To: n.clymonds[at]departmentintelligence[dot]gov
From: m.jillian[at]dentonindustries[dot]net
Subject: Information Needed
Nick, this is the video I alluded to during our conversation the other day. One of our survey teams operating in deep Beta came across something while investigating a derelict station in the quadrant. I can’t tell you much more than that, non-disclosure agreements and what not, all location information has been scrubbed from the video. So no, you won’t be able to get a bearing on where this occurred. But, see what you can find out on your end and let me know what you discover, we are a bit at a loss over here. I’ve forwarded a copy of the video to our new friends in on the Beta/Delta border. I’d suggest you follow up with them through official channels, as my avenues to them are still more under the table. When I’m back in Axul later this month, we can catch up you still owe me a beer. You’ll need a Denton Industry pass code to access the file. [4RR6GH9!V]. I’ll answer your question up front, no that code will not access anything else from Denton Industries so don’t even try it.
And no…this isn’t another space cat video, I promise.
///Initiate Video Playback Program///
//Input Classification Code//
…[4R?6GH9!V]…
//Classification Code Accepted//
/Begin Video Playback/
[Video Recording of Survey Investigation of Derelict Object #B1]
[Location of Recording: (CLASSIFIED)]
[Recorder: Travis ‘Hud’ Hawkins (Smokejumper)]
The screen came alive with an image of a space station hanging calmly in the foreground of an orange, brown nebula. The station itself was completely dark; no running lights blinking and no indicators that it was at all active. The station grew slowly in size as the distance between the camera and the station decreased, one could see even at this distance splotches of a burnt orange substance on several sections of the stations hull. The contrast between the dark grey hull and the brighter orange substance was stark, and continued to be more and more noticeable as the camera closed in. A moment of static occurred on the screen as the video skipped ahead. The screen stabilized with the scene of a gloved hand coming into contact with the grey plating of the station. The wearer of the camera turned around to spy three other suited individuals slowly making their way through the void using puffs of pressurized gas helping them join the first person on the hull of the station. Moving about on the outside of the station, the camera soon came to view a closed hatch, with a smaller terminal protruding from the left side of the hatch. Getting closer to the terminal the camera zoomed in on the odd symbols displayed on the keys of the terminal. A voice could be heard coming alive, as the individuals in the video began to address one another.
“…you getting those symbols on film?”
“Yeah, I zoomed in and panned them. Bring up the scatter box, we gotta get in here.”
The second man maneuvered himself with a puff of compressed gas over to the terminal; the camera zoomed in as he began to attach a smallish rectangular box to the side of the terminal. The box flashed a series of red, orange and green lights, as the static returned as the video was forwarded ahead. The image on the screen stabilized as it showed three individuals now inside kneeling on the metal floor in front of the person wearing the camera. A holographic display of the station was emanating from a small black box sitting on the floor in the middle of the team. A red dot could be seen pulsating within the blue holograph. The man directly across from the camera wearer began addressing the team…
“That red dot is our current position. We’ve been tasked with just a light recon; I say a two-hour jaunt through the station should suffice. Hud keep your camera rolling at all times, I want good documentation…not the bullshit you and Rick shoot on your downtimes.”
“Heh...”
“…You got it Victor.”
“Alright, the Razor’s sensors have yet to detect anything living or any emission from this place, but everyone stay frosty. We don’t need any slip ups today.”
Static filled the screen for a moment, as a further on section of the video eventually materialized on the screen. Hud, the cameraman was following two of his teammates down one of the many hallways of the station. The two smokejumpers in view were sealed in their black TOC suits and still moved elegantly down the hallway, the path in front of them illuminated by the flashlights attached to the end of their assault rifles. They were making their way down a series of doorways that individually branched off from the single hallway, when a thunderous clang occurred, reverberating through the hallway the echo’s compounding on one another creating one hell of a racket. Immediately spinning on his heels, Hud brought the camera to his six, the camera viewed the last smokejumper that was behind Hud as he too turned with a learned quickness. Hud’s submachine gun and the last smokejumper’s shotgun both came up to the ready position without delay.
“What in the fuck was that?” Hud exclaimed.
“Dunno…it came down that ways a bit.”
The last smokejumper in line gestured with his shotgun pointing down the hallway a bit from where they had just came. Following the direction of the noise the four-man team made their way back down the hallway and Hud’s camera viewed a metallic door off of its hinges and lying on the metal floor. With a quick look at one another, the team stacked up against the wall pausing for a count of two and the first smokejumper entered the room, shotgun at the ready. Hud and his camera were positioned right behind the shotgun wielding man as he entered the room, and followed him right in. Burnt orange splotches of the unidentifiable substance were present on the inner walls and ceiling of the room in decent amounts; the camera zoomed in on sections of the burnt orange matter and if you stared hard enough you would see parts of the substance vibrate with tiny motion. Hud turned around oblivious to the tiny movement to face back at the door that was lying on the floor and zoomed in so that the tiny bits of burnt orange could be seen on the hinges. Static filled the screen once again as the video was fast-forwarded.
Materializing on the screen showed a door opening revealing a large space, possibly a former cargo hold, as the there were stacks of pallets of unknown materials throughout the area. Hud was the first one through the door, and he took up a position behind one of the pallets as the other three smokejumpers made their way into the area. It was quiet in the hold, as Hud turned around to get the rest of the team in frame; Victor was kneeling placing the holographic projector on the floor. The camera could watch as a projection of the station appeared with a single red pulsating dot indicating where the team was.
“…The main control room should be a couple floors above us. That’s the last section we’ll look at before we get out of here. We’ll try and download everything we can, I’m sure the people in the assessment group would be thrilled to have new information to scour over. I think…”
A loud metallic screeching interrupted Victor, which ended in a hard clunk that echoed through the large cavity hold. It appeared the noise originated from somewhere inside the spacious area given how loud it was. But even as the camera darted around, nothing in the immediate area seemed to have caused the noise.”
“For being an abandoned place, it sure is noisy…Rick go and see if you can find out what the hell fell down this time.”
“You got it Vic.”
Travis and his camera could view Rick getting up from the group and moving into a semi-jog off into the direction he believed the noise originated. The other three returned to the holograph projection, as it increased in size a thin red line appeared from the teams current position and lead up into a different section of the station.
“…This is the path which will get us into the main control room the quickest, following it will also briefly put us through several other parts of the station, and if we make good time we should be up in that room within an hour or so…”
A familiar voice rang out with an alarming tone causing the other three men to instantly spring up from their knelt positions and fall into a dead sprint into the direction of the voice, it was only two words that disturbingly rang out into the large chamber. “OH SHIT!”
Static filled the screen as the video was moved forward once again, stabilizing with a view of a decent sized hole. As the camera focused in it could be seen that the perforation was ringed with a thin layer of the burnt orange material. Travis moved to the edge of the fissure and tilting his camera down, only the darkness could be seen. The sound of tapping and clicking could be heard, and soon a beacon of light shot down the hole, illuminating what lay below. Rick could be seen sprawled out on the steel floor below on the lower level, his left leg bent at an odd angle to the rest of his body. The three operators gathered at the newly created hole looking down at their comrade, the camera still locked on to the motionless man at the bottom.
“Rick! Rick!”
“Hey! Wake up man!”
“He isn’t moving Vick…”
“We need to get down there, now.”
The scene displayed on the screen changed as Hud moved his viewpoint from looking down the hole, over to looking at this other two teammates. Vic was already furiously studying the projection schematics of the station, trying desperately to find a quick way down to his fallen brother, his eyes were darting from section to section looking for a path. Tracing the projection with his finger, a red line appeared from their current position down to where Rick currently was sprawled out unconscious. The static returned as the video was forwarded to a new section.
“Form up on the door, Hud you take point.”
The camera focused on a closed door, which Hud reached out to and placed the scatter box onto the frame of the door, near the computerized lock. The red, green and orange lights flickered in a sequence for a moment, and then went all solid green. An audible hiss could be heard as the scatter box did its job and the door slowly released open. Hud flicked on the flashlight attachment on his submachine gun, sending a cone of illuminating light into the immediate area. Far in the back the hole which Rick fell through could be seen, a beam of light fell from that hole in the ceiling a single beam of brightness in a dark room. Sweeping his weapon right and left, Hud could spot small spots of burnt-orange scattered throughout the surrounding area. He maneuvered carefully into the room, making sure his steps avoided any spot of burnt orange on the floor.
“Follow my path guys, I don’t know what the orange shit is, but we don’t need to blaze any trails over it.”
Hud continued to keep the camera moving in sweeping arcs as he moved tenuously through the room. The burnt orange splotches were everywhere in this room small amounts dotted the floors while larger pools of the strange substance hung on the walls and even on the ceiling. It took several moments of a snake like pattern avoiding the spots on the floor, but eventually the three operators made it to the spot below the hole in the ceiling their illuminating lights mixing with the light coming from the hole in the ceiling. However, something was missing…the camera focused on an empty floor, with a burnt-orange smear leading off into one direction.
“Where…where did Rick go?”
“No way he walked off with his leg like that…I know the bastard is tough but fuck.”
“Hey…what’s that?!”
Hud pointed with his free arm at what his flashlight was currently centered on a bit away from their current position, it was a helmet. The camera stayed focused on the helmet as Hud made his way over to it, growing closer the helmet itself became more detailed, there seemed to be holes perforating the metal that made up the helmet in multiple spots. Picking up the helmet, Hud held it up high above his head so the other two operators could get a good look.
“Hud, what the hell happened to that helmet?”
“Hell if I know Vic…it looks like it was partially dissolved…”
The helmet was brought back down where the camera mounted on Travis could get a good look at it as he twirled it around. The flat black helmet had glaring holes in multiple locations, where it looked like some acidic substance had ate straight through the material that composed the helmet. Turning the helmet over, the tell tale patter of something hitting the floor beneath the helmet caused Travis to angle his head down and upon the camera seeing the burnt-orange substance dripping out of the helmet caused the operator to drop the helmet in shock. The camera zoomed onto the collection of small spots of burnt-orange as they pooled on the floor tiny vibrations of movement could be observed.
“We have to find Rick, now.”
The group split up at this point, Hud went in one direction while the other two peeled off to take other routes through the area. In a frantic ballet of movement, they searched the large room looking for their missing comrade. Hud so far had come up empty; his section of the room did not contain Rick or even a trace of him. He was moving across the far wall, inspecting the large tracts of burnt-orange when a familiar voice rang out.
“RALLY UP!”
The screen came back alive, the static dissolving away and the screen began to fill with the image of a man. His face frozen in terror, mouth agape in a scream that never left his lungs, his eyes wide with fright, his left arm outstretched frozen trying to reach for something long gone. The man was mounted up on the wall within a large tract of the orange substance, with only his face barely visible and the orange material covered the rest of his body.
“My God…”
“Hud, Mike get him down…”
Both operators moved at the command closer to their dead brother, each one unsheathed their combat knives and began chipping away at the orange substance. After a few hacks into the burnt-orange, Mike reeled back like an electric shock over took his body. The camera caught the Smokejumper throwing his knife away in an extremely quick motion, as the knife moved through the air the blade itself crumpled apart falling to the floor in pieces. Hud moved back from the corpse on the wall and brought his knife up to the camera, small spots of burnt-orange moved across the blade and a few of them began to burrow into the metallic blade itself.
“It’s eating my knife blade!”
Hud tossed his knife away with disgust and slowly backed away from the corpse on the wall. The three operators stood for a moment; gazing at their fallen comrade they bowed their heads in a respectful manner.
“Vick, I don’t think we’re gonna be able to get him down…”
“Our course of action has changed, we will extract to the Razor and return with heavier equipment to get Rick back. Understood?”
“Yes, Sir.”
The screen filled with static as a new section of the video then began to materialize on the monitor. The image was one of a long section of hallway; the three remaining smokejumpers could be seen moving through it with a heightened sense of urgency.
A slow loud tremor began to vibrate through the hallway they were traversing, causing Travis and his camera to quake. The shaking was enough to make the three smokejumpers stop in their tracks; they looked at one another while the shaking subsided. Vick brought up the schematic of the station once again, in an attempt to locate the source of the heavy vibration, maybe part of the station crumbled. The sharp sounds of creaking metal took his attention away from the projection, but it was too late to react.
An entire section of the wall of the hallway detached itself and came crashing down onto Mike, its disengagement was quick and the effect on the human body was devastating. In a blink of an eye, Mike’s lower section of his body was pinned beneath the heavy weight of the wall section. Hud began to reach down to try and free his teammate from the crumpled wall, he stopped in his movement once his eyes gazed upon the backside of the wall. Vick started to pull Hud back away from Mike trapped under the wall. A large blob of burnt-orange was present, the largest mass of the substance they had seen yet.
It wriggled with an unnatural movement as it labored to move over the crumpled section of wall and onto its intended live target. Mike struggled to free himself jerking his lower body harshly, but to no avail. The collapsed section of the wall was just too heavy and pinned him down with enough force that he wasn’t going anywhere. Turning his head he looked at his two brothers and outstretched his free hand.
“Hey guys come on…help me.”
“Guys?”
The camera zoomed in as the orange substance finally reached the edge of the wall and began to spill over onto the armored back and helmet of Mike. Almost immediately the sound of dissolving composite filled the hallway, the orange substance began to flow over the composite armor and started to permeate into the protective covering. The scream shattered through the air, as Mike felt the burnt-orange squirm its way inside to his skin. His body began to twitch randomly as the substance continued to flow inside his TOC suit. The camera was centered on the horrific scene; Travis and Vick were both stuck in shock. A few moments went by before a single shot rang out, impacting Mike at the crown of his helmet. The camera jumped at the sound of the gunshot reverberated through the hallway. Turning to face Vick, Travis and the camera saw the still smoking pistol in his hand.
“Come on Hud, we…we gotta go.”
The screen went black for a moment, as a new part of the video was loaded up, with a moment of static appearing before the display came alive with a bobbling scene of a hallway. Travis was in a full sprint, the camera jumping around with every step, he came to a ‘Y’ intersection and darted his head left and right looking at each option to maneuver down multiple times. The corridor to the right began to vibrate and a ceiling panel crashed to the ground, a mound of burnt-orange wriggled off of the collapsed panel onto the floor of the hallway. Travis turned to the corridor on the left, and the camera began to jostle again as he starting running down corridor. The telltale sound of panels hitting the floor began to rhythmically emanate behind him, as the sounds grew closer his run turned more into a dead sprint.
“Fuck. Fuck. Fuck. Fuck. Fuck. Fuck. Fuck. Fuck. Fuck.”
Coming at the end of the corridor the Travis and his camera came upon a door, in a flash he slapped the skatterbox on the side of the door, and in a few moments it hissed open revealing an office of some sort. Tables and desks with computers on them littered the room, at the far end of the room was a large thick window giving a great view of the stars and the brown-orange nebula that dominated the background. Travis made his way over to the giant window, his hand touching the thick glass. He pulled his pack off his back and placed it on the ground, as the camera angled down when he pulled open the zipper, which revealed several blocks of plastic explosives. A large thud was heard, and turning quickly around the camera could spot the door dent in. Moving quickly Travis began setting up the blocks of explosives on the window and the wall around it. Hearing another thud against the door, caused Travis to panic and drop one of the blocks, he kicked it against the wall with the window with his foot as he began to fiddle with the detonator. Moving to the far side of the room, he surrounded himself with a few of the desks, and grabbed hold of an exposed pipe with his free hand. He brought the detonator up, and depressed the trigger. The camera cut out, with only static remaining on the screen.
The camera came back alive to the scene of a starry black sky, turning around on the exterior hull, Travis could view the gaping hole that his explosives made in the hull of the station, the camera could spy desks, chairs and other assorted items floating in the void having been sucked out of the station. Atmosphere continued to escape from the hole bringing random items from inside the station out into space. Travis slowly crawled on the hull away from jagged maw that was continually venting atmosphere, the screen slowly tilting both right and left as the camera tilted with his body as he made his way on the exterior.
“Razor…come in Razor…this is Blade Two…I need immediate extraction…activating beacon now…”
/End Video Playback/
/Close Connection/
