Captain Byron had already secured most of his objective, the lower sections of the ship had been as lifeless as the rest. A butchers yard and shooting gallery without any corpses. Byron had lost communications with Solomon and the Evergreen teams upon diving deeper than two decks, which was considered acceptable due to the alien design and foreign material not allowing their communications to travel through. He still had contact with his second squad, under Lieutenant Chi. "Yren, what's your position?" asked Byron, his voice sounding metallic through his helmet radio. Byron never had to wait long for Yren to reply, "Just entering the engine room, sir!" she said breathlessly. Her voice was beginning to show signs of static interference from the structure of the ship. Byron continued to secure the lifeless section of the vessel. The corridors had begun to become less and less corroded, however, the lights had started flickering in rooms. Thankfully, the corridor lights remained solid. Byron knew, Solomon would keep the main walkways fuelled with power from the Bridge. "Sir." crackled Yren's voice inside Byron's ear. "Sir, something is down here... perhaps a survivor... oh my god!" came her voice quietly over the static. "Yren, repeat that!" spat Byron impatiently, halting his movement, but ordering his squad to secure the next room with his hand. "Lieutenant! Repeat!" no answer came for what felt like a lifetime. After a few long minutes, the radio answered Byron's question with gunfire drowning out a male voice. "Captain, Lieutenant Chi is dead! There's loads of them! We're cut off! We need he-" the man was cut off abruptly and Byron stood silent for a moment, shock over taking his body. The ship was not as lifeless as they had thought.
Byron sent a soldier to the Bridge, to find Solomon's team or at least inform him of the attack when he got close enough to use his radio. Sprinting with the rest of his unit as fast as their legs could carry them down the cold metal corridor. It took them only ten minutes to find the first body. Sprawled, limply and covered in blood over the threshold of the Engineer room, his helmet visor slashed open, revealing a deeply cut face, and showing his jaw bone. "oh no, Jack..." Byron said, instantly recognising the young man of Chi's team. Byron didn't call the medic to his side, knowing that Jack was already dead, the amount of blood on the metal floor, drowning the rust. Jack's body had been torn, multiple times, his left leg was ripped off from the knee, his chest had been ripped open, exposing some of his organs, even through his thick armour. Byron raised his weapon and headed into the room with the cover of two other soldiers, whilst the medic took Jack's dog tags as they passed. As Captain Byron advanced he tried the two squads of The Evergreen again and again, until he almost fell over another corpse. Corporal Ada Dean. A once beautiful young woman, who had constantly dyed her short hair blue, now, her hair ran crimson, matted with gore, her helmet had completely been torn from its air tight screw slot around her neck. Byron breathed heavily, counting the empty shell casings on the floor. Noticing two types of empty casings, one that didn't match the gun Ada used. She didn't die alone. He took some comfort in that thought. Byron ignored the medic sneaking in to see Ada. Taking her dog tags as well, he pointed out her legs. Torn to shreds; like Jacks. "I know, Malaco, I've seen them." breathed Byron, an experienced veteran Captain, twenty years in the military, nothing could have prepared him for the gore he found upon that derelict ship. Malaco straightened up with a sigh of sorrow, he had liked Ada, Very much. Fabian and Richard came up behind them, weapons raised, their silver armour catching any light wanting to be mirrored.
Fabian and Richard froze only two meters in front of Byron. Their weapons searching, left and right. Up and down. Not breathing. Only searching. Byron noticed the sudden tension with the two men. Raising his own rifle, making a signal to the rest of his squad to move up. Before he reached the two spooked men, Byron himself froze with cold fear. He heard it.
'drip, drip, drip, hiss'
frantically, his eyes darting from shadow to shadow. To find the source. The dripping was followed by a subtle breathing and then a sharp hissing. Then, Byron saw it. The wet glistening blood dripping from a grey body cramped inside the damaged vent just in front of the squad, just above the throat of its victim, sat a wide smiling mouth of needle glass teeth, surrounded by the pale skin of a long oval head. Electric blue eyes leered at Byron from the pale figure. Slowly rising its lanky body, ribs almost protruding from it's greasy glistening skin. "Open fire!" cried Byron as his first bullet left the chamber of his rifle. The creature was welcomed to its second group of humans by a brutal barrage of lead bullets, leaving the muzzles of the rifles in a constant volley from angry, scared soldiers in reflective silver armour. "There!" spat Medic Malaco as he fired his weapon down the corridor from where they had entered. Two more of the creatures had appeared from the shadows, but only one was pale. The other had a skin complexion slightly more tanned than the other two. "The hell!?" shouted Byron as he saw the tanned creature was wearing torn and reduced remnants of the silver armour of his comrades. Enraged by the insult cast by the tanned creature trying to wear their armour. "Private! Grenade that son of a bitch!" screamed Byron