"HQ to Juscar, see anything?"
"Don't see nothing HQ, whatever them Alavian monks were yelling about ain't here. How fair the others?"
"Briggs, Ulen, Mazkar and Gwyndellin are doing fine, Ryzazan and Lodestrum have gone silent, we're checking comms right now, their biometrics say they're alright."
"Got it. Damn this place is creepy, can you get the lights on?"
"Sorry private, there seems to be a power issue in Cathedral Ward right now, your NVG should suffice though- wait, something's on your six."
"Hmm? Umm... HQ, check again, I just looked back and there is nothing behind me."
"Check again private, the radar is saying there is something behind you."
"You boys at HQ sure can joke, it seems you've been tracking a small RC car, wonder how it go dow-"
"HQ to Juscar, could you repeat? Something is interferring with the transmission."
"..."
"HQ to Private Juscar, do you copy? I repeat, how copy?"
"..."
"Hq to Private Talvin Juscar, please come in over, is everything alright?"
"Of course.."
"Oh, thank the Gods, what the hell happened back there? I though I lost you like Ryzazan and Lodestrum."
"Oh, no worries, Ryzazan and Lodestrum are perfectly safe. There is absolutely nothing to worry about."
"Umm... okay then. Finish up sweep and head back to base, chief says there's a situation in Korosovo Square involving a mutilated corpse."
"Do not worry about that, its just a small issue."
"Umm, what did you say??"
"Its a small issue, I will proceed to the scene via transport lines."
"You could just go on foot you know."
"But the transport lines take more people to Korosovo Square."
"Hey... you okay Juscar?"
"Perfectly fine, Juscar Talvin out."

---

Yoruha crouched over the holographic table in the briefing room of the HMG Dawnlight Spirit. Right outside was the sound of supplies being moved and a permitter for a firebase on hanger bay 3 of the Station Endymion. It would be a good staging point and supply location on the ground so they wouldn't have to constantly run in and out of the ship for resupply. Even if it didn't actually assist that, it would give the soldiers a comfort of mind knowing they have a safe fall back place.

But for Yoruha, it didn't. Things just weren't lining up; inspectors and anti-astroid guns were requested and there was reports of heavy power and life system failures, all signs of something going wrong. Yoruha knew that even station in systems ten times as dangerous as the one Endymion was in did have it that bad. And despite everything, the final audio message to GalSen before it went dark reassured that everything was alright. But clearly it wasn't, none of the Recon and Observation teams sent in returned or even made contact.

Stranger still was when the group had arrived at the station. Chunks of it were missing, as if blown away by something yet there was no reports of hostile pirates or the like and astroids don't leave burn marks. The entire station was dirlect, improper care for it meant that is was long forsaken. But, the second boots were on the ground, the entire station came to life, welcoming its new visitors with a display or failing electrics and barely functional life support systems. By that logic, there must have been people on board who saw the ship coming, but no one came out to greet and the ship's AI, Orihime, said there was no identifiable lifeforms on the station.

"Orihime, you sure there's no sign of biometrics onboard Endymion?" Yoruha sternly asked from behind his mask.

"Affermative. I cannot sense anything outside of what is registered for this mission. I will admit there are some areas of the station which seem to have been locked off and will have to engage in hacking to access." Orihime shook her head a little as she bounced from foot to foot in idle, gazing over the sit-rep table and the holograms and pictures it was producing.

"Under Code 09-24s I, Lt. Yoruha Nanashoku, leader of this mission, grants the use of open hacking and cyber warfare protocols for ship AI OR-33.1.D4 "Orihime" aboard the His Majesty's Grace Dawnlight Spirit." Yoruha gave Orihime the all clear and turned back to the entourage of people around him, the coalition if you will for this little endeavor into Endymion.

"Alright people, welcome to Endymion, the galaxay's premiere local for tourism, production, research, you-name-it-Endymion-has-it destination. Most of you might have heard about it or even come here before, all of you know now something is wrong with it." Yoruha paced around the table as a visual of the station appeared in midair and he pointed to a beeping red dot on one of the around rings around the middle of the station, "We are located here, Hanger Bay 3. As some of you have noticed, the dirlect station suddenly turned back on once we arrived here. The combined manpower of all our grunts are constructing a firebase for our use."

Tapping on the visual, Yoruha zoomed in on the station in greater detail, "Our objective is to see what's up with this station. It might be rebels, it might be pirate, GalSen has no idea which is why we're here. Our objective is to see what the hell is going on here and recover the logs of the RO teams."

Pressing some buttons, more dots appeared on the visual of the station, "As of right now, there are some major points which Orihime has marked out for us as possible priority targets. Power and Life Support systems for obvious reasons, the Medical Research facilities on the levels below us to see if this is related to some sort of viral outbreak, Korosovo Square aka the main entertainment district as that's where RO Team 21 was presumed to be, AI housing to see if the station AI can tell us what's going on or at least get some logs and then the Cathedral Ward where the ELEA reported strange sightings and had the people there filed complaints of strange noises and gas leaks. Now, where do all you vote we head down to first? Be quick about it, GalSen is going to want a report soon and the Captain would prefer not to report us sitting around with our thumbs up our ass."

Captain Foulke, the leader of the "NHC-GSAT03", but just the "NHC team" for short, was the first to answer, being the type to already formulate a basic plan while he was getting info. "I say we go for the A.I. housing. If it's pirates or some other force that want to capture the station for their own purposes, they'll probably set up killboxes for Power and Lifesupport, since that's the most logical one aside from A.I. core. If we can communicate, or just datamine, the management A.I. we'll get a good idea for all the other systems anyway, since if its' operational it'll likely have access, and if it isn't, it'll probably have semi-recent logs, at least. 'Course, sweetheart, you already said that... In any case, I'd say my team of clankers and meatbags should make way for the others and be at the forefront."

Newton, right behind (and towering over) Foulke, continued that train of thought. His synthetic voice was hard on the ears on purpose, but easily understandable. "I agree with Foulke. As per our standard, we're always armed to survive hell freezing over. It'd minimize total casualties, as our lot always gets an F-minus in 'Ease of dying'.". Foulke mildly changed the subject, "While we have the free time, actually, I hope the Dawnlight Spirit has the proper protocols in place so, if needed, my mechanical soldiers can upload their consciousnesses? In case their bodies are destroyed, of course. I'd like to minimize 'actual casualties' for everyone involved.". Afterwards, he went back on track. "In any case, yes, I say we go for the A.I. core first to make everything else easier. Alternatively, we could split the taskforces in two, but.. well, that always ends bad in my experience."

Newton gave his opinion on that, "If we do split up the gang, the secondary teams' objective should be to investigate RO 21's disappearance. I, personally, would not mind leading that taskforce."

While the two proper leaders of the NHC team present voiced their opinions on the relevant matters, their engineering specialist, Holtz, was in the doorway trying not to be too noticeable. His helmet was still on, and its' lighted-eyes were deactivated, as they usually were in his case. They worked perfectly fine when they were 'dark' and sucked up power, if minimal... he thought it was retarded that was even possible. Of course, in riot teams, anything that made them look more intimidating was useful, which he noted. As it seemed his presence wasn't going to be called on, he went outside of the briefing area and headed for hanger 03, looking short and meek, as he preferred to look.

He found his (only) buddy in the force, Stealth operative Keneth, and plopped down next to him, both sitting on a crate while watching the dumb muscle of the forces do the hard work. Keneth started their conversation, sounding bored and tired. A yawn, then, "Hey, Max, how's it goin'? What do you think it's gonna turn out to be? Space ghosts?" "Nah... demons. They tried to do teleporters, then demons." "Oh, yeah, ghosts aren't a thing, but demons totally are, huh?" "Well, yeah." "Rrright. Foulke done anything weird yet?" "No. Newtons' trying to make everyone bleed out of their ears, though." "So, the usual?" "Yeah."

"Y'know, Holtz, I thought you'd dig doing stuff on a big ass proper station like this. Nearly as good as walking on a solid planet, is it not?" "Well... it still feels cramped." "True. 'course, this isn't the station, dumbass." "...oh." "You never fall for my bait 'less somethings' on your mind, what is it? Is it just weird seeing all these fuck'n aliens and shit?" "Yeah." "Well, don't sweat it. They're just aliens and shit, if they do shit, we shoot shit. Simple as that, right?" "Yeah... right."

Thirty six GalSen operatives took up points in a semicircle around the ship, standing watch for anything out of the ordinary. They were silent, alert sentinels, who said nothing to those that approached them, and ultimately refused to help the 'National' forces, each from their own respective cultures, communities, militaries. They stood as silent statues, waiting to come to life in the face of possible danger. No one could hear the quiet conversations that went on between these soldiers, maser-type communication devices allowing them to speak without risk of their signals intercepted.

It was just when a very faint howling started that they started perking up.

The first time it was audible, everyone in the hangar froze, looking towards the central, flickering hallway.

Again, a long, drawn out wail, echoing across metal walls, twisted and distorted to even new terrifying lengths.

Men shivered; others curses. Some still went back to setting up their base camp as normal, while others fingered their belts for handguns or submachineguns, cautious and fearful.

Over and over, the wail grew closer, louder. GalSen soldiers had their weapons up and ready, SMGs ready to rock, but their fingers weren't resting on the trigger.

Suddenly, the wail grew to a new pitch- and then stopped entirely, replaced by a low, echoing growl. Five seconds into the rumbling growl, it turned into a rough bark, and the central hallway, the only one that the men on the ship's ramp could see straight down, turned entirely dark. Six GalSen soldiers were already aiming, laser lights hovering at random spots. At the same time, they flipped on their night vision; immediately, the central hallway's lights flicked back on, and the welcoming party was found.

A man stood there, just inside the entrance of the doorway, stumbling forward. A low wail came out of his open mouth, head lolling back and around as he walked, limping and lopsided. The man's clothes were torn; he was covered in blood, and a strange, yellow-y substance that appeared almost like syrupy sand. The substance leaked from great slashes in his arms, his legs, from the man's torn chest, starting at the bottom of his chest and spreading up to his neck, his body pulling itself apart like a hot dog left in the microwave for too long.

The man wailed again, lower jaw unusually hinged, hanging lower, more slack, more lopsided than it should have been. Halfway through it, he coughed, and coughed, and the third cough ended with a spray of blood. The distance between the nearest GalSen soldier and the creature was significant; either way, they edged back, afraid of the ghoul.

The creature stared at them with decaying eyes, and slowly dropped to his knees. A gurgle built up inside his throat, slowly rising until he was bordering on screaming. And not a moment after, the creature's head exploded, spraying gore across the area between the GalSen camping trip team and the central hallway. The body fell forward, lifeless, still gurgling.

Three GalSen troopers turned to look at their fourth. The solder was holding the rifle of the National beside him, a larger calibered gun than the SMGs they currently had. Handing it back to him, he commented out loud, "Anyone have a clue what the hell is going on?"

There were no answers.

A full minute later, the hallway with the most direct route to Engineering, the AI cores, and to the station's more industrial sector darkened entirely. The lights didn't come on again; very faintly, one could hear a chorus of wails.

And every know and then, a set of burning yellow eyes would appear down the hallway at its very end, before disappearing entirely for a few minutes. The occasional rough bark-coughing sound came, beating the wailing for a moment. The sounds made hackles raise, and stay raised.

LT listened to Yoruha and Foulke, silently thinking of what would be the best course of action. He spoke up, the speakers in his suit synthesizing a cold but smooth voice.

"I agree with Foulke. The A.I. core is most likely to contain pertinent information. It is your call if we split up, but again, finding RO Team 21 would be our secondary priority."

Just then, the sound of a gun went off. LT turned to see what it was, and if he could have furrowed his brow he would have. "I was under the impression there weren't any biometrics on this station. So what's that currently covering half the hallway?" he said dryly. LT tilted his head, a signal to his second in command.

Hephaestus immediately understood. "Ralph, CQ, get your mechanical asses over here. We're retrieving the body for analysis. Slate, I want your scope on the hallway. Drop anything that appears hostile."

Ralph was helping the so called grunts with building the firebase. Setting down the piece of equipment he was carrying, he walked over to Hephaestus. CQ joined them, and she lit up her flamethrower, taking point. Slate simply got into position, aiming down the hallway with his rifle, 'Billy'.

The three of them edged forward securely, passing the GalSen soldiers. They quickly approached the body, and, barring any unfortunate surprises, Ralph picked up the body and they retreated back behind friendly lines.

COMMANDER ALICIA BELEREN
HANGER BAY 3
STATUS: OPTIMAL

---

Commander Alicia Beleren stood the furthest away from the rest of the "commanders". Despite her military duties, she really wished she was with her troops. Getting tasks done were way more important rather than discussing how to investigate an obvious death trap. All this technology that the Ryukyuan leader was confusing but it seemed to demonstrate the point well so Alicia watched and listened to the presentation without trying to hurt her brain trying to figure out how it worked. Then it was Foulke's turn to speak. Alicia knew all to well who this joker was, so it would not be surprising to those who caught her rolling here eyes when he spoke up, however, splitting up did seem like a good idea. "Three Recon Squads will join both teams." She offered after LT put in his two cents. "If we split up, the quicker we done, and quicker we go home." She said.

Even though her English was basic compared to everyone else, she didn't care. She confidently walked over to the hologram display and pointed. "Team 1 should go here to robot brain. Team 2 should look here." Alicia said, trying to explain her plan. She then noticed a large room between the two. "Rendezvous here." Alicia finished, pointing to that room. It was then that the chaos ensued. As soon as even the wailing was heard, Alicia dashed away from the group, nearly sprinting towards her Platoon. As she was running, she slung back over her MK28 so she had it held in her hands in a comfortable position. Then a gunshot. When she arrived, there was a desolated body and many soldiers in shock. The Recon Platoon had entirely dropped what they were doing, drawing all of their guns, even with Yuppie who only had his two pistols.

---

---

LIEUTENANT AARON CROMWELL
HANGAR BAY 3
STATUS: OPTIMAL

---

Aaron Cromwell, or Yuppie as his troops love to call him, stared down the hallway, both of his pistols trained on the body. It was... unreal. It was like that man was literally falling apart, and he didn't even seem... alive. Before his head was blown to pieces. He raised his forearm spun his finger and brought it back down, enclosing his hand into his fist. "Tracker Squad!" He called out. His squad convened on his position, with their vectors and Shaun wielding the MK28 for Tracker Squad. "What is plan, Yuppie?" Shaun asked. Aaron raised an eyebrow as his squad member referred to him as "Yuppie". Aaron looked at him dead in the eye. "The plan, corporal, is to get the rest of the platoon here on the double." He then reached for his earpiece and pressed down as it was already tuned to their squad's comm channel. "7th Recon Platoon, 7th Recon Platoon, regroup on Tracker Squad. Cromwell, over and out." He ordered.

Now all 6 squads were accounted for, the Commander also joined her platoon. "Cromwell!" She demanded. "What is going on!?" Commander Beleren interrogated. The Lieutenant saluted as the Commander asked what was happening. "Ma'am, insurgent of strange origin approached the base, ma'am! He was shot ma'am." Alicia turned to the decrepit body as it was being checked. It was then that the tunnel became immensely dark, with many yellow eyes shining through, and then more wailing. "PLATOON! NIGHT-VISON, FORMATION FIREBASE!" She called out. Like perfectly synchronised clockwork, all six squads of the 7th Recon Platoon took position. Each squad's formation was all of the SMG's in a semi-circle with the soldier using the MK28 in the middle of said semi-circle. The front line would be crouched while the marksmen stood up. It was then they waited for the command to fire.

Captain Aaheru stood near the wall, leaning against it. The station was beyond FUBAR. With so many chunks missing, he wasn’t sure there was any point in activating the life support. Captain Foulke was right, the AI core seemed to be their best option. It might not be a bad idea to take a look at the power core, he thought. Having lights would be nice.

Zafir wondered what would they find. He already had an idea in his head who might be responsible, but didn’t want to spark conflict with any religious parties. Maybe he was wrong, but the gas leaks, strange noises and sightings in a cathedral were quite suspicious to him.

He was about to say something when a devilish howl echoed through the hangar. Zafir rushed out just in time to see the abomination fall. Sergeant Aswad jogged up to his side, her voice slightly shaking. “Listen, I know I said this earlier, but this proves my point: we REALLY should just knock this thing out of the orbit and go home, this is a bit too...” she struggled to find the correct word. “My thoughts exactly, but unfortunately not my call.” They watched the remains of the creature carried away. Whatever he thought about religion, this clearly wasn’t their fault. “Sergeant, if you have spare time, Deploy your motion tracker. If not, than back to work.”

Captain Kurtz had his hands crossed across his chest, helmet secured in place with his face unseen behind the black tinted helmet. Compared to pretty much everyone here, Kurtz's gear was outdated at best and archaic at worst, and the same could be said for the rest of his detachment. The 122nd Rangers had fanned out in teams of ten, supporting and reinforcing operations of the other units, his Sergeants and Corporals actively seeking out and communicating with other forces. They were all wearing their masks, which doubled as life support with attached O2 units, which looked old and outdated next to the GalSen guys, and pretty much everyone else.

Before the Captain could put his opinion in, shots were fired and he turned his head towards them, directing the reserve section of Rangers on over to reinforce the 7th Recon, spread out behind the crouched SMG users and avoiding obstructing the view of the Marksman. The eight regulators had their rifles trained down range as well, while the Corporal and Sergeant focused on keeping an eye out for flanking maneuvers and liaising information back to Kurtz, respectively. The TN-201 members moving out to collect the body for analysis was smart, and the Sergeant had his men focus on covering them specifically instead of general fire, should the need arise.

While the other two sections of Rangers went about patrolling and helping set up, covering gaps and missing necessities as needed, Kurtz turned his attention back to the briefing, noting the one comment about sinking the place. That would have been preferred, but they had their orders. Now he could properly put his opinion in, addressing the small fact of his less than modernly equipped soldiers. "Good points made by all so far, if I may though, suggest that the Power and Life Support systems receive some level of priority? Even with the damage as is, knowing if we can maintain functioning life support in other, uncompromised areas would be useful. Plus, if power is down, getting to any of the other sections might be difficult as well. Barring a better look at that corpse, I'd think we're dealing with bio weapons of some sort or another. Regardless of the who and why of deployment."

Karumi thought she had seen it all. Every disease, every illness, every plague, every injury, but the... thing in front of her was disproving years of experience and training. The soldiers outside said that they saw this creature walking towards their poistion, wailing and moaning before roaring a noise to make Death cower in fear. A few good shots put him down and some of the Majin had brought back the body.

Now, with the gurgling body, gently twitching on the medical bed, in her veiw, she was at a lost of words. She heard of fungal diseases and alien microbes and organisms being able to alter the appearance of their hosts, but nothing, nothing at all could explain the huge growths on the body. Judging by the carcass (or what was left of it), it appeared to be a human male, his jumper noting him as a station engineer of sorts. Carefully plucking away at a modly tentadrill, Karumi hastily grabbed the ID badge. She thought that the age of IDs was over but apparently not; the card marked him as a certain "Thomas Spoonmaker". By the Emperor humans have weird names.

"Chief, what is you're take on this?" One of Karumi's subordinate doctors asked.
"I don't know what to think of this right now," Karumi threw her hands up, "This is biological and organic but that's as far as I can tell. This... thing is breaking all rules of biology and every other life science."
"Shall we start the autopsy then?"

Karumi slumped in her chair and waved her hand, signaling permission granted. Within seconds the body was moved under a nearby light and aproned doctors walked in, followed by carts of surgical equipment and storage boxes. The snapping of latex gloves signaled start of the careful cuts being made on the body. The medical Chief leaned back and watched with great interest as splurred of yellowish pus-like liquid spilled out. A smattering of mutters between the surgeons ensued as they began to make more but, letting the more of the pus and blood to spill out.

"Remind me to get the clean up team down her- wait. What the hell is it doing?" Karumi slowly rose from her chair, taking note of a tentadrill rising out of the corpse like everyone else. It was fat, the "skin" peeled in some places revealing a revolting cable of muscle and wart-like growths, "What the hell is that thing?"

"I-I don't know..." one of the surgeons replied over his headset, "Its some form of tentadrill-ish growth-"

CRASH
CLANG

"FUCK MOVE IT!"
"HOLY SHIT HOLY SHIT HOLY SHIT."

Karumi's jaw dropped, the body was still alive, and angry. It had just skewered one of the surgeons and was slowly raising him into the air, his blood and entrails raining down on to the tile below. Another one had been tossed aside like a toy into a wall as the tentacles violently flailed around. Carts where turns over, shelves brought down, people cowering on their knees behind whatever cover they could find as their comrade was being raised higher into the air and the lights rained down glass and sparks.

The doors hissed open as soldiers rushed in, the burst of gunfire erupted as they peppered the thing with rounds until it weighted half its mass in bullets. Blood and strange liquid now covering the walls in great big splats, another medical team dashed in to treat the wounded, the poor bastard who got impaled would have to be put into a cryopod and sent back for burial, there was no saving him.

"S-so..." Karumi clutched the edge of her table, her hands and body trembling with fear at the sight of excessive gore and reanimation for what seemed like a second time if the man had already been reanimated once "Wh-wh-what in the name of t-the Emperor was th-that?"

---

Yoruha paced around the table, "So, it seems we're all going to the AI- Wait, what the hell was that?"

Guns had blasted into life outside. Short bursts, most likely a single target or a weapon malfunction.

"Yoruha to Firebase Arsenal, come in Firebase Arsenal." Yoruha tapped into his comms to try and raise the radio operator station side, "Yoruha to Firebase Arsenal, what the hell was that?"

"Firebase Arsenal to Yoruha, Mashima here. Something stumbled its way out of the corridor and the GalSen guys open fired."
"What do you mean something stumbled out of the darkness? Did you identify them?"
"Umm... we couldn't. It wasn't... normal?"
"What do you mean 'not normal'..."

Yoruha looked out of the window and saw exactly what Mashima was talking about. Below them was a crowd of people around a metal cart, on it was a grotesque creature, all manner of growths and things growing out of it.

"Umm... Lt... there's something out there."
"What do you mean Mashima?"
"Holy shit, they're getting close."
"Mashima? Mashima!" Yoruha turned to the ship AI and barked, "Orihime! What the hell is out there?!"

A silence befell the room, only the whirring of machine and sounds of a working ship. No one spoke as Orihime began to speak, "I... don't know."

"Shit..." Yoruha cursed after another pause, "Alright people, you're all dismissed. Get out there and find out what's going on. I think the welcoming party has come out to greet us. Once the this situation is resolved we will regroup at the firebase. Got it? Good."

Yoruha picked up his gun and dismissed himself, calling over four soldiers as he left for the station. He didn't know what was going on, but he was sure that there was no protocol for what was about to happen.

Dashing out on to the deck, Yoruha got a proper look at the situation. Three hallways, always a classic. Two of them were brightly lit and welcoming, and one darkened like the vacuum of space behind them, ominous sounds drifting out of it.

"Mashima!" The LT yelled at the radio operator, "Where the hell is this horde you imply of?"
"Umm... they w-were therr a se-second ago..."
"Where?!"

The Ryukyuan operator raise a finger and point to the dark hall way, "We he-heard noises. Lottsa th-them. An-an-and eyes, they we-were all... staring an swaying li-like they where watching us..."

Yoruha wasn't impressed, the words unnerved him a little, but only a little. However something clearly spooked Mashima and some of the others enough to get them this scared.

"Alright everybody," Yoruha turned to face everyone on base, "I want eyes on that dark corridor at all times, you see something, you shoot it. I also want to see if we can't flank whatever the hell is in that damned place via the other halls, any volunteers?"

It was definitely a disadvantage being so tiny.

The Deminutian commander sighed heavily, stretching up on her tiptoes in a vain effort to add a few millimeters to her height, craning her neck to see the holographic display. She was standing next to the Ryukyuan lieutenant who was at the holodisplay. Not out of some display of superiority. Just because she literally couldn’t see anything from the floor and did not particularly want to end her days as a commander by being crushed under some GalSen operative’s heel. Not that her current position was much safer; she was somewhat afraid the Ryukyuan was going to just forget she was there and fling her to the floor.

She studied the holographic maps intently. The clear goggles she wore were broadcasting to her lieutenant and her captains, though none of them were in the room, instead helping to pilot the mechs to set up the firebase.

She was about to suggest checking the medical records when she was interrupted by a sound that made her blood run cold. A wail from the corridor.

“Bloody hell, Aeli, are you alright? Your vitals just went crazy.”

“Shut it, Kaiov, I’m fine.” The terror that seized the girl made her snippier than usual, even.

“Oookay… what are our orders?”

She hesitated for a second, looking at the Ryukyuan commander as he gave orders. A dim thought wormed its way into her mind.

“Aeliryn?”

“Sorry, I was thinking. We listen to the Ryukyuan guys now, I’m not in command.”

Any volunteers? the lieutenant asked.

Aeli didn’t at first realize that she’d spoken until the words were already out of her mouth. She was proud that her voice wasn’t trembling as she tried to project her voice, make herself seem bigger than she really was.

“Us. We’ll go. You all outgun us and outstrength us but we can get into places you all can’t. we’re fast and we’d be hard to bite or claw, if that’s what those… things attack is. Besides, there are seventy of us. We can cover a lot of ground all at once.”

Her headset was buzzing with her subordinates’ anger, and she hissed, “Shut up, the lot of you. You know it’s the best thing we can do. We’re out of our league here for firepower.” The girl was trembling, from the excitement, terror, or just from being cold.

“Commander, we await orders.”

She thought quickly. “Scramble, all of you. Leave the machines behind the firing line. Jetpacks and magnets. Hydrogen packs. Lasers. Someone bring my gear and at least two medkits—On second thought leave the medkits.”

There were muffled sighs of protest, but she ignored them. They were a wonderful group, when they listened, but suggest anything that wasn’t protocol and they flipped out.

Within a few moments all of the Deminutians were assembled. Kaiov brought Aeli’s suit to her and she started putting it on, sighing in relief as the hydrogen filter whirred to life and she could breathe easily again. Deminutians breathed almost pure hydrogen on their homeworld, and while they could breathe human-type air, it was very heavy and hard for them to fully catch their breath. Their space-suit contraptions had a small filter mechanism in the mask that enabled other gasses to be filtered out. These suits also had small magnets on the soles of the boots, to enable the Dems to walk around on the ceilings and walls and keep from being flung around inside their mechs as they were moving around. The third unique feature was the small jetpack on each suit that in effect enabled flight, or at least, very-long-distance leaps. All in all, the suits were an extremely useful bit of equipment.

“You sure about this, Aeli?” Kaiov asked as he helped his young commander zip herself into her suit.

“We need the report sent back to GalSen that we were useful. Otherwise we’ll be kicked off the senate for not pulling our weight.”

“Yeah, but do we all need to volunteer to go into the dark?” Kaiov swallowed, and Aeli realized that he was afraid.

“Yes, we do.” She said, and turned to face the Ryukyuan lieutenant again.

“Well?” she asked, crossing her arms. She would have seemed imposing, if not for her height.

---

The crimson GalSen soldier took a step forward from the shadows, SMG slung across his chest, hanging by its strap, free from his hands. His hands, however, were placed on the edge of the console, which he used a rest to lean against it, giving everyone a view of him- including the 'little people' commander. The faceless, impersonal mask glanced about, taking in everyone at the meeting, the various races of the Galactic Senate.

The synthesized, artificial, modified voice spoke, agreeing with the little people who, as he won't admit, could never pronounce or spell out the name.

"Agreed. If the little ones run recon, we can get a good idea of what's going on without risking larger targets. Although, if you want to send out your entire team, you might want to split them up. We have three hallways and about a dozen maintenance hatches or ventilation vents that connect to this bay. And in addition to that, there is something intelligent inside this station somewhere. However, that intelligence might not be friendly. A couple of operatives have noted working cameras and speakers; had there been someone inside with control, they would've been able to speak to us, and warn us. If we secure the reactors and Life Support, we can make sure the environmental shields will keep the station from getting hit by asteroids, and keep oxygen from leaking. With the state of the station as-is, those of us without full-coverage spacesuits with oxygen might not be helpful for anything more than using up our supplies."

"We have a about two hundred thirty individuals here. I think we can split up our team into two or three groups. I have thirty six GalSen troops, including myself; I'll leave our pilots and sixteen of the twenty four regular troops. I, myself, will be staying with the ship. My three officers will split up with. Commander Asandre, I mean no offense, but it might give you a more commanding view to ride on the shoulder of Lieutenant Sawyer."

One of the blue-suited GalSen soldiers stepped forward from where they had been standing, formerly next to their commander. He gave a stiff salute to his commanding officer, and a lighter synthesized voice came from his helmet.

"Aye, sir. Commander Asandre?"

He turned to her, waiting for confirmation or not.

LT shook his head as he listened to the reports coming in from Hephaestus and the rest of the crew that was in the hangar bay. The deceased man coming back to life was unfortunate, both for what it meant for the teams and for the unlucky man that had been killed.

"These things seem at least partially intelligent - From the reports I'm getting, they're waiting in ambush down the darkened halls, and they can recognize and distinguish between us and them. If I didn't know better, I'd say they - or whatever's controlling them - knows about psychological warfare. I recommend we stick to bright corridors when possible, and focus on getting power back to as much of the station as possible. We should also dispose of any corpses we see. We don't know if they'll come up and stab us in the back."

On private channels with his team, he ordered, "Disintegrate any body you come across, or at the very least make sure it's really dead and can't pose a threat to us. That's a standing order. CQ, that goes doubly for you - use your shotgun to take them out, then dispose of the bodies with your flamethrower. Keep it cool people, this is something we can understand and beat."

That private message took less than a second to process and send to his team. Back in the command room, LT spoke again. "I volunteer my team to head to power and then life support. We need to know what's going on there, see if we can get some of the lights working again. We can follow behind the Deminutians and provide them with support, and then head our own way to the power subsystems."

---

In the rapidly constructing firebase, Ralph was setting up a section of wall and talking to Tess. "I hope LT doesn't have us go with him into the station. This isn't a combat chassis, you know?"

Ralph stepped out of the way, letting Tess weld the metal pieces together. "You've got plenty of strength, plus you can squish those things underneath your feet. He's probably going to bring me along because I'm the tech expert, and all I've got is this AR. Something tells me that won't be quite enough. So... regretting volunteering in the military yet? This doesn't seem like your typical GalSen Operation, you know."

Ralph shrugged. "Not really. We have a chance to help whoever might be left. Besides, this station is too big to just scrap. Seems like a waste is all."

"If they were really planning on retaking this station GalSen just should have sent an army in. No one knows what happened to the other squads that were sent to investigate, and we're just the next in a long line of escalating investigators. I just think we should bring a fleet and bombard this place from a safe distance; it's already giving me the creeps," Tess darkly replied.

Ralph had no reply for that, so he simply continued to work.

---

"What do you think, CQ?"

"I'm thinking we should take over the world."

A '>:(' flashed over Hephaestus's holographic projector. "That's not what I meant and you know it. What do you think of the station?"

CQ shrugged, toying with her flamethrower. "It's a wreck. I'm looking forward to setting some things on fire, but we've seen the reports. Not much atmo left, and the Life Support systems are apparently shot to hell. I'm not sure I'll have much of a chance to use my flamey here," she sighed sadly.

"Not even the least bit concerned about the people who've died here, huh?" Hephaestus asked dryly. He continued without waiting for an answer. "Well, if you ask me, I agree. It's a wreck. It'll cost more to rebuild and refit this station than to just build a new one. I'm not sure what GalSen was thinking on this one. Better off cutting our losses then sending yet another team to get lost in here."

"Oh, is big ol' Hephaestus afraid of the dark?" CQ teased.

Hephaestus snorted. "Hardly. I'm afraid of whatever the hell caused this mess."

"Well, I'll be sure to light up the dark and keep you warm then," CQ silkily replied, ignoring the fact that they couldn't really feel cold or warm. She flicked on her flamethrower for emphasis.

"...You're a damn tease, CQ."

---

Slate was still aiming his rifle down the darkened hallway. A pair of yellow eyes peaked from around the corner. There was a snarl. Slate pulled the trigger. The loud bark of his rifle, the sound of a melon exploding. Several shrieks pierced the hangar bay, shrieks of anger.

Slate snickered.

Thema muttered something about engineering duties and returned to her squad, looking toward the darkened hall every now and then, feeling slightly safer that way. The eyes glowing in the dark were unnerving, but they gave her an idea. She rummaged through multiple boxes until she fished out a pack of weapon lights. She took one and switched it to rapid flashing. Narix eyes also glowed slightly in the dark, but were sensitive to bright light. If her theory was correct, this could be the case of those space zombies, or whatever they were.

Zafir returned to the briefing room, not knowing what to think of what happened in the past few minutes. Truth be told, he had a hard time believing the Deminutians, barely larger than his hand, would be of any use here, but their commander, however small, was making some valid points. With the TN-201 volunteering to take power and life support and the Deminutians looking around for ways not to meet the new inhabitants, all the basic needs except patching up the station’s hull were being taken care of. Zafir turned to the crimson-armored GalSen soldier.

“We could head down to the sick bay and see if we can find any clues of what happened, maybe even something about the gas that was leaking in the cathedral, provided it is accessible at the moment. Unless you have something else in mind, in that case, I’m all ears.” A loud shot rang through the hangar. “But whatever we do, we should do it before our neighbors decide to come in greater numbers.”

While the teams were still debating over what to do, LT received an automated report from Orihime. It seemed some of the cables were being detached, or somehow going inactive in the station. That meant whatever was left of the power was being wasted, and not sent to areas that needed life support and light. LT made a split decision.

"Yoruha, I'm taking my team down to the power generators. Something's interfering with the power transmissions. This station is falling apart, I'd wager we don't have long before all the atmo is gone. We'll do something about that and life support. I'll keep you posted."

With that, LT made a short transmission to his team. "Form up in the hangar bay. We're leaving in three. Make sure you're fully loaded. Hephaestus, I want you overloading that cannon of yours. Grab whatever scrap you can find and get it melting. Something tells me we're going to be here a while."

Three minutes later on the dot, TN-201 was moving down the left corridor that still had lighting. LT and CQ had the lead, Tess and Hephaestus were second in line, and Slate and Ralph were further back, bringing up the rear. They moved steadily, keeping an eye on the corridor and on the ventilation shafts. It wasn't long before-

"Contact!" Three of the mutated beings were rushing down the corridor. BAM! One of three went down, a large hole in its head. Soon after several thumps could be heard as Hephaestus fired his cannon, taking down another of them with super heated plasma that hit like a truck. Finally, LT let loose two bursts from his rifle, severing the legs of the final attacker. LT nodded to CQ, who sent a small transmission equivalent to a grin. She walked up to the disabled bodies and let loose with her flamethrower. In seconds they were charred and writhing, the bodies trying to reanimate and continue attacking. But the fire fried their nerves and melted their muscles, and in seconds the three bodies were truly nothing more than that - bodies.

LT radioed back to base. "TN-201L reporting, we had contact with three tangoes. All green on this end. Still recommend disposing of the bodies, fire seems to do the trick. They're tough to keep down. Over and out."

For several minutes it went like that, the team moving forward and taking out the mutants as they came. For the most part Slate, LT and Hephaestus did most of the killing, leaving the cleanup to CQ. Tess, for her part, was collecting samples to do independent analysis on later, and taking diagnostics when they passed by any terminals. Ralph at one point stopped two mutants from sneaking up on them, giving Slate the time to pull away before they overwhelmed him. Between Ralph's foot and Slate's rifle, they were on their way again and even more wary of attacks from behind.

In 20 minutes time they had reached the Power Generators. No mutants were in the area, but LT had himself and Hephaestus on guard anyway. Tess was looking at the main terminal hooked up to the generators. "Two of the generators are offline, another two are heavily damaged and leaking radiation. And from the looks of it, power transmission is at an efficiency of 57%. That means the cables are either damaged or disconnected in some places. We've got some work ahead of us if we want to get those up and running again."

LT pondered her statements. "Any chance the radiation is keeping the muties away?"

Tess shrugged. "Possible but unlikely. They don't seem to have any concern for their well-being, I doubt they'd notice the radiation. I'd say keep an eye out."

LT nodded in return. "TN-201L to Firebase, we've found the power generators. They're in rough shape, and some are leaking radiation. Hardsuits are a must here. Repairs are going to be lengthy, and it seems our friends have been munching on the cables. That or they disconnected them somehow. We'll await further orders, but for now we'll hold position and focus on getting some repairs done. Over."