When the so-called Software Wars were over, Earth and the colonies on Luna and Mars were so thoroughly decimated that the rise of the Terran Unified Corporation was not only seen as a necessity but a blessing as well.

" Got Tunnel Apes on your stolen ship" said Eryn, sitting on her bed with a wily smirk on her soft red lips.
" Yes" said Athena, " you worked the tunnels, you have experience hunting them, are you willing to help or not?"
" No" said Eryn, " I will not aide traitors in their efforts to escape justice."
" Look deary" said Ami, " you have two choices, one help us kill the apes or two let the apes eat you when they find their way into this section of the ship."
" They will eat you as well, so I don't really see the need to help you, my mission will be accomplished with or without my assistance" said Eryn.
" Maybe we can use her as bait?" suggested Jason.
Eryn laughed defiantly, " That is the kind of thinking I would expect from a lowly worker like you" she said.
" You think they will take you back?" asked Robert, " you let this ship escape along with the four of us. You'll be lucky if they don't space you for this."
" What are you offering, life as an outlaw in alien space until this ships falls apart or we all die of old age?" asked Eryn.
" Probably better than a slow death in a vacuum" said Athena, " and maybe this way you can die with at least a little honor."
" What do workers know of honor?" asked Eryn.
" When you have nothing, honor is all you have to prove your character" said Athena.
Eryn looked at the four people before her, they were right and it annoyed Eryn. If they had left her on the planet she would have already been spaced for failing in her duties, if they catch them, she probably will be tortured for information until she lied and said she was part of the Guild, then spaced. Eryn knew her options were slim and at least she could do something if she helped. " All right, what kind of weapons are on this ship?" she asked.
" None" said Starlight, " the energy weapons used by the Naesians didn't do well in long storage so when I was planted inside the planet all my anti-personal weapons were removed."
" When you asked to help, you didn't say anything about it being hopeless" said Eryn with a smirk.
" What about the marines?" asked Ami, " those guys have enough weapons for three people a piece."
" And by the sound of it, they don't really need them anymore" said Jason.
" But we have to get them" said Eryn, " I've been on my share of ape hunts, they usually don't let you screw up. Starlight, do you have welding torches or something that produces a flame?"
" Yes, the engineering substation on the 5th deck has several" said Starlight.
" Apes don't like fire, if somebody here can modify one we can make a flamethrower that will hopefully get us close enough to a marine or two that can supply us with weapons" said Eryn.
" Hopefully?" asked Jason, " I don't like those odds."
" I can probably make one" said Ami, " give me ten minutes to see what I can do?"
" Good, where is my gun?" asked Eryn, " or did you toss that too?"
" It is right here" said Athena, taking it from the back of her pants, " I wasn't sure if I would need it."
" Jennie and me have been together a long time" said Eryn, " I would hate to part now."
Eryn slipped the gun into the holster, " Okay, Starlight I want a complete structural diagram of the area we think the apes have infested" she said.
" On screen now" said Starlight.
The five turned and looked at the design, " That section is primarily cargo holds and engineering access tunnels" said Starlight.
" Those apes really picked the best place to hide" said Eryn, " and to top that off it is pitch black down there."
" I have emergency lighting, but I doubt it will be adequate" said Starlight.
" How soon until you can get power restored in that area?" asked Athena.
" Two to three solar days" said Starlight.
" By then they will be fighting over our bones" said Eryn, " that won't do, we are going to have to go in."
" How?" asked Jason.
" The ventilation ducts" said Athena, " they should be wide enough to crawl through."
Ami popped back in carrying a welding torch, " It should work" said Ami, " I adjusted the control to fire longer bursts, but the longer bursts give you three good bursts."
" I'll go first" said Athena, " Ami I want you to stay on the bridge and keep an eye on us."
" You won't get any arguments from me" said Ami.

Captain Jonathan Hyerdahl slowly paced his bridge waiting for the last of his task force to arrive from the sector fleet base on Promixa Eradani. An hour ago he was given orders to bring the stolen alien vessel back along with the traitor Eryn Fleming. Jonathan had known Eryn before she turned her back on the TUC, he hated that war hero even then, like she was better than everyone because she had two Golden Star medals. Jonathan had also made special arrangements to bring on two squads of Death Knight Commandos, they would be all he needed. Finally the Hypergate opened and the last ship came through. The destroyer Barnabas came through the gate, Jonathan could see the small civilian transport attached to the underside of its hull. The Death Knights used modified civilian transports to do their strikes. " Have the captains of the task force meet me in my war room" said Jonathan, " I also want to see the leader of the commandos afterward."
Jonathan strode into his war room and sat at his desk, within ten minutes the five captains had joined him. " We are tracking a stolen alien vessel of unknown configuration" he said, " our estimates put them somewhere between this planet and the Tarsus Badlands. We have to stop them before they reach the badlands. You are not to intercept this vessel, the Board has given direct orders not to damage the vessel in any way. You are only to locate the vessel and contact the Pollux, I will handle their capture."
" Yes sir" the five other captains dutifully said at once.
" Sir" said one of the captains, a Japanese woman wearing more decorations than Jonathan.
" Yes" he said, " Captain?"
" Daphne Kobayashi, Captain of the Barnabas" she said, " do we know the capabilities of this ship or its intent?"
" No" said Jonathan, " it was stolen from a archeological dig on Sigma Draconis by a group of workers and a Citizen traitor. Our belief is the ship was stolen by alien third parties using the Citizen traitor who undoubtedly used the workers to steal it for her. It is a very large ship so your sensors shouldn't have a hard time picking it up. Time is against us, I have assigned each ship a search area, I want you all at your starting locations in 36 hours. Now move."
The captains left his war room, as the last left, the leader of the Death Knight Commandos entered through the other door. He was clad in his black battle amour and wearing his breath mask. " I am your One" he said.
Death Knight Commandos didn't use rank, one member of the team was chosen as the leader in each unit and was referred to a One, the rest were referred to by their call signs. " You have the information you need" said Jonathan, " use your discretion on where you wish to position your vessel. When new intelligence comes in I will send it directly to you. Kill all but the traitor, she is to be brought back as an example."
" Yes" he said.
He turned and left without making one noise. Jonathan smiled, he was happy they were on his side, those renegades stood no chance.

Athena slowly watched as the door to the access tunnel slowly opened. She half expected to see one of those Tunnel Apes waiting to pounce on her the moment the door opened. Athena crawled into the access tunnel and started the half mile crawl for the third section of the ship. Athena felt her adrenaline surging through her, this was more of a rush than the time she was caught in that freak meteor storm. They slowly inched there way through the narrow tunnel, occasionally the report of a pulse rifle would echo down the tunnel. Halfway down there was a loud painful scream then a low menacing howl, a Tunnel Ape had just claimed another victim. Athena felt a trickle of cold sweat trickle down her back. Athena made sure to check the welding torch, the howl made her acutely aware of how tasty she probably would be to a hungry Tunnel Ape.

" Here it is!" shouted the marine, " hurry, this has to lead somewhere."
The other marine was dragging a third, his leg was gone. " We can't leave him" she shouted.
" He is dead" said the first, " I don't care how long you two were fucking, he is fucking dead, leave him at the junction, will put the Apes off our scent, maybe if they snack on him."
" FUCK YOU!" she shouted, " you insensitive fucking prick, just because I wouldn't fuck you means your better than him, I am not leaving him to be some ape snack, open that fucking hatch now."
" Shut up whore" said the first, " god I was the only guy in the platoon that you were fucking. Probably why you got promoted over everybody else, who else you fuck, the captain too?"
The marine's head suddenly exploded in a shower of blood, his body dropped off the ladder that led to the access tunnel hatch. The other marine holstered her pistol, " Fuck you" she said.
She started to pry open the hatch when she heard it moving above her. She carefully started to pull her rifle up from her shoulder when it leapt at her. It knocked her clear of the ladder and across the small hallway into the opposing wall. She leveled her rifle and squeezed the trigger. The bright red pulse blasts tore through the shaggy beast splattering it dark red blood everywhere. She got to her feet, her entire body in pain. She limped over to the hatch and started to work again. She managed to pry the hatch open half way when she dropped the force bar. She climbed down and another struck.
Its razor sharp claws tearing through her battle armour, she felt a cool rushing sensation as her organs spilled out. She hit the wall, the pain was almost blinding. Another slash and she slumped on the floor. She weakly gripped her last proton grenade, the pain of teeth tearing her flesh made her scream in pain. She screamed louder when she hit the red button on the grenade.

Suddenly the entire tunnel was rocked by a violent shock wave which was followed by a metallic groan. Suddenly the tunnel buckled and dumped all four into the darkness below them with a bone jarring thud. " Everyone okay?" asked Athena after a few moments to make sure she was still okay herself.
" No problem" groaned Jason, " Robert you know chiropractics?"
" You're after me" groaned Robert, " I think I'm laying on a box or something."
" Eryn?" asked Athena.
Athena scrambled for her flashlight and turned it on. Eryn was laying motionless in a pile of half eaten organs. Athena reached over to check her when her hand slashed out and grabbed hers. A second hand wrapped over Athena's mouth, Eryn's head slowly rose up from the guts, " This is a feeding den" she whispered, " they'll be close."
" Find some guns" said Athena.
The group slowly searched through the human wreckage, they managed only to find three knives, a pistol, and two recharge packs for pulse rifles but nothing capable of fighting Tunnel Apes. " Okay, quietly" said Eryn, " the apes dragged them here, so we will find the rest of their equipment somewhere else. Athena, after you."
" Thank you Eryn" said Athena.
Athena took the lead and slowly started down the hallway, flashlight in one hand, the welding torch in the other. She was slowly soaking in sweat, partially from the heat emanating from the welding torch, the rest from the excitement of the hunt. They slowly rounded the corner, and started down the next corridor.

" Can't you get a better fix on them than this?" asked Ami, scurrying about the bridge.
" I'm sorry, being in standby mode for so long it takes some time to re-enable all my systems" said Starlight.
" Here try locking onto the magnetic id tag in my neck" said Ami, " every Worker has one implanted so we can be easily tracked and identified."
" Yes, I am reading the device" said Starlight.
" Now try and lock on to the others" said Ami.
" I believe I have it" said Starlight, " but I have no point of reference."
" Impose a design schematic over that" said Ami.
" I will try my best, putting on main viewer" said Starlight.
The picture appeared, " Good" said Ami, " at least we know where they are if not what they are doing."
" I will have the internal sensors on in that section in three hours" said Starlight.

Athena and Eryn slowly rounded the next corner, " Exciting isn't it" said Eryn.
" Yes, also a little scary" said Athena.
" That is part of the fun" said Eryn.
Eryn suddenly stopped, and pointed up to the cat walk above them. They all strained their ears and listened, slowly they heard it, a wet labored breathing, like someone breathing through wet cloth. Athena trained her welding torch at the cat walk and squeezed the button. A long burst of flame leapt upwards to the catwalk. Suddenly a loud piercing shriek and an intense vile smell of burning hair filled the hallway. A creature, seven feet tall leapt from the catwalk totally engulfed in flames illuminating the entire hallway. It ran down the hall, clumps of burning matter falling off it as it ran. Eryn dropped to one knee and carefully aimed. She squeezed the trigger and a loud pulse blast rose above the screaming bin. The red bolt found its mark and blew the creature's head apart. The body made a few more stumbling steps before crashing to the ground. " That's one" said Athena.