Author: Johannes "Jergen[K]" Cruz			Viewing: Chapter 2

Just as Dachande managed to doze off Aegis was shaking him awake. He lurched forward, nearly dropping his rifle, then looked at his fellow marine. "What is it Corporal?" Aegis simply pointed out of the aft window at the object they had recovered from the asteroid field. Dachande stood, walking to the aft portal and looked out at the massive object behind them. Resembling nothing more than an immense egg, it hung in the net they had wrapped around it, bathed in a blanket of starlight. For a moment he didn't see what was happening, and then he jumped back from the porthole and thumbed his communicator to contact the bridge. "That damn thing is moving Mekh, drop it now!" Before Mekhazzio could react and jettison the object into cold space, it was far to late for any of them. From the equator of the large object, what appeared to be tentacles snaked out, reaching for Shadow Dragon, each one of them tipped in a massive spike. Then, the ship buckled as all eight of the things drove home and began burrowing. Aegis and Dachande were thrown to the deck as the Shadow Dragon lurched hard to port, her engines misfiring and then going silent. In the bridge Mekhazzio's hands flew over the controls, trying desperately to get his ship back in control, but with another lurch the bridge lights failed, bathing him in shadows. Seconds later the bridge fell silent as all of the consoles were drained of power and fell silent and dark. "This is bad," Mekhazzio said, trying desperately to get a message back to Eden. *** Ban lurched forward, falling off of the table he had been sleeping on and landing hard on the deck of the ship. Franticly, his hands clawed at his face, tearing at some unseen thing there. He inhaled sharply, but was able to cut the scream short as the nightmare faded from his mind. For a moment he just laid on the cool steel of the warship's deck and listened to the engines push her towards Eden while his muscles slowly unwound from the tension of the dream. "You okay Ban?" CCrew asked as he peeked down at the marine sprawled on the floor. Ban nodded, getting to his knees. He was surprised to find his shirt and face soaked with sweat as he reached up to wipe his eyes. "Yea C," he mumbled, a little out of breath. "I'll be fine." CCrew turned away slowly as if he wanted to say more, but thought better of it and left Ban alone. None of them were above frightening visions in their sleep anymore, and no one dared to question it when it happened. Each one of them were survivors of the greatest tragedy in history, and that gave them the right to be at least a little screwed up now and again. Ban sat down heavily in one of the galley chairs and absently fingered his rifle. "Dammit Jergen," he whispered. "It's not easy anymore without you here at my back." He pushed his rifle aside, and thought about trying to sleep again, but knew there was no way he would get another second of rest before he exhausted himself again. He stood, holstering his pistol, and walked out of the galley and past CCrew and the sleeping form of Diehard. "Where you headed Sergeant?" CCrew asked, walking after Ban. "Just to the bridge," Ban said, not slowing to allow him to catch up. "I'll be back to relieve you in a little while." "Okay," CCrew said, returning to the forward hatch of the galley. Ban quickened his pace as soon as he was out of sight of CCrew, and moments later he was jogging at a good pace. He had practically lived most of his adult life on this type of ship, and if he couldn't sleep, at least he knew the best way to keep his mind off of nightmares and the ghosts of lost friends. *** Next to Earth herself the planet Alexandria had the largest concentration of human life in the Universe. That had changed recently, and with Earth gone, thousands of refugees flooded towards the planet, hoping for salvation. All of them had been turned away, with the exception of the few that had managed to get to the surface of the planet without detection. These stragglers, world less gypsies without a single hope to guide them, landed on Alexandria like a plague. They hunted the countryside, harassing the few agricultural centers for food and looting any small settlements they could. Soon, the government of the planet, long since separate from the UEG through treachery, began searching the refuge mass for some means of help. They found this in the form of the mercenary groups and ragtag military vessels that still had their ships and enough fuel to orbit their planet. "Frigate Unforgiven," the control tower called out to one of the ships orbiting above. "This is ground control, and you are cleared to release your dropships at your leisure. Utilize landing site bravo 17." "Affirmative Alexandria control, thank you for your hospitality, Unforgiven out." Saturn leaned back, his fingers tracing the line of his jaw for a moment as the ship shuddered with gravity as it shifted the angle of its orbit to allow the dropships to launch. "I am heading to our ship Captain," he said as he stood from his chair and moved towards the bridge hatch. "Please maintain this orbit and keep out of trouble." The Captain of the Unforgiven smirked at the Kindred Commander and managed a loose salute before Saturn had turned and gone. "She'll be waitin' for you," he shouted at the man's back before the metal hatch slid closed. Just as Saturn left his chambers after putting on his gear he was stopped in the passageway by the approaching figure of one of his officers. "First Lieutenant Briggs," he said, returning the approaching marine's salute. "Sir," Briggs said, stopping in front of his Commander. "The men are ready to go, we have three dropships, each filled to the hilt, and a fourth is bringing down the civilians we picked up." "They didn't exactly give us permission to bring in any civs Briggs," Saturn said solemnly, looking at the man in front of him. "That's why they are dressed in fatigues Sir," Briggs said smiling. Saturn nodded, "Good, we can't afford to feed them forever." "Got that right sir," Briggs mumbled as both men headed towards the aft hold of their ship for the drop to Alexandria. "Move it Marine!" Briggs called to a lone marine that had stopped to secure his helmet strap in the passageway in front of them. "This ain't a beauty contest and we ain't got time for you to fix your makeup before we drop!" The marine looked up, startled, and snapped a salute, "Aye, aye gentlemen," he called as he tore off down the passageway, his boots clanking on the metal plating of the ship's deck. "I hope they stay that motivated," Saturn said as they neared the dropship hold. Briggs only nodded as he headed inside the third dropship, and Saturn moved towards the second. A marine stepped in front of Saturn before he boarded and snapped out a salute, "Executive Officer reports the Kindred are in place and prepared for drop, sir." "Roger Captain," Saturn said, returning the salute. "Prepare to take us out." "Aye, aye sir!" Captain Lody said, turning to face the drop officer, a crewmember of the ship assigned to prepare the Frigate for the release of ordinance or military personnel, and signaled for the drop to commence. The drop officer signaled back, and Lody boarded his bird and awaited the final countdown. Saturn buttoned the chinstrap of his helmet as he settled into the seat of the armored personnel carrier that was resting securely in the belly of their Cheyenne dropship. This done, the watch Non Commissioned Officer called out the number of his count and verified that all marines were on board. He then locked a bar down in front of his Commander and the rest of the marines seated on that side of the APC and then proceeded to take his place across from them, locking his row in as well. This done, he slapped a switch on the bulkhead next to him that would toggle a light to green in the cockpit, showing that the team was ready for drop. "Good to go Sir," Sergeant Raptor called out. Saturn just leaned back and waited for the ride to begin. *** Dachande and Aegis had not been able to leave the aft hold of the ship. When Shadow Dragon lost power all of her doors had sealed, and now they would not be able to leave this section without either blowing through the doors or power being restored soon. Neither one of them was enthusiastic about setting an explosive off in the small hold, so they had both decided to don their pressure suits in case the thing that had attached itself to the ship decided to tear the hull apart. Aegis moved to the aft hatch after his gear was in place and looked out of the porthole at the alien device. It had stopped moving once it had attached itself, but the now there were areas of light along its surface, ranging from a deep crimson to a bright green. The colors spread out over the thing's hull, pulsing and constantly shifting to new hues as they did so. "Why does this always happen Aegis?" Dachande said as he joined the other marine in looking at the object. "We go somewhere to do a simple little thing, and we run into something crazy." "Crazy Universe Sergeant," Aegis said. "I figured that out the first time I saw any of these things." "You got that right," Dachande said, the alien lights reflecting off of the front of his helmet. He jumped when his radio came to life. "What's going on with it?" Mekhazzio asked, his voice strained with the tension of the moment. "It's just sitting there glowing," Dachande said. "It's connected to the ship with some kind of tentacles, but after it did that it just stopped moving." Mekhazzio leaned back in his seat, running his hands through his hair as he thought. "You two got back in suits right?" "Roger," Dachande said, turning away from the spectacle. "Then see if you can jettison one of the small emergency hatches and space walk to the bridge, I will let you in." Mekhazzio said, swiveling his chair to look at the airlock just behind the open bridge hatch. "You want us to go out there with that thing and walk to the bridge?" Dachande asked incredulous. "It's either that or you can suffocate," Mekhazzio said. "Life support is out in that region, but the systems in the bridge are running on reserves and will last a lot longer than those suits you to are in." "He's got a point," Aegis said. "Our weapons wont fire out there," Dachande said, looking nervously at the thing. "I don't think it would matter if they did," Aegis said softly. "Now you've got a point," Dachande conceded. "Okay Mekh, we're going to try and do this." "Roger," Mekhazzio said. "Good luck." "Like we've had any for the last six months?" Dachande asked, trying to lighten the situation up as much as he could. "Now you've got a point," Mekhazzio said. Solemnly, the two marines prepared to open the hatch and step out into the void with their parasitic cargo. *** Ban had been running for nearly an hour when he finally decided to stop. He had reached the bridge three times, and each time had turned back and headed towards the galley. The entire trip wasn't a very long one, but it gave him a chance to clear his head with exertion, and that's what he desperately needed. Pausing near sickbay Ban wiped his forehead and rested it against the cool Plexiglas that lined the bulkhead here. Letting out a long sigh, he looked into the quiet room before him. The sickbay beds were all expertly made, with their green blankets tucked neatly into the edges of their frames and a thin coat of plastic stretched over them to ensure sterility. Along one bulkhead stood several operating machines, each one with dozens of shiny metal appendages tipped with what appeared to be dangerous fingers of needles and laser scalpels. Along the other bulkhead was a row of canisters, five of them, each filled with clear liquid. Ban stood, and then entered the sickbay, his eyes searching the medical implements and sterile surfaces out of habit. For the several years Ban had been in the Corps he had been on no less than three dozen military sweeps of ghost ships or installations, and his old instincts died hard. Every military Frigate had a science crew of at least two members, with a synthetic on board for analytical support. This crew was more than capable of handling most major surgeries, and in the case of a military situation, they would supplement the Marine medics with a high manner of expertise to deal with severe trauma or disorder. The colonization of many worlds, along with the armed exploration of others had a tendency to see men either hurt or infected with various afflictions that only very well trained medical personnel could treat, and this sickbay was the result of that need. Ban sat down at one of the desks, and began searching through the papers there. They were covered with the tiny text one of the resident science officers, most of which was illegible to him. They were papers requesting some medical supplies, but the nature of which was very much beyond Ban's understanding. He set them aside and laid his face on the cool surface of the desk. "You there Sergeant?" A voice said, causing Ban to jump up from the desk. Ban looked around confused, but shook off the confusion in a few moments and thumbed his communicator. "Yea C," he said. "I'm here. Just dozed off in the infirmary." "Roger," CCrew said after a second. "Diehard is up and he's taking watch if you don't mind Sergeant." "Good to go CCrew," Ban said. "Let me know if something happens." "Okay," CCrew said just before killing the link between them. Ban turned to leave the room, pausing to rub his eyes a second time before he did so. Shaking the lethargy of sleep from him, he hit the wall panel to open the infirmary hatch. He immediately pulled his hand back, recoiling from something that now coated his palm. "What?" He asked himself, looking at his now shining hand. Something sticky now hung from his skin, tracing a congealed line back to the hatch release from him. As he looked at it, the mucous-like glob dripped and landed in a similar puddle near his boots. Ban stepped back from the hatch, wiping his hand on his trousers as he did so, his heart beginning to race in his chest. He knew what that was, and there was only one thing that produced it.