The Coldness of Space

The Coldness of Space

Sargent John walker wondered what had got him into this mess first. Was it punching the generals jaw?No. Was it escaping constantly from boot camp? No. It had to be when he asked for a tough mission. Yep that was it. Well at least he knew why he was going to die. The reinforced door blew open and a odd creature ran at him and he thought of the mission as he waited to die.


Twelve hours ago

“Alright men get ready!” lieutenant Abrams yelled as they prepared to bored the silent ship 'beauty' and made shore there weapon's ammo clips where full. “CLEAR!” the Lt. Yelled and they ran out the now open door into the ship. There guns searching the cold steely walls and floor. PVC Jack Vincent walked across the space, his steps echoing across the large room. “looks clear” he said. “ok Vincent, Walker and Spice take the left door. Talon,Smith and Rodriguez your with me. Alfred and Stinker stay here and guard the ship...MOVE OUT!” and with that the squad of space suited,black armored marines moved threw the abandon and quite chilling ship.

Vincent or Vinny was yapping over the comm as he walked next to Walker. “This is a clean up job...why couldn't we be sent to help with the rebellion on Saturn or the one on the moon?” Vinny wined. Susan Spice growled “You know Vinny..could you just shut up?” Vinny clamped his mouth shut. John was bored and agreed with Vinny...why hadn't they been sent to a real mission? Why a simple clean up of a pirate attack? “What do you think happened sarge?” Vinny asked. “i think it was another pirate attack....when will they approve nuking Venus where there outposts are?” he asked. “sometime next year if these raids keep up” Susan said.

Lieutenant Abrams was on the bridge of the 'Beauty' and looked at the stars. “Sir?” Smith said to him. “hm?” Abrams said almost bored with this clean up duty. “there are contacts in area seven?” Smith said dumb founded. Abrams turned around, “Tell John to meet us there and lets go see for ourselves if there are any survivors” and with that he picked up his gun and headed out of the bridge for the elevator, the other three marines at his heels.

John and Vinny where talking about the sieges on Neptune when Johns buzzer went off. “Yes Sir!” John said into it. “John get your squad to sector seven on the double!” was all Adams said then hung up. John looked at the others “ok you to lets move!” and with that they ran down the corridor.

Adams was in the Barracks or sector seven as he and the other three marines where looking at the odd pods they had found while smith tried to reach John. “wonder what they are?” Rodriguez said. The pods where brown,dark yellow,and a glowish green. And....there was something inside them. A pod move slightly or rather the thing inside did. Talon screamed a blood curdling scream as a pod broke open and it landed on her. “GET IT OFF GET IT OFF!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!” she yelled at the top of her lungs as smoke appeared where its mouth was on her spine and acid started to drip. She fell to the floor and stopped moving as the odd creature stood,two and a half meters tall, and had part of her spine in its mouth. “Kill that freak!” Rodriguez yelled and fired his assault rifle. Adams and smith fired as well but more pods blew open and more where coming at them. “die you freaks die!” Rodriguez yelled. A creature landed behind him and slashed him in half with its claws. “Retreat!” Adams yelled and ran backwards out of the room. Smith followed and they sealed the door, which was a half meter solid. A “Yes Sir” sounded in his ear. At last John had answered his call. “ John get your squad to sector seven on the double!” then he canceled it as they broke threw the door and he and Smith ran down the corridor shooting at the aliens behind them.

John,Vinny and Susan where running to sector seven when They saw Adams and Smith running to them. “RUN!” was all Adams said before the aliens came at them and they all ran. “what is that!” Vinny yelled as they made it to the hanger and sealed the door,and both backup doors. “I don't know some kind of alien” Adams said. “Stinker start the ship” John yelled. “ship ready sir!” PVC Stinker said as the ship prepared to take off. The others headed for the ramp but they all stopped cold as a alien appeared behind Stinker and Alfred. “LOOK OUT!” John yelled but it was too late. The creature stuck its claws threw both of there chests and slashed them in half. Vinny and Susan screamed as the pilots died but Alfred's upper torso landed on the control stick and the shuttle flew off the ground and straight at the wall. “Run!” Adams said as they headed for the other door. They got threw it and sealed it as the shuttle crashed into the wall and detonated into a fireball that destroyed the hanger and damaged the hanger doors.

It had been six long hours of running and hiding from the creatures until they arrived at the bridge and activated the shield doors. “bad news...”smith said. “Its always bad...tell me anyways” Adams said. “there shutting down the power to the ship....which means no shields...no lights” Smith said. Adams looked thoughtful then said, “John take Susan and Vincent and go get that power back on” he said at last. John didn't want to go LOOKING for those creepy things but knew it was now while they had lights or later in the dark. “Okay Vinny,Susan get your gear ready” Vinny's jaw dropped “sarge your not serious are you?” he asked. “Yes so grab your gear”.

They where walking down the passage into the power room. “I got a real bad feeling” Vinny said. “you've had a bad feeling all the way down here!” Susan yelled then closed her mouth as if she was worried the creatures might hear. The door opened and the power switch was down a catwalk right in front of them. “Vinny go turn that thing on, Susan cover him, I got the rear” John said. “r-r-right” Vinny said with chattering teeth and forced himself to walked over to the switch. He flipped it on, “power charging...10%...20%....30%....40%.....50%....60%....” Vinny read the meter as it went up. “Top power?” John asked. “875%” Vinny said sadly. John cursed and continued to watch the corridor. For a long torturing half hour the meter finally was at full power. “d-done a-already? I-i-i could d-do this all d-d-day” Vinny said trying to keep cool but was scared to death. “okay Vinny climb back down from there and lets go” Susan said. “o-o-ok” he said and turned around to climb down the latter to the catwalk. “Vinny look out!” Susan yelled as a creature dropped in front of him and stuck him threw with its claw. “C-C-Crap....” he said slowly then it pulled hard and flung his body off the catwalk and into the power generator...then it blew up. “run!” John yelled as Susan fired a stream of bullets at the thing. He pulled her down the hall as the door sealed and several more just before they crossed as the explosion went off. “John are you there? Tell me you guys are alive?” Adams voice said over the com. “Yes Sir me and Susan are here sir” John said. Adams took a moment to register Vinny's death as the lights went red. “what happened John?” Adams asked softly. “We finished the power up but a creature killed Vinny and blew up the reactor...were on emergency power from the color of the lights sir” John said. “Okay John look...” Adams took a breath “ there is a escape pod on the most bottom part of the ship..”. John saw what the Lt. Was getting at “ so when do we leave sir? “thats the problem John...there is a large life reading in the room in front of the escape pod area...smith thinks its the queen...” Adams said. John was shocked. “the queen!” He exclaimed. “yes..meet me and smith at the elevators and we'll get out of here”. “Yes Sir!” John said as he and Susan ran for the elevators.

They had been on the ship for eleven hours now and they waited for the elevator to open. “CLEAR!” Smith said as the doors opened and he searched them. They all got in and Adams hit floor -8531 with his gun. It had been Half an hour in the elevator when it opened and they ran into the room. There stood a massive mill. Steel was going down the conveyor and into giant bowls that would move to a furnace and heat it into super hot liquid which would be poured into a small block like mold and it would be dumped out and put in a box for shipping. All done by machines. They walked carefully threw the door. “where is the-” Susan's comment was silenced when a loud screech went off from above. They looked up and saw a large emerald colored creature with a massive egg like sac behind it. “holy crap...” muttered Susan. They all aimed up and fired at the queen and blew the egg sac open which made the queen fall into a bat of bubbling steel. And all the creatures in the egg sac fell out ready to kill them. “CRAP!” smith said and fired at the falling creatures. Dozens were killed and there purple/green blood fell all over them. “Run!” Adams said and they ran for the door on the other side. Adams was in front and stopped when the queen came out of the steel bowl and dropped down covered with bubbling hot steel and hit Adams with its claw and knocked him into the air with his legs missing and landed on a catwalk above. “Lieutenant!” John yelled and they fired at the queen as they backed up. “Six o'clock!” Smith said and they turned to see a army of the creatures running at them. Smith and John fired at them while Susan fired at the queen. “The catwalks!” Smith yelled and he and John fired at the catwalks and made several of the large ones fall and squish many of the creatures. “Aim at the bowls!” they fired and two of the bowls crashed down and melted the creatures,killing them all. “YES!” John and Smith said together. “uh guys we still got big tall and ugly!” Susan yelled and fired at the queen as she ran at them. They opened fire with her and continued the attack but the emerald colored shell didn't break. “we cant kill this thing...” Susan said as it spat a massive acid blast at them and melted threw the steel floor. “Then we back up the furnace and it should blow the ship to kingdom come!” John said. Susan nodded and ran for the furnace controls. John and smith covered her. She made it to the controls and blocked the furnace valve making it get hotter and the furnace started to get fire red.
Susan turned around to run away but the queen stabbed her and killed her. “NO!” Smith said. “run” John yelled and they ran. Up on the catwalks Adams saw her die and hit a switch with his only attached arm and closed his eyes as his life ended. John and smith thought they where about to die when the queen stood in front of them and prepared to stab them with her claws, then a Steel grinder connected to a cable unhooked from the roof and swung into the queen and stabbed her threw and into the the furnace. “run” John yelled and they made it to the escape pod door and burst in. there was a row of Stainless steel escape pods lined up against the wall. “get in while I start them up!” smith said. John ran into the pod as smith turned it on, “all set!” he said. And turned to get in but a creature stabbed him and dropped him near the controls as it came to get John. John screamed and sealed the hatch. The creature banged against the door trying to get in. Smith raised a hand and hit the ignition switch, “J-John s-see ya on t-t-the other side...” he said before slumping against the console. John saw him die and reached over to the pods controls and hit the thrust to maximum and shot out with the creature still holding onto it. “Get off my pod and go back to the devil!” John shouted and turned all power to engines and melted the creature off the pod. The pod had cleared the ship and John turned all power to life support. He watched the 'Beauty' detonated into a fireball.

It had been twelve hours after they had boarded the ship...John had sat there and listened in vain. After a while a odd clank hit the pod and with his pod about out of air he didn't care if it was pirates or not. Sargent John walker wondered what had got him into this mess first. Was it punching the generals jaw?No. Was it escaping constantly from boot camp? No. It had to be when he asked for a tough mission. Yep that was it. Well at least he knew why he was going to die. The reinforced door blew open and a odd creature ran at him and he thought of the mission as he waited to die. “ are you ok Sir!!” a worried voice said. John opened his eyes and saw a marine with out a helmet checking him with a med scanner. For the first time john realized he was covered from head to toe in blood. “its not my blood” he said. “i know....humans don't bleed purple” the medic said. For the first time in hours John felt tired and fell back against the pods cold steely deck and feel asleep.

John woke up in a hospital. “welcome back to the world of the living John” said a voice next to him. John looked at the man next to him and saw the admiral's bars and tried to salute. “don't hurt yourself soldier and I should be saluting you...” The admiral said. “Sir? Where there any....survivors from operation sword fish?” he asked hopefully. “yes” the admiral said, “you” then got up to leave. He stopped at the door to his room, “you will be awarded the award of bravery by the republic leader tomorrow so rest up...oh and John”. “ Yes sir?” John asked. “your next mission starts after that...so make sure to get some extra rest....commander”. And with that he left. John looked at the ceiling...another mission? John groaned and decided to enjoy his rest while he could.