Chapter Fourteen: In The Cold Of Space...

General POV

Silence was the keyword that one would think of when they have been in space, surrounded on all sides in a small suit meant to keep them alive in the harsh vacuum. You realize just how quiet it really is, the only sound your straining ears pick up being the fans and pumps in your suit as well as your own breathing, and for those unable to handle the panic-inducing quiet, their own heartbeat. Of course with ships that can hold their own atmosphere, sounds and people one never really needed to worry about such an issue, especially in a day and age where ships were large enough to house a good few hundred. Military and Civilian alike. Of course, while you can't break the silence of space you can certainly disrupt its peace, battles fought in the Vacuum above planets and in systems easily managed that. Even in those, the ragged breathing of one's own breath was considered somewhat calming.

The heavy footfalls and flash of adrenaline and fear, however, did the opposite. Such is the result of the battle above a small world, its slightly barren landmass mostly denoting its lack of use until one looks at the growing green of the half terraformed world. A small shutter shook the ship above the planet the glass pan showing such a scene flashing out of sight of the one running through the spartan and militaristic halls of the small frigate meant to defend the planet. The colonization effort for this system wasn't slated to begin until the terraformation was mostly complete, and that wasn't for another three years yet. The woman's form slipped between some downed piping in the corridor and moved for the blast doors sealing off the next section. There wasn't a call to abandon ship, at least none that had come over the fleet com and she was determined to at least get to her station before such a call came, if ever.

Of course, the moment she mashed her glove against the door controls she realized the foolish mistake she had made. She had overlooked the small warning flashing on the door controls and the violent swirling of air escaping into the vacuum threatened to pull her out. Her hands gripped hard against a mounting pole and held on for dear life until the entirety of the hall she was in lost its atmosphere. She turned her head and looked in fear and awe at the massive hole in the ship. A large chunk was gone, her entire corridor a good hundred or so feet nothing but empty space, it leads up and down several levels and seemed to go pretty deep into the ship. The sight of dark space dotted with stars and nebula distracted her for a moment. Until the light of the sun illuminated the corpses floating through the area near the heat scored wound in the ship. The artificial gravity has long since been knocked out and most get around using the magnetic soles in their boots to keep grounded.

She breathed deeply as she deactivated the magnets, she didn't have time to turn around and find another way, with several boarding parties already on board and the Marine's onboard doing their best to repel them she would just be in the way. Besides her job was as transportation Pilot, and they were going to need as many as could be spared to get everyone the hell off this ship. She breathed deeply for a second. With the angle on the attack, it was obvious if she wasn't careful she would be throwing herself into the abyss. At that point one might as well kill themselves, by the time any response force was brought and you even hoped to be rescued, months would have elapsed, and if any were coming from the planet or nearby planets they would have been here by now. She closed her eyes and prayed a quick little prayer, the small religion not well-liked or even respected but it had brought her luck before. Her momentum pushed her free on the doorway and on her way. She tried to steady herself without throwing her body into a spin.

She only barely managed to succeed and would have panicked when she slammed into some debris had it not pushed her back towards the corridor she had been aiming for in the first place. She sighed in relief for a moment only to have all the fear place back in her as another attack scored a direct hit in the deeper portion of the wound. The blast threw debris wide and a large chunk slammed into her and from there into the wall. She grabbed on as the large metal portion slowly flew off into space and winced as her no broken left arm protested at the action. Her right hand left her hold on the wall and slammed into the control for just a moment before grabbing back on for dear life. Objects whipped out of the corridor as it went under an extreme depressurization in such a short moment. She relaxed for only a moment as she slipped herself into the corridor reactivating her boots and shutting the door behind her.

The ship wouldn't repressurize the room, it didn't have the life support to spare, for the moment so she would have to hurry to the next corridor to hopefully equalize between the too and stop drawing from her internal tank. An internal tank that was now screaming at her it was low. A small curse left her lips, she hadn't expected the trip to burn up so much, in fact, she should have much more. Her hands reached back and in the silence she heard it, the slight hissing from her cracked tank, the damned debris managed to rupture her tank, with the way it was venting she had maybe a three minute window, and the next corridor was a solid four using the boots, if it was artificial gravity she would be able to make the walk in a minute easy. The boots were useful, ignoring how slow they made you, the only real weakness they had.

He glanced around the corridor and her eyes lined on a small set of pipes leading into the ceiling. She moved as fast as possible and still burned a solid minute band a half to get to the pipes. Sadly none were for air but she deactivated the boots and angled herself to at least bounce off one wall and impact on the door controls. She pulled hard and grinned slightly as she slipped through the air fairly quickly. she bounced hard and grit her teeth in pain as her arm was aggravated and spin herself so her back lined up with the door. The hard-hit stunned her for a moment and she fumbled with the boot controls. The sudden activation of the boots dragged her down quickly and onto her ass. she stood as fast as possible and mashed her hand against the door control viciously. The door opened and air flooded in quickly before both equalized.

The sensor data said it was some thin air, but it was better than the almost depleted stock of air she had that was still venting. She fumbled with the release and breathed deeply as the sealing came loose letting air from the hall flow into her helmet. she stood breathing for a few moments until the sound of the klaxon came back to her, a noise that had abandoned her the moment she saw the hole in the ship. "Emergency code Bravo Seven Seven. All hands prep for separation of Section Kilo and Delta." A voice called over the intercom. She cursed internally, she only had another corridor to go but the section she was in was Kilo and the section she was trying to get to was Delta. Her mind raced on how to avoid an enclosed coffin in space and she went over the design of the ship. Section Delta had three small hangers and a medium hanger, it was all that one section could support.

If she could open the hanger doors before the separation she could easily fly her ship out even when the section separated and lost power. But she knew the moment a separation order came over the coms everyone had approximately three minutes until it was explosively separated if the discharger didn't break it away in order to keep enemies from moving into another section for safety. She rushed as fast as she could and stopped at the next door. on the other side was the corridor that was lining the rear side of the Hanger bays, luckily her's was closest to her position. Yet as her hand hovered over the controls she moved for the small observation screen thumbing the camera just on the other side. As though the world was out to get her, a small team of three were on the other side trying to break into the room at the opposite end, it looked like the three got separated from their group, but the short angled burst-fire rifles and slim suits easily told her what side they were on.

Only their Marine's had slightly slimmer suits but even they were slightly bulky, they had yet to slim things down, or at least before she left the homeworld and went into cryo, they hadn't. Her hand dropped to her holster on his right side, the large sidearm was very much so meant for emergencies, its size was meant to have some real stopping power, and penetration to breach an unshielded mildly armored suit, and yet it only carried a few rounds in the magazine, even the extra magazine wouldn't give her many rounds at her disposal. She pulled the small weapon and reached for the second magazine to have it ready. She felt around for a bit only to sigh as it was missing and resigned herself to about five shots. She could lie and say she was a marksman with a pistol but she only barely passed Quals with the gun, and she would be lucky to get a decent hit on one of the bastards.

She didn't have much time at all, while she could take as much time as she wanted to prep the Transport, the doors took a solid thirty seconds to open, and she was still a good forty away from the controls. With a total of a minute twenty seconds needed and maybe two minutes left, she had to move now. She pressed the controls and moved the sound of her feet clunking against the metal flooring echoed down the hall and she turned to the door controls to her hanger seeing one of them stand and turn towards her weapon raised. She pressed the control and moved into the opening door. The sound of a shot rang out and two impacted the door frame one of the shots ricocheting into her already broken arm. The strangled scream of pain held back by a bitten tongue. She angled herself out the door as she slides the lever into place for the hanger doors. She leveled out her gun and fired three times. the small grunt and sound of a body dropping made her relax slightly until the sound of two people trying to move as quickly as they could to her sounded out.

She moves from the door to the opened troop door of the transport climbing in and closing the door behind her. The sound of bullets pinging off the metal sounds out and she winces. The armor can easily block some of the small arms fire, but higher caliber shots can easily breach right through the plating. She moves into the cockpit and starts begins the startup procedure. She glances at the engine readout and looks over her right frontal engine, the small port slowly glowing blue as it ran a startup. The sight of the engine itself was blocked out as one of the men from early raises his weapon towards the viewscreen. The mans motioning for her to shut down the ship and she knows that any type of action like that will get her killed. Her eyes glance over the engine charge up and watch its numbers click by in a fashion that makes her want to chew her lip.

Her head slams back as the section she is in is jettisoned and she grins in triumph as the engine finishes right as the man stumbles under the engine port. She throttles the engine up seeing the sudden force cause the man's body to cave in on itself and the blood to burst out around the man. It was a sickening sight as the blood sprayed up on the side and along with the copilot's view screen. She glanced at the rear camera's seeing the second man be impacted against the wall the force of the forward's thrusters crushing his body against it. She releases the docking clamps and rockets out of the floating hanger. If she had waited a moment more the other section would have crossed her hanger exit and she would have likely crashed right into it. She doubles back and takes a good look at the ship. Two lost sections several weapons system hanging on by power cables and disabled, and multiple boarding ships slammed into its hull.

The thing was lost, and odds are once most of the people got to escape pods and transports the automatic scuttle would activate and the ship would go up in a thermonuclear ball of light. she couldn't see the opposing ship in her sights so odds were that it sat on the other side of the ship now. She angled her ship to arch around the rear, passing the large thrusters and got a decent look of the enemy ship. It wasn't much bigger but the damage done was far less, it was pretty obvious that with how sudden the attack was and how much damage was done it was planned ahead as an ambush. "All fighter's and Transports, This is Captain Zivian Oktil, The Shiller is dead in space, as of this moment we are activating the Supplement Protocol, Scuttle of the ship has begun and evacuation underway, all ships are to make maximum speed to the nearest base." Captain Zivian said calmly his voice cutting out all fighter chatter and fleet com.

She glanced over the weapons readout on her ship, these transports weren't equipped with much. Countermeasures, a small set of unguided missile's and a repeater cannon turret meant to be operated by a copilot. It would most likely do well on a small attack run but its size and maneuverability were far less than the quick attack fighters. She drew in close seeing the two port-side escape pods that remained fire and escape the ship. They were on the safe side, and their angle pushed them towards the partially terraformed planet, it would at least give them a breathable atmosphere. She angled the thrusters and rolled closer to the side of the ship peeking over the upper decks and looking past the ship a bit into the emptiness of space. The opposing ship was unresponsive, the weapons fire from the ship seemed to have completely halted and now several small transport ships were blasting out of their hanger bays at speeds that were clearly not meant to keep the hangers in good condition.

She blinked as one spun out of control and impacted on the side of their ship smashing through some of the platings and venting the atmosphere from the rooms it breached. She dived back down as the outer lights on the Shiller started to flicker before the entire ship went dead. Fleet com died as the only ship hosting the coms channel lost power. She watched several of the attack fighters slow to a crawl unsure of what to do with the enemy ships dead in space and their own command ship floating unresponsive. "Flight Officer Torlima, you are in one of our last transports, correct?" A voice called over the short-range. She sighed softly at the question and moved her hand to hover over the receiver. "Yes, I managed to snag it before the enemy started acting strange." She called getting a small bout of silence. "I'm going to propose a risky move. The Starboard hanger bays are clear, if you can land inside we can retrieve a good amount of people and make way for the planet." The voice suggested making her head snap back to the sight of the enemy ship.

"That would put me in direct sight of the enemy ship." She said simply getting a small sigh. "The enemies ship seems to be just as disabled as our own and at this moment it's our only chance to retrieve anyone." The voice said making her sigh before she leaned back her helmet bouncing softly off the headrest behind her. "Fine, let's get to it, you'll need to radio my location for anyone inside over L.R." She said getting a small silence. "Copy." The voice said before her long-range communications receiver started blinking. She pulled up and bit and fired the throttle to maximum rolling over the long top of the ship and diving down towards the hanger bays. The move she was performing was incredibly advanced and something any Landing crew would rage at the pilot over for hours on end. However, in the middle of combat, something as simple as a little damage to the hanger was considered unimportant. She twisted and kicked in the afterburner to stop the ship quickly in front of the open hanger.

The forward's thrusters left long burn marks all along the plating by the hanger doors and melted a good bit of the flooring. She felt the small shudder as the ship landed her viewport looking directly at the double doors leading further into the ship. The small hiss of the doors opening went unheard but the sight of the lights inside the hallway didn't go unnoticed. She popped the side doors and watched three or four people stumble inside and strap in looking a little relieved. the sight of two marines running through the door followed by an enemy marine made her eyes widen in surprise. She moved her hands to the weapons control only to stop as the two waved her off. She hesitated a moment unsure about assisting an enemy soldier only to wait too long as all three jumped into the ship closing the doors with a punch on the control surface. "Watch it! You break it you fix it." She snapped off getting a look of panic.

"Get us the fuck off this death trap!" One marine barked getting her to turn and glare at the man. "The Captain's transponder is almost here, you can wait!" She said getting a small cough of surprise. "No, you idiot the Captains gone whatever the hell got on this ship has somehow taken the damn thing." The Marine yelled making her look at the man as though he was crazy only to turn to look back at the double doors. She jumped back into her seat a bit as a strange mass slammed against the front View Screen and seemed to cover a good portion. "Oh shit!" She yelled throwing the throttle in reverse and having the ship drag against the flooring tearing into it a bit before it finally slipped out of the hanger flipping backward. The moment the ship managed to face away from the hanger she punched the throttle forwards and watched the mass get pushed over the top of the canopy.

"What in the fuck was that?" She asked getting a small shuddering laugh from the enemy marine. "You don't understand, we jumped into this system by accident, you weren't meant to be here, this was never meant to happen!" The man yelled only to get punched in the face. "Explain, you attacked us!" The first marine said getting a scowl and crazed laugh. "What are your names Marine's?" She asked getting silence for a moment and the laugh to die down a bit. "Private Kilnz, and Private Overbeck." The first marine said pointing from himself to his partner. "Forwards Shifter Tilbe." The Enemy Marine explained calmly for a moment. "Different Rank structure, I'm the third level of enlisted personnel." Tilbe explained getting a slow nod from the other two. "Tilbe explain." She barked getting a scowl. "We were a long term research group, the ship was manned with military and civilian personnel. A few of our ships had gone dark in a sector we have known was safe for several centuries now." Tilbe explained before sighing softly and leaning back.

"We were tasked with long term recognizance and research on just what could be causing it, onboard the ship was a small contingent of boarding marines and special forces. The actual reality was a little different, once we had a general idea of what was going on, we were ordered to procure a sample of the subject. A strange fucking thing that somehow takes people over? I'm not really sure what it does but whatever is left over it ain't on your side!" Tilbe explained grinning madly. "Midway through our assault with you all one of your shots managed to disable power to the secure containment unit, whatever that thing is got loose, and by the time anyone found out the ship was seized, this thing doesn't think and it sure as hell don't feel, it consumes anything living and keeps going." Tilbe explained getting a small bout of silence.

"Shit, Flight officer, we have to contain this, whatever it is cant make it back to one of our homeworlds, hell it can't make it down to the planet, the amount of people here just for the terraformation is enough to create a damn army." Kilnz said making her sigh softly before she closed her eyes to think. "You are talking about boarding an infested ship with an unknown number of hostiles and scuttling it, and you are proposing that the three of you that are armed and able will be the ones to do it?" She asked getting a silence before she bit her lip as once again the familiar feeling of resignation took her. "Fuck, Alright, Tilbe do you have any idea how close you can get me so your little excursion won't be noticed too quickly?" She asked watching the Marine Panic for a moment before getting smacked. "Dammit, We have a Supplies Hanger on the Aft section of the ship, I can send the automatic release codes to get us in. We can take a nearly straight shot to the engine bay and set and uncontrolled reaction in the Power Supply Station, but we will have all of a minute maybe two to get a minimum safe distance." Tilbe said getting a bit serious as his panic bleeds into calm.

"Then I guess that's our best move." She said wanting to slam her head against the console in front of her. This was a terrible idea, and would no doubt get a lot of them if not all of them killed, not to mention the unarmed passengers on her ship that cant just jump in and help. "It's terrifying, to see a ship as dangerous just dead in space, it looks like the interior lights are dead too." Private Overbeck commented softly as they slowly maneuvered around the ship drifting towards the rear hanger as its doors opened. The floodlights meant to assist in low light landing kicked on and the interior of the hanger was dotted with containers and cylinders, there was a sizeable place to set the transport but with the way, the boxes were stacked most of the light was going to be hidden. "Keep on your toes, I don't like how quiet it is." She said getting a small sound of surprise. "Shouldn't that be a good thing, that means they don't know we are here." Private Kilnz said getting her to sigh.

"Or it means they know we are here and are planning on ambushing us." She said getting the three to tense up as they readied the rifles in their hands. The small shudder of them landing spread through the transport and the three quickly jumped out letting the door seal shut behind them. She left the floodlights on but once the three left the hanger they were on their own. "Listen, move as fast as you can through this ship, I don't like sitting here for an extended period of time, and I really would like to be able to kiss the ground once we get planetside." She said getting the three to send a small thumbs-up back at her and she leaned back relaxing into her pilot's chair.

Private Overbeck's POV

The silence of the ship was oppressing, it had an atmosphere but yet it seemed like the ship didn't make a single sound, worst of all this feeling crashed down on him and he hadn't even left the hanger yet. He approached the doors ahead of him letting the small flashlight on the end of his rifle swing around the darkened portion of the room. He stacked up and waited activating his comms channel as the two joined him. "What can I possibly expect to be on the other side of this door, where are we going?" He asked getting a small sigh. "An Intersection, the direct route to the power station goes through the right corridor." Tilbe said making him nod as the door slide open with a slight hiss. "Pneumatic doors? Isn't that a waste of Air?" He asked just as the doors hissed shut behind them. Darkness in every direction the ship was completely lightless, the only source was now just their flashlights.

"The door's design reuses an internal air supply, as well as allows us to vent the air in the case of emergencies to repressurize a room." Tilbe explained slowly. "How do you get the doors open afterwards?" Private Kilnz asked making the man sigh before stopping the two from going down the corridor. "I don't know, I'm just a grunt, Listen I need to check on something, It might help us with this power supply station problem." Tilbe said motioning towards the corridor heading directly opposite of the hangers doors. "That's not exactly a good idea." He said getting the man to shrug. "Listen, I'm going, either way, keep on heading to the power station I'll meet you there." Tilbe said before breaking off in a run. "Fuck." He said only to see Kilnz make chase. "Wait, hold on!" He called only to get static in return. He moved to make chase only to heard something fall and cling off the floor. He turned quickly the light shining down the hall and he scanned the corridor for anything out of place. He stopped as he saw a small pipe roll along the floor touching the wall near it.

He waited for a good few minutes before relaxing, as much as he really didn't want to head down that hall he did have a mission. "Kilnz, you bastard you shouldn't have runoff, we can't afford to separate up like this." He said getting static for a short second. "I lost him." Kilnz said with a small sigh over the radio. "Alright try and make your way back, right now we need to focus on the objective." He said getting a long bout of silence. "Overbeck, I've got something over here, going Dark until I know more."Kilnz said seriously making him groan in frustration. "You have to be fucking kidding me." He said his body tense as the silence kicked in again. He squared his shoulders and made slow progress through the hall scanning over every section he could. "Didn't anyone in their life see a horror movie, the last thing you do is split up." He grumbled to himself turning quickly. He stopped in his tracks as a section from the roof collapsed slightly and he would have to squeeze through.

He lifted the rifle up a bit and turned on his side slowly shifting through the opening and stared at the desolate corridor. The sight was unlike anything he had seen before, Something a strange film-like substance was covering the walls of the hall and it looked organic it wasn't thick enough to block out the sight of the walls themselves but it didn't change the overall coloration of the hall. He kept going moving as slow as he dared trying desperately to head anything in the length of the corridor. Something shifted in the darkness and he instantly snapped his weapon towards it. He was tense as he couldn't see anything, the light just wouldn't penetrate far into the darkness, he saw another shift and turned again, once more seeing nothing. 'If something was there they would have jumped me by now, I really hope its just my eyes seeing something that isn't there.' He thought to himself opening a door to his right and seeing a strangely set up Medical bay.

Curiosity got the better of him and he moved into the room looking over the few beds in the room. He stopped as the sight of two tanks shined from his light passing over them. He frowned as the empty tanks painted this more as a research lab than a medical bay and he turned to leave. He stopped and nearly fired his weapon at the organic mass in front of him. He held himself back as it went from docile to thrashing against the large observation port, whatever it used to detect him wasn't normal eyes like that average person, considering it seemed to lack what the average eye looked like anywhere on its body. Inside the room, it was housed in was a restraining table and the table itself was covered in a thick layer of blood. 'Nothing about this speaks well.' He thought turning to the door as the thing on the other side grew docile again. He shifted his gaze between where he was moving and the observation screen trying to keep an eye on whatever it was so on the chance it broke through he would have enough time to react. He looked for the controls on the door and smashed them with his rifle making the door seal shut.

He tried probing the controls and watched as the door remained sealed. He breathed a small sigh of relief before continuing his movement. "Tilbe, exactly how far do I have to go and why did you bounce you fucking dick." He said over the comms getting silence. "Where are you?" Tilbe asked. "Just passed a Medical or Research bay." He said getting a short break of silence. "I'm sitting in front of an internal map of the ship, you've got a few more rooms between you and power station, looks like Corridor D6 is blocked so you are going to have to make a detour through the Deck D Portside Magazine room." Tilbe said before breaking the connection. 'What the hell is it with everyone and breaking contact with me.' He thought before he stopped at one of the doors of another unknown room as it opened. He watched it for a moment as it immediately shut only to open again.

The constricting silence was killing him, everything had him on edge and he had the constant feeling of being watched even though nothing was there. He keyed the comms to try and get back either Tilbe and Kilnz but static and more static was all he heard. He glanced over his radio quality readout and blinked in surprise as something was making it switch from the jammed warning to functional. "Fucking equipment failure right now?" He asked out loud not expecting a single response. Of course, nothing was able to respond to him. He stopped as the sound of a shot rang through the halls. He broke into a run and slammed by doors ignoring their contents as he followed the now consistent gunfire. He stopped as he followed a stairwell up what seemed like three decks and slid to a stop through a doorway. He glanced over the room seeing nothing inside but a few consoles and walked towards the large view screens at the front of the room. He looked down and immediately tensed as he could make out Kilnz form shooting at something.

He tried radioing the man as the shot was wildly being aimed around the room, he also tried seeing whatever the hell was out there. He couldn't see anything, not even a shimmer in the darkness to show him something was moving, it was dead silence and a complete lack of any movement. He focused on Kilnz and noticed something coiling around his waist and snaking up the man's back to his neck. "Kilnz, you have something attached to you, you need to stop firing and pull that thing off!" He yelled only to be ignored. The shots continued to bounce and imbed themselves into the walls and objects in the room. The last shot to exit the rifle impacted against something below his viewing room and in a short second, he was blinded by a flash as well as thrown off his feet. He climbed back up quickly and saw the shrapnel was sticking out of every surface but it also seemed like Kilnz was gone.

He almost tried contacting the man only to stop as a small alert popped up on the viewport claimed an explosive depressurization of the room. Whatever Kilnz had shot blew a damn hole in the ship and sucked the man out. He could feel fury take over and he punched at the glass calming as a massive spiderweb crack formed from where his fist lay. "Tilbe, you son of a bitch, whatever you needed to do had better be damn worth it, Kilnz is gone." He said over radio looking over the room in the silence. Not a response came back and he nearly yelled into the mic had the door on the opposite end from where he had entered not started to get slowly dragged open. He raised the weapon and tensed as strange bone-like appendages pushed the doors open further. He watched whatever it was still in the doorway. "What the fuck." He said glancing over a different form of whatever the hell was in that observation room. He winced as it screeched before moving to jump at him.

He fired off and watched the thing go limp in mid-air and crash to the ground. He cautiously approached the body and kicked it in the side, it lay there unresponsive and he relaxed a bit before turning back to the door it came out of. He raised his weapon towards it waiting for something to have heard its screech and come running. He waited for minutes as nothing came and glanced over the ruined door. 'It's probably best to avoid that way.' He thought to himself glancing over the thing again and feeling a slight twinge of fear. He moved to the now opened doorway and peered down both directions the light cutting into the darkness and saw something laying on the floor motionless. He moved slowly stopping near the object only to see it was a body of some kind of doctor, he rolled the body over and stared at the massive cut open portion on the chest spilling out its organs.

"Why the hell did whatever is on this ship leave this body alone?" He asked curiously as to why any Biological fuel would be wasted. "Flight Officer, whatever the hell is on this thing, it's picking and choosing who to eat, or at least that's as much as I can assume. It doesn't seem very likely, but until I know more that's the best guess I have." He said waiting patiently for a response. He glanced down at the Radio Readout and cursed at the jammed warning. 'Fucking ship.' He thought angrily. He backtracked quickly leaving the darkened hall to its solitude and made his way back to the place he first heard the shots. Something was different, he could feel it in the air, something had changed, what little his light did illuminate the corridor didn't help him find whatever changed but it placed him further on edge than he already was. He turned to look down the intersection's halls, while he knew he had to go through D Decks Magazine Room, He had absolutely no clue as to where that was. He looked shortly for a directional sign of some sort only to see nothing.

He waited in place as he mulled over where to go, it was after a few minutes of waiting that something made a decision for him. He could hear a shift in the air, the sound of something swinging. He moved instinctively and felt something stab through his suit coming out his left arm, the hiss of pain left his mouth and he turned to the direction letting off five rounds. Another body of the weird bladed creature shook in place as it took the hits slowly crumpling to the ground. It had come from behind him, and he could hear something moving down the left-most corridor. Those thoughts in mind made his decision for him and he turned right moving as fast as he could through the strangely colored walls swinging the weapon quickly to illuminate as much as possible and hopefully avoid another attack. Whatever they were, they weren't invincible, but as much as that should have made him feel better he didn't have unlimited ammunition, His weapons readout listed a solid twelve shots left, and he only had a second magazine of thirty.

Much of it had been wasted on the Shriller when fighting off the boarding parties as well as whatever damn creature he saw on the ship. He didn't think to get a resupply but the Transport didn't carry ammo unless they were doing a resupply mission to troops. The only other weapon he had was a long knife used for close encounters. He turned another corner only to stop as something was sealing a door shut, some kind of organical mass was completely covering it. Small vines of organic material branched off the growth and spread down the hall, it avoided one door on the right but covered most everything else. He glanced towards the door on the right and could see a glass window to the had some openings through the vines. He could see a light flicker on and off at random intervals. He breathed a small sigh of relief that the ship did have power but something had removed most the lights from the power system. He tensed as he saw someone inside the room moving quickly at a terminal. He crouched and looked through some openings at the bottom of the window.

Whatever covered the walls gave him good cover to avoid being seen. He watched the man tense and jump back a small crystal in his hands as he pulled a pistol or what looked like a pistol of some kind. The slim Armored suit the man wore wasn't any kind of military uniform. Something shifted in the darkness, multiple something's, in between the flickers of the light he saw some of the bladed creatures jump from the shadows at the man. One lost its limb the severed appendage flinging away from the creature towards the window and splattering strange blood across it. Through the blood he could see one of them get close enough to slice off the man's hand, the scream of pain echoing out of the glass. The strange pistol clattered against the ground uselessly as the second one grabbed the man in a hold seemingly biting at his neck only to tear the head clean off and impale the torso. The second severed the lower body from the corpse and ate at it until full.

He watched in silence until the two left the dying third one and seemed to just vanish into the shadows. He sighed and moved forwards the door opening quickly for him as it seemed to have a motion sensor. He waved the weapon around the room, clearing it slowly and, narrowing his eyes slightly as the two things were gone, completely gone. He glanced over the downed one seeing it rise slightly to scurry towards him and he let off three rounds into what he thought was its head. The body slackened and he moved towards the mutilated corpse glancing over it. The armor was strange but with it, all torn to pieces he wouldn't be able to even identify it if he wanted to. He grabbed the strange pistol and clipped it to his belt happy to have some sort of weapon should his rifle run out of bullets. He left the body laying there and continued through the left door. Another hall greeted him but it seemed to be lined with sleeping quarters. He moved slowly through the hall taking stock of every corner he could, his eyes glanced over a few overhead vents and he saw a single door at the end of the hall. A small panel above it flickered and he sighed in relief as it read Deck D Magazine Room.

He went to the controls and punched them wanted to get through the room and get this damn thing to burn up. The doors opened a good centimeter or more before grinding to a halt air hissing from above. 'You have to be fucking kidding me, a damn leak in their system.' He thought angrily only to tense as something smashed into the floor. He turned seeing the vent covers bent and broken against the floor. He glanced up illuminating the ceiling above him. He saw one of the things hanging from the ceiling waiting to strike. He lifted his rifle only to have it knocked away as the thing lunged. He twisted and managed to evade to the left as his weapon was tossed on the other end of the corridor. He pulled the strange pistol and lined it up pulling the trigger and watching as the creature's head severed in half the top portion sliding off quickly and the body dropping to the floor.

He glanced over the pistol and blinked in surprise. "Just what the fuck is this thing?" He wondered only to turn and fire again as a sound echoed behind him the sight of a bladed arm spinning past his face made him grin for a moment before he lined up another shot. He pulled the trigger and cursed as the thing failed to fire the small display on the back blinking read. He tossed the weapon bouncing it off the creature's head and dived back towards his rifle. He slid his right hand into the grip turned and sprayed the rest of the magazine at the thing letting four of the bullets impact it and blast the body back against a wall. He tapped the magazine release and looked around as the magazine clattered against the ground quickly putting the second one in. He turned back to the door and punched the release waiting as it quickly hissed open.

He breathed deeply for a moment as he tried to slow his heart rate. Hopefully, he wasn't too far from where he needed to be, but considering it just opened up into a massive room filled with Kinetic rounds in a belt system he highly doubted he had to go very far at all. He stopped as he passed a long line of high explosive kinetic rounds. It could be possible to cause the ship to have an uncontrolled descent if they blew the entire magazine. He did have a detonator, and he could fit it to one of the shells, one going off should make the entire magazine room cook-off. It wouldn't hurt to have a backup plan, so with that in mind, he strapped the detonator to one of the shells at chest height before moving for the large door at the end of the room. His hand hovered over the controls for the door as the flickering lights in the room finally cut out.

He had found the fact this room had lights odd but the moment the room went dark his blood pressure skyrocketed. Small clicks sounded in the darkness as the door ground open. He pushed his shoulder against the seal of the left side using his body weight to help open the door. He had barely enough room to squeeze through and managed to slip in as the light flickered on. He glanced back only to see a strange brownish puddle on the floor. He pressed the release for the door and watched as it ground shut. He stared through the small viewport and narrowed his eyes at the puddle only to jump back as one of the strange blades slammed against the glass. He stared at the creature seeing it slow as it attacks did nothing and seemed to simply be standing in front of him almost watching him if he could see whatever the hell it used to see. It was a small reflection in the glass that made him turn quickly. He leveled his rifle only to stop as a body stood in front of him pinned to the wall by one of the bone fragments.

"Can anyone tell me just how fucking close I am this place is fucked!" He yelled getting silence for a moment. "You are right next to the power station, its three doors down on the right." Tilbe said slowly making him narrow his eyes. "And where the hell are you?" He asked getting a small sigh. "I'm waiting inside, I need help to set off the system it's not exactly a one-person system." Tilbe said a slight hint of exasperation kicking over the comms. He let the silence reign and moved down the hall as fast as he could, he wanted this done as fast as possible and immediately wanted to get out if at all possible. He stopped in front of a set of heavy-duty blast doors and waited as they opened. If one word could be used to explain the sight in front of him it would most likely be "big." Of course, that wasn't too surprising with it being a power system for a decently sized attack frigate. He walked in seeing the power arc off what looked like a bleed off the breaker at the top.

"Ah good, I need you to adjust the power system on the secondary control, set the junctions in the ship to maintenance mode, that should shut down their ability to restrict power load." Tilbe said making him set his rifle down and swipe through all the subsystems to help get what they needed to be done, he wanted nothing more than to leave this fucking hell hole. "Alright it's done." He said getting a small sigh. "Good." Tilbe said before a shot rang out. He bit down on the scream of pain as his knee was blown to piece's by the armor-piercing round. Even if he could limp his way through if the ship had a sudden depressurization he was fucked. "What the fuck." He yelled. "Sorry, but getting out of here isnt going to happen for us, with the power load I have filtered through the system they will all come running soon enough, and I cant really let them get close till it pops off." Tilbe said making him glare at the man.

"Why?" He asked getting a small sigh. "They feed off the energy, they use Biomass to create more of themselves but their bodies can use the charged energy to help them convert the biomass faster, speeding up the cell division process using the energy to charge dead cells. Or that's what the docs explained to us. If they get in here, odds are we will be looking at much worse than an infested ship." Tilbe said a little apologetic. "Besides, at the rate, they are moving we wouldn't have a chance of getting by." Tilbe said slipping his rifle back into his hands. "Might as well pick up your's, we will need it." Tilbe said leveling his rifle at the now completely dark hallway, the small lights from the energy arching off the release grew brighter as more energy flew off. He could hear it now, the skittering, and it was much more than the one or two from before, no this was a horde. "You're a fucking bastard you know that." He said just before one turned the corner. "I know." Tilbe said letting a round loose.

FO Torlima's POV

It was the heavy silence after an hour that got her shifting in her seat. This little mission of theirs would hopefully be over soon but the three in the back were worriedly whispering to each other. The Transport was sealed up tight, nothing was going to enter their bay or the cockpit unless it could blast through the armor, and it didn't seem like that was really feasible. It was the sound of grinding that got her to shoot up out of her seat and into the transport bay pressing the release for the door and scrambling out into the hanger. She watched dumbfounded as the door was slowly sealing itself. "Overbeck, what the hell is going on the hanger doors and sealing themselves." She said getting nothing but silence. Every second waiting meant the door got a little closer to shutting. She slipped back into the ship jumping into the pilot's seat and moved her hand to start the warm-up for the engines. It was the screech of metal grinding against each other and the sound of motors halting that made her glance around and move to take a good look at the doors to the hanger.

They stopped, that was the good news at least up until she noticed the fact that the new entrance was not wide enough for the transport to slip through, and missle usage to blow a hole out was to damage due to the splash damage involved. It was a few moments of silence before lights on the wall flickered to life and it looked like a spinning warning light, it's orange dim helping light up the surrounding darkness behind the boxes. A small warning started reading out, something about a systematic power failure and the meltdown of the reactor on board. She sighed and relaxed a bit as the mission seemed to be going well. "Overbeck, you on your way, because I doubt this little warning we are getting is going to make whatever is on this thin happy." She said getting silence for a moment. "No, Tilbe shot me, apparently we both need to stand back and hold these fuckers off as they swarm the power station." Overbeck said making her glance at the wall in surprise.

"You have to be fucking kidding me." She said only to get a small bitter laugh. "Nope, Bastard says sorry but I still say his ass is getting dragged down under with me at least." Overbeck said simply before sighing softly. "Listen this honestly isn't that bad with them all distracted you all should get out pretty easy." Overbeck said as the sound of gunfire came over the comms. "Yeah well..." She started only to stop as something moved in the rotating orange lights a shadow stretching and moving behind some crates. She dived for the transport slapping the controls on the way in and the door shut fast, just before it closed it managed to catch one of the bladed arm things and cut it off. The strange inhuman screech outside the door made her feel slightly better. "What the hell happened?" Overbeck asked seriously. "Nothing apparently whatever those things are got here and they look none to pleased with our presence." She said getting a mild string of curses to roll off the man's tongue. "Alright break dock and head for the planet, let the ship surface burn for a bit to cleanse it." Overbeck said making her raise an eyebrow.

"You expect me to leave? And who said you can give order's?" She asked getting a sigh. "Not like I've got much time left here, I'm almost dry and you all will turn into little more than atoms if you don't get out quick." Overbeck said before the communications cut out completely. She glared for a minute, she really didn't like people just closing their comms but he was right and they needed to leave. She warmed up the engine's twisting the ship in place and facing the doors. She could angle the ship towards the left corner nearest the doors into the ship, the splash damage from a single missle would be restricted to just the nose of the ship but they should be space worthy even with a little damage. It was with that thought that she thumbed the fire controls and let a missle fly, the explosion blinded her for a good second as it washed over the nose of the transport. She pressed the throttle and sighed in relief as they passed out the ship barely managing to make them fit. It was a short trip into the atmosphere but the slight energy wave as the ship went up in an atomized mess knocked half her electronics out.

"Aw shit." She said as the ship quickly twisted on entry to the atmosphere. "What is going on!" One of the docs asked making her sigh. "Well good news is we won't need to worry about hitchhikers on the ship it's getting a pretty thorough cleaning from the atmosphere." She said getting a small breath of relief from the other two. "And the bad news?" The guy asked making her wince lightly. "We've lost control and are plummeting like a stone, oh we also just lost an engine looks like it got sheered off at the speed we are falling." She said nonchalantly The screaming got annoying but it was quickly silenced as all three of them slammed into a wall as a particular bump of turbulence threw them around the sitting area. "Thank you for small mercy's." She whispered as the altitude meter spun down a small warning chirped through the cockpit. "This is gonna hurt." She said just as they broke through the cloud cover seeing the trees and grass below them. It did hurt, but thankfully she passed out after suffering from only a few seconds of the pain. At least they removed the threat.

A/N: Hey hope you enjoyed this was a little something to show what's going on in the universe as well as hopefully show how everything is going to slowly reach a point of no return soon, and the galaxy is gonna change for it, this little escapade is just one portion of this greater problem. Hope to see you all with the next chapter which will return to Harry's POV It will also feature my explanation for that vague Authors note a while ago, it has to do with crossovers and the future of this story. No, the story isn't being discontinued, but the A/N in that chapter will talk about a few things having to deal with this story's future.