War Core Wednesay...on Tuesday? War Core 3, Chapter 10.

Tomorrow's going to be a busy one so I may not get a chance to post, so I figured I'd get you the chapter a day early.

Chapter 10.

“We’re in the docking arm, we need to get to the station proper. Keep your eyes peeled for any information on the station layout. If this was a civilian station, they probably have some way to give the guests directions,” Hugh said as they got into formation and proceeded toward the station itself.

The boarding arm didn’t appear damaged, but it was depowered and on a backup supply, hence the dim lighting. Part of Hugh’s new upgrades to his perception and vision allowed him to see much better in the dark passageway than a normal human would have, allowing him to maneuver with little difficulty. They quickly reached the end of the boarding arm, and a simple airlock separated the arm from the station ring.

Instead of being sealed to prevent depressurization, the hatch was cracked open., further evidence that something was seriously wrong aboard the station. Even the most basic of automated repair systems would have prioritized the pressurization of the station. Alarms would have sounded all over the area and notified any crew of the unsecured hatch.

“Do you smell that?” Hssim whispered as he approached the hatchway. It was deathly silent aboard and they didn’t risk any unnecessary noise.

“Yes, it’s something rotting, but there is another smell, something unfamiliar,” Dalven confirmed. Hugh could smell the horrible funk of rotting flesh, but his senses weren’t refined enough to make anything else out of it.

“It says we’re at boarding area A12. Keep an eye out for other markings, they might give us a hint as to the layout,” Vilkrex said.

“Get ready,” Hssim said, waving Dalven over to help him with the hatch.

A quick check had proven the power assist for the hatch was out and they would have to brute force it open. As soon as there was enough room, Hugh slid past them and trained his rifle out through the hatchway. This level of the station was much like the boarding arm, dark and dead. As the hatch opened further, it began to squeal on its hinge, causing all of them to jump at the sudden noise.

Once the hatch was wide enough for all of them to squeeze through, Hssim ordered Hugh out into the station. Almost like an airport, the boarding area had a small counter placed for employees to check on those arriving and departing the station. It gave Hugh concealment, but the structure looked cheap and was not sturdy enough to also provide cover. The silence was broken again, when off in the dark, something screeched. It was a horrible, high-pitched noise that gave Hugh the feeling that whatever made that noise was hungry.

“I hear something coming, get ready for a fight,” Dalven said.

In the distance, Hugh spotted movement but held his fire until he could make out what was approaching them. He didn’t expect any friendlies to be aboard the station, but it would be just like the GCA to throw an innocent target in their path and penalize them for taking it out. He thumbed off the safety and set the rifle to semi-auto as he scanned for targets.

Other than the counter he was crouched behind, there were several rows of seating and that was about as far as he could see clearly. If Harmony Station was anything like this, he could expect shops and restaurants to line the inner wall of the ring they were in, but from where he stood, everything looked closed up tight. Whatever happened to the station, the people aboard had enough time to secure their shops before things went bad, but they somehow hadn’t closed the door behind them when they finally made a break for it.

“What are they?” Dalven asked as several figures charged into view. Hugh didn’t have time to answer and instead began to fire off shots at the attackers.

Any doubt over whether these were innocent refugees or hostile attackers was dispelled once he saw them. The figures were humanoids from various species. Many were dressed in the remains of uniforms and regular clothing. That’s where the similarities ended, as each and every one of them was horribly disfigured. Parts of their flesh had been transformed into metal, and many of them bore extra appendages that would be more at home on a construction drone than a living body. Some were only mildly changed, with a few patches of metal where skin should be, while others were horrifying monsters with little of their flesh remaining.

The now-familiar snap and buzz of a laser firing announced that his drone was also in the fight. Hugh had set it for ranged attacks and to defend him. It scuttled forward, placing itself between the onslaught of attackers and Hugh’s party. The other three members of Hugh’s group charged forward to engage the enemy in melee but were experienced enough to leave Hugh a clear field of fire as new attackers streamed in from the dark.

One after another, Hugh hit the attackers with well-placed shots. With these creeps, it often took several shots to bring them down. Occasionally a shot would hit one of the metal plates and deflect away, but for the most part, whatever had transformed their flesh might make it into metal, but it wasn’t exactly armored. Dalven and Hssim had little trouble wading through the attackers with their claws tearing them apart despite the strange additions to their bodies. Both also were decidedly not willing to bite their foes, the rotting flesh wasn’t something that the Yaelar or Ssath were keen on sinking their teeth into.

“This is not possible!” Vilkrex shrieked as she waved her scythe-like arms at a pair of attackers. Hugh dropped another attacker with a flurry of shots, only to find there were no more targets. Only one of the things had even gotten close to him, and his drone had used its leap attack to spear the attacker, finishing it with a laser blast to the head. Dalven had the last opponent on the ground and was trying to question it. It didn’t speak, only roaring in a blind frenzy.

“Does that sound like a modem to any of you?” Hugh said as the screaming changed to an almost electronic sound that reminded Hugh of early dial-up modems.

“If your modems were primitive data transfer devices, then yes, it does,” Hssim said, moving to assist Dalven. Suddenly Dalven let go of his captive and grabbed his arm in pain. Hssim slashed down, severing the captive’s head and ending whatever threat it had posed.

“What’s wrong, Dalven?” Hugh asked, slinging his rifle and rushing over. Dalven didn’t answer and instead, dug through his pouch for a med patch. He slapped it on and then began to grunt in pain as if the med patch was hurting him instead of healing.

Hssim grabbed Dalven and pulled his hand away from the wound. What they saw made Hugh gasp. Dalven’s forearm had a nasty gouge in it from the strange appendages of their attackers. Inside the wound, metallic tendrils were growing out, their presence even thicker where the med patch had been applied over the wound.

“Hold him down,” Vilkrex commanded. Hssim did most of the work, with Hugh barely able to keep the Yaelar’s legs from moving even when Hugh laid his whole body over Dalven.

Vilkrex gestured for Hssim to hold Dalven’s wounded arm up. Once he did, Vilkrex launched both her arms forward digging deep into Dalven’s flesh, sawing under the strange infection. With a flick, she finished carving out a chunk of the flesh from Dalven’s forearm. With a meaty slap mingled with a metallic clank, the chunk of flesh landed on a plastic, waiting area chair. Hugh was transfixed by the sight as tendrils of metal began to move more frantically before finally going still.

“What was that?” Hugh asked.

“I don’t know, but when I placed one of my young on these attackers, they couldn’t take control. Instead, the metal began to consume them, look,” Vilkrex said, turning the head of one of the attackers, and revealing the small hatchling attached to the back of the skull. It had streaks of metal along its body, Vilkrex having killed the host before her young was completely consumed.

“Should we use another med patch, that wound might not heal on its own,” Hugh said, watching as Hssim tried with little success to staunch the flow of blood from Dalven’s arm.

“I don’t think we have a choice if he is going to live, just be prepared to put him out of his misery if this fails and causes the infection to grow again,” Vilkrex said as she slapped one of Dalven’s med patches onto the wound. Instead of more pain, Dalven’s face relaxed as the pain-numbing effects of the med patch began to kick in. The bleeding slowed to a trickle and then stopped. The immediate danger was over, but the wound was still a gaping mess.

“Thank you, the pain was so intense, I couldn’t talk. As soon as that thing started giving off that odd sound, the wound in my arm began to act up. I think whatever Vilkrex did got it all, I don’t any of those things still wriggling around inside there. It was like the med patch fed those things growth hormones,” Dalven said.

“That would make sense if this infection was able to corrupt the nanobots from the med patch as easily as it had your flesh. I think it safe to say that this infection is somehow the cause of the station’s condition. Everyone check your wounds for signs of infection. Dalven, what caused the wound in your arm?” Vilkrex said as they all gave their bodies a once over.

“It was one of the weird appendages, like this one,” Dalven said, kicking the body of one of the attackers to reveal a strange metal tentacle protruding from its belly.

“The signal triggered the change, if it didn’t activate any of your other wounds, I think we should be safe. If anyone is infected, be sure to excise the infection quickly, it appears to spread at a rapid pace,” Vilkrex added. Hugh wasn’t sure if he could just cut away part of his body, and he hoped that he didn’t have to find out. He passed a med patch over to Dalven, who accepted his gift without comment or even pretending to refuse, which gave Hugh a good indication of how bad he was feeling.

“What now?” Hugh asked.

“We proceed to the station lift, it’s likely toward the center of the ring. I think we’re safe enough for a bit, all the combat and shooting will have already attracted anything nearby, but there are surely more lurking about further away,” Hssim said, getting the group moving once the second med patch had done its work on Dalven. He wasn’t at 100%, Hugh could tell, but the Yaelar seemed willing to go back into the fight.

“What do you figure the population of a station this size is, several hundred thousand?” Hugh asked, not really wanting the answer.

“That would be close, and if every one of them is now one of these things, our trial is going to be over rather quickly,” Vilkrex said.

“Many would have escaped and from the damage, a large battle took place which would have thinned the numbers of these creatures. I think there will be plenty of targets, but they’re spread over the entire station and not all of them will be in our path. Let’s get to the objective, and do it quietly,” Hssim said, waving them forward.

Hugh didn’t fancy fighting another dozen of these things, let alone a hundred thousand of them, but he had nowhere to go but forward, so that’s what he did with his little combat drone clacking along beside him. The drone did well in the fight, and Hugh was kind of getting to like having it around. If and when they finished this stage of the challenge, he would try to upgrade it further.

They passed many closed shops and other waiting areas for the various docking arms. Only once did they spot more of the creatures, a trio of them were wandering around near one of the boarding arms, which had also had its hatch left open. Unlike the one Hugh had arrived on, this one had a small cargo vessel docked to it. If these things had gotten aboard the ship, it was likely full of them as well. If one of those infected ships reached a highly populated area, this infection could spread exponentially.

With this being a GCA-created challenge, Hugh hoped it meant that these things were only cooked up to be opponents, not something the GCA was actually battling. The information at the start of this stage mentioned that the station had appeared from a rift in space. Was that what truly happened, or was it just flavor text for this stage of the challenge?

“That looks like our objective,” Hssim said, waving them to a stop. Instead of boarded-up shops, this section of the station was more open, with kiosks and several offices for customs officials as well as one for station security.

“Looks crowded,” Hugh whispered back. The area was crawling with those things. To make matters worse, the lighting was still on in this section, which meant they probably couldn’t just sneak past them like they had some of the others. The mutants hunted with sight and sound and didn’t seem to have heightened senses of any note.

“Can we send Hugh’s drone out to draw them away?” Vilkrex asked.

“Maybe, but it might do more harm than good. Once these things sense prey, they’ll start howling and draw any of them that are nearby. Some are bound to spot us as we make our move. I say we punch through and head directly to the lift before they can gather,” Hssim said.

“I still think we should use the drone as a distraction, but you are the leader,” Vilkrex said. Hugh didn’t want to lose his drone, especially now when he could use any help he could get to keep those mutant things off of him.

“Make ready, I’ll set our pace, but stay together,” Hssim said as they prepared for their next fight.