Dead Force Box Set

by S D Tanner

  “Jessica, lower the lights.”

  Unhappy with his order, Judge said, “We won’t see anything coming.”

  Leaving men and women to be eaten alive wasn’t anything he was prepared to do. Like any good sergeant, Judge was looking out for his men, but they had to protect the sleepers. His respect for Judge was growing -- providing they listened to one another, then both their objectives could be met.

  “I hear that, Judge, but we have a job to do.”

  Climbing the stairs, two at a time, the chamber lights dimmed until the vast room turned a gloomy gray. Unlike their own chamber, this one didn’t have the benefit of light from the active pods. Darkness dropped over them; their faces glowed pale in the darkness.

  Finally, reaching the highest level in the chamber, he scanned the pods below. “Can anyone see lights?”

  “It’s not pitch-black so there must be some pods lit up somewhere,” Judge replied.

  He turned to Judge. “We could take a walkway each.”

  Rok was standing at the edge of the platform peering into the darkness below. “Not a good idea. If we run into hostiles we could end up shooting one another.”

  Judge nodded. “He’s right. If you keep the lights this low, then any lit pods should stand out like dog’s balls.”

  Both men raised good points. Nodding, he said, “There are forty walkways with pods. We’ll walk along the middle one. Rok, you’re on point. Ash, watch our six. Flak and Hawk, check the two levels below us.” Flicking his head at Judge, he said, “You check left and I’ll check right.”

  “Roger that. If we check multiple levels concurrently we can skip five or more levels before we hit the next walkway.”

  The chamber was almost a half-mile long and two hundred yards wide. Each of the forty rows had two hundred pods and, with sixty levels, there was half a million pods in the chamber.

  Rok was the first to step onto the walkway. Following him, he scanned to the right. In the darkness, even the low lights on a pod would be visible. Seeing only a deadening gloom next to their walkway, he glanced down at the dark pod next to him. Their gear should have included more than what they carried. Not only were they lacking food and medical supplies, their kit should have contained all-purpose tools, including foldaway shovels, multi-function toolkits with screwdrivers, or at least a flashlight. To call them poorly equipped was an understatement. Considering how much it must have cost to build the ship it was an odd miss.

  “Cognitionis, why doesn’t our gear include a flashlight?”

  “The Vector Vision Visor offers a range of infrared, thermal imaging and image intensification viewing for night vision. Your Signal Controller includes flashlight functionality. Specify your requirement to the subsystem.”

  Unsure what to do, he formed a fist with his left hand. “Lights.” A ray burst from his glove casting a brilliant white light over the face of the person lying inside the pod.

  “Handy,” Judge said.

  Although he didn’t remember Judge well, he doubted the man was trying to be funny. Leaning into the pod, he played the light across the body. Like the others it was naked, but the torso was covered in a dozen two-inch round circles. Shining his hand light over one of the circles there was a black mark in the center.

  Flak leaned into the pod. “What are the squids? Vampires?”

  Although they appeared to be draining the sleepers of blood, he doubted they were vampire-like. “Nope, they’re parasites. More like fleas.”

  Straightening, Flak gave a contemptuous snort. “Space fleas.”

  The body inside the pod was that of a youngish man of maybe thirty. Reaching into the pod, he touched the man’s naked abdomen. Expecting to find it rotting he recoiled when the man’s eyes blinked. Bald and pale the man was thin to the point of being a skeleton. Snapping upright until he was sitting in the pod, the man’s mouth opened wide. After letting out a loud and lingering howl he collapsed back into the pod. It might as well have been a siren call. The entire chamber filled with the sound of scratching and shuffling. He dropped low, aiming his gun at the darkness around him. Rustling noises echoed across the chamber, only made louder by what had been an empty quiet.

  “Infrared.”

  His vision became a blend of infrared from his right eye and gloom through his left. Immediately regretting he didn't have a full visor he then wondered what one was. The single eye infrared was only useful for sniper style firing, and not scoot and shoot. To see in the dark and have depth perception, he would need both eyes. Having partial infrared might not be ideal, but anything in the bleak darkness was better than nothing. Hearing an enemy that he couldn’t see was unsettling, and he pushed down his instinct to run from the chamber.

  Judge was leaning into the pod. “He’s dead.”

  “Where to, boss man?” Joker called.

  The dying man’s cries had made them a target. They had to move. “Rok, head to the platform and take us down five levels.”

  While he ran behind Rok, Judge asked, “Are you sticking with this mission?”

  “Keep your eyes peeled, and yeah. It’s our job.” Rok had sprinted across the platform and was clunking down the stairs. “Rok, be quiet.” Dropping into a low crouch Rok slowed his pace.

  He couldn’t ask Jessica to raise the lights. If he did then whatever was inside the chamber would be able to see them too. Although Judge clearly thought they should leave, he was determined to find any survivors. Raising the lights would mask the active pods. Judge wanted to keep his squad alive, but he was more concerned about the sleepers. Space fleas was a good name for whatever the slimy squids were. They’d found a hotel in the Arks, somewhere with a good food supply. Judging by the condition of the dead soldier in the armory, the fleas were making the most of their meal. They could have been feeding on the sleepers for a hundred years or more. Even if it meant destroying the Animax, he wouldn’t leave them to dine on the sleepers on his watch.

  What had Lunar Horizon been thinking when they’d hurled three Arks and one and half million people into space? How could even hundreds of well-trained troopers have protected this many sleepers? His memory might be faulty, but even he knew they didn’t know what was in deep space. Scientists could guess and Hubble had looked, but that was nothing like being there. Had Lunar Horizon been desperate, or had they simply not cared what happened to the sleepers? The ship must have cost a fortune to build. Who were the sleepers and why had they been chosen? Had they paid or were they colonists?

  Sprinting along the next walkway, he didn’t have time to examine the pods -- not that he wanted to. In draining their blood, the fleas could have infected the sleepers with anything. Even if he could transport them to the Prognatus he wouldn’t. They didn’t have the resources to deal with potentially diseased people. All they’d set out to do was find the missing squads. Not only had he failed to find his fellow soldiers, but the Animax was broken in a way he couldn’t fix. The most it offered was a warning about what might happen to the Prognatus.

  “Got a live one!” Flak called.

  Just as he was doubting his sanity, Flak’s eager cry shored up his resolve to save whoever they could. “Location?”

  “Three levels down and thirty yards ahead.”

  Slowing his pace, he looked in the direction Flak had said. The pods shone brightly, but their brilliant light was quickly gobbled up by the surrounding gloom. They were an oasis of life untouched by the fleas. Seeming to pulse against the darkness they were more than just survivors. The bluish light of the pods was the color of hope. At least some sleepers could be saved from the Animax and he was determined to fight for their lives.

  “I want them.”

  If he achieved nothing else he would bring some of the survivors to the Prognatus. Although he couldn’t remember being told, it was the real reason he was on the Arks. Reaching the platform behind Rok the sharp crack of gunfire caught him by surprise.

  “Short-range!” Judge shoute
d.

  Aiming his weapon forward something emerged out of the gloom and into the light from his glove. Expecting to see a squid with tentacles, his stomach flipped again at the sight of the creature. Tall, with an oddly elongated body, it only had four limbs. The head was bald and the skin so translucent he could see the outline of an organ inside it. Lurching on four limbs, the two back legs were longer and thicker than the front ones. It didn’t have hands and feet, only a spray of twisting thin tentacles at the end of each limb. With its head held upright the creature had the basics of a human face. Two sheer eyelids covered matching pale colored eyes. It had no ears and a bulge where the nose should have been. The mouth was only a hole filled with a spray of waving tentacles.

  “Shoot it!” Judge hollered.

  He could shoot it, but he didn’t know why he would. It was so slender and pale there was no way the creature could hurt them. A spray of fluid shot from what he’d assumed was its mouth. Glistening yellow in the light, it whipped between him and Rok, like laser fire. Hitting the walkway behind them, a pod ignited, before crumbling in shards. Pieces of the pod clattered down the walkways. If anyone had been alive inside it, they were dead now. The humanoid creature tilted back its head ready to spit again.

  Stepping forward, Judge aimed his gun at the creature. Firing rounds of plasma bullets center mass, the resulting explosion threw pieces of the creature across the platform. He turned to avoid the sloppy shrapnel. Pieces of it fell over the edge and slammed into pods on the way down. Every pod hit by chunks of the creature ignited and shattered. Explosions briefly lit the chamber, only to quickly die. The clatter of broken pods falling to the bottom echoed around the room. Once the clattering died down a rustling sound filled the chamber. More fleas had marked their position and were on the move.

  “What the hell was that?” Rok shouted.

  “A living bomb,” Judge replied. Turning to look at him, he added, “I told you this wasn’t a good idea. Good initiative, bad judgment.”

  Silently agreeing with Judge, he shouted, “Head back to the armory. We need to regroup.”

  CHAPTER ELEVEN: Wake-up call

  “Jessica, chamber lights up.”

  They’d sprinted back to the armory, so now there was a window between them and whatever the fleas were. Not that it would save them if one attacked.

  With the squad lined up and staring through the wide window, he asked, “Situation assessment?”

  “Other than screwed?” Joker asked, making it sound as if this was nothing new to him.

  “We’re not screwed,” Rok replied. “We can leave.”

  “We’re not doing that,” he said sharply.

  Rok shrugged as if that wasn't news to him either. “Oh, in that case, we’re screwed.”

  Rubbing his chin thoughtfully, Judge turned to face him. “The fleas are effectively functioning like napalm. I think our weapons ignite them.”

  “What about the yellow shit they spit?”

  “It must be inside them. That’s why they explode when they’re hit with a very hot bullet.”

  Judge’s assessment matched his own. “That makes them doubly lethal. If we don't shoot them they spit an incendiary at us. If we shoot them, then they explode. If we use short-range we can be caught by the explosion. If we use long-range, we risk compromising the hull.”

  Cackling with delight, Joker said, “In summary, we’re screwed.”

  Looking grim, Hawk shook his head. “Not as screwed as the sleepers.”

  The chamber, lit again by bright lights, was filled with long rows of pods stacked one on top of the other. Each curved pod contained a person who might already be dead or infected. The dead he could ignore, and he couldn’t touch anyone in a pod that had been compromised. If he took those people back to the Prognatus he could infect everyone onboard. Although it was cold and calculated, the only people he was interested in were those still safe inside their pods.

  “There are survivors in some of those pods,” he said.

  Judge patted his shoulder armor in an almost fatherly way. “I respect your position, Tag, but…” Turning to look at the chamber, Judge sighed unhappily. “…there's a fine line between bravery and stupidity.”

  He could order them to leave now and they’d make it back to the Prognatus, but that felt like running away. They could reenter the chamber and look for the living amongst the dead, but the humanoid fleas were like an intelligent missile. Able to move across the chamber, they would target his squad. The humanoid fleas made the chamber enemy territory and, as Judge had already pointed out, they weren’t equipped for battle. Reason fought with emotion. Logically he couldn’t win, but he didn’t want to leave empty handed either. If he set his objectives too ambitiously none of them would survive.

  “I'm not ready to leave yet.” Flicking his chin at the pods behind the window, he said, “For all we know our families are in there.”

  It was his greatest fear. Was the little girl he believed to be his daughter inside one of the pods? Was that why he was on the Ark? Had he agreed to being modified to protect Daisy? Was that why he trusted Jessica? Had he struck a deal to save his family?

  Sounding surprised, Judge asked, “Why would you think our families are onboard?”

  “Only the powerful made it onto this ship.” Glancing at the line of faces peering through the window at the pods, he asked, “Do you think any of us were rich enough to buy a ticket? Maybe being the Defensors was the price we had to pay.” Raising his arm, he studied it with disdain. “We've been modified. There must have been a very good reason for me to let anyone hack off my arm.”

  “That's a lot of assumptions,” Judge replied.

  “Give me a better explanation.”

  “I don't have one.”

  “What was the thing we shot?”

  “A space flea?” Joker suggested uncertainly.

  “Maybe it was someone from the pods,” Rok added.

  He was already worried the fleas feeding on the sleepers could be infecting them. If they had, then the humanoid looking flea could have started out human. The squid-like fleas on the Prognatus were already feeding on the sleepers. For all he knew some had already turned into the type of humanoid flea that had just attacked them. Knowing the best thing to do was almost beyond him. Without his memories, he didn’t even have the benefit of experience to draw on. The only resources he had were who he was now.

  Jessica was right. He and his squad had to eradicate the fleas on the Prognatus. The needs of the sleepers on the Prognatus limited what he could do for those on the Animax. Compromise wasn’t something he did well, but if forced he would sacrifice the ship with fewer survivors to save the one with more.

  Although he knew how their mission would end, leaving empty handed still felt like failure. The emotion didn’t rest well with him. They had to do more than scuttle back to the Prognatus with their tails between their legs. He would find a way to destroy the Animax, but he wouldn’t do it without saving at least some of the sleepers.

  A weapon was only a problem when it was used against them. The humanoid fleas were dangerous if they attacked, but what if they didn't? He needed a decoy, something that would distract the fleas while they rescued some of the survivors.

  Looking along the line of soldiers, he asked, “Flak, where did you see the active pods?”

  Flak pointed upward. “Three levels up, fifteen walkways from here, and closer to this end of the chamber.”

  Learning the sleepers were so close to their position sealed the deal for him. Although he could accept the ship was lost he wouldn’t let the fleas take every sleeper. With his decision made, he nodded to himself. “Here’s the plan. Flak and Hawk. You’re on team rabbit.” Pointing to Joker, he added, “You too.”

  Joker screwed up his face. “Why do I think team rabbit is better known as team sucker?”

  “Just so long as we’re not team dead I don't care what we’re called,” Hawk said with a gri
n.

  Nodding at a Joker, he said, “You three are going to run the walkways drawing the fleas to you. Once you've made enough noise then head to the docking bay and get the shuttle ready to go.” Turning to Judge, Ash and Rok, he added, “We’re going to get the sleepers Flak located. Once we have them we’ll head to the docking bay. If we’re lucky the people we wake up will be on their feet.”

  Not bothering to hide his unhappiness with the plan, Judge asked, “How sure are you they can get on their feet? More importantly, what will you do if they can’t?”

  Planning had its place, but eventually every punter threw caution to the wind. Holding up his hand to Judge, he said, “Jessica, wake up the pods.”

  “Ark Animax is not at destination.”

  “Not asking, Jessica. I'm ordering you to wake the sleepers.”

  “Full activation sequence initiated.”

  Joker gave a satisfied huff. “I told you she’s a computer.”

  “Maybe we are too,” Rok replied.

  Sounding disgusted, Joker shook his head. “No way, man, you're too damned stupid to be a machine.” Now grinning, he added, “When we get back to the ship I'm going to make a date with Jess. I think she's the kinda woman I understand.”

  “Activation sequence complete.”

  “Saddle up. When we get into the chamber, team rabbit goes right and the rest head left.” Grabbing Hawk by the arm, he added, “Have that shuttle ready to get us the hell out of here.”

  CHAPTER TWELVE: Enemy Within

  Jessica had raised the lights in the chamber so the damaged pods were no longer shielded under the gloom. Cracked open like broken shellfish, bloody trails ran down their sides. Running along the walkway he tried to ignore the bodies lying limp inside the pods. Some had been dead for so long, only a mummified corpse remained. Others were so deathly pale he couldn’t believe they were still alive, although he knew they might be. The cruelest were the bodies huddled into a corner of their pod. With their knees drawn to their chests and heads between them, they must have been awake when they died. It was possible some were still alive, but he couldn’t help them. Judge was right and he should have ordered the squad to leave the ship. It was cursed.