Chapter 5: The Arrival

Shark was covered in sweat and strange colored blood, the line of creatures seemed endless. They had come out of no where when he finished talking to Rwing last. Two shots rang out to his left as two more security officers joined the fray. Shark looked over and waved his appreciation. Behind him a scream of agony signaled the death of one of theirs. As he turned back to open fire a creature caught him with a fierce right cross. The repulsive thing had managed to get through. Shark thought to himself ‘This is it.’

As the creature leveled its weapon to fire it’s abdomen exploded open as it was riddled with automatic weapon fire from behind. Three more bursts followed by the same hideous screams, and then silence. Suddenly cheers rang out as the door hissed closed. Two more shots and a final screech of death followed. Shark lay in a pool of sweat thankful it was all over. He sat to find a figure all in black armor from head to foot. He wore a pressure helmet that hissed as he removed it.

As the helmet came off a man in a black beret with a red jewel in it was revealed. Strapped at his shoulder was a special issue SA-67 battle rifle, and at his waist two personal magnum mega class weapons.

He looked over his shoulder at Shark. It was the chief, Chanlin. "Not bad for a first battle rookie."

Shark stood and rubbed his jaw, "Thanks for the bail Chief. I thought you weren’t due back for another hour though."

"I received a distress call from an anonymous source on the station and came back ahead of schedule. The rest of my team had the mission locked down anyhow. Now would anyone be so kind as to tell me what the hell is going on here."

Shark smiled and wiped sweat from his brow, "Well, about the time the

Elerian delegation was due in a strange shock pulse knocked out the station’s short-range sensor net. We shrugged it off as a simple spatial flux. Then a huge explosion rocked the station and these things took us by storm. Most of the station's population and crew was either killed, or captured. My buddy Rwing has been in communication and is working on getting power restored to the AI defense drones. As for us we’ve been here for about a half hour fighting these things."

The Chief stood thinking for a moment. " Good thing I showed when I did. More over it’s a good thing these things didn’t detect my teleport in."

Chavez, the engineer who had been working on the door stepped forward.

He was a short stocky man with sharply outlined features. His eyebrows were thick and bushy and the coveralls he had on were stained with oil, and soaked with sweat, "So any plans on what to do next Chief?"

Chanlin stood calmly, "Simple, we find our way to the lower security deck, grab some weapons, get a distress call to Earth, and then find a way to free the captured crew."

Shark stood flabbergasted, "That’s SIMPLE?"

"Sure, every good mission is seventy-five percent improvising!"

The room swirled about as the three materialized in a strange room. The walls were covered in a slick green substance. The floor was tiled in large metallic sheets, all around strange symbols in a language unknown to the three marked directions and places to go. A thick haze clouded their vision. Rwing stood looking around. To one side a door opened into what appeared to be a long corridor. At the other side of the room sat what looked to be a bed of sorts.

Schala huffed as she rubbed the bruise on her head. Mara raised their arms and examined the shackles that bound them together, "A simple handicap she says."

Rwing looked over and eyed the devilish trap as well; "This may actually come in handy if we can remove it without setting the explosive off."

Schala scoffed, "That’s a BIG if mister security."

"Hey Schala lighten up, just cause you got a slight bump on the head doesn’t mean you need to give him a hard time."

"Oh yeah I forgot, he saved my life, I’m so grateful for that."

The sarcasm in Schala’s voice was literally thick enough to almost cut.

"Come on let’s get moving." Mara said, as she dragged Schala until she reluctantly came along."

Rwing followed, the corridors were much the same as the room. Each had runes of some sort, and each had the same wall and floor tile. The lighting was poor and only worsened the situation. Their walk remained quite uneventful as they worked their way through the twisting labyrinth of halls and rooms. Each room had the same exact setup, runes, and a bed. "Must be personnel quarters." Mara commented.

Rwing sighed as he looked into the room ahead of Mara and Schala,

"Same."

Schala looked around, " For we know were going in circles, everything looks the same."

As they rounded the next corner they came to a sudden halt. Below lay a sudden drop with no bottom in sight. Across the way was the other side of the corridor

As they turned around to go the other way, a door slid into place barring the path.

Mara sighed, "Great what could go any more wrong." As if by chance the floor below them slanted and dropped them into a shoot. The three screamed as they raced along the dark tube at blinding speeds. They all grunted as they came to a stop in small heap into a wide-open room.

Two huge pillars that supported the ceiling, which seemed to be miles above, dominated this room. In the darkness they could here the footsteps of someone or something coming. Rwing drew his pistol and readied to fire. Mara and Schala stood in as much of a fighting stance as the manacles would allow. The steps were slow and heavy, as if something were almost dragging its feet with every other step. The thing let out a strange grunt as it came into view. A creature about six feet tall was dragging along a young female creature that looked kind of the same. Each had long silver hair, and were predominately covered in a scaly skin. Rwing recognized them as Elerians. The one dragging the girl had a weapon that they had seen on the creatures at the meeting with Marina. The girl had a weapon as well and was bleeding from a small open wound which had been quickly and poorly bandaged. A third Elerian carrying a small pack came following behind. As he noticed the three he stopped and clicked in the strange guttural language of the Elerian’s to the other.

The first one stopped and looked Rwing and the others over, "What be you doing down here?"

"I was about to ask the same thing."

The third stood and spoke openly, " Captured were we when the station was raided. Escape we managed when the Creatures here sent us on a labor assignment.

I am known as CPM5 but you may call me Emp." He gestured to the first,

"This be Shadow, and the one on the floor be Vamp."

Mara relaxed her stance and Rwing holstered his pistol, "Well Emp, what happened to her." Shadow sobbed slightly.

"Hurt was she in our endeavor. She has lost much blood."

Mara reached into her pocket and produced the extra bandages she had from Schala. She dressed the wound better. "It may be best for us to stay here and wait for her to wake.

Schala’s eyes went wide, "Are you insane, Avenger said we only have five hours."

Rwing looked over the wound, "Yeah but she will only slow us down like this, and we need all the help we can get, so splitting up is out of the..." Shadow cut him off with a low guttural growl. Behind him

Rwing heard a loud bellowing roar. He turned to see a huge creature lumbering toward them. It was then that he noticed the bones strewn about.

The creature was large and insect like. It stood on six legs, with two many faceted eyes. Its jaws were that of a cat, and it’s ears like the flying insects of before. The only thing missing were the wings. Emp pulled a small sword of his belt, and Shadow readied his stolen weapon, his eye’s filled with fear.

"What’s wrong?" Rwing said.

" Aside from the creature telling us it’s hungry not much."

With that the creature roared once more as it lunged forward intent on having its meal.

Wow I finished two parts at once; I’m getting better at this. Anyhow enjoy part 6 when I get around to writing it.