Pull (Deep Darkness Book 1) (17 page)

Hayden had joked before about the Erebus being alive. Now it was no longer
a joke. We were the white blood cells. The Erebus was alive and we were
nothing more then another parasite living inside it.

The tunnels began to space out and became more like hallways. We
finally
had a little room to breath. When we came to a fork we decided we would go
left. It was a group decision that left would be the only turn we took. Stath
had been marking the walls of each corridor with his dagger. Each corridor
he would scratch a line. At the first turn there was one line, then two, then
three. If we got lost we could hopefully find our way back. Four left turns
later we began to feel the toll walking with so much gear. Our guns alone
weighed seven pounds each and we were walking alert the entire time. Aside
from our weapons each of us had a small backpack with two days rations,
medix, a breather, and a cutting tool. Meddix was carrying extra ammunition
and Stath, Mak’r, and Hayden had all brought a Drok sword and dagger with
them. Hayden also had some small research gear with him.

We set up camp inside a garbage disposal that hadn’t been used in centuries.
It was something that had doubled as a storage room. Most of the rooms and
chambers inside the Erebus could function in several different ways. You
could still see stains and burns on the floor if you stared close enough. The
garbage disposal was tall and wide enough for all of us to set up in and the
best part was it only had one entrance. An entrance we could block and fight
our way through if we had too. The antliods as far as we knew had no way to
break or melt through walls so we were safe.

We only slept a few hours each that night. When we woke up we found just
ahead of us a hallway full of broken bones, torn limbs, and mechanical parts
thrown and mixed. It was a massacre complete with human remains and
auton parts mixed together so well there was nothing to identify anyone. It
was only when we found a broken rifle we could all agree we were staring at
either Alpha or Paladin squad.

Slade who had been the most quiet of us began to pray. In his hands he held
the end of necklace that was once the symbol for an old religion.

Trevor threw up.
Meddix sat in silence.
Stath and Mak’r began to see if there was anything to salvage.
Hayden stared into the darkness. I could see tears falling from his eye.

He barely managed to hide it but he did - from everyone but me.
“They must have woken up and tried to run,” Duv’Mir said.
“This...” I was speechless.
We searched through the dead hoping we could find at least one antliod
among the deceased but there was nothing. No one got a single shot off. They
couldn’t even take one out by shear force or luck.

That was when I noticed two familiar Drok. Faces I had seen so long ago on
Errikus. Faces that only barely resembled now the people they once were.
Hayden’s parents. I thought they had died on Errikus, it turned out they had
been injured and found by a rescue crew and since then they have been in
stasis. I wonder if Hayden knew? No. I knew he had no idea they were alive.
He had come to terms with their passing long ago.

I looked down and found his mother still breathing. I could see the pain and
suffering inside her eyes. She tried to crack a smile when she saw me. The
kind of smile that you never forget. I wanted to scream for Hayden to come.
For a second I thought we could save someone. Then I saw her legs. The
lower half of her body had been ripped apart and the only reason she hadn’t
bled out was because an auton had fallen on top of her - its gyros and gears
blocking the wound stopping her from bleeding out the way a dam would
hold back a river. I looked over at Hayden who was searching in the other
direction then I looked back and all I could think about was when I lost my
mother.

In the next few moments I did what might have been either the most sel
fish
or the most generous thing I have ever done in my life. In my medix kit I had
grabbed enough painkiller to overdose on. For a soldier it was a last resort. It
was better to die in peace then die in agony. With Hayden’s mother watching
I loaded it into a syringe. She grabbed my wrist with what little strength she
had, tears rolling down her eye as I stuck the needle inside her vein. She
didn't object. I watched as she drifted in the next minute her life flashing
before her eyes. I felt like I was there watching it with her. I covered her
body and the body of Hayden’s father as quickly as I could with a torn shirt
and cloth before Hayden could see what I was up to. When he came over to
me he asked if I was ready to move on. I answered without hesitation, 'yes'.

I couldn’t believe it. It took everything not to break down right then and
there. They had survived the destruction of Errikus and now years later the
grim reaper had come and taken their lives away before they even had a
chance to live again.

We continued through the stasis chamber until we reached another garbage
disposal. It seemed like the river of bodies would never end. Perhaps we had
gone into hell and we were only now passing through the river of Styx. We
had been in the underbelly for almost an entire day and no sign of a single
antliod. There was nothing that we could do to shake the feeling we were
being hunted. It felt like there were eyes all around us.

"Now for the second night in a row we set up camp, no sign of anything.
Place looks like the plague swept through," said Slade. I couldn't have
described the place any better myself. “Tomorrow we will have to turn back,
we’ll have to catch one closer to home if possible,” Duv’Mir told us. Our
mission was nearly a bust. All we managed to do was waste more supplies and
see a lot of dead. Each of us not going on watch took a sleeping pill that
would knock us into a quick REM sleep but not so much that we could wake
at the first sign of movement. It was the only way any of us could rest.

Meddix took
first watch, then Trevor. Mak’r must have only been an hour
into his watch while the rest of us slept. We had barricaded the entrance to
the disposal unit the best we could. There was only one small hole that
separated us from the nightmare outside. We had begun putting our guard
down. We thought we were safe in our den. Like a snake finding it’s way
inside a rabbit hole a massive antliod burst through our barricade. It was at
least four feet high. It wrapped its six black arms around Mak’r and pierced
his back with its pincers. Its face had two razor sharp beaks that seemed to
scissor limbs of its victims while it’s tail lashed around back and forth. I was
the first to shoot my gun, which I had fallen asleep holding. Meddix screamed
when he shot. His bullets ricochet and hit Stath who had already dug his
sword into the creature. Duv’Mir, Slade, and Hayden joined in shredding the
creature and Mak’r to pieces.

We must have looked like amateurs. Each of us covered in blood. Both Mak’r
and the creature lay dead. Limbs of both mixed and covered the ground of
the room. Stath was in the corner bleeding out. When Duv’Mir saw the blood
pour out of his mouth he shot him putting him out of his misery. “It was a fair
death and I hope I can die the same,” he said. Many Drok had an archaic way
of thinking, at least by most human standards anyway. Those that die in
battle from a weapon die in honor and get to spend their eternity as kings in
heaven. Earth Vikings once had a similar way of thinking. They called that
heaven Valhalla.

Duv’Mir picked up what was left of the antliods head and emptied out his
backpack placing it inside. This is what we had come for. “Let it not be in
vein,” he said slinging the backpack around his back. Hayden picked up both
Mak’r and Stath’s swords handing me one of them. Which one I wasn’t sure
but as he sheathed the Drok sword across his back with his creating an X he
told me it would honor them, it would honor their families. I sheathed the
sword around my back knowing I would probably never use it. Hayden and I
had practiced swordplay when we were children but as adults the only time
we practiced was the occasional kendo fight, but if this were the way to honor
my fallen teammates I would do it. It was terrifying what just one of these
creatures could do to a group of trained soldiers. In my head I could imagine
if one of these got into the veranda or hanger. If just one of these creatures
got into the civilian quarters it would be a never-ending nightmare.

We moved quickly down the stasis corridor from which we came. Hayden
and I had taken point while Slade and Meddix took up the rear. It didn’t take
long before we had attracted the attention of every antliod around. We were
in the belly of the beast now. Meddix fired rapidly into the darkness. Every
bullet hit a mark. Antliods by the hundreds swarmed behind us and to our
side. We could see and hear their limbs screech the ship. We made it to the
fifth scratch in the hallway when the monsters finally overcame Slade pushing
him to the ground. They all began to swarm around his body. We all stopped
and fired but it wasn’t enough. They all began to drag his body back into the
darkness. Each time one fell another would grab hold rise and drag it back
more. Slade had been dead on impact. We were simply trying to take as many
down as we could now. Then we heard a loud screech. The antliods stopped.

A sea of antliods surrounded us but made no moves. We stopped
firing to
save ammo. Only shooting the one that would occasionally lash out towards
us screeching. We had just enough light from the tunnels and our guns we
could see Slade’s body splayed across the ground. Then we saw it. A massive
antliod at least twelve feet high clawed its way towards Slade’s body grabbing
it and pulling it away.

Unknown to us Duv’Mir had brought along a pulse round. It was designed to
take out drop ships. It was an energy blast that would break apart spread out
and rip through walls melting them. It could probably take out the hull of the
Erebus at its weakest points. When he shot it the entire hallway lit up around
in a blue glow. Antliods disintegrated around us. All except the big one. It
stood in front of us its body split bleeding to pieces. It was like someone had
taken a hammer to a glass window. The window was still there but it was
cracked, bruised, broken only a small fragment of what it had been. It was
unable to move. Hayden seeing his opportunity unsheathed both swords from
his back and screaming walked up to the monster hacking and slashing. We
could hear the Drok swords cut through limb and limb until there was
nothing left. It sounded like paper shredding. When it was over he stood
there silently. Duv’Mir, Trevor and myself hunted down the leftover antliods
who strayed too close. Hayden ripped the head off one gathering venom from
its sharp fangs. Somehow we had been dropped into hell and survived.

The Consul

It took several hours for us to reach the veranda. Crawling back through the
small tunnels and vents that spread through the Erebus. We were rats in a
maze running for our lives. Our mission was a success but we had lost three
good men - Duv’Mir, Hayden, Trevor, Meddix and myself were all that
remained. We came out of a vent near the hangar and we were then embraced
by silence. Nobody was there to greet us - the veranda had fallen. We weren’t
sure if the antliods had broken through one of the barriers or if the riots had
gotten so out of control the soldiers and consul removed everyone. There
were only several hallways and chambers people could retreat to. We walked
through checking tents and looking for signs of where anyone might have
gone but we found nothing.

"The antliods would have made a mess if they had broken through. There
would have at least been signs of struggle," said Duv'Mir, "keep looking and
keep close, we can't be the only ones left on the ship."

We decided our best bet would be to check the hangar. Slowly we made our
way through the winding tunnels that separated us from society. Trevor and I
had taken turns taking point. More and more everything was beginning to
feel like we were inside a simulation. It felt like we were playing a game
practicing tactics. As soon as that feeling set in so did hunger and we sat to
rest. Hayden tossed me a ration, a small piece of Chev about the size of my
palm and reminded me this was all real and I was more terrified now then I
had been in the underbelly.

“If we turn on each other there will be nothing left. All of our enemies will
have won. If we kill each other then we our entire existence will be null,” he
said while we took rest. Duv’Mir and Meddix were restocking ammo from a
barricade we had run across. “ I didn’t tell you, but my parents were in stasis
down there,” Hayden was staring off into the distance, “do you think they
could still be alive. I mean not all of the pods were open, there could still be a
few survivors sleeping down there right?” He knew. How did he know? How
had this slipped his mind for so long. "I discovered it only a few years ago, I
thought they had died on Errikus but they were rescued. Severely injured
and placed in stasis side by side this whole time," he said, "I never even once
went down there to visit them or wake them up." I didn’t know what to say.
A part of me wanted to tell him the truth. If I could have saved my mother
from the pain she suffered buried under pieces of the Tritan and murdered by
the Seraphim I would have but still I would have hated someone if I knew
they had killed them whether it was a mercy killing or not. It would have
probably been best to say nothing but instead I lied to my friend. Hayden
needed something to keep going, “It’s possible.”

Not long past the barricade we found the hangar and with it one of the
several shelters the consul had set up. It was here that we found Anathem and
delivered the head Hayden had wrapped up in his pack.

Weeks passed by. Life began to slowly adjust. Barricades separated us from
the Antliods and Hayden along with several scientists began to work on a
vaccine and cure for the ship. We had several shelters set up inside the
Erebus. The most fortified was the Chev with the hangar being a close
second. Other shelters included the mess halls and the rooms leading to the
immersion core. An elite group also guarded the room that held the nexus
even though no one was using it. Duv’Mir, Trevor, Meddix, and myself had
been given a station protecting Anathem. We had become his bodyguards. All
of the other elders had protection too including Balkava who retreated more
and more inside the core of the ship. Day in and day out we heard rumors she
was communicating with the Aelita. Rumors meant little though and with so
many people awake there was gossip about just about everyone. People
prayed for salvation. Our options were growing more and more limited.

People began to entertain themselves setting up small parties and festivities
around the hangar. Some would even venture past the barricades to retrieve
old artifacts and holo reels that played ancient films about the old world.
Several of these films were entertaining. For several hours a night we could
see how our ancestors envisioned the future. They were all so grand. People
had envisioned a future where humans lived in peace or had conquered the
stars. There were several that went to war with aliens and the battles seemed
so strange. The best were the black and white films though. Humans bringing
the dead back to life, monsters that would turn to dust in the sunlight. These
films had become our escape. In a way things didn’t seem so bad. Leave it to
such a tragedy to bring even the most diverse people together.

It was when we had become content when we stopped worrying about the
antliods and life had turned for the better disaster struck the heart of the
human race again. The antliods finally breached the barrier to the Chev. It
only took a small one barely three feet tall to flank past the guards firing into
the horde. It bit into the Chev infecting our food. The Chev died after several
hours. The doctors finally gave it enough painkiller to end its pain. We had no
choice now but to take to the offensive once again. Several hundred were
given the experimental vaccine that had been developed and placed into stasis
chambers where they had been available and inside smaller pods inside drop
ships. The idea of dying inside stasis had become the lesser of two evils.

One night I had volunteered to speak to Balkava on behalf of Anathem. He
knew little about our history other then the fact that she herself had mentored
me for years and that we were 'close'.

Anathem had been talking to the Aelita and while they would still not break
quarantine procedure they discovered something of importance. People had
begun to demand a solution. We only had enough food to survive a few
months at most. Rumors began to spread about a derelict space station
detected close by. An outpost left by the Lethe and another bread crumb to
follow. Long-range scanners had shown it was offline but it was possible if we
could get it working we could abandon the Erebus. The Aelita had agreed
that they would assist us in any evacuation.

I explained everything the best I could. I was practically begging her to
agree. The rest of the consul had agreed and whether she went along or not
this was destined to happen. Anathem had even suggested we use the nexus
to guide us. Our timeline had become lost. So many had died we had deviated
from the path set before us. Without using the nexus our future was
unknown. Balkava disagreed with everything. She had other ideas. She told
me we were too close to were we needed to be to give up. The only thing she
agreed was that we needed to investigate the space station.

Balkava argued that we could pressurize parts of the Erebus making the
areas the antliods had made home inhabitable. Some of those areas still held
human survivors. We could then put all unnecessary personal into stasis and
ride out the rest of our journey. I felt like I was talking to a wall. In a way
both were right. Anathem could guarantee our immediate survival but the
space station wouldn’t be able to sustain us forever and that was only if we
could power it up and find a source of food and water. Balkava on the other
hand had a plan that would work but would kill just as many as it saved.

Anathem shook his head as I delievered her message. He was disappointed by
Balkava’s reaction but it didn’t change a thing. The Consul would meet in the
mess and together they would put together our plan of evacuation. Balkava
had been overruled. Bio-rigged guns and turrets were taken from the veranda
and moved to fortify the doorways to the mess. I watched Anathem night
after night interfacing with the Erebus and talking back and forth with the
command on the Aelita. Trevor and I were on guard when we heard just how
close to the space station we were.

Before the consul would meet they would be forming a new squad to
investigate. Given our success in the underbelly Duv’Mir, Trevor, Meddix,
Hayden, and myself were the first chosen. Two others were taken from the
elite that had been guarding the nexus. A blonde female guard with blue eyes
named Brecca who looked like she could have been an Amazonian warrior
and an aged bearded soldier named Lore that had several cybernetic implants
he got from the Arr7. His eyes alone could change color and show him
various fields of vision. His arms and bones had been grafted with an alien
metal that was strong enough it could get shot through and light and limber
enough so his mobility was never impaired. He was only one of a few dozen
aboard the entire ship that had implants that made him more cyborg then
human. He had no family, no kids, he had lost everything on colony – 5458
and sine then had dedicated his whole life to fighting. In many ways his story
reminded me of my own. I nearly lost everything on Errikus. Sometimes all
that kept me from going insane was Hayden and knowing Aira was alive on
the Aelita.

They named our team 'First Descent'. To celebrate our reunion each of
us branded ourselves with a small arrowhead below our left eye as well as a
black arrow on our left arm. It was our way of honoring those that had fallen
before us. From now on we would be the first into battle, the first into the
darkness, and the first into the unknown. We were thrilled with our new
promotion but also prayed that it didn't mean we would also be the first to
die. All risks we knew we had take if we were going to survive. I can still
remember the day of our promotion. Anathem presented both Hayden and I
with a necklace, a special Norse charm. Anathem had been a collector of
antiquities since even long before he became an elder. The charms were to
protect us as we flew into battle. Anathem at no point made me think he was
a superstitious man but then again I felt empowered by the gift. 'Maybe some
charms were lucky after all'. Somehow taken out of context the whole thing
just felt like some sick joke playing on the parts of my mind that were still
young and full of hope.

The Erebus continued to get sick giving us less and less time to
prepare. The vaccine developed for it was working but everyday it needed
more and more. We were slowing down more and more inside the immer. If
we wanted to get to the space station we would need to hope a ride with the
Aelita. Our mission would be quiet. The consul didn’t want to risk it being a
failure. Morale was at an all time low but we were still survivors. We were
looking over the feed from drones the Aelita had sent out to the space station
now codenamed 'Parcae Station'. In an ancient mythology the Parcae were
the Roman personification of destiny, often called the fates. The station itself
was separated into three circular parts that interconnected. There was an
outer ring we named Nona, an inner ring Decima, and the center Morta.
Each ring named for one of the three Parcae. The station itself was massive.
It stretched in the distance the size of a small moon. Once we were on board
our only goal would be to find a power source and activate it if possible. We
had just enough research given to us from the Arr7 and the ruins found on
Errikus that we should be able to find our way around and operate the
controls. We spent days pouring over the information while our drop ship
dubbed “New Dawn” was being prepped for flight.

Anathem told everyone they were being evacuated from the hangar
temporarily so that they could fortify it against antliod attack. Most were
moved to a refuge in the mess. The hangar had become filthy. Dirty clothing
used for sleeping and pleasure laid spread on the ground abandoned. The air
smelt stale and unclean. Baths and bathing had become a problem in areas
were more and more people had become backed into corners. Everyone was
given five minutes to clean themselves a day but it wasn’t enough and most
didn't even bother. Shortly after our departure caretakers would be brought
inside and given cleaning and maintenance tasks. The elders had hoped our
mission would be a new clean slate for all.

The New Dawn was bigger then the normal dropship Hayden and I
had taken out before. It was a heavy gunner. Some called it a picker. It was
solid white and shaped like an old Earth shuttle from the 21st century crossed

with a tri rotor drone. It’s wings spread out 30 feet to both the left and the
right. Three giant rotors made up the bottom half of the ship. The back was
were the small immersion core and ion drive sat. At least one auton was
bonded to the back of the ship to help maintain it and supply navigational
data.

We left the Erebus at night, at least what counted as night on the ship.
Everyone was out of the hangar as we departed. The Aelita was going to be
waiting for us just a few minutes away. We looked through our porthole
windows and saw the hull of the Erebus crawling with caretakers. That
wasn’t all we saw though. When we crossed the bottom part of the Erebus we
decided to take a look at where the walls of the underbelly had been. Parts of
the hull had been ripped away, chunks blown out from accidental explosions.
Small black spots crawled on the surface just outside the holes. The antliods
were more adaptable then we had given them credit. They moved slowly
through the vacuum of space but they were alive.

After maneuvering around the Erebus we saw the Aelita on the horizon. It
was only a quarter of the size of the Erebus. It resembled a cross. Two
massive rail and energy based weapons pointed outward from the front while
it’s wings spread out. Its body was longer and more slender then the Erebus. I
thought about the first time I saw it coming out of the immer and fighting the
Seraphim. The way it positioned itself above the ground pointing down and
hammering blast after blast into that monster. It seemed so calm now. It sat in
wait as we positioned our little ship on the side of its hull. This was the closest
to Aira I had been in ten years. We were hitching a ride to the Parcae. After a
few moments we took off through the immer leaving the Erebus behind
hoping it would catch up to us in a few days.