Whispers of gusting wind from outside the ship were the only sound that greeted Max's ears on the frozen planet, and the same wind cooled the lifeless hangar to bone chilling temperatures, but Max's jacket and pants provided ample warmth. Callum, Priness, and the rest of the group cautiously moved in front of him, as he played rear guard of the group.
Less pairs of human eyes on his back this way, he figured.
One by one, the group slowly dissappeared into the dimly lit hanger through the air lock. Before anything else, it was the smell that hit Max, and following Callum farther into the base, he saw the source. Dead and mutilated guards. Full of bloodless holes, something that Max hadn't seen in the past. Sure, sometimes bullet wounds didn't bleed, but three bodies full of dry wounds made no sense. The others seemed to share in his disbelief.
After giving the cold coprses a close inspection, Callum led the rest of the group forward, through a doorway leading them to the main area of the lab, with warmer air that was just as filled with death as the hallway. Trying to ignore the lifeless body at his feet, Max took a few extra moments scanning and memorizing a layout of the base, as the rest of the group continued further. The group made it to the main lab, which was devoid of any sort of life, or any signs of death. As if everyone left instantly, at the same time. The room gave Max the chills, even with the warm air pumping out of the vents around him. Superstition, which didn't come naturally to the Nohvan, washed over him, and his legs burned to run back to the ship, leaving whatever was let loose on this base to continue wreaking havoc in peace.
The seven of them stood, peering around the labratory, until Callum suggesting splitting up, to which the rest of the group responded to by scattering in all directions. Maxamillian, content to stay in the labratory, where it was warm and free of dead bodies, stuck around with the Pirate King. He felt some anxiety leaving Princess to her devices in, for all they knew, was a facility filled with monsters the like of which the universe had never seen, but, seeing her walk off with the woman armed with three bionic limbs comforted him slightly.
Not wanting to stand around and be usless, Max began to scour the room for clues, something, anything that could tell him what had transpired. Hidden doors along the walls, open vents along the ceiling or floor, extra doors that led to closets or new hallways, Max searched for anything he could, but his efforts were sadly fruitless. A sigh of discontent flowed from his nose, and he finally turned and broke the eerily silence that had set in when the rest of the group left.
"Hey Callum," he spoke in a low tone, "You find anything on that computer yet?"
"No, nothing that could help us figure out what happened here. There are just files about their research, the animals they were studying and the enviroment of the world." Callum replied as his eyes were focused on the computer screen.
"What about you? Anything?" He said as he turned towards Max. They didn't have anything to go off of.
No, nothing- Max paused as he finally noticed something. Something shined in the corner of the room farthest from him, reflecting the harsh flourescent light that covered the lab. A surveillience camera. "Scratch that, actually. Tell me what you see in that corner, Callum." Max said, pointing to the corner of the room farthest from them, near one of the exits.
"I see it, that's a security camera. That might be a lead." Callum affirmed as he looked at Max then towards the camera. He recognized the Nohvan from years ago. The man had a reputation. The Black Stars used smugglers, he wondered if they had gone through him.
"We need to find the control room, hopefully whatever killed the scientists forgot about the cameras." Callum said as he walked out of the research lab back to where the base layout was displayed. The control room was located on the opposite side of the facility.
"It's on the other side of the base, let's check it out." Callum said to Max with a nod.
Max follwed suit, passing Callum as he looked at the map.
"Way ahead of you, dude. He said, slightly amused.
With Callum in tow, Max turned the corner to the hallway that led to the Control Room, seeing a few more dead, bloodless bodies sitting near the door. Dry holes peirced their armor, while blackened holes pierced the walls around them. Limbs and necks were bent in unnatural angles, as if something came around after their death and broke them. The looks of fear and pain that were on their faces when they died remained cemented, as if a freeze frame of their final moments. The light above the doorway to the control roof had broken, and the light coming from the control room was flickering, giving the corpses an unsettling presence. Foreboding of some evil force that still lurked, Max gave his head a quick shake, raising White Wolf and giving his arm a quick stretch before shouldering the stock.
"I'll take point, just make sure I don't get bit in the ass." He said, slowly beginning his approach to the door. He could see the barrel of Callum's assult rifle out of his peripherals, and he felt a bit more comfortable knowing it wasn't pointed at him.
Still a human, though. He said, remembering the ill feeling in the back of his head. It had been a very long time since he had worked alone with a human, and he didn't like it even then.
The pair neared the door, with Max and Callum putting their backs against the wall. They shared a nod, and wordlessly, Max pivoted around the door frame, and crouched, with Callum pivoting and standing above him, rifle pointed over Max's head.
Standing in the door way, with barrels of weapons pointed in the same direction, the men scanned the control room, revealing more of the same. Littered across the room were perforated bodies, some in heavier armor than the ones before. Necks and arms contorted, looks of horror still plastered on the faces of the dead men and women, Max felt something in his chest stiffen. Everytime the light above would flicker off, the blue glow of the computers around the room would, for a moment, give the dead faces look straight out a horror movie, as their frozen eyes stared at Max, screaming for him to leave. He'd seen his fair share of dead bodies, but nothing like this. Trying his best ot shove his fear and anxiety to the back of his head, Max returned to his feet, lowering his gun, but keeping his grip on it tight.
Callum shuffled in behind him, beginning to root through drawers and cabinets, but Max's attention had become fully glued to the surveillence computer that had given the corpses their grim glow. He had begun to rewind the security recordings, and it wasn't long before he rewinded back far enough to see the facility working normally. He skipped forward a bit, and landed as something began to go wrong at the entrance to the hangar. Guards and scientists were scrambling around, faces twisted with fear and confusion. Men and women in guard armor started handing guns to one another, and tried to herd some of the scurrying scientists to safety. Max switched the feed to the cameras in the laboratory, and the situation there was different, yet still foreboding.
Leaving their workstations and computers, the confused men and women clad in white jackets were all crowding around the doors and exits, all looking up and down the hallways, apprehension and fear written in their expressions. Suddenly, on the side of the room farthest from the camera, a security guard squeezed their way through the scientists, shouted a few sentences to the room, and exited through the door nearest the camera. Many of the researchers followed suit, scrambling to shove themselves out the door, leaving their work and research strewn across tables and desks, same as it had been when they were still doing their job. Like a herd of cattle stampeding away from a thunder clap and lightening flash.
Switching back to the hangar camera, Max was granted with the view of a few guards already laid upon the ground, a few of them still writhing in pain, taking in their last breaths. They sat in the same positions that they had been found when the team entered the hangar. Max's fingers scrambled to rewind the video, but it only rewound for a moment, before it turned to static. When the static ended, the guards were back standing, alive, preparing for something that was coming towards them. One of the guards near the front, a blonde haired woman in a face mask, began to fire her assault rifle, but, as the muzzle flashed, the static took over the screen, lingered for a few moments, and then returned to the view of the dying and dead bodies. Max rewound and replayed the tape over and over again, aggitation growing everytime the static appeared, and staring for a few moments too long once the injured and dead reappeared, living out their last moments over and over again. Max fianlly paused the tape, staring deep into the eyes of security guard whose final death throe twisted his head far enough up that his eyes met their resting place staring at the camera, and straight into Max's eyes.
The Nohvan's breathing began weaken as his chest shook, losing the strength to break his staring contest with the corpse on screen. The glow from the screen burned his eyes, and the more he tried to fight staring at the screen, the more his teeth gritted against eachother, and pain flared in his temples.
"What's wrong, man? You see a ghost?" The corpse spoke.
Max's head jumped up, as the tunnel in his vison broke away, and the hum of the electronics in the room reentered his conciousness. To his left, Callum stood, looking Max up and down, a suspicious look on his face. He turned to the screen, looking over the screen.
"You've been staring at this for quite a while. You see something I don't?
Max's view left Callum and returned to the screen, only to find that the corpse that he had been staring at was instead stared at the ceiling, his arms and legs broken in angles that would make a contortionist jealous. His eyes widened, and a bit of panic began to set in before Max could calm himself down.
"No, no." He said said, shaking his head as he looked away from the screen. "I was just thinking, whatever attacked this place must've been some sort of fucking monster. Check this out." Max began to start replaying the section with the static, but Callum brought a hand up, signaling Max to stop.
"Yeah, I know, I saw. I kinda noticed that you started replaying the same part over and over again. It's fucked up, but you're also starting to act weird." Callum said, eyeing Max up and down. He had too been shocked by the sights he had seen, it made his stomach twist. No soldiers could have done this, it was too brutal. This was the work of something else, something terrifying.
Max sighed. "Yeah, I know. Just, something about this place doesn't feel right. I don't want to get all scary movie on you, but this is by far the most overbearing place I've ever been in. Something fucked up is going on here."
Puncuating the end of his sentence, a low, dull scratching sound came into earshot, and both Callum and Max instantly readied their weapons, both pointed at the door. As the noise grew closer and closer, the two took postions around the room, Callum throwing a body off a table and overturning it, Max taking cover behind a support column farther back. Both weapons remained pointed at the door, as the scratching grew nearer and nearer, before the source of the noise finally crossed their field of view.
One of their crew members shambled past, dragging in his wake one of the mangled bodies of the security crew that had been littered around the base. Callum turned, giving Max a look of incredulity, as they both moved from their postions, walking towards the door, weapons still readied.
Max left the room first, then Callum behind him, and their sights trained on their crew member as he kept his slow shamble moving forward. The duo caught up quickly, slowing their pace to keep distance before speaking. Callum stared, utterly confused by what was transpiring.
"Reaver!" Callum barked. His weapon still clenched. "What the fuck are you doing, man?
Reamaining silent and facing away from the duo, Reaver stopped, still gripping onto the collar of the dead guard. Max, being closer to the man, slowly took a few steps forward, as Callum sat behind, gun trained on the man. Taking a deep breath, Max reached out with his left hand, placing a firm grip on Reaver's shoulder, giving a gentle tug to turn the man around.
Without much resistance, Reaver turned, dropping the dead body, and taking a few stumbling steps before steadying himself again. His face was hauntingly blank, and his stare bore straight through the two men pointing guns at him, like he was staring hundreds of miles ahead. His face had turned a pale white, more like a ghost in complexion than a man. A cold sweat dripped down his cheeks. His hands were shaking, they took with sweat.
Callum spoke up. "Mask, back the fuck up."
Max obeyed, and slowly walked back, and as Reaver came more into view, the man dropped his knees. His stare was now downwards as the tremble in his limbs became more apparent. Max's chest tightened again, and his grip on White Wolf tightened, as he took a few more steps back, standing aside Callum. Reaver remained errily quiet.
Callums voice was a bit lower, filled with apprehension, as he spoke. "Reaver, what the fuck happened to you? What did you see?"
Slowly, Reaver's downward stare found it's way to Callum. The gaze sent a chill down the Ex space pirate's spine as he felt as if a dead man was looking at him. No person did this, no way in hell. He wondered if he had ended up in a real life Hollywood horror movie as Reaver's jaw dropped and spine tingling words uttered from his lips.
"The voices never stop talking, do they guys? They just fuckin' yap and yap and yap, as soon as we walked in this place. They just. Don't. Stop." He muttered as more sweat dripped from him.
"What voices? What are they saying to you, Reaver?" Max spoke up, a bit unsure of himself. The question aroused a questioning glance from Callum.
"That's the thing, I have no fucking idea. There were so many voices, all talking over each other. I can't understand a single one of them. They just kept talking and talking, I couldn't give them what they wanted. Then they all went silent, I thought that was it. N-no, there was another. Deep, visceral with each letter it spoke I felt my bones rattle. It won't stop, please God, help me, please." Reaver replied as his words became more difficult to comprehend, tears had formed in his eyes and he brought both hands to his face as he cried into them.
"Please God, make it stop!" He nearly screamed.
"And how the hell do we do that? I don't hear anything, neither does Max. Callum asked, looking down the sights of his weapon, apprehension becoming a bit clearer in his voice than before.
"Kill me. Reaver said as he sprawled forward slowly,using his hands to drag himself towards his fellow crewmembers. Blood was on his face, spread by the tears. At that moment Callum noticed Reaver's fingers were leaking blood, he had been running them against a surface in his insanity. With each movement more crimson drops stained the metallic floor.
"That's the only way." He added, desperation and terror the only emotions on his face.
"Ah, you know we can't do that. That would mean us dying, too, remember? Callum advised. As he lowered his weapon to show he wasn't going to comply with the crazed man.
"I can do it myself. The voi-ices they have to s-stop. I can't fucking take it." He said, drawing his revolver from his holster. His fingers shook as he grasped around the weapon's edges, it was loaded. The barrel rattled against his jaw as he pointed it upwards towards his brain.
Max and Callum tensed up,then aimed at the deranged man.
"Woah, now, Reaver. You don't have to do all that, now. Just put the gun down, and go back to the ship." Max said, aiming at the man's head.
Reaver stood and stepped forward, lessening the already short distance between them. Max and Callum stepped back, barking for Reaver to keep his distance, but he didn't listen. The deranged man continued approaching, and the duo kept shouting at him, but to no avail. The revolver shook in his hands with each step. It's butt inked with blood.
Reaver inhaled, then released a bloodcurling scream, more akin to beast than man. He suddenly twisted the revolver around towards Callum and Max then squeezed the trigger with animalistic furiosity. Three shots rang out, but Max was unable to tell who fired first. Both Max and Reaver recoiled, Reaver from the bullets that struck his hand and arm, severing a few fingers and destroying his weapon. Max felt his head jolt back, as the bullet struck the upper left part of his helmet. The shock stunned him, and he stumbled back, his arms getting limp. Callum rushed over and grabbed Max by his shoulders, shaking him, shouting words that Max could not clearly understand. He grabbed Max's head, checking for penetration, and looking into Max's visor, trying to shout him out of his stupor.
Both the men were jolted from their feet, and pounded to the floor, as Reaver piled on top them in a crazed tackled. Max sat pinned under both, as Callum stuggled to elbow Reaver, who sat atop both of them, trying to wrap his hands around the Pirate King's neck. Blood dripped onto Callum's visor with the rapid movements. Max, knocked out of his daze, brought his bionic arm under the duo, and shoved both the men off of him, and the both tumbled to the floor on the right side of him.
Jumping to his feet, Max stepped over a Callum struggling to get off the floor, and delivered a kick to Reaver's ribs. Reaver tried to catch Max's kick, but the momentum made Reaver fall back down, and roll onto his back. Max's metal hand found it's way around Reaver's neck, and began squeezing, as Reaver began to writhe and wiggle, desperately trying to pull Max's grip off his neck. Something yanked Max off of Reaver, and threw him to the floor on the opposite side of the hall.
"Mask, are you fucking crazy?!" Callum shouted. He began to say something more, but they were inturrupted by another of Reaver's scream, except this time, it was a scream of agony and pain. Both men jumped back, Max pulling Vagabond from his holster, taking aim, and Callum doing the same with his sidearm.
The two men watched as Reaver nearly tore the hair out of his head, writhing in pain. The only sound within his head that overtook the voices was a siren sounding that only he could hear. He gripped his skull, and kept screaming, his voice breaking, until the screaming was inturrupted by a ear shattering pop. Which sounded through the narrow halls of the facility. In an instant, Reaver's head disappeared, turning into a red rain of brain matter and skull chunks. A sickening crimson mist filled the air, Callum inhaled some of with a fit of coughs. Reaver's now lifeless body slumped to the floor, resting in a growing pool of blood.
The two lmen were showered in gore, Max's mask thankfully served to keep any of it from hitting his actual face. Callum, on the other hand, wasn't so lucky, as a piece of brain matter stuck to his cheek, and other smaller chunks rained on him. His face was stained with blood that was not his own. Neither of them were really concerned with the mess that had been made, as the explosion that caused it had given their ears quite the bust. Max stumbled back into the security room, falling over to the ground, hands desparately trying to get his mask off, slipping on the coating of slick blood. Callum simply fell over on the ground, a few feet away from Reaver's red-stained body, clutching his ringing ears and head in pain.
After a few moments which felt like painful hours, the ringing stopped and Callum could hear his thoughts, only his own. He opened his eyes, then used one of his hands to wipe a deadman's blood from his face. He sat up, let out a deep breath and looked towards Max.
"Max, are you okay? What the hell just happened?" Callum exclaimed as his words turned from caring to sheer surprise and shock. The horrific last moments of Reaver's life before the bomb in his head went off flashed through Callum's mind. The feds were not lying, they had actually done such a thing.
Max simply lied on the floor and let out a sickened groan. "Yeah, I'm fine. Jesus, those Federation guys weren't lying. They really put a fucking bomb in our heads. Max stood from where he sat on the floor, and walked out to the hall to take a full survey of the horror. The walls and floor around Reaver's limp body were all showered in a healthy coating of deep red blood, with grey matter scattered all over the place. Even the ceiling wasn't spared, covered in blood and bits, sometimes dripping down on the two men, which Callum quickly learned to dodge.
Callum and Max themselves had gotten a healthy coating of crimson and brains, too. Max's jackets had a light red hue all over it, and Callum's face was still marked red, same as his armor. Max fought back the jumping in his stomach, puking wasn't the best thing to do while wearing a mask. Pointing at Reaver's body, Max spoke up again.
"We might as well show the rest of them this guy. Not only to show them what kinda shit is lurking here, but to remind them not to fuck around with the blasting cap in their cranium. Max's stare lingered on Reaver for a moment, before he began trying to wipe his sleeves off to no avail. The bits rolled off, but the blood still stained him.
Man, this is my favorite jacket, too.
"Agreed, let's drag him back to the others. I'm sure they heard all the noise that 'incident' made, probably want to know what the hell happened," Callum muttered as he walked towards the nearby corpse. The sight might not have been the worst part, he had forgotten the stench of death. He grasped the headless body by the legs then looked at Max.
"You get to carry the other side. You didn't get any of his brain matter on your face, think that tradeoff is fair." He said with an actual smirk. Dark humor was always some of the funniest to him.
Max chuckled in the form of a sharp exhale of his nose, and bent over, grabbing the body by it's arms, lifting it all the way off the floor.
"This certainly isn't that bad for our first date, hm?" Max mused, as they began walking down the hall.
"A little too explosive for my tastes. I don't usually end up in someone's bodily fluids until the third or fourth date." Callum joked back as the duo slowly made their way back to the rest of the criminal team. Both were careful to avoid slipping on the blood splattered on the metallic floors. He hoped their now dead squadmate was the only one who had heard 'voices' in their head and gone mad from it. He really didn't need to see a repeat performance from anyone else.
"Do you think whatever was fucking with his head explains what got rid of the scientists? Or the guards?" He asked with a raised eyebrow, maybe whatever had made Reaver go off the deep end had its sinister fingers intwined with the people that had been in the facility for much longer.
"Oh, no doubt. I imagine it's the same thing that was fucking with me when I was watching that securtiy camera footage. Something a bit more fucked up than 'wild animal' is going on here. But I wonder, if it can make us go insane, what's with it making swiss cheese of all the guards at the front? Max said, adjusting his grip on Reaver's arms. The two rounded a corner, getting closer to the Labratory that the group had split up at. Max's arm began to tire, as Reaver was heavier than he looked.
"I have no idea. Maybe it wanted the guards to serve as a warning? But then why the disappearing scientists? Nothing makes sense here. This place is nothing but bad news." Callum said, he was no coward but he wanted off this world. He was sure some of the others would be thinking the same once they saw what happened to Reaver.
"We're almost there." Callum added with a grunt as he too was straining to carry the dead man.
Finally, the two men made it back to the labratory, where they sat Reaver down in front of the doors that they entered in. Max took a deep breath, and leaned against the wall, slowly sliding down to sit on the floor. He let his head fall back, resting on the wall, and sighed.
"Please, just call the rest of them back here so we can get the fuck out of here. Max remembered he hadn't wiped any of Reaver off his mask, but considering everything that had happened, he didn't much care anymore. He just wanted off the desolate ice planet, and away from whatever it was that had been messing with his mind.
"Will do," Callum said then clicked the comms device on his wrist. He spoke into it. "Everyone back to the main lab now, we need to talk. You probably heard an explosion and gunfire."
The tired Pirate King then took a seat in a chair, crossed his arms and waited for the rest of the team to show up. Hopefully not driven insane by mysterious voices.
