“According to the most recent reports, they didn’t understand the brain biology properly and the creatures’ intelligence was exponentially enhanced along with size. They first began escaping confinement, then quickly developed a method to infect the humans and came back to gain control of the scientists. The last entry is from a Doctor Alice Orszulok. She planned to go and sabotage all the vehicles so the things couldn’t escape and then blow the place after transmitting this full report.”
“She was successful in the vehicle sabotage,” Lau said.
“They must have caught her before she did any more.”
“But her message got through,” Hayashi said.
They turned to her.
“What?” Collins asked.
“It’s why we’re here.”
“Why didn’t they warn us?” Collins asked. “Send more of us. We’ve got sentry cannons on the fucking dropship we could have deployed from the outset.”
“Future warfare, remember.” Hayashi shook her head, sighed.
“What?” Collins asked again.
“They wanted to watch us, see how their new soldiers perform. We’re fucking fodder. But I don’t think they realised the bastards had compromised all comms, base-wide and what we’re carrying. We can’t send a signal fifty metres, let alone back up to the Belvedere.”
Silence fell over the room like a cold fog.
Lau punched a console. “Motherfuckers.”
“When have we ever been anything but dispensable?” Hayashi said.
Collins caught a blip on another console and moved to check. It took him a moment to figure out what he was seeing. Then, “Hatches are opening and closing along the maintenance conduits. Several different locations, all leading towards the docking bay.”
“Those things would never fit,” Lau said. “People can barely squeeze along those fucking tubes.”
Hayashi laughed derisively. “Reshape themselves and remould their exoskeleton.”
“They’re heading for the dropship!” Collins shouted. “We think we’re hiding in here safe to regroup and they don’t give a fuck. They’re escaping.”
“What do we do?” Lau asked.
“We have to stop them,” Collins said.
Hayashi leaned back in her chair. “Why?”
“What?” Collins was starting to feel like an idiot, repeating the same word.
“They threw us to the fucking wolves. Or silicon shapechangers or whatever. So why do we care?”
“Two reasons,” Collins said, anger rising again. “One, we’re soldiers and we defend. Two, if they take our dropship, how the hell do we get home? You think Alliance will rescue us now we know this bullshit?”
Hayashi scowled.
Lau nodded. “He’s right.”
“Why are they in the conduits?” Collins asked.
Hayashi stood. “Because the only way to the docking bay is through here and we’ve sealed them out. They’re bypassing. Let’s go.” She tapped at the console Capstan had been using and the southern door hissed open.
“What about Watts?”
“She’s dead weight right now. We’ll stop those fuckers first, then come back for her.”
Collins downloaded the command codes to his neural implant. “Let’s go.”
The three of them resealed their suits and helmets and ran from the C and C, Collins remotely dropping the blast door behind them. Hang tight, Watts, he thought, then focussed all his attention on the imminent fight. Three corridors, two hundred metres, was all that stood between them and the dropship. He called out to the AI over comms. “Daisy, you hearing me?”
No response.
They ran on. Collins hailed Daisy again, still no response. They turned into the last corridor, maybe forty metres and one corner between them and the docking seal. “Daisy, you there?” Collins said.
“I’m here. I’m reading something in the conduits.”
“Prepare to defend yourself,” Collins said. “Deploy the sentry cann…”
The ground between them and the dock exploded upwards. UV clearly showed three glassy serpent-like creatures, three metres long, erupt up from the maintenance lines, tiny legs scrabbling at the broken floor. The squad skidded to a halt and backed up, firing controlled bursts, deafening in the confined space. As they pumped mini grenades, the creatures twisted and writhed like sentient smoke to evade the attacks. Bullets and explosions that did hit their targets had less effect than before.
“Their shells are flexible, must be thicker now!” Hayashi yelled. “They’re adapting to our abilities.”
“Marines, hit the deck,” Daisy said over comms.
The three of them didn’t pause, fell to their bellies. Three sentry cannons rolled around the corner and barked fifty-calibre destruction into the corridor. The sweeping fire ripped through the aliens and howled by just over the marine’s heads, tearing the walls to shreds. The creatures fell in several pieces to the ground and silence sank over them.
Lau whooped and rose to his knees. “Way to go, Daisy!”
“I’m compromised,” Daisy said in her calm, soft voice. “Get back to the C and C and lock down.”
Lau frowned. “What?”
The sentry cannons roared again and Lau burst into a spray of blood and body parts.
“They’ve accessed my overrides from outside,” Daisy said. “They’re on the moon surface and gaining entry to me. I have no…” She fell silent.
“This was all a fucking distraction,” Hayashi yelled. “Move!” She used elbows and knees to furiously snake her way back up the corridor.
Collins matched her as the sentry cannons swivelled towards them. He lobbed a concussion grenade behind as they went, the explosion knocking the cannons back. Their deadly stream of ordnance tore open the corridor ceiling and sparks flew as the lights went out. The cannons quickly reasserted their equilibrium and rolled on rubber tracks in pursuit.
Hayashi and Collins made the corner as more fifty cal fire ripped up the walls and floor behind them, and they bolted for the C and C. They fell inside, Collins triggered the blast doors which rang with cannon fire as they slammed down.
Laying on their backs, gasping, Collins and Hayashi listened as the dropship powered up and launched.
Hayashi sighed. “Then there were three.”
“With no hope of escape,” Collins said.
He got up and checked Watts. Eleven minutes to go. He moved to the console and tried to key up a view, any view, to see what might be happening. None of the internal cameras were working, but an external array, watching the skies, was still operational. He tracked the dropship as it made orbit.
Space folded and the battlecruiser dropped out of jump, only a few hundred clicks from Daisy. Collins and Hayashi watched in silence. The dropship veered, heading straight for it.
“They recalled the Belvedere,” Collins said. “You think they can gain control of a ship that size?”
Hayashi snorted. “Why not? They owned us since before we fucking landed.”
“Reckon Alliance has any idea what’s coming on board?” He sent repeated hails to the battlecruiser, knowing there would be no response. “I wonder how many of those bastards are on Daisy?” he said.
Hayashi shrugged. “Could be dozens. How many are still here? How big an army did those idiot scientists breed?”
Collins zoomed in on Daisy as she entered the Belvedere’s docking bay. There were several moments of silence that seemed to drag into hours, then fire belched and billowed out into space as several hull panels around the bay split and buckled.
“Fuck,” Collins whispered.
Nothing happened for several more minutes, Collins and Hayashi watched in silence.
Watts groaned and sat up, shifted her wounded shoulder. “We ready? Where’s Capstan? And Lau?”
Shuttles began launching from the Belvedere, headed for the surface a couple of hundred clicks from the science station. Weapons ports opened along one flank of the battlecruiser and a wave of missiles launched, arcing down towards the habitat.