Taters!
02-25-2006, 12:28 PM
This is a sci-fi story loosely based on a Half Life mod called Natural Selection, I havent wrote much so tell me what you think a be gentle :redbiggri
If you like it I'll write more :p:
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Intro
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In the year 2070 the Earths population had exceeded every speculation, earth held 13.5 billion souls. Soon, Earth would be overpopulated. Cities were built underwater, huge skyscapers were everywhere. Then the scientists set they're eyes on Mars. Mars, which had once been a living planet, much like ours. Projects to make Mars liveable had starten years ago, but they never got very far. But becouse of the population growth, world leaders gave all they're support to the project. Soon, NASA had sent robots to build some small bases on Mars, and soon after that people were sent in.
A hundred years after, at the year 2170 Mars had actual cities, while it was still pretty much a barren wasteland outside the cities, people moved to Mars in hopes for a job or to start a new life. Mankind is greedy for knowledge, for knowledge is power. Eyes were set on more planets, distant galaxies. Maybe even alien species. NASA Built satelites that could move great distances with great speed. They were designed to search for liveable planets and alien lifeforms. One satelite detected a planet with actual life, not too far from our galaxy. NASA sent a probe to the planet in hopes to see if the species were intelligent, and if they were, to get in touch with them.
As soon as the probe landed, they lost contact with it. Soon after that, they mysteriously lost contact to the satelites observing the planet, too. The project was closed, and it was forgotten all too soon. Mankind continued populating Mars, and building various space stations all around the Milky Way.
Years later, in the year 2178 the space station Hera detected an odd object floating towards the station. It was not an asteroid, and they detected life forms in it. Asteroids were sent to recover it.
The object turned out to be an old satelite, covered in some wierd brown mass, that seemed to be organic. Scientists were amazed, as how something could live in space. The satelite was guaranteed and the scientists at Hera continued to observe it. The organic mass covering the satelite seemed to be able to regenerate itself, if they cut off a piece it would soon grow back. Scientists were trying to figure out what it excactly is, and where it came from. They found out about the secret project years ago and the satelite was part of it. But the satelites were said that they were destroyed, did the unkown lifeforms at the planet do this?
Soon after discovering the satelite the other space stations suddenly lost contact to Hera. No distress call was sent, they just stopped answering to the other stations messages. First it was assumed that they're radio satelites were broken, but when they desided to scan the station for human lifesigns just in case, the results were negative.
No human life signs were detected at the station. NASA immediedly held an emergency conference. Leaders of Earth, Mars and Nasa discussed the Hera accident. They desided to send a team of soldiers to investigate.
The newly formed United Space Defense Corps, or USDC was a special team of soldiers trained for situations like this. The operation was top secret, not to cause panic.
Part 1: We've got movement!
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I am Rick Cooper, I'm a PFC in the USDC, a special space marines team. Kinda like Swat in space, like my buddy Hank says. Me and my team was sent to investigate what happened at space station Hera. My team consists of me, Hank, who's a PFC like me, Mike, who is the newest of us, a private, Marcus, a sergeant, and Connor, the leader of our squad, he's a lieutenant.
A fine bunch all of them. Hank is a lucky bastard who likes to turn everything into a joke. Mike, well, I dont know much about him since he just joined our squad. Seems to be anxious to serve in this squad though. Marcus is a war maniac who wants to be the leader of the squad, and Connor is honestly the only sane person of the squad. That's propably why hes the leader, heh heh.
Me? I'm a 24 years old your-average-joe. Right now I'm sitting in an transport space ship that is headed to the space station Hera.
"Hey Connor, what do you think happened there?" Hank asked while looking into the space trough a window, he seemed to be much more serious than he usualy is.
"Well, I th.." Connor was interrupted by Mike;
"Something nasty, I bet! Why else would we have lost contact to an entire space station? And they didint get any life signs there, either.." he said, Connor made an angry look at Mike and then proceeded;
"They recovered something organic from the satelite, right? That must have something to do with it.. I dont know why or how, I would say that some unkown alien lifeform did this. To me sending one single squad in there is crazy, even if this is a scouting mission.. But what is there to scout, really? A whole space station was wiped from life signs for Christ's sake.." Connor said with a very serious face. He seemed more worried than he has usualy been.
A worried athmosphere came to the ship. A radio crackle broke the silence;
"Allright, we're approaching the LZ, get ready guys" the pilot spoke from the radio. Connor made a calm nod, we took our weapons and reloaded them. The ship started shaking, and then we landed on the station with a loud thump. We arrived to the hangars of Hera.
"Allright, lets go!" Connor said. A hatch opened in the middle of the room and we jumped out from the ship one by one. Connor ordered us to check the room with handsigns. The hangars were dark, the power had been cut off. We moved around the room for a while and finaly gave the clear sign. Connor ordered us to regroup near the ship.
Connor placed a map of the station on the floor, "Allright, here's what we're going to do. Mike, you stay here with the pilot and secure the landing zone until further orders.."
Connor was interrupted by Mikes moaning, he made another angry look at him and he went silent like a good soldier. Connor then cleared his throat and continued;
"Me and Marcus will proceed to the control center, Rick and Hank, you go to the engine room and try to turn the power back on. Understood?" We all nodded, Connor continued;
"Good, dont take any risks, if you see anything out of the ordinary inform the rest of the group immediedly. Right, lets move out!" he said and put the map back to his pocket. Connor and Marcus started heading they're way, I and Hank ours. Mike stayed behind, with a slightly dissapointed face.
*One, two, three, radio check, over.* Connor said from the radio, *We hear you, over.* I responded, *Yeah, over.* Mike responder with a bored tone in his voice. I and Hank walked to a door that said "Reception" I nodded to Hank who opened the door, and I carefuly stepped in and observed the room. It was a large, open room with a reception desk in the middle. I waved to Hank who then came in.
"This place stinks." Hank said and walked towards the reception desk. I holstered my weapon and observed the room more.
"Hey Rick.. I think I found out what stinks here.." Hank said, I quickly went to the desk. There was a human body lying on the desk, or what was left of it. The body was missing both of its legs.
"Jesus Christ.." I said, I sounded unintentionaly scared. *We found a body in reception.. It's.. It's missing its legs, and the torso is torn up, over.* I said to the radio, *..Roger that. Proceed with caution. Over.* Connor said. I sighed and looked at the map in my HUD.
"Lets get to that engine room, it's not far away." I said and Hank nodded. We walked left from the desk and came to a door which was supposed to lead to a hallway and then to the engine room. The door wouldn't open, so Hank took his welder and welded it open. We put our shoulder lights on as it was allmost pitch black in the hallway. Hank went first this time, I went trough after him.
Hank snapped; "Did you hear that?" he whispered to me, "Hear what?" I whispered back, sounding suprised. "Listen." Hank whispered. I heard a faint, crying sound. I nodded, we both slowly walked towards the sound. It seemed to be coming from a room near the end of the hallway. The room was supposed to be a small storage room. Hank walked to the other side of the door and I went to the other. Hank opened the door and I bursted in.
There was a woman sitting in a corner of the room; "W..Who's there!?" she asked, her voice was full of fear. I felt reliefed, "It's allright, we're here to help" I said and walked towards the woman. Hank laughed a bit but quickly stopped and his face went serious again. The woman was reliefed, who wouldnt be, though?
"Thank god!" She said and stood up, wiping tears from her eyes. The woman had long, orange hair. She had a long, white scientist coat. *Connor, we just found a civilian, alive. Over.* I said to the radio, *You did..? Allright.. I think that's enough. Start heading back to the ship, we're pulling out. It's obvious what happened here, lets let that civilian tell the command what happened in detail. Over.* Connor said, he sounded suprised and reliefed at the same time.
*About time, over.* Mike said.
"What's your name..?" Hank asked, "Arlene" the woman answered. "Allright Arlene. Let's get you out of here" Hank said, the woman nodded and we started heading back the way we came from. We arrived to the hangar where Mike was waiting for us.
"Where's Connor?" I asked, "Not here yet." Mike said, then he raised his eyebrow and looked at the woman; "I thought they picked zero life signs from this place." He said with a curious voice, "They did..? I.. I dont know about that.." Arlene said with a sad tone in his voice. Hank laughed; "Stop worrying newbie, life signs or no, she seems pretty darn alive to me" Arlene made a faint smile.
I started to get nervous, Connor should be here by now. *Connor, where are you, over.* I said to the radio. No response. Hank's smile faded and he looked at me, I shook my head. *Connor, I repeat, where are you? Over.* I said to the radio again. I waited, and tried again. Nothing. "He aint responding?" Mike asked, "What's going on?" Arlene said with a scared voice.
*Connor? Marcus? Answer me, damnit!* Hank said to the radio, I could hear his voice shaking a bit. Suddenly the door that Connor and Marcus went trough opened, I, Hank and Mike immediedly pointed our rifles and flashlights to the door. It was Connor, he was carrying Marcus on his back. I felt shocked and reliefed, the other seemed to feel the same way expect for Arlene who was only shocked. All of us expect Arlene ran to them, "Jesus Christ, Connor! What happened?!"
Connor seemed exhausted, he had a wound on his left arm which was bleeding quite bad. "Let me Carry Marcus." Hank said, Connor nodded and put Marcus on Hank's back who quickly took him back to the ship. Connor stopped to catch his breath; "Lets get out of here first.. I'll tell you once we're in the orbit. He said. I nodded and we hurried back to the ship.
"What's going on?" The pilot asked "We're pulling out, right now! Get us back to Shiva!" I yelled. The hatch closed and the ship started powering up. Soon we were back in space, and Hera was left behind. Hank placed Marcus on the floor. "Let me take a look at him, I'm a doctor" Arlene said and crouched beside Marcus. She checked for life signs for a moment, "He's just unconscious. He has a wound on his chest, but if we get him to a hospital soon he should be fine." She said. "That's good, I guess? " Connor said, we all sighed from relief.
Connor cleared his throat; "Soon after you informed us about finding this miss here, I and Marcus were attacked by.. Something. There was a couple of them, I think. They were tall, dark skinned humanoids, they had two large claws instead of hands and they moved incredibly fast. We took them down, but one of them hit Marcus and allmost knocked me out. My radio was broken in the fight, too..." Connor sighed, and continued;
"It was obvious we would run into something. And I'm sure theres more of them there. But when we come back, we come back with proper fire, and manpower. But enough about that. Excuse me, miss?" Connor said and looked at Arlene, "Arlene." She responded. "Arlene, could you tell us what the hell happened over there?" Connor asked. We all curiously looked at Arlene, who sighed;
"It all happened so fast.. We had stored samples of the organic matter we recovered from the satelite in the medical labs, in guaranteen, for a while. We went to check how they were, but they we'rent there..! Then these things just appeared out of nowhere.. It happened so fast.. They.. They killed everyone.. I.. I hided in that storage room and waited for someone to come help.." She said and started crying. I felt sad for her, it must have been horrible. "It's allright now, we're going to get you home." I said, trying to comfort her. She nodded and stopped crying.
"What about you'r arm, Connor? That's one nasty wound." Mike said, Connor looked at his arm, "It's allright, dont worry." he said.
"We're arriving at Space Station Shiva in a moment, the command wants a full report." The pilot said from the radio.
Part 2: Home Sweet Home
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"UCDC Transport requesting for clearance to land" The pilot said into his radio, *Roger that, you're free to land. USDC Command has been waiting for you* the radio answered. Large hangar doors opened and the ship went inside, the hangar doors quickly closing behind them. They then went trough an airlock and arrived at the hangar. The ship's hatch opened and everyone jumped down one by one. Hank helped Arlene to get down and jumped last. Two USDC generals and a dozen of USDC soldiers walked to us. Some of the soldiers carried Marcus away for treatment and the generals approached Connor;
"You look beaten up, Lieutenant" one of the generals said, "Can you tell us what excactly happened, and who is that civilian? I thought there were no life signs. And the radars dont do mistakes" the other one continued with a serious tone and pointed at Arlene, who seemed to feel uncomfortable by all this talk about her. Connor sighed;
"Yes, we were attacked by some hostile lifeforms. Like I told you sending a five man squad in there, even if it was a scouting mission, is crazy. It was obvious something hostile was there, henche all the life signs dissapearing suddenly, no?" He said, the generals looked at each other and then at Connor; "Are you questioning our orders, Lieutenant?" one of them said, "No sir." Connor said with an obvious bitter tone in his voice, the other general waved for the soldiers to come closer, "Take him to the medical labs, and take the rest of them to they're rooms. Leave the civilian for us." the general said, the soldiers chanted with a "Yes sir!", two of them took connor and the rest came to us;
"Follow us, please" one of them said, "We know where our rooms are, Christ" Hank said and walked away on his own. I shrugged and did the same, Mike hurrying behind us.
"What do you think they're going to do next? If I would be them I would just blow that station to bits!" Mike said sounding over anxious to act as he usualy does. I shrugged again; "They will propably send a full team there to destroy the thread, and get some of the aliens for research. I doubt they will blow a billion-dollar space station just like that."
Hank laughed; "You'll get your chanche to get your ass kicked, dont worry."
"We'll see who's ass is going to get kicked!" Mike yelled. I couldn't resist my urge to laugh a bit. Both of them we're back to they're normal selfs, it seems. Hank's a bastard and Mike's like a little kid. The Shiva station we currently were on is our 'Home' in a sense. We were trained here, our soldier career began here. Right now we're walking at one of the many hallways that house the population on this station. We were lucky and got our rooms near each other. After some more walking and listening to Hank and Mike fight we arrived to our rooms;
"Okay kids, better get some rest becouse I think we will be going back there soon enough" I said, "Yes sir" Hank grunted and went to his room, "Yeah, yeah" Mike said and went to his own. My room was the middle one of the rooms we had, Hank got his one to the left and Mike to the right. I placed my hand to a panel near the door, the computer beeped and the door opened;
*Welcome back, PFC Rick Cooper* The computer said with a pleasant, female voice. I walked in and the door behind me closed. My room consisted of a locker, a food dispenser that could create food from literaly nothing, dont ask me how it works, a desk with a computer, a waste disposal unit and my not-so-comfy bed. I walked to the food machine and pressed the "Meal" button. The machine hummed for a while, then I could hear some clanking sound and a plastic box dropped to the floor. I picked the box and went to my desk.
The meal was something that tasted horrible, but ofcourse it's healthy. It had like all the necessary stuff a human being needs, in it. I ate the meal and threw the empty box into the waste disposal unit. The machine hummed and the box dissapeared in a poof of blue smoke. It allways looks amusing, again, dont ask me how the thing works. I didint design this junk.
I felt tired so I collapsed on my bed and fell asleep allmost immediedly.
......
I woke up to someone bashing my door, it was Hank;
"Yo, Rick!" He yelled behind the door. I slowly walked to the door and opened it, "What now Hank..? I was sleeping." I said and yawned. "They're having a mission briefig in the conference room, seems we're going back there to retake the station." He said, I yawned again;
"Allready?" I said, Hank nodded; "Yeah, come on, lets get going. Mike is propably allready there." he said, I nodded and we left the room. We walked for a while in the hallway, "Do you know how Marcus is doing?" I asked Hank, who shaked his head. We kept walking, past the hangar, past the canteen, past some more hallways, past the armory and then we finaly came to the conference room. It was a large room with lots of benches, kinda what you would expect from a conference or meeting room.
I and Hank took a seat in the middle, everyone else seemed to be allready here. I observed the room for Connor, Mike or Marcus but didin't see either of them. Someone walked to the stage in front of us;
"*Ahem*.. Testing, testing" He said to his microphone, he then took some device from his pocket and pointed it to the wall behind him. A image of the Hera station appeared.
"As you well know by now, the Hera station was overrun by some unkown, hostile force. This was confirmed by a team we sent to investigate not too long ago. And now, we plan on taking what belongs to us back." He said and pointed the device at the wall again, an image of the map of Hera appeared on the wall;
"We will send multiple teams to the station. One team will arrive from the hangar, one will arrive to the control center and one to the engine room. The hangar team will proceed to patrol the area on lookout for any threats, the control center team will set up a command center there and monitor the mission. The engine room will attempt to bring the main power back on and then join the hangar team.
The control center group will be a heavy armor squad with heavy weapons, the hangar team and the engine team will consist of light machine-, and shotguns, and each group will have one grenade launcher. Once the teams arrive the control center will monitor the mission and give orders depending on the situation. All squad leaders have been given instructions about what team you belong in.
You have an hour to get prepared, good luck."
The man finished his speech and the map image dissapeared. Everyone started moving away from the hall. My and Hank's pagers beeped, Connor was asking us to go to his room for the instructions.
"This should be fun" Hank said, and then we left the room and walked towards the officers housing area. The officer-hall was not much smaller from the regular housing area, even when there are much less officers than there are privates, becouse the rooms are obviously much bigger. We arrived to a room that had a "Lieutenant Connor" sign above it. I knocked on the door, and it was soon opened by Connor.
"Come in." He said, we walked in and he closed the door. Mike was allready here, and some woman I haven't seen before. Marcus wasn't here. "Where's Marcus?" Hank asked, "I'll tell you in a moment" Connor said, "Take a seat now."
We took our seats and Connor walked in front of us;
"Right. Marcus haven't been able to recover yet and she will be a part of our team atleast as long as Marcus stays at the hospital." Connor said and pointed at the woman, she had short, red hair, and strong features. "Hello, my name's Rachel, nice to meet you." she said and smiled at us, "Yes indeed" Hank said and stared at her. Mike punched Hank to his shoulder, "Ow! Hey!" Hank yelled, Racher laughed a bit.
Connor coughed, we all resumed our views to him.
"We will be a part of the hangar team.." Connor said but was interrupted my Mike's "Yay!" cheer. "Let me finish for once, Mike" Connor allmost laughed;
"As I was saying, we will be a part of the hangar team. We will have two other squads accompanying us. Like you were told in the briefing, our objective is to patrol the station until further orders. One of the other squads has a grenade launcher, protect him. Should we encounter something big, the grenades will come in handy. Understood?" Connor finished his speech, we all chanted "Yes sir!".
"Good. Lets see, 30 minutes untill departure. Better we get our asses to the hangar and wait for the others." Connor said, we nodded, left the room and started heading to the hangar.
If you like it I'll write more :p:
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Intro
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In the year 2070 the Earths population had exceeded every speculation, earth held 13.5 billion souls. Soon, Earth would be overpopulated. Cities were built underwater, huge skyscapers were everywhere. Then the scientists set they're eyes on Mars. Mars, which had once been a living planet, much like ours. Projects to make Mars liveable had starten years ago, but they never got very far. But becouse of the population growth, world leaders gave all they're support to the project. Soon, NASA had sent robots to build some small bases on Mars, and soon after that people were sent in.
A hundred years after, at the year 2170 Mars had actual cities, while it was still pretty much a barren wasteland outside the cities, people moved to Mars in hopes for a job or to start a new life. Mankind is greedy for knowledge, for knowledge is power. Eyes were set on more planets, distant galaxies. Maybe even alien species. NASA Built satelites that could move great distances with great speed. They were designed to search for liveable planets and alien lifeforms. One satelite detected a planet with actual life, not too far from our galaxy. NASA sent a probe to the planet in hopes to see if the species were intelligent, and if they were, to get in touch with them.
As soon as the probe landed, they lost contact with it. Soon after that, they mysteriously lost contact to the satelites observing the planet, too. The project was closed, and it was forgotten all too soon. Mankind continued populating Mars, and building various space stations all around the Milky Way.
Years later, in the year 2178 the space station Hera detected an odd object floating towards the station. It was not an asteroid, and they detected life forms in it. Asteroids were sent to recover it.
The object turned out to be an old satelite, covered in some wierd brown mass, that seemed to be organic. Scientists were amazed, as how something could live in space. The satelite was guaranteed and the scientists at Hera continued to observe it. The organic mass covering the satelite seemed to be able to regenerate itself, if they cut off a piece it would soon grow back. Scientists were trying to figure out what it excactly is, and where it came from. They found out about the secret project years ago and the satelite was part of it. But the satelites were said that they were destroyed, did the unkown lifeforms at the planet do this?
Soon after discovering the satelite the other space stations suddenly lost contact to Hera. No distress call was sent, they just stopped answering to the other stations messages. First it was assumed that they're radio satelites were broken, but when they desided to scan the station for human lifesigns just in case, the results were negative.
No human life signs were detected at the station. NASA immediedly held an emergency conference. Leaders of Earth, Mars and Nasa discussed the Hera accident. They desided to send a team of soldiers to investigate.
The newly formed United Space Defense Corps, or USDC was a special team of soldiers trained for situations like this. The operation was top secret, not to cause panic.
Part 1: We've got movement!
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I am Rick Cooper, I'm a PFC in the USDC, a special space marines team. Kinda like Swat in space, like my buddy Hank says. Me and my team was sent to investigate what happened at space station Hera. My team consists of me, Hank, who's a PFC like me, Mike, who is the newest of us, a private, Marcus, a sergeant, and Connor, the leader of our squad, he's a lieutenant.
A fine bunch all of them. Hank is a lucky bastard who likes to turn everything into a joke. Mike, well, I dont know much about him since he just joined our squad. Seems to be anxious to serve in this squad though. Marcus is a war maniac who wants to be the leader of the squad, and Connor is honestly the only sane person of the squad. That's propably why hes the leader, heh heh.
Me? I'm a 24 years old your-average-joe. Right now I'm sitting in an transport space ship that is headed to the space station Hera.
"Hey Connor, what do you think happened there?" Hank asked while looking into the space trough a window, he seemed to be much more serious than he usualy is.
"Well, I th.." Connor was interrupted by Mike;
"Something nasty, I bet! Why else would we have lost contact to an entire space station? And they didint get any life signs there, either.." he said, Connor made an angry look at Mike and then proceeded;
"They recovered something organic from the satelite, right? That must have something to do with it.. I dont know why or how, I would say that some unkown alien lifeform did this. To me sending one single squad in there is crazy, even if this is a scouting mission.. But what is there to scout, really? A whole space station was wiped from life signs for Christ's sake.." Connor said with a very serious face. He seemed more worried than he has usualy been.
A worried athmosphere came to the ship. A radio crackle broke the silence;
"Allright, we're approaching the LZ, get ready guys" the pilot spoke from the radio. Connor made a calm nod, we took our weapons and reloaded them. The ship started shaking, and then we landed on the station with a loud thump. We arrived to the hangars of Hera.
"Allright, lets go!" Connor said. A hatch opened in the middle of the room and we jumped out from the ship one by one. Connor ordered us to check the room with handsigns. The hangars were dark, the power had been cut off. We moved around the room for a while and finaly gave the clear sign. Connor ordered us to regroup near the ship.
Connor placed a map of the station on the floor, "Allright, here's what we're going to do. Mike, you stay here with the pilot and secure the landing zone until further orders.."
Connor was interrupted by Mikes moaning, he made another angry look at him and he went silent like a good soldier. Connor then cleared his throat and continued;
"Me and Marcus will proceed to the control center, Rick and Hank, you go to the engine room and try to turn the power back on. Understood?" We all nodded, Connor continued;
"Good, dont take any risks, if you see anything out of the ordinary inform the rest of the group immediedly. Right, lets move out!" he said and put the map back to his pocket. Connor and Marcus started heading they're way, I and Hank ours. Mike stayed behind, with a slightly dissapointed face.
*One, two, three, radio check, over.* Connor said from the radio, *We hear you, over.* I responded, *Yeah, over.* Mike responder with a bored tone in his voice. I and Hank walked to a door that said "Reception" I nodded to Hank who opened the door, and I carefuly stepped in and observed the room. It was a large, open room with a reception desk in the middle. I waved to Hank who then came in.
"This place stinks." Hank said and walked towards the reception desk. I holstered my weapon and observed the room more.
"Hey Rick.. I think I found out what stinks here.." Hank said, I quickly went to the desk. There was a human body lying on the desk, or what was left of it. The body was missing both of its legs.
"Jesus Christ.." I said, I sounded unintentionaly scared. *We found a body in reception.. It's.. It's missing its legs, and the torso is torn up, over.* I said to the radio, *..Roger that. Proceed with caution. Over.* Connor said. I sighed and looked at the map in my HUD.
"Lets get to that engine room, it's not far away." I said and Hank nodded. We walked left from the desk and came to a door which was supposed to lead to a hallway and then to the engine room. The door wouldn't open, so Hank took his welder and welded it open. We put our shoulder lights on as it was allmost pitch black in the hallway. Hank went first this time, I went trough after him.
Hank snapped; "Did you hear that?" he whispered to me, "Hear what?" I whispered back, sounding suprised. "Listen." Hank whispered. I heard a faint, crying sound. I nodded, we both slowly walked towards the sound. It seemed to be coming from a room near the end of the hallway. The room was supposed to be a small storage room. Hank walked to the other side of the door and I went to the other. Hank opened the door and I bursted in.
There was a woman sitting in a corner of the room; "W..Who's there!?" she asked, her voice was full of fear. I felt reliefed, "It's allright, we're here to help" I said and walked towards the woman. Hank laughed a bit but quickly stopped and his face went serious again. The woman was reliefed, who wouldnt be, though?
"Thank god!" She said and stood up, wiping tears from her eyes. The woman had long, orange hair. She had a long, white scientist coat. *Connor, we just found a civilian, alive. Over.* I said to the radio, *You did..? Allright.. I think that's enough. Start heading back to the ship, we're pulling out. It's obvious what happened here, lets let that civilian tell the command what happened in detail. Over.* Connor said, he sounded suprised and reliefed at the same time.
*About time, over.* Mike said.
"What's your name..?" Hank asked, "Arlene" the woman answered. "Allright Arlene. Let's get you out of here" Hank said, the woman nodded and we started heading back the way we came from. We arrived to the hangar where Mike was waiting for us.
"Where's Connor?" I asked, "Not here yet." Mike said, then he raised his eyebrow and looked at the woman; "I thought they picked zero life signs from this place." He said with a curious voice, "They did..? I.. I dont know about that.." Arlene said with a sad tone in his voice. Hank laughed; "Stop worrying newbie, life signs or no, she seems pretty darn alive to me" Arlene made a faint smile.
I started to get nervous, Connor should be here by now. *Connor, where are you, over.* I said to the radio. No response. Hank's smile faded and he looked at me, I shook my head. *Connor, I repeat, where are you? Over.* I said to the radio again. I waited, and tried again. Nothing. "He aint responding?" Mike asked, "What's going on?" Arlene said with a scared voice.
*Connor? Marcus? Answer me, damnit!* Hank said to the radio, I could hear his voice shaking a bit. Suddenly the door that Connor and Marcus went trough opened, I, Hank and Mike immediedly pointed our rifles and flashlights to the door. It was Connor, he was carrying Marcus on his back. I felt shocked and reliefed, the other seemed to feel the same way expect for Arlene who was only shocked. All of us expect Arlene ran to them, "Jesus Christ, Connor! What happened?!"
Connor seemed exhausted, he had a wound on his left arm which was bleeding quite bad. "Let me Carry Marcus." Hank said, Connor nodded and put Marcus on Hank's back who quickly took him back to the ship. Connor stopped to catch his breath; "Lets get out of here first.. I'll tell you once we're in the orbit. He said. I nodded and we hurried back to the ship.
"What's going on?" The pilot asked "We're pulling out, right now! Get us back to Shiva!" I yelled. The hatch closed and the ship started powering up. Soon we were back in space, and Hera was left behind. Hank placed Marcus on the floor. "Let me take a look at him, I'm a doctor" Arlene said and crouched beside Marcus. She checked for life signs for a moment, "He's just unconscious. He has a wound on his chest, but if we get him to a hospital soon he should be fine." She said. "That's good, I guess? " Connor said, we all sighed from relief.
Connor cleared his throat; "Soon after you informed us about finding this miss here, I and Marcus were attacked by.. Something. There was a couple of them, I think. They were tall, dark skinned humanoids, they had two large claws instead of hands and they moved incredibly fast. We took them down, but one of them hit Marcus and allmost knocked me out. My radio was broken in the fight, too..." Connor sighed, and continued;
"It was obvious we would run into something. And I'm sure theres more of them there. But when we come back, we come back with proper fire, and manpower. But enough about that. Excuse me, miss?" Connor said and looked at Arlene, "Arlene." She responded. "Arlene, could you tell us what the hell happened over there?" Connor asked. We all curiously looked at Arlene, who sighed;
"It all happened so fast.. We had stored samples of the organic matter we recovered from the satelite in the medical labs, in guaranteen, for a while. We went to check how they were, but they we'rent there..! Then these things just appeared out of nowhere.. It happened so fast.. They.. They killed everyone.. I.. I hided in that storage room and waited for someone to come help.." She said and started crying. I felt sad for her, it must have been horrible. "It's allright now, we're going to get you home." I said, trying to comfort her. She nodded and stopped crying.
"What about you'r arm, Connor? That's one nasty wound." Mike said, Connor looked at his arm, "It's allright, dont worry." he said.
"We're arriving at Space Station Shiva in a moment, the command wants a full report." The pilot said from the radio.
Part 2: Home Sweet Home
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"UCDC Transport requesting for clearance to land" The pilot said into his radio, *Roger that, you're free to land. USDC Command has been waiting for you* the radio answered. Large hangar doors opened and the ship went inside, the hangar doors quickly closing behind them. They then went trough an airlock and arrived at the hangar. The ship's hatch opened and everyone jumped down one by one. Hank helped Arlene to get down and jumped last. Two USDC generals and a dozen of USDC soldiers walked to us. Some of the soldiers carried Marcus away for treatment and the generals approached Connor;
"You look beaten up, Lieutenant" one of the generals said, "Can you tell us what excactly happened, and who is that civilian? I thought there were no life signs. And the radars dont do mistakes" the other one continued with a serious tone and pointed at Arlene, who seemed to feel uncomfortable by all this talk about her. Connor sighed;
"Yes, we were attacked by some hostile lifeforms. Like I told you sending a five man squad in there, even if it was a scouting mission, is crazy. It was obvious something hostile was there, henche all the life signs dissapearing suddenly, no?" He said, the generals looked at each other and then at Connor; "Are you questioning our orders, Lieutenant?" one of them said, "No sir." Connor said with an obvious bitter tone in his voice, the other general waved for the soldiers to come closer, "Take him to the medical labs, and take the rest of them to they're rooms. Leave the civilian for us." the general said, the soldiers chanted with a "Yes sir!", two of them took connor and the rest came to us;
"Follow us, please" one of them said, "We know where our rooms are, Christ" Hank said and walked away on his own. I shrugged and did the same, Mike hurrying behind us.
"What do you think they're going to do next? If I would be them I would just blow that station to bits!" Mike said sounding over anxious to act as he usualy does. I shrugged again; "They will propably send a full team there to destroy the thread, and get some of the aliens for research. I doubt they will blow a billion-dollar space station just like that."
Hank laughed; "You'll get your chanche to get your ass kicked, dont worry."
"We'll see who's ass is going to get kicked!" Mike yelled. I couldn't resist my urge to laugh a bit. Both of them we're back to they're normal selfs, it seems. Hank's a bastard and Mike's like a little kid. The Shiva station we currently were on is our 'Home' in a sense. We were trained here, our soldier career began here. Right now we're walking at one of the many hallways that house the population on this station. We were lucky and got our rooms near each other. After some more walking and listening to Hank and Mike fight we arrived to our rooms;
"Okay kids, better get some rest becouse I think we will be going back there soon enough" I said, "Yes sir" Hank grunted and went to his room, "Yeah, yeah" Mike said and went to his own. My room was the middle one of the rooms we had, Hank got his one to the left and Mike to the right. I placed my hand to a panel near the door, the computer beeped and the door opened;
*Welcome back, PFC Rick Cooper* The computer said with a pleasant, female voice. I walked in and the door behind me closed. My room consisted of a locker, a food dispenser that could create food from literaly nothing, dont ask me how it works, a desk with a computer, a waste disposal unit and my not-so-comfy bed. I walked to the food machine and pressed the "Meal" button. The machine hummed for a while, then I could hear some clanking sound and a plastic box dropped to the floor. I picked the box and went to my desk.
The meal was something that tasted horrible, but ofcourse it's healthy. It had like all the necessary stuff a human being needs, in it. I ate the meal and threw the empty box into the waste disposal unit. The machine hummed and the box dissapeared in a poof of blue smoke. It allways looks amusing, again, dont ask me how the thing works. I didint design this junk.
I felt tired so I collapsed on my bed and fell asleep allmost immediedly.
......
I woke up to someone bashing my door, it was Hank;
"Yo, Rick!" He yelled behind the door. I slowly walked to the door and opened it, "What now Hank..? I was sleeping." I said and yawned. "They're having a mission briefig in the conference room, seems we're going back there to retake the station." He said, I yawned again;
"Allready?" I said, Hank nodded; "Yeah, come on, lets get going. Mike is propably allready there." he said, I nodded and we left the room. We walked for a while in the hallway, "Do you know how Marcus is doing?" I asked Hank, who shaked his head. We kept walking, past the hangar, past the canteen, past some more hallways, past the armory and then we finaly came to the conference room. It was a large room with lots of benches, kinda what you would expect from a conference or meeting room.
I and Hank took a seat in the middle, everyone else seemed to be allready here. I observed the room for Connor, Mike or Marcus but didin't see either of them. Someone walked to the stage in front of us;
"*Ahem*.. Testing, testing" He said to his microphone, he then took some device from his pocket and pointed it to the wall behind him. A image of the Hera station appeared.
"As you well know by now, the Hera station was overrun by some unkown, hostile force. This was confirmed by a team we sent to investigate not too long ago. And now, we plan on taking what belongs to us back." He said and pointed the device at the wall again, an image of the map of Hera appeared on the wall;
"We will send multiple teams to the station. One team will arrive from the hangar, one will arrive to the control center and one to the engine room. The hangar team will proceed to patrol the area on lookout for any threats, the control center team will set up a command center there and monitor the mission. The engine room will attempt to bring the main power back on and then join the hangar team.
The control center group will be a heavy armor squad with heavy weapons, the hangar team and the engine team will consist of light machine-, and shotguns, and each group will have one grenade launcher. Once the teams arrive the control center will monitor the mission and give orders depending on the situation. All squad leaders have been given instructions about what team you belong in.
You have an hour to get prepared, good luck."
The man finished his speech and the map image dissapeared. Everyone started moving away from the hall. My and Hank's pagers beeped, Connor was asking us to go to his room for the instructions.
"This should be fun" Hank said, and then we left the room and walked towards the officers housing area. The officer-hall was not much smaller from the regular housing area, even when there are much less officers than there are privates, becouse the rooms are obviously much bigger. We arrived to a room that had a "Lieutenant Connor" sign above it. I knocked on the door, and it was soon opened by Connor.
"Come in." He said, we walked in and he closed the door. Mike was allready here, and some woman I haven't seen before. Marcus wasn't here. "Where's Marcus?" Hank asked, "I'll tell you in a moment" Connor said, "Take a seat now."
We took our seats and Connor walked in front of us;
"Right. Marcus haven't been able to recover yet and she will be a part of our team atleast as long as Marcus stays at the hospital." Connor said and pointed at the woman, she had short, red hair, and strong features. "Hello, my name's Rachel, nice to meet you." she said and smiled at us, "Yes indeed" Hank said and stared at her. Mike punched Hank to his shoulder, "Ow! Hey!" Hank yelled, Racher laughed a bit.
Connor coughed, we all resumed our views to him.
"We will be a part of the hangar team.." Connor said but was interrupted my Mike's "Yay!" cheer. "Let me finish for once, Mike" Connor allmost laughed;
"As I was saying, we will be a part of the hangar team. We will have two other squads accompanying us. Like you were told in the briefing, our objective is to patrol the station until further orders. One of the other squads has a grenade launcher, protect him. Should we encounter something big, the grenades will come in handy. Understood?" Connor finished his speech, we all chanted "Yes sir!".
"Good. Lets see, 30 minutes untill departure. Better we get our asses to the hangar and wait for the others." Connor said, we nodded, left the room and started heading to the hangar.