“Popkess, where are you?” Dollarhyde asked. “What exactly are these things?”
“Damned if I know, Dollarhyde. You probably can’t see it through the camera, but this room is huge and there’s maybe fifty of these blue things scattered about it.”
“Your feed is coming through stronger now. Did you guys do something to stop the interference?”
“No, that’s the weirdest thing,” Arizona chimed in. “Not only are all of our devices working perfectly fine again, but when we tried to scan these blue things, they picked up nothing. Not even anything in the background. A complete blank on all readouts.”
“Which means what, exactly?” Dollarhyde asked.
“I don’t know for sure,” Arizona said. “But my best guess is that these things are somehow responsible for our signals getting clearer. Or maybe they were the reason for the interference. Or maybe…”
Dollarhyde sighed. “Quit giving me maybes and give me a definite.”
“Okay, fine. This blue stuff is definitely maybe responsible for something. Or not.”
“Thanks a lot, Arizona, that was a big help,” Mingo said wryly.
“That’s me. Little Miss Helpful.”
While everyone else had been engaged in the banter, Marsden had been paying close attention to any detail he could see of the bubbles. Something caught his eye, and he spoke up. “Popkess, wait. Move your camera back just a little bit to that last bubble.”
“There’s nothing to see, Marsden,” Popkess said.
“Do what he says,” Dollarhyde said. She looked at Marsden with a raised eyebrow. “So? What did you think you saw?”
“It looked like there was a shadow on the bubble,” Marsden said.
Arizona came into the frame once Popkess had the camera aimed back at the bubble. “Marsden’s right,” Arizona said. “Except I don’t think it’s a shadow on the bubble. I think it’s a shadow in the bubble. There’s something inside here.” Arizona turned away out of the shot, but they could all still hear her. “There’s something inside all of them. I can’t see what, though.”
Popkess turned the camera back to his own face. “We definitely need to come back and take a better stock of this room, but I don’t think this is where we should be spending all of our time.”
“I agree,” Dollarhyde said. “Both teams should converge on that room for further study. But for now we still need you to keep heading to the back of the ship and catalog everything you see. Keep trying to find some kind of engine room and see what you can do about restoring power. Just watch your back. For as long as we don’t know what those blue things are, treat them like they’re potentially dangerous.”
“Hell, probably a good idea to treat everything in here like a potential danger,” Popkess said.
“Roger that,” Dollarhyde responded. “Keep going and remain in contact.”
The video feed from Popkess’s group clicked off.
“Okay then,” Dollarhyde said to the rest of Charlie team. “Conway, are you about finished with your examination of the body?”
“For now. We’re going to have to bag it and tag, though. There’s no way we’re not taking this thing back with us. The Science Corps would have our heads if we failed to get them some kind of sample of a new sentient alien race.”
“We can’t go hauling it around with us,” Dollarhyde said. “It’ll keep just fine here until we head on back. Alright everyone, form back up and move out. We’ve still got to find the br—”
All of their PDMs buzzed at the same time. Marsden grabbed his again, expecting it to light back up with another video feed from Delta team. Instead it was flashing red with a single message.
MARINE HEARTBEATS DETECTED ON PLANET: 45
“Oh hell,” Conway said. She quickly looked around at Charlie team like she was expecting to see that one of them had inexplicably dropped dead. Marsden did a visual count at the same time she did. Everyone was accounted for. There were still twenty-two people here.
The PDMs buzzed again, and the message changed.
MARINE HEART BEATS DETECTED ON PLANET: 44
And then again.
MARINE HEART BEATS DETECTED ON PLANET: 43
It was only then that the red message was replaced once more with the video feed. Instead of a shot of the bubbles, though, it was now a picture of Popkess’s face, panic-stricken and covered in blood.
“They’re everywhere!” he screamed. “They’re coming for—”
The video was abruptly replaced with static, and then cut off completely as the red message returned.
MARINE HEART BEATS DETECTED ON PLANET: 42
August 2, 2147 (Earth Calendar)
1828 Greenwich Mean Time
Location: Corridor of Unknown Alien Spacecraft, Bullfinch-2
Marine Heart Beats Detected on Planet: 41
Dollarhyde no longer bothered to watch as the number continued to drop. “Everyone, defensive formation and keep heading for the front of the ship.”
“Wait, what?” one of the marine’s yelled. “You can’t really expect us to go the opposite direction from them! Something’s killing them! We have to go find them.”
“And by the time we do find them,” Marsden said, “whatever did it will probably be finished with them and ready for us to provide it with a few fresh kills.”
“Marsden’s right,” Dollarhyde said. “All we know is that there is something deadly in that direction. And if we’re going to have any chance of helping any survivors, then we need to be alive and in a safe, defensible position first. So stop questioning my orders and move!”
Although there was a distinct franticness to their movements, all of Charlie team remained poised and ready as they raised their rifles against any possible threat that might come out of the darkness. With renewed caution and speed, they all continued down the corridor in search of some position that would be easy to defend if something came for them. While this was happening, Mingo continued to call out the heartbeat count as they went, finally stopping at thirty-nine.
“Whatever was happening back there, it seems like it might be over,” he said.
“Jesus,” Conway said softly. “I don’t know what that was, but something just killed seven highly experienced Recon Marines in less than two minutes.”
“We should try to reestablish communications with them,” Llewellyn said.
“Negative,” Dollarhyde responded. “Not only do we need to make sure that Charlie team is in a safe position first, but we don’t know the circumstances are for the remaining sixteen members of Delta team. If they’re in hiding and trying to remain quiet, any sound from us trying to talk to them might give them away. Once we’re in a good position we’ll wait several minutes and see if any of them reach out to us.”
They continued down the hall in a tight formation, passing a number of doors and side halls that often appeared to be there for no reason at all. They continued to let their equipment map the ship as they went, but that was no longer their number one priority. It was more a necessity of survival now: every nook and cranny could be the hidey-hole of some potential enemy, and they still had no clue what form that enemy might take.
“Sensors seem to indicate that the hall leads onto a very large room ahead,” Mingo said. “It could be the bridge or control room.”
“Or it could be their version of the bathroom, for all we know,” Dollaryhyde said. “Let’s get our asses in there and take stock of it. If it’s defensible, that’s where we set up shop. If not, then we have to find something else.”
As they came into the room, Marsden whistled. “Okay, bet time. I’m putting fifty scripunits on this being the bridge.”
“Okay, new order,” Dollarhyde said to the whole group. “Any idiot who bets against Marsden on anything at all gets extra cleaning duties back on the ship right along with Bayne. The last thing I need right now is for anyone to be too worried about the status of their bank accounts while we’re fighting for our lives.”
Marsde
n shook his head. “You’re no fun.”
The room they had come into had much taller ceilings than anything else they had seen in the ship thus far, and one wall was mostly covered in a flat, jelly-like surface. Two sets of awkwardly placed stairs led up to a raised dais, where a number of stools designed to support distinctly inhuman anatomy were placed alongside bulging, organic mounds full of depressions and holes. Looking around, Marsden saw that there was a second entrance into the room, but those two doors seemed to be the only ways in or out.
“This actually looks perfect,” Dollarhyde said. “Mingo and Chunda, scan the room for anything that might be a threat. Life signs, strange power readings, anything at all. I don’t want to get blindsided just because we’re unfamiliar with how these aliens think.”
Even being as thorough as possible, Mingo and Chunda reported in only a few minutes that the entire area seemed to be clean of threats. There was another exoskeleton body hunched over the central stool on the dais, though, and from its size compared to the other one, Marsden suspected that this one had been the leader or captain of the ship. The alien captain looked like he had suffered the same fate as the one they’d found in the hall, with several holes evident in the exoskeleton where something had eaten through to get at whatever soft flesh might have been underneath. Conway did note, however, that there seemed to be fewer holes, although she couldn’t say for certain what that meant.
“Okay then, this is where we’re setting up until we find out what happened to Delta team,” Dollarhyde said. “Axel and Zhou, you two get to work setting up traps at those two doors that we can set off if something other than our own people come through them. Marsden and Mingo, those weird mound things might be controls or something. See what you can figure out about them. Conway, get to work analyzing any data that came through the PDMs regarding what happened to Delta team. Everyone else, we’re taking advantage of that raised dais to get a get some height on whatever may come for us. Set up in a defensive posture, concentrating any possible fire on the two doors and the two sets of stairs as choke points. I want anything non-human that comes through those doors to be Swiss cheesed with bullets before it gets anywhere near us.”
Marsden and Mingo immediately set about examining the strange mounds near the stools. They didn’t look anything at all like controls as humans would understand them, but just like the depressions that had been used to open the main door, these things looked like they had similarities to Stenani design. As Marsden took a knee to get a closer look at them, Conway announced the information that had come through the PDMs.
“The PDMs have lost life signs for Popkess, L’Wongo, Schiltz, Xavier, Kransky, Murdock, and Virgo.”
Marsden did his best not to be distracted by this news. All Recon Marines were comrades and would fight and die for each other, but actual friendships were discouraged for exactly this reason. They could die at any instant, and that would provide a distraction to anyone who’d become too close to them. And distractions would only lead to more deaths. Still, there were several among those names that Marsden had particularly liked, and although none of them were friends, he’d been through a lot with them.
The time to mourn them was later, though. For now he needed to concentrate on the task at hand.
“They’re also showing weakened life signs from Murakame, Graznow, and Lochner. Jesus, and those are just the injuries significant enough to make an impact on their heartbeats and brain waves. Whatever hit them really chewed them up.”
“Hmmm,” Dollarhyde mumbled to herself. “We need to get in contact with them and know what happened, but don’t send anything that will make a noise and possibly give away their position. Send a request for information by text, and make sure it’s properly coded for security. Don’t make any assumptions about who or what the enemy might be until we have further information.”
“Got it,” Conway said. While she went about this task, Mingo came over to join Marsden.
“Make anything of it?” Mingo asked him.
“Probably just as much as you do,” Marsden said. “Similar to Stenani design but different. Given that the front door required two separate people at opposite ends to open it, we should be aware that a similar dynamic might be needed here to operate any of this. What’s this, though?” Marsden asked, indicating some markings that swirled in and around the depressions with no apparent rhyme or reason.
Mingo pulled out his PDM and used it to scan the markings. “Instructions or labels on how to use all this, hopefully. We’ll see what my translating software can do with it. Given that it does have a lot in common with Stenani, that should make the translation faster. If it needed to translate a brand new alien language completely from scratch, that would take much longer.”
All of their PDMs buzzed with an incoming video feed. Dollarhyde immediately took charge of the conversation. “Delta team, do you read? Tell us what’s going on.”
Arizona’s face appeared on their screens. Her helmet was now missing, and there was a massive, jagged scratch down her cheek along with blood leaking out from her nose. Her eyes were wide and she was very obviously scared, but her tone remained cool and even as she talked. “We didn’t see any of them at first. They just blended in with the walls, and even when we did see them they seemed too small to be a threat.”
Most of the marines on Charlie team looked around at each other. Marsden couldn’t read minds, but he assumed they were remembering those same words coming from Dollarhyde when they’d found the first alien body.
“Tell us what you’re talking about,” Dollarhyde said. “And give us a status update on your team. All we know is what your life sign readings are through the PDMs.”
“Then I’m sure you’ve already seen that Popkess is dead,” Arizona said. “The rest of us found a room that seems to have an airtight door, but we’re still not sure if they might use any kind of service tunnels or vents to get in, so we’re remaining on high alert. Graznow lost a leg, and she doesn’t look like she’s going to make it. Jesus, Dollarhyde. Those things just swarmed up her leg and then, well, it was just gone except for the skeleton. We had to chop that part off before they could swarm up her any farther.”
“What do you mean?” Dollarhyde asked. “Give us better details so we know what we’re up against.”
“Shiltz found a spot that looked like it might have once had one of those blue bubbles, except now the bubble was completely gone. All around it there were little protrusions coming out of the wall and floor, like those barnacle things you used to see on sailing ships back on Earth. They didn’t do anything until Schiltz got closer. It was like, I don’t know, like they sensed his presence and it woke them up.”
Arizona stopped to take a breath and run a hand through her hair. “They’re like insects, or maybe crabs, some kind of crustaceans. Each one’s probably about as wide as the length of my thumb, but there were hundreds of them. And they didn’t move like they were separate creatures. It was like they had a hive mind. They all picked a target and just went for it. Their size made it hard to shoot them, but I think maybe we were able to take out a third of them before we locked ourselves in here.”
All the PDMs flashed red to indicate another lost marine.
“Graznow?” Dollarhyde asked.
Arizona nodded grimly. “Graznow. We’re doing our best to tend to the injuries we have, but Lochner was our medic. She had the most field medicine knowledge of our group.”
“Sit tight,” Dollarhyde said. “Make sure you transmit all your mapping data to us. Once I’m positive that everyone in my own team is secure, I’ll be sending—”
“Dollarhyde!” Mossier said. “I’ve got multiple moving targets coming from that direction.” He indicated the door that they hadn’t yet gone through. “Lots of them. And they’re small.”
“We’ll have to get back to you, Arizona,” Dollarhyde said. “It looks like your crab creatures have found another food source—us.”
August 2, 2147 (Earth Calendar
)
1840 Greenwich Mean Time
Location: Alien Spacecraft Command Room, Bullfinch-2
Marine Heartbeats Detected on Planet: 40
“Mossier, I want to know exactly how many there are, now!” Dollarhyde yelled. “Axel, Zhou, you better have something set up!”
“I’ve got several thermite cords on a trigger,” Axel said, holding up a remote detonator in her hand. “It’ll flash fry anything that’s too close when it goes off, but if there’s too many of them spread out over too large a space, there’s no way it will get all of them.”
“I can’t get an exact count on how many are coming,” Mossier said. “They’re too small and there’s too many. The scanners are having trouble separating them. There’s at least a hundred and fifty, but the actual number is probably a hell of a lot more.”
“Everyone, get in position!” Dollarhyde said. “Remember that the choke points are the door and the two sets of stairs. Have knives and melee weapons ready in case any of them get up the stairs and into our ranks. Ranged weapons will be useless trying to get one of those things off your fellow marines.”
Marsden and Mingo started for a place on the firing line with all the other Recon Marines, but Dollarhyde waived them off. “Not you two. Get back to those controls. If this ship has some kind of defense system we can use to help us, I want it up and running and on our side, and I want it done five minutes ago. Got it?”
“Affirmative!” Marsden and Mingo said at the same time. As much as Marsden wanted to be on the line doing his part to keep the invading swarm from making a meal of his teammates, he had to acknowledge that Dollarhyde was right. Whatever these things were, however they got here, there had to be something inside the ship that they could use to defend against the crab swarm. Axel’s thermite cords would be the most effective way to neutralize a large number of small enemies, but anything that got past that would likely just as easily be able to dodge the wild firing bullets from their MH-56s. There had to be another way.
Recon Marines Page 3