Incursion Vector

021

[▲] Unidentified vessel, Caminha Waypoint

"Red Spider can you patch us into this ship's com?"

"Negative, Lawman," replied Calli, artfully concealing her frustration with the entire situation. "I need a few seconds of continuous transmission to hijack. The ship is broadcasting absolutely nothing wirelessly. We're not even seeing computer PANs, and this is using Minuteman's ship-to-ship triangulation protocols to boost our recon."

Looking down at what had to have been the tenth body with the flesh of its face entirely removed Keiji was starting to feel a bit like throwing up himself. There was a definite pattern to them. The corpses propped up against the side of the corridor closest to space were mauled almost beyond recognition, the skin from their faces and necks sliced away from the bone in a distinctly non-medical manner. The few that littered the opposite wall had been left relatively alone, though from their frozen, contorted death masks their ends had been sadistically painful. Breathable air in the corridor now didn't discount the possibility that they had been suffocated to death earlier—it just meant whoever, or whatever, had killed them had re-pressurized the deck after the deed was done. He was trying incredibly hard to believe that the person responsible hadn't subsequently paraded up and down the corridor to marvel at his handiwork, but considering the evidence that the bodies had been posed as they were it was pretty likely that was exactly what had happened.

A yellow flag flashed up on the left side of his helmet's display signaling that Vic's heartrate had taken a sudden spike. "Hardcover, calm down."

"Do you see these people?" Vic croaked. "Something fucking ate their faces off! What the hell does this kind of shit?”

"There's nothing you can do for them," said Leo. "Focus on our objective. We must secure this ship before it drifts into the middle of the fleet."

"Easy for you to say," grumbled the Hayha pilot. "You've got ice water in your veins."

Leo sounded a bit more irritated than he usually did when someone insulted him, a sure sign he was fighting off the effects of being up for over twenty-four hours. The flight leader knew he was going to have to keep him close and watch for exhaustion, though Keiji doubted he would let himself be put in a situation where he'd could do something royally stupid. He trusted that Leo knew how far he could push himself. "Or perhaps I just don't wish to have this forsaken hulk floating anywhere near my family."

"Ah, good point," said Vic quickly. "Sorry dude."

"Focus," repeated Keiji.

"Aye aye."

A dozen meters ahead Damien was covering Nim as she pulled a handful of wires out of a heavily battered access panel just shy of the sealed bridge bulkhead. After picking through them like a discerning magpie she shook her head. "No active com lines." She held up two severed ends of a fiber optic cable and added, "Every single one's been purposely cut.”

"Well then this is their own damn fault," said Keiji. He reached to the side and tapped Vic on the shoulder with the flat of his hand. "You're on."

Nodding Vic clipped his rifle to the magnetic lock on the front of his torso plate and pulled one of the shaped charges off his thigh. Walking between Nim and Damien he took stock of the bulkhead, then secured the charge to the center of the dingy steel construction and stepped back a few paces to configure the detonator from his suit's computer using the holographic interface on the underside of his left arm. "All right good to go."

Keiji watched a wireframe model of the ship's default bridge layout flash up in his visor courtesy of Calli, who had probably been digging through databanks archived before the births of her great-grandparents for a suitable schematic. The ancient tiered design with analog consoles from the doors down to the bow made for easy cover, at least. "Mantis and Riptide secure the wings. Ifrit stay at my flank. Hardcover, Wildcard, camp here and shoot anything coming up behind us."