Wednesday, June 13, 2012

Novacain

Alyssa raced down the corridor at a full run cradling her rifle to her chest. Somewhere she had lost her helmet and her long scarlet locks were trailing behind her. Her black jumpsuit had several scorch marks from numerous hits and a near constant blue flickering around her was an all too potent reminder that her shield was on the verge of failing.

“Echo? Bravo? Anyone?” She whispered frantically into the microphone of the headset that she fortunately hadn’t lost with her helmet. Only static answered her.

She came to a bulkhead and paused a minute leaning against it for cover as her green eyes looked around frantically. “Damn it,” she muttered as she released the trigger long enough to tap the earpiece and change frequencies. “Nova, status report!”

For a moment there was only silence but then the static filled reply came through and Alyssa let out a sigh of relief. “Sorry for the delay Lieutenant,” the female virtual intelligence replied. “I am having great difficulty piercing through the interference. Ships crew fatalities are nearly ninety-eight percent. Lieutenant Leland is seeing to the survivors, however I estimate despite her efforts that another four to six will die within the hour. However, the ship is now secure.”

“And the other assault teams?”

“Unknown, I have lost communications with all other teams. However, based upon the last received transmissions I estimate a ninety-nine point nine nine seven percent chance that all members of the other assault team members are dead.”

“Great. Just great,” Alyssa muttered. She checked her clips. Nine left. She shook her head and sighed. “Any idea what might count as a power source on this thing?” she asked.

“I am detecting what might be some form of reactor approximately nine hundred and sixty three meters from your location. I have sent the coordinates to your omnitool.”

Alyssa rebalanced the rifle and pressed a spot on the holographic interface of her omnitool. Instantly, a soft flashing light blinked to life just on the edge of her vision as her implants projected an image onto her HUD. “Thanks, Nova.”

“You are welcome lieutenant. May I inquire as to your intentions?”

Alyssa gripped her rifle and let out a feral grin as her eyes softly glowed for a moment. “I intend to find a way to blow this fucking thing the fuck up,” she growled.

“I should point out that I estimate you have a less than one percent chance of succeeding, Lieutenant,” Nova stated. “Perhaps a wiser course of action would be to wait for alliance reinforcements.”

“So they can turn them into husks too?” Alyssa shook her head disbelievingly. “No. Besides, they won’t get here in time. This ship knows we are here. It’s planning something.”

“That is illogical, Lieutenant. Ships do not think. Nor do they make plans.”

“This one does,” Alyssa replied with certainty.

Up ahead something moved in the corridor. A mass of black interlaced with glowing cyan sparkles stepped out of the shadows. Oversized cyan eyes locked on Alyssa’s green ones and froze. Alyssa tapped her earpiece. “Got company. I gotta go.”

Alyssa swung her rifle into position just as the roughly humanoid form came running at her with a very inhuman speed. She squeezed the trigger and a spray of bullets ripped a line from the torso to the head halting the forward momentum of the figure and sending it backward in a sparking convulsing arc.

“Take that you fucking soulless piece of shit!” She muttered, stomping her boot down on the husk’s head causing it to literally explode.

A buzzing sound further up the hallway caught her attention as three more husks came into view followed by something that looked like some sort of oversized mutant spider with laser cannons mounted on either side of the bulb-like body.

“What the fuck?”

She dove to the side as the spidery thing opened up with the cannons. Her hair got in her way as she tried to snap off a couple of shots at the husks and she completely missed. She rebounded off the wall just as the spider-like creature fired at her again.

The smell of burning ozone filled her nostrils and she winced as the beams passed by so close that they clipped her shields, overloading them instantly. The wall around her grew warm and she didn’t need to look over her shoulder to know that the lasers had bored holes right through the thick walls.

Dropping to one knee she fired off several short bursts taking the heads off two of the husks. Then the third one was upon her…