Short Tale
This is Sergeant Lucas Hammil; this will be my last log entry. What can I say? Everyone else is gone. I've only just been able to avoid whatever it is that murdered my comrades by hiding in the ducts that apparently, according to these claw marks, was once home to said adversary. Now I suspect that infernal insect is now housing in my former captain's quarters, sipping my fellow's blood from his skull. If you are reading this note, you've either eliminated the insects on this transport or you are still unaware of what is aboard with you. If your situation is your blissful unawareness, I now warn you... As if the blood smeared across the walls and floors isn't enough. The Confederacy dispatched us to Frontier World Jevah, to fight the Insects incursion in that sector. At first we didn't think much of the few soldiers not showing up for duty shifts or even leaving their quarters, but scans of the ship showed they weren't even aboard once we got suspicious enough to conduct the scans. Of course we were placed on high alert once our 7 fellow crewmen were, for lack of a better term, lost. Unfortunately right after the alert was ordered, our crewmen returned, wearing nothing but eviscerated flesh and tattered uniforms, joined soon after by a rather large Insect with about several different limbs tipped with jagged claws. In about a day half of us had fallen, the Insect tearing through blockades and unsuspecting fire teams while we were focused on eliminating the steadily increasing number of re-animated soldiers. We lost the ship in about two days. If your vessel has the capability, scan on your highest intensity for feral radiation, it will reveal the Insect that boarded our vessel. Then, please, destroy this vessel, I have seen more spawning Insects, half the crew has been used for nutrients, a small army is being bred on this ship. We managed to disable the ships engines, but Its only a matter of time before they repair them. These vile creatures must be kept from the Frontier World at all costs.
The black armored husky pocketed the blood spattered note, hazel eyes turning to the vent riddled with holes and dried blood before turning to his team, standing idly on guard, eyes and ears at attention. "We're getting out of here, no more time for data collection, back to the exit point."
"Sir?" A similarly armored vixen questioned.
"No explanations now, just get the hell out of here." Darrik rephrased his order quite nicely, walking back down the corridor the team came from without looking back to see if they were following. When Darrik wanted to leave, his team would have no doubt something was worrying him, and when something worries their squad leader, it worried the team.
All of them were dressed in form-fitting black armor, allowing for great flexibility despite its looks, none of them wore helmets, not trusting the internal computers built into them after a previous encounter with rebels and an annoying EMP system. For about five minutes the entire team was running blind, before giving up on air support taking out the damned tower housing it.
First there was Darrik, the squad leader. The husky was covered in white fur, except his black spotted ears which at an early age drew the attention of mindless bullies on the schoolyard. He was 36 and stood about 6'6, weighing around 170 pounds, mostly muscle even though you could never tell by looking at him directly. Most unfortunates had to find out that his muscles were hidden by his fur, quite well in fact as his knuckles were bruised on numerous occasions by enemies thinking he was an easy target for a sword.
Sarah, the vixen, was the traditional red, white and black of her species and only 30 years old. The fact that she was 6'0 tall and weighed only 125 pounds made her quick and agile, even with her heavy armor on. She favored using her two short swords instead of a pistol or rifle whenever she had the chance, she even sometimes threw down a loaded gun just to charge an enemy that was pinned down. Eccentric might be a word to use for her.
Rob was a 32 year old german shepard, 165 pounds, 6'3 and a fanat-... connoisseur of weaponry, old and new. The rest of the team has seen his quarters, but were never eager to step inside for fear of something putting a hole in their legs. He was always eager to go up against a well dug-in enemy just to use some form of weapon that even a seasoned veteran would have a tough time carrying, let alone firing. Trigger-happy, no doubt. No sugar coating that one.
Simon was an arctic fox, not the best species to be on a starship unfortunately. But he maintained his spot as the more upbeat of the rest of the team. 148 pounds and 6'1 gave him the size to fit into small areas. Mainly to hack into a system or two, or on occasion to plant one of Robs homemade... anti-obstacle devices. He was only 26, and the newest member of the team, everyone took a shine to him almost immediately.
As the four-fur group made their way down the corridors of the alien ship something made them feel uneasy. A stench that wasn't around before had wafted through the halls, a sickly lemon scent.
The team was nearing their extraction point, a little distracted by dark corridors lighting as the lights flickered on and off. On more than one occasion one of them saw a dark smear on a wall or on the ground. Each smear they saw looked as if something was dragged along the surfaces of the halls.
Darrik, Sarah, Rob, and Simon rounded the last corner, which was supposed to house the boarding tube connecting the Starlight to this alien vessel and a small group of guards on either end. Instead they hit the closed door of the boarding tube. Darrik and Sarah almost slipped on the ground, covered by some kind of liquid, though it was hard to tell as the lights around the tubes closed door were dimmed, almost not giving off any light at all. Unfortunately they didn't need their eyes to tell them what they almost slipped on. Their noses were sensitive enough to pick out the distinct coppery smell of blood. A lot of it.
"This is lieutenant Darrik," He pressed his finger against his comm. bead in his ear, activating a link to the ship he called home. "Why is the boarding door closed?"
The static-covered voice of lieutenant Van-Hall came through, sounding worried. "Darrik? We lost your signals inside that ship, then something attacked the guards inside the ship at the entrance of the boarding tube. The team guarding our end saw them die, they though your team was gone too so they sealed the door, we'll get it open as soon as we decrypt the door codes."
"Damn security and their door codes..." Rob growled, wishing he could just blow through the door. Unfortunately the tube's hull was a bit thin, so any type of forced opening would probably make him regret it, what with being surrounded by space and all.
"Huh, well security's got nothin' on me," Simon walked up to the door, already throwing an access panel to the ground. "Let the master at it."
"Jerry, don't bother with the decryption, you'll probably just get in Simons way" Darrik spoke, feeling a little better that in a few minutes they'd be safe aboard their own vessel.
Though the area around the boarding tube was dark, the three hallways connecting to it were lit, not much brighter, but lit nonetheless. It wasn't exactly the best thing, they could see a discarded helmet, bearing the emblem of the Alliance, identifying it as the helmet of one of the unfortunate guards that were killed guarding the tube, a long smear of blood carried on past it, and around a corner. At least one attempt was made by the victim, a pair of bloody handprints on the corner of the wall showed that the soldier tried to hang on as long as possible.
"Little faster Simon," Sarah egged him on, getting a good look at the dried blood covering the two other halls, and the fresh coat over the third. "Open it in five minutes and I'll give you a lap dance."
"Aww, you'll make a gay fox blush." Simon replied calmly, not looking away from the myriad of wires that only someone like him could understand the uses of.
"Alright then," Rob stated, a hint of humor in his voice. "I'll give you a lap dance."
"Hmm, I suppose that'll help me speed it up." Simon grinned and doubled his speed.
"Uh, Darrik?" Sarah was pointing with her rifle, (she could never seem to point with a finger in an unfamiliar area), but this time, the use of her rifle as a laser pointer was justified. What appeared to be a corpse dug up after a week or two of decomposition was shambling towards them, its face was flat, no fur and no tail, with ears on the side of its head, it wasn't easy to see these details past the blood and deep scars on its face, but it was clearly alien. Before the two rifle wielding furs could react, another eviscerated corpse was making its way around the corner, followed by another, and a fourth which was clearly (more or less) one of the unfortunate guards from the Starlight.
"Simon, you're a minute away from missing out on a lap dance from Rob." Darrik egged him on, popping off a warning shot, not that he saw much point in it. Of course the corpses didn't react, they just kept up their slow pace towards the group.
Simon didn't respond, he only sped up in his efforts to break through the ships security system to open the tube.
Sarah fired off a few shots, all landing in the chest of the closest creature. It fell to the ground, apparently still trying to make an effort to crawl to them. Rob covered the other hallways, but nothing was coming, so he turned and fired at the encroaching alien corpses, felling another, but the horrors just kept moving towards them, oblivious to their lack of ranged weapons, armor, and the bullets flying at them. They were getting too close.
Even Darrik couldn't help but smirk as the icing was poured on the cake of Robs offer to Simon. The boarding tube's door opened and Simon dusted off his hands. "Why thank you Rob, couldn't have done it without that to look forward to."
"Alright, seeing as how the tube is open, lets move through it." Darrik said, ordering Simon and Rob through first as the tube was only large enough for two furs to fit through at once. Sarah pulled out her short swords, not exactly regulation for this time period, but she knew how to use them. She decapitated the closest creature, its body falling at her feet.
"Sarah, through the tube now!" Darrik shouted as she slashed the head off another corpse. She turned and ran to Darrik as he fired at the horrors rounding the corner. As he and Sarah backpedaled through the tube, the soldiers on the friendly side raised their weapons, waiting for the two to get through the tube and out of their line of fire.
Suddenly the entire hostile side of the tube went dark, the dimmed lights around the doors of the boarding tube were the only lights on that side now, and as the soldiers opened up with their rifles, the tube began to close, and just before it did, the team looked back, just in time to catch the sight of dozens of hungering yellow eyes.
Thankfully the tube closed and was retracting by the time the dim lights revealed the scarred and bloody forms of the aliens.
"What the fuck happened over there?" Sergeant Geins questioned, helping Darrik and Sarah up from the ground.
"We got as much information from their computer as we could sir, then I found this." Darrik handed over the blood speckled note.
Geins gave it a once-over. "Alright, report to sickbay, get checked out, the captain wants us to meet on this tomorrow, so rest up."
The group saluted, Simon handed over the data chip he filled with as much information from the alien computer as he could, and made their way towards sickbay.
"So Rob," Simon began.
"Yeah, yeah..." Rob anticipated the next words out of the foxes mouth, knowing he would keep getting reminded of his deal. "Is there any way of getting out of this?"
"You made a legally binding deal Rob," Darrik stated, grinning as he did so. "Your bound to keep your promise or else we can humiliate you in many, MANY other ways."
"Gah, I'm gonna need a night with a bottle and a shot glass."
Everyone but Rob laughed, and Simon gave him a playful punch in the shoulder. "Oh come on, its not like we haven't seen you almost naked already, remember that late night club we went to for shore leave?"
The three furs laughed as they teased their comrade, recounting that drink-filled night and how the shepard had ran into a strip joint and onto the stage. Though he was getting a lot of positive attention the management didn't look too kindly on it, it took about five bouncers to just get him off the stage. Of course they had recorded it, but of course Rob didn't know of it. It's the little things in life that make it so much fun.
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Well, first story, nervous about posting it, caffine helped though, email me with any feedback at [email protected]! Positive or negative, either one helps ^.^ Depending on how this experiment turns out I may try and find the time to make more...
P.S. Sorry for the lack of yiff v.v