"It says...it says its SRT Tradewind. Its a Sol Republic cargo ship. I dont know, I dont know", Ryuki repeated to himself. It wasn't just that it was one of theirs. The Tradewind wasn't due to finish construction for another 3 years. It was marked, New Britain , built at the Alleghany shipyard, orbiting Aldebaran . But the Alleghany shipyard was still in transit from its mooring above Terrastria,Nova Sol , in the Gliese dual star system The ship, and consequently everything in it, couldn't exist. Everything to do with it hadn't yet existed. These tiny ,yet significant details, piled up like tiny stones in a glass jar, slowly filling up in his mind dire doubts and disturbing thoughts. And just like glass, tiny logical fractures propagated through his mind. All this time, all he thought he was fighting the darkness and the unknown, the vile bulbous monstrosities, the burrowesr and the quakes. He steeled himself for a confrontation with the disturbed images that floated in his head. Yet this impossible ship was what stopped him. A non existent port of origin. From an era that hadn't existed yet. Filled with elements and artifacts, no doubt aged in the decades this ship lay in the frozen wastelands. A futures death ,staring back at him. Frozen in time,in a past it shouldn't be in. His eyes watered ,tears from fears, rolling down a broken facade.

It was a matter of time before the others felt the tug of horrific curiosity pull them in. The sight of the captain seemingly lose all sense,his eyes darting as if an embolism had exploded in his brain. Their own fears played back to them, as each step they took rewound time in their minds eye to horrors they had already seen. And future horrors waiting, with each pensive step closer. Everyones exhausted thoughts led to exhaustive imaginative creations of the terrible unknown that had seemingly broke the captain.

They say it. The red inverted triangle with the anchor. The star field of Aldebaran inscribed in it, with a streaking white ball of fire traversing it. 2352, three years from now. The bolts and welds were older with rust and scars of conflict ,the paint chipped , showing its age was far more than what its commissioning date would allude to. Each dimple an impact from a micrometeorite or microprojectile. Each gash from a energy lash , each warped plate from the impact of burning plasma, all those battle scars from decades of service.

"What the frak is all that?" Barry mumbled. His fingers traced over the frosted surface, his gloveless hand perspiring onto the hull, the tiny drops of sweat leaving trails behind as the ice recondensed. Karin inspected the symbols and knew immediately why they were wrong. "This can't be possible ,theres no way" she whispered to herself. Before any of this happened, she saw Aleghany station , anchored at the L3 Lagrange point of Terrastria. She watched from the deck of the Unlimited Frontier ,a military cargo ship, she watched its new shipyard extensions installed. It couldn't have built up a ship like this so soon. It didn't as a matter of fact. She knew this ship hadn't even been built yet.

"This is just bull" Karin yelled. "Those stupid frakkers , what were they doing here. Why the frak is this thing here. They leave us behind and they're laughing all the way back to FleetCom. This is a joke, a frakkin stupid joke. They should have frakkin executed us. This aint funny!" she yelled louder. The shrill intonation pushed ajar all grip on formality and decorum. "I had enough of this slag. Im not gonna stand here like a chump, looking at this fake ship. Im gonna find those bastards and rearrange their faces" Reaper coughed , the rage in his voice so coarse that the words burned as he spoke.

What was there to do, Ryuki finally thought. His mind delved into a spiral , deep into the inky void of his subconscious. Those moments seemed to stretch forever but finally shattered upon the walls of his consciousness, releasing him. "Shut the frak up, everyone. Spouting like idiots is not going to solve our problem. This thing is here and there is no doubt about it. Once we find the access hatch, we will be going inside it. That is all. Do not waste your time bickering about impossibilities. We've been through enough to know nothing is impossible. From here on , this is a professional op. You understand?". A rhetorical question, yet the right response was silence. They all nodded their heads, forced back into sanity for at least a bit longer.

The flamethrowers bodies were composed primarily of an accelerant tank and an oversized underslung rifle body. It was a formidable weapon, conjuring firey sprites to melt away its target. Soldiers in the startrooper battalions often used them to burn out bunkers and tunnels. The flames were perfect for burning away oxygen, depriving all of breath. Today though, their targets were much less prone to agonizing screams.

"Side to side , aim for the the frost, dont bother with the thick ice. We're looking for a door about five meters by four meters, with an exterior hatch control. Keep your eyes open" Ryuki shouted. The walls melted , the drip of water turning into streams. Ice broke and fell like thin plate glass. Slowly the surface revealed its scars.

Those scars led them to the prize. A wide hatch, big enough to take a small army , two by two , into the hull. "Wheres the control panel?" someone yelled. There was no sign of one. The hatch was sealed from the other side.

"How the frak did anyone get in there? No controls to open, not even an over-ride. How the frak man?" Barry yelled. A dead end, so to speak. Time was running short , the quakes becoming more frequent, more violent. Their equipment lay open to the weather, the deep chill no doubt slowly destroying the inner workings like a slow infection.

A Sol Republic ship often has hatches designed to be opened from the inside. The situations where they need to be opened from the outside are rare. Security was the major concern, the hatches were built this way. But this wasn't a normal situation. The ship, buried in ice, for what looked to be many years , exposed to water and ice, was not built to live in the cold and wet depths.

"Get the microwelders, pierce the the frame of the hatch. We're going to to flood the seal with water", Ryuki was he doing, the rest wondered. Then a spark of a thought entered into Karin's mind. "We're going to freeze the water once it gets into the seal, and then break the hatch right out" she exclaimed. The others didn't seem to take this statement at face value, but prepared nonetheless. An order was an order, even if they couldn't understand.

Red hot tips of the welders slowly melted its way through. Small smoke trails wafted up from the holes bored into the hull's skin. One by one, they cut into the frame, until the hardened metal skin was peppered with them. Then the water came.

The flamethrowers melted the ceiling to create a waterfall upon the hatch. Water flowed into the frame, into the cracks in the seals and spread through it ,filling every crevice. Now to freeze it. Slabs of ice cut from the tunnel. Stacked atop each other like giant icecubes. Crushed ice was poured over it to cement it together. The wall of ice that once hindered them was now rebuilt, for another purpose.

Now it time would do its work. The cold seeped into the frame, turning the channels of water into icy veins. Water expanded to take the its solid state , straining the the frame. The incompressible fluid was undaunted , no technology could halt its strength. Cold fingers wormed their way into the water, the water turning to ice almost instantly. With no source of heat to keep the freezing air away , the ice grew into solid crystals rapidly. The first cracks came as the sound of whining metal. Then the frame buckled , the metal began to bulge with ice.

A thin hairline crack appeared at the edge of the hatch-frame. Icy crystals blossomed out like slivers of diamonds. Light refracted off them into a shower of tiny intense points as their flashlights illuminated the surface. Another hairline crack formed, this one bulging out from between the armored plates that surrounded the hatch. The bolts buckled and broken to bits , years of deep freeze making them too weak to withstand the expanding ice.

When the series of cracking pops pierced through the hatch, a spray of slush erupted from the seams. The hatch jolted a bit but it was still firmly in place. Ice continued to grow out like tendrils, the water still freezing over. Several pops , emanating from the other side of the door escaped through the cracks still forming in the hatch. The hatch lurched slightly. A sudden burst from the other side pushed the hatch out off its hinge. Ice shards burst out from the gaps in the frame until the hatch finally was forced open.

A warm wind flowed out with misty trails swirling out of the open hatch. Ryuki's visor fogged up with the hot air. No amount of rubbing could remove the haze. A few others swore at the wind haplessly.

After the fruitless insults against the uncaring wave of heated air , they peered into the hatch to find the deck lights were dimmed but still functional. They climbed in with their pack-rifles unfolded and armed. They kept their suit-lights on, hoping that the shadows would recoil enough to reveal the dark corners in which lurkers may hide.

The musty air was full of dust and floating debris. The lower gravity of the planetoid turned even bolts and screws into floating dust mites with some of the magnetized parts clumping together like white blood cells in the process of killing invaders. These balls of detritus were large enough to dent their suits but with so many of them floating about it made evading them more difficult.

Karin, while dodging larger bits floating past her, spotted the shadow of something ahead lying on the floor. She motioned to the others to stop and moved through the small crowd towards the artifact. The shadow shrunk as she closed in on it and slowly the light revealed the unmistakable shoe prints that headed deeper into the ship.

Ryuki knew it. The researchers had to have come through here. They must have sealed the hatch shut, he thought. "Lets pick up the pace and find these clowns" he said through the suit speaker. With no boogeymen in sight they all holstered their pack-rifles.

"How about we look for the cargo hatch first, so we can bring our valuable possessions in?" Barry asked. A good question Ryuki thought. It was true that they left behind very valuable tools. After encountering the corrupted mechs in the hangar, it would be best to bring in as much of their armor as possible, in case more showed up.

A dilemma was now before him. Split up to double the pace of the search, or stay together and not disappear silently into the shadows. "And just like in the movies, here we are, a dim corridor, and two objectives" Reaper spoke through his speaker. Barry nodded in agreement the best he could in his obtuse vitality suit.

"We are trained soldiers. And we have a limited amount of time before we all starve to death. So, we'll have to do exactly what you are worried we'll do. I hope you all trust yourselves enough to know how to handle an unknown situation" ,Ryuki spoke.

"This line is the threshold" he said while sweeping his feet across the ground in front of him. "Once we pass over this, we're behind enemy lines. Remember your training and we will all make it out of this alive. If you turn into sacks of blubbering adipose tissue, I will kick your asses back into order. Understood?" he yelled. His little motivation speech, though harsh , still held true to the soldiers. They were trained. They would survive.

As long as the shadows remained just darkened corners.