety as he watched on the viewscreen his little brother while bleeding out, work on getting the doors open for them. D'Avin had felt a temporary relief when Johnny managed it, and had asked Lucy for an escape route, but then that was taken away when an blaring alarm suddenly went off.
The Aldross had discovered the breach, and had sent out an alert signal for the crew of Aldross.
Lyaff and the science officer, Lorey's face suddenly appeared on the outside of the control centre's doors.
There was a long moment of struggle for the bastard's in getting the doors open, but they managed it. D'Avin watched in horror as Lyaff, the f*cking bastard, re-enter the control room and stab his brother. Johnny had struggled at first, but the man was relentless. He repeatedly stabbed him until the life left his brother's eyes.
The man took pleasure in the murder. Calling it justice. For each stab, he named those of his loved ones that had died on the Old Town bombing. When he was done, Johnny's body was still, around him was a pool of blood.
Lyaff, in fact would have kept stabbing, had not the petite scientist told him to stop. In a nonchalant tone, she said that the blood would stain the floors if they didn't clean it up now. She ordered Lyaff to get a disposal crew to do the removal.
Lyaff stepped back and wiped his bloodstained hands on his uniform. Lorey had looked at him then, making a face, but saying nothing. She returned to madly tapping on keys on the console, cursing Johnny every few minutes.
When there was rumble on the station, she slammed her fists angrily on the console. "Bastard!" And she went over and kicked at Johnny's still body. Lyaff stopped her after her fourth or fifth kick, saying that she was staining her officer shoes.
D'Avin wanted to smile in victory that Johnny had pissed off that b*tch, but he couldn't. Not seeing his lifeless body lying prone there, on the cold floor of the Aldross control room. In fact, D'Avin had to control himself not to leap into the viewscreen and punch the woman's face in.
But already the feed was going staticy and then it eventually blinked out. Lucy must have left orbit, cutting off the rest of the feed.
D'Avin stared at the blank screen, which now had listed a playlist of other logs. D'Avin didn't need to see himself running through the corridors, cursing at Johnny to hurry and get them off the station. All the while he had been doing that, Johnny had been dying.
The lasting image was Lyaff's face as he took pleasure killing his brother.
He'd been a soldier. He'd seen horrible things. But this. This was cold hearted bloody brutality. Soldier to soldier, it was expected. But this was something else. This was a soldier killing a civilian with enjoyment. D'Avin wanted to kill Lyaff. Rip him to pieces. Put as many stab wounds as he put in his baby brother. Johnny. God. Johnny. He died alone on the space station. In the hands of a monster. Those f*ckers.
D'Avin drew his hands into fists.
"Lucy. Why. Why did you lie to us?" He cried out in anguish at the ship's A.I.
"It was John's last wish. Protocol Jacobis 2 7 R. Johnny installed the subroutine for me in case of emergency."
"We could have saved him. We could have.. We could have done something."
Lucy didn't reply, leaving only the low hum of the ship as his answer.
Tears blurred D'Avin's vision.
The feed on the view screen seemed to be looping again. D'Avin didn't have the energy to turn it off. Instead, he left the bridge and headed towards the sickbay where he had left the critically wounded Dutch.
When D'Avin reached the sickbay, he hadn't been expecting to see what he did.
Alvis was on the ground, still.
Shit. D'Avin ran to his side and checked for the man's pulse.
He was gone. How? How had that happened?
Dutch. D'Avin went to check on her immediately.
Her pulse was weak. Barely there. This was a f*cking nightmare.
"Damnit!" He swore aloud.
"Lucy. Lucy we need to hurry to get to a medical facility. Now!"
"The nearest facility is 3 hours away."
"Dutch is hurt, she's dying. Alvis is dead." Johnny's dead too. But he couldn't bring himself to say it aloud. "Boost your speed now, Lucy. Do whatever you can to get us closer to something that will help Dutch.
"Acknowledged D'Avin. However, within the time frame, I cannot reach a proper facility that will be able to treat Dutch's wound."
"Damn it, Lucy. Damn it!" D'Avin was breaking down. This was not happening.
"Lucy. Please. Tell me something that will help. Help me get my team back. Johnny. Dutch. Alvis."
There was a pause.
"I will attempt to help, D'Avin." she said, "I will however need your assistance."
Suddenly, the cube that Alvis had picked up from the space station started both glow and levitate.
What the hell? Thought D'Avin as he got up from Dutch's side and moved closer to the levitating cube.
And then it shot out a beam of blue light onto D'Avin, so quickly, he couldn't even get it out of the way.
D'Avin suddenly felt like he was floating. It felt like he was somewhere else. The light around him was so bright, it burned his eyes. His head spun. He could hear sounds, however. Dutch. Alvis. Johnny. Gods. Johnny. An image of his body, bloody and still on the control room floor. His baby brother. Murdered. The light around him continued to be magnified.
Suddenly the light faded and then blinked away. He felt light headed. What. Where...
"My name is Elros, welcome to Aldross Lab," said a stocky man with a big grin on his face.
What the hells was going on? Thought D'Avin as he stared at the man.