by Bret Brown
Seeing that it’s a tight fit, he removes all of his combat armor and only takes the weapons he can hold in his hands. Needing a quick boost of energy, he chows down a S.L.A.G. bar before his forearms shift with thick bony plates. The transformation slims up P-T as his body mass makes the adjustments for his metamorphosis.
With a big sigh, he enters the coolant coil's shaft; crawling in head first. The tight fit sandwiches him snugly, his back is firmly against the top of the shaft. The clear tubing radiates a bright blue fluorescent light at least giving him the ability to see in the shaft. It's extremely hot. The heat is so intense that the bone plates on his forearms are quickly charring and turning black. His back begins blister through his shirt from the hot metal that he has been sliding against for the last five minutes.
"Fuck! It's fucking hot!" He says in his head, unable to utter a sound or he is dead, as he crawls his way through the shaft. The skin on his head starts to peel away and blister from the radioactivity running through the fluorescent tube, but he presses on, dripping sweat profusely; each drop sizzling from the contact on the pipe.
Having crawled nearly two hundred yards, he's reached the next access panel. Careful to not make a sound, he removes the panel and exits the shaft. His body is badly burned and blistered to the point of being third degree for most of it and fourth degree on his exposed forearms. His clothes are drenched in sweat and blood plasma from the broken blisters. Drained from this, P-T takes a moment to catch his breath. Within moments, the wounds subside and he regains his near obese form, a little skinnier than when the mission started.
Looking to his right, he sees the armory that was left open where the crewman got the cannon down the hall. Sneaking as carefully as he can, P-T makes his way into the armory. Upon entering the armory, he sees a multitude of EM rifles and another tripod cannon. As the horrible thoughts run through his mind, he gets a smirk on his face while he resupplies his weaponry.
Grabbing the cannon, he heads back to the blockade at the intersection. As the enemy is expecting him to be coming from the hangar, P-T has their flank. Without a microsecond of hesitation, P-T guns down the entire blockade, leaving a bloodied mess in the aftermath.
Needing to hurry, he starts getting a little reckless as he presses forward to the bridge before the full staff thaws or aid comes.
On his way toward the bridge, he comes across only a couple more smaller patrols annihilating them as they were completely out gunned by the cannon. Approaching the bridge, he gets to the door and starts to hack the door panel. Since the ships are exactly the same, P-T remembers the layout of the bridge, but he's out of scanning discs to get a position of the bridge crew.
Out of desperation, he charges through the door firing the heavy cannon, attempting to miss the computer consoles and hit his targets.
Upon entering, P-T is wounded on his left arm; tearing the flesh away from his body and exposing the bone. He cries out in pain clutching the wound and dropping the heavy cannon as he dives for cover behind a console.
In a fluid movement, he grabs one of the smaller EM rifles that he had slung over his shoulder, pops up from his cover and kills three crewmen quickly ducking back down immediately.
In agony, P-T presses off the console and kills two more. Shots are still reigning overhead as he still has some enemies to eliminate. Blood is pouring from his wound, making his position slippery and difficult to make a solid dash to the next cover point.
As the debris falls around him, he sees a small, shiny piece of paneling near him. The little piece of metallic debris is shiny enough to make a reflection. With his bloody injured arm, he holds the small paneling in his hand and gets a glimpse of his last three targets.
Using his the shoulder of his injured arm as support, P-T aims the weapon around the corner. With the reflection coming off the metal piece, he sees a target's head poking out from its cover. Taking the shot, P-T fires a couple rounds in that direction, miraculously hitting his target in the head; blasting a groove through the skull as he splits it open.
With a grimace, P-T is shocked by his lucky shot, giving him a bit of a chuckle. He tries to replicate the same shot on his next target, but misses terribly. Frustrated by the pain in his arm and how the mission has been entirely, P-T throws out all caution and goes berserk.
As he rises up from his cover, he makes himself an easy target for his enemies. The risk for him is worth the reward as he knows that he'll get a direct shot for his remaining targets.
He kills one instantly after he exposes himself from his cover; a single shot to the head completely removing the lower jaw and throat exposing the spine. As he turns to the next target, P-T gets shot in his abdomen before he can fire a round at the last crewman.
Filled with adrenaline and rage, P-T doesn't flinch and delivers the final shots of the firefight as his puts multiple rounds into the fallen crewman; nearly obliterating the corpse.
P-T drops the EM rifle and clutches his wounds. His legs and knees become weak very quickly and he drops to the ground bleeding out. Leaning over on all fours, he closes his eyes and sits still. An excruciating pain envelops his wounds; a feeling compared to billions of flaming needles destroying every molecule of the your being erupts violently. Holding his stance, P-T's injuries start to close up.
The process, while short, is an insurmountable pain. Within moments, both injuries have closed fully, not leaving a trace. P-T, however, has lost nearly thirty pounds off of his stature since the mission started. Securing the bridge, P-T heads to the controls for the guidance and redirects the transport and hyperspace's out of the system as he eats his last S.L.A.G. bar.
Chapter 4
The journey to the rendezvous point with Seeker and the Kangguns takes several months; even when traveling at hyperspace. The long and arduous trip is difficult to handle for being in solitude; testing one's mind and fortitude. For someone traveling in these conditions, it can be best described like a ghost ship. Nothing stirring from within. Of course, except for P-T, who is alone on the ship; apart from the four divisions or 40,000 troops in cryostasis.
The brutal mess of remains from the massacred crew are piled up and left rotting in the hangar bay. Their shriveled, mangled corpses have long passed the stage of swelling and bloating from internal decomposition. Wherever there was blood, it has long dried and is merely a subtle stain on the blackened steel floors; barely detectable by the naked eye.
With the freedom to roam and an entire transport at his disposal, P-T has nearly regained all of his weight from his wounds by raiding the commissary. He has also taken items he feels important to him from the quarters of the crew. For the most part, he has spent his time loading up the Phantom with weapons, supplies, and possible valuables for trading; leisurely with much time to waste.
On the bridge, he's made a bed out of a mattress and blanket taken from a crewman's quarters, since he cannot leave the bridge for overly long periods of time.
Without notice, a distress call begins to transmit through the intercom on the bridge. A woman's voice, nearly sobbing, pleas out "Is anyone out there? Please we need help?...Please answer if you can hear me."
P-T sleeping in his bed on the bridge ignores the call. However, the woman continues to transmit her messages for nearly an hour. Seeing that this message may never stop, P-T angrily gets up, tossing his covers off of him. Tightly clenching his jaw and gritting his teeth, he gets to the communications console and says very irritably, "Will you shut... the fuck... UP!"
However, this only prompts the woman to make her pleas for help even more desperate. "Please, please help us! Our ship has been destroyed and we are stranded in the escape pod. We need your help," she cries. "Please help... if not for me than for my child."
Puzzled by that word, P-T replies "What the fuck is a shild?" pronouncing the word incorrectly. "Is it valuable?"
The woman replies excitedly, "Yes! Yes! A child is the most valuable thing in the universe. Please, sir, will you help us?!"
&n
bsp; The woman continues to make her cries for help, desperate to get answer back. P-T, contemplating whether it's a trap, ignores the communications. Yet, for a reason he cannot quite understand, he drops the ship out of hyperspace. Using the targeting system of the transport, he attempts to locate the escape pod's distress beacon.
Once located, he changes the ships direction and heads towards the location of the beacon; which is several billion miles away. At full speed, it will take the better part of a day to reach the pod. To avoid from hearing the woman cry and plea anymore over the intercom, P-T destroys the communication console, giving him silence once again.
Once the pod is in weapons range, P-T gets a lock on it with the forward batteries of the transport. After a couple hours of silently debating, P-T still hasn't decided to destroy the pod and move on or bring it on board to investigate. However, he is intrigued by this valuable thing called a 'child'.
Seeing the size of the pod, and that the scanners are not detecting other ships in the area, P-T decides that the threat is minimal; but will greet them armed to the teeth. He moves the transport in a position to receive the pod in the hangar. He sprints down to the hangar to set up his defenses to make sure he is ready for anything.
In the hangar, he gets to a console and opens up the hangar bay doors. Activating a strong magnetic tractor beam, P-T locks onto the pod and reigns it in. The small pod, couldn't hold more than five or six people in it with its diamond shaped fuselage. Stepping out from the console, P-T stands ready behind a tripod cannon aimed at the hatch of the pod.
The exterior of the pod is charred and slightly damaged from being near a large explosion. It has only one entrance and two small viewports; one on the hatch and a piloting viewport opposite.
Without much delay after landing, the hatch on the side of the pod opens up. A young, beautiful, voluptuous; yet athletic, woman steps out cautiously. She is unlike any other woman he's ever seen before. Her long, wavy brown hair, extending past her shoulders, is matted from several days without a wash. She has soft olive toned skinned that gleams in the hangar's light. Her mysterious, dark brown eyes have a lasting fire casting out from her soft facial features, very appeasing to the eyes; even in this unintentional state.
Seeing the hostility that she is met, she puts her hands up in the air. Bracing herself for the worse, she closes her eyes tightly and turns away; her face grimacing as she expects an onslaught of violence.
She stands completely still hoping her death will either be quick and painless or her life is spared. As she waits for either outcome, the silence is deafening and agonizing to her as several awkward moments pass before a word is said. Finally, out of desperation, the woman speaks out "Don't hurt me, I'm unarmed and alone."
Her words are as easy on the ears as her looks are on the eyes. However, her nervousness and despair are heavily noticeable as she speaks; showing her vulnerability.
P-T, not letting his guard drop, stands still and keeps the cannon pointed directly at the woman, occasionally shifting his eyes to the pod entrance looking for any other survivors and or aggressors.
Nervously and starting to cry again, the woman speaks again, "Please don't hurt me. I'm no danger to you. I have no weapons and I'm all alone." Her once appealing voice has now begun to annoy P-T with each outcry.
Several more painfully tense silent moments pass before P-T stands aside from the cannon and approaches the woman with an EM rifle pointed at her; finger readily on the trigger. He gets close enough to give her a careful look over, checking for any hidden weapons.
He signals her to turn around without saying a word. She reluctantly complies as her sobs have worsened; uncertain of her immediate future. Grabbing her forcibly by the shoulder near the neck, he moves her out to the entrance of the pod; using her as a body shield for any anticipated surprises. Glancing around his hostage, he peers into the pod looking for anyone else with her.
Inside the pod, it is messy from food rations, but looks empty and inauspicious. From the standpoint of the threshold, there isn't any place to exactly hide inside.
Standing by her statements, she continues professing, "I've told you many times already. I'm here alone. I lied to you about having a child with me."
Not seeing anyone else in the pod, P-T spins the woman around to face him. He points the gun point blank right at her face as they stand near the hatch of the pod. Dissatisfied with the outcome, P-T grumbles "You lied to me. I have no use for you."
Just as the EM rifles powers up for a shot, a young boy near the age of five comes out of hiding in the pod screaming, "Mommy!" bewildering P-T. The child runs in front of the woman to defend her. The woman bends down and grabs the child hugging him as it may be her last time.
Completely caught off guard by this strange being, P-T is confused by the small child's presence. However, P-T stays sharp to the situation and points the rifle at the disturbing creature and exclaims, "What the fuck is that?!"
The woman, also confused by P-T's reaction of the child, replies "This is a child. MY child. Have you never seen one before?", as she caresses the boy in her arms.
Cocking his head from side to side, P-T keeps staring at the child trying to understand what exactly IT is that he's looking at. Such an unusual creature, barely three feet tall. Its chubby cheeks flushed bright red, and sandy blonde hair is all messed up. Hardly revealing itself as a thing of any value, the child looks more like a useless object.
The woman stands up and walks towards P-T, thinking that he may drop his defenses against them. She's holding out her hands to ease the tension, trying to get P-T to lower his weapon. She hopes that a glimmer of compassion will help their situation against a strange foe.
Having made a decision about his captives, P-T quickly aims the rifle at the child and fires a round at the boy; seeing that it is a thing of no value.
The woman narrowly deflects the angle of the weapon causing it to miss the child as the energy round hits the inside of the pod. She cries out reaching for her son and shielding him with her body, "What is wrong with you?"
P-T replies, "It looks defective."
"What?!... He's not defective. This is a little boy! No more dangerous than a butterfly! Look... I can promise you that we won't be a burden to you. This looks like this is a huge ship. We can stay hidden in the pod if you like, but please don't hurt us... don't kill us.... you rescued us for a reason. I don't know what that reason was, but it brought you here."
P-T ponders for a moment, finally he says, "Fine. Stay here in the pod. If I see either one of you outside the pod, I'll fucking kill you where you stand. Got it!"
Shaking her head nervously in agreement, the woman takes her son into the pod and closes the hatch. P-T dismantles the tripod cannon and takes all his weapons with him. He exits the hangar closing the door behind him. P-T gets all the way back to the bridge and sets up the tripod cannon in the entrance. He stashes the EM rifles near his bed and then heads to the guidance console to return the ship back to its original course with Seeker and the Kangguns. Keeping their word, the woman and child are not seen again for the rest of the trip.
Chapter 5
After three months of traveling in hyperspace, P-T's transport arrives to the rendezvous point; a small solar system in the Galvaris quadrant. Waiting for him is Seeker's transport and five destroyers of the Kanggun battle fleet.
The deadly destroyers are only a quarter of the size of the large transport, but heavily armed with hundreds of cannon batteries and anti-matter torpedoes bays, making it look like spiky sea urchin.
Knowing that Seeker must be freaking out from the lack of communications, P-T puts in his earpiece communicator. As P-T's transport makes it within the range of the earpiece, Seeker's voice comes through, frantically trying to contact P-T; partially scrambled and heavily distorted with lots of static. "Six... Six.... come in Six. Can you read me?"
Hearing this, P-T casually replies "Yeah."
Relieved and irritated, Seeker says "What the fuck
is going on with you?! I've been trying to contact you for fucking days. Why the fuck haven't you replied?", as the transmission becomes clearer.
P-T nonchalantly answers, "Com's busted."
Not thrilled with the answer Seeker says, "What did I fucking tell you about destroying important consoles?! I've been sitting here fucking shitting bricks for a fucking week, just hoping these sick sadistic fucking Kanggun's wouldn't carve me up or worse because you never fucking showed."
Seeker sighs and calms down a bit in his tone, "Hurry your ass up, I've already talked to those fucks after your ship dropped out of hyperspace and was in sensor range. They logged in on the systems and they've checked all the cryochambers on your ship. We're all set and I can't take another fucking minute here with their condescending, imperiousness, fucking attitude. Get the Phantom and pick me up. Vacation starts right fucking now!"
P-T grabs the last of his assortment of weapons he's gathered from the bridge and heads down to the cargo bay. He loads the remainder of his collection into the Phantom except for one EM rifle and heads over to the escape pod.
