Dead in Space Pt. 01

The pod door to the cryo-pod hissed and slowly opened. I sat up and shook my head, coughing while I did. I stepped out onto the cold, metal floor of the cryo-room of the IMC Shadow. John James, Eddie Sharpe, Reese Kyle, Tyson Smith and Scarlet Dale all slowly rose from their cryo-pods, coughing as well.

"I fucking hate cryo." Sharpe said with a cough. Sharpe or Alpha 5 was the heavy weapon unit of Alpha Squad. Physically the biggest of Alpha squad, he was a sort of pack mule of heavy gear and weapons.

"Yea, well by the looks of your face, cryo hates you too." John said, laughing. John or Alpha 3 was the demo expert of Alpha Squad. James, who liked anything that went boom from age 13, was the most knowledgeable with explosives, however childish he acted.

"Not even 5 minutes awake and you two idiots are already at it." Tyson said, stretching. Tyson or Alpha 6 is the techy and hacker of Alpha Squad. At age 12, Tyson was smart enough to hack a school program blocker just so he could play games.

"I guess it's just their thing or some bullshit like that." Reese said. Reese or Alpha 7 is Alpha Squads sniper and stealth expert. Kyle keeps to himself in combat, unlike Sharpe and John who never quit bitching in combat. Reese is ranked Top Sniper and Best Marksmen in the Marines, aside from the Chief himself.

"They act like an old married couple." Scarlet remarked. Scarlet or Alpha 24 is Alpha squads medic. Since she was raped at age 14, she has always wanted to help people anyway she can. She is the newest member of Alpha Squad. She is sometimes called Rookie. Her first real operation and probable last. We never keep Rookies very long.

And last but not least, myself. I am Shawn McKay and I am the Leader of Alpha Squad. I don't like to brag but my squad is the most decorated Marine squad in the Interstellar Marine's with most combat drops and missions completed.

At that moment, the ship Commander, Commander Johnson Price, walked into the cryo room. Instantly, we all snapped to attention, only able to breath and our hearts can beat.

"At ease, soldiers." Commander Price said and we all went to the at ease stance. "As you know, we are here to locate and retrieve the PMC Hirohito, a mining ship that sent a distress call 3 days ago, she was orbiting an unknown planet when we received the message, you Marines are going on board to find out what happened."

Tyson raised his hand and Commander Price nodded for him to speak. "Have we gotten contact from them, sir?"

"No, Lieutenant, we haven't, nothing but static, now get your gear into the pods, launch in 5 hours." The Commander ordered.

The Commander left the deck and we all went down the short hall to the armory and out lockers. I took my armor out of my locker and started putting it on.

Scarlet came up next to me, holding her armor, sat on the bench and said. "What do you think it is, sir?"

I hooked my boot on tight and said, "Drop the Sir shit, Private, I work for a living."

She remained quiet as she put her chest plate on and I tightened my gloves, flexing my fingers to see if they fit well. I walked to the weapons lockers and opened them up, saying. "We're gonna be inside a ship, take whatever you think is necessary, bring plenty of mags and Rookie, bring med supplies."

Seeing they got the message, I looked through the lockers, taking out a M41 Pulse Rifle. My favorite rifle with fully auto setting and a mag of 100 rounds. I grabbed a M4R pistol, high capacity mag and fucking accurate. I also grabbed the good old M37 Close Assault Weapon System or Shotgun for short. Grabbing 16 extra clips for the M41, 10 extra clips for the M4R and 80 shells for the M37, I stowed them away in my pod.

I returned to the armory and watched what the rest of my squad chose for weaponry.

John grabbed a M4BR Battle Rifle, which was 3 round burst and a 15 round clip. He chose the M4R pistol, like mine. Being the demo expert he was bound to grab the U4 Smart Laser. This beast of a weapon fired a high-powered laser that wasted anything it touched. He packet any other kind of explosive into his pack and headed to the pods.

Sharpe chose the M56 automatic weapon, which was fully auto with a bi-pod and a 500 round chain. He took the 88M4, which was a bigger pistol of a higher caliber but an 18 round mag. He also grabbed the M240 Incinerator better known as the Flamethrower. He grabbed some more chains for the M56 before heading to the pods.

Tyson took up the M4BR as well, due its 3 round burst. He also took the M4. Being team techy, he thought it would be smart to bring a MK2 Plasma Pistol, due to EMP. Grabbing extra clips and comm gear he headed to the pods.

Carlos grabbed up his SAM Sniper rifle, with it long range and 4 round clip. He then grabbed 2 M39 Submachine guns and a M4R. Taking extra clips he headed to the pods.

Finally, Scarlet took a MK122 shotgun, because medics need to concentrate on helping before killing. She grabbed a M4R and an M39 Submachine gun as well. She loaded her pack with medical supplies and extra shells and clips before heading to the pods, dropping her shotgun on the way out.

I picked up the shotgun, shook my head and said to myself, "Green as grass."

I gave her the shotgun and then said to the squad, "Go get something to eat while we have time, 3 hours until launch!"

***

3 hours later...

We entered the small pod bay, so small it could only launch two pods at a time. Helmets on and packs on our backs, the Commander walked on deck and we snapped to attention.

"At ease, for today, we are gonna use newly made grind pods, they will cut through the ships hull for you to get in." The Commander said.

The grind pod engineer stepped forward and said, "Since we can only launch two at a time and it will take a while to load and prep the next pods, so it may be a while before the whole team is onboard, so set a rally point as soon as the first two are onboard."

"Okay, the Rookie and I will drop first, Tyson and Reese will go after us and Sharpe and John go last." I said, locking my M41 and M35 into the weapon compartment in the side of the pod. I put my M4R in its holster and locked myself into the pod.

Scarlet locked her weapons into the compartments and put her pistol in its holster. She got into her grind pod and I called her comm. "You ready, Rookie?"

"Ready to dive in, feet first." She replied, sounding nervous.

"That's our way, Conrad, drop us in." I ordered.

The grind pods drill started turning and the red-hot drill laser started up. I felt the pod reposition to fire the pod into the ships hull.

Conrad, the ship's engineer and Alpha squads mission advisor, tapped a few buttons on the launch control board and the launch switch on the board lit up. He gave the sign to show drop pods ready and the Commander nodded. Conrad pulled the lever and the pod launched towards the ships hull.

The pod hit the surface of the ship and I felt the hull bending and shredding as the grinder tore through it. After five seconds the pod ripped through the surface and started to tear through the floor. It went through two more floors before grinding to a stop. The pod doors opened and I stepped out.

"That was one hell of a ride." I said, pulling my MA5B and M90 out of the compartment. I put the M90 on the side of my pack and turned the safety off on the MA5B. To my left, Scarlet emerged from her pod.

"Holy shit, I don't want to do that again." She said taking her weapons from the compartment.

"Well, get use to it, we always dive in feet first." I said, looking at her.

"Yea, I know, sir, we aren't Marines for no reason." She said, putting the M7 on her hip SMG holder.

"Your shotgun will work better with safety off, Private." I said, feeling a bit embarrassed that she didn't turn it off as soon as she got out of the pod.

"Oh, yes, sir, sorry sir." She said, scrambling to turn safety off.

"I told you to drop the sir shit, Private."

"Sorry, Captain."

"Whatever, lets get busy." The HUD snapped closed over the normal visor.

The room was dark and blood was splattered all over the walls. There was writing on the wall, in blood, of course. It looked as if someone had shot a cow with a rocket launcher in this room; all that was missing were the bodies.

"Holy shit, what happened here?" Scarlet asked, looking all around.

"Private, I told you I didn't know when we were on the Shadow, what makes you think I'd know now?" I said, obviously annoyed.

I turned the comm to the Shadow and said, "Commander, we got blood covering the walls of Barracks A1, no bodies in sight."

"Understood Captain, check the other areas and try to find out what happened." The Commander replied.

"Sir, what's the ETA on the grind pod landing?"

"Should take about 45 minutes to prep and run a system check."

"Roger that, sir, Forty-two, out." I clicked the comm off and turned to Scarlet, who was on one knee, running a quick test on the blood.

She looked at me and said, "I'm seeing traces of dead tissue from human beings and it is still in a liquid form, barely dried."

"Huh, strange, well Rookie, we need to sweep the barracks and find out what the fuck happened here." I replied, looking at the blood.

We walked into the main lounge of Barracks A. The lights were out and there signs of some kind of fight. Blood stained the floor and large splats on the walls. Chairs and couches were flipped and scattered across the room. Vending machines had been knocked over, causing broken glass around the floor. No bodies anywhere in the room.

"Defiantly signs of some kind of fight, but no bodies." I said, kicking a chair over.

"That's not all, look what I found." Scarlet said, holding something.

Walking over, I saw what she held. A human hand that had been cut off at the forearm, the bone visible at the cut. Blood was spattered all over the hand and the cut was cut cleanly.

"Shit." I said, looking at the severed hand.

"I don't think I can run a DNA test here and I'll need Tyson's help, we should head to the Med lab, they got equipment there we can use." Scarlet said, putting the hand into special, no contaminant bag and put it in her pack.

"First, we need to get a look around here, then we go to the Med lab, what could you tell from the examination?" I asked.

"It hand been cut by some kind of blade, I don't know whether it was a knife or something but I'm positive he wasn't the only one."

"Okay, so we have possible bladed hostiles." I stated, adding Intel to me HUD.

Scarlet and I searched the rest of the room, finding nothing but blood and broken furniture. We then entered a darkened hallway with nothing but dim sidelights to light it up.

"HUD on." I said to Scarlet. The HUD lit the hall up enough so we could see but it still was shadowed.

The halls seem haunted, as if the dead still roamed the halls. We heard noises that didn't sound human but we just assumed it was some kind of machine. We entered Barracks B, seeing the place was also a wreck. On the far side of the room was a very large hole in the wall. We walked toward the whole when suddenly, all the doors and windows were blocked and all lights shut off but an orange rotating light above worked. A computer voice said. "Unknown anomalies detected, quarantine activated."

"What the fuck is happening?" I said, raising my MA5B, uneasy.

"The ships auto-quarantine tripped, I'll see what we can do from here." Tyson said over the comm.

Even with our HUD on we could only see very little, it almost didn't help at all.

Suddenly, I heard a vent in the room opened. The sound of it hitting the ground was unmistaken able. We weren't alone.

"What was that?" Scarlet said, I could tell a bit of fear in her voice.

"Sounds like a vent cover falling to the ground, not sure." I said, trying to sound like I wasn't worried so the Rookie wouldn't panic.

A growling sound entered the dark room, but it wasn't like an animal, more human. We could hear the sounds but the room was to dark to see anything. Scarlet and I were on edge. Then the computer said, "Quarantine lifted." The lights all came on and the doors and windows were unblocked.

"Looks like it was just a glitch in the system, we launch in 20 minutes." Tyson said into the comm.

"Understood, thanks Tyson." I replied.

"Thank god it was just a glitch in the system." Scarlet said, seeming relieved.

"That was no glitch, something was in there, it must have left." I replied, lowering my MA5B a bit.

"But Tyson said it was just a glitch in the system."

"Listen Rookie, Tyson's smart but not always right, something was in there, vents don't just fall off."

"If they aren't properly assembled, they might."

"Then explain the growling, Rookie."

Scarlet remained silent, knowing that I was right and she was wrong. We walked to the far door and stepped into the hall, which was also pretty dark. Dim sidelights lit the floor up just enough so the floor was visible. At the end of the hall something moved.

"Sir, I really don't want to go down this hall." Scarlet said, fear in her voice.

"You're a Marine, and we haven't found anything dangerous here." I replied, somewhat aggravated.

"But something moved down there, in the shadows!"

"Your just seeing things, Rookie."

"I swear I saw something!"

"Well, it doesn't matter, we're going down there anyway, no buts."

Slowly, we started to walk down the darkened hallway. I could tell something had Scarlet scared, but whatever it was, we hadn't seen it yet. At the end of the hall, the hall forked into a left and right path.

"Looks like we're splitting up, Rookie, you take the right, I'll take the left." I ordered.

We split up, me going left, Scarlet going right. The hall was lit pretty well on my end, I could see all the way down the hall. I walked through the hall at a normal pace when suddenly, they lights went off. Stopping dead in my path, I listened into the darkness. I heard something moving through the vents above me, growling as it crawled. The sound lingered above me for a second, then the lights came back on. I looked above in the vent and saw nothing. I kept moving down the hall and into the shower room.

"Rookie, you still with me?" I said into the comm.

"Yea, I'm still here, sir, there is something else is here with us, I keep hearing sounds and seeing things move." She replied, fear almost filling her voice.

"Don't worry about it, probably your imagination, check in if you find something."

The shower room had water all over the floor, mixed with the blood that we have seen everywhere. Some of the showers were still going and lockers were dented and ripped open. Bloody towels were scattered all around, as well as clothing.

"This takes blood bath to a new level." I said to myself.

I went to one of the showers and turned the water off, didn't want the room to flood. I shut the remaining showers off and noticed the bloody water wasn't draining. I went to the drain on the floor and took the cover off. A strange organic material was clogging the drain. Scraping some up, I examined it closer, but that didn't help me, I still had no clue what it was.

Suddenly, Scarlet said into the comm, "Shaun, the room I'm in, it's quarantine tripped, and I'm locked in!" I could tell there was panic in her tone of voice.

"Hold on, I'm on my way!" I yelled into the comm. With Scarlet alone, she is a perfect target for whatever slaughter the crew.

I sprinted back the way I came and took the path to the right, heading to where she was. I came up to the room's window and peered in through the bars.

"Rookie, I'm just outside the window, I'm gonna try to get in." I said into the comm.

"Okay, sir, please hurry."

I looked around for some kind of override switch the unlock the door, but there were none. Peeking in again, I saw her in the room, perfectly fine... but not alone. Something humanoid was in there with her. What looked to be blades protruding from the palms and arms coming from the stomach? It moved slowly and quietly behind Scarlet, blades raised and ready to kill.

"Scarlet, on your six!" I yelled.

She turned around just in time to see whatever it was. The creature let out a humanlike scream as it swung its arms. Scarlet ducked in time to evade and unloaded a blast from the M90. The beast flew against the wall, in half. A second creature fell from the ceiling, flailing its arms like a crazed psycho. I fired at the glass and dove through, shattering glass and breaking metal. I fired the rest of the clip into the creature. It turned around and charged at me, flailing its arms. I pulled a fresh clip from my belt and slapped it in. The beast was too close so I swung the butt of my rifle as hard as I could. Its head twisted and flew off. The body fell, headless to the ground. I kicked the body with my foot and said, "Your not so tough." The body hopped up and flailed its arms more. I dove to the side to avoid the blades protruding from its palms. At that moment, Scarlet fired a shell from the shotgun into its back, knocking its arms off and it fell in half. Then the computer voice said, "Quarantine lifted."

"What the fuck are those things!" Scarlet said, her voice shaky.

The one she shot in half started to crawl on its bladed hands towards Scarlet.

"Look out!" I yelled as I pushed her out of the way, raised my foot above its head, yelling. "Eat boot!"

I brought my foot down on its head, splattering it like a grape. Blood splattered around the room and the neck spurted blood from the neck. The body fell limp, lifeless.

"Holy shit, holy shit, holy shit!" Scarlet said, freaking out.

"Rookie, get a hold of yourself and settle the fuck down, we're still alive and that's what matters, now, Tyson and Reese will be launching soon, we need to let them know that we have hostiles onboard the ship." I said, loading a fresh clip into the Assault Rifle.

"Yes... Yes, sir, what's our next objective." She said, voice still shaky.

"Command, this is Captain McMasters, we got hostiles on board the ship, please advise Lieutenant Linden and Corporal Reese of the hostiles." I said into the comm. The only answer I got was static. "Shit."

"What is it, sir?" Scarlet asked, loading 2 more shells into her M90.

"Comms are a mess, I can't get through to command, Tyson and Reese are going into a shit storm blind."

"Well, do we know where they are gonna land?"

"Can't be sure, they could go off course."

"Is there a way we can repair our comms?"

"No without Tyson, our best bet is to go to the communication area of the ship, which should be above the bridge."

"How will we get there before the land?"

"We won't get there before they land, but we can still possibly alert them before they run into whatever hit us, these ships normally have a ship-wide tram system, we can use that to get to the bridge faster."

"Okay, I hope we get there in time."

We moved together down more darkened halls, hearing whatever attacked us moving through the vents. Although they were moving around us in the vents, they didn't attack us.

Within 15 minutes we found the tram system, surprisingly, the whole thing worked.

"Welcome to the Higurashi Ship-Wide Tram System, please select a destination." Said the computer.

I pressed to button for the bridge and the tram started to move.

"We should be on the bridge in 5 minutes, if nothing happens."

The tram came to a slow stop and we got out onto the platform. There was blood splattered on the walls, which wasn't surprising now. We moved slowly into the hall and down towards the bridge. The bridge was huge and very open. There was only a little bit of blood splattered about.

"Check your corners." I said, being very cautious.

"Roger than." She said, M90 raised and ready to fire.

As we moved forward, one of the creatures came tearing around a wall at full sprint.