Author: Johannes "Jergen[K]" Cruz			Viewing: Chapter 1

The Light Frigate Shadow Dragon came to a halt just outside of the asteroid cluster designated three bravo and moments later the aft cargo bay was sealed off from the rest of the ship and opened. Two forms drifted out of the hold, each one wearing an identical suit to protect them from vacuum, pushing several pallets of material with them through the weightlessness. “I will attach the northern set,” Dachande said into the communicator mounted inside of his helmet. “You have the southern ones.” “Roger,” Aegis said, moving off beneath the ship, accelerating with the help of thrusters mounted onto his back. *** As both men cleared the ship Mekhazzio sat back in his acceleration couch and watched the heads up displays in front of him for signs of incoming projectiles. Asteroid fields were a good place to hide, and in that department Mekhazzio was well versed, but they also had a bad tendency to launch rocks out of their orbit and into spacecraft at incredible speeds. “Eden,” Mekh began, “this is Shadow Dragon reporting first rendezvous point is in the process of being secured.” A moment of silence went by before the transmission made it back to the planet and a response could be received on the ship. “Understood Shadow Dragon,” a voice said over the net. “Be careful up there and let us know when you are on the way home.” “Understood Doctor,” Mekhazzio said, swiveling in his chair to wave at Doctor Stewart over the monitor just before he terminated the signal. *** Dachande reached his first waypoint just above the waiting ship. With a short burst of his thrusters he came to a stop and began opening the first container strapped to his pallet. Inside the first olive green box was a circular sphere of brushed black metal. Gingerly, he reached inside the crate and pulled the device free and floated it to the large asteroid next to him that had been designated as his first target. Lining the sphere up in a small depression on the dense rock’s surface, he opened a panel on the device and activated a switch. Two lights, one amber and the other green, flashed to life as four small legs deployed themselves from the sphere, reaching clawlike towards the rock. Once in place the steel feet of the object dove into the surface of the asteroid, securing the entire package firmly in place. Once secured the amber light turned green, matching the led next to it. Dachande reached into the small compartment, pressed both buttons simultaneously, and replaced the covering over the small panel. His first objective completed, Dachande pushed off from the rock and returned to his pallet. As he was preparing the next device for deployment he was startled by the sudden flare of starfire across the visible horizon. Stretching from the sun all the way around their new home of Eden, was a river of molten light cascading with every color of the sunset and more. The silent majesty of hanging weightless in space before such a magnificent sight gave him a moment’s pause as he observed Jergen’s Fury spreading its face across the sky. “I know it’s a nice show Sergeant,” Aegis said as he moved to the aft of Shadow Dragon and deposited his empty pallet, “but I think we need to get out of here.” Dachande flinched when he heard the voice. “Roger,” he said into his mike, removing the next object and propelling himself towards another of the larger rocks around him. Aegis moved to help him, but even he stopped to watch the display for a moment, marveling at the complete feeling of emptiness this far out in the middle of nothing. His limbs were limp with the lack of gravity, leaving a euphoric floating sensation. Then he turned away from the incredible display and began opening another crate. *** “Shadow Dragon, this is Hummel’s Dawn,” a voice called over the ship’s net. “Go ahead Hummel, I have you,” Mekhazzio replied, swiveling his chair to peer into the viewscreen that was tracking the incoming ship. “Our package is delivered,” Eric said over the secured net. “We’ll see you back at the station.” “Roger,” Mekhazzio replied, “Looks like I owe you that beer.” “That is affirmative,” Eric Hummel said, “Hummel out.” Mekhazzio reached down and thumbed the communications to inter-ship mode and called out to the marines delivering his payload. “Let’s go boys,” he said. “You’re slacking today.” “The package is in place,” Dachande said. “We are inbound,” the voice broke off in mid-sentence, falling silent. “Dachande, say again your last transmission,” Mekhazzio said, trying to find the men on one of the external feeds. “We may have found something ‘Dragon,” Dachande said, his voice a little out of breath. “That’s affirmative,” Aegis piped in, “there is something constructed out here.” Mekhazzio looked at his monitors intently and found the two marines. Both of them had deployed their last device, but were now just hanging in space next to their pallet, staring at something just beyond them. *** Dachande fired his thrusters for a moment to build up some speed as he reached an asteroid nearby the foreign object and latched onto the rock to get a good look. “It looks like an egg,” Aegis said, joining Dachande on his perch. Mekhazzio broke in to their conversation, “I have Evelyn on the line from planet side,” he said excitedly. “She wants to see it.” The Doctor’s voice came over the net a moment later, “Dachande,” her transmission broke with static for a moment, then resumed. “See if you can get close to it so I can get a clear image.” “Okay Doc,” Dachande said, looking over his shoulder to Aegis he shrugged. The object was immense, nearly twice the size of the Shadow Dragon, and showed no seems or any other signs of communications antennae or sensors. Dachande approached it slowly, sliding around the thing using lateral thrust, keeping his camera locked on it at all times. “It looks almost organic,” Evelyn said to herself, loud enough for those patched in to the communicator to hear her. “Do you think you can tow it to orbit Mekh?” “I would imagine so,” the former pirate began. “It doesn’t weigh anything out here. The only problem will be stopping her when we get done with the tow.” “Any readings from it?” The Doctor asked, clearly excited. “No Ma’am,” Dachande said. Inside the ship Mekhazzio punched in a series of commands, scanning the area for any signs of energy activity. The scope remained dead except for the very low frequency put off by the devices he had been brought out here to plant. “Nothing here either,” he said after a moment of checking the scopes. “In that case,” the Doctor began. “See if you can rig it for tow and get it to orbit.” “I don’t know about this Doctor,” Mekhazzio responded, pausing for more static. “I don’t like the idea of towing alien debris back to the last safe place we have to live.” “Mekh,” she said. “If this thing was trouble, it would have already caused it. Just get it back here, and if it makes you feel any better, plant one of the mines on it just in case you have to blow it away.” “Okay,” Mekh responded slowly, “But you owe me.” “Yea, yea,” Evelyn shot back. “Just get it back here in one piece.” “Okay Dachande,” Mekhazzio began. “You heard her, get that sucker strapped with a mine and loop her onto the Dragon when I get her close enough.” “Whatever you say,” Dachande said, shaking his head inside of his helmet. For a second he was tempted to touch the thing, to run his hands down the nearly smooth convex side of it, but he couldn’t bring himself to do so. For a brief second the Shadow Dragon’s engines flared, bringing the ship around to close proximity of the large object. Then, with preternatural precision, Mekhazzio pivoted the ship away from it, and opened the hold just as it was facing in the proper direction to throw towlines out the aft of the Dragon. “Okay, latch her up with the tow lines near the aft hold.” Mekhazzio explained. “Once that is done, get into the ship and let me know we are ready so that I can start moving. I don’t want that huge sucker to rebound into me from our thrust.” “Right,” Dachande said, motioning for Aegis to follow. The two men went to the aft of the ship and extracted four lines. After running them out behind the device they interlocked them to form a net around it. This done, Aegis entered the ship’s hold and removed another mine from a crate and moved to attach it to the thing’s surface. Opening the mine’s legs, he brought it close to the surface and engaged the securing mechanism. With a mechanical lunge the mine tried to attach itself to the surface, but the small legs of the attachment “claw” could not penetrate the outside material. Aegis paused, looking at the surface of the thing in absolute astonishment. These mines were designed to burrow through the solid steel of ship’s hulls, but it hadn’t even made a scratch. “Sergeant,” Aegis said. “We have a problem.” Dachande moved over next to his marine and immediately discerned what had happened. “Oh man,” he mumbled. “I don’t think this is a good sign.” Aegis only nodded, disarming the mine and moving back into the ship’s hold. “We can’t mine it Mekh,” Dachande said. “They wont attach.” “Damn,” Mekhazzio said, looking at the display of Dachande. “Okay, I guess just stick back there and watch it. If something happens cut the tow lines.” “Right,” Dachande replied, sealing the aft bay of Shadow Dragon as both he and Aegis prepared for the trip home. Both men could see the gigantic shape of their newest passenger through a tiny window in the aft hatch as it locked shut. Watching it intently, they strapped in for the two-hour ride back to Eden. It was going to be a nervous trip. “We’re in,” Dachande said, relieved to be out of his suit and to have his hands around his pistol. “Okay,” Mekhazzio replied. Shadow Dragon powered up slowly, picking up speed gradually to keep their new cargo snug in the makeshift net, and began the trip home. *** Sweat stung Ban’s eyes are it poured down his forehead. For more than three hours he had been down in the belly of a derelict ship they had located near the Eden System. Fearing possible alien contamination, Preacher had given the order to board the ship and see what the situation was. Once aboard they had found the vessel completely empty. There were no signs of a crew anywhere, there were no supplies of food, or stored goods in any of the holds, and none of the cryo-chambers were occupied. Other than being completely deserted, the ship was otherwise in good condition, and Preacher had given the order to prepare her for travel back into the system. So, for the past few hours Ban and his crew had been working in the ship’s engineering section trying to get the engines serviceable by manually feeding them the heavy rods of fuel that the ship’s reactor required. They were almost done when the small communications headset Ban had around his neck began throwing out bursts of static. Setting down one of the huge lead-sheathed rods, Ban answered the call. “Ban here,” he said, whipping futilely at his brow with a forearm as soaked as the rest of him. “Situation?” Preacher said to him in his customary monotone. For two months Ban had been working hand in hand with Preacher and his band of fanatical marines. Dubbed Divine Right by their zealous commander, this group of mercenaries was well known for performing missions successfully where exceedingly well-trained armies had failed. Their reputation was a hard one, but it was not tempered with the usual lawlessness of such organizations. Cautious at first, Ban had come to like his new commander, and respected him a great deal. Even the rest of Divine Right struck Ban as good a bunch of people as anyone could ask for. He had been pleasantly surprised to find so many fast friends given that for the majority of his time within the Colonial Marine Corps he had only grown close to one other marine. “We are ready to go Sir,” Ban said, blowing sweat off of his lips as it ran over them. “We need those techs now so we can fire her up, and a pilot if we can borrow one.” “You can’t pilot a ship Ban?” Preacher asked, his voice not betraying any hint of sarcasm. “If you want me to fly this crate home,” Ban said with a sigh, “It’s going to be a very short trip.” “They are on the way, prepare for departure,” Preacher said after a pause. “We’ll see about getting you in a piloting class when this is all over. I can always use a pilot.” “I see Sir,” Ban said, shaking his head at the man’s odd sense of humor. Cutting the communications link Ban turned to Diehard and CCrew. “They are on the way to fire her up gents.” Both marines paused, nodded, and then continued their work. “Hotter than a small sun in this oven,” Diehard mumbled. “No dispute there bro,” CCrew said, wiping sweat away with his sweat-soaked T-shirt. Just as the men finished their work a shuttle docked with the derelict and began transferring a small team to get it up and running for the trip home. As the marines left the engineering station they all paused to sigh in relief as cool air washed over them in the aft galley. “Oh man that’s nice,” CCrew said, pulling off his shirt to bask in the artificial breeze. The other marines quickly followed his example, nodding in agreement. “I’m going to find some water,” Ban said, moving out of the main room of the Galley and heading back into the kitchen to look for some kind of container. Even though the process of preparing food had been greatly simplified by automating the cooking process, there was still a need for containers and some minor pots and pans. Ban went through the small kitchen, pausing near a small freezer in the back. Even though the majority of food onboard a space faring vessel was dehydrated and put into the replication devices for reconstitution at a diner’s request, there was still some need of real food. This became more and more important on longer voyages due to the body rejecting synthetic vitamins if the real thing was not provided every so often. So, most ships had at least one freezer with real meat and fruits in the case of an extended voyage. Ban paused outside of a closed freezer. He had found a small container and filled it with water from one of the small sinks in the back of the room, but if the freezer was stocked he would be a hero for finding some kind of frozen fruit or meat that could be cooked up on the spot for the weary troupe. He opened the freezer and peered inside of the dark closet. The moment the door was opened he smiled with pleasure as the very cold air washed over his fevered and sweating skin. Frost coated everything inside of the small area, at least two inches of it, and crunched under Ban’s boot as he stepped inside. Fumbling at the side of the door he flipped a light switch, hoping to illuminate the chamber better, but the light did not respond. Fumbling with a small pocket flashlight he always carried with him, he twisted the end of it and was greeted with a small line of light that tried to push back the darkness of the room. Leveling it towards the back of the freezer, he began to look around. At first the light found only the myriad of colors thrown about by the prism of ice crystals formed on everything, then it fell upon the shapes of a stack of objects near the back of the cell next to the single metal rack used to store foodstuffs. Kneeling down, Ban approached them, moving to whipe some of the concealing frost off of them in the process. As his warm fingers slid through the chill of powdered ice they uncovered something he was hard pressed to identify. Although somewhat hard to the touch, it wasn’t wrapped in any kind of protective cover, but it didn’t look like meat. Leaning down in the gloom Ban looked at the texture of the thing and froze. Every fiber of his body screamed with horror as he felt his genitals crawl up inside of himself. Suddenly he felt very cold, and started shivering. Just as his body finally let go of the horror and started his backpedaling towards the freezer opening, the thing opened like some lethal flower, it’s petals coated in stringy clear mucous. As Ban crossed the freezer door at a fast backwards crab-walk, he could clearly see the sickly yellow fingers of a Xenomorph parasite climbing free of it’s egg. Just as the parasite came clear of the leathery egg and started it’s spider crawl towards him Ban managed to kick the door closed and fall back against one of the small cabinets. Several metal dishes fell down all about him, making a tremendous sound in the small cooking area, and drawing the other two marines. CCrew and Diehard looked down at the shaken Ban, aiming around the room with their rifles in case some attack was coming. “Damn thing almost got me,” Ban said, dropping his small flashlight onto the metal deck of the ship. “What is it Ban?” Diehard asked, nervously sweeping the room with his rifle as he moved to help the marine to his feet. “Parasite,” Ban said. “One of those face hugging aliens.” He pointed to the freezer. “It almost got hold of me before I could get out of there. Diehard’s eyes locked on the freezer door. “How many are in there,” he asked. “Looked like three eggs,” Ban said. “Let me get my rifle.” “Shouldn’t we report this?” CCrew asked, moving to the freezer hatch. “Hell with that,” Diehard said, loading a round into the chamber of his grenade launcher. “There wont be enough to report in a few seconds.” CCrew looked around nervously as Ban returned with his weapon and moved to the door. “Cover me Ban,” Diehard said, taking up a position across from the door. Ban knelt down and took aim at the lower half of the floor. Once both men were ready Diehard nodded to CCrew and aimed in at the room. The creature sprung forth at them, but before it could manage an attack both Diehard and Ban raked it with fire, blasting it’s body into tiny smoking pieces that proceeded to melt into the ship’s deck. The other two eggs remained unmoving, but Diehard and ban shot each one of them regardless, and with a sick liquid sound both of them split open and distributed their contents on the freezer floor. The acidic liquid began burning the metal, but quickly neutralized as it was not nearly as concentrated as the normal Xenomorph blood. “Okay,” Ban said nodding. “I’ll get us in touch with the other ship and report in. Let’s get ready to go.” The two marines looked at Ban for just a moment before they filed out of the galley, all thoughts of food or water completely forgotten. As the men were replacing their heavy gear and preparing to leave the ship for the return trip to Eden a group of engineers rushed in with their pistols in hand. “What was the shooting?” One of them asked. Ban pointed at the Galley, nodding in the direction he was indicating. “Aliens in the freezer,” was all he said as the three of them prepared to leave. “Oh hell,” the lead engineer said. “I thought this ship was clean.” “So did we,” Ban said, thumbing his communications gear to life. “Preacher this is Ban, over.” “Go ahead Ban,” Preacher said. “We have Xenomorph contact Sir,” Ban reported. “What was the nature of the contact Sergeant?” Preacher asked, suddenly becoming very interested in the communication. “Three parasites sir,” Ban replied. “We destroyed them and their eggs.” “Anything else?” Preacher asked. “No Sir,” Ban said. “That was all we encountered.” “Understood Ban,” Preacher began. “I am sorry to do this to you, but remain on the ship and watch out for the new crew in the case of an event.” Ban nodded, “Yes Sir.” “If you need anything,” Preacher said while preparing terminate the link, “contact me and I can have a ship there in less than two minutes.” “Thank you Sir, we will report as soon as we are in position.” Ban looked up at the other two marines with him and shrugged. “We are going to travel back to Eden on this vessel in case something happens.” Diehard cursed, but nodded. CCrew simply nodded and took a seat at one of the large eating tables. “I’ll let the engineers know what’s up,” Ban said, moving to the aft of the ship. *** Doctor Evelyn Stewart poured over the data sheets being printed out by the makeshift science station’s computers. Ever since Mekhazzio had let her know he was bringing the object they had discovered in the asteroid belt back to Eden she had begun using the planet’s two observation sensors to bring in data. Already she was getting some small reports, and using the Shadow Dragon’s own sensors, those reports were getting a little larger all the time. Surface analysis was nearly complete, and from the look of it the hull of the device was comprised of mostly carbon with a latticework of silicon looped around the cells for flexibility. Although it was not completely revolutionary, the design was certainly not human in nature, and would indeed deem a great deal of study. Thumbing the intercom system she spoke into the small laboratory microphone, “Doctor Brinks, could you please join me in lab two?” she said, her voice sounding out over the station’s speakers. A moment later the lab speaker squawked, “Of course my dear, give an old man a moment to get there.” Evelyn smiled to herself at the old man’s spirit, then went back to the printouts and began using a highlighter on certain strings of calculations. The station was sending out pulses of different types of light, sound and radiation to reflect off of the incoming object. By monitoring the return of data they were able to discern what it was comprised of, for the most part, and would hopefully be able to discern at least part of it’s nature before it arrived at Eden. Just as Evelyn was finished going over the latest printouts Doctor Edward Brinks arrived, leaning heavily on his cane and puffing a little hard from the exertion of walking briskly, he smiled at his younger counterpart. “Oh Doctor,” Evelyn said, feigning a pout, “you didn’t have to run!” “Oh never mind that Doctor Stewart,” Brinks said. “You sounded excited, and I didn’t want to miss any of the fun you see, and you know I can’t run on these legs anyway.” Evelyn smiled at him, and indicated the printouts spread on the tables before her. She pointed at several lines she had highlighted, then waited for Brinks to have a good look at them. “Oh my,” Edward said after a few moments. “It’s been a long time since I’ve seen anything like this.” “I was hoping you would say something like that,” Evelyn said, moving over to the small man. “What is it?” “Well,” Doctor Brinks began. “I don’t think I could answer exactly what it is, but I have seen these structures before. It was a while ago though, maybe thirty years or more.” The old Doctor tapped his forehead for a moment, trying to remember exactly when he had seen similar data to this. “Oh, it’s of no matter when, it’s where it was that is important.” “Well then Doctor, where was it?” Evelyn asked, growing more excited by the moment. “That is classified don’t you know,” they Doctor said, smiling. “But I don’t think the proper authorities exist any longer, so it wont make a difference if I let it slip out.” “Well?” Evelyn asked in a rush. “It was LV-426 dear,” the Doctor said. “That derelict craft that the UEG confiscated and had moved to the moon,” he paused, squinting at the readouts. “Yes, I am certain of it, that derelict was made up of this exact same material. Evelyn felt her blood go cold as she rushed to the communications gear and tried to reach Shadow Dragon.