The aircraft trembled violently as it exited the wormhole. That tends to happen when you utilize illegal warp gates, but what else could these marauders do in such a heavily secured space? Athena gripped her seat tightly as the shaking began to stop. The crew groaned—all twenty of them. "I can never get used to this shit," one of the men her grandfather recruited complained. He was one of the fifteen, men who she did not know—her grandfather knew them—but she always found it unsettling to be around strangers—but who wasn't?
Her grandfather, who they called Dracula—Drac for short—was an old man with dark hair that greyed at the roots. He had a strong jaw and face that wielded a grey-black goatee and a burn scar on the right side of his face. He was a tall and sturdy old man. He was usually seen wearing a senior F.A.C navy officer's coat which was all black and was painted over with many red symbols and graffiti. He wore black cargo pants which were padded at the knees and thighs with armor and shoved in all-black navy officer's boots, but today, he was geared for war. He was ruthless and fierce, with a reputation that Athena did not enjoy, but had to accept since this was her life now.
The ship they used was a stolen P-42A scythe-class stealth frigate. This ship was their home. It was beautifully painted in black and red, with a hammerhead-like front, and was propelled by nine thrusters.
They all sat strapped into seats in the cargo hold. All of them wore level 4A ballistic helmets that were colored black and sturdy, with a visor that was opened and closed by their neural uplinks. The body armor they wore was the best of the best. Made of an outer layer of ablative armor, and an inner layer of light graphene nanocomposite armor which covered the chest and stomach. The arms and legs were also protected by similar armor, and beneath all of it was a body-fitting pressurized suit. On their backs were boosters for the insertion they were going to carry out. The weapons they carried varied from Cobra assault rifles, to PR-15s.
They were now free to walk around the entire ship. Athena unbuckled her harness and arose with her PR-15 slung over her shoulder. She was about to walk up the stairs to the deck but was stopped in her tracks by calls from Rowan. A man who was a year older than her, but acted as though he was a child.
"Athena!" He shouted, once more.
"You don't have to shout, I can hear you," she said, slightly annoyed.
"My bad," he said cradling his weapon, "Just a bit nervous. Are you nervous?"
"I'm not." She said confidently, but she was, she never did anything like this before. She felt nearly sick from the nervousness. They were to attack a mining outpost in an asteroid field in the low-security region of the F.A.C's territory.
She was about to end the conversation when suddenly, a single blare of the door alarm went off, and the hiss of the automatic door signaled that someone was exiting from it. Everyone stopped their bustling and looked at whoever exited the door. It was Dracula, and he came dressed in armor as black as the void of space.
Athena stood upright, anticipating a speech of some sort, but to her disappointment, it was not so. "Strap back into your harnesses men…and girl." He said, nodding at his granddaughter. The cargo bay burst into laughter, but Athena was unfazed, even rolling her eyes to show how little she cared.
"We are moving in on the outpost, right now."
The laughter died quickly, and the men looked at each other with intense fear. "You can't be serious, we have an hour left until that navy patrol destroyer, warps back into a high-security system," Jaxson, cautioned. He was a long-time friend of Athena's grandfather, and he was wise. Jaxson was an old and tall man with ebony skin, and a missing left eye, and he was hulking. When Athena first met him he scared the crap out of her, with his burnt-out left eye, but she soon came to find out he was the kindest person she had ever met since she lost her mother; kinder to her than her grandfather.
Dracula leaned on the railing and grinned. "You are wrong, brother, the federation navy wouldn't waste their resources on a backwater outpost like this, trust me."
Jaxson propped his arms on the stock of his rifle, and locked eyes with Dracula, who in turn, locked eyes with him as well, with a devious grin on his face. Finally, Jaxson gave in. "You're the boss," he said, walking back to his seat.
"Good!," Dracula shouted in a deep and gravelly voice. He touched the side of his helmet and began to speak to the pilot. "Hopper, warp in ten."
"Ten minutes?" The pilot asked confused.
"Ten seconds."
"Roger, warping in ten."
"Alright, make sure your good, this is gonna be a rough ride!" Dracula descended the steps, and made his way toward one of the seats, passing Athena who did not let it go unnoticed.
"What?! No, be safe, no good luck, nothing?!" She asked in disbelief.
Her grandfather turned to her with furrowed brows and dropped a heavy hand on her shoulder making her stumble. "You told me you wanted to go, and what did I ask you?"
Athena stared at her grandad under furrowed brows knowing she was about to be berated.
"What did I ask you?" He said once more. Athena broke her gaze, before answering. "You asked me if I was ready." She said tilting her head to the right already tired of his scolding.
"Correct!" He said removing his hand from her shoulder and shoving her slightly with a single finger. "If you are ready, then you don't need my assurance. Remember what I thought you, stick with the group and use…your…brain. It's in your head for a reason." He said tapping the side of his head.
"Understood?"
She sighed, "Ya!"
"Good, now go siddown!" As Athena made her way to her seat, the spooling of the engine was low and gradually became louder. Over the loud engine noise, the voice of the pilot was heard in everyone's comms. "Warpdrive engaged, jumping in 3…2…1." A sort of sound; as if the ship was scraping into space was loud, and now Athena knew, they were already in a wormhole heading toward their destination.
The cargo bay was in silence, except for the warp drive engines. To Athena's surprise, not even a peep came from Rowan. She sat with the people she knew, her grandfather, Jaxson, Rowan, Zav, and Axtin. Hopper's voice was in their comms again and he said, "Dropping out of the wormhole in 3…2…1"
They were shoved forward slightly as the ship decelerated.
Hopper spoke into the comms once again, "Drac, they are hailing us, what do I do?" He asked nervously. Quickly Dracula returned an answer, "Open communication with them, but say nothing."
"Roger," Hopper replied. He opened the communication for all of them to hear, and they listened intently.
"This is lighthouse to unknown aircraft, do you copy?" There was silence, and they all looked at each other. Again the operator spoke, his voice more stern this time. "This is lighthouse to unknown aircraft, do you copy?! Unknown aircraft, you jumped in quite close and are approaching rapidly, please stop your aircraft or we will have to open fire!"
Silence…
The operator spoke once more, and now his voice was deep, and the static of the comm put more menace into his voice. "We will be terminating this commlink, you have sealed your fate." A beep was heard before, Hopper started to shout almost bursting Athena's ear drums.
"Multiple targets locked on, coming in hot on the lZ, get ready to jump!"
"You heard the man, move MOVE!" Dracula commanded.
They all lined up at the exit of the cargo bay before Dracula gave another order, "Hit it!" He shouted. The man closest to the touchscreen control panel pressed the depressurization button, and the cargo bay went dark, with the only light coming from the red rotating alarm light, whose light graced them all equally with each rotation. A hiss and smoke entered from the corners of the cargo door.
"Mask up!" Dracula shouted.
Athena was breathing heavily, and as simple as a thought, her visor closed. The cargo bay shook as the impact of rounds from the outpost met the frigate's shields. The sounds of the frigates turrets whirring motor were heard, along with the burst of fire that came from it. Hopper's voice came over the comms, "Jump, jump, jump!" The man at the control panel hit the green light, and the cargo bay doors opened.
"Deploy, Deploy!" Dracula shouted. The men jumped out of the aircraft as the bullets of the outpost's turrets whizzed. When it soon came time for Athena to jump, she panicked, but her training pushed her to move, but she moved too slowly for her grandfather's liking. He grabbed her by the vest and ran with her through the door followed by the four. She was released, and as she made her way to the surface of the outpost her EVA activated and she extended her legs before barrel-rolling and dropping close to the rest of the team. Athena's grandfather, Rowan, Jaxson, Zav, and Axtin dropped close by.
The frigate, in all its splendor, closed its doors and took off rapidly taking a few hits to the shield and dodging the rest all while laying down fire. The entire team hid behind a container marked ORCO and watched as the Frigate activated its afterburners.
Dracula contacted Hopper and said, "Lay down cover fire!" Hopper replied breathing heavily, "Roger!"
Dracula's attention was now on his granddaughter. He walked up close, "Don't you ever hesitate, do you understand me?! His shouting made his voice modulator spew incoherent static. "He held her shoulders with both arms and kneeled, speaking softer this time. "Do you understand?" Athena nodded and gripped her weapon tightly.
"Good, now let's move out!"
Athena followed close behind, moving from container to container. She got a good look at the asteroid station. The control tower's peak was now rubble that floated, with some debris slowly descending. Next to the control tower was a huge main building that wielded four turrets that were all firing at the frigate. Mining equipment such as drills and laser miners were scattered on the surface.
One of the marauders made a hand signal—a fist—for everyone to stop behind a stack of crates. They all got low, and he called for Drac to come forward. "We got three security personnel on a mining vehicle." He pointed out. "So, what do we do, kill or capture?" He asked. Dracula stared at the men for a while and he shook his head. "Kill them, they got a mean anti-aircraft launcher. One wrong move and they could be firing it at us—Thank goodness for Hopper." He looked back at the crew and commanded, "Weapons free, fire on that mining vehicle, up ahead."
The team propped their weapons on the crates in front of them, and without hesitation, opened fire. The barrels of their weapons lit up as they fired relentlessly at the men. Athena opened fire as well, watching as the rounds ripped the men to shreds; She found it surreal. One of Drac's men pulled out an explosive plasma launcher, and the vehicle exploded silently. As their bodies rose to the void of space, bubbled blood began to come from their mangled bodies, and Athena found it strangely beautiful.
Drac called for the attention of everyone toward the main building, and instinctively they all zeroed in on it. They saw security personnel rushing many mine workers into the building. When they finished, the door closed and puffed out air. "Fuck!" Drac cursed, "Getting in there is gonna be a pain in the ass now."
Thiry minutes had passed, and Athena sat next to a laser mine. The sun in this system, called Lucifer, shone brightly and was sometimes blocked out by one of the many asteroids in the belt. She watched in a solemn daze and would occasionally realize that the asteroid the station was on changed positions frequently. She was snapped out of her daze by a passing mining drone—its flickering lights filling her display. Her gaze led her to the main building where her team all huddled around the entrance. Athena turned off her communication, hoping to drown their chatter, but now, she wanted to know what they were doing. She turned back on her communication and listened in.
"I don't care!" Her grandfather shouted, "Burn a hole through it!"
"May I speak now?" Athena recognized that voice to be Zav's, the engineer. "I suggest giving me time, to override the lock, it may take a while, but I can get it done."
"Time?! Drac asked, "We don't have time, at any moment, a freighting ship could come out of nowhere. No! Break it open."
Athena got up with haste and ran as best and as fast as she could in the low gravity as the voices of her comrades filled her ears. "But, you'll kill them all, Rowan protested."
One of the men her grandfather recruited began to plant explosives on the sealed door. He primed the charge, and just as he was about to press the button, a notification popped up requesting to open comms. Athena watched them all look at each other.
Drac gave a nod and soon after it was followed by static and the voice of an unknown person. "This is Adam Brown, head security officer of this outpost. I come to you with terms of surrender.
"I'm listening," said Drac.
"You will spare our lives, and in turn, we let you into this base."
"Deal!" Drac said without hesitation.
Athena finally made it to the group. And they all waited in anticipation for the doors to open. The red lights over the door turned green followed by a hiss before the doors slid open leading them to a depressurization bay. Reluctantly, they all stepped in. "I got a bad feeling about this," one of the marauders cautioned. As the doors closed behind them, Athena's heart raced, as the red light turned green and as smoke puffed beside her. The second door was ready to open. They entered and were met by frightened mine workers and security officers who still had their weapons.
Drac stepped ahead of the group as his eyes passed along all the workers in the facility, especially the armed security. "I thought you guys wanted to surrender?" Drac asked.
"Just take what you want and leave, things don't have to get ugly." Athena suspected this man to be the head security officer.
Drac's helmet visor opened, and he looked at his team with a wide grin on his face. Athena knew he was planning something devious. He returned his attention to the security officer. "Well, thank you for your hospitality. Just a little heads up, we will be taking a lot, and I mean a lot! Hope you don't mind."
He whistled, "Alright, find any weapons—anything useful, but most importantly," he stepped forward rapidly. "Your head honcho is gonna tell me where he is keeping that classified stash of his."
The security guards raised their weapons at Drac, and he stopped in his tracks with his arms raised. "Hey now, I thought we had something going here?!"
Adam shouted a command, "Lower your weapons, now!" They did so, but reluctantly.
"Now we are getting somewhere, jeez!" "Drac said annoyed.
Adam stepped forward as beads of sweat ran down his head. "I'll take you to it."
Drac smiled and pat his shoulder. "Good man."
Adam's people looked on with dread as Drac and Adam made their way deeper into the facility. Athena had no interest in looting this place. Instead, she stood guard by the door, watching the mine workers and security intently.
The team split up and searched the facility for any weapons---anything useful. Rowan stopped and turned to Athena. "Aren't you coming with us?"
Athena shook her head, "No, I'm staying right here, you go on ahead without me."
Rowan looked to the others, and then to Athena. He opened his visor and made his way back to her with a Slight smirk on his face.
Athena sighed, "I told you to go on ahead, I'm fine, seriously."
Rowan grinned, "I'm staying right here, and there is nothing you can do about it.
Athena was annoyed. She found Rowan to be a pretty cool guy, but the way he always grinned made her mad. It was as if he was stupid, but she knew otherwise.
There was silence between the two as they both stared at the workers, and the security, who in turn, stared at them too. Rowan broke the silence. "Say, whaddya think is in the stash?" Rowan asked Athena.
Athena shrugged, "Beats me."
Rowan scoffed, "Come on, your grandpa had to tell you something."
Athena rests her left hand on her waist, opened her visor, and stared at Rowan, offended by his assumption. "He didn't."
Rowan avoided eye contact with her piercing blue eyes.
There was silence once more, and the miners were beginning to casually walk around, but the security still stayed in the main assembly area.
Athena broke the ice. "When we're done here, how about we take a starliner to Mypso, and check out some weapons?" Athena suggested.
Rowan nodded, "Sounds good to me. I was thinking about getting a new weapon. Bring Zav and Axtin while you're at it, those two need a break."
Athena held her weapon upwards, "What is taking Drac so long?"
"Open the comms and ask," Rowan suggested.
Athena now held her weapon by the grip and scoffed, "I'm not getting screamed at over comms. Stay here, I'll be back." She said, walking off.
She passed the assembly area and reached a set of stairs leading to an opened bulkhead. She made her way through this door and into a room filled with unrefined ore in massive vehicles. Athena looked to her right and saw a map of the entire facility. She looked at the sign overhead and saw she was in the vehicle bay. Armed with that knowledge, she found the location she was currently in, and then looked for where to go next. Her sight led her to the armory.
She made her way past the massive mining vehicles to another bulkhead door to her left. This door was also opened. The chatter of the marauders her grandfather recruited filled the hallway. She opened the door and made her way toward their voices.
One of the marauder's voices was deep and filled with excitement. "Look at this fucking beauty. I'm keeping this one for me!" Athena emerged at the entrance to the armory. The marauders turned their attention to her. One of them had a crooked tooth and many scars on his face. He smiled widely at Athena. "Never mind the guns, how about I take this one instead?" He said pointing at her. The armory erupted in laughter. "Better watch your mouth scarface," one of his accomplices said. "She might go and complain to Drac." They laughed once more.
"Oh I'm not gonna go complain, I just don't believe you're man enough to take me."
An audible O! was low, followed by the words, "Are you gonna let her talk shit?!"
Athena smiled and tilted her head back as she walked away. Up ahead was a junction. The ceiling lights lit a path to a door straight ahead. And it was calling for Athena to walk down its length. Her footsteps made metallic echoes as she walked toward the orange and black door with her visor opened and her weapon slung over her shoulder. She slid her hands in the handle of the door and pulled, and with a metallic creak and a slight hiss, it opened.
As she entered the door, she heard something---voices. Maybe it was all in her head, but when she closed the door behind her she heard the voices again. She took her weapon off her shoulder and walked down the second hallway. To her right was just a glass wall but as she got closer, she could see many computers, and behind the computers was a reinforced window with a view of the void. For a moment, as the light of the sun graced the window, the beauty of the scene made her feel serenity.
THUMP!...
She reeled at the sound of the unusually loud metallic thump. She walked passed the glass door to another junction.
Another thump. It was coming from the left. She held the pistol grip tightly with her right and the handguard with her left. Silently, she made her way to the junction stopping before she could enter it. She peaked in the left corner, looking through her electronic scope that glitched faintly. A massive door was left open, leading to a room that looked to be a lab lit by a pale blue light.
She approached the door with her weapon at the ready. Slowly, she pushed it open as the distant sound of metal clanging, and a thump followed by a faint moan made her heart race. Athena peaked into the room, finger hovering over the trigger guard ready to shoot whatever it was, but what she saw made her heart leap. She reeled back covering her mouth to stifle a yelp of fear.
It was blood. SO...MUCH...BLOOD. Her grandfather stood over Adam repeatedly bashing his head with the stock of his weapon. The thumping stopped and she wanted to run, but curiosity got the best of her. Adam was whimpering, "Please." Blood gurgled before he could get out another word. "Please...don't kill me, I gave you what you wanted." He gasped for breath and there was another gurgle.
Athena peeked into the room once more and her grandfather sighed and tilted his head, back wiping the blood from his face as he did so. "I know. I know. I just felt like hurting you. No hard feelings Adam." His voice was guttural and deep, and he looked villainous.
He extended his right hand for a silver hexagonal container that had a handle at the top. His fingers slipped as he tried to grasp the handle. Finally, he got it. He cradled the container tightly before speaking to Adam. "Do you believe human life is different from disease?" Adam did not respond, only the sound of heavy breathing emerged from him.
"We humans are a parasite. Once upon a time, our infection stayed on a singular body, but now, we have spread our infection throughout the cosmos."
Adam continued to pant heavily.
Drac sighed, "You won't understand, you would probably think I'm crazy."
Adam coughed blood as he began to speak. "Please...don't kill me."
Drac was silent as he stared at his bloody victim. "You should be thankful it is I that killed you, because the death you would face out there would be way worse. You see, I'm doing you a favor."
Adam began to cry as the words "Please don't kill me," was repeated over and over, until they began to turn into incoherent cries.
Drac's face was now contorted most uncannily. He was unblinking, his nose was flared and his mouth was twisted to one side in revulsion. "Disgusting!" He unholstered his weapon and shot Adam in the head without hesitation.
The back of Adam's head opened and a rush of blood seeped out contrasting the clear white floor.
Slowly, Athena backed away. She backed away until she reached the glass room and when she did so, she dashed for the door that led to the armory.
"Holy fuck!" She cursed as she passed the now empty armory. She emerged into the mining vehicle area and saw the marauders carrying many weapons crates. She made her way past them before one of them shouted, "Where are you going so fast?!"