by C. S. Harte
Barick pressed against Hyden's back, forcing her to keep moving. “Remember not to touch anything. There’s a reason why they’re called Mimics.”
She nodded and caught up with the Centuria vanguards.
“I know it’s hard, but focus on the mission, Lieutenant,” Barick said in a soft but affirming voice.
The mechs stopped their march.
Barick switched to the visual feed of Centuria #1. It was in the process of analyzing the pile of bodies and debris 10 meters in front. The following flashed on his visor:
Threat Assessment Complete: Mimic Probability High.
The text hovered over a metallic gray wrench on the ground. The wide-spectrum cameras on the mech showed an eerie glowing red light emanating from the wrench.
All three mechs switched to active attack mode as they drew their weapons.
Barick gave the permission to open fire with explosive rounds. As he did, the wrench suddenly liquified into a shiny, black ooze and jumped three meters up, attaching itself to the ceiling. In the next instance, six lance-like appendages grew from its body which fired globs of black sludge at the team.
Centuria #3 scrambled to cover Hyden, taking a shot directly to its left arm and hip which began fizzing. The other two mechs locked onto the lone Reaper with their auto-fire cannons, firing explosive rounds, but missing as the Reaper zigged and zagged faster than the mechs could target.
Seeing the speed of the Mimic, Barick dropped his gun and turned on his strength neuromod. In one quick motion, he tore off a section of steel paneling from the corridor wall. He rolled the sheet metal into a bat-shaped tube and walked calmly behind Centuria #3.
As soon as he did, the Reaper rushed Hyden.
With all his strength, Barick swung his make-shift bat into the gut of the Reaper which flew backward and splattered against the wall. Instantly, the Reaper lost cohesion of its form and dripped down the sides of the hallway.
“Th… Thanks, Commander,” she said while staring at her shaking hands.
“See, nothing to it, Lieutenant. Just like playing holoball with Carthen…” He frown as he remembered Ensign Carthen.
Hyden examined the damage on Centuria #3. “I can fix this." She began tapping on her wrist terminal.
“How long will it take?”
“Five minutes. Maybe 10.”
Barick shook his head. “Don’t have the time to spare. We only have 15 minutes left at most. We have to keep moving.” With his visor, he ordered the droids to keep moving.
Centuria #3 reported an error in its motor controls and was unable to comply with the command.
Barick groaned. “We have to leave it behind.” He tapped the shoulder of the damaged mech. “Sorry, friend.” Using his eye movements, he switched Centuria #3 into defensive mode, ordering it to shoot anything that moved.
They continued in their spear formation with Nolan at the rear.
“Commander?”
“Yes, Lieutenant.”
“Did you notice the mech cameras were able to pick up the energy output from that Mimic while in clone form?”
“I did, Lieutenant. What do you make of it?”
“I don’t have enough intel to draw a conclusion, but we should upload all video from our mech cameras if… if we accomplish our mission.”
“That’s a great idea, Lieutenant,” Barick patted her on the back. “I’ll make sure you get to Engineering. You make sure the data gets sent.”
They arrived at a decktram without further Mimic encounters. “Engineering is twelve decks below. I don’t suppose there’s still power to the decktram?”
Hyden opened the control panel to access the wiring of the decktram. She made three quick taps on her forearm. Two wires rose from her Obscura suit gloves, connecting to the decktram wiring. “No juice whatsoever. I can transfer the energy from my suit.”
“Wouldn’t that cut into your re-breather power and reduce the amount of O2 you have left?”
“You said it doesn’t matter if we can’t get to Engineering.”
Barick shook his head and looked at the Centuriae. “Can you wire one of the mechs instead? Use them as a battery.”
“The technology of our suits are more in line with the station technology, but I’ll try.”
“Go for it,” he nodded to her. Barick ordered Centuria #2 to stand next to the decktram. He and Centuria #1 took a defensive position, covering Hyden as she worked. “Make it quick, Lieutenant. Eight minutes left before the super bad guys get here.”
Hyden typed frantically into her wrist terminal.
A panel in Centuria #2 opened, exposing input ports.
Centuria #1 alerted Barick of possible Mimic movements on their left flank.
“Lieutenant, I hate to rush you. But can I get an ETA?”
“Two minutes… I don’t know…”
“No problem, that’s fine,” Barick said, forcing himself to stay calm.
The cameras on Centuria #1 picked up five more possible targets, quickly growing to 15, then 45.
Barick moved to the right of Centuria #1. He ordered the use of cryo-rounds after switching his ammunition. “It might get loud in here Lieutenant, just ignore the distraction and continue working.”
Hyden gasped and mumbled something inaudible as her nimble fingers continued their work.
Barick heard a high-pitched buzzing inside his helmet. He looked around before realizing the sound came from the audio feed of Centuria #1. The noise grew increasingly louder each passing second.
Multiple, repeating alerts from Centuria #1 flashed over Barick’s HUD.
IMMINENT DANGER
A tsunami of Reapers rushed toward their position, crawling on the backs of each other as if fighting to get the first bite. Loud clicking sounds from the formation of new appendages started to overpower the buzzing.
Barick's heart began to race at the slithering tide of death surging his way. This can’t be how it ends…
3
Centuria #1 fired multiple rounds into the tide of surging Reapers.
Barick emptied his clip, but the tsunami continued to swell. “Well, this isn’t working.”
The Reapers in the rear poured over their frozen brothers in front, crushing and shattering them.
Barick switched to explosive rounds, instructing the combat mech to do the same. “Lieutenant, how we doing over there?”
“I ran into a problem. Working on it as fast as I can.”
Barick felt the urge to scream.
The explosive rounds seemed to be holding the Mimics back. The assault slowed after losing the first hundred or so Reapers.
I guess these aren’t mindless crawlers like we first thought. Barick glanced at Hyden and saw her working furiously. He returned his attention to the Mimics in front of him. They appeared calm, still, as if waiting for something. This scares me a lot. What could they possibly be waiting for?
“GOT IT!” Hyden yelled.
The door to the decktram flew open.
Hyden rushed inside and waved at Barick to join her. “C’mon, Commander.”
Barick ordered Centuria #1 to stay behind and shoot anything that moved. He slowly backpedaled toward Hyden.
The Reapers watched as Barick entered the decktram.
“Good job, Lieutenant.” Barick made a thumbs up gesture. “I knew you could do it. No doubts whatsoever.”
Hyden smiled for the first time today. “We’re so close to our goal.” She looked into the decktram camera and said, “Engineering.”
The decktram began moving.
“It’s too bad we lost all our Centuriae,” Hyden said with a sigh.
“It’s better than losing one of us.”
“Thank you, Commander. We’ve made it further than I thought we would.” She stepped inside Barick’s personal space.
“Don’t thank me yet.” He wrapped his arm around her neck. “The mission isn't over.”
“I know, it’s just…” She looked up into his visor. “There’s a cha
nce, and I’m grateful for that.” She curled her arm around his waist and squeezed.
“You’re welcome, Maris,” he whispered.
She smiled again and took a few steps back.
Barick switched to the audio and visual feed from Centuria #1.
The Mimics were holding steady.
Puzzling. He ordered Centuria #1 to fire all its explosive rounds into the center mass of the Reaper horde. A chorus of squeals and shrieks sounded from the writhing pile of black organic mass.
When the smoke cleared, the feed vibrated at the sound of something substantial stomping its way toward Centuria #1.
“What now?” Barick said in an exasperated voice.
Hyden looked at Barick with curious eyes but didn’t ask questions.
A deafening roar came from around the corner, making Barick wince before his suit's auto-noise reduction filter activated. He saw a large shadow, growing bigger as it moved closer to the mech.
“Download the data stream from Centuria #1 now. Right now. NOW!”
“What? OK…” Hyden activated a download connection with her forearm terminal. “Download in progress, Commander.”
Barick didn’t respond. He was fully focused on the monstrosity heading his way. The stomping grew louder. The shaking of the mech camera feed became increasingly violent. After a thunderous roar, a black as night tree trunk-sized arm reached through the mass of Mimics. The smaller Reapers began to fuse with the bulky limb, forming an increasingly growing hulk. “This… can’t be…” The pulse monitor on Barick's HUD read 200 beats per minute.
The decktram stopped, and the door opened.
Hyden cautiously exited first with her weapon drawn.
Barick continued to stare at his feed.
“Sir?” Hyden tapped his shoulders. “We’re on Engineering deck.”
It’s probably better that I don’t tell her what I saw. Barick shivered and switched the feed to his point of view. “Right, OK.” He removed the safety on his weapon and took point. After a sweep of the hallway, he motioned his hand for Hyden to follow. “Less than five minutes before more party crashers. Let's beat feet.”
“Yes, Commander.”
“Main priority is to restore power to Engineering and the Auxiliary Bridge. Then activate Ostia Station’s automated defenses and sensors.”
“Are you heading to the Auxiliary Bridge, Commander?”
“Yes, I’m going to operate the station's defenses from there.”
They reached an intersection and stopped.
Barick leaned forward and placed his helmet on Hyden’s. “You don’t need luck, Maris. I believe in you.”
She returned a smile. “Thank you, Nolan.”
Barick watched as Hyden sprinted to the Engineering Bay for a moment before taking a right turn toward the Auxiliary Bridge.
While waiting for the power to turn on, he continued dictating a letter to his brother, Jonas, who was also an officer in the Commonwealth Fleet. The hallway lights turned on as he finished the letter. With his eyes, he chose the option to save and send-when-able.
The helmet replied with a confirmation notice.
“Great job once again, Maris! We have a full two minutes left before the next invasion wave appears,” he said into his suit comm.
“Working on automated station defense now, Commander.”
“Make sure you locked yourself inside,” Barick said in a firm voice.
“Oh I did, trust me.”
Barick turned toward the massive titanium alloy doors of the Auxiliary Bridge. He stared into the security camera above the doors and began speaking to the ship’s main computer. “Eve, transfer all bridge commands to Auxiliary Bridge, authorization: Yankee, Sirius, Kingfisher, 512.”
“Primary authorization confirmed,” Eve responded. “Commander Nolan Barick, First Officer, Ostia Station. Secondary authorization required.”
He placed his palm on the hand scanner.
Red lasers danced around his hand as they traced every curve.
“Secondary authorization confirmed.”
The sound of gears whirled as the two-ton doors parted.
“Transfer of Primary Bridge command to Auxiliary Bridge complete.”
Barick walked inside the new command center of Ostia Station.
The doors closed behind him.
He sat in the captain’s chair.
“By the way, I restored O2 to the entire deck when the power came back. We also have station-wide communications again,” Hyden said.
“Acknowledged.” Barick took off his helmet and inhaled a deep breath.
Damn, it feels good to be out of that helmet. A smile formed on his face. “Eve, open comm to Engineering.”
“Communication channel to Engineering now open.”
“Maris, I don’t know how it’s possible, but the recycled air of the station feels much cleaner than the recycled air of my suit.”
“I can think of a number of reasons for that, Commander.”
He heard the snicker in her voice. “I guess I opened myself up to that.” Barick rose from the Captain’s seat and sat at the tactical station.
The control panel lit up.
“We have sensors!” Barick exclaimed to himself. He performed a station-wide scan for other human life, hoping others made it to safety.
"There are a total of two humans on Ostia Station," Eve reported in her usual sterile voice.
Well that sucks… Barick placed his head in his hands. Not the time to be sad. Must protect whole of humanity. With a few taps, he activated the main viewscreen. His jaw dropped at the sight of what greeted him.
Alerts flashed all over the screen. Hundreds of targeting markers appeared over sphere-shaped ships heading toward Ostia Station. They were 100 km in diameter, the size of asteroids, dark and indistinguishable from the background of space if not for the auto-outline of the tracking computer.
Those are much bigger than the ships that attacked us earlier. Was the first wave just scout ships? A nervous gulp left Barick’ mouth. “Um, Lieutenant. Shields? Defenses? How are we doing on that?”
“Shields are energizing now. We have 1200 Artemis missiles. Laser banks are charging. ETA two minutes. 760 drones in the bay. Ion cannons are not operational. They were probably destroyed.”
“Internal station defenses? Holographic marines?”
“Not enough power to run everything, Commander. What do you want me to divert?”
Barick sighed. “Let’s deal with the bigger threat first, the armada of Sphereships loitering in front of our base.”
“That’s what I’m doing, Commander.”
“Restore subspace communications next. Start sending out all data gathered about Mimics. And Maris…”
“Yes, Commander?”
“Write a letter to your family. Just in case…” his voiced trailed.
“Yes, Commander…” The sadness in her voice carried over the station comm.
Barick switched to the weapons terminal. He watched as the charging sequence indicator reached 100% on the shield and lasers. “OK, let’s start off the evening fireworks with Artemis missiles.” He entered the loading sequence for all 30 missile bays and set the targeting to auto-fire. As the missiles loaded, he activated the startup program for the defense drones.
A countdown timer appeared. 90 seconds until the launch of the first drone wave.
All 30 Artemis missiles fired in a widespread pattern. Targeting computer reported successful hit with all missiles.
But there were no detonations. The Sphereships absorbed every shot fired.
“Hmm.” Barick rubbed his chin. “Let’s try to focus fire then.”
The laser panel began flashing indicating its readiness. 36 plasma lasers, all fully-charged.
75 defense drones flew out of the drone bay in a swarm formation, holding position 100 meters in front of the station.
Barick targeted the closest Sphereship, concentrating all missiles, lasers, and drone fire. If this doesn’t
work, then I don’t know what will…
Sphereship #1 became engulfed in a bluish, orange flame. “Did that… work?”
The Sphereship stopped its forward momentum.
Judging by his naked eye, the invading ship also seemed smaller. “Maris! We just killed a Sphereship! We’re well on our way to history!”
“That’s amazing, Commander!”
As Barick began targeting fire on the next Sphereship, he heard a loud clanging on the metal hatch of the Auxiliary Bridge. The room started to vibrate with each blow to the door. He pulled up a stream of the hallway camera. The monster-sized Mimic from before was outside, slamming its massive fist into the entryway.
“Maris, I have a little problem. Check the feed outside my door. Can you do something about that?”
No response from Hyden.
“Lieutenant?”
Silence.
After two quick swipes on his terminal, the main viewscreen switched to a feed of the Engineering Bay. The entire room was overrun with Reapers. Barick scanned for signs of Hyden and found no trace of her. He expanded his search to other parts of Engineering and the surrounding hallways.
Still nothing.
“No…” Barick breathed.
The station’s power began to fluctuate again.
The banging outside the Bridge doors grew louder and multiplied in speed as if more Mimics were clashing against the titanium barricade.
Barick picked up his visor and slowly lowered it onto his head. He calmly grabbed his assault rifle, checked the ammo count, and released the safety. In the top left corner of his HUD display, he watched the upload link percentage increment rapidly, one-one-thousandth of a percent at a time. I just need to hold until the upload finishes. That’s all I have to do…
The room continued to shake with each tremendous strike.
On the bottom right corner, a notification showing his letter to his brother Jonas finished sending. At least he’ll know that I love him… He stood ten meters behind the door and waited for the Mimics to break through. Each breath he drew was a deep, measured breath. His pulse rate stayed at a steady 70 beats per minute. Nolan Barick lifted his rifle to his shoulder, his finger held steady on the trigger.
