by Bret Brown
"Oh.", he groans quietly as he wakes up. "What the fuck happened? Why does my face hurt like a motherfucker?"
"Must have hit something, rocked the ship pretty hard.", says P-T in a rare response.
"It's fucking space! How do you hit something in space? Ah my head, it’s more like something slammed my head on some hard ass rock a hundred times.", says the Sargent as he runs his hands over his face softly touching his swollen face, inhaling sharply to the pain.
"What the fuck is that?", pointing outward as he finally looks out the viewport.
"That, is your problem.", says P-T.
"My problem!", says the Sargent surprised. "We need the whole battle fleet for this thing. It's fucking HUGE. What the hell is it?"
"Transport cruiser," says P-T. "Incursion force."
"Incursion force?! There's gotta be thousands of soldiers on that ship. What the fuck are we going to be able to do against a force like that?”, says the Sargent worried. "There's no fucking way the cannons on this pile of shit can be effective enough to even slow that fucking beast down."
"Board it.", says P-T calmly as he pilots the Phantom closer to the transport ship. With his other hand, he is working the console in front of him typing in commands to it.
"Board it! Are you fucking suicidal?!", screams the Sargent. "You and me against a whole fucking army. You're crazy man."
"No, most will be in ice cubes...cryostasis. Only a skeleton crew is operating for transit.", says P-T focusing on his tasks.
"Right skeleton crew... So probably two to three hundred crew members on a ship that size versus the two of us. Yeah, that makes things a whole lot more reasonable.", says the Sargent sarcastically.
P-T shrugs his shoulders nonchalantly in response to Sargent Aldelay. Suddenly, the bright flashes of crimson light start to reflect through the viewport. The transport absorbs several hits from the weapon batteries of the enclosing Fiortegan battle fleet. In return, thousands of massive blasts come from the transport ship, annihilating the seven ships immediately.
"Oh shit!", exclaims the Sargent, "Oh shit! They're all dead! I can't fucking believe it! It took out all of our interceptors like they were nothing." Confused and distressed the Sargent asks, "Why... why doesn't it attack us?"
"Automated turrets. Only attack when provoked.", says P-T. The computer console chimes and locks on a small port on the exterior of the transport ship.
"What's that?", asks Aldelay.
With a grin, P-T says, "Our way in.", as he jerks the controls of the Phantom redirecting it to the location on the computer. Getting within a hundred yards of the transport, the sheer size of the ship comes into realization for Sargent Aldelay as his jaw literally drops in awe. The target on screen gives the distance and a live feed to the side of the Phantom's exterior airlock hatch looking at the transport.
Lining up the target, P-T taps a key on the console and magnetic locks secure the Phantom to the transport. A few more key strokes, and P-T gets up from the pilot’s seat and exits the cockpit. Sargent Aldelay unbuckles his seat belt and follows P-T.
"So, what now? Are we really gonna board that ship?", says the Sargent concerned.
P-T responds with a casual, "Yup.", as he straps the Velcro of his battle armor around his legs, progressing up to his arms and torso. Once suited up, he puts on a helmet and stores some S.L.A.G. bars in his pants side pockets. Hidden in a secret compartment, P-T grabs a couple EM rifles and opens up the interior airlock hatch. He taps a key on the screen to the side of the exterior hatch and exposes the maintenance hatch of the transport. Ripping off the paneling, P-T hacks open the transport. Looking back at Sargent Aldelay, he says, "You coming?"
Chapter 13
Inside one of the mechanical rooms of the transport, P-T and Sargent Aldelay make their way through the seemingly endless labyrinth. It's pitch black and hot from all of the machinery running; keeping the various systems such as life support, engine coolants, and artificial gravity working. P-T is leading the way as he is the only one who is able to see anything since his helmet's visor is equipped with night vision. Sargent Aldelay follows closely behind staring at the black silhouette in front of him. The only light Aldelay can see is the soft green glow from the HUD on P-T's helmet reflecting off of P-T's face.
Having backtracked several times, Sargent Aldelay, who is frustrated with P-T, whispers, “Do you know where the fuck you're going?"
P-T reaches back and grabs Aldelay's face extremely hard, with his palm covering Aldelay's mouth; squeezing Aldelay's cheeks into his back teeth. Sargent Aldelay tries to fend off P-T, but falters in his attempt; discovering P-T's immense strength. The soft glow of P-T's helmet, reflects very little light; showing only his lips in the darkness. Having a merciless grip on Aldelay's face, P-T shows no signs of effort or inflection, not even anger. As soon as Sargent Aldelay struggles cease, P-T releases him, assuming that they are at an understanding.
After making several more turns through the mechanical room, they finally find a hatch leading to the hallway of the transport. P-T locates the hatches panel and rips it off; exposing its internal circuitry. With his knife, he cuts a few wires and splices several together; the crackling sound of electricity passing through the wires as sparks leap out; temporarily lighting up the dark room. P-T continues his work on the panel until he hears a subtle click; signifying the sound of the hatch unlocking. P-T gently thrusts his knife into the seam of the door, only to split it open just enough to slip a small object through.
P-T reaches into his back pocket and pulls out a small disk. He then pushes a button to activate the disk, and rolls it through the crack. The disk quietly rolls all the way across the hall; bumping into the wall and falls down. As soon as it's flat, the disk pops up and scans the entire hallway. Looking through his HUD display, P-T sees that there are six crewmen within fifteen feet of the hatch. P-T grabs the EM rifle and gets ready to attack the crewmen on guard.
Sargent Aldelay still blinded by the darkness is completely unaware of what is going on. He stands idly by, angry at P-T for putting his hand on his face. As blood fills his mouth from the altercation, he decides to spit. The sound of the large gob of saliva and blood impacting with the steel catches the attention of the nearby crewmen.
The crewmen move cautiously closer to the hatch with their weapons raised, pointed at the door to investigate the noise they heard. P-T watches through his HUD display and sees them approaching. He quietly moves down to the floor, sliding his knife with him. Placing his heel against the handle of the knife, P-T gets ready to spring his attack.
Seeing the small crack in the seam of the door, one of the men reaches up to his ear to activate the microphone on his headset. "Captain, we have some-".
With his foot, P-T kicks open the hatch and shoots the three closest crewmen in the head from his position on the floor. He somersaults backwards for cover back in the mechanical room; rolling up on his knees while the bodies of his victims drop to the floor outside the hatch before any enemy shots are fired. Using his HUD, he checks to see the positions of the remaining crewman. On the screen, he can see that there is a guard on both sides of the door, and the third is still across the hall, kneeling with the weapon pointed right at the hatch opening.
P-T looks around to see what he can use as a diversion for the guard across the hall. However, everything he sees is secured to the ship one way or another. Looking behind him, he sees Sargent Aldelay crouching down with his little laser pistol in his hands, with a look of overwhelming fright.
P-T quickly grabs Sargent Aldelay by the shoulders, spins out, and throws Aldelay violently into the guard across the hall before he can get any accurate shots off; knocking the guard over, while simultaneously following behind with an EM rifle in each hand and kills both guards standing next to the door.
Laying on top of the guard, Aldelay freaks out and in a panic, shoots the crewman several times in the face with his laser pistol; killing the guard and exposing his inner skull.
&
nbsp; Disoriented, Aldelay says, "What the fuck, man?! Next time, how about a little fucking notice?"
Ignoring Aldelay, P-T is busy stripping the bodies of weapons and gear as Aldelay keeps talking. "That's the first person I ever killed.", says Sargent Aldelay sitting back on his heels with an emotionless gaze. He turns to P-T with a blank, lost look. "I didn't sign up for this hand to hand, face to face shit. I'm supposed to be a fucking pilot killing people far away, not watching their fucking faces erode away so close I can taste the burning flesh."
Not one to waste time, P-T grabs everything he finds useful, and drags the bodies into the mechanical room; closing the door. He hands Sargent Aldelay an EM rifle and a communicator ear piece from one of the corpses. Looking at the ground, P-T locates the small scanning disk on the floor, grabs it, and starts walking away; leaving Sargent Aldelay in his fixated trance.
Snapping back into reality, Sargent Aldelay stands himself up and follows behind P-T. They continue down the hallway for a few yards. P-T suddenly stops, looks at his surroundings and then turns around and heads back in the opposite direction.
Staying close behind P-T, Aldelay whispers angrily, "You seriously don't know where the fuck you're going, do you? Ah, come on, man! There's gotta be a whole response team on the way to our position. We can't linger here, fiddle fucking around, trying to figure out where to go."
P-T keeps his eyes forward and flips off Sargent Aldelay in response to his questioning. As they come to a blind corner in an intersection, P-T slows up and presses himself against the wall for cover. With the disk in his hand, he holds it out to get a view around the corner.
Through the HUD on his helmet, P-T sees that it's clear around the corner, but it's a long hall to traverse. Turning the corner quickly, P-T starts running as quietly and quickly as he can down the hall with his weapon ready for anything to appear.
After passing the halfway point in the hall, P-T sees a group of crewmen just turning the corner. He squeezes off several shots, killing two and wounding three, before he dives for cover. Several shots from the crewmen whiz by close to P-T as they take cover around the corner from where they came. He jumps across the hall and runs back to an airlock threshold in the hall; losing some ground. He presses his body against the airlock's threshold as hard as he can; trying to hide his obese frame. Sargent Aldelay, across the hall from P-T, is also using the threshold as cover, his smaller frame easily protected by the steel composite structure.
"Captain, this is squad leader strike team four. We have them on deck seven in sector G. We're taking casualties. Send reinforcements to flank them ASAP.", says a woman's voice in the communication piece P-T took from the dead crewmen.
P-T begins to shoot at the corner where the crewmen are; creating debris. With his distraction under way, he tosses the small disk into the adjacent corner so he can get a look at the situation. The disk lights up the hallway with its scanner, while P-T tries to conceal its scan by continuing to fire at the corner, and using his muzzle flash. The blasting of the rifle drowns out the communications coming through the ear piece.
Once the scan is complete, he sees that the crewmen are about ten feet back from the corner. There are three guards watching the corner with their weapons readied, while two more are tending to the wounded.
P-T runs up to the corner quietly seeing that the guards are distracted by the gory mess of the wounded; seeing his small window to attack. With just the tip of the muzzle rounding the corner, P-T uses the HUD to gauge his shots. In rapid succession and remarkable accuracy, P-T fires deadly head shots to the three immediate threats. Again, in the violence of action, he comes around the corner before the bodies are fully rested on the floor and kills the two that were tending to the wounded. Without a hint of mercy, he finishes off the wounded; leaving a bloody mess of mangled bodies, many with a gaping hole where the face once existed.
P-T picks up the smallest corpse, throwing it over his shoulder, along with another EM rifle, and heads down the hallway. As he trots down the hallway, he finds a darkened stairwell shaft that will take him up several decks. He drops the body, takes out his knife, and severs the forearm of the corpse just below the elbow. He then places the extra EM rifle in the corpses hand; wrapping the dead fingers around the trigger and grip.
Finally mustering up the courage to move, Sargent Aldelay leaves his covered position from the airlock threshold and cautiously walks down the hallway. As he rounds the corner carefully, he sees the gruesome mess of bodies in the hall, but no sign of P-T. Aldelay gingerly steps around all the bodies and pools of blood; trying not to step on either. Once he passes through, he starts to run down the hall as fast as he can, until he sees P-T in the stairwell shaft; almost missing him completely.
Aldelay stops abruptly and jogs up to P-T's position, who is still at work; mutilating the body he brought with him. At the base of the stairwell, P-T has severed the head of his victim, as well as disemboweled them, stringing out the small intestines several feet.
"Oh fuck! Oh fuck!", says Aldelay in a panicked state. He covers his mouth trying not to vomit again. Whatever color that may have returned to Aldelay's skin since the shooting has stopped, has vanished again. "You sick fuck! You can't do that to her! Does it ever occur to you she was once a human being?!"
"Put this on.", says P-T as he throws the uniform of his victim at Aldelay. "You shit yourself, and the stink will give up our position."
"Wha- what?!", says Aldelay hysterical. "Who cares if I shit myself? We're gonna get killed, man. You fucking led us here on this suicidal bullshit! To make matters worse, you're mutilating them. I fucking hope that I at least die quickly."
Ignoring Aldelay's hysteria, P-T is still working away on the corpse; attaching the intestines to the back of the severed forearm with small shards of metal made from the corpse's uniform. He sets up the weapon at an angle on top of the severed head resting the barrel inside the concave cavity that lies between the ears; aiming towards the doorway leading to the hallway. P-T then places the remaining torso as a weight and brace for the weapon's recoil. Once he has the weapon satisfactorily set up, he stands up; wiping his bloodstained hands on Aldelay's clothes.
"Don't fucking touch me!", says Aldelay as he swipes away P-T's hand away.
With his trap all set, P-T starts climbing the ladder to the upper decks. As he gets to the next level, he calls down to Aldelay, "If you wanna live, you might wanna follow me."
Within a few seconds of P-T calling down to Sargent Aldelay, electrical sparks emit from the panel where the intestines are hanging. Suddenly an alarm starts sounding; scaring Aldelay who is in the middle of changing out of his soiled clothes. The hallway door to the stairwell shaft shuts; locking them in the shaft.
"What the fuck did you do?", shouts Aldelay up the stairwell shaft, while he is struggling to get the clothes on.
Looking up, he can only see the soft glow from P-T's HUD; now up three decks above him. After Aldelay gets the clothes on at an acceptable tolerance, he starts climbing the ladders up to follow P-T. By the time he gets up to the fifth deck, shots can be heard from the EM rifle trap left on the seventh deck. Hearing this, Aldelay rushes up the ladders as fast as he can go; knowing trouble isn't far behind him.
"Captain, strike team two. Active shooter deck seven, sector F stairwell.", says a male voice.
Passing the fourth deck, Aldelay hears a "Psst", from several feet away. He stops quickly and looks to see where the sound came from in the dark. Straining his eyes, he looks for anything he can find of P-T.
Several sparks of electricity quickly illuminate the darkness near the hatch; showing the blackened silhouette of P-T. A couple more sparks emit from his position, and then the hatch opens up letting the light from the hall pour in. P-T grabs his weapons that were propped up against the wall, and leaves the shaft.
Sargent Aldelay finally catches up to P-T. The uniform he's wearing is a couple sizes too small for him. The buttons look like they want to pop off, and he couldn't get
the pants to button up either.
"I'm assuming that the bridge is on the top deck. Why did we stop here?", the Sargent asks. "We had a clear shot to the top."
P-T replies, "Dead end."
"Dead end?", says Aldelay. "Look, I have no idea what the fuck your plan is, if you have one. Do you think you can tell me what you have in mind for a change?"
"Don't die.", smirks P-T.
"No shit genius.", says Aldelay frustrated. "I've been working that plan since we fucking got here."
After they run through several corridors, they come to another stairwell shaft several hundred yards from the one they left. As they take a peak up, a barrage of shots from several EM rifles hail towards them. Narrowly escaping, both men jump back and out of view of the stairwell.
"Captain, strike team five. Contact deck four, sector CC.", says another male voice through the headset.
P-T quickly turns around and backtracks down the last hall they were in before entering the barricaded stairwell shaft. He looks from side to side to see what he can use to bypass the blockade. However, he's unsure of his capabilities as his nanites haven't responded to him since his last encounter with Dr. Larry.
