The doors to Conference Room 1A slid gracefully to the side with a customary hiss of hydraulics.

Gerardo walked in, his yellow overalls tattered and covered with grease. The entirety of the station's staff watched him closely, as they huddled amongst themselves in the scarce floor space. He was late, but then accessing the damaged oxygen exhaust wasn't an easy chore; not that half of them would understand as much. Some looked at him incredulously, as if to say: "How dare you keep us waiting a second longer!"

The station's sensors had detected a breach on one of its many oxygen exhaust shafts, and of course, it was Gerardo who'd been sent to deal with the situation immediately. Whilst it wasn't vital that the shaft was in working order, it'd be a shitty move to leave it for the next shift to take care of.

"Sorry guys," Gerardo said, with a mock bow. "One does not crawl three hundred feet through a metal labyrinth without getting lost, map or no map."

Gerardo found that the exhaust fan's propellers had shattered into several pieces, and its frame had taken a nasty knock as well. This was not uncommon - the planet had a volatile surface, full of rock slides and tremors. Anything could have dislodged itself, rolled a few feet, and knocked the thing in. Either way, without launching an external operation to remove and replace the shaft's mouth, it wasn't getting fixed any time soon. Only odd thing was, Gerardo couldn't find the offending rock that had caused the damage in the first place.

"The shaft is fucked, to put it plainly," he said, wiping some thick grease from his brow. He shot Chief Engineer Tito a glance. "Unless you want to send me out there with a couple of guys, and a five tonner to lift the mouth up with. She'll need replacing, no two ways about it. Fan has completely shattered, and the struts have been warped too. No fucking idea what caused it though, couldn't find the offending rock. Could have been a minor tremor, maybe, that knocked the fan propellers out of alignment slightly, so that they struck the struts and wrecked everything."

Tito cursed to himself. He took his cigar out of his mouth, ejecting the smoke from his lungs through his nostrils. The grey plum curled upwards before being sucked into the nearest ventilation grate. This was definitely bad, but the situation could have been worse. Worst case scenario, the fan could've flown out of control, sliced through the ducts, and punctured something more important.

"I'm not sure if we can spare the manpower for that right now, Engineering's too busy making sure the generator won't implode on itself when we leave. That old thing should've been replaced years ago. If it's absolutely non-vital, we should prioritize more important things. A damaged oxygen shaft's the least of our worries." He said as he glanced around at the crowd around him. It was more than obvious he was nervous, given yesterday's events. Rowe, of all people. Tito had known Rowe, the man wasn't exactly soft. Whoever they were dealing with wasn't just a nut, that much was true.

Tito placed the cigar back in his mouth, and crossed his bulky mechanical arms. "I'll look into who we have available. I don't want to leave this shaft alone, either."

Enrique had been awake for too long, too much coffee and too much happening combined. His mind was runming on caffiene alone. When heard there was no sign of a foriegn object in the vents he started to get annoyed.

"Gerardo," Enrique said his accent showing just a bit, "I have a few questions, how exactly did this all happen without any kind of evidence left in the shaft? "

He had managed a coherent sentence, he himself was impressed. He would want to check the vents himself with one of those engineers, see if they had a second opinion.

Accidental double.

Flint sat at one of the chairs, some of the people around him where talking about technical stuff. It wasn't his field of expertise and he would rather stay out of that line of work. He much preferred working with organic matter anyway.
"I think we are all beating around the bush here" The doctor finally spoke "I will be the first to mention the elephant in the room, what happened to Supervisor Eddie Rowe was not... how did corporate put it... a 'work-related accident' " Flint adjusted his tie "and i presume others here also understand that this is no minor matter."
Flint glanced to the other faces, all in different uniforms and backgrounds but he hoped the others where with him. "I believe their is a murderer among this station... and I would wish for them to be found before another one of us meets a gruesome end." He looked to Enrique when he said this, hoping the security officer would be able to shed some light on the situation.

(BTW, I found the perfect face to put on Tito. )

Tito looked over to Flint, and chuckled. "Thanks for the observation, Doc." He gruffly said, blowing some cigar smoke out of his nostrils. "I don't know what kind of report you read, but everyone here's pretty clear on the fact that Rowe was butchered by some maniac. Everyone knows this." He continued, shifting his cigar to the other side of his mouth using his lips. He shook his head. Hell of a doctor they had here.

He traced Flint's eyes to Enrique, and also found himself looking at the security officer for answers. He took a few assertive steps forwards, other people stepping out of his way. "Yeah, what about the cameras, Enrique? Security's already gotta know who it is, there's at least two of the damn things in the Mess Hall." He said as he motioned towards one of the cameras on the wall of the conference room, and then stopped, looking back to Flint. "Just in case you were going to make another genius deduction, Doc, that's where Rowe was killed."

"I dunno," shot Gerardo, irritated that he had cover old ground. "There's about a thousand different things that could have caused that extraction fan to fall in on itself. Shit, some parts of this station are well past their sell-by-date. Last inspection was carried out over twelve months ago, and it was mentioned that the drive-shaft was showing signs of wear then. No one took a look, as far as I know." He held up a hand at the thickest part of the crowd, "and don't you go shitting yourselves over that either. This station is just one leaky roof, with more holes than we can plug. We have to prioritise our repairs, and a rusty oxygen extractor fan was not high up on the list."

After Tito and Flint had added their piece to the Murder Mystery Mayhem, Gerardo felt he'd better remove himself as far as humanly possible from being the prime suspect. "I don't know who got Eddie, but he was a good man for what it's worth. No one ever moaned much about him, no more than expected anyway. Whoever did it though must'a been quick, 'cus that kind of butcher work woulda made someone scream to high heaven. I was servicing one of the A-19's lenses down in the workshop at the time, and got about twenty witnesses who can account for me, so no one go pointing fingers my way or you'll lose them."

The pager attached to his waist cawed at him briefly, and he cursed. "Listen guys, I'd like to stay here and play 'Who Dun It', but I've got a power surge down in Hydroponics, and I ain't up for letting one of those water pumps blow a fuse again. Last thing I need is to have to mop up four feet of water for the rest of the week. So if there's nothing else, I'm off."

He headed towards the door.

"Listen, the camera's footage has been removed and taken into custody of those spec ops guys that OuterTech sent in." Enrique said pushing his hair out of his face.

"And at present me and the rest of security aren't being allowed to view the footage, but I agree with the doctor. Someone did it, I trust the soldiers about as far as I can throw Tito. But I don't think they'd put our lives in danger like that, itd be a big damn lawsuit."

Enrique moved so that he could be seen by everyone in the area and began broadcasting his voice.

"Now listen, I'm declaring a state of emergency. That doesn't mean panic, I'm simply saying you all should travel in groups of 3 , as to eliminate the possibility of one killing the other and saying that one started it. your bunk mates will be your ally's and we will be watching each others back. If I catch anyone alone I'll have em in custody before they can run. And trust me, I'm still faster than the devil." He tapped his metal leg for emphasis.

"If you see anyone harboring a weapon you tell me immediately, if someone attacks you make an effort to subdue them, only kill if necessary. And as for the murderer in this room, because one of you has to be him, or her."

He took a short moment to scan the faces of everyone. Catching the eyes of many.

"If you think you're making it off this station without shackles, you have another thing coming. Me and the security staff are more than ready to take you down. We will find you, and you will face justice. For those of you who aren't this individual or this group, you have nothing to worry about. With that I will bid you adew."

Enrique stepped down and motioned for Tito and the Doctor to follow him as he walked towards the door.

Molly's eyes were a continuous back-and-forth dance between the lucent screen of her tablet and towards where her right ankle was nervously jittering, bobbing up and down. From where she was sat, slumped in a chair with one leg crossed over the other, an elbow propped on the chair arm and her mouth smushed tightly against her fist, Molly felt both entirely closed off and guarded from the discussion around her and yet also entirely open to it, ears pricked to every detail and discrepency conversed, trained as she was to recieving and recording information. It was her job after all, 'exactly right' Molly thought to herself, brow furrowing slightly, 'its my job, to handle this...Molly you're a fucking adult, act like one...'

She pulled herself up to sit in the chair, back straight and crossed leg coming down to rest next to the other, and brought a hand down to the tablet in her lap, swiping a finger across the screen to again check the strength of the recording she was taking of the ongoing meeting. This was her job, communications, it was wires and talking and taking minutes, so you could forgive her for still being shook up over the incident...

She wasn't a Doctor, or some seasoned Security grunt, the strongest smell she had ever known was the burning stench of melted motors from data overuse, nothing could have prepared her for the grotesque, overwhelming stink of torn flesh smeared all across the Cafeteria, that stark unforgiving stench. Molly squeezed her eyes tightly for what felt like a few seconds, when she opened her eyes it seemed that the short and concise meeting had reached it's end. She peered around the room, her eyes falling on the hastily retreating form of the Engineer who had spoken. With a start, she rose from her seat, tapping the screen of her tablet to cease recording, and strode across the room towards the door, tablet grasped tightly in one hand.

Skirting smoothly around the three men moving towards the exit, offering a short nod to Dr. Whiteshorn, Molly exited the room and looked down the corridor to her left, spying the stocky build of the Engineer making a slow amble down the passageway. "Valdez." she called, voice firm and sharp, and made the few short strides to stand before him. She brought her tablet up to rest in the crook of her elbow, swiping her free hand across the screen once more. Eyes flicking between the screen and Valdez's face Molly said, "I need you to write up a full maintenance report, with exact detail of the damage. Corporate will need to recieve every detail."

With one last tap, she brought up Valdez's public file on the screen of her tablet, and lifted her eyes to regard the man with an air of patient expectancy.

Tito listened to Enrique, a scowl growing on his face as Enrique explained why security didn't have the footage or have access to it. He kept quiet, however, waiting for Enrique to finish. Inside, however, he was boiling. Why would the company want to keep its own personnel from knowing who the murderer was? Maybe it was just the stress or his long experience with The Company that gave him this feeling, but something was fishy around here, and he had been in The Company long enough that when they were involved, there was ALWAYS something fishy.

He took the cigar out of his mouth, tapping away the end with a synthsteel finger before continuing to slowly smoke it. While Enrique was talking, Tito was thinking. He knew the others would label him as a suspect. He wasn't going to lie, his arms were definitely capable of performing the kind of brutalities inflicted on Rowe, but everyone would be able to vouch that him and Rowe were close friends. Also, he had an alibi as well, being one of Gerardo's witnesses. Come to think of it, all of Engineering was busy during that time.

Tito cracked his neck, and followed Enrique. As he walked, he raised an advanced hand radio to his mouth, broadcasting to one of the members of engineering. "Henderson, I need you to go down to hydroponics. Gerardo's up there investigating a power surge. Meet up with him, tell him I didn't feel comfortable having one of my boys alone down there." He put the radio back onto the holder on his chest, and looked over to Enrique. "So, why've you dragged me out here?"

Enrique let out a sigh and forced his mind to cooperate for the next few minutes.

"Look forgive me if I sound blunt I've been awake for far too long," Enrique said wearily, "I know you think something else is happening and to be honest it looks fucked from every angle. There's a big bad killer walking around the ship and those goons from OuterTech arent letting security view anything on the crime. Hell we practically had to fight to get the autopsy back. These bastards are hiding shit and I need you and yours to watch out, that damage to the vents needs to be linked somehow. Once the hydroponics are done, get some of your men looking at that vent. I wanna know who or what it was that is causing me a headache."

Enrique turned towards the doctor and looked him dead in the eyes, his tone grew extremely serious.

"I want you to check that autopsy file, find any abnormality, if there isn't anything head up with a crew of Titos boys and check that vent for any DNA a possible sabotager may have left behind. I'll also need a list of people on the station with augmentations that would apply heavy strength. At least enough to do something like what happened to Rowe. He was a good man Tito, I know he was your friend but I will still need to question you as well. Those clappers look like they could have done the job and easily too."

Enrique ran his hands through his hair, "Now, I'm trusting both of you. None of what I said here gets directly relayed to any of your underlings or superiors. I don't care if the head of OuterTech is here you don't tell him shit. I'm trusting you two, don't make me regret it."

He extended his right hand to the Tito first, after wards he would shake the doctors hand.

Flint listened to what the head of security had to say "I can get the Autopsy file, corporate had that quickly filed away so it may take awhile for me to get through that mess." Flint though about how much security passwords he would have to run through to finally get to the report.
"and as for augmentations, I can look up the database but as part of Physician–patient confidentiality I can not give them to you. I will look over the files and tell you if I spot anyone who may have been able to mutilate someone, however, the crews medical files can be seen by me and my assistant doctor only." Flint thought for a second.
"I should have the crew do a physical exam to, that way our documents will be up to date"
At that Flint shook Enrique's hand and began to walk away, heading back to his office.

Gerardo blinked stupidly at the Communications Officer as she stood before him, her neutral, almost arrogant expression driving irritation into his brain like a pole driver. With one of the pumps down in Hydroponics about to literally shit all over the floor, he was in little mood for filling out stupid reports about stupid stuff. A not so alien-urge to simply shove her out of the way as hard as he could entered his mind, but he was able to dismiss it at the last moment. Assaulting a colleague was a matter for instant dismissal, and Gerardo's medical bills needed OuterTech's subsidies a while longer.

So, instead, he snatched her tablet from her with his metal hand, and threw it on down the corridor. "Next time, you're going with it," he said, spitting on the floor beside her. "Stay away from me, you stupid bitch."

Not wanting to give her a chance to reply, he brushed on by her. Thankfully, the elevator was directly ahead, and he slammed the "Level 6" button repeatedly with the meaty fingers of his good hand.

"Come on, come on, come on," he muttered. Blood pulsed through him in trembling torrents, and his chest was tightening with rage. Eddie's death hadn't really touched him, not emotionally anyway, but the idea of there being a nut job murderer on the loose had. And if that woman came pestering him again, that murderer might become murderers.

All he wanted to do was knuckle down, and sweat it out until the boat home arrived.

Tito shook Enrique's hand with his powerful prosthetics, nodding his acknowledgment . Despite everything, Tito had some slight respect for the security officer. Sure, it was never really shown, as he seemed to treat anyone with the same, evenly spread amounts of grumpiness. It was nice to see someone who had kept a more or less level head.

Speaking of level heads...

The sharp crack! of molly's tablet hitting the ground further down the hallways drew his attention, and he observed Gerardo's behavior. He narrowed his eyes, and frowned. Maybe it wasn't Gerardo he saw in Engineering, it could've been Jameson. Suddenly, Tito was having doubts. He watched Gerardo go down the lift, and turned to leave, catching up to Enrique. "Hey, did you see what Gerardo did to Molly just a few seconds ago? The bastard smacked her tablet out of her hand and spit at her feet. I'll be telling the rest of my boys to keep an eye on him. I recommend you do the same too."

"Ill have him under my eye," Enrique said calmly, he approached Molly after Gerardo and Tito left. He flashed a smile and began his line of questioning.

"What the hell was that about?" Enrique asked calmly, "Anything between you two I should know about?"

The elevator doors hissed open, and Gerardo walked into darkness.

"Shit," he muttered. "Lights, too?"

He fumbled for his LED flash light, and switched it on. The large expanse of the Hydroponics greeted him, illuminated by the blue glow of his torch. Shadows lurched at him from every steel strut and plant bed; the stars above glittered through the glass dome ceiling.

"Computer, what's wrong?" He called out, hoping the voice activation systems and the station's A.I hadn't failed too.

"Identification please," buzzed a computerised female voice in reply.

"Thank fuck for that," Gerardo chuckled despite himself. "Valdez, Serial 349."

There was a pause, and Gerardo could hear the faint hum of electronics as the A.I sprung to life, busily analysing and diagnosing.

"Power surge on the main fuse board, Mr. Valdez," the A.I said plainly. "Lights are not operational, I'm afraid."

"Cheers," Gerardo replied, irritated.

With a sigh, he started on towards the back of the bay - about a half mile walk - to where he would find the main fuse board. Power surges were not uncommon in an installation like the A-19, but they were the kind of problem that shouldn't exist any more. When Gerardo was at school, some twenty years ago, he had learnt about life on Earth prior to far-reaching space travel, and it amazed him how their simple systems carried flaws still seen today, despite such technological advancements.

Still, power surges wouldn't be a thing in a military base, or a corporate headquarters. OuterTech had skimped on the essentials, and it fell to people like Gerardo to perform caveman services to bridge the shortfall.

Something fell to the floor, off to Gerardo's left. Something wet sounding.

"Fuck sakes," Gerardo spat, shining the torch to where he heard the sound. "If that floor is filling up with water, I'm going to blow a fuse myself."

And then something else feel to the floor, and this tiem Gerardo saw a shadow move with it. Big enough to be a man. Suddenly he remembered Eddie Rowe, and started backing away.

"Who's there?" He called, not taking his eyes off the circle of his torch's illumination. "Stay the fuck back, I ain't trusting no one, ya hear?"

There was an odd kind of dragging noise, as if someone was pulling a sack of potatoes through the water. Gerardo quickly tuned his metal hand into maximum strength - it wouldn't help much in a knife fight, but if he grappled someone, he could snap their arm at least.

A hand suddenly connected with his shoulder, and he span, eyes wide in terror, and shoved with everything he had. The hand's owner flung over a trestle, crashing onto the other side and taking one of the mounted water purifiers with him.

"Easy, Valdez, fuck!" Shouted Henderson, picking himself up, and holding a palm to nasty gash on his forehead. "You fucking crazy, man?"

"Shit dude," Gerardo cursed, and surged forwards to inspect his colleague. "We're not alone in here, some jackass is making a noise over in the corner, and you spooked me."

"No one's down here man, that's why I was sent to back you up. Chief don't want no one left on their own," Henderson paused to pull his hand back, and looked at the blood it had gathered with a slight shock. "Fuck, this might need looking at."

Gerardo nodded, "head back to medical. Sorry man, I honest- wait, what? You sure we're alone down here?"

Something heavy and metal crashed to the floor, about a hundred yards off.

"Let's go," Henderson stuttered. "Could be the guy who got Eddie."

"Bull shit," Gerardo said, waving his flash light around the area of the noise. "We can take this clown."

"Yeah," Henderson chuckled, backing off towards the elevator. "How about we just call Security, eh?"

"Smart," Gerardo nodded. "Computer, alert Security. We have a situation."

"I'm afraid I cannot do that, Mr. Valdez." the female's voice said, neutral as always.

Gerardo was dumbfounded. He'd never heard that template-response before. "What do you mean, you can't do it?"

Foot steps in the water. Henderson stifled a panicked scream, and Gerardo forced him back towards the elevator. "Yeah, you're right man, let's go."

When Molly felt her tablet snatched from her hands, her mouth caught on a spluttered "What the fuc-", distrupted as her attention snapped from the device in the Engineer's metal grasp to where it was flung to the floor. Lips still formed around an unspoken word, Molly lifted her eyes back up to Valdez, her face a picture of incredulous anger. Before she could find it in her to match the mans stance and respond in kind, he announced his departure from their 'conversation' indirectly and crudely, spitting on the ground beside her before marching past her towards the elevator.

Her eyes falling down to where his spittle had hit the ground, Molly breathed in and out slowly through gritted teeth, and resolved to brush off the incident and remain pragmatic. Everyone was...understandably on edge, observations had been made but no answers had been found, and there she was breathing down everyones necks about fucking reports...but at the same time...'fuck him, fuck them, fuck this whole sodding mess...' Molly raved in her head, fists clenching despite herself, 'forgive me for doing my fucking job.'

She breathed in again, and swooped down to collect her tablet off the ground, grasping the slim device in her left hand, Molly again spied the thin, silver band encircling her ring finger, allowed herself to squeeze her eyes shut for a beat of a second, opening them as she released the breath thinnly. Molly hadn't worn her wedding ring since she'd taken this placement, thought it made her look less professional. She'd only started wearing it yesterday, and the invisible, but somehow heavy, weight of home was a comfort to her, even as it ached every second, the unfairness of it, that she couldn't be back on planet happy, and safe.

Molly brought herself up to stand straight again, the tablet gripped in both hands, fighting the urge to fidget with the ring. She noticed Ortega approach, regarding him with a placid expression. As she listened to his line of approach, she gave a quick visual sweep over the tablet in her hands, assessing the damage, before tucking it beneath her arm, weight coming to rest on one foot in a posture that she felt looked more relaxed, more unaffected.

"THAT was Valdez taking offence at me doing my job..." Molly answered, opting to expand upon seeing Ortegas raised eyebrow, "Ever since I got here I've been archiving maintenance reports for anything from a down gravity field to a busted pipe, it's procedure, I guess I usually recieve them from other guys down in Engineering but Valdez has filed them before too so he knows that it's my job."

She shrugged her shoulders a tad, "But obviously the..." she broke off despite herself, a show of gory images flashing through her head, "...incident has him spooked."

Molly felt a frown twitch at the corners of her lips, "Nonetheless, Corporate hasn't sent any orders to cease doing our respective duties, so I'm doing my fucking job-" she motioned towards Ortega with her free hand, "-you're doing your job, the least he could do is retain some semblance of common decency..." she broke off again, lifting her hand to pinch at the bridge of her nose, eyes squeezing shut involuntarily at the sudden slash of pain in her head, the signal of an oncoming migraine.

Tito watched Enrique go talk to Molly before leaving. He crossed his arms, walking back to his office in Engineering. he found himself alone in the hallways, alone to think. This whole thing had corporate bureaucracy written all over it with an over-primed welding torch , and he didn't like it one goddamn bit. Nervously, he chewed on his cigar, before taking it out his mouth. He walked in silence, until he finally reached his office, nodding to Garcia, who was preparing some things.

"Listen, Garcia. I know I assigned you to generator duty with James and Michaels today, but there's something you gotta do for me." He said, flicking off the end of his cigar again. It was starting to run out, and with no more resupplies coming in, this was going to be one of his last cigars before he'd have to switch to cigarettes, and the thought only stressed him out some more.

"What do you need, sir?" Garcia asked, and Tito glanced nervously at the security camera in the corner. He needed to talk to Garcia in a way that Enrique would probably understand if he went through the footage, but nobody else would. Just to be safe, of course. He decided to speak to Garcia in Spanish, since they both came from places where it was spoken.

"Te necesito para tomar la unidad de grabación de la cámara en el comedor y traerlo de vuelta a mí. La compañía podría haber tomado las grabaciones digitales, pero es probable que el material todavía está allí." Tito said, and put his cigar out on an ashtray.

"Pero seño-"

"Ahora, Garcia. Algo sospechoso está ocurriendo, y estoy decidido a llegar al fondo de esto. Si alguien trata de detenerte, diles que lo autorice." Tito added, gesturing towards himself.

"Si, señor." Garcia finally said. He sounded reluctant, but he also sounded like he understood the reasoning. Tito entered his office, and sat down in his chair, taking his communicator.

"Gerardo, Henderson, come in. What's it like in Hydroponics? Have you found the source of the power surge?" He said, relaxing in his chair as he took his box of cigars out of one of his desk cabinets, and checked how many he had left.

Just two.

Shit

"No power," sneered Gerardo, as his repeatedly hit the buttons on the elevator console. "The fuck?"

The footsteps were coming nearer, and though Henderson was shining his torch to and throe, their owner could not be seen. Just more wobbling shadows, stretching at them like menacing black fingers.

"Identify yourself, God damnit," Henderson shouted. A hefty wrench trembled in his hand, whilst the other attempted to stem the flow of blood from his head.

"We're not getting out of here," Gerardo said, stepping away from the console. "We're going to have to deal with this ourselves."

"I can't, man, oh Jesus, can't you get it to work?" Henderson stuttered in a fit of delirium. Gerardo guessed his wound had pushed him into a state of shock, and the creepy footsteps were adding to the payload of cognitive interference.

Shaking his head, Gerardo didn't bother replying. He added his flash light to the fight, and advanced past Henderson. Even he was unnerved. One second the footsteps came from his left, splashing heavily in water, and then as he shone his light in that direction, they shifted off to the right. Was there two guys down here? That'd explain how they managed to open up Eddie. The memory of the canteen massacre sent Gerardo into a rage. He wasn't about to share Eddie's fate.

"You fucks want some of me, eh?" Gerardo shouted, growing increasingly violent. He swung his metal fist into a mobile work table, and bent the thing right in the centre. "Get out here so I can do that to your skulls!"

"Are you insane!?" Henderson screamed.

"Just watch my back, Henderson. We'll be fine," Gerardo half-lied.

The radio at his hip cackled to life, and he cursed himself. Why hadn't he thought of it?

"G**ardo, Hend***n, come in. Wha ****Hydroponics?", it was Tito.

Wasting no time, Gerardo wipped up the device and held down the sending button. "Tito, get Security down here. We've got two unidentified personnel down here, causing a mess and putting the fear of God into us. The elevator has lost power, and the A.I is refusing to sound the alarm."

Henderson screamed, again. Gerardo turned behind him and froze; his mouth hanging open to release a barely audible gasp.

Henderson was suspended three feet into the air, and clutching at his neck. A silhouetted figure, with a slightly hunched back, and what Gerardo guessed to be soem kind of gas mask, stood with one hand wrapped around the engineer's throat. Everything fell deafly quiet, save for the gurgling sounds coming from Henderson.

"Put him down, you piece of shit," Gerardo snapped, getting control of himself. He was not dying today, no sir.

He ran forwards and swung his metal hand at the figure; but its other limb came up and caught his wrist with an iron tight grip. He struggled furiously to free himself, but then his feet suddenly left the floor as his attacker picked him up. He found himself face to face with not a mask, but something foreign, something... alien.

"Gok rik ta," it said, in a voice reminiscent of a bucket of worms.

Then he was flying through the air, the plant beds barely visible shot past him below. He was about to scream in a mixture of terror and dread when he descended, and crashed into a bank of nutrients bags. He tried to pick himself up; his head was throbbing with concussion, and he noticed his metal hand had been ripped out of its housing. With blurred vision, he looked towards the elevators, and saw the thing still had hold of Henderson.

There was a scream, and then the lights came back on. Everything, water pumps and purifiers, hummed to life. Gerardo fell into unconsciousness.

"Systems are now online and operational, Mr. Valdez. Good work," the computer's almost mocking tone was the last thing he remembered.

"Ill have him under my eye," Enrique said calmly, he approached Molly after Gerardo and Tito left. He flashed a smile and began his line of questioning.

"What the hell was that about?" Enrique asked calmly, "Anything between you two I should know about?"