Stellaris

Crew Log Twelve: Lost Contact

  The station is lonely and quiet as we tip-toe through it's halls. The aliens are gone for the time being, but I know what they're up to. Breeding. We have to stop APOLLO...well, I do. I can't put Abigail and Parker in anymore danger, they have to get off this ship and make it back to earth, exposing Systech, taking them down.

"I'm gonna go to the armory and get whatever I can. I'm gonna override APOLLO."

"How?" Parker asks.

"By purging the station." An idea I should've thought of a long time ago.

"Purge?"

"A manual shutdown. You guys need to be on the Endurance when this happens."

"What about you?" Abigail's eyes fill with tears.

"I can't come. The shutdown will have to be done in the APOLLO systems. I won't make it to the ship in time, if Alpha shuts down while Endurance is still docked, you're never going home. Once the ship is offline, it'll send a lost contact message...someone will come for me."

We say our tear filled goodbyes, there's nothing worse than leaving people you care so much about. I have to do this, for my crew, for my parents, Systech needs to be stopped. I take the elevator back down to the computer room which greets me with dim yellow flickering lights. It wasn't like this before. Grabbing the ion torch from my bag, I twist the valve and pump it until the blue flame kicks on. I'm not sure what's down here, it could possibly be my new foe, androids. The door to the APOLLO computer is locked tight, I'll have to use the hacking tool. I unclip it from my belt and run the cord into the lock. THUD. I stop in mid hack, there's more than one thud. It sounds like a boot hitting the floor as hard as possible. Two red eyes walk out of the darkness, it's a robot. I reach down for the torch by I'm grabbed by the neck and thrown across the room.

"APOLLO is off limits." It says, it's voice is so similar to a human.

"Fuck you."

"You will not make it off this ship alive." It inches closer to me.

"I didn't plan on it." Grabbing a wrench next to me, I jump up from the floor and smack it against the side of it's head.

"Please, do not get hostile." The robot grabs my arm and flings me against the door to the computer.

There's movement in the vents above us and out drops an alien right behind the android. The monster grabs him and stabs it's tail into his neck over and over but the robot still isn't dead. It fights back, punching the creature with it's powerful fists. I take advantage of the little time I have and finish hacking the door. It slides open and I dive into the room and lock the door behind me. I know I'm not going to be able to shutdown APOLLO by asking it. The walls are littered with blinking buttons and something stands out. A red lever directly in front of me. A loud bang on the door makes me spring into action. The robot is trying hard to get inside but it's no match for the monster. The alien grabs it and rips him in half. Frantic, I pull the red lever and the computer turns on with a few beeps. The screen reads. "Purge initialized. Sequence activated."
Four cylinders slide out of the wall and open up. My breaths are heavy as I press the buttons that blink bright red on the mechanisms. They enter the wall again and a small door slides down next to it, another red lever. This will activate the shutdown and APOLLO will be out of commission. My fingers wrap around and pull down hard. The lights begin to flash red and a siren blares throughout the station. Four minutes until complete shutdown. Might as well kill the beast before it kills me.

Unlocking the door is suicide, but I'm taking the risk. It opens slowly, the robot lies on the floor in front of me, torn in half, I almost feel bad for it. The torch is still on, the flame bright blue. I pick it up just as the alien grabs me and screams in my face. There's moment where we just look at each other, I know it's plotting something, but I plot faster. The flame rips through it's wrist like slicing through butter. It now has one hand gripped onto my shoulder. I shove the torch in it's face, the monster screeches, cries, and shakes around violently as it dies slowly. It's tail reaches towards me and stabs into my abdomen over and over until it finally lets go. Falling to the floor seems like it takes an eternity. Blood pours out of my body, I try to stop it but there's no use. I didn't tell them what the purge really does. It does shut down the station, but it incinerates the computer room, making sure nothing gets out to the public. The blood is now dripping from the corners of my mouth, this is what dying feels like. This is what my crew members went through. I close my eyes, I don't want to see it happen. A loud bang, followed by intense heat, I'm screaming through the pain of death. The world fades to black.

END.