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Chapter 7

April 4, 2741

This is Rear Admiral Whitcomb, as of April 4, 2741, we have lost all contact with Aura station, last word was that Quarantine Stage 2 was put into place. Following that we witnessed an unknown creature attacked the Command Center, it is confirmed that a majority of the Command Staff are now dead, their bodies being carried to the bottom of the station for whatever use the creatures could have. I have lost contact with Doctor Henry Levin following that incident but we have been receiving panicked transmission from residents of the station. It would appear that, whatever was going on, it was indeed an outbreak. I have ordered the fleets to avoid getting too close with the station. Quarantine Stage 3 is currently in effect, if a single ship is to leave that station, it will be fired upon. If it is deemed necessary we will use the ARC array over the planet Fioria to destroy the station completely however it does carry risks of allowing whatever is onboard the station to make it planet side and protective measures are being taken for the time. Right now the only thing we can do wait and watch. Gather information on whatever this is, and hope that nothing breaks quarantine.

Whitcomb smiled as he turned off the recording device. He knew full well that the Parasite had gotten loose. He actually hoped it would so he could see what the thing was capable of doing. He hoped to gain plenty of information for the scientists to digest, and hopefully Doctor Levin would be able to make it out. However he had to follow procedure to avoid detection, after all, the Admiralty, especially that damned Admiral Laurence and his pet Harper could not get wind of his plans.

It had been twelve hours since the outbreak had begun. Doctor Levin sat in a makeshift control point watching through several video feeds of the entrances to the main area of the station. He saw numerous infected clawing at the metal bulkhead doors that were sealed. He knew that there was no hope for them to escape, all ways in or out had been blocked off completely. Save for the vents which he argued against heavily. But no one would listen to him. It didn't matter, he had a plan to get out of this hell hole. Shortly after they had locked down the elevators the control tower for one of the docking bays had blown and infected started to rain down on top of the docking bay, so as far as they knew, the closest docking bay was filled with those things and there was no way to get to the other docking bays with the blast shields up. Following that, there had been reports of unknown creatures climbing the outside of the station, soon afterwards there were more reports that the command center had been destroyed by one of them. Without access to the control room, there was no way to lift the Quarantine Stage 2 and get out of the station. Therefore, he would have to find a way to wire control from the Command Center over to this station that he was now sitting at. He groaned as he continued trying to connect difficult conduits to the small screen in front of him trying to find the one that would grant him access to the Command Center's control mechanisms.

Elsewhere in the station, Doctor Terra Brooks smoked her cigarette as the sounds of screams came through the reinforced doors to the operating room. Soon after Quarantine Stage 2 took affect, they had a surge of bite victims and bodies flood into the hospital seeking attention. The staff attempted to help where they could, but none of them were prepared for what happened next. First it was only a few of the victims, they had suddenly died then seemed to get up and move about after the back of their skulls busted open with black tendrils clinging to the now hanging out portions of their brains. They began to tear apart the medical staff and other patients and soon the numbers grew too much for the Security Officers to handle, and they too were torn apart. She glanced out a small window in the door and saw the blood soaked hallways with body parts littering it along with a multitude of bodies all torn apart laying against walls and on the floor. There were a few black creatures moving around the area, seemingly dragging bodies into piles and then sticking a black residue over them which then the humanoid infected seemed to drag off to some other place. They seemed to be coordinating, somehow. At first glance, they seemed like they where just a ravenous group, all wanting one thing, to feast. But after the initial shock and being able to actually watch these things for a while, she realized they were in fact coordinated to a certain degree. Interesting, she thought.

Williams walked up next to her and watched in disgust, "Think I'm gonna be sick..." He said as he watched the new pile of bodies get dragged away, a blood trail being left behind them. "What the hell are they?" He asked.

Terra shook her head, "No clue...." She said. "But they are coordinated to some degree here. Watch how they collect the bodies, and how they transport them. The small ones seem to drag them into a pile in which they then seem to wrap them up in some kind of goo, then the bigger ones drag the piles off to some other place."

Williams made a sound of disgust, "Wonderful!" He said, "They're cleaning house!"

Terra shot him a warning look. Just after he said that one of the humanoid ones stopped and looked towards them, almost as if it heard them. Her and Williams did their best to remain hidden, but to also watch it. After a minute of it staring at the door, it looked away and made its way out of site to gods knows where. She let out a sigh of relief then glared at William who looked back at her apologetically. They then continued to monitor the undead things movements and behaviors. Besides, unless they wanted to be swarmed and eaten, there wasn't much else to do except hide and watch them.

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

Onboard the Avius, Jack and Kyle watched through a monitor that was hooked up to the outside cameras on the hull of the Avius as the things took Human bodies and pile them up and watched as the small black creatures moved around the bodies covering them in some sickly black goo that seemed to harden. After that they watched them drag the bodies off. It was disgusting, thought Jack. What the hell were they? He had never seen anything like them. He could see the backs of their skulls, the infected ones, open with a pulsating brain and black tendrils cling to it, keeping it inside the skull. On a few occasions the brain did fall out with a few of the newly infected Pelzigans and plopped to the floor in which case the body seized up and dropped onto the floor in a fetal position. Then a black parasite like blob seemed to crawl out of the skull and make it's way over to another body and try to, what it seemed like, take over a body. When that failed, if it failed, it would then just sit there as one of the others would come over and devour it leaving a mess of black goo and dark red blood smeared on the floor. Kyle had already thrown up several times watching it and when it first started, seemed to have completely lost it. But now he sat quietly with Jack watching the aftermath of the carnage. The Avius was indeed locked into place, and while he could probably use the main cannons to blow the glass canopy above them out, there would be no way to disengage the locks that were clamped to the landing gear without causing considerable damage to the Avius. The only way out was to get to the control tower and deactivate the locks from there. Or, if he could, get a hold of a small explosive gel pack and use that to get through the locks. But the only way to get those was off one of the infected bodies that was stumbling around slowly outside. He already had a plan on how to kill one if one of the infected got on board.

Put simply, he knew that the parasite things were inside the skull, so maybe by firing at the head, he would kill the parasite and that, in return, would make the body stop moving. He rubbed the butt of his pistol, part of him wanting to test it out, the other part afraid of what would happen if he failed to hit the head, or if it didn't work. Kyle wrapped his arms around Jack's right arm and buried his head into his arm whimpering quietly. He couldn't fault Kyle for this behavior, his whole life he lived on this station where there was no violence like this. Compared to Jack who had witnessed Pirates outright butcher crews of naval vessels and sometimes the unfortunate cruise liners that flew among the stars. Even saw the remnants of a pirate vessel that had its shields lowered and the radiation itself from space seep into their ship and kill them. But nothing this brutal. He took several deep calming breaths and stood up gently getting Kyle to release his arm then made his way over to the cockpit. "Kyle, what's the frequency for the hospital that Terra works at? You know?" He called back.

He heard Kyle walk into the cockpit and nodded. "Terra gave it to me so i could contact her if something were to happen." He said, his voice weak and there was a hint of terror and sadness in his voice. "I can put it in for you." He said. Jack nodded and allowed him to access the communications system of the Avius. After a full minute of him messing with it, he stopped then nodded to Jack. "It should go directly to her office, if not i have a frequency that'll directly link us up with her via her wrist communicator."

Jack took a deep breath and entered the command to send communications to her office. "Terra, this is Jack. Me and Kyle are onboard the Avius but we have these things outside that killed the entire command crew for the docking bay and are gathering bodies up. What is happening on your end? What should we do?" He said into it. There was no response. He nodded to Kyle and Kyle put in the direct frequency to her wrist communicator then gave it back to Jack. "Terra, this is Jack, do you read me?" He waited two minutes before he got a response back.

"Jack? This is Terra I ready you loud and clear." Came her voice.

"Thank god." Jack said, "We're onboard the Avius, the docking bay has at least twelve zombie like things gathering dead bodies and taking them away." He told her.

There was some static, then, "Same here Jack, Hospital got busy with people who had been bitten despite the fact that we entered Quarantine Stage 2. Me and a few of the doctors left our designated posts to try and help the wounded. However we didn't know they'd suddenly turn and attack people. I'm currently locked in the operation theater with Williams and two other doctors and one patient."

Jack cursed to himself. "Alright, think you could escape?" He asked. "They can't seem to be able to break through the Avius' hull plating so it'd probably be safer onboard the ship than in that theater." He said.

There was a brief moment of silence. "Can you take off?" She simply asked.

"I can't." He responded. "There is an automatic locking mechanism that's attached to my ship, if I try to use the ships weapons to blow it off, it'll do a lot of damage to the Avius. So I have two options, either get a hold of an explosive gel back and put it precisely where I need it to blow the locks off, or get into the control tower and lift the lockdown. Issue with those two, I'll be surrounded by those things in a matter of seconds."

He could hear Terra curse under her breath as well. "Damn it." She said, "I know where to get a hold of an explosive gel pack. Unfortunately it's at the Security Office that is a thirty minute flight, possibly an hour walk from me and we can't leave the hospital."

Jack's ears went back. "We need to think of something." He said.

"I know," responded Terra. "The other issue is, once Quarantine Stage 2 was initiated, the fleets outside the station have probably taken defensive positions and will shoot anyone trying to leave this station. And there is more bad news." She said. "Command Center for this station, all the crew is dead. Something broke into the control center and is eating everyone up there.'

Jack growled deeply. "Damn it!" He shouted, slamming his fists against the control board. "What the hell can we do?!" He said.

"Well," Said Terra, "You have a gun correct?"

"I do." Jack said. "And I don't like where this is going."

There was a small humorous chuckle from Terra. "Well, if you've been watching them, same as me, then you probably know that a weak spot on them is the head. It might be possible to bring them down directly from a headshot. We did watch a few Security Officers try and take a few of them down and body shots didn't seem to work. It wasn't until the body had sustained massive damage that it finally died. But then those parasite things crawled out and attached itself to the nearest Pelzigan and infected them. So maybe a headshot would do it." She said.

Jack nodded, even though she couldn't see that gesture. "I have thought about it. I guess the only thing I can do is come to you, granted we need to lower the blast shield that's cut us off from the rest of the station." He glanced over at Kyle who had since been frozen stiff by the idea. "I'll leave Kyle onboard the Avius and take out the bastards in the docking area. After that I'll head up to the control tower and unlock the Avius. After that we will blast out the canopy above us and go to you with her. Once there we can make a hole and land directly in front of the hospital. From there, after the shielding blocks off the hole that we make, you can come on out and get on board the Avius." He said.

Terra sighed, "Reckless, but possible. Me and the others will be ready to run the moment we hear you." She said. and with that, the com's clicked off.

Jack got up and looked at Kyle whose eyes were starting to tear up and he smiled at Kyle then hugged him tightly. "I'll be back." He said. "You just stay here, try to reach out to any other survivors, maybe there are other pilots who have stayed in their ships that we can get a hold of and maybe they can assist us."

Kyle nodded and started to sob. "Please," He said, his voice cracking up, "Gods please come back to me. I don't want to lose you."

Jack looked into Kyle's eyes and kissed him gently on the lips. "You won't." He said. He let go of Kyle and walked out of the cockpit to the door that lead out of the ship. He hit the ramp release then moved his paw over the door release button. He took several deep breaths to calm himself then hit the button. The door slid open and he unholstered his weapon and slowly made his way down the ramp, quietly. The smell hit him first before the noises, the smell of blood in the air, of rotting flesh. Followed by the slick sounds of bodies being dragged and of those things eating away at remaining body parts. He felt sick to his stomach but he steeled himself to what was to come. He glanced around and saw the usual ten ships docked, and then the twelve infected continuously dragging bodies over to a pile and some of them now munching on the remains. Like a gods damn snack, he thought. The things didn't seem to notice him at all at first, then one of them looked over at him and gave a terrifying howl that seemed almost unnatural. The other eleven stopped what they were doing and looked towards him. "Ah fuck." He said as he tapped in several commands to a small panel next to the ramp and the ramp itself raised back up. At least this way they couldn't get onboard and hurt Kyle. He took aim at the nearest one and fired. The shot skimmed the side of it's skull leaving a scorch mark and it stumbled backwards growling. He cursed himself and took aim again, this time, when he fired, he hit it in the head. There was a crunching and squishy noise as the back end of it exploded and evaporated with the hit, the black parasite like thing falling out with a massive hole in it. It squirmed and squealed then lay dead. The body fell right on top of it.

He grinned to himself and slowly, and methodologically, made his way through the rest, firing at them and killing them. Granted several of his shots missed, but eventually they were all dead. His whole body was shaking with terror and adrenaline, but he continued to push forward ignoring the smell of ozone and rotting flesh that permeated throughout the air. Once he was at the elevator to the tower, he opened the door and saw the top of the elevator had been ripped open and he could see a ladder on the outside of the elevator. The elevator itself was slick with blood and body parts. He hefted himself up into the shaft then grabbed hold of the ladder and began to make his way to the top of the control tower. Once there, he had to force the elevator doors open. He climbed into the control tower itself and saw the damage that was done to it. A few Human bodies laid about the place, blood covering the consoles, and a massive whole at the front of the tower itself. He took a moment to catch his breath and then made his way over to one of the consoles when something caught his eyes. He looked to his left and saw a giant human like figure, knelt over a body, eating it. It stopped with it's munching and turned its head towards him. The Humans face was pale, with streaks of black running through its veins. It was massive. He backed away from it and drew his weapon and trained it onto the things head. It made a gurgling noise as it slowly stood up. The gods damn thing towered over him! He looked up at the seven foot tall creature, it's muscled rippling with movement. It had no shirt and he could see what seemed like a bunch of small balls moving in and out of his veins, up and down them. It took one step and the ground beneath him shook. "What the hell are you?" He asked, his ears lowering in fear. He regained focus and then fired a shot straight into its face. It howled out in anger and agony as it doubled back and fell to a knee panting and screaming now flailing it's left arm about as it's right hand covered where the shot hit it. Jack watched as it slowly stopped it's little tantrum and could see, once it lowered it's right hand, that the shot hadn't gone all the way through, and that it was regenerating itself. "Oh crap." He said to himself as it rushed at him, it's right fist ready to swing at him. He ducked and avoided the blow, but didn't see the left fist coming for him. It connected against his ribs which made a sick crunching noise and sent him flying across the room. He screamed out in pain and grabbed his left side and coughed up some blood. He grunted as he pushed himself back further away from the creature until he was at the opening of the hole. Gods, please no, he thought as the thing stomped its way to him, growling with it's glowing red eyes trained on him.

He winced in pain as he hefted the gun and fired several more shots into its face. It screamed and used both hands to cover its face then swerved back and forth. Jack watched as it approached him, then passed him, and fell out of the tower towards the canopy below. He watched as it slammed into it and a massive pool of blood surrounded it from the impact. He breathed a sigh of relief and slowly stood himself back up and limped over to the control panel. If the thing regenerated, it wouldn't be long until it came back to finish him. He accessed the controls of the docking bay below and put in the command to release the locks. The console then demanded a handprint of the person in charge. Jack swore to himself as he looked around. There were four bodies up here, all Human. Gods, he hoped one of them was the one in charge. He went over to the nearest body and then put a hole through it's head to make sure it was, in fact, dead. He then hauled it over, painfully, to the panel and slapped it's hand onto the computer. It scanned and declined the individual. "Fuck!" He shouted as he let the hand fall to the ground. He then repeated the process with another body, same thing, another curse, then the last body. Thankfully it accepted the handprint and stated that all the locks for the ships in the docking bay beneath him were unlocked. He grinned and then made his way back to the ladder. After a horribly painful decent back down to the docking bay, he made his way onto the Avius where Kyle rushed towards him and hugged him tightly which solicited a grunt of pain.

"Oh gods, I'm so sorry Jack. What happened?!" Said Kyle, his voice frantic.

"Big bastard, really big bastard, one hell of a punch." He said through gritted teeth, the pain began to intensify. "Locks are off, we can take off now." He groaned and tried to sit up but the pain was too much and he collapsed back to the ground. "I need you to carry me over to the pilot's seat. We need to take off. That big bastard can regenerate and I don't know how long we have until he's up and going again." He said to Kyle.

"Alright." Said Kyle as he helped Jack up and supported his weight. Once inside the cockpit Jack collapsed into his seat with a yip of pain escaping him. He then, through blurred vision, started the Avius up.

"Any luck finding other survivors?" He asked.

Kyle nodded. "There are sections of the station not yet affected by this.....stuff. There are a few docking bays with pilots who are in the same situation we were. I told him what to do, but none of them seem to be wanting to try it." He said.

Jack nodded understanding. "We'll head for Terra, get her, then try to go to one of the Docking Bays that haven't been hit by this thing. Maybe their control rooms will allow us to dock." He said panting. The engines warmed up and thumbed quietly throughout the ship. There was a whine as he took the Avius up and out of the hanger bay and made his way towards the hospital Terra was at.

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

Terra and Williams stood shoulder to shoulder, sharing a cigarette when her wrist com beeped. "This is Terra." She said exhaling a cloud of smoke.

"Terra, this is Jack, we're approaching the hospital. Be ready to make a break for it." Came Jacks' voice. "We'll pick you up then head for one of the docking bays that have yet to be hit by this thing. There we can formulate an escape plan, or maybe get the Military to let us out." He said.

Terra scoffed and shook her head. Like hell the Military would let them escape. The risk of letting whatever this is escape was too great for them. Sacrifice the few for the many. "Alright," She said. "I'll get everyone ready. Once we hear that explosion, we'll head for the entrance." She clicked the wrist com off and picked up a sharp metal piece of a bed that she and Williams had snapped off of the bed at the center of the operating theater. Williams hefted a rather big fire extinguisher in his paws while one of the other two doctors, a Human, held up a scalpel. Terra wanted to laugh at him but knew that scalpel might actually be pretty good. The other one, a Pelzigan, had a metal tray in her paws. The Patient, was in the corner sniffling and crying. Speaking gibberish. They had tried to snap him out of it but she suspected that, whatever had caused the spikes in violence before these things showed up was affecting him and knew he wouldn't listen. They had agreed to leave him behind but to lock up the doors before they made their suicidal dash towards the entrance. After a few seconds there was a dull thud of an explosion. She nodded at Williams and the other two doctors, and they opened the door, closed it quickly and relocked it, and bolted down the hallway. They encountered a few of the infected and quickly dispatched them. They made their way across the twisting corridors killing whatever infected where in their way until they reached the main entrance. There, they saw twenty infected all clawing at the door towards the hovering Avius.

"This is fucking nuts!" Shouted the Pelzigan doctor. Terra scoffed at him, he was losing it. "There's no way we are going to get passed those guys!" He then bolted to the left and screamed. He backed towards the group whimpering and crying as a large infected stomped towards him and grabbed hold of his face. He started to scream, begging not to die. It lifted him off the ground. His screams and pleads had attracted the twenty infected at the door and they began to make their way towards him. His screams started to get muffled even more, and Terra looked at his face, his eyes wide with terror, then saw his throat pulsating. He seemed to be gagging now as his eyes rolled to the back of his head then the thing let go of him. A long tentacle was extending out of the giant monsters hand that was holding him, slick with his saliva. He fell to the floor coughing and hacking, breathing heavily. He looked towards the twenty other infected that had now gathered around him. They had stopped and stared at him. He whimpered and then started to heave. He continued doing so until a black blob fell from his mouth and onto the floor. He tried to scream but, between the infected, Terra could see his throat pulsating once more, and then it popped off with an even bigger creature swirling around where the head was. It looked at the twenty infected then it opened its mouth, razor sharp teeth glinting in the light, already covered in blood, and it started to devour the other infected.

"Oh my gods." She muttered. Williams nudged her and motioned for the door. She nodded and they bolted towards it. The thing that use to be the doctor spotted them and the body stood up and began to make its way towards them. They exited the building, Terra in front climbing the ramp with Williams behind her when they heard the other scientist screamed out in agony. They held onto the ramp and turned to see the creature that had been the other scientist grapple onto the man. It seemed to examine him, then it opened its mouth and a long, black tongue entered into his throat cutting off his cries. It pulsated, more than likely putting eggs or something into the host. It tore into his legs with it's arms until they were gone and it supported him, pumping more and more eggs into the body. Terra grimace and got into the Avius with Williams right behind her and they took off.