Morning! Damn. I cried so much last night. XD SO... MUCH! Stupid story.

Dead and Lifeless: Martyr

He bounced in place, unable to contain himself. He was equal parts worried and excited. He'd been training for 5 months for the special mission. He still couldn't believe he'd been chosen! But he was top in his class and he'd been adamant and persistent. He had to go. He had to find out what had happened. They all feared the worst, but he owed it to his family to find out what had happened.

"Gallagher!" The name was snapped loudly across the small, overcrowded ship.

He stopped and hunched down slightly, like a kid being caught trying to steal a cookie from the cookie jar. Then he straightened up and spun around. He lifted his hand in a salute. "Yes, sir! Sorry Colonel Pratt."

"Stop bouncing!" The man before him snapped. "Act like you're a grown up soldier and not fresh out of the academy."

His mouth dropped opened. But he quickly shut it. He was excited. He couldn't help it! It was his first time off the planet! Plus the over whelming need to find out about his brother. It had been months since all communications had been lost. But the Colonel was right. He needed to rein it in.

"Ian."

Ian turned and smiled as the other two members of his squad waved at him. He hurried over to them, glad for the distraction away from the Colonel. "Hey." Caleb and Trevor, they'd been training for the last 5 months as well. They'd been training as a team and they worked well together.

Colonel Pratt continued to glare around the room at the gathered people. "Okay! Listen up!" There were 45 of them in total, all dressed in identical white armored suits. 10 teams of 3, to be sent to different parts of the ship, looking for any signs of life. 1 team of 5 to seek out the control room and navigate from there, trying to restore what they could. And the remaining 10 were to stay on their own ship and scan from there. "We've confirmed that there's no commutation from the S. Selemahs Excavating ship. Our scans are picking up signs of something, but we cannot confirm, from here, what those signs may be."

A few murmurs ran through the crowd.

Pratt lifted his hands. "Settle down. Alpha team will start in control. Bravo team will remain on the ship. Now, the scouting teams..." He ran through them quickly until he got to Ian's squad. "Foxtrot, headed by Gallagher..." Pratt lifted his eyes to glare at the team. "You guys are heading to the Hydroponic deck."

Caleb let out an audible groan and earn himself a glare as well. He quickly dropped his gaze. "Sorry, sir."

The Colonel finished his briefing as their ship finished docking. Then he quickly pushed through the crowd and gathered his own team. They would be the first through the doors. He paused and turned back around. "We lost communications with the ship during their last known dig, 305 days ago. We've heard nothing since then. Keep your eyes and ears open, keep your wits about you. You see anything strange, you radio immediately. Got it?"

A chorus of "Yes, sir!" and nods filled the room.

"Good." Pratt said, turning back around. "Helmets up, guns out. Fall out."

All the teams started popping their helmets up and pulling out their guns. The Alpha team started forward, down the ramp first. The other teams exited the ship slowly, stepping out into the hanger. It looked like a normal hanger. There were a few small ships docked around. Pratt signaled for the other teams to stop as his team headed over to the control panels. Twenty minutes later, they'd hacked inside the ship and managed to get inside the tram station. Another twenty minutes and they were working on getting the tram station up and running.

Colonel Pratt collapsed his helmet and shook his head. "Can't see for shit in these things." He mumbled out. "Air's fine." He said. "Still producing oxygen."

A few of the others did the same. Ian and his team included. Ian agreed, the RIG's could be stifling. But he knew how important they were. He remembered his training. Resource Integration Gear, RIG, is an integrated health management and strength augmentation system that assists it's host in previously impossible and dangerous environments. It was more than just a full-body armored suit. It monitored their vitals and relayed information back to their ship. They also had holographic projectors installed in the wrists that created two-dimensional displays. But yeah, it wasn't the most comfortable.

Ian glanced around the room as they waited. They hadn't seen or heard anything. It was eerily quiet and just plain weird. He spied a large map of the ship on a wall. He stepped closer, his squad members right behind him. He touched the wall where the hanger was located. It actually wasn't far from the Hydroponics deck. He lifted his wrist, brought up his display, and snapped a quick picture of it. He turned and waved. "Colonel Pratt." He called out.

The Colonel turned towards him. "Yeah, Gallagher?"

Ian pointed at the map. "This is different than the map we were given."

The Colonel stepped closer. He frowned. "It is. Hmm."

"Hydroponics is right here." Ian said, pointing at the decks below them. "Looks like just down this hall and down a couple of decks. We don't need a tram for that. We can walk."

Pratt nodded his head and waved him off as he stepped closer to the map. "Everything is in the wrong spots... control isn't here..." He touched the map with his fingers and then drug it across. "It's here. How is our Intel so fucked?"

"Sir?" Ian prompted after a moment.

Pratt glanced back at him and blinked for a moment. "Yeah, sure. Uh... dismissed. Radio if you find anything." He turned back to the map and waved the rest of his team over to inspect it.

Ian turned back to his squad and smiled. The three of them quickly headed over to the stairwell and headed down. Ian walked in front, holding his pulse rifle out in front of him as he scanned the area. Trevor was a step behind, holding out wrist display and using it to scan everything, taking measurements and pictures. Caleb brought up the rear, his rifle pointed behind them as he scanned the area they'd just walked down. But so far, nothing. No signs of anything. Just a normal hallway. It was weird. They reached the end of the hall and headed down again, to the next deck down. And it was still just as quiet.

And then it wasn't quiet. Caleb let out a groan as he shouldered his rifle. "This is bullshit." He said, breathing out a loud sigh.

Ian paused, lowering his rifle, and turned. "What is?"

Caleb glared at him a moment. "Hydroponics!" The man snapped. "Fucking sending us to Hydroponics. It's bullshit."

Ian shrugged. "What does it matter what deck we get sent to?"

"Because anything is better than fucking plants!" Caleb snapped.

Trevor glanced back at Caleb for a moment. "Dude, you shouldn't be fucking plants." He said with a straight face. Then he walked around Ian and started down the steps again.

Ian let out a laugh and Caleb rolled his eyes. "I know." Ian said, reaching back to pat his friend on the shoulder. "I get it. It's not the glamorous part of the ship. But hey, at least we aren't left on the docking team."

Caleb shrugged. "Guess so."

"Okay." Trevor called from the bottom of the steps. "If you two ladies are done, we... should... holy shit!"

Ian lifted his gun and sprinted down the steps without a second thought. He jumped in front of Trevor, his gun up. But there didn't seem to be any immediate damage. He shifted and scanned the long hall in front of them again. He couldn't see too far. It was dark. "Light." He said and a beam of light lit up the space from his display. "Caleb?" He asked, not taking his eyes off the hall.

"Nothing." Caleb said from behind them.

"Guns down, boys." Trevor said, stepping around Ian again. "I was talking about the walls and floor."

Ian dropped his gaze and looked down. Thin red vines stretched across the whole floor. He glanced at the walls farther down the hall, angling his lights to light up the vines and leaves. "Huh." Ian glanced down at the floor again. Then he bent down, frowning. "What is it?" He asked, reaching out to touch it with his gloved hand.

"No clue." Trevor said. He knelt down beside Ian and pulled off a small leaf to run through his scanner. "Hmm." He mused, standing back up. "It's organic. But unknown."

"Poisonous?" Ian asked.

Trevor tilted his head to the side. "Doesn't seem so. But I wouldn't eat it."

Ian smiled and let out a laugh as he stood back up and shouldered his rifle for the moment. "That's just what I was planning on doing."