The Dead of Space

[B]

"Yeah! He got me a bike! I don't know how to ride it yet."
The 12 year old enthused through the FTL comm. He had a hint of accent that is most common in Britain. Short fuzzy brown hair, blue eyes. A kid people would coo at.
"Really? Sounds like a lot of fun. You don't have small corridors there, kiddo."
A thicker British accent said back. He was sitting in his office chair. A scruffed beard that has not yet gotten the care it demanded. He was sitting in his chair, comm link on his desk. He was undressed with the exception of boxers. It wasn't a formal call, after all.
"Yeah!..."
The boy's smile waned a bit. The man moved closer to the screen.
"Aleks, I know you're upset I didn't call you yesterday. I can't begin to tell you how sorry I am and I wish I was with you. I really do."
The boy only gave a smile, it was obviously fake. He didn't respond.
"Aleks... Me and your mother weren't able to work things through, but I promise that I wont let you down. Okay?"
He gave the boy a smile who seemed to actually smile a bit.
"Hey dad, I'm going to go ride my bike, okay?"
The boy was quick to get up.
"Aleks!"
The kid stopped and look backed inquisitively.
"Uh... Nothing nevermind... Go have fun."
"Thanks dad."
The boys hand moved close to the screen and then flashing letters indicated that the exchange was over. "Benjamin Thomas" is what the name in the bottom right hand corner of the screen said. The name of this man who couldn't swim past the awkwardness of telling his only son that he loves him. Letting out a sigh he decided to take a shower and get ready for the day.

He adjusted the straightness of his badge that sat on the right breast of his black vest. Nice and shaved, dark brown hair combed and teeth nice and shiny ready to get dirty from all the dirt he'll need to say to the people he'll end up arresting. Finally he was out. There was quite the traffic in one of the market districts. There was a conveyor belt that people could stand on and move without the effort. Ben never took it, he always walked alongside it.
"Good morning officer."
"Morning..."
"Fuck you cop!"
"Fuck you too, random citizen!"
He made sure the tone of his voice mocked that of a super hero's greeting. He didn't even turn to look at the guy. Probably a Unitologist, that's how it commonly was. Not much love between authorities and Unitologists and Ben had no idea why. He didn't give a shit what they believed so long as they don't cause him trouble. Finally he got to his station.
"Benny!"
Greg, Ben's best friend and partner. Always ready to give that awkward hug. The clock on the wall made it out to be 7:26 AM you eventually got used to the time on Titan. There was rare actual day and night times. It was either one for a very long time or the other for a very long time. Right now it was night... And will be for the next 2-3 months.
"What do we got today?"
"More shit."
"Great."

---

2 Hours later. Odd reports came in for a rise in violence. No direct action was requested from on duty officers but it was still something to be worried about. Greg and Ben were leaning against a wall in an office. They were playing security in the psych ward. Ben has been down here quite often lately. Got to learn up on a few names being held here. The two weren't speaking, they had already exhausted their conversation. The largest one being Aleks' birthday the other day. Greg let out a yawn.
"This is freakin bo-"
Before he could finish Six fully armed EDF soldiers walked through. Something that wasn't common, EDF normally stayed in their designated area, only coming out in civilian attire.
"Well that's unusual."
Ben murmured before their comm link sounded off.
"All units are to report to their respective departments and suit up. This is not a drill."
"A riot?"
"maybe."
The two began at a slow jog back to their station.

"Into the shop... out of the shop... Into the shop... Out of the shop... The two stood in lined as anxious and nervous officers went in and came out in their riot uniforms. And then there was Greg. He went in, the doors closed and Ben tapped his foot. Suddenly screams...
"Greg!?"
The line finally hit the floor when the doors opened back up. There was a hole in the shop and the headless carcass of his best friend.
"What... The fuck!?"
The officers around him immediately armed themselves and began to inspect. What happened next... Three creatures glided in, they looked like slabs of human skin. They flew in and began grabbing unsuspecting officers, stabbing them repeatedly in the face with some kind of... needle tongue thing. Who knows what happened next, there was no way that Ben was gonna stay there without armor and there was no fucking way he was gonna go into that shop. It didn't take him long to find himself back in the psych ward. Things were going to hell. Humanoids with long as blades in their arms. It was an alien attack. Aliens? They didn't exist... So what the fuck was going on? He needed to find help... And quick. He removed his Divet. Perhaps not the most reliable of pistols but definitely better than nothing. One of the creatures seemed to catch his attention and charge. Ben let loose quick bursts into the creature's chest. It didn't seem to do much except slow it down into a walking speed. It was getting too close. Ben changed the setting on his gun to the three round cannon and fired, removing the whole leg. It fell but it was finished. It used its pincer arms to crawl forward.
"FUCK YOU!"
Ben shouted and shot one of the arms, sending it flying off and the creature fell, not moving. His last choice for help? Why not get the crazies out, They likely know how to use a weapon. A minute later he was using his ID tag on the door with name highlighted. "Kathleen Leopold"...

[V]

In direct Orbit above the the station that was slowly coming to chaos, was the EDF Frigate ship, the USM Glory, surveying the chaos from the safety of the distance. In one of the monitor rooms, the Marine Colonel had set a visual monitor ocular on one of the EDF marines sent in, as they scrambled to find the Security detachments. Once located, they were promptly ordered by the EDF to suit up and take arms, but something went horribly wrong in the shop. Winged flesh beasts came from out of nowhere, and started picking off the Station police, as well as the marine equipped with the ocular that was transmitting to the monitors. Unhappy with what was going on before him, the Colonel ordered his Commander to suit up three more squads to enter the station to assist with the evacuation. With the Glory's Captain's compliance, he was granted those three squads to send in.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

If anyone was watching the Glory, they would see a single blue light fire out from the side, likely a landing ship in full thruster. The station was large, but the market district were where the highest concentration of people were normally at this hour. Within just minutes, the landing ship had docked in a vacated lot within the market district, unloaded it's cargo of marines, then took off to re-dock with the Glory until the marines called for a pick up. The plan was to guide the populace of this crowded district first to the evac ships, then move to the smaller outlying ones. One of the squads was tasked directly to assist the first squad that had landed only hours ago, as combat with the alien threat broke out with them. Eighteen well rested and highly trained bodies began to spread out, fully outfitted in soldier RiGs and wielding modded pulse rifles and plasma rifles. Six went one direction, six went a different way, and six remained. One of the marines pressed the side of their helmet. Though fully armored, it was slimmer, the armor bulk scaled down with two armored mounds at the chest; no doubt female. She pressed the side of her helmet with one hand, while the other her pulse rifle against her shoulder. "Alpha 1-1, this is Echo 1-2, begin radio check." She let the button go as to let them respond. After a moment of silence, she sent the message again. "Alpha 1-1, this is Echo 1-2, beginning radio check, respond if you comply." Once again only silence, as this process repeated a final time, before the woman was finally given an answer from another squad. "Echo 1-2, this is Echo 1-3, radio check is confirmed, Alpha 1-1 must be unable to comply."
"Copy." Her squad had the objective to evac as well, but the priority was locating the first squad; until proof is found, they are assumed alive unless the situation comes too dire. While the other two squads began the task calming the masses and trying to direct them to the life ship ports, she moved with her men to the last known location of the first squad; which was a security barracks.

Proceeding with caution, the moved in formation through alleyways, since it was easier to cover your front and rear rather than all flanks. When they arrived at the barracks, the Captain put up her arm with a closed fist, signaling "Hold". The door was jammed, and didn't slide automatically. With that same arm, she put her index finger up and rotated her wrist, signaling "Form up", as the marines approached the door. They were all wordless, as if this had been practiced before, standing to the side of jammed opening, to give a clear path, while the bulkiest of the squad ran up to the door with a swift, stomping kick which forced the jarred door forward, as they filed in. They fanned out, checking the first set of rooms.
"Clear!"
"Clear!"
"Clear!"
Forming up again, the squad converged in the room containing the shop. Here was the first physical sign of the aliens. There bodies of officers who weren't able to suit up, and one of one who did...as well as their fallen marine. There were also bodies of the mysterious threat. Three of them. They got their real first glimpse of it. They definite human characteristics...but were definitely anything but. She pressed the side of her helmet again.
"Colonel Hathway, Captain Felicia Aristide from Echo 1-2, we've located the body of the marine with the ocular."
The colonel's words filled her helmet. "Copy, Captain. I can see through it."
"There's no sign of the rest of them though. Only bodies of the station police, and I've not been able to establish radio contact."
"Copy, search outward four or five blocks in every direction. If the fight was intense as it seemed, there will be a sign of them not far. Bodies, hostile or them, for certain."
"Roger that sir. Aristide out."

[D]

“Mom…I’m home!”

With crazed eyes, a woman, drenched in blood, forced her hand over the infant’s mouth. “Sh-shhhhh…hhh…” She muttered as she continued to apply pressure. The baby was no longer screaming or crying, but it still breathed. “Hu-hush..sh….” After a precise cut, with one great pull, she ripped the infant’s arm off. “Di-Dismember th-them…So they don’t…d-don’t…” Tears streamed down her face and mixed with the wet blood. “STOP MOVING!” She dropped the knife besides the child and picked the baby up. “YOU WILL NEVER GET ME YOU FUCKER!” Her yells were at the top of her lungs and she repeated this multiple times as she violently shook the child.

She laughed.

The woman tossed the corpse aside and put her hands to her face. “I-I’m doing it… I’m living…I-I won’t die…ri-right?” She stumbled out of the room, leaving smudged footprints of blood. “Hush…little…baby…” She began to mutter a song as she walked from the nursery room. “Don’t you…cry…Momma’s gonna buy…buy….you…” The woman tripped and collided with the wall, but she continued to press on. She left crimson smears on the wall. “…you…you’re dead, you’re such a dead….”

“M-mom?” A thump was heard after the teenage girl dropped her book bag. The girl backed away from her mother. “Oh my god…Mom…Wh-where’s dad? Where’s Tim? What happened to Carla!? Where’s pops and gran?!” The crazed woman continued to mutter her song as she approached the teen. “Mom! I’m calling the cops!” The teen quickened her pace at backing up. “Stay away from me!” The girl dialed in the emergency number, but she never was able to hear the sound of the operator’s voice.

The time that the girl had used to take her attention away her mother was all the time the woman needed. While on top of the girl, the woman took a pen from her pocket and with it she viciously stabbed at the teenager.

Phick, phick, phick.

“N-now you can’t see me~” She got up from the floor and went into the kitchen with a relieved smile on her face. She was safe…safe…Was she? Was she safe? The smile faded off of her face and she carefully opened a drawer and ran her hand over the smooth part of the blades. “Oh, my god…” Not paying attention to which one she picked up, her hand wrapped around a handle. “I’m…” In front of her were the ghosts of those she had slain. Her family’s souls stood in front of her, gray and drained of their blood. Their hollowed out eyes stared at her in disgust and hatred. “I’m going to hell.” She whispered.

The woman brought up the knife. Something in her told her not to do it, but she quieted that voice and made a horizontal slit on her neck. The blade dropped, and she fell to the floor, holding her neck. What had she done…What had she-

“NO! STOP!” She yelled and tried to shake away from her restraints. “LET ME GO!” She cried and attempted to jerk free, but she soon realized that she was in a straight jacket and was attached to an examining table. “D-damnit! DAMNIT!” The mask they had placed on her face covered her expressions, but it was clear from her voice that she was remorseful and that she was also sobbing. “I’m sorry…I’m sorry…I’m sorry…”

“Kathleen Léopold…”

That was her name. Kathleen. Kathleen Léopold. She was the head of an artifact analysis team. Now, it was coming back to her. Dr. Kathleen Léopold. That’s what they would call her in the lab and…and the last thing she was investigating was a fragment. At the time she didn’t know what, but now, she did. It was a piece of a marker. Make it whole…Make it whole? Make it-

“Sh-shut up…God…please…m-make it stop.” Kathleen slammed her head against the table. “I don’t know what you want with me! St-stop…” Tears leaked from the mask and fell onto the table. “Make it whole? I don’t know what you’re talking about…”

Make /me/ whole…

“I DON’T KNOW WHAT YOU ARE TALKING ABOUT!” She slammed her head back harder this time and again, and again, but the voice in her head told her to stop.

For a moment her sanity returned. She heard footsteps and then a man’s voice. “Wh-what?” He was telling her something, but his voice wasn’t the only one sounding. Screeches. What was happening? “Wh-Who?” Benjamin, he said and she felt her arms get released from their restraints. “Why? What are you going to d-do to me?” He undid her mask.

Clearly suffering, her skin had a pale sickly color and her once brilliant green eyes were dull. From all the crying, they were also swollen and pink. “A-are we going to move yet?” She followed him out, and un-tucked her long, wavy brunette hair from her white patient suit. “D-do I-? I g-get a weapon, r-right?” Kathleen took another step, but pulled her foot back. She looked down at what she had stepped on and picked up the Divet. “…Nevermind…” She said quietly.

[B]

Ben entered, the woman was ranting and raving.
"Kathleen Leopold?"
She began raving again.
"What? I didn't say-"
She continued to rave.
"Shut up..."
He demanded.
"HEY SHUT THE FUCK UP!"
She seemed to regain consciousness from whatever state she had been in. He almost felt like turning around and leaving her, unsure whether she'd be more of a time bomb than an ally.
He walked up to her when she started questioning him.
"Aliens are attacking the station."
He said unusually calm. She asked again.
"Aliens... A-Lee-ens."
He pulled out a knife.
"Name's Benjamin Thomas."
He began tugging at her straight jacket, releasing the bonds that held the two arms together. She seemed cautious. Huh, how humorous. She's the crazy one and SHE'S the one who's hesitant.
"Do to you? What the fuck are you talking about? Look, I don't trust you but I know you don't want to die here from those things. If we keep to a mutual... Agh.."
He tugged at the face mask, not wanting to use the knife so close to her face. Finally he got it.
"A mutual benefit then we both can survive here."
Finally she was free. He backed away from her slightly.
"Look, I've seen way too many people get slaughtered right in front of me to have ANY hesitation putting a bullet in your head if I feel threatened."
Before she could respond a thunk could be heard above them in the vents. She asked if they were going to move. Ben nodded and opened the door. She asked if she got a weapon.
"Don't have shit for you."
Then he heard her say nevermind, she must've found something and to be quite frank he didn't want to look back to see if she was pointing it at him. Screams all around them, the weird creatures were moving to target after target.
"Lets just book it."
He told her and began in a full sprint. For the most part they were able to avoid the creatures who seemed more content with slower targets.
"OH GOD! OH GOD THEYRE COMING!"
A man could be heard calling. Ben turned for one split second to see the man get snatched up into the vent and only the legs fell out.
"Mother fuck!"
If they were able to get out of the ward at the least things should tone down a bit. As the two made their way for the exit a vent broke in and out came one of the knife hand aliens.
"Fuck you!"
Still in the triple bullet setting of his Divet, he fired at the head decapitating the creature completely. It seemed to gurgle a scream and flail its blades wildly, hitting Ben in the chest. Lucky for him it just barely missed being an instant kill shot. The wounds instantly closed up leaving about half a rig full of juice. The creature continued to flail but a second hit did not happen, it seems that leopold lady wasn't completely unfamiliar with a pistol. Out they went. They were right by a stair case leading up. A shop sat next to them. Ben shook his head, now having a slight phobia. A large rumble and the station shook slightly, something collided with the station.
"Fuck, we're gonna need suits if any area we need to get through has been breached."
He opened up his inventory screen, compacted items sat in. She couldn't see what he had but he could see it through his mask. His RIG suddenly filled up to green, not full but pretty damn close. Then he began typing something on an invisible screen. He then walked over to Kathleen and turned her around to get the code on her RIG. He then continued his data typing.
"Alright... You have access to a civilian class suit. Walk in and get it equipped. Hurry, though."
Of course he was gonna send her in it first. If something's in there it'll kill her not him. She seemed hesitant.
"Hey, sunshine. We don't have time sit around thinking about what-ifs go get the goddamned suit on."
Finally she did and came out okay. The mask moved around her face. That's better, her hair was bothering him, everything about her screamed crazy lady. Ben walked up to the shop and took a deep breath then clicked on his riot suit.
"Please step into the armory"
The shop cued. He took another deep breath and walked in and sat down. A few seconds later he was out and equipped.
"That's better. Lets get going."
The mask ate his face in mid sentence. He then holstered his Divet and found himself with a pulse rifle. Nothing too fantastic but it has to be better than the Divet. Up they went into a large cafeteria, sort of like a food court... Ben's RIG dinged and out popped a projection even Kathleen could see.
"This is Director Tiedmann. I have a direct order for all Security and EDF personnel. Highly dangerous criminals have escaped from the psych ward. The main Targets are to be killed on sight. A file has been sent to each of you with information on each target. This is a direct order and insubordination will result in punishment."
It seemed to be a constant message. It played again in the same form as the first... Then a third time, Ben cut the transmission then looked through his recent logs. A list of names. Kathleen Leopold was on it.
"Well this makes things difficult. I just had to choose a target to travel with."
He looked over at her.
"Don't worry, I don't plan to die for that fuck head. Lets just focus on getting out of here."

[V]

The squad of six had already left the police station, the streets were empty, aside from the occasional bodies, all civilian. Each one appeared to have died by a barbaric form of dismemberment, none suffered burns however, so the possibly of a grenade fatality was even unlikely. They all have wounds in their head, and their skulls were caved in. Yet there were no signs of an alien's body yet. The missing squad couldn't have been here. A couple more paces forward, the transmission from the Director came by with a shift in priorities for them. And too make it even better, the Ward reported was just a hop and a skip away.
"Echo 1-2 reporting."
"Go ahead Captain." The colonel answered.
"Sir, we're practically in touching range of that ward, requesting permission to scout it out real quick."
The colonel aboard the Glory paused for just a moment, contemplating. "A quick search, but your set priority remains finding the missing squad. But any criminals you dispatch may increase their chance of survival."
"Understood sir."
And with that, Felicia looks back at her team, and made the hand single to form up, index finger in the air and rotating her wrist. She pointed to one of her more experienced men. "You. Take point." The chosen marine took his position up front, as they move in formation, the man at the rear keeping a check on their backs. Without much interference, the made it to the front doors, which, unsurprisingly, we also jarred. The bulky marine chosen once again, the cleared a path to the door, so that he could smash kick them open. The first time, they only moved slightly, so he attempted again, with nearly the same result. Finally after the third kick, the doors seem to give way, and a fourth finally sent them apart. The squad filed in, checking the lobby, the lobby booth, and the nearest closet.
"All clear!"

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

As if following a pattern, the entire entrance of the building was void of life, save dead patients and staff. Same wounds as the ones outside. One of the marines walked by a corpse, and accidentally knocked one it's perished kneeling hunched position. It feel on it's face, while a yellowish liquid seeped out from it's hollowed head. "Captain." One of the marines called to her, then pointed at the orifice.
"The hell is that?"
"I don't know...it's coming out of his head."
"You...you think that means something?"
"They're fucking aliens. It could be anything!"
"Well come on, he's obviously dead...we can't really waste time here." Felicia quickly shuttled her team along. The sliding doors seemed to be functional around the building, passing through into the hallways without needing to break some down. Interestingly enough, there was metallic pounding above them..like something was crawling through the vents. They paid no mind, assuming some form of space vermin. As they came to the end of the hallway, there was a jammed door, though a single one, so the bulky marine took it down with one kick. In here however was a sign of a fight. There were small caliber shell casings on the floor, likely from a Divet or a Rivet, and a headless body of an...alien. It still bore it's human attire, in fact it still had human arms, and even a head, albeit horribly deformed and severed. It had bladed fleshy appendages coming from it's left elbow, and right shoulder, and to the vent behind it were a pair of severed legs.
"Fucking shit.." One of the marines called.
"Shell casings!" Another seemed to sound happy. "Fuck I hope it's the missing squad. I want to get the fuck out of here."
"Calm yourself marine." Felicia said, studying the casings. "I doubt our men would resort to using their ballistic side arm with only one target...and this creature shows no sign of plasma burns. Our men weren't here."
She then looked over at the door, the words "Cafeteria" over the sliding doors. The door wasn't jarred so a blast entry wasn't going to be likely. She ordered the bulky marine to burst through first. And so he did, the rest of the team followed.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

There was indeed life in the cafeteria, and a shop. Two figures at the other end of the room. One was in a Riot control RiG and the other was in civilian clothing. In a swift motion, the only other exit was quickly blocked off by the bulky marine who had his pulse rifle aimed right at them. "You there! Both of you! Arms in the air, now!" The EDF marines began to form up, two stood close beside an open vent, the bulky marine at the door, and the Captain approached with the other two. They all kept their weapons tightly locked on Ben, since he was no doubt armed. "Weapon down, and step forward." There was a bit of protest but he complied. At the same time, Felicia allowed her mask to part from her mouth, and the visor folded back. "Helmet down, and prepare for a scan. There's been a report of a dangerous criminal escaping this ward, and I'm not taking chances." She had a slim, angular face, with long light brown hair that was currently tied into a ponytail. Natural green eyes eyed the code string on the back of his suit, as they were mentally punch into her RiG's database. Within seconds his file came to life on her data panel on her right armored mound, which she took in quickly. Without a word, she simply handed him back his Divet, then moved to the woman. "You now. Helmet down." The face of the woman bore a very uncanny resemblance to the file the Director had broadcast, but she wanted to get solid proof. Following the same procedure.
Meanwhile, beside the vent, the two marine sentries were completely focused on the Captain's identification procedure, the didn't notice the figured coming from the vent. It was quite small, save for it's bulging giant yellow sac on it's back. It exited the vent and descended the nearby duct. It only had to crawl a couple feet in order to grab onto one of the marine's legs, and climb up it. He took notice to this quickly. "Holy shit---The fuck is on me?" The nearby one quickly turned to him, a very shocked look on his face. "Holy fuck! Alien!"
"FUCK! SHOOT IT!"
Felicia had already finished her scan, and Kathleen already at rifle point. "I'm afr--" A shout from one of her men stopped her cold, as she looked in the direction of the two at the vent. The second marine fired at the invader, and there was a massive explosion, sending shock waves throughout the room. The two marines were obliterated in blood, puss, and scraps of armor. At the same time, a tall, very thin fleshy figured pushed open the door the bulky marine had been blocking off. He was quick to turn his pulse rifle on it, and fill it with plasma, aiming with at the neck. The body fell back, and was swiftly kicked out the door by the marine. The head however, wasn't done with him, wrapping its tendrils tightly around his neck.
Felicia quickly shrieked "CONTACT!" as her helmet went back up. The bulk marine's head was lopped off by the invader, and it sunk it's own tendrils into the stump that was his neck. One of the other marines went up to shoot the former bulky marine's new head off, when the door opened again, and the headless thin alien came through, hefting one of the tables over, and onto the would-be savior, trapping him beneath. A bladed alien quickly appeared through the vent, and chose the pinned marine as an easy target, quickly dashing to him, to plunge it's bladed appendage right through his head. This all happened in a matter of seconds. Felicia and her remaining marine looked around dumbfounded.
"Holy shit! The fuck do we do know Captain?!"
"What do we--SHOOT THEM! FUCKING SHOOT!"
The two pulse rifles went up simultaneously, firing at the bladed alien first, the barrage of plasma quickly dismembering it almost completely.

[D]

You didn’t have to tell her to run. The blood, oh, all the blood was enough to frighten her. There was more than the day she had slain her own family and more than each time her sickness took control of her. “Damnit…” She tried to run past the officer, but her legs wouldn’t let her. Kathleen was weak and it bothered her how much she had degenerated.

Not that it mattered.

It took a while for her to register but one of those things fell from a vent and came at them. Luckily for her it had leapt for the officer and for a moment she argued the pros and cons of his death, but she quickly came to a decision, knowing of her weaknesses. Kathleen aimed the weapon and held the trigger down, remembering what it had told her. Dismember them, it said, so you don’t die.

When they cleared the ward, the officer stopped at a shop and began inputting data. He told her about giving her access to something and with a frown she muttered, “S-so they locked me out of here too…” She looked up at the shop and then back at him before she entered and got the new suit. “Th-then we’re off…”

They moved and ended up in some cafeteria. She looked around through her mask she saw soldiers of some sort. “O-oh?” At first she wondered about them, but when the recording played, she understood why they were there. “Just kill me…please just kill me…” She whispered to herself, but she soon stopped when one of them approached her.

Like the soldier had asked her, she brought back the helmet and looked straight at the captain. “It’s o-“ She began to say, fully aware of what the soldier had figured it out, but all of the sudden, chaos erupted around her.

Unlike the others, she remained where she was, standing there, not moving. While people were dying around her, she stayed staring at the apparition in front of her. It was Tim, her son. He was trying to tell her something but she couldn’t hear him. “T-Tim? I can’t…” The apparition jumped off of the edge. “TIM!” She shouted and pushed passed the lady soldier. She ran to the railing and looked down, horrified, realizing that it was just another episode. “FUCK!” Kathleen turned around and began firing at the few necromorphs still there. “DON’T FUCK WITH ME! DON’T FUCK WITH ME YOU GODDAMN MARKER!”

After it was all done, she raised the Divet to her head, closed her eyes, and pulled the trigger.

Dead.
Dead.
Dead, yet? No? Fuck! FUCK!

Kathleen opened her eyes and looked at the gun, realized that she had ran out of bullets. “No…” Tears welled up in her eyes. “No… God damnit…” She threw the Divet down, unsure of what to do. “Why…”

[B]

The sound of footsteps echoing the halls. Ben aimed up at the door whose green panel turned orange and opened. In came some marines, Ben relaxed. That is until they pointed guns at them.
"What? You can't be serious."
Then she demanded they put their hands up? Then drop their weapons?
"Not gonna have to sweet heart. I'm smart enough to keep my gun down when their are six stupid fucks aiming guns at me. Run your stupid fucking checks and waste more time."
One of the soldier's came by and took his plasma rifle the woman, who seemed to be in charge, took his divet. Great now he's weaponless. He let his helmet down and he was obviously not even close to the word happy. She then spoke of criminals escaping and that she wasn't taking any chances.
"Sweety, you have no idea, do you?"
He always tends to call the women he DON'T like "sweety" or "sweet heart" because he knew they didn't like it.
"Wake the fuck up and look-"
She shoved his divet into his chest without a word. He took it and shook his head. Now which asshole made off with his rifle? He glanced at the EDF pig scanning his helper. Even with these heavily armed dumbasses he still preferred the crazy one. Why? Because she wouldn't make off to kill some confused person instead of trying to get the fuck out. Ben shook his head.
"Stupid, stupid-"
Before he could finish his sentence someone shouted.
"Mmmhm..."
Ben grunted as his helmet slid over his face. He raised his Divet and it was the police station all over again. People screaming, people dying all in a span of seconds.
"Don't people ever learn?"
He growled and patted on Kathleen's shoulder.
"Lets go!... Kathleen!"
He looked back at her.
"What the fuck?"
She moved off to a railing. Before he could see anything else, something leaped at his face.It had the face of a baby and is screamed. The vocals sounded like one hell of a pissed off infant. It had three tendrils sticking out from its back... Until their spiky end found their way into Ben's back. His Rig went down once... Twice... This thing was fucking him up.
"ERGH! FUCK YOU!"
He growled and threw it to the ground, stepped on the head, grabbed the the three tentacle like limbs in one hand and pulled so hard he ripped them straight clean. It seemed to kill the baby-like creature. A few more of the creatures came out, these ones had the signature blades on their hands, they were the pawns... But if they were... Why are they so freakin' strong? Ben turned for a slight second, it seems the military were having issues killing them.
"The limbs! Shoot for the limbs, army! That seems to work."
He raised his Divet to deal with one of the creatures. He timed the shot at the leg and then pulled the trigger. CLICK!
"Aw shit."
Wait... Security suits are automatically outfitted with a TK module. He had forgotten this, it's been a while since he had any real action, the Sprawl was normally a pretty calm station. He threw the ball of kinetic energy at a table, it stuck and moved close to him but then was hovering. He threw it and it smashed over the creature doing no noticeable damage but knocked it on its ass so that's good. Ben took another step back, knocking into the military captain or whatever. He turned back then back again to where the creatures were approaching, he decided to throw another table... Plenty of those here.
"Shiiiiiit"
He turned around and nudged the military lady out of the way, he saw his plasma rifle in the grip of a dead soldier... Well the body was still moving but the head definitely didn't belong in that body. The gun just dangled, it didn't seem like the creature was capable of easy control of the body. Using the telekinesis module again he stuck it on the gun which easily flung out of the wandering creature's hand. Once he got his hands on it he turned and fired a grenade round ripping the final creature to pieces. It got quiet a second... Then the lights went out.
"This just keeps getting better and better. You do realize I blame YOU stupid army dumbasses for this."
He clicked on the light that was attached to the plasma rifle and swung it around to get a view of the area.
"I say we go... Before more come."

[V]

The last of the aliens were finished off by the police officer. They got a bit of time to look at the scene. Her squad was decimated in mere seconds, red-yellow blood was all over the walls and floors, as well as the red blood of her men. "If this is what the first squad fought against, I doubt they're even alive anymore.." The one marine said.
Felicia was more focused on the railing Ben had gone down.
"Come on. He's right, we have to keep moving." Before they could get to the railing though, the lights faded, the lights on their weapons quickly flicking on. With the other marine keeping what he could illuminated, the Captain tried to contact outside help.
"This is Echo 1-2, any Echo teams report in.." There was nothing but empty static, and after broadcasting twice more, she shook her head.
"Come on, let's go down." There was a crash in the darkness, their flashlights quickly looking around for what could have made it. The direct other side of the room, a massive bat-like alien burst through a second vent, a massive proboscis coming from it's nose. More inclined to retreat, they quickly went down the railing, following Ben and the criminal, leaving the bat-alien with a marine's corpse with a head wound...

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

As they made it down to the next level, where the officer and the criminal were, Felicia hadn't forgotten Kathleen Leopold's file. "Look here, Officer. Director Tiedmann ordered the EDF, and -you- might I add, to exterminate a list of criminals, and miss Leopold here is among them." Though she made no attempt to threaten him with her weapon, nor did her subordinate; she almost sounded hesitant with her words, not sure ending a human's life was the best idea at considering the alien threat. "She's...terribly unstable, and deemed unfit to reside amongst the community! That's why she was put here in the first place!" She folds her arms over her chest, and tries to put herself in a authoritative, since he couldn't see the expression on her face. "Now I am ordering you as a marine Captain of the USM Glory and as soldier under Director Tiedmann to stand down from protecting her. And don't go spouting shit about you not doing that, any moron can see that." She snorts. "And apparently, we seem to fit that qualification to you."

[B]

Ben leaped down to the next level. The others followed soon after. For a minute there he believed that captain would show a bit more respect now that she knew what they were up against but then she immediately went back to the whole killing Kathleen shit. Each word ran like snake poison in his ears. He gritted his teeth and finally when she started to bark orders he lost what little nerves he had left. His mask went down and he turned and grabbed her, pushing her into the wall.
"Orders!? What the FUCK do you know about fucking orders!? Have you completely removed your brain and replace it with a fucking transmitter!? I watched my whole entire FUCKING station massacred in less than 30 seconds, stepped over at least a dozen dismembered limbs, and followed a line of fucking entrails just to get to this fucking area! And the first thing you do was scan us!? While your whole fucking-"
Saliva was flying out of his mouth, splattering on her illuminated face plate.
"team was massacred in about 2 seconds!? Forgive my saying so but I'm having a REALLY fucking HARD TIME identifying whose REALLY the crazy lady in this room, cus frankly I'd rather her pointing a gun at her own head than you pointing a gun at my back!"
He let go with her, not without a final push into the wall.
"If you want to shoot us then you make it just that much harder to live. Go ahead! Otherwise, shut the fuck up, keep your scope off our fucking backs, and try to fucking survive."
As if on cue, one of the marines up above began screaming uncontrollably.
"Looks like one of your boys survived..."
The screams began getting deeper and deeper until they turned into inhuman screeches and gurgles. Then silence... The silence was broken with the sound of Ben's mask sliding back over his face. There a thunk and then Ben went down. He was between its legs, marine suit's boots at both sides of Ben's hips. But it wasn't a marine... AT least not anymore. one of the claws came up and attempted to impale Ben but he rolled slightly to the left just barely dodging it then rolled back to dodge another. More thunks, more were coming down, 2 more to be exact (The final unfortunate marine is still lumbering around with a commandeering head). The creature still tried desperately at trying to kill Ben but Ben was quicker with his dodging, if one of the others didn't knock the bastard off.

[V]

Felicia snarled, hidden by her mask, as she watched the englishman spit words, and literal saliva all over her mask. There was no doubt he was pissed off by her throwing her authority around. While he grabbed her though, her remaining marine was quick to put his rifle up on him, the blue guide light dotted his forehead. But Felicia quickly waved him down, by doing it subtly with her hand that he could see. Some of the things he was saying, were indeed making sense though. She wanted to drop her helmet down too, so she can show him just how pissed -she- was about him doing this to her, but before she could, he shoved her against the wall, with a load metal to metal "CLING!"
She seethed behind her mask, and was quite ready to run up and return a bash to his bared head with her rifle, when she heard one of her men upstairs scream. Quickly, her priorities shift. "That's Morrison! Fuck! Voss, come on!" They didn't take two steps back to the railing, when his from upstairs amplified, and became more of an inhuman shrill, screech. It stopped them cold. They heard heavy footsteps coming from up there, and actually began to step back from the railing.
Ben hadn't move, and soon there was a loud crash, as the standard issued gravity boots came down, smashing onto Ben's shoulder, and knocking him to the ground, falling so he was between the former Morrison's legs. The armor he had, was shattered from the waist up, and his leg armor was beginning to break. The slasher stabbed a massive blade right at Ben's face, but he dodged it quickly, and made a second attempt. It had him pinned, and chance are it was going to adapt to the dodges, and deliver the fatal blow. Felicia was trying to process several things at once. How the fuck did her soldier become that? How are the aliens doing this? Would it be possible to save her lost men? Then it came to her. She had to choose her allies now. Those things may have been her men once, but they're beginning to look like the things that killed them..

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Ben was able to dodge the repetitive attacks by marine slasher, but it could read him like a book now, the alien was not going to miss this time, it raised it's talon, and began to slam it down at one point, and while Ben tried to dodge the other direction, it angled it at a split second...before, it was shoved back, far enough that the blade lodged itself in the ground between Ben's legs. Felicia had used her on board telekinetic module to offset the beast, quickly followed by a small burst of plasma from her pulse gun, to force it back up even more, giving Ben precious seconds to relocate himself. A second marine slasher jumped down to join the first. Felicia turning to quickly fire a burst of plasma at it as well, in hope to push it back with the attack. Her surviving marine also began to fire, aiming for the first marine slasher's bladed palm. They all had blank, emotionless faces, with several tiny tentacles waving from their skulls like anemone arms. The plasma blasts wouldn't keep them back for long, as the two mutated marines charged simultaneously at them, flailing their arms in a flurrying flay, trying to shred anything that dared cross their path.
"Shit..." Felicia began. "These are my men..how the fuck did this happen to them.." They stopped their blind flurrying, and turned around to face their targets. "They aren't as easy to dismember as the others...FUCK. They don't train us for this shit!"

[D]

CLING!

Kathleen looked up to see the lady soldier up against a wall with the Officer as the cause of such a thing. She was speechless as nothing useful came to her mind to say. She wasn’t sure what they were fighting about, but it was clear that the two weren’t on good terms. Not that it would matter; both those bastards would die anyways. After all, it seemed that the marker would kill everyone except for her.

She clamped her teeth hard on her tongue, making sure to bleed. As she tasted the copper like liquid, she wondered about how long these fuckers had. How would the marker get rid of them? Quietly, she sat there without much movement. It would seem that she was calculating their demise, but really, her thoughts always led back to her. Hmph, just how long did she have?

Again, her anger rose up again and without too much thinking, she picked up a metal bar. It wouldn’t do much good in killing them, she realized after she had picked it up, but it was better than nothing. It would be enough to beat as much as she could, right? Sounded like a good plan…

It seemed liked a good plan until she saw the mutated marines. No metal bar could save her from them, but still, she turned and ran. Yes, she wanted to die, but hell no, did she want to turn into one of those things. She got to an exit, but she quickly stepped back and put her hand to her head. “Geh…” A moment of searing pain occurred and for that brief moment, she could have sworn she heard the mutated marines voices. Like their bodies, their voices were distorted, but she could hear them clearly enough to make their message out. Those things were suffering and calling for death to take them again.

“Ah…fuck…” Both hands went to her head and she hunched over. The agony in their voices was rising and they were getting louder. “Sh-shut up…” She whispered. “Shut up, please… I-I can’t help you..” She covered her ears and shut her eyes. “Shut up…damnit…shut up…” Kathleen stepped a few steps forward. “I don’t…I don’t…don’t care….Shut up!”

The pain passed and she opened her eyes to see another marine. “Oh-“ Before she could really react, the marine managed to fit his fingers under the gap of her helmet and the suit and began to squeeze. “-f-fu-fuck…Get..get off…” Upon a closer look, she noticed that the marine’s head wasn’t his own. “Y-you…” Her hands grabbed the tendrils and pulled upwards with all her strength. As she pulled, she noticed the hold on her neck weakened.

Suddenly, the resistance on her pulls disappeared and the thing slid out of the corpse. She felt triumphant at first, but when the thing latched onto her, she couldn’t say that she felt the same. In her panic, she fell to the floor, her screams muffled by her helmet. Trying to wrestle and beat the head away, she also pushed and punched it while subconsciously crawling toward the nearest weapon. When she reached the weapon, she grabbed it and slammed it down hard on the head creature. “Screw you!” The weapon began to spin and quickly it had cut through the head and into the metal floor.

Screeeeeeeee

Kathleen looked at what she had grabbed and lifted it from contact with the ground. “What? “ It was an FH-BI Plasma saw. A hand held one. She looked around and saw the corpse she had taken in from. The original owner wasn’t as ‘lucky’ as she was. “Oh god…Oh my god. “ Still on the floor, she pushed herself back into the room she had been in with her legs. When she was inside, she quickly got to her feet and ran to look for the living…Sanity returned to her.

[B]

When the creature was off of him, he didn't get up straight away, he grabbed his plasma rifle above him and fired a grenade blast at the one they were shooting. Thanks to their shots the blast was enough to send parts flying and it was dead. Ben stood up and loaded a new cell into the gun. What could he say? Using it as a grenade launcher seemed like the better option. He glanced over while he loaded the round in and didn't see Kathleen.
"Beaten by my own game!"
He growled and fired another grenade shell, this explosions failed to throw any limbs off but made the creature fall to the floor only to attempt to get up again. Why do these things have to be so much harder to kill than humans? That's what these guns were made for, not cutting things, but shooting and hitting hearts and shit. He fired another shell which blew off a leg this time, the thing fell and seemed like it was dead for the most part.
"Your team are assholes! I say we book it like Kathleen did."

[V]

Her old soldiers began to succumb to the firepower supplied by the destructive grenade attachments on their rifle. They didn't even know police officers were even trained to use such things. Their bodies began to twitch, the tendrils from their heads still beginning to waver about. The officer might have been the hero of the minute, but he was right. The target was gone now. Felicia looked back to the other marine, signaling him to follow her. Ben had gone back into the last room, and they quickly followed, back to where all the shit had started.
The bulky marine's body was laying, headless, on the ground, the invading head in two pieces beside him. Kathleen was on the ground, an armed plasma saw in her hand. The two of them took a step back from her, rifles raised, watching as Ben came closer to the target.
"Are you fucking crazy officer?! She has a primed energy weapon! She's unstable! She just killed an alien! We don't know if she's gone crazy or not!"
Meanwhile the second marine had his hand over his helmet, speaking. "This is Marine squad Echo 1-2 of the USM Glory, transmitting across all frequencies, begin radio check. Any EDF squads, respond." He waited for a brief moment, several moments, but all he got was radio fuzz. "USM Glory, this is Echo 1-2. Do you copy?" Only getting the same result. "Fuck! Captain, the radio can't get contact with anyone. You think this is why Alpha couldn't reach us either?"

[B]

Before they left the area, one of the marines had dropped a bit of plasma cells. He made sure to grab them and trot off after them back the way they came. Amazingly enough they came upon Kathleen again. The two marines stopped dead but Ben kept moving. Then Miss Regulation chewed on his ass again. He shook his head and turned back, smiling underneath his helmet.
"You know what, you're right."
He turned back to Kathleen.
"Kathleen Leopold, you are under arrest for illegal use of self defense and pissing off an EDF officer. You have a right to an alien attorney, if you-"
Thump thump thump. Ben immediately shut the fuck up and aimed his rifle up at the vents above them. Joke's over. Suddenly screams, higher pitched male screams, was it a child? Then suddenly silence.
"We have to go..."
Ben whispered.
"There is nothing we can do."
Finally serious, he walked up to the captain.
"The USM Glory... That may be our only ticket out of here. By now most of the evacuation ships are gone-"
The child up above started screaming much like the Captain's team. Ben immediately turned and ran, no way was he gonna get stuck in a position like before. Assuming the others followed they immediately found themselves going upstairs and again wound up in the top floor of the Food Court. Only blood stained the floor, the blood of the captain's team, their bodies still below mutated and mutilated. Ben refused to let them stop in this room so they continued into a safer seeming room. There was a third shop (Lots of them in this area) as well as some conveniently placed ammo on the floor. Nothing for a Divet but there was some plasma cells. Ben shook his head, they weren't getting anywhere very fast with all this bickering.
"Look."
He said and turned to the three.
"It's clear that we have some sort of warped love triangle going on here."
He said sarcastically.
"We need to throw the rules out of the air lock on this one."
His helmet slid down and showed his face.
"Heroics is only going to get you killed here. Your mission and orders from a crazed old bureaucrat is only going to get you killed faster. The best thing we can do is survive. And the only way that's going to happen is if you listen to instinct, not honor, not order. You understand me? We don't have to like each other and I promise that if you put the anger aside until at least we're on a ship to Ecko station orbiting Jupiter then you're free to hit me. Okay?"
Ben opened his RIG log and moved through the contents until he got the map of the station and their current location.
"Our best choice is the USM Glory. There's no response from them. A ship that size could easily get us the Jupiter. Chances are everyone's dead on board."
He looked to the Captain and put hit hand out to shush her before she could say anything.
"Our best chance is to turn off the oxygen on board and try to suffocate the freaks. They've got to breath, right? Besides, if all else fails we open a window and turn on the vacuum."
He looked at the Captain again.
"You're either with us or you're with the freaks. Your ship isn't responding anymore and your orders consist of killing humans. Does she really look like more of a danger then THOSE things? Choose Captain... Commander... Whatever the fuck you are, but choose quick."

[V]

Felicia stared at the approaching security suit, keeping her own pair of illuminating eyes on the barred one of his. Her weapon went lower as he approached, taking a step back from him. He began to muse in his cynical way, and she really wanted to just bash him with the butt of her rifle. But only briefly. The marine behind her kept trying to contact the ship and the other marine squads to no success, it was very unnerving to the captain. Their skull-like helmets met each other briefly, before Ben took off running, catching Kathleen to run with them. She missed the first scream, but the second one was indeed audible. "How the...how the fuck are these aliens doing this to the people?" She didn't get an answer or time to mediate, since Ben went into overdrive; the two of them were more inclined to follow than to deal with whatever was on the level above. With Ben in the lead, Felicia opted to cover the rear, moving swiftly, craned slightly behind so she could see if anyone was following. When they reached a second room, they got a chance to stop for breath and a small pep talk.
Ben must have been listening in, the Glory wasn't responded, but their radios would have had an easy comm line from here. They only hoped the communications officer was just slacking off. But Ben already believed the worse. As he began becoming to the voice of reason to them, the two marines looked at each other for a second, Felicia sighing, as she waved her hand at the other marine. "Stand down, Farmah.." His gun was quickly lowered, as well as Felicia's. "Fine then Officer. You have a good plan, but the landing shuttle that dropped us off is still on board the Glory, and the rest of teams that were sent down are likely dead, or they jumped ship, and the Glory is still holding it's orbit pattern, unless the aliens know how to alter that." She pulled on the mouthpiece of her helmet part it, the visor following down to reveal her face, in order to solidify her seriousness to this change of heart, offering an armored hand. "Still, we'll run with you...I'm Capt--I'm Felicia and this is Will. Figured you might as well know our names as well, Mister Thomas."(They know his name cause of the scan).