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Chapter 6

Date: April 3, 2741

After she had submitted her report to the leadership of the station in regards to homicides and assaults that had came up, as of now standing there were 4 homicides and 7 assault cases, they had decided to enact a quarantine on the station. No travel in or out of the station. The test results she had delivered had shown that something was indeed affecting the individuals who acted out aggressively. Security was placed on high alert and they were now doing rapid responses to the growing issue. She took a drag of her cigarette and exhaled a small cloud out and yawned sitting at her desk. A Doctor Levin had approached her earlier today requesting to see the information she had on the violence and, after talking with him a few, she knew that he could possibly be the one behind this. Somehow, someway, he was. She had questioned about him to the leadership and they had blown her off and told her not to worry about it. The damn bastard was condescending to her and the aura around him made her skin crawl. She continued smoking as she worked through a few more papers until there was a knock at her office door.

"Come in." She said, as she put the cigarette out on the ashtray on her desk. Jack walked in. "What's up?" She asked.

He looked concerned at her then put the data pad that he had hidden in his pocket that showed the message stating he wasn't cleared to leave due to quarantine procedures. "Why?" He asked. "I have other business I need to attend to. I was going to take Kyle with me for a few runs to the planets surface to get goods when I got notified that I couldn't leave due to a quarantine procedure. After digging around for a bit I found out it was you who enacted it." He said.

She nodded and sat up straight in her chair. "Jack, there is definitely something going on here, some kind of contagion spreading that is causing acts of violence among the population. Until we can find out exactly what it is and how to detect it, we can't allow anyone to leave or enter the station. I'm sorry."

She watched as he sighed and looked down. "I understand, but I am still frustrated. How long until the quarantine gets lifted?" Jack asked her.

"I'm hoping that with the sensors we have around the station as well as studying those who are still alive from the assault cases we can find the root cause of this issue within the week." Terra told him. "For now I would like you to keep a close eye on Kyle and protect him. He may seem like a big strong guy, but he doesn't have much in regards to self defense training and hasn't been one to fight people unless his life depended on it. He is more of a pacifist to an extent."

Jack's ears lifted up a bit and he nodded. "I'll keep me and him on the Avius for the time. Got enough supplies there to hold us over for the week. If things get bad I'd like to ask that you head to the Avius as well and hold up there with us as well as any others that aren't infected." He said.

She nodded then asked, "Jack, have you been experiencing any migraines or irritation as of late?"

He looked right into her eyes and shook his head. "Nothing out of the ordinary, mean was agitated with the quarantine, but that can be easily explained and I'm not exactly threatening to rip your throat out am I?" He said.

She giggled at his attempt at a joke and nodded. "I'd like to run a few tests while you're here with our machines if that's ok. Don't worry about your card or money, during an emergency quarantine procedure we do these check ups and such for free. Part of the funding the medical division of the government gets for times like these."

Jack thought it over for a while then nodded to her "Yes, I would be ok with that." She stood up and walked him out to a room with a set of machinery there that was put together to detect the now connections that involved the recent cases. One machine monitored brain waves and had the info needed to detect any kind of brain waves that would force him to act aggressively that were out of the ordinary as well as an X-Ray machine that would scan his head so she could have a look at his brain. In most cases with the agitated individuals that were afflicted with what was going around, sections of their brains, all being the same, showed deterioration occurring in those areas. After about an hour of tests on him, everything came back clean. She told him that and then checked up on his arm and made sure that it was healing properly before sending him back out. After he was gone she continued to examine the results just to make sure she didn't miss anything, but luckily, as originally stated, he was clean.

.................

Doctor Levin walked towards the elevator that lead to the lab where a team of marines stood guard at the door. They saluted him. "Report?" He asked.

Their leader, a tall African man, stepped forward and nodded to Doctor Levin then said, "So far, the infected have attempted to break out several times throughout the night. Luckily they don't seem to be able to get through. However the monitors have picked up a frequency that has been affecting some of my men. We aren't certain of the cause of it yet."

Doctor Levin nodded. "I have an idea as to what could be causing it." He said. Over the last week or so, new forms of the parasite had appeared, and what remained of Liddy seemed to have control over them. The complete lack of oxygen didn't seem to stop them, let alone the coldness of space. It only seemed to slow them down to an extent. He sighed and scratched the back of his head then said, "Let's send down the drone to take a look at things down there."

The man nodded and went over to the left side of the wall where a case was attached to it magnetically and opened it up to reveal a small round shaped sphere. He pushed a small button on the top and it came to life. Inside the case was two monitors that were on the back end of it, and a control on the front end of the case. The man let the sphere go and it started to hover as he took position in front of the case and started to control it. He moved it towards the elevator door and it phased through it. The camera showed darkness. The man then used the controls to lower the drone down the shaft until it came to a small light. Once again it phased through and there was a burst of static as it went through the wall and into the lab. The scene was astonishing. Glistening black shapes had taken to the walls of the lab. The thing that use to be Liddy was still strung up against the ceiling, her eyes widened and blank. The new forms of parasite slowly moved about in the room but then stopped when they saw the drone move about. They tracked it with your glowing red eyes as it moved about taking in the room. The dead soldiers had been turned. There shoulders swollen to the size of watermelons, their eyes now glowing red as well with razor sharp teeth showing. There hands were now razor sharp claws as well. They twitched ever so slowly as they watched the drone approach them. Once it got close one of them slowly moved their head forward to stare straight into the camera of the drone. The man controlling it started to pull back when the thing grabbed hold of it. "Damn it." He said as he tried to get the drone to wiggle free. "Come on!" He said louder. The thing pulled it closer to itself then it's chest opened up revealing a swarm of parasites all slithering within the chest cavity. It stuck the drone in and the screen went blank. The man slammed his fist against the wall in agitation.

Doctor Levin cleared his throat, "Is that new?" He asked.

The man nodded. "Every Time we've sent it down, they only watched it. First time they completely froze and acted dead. But it seemed like once they knew it wasn't food they started to move about then freeze again and start to watch it. Right now I am trying to figure out why they suddenly decided to attack it." He said, a hint of agitation in his voice.

Doctor Levin swallowed, hard, and looked at the screen a bit more. He watched it for another minute then saw a small hint of light on the screen. He pointed it out to the man who grabbed hold of the controls and tried to move the drone. And it responded. It seemed to pop back out of the chest cavity and respond to the controls. The man grinned at that and had it make it's way to the elevator and up the shaft. When he reached the door that lead to their level, he moved it forward. Doctor Levin was smiling, until he saw the drone come through. Then sheer horror took him over. Behind the drone, where the camera couldn't see it, was at least four parasite eggs that started to pulsate. "Oh fuck!" He shouted as he quickly backed away from the group. They all raised their weapons, but were too late. The eggs bursted and out came tiny black dots that launched themselves at the soldiers. They all gasped and stumbled backwards rubbing at the spots where the dots had launched themselves at, but couldn't get at anything. Doctor Levin's heart raced as he watched the man that was controlling the drone start to cough and hack away. And then suddenly he screamed. He slammed himself against the case and fell to the floor grabbing at the side of his neck that the dot had gone into. He began to try and tear away the skin of his neck to try and get to the small bump that was slowly moving towards his brain. He let out another blood curdling scream then there was a wet sound as his body went limp. Doctor Levin watched as the bump that had entered his head began to swell up and push the back of his head outwards until it bursted revealing a fragment of his brain with black tendrils gripping around it. He gurgled and blood began to seep out of his mouth. Doctor Levin gasped in horror then looked at the other three and saw them staring straight at him with glowing red eyes.

This didn't make sense! He thought. The Parasite was never capable of infecting Humans like this, Liddy was the only actual case in which it actually infected a Human host. He continued to back away from the group and then turned and sprinted down the hallway screaming and crying. He heard them suddenly jump on their feet and give chase. His vision went blurry a bit from the rush of adrenaline as he continued running down the long hallway until he came to a small panel. He stopped and opened it, then put in a command to close the bulkhead doors. Alarms and Klaxons sounded, red light strobed through the hallway as massive bulkhead doors started to close. He watched in horror as one of the former soldiers got caught in one and was cut in half by it, or more rather his lower half got squashed. A spray of blood went against the door as the thing continued to crawl forward. It would eventually be trapped behind the other bulkhead door that shut in front of it. Doctor Levin's heart pounded in his chest as the other three were almost to him when the door in front of him started to lower. He backed away further from the door and saw the leader of the group, his face now twisted in agony and anger, leaped forward towards him, but was caught by the door and his lower half squished by the door. The other two's heads were already in the doorway when it closed. The thing wiggled and howled a terrifying howl as it forced itself forward, there was a wet sound and a spray of blood that splattered against the grey bulkhead door and the walls to the left and right of it, as it crawled towards him.

Doctor Levin looked around for a weapon but couldn't see anything. Eventually, after a few seconds of him trying to keep calm and find something to use, he gave up, and let his flight reflexes kick and bolted back down the hallway, the thing now chasing him.

...............

Up in the control center for the station, one of the men beckoned over Officer Davis, a Caucasion Human in his mid forties, over to his station. He looked at what the man was pointing and his eyes narrowed. "Bring it up on main monitors." He said. The Command Center was round with a glass like metal surrounding it. There was an elevated walkway with monitoring station on it with staircases that lead down towards a second walkway that had more monitors, down to the basic operations at the center. It was like being in a snowglobe. There were four main monitores that hung underneath the second walkway that cycled through ship cameras and systems. They all flashed towards the video feed that an alarm had originated from. He examined them as the monitores flicked through the feeds until he saw something. It was a man, cut in half, clawing at a bulkhead door. The back of his skull was missing and he could see a part of his brain sticking out with black tendrils covering it. He heard a few gasps and he, himself, felt sick to his stomach. The feeds then flicked towards a man running down the hallway, a scientist by the look of him, with another man, cut in half, same as the last one, running using his arms. Chasing the scientist down.

Officer Davis took a deep breath then said, "Alert security, get them down there and initiate quarantine stage 2 in that section. Let Security know to get to Section 1 of the hallway on level B5 immediately, use of deadly force is authorized. Whatever is chasing that scientist is to be killed immediately!"

There were acknowledgement as everyone set to work. Alarms and Klaxons started to go off as one of the people input commands for Quarantine Stage 2. What the hell? He thought as he continued monitoring everyone's work. Then suddenly, out of the corner of his eye, he saw something. Something big. He looked at it and his jaw dropped. It was a hulking black monster, tendrils and muscles pulsating with glowing red eyes and long razor sharp teeth stared at the crew in the command center. Everyone else now noticed it as well and there gasps and screams of panic as it raised one of its massive fists and brought it down on the glass. It cracked. He instinctively backed up but knew that it would be too late for him to run to the elevator. However most of the crew panicked at the first assault and most of them rushed towards the elevator. It drew its first once more and hit the glass again causing it to crack even more. He looked towards the elevator and saw the ones that were closest to it getting into and the door started to close when the glass broke and he was sucked out towards the thing. He felt it grab him as oxygen rushed back past him out into space. He felt it tighten its grip on him and he tried to scream, but he couldn't. It continued until he felt something pop and knew it was his spine. He attempted to move his body but was unable to. And before death from oxygen deprivation could greet him, he saw it open its mouth and then darkness as his head went into its mouth and felt its teeth sink into his chest before he died.

............................

Jack and Kyle were both onboard the Avius when alarms and klaxons sounded off with red strobe lights flashing. Jack was now in his full flight suit with his gun strapped to his side. He stood up from the pilots seat and looked out the viewport and saw groups of security officers running towards an elevator, then saw as a blast shield raised around the docking area blocking his view of the catwalk the security officers were on. He cursed under his breath and sat back down just as Kyle came up to the cockpit and sat beside him.

"What's happening?" Kyle asked.

Jack looked over at him and said, plainly, "No idea." He looked around the rest of the docking bay at the dozens of ships that had been pulled in and saw a few dock workers running towards a doorway and opening it. It looked like it lead into a section that went up above the dock to a command center. Jack sat back down and clicked on comms. "Aura Control, what is going on?" He said into it. There was static in response. "Aura Control this is the Avius, please respond." He said again, and again nothing but static. He grimaced as he stood up and walked towards the ramp the lead out of the ship and looked at the blast shields that had risen up blocking access towards the walkway that lead to the rest of the station. He tried to see through the glass and caught the glimpse of plasma and phaser fire. Then felt the station jerk violently with the sound of a distant explosion. He cursed again and ran back inside the ship and closed the ramp. He went back to the pilots seat and started to turn the Avius' engines online when a metal clicking sound caught his ears. "Oh son of a bitch!" He yelled. The monitors to his side showed that they had engaged clamps on his landing gear keeping his ship in place. "This is wonderful." He said as he powered the engines back down.

"What is it?" asked Kyle.

"They've basically locked my ship to the ground. Can't take off." He said.

Kyle lowered his ears. "What is happening?" He said, a hint of fear in his voice.

Jack forced himself to relax and looked into Kyle's eyes. He placed his paw gently against Kyles muzzle and rubbed him a bit and said, "I don't know. Looks like another stage of quarantine was initiated. I saw a few groups of security officers running for an elevator with drawn weapons before the blast shields came up and blocked us off. As for that explosion, I don't know." He looked up at the dock command center and could see flashes of light. Gun fire? He thought to himself. Suddenly, the command center exploded and bodies started to rain down towards the metal glass that covered the docking bay that the Avius was in. Kyle gasped and covered his mouth in shock. They watched as several bodies plummeted onto the glass. They laid still then started to move. Body parts were either torn up or missing from what they could see. puddles of blood remained where they had landed with streaks of blood trailing behind the bodies as they moved. They moved towards the pillar that connected the center to the docking bay and Jack could see that the elevator the had the remaining dock workers was stopped right under the glass. They watched as the things surrounded it and started to pound into the metal, actually denting it! Soon one of them managed to rip the metal open and climb inside. Jack couldn't hear anything else, but he knew that the men inside the elevator were probably screaming in agony. There were a few flashes emanating from the elevator then stopped. Jack looked at the rest of the docking bay and saw several ship pilots walk out and stare at the doorway that lead towards the elevator. He took a deep breath and saw a few of them draw their weapons. Suddenly, one of them fired at one of the other pilots. The pilot that got shot fell down to the ground, lifeless, and the other pilots turned and began firing at the guy who shot. Several flashes later the pilot that had shot the other was down on the ground. Jack continued to watch and saw one of the other pilots put his weapon to his head and pulled the trigger and then fell to the ground dead. The remaining pilots looked around shocked and Jack saw the elevator starting to go back down. The others didn't notice it until it was too late. The things that had fallen towards the glass were now in the docking bay. Jack could make out the remains of the workers and watched as two or three of them each grabbed hold of several pilots and pulled them down, eating them. He could faintly hear their screams and he closed his eyes and took several deep breaths. He then got up out of his chair and went to the ramp and locked the it into place so that it couldn't be lowered and the door couldn't be opened from the outside. He then went back to the cockpit and placed a paw on Kyles shoulder and said, "Stay quiet for now. Let's get to the center of the ship where the food and everything else is at and wait there."

Kyle nodded and followed Jack to the small cafeteria at the center of the ship and they waited. Hearing the screams faintly from those being torn apart.

.....................................

Terra looked around as the alarms and klaxons went off and then heard an automated voice say "Warning, Quarantine Stage 2 is now in effect. All personnel are to report to quarantine stations immediately." She took a few deep breaths to calm herself down. The suddenly alarm had scared her. She made her way out of her office and towards the operation theatre, which was probably one of the safest places to be in the hospital with it's thick metal walls and lines of instruments that could be used as weapons were at. There Williams along with his friend, Kuva, a Wolf, stood by the operating table talking to each other. Once they saw her they beckoned her over. "What's going on?" She asked.

Williams stared at her and said, "Last I heard, which was from one of the command crew, was that there was something making its way through level B5. They initiated Quarantine Stage 2, and then went silent. No one can get a hold of Command."

Terra rubbed her chin with a paw and looked down at the ground. "Hmm....Do we know what that something is?" She said. Williams shook his head at that. "Alright, then we need to try and contact the Command Center again, if that fails try to contact the Chief of Security at his Office. That fails, then I guess we are on our own here." She said.

Williams nodded, "Agreed. We can use one of the Modules by the entrance to try and get a hold of them."

She nodded and made her way over to the module at the entrance and turned it on. After inputting a few commands, she was able to send a transmission over to the Command Center. "Aura Command Center, this is True Hope Hospital, Doctor Terra Brooks, do you read me?" She waited, and only heard static. "Aura Command Center, this is True Hope Hospital, Doctor Terra Brooks, do you read me?" She said again. And again, no response, just static. She growled quietly to herself. Williams, who had walked up beside her, motioned her to move and she did. He put in a few more commands and suddenly a video feed came up, and she gasped. The Command Center feed was going through one of the computers and she saw bodies floating, looks of horror etched into the crew's faces, along with their bodies, torn apart and some massive thing apparently eating the bodies. There were multiple smaller things slowly moving about the Control Center, attaching to the bodies and transforming them into something else. Their bodies convulsed slowly in the zero gravity of space, their hands twitching, skin being pulled away as claws took the place of their fingers. Some of their faces tore away to show a mouth with razor sharp teeth, and some of their bodies began to sprout extra appendages such as extra hands or wings with smaller claws on them. She looked away from the screen and vomited in horror and disgust. What the hell?!

...............................

Doctor Levin had managed to make it into the elevator before the thing got to him and was on his way up when it stopped at a docking station. The door opened and several guns were immediately pointed at his face. In front of him stood multiple security officers on the walkway that would lead to the rest of the station, and a blast shield raised up between that walkway and the dock. He raised his hands and screamed, "Please don't shoot me!"

One of the officers, a Lizard like Pelzigan, almost like a Komodo Dragon, grabbed a hold of him and pulled him out of the elevator and pinned him against the wall next to the door to it and hissed at him. "What is your name and what is going on?!" He shouted at Doctor Levin.

Doctor Levin shook with fear and whimpered. "Something has gotten loose from the lab, It can't get out. Please, it's not my fault, I tried to keep them contained!" He said.

The Komodo Dragon hissed louder and pushed harder against him. "What is this something?"! He ordered.

"A Parasite! Okay! A god damn Parasite!" He shouted. Screw confidentiality, if those things had gotten loose, then there was no point in maintaining secrecy. "They infect a living host and use their bodies like puppets!" He closed his eyes in fear of being punched, or shot, and if the Pelzigan did, he didn't want to see.

The Pelzigan let go of him and growled loudly. "What do you mean?" He asked.

"that's basically it! All you need to do is aim for the head, the Parasites attach to the brain and gain control that way! You shoot the head, you kill the Parasite, killing the host!" He said whimpering still.

The Pelzigan nodded. "Stay with us for now, Officer Janus, lock this elevator into place, we can not allow whatever this Parasite is to gain access to it and use it to come up here. Officer Darius, take Officers Paolini and Betancourt and lock down the other elevators on this section immediately!" He ordered. The other officers nodded and did as they were told. God help them all, thought Doctor Levin.