In the next few moments I did what might have been either the most sel fish or the most generous thing I have ever done in my life. In my medix kit I had grabbed enough painkiller to overdose on. For a soldier it was a last resort. It was better to die in peace then die in agony. With Hayden’s mother watching I loaded it into a syringe. She grabbed my wrist with what little strength she had, tears rolling down her eye as I stuck the needle inside her vein. She didn't object. I watched as she drifted in the next minute her life flashing before her eyes. I felt like I was there watching it with her. I covered her body and the body of Hayden’s father as quickly as I could with a torn shirt and cloth before Hayden could see what I was up to. When he came over to me he asked if I was ready to move on. I answered without hesitation, 'yes'.
I couldn’t believe it. It took everything not to break down right then and there. They had survived the destruction of Errikus and now years later the grim reaper had come and taken their lives away before they even had a chance to live again.
We continued through the stasis chamber until we reached another garbage disposal. It seemed like the river of bodies would never end. Perhaps we had gone into hell and we were only now passing through the river of Styx. We had been in the underbelly for almost an entire day and no sign of a single antliod. There was nothing that we could do to shake the feeling we were being hunted. It felt like there were eyes all around us.
"Now for the second night in a row we set up camp, no sign of anything. Place looks like the plague swept through," said Slade. I couldn't have described the place any better myself. “Tomorrow we will have to turn back, we’ll have to catch one closer to home if possible,” Duv’Mir told us. Our mission was nearly a bust. All we managed to do was waste more supplies and see a lot of dead. Each of us not going on watch took a sleeping pill that would knock us into a quick REM sleep but not so much that we could wake at the first sign of movement. It was the only way any of us could rest.
Meddix took first watch, then Trevor. Mak’r must have only been an hour into his watch while the rest of us slept. We had barricaded the entrance to the disposal unit the best we could. There was only one small hole that separated us from the nightmare outside. We had begun putting our guard down. We thought we were safe in our den. Like a snake finding it’s way inside a rabbit hole a massive antliod burst through our barricade. It was at least four feet high. It wrapped its six black arms around Mak’r and pierced his back with its pincers. Its face had two razor sharp beaks that seemed to scissor limbs of its victims while it’s tail lashed around back and forth. I was the first to shoot my gun, which I had fallen asleep holding. Meddix screamed when he shot. His bullets ricochet and hit Stath who had already dug his sword into the creature. Duv’Mir, Slade, and Hayden joined in shredding the creature and Mak’r to pieces.
We must have looked like amateurs. Each of us covered in blood. Both Mak’r and the creature lay dead. Limbs of both mixed and covered the ground of the room. Stath was in the corner bleeding out. When Duv’Mir saw the blood pour out of his mouth he shot him putting him out of his misery. “It was a fair death and I hope I can die the same,” he said. Many Drok had an archaic way of thinking, at least by most human standards anyway. Those that die in battle from a weapon die in honor and get to spend their eternity as kings in heaven. Earth Vikings once had a similar way of thinking. They called that heaven Valhalla.
Duv’Mir picked up what was left of the antliods head and emptied out his backpack placing it inside. This is what we had come for. “Let it not be in vein,” he said slinging the backpack around his back. Hayden picked up both Mak’r and Stath’s swords handing me one of them. Which one I wasn’t sure but as he sheathed the Drok sword across his back with his creating an X he told me it would honor them, it would honor their families. I sheathed the sword around my back knowing I would probably never use it. Hayden and I had practiced swordplay when we were children but as adults the only time we practiced was the occasional kendo fight, but if this were the way to honor my fallen teammates I would do it. It was terrifying what just one of these creatures could do to a group of trained soldiers. In my head I could imagine if one of these got into the veranda or hanger. If just one of these creatures got into the civilian quarters it would be a never-ending nightmare.
We moved quickly down the stasis corridor from which we came. Hayden and I had taken point while Slade and Meddix took up the rear. It didn’t take long before we had attracted the attention of every antliod around. We were in the belly of the beast now. Meddix fired rapidly into the darkness. Every bullet hit a mark. Antliods by the hundreds swarmed behind us and to our side. We could see and hear their limbs screech the ship. We made it to the fifth scratch in the hallway when the monsters finally overcame Slade pushing him to the ground. They all began to swarm around his body. We all stopped and fired but it wasn’t enough. They all began to drag his body back into the darkness. Each time one fell another would grab hold rise and drag it back more. Slade had been dead on impact. We were simply trying to take as many down as we could now. Then we heard a loud screech. The antliods stopped.
A sea of antliods surrounded us but made no moves. We stopped firing to save ammo. Only shooting the one that would occasionally lash out towards us screeching. We had just enough light from the tunnels and our guns we could see Slade’s body splayed across the ground. Then we saw it. A massive antliod at least twelve feet high clawed its way towards Slade’s body grabbing it and pulling it away.
Unknown to us Duv’Mir had brought along a pulse round. It was designed to take out drop ships. It was an energy blast that would break apart spread out and rip through walls melting them. It could probably take out the hull of the Erebus at its weakest points. When he shot it the entire hallway lit up around in a blue glow. Antliods disintegrated around us. All except the big one. It stood in front of us its body split bleeding to pieces. It was like someone had taken a hammer to a glass window. The window was still there but it was cracked, bruised, broken only a small fragment of what it had been. It was unable to move. Hayden seeing his opportunity unsheathed both swords from his back and screaming walked up to the monster hacking and slashing. We could hear the Drok swords cut through limb and limb until there was nothing left. It sounded like paper shredding. When it was over he stood there silently. Duv’Mir, Trevor and myself hunted down the leftover antliods who strayed too close. Hayden ripped the head off one gathering venom from its sharp fangs. Somehow we had been dropped into hell and survived.
The Consul It took several hours for us to reach the veranda. Crawling back through the small tunnels and vents that spread through the Erebus. We were rats in a maze running for our lives. Our mission was a success but we had lost three good men - Duv’Mir, Hayden, Trevor, Meddix and myself were all that remained. We came out of a vent near the hangar and we were then embraced by silence. Nobody was there to greet us - the veranda had fallen. We weren’t sure if the antliods had broken through one of the barriers or if the riots had gotten so out of control the soldiers and consul removed everyone. There were only several hallways and chambers people could retreat to. We walked through checking tents and looking for signs of where anyone might have gone but we found nothing.
"The antliods would have made a mess if they had broken through. There would have at least been signs of struggle," said Duv'Mir, "keep looking and keep close, we can't be the only ones left on the ship."
We decided our best bet would be to check the hangar. Slowly we made our way through the winding tunnels that separated us from society. Trevor and I had taken turns taking point. More and more everything was beginning to feel like we were inside a simulation. It felt like we were playing a game practicing tactics. As soon as that feeling set in so did hunger and we sat to rest. Hayden tossed me a ration, a small piece of Chev about the size of my palm and reminded me this was all real and I was more terrified now then I had been in the underbelly.
“If we turn on each other there will be nothing left.
All of our enemies will have won. If we kill each other then we our entire existence will be null,” he said while we took rest. Duv’Mir and Meddix were restocking ammo from a barricade we had run across. “ I didn’t tell you, but my parents were in stasis down there,” Hayden was staring off into the distance, “do you think they could still be alive. I mean not all of the pods were open, there could still be a few survivors sleeping down there right?” He knew. How did he know? How had this slipped his mind for so long. "I discovered it only a few years ago, I thought they had died on Errikus but they were rescued. Severely injured and placed in stasis side by side this whole time," he said, "I never even once went down there to visit them or wake them up." I didn’t know what to say. A part of me wanted to tell him the truth. If I could have saved my mother from the pain she suffered buried under pieces of the Tritan and murdered by the Seraphim I would have but still I would have hated someone if I knew they had killed them whether it was a mercy killing or not. It would have probably been best to say nothing but instead I lied to my friend. Hayden needed something to keep going, “It’s possible.”
Not long past the barricade we found the hangar and with it one of the several shelters the consul had set up. It was here that we found Anathem and delivered the head Hayden had wrapped up in his pack.
Weeks passed by. Life began to slowly adjust. Barricades separated us from the Antliods and Hayden along with several scientists began to work on a vaccine and cure for the ship. We had several shelters set up inside the Erebus. The most fortified was the Chev with the hangar being a close second. Other shelters included the mess halls and the rooms leading to the immersion core. An elite group also guarded the room that held the nexus even though no one was using it. Duv’Mir, Trevor, Meddix, and myself had been given a station protecting Anathem. We had become his bodyguards. All of the other elders had protection too including Balkava who retreated more and more inside the core of the ship. Day in and day out we heard rumors she was communicating with the Aelita. Rumors meant little though and with so many people awake there was gossip about just about everyone. People prayed for salvation. Our options were growing more and more limited.
People began to entertain themselves setting up small parties and festivities around the hangar. Some would even venture past the barricades to retrieve old artifacts and holo reels that played ancient films about the old world. Several of these films were entertaining. For several hours a night we could see how our ancestors envisioned the future. They were all so grand. People had envisioned a future where humans lived in peace or had conquered the stars. There were several that went to war with aliens and the battles seemed so strange. The best were the black and white films though. Humans bringing the dead back to life, monsters that would turn to dust in the sunlight. These films had become our escape. In a way things didn’t seem so bad. Leave it to such a tragedy to bring even the most diverse people together.
It was when we had become content when we stopped worrying about the antliods and life had turned for the better disaster struck the heart of the human race again. The antliods finally breached the barrier to the Chev. It only took a small one barely three feet tall to flank past the guards firing into the horde. It bit into the Chev infecting our food. The Chev died after several hours. The doctors finally gave it enough painkiller to end its pain. We had no choice now but to take to the offensive once again. Several hundred were given the experimental vaccine that had been developed and placed into stasis chambers where they had been available and inside smaller pods inside drop ships. The idea of dying inside stasis had become the lesser of two evils.
One night I had volunteered to speak to Balkava on behalf of Anathem. He knew little about our history other then the fact that she herself had mentored me for years and that we were 'close'.
Anathem had been talking to the Aelita and while they would still not break quarantine procedure they discovered something of importance. People had begun to demand a solution. We only had enough food to survive a few months at most. Rumors began to spread about a derelict space station detected close by. An outpost left by the Lethe and another bread crumb to follow. Long-range scanners had shown it was offline but it was possible if we could get it working we could abandon the Erebus. The Aelita had agreed that they would assist us in any evacuation.
I explained everything the best I could. I was practically begging her to agree. The rest of the consul had agreed and whether she went along or not this was destined to happen. Anathem had even suggested we use the nexus to guide us. Our timeline had become lost. So many had died we had deviated from the path set before us. Without using the nexus our future was unknown. Balkava disagreed with everything. She had other ideas. She told me we were too close to were we needed to be to give up. The only thing she agreed was that we needed to investigate the space station.
Balkava argued that we could pressurize parts of the Erebus making the areas the antliods had made home inhabitable. Some of those areas still held human survivors. We could then put all unnecessary personal into stasis and ride out the rest of our journey. I felt like I was talking to a wall. In a way both were right. Anathem could guarantee our immediate survival but the space station wouldn’t be able to sustain us forever and that was only if we could power it up and find a source of food and water. Balkava on the other hand had a plan that would work but would kill just as many as it saved.
Anathem shook his head as I delievered her message. He was disappointed by Balkava’s reaction but it didn’t change a thing. The Consul would meet in the mess and together they would put together our plan of evacuation. Balkava had been overruled. Bio-rigged guns and turrets were taken from the veranda and moved to fortify the doorways to the mess. I watched Anathem night after night interfacing with the Erebus and talking back and forth with the command on the Aelita. Trevor and I were on guard when we heard just how close to the space station we were.
Before the consul would meet they would be forming a new squad to investigate. Given our success in the underbelly Duv’Mir, Trevor, Meddix, Hayden, and myself were the first chosen. Two others were taken from the elite that had been guarding the nexus. A blonde female guard with blue eyes named Brecca who looked like she could have been an Amazonian warrior and an aged bearded soldier named Lore that had several cybernetic implants he got from the Arr7. His eyes alone could change color and show him various fields of vision. His arms and bones had been grafted with an alien metal that was strong enough it could get shot through and light and limber enough so his mobility was never impaired. He was only one of a few dozen aboard the entire ship that had implants that made him more cyborg then human. He had no family, no kids, he had lost everything on colony – 5458 and sine then had dedicated his whole life to fighting. In many ways his story reminded me of my own. I nearly lost everything on Errikus. Sometimes all that kept me from going insane was Hayden and knowing Aira was alive on the Aelita.
They named our team 'First Descent'. To celebrate our reunion each of us branded ourselves with a small arrowhead below our left eye as well as a black arrow on our left arm. It was our way of honoring those that had fallen before us. From now on we would be the first into battle, the first into the darkness, and the first into the unknown. We were thrilled with our new promotion but also prayed that it didn't mean we would also be the first to die. All risks we knew we had take if we were going to survive. I can still remember the day of our promotion. Anathem presented both Hayden and I with a necklace, a special Norse charm. Anathem had been a collector of antiquities since even long before he became an elder. The charms were to protect us as we flew into battle. Anathem at no point made me think he was a superstitious man but then again I felt empowered by the gift. 'Maybe some charms were lucky after all'. Somehow taken out of context the whole thing just felt like some sick joke playing on the parts of my mind that were still young and full of hope.
The Erebus continued to get sick giving us less and less time to prepare. The vaccine developed f
or it was working but everyday it needed more and more. We were slowing down more and more inside the immer. If we wanted to get to the space station we would need to hope a ride with the Aelita. Our mission would be quiet. The consul didn’t want to risk it being a failure. Morale was at an all time low but we were still survivors. We were looking over the feed from drones the Aelita had sent out to the space station now codenamed 'Parcae Station'. In an ancient mythology the Parcae were the Roman personification of destiny, often called the fates. The station itself was separated into three circular parts that interconnected. There was an outer ring we named Nona, an inner ring Decima, and the center Morta. Each ring named for one of the three Parcae. The station itself was massive. It stretched in the distance the size of a small moon. Once we were on board our only goal would be to find a power source and activate it if possible. We had just enough research given to us from the Arr7 and the ruins found on Errikus that we should be able to find our way around and operate the controls. We spent days pouring over the information while our drop ship dubbed “New Dawn” was being prepped for flight.
Anathem told everyone they were being evacuated from the hangar temporarily so that they could fortify it against antliod attack. Most were moved to a refuge in the mess. The hangar had become filthy. Dirty clothing used for sleeping and pleasure laid spread on the ground abandoned. The air smelt stale and unclean. Baths and bathing had become a problem in areas were more and more people had become backed into corners. Everyone was given five minutes to clean themselves a day but it wasn’t enough and most didn't even bother. Shortly after our departure caretakers would be brought inside and given cleaning and maintenance tasks. The elders had hoped our mission would be a new clean slate for all.
The New Dawn was bigger then the normal dropship Hayden and I had taken out before. It was a heavy gunner. Some called it a picker. It was
Pull (Deep Darkness Book 1) Page 16