The year is 2235, humans have made major advances in space travel. Over population and scarcity of resources have pushed humankind to expand throughout their solar system. Looking for valuable resources on other planets has become a lucrative business, this practice is now known as exo-mining. The largest exo-mining company, New Horizon, is now the richest organization known to man. Due to this, New Horizon counts with cutting edge technology in every area possible. The technological supremacy this exo-mining company possesses has turned it into a symbol of progress for humanity. Some say it is gaining too much power.
New Horizon is a privately funded company and takes care of its own scientific research. Although the research is beneficial for the entire human race some question the ethics of experiments performed in the outer orbits of the solar system, away from prying government eyes, a virtually unregulated scientific haven...
* * *
“...As you know, we’ve been monitoring New Horizon’s comm traffic for quite some time now. We’ve spotted a space station that’s located near Neptune’s Orbit. Apparently it houses an ultra classified project, but this is not the sole reason we are going in. We have intercepted a message from New Horizon to this space station, the message requested status, we relayed the message. There has been no response. Communication blackout. Other messages have been sent as an attempt to contact the station, these have been met with no reply.”
Your head hurts, you’re guessing everyone else's does, your body has been dormant for many months inside the Trafalgar, a Battle Frigate. Your vision is blurry and your muscles twitch often, you haven’t stretched your arms, walked about, seen, heard or tasted anything in five months. You obviously feel like shit. You can see Captain Artis Fago’s weary eyes, the monotone in which he speaks. He too must feel like shit. The rest of the squad responds with grunts and gutturals to the captains languid briefing. It’s the first time you have experienced cryogenic preservation.
“Hang in there rook, cryogenic space travel is never pleasant.”
It’s Lieutenant Lewis who whispers this under the captains briefing. He’s in charge of your squad. He’s in charge of you, the rookie. You often feel like you’re a weight on his shoulders, like he’s babysitting you. You try your best but sometimes there are things that only experience can teach. Experience you lack. In spite of it all, Lieutenant Lewis has been patient and supportive of you.
“Our mission is to get there before New Horizon does, find out what they were researching, reason of communication blackout and any evidence of illegal research that can bring them down...”
The Captain sits down on the semi oval table where everybody else is sitted, there is a hole in the center of the table roughly the shape of a diamond, the Captain operates the control panel.
“This here, ladies and gentlemen, is Project Hades.”
Captain Fago brings up a holographic map from the middle of the table. It’s a map of SS Harbinger, the space station you are going to investigate. As this figure is brought up, the lights dim allowing the hologram to become more visible, the briefing room is now mostly lit up by the holographic image, this gives the metallic surroundings a monochromatic orange tone. Seven orange faces are now giving their undivided attention to the holographic map, you decide it’s time to join in, you direct your attention to the map.
“It’s quite big...”
The calm female voice belongs to Specialist Anthea Kesla, tech expert of your squad. She can hack into any system, intercept any comm line or disarm any security system.
“That’s why we are going in through two different airlocks. The space station is divided into two wings and a main passage way that leads to the main control center, there is a massive mess hall in the middle. In the left wing we have the crew’s living quarters, the hydroponic gardens responsible for the crews food and most of its oxygen, on the lower level we have the life support mechanisms and engine room, and finally we have the oxygen and water recycling facilities. On the right wing we have the work space, the computer terminals, here we will be able to control most of the systems of the station and we might find valuable information on what New Horizon might be researching. Also, on the right wing you will find the research laboratories, someone will have to escort Dr. Niket to this area so he can determine the nature of the experiments.”
Andrei Niket is the quiet type. He doesn’t say much, he is almost always secluded in the labs, either reading or experimenting. He’s a hot shot biologist who specializes in genetic engineering, more specifically, genetic engineering of bio weapons. He’s also a part of our squad.
“Okay people, don’t forget, this is an in and out operation, no one is supposed to tell we were there, so watch your step. From the intercepted messages we have drawn two possible conclusions. First one, something went terribly wrong and the whole crew is dead. Second conclusion, something has damaged the station’s comms and they can’t seem to get them up for any reason. The first conclusion is the easy one, you go in, learn what we need to know and you get out. The second one, not so simple. You’d have to use the ventilation shafts and service corridors to move about and you’d have to rely on stealth to achieve our goal. Any questions?”
Everyone remains quiet.
“Good, now here’s the plan. Alpha, that’s Lieutenant Lewis and his squad, you are going in through the ships ventilation shafts, Specialist Kesla, you should be able to bypass and get those shafts open in no time. You can reach the computer terminals on the left wing from these vents.”
The Captains finger traces the vent route he is talking about.
“From there, Specialist Kesla, you can open an airlock for team Omega who will be getting into the station through the recycling facility. Everything that cannot be recycled is ejected to space through this airlock. After this Omega will have to check the life support systems and crews quarters to learn about the scientific and security team of this station and what their status is. From there it will be determined wether this will be a stealth mission or simply a salvage mission. Dismissed!”
“Alright Alpha Squad, on me!”
That’s your queue! Lieutenant Lewis rallies his squad, you stand between Specialist Kelsa and Dr. Niket awaiting orders.
“Lock and load your weapons ladies and gentlemen, ETA’s less than an hour. Check your gear.”
Lieutenant Lewis looks at everybody, he pauses on you, then he continues to speak.
“Alpha, those vents are too narrow to squeeze the whole team in there, more than two would make us sitting ducks. For this reason we are going to split up...”
What do you dislike the most?
Hospitals, turn to page 4
Closed spaces, turn to page 12
“Rookie, you and Specialist Kesla will go in through the ventilation shafts, don’t think I’ve forgotten how you fainted at the sight of needles when we performed the med tests.”
There was general chuckling in the squad. You feel stupid. There he is again, Lieutenant Lewis protecting you once more.
“Me and Dr. Niket will hold on just beyond the lab doors, first you will unlock the doors for Omega, we will wait for their sitrep, when they confirm that the station’s safe to board you can unlock the lab doors for us. You will be Alfa Bravo, we will be Alfa Charlie, understood?”
“Yes sir!”
The whole squad, including you, blurt out these words.
“Check your gear squad!”
You zip up your hostile environment suite and fix your helmet. You grab your assault rifle, an SSX-40, state of the art with recoil dampeners, magazine of forty rounds, heat discharge and features many customizable parts. You fix a flashlight into the bayonet rail. You check for jamming, you cock your weapon and put the safety on.
Fifteen minutes later the pilot has a visual on the space station. You are about to arrive. Lieutenant Lewis says a few words before the deployment. You are not paying attention, you are nervous, your hands are sweating, you’ve been on very few missions and this is the first time you are going in with such little intel, who knows what you will find in there! Your stomach begins to gurgle. You want to puke. Right about now you realize just how thankful you are that Lieutenant Lewis was considerate of you and had you steer clear of the labs and medical bays.
“ETA 5 minutes. Team Alpha, Team Omega begin boarding your respective shuttles.”
The voice in the intercom fades out. You and your squad double time it to the shuttle, you fasten your security harness as does everyone else. The intercom voice crackles back to life, this time inside the shuttle’s speakers.
“Good luck Alpha, Good luck Omega, we will be standing by. Trafalgar out.”
The shuttle’s engine roars, suddenly it shoots off into space. Through the observation windows of the shuttle you see Neptune. It’s beautiful. You lose yourself in the beauty of the planet, the many shades of blues, the hints of violet and green, the white strips that riddle the planet. For a moment you feel peaceful. All of the sudden the shuttle begins to circle the planet and reaches its dark side. The sun is eclipsed by the Ice Giant, you are plunged into darkness, all of your peaceful feelings go away, fear begins to kick back in. The IR sensors inside the shuttle activate catching on to the stations radiation immediately.
Seconds later the shuttle touches down on the hull near the vent. You go out first. You switch on your visors IR sensor, you can see everything as clear as day again. No security mechs, no functioning cameras, no personnel. Everything is clear. You shout clear through your helmets radio. Specialist Kesla comes out of the shuttle pulling herself to the ventilation shaft through the vacuum. She rips a bit through the hull with one of her gadgets, exposes a few cables and bypasses the ventilations control in a matter of seconds, she looks towards the shuttle and gives a thumbs up. The shuttle begins to move to the second drop point. Kesla enters the ventilation shaft and you follow.
Once inside the ventilation shaft you begin to feel real uneasy. You can barely fit in this narrow shafts and moving about quietly is quite difficult.
“Shush! Try to be a bit more quiet.”
Kesla seems to be uneasy as well, maybe she does not trust your ability, rookie.
You move through the narrow, dark and now increasingly hot ventilation shaft. As you go in deeper, moving gets a lot harder, even Kesla now begins to get careless and struggles to move a bit faster. After ten minutes of desperately worming yourself through the ventilation shafts you receive a transmission from Alfa Charlie.
“We’re in position, what’s your locus Bravo?”
You reply trying to hide your heavy breathing, but it’s just no use.
“We are on route” you say, “give us a minute to clear the ducts sir.”
You keep dragging yourselves until you see a light. Kesla enthusiastically whispers ‘that must be it!’ You hope it is it. Kesla looks through the vent on to the room below. She moves to the other side of the vent and invites you to check it out. You see a bunch of sleeping monitors. Not a single soul in the room. ‘It looks clear’ you say in a very low voice. Being as quiet as possible you remove the lid. You poke your head out, you see nothing so you jump down. The sound of you landing inside the room bounces off the walls. You stand still to make sure you don’t hear movement. After a moment you determine it is clear. Second later Specialist Kesla climbs down.
“Keep your eyes and ears peeled while I open the airlock for Omega.”
While Kesla starts up a monitor you inform Alpha Charlie that you are in.
“Roger that, keep me posted, Alpha Charlie out.”
Kesla’s incessant keystrokes fill the room. You look around every monitor is sleeping except one in the far corner. Near the blast door there is a memo written in red you cannot make out from that distance, also there is a door in this room that did not show on the holographic map, its control panel has been ripped off.
“There! Did it! Tell Omega that they are good to go.”
You relay the message.
“Roger that, Alpha, thanks for the assist.”
Specialist Kesla begins typing again.
“I’m going to try to break through the firewall, I’ll see if I can get my hands on any classified info from here, why don’t you investigate, see if you find out anything useful. Just don’t touch anything we’ll regret”
Why not, after all, you have to wait for Omega to determine what happened to the crew.
Check out the monitor, turn to page 10
Check out the memo, turn to page 9
Check out the door, turn to page 7
You move in closer to examine the door. The control panel has been ripped off and there are a couple of exposed cables. You call Kesla but she does not respond, you can still hear the keystrokes. She must be very concentrated. You lean in for a closer look at the cables. ‘They look fried’ you think, you touch the cables with your finger to see if there is any current and you receive an electrical jolt, you jump up surprised, with a loud electrical crackle and a few sparks the lights go out. Short circuit? You hear Kesla calling out from behind you.
“Wha- what the hell did you do?”
The door in front of you opens with a terrible amount of noise, your first concern, of course. Then you hear a low growl, a horrible sound! This is becomes your primary concern now! Your hands shake uncontrollably, you grab your assault rifle and turn the flashlight on. The light lands right on a set of very sharp teeth. What the hell was that?! You don’t want to find out, you scramble backwards away from the unknown creature. Your rifle falls to the floor and lights up one of the monsters limbs. It looks like a human leg, horribly deformed and in decomposition. Kesla walks towards.
“What the hell is going on?”
‘Stay back!’ you yell, but she does not listen, under the dim light originating from your flashlight you see the creature leap towards Kesla, it slashes at her with its scythe like hands and rips her into three. Panic takes over you, you crawl towards the door the monster came from in order to hide, but you leave your assault rifle. The room reeks of death, the most horrible smell imaginable. In that room you begin to think of your options. Shit! You got your specialist killed! Not after long you realize that the only way out is through the computer room. You are fresh out of luck...
You try to calm down, you lay as quiet as you can. Everything is dark and silent now. You take a glance, you see your assault rifle with the flashlight still on, right next to it you see the monsters back, its skin is a greenish pale tone, it’s spinal chord protrudes out of its skin in a very unnatural manner. A horrid creature. The assault rifle is to close to the creature, it’s not an option. You will have to make a run for the door and hope you are lucky enough to make it.
You stay very still in the darkness trying to catch your breath. You convince yourself that everything will be alright, your whole body feels shaky, your legs feel rubbery and incapable of taking you all the way to the door. You shake the ideas and get ready to make a run for it...
Turn to the next page to make a run for it...
‘To hell with it’ you think, you spring yourself up to your feet and run like you’ve never ran before. You run on the side opposite to where the monster devours your former specialist. The creature lifts its head to see you. You keep running! You reach the door but it won’t budge. Damn it! You look at the control panel, it’s still running on emergency power, looks like you aren’t out of luck after all! Behind you you hear the monster approaching. You hear its horrid growls, its crooked steps, you can almost smell it! You hit the panel. Locked?! Wait! The only person who could ever bypass it in time would be Kesla. Looks like you were right the first time, fresh out of luck... You can now smell the monster, fetid husk of rotting flesh. You don’t dare look back. If only Kelsa were here... But no, she’s behind you dead, torn to pieces... and you are about to join her.
Better luck next time...
You approach the memo. It’s red letters are barely legible, looks like who ever wrote this must have been terrified, the first paragraph is impossible to decipher:
...we began shaping our planet as we saw fit! We turned fertile earth into barren cities. First we built vessels to swim, soon we built machines to fly. But that was not enough for us, for we fancied ourselves Gods. And just as we imitated swimming fish and flying birds, we imitated God and built machines to create, but also machines to destroy.
Men have defied their ‘false idols’, cast them out and sent them into oblivion! This is our punishment! The end is nigh!
We Created these things, we played God, now they are out to destroy us! God! We all beg for forgiveness!
‘What is this?’ you wonder, ’were they going mad?’ Scientists are not usually religious fanatics, something must have made this particular scientist change his mind...
Keep investigating, turn back to page 6
The console sits alone in the corner you look at the screen. You see a dialogue box asking for a username and password. The password box is blank but there is a username still written in the dialogue box, r.crick. Someone just signed out perhaps. If all other consoles are asleep except this one, it can only mean...
“Found anything rook?”
Kesla is still typing in commands.
You inform her of your findings.
“Hmm, it was on? It wasn’t you who turned it on or moved the mouse? These computers go into sleep mode after ten to twenty minutes of inactivity, depending on the users preferences. That can only mean someone was here not too long ago... Stay sharp, we might bump into some company.”
You nod your head.
“Looks like this terminal is the only one that can open that door, but the control panel has been ripped out... If someone went through the trouble of disabling it like that maybe its better to not tamper with it.”
Suddenly you hear static on your helmets comm.
“Alpha Bravo, do you copy? Over”
It’s Lieutenant Lewis. You tell him what you have found out, this disturbs him.
“I’ve just spoken to the boys over at Omega, Dr. Bhattacharya and their Life Support engineer have both concurred that the ship has a surplus of oxygen due to the fact that no one is breathing it. Also the food rations haven’t been touched in days, the hydroponic gardens are drying up... Look if your suppositions are right, then we need to stay on our toes and keep our eyes peeled, but for now you have your orders, tell Specialist Kelsa that its alright to unlock the airlock to the med labs.”
“Done Lieutenant, you are Oscar Mike.” Says Kesla as she enters the las keystrokes
“Good work Alpha Bravo, stay safe, over and out.”
You look over at Kesla, she walks over to the terminal she was using before the Lieutenants transmission. She continues to try and hack into the confidential files with even more determination and curiosity, her glasses glare in front of the monitor, her fingers are fast and nimble.
“There has to be a way to get through this...”
She looks a bit frustrated, maybe Anthea Kesla has finally met her match, a system she couldn’t crack. A few minutes later she finally speaks.
“Thought you could hide from me, huh? It’s done, let’s look at what these New Horizon pricks were hiding from us.”
You stand behind Kesla also looking at the screen, there are a lot of statistics and things you don’t understand.
“I’m no doctor, but I think they were... trying to bring people back to life or something... They were experimenting with induced genetic mutations on dead tissue... what?”
‘Are you getting this Lieutenant?’ You ask through your radio but you get no response...
“Relax rookie, the Lieutenant knows how to take care of himself, there must be something in the labs that is causing interference or...”
You recieve a strong burst of static through your helmets headset.
“This is Lewis, I’m heading to your position now!”
The Lieutenant is gasping for air... it sounds like he’s running..?
“Open the door to the computer terminals ASAP!”
The transmission cuts off from there, Kesla is already trying to get the bulk door open, a few seconds later you hear banging on the other side of the door. The banging stops, it’s replaced by shooting. Kesla looks at you, she looks frightened. You stand near the door as to give Lieutenant Lewis covering fire. Kesla gets the door open and in vaults the Lieutenant he pushes you to the ground and yells frantically.
“Shut the door! Shut it! Shut it! Shut the door!”
The door shuts and a few moments later you hear the sound of claws against metal.
“...Dr. Niket?”
Kesla waits for an answer, Lewis tries to catch his breath. You stay still on the floor without saying a word. Finally Lewis speaks.
“I don’t know I lost him... I’m calling mission abort, intel really dropped the ball, they didn’t tell us we were going up against these things!”
“What things? We can’t just leave him!” Specialist Kesla sounds very concerned for him.
“Did you download everything you found onto your data pad?”
Lieutenant Lewis looks into Specialist Kesla’s eyes. Her eyes start to flood with tears. She nods. That means Kesla and the data are priority... we’re leaving him?
Escape! Turn to page
Or be the hero and save Dr. Niket, turn to page
“Rookie, you and Dr. Niket will hold position outside the lab’s airlock, I know how bad your claustrophobia is.”
You shoot a glance at the rest of the squad, nobody is laughing at you. You feel stupid. There he is again, Lieutenant Lewis protecting you once more.
“Me and Specialist Kelsa will infiltrate through the ventilation shafts, first we will unlock the doors for Omega, we will wait for their sitrep, when they confirm that the station’s safe to board we will unlock the lab doors for you. You will be Alfa Charlie, we will be Alfa Bravo, understood?”
“Yes sir!”
The whole squad, including you, blurt out these words.
“Check your gear squad!”
You zip up your hostile environment suite and fix your helmet. You grab your assault rifle, an SSX-40, state of the art with recoil dampeners, magazine of forty rounds, heat discharge and features many customizable parts. You fix a flashlight into the bayonet rail. You check for jamming, you cock your weapon and put the safety on. You look around to see if you are forgetting something, suddenly you spot your side arm. You almost forgot it! Your side arm is a Desert Eagle .50, it’s very old but in perfect working condition, it is one of the most powerful handguns ever made. A gift from your father, it is both your back up weapon and your lucky charm. You holster your side arm. You are ready.
Fifteen minutes later the pilot has a visual on the space station. You are about to arrive. Lieutenant Lewis says a few words before the deployment. You are not paying attention, you are nervous, your hands are sweating, you’ve been on very few missions and this is the first time you are going in with such little intel, who knows what you will find in there! You begin gasping for air. You are about to choke, but you fight it. Right about now you realize just how thankful you are that Lieutenant Lewis was considerate of you and had you steer clear the ultra narrow ducts.
“ETA 5 minutes. Team Alpha, Team Omega begin boarding your respective shuttles.”
The voice in the intercom fades out. You and your squad double time it to the shuttle, you fasten your security harness as does everyone else. The intercom voice crackles back to life, this time inside the shuttle’s speakers.
“Good luck Alpha, Good luck Omega, we will be standing by. Trafalgar out.”
The shuttle’s engine roars, suddenly it shoots off into space. Through the observation windows of the shuttle you see Neptune. It’s beautiful. You lose yourself in the beauty of the planet, the many shades of blues, the hints of violet and green, the white strips that riddle the planet. For a moment you feel peaceful. All of the sudden the shuttle begins to circle the planet and reaches its dark side. The sun is eclipsed by the Ice Giant, you are plunged into darkness, all of your peaceful feelings go away, fear begins to kick back in. The IR sensors inside the shuttle activate catching on to the stations radiation immediately.
Seconds later the shuttle touches down on the hull near the vent. Lieutenant Lewis goes in first, he takes a look around and yells clear, seconds later Specialist Kelsa leaves the shuttle.
“In position Alfa Charlie, this is where we part ways. Good luck.”
The shuttle lifts off again and advances towards your LZ, you’re anxious, sweating bucket loads. The doctor sees you through your visor. He lets out a laugh, not any laugh, a nervous laugh. He’s maybe nervous because he knows about that experience you lack, hell, the inexperience is leaking from your face! He touches your shoulder.
“Relax rookie, you’re going to dehydrate if you keep sweating like that.”
He’s voice is playful, he makes you laugh. You relax. Your shuttle is reaching its LZ
“In position Alfa Charlie. Omega’s in, stand by for sitrep.”
Alfa Bravo is in position and you are about to be, now you play the waiting game. You hate waiting. The shuttle touches down near a blast door. You make sure everything is clear and then signal Dr. Niket. You take position near the door and wait. Minutes later you recieve another transmission from Alfa Bravo.
“Omega has determined that non of the crew is alive, nobody is eating the food rations, drinking the water or breathing the oxygen. You’re good to go Alfa Charlie.”
The blast doors open, you ready your assault rifle just in case, you point it at the opening door. As the door opens you see a service corridor, only the emergency lights are on, main power must be offline. Everything is horribly dark, you try to adjust your eyes but the fact is simple, visibility is terribly low.
“According to the scans the labs are over to the right, we must go there at once.”
Dr. Niket signals towards the labs direction. You take point. The narrow corridors begin closing in on you, as you walk you feel your legs go rubbery. You are very nervous, never the less you are alert and you are doing everything by the book. The service corridors are clear. You reach the lab doors. Locked. Why can’t anything just be simple?
You request assistance from Alfa Bravo, they comply. Specialist Kelsa has the door open within seconds. Damn she’s good!
“We go in.”
Dr. Niket’s russian accent always makes everything sound so dramatic...
You reach a big lab, the lights are out. There are several cages on the far side of the door though you cannot see their contents due to the vague light. You survey the room for hostiles. Clear. There are two computer monitors, one of them is broken, looks like a bullet hole tore through the first one, the second one seems to be in working conditions. Dr. Niket moves to the far side of the room to check the cages for any evidence, he has his weapon drawn. With the flashlight of your assault rifle you inspect further. The lab floor is full of blood. What happened here?
“Chërtov!”
You look at Niket and he has his hand held up to where his mouth is in a symbolic manner since he is wearing his hostile environment suite. He walks hurriedly away from the cages.
“All the animals in the cages have been dead for weeks.”
You walk through the maze of littered desks and chairs in the lab. You point your assault rifle at one of the cages and see dead animals within. Dead dogs, dead cats, dead chimps... wait this cage is empty. Upon closer inspection you realize that the bars are slashed through and twisted. What ever was in that cage clawed its way out. You inform Dr. Niket.
“Roger that, stay sharp.”
You keep investigating, your trigger finger is itchy in the promise that there is a very nasty creature capable of clawing its way out from a metal cage.
“The scans showed the labs to be much bigger...”
Dr. Niket’s right, you look around and you see another door. There is a sign that reads ‘Incubator Room’, as if this place wasn’t creepy enough. You decide to take a closer look at things.
Check out the computer, turn to page 15
Check out the cages, turn to page 16
Check out the incubator room, turn to page 19
You touch the computers screen and it comes back to life. Lucky you! The computer is already logged in as Martin Gallegos, and it’s got a high level of clearance too. You browse through files. There are some private logs, there are vast amounts of information and really no time so you decide to skim through: You keep reading
Project Hades Initiates: Finally, we have been given go to initiate Project Hades. I think the name, Project Hades, is quite appropriate due to the secrecy of the Project. The unseen, the underworld, although I would have liked the name Project Lazarus better. But alas when we voted upon...
You keep scrolling.
Day 10: There has been much advancement made in the first ten days, though we have no results to show for it, there is something we are missing. The fact is Dr. Miyamoto has been pushing for...
Day 45: It is incredible. We have not managed to bring dead tissue back to life, however, we have managed to induce unusual mutations on dead tissue through certain types of X5 and Gamma radiations. The process is quite complex, in fact...
You keep scrolling, there is an entry that immediately catches your eye.
Day 163: We did it! We managed to bring a lab rat back to life! This is the first time in history we have been able to undo death! The rat seems to be operating with about 3% of its brain capacity, seems to have lost all memory or instinct. It’s a mindless hunk of meat, its only reaction to stimuli is aggression. Funny thing though, its respiratory system seems to be inactive, what could cause this? I will look into this. Anyway, our goals have been met. It is time to begin testing on human subjects. I will keep this entry brief as we will be celebrating...
Human subjects? This is all the information you need to bring New Horizon to justice. Testing on humans is strictly prohibited by any law. The rest of the log describes advancements day by day with a few personal notes. The last entries seem to show a gradual insanity developing. The last note reads as follows:
I’m sorry for my sins, I should have never come here. What made me think we had the right to leave our planet and play God? Undoing death? What were we thinking? There is a damn good reason why living things die and they are meant to stay that way. Somewhere alongside all our ‘intelligence’ we failed to see that. This is my last log. Veronica, I’m sorry for leaving you to come to this place. I love you.
Martin Gallegos.
You call Dr. Niket so he can see what you have found. He begins skimming through, draws out his datapad and downloads all info. He begins searching the computer for more files. He finds details on the experiments, statistics, elements, experiment composition and a lot of background data.
“Looks like they wanted to bring people back to life... but to what purpose?”
Keep investigating, turn back to page 14
You walk to the cages pointing your assault rifle’s flashlight at them. Some cages are so full of blood you can see it flooding over to other cages or dripping down to the ground. You reach the first cage and you try to determine how the dog in it was killed. Before you can draw a conclusion you hear noise coming from one of the cages. You point your assault rifle at the cage and suddenly you hear claws against the metal floor of the cage making a horrible screeching sound that makes every hair in your body stand up straight. You hesitate wether to shoot or not. Not before long what ever is in that cage begins to slam itself against the cage door. Your blood grows cold, your heartbeat accelerates, you begin gasping for air. The rattling cage gets ever louder. You look back at Dr. Niket and he looks pale as death. You are both scared out of your minds!
Shoot the cage, turn to page 17
Open the cage, turn to page 18
You open fire on the cage, the sound of shooting and bullets against metal rings all over the room. These loud noises abruptly come to an end. Silence fills the room. You look at Dr. Niket, he still looks frightened. Carefully, you reach out to the cage door and open it, immediately you jump back and you point your assault rifle at it. Inside the cage lies a dead cat. Damn it... you didn’t do it on purpose, you were scared. Dr. Niket pats you on the shoulder as if telling you it wasn’t your fault. But you know it was. You gotta keep that itchy trigger finger of yours in check.
Keep investigating, turn back to page 14
You get closer to the cage and shine your flashlight to see what’s inside. Two fluorescent eyes catch yours and startle you. The cage is still rattling the creature inside is now letting out a series of high pitched noises. You look at Dr. Niket, he has his weapon ready. You signal him to shoot at anything hostile that comes out of that cage. Your hand is about to unlock the slamming cage door. You can see it shaking in the dim lights. You unlock the door and it swings open with a lot of force, as the creature leaps out of the cage it lets out a terrified cry though you recognize the sound. It was just a cat. Oh man... well at least you didn’t shoot it. Relax! You gotta keep it together!
Keep investigating, turn back to page 14
The incubator room is lit by nothing more than the lights of the glass incubating tanks filled with a green slightly yellowish liquid. This paints the whole room an eerie green tone which gives it a very disturbing air. The first thing that catches your eyes is a dead man on a chair behind a desk. His head hangs back and his mouth is wide open. His wrists are slit, underneath him there is a huge puddle of blood, he has a scalpel in his left hand. You get in closer and you read his name tag: Gallegos. Poor bastard. You look at the incubators, human embryos? These people were way out of line. You are beginning to feel glad you volunteered for this mission. You get closer to the tubes and notice that there are many embryos in different stages of development. Some as small as an orange segment, others already have hair and even eyelashes. Staggered, you turn around to tell Dr. Niket what you have found when you hear bubbling inside one of the tanks. You choke, your throat cannot emit any sound. You turn around slowly and get closer to the tank you suspect the bubbling came from. You look into the tank and you see a fully formed baby. His tiny eyes are shut tightly and you wonder if he ever had a chance to open them. ‘It could’ve been anything,’ you think, just when you are about to turn around you see the the baby’s eyes opening to reveal a horrible hump of red flesh protruding from his eye sockets.
You stumble back in surprise. You sit up and you stare in awe. The baby in the glass tank begins to wiggle and then you experience the most gruesome scene imaginable! Something begins to poking through the inside of the baby’s skin around the shoulders. Are those tentacles!? The tentacles come out from the baby’s back and shoulders, they grow three times as long as the baby’s body. You begin pushing your self back! Shit you dropped your assault rifle when you stumbled back! You lean forward to grab it but just then the baby breaks out of the tank. The green yellowish liquid falls all over you, the baby lands on the back of your head and it grips tightly around your neck as if not to fall. The grip is so tight that its actually asphyxiating you. Wait! It’s not holding on, it’s strangling you and it’s doing a damn good job! You squirm around the pool of incubator liquid. You can’t get him off! You try to reach the assault rifle but it’s too far, as you reach you feel a shard of glass slice your lower back. You try to yell out in pain but you don’t have enough air. Wait your side arm! You had forgotten all about it, again! You pull it out with every intention of blowing that baby’s head clean off but just your luck, in your hasty desperation you pull out the gun but the green liquid is slippery and you drop your gun. Your vision begins to fade, you feel weak, you begin to accept your fate... Fate? What fate! Don’t give up now! The gun couldn’t have fallen far. Reach for your gun damn it! KEEP READING THIS IF YOU WANT TO REACH FOR YOUR GUN! Your palm pats the ground looking for it. You feel something! You keep patting and you feel the slide of your pistol! Time to put this baby to sleep! You point your gun just above your head and you shoot the baby right off.
You gasp for air, you sit up and see that the baby is still moving, you shoot it again and it lets out a horrible shriek. You catch your breath and grab your assault rifle. Why didn’t Dr. Niket come to your aid? You go back into the main labs. Niket isn’t there. Where is he?
You look around the room for clues but instead of finding something you find that there’s something else missing as well. The scientists body that was dead on the chair. Everything's getting too strange. You call over to Alfa Bravo they respond. You tell them what happened.
“We’ve encountered some sort of creatures as well we should rendezvous, hold position we’re on our way to you.”
You wait for them. They’re taking too long. You don’t like being alone, you jump at every sound until you notice it’s the sound of the hull expanding and contracting because of exposure to different temperatures. You ask yourself what the hell could be going on, what the hell could they be trying to find. Finally after minutes which seemed like hours the rest of your squad arrives. You fill them in on the details and express your concern for Dr. Niket. You want to say you are sorry, but it won’t change a thing.
“I’m pulling the plug on this whole thing, our intel was bad, get ready to get the hell out of here.”
Specialist Kesla looks surprised and confronts the Lieutenant.
“What? You’re just going to leave him?”
“The mission is top priority Specialist, we need to get this info over to the Trafalgar.”
You want to help Dr. Niket as well but Lieutenant Lewis is right...
Are you going to follow orders, turn to page 23
Or are you going to right your wrongs, turn to page 21
“We can’t leave him!” You say.
Kesla looks at you and faintly smiles. Lieutenant Lewis looks amazed at your spontaneous Bravery. You wait for their answers.
“I’m with you.”
Kesla stands at your side and looks at the Lieutenant. Lewis doesn’t like the fact you both are putting the mission on jeopardy because of one crew member, but he likes the thought of leaving him less.
“You’re right, nobody’s left behind.”
Lieutenant Lewis looks at you, places his hand on your shoulder and nods his head, apparently he’s proud of you.
“Omega, this is Alfa do you read, over.”
Yes, that’s a great idea, if we could rendezvous with Omega they would be able to assist us in getting Dr. Niket out... But there was no reply. Lieutenant Lewis tries once more, twice more, nothing.
“Trafalgar, this is Alfa, over.”
“Trafalgar here Alfa, damn good to hear from you, we’ve been trying to reach you without success, what’s your status?”
“We were attacked by some kind of creature, have you heard from Omega?”
“Creature?”
“We’ll fill you in later, please answer my question Fago.”
“...We’ve been trying to reach them, we lost contact with them about twenty minutes ago... We’re just glad you’re still operational Alfa.”
“Damn... we were hoping for assistance, we have lost Dr. Niket, we intend to find him.”
“Negative Alfa, the mission is top priority. Get what ever you have found back to the ship, prepare for extraction.”
“Negative Trafalgar, we are not leaving him behind.”
“The mission...”
“Look Trafalgar, it’s this simple, you can either help us by getting a fix on Niket’s possition or you can stay out of our way.”
“Damn it Lewis! I knew you couldn’t be trusted to do the hard thing when the time came, too soft, too idealistic from the start...”
There was silence over the comms.
“I admire your resolve Lewis, I’ll get you Niket’s location... I trust you not to get killed.”
“Thank you Captain...”
“Niket’s readings show up in the mess hall, inside one of the food storage. He seems to be static, like our boys in Omega... Lewis, I’m afraid he’s dead.”
“I have to make sure.
“Okay Lewis, your call, just one thing... if you go to the mess hall you should go to the bridge, there might be more valuable information there, we can also extract you from there. There are two ways to get there. You can go through the service tunnels or you can go through the main corridors. The service tunnels may get you there undetected but the passages are narrow. On the other hand, the main corridors are wider, you’d be able to maneuver freely and you already know what to expect. Your call Lieutenant.”
“Thank you Trafalgar, Alfa out.”
The Lieutenant ends transmission and looks at you and Kesla.
“I saw the main halls, there are too many of them, we might not have enough ammo to cut through them, we’re taking the maintenance tunnels.”
Specialist Kesla steps in.
“With all due respect sir, we were in the vents, if we had encountered one of those creatures we would have been in deep shit, if we have space to maneuver we might not need to shoot them all.”
The Specialist and the Lieutenant argue over which route to take. You have no idea which would be the wisest choice. You keep your mouth shut. After a few minutes Lieutenant Lewis finally decides what to do.
“Since we can’t seem to make up our mind I’ll leave it to the rookie.”
Kesla seems incredulous
“What? Leading the team is your job! You can’t just leave it to the rookie!”
“We’ll vote on it. I vote for the service tunnels.”
Kesla now looks uneasy, she looks at you.
“I say we go through the main corridors.”
“Well rookie, where does your vote go?”
Service Tunnels, turn to page 25 OR Main Corridors, turn to page 26
“Trafalgar, this is Alfa, over.”
“Lewis? Damn good to hear your voice, we lost Omega, we had been trying to reach you but we didn’t get response.”
“Sorry about that Captain, we run into some trouble... We lost Dr. Niket...”
“Damn it...”
Captain Fago pauses for a brief moment and then carries on.
“Dr. Niket knew the risk involved when he volunteered for this mission. I want all the details as soon as you arrive at the Trafalgar I’m sending the shuttle over, hold tight, Trafalgar out.”
Lewis looks around and then looks at us
“The shuttle will be arriving at Alfa Charlie’s LZ we should hole up there until the shuttle arrives. ETA 15 minutes.”
You wait for a few minutes without much happening, you hole up in the best place you find to defend your position but it looks like it won’t be necessary. Suddenly you hear crashing crystals from the incubator room. That can’t be good news… You had to open your mouth!
“Keep an eye out people, I think we’re going to have company real soon.”
A very small baby like creature emerges from one of the top vents catching you and the others by surprise. It hangs from the ceiling but does nothing. Lieutenant Lewis and hesitates as to whether to shoot or not. You want to shoot it but it might alert other nearby enemies, you decide to shoot it as soon as it becomes a real threat. Without warning the baby like creature springs from its tentacles and opens its mouth wide. It shrieked in such an unnatural manner that you felt your spine being shanked, the hairs on the back of your neck stood up like needles. Then you realize that the creature is alerting others of its kind of your presence. You shut it up with a burst of your assault rifle, the tiny body falls to the floor. Too late you begin hearing creatures closing in from every side. One of the creatures appears into sight. It’s a humanoid with lumps of rotting flesh everywhere. It has razor sharp bone structures coming out of its hands, as it gets closer you notice its wearing a New Horizon Security uniform. These monsters! They’re the crew! You open fire, the creature falls, as a Pavlovian bell, the gunfire calls all the other creatures to eat. They swarm you! Your whole squad opens fire. You can hear Lieutenants Lewis’s muffled voice over the gun fire shouting ‘don’t stop firing!’ You follow that order without hesitation. You reload once every minute, thank God for the heat discharge systems of your gun that’s keeping it from completely overheating.
“ETA thirty seconds gentlemen, be ready to leave at once.”
The shuttle’s pilot! You are saved! You just have to hold on thirty more seconds. The bodies on the corridor were now piling up, there were so many of them and they kept coming! Twenty seconds later Specialist Kelsa begins to bypass the blast door. You have one less gun firing so now your aim has to be true. You keep piling up the monsters carcasses but they are getting closer with every passing second. Your backs are almost completely against the door, there is barely enough space for Kelsa to bypass the door!
The door is open! Kesla is the first one to jump into the shuttle waiting outside the door. You and Lewis keep firing! Lewis signals you to jump into the shuttle, you comply and once inside you continue to give him covering fire, finally Lewis jumps into the shuttle which immediately dusts off you lean out to look down the monsters exit into the hull of the space station, into vacuum. ‘Of course’ you think, they don’t breath...
On the way back to the Trafalgar you finally get to rest. You made it out! You survived your first mission, somehow you don’t feel the same, like you’ve grown up, no thanks to those five months on cryo though. You begin to review the mission on your mind, Niket’s gone… It could’ve been anyone, it could’ve been you. You realize that you’ve had enough of this to go around a lifetime, you don’t want to think about it anymore, the shuttles window displays star filled vacuum. It’s peaceful and beautiful. You ponder about the universe, its expansion, how it can be so beautiful and peaceful but dark and dangerous at the same time, maybe your ancestors were asking themselves the same thing about the ocean once… You realize you’re very tired and you eventually doze off into a dream...
You vote for the service tunnels.
“Well Kelsa, you heard the man.”
You might go undetected, and that would boost your chances of survival. The service tunnels run underneath main corridors. You find a small metal ladder in the corner of the main corridor. Lieutenant Lewis descends first, Kelsa Follows, finally you go down. You got the rear flank. You move steady at first without encountering any problems but you eventually bump into a creature, the Lieutenant opens fire on it and it automatically drops dead. Easy does it, right? You hear the shots echoing towards the far stretches of the service tunnels. Lieutenant Lewis keeps moving and you follow. After a few minutes more you hear growling in the corridors in front and behind you. Lieutenant Lewis looks back at Kelsa and you with deadpan expression, seconds later the tunnels begin to flood with all kind of monstrous creatures. You look back and you see there are creatures trying to flank you from the rear as well. Monsters drop and you keep firing, Lieutenant Lewis also fires incessantly. After a few minutes the bodies begin clogging up the tunnels. You can’t advance and they just keep coming!
twenty minutes later you and your squad are all out of ammo. The creatures keep coming you begin to club them with your assault rifle but they are relentless eventually one catches your leg and you scream in anguish, the creature drags you into the darkness. You hear Kelsa and Lewis calling after you, after a minute the only thing you can hear is this monster dragging your body. The creature decides it’s finally the time to feast on you, your last seconds are spent in agony as it digs its teeth repeatedly into your body.
You are dead in your narrow tomb now... try to keep an open mind next time.
You vote for the main corridor, you are going to need maneuverability if you are to get out of this one.
“Alright rookie, I hope your intuition serves us right. Ok, here’s the plan. We go through the main corridors and make a run for it. We shoot only what we cannot dodge, save your ammo we might need it. Once in the mess hall we spread out and look for Dr. Niket. Understood?”
“Yes sir!”
You and Specialist Kelsa sound off at the same time. Lieutenant Lewis opens the door and pokes his head out.
“All clear, stay on your toes, we wouldn’t like to alert these things.”
You exit into the corridors and begin to double time it. The corridors are empty. Lucky you. You jog for about 10 minutes until you reach the mess hall doors. Specialist Kelsa begins to over ride the door.
“No worries, it’s the mess hall, encryption must be light.”
Said and done, ten seconds later Kesla has that door open. Lewis leans in for a look and leans back up.
“Shit! The mess hall is crawling with them!”
You lean in and confirm the fact. The expansive mess hall could sit four hundred people at once. There are a lot of those creatures but they are spread out thin.
“ Dr. Niket is in that storage room right there. Here’s the plan, Specialist Kelsa and I will enter the room and open fire, this should draw the creatures attention to us. When you see that the creatures are really interested in us you are going to extract Dr. Niket, we’ll rendezvous in the bridge which is at the other side of the mess hall.”
You are ready. You feel adrenaline pumping into your veins and heart. Kelsa and Lieutenant Lewis run into the room and open fire. You hear shrieking and growling as the bullets tear through the creatures skin.
“Go Rookie! Go now!”
You run into the room with your assault rifle drawn, you see Lewis is on top of one of the mess tables, he shoots down at the monsters trying to climb atop his table. Specialist Kelsa, a lot more subtle, is barricaded on the other side with a pistol helping Lieutenant Lewis not get over run. You spot the food storage door. You run as fast as you can you jump onto the long military issue mess tables and you run on top of them. You don’t draw much attention and reach the door without problems. You try to open the door but it’s locked. You bang with your fists on the door and call out for Niket. The door opens.
“Rookie?”
“Let’s get out of here!” You say
“I can’t my leg is hurt, I thought I was going to die here for sure.”
You take things into your own hands. You stretch Dr. Niket’s legs and you swing him over your back. You turn around and run! You see both the Lieutenant and Specialist Kelsa backing up into the corridors, the Lieutenant signals you to go ahead without them. You obey. The mess hall is pretty much clear now and you easily make your way to the other corridor, the one that leads to the bridge. When you reach the bridge you find a blast door you cannot get through. You lay Dr. Niket on the ground and draw your assault rifle. Nothing. Dr. Niket also has his weapon drawn, he looks more scared than you do. A few minutes later you hear footsteps. It’s them.
“Good work rookie! Specialist, get that door open ASAP.”
Kelsa nears the door and begins to bypass.
“This one will take me longer, the bridge is the most important room.”
Lewis nods.
“Alfa to Trafalgar, do you copy?”
“Roger Alfa, we’re here, what’s your situation?”
“We are trying to bypass the bridge door, we’ve successfully extracted Dr. Niket and will be needing extraction pretty soon.”
“Roger Alfa, evac’s on its way.”
“There it’s open!”
Kesla stands back and the doors open automatically.
“Damn good job Specialist.”
You carry Dr. Niket into the bridge room and you lay him gently near a wall. He thanks you. Kelsa locks the doors and joins Lewis. They are digging up information on the bridges monitors.
“They aren’t mindless husks.”
Dr. Niket looks at you with frightened eyes. You don’t really get what he’s trying to say, maybe he is delirious, in pain.
“In the mess hall, they... they ambushed me, that’s how I got this.”
Dr. Niket points at his leg’s wound.
“The monsters... they are the crew, horribly transformed by experiments gone out of hand. I met a scientist after escaping from the labs, he was hiding in the restrooms. He was mortally wounded, it was only a matter of time... His name was Crick, I find that ironic since one of the discoverers of the DNA double helix structure was named Crick.”
Dr. Niket chuckles to himself.
“He gave me this written confession. He said this document contains everything everyone needs to know... They were trying to find a way to make human beings regenerate, in theory they would be able to bring people back from the dead with this... Regeneration... Do you know what that would mean? Regenerate lost limbs, close bullet holes in a matter of hours... We’d even stop aging. After several failed attempts they found a way to bring dead tissue back to life, first a mouse. They thought it was useless at first, since the revived life form was a mindless piece of meat. But then they saw that the tissue would not only regenerate, it would also generate extra limbs, extra organs... they were about to pull the plug after they met an obstacle they could not over come, but then they figured they could use these monsters as troops for a future war, every dead enemy soldier would become a horrid creature to put on the battlefield. These, he said, could be used as shock troops, imagine the psychological impact it would cause a soldier to shoot a monster wearing his own uniform. A bioweapon, that’s all they wanted after they failed to create viable genetic modifications in our genetic code.
Lieutenant Lewis and Kelsa are still gathering information. Minutes later the evac shuttle arrived. I carried Dr. Niket into the shuttle. Lieutenant Lewis and Specialist Kelsa finish sweeping the rest of the room and finally board the shuttle.
You made it! You survived! It was not easy but you live to fight another day. Dr. Niket is now unconscious, he has lost a lot of blood but is stable. You tell Lieutenant Lewis what Dr. Niket told you in the bridge. You give the written confession to you commanding officer and relax. You have everything you need to bring down New Horizon, they will pay for this inhumane research and its disastrous outcome. You can now sit back and enjoy the ride...
You arrive at the Trafalgar, Captain Fago conducts the debriefing. Dr. Niket is being taken care of. After the debriefing you exit the conference room and find that Lieutenant Lewis is waiting for you in the passage.
“You did good rookie.”
Lieutenant Lewis puts his arm around your neck.
“I might even push your name forward for a promotion.”
“Thank you sir, but let’s talk it over five months from now, I really need a nap.”
You walk towards the cryogenics room while yawning. Lieutenant Lewis chuckles.
“Then a rookie you shall be for five more months.”
No hay comentarios.:
Publicar un comentario