Strand_Delarus

by Don Chase

  “Seven hells,” Talis said dragging Rihn’s attention back toward the monitor.

  “What?”

  “They just keep piling out of that hole. What are these things? Some of them look like giant flying bugs,” Talis said, a worried look painted on his face.

  “I have no idea,” Rihn said staring in awe as he watched a dozen ant-like type creatures scurry out into the hallway. They were the size of a child.

  “Red team has contact,” Graunt said from behind Rihn.

  “How’s it going?” Rihn asked.

  Graunt was listening intently to his earpiece and raised a hand for Rihn to hold on. Talis heard the security chief and started tapping away on his comm pad. In short order he pulled up a camera in the hallway where he could see the security team. “I see some bodies,” Talis said.

  Graunt looked up at the communication controller’s voice. He saw immediately that there were several of the brutish invaders laying face down in the hallway. There was no sound with the video feed but he could hear assault rifles firing through his security teams’ microphones. “They’re barely going down!” he heard someone on the team say.

  He watched as a group of brutes charged toward their position. Round after round landed center of mass on the two lead brutes, yet they pushed forward. As they got within arms’ reach the two front creatures dropped to their knees and fell dead at the feet of the security team. Graunt heard someone scream as the two behind them leapt over their fallen comrades and plowed into the security team.

  The command center watched as the men kept firing their rifles in close combat. One round accidentally struck a team member high in the chest and he dropped instantly. The brutes almost ignored the gunfire. They had knocked down half the team in the initial push and started beating them with their bare fists.

  One of them reached down and grabbed one of the security forces by the throat. He stood and swung the much smaller man, bashing his head multiple times in quick succession. He only dropped him after the back of the man’s head caved in and his body went limp. Graunt let out a groan as he watched the huge beast toss the body aside before plunging back into the security team with its’ teeth bared.

  The second brute had a large foot on one of the team member’s chest as he pummeled him with two huge fists. Graunt was pretty sure the man was long dead but the monster didn’t seem to notice. He could hear the screams from the other members as they emptied their rifles to no avail.

  Three more died quickly before Graunt heard the team leader yell for a retreat. He watched one man throw his empty rifle at the brute that was reaching for him. The brute swatted the rifle aside easily and wrapped his massive hand over the top of the head of the team member. His screams turned to a gurgle as the brute’s thumb found his open mouth and forced it inside. The brute swung the man by his head back and forth slamming him off the sides of the wall until there was a sickening crack as the man’s neck snapped and the body tore loose at the neck. The body skidded down the wall as the brute dropped the head.

  Graunt could hear his team leader panting as he tried to run down the hall. He disappeared off the screen but Graunt could still hear him. The scream was ear piercing and quickly turned into a choking noise. He heard another loud snap. There was silence for a moment before it turned to the slow heavy sound of something breathing. There was a loud guttural growl that sounded like a laugh before the comm went dead.

  Chapter 6

  The screaming alarms made Marcus bash his head off of the ceiling of the small maintenance tunnel he was walking down. He had been crouched over trying to get back out of the small shaft after his last repair stop. “What’s all the racket about?” he asked.

  “No idea, but get back here so I know you’re safe,” Olivia said sounding worried.

  I’m already half way there,” he answered as he climbed back into the empty hallway. “Do you think it’s about the ship?”

  “I would bet good credits on that, but it’s probably not anything serious, just annoying.”

  Marcus chuckled as he ran down the hall toward Olivia’s office, his small backpack bouncing wildly. “Hey do me a favor…”

  “What?” she asked.

  “Don’t jump,” he said as he shoved the door open next to her desk.

  “Holy Hells!” she shrieked as she jumped visibly in her chair. “You are such an ass!”

  “I’m sorry, I’m sorry,” Marcus said between gasps of air and fits of laughter as he doubled over.

  “Jerk, get in here,” Olivia said pouting.

  “Did you find out anything?” he asked as he stood and wiped a tear from his eye.

  “No, all the usual chatter has gone dead which is strange in and of itself,” she said.

  “I need to go find my mom,” Marcus said.

  “Is she at work at the greenhouse?” Olivia asked as she removed her headset.

  “That’s where she should be. She’s probably freaking out with all the alarms.”

  “I’ll go with you.”

  “You don’t have to.”

  “I want to. I can’t think straight with all this noise anyway, maybe she knows what’s going on,” Olivia said as the two walked out of the small office.

  The hallway was deserted and they hurried to the elevator bank. The greenhouse was in the shopping and agricultural section which was located on the upper levels of the station. The elevator opened and they stepped inside. The high speed lift would get them to the upper levels quickly as long as there weren’t too many other stops. “Wait, what if she came down looking for you?” Olivia asked as they sped upward.

  “I hadn’t thought of that. I guess we’ll have to go back down if she’s not up here,” Marcus answered with a shrug.

  The doors opened and a small group of people got on. All of them looked annoyed at the blaring sirens but no one seemed overly concerned. “Does anyone know what’s going on?” Olivia asked as the doors closed and the lift again continued its ascent.

  “I heard a ship crashed into the hangar,” one lady said.

  “I haven’t heard anything but I just got called up to medical so that’s possible. It’s not even my day to work so they must have a good amount of casualties,” a tall man said as he watched the numbers on the display climb.

  The elevator slowed and stopped. The doors opened and the man and one other passenger exited before the doors slid shut again. A couple levels later the doors opened again and the girl they had spoken to exited. “Time to do the shopping,” she said as she gave them a wave. “Maybe I’ll pick up some earplugs too,” she muttered.

  Again they were alone on the lift. The last few levels whizzed by and the doors opened to the lush, warm greenhouse. Marcus led the way. He knew where his mother’s station was like the back of his hand. The greenhouse was large and had lots of small nooks and crannies. He hoped that his mother wasn’t off tending to some of the plant life but he knew where to find her boss if she was. Olivia looked around anxiously as she followed behind the younger Marcus.

  Marcus turned a few more corners before finally calling out to Stella who had her back to them as she yelled over the blaring alarms at a co worker. She heard his call and turned to see her son running toward her. “What are you doing here?” she asked as he hugged her.

  “I was worried so I came to get you,” Marcus said as Olivia came up behind him, she smiled and gave Stella a little wave.

  “Worried about what? The damn alarms are driving me crazy but otherwise I’m ok. Aren’t you supposed to be at work?”

  “We took a short break to come check on you,” Olivia said.

  “That’s very sweet of you both, but I’m still not sure why you’re worried. I figured this was just all some training drill for the crew.”

  “Although I admit it is a longer drill than I’ve heard before,” the man she was talking to said.

  “It is Burten, I just wish they’d be done with it already,” Stella said.

  “Yeah well um,” Marcus said as he s
cratched the back of his head.

  “Out with it boy,” Stella said. She knew her son well enough to know when he wanted to make a point. She was just hoping the alarm didn’t have something to do with him.

  “I think it has to do with the ship,” he said.

  “What ship?” she asked.

  “The one that pulled up alongside the station,” he answered.

  “Why wouldn’t they dock at the hangar?” Burten asked.

  “I dunno,” Marcus said.

  “Is it a GF ship?” Stella asked.

  “It doesn’t look like any of the ships I’ve seen and it doesn’t have any of the standard GF ID tags,” Marcus said.

  “And you’d know this how kid?” Burten asked sounding incredulous.

  “My son studies GF ships and tactics and he is a very good student,” Stella said feeling protective.

  “Sorry,” Burten said staring at the tops of his shoes.

  “Pirates maybe?” Stella asked.

  “It’s possible but it’s still a very odd looking ship,” Marcus said shrugging. “Either way, I think we should get somewhere a bit safer.”

  “We’re on a space station. Unless we’re leaving, I’m not sure where would be much safer,” Burten said.

  “Well if I was a pirate, I would definitely go find the food and supplies, which would mean I would come here. You know where I wouldn’t go? I wouldn’t go down to the maintenance bay, there’s nothing at all down there I’d want,” Marcus said staring at the older man.

  “He has a point,” Olivia said.

  “Or he could be over reacting and you get fired for an unscheduled break,” Burten said crossing his arms.

  “Are you going to tell the boss on me?” Stella asked glaring at Burten.

  “Umm no,” Burten said. “But he might find out.”

  “I’ll take that chance,” Stella said.

  “If it’s a false alarm and a training exercise we’ll come back up and explain,” Olivia said.

  “Don’t worry about it dear,” Stella said with a soft smile. “We should go, in case you’re right.”

  Marcus nodded and the three trotted off down the aisle a few feet before Marcus slid to a stop. “You comin’?” he asked as he looked over his shoulder at Burten.

  “Can I?” the man answered.

  “Of course,” Marcus said with a grin.

  He watched as Burten jogged up to them before turning to head back to the lifts. He grabbed a few pieces of fruit off the low hanging trees as he went under them just in case. Soon they were back in the lobby waiting for the elevator.

  Marcus had barely hit the button to call the lift when the door slid open. He raised an eyebrow as he entered. It was a decent sized station and the elevators were always busy. The doors closed and the lights flickered as the lift started its descent. “Oh yeah, that was on my list of things to fix today,” Marcus grumbled to himself.

  A dozen levels down the lift slowed and came to a halt. The doors slid open and the four looked out into the shopping area. It was a wide open hallway lined with shops and at the moment it seemed completely empty. The doors began to slide closed and Marcus put a hand across the sensor to keep them open as he leaned his head out. “Hello?” he asked at the empty area.

  He heard a grunt from down the hallway and a huge bulky creature in tattered rags stepped out and stared at the young man. He let out a small gasp and yanked his head back into the lift. He could hear the padding of large feet coming toward them as he hit the close door button repeatedly. “What’s wrong?” Olivia asked a second before they all heard a single piercing scream.

  “Closecloseclose,” Marcus said stabbing at the button repeatedly with his finger. The doors slid shut and he slumped against the wall of the lift. There was a loud thud as it started its trek downward.

  “What was that?” Stella asked.

  “I have no idea, but it’s huge, nasty and didn’t like me at all,” Marcus said breathing heavily.

  “Hopefully there’s none of them down in the maintenance area,” Burten said.

  “I don’t think it’s a drill anymore,” Stella said as she hugged her son.

  Jax, Karn and Morris had their pistols drawn as they came out of the lift. They checked to make sure the area was clear and jogged across the lobby and through the swinging doors which led to the comptroller area of the hangar. The offices were off to the right, and directly ahead of them was the heavy steel door which led to the hangar bays themselves. The door served as an airlock as well in case the hangar bay area ever needed to be sealed off from the internal sections of the station.

  Jax swiped his ID badge and the door unlocked with a loud booming noise as the heavy steel bolt slid back. He opened the door and watched behind them as the others went through. He followed directly after his friends and sealed the door again before running into the hangar itself.

  Jax had alerted all the pilots that were left on the station and told them to meet them in the locker room on their way down. When they walked into the stark white room they found only four of them had shown up. “Where’s everyone else?” Morris asked as he looked around.

  “No idea,” one of the pilots said.

  “Well we can’t wait for them, they may already be dead,” Jax said as he walked over to the equipment locker and opened it up. He took out a rifle and handed it to Morris.

  “Dead? What’s going on?” one of them asked.

  “We’ve been boarded,” Morris said as he loaded the weapon.

  “Pirates?”

  “They could be pirates Jeb but I don’t really know,” Morris answered.

  “What do you mean you don’t know if they’re pirates, what are they then?” Jeb asked sounding annoyed.

  “Well Jeb, at the moment I know they’re a gigantic force of something that’s not human. They cut a hole in our station and began ripping through our people like paper. That’s what I know at the moment,” Morris said staring down his fellow pilot.

  “Oh,” Jeb said quietly.

  “So wait, you said not human,” Argun said.

  “They certainly didn’t look human,” Jax said handing a rifle to one of the other pilots.

  “So if they’re not human, what are they?”

  “Very hard to kill from the sounds of it,” Jax said. He finished clearing out the ammo and other equipment in the locker and led the men out into the hangar bay.

  “Are we going out to help the security teams?” Jeb asked.

  “No, we’re gonna stay here and prep as many shuttles as we can. I have a feeling Rihn is gonna order an evacuation very shortly and I want us to be ready to get the seven hells out of here when he does,” Jax said.

  “I’m going to go fill the comptrollers and flight crews in,” Morris said as he jogged off.

  “Okay get right back here though,” Jax said after him.

  “You really think it’s going to get that bad?”

  “From what I’m hearing from the command center, it’s already that bad. They’re getting torn apart and they’re all over the station. The guns are to make sure they don’t get in here. You five get to work lining up the shuttles and run a quick preflight check. Morris and I will guard the doors,” Jax said. The three pilots nodded and ran off toward the bulky slow flying shuttles.

  “Sir we should really do something. Sir?” Talis had said the same thing twice already, but felt it needed repeating since Rihn seemed to just be staring at the large screen at the front of the room.

  Rihn blinked a couple times and then shook his head. “Yes, yes you’re right.”

  “Nice to have you back sir,” Corgan, who was at the console next to Talis said.

  “What should we do?” Rihn asked out loud as he wracked his brain for an idea. He scolded himself internally for his inaction. He hated pressure situations. He never told anyone about his anxiety issues. Instead he got himself a job at a sleepy station where he could operate in peace. He wasn’t so happy about that choice at the moment. “Can we cont
ain them?”

  “Not all of them but we can probably get a good sized chunk locked down,” Talis answered.

  “Good, do that,” Rihn said taking a deep breath. His heart was pounding in his chest but he started to feel a little better having made a decision.

  “You can’t just lock the security teams in there with them, they’ll be slaughtered,” Corgan said.

  “We need to get them contained!” Rihn said almost yelling.

  “Just give me one minute sir, just let me warn the security teams,” Corgan said.

  Rihn heart sank a bit as he thought. “Get on comms and tell them they have one minute to fall back before we seal it off.”

  “Yes sir,” Corgan said as he tapped at his compad.

  “We should really consider calling for an evacuation,” Graunt said from the command seat behind Rihn. He had slumped into it in despair as he watched his men get torn apart in the main assault.

  “We don’t have enough ships for that… do we?” Rihn asked.

  “Between ships and life pods we almost do,” Talis answered.

  “I really hate the idea of them taking over the whole station,” Rihn said, his breathing slowing a little as he regained a bit of composure.

  “You’d rather them get the station in the end and kill everyone onboard?” Graunt asked.

  “Initiating lock down,” Talis said.

  “Put it up on the screen,” Rihn said returning his attention to the front of the room as he tried to calm the racing thoughts in his head.

  The large screen split into four sections, each showing a different hallway in the station. Two of the hallways were empty as the large solid steel doors slid out of the wall and into the deep slot across from it, sealing off the large section of the station. The third screen showed a small group of security team members just outside the zone firing down the hall to keep the brutes back until the large door slid into place. One brute reached through and got his arm amputated below the elbow as the steel door cut it off cleanly before it locked into place.

  Rihn cringed as he watched the fourth monitor. There was a lone security team member pounding on the steel door. The station commander could tell that he was screaming as he drove his fist into it over and over. He heard something behind him and stopped pounding on the seal. He slowly turned and stared down the hall before slumping against the heavy door and curling up into a ball weeping. In an instant three brutes were on top of him. Rihn winced and looked away from the carnage.