The Bacterium
ElectricSheep
Join Date: 2003-04-21 Member: 15716Members
Join Date: 2003-04-21 Member: 15716Members
<div class="IPBDescription">My first fan fiction</div> This is basically about a marine's fight with a new strand of bacterium. This is chapter 1. Shoot it doesn't show the indents and cahnges dam tp darn.
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The shots flew out of the barrel of the HMG and two more skulks collapsed onto the floor. “HA HA! That got em!” screamed Guffrey the smoke still smoldering off his gun barrel. The HA in the lead waved them forward into a narrow access corridor. “For chrissakes Jenkins we’re in freaking HA, we have radios, the Kharaa can’t hear us.” The HA train marched on to the hive in the maintenance wing.
Muller stopped in the middle of the corridor, pointed to the large puddles of white gunk on the floor ahead in stark contrast to the surrounding grey of the corridor and muttered, "What the hell is that?"
"Looks like nanopaste, must be a leak somewhere," replied Jenkins stopping for just a moment to look, "Odd to see one though; those pipelines are pretty tough." Suddenly one of the HA slumped onto the ground. In seconds all the HA were prone. A radio crackled in a suit "Guys? Guys?! ****. Are you-" Then there was silence.
“Damnit Wilkins what happened out there” yelled General Briggs from the vid screen his face somehow retaining its calm demeanor.
“Sir, the mission was going extremely well - we had almost breached the hive when the suits just… uh… shut down I guess.” said Commander Wilkins.
“What? That's impossible. It has never happened in the history of HA field use. No, not good enough commander, we needed Myrmidion back; and why the hell did you shut off the IPs and come back?”
“I thought that-“
“You never disobey field protocol without permission from the dropship's commanding officer, in this case, me. Myrmidion Station was a key outpost in this sector and you gave the Kharaa time to build up there. You are hereby ordered to act as squad leader under command of Commander Garth tommorow as we attempt to take Myrmidion again; briefing is at 0800 tomorrow.”
“But-“
“No buts, soldier! Tomorrow you WILL accompany Commander Garth on another mission to take Myrmidion.”
“Sir, yes, sir” said Lieutenant Wilkins without enthusiasm.
“Good, good. Now get in the decon tanks soldier. Briggs out.”
Wilkins sighed and hit the door pad leading to the long series of decontamination tanks required to make sure all bacterium was killed before entering the dropship's inhabited areas. There had, of course, been no recorded incident of bacterium ever being able to transport out with marines through the IPs and survive the thousands of disease combating nanites required for all TSA craft, but the damn pompous “officers” who’d never even seen a Kharaa let alone fight one, were so paranoid that every returning soldier had to go through a five hour long ordeal to make sure not a single non human cell or non TSA nanite made it onto the ship with them.
Wilkins walked through the first door into the shower room. He put his armor on to a conveyor belt which would thoroughly clean it before it returned to his dorm. Wilkins wondered who would be his new dorm-mates now that his whole team was dead. Jenkins, Muller, Hans, Bradley, Jamal, Rodriguez, Guffrey, and Chinqwon all dead. He’d been with them for months and now they were all dead. Of course Wilkins never cried over dead soldiers; after all he’d lost quite a few over the years. But it didn’t need to happen this time! “Damn”, he muttered, “Damn Damn Damn.” They could have made it out he thought. They were so close with no casualties! Skulks vrs HMGS didn’t have a chance. And then the suits lost power and reported the body’s vitals dropping very quickly, which he thought was probably a suit error caused by the rapid loss of power inside the suit. “How?” Wilkins asked himself, “HA suits have extremely long lasting power sources and are completely waterproof. How could they have run out of power? The suits didn't even have time to automatically open up the filters so the team could breath.” As he went into the second chamber he had a strange sensation in his shoulder, kind-of itchy, but then it was gone. As the nanites in the second chamber did an even more thorough search for foreign bacteria than the IP chamber he felt a pain in his right arm. With distanced horror he watched as it started to dissolve before his very eyes. Just as he started realize what was happening and started to scream the nanites in the room activated the stop whatever was doing it. A medpack plopped down besides him and immediately began releasing the nanites that would reconstruct his arm. The nanites in his body mercifully released morphine into his system.
Chapter 2
Beneath the Mask
"You were lucky you were in that particular chamber commander. I don't think the nanites in your body could have fought what we found."
"Which is?" inquired Wilkins.
"A new strand of bacterium. It seeks out energy sources and uses them to reproduce like other Kharaa bacteria, but this one is stronger and as such, kills nanites easily. Without nanites to combat the bacterium there is no gridlock, which leaves it free to attack humans. From the data transmitted before you left we have a theory that the bacterium first attacked the suits power source because of the energy it was giving off then, using a highly corrosive acid to produces to break down its food, it entered the suit because of the heat the men were giving off; we believe that the reason the vitals dropped so quickly was because the bacterium was devouring the men." explained Chief Science Officer Ali.
"You mean my team was eaten alive?"
"Not exactly. The new strand probably went for the brain first because of its bioelectricity. Also because the brain cant feel pain I’m sure your team didn’t feel a thing."
"Oh wonderful. Just Wonderful. Now I know we can die without feeling a thing. That really sets my mind straight."
"Your lucky that the bacterium in your body hadn't fully matured and even more lucky that it activated in your arm not your head, not that it would matter to your brain," snapped Ali with annoyance.
"Yeah yeah."
"My team and I are studying the dead bacterium from the chamber to find an effective way to combat it. We should have some kind of protection for your squad tomorrow."
"Not my squad, its Garth's, remember?"
"Ahh yes of course, but now I suggest you go to your quarters you have only 4 hours before tomorrow's briefing."
"Hmm,” Wilkins grunted before.
Wilkins sighed deeply as he left Ali's office. Ali was a good scientist, but he didn’t take well to criticism, never seemed to have good news, and in this case he had very bad news. Despite Ali's assurances of a protection Wilkins had a feeling that this new strand of bacterium would cause a lot of trouble for him tomorrow. Suddenly a large group of scientist and their aides rushed by talking loudly, he pressed against the wall to avoid getting trampled but an aide in white. He steamed on only quickly turning his head and saying a muffled sorry as he walked..
Wilkins caught glimpses of the talking, whle he waited against the hallway’s sterile, hospital-like wall, "-beating our nanites -impossible- the- assimilation- nanites with special armament- doomed- illegal research- no- yes sir- Chinese company- I'm tired- comon- ****"
Suddenly realizing how tired he was Wilkins stumbled down the maze of corridors to his room. Looking around he realized how empty it seemed without his team’s “décor”. Wilkins ate some oatmeal with a grimace, he would never get used to the taste of synthetic milk. Wilkins climbed into his uncomfortable bunk and fell asleep in minutes.
Chapter 3
Never Burn Money
Wilkins woke up in a daze; for a moment he wasn't sure where he was. Hitting his head on the top bunk quickly brought him to his senses. "Aahh, comon", he moaned. He quickly glanced at the large, illuminated digital clock on the far wall, it said 0730. With a sigh Wilkins quickly dressed into his TSA jumpsuit and jogged to the cafeteria. The ship’s design always reminded him of the bustling halls of the academy where he had studied. On the way he noticed that the screens all had the same announcement displayed, “All marines to report to briefing at 0800.” Once he arrived at the cafeteria, or hive as it was called because of the constant flow of people all hours of the day, he filled a thermos with coffee and synth milk. Glancing at the cafeteria's clock Wilkins swore; there wasn't enough time for breakfast. Deciding that he would rather face the consequences of being late for the briefing than fight Kharaa while he was hungry, Wilkins stood in line for French toast. Immediately afterward he sprinted down the wide main hallway with his tray to the briefing room almost colliding with scientists and cleaning crews twice. As he entered the briefing room he was awed by the sheer number of marines gathered here, he had forgotten how big the ship was. He just made it into his seat when the briefing started. The marine next to him said, "Dude, better not let anyone catch you eating during briefing." Wilkins was too busy scoffing toast to respond. Briggs stepped up to the podium in front of the huge expanse of the main briefing hall, but before he could even speak the soldiers were contemplating loudly why the General would brief them.
Seemingly oblivious to the chatter the General started, "Gentlemen, as many of you know, Myrmidion is a key mining and research outpost in this sector. You also know that the previous mission to take it failed." The marines had fallen quiet at his first word, no one wanted to fight the Kharaa unprepared. "However, what you don't know is that the company that owned this station, Beijing Nanotech Systems, also does biological research for us." The soldiers instantly began to discuss what they thought they'd be up against. "QUIET!" Briggs boomed, "Apparently a dangerous new strand of bacterium was accidentally created onboard Myrmidion during experimentation on creating an effective “antibody” for the bacterium. However, our diligent research staff has a solution."
Ali stepped up onto the stage next to the general. "It would seem this new strand of bacterium destroys our current nanites too easily. So, my team and I have used this ships nanopaste stores to build a large quantity of self-replicating combat nanites to be transported onboard with you. As many of you know self-replicating nanites are highly dangerous and the government strictly monitors their use. Some of you may know that combat nanites are similarly illegal and their use is a war crime, of course, no one will be protecting the Kharaa. The type of nanites we are going to be using have caused the quarantining of whole planets. Because of this after you have finished your work a huge EMP pulse will be directed at the station. This will knock out all the nanites and life support systems. We have built a nuclear generator that can be used to power the IPs after the EMP pulse. You will have about 1 hour after the EMP pulse to get off the ship or else you will suffocate. Well that’s it. Good luck."
"Well gentlemen despite these complications I'm sure you will prevail and-
"Wait! Wait!" Ali stumbled back onto the stage. "I forgot to mention something," he said to a very displeased general. "You will be issued flashlights as you leave, oh and be sure not to leave the base area until we have said it is safe. We will be dispersing the combat nanites into the ventilation system and, of course, you will be dropped off with them, but we don't want anyone to leave the base until we are certain full gridlock has been achieved."
"Thank you, Ali." said Briggs, "Now as I was saying before Ali had to make his… announcement, unlike standard protocol you will have 1 hour to prepare yourselves due to the delay in maneuvering the ship to the outer ventilation shaft and back to the drop-zone. I think I should remind you that as this is a second insertion you may expect stiffer resistance than usual, particularly at the insertion point. Because of this I have found it prudent, despite the much higher cost and danger in depleting our own stores, to send you in with some of our onboard weapons." No one could hear the general over the cheering as he was leaving. He turned to his staff, "Prepare the ship for heavy losses."
Chapter 4
Shadows
Wilkins carefully fingered the trigger of his shotgun as the dropship moved to dock with the station. Everyone thought there would be Onii when they docked and it was just Wilkin’s luck to be sent in with the front line.
“You little ****,” said the marine behind him.
“What?” said Wilkins incredulously.
“You got a freaking jetpack and I’m in HA. Damnit I’ll probably get knocked down by a stomp in seconds.”
“I guess I’m just lucky,” said Wilkins hoping to end the conversation. And he always was lucky in a morbid kind of way. It seemed that whenever there was a fight he was one of the only survivors. When he was a child there had been a civil war on his planet that the TSA had stopped he had survived, but not before his parents had died and the city had burned and the- Wilkins was jolted out of his reverie as the dropship bumped into the docking port. Wilkins tightened his grip on his shotgun and looked at the drophip bay door in front of the two lines of marines in front of him. The dropship door opened up. There was nothing there. None of the marines moved. The silence was absolute as the lines started to move forward as a conjoined mass connected by fear. Suddenly a sound that Wilkins had only heard in videos resounded around the room. Xenocide. Someone screamed, “THEY’RE HERE!!!” As skulks screamed and exploded in a mass of bone and blood, Wilkins quickly lifted off the ground in his jetpack as he saw Onos after Onos uncloak. The marines were shooting wildly everywhere. Wilkins suddenly felt a hot pain in his left shoulder as spikes thudded into him. Wilkins rushed towards the Lerk and blew off its right wing with a well placed shotty blast; the Lerk spiraled down into the teeming mass of the battle and did not come back up. Far too late, Wilkins saw that his fuel gage was near empty. He tumbled through the air and crashed right in the middle of the battle. He shot again and again at everything that moved for a few seconds when a skulk weaved between the dead to face him. Click. “Oh no.”
Before the skulk could leap into him it flew backwards, its body being blown into tatters by a HMG.
“Thanks,” said Wilkins as he turned just in time to see his savior impaled by an Onos’ horn. Wilkins flew forward in panic with his now refueled JP. Just as he was aiming his shotgun at the Onos a blast propelled him through the air, peppering him with skulk bits. A bloody piece of armor crashed into his head like a sledgehammer. Wilkins unconsciously spiraled behind some crates.
Chapter 5
I need a medpack, STAT!
Wilkins awoke, feeling as if he had been drinking, he stumbled around the room. It was empty but… “Oh yeah forgot” he mumbled to himself as his head cleared. The nanites and bacterium must have utilized the carnage to fuel their efforts. As Wilkins remembered what had happened he started to panic. Then he saw the command chair. His old one from the previous mission! Why hadn’t the Kharaa destroyed it? He scampered over to it and sealed himself in. Looking across the screen he saw that he had no res. Oh well, at least he could help his marines stick together. Then he saw there were only about 20 marines left and they were pinned down. “What the…” Jenkins was there to, how could he be… “Oh no.” Wilkins watched in horrid fascination as the aliens and Wilkins ripped the remaining marines apart. He had to get out of there now. “Dropship this is Wilkins I need pickup.” No response. “Dropship this is Wilkins do you read me.”
“Wilkins this is dropship (static) the (static) fired (static) we’re in a bad way we’re just about to (static) out. Sorry.”
“What? Can you repeat that, I’m getting bad reception. Hello?” Wilkins stopped talking as he heard Kharaa nearby. He looked at his screen, they were coming for him. He ejected from the chair and flew as high as he could over the Onii, Fades, and Lerks. He dodged acid rockets and spikes, coughed at spores, but he was going to stop the Kharaa even if it killed him. He flew down a broken elevator shaft and over some half dissolved corpses, both Kharaa and human. He was going to get to the bridge and destroy the Kharaa, the Kharaa must not be able to survive with Jenkins on their side. He touched down in the main hallway and sprinted to the bridge while his jetpack refueled. His body itched; he would have to act fast. He skidded onto the bridge and saw what used to be Jenkins controlling the bridge. Jenkins rose to meet him. His armor was still intact but covered with bacterium and his HMG was completely encased with bulging sacs. The Jenkins-alien hybrid leveled his gun at Wilkins.
“Wilkins…” it said regretfully and relaxed his trigger finger, or claw as it was now.
“Jenkins it’s me common we can stop them. We have to, for all the people out there,” said Wilkins desperately.
Jenkins hesitated, and then swung his gun at Wilkins, knocking him out cold.
Chapter 6
The Bacterium
Wilkins awoke somewhere else, the hive. As he regained his senses he tried to get up and run, but something stopped him. The hive mind flooded him with its memories and mission and told him of more marines coming to kill it. It gave him one order, “Cleanse the intruders!” Wilkins had a new mission now.
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The shots flew out of the barrel of the HMG and two more skulks collapsed onto the floor. “HA HA! That got em!” screamed Guffrey the smoke still smoldering off his gun barrel. The HA in the lead waved them forward into a narrow access corridor. “For chrissakes Jenkins we’re in freaking HA, we have radios, the Kharaa can’t hear us.” The HA train marched on to the hive in the maintenance wing.
Muller stopped in the middle of the corridor, pointed to the large puddles of white gunk on the floor ahead in stark contrast to the surrounding grey of the corridor and muttered, "What the hell is that?"
"Looks like nanopaste, must be a leak somewhere," replied Jenkins stopping for just a moment to look, "Odd to see one though; those pipelines are pretty tough." Suddenly one of the HA slumped onto the ground. In seconds all the HA were prone. A radio crackled in a suit "Guys? Guys?! ****. Are you-" Then there was silence.
“Damnit Wilkins what happened out there” yelled General Briggs from the vid screen his face somehow retaining its calm demeanor.
“Sir, the mission was going extremely well - we had almost breached the hive when the suits just… uh… shut down I guess.” said Commander Wilkins.
“What? That's impossible. It has never happened in the history of HA field use. No, not good enough commander, we needed Myrmidion back; and why the hell did you shut off the IPs and come back?”
“I thought that-“
“You never disobey field protocol without permission from the dropship's commanding officer, in this case, me. Myrmidion Station was a key outpost in this sector and you gave the Kharaa time to build up there. You are hereby ordered to act as squad leader under command of Commander Garth tommorow as we attempt to take Myrmidion again; briefing is at 0800 tomorrow.”
“But-“
“No buts, soldier! Tomorrow you WILL accompany Commander Garth on another mission to take Myrmidion.”
“Sir, yes, sir” said Lieutenant Wilkins without enthusiasm.
“Good, good. Now get in the decon tanks soldier. Briggs out.”
Wilkins sighed and hit the door pad leading to the long series of decontamination tanks required to make sure all bacterium was killed before entering the dropship's inhabited areas. There had, of course, been no recorded incident of bacterium ever being able to transport out with marines through the IPs and survive the thousands of disease combating nanites required for all TSA craft, but the damn pompous “officers” who’d never even seen a Kharaa let alone fight one, were so paranoid that every returning soldier had to go through a five hour long ordeal to make sure not a single non human cell or non TSA nanite made it onto the ship with them.
Wilkins walked through the first door into the shower room. He put his armor on to a conveyor belt which would thoroughly clean it before it returned to his dorm. Wilkins wondered who would be his new dorm-mates now that his whole team was dead. Jenkins, Muller, Hans, Bradley, Jamal, Rodriguez, Guffrey, and Chinqwon all dead. He’d been with them for months and now they were all dead. Of course Wilkins never cried over dead soldiers; after all he’d lost quite a few over the years. But it didn’t need to happen this time! “Damn”, he muttered, “Damn Damn Damn.” They could have made it out he thought. They were so close with no casualties! Skulks vrs HMGS didn’t have a chance. And then the suits lost power and reported the body’s vitals dropping very quickly, which he thought was probably a suit error caused by the rapid loss of power inside the suit. “How?” Wilkins asked himself, “HA suits have extremely long lasting power sources and are completely waterproof. How could they have run out of power? The suits didn't even have time to automatically open up the filters so the team could breath.” As he went into the second chamber he had a strange sensation in his shoulder, kind-of itchy, but then it was gone. As the nanites in the second chamber did an even more thorough search for foreign bacteria than the IP chamber he felt a pain in his right arm. With distanced horror he watched as it started to dissolve before his very eyes. Just as he started realize what was happening and started to scream the nanites in the room activated the stop whatever was doing it. A medpack plopped down besides him and immediately began releasing the nanites that would reconstruct his arm. The nanites in his body mercifully released morphine into his system.
Chapter 2
Beneath the Mask
"You were lucky you were in that particular chamber commander. I don't think the nanites in your body could have fought what we found."
"Which is?" inquired Wilkins.
"A new strand of bacterium. It seeks out energy sources and uses them to reproduce like other Kharaa bacteria, but this one is stronger and as such, kills nanites easily. Without nanites to combat the bacterium there is no gridlock, which leaves it free to attack humans. From the data transmitted before you left we have a theory that the bacterium first attacked the suits power source because of the energy it was giving off then, using a highly corrosive acid to produces to break down its food, it entered the suit because of the heat the men were giving off; we believe that the reason the vitals dropped so quickly was because the bacterium was devouring the men." explained Chief Science Officer Ali.
"You mean my team was eaten alive?"
"Not exactly. The new strand probably went for the brain first because of its bioelectricity. Also because the brain cant feel pain I’m sure your team didn’t feel a thing."
"Oh wonderful. Just Wonderful. Now I know we can die without feeling a thing. That really sets my mind straight."
"Your lucky that the bacterium in your body hadn't fully matured and even more lucky that it activated in your arm not your head, not that it would matter to your brain," snapped Ali with annoyance.
"Yeah yeah."
"My team and I are studying the dead bacterium from the chamber to find an effective way to combat it. We should have some kind of protection for your squad tomorrow."
"Not my squad, its Garth's, remember?"
"Ahh yes of course, but now I suggest you go to your quarters you have only 4 hours before tomorrow's briefing."
"Hmm,” Wilkins grunted before.
Wilkins sighed deeply as he left Ali's office. Ali was a good scientist, but he didn’t take well to criticism, never seemed to have good news, and in this case he had very bad news. Despite Ali's assurances of a protection Wilkins had a feeling that this new strand of bacterium would cause a lot of trouble for him tomorrow. Suddenly a large group of scientist and their aides rushed by talking loudly, he pressed against the wall to avoid getting trampled but an aide in white. He steamed on only quickly turning his head and saying a muffled sorry as he walked..
Wilkins caught glimpses of the talking, whle he waited against the hallway’s sterile, hospital-like wall, "-beating our nanites -impossible- the- assimilation- nanites with special armament- doomed- illegal research- no- yes sir- Chinese company- I'm tired- comon- ****"
Suddenly realizing how tired he was Wilkins stumbled down the maze of corridors to his room. Looking around he realized how empty it seemed without his team’s “décor”. Wilkins ate some oatmeal with a grimace, he would never get used to the taste of synthetic milk. Wilkins climbed into his uncomfortable bunk and fell asleep in minutes.
Chapter 3
Never Burn Money
Wilkins woke up in a daze; for a moment he wasn't sure where he was. Hitting his head on the top bunk quickly brought him to his senses. "Aahh, comon", he moaned. He quickly glanced at the large, illuminated digital clock on the far wall, it said 0730. With a sigh Wilkins quickly dressed into his TSA jumpsuit and jogged to the cafeteria. The ship’s design always reminded him of the bustling halls of the academy where he had studied. On the way he noticed that the screens all had the same announcement displayed, “All marines to report to briefing at 0800.” Once he arrived at the cafeteria, or hive as it was called because of the constant flow of people all hours of the day, he filled a thermos with coffee and synth milk. Glancing at the cafeteria's clock Wilkins swore; there wasn't enough time for breakfast. Deciding that he would rather face the consequences of being late for the briefing than fight Kharaa while he was hungry, Wilkins stood in line for French toast. Immediately afterward he sprinted down the wide main hallway with his tray to the briefing room almost colliding with scientists and cleaning crews twice. As he entered the briefing room he was awed by the sheer number of marines gathered here, he had forgotten how big the ship was. He just made it into his seat when the briefing started. The marine next to him said, "Dude, better not let anyone catch you eating during briefing." Wilkins was too busy scoffing toast to respond. Briggs stepped up to the podium in front of the huge expanse of the main briefing hall, but before he could even speak the soldiers were contemplating loudly why the General would brief them.
Seemingly oblivious to the chatter the General started, "Gentlemen, as many of you know, Myrmidion is a key mining and research outpost in this sector. You also know that the previous mission to take it failed." The marines had fallen quiet at his first word, no one wanted to fight the Kharaa unprepared. "However, what you don't know is that the company that owned this station, Beijing Nanotech Systems, also does biological research for us." The soldiers instantly began to discuss what they thought they'd be up against. "QUIET!" Briggs boomed, "Apparently a dangerous new strand of bacterium was accidentally created onboard Myrmidion during experimentation on creating an effective “antibody” for the bacterium. However, our diligent research staff has a solution."
Ali stepped up onto the stage next to the general. "It would seem this new strand of bacterium destroys our current nanites too easily. So, my team and I have used this ships nanopaste stores to build a large quantity of self-replicating combat nanites to be transported onboard with you. As many of you know self-replicating nanites are highly dangerous and the government strictly monitors their use. Some of you may know that combat nanites are similarly illegal and their use is a war crime, of course, no one will be protecting the Kharaa. The type of nanites we are going to be using have caused the quarantining of whole planets. Because of this after you have finished your work a huge EMP pulse will be directed at the station. This will knock out all the nanites and life support systems. We have built a nuclear generator that can be used to power the IPs after the EMP pulse. You will have about 1 hour after the EMP pulse to get off the ship or else you will suffocate. Well that’s it. Good luck."
"Well gentlemen despite these complications I'm sure you will prevail and-
"Wait! Wait!" Ali stumbled back onto the stage. "I forgot to mention something," he said to a very displeased general. "You will be issued flashlights as you leave, oh and be sure not to leave the base area until we have said it is safe. We will be dispersing the combat nanites into the ventilation system and, of course, you will be dropped off with them, but we don't want anyone to leave the base until we are certain full gridlock has been achieved."
"Thank you, Ali." said Briggs, "Now as I was saying before Ali had to make his… announcement, unlike standard protocol you will have 1 hour to prepare yourselves due to the delay in maneuvering the ship to the outer ventilation shaft and back to the drop-zone. I think I should remind you that as this is a second insertion you may expect stiffer resistance than usual, particularly at the insertion point. Because of this I have found it prudent, despite the much higher cost and danger in depleting our own stores, to send you in with some of our onboard weapons." No one could hear the general over the cheering as he was leaving. He turned to his staff, "Prepare the ship for heavy losses."
Chapter 4
Shadows
Wilkins carefully fingered the trigger of his shotgun as the dropship moved to dock with the station. Everyone thought there would be Onii when they docked and it was just Wilkin’s luck to be sent in with the front line.
“You little ****,” said the marine behind him.
“What?” said Wilkins incredulously.
“You got a freaking jetpack and I’m in HA. Damnit I’ll probably get knocked down by a stomp in seconds.”
“I guess I’m just lucky,” said Wilkins hoping to end the conversation. And he always was lucky in a morbid kind of way. It seemed that whenever there was a fight he was one of the only survivors. When he was a child there had been a civil war on his planet that the TSA had stopped he had survived, but not before his parents had died and the city had burned and the- Wilkins was jolted out of his reverie as the dropship bumped into the docking port. Wilkins tightened his grip on his shotgun and looked at the drophip bay door in front of the two lines of marines in front of him. The dropship door opened up. There was nothing there. None of the marines moved. The silence was absolute as the lines started to move forward as a conjoined mass connected by fear. Suddenly a sound that Wilkins had only heard in videos resounded around the room. Xenocide. Someone screamed, “THEY’RE HERE!!!” As skulks screamed and exploded in a mass of bone and blood, Wilkins quickly lifted off the ground in his jetpack as he saw Onos after Onos uncloak. The marines were shooting wildly everywhere. Wilkins suddenly felt a hot pain in his left shoulder as spikes thudded into him. Wilkins rushed towards the Lerk and blew off its right wing with a well placed shotty blast; the Lerk spiraled down into the teeming mass of the battle and did not come back up. Far too late, Wilkins saw that his fuel gage was near empty. He tumbled through the air and crashed right in the middle of the battle. He shot again and again at everything that moved for a few seconds when a skulk weaved between the dead to face him. Click. “Oh no.”
Before the skulk could leap into him it flew backwards, its body being blown into tatters by a HMG.
“Thanks,” said Wilkins as he turned just in time to see his savior impaled by an Onos’ horn. Wilkins flew forward in panic with his now refueled JP. Just as he was aiming his shotgun at the Onos a blast propelled him through the air, peppering him with skulk bits. A bloody piece of armor crashed into his head like a sledgehammer. Wilkins unconsciously spiraled behind some crates.
Chapter 5
I need a medpack, STAT!
Wilkins awoke, feeling as if he had been drinking, he stumbled around the room. It was empty but… “Oh yeah forgot” he mumbled to himself as his head cleared. The nanites and bacterium must have utilized the carnage to fuel their efforts. As Wilkins remembered what had happened he started to panic. Then he saw the command chair. His old one from the previous mission! Why hadn’t the Kharaa destroyed it? He scampered over to it and sealed himself in. Looking across the screen he saw that he had no res. Oh well, at least he could help his marines stick together. Then he saw there were only about 20 marines left and they were pinned down. “What the…” Jenkins was there to, how could he be… “Oh no.” Wilkins watched in horrid fascination as the aliens and Wilkins ripped the remaining marines apart. He had to get out of there now. “Dropship this is Wilkins I need pickup.” No response. “Dropship this is Wilkins do you read me.”
“Wilkins this is dropship (static) the (static) fired (static) we’re in a bad way we’re just about to (static) out. Sorry.”
“What? Can you repeat that, I’m getting bad reception. Hello?” Wilkins stopped talking as he heard Kharaa nearby. He looked at his screen, they were coming for him. He ejected from the chair and flew as high as he could over the Onii, Fades, and Lerks. He dodged acid rockets and spikes, coughed at spores, but he was going to stop the Kharaa even if it killed him. He flew down a broken elevator shaft and over some half dissolved corpses, both Kharaa and human. He was going to get to the bridge and destroy the Kharaa, the Kharaa must not be able to survive with Jenkins on their side. He touched down in the main hallway and sprinted to the bridge while his jetpack refueled. His body itched; he would have to act fast. He skidded onto the bridge and saw what used to be Jenkins controlling the bridge. Jenkins rose to meet him. His armor was still intact but covered with bacterium and his HMG was completely encased with bulging sacs. The Jenkins-alien hybrid leveled his gun at Wilkins.
“Wilkins…” it said regretfully and relaxed his trigger finger, or claw as it was now.
“Jenkins it’s me common we can stop them. We have to, for all the people out there,” said Wilkins desperately.
Jenkins hesitated, and then swung his gun at Wilkins, knocking him out cold.
Chapter 6
The Bacterium
Wilkins awoke somewhere else, the hive. As he regained his senses he tried to get up and run, but something stopped him. The hive mind flooded him with its memories and mission and told him of more marines coming to kill it. It gave him one order, “Cleanse the intruders!” Wilkins had a new mission now.
Comments
What's next ?
Good read, must keep going!!!
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Indents don't show sorry.
The shots flew out of the barrel of the HMG and two more skulks collapsed onto the floor. “HA HA! That got em!” screamed Guffrey the smoke still smoldering off his gun barrel. The HA in the lead waved them forward into a narrow access corridor. “For chrissakes Jenkins we’re in freaking HA, we have radios, the Kharaa can’t hear us.” The HA train marched on to the hive in the maintenance wing.
Muller stopped in the middle of the corridor, pointed to the large puddles of white gunk on the floor ahead in stark contrast to the surrounding grey of the corridor and muttered, "What the hell is that?"
"Looks like nanopaste, must be a leak somewhere," replied Jenkins stopping for just a moment to look, "Odd to see one though; those pipelines are pretty tough." Suddenly one of the HA slumped onto the ground. In seconds all the HA were prone. A radio crackled in a suit "Guys? Guys?! ****. Are you-" Then there was silence.
“Damnit Wilkins what happened out there” yelled General Briggs from the vid screen his face somehow retaining its calm demeanor.
“Sir, the mission was going extremely well - we had almost breached the hive when the suits just… uh… shut down I guess.” said Commander Wilkins.
“What? That's impossible. It has never happened in the history of HA field use. No, not good enough commander, we needed Myrmidion back; and why the hell did you shut off the IPs and come back?”
“I thought that-“
“You never disobey field protocol without permission from the dropship's commanding officer, in this case, me. Myrmidion Station was a key outpost in this sector and you gave the Kharaa time to build up there. You are hereby ordered to act as squad leader under command of Commander Garth tommorow as we attempt to take Myrmidion again; briefing is at 0800 tomorrow.”
“But-“
“No buts, soldier! Tomorrow you WILL accompany Commander Garth on another mission to take Myrmidion.”
“Sir, yes, sir” said Lieutenant Wilkins without enthusiasm.
“Good, good. Now get in the decon tanks soldier. Briggs out.”
Wilkins sighed and hit the door pad leading to the long series of decontamination tanks required to make sure all bacterium was killed before entering the dropship's inhabited areas. There had, of course, been no recorded incident of bacterium ever being able to transport out with marines through the IPs and survive the thousands of disease combating nanites required for all TSA craft, but the damn pompous “officers” who’d never even seen a Kharaa let alone fight one, were so paranoid that every returning soldier had to go through a five hour long ordeal to make sure not a single non human cell or non TSA nanite made it onto the ship with them.
Wilkins walked through the first door into the shower room. He put his armor on to a conveyor belt which would thoroughly clean it before it returned to his dorm. Wilkins wondered who would be his new dorm-mates now that his whole team was dead. Jenkins, Muller, Hans, Bradley, Jamal, Rodriguez, Guffrey, and Chinqwon all dead. He’d been with them for months and now they were all dead. Of course Wilkins never cried over dead soldiers; after all he’d lost quite a few over the years. But it didn’t need to happen this time! “Damn”, he muttered, “Damn Damn Damn.” They could have made it out he thought. They were so close with no casualties! Skulks vrs HMGS didn’t have a chance. And then the suits lost power and reported the body’s vitals dropping very quickly, which he thought was probably a suit error caused by the rapid loss of power inside the suit. “How?” Wilkins asked himself, “HA suits have extremely long lasting power sources and are completely waterproof. How could they have run out of power? The suits didn't even have time to automatically open up the filters so the team could breath.” As he went into the second chamber he had a strange sensation in his shoulder, kind-of itchy, but then it was gone. As the nanites in the second chamber did an even more thorough search for foreign bacteria than the IP chamber he felt a pain in his right arm. With distanced horror he watched as it started to dissolve before his very eyes. Just as he started realize what was happening and started to scream the nanites in the room activated the stop whatever was doing it. A medpack plopped down besides him and immediately began releasing the nanites that would reconstruct his arm. The nanites in his body mercifully released morphine into his system.
Chapter 2
Beneath the Mask
"You were lucky you were in that particular chamber commander. I don't think the nanites in your body could have fought what we found."
"Which is?" inquired Wilkins.
"A new strand of bacterium. It seeks out energy sources and uses them to reproduce like other Kharaa bacteria, but this one is stronger and as such, kills nanites easily. Without nanites to combat the bacterium there is no gridlock, which leaves it free to attack humans. From the data transmitted before you left we have a theory that the bacterium first attacked the suits power source because of the energy it was giving off then, using a highly corrosive acid to produces to break down its food, it entered the suit because of the heat the men were giving off; we believe that the reason the vitals dropped so quickly was because the bacterium was devouring the men." explained Chief Science Officer Ali.
"You mean my team was eaten alive?"
"Not exactly. The new strand probably went for the brain first because of its bioelectricity. Also because the brain cant feel pain I’m sure your team didn’t feel a thing."
"Oh wonderful. Just Wonderful. Now I know we can die without feeling a thing. That really sets my mind straight."
"Your lucky that the bacterium in your body hadn't fully matured and even more lucky that it activated in your arm not your head, not that it would matter to your brain," snapped Ali with annoyance.
"Yeah yeah."
"My team and I are studying the dead bacterium from the chamber to find an effective way to combat it. We should have some kind of protection for your squad tomorrow."
"Not my squad, its Garth's, remember?"
"Ahh yes of course, but now I suggest you go to your quarters you have only 4 hours before tomorrow's briefing."
"Hmm,” Wilkins grunted before.
Wilkins sighed deeply as he left Ali's office. Ali was a good scientist, but he didn’t take well to criticism, never seemed to have good news, and in this case he had very bad news. Despite Ali's assurances of a protection Wilkins had a feeling that this new strand of bacterium would cause a lot of trouble for him tomorrow. Suddenly a large group of scientist and their aides rushed by talking loudly, he pressed against the wall to avoid getting trampled but an aide in white. He steamed on only quickly turning his head and saying a muffled sorry as he walked..
Wilkins caught glimpses of the talking, whle he waited against the hallway’s sterile, hospital-like wall, "-beating our nanites -impossible- the- assimilation- nanites with special armament- doomed- illegal research- no- yes sir- Chinese company- I'm tired- comon- ****"
Suddenly realizing how tired he was Wilkins stumbled down the maze of corridors to his room. Looking around he realized how empty it seemed without his team’s “décor”. Wilkins ate some oatmeal with a grimace, he would never get used to the taste of synthetic milk. Wilkins climbed into his uncomfortable bunk and fell asleep in minutes.
Chapter 3
Never Burn Money
Wilkins woke up in a daze; for a moment he wasn't sure where he was. Hitting his head on the top bunk quickly brought him to his senses. "Aahh, comon", he moaned. He quickly glanced at the large, illuminated digital clock on the far wall, it said 0730. With a sigh Wilkins quickly dressed into his TSA jumpsuit and jogged to the cafeteria. The ship’s design always reminded him of the bustling halls of the academy where he had studied. On the way he noticed that the screens all had the same announcement displayed, “All marines to report to briefing at 0800.” Once he arrived at the cafeteria, or hive as it was called because of the constant flow of people all hours of the day, he filled a thermos with coffee and synth milk. Glancing at the cafeteria's clock Wilkins swore; there wasn't enough time for breakfast. Deciding that he would rather face the consequences of being late for the briefing than fight Kharaa while he was hungry, Wilkins stood in line for French toast. Immediately afterward he sprinted down the wide main hallway with his tray to the briefing room almost colliding with scientists and cleaning crews twice. As he entered the briefing room he was awed by the sheer number of marines gathered here, he had forgotten how big the ship was. He just made it into his seat when the briefing started. The marine next to him said, "Dude, better not let anyone catch you eating during briefing." Wilkins was too busy scoffing toast to respond. Briggs stepped up to the podium in front of the huge expanse of the main briefing hall, but before he could even speak the soldiers were contemplating loudly why the General would brief them.
Seemingly oblivious to the chatter the General started, "Gentlemen, as many of you know, Myrmidion is a key mining and research outpost in this sector. You also know that the previous mission to take it failed." The marines had fallen quiet at his first word, no one wanted to fight the Kharaa unprepared. "However, what you don't know is that the company that owned this station, Beijing Nanotech Systems, also does biological research for us." The soldiers instantly began to discuss what they thought they'd be up against. "QUIET!" Briggs boomed, "Apparently a dangerous new strand of bacterium was accidentally created onboard Myrmidion during experimentation on creating an effective “antibody” for the bacterium. However, our diligent research staff has a solution."
Ali stepped up onto the stage next to the general. "It would seem this new strand of bacterium destroys our current nanites too easily. So, my team and I have used this ships nanopaste stores to build a large quantity of self-replicating combat nanites to be transported onboard with you. As many of you know self-replicating nanites are highly dangerous and the government strictly monitors their use. Some of you may know that combat nanites are similarly illegal and their use is a war crime, of course, no one will be protecting the Kharaa. The type of nanites we are going to be using have caused the quarantining of whole planets. Because of this after you have finished your work a huge EMP pulse will be directed at the station. This will knock out all the nanites and life support systems. We have built a nuclear generator that can be used to power the IPs after the EMP pulse. You will have about 1 hour after the EMP pulse to get off the ship or else you will suffocate. Well that’s it. Good luck."
"Well gentlemen despite these complications I'm sure you will prevail and-
"Wait! Wait!" Ali stumbled back onto the stage. "I forgot to mention something," he said to a very displeased general. "You will be issued flashlights as you leave, oh and be sure not to leave the base area until we have said it is safe. We will be dispersing the combat nanites into the ventilation system and, of course, you will be dropped off with them, but we don't want anyone to leave the base until we are certain full gridlock has been achieved."
"Thank you, Ali." said Briggs, "Now as I was saying before Ali had to make his… announcement, unlike standard protocol you will have 1 hour to prepare yourselves due to the delay in maneuvering the ship to the outer ventilation shaft and back to the drop-zone. I think I should remind you that as this is a second insertion you may expect stiffer resistance than usual, particularly at the insertion point. Because of this I have found it prudent, despite the much higher cost and danger in depleting our own stores, to send you in with some of our onboard weapons." No one could hear the general over the cheering as he was leaving. He turned to his staff, "Prepare the ship for heavy losses."
Chapter 4
Shadows
Wilkins carefully fingered the trigger of his shotgun as the dropship moved to dock with the station. Everyone thought there would be Onii when they docked and it was just Wilkin’s luck to be sent in with the front line.
“You little ****,” said the marine behind him.
“What?” said Wilkins incredulously.
“You got a freaking jetpack and I’m in HA. Damnit I’ll probably get knocked down by a stomp in seconds.”
“I guess I’m just lucky,” said Wilkins hoping to end the conversation. And he always was lucky in a morbid kind of way. It seemed that whenever there was a fight he was one of the only survivors. When he was a child there had been a civil war on his planet that the TSA had stopped he had survived, but not before his parents had died and the city had burned and the- Wilkins was jolted out of his reverie as the dropship bumped into the docking port. Wilkins tightened his grip on his shotgun and looked at the drophip bay door in front of the two lines of marines in front of him. The dropship door opened up. There was nothing there. None of the marines moved. The silence was absolute as the lines started to move forward as a conjoined mass connected by fear. Suddenly a sound that Wilkins had only heard in videos resounded around the room. Xenocide. Someone screamed, “THEY’RE HERE!!!” As skulks screamed and exploded in a mass of bone and blood, Wilkins quickly lifted off the ground in his jetpack as he saw Onos after Onos uncloak. The marines were shooting wildly everywhere. Wilkins suddenly felt a hot pain in his left shoulder as spikes thudded into him. Wilkins rushed towards the Lerk and blew off its right wing with a well placed shotty blast; the Lerk spiraled down into the teeming mass of the battle and did not come back up. Far too late, Wilkins saw that his fuel gage was near empty. He tumbled through the air and crashed right in the middle of the battle. He shot again and again at everything that moved for a few seconds when a skulk weaved between the dead to face him. Click. “Oh no.”
Before the skulk could leap into him it flew backwards, its body being blown into tatters by a HMG.
“Thanks,” said Wilkins as he turned just in time to see his savior impaled by an Onos’ horn. Wilkins flew forward in panic with his now refueled JP. Just as he was aiming his shotgun at the Onos a blast propelled him through the air, peppering him with skulk bits. A bloody piece of armor crashed into his head like a sledgehammer. Wilkins unconsciously spiraled behind some crates.
Chapter 5
I need a medpack, STAT!
Wilkins awoke, feeling as if he had been drinking, he stumbled around the room. It was empty but… “Oh yeah forgot” he mumbled to himself as his head cleared. The nanites and bacterium must have utilized the carnage to fuel their efforts. As Wilkins remembered what had happened he started to panic. Then he saw the command chair. His old one from the previous mission! Why hadn’t the Kharaa destroyed it? He scampered over to it and sealed himself in. Looking across the screen he saw that he had no res. Oh well, at least he could help his marines stick together. Then he saw there were only about 20 marines left and they were pinned down. “What the…” Jenkins was there to, how could he be… “Oh no.” Wilkins watched in horrid fascination as the aliens and Wilkins ripped the remaining marines apart. He had to get out of there now. “Dropship this is Wilkins I need pickup.” No response. “Dropship this is Wilkins do you read me.”
“Wilkins this is dropship (static) the (static) fired (static) we’re in a bad way we’re just about to (static) out. Sorry.”
“What? Can you repeat that, I’m getting bad reception. Hello?” Wilkins stopped talking as he heard Kharaa nearby. He looked at his screen, they were coming for him. He ejected from the chair and flew as high as he could over the Onii, Fades, and Lerks. He dodged acid rockets and spikes, coughed at spores, but he was going to stop the Kharaa even if it killed him. He flew down a broken elevator shaft and over some half dissolved corpses, both Kharaa and human. He was going to get to the bridge and destroy the Kharaa, the Kharaa must not be able to survive with Jenkins on their side. He touched down in the main hallway and sprinted to the bridge while his jetpack refueled. His body itched; he would have to act fast. He skidded onto the bridge and saw what used to be Jenkins controlling the bridge. Jenkins rose to meet him. His armor was still intact but covered with bacterium and his HMG was completely encased with bulging sacs. The Jenkins-alien hybrid leveled his gun at Wilkins.
“Wilkins…” it said regretfully and relaxed his trigger finger, or claw as it was now.
“Jenkins it’s me common we can stop them. We have to, for all the people out there,” said Wilkins desperately.
Jenkins hesitated, and then swung his gun at Wilkins, knocking him out cold.
Chapter 6
The Bacterium
Wilkins awoke somewhere else, the hive. As he regained his senses he tried to get up and run, but something stopped him. The hive mind flooded him with its memories and mission and told him of more marines coming to kill it. It gave him one order, “Cleanse the intruders!” Wilkins had a new mission now.