It wasn't what Metis said that unsettled me the most, it was more how she said it that made me want to jump out of my skin as if she was too frightened to tell us what these "Anomalies" are. I would rather not press her on what they are right now, I'm much more concerned with finding a way to Lilith's location and getting her out safely. "So what's the best route to get us to the A.I. core?" She didn't answer for a few seconds, her hologram glitching faintly for a moment.- "That would be to take the maglev on the eastern section of the deck then take it to deck 26 then I'll give further instructions from there. I can protect you with the defense turrets until you reach the maglev, then it will be up to you to defend yourselves afterward, now I'll need more time to evaluate the threats onboard." I turned around to address everyone.- "Well you heard her, let's get a move on." I could see the apprehension on everyone as I said that, hell, I felt it myself.- "Well it doesn't seem like we have much of a choice, I'm in." Lola said confidently. - "Screw it, I don't want to die alone in this place anyway." Tobey looked at Tyson waiting for his answer.- "Shit, I'd rather find a way off this ghost ship, we should go for the escape pods while we still can." Lola looked at him with disbelief at what he said. - "Sir...Tyson you know that's horseshit. we can't leave anyone here if we can help it, we have to find survivors, then we can leave the Umbra."
Metis hologram reappeared.- "One thing I should have mentioned now that Tyson brought up escape pods, 90% of all escape pods were sealed or destroyed during the surge. I am working as best as I can to find a safe way off the Umbra for all of you, but I am working with limited or damaged scanners so it will take some time." - "So we're all in agreement?" I asked trying to hide as much of my nervousness as I could, the staring glowing white eyes on their visors didn't help. - "Okay fine since I respect you not wanting to leave a colleague behind, but if she's dead when we get there, we're getting in a pod and we are not coming back." He said while sounding very matter-of-factly. - "That's all I can ask for, from all of you." I could barely contain how happy I was to hear that they would help save Lilith, although I bet my big dumb grin gave it away. Tyson seemed to notice the strange way he was looking at me then looked away. We exited security central and went on our way to Deck 26 via the maglev. I looked back and wished to never go back to that horrible place.
the dark blue halls were eerily quiet despite there being hundreds of them not even an hour ago. "Um hey guys, where are all the bodies? Like there had to be dozens or more of them just in this hall, there isn't even any blood on the ground. shouldn't the turrets have pasted them?" Tobey asked confused.- "You'd think so, I'm not even surprised anymore with all the weird shit I've seen these things do. One moment they'll be chasing you down and when you look back they'll be poof, gone, I feel like I'm in a fucked up haunted house." Lola said, obviously disturbed by what she's seen. Everyone was in a protective formation around me as we walked through the hallways, with Tobey to my right, Lola to my left, and Tyson leading us; it felt strange to be significant enough to be worth protecting. We all got inside the elevator safe and sound, Lola hit the button to take us up to Deck 26.
A creepy jingle played over the sound system, and the sound of the instruments began to screech then preceded to become more and more distorted, tunes overlapping with each other. I quickly covered my ears, but I could still hear it inside my head, I felt the urge to crush my head and make it stop. I swear I could even hear a warped voice speaking to me, I couldn't make out what It said at all, I just wanted it to stop. "Oh hell no! I'm not dealing with this bullshit." Tyson stated, then preceded to smash the tiny speakers that lined the inside of the cabin with his rifle, there were so many of them, too many all blaring at once. Everyone seemed to be toughing it out and here I was without any hearing protection. The music sent Tyson into a rage, all 6'11 of him just moving around and smashing all of them, he was able to shove Tobey out of the way almost effortlessly. Lola pulled me close behind her to get me out of his way, I'd never seen him like this, he seemed lost in his rage to stop the unspeakably awful music. The doors opened just as he smashed the last one, Lola pushed me out, and the last of the music faded from my ears as I fell to the ground. -"Calm down man, it's alright." Tobey said trying to calm him down. Tyson hunched over to catch his breath. -"Jesus, his heart is beating faster than a jackhammer, what the hell was that music?" Lola said staring right at him, I wonder If she could see his heartbeat. - "I have no fucking idea, I just never want to hear it again." Tyson managed to gasp out before he caught his breath.
"Is everyone alright? Does anyone need any medical assistance?" Tobey asked, stumbling around, clearly dazed by the otherworldly music. - "I think you and Tyson are the ones who need medical attention. How about you Alice? Your brains ain't scrambled right?" I looked up at her as she helped me to my feet, I'm surprised they went to this much effort to keep me safe.- "Yeah, my eardrums just hurt like hell but I'll live." - "Buena escuchar," She said giving me a slight nudge to my arm. She stepped over to Tyson who was still hunched over. "You alright sir? You don't look so good." He stood up and turned to face her, he absolutely towered over Lola, and she was a good bit taller than me.- "I've been better, thought I was going to pass out, I could barely breathe at all." He choked out, then took a deep breath. "So how do we get to the A.I core from here?" Tyson asked looking at me.- "Uh, the direction signs might be active, they're usually always active even when the power is out." We quietly walked down the hall in search of any signs that will lead us to the A.I core, I hope that Lilith is alright. I'm just wondering how she got herself inside the core? She only came down here for equipment. I guess we'll find out soon enough.
"Stop!" Metis ordered sternly. I and everyone stopped cold in our tracks at the sound of her voice. "Now listen closely, if you keep going down that hall you will encounter one of those anomalies I warned you about." Tobey looked at us confused then up near a camera we were beside.- "What the hell are these anomalies even? And why are you not telling us what they are?" Metis was silent for an unsettlingly long time like she wanted to tell us something, I wish I could tell what machines were thinking.- "I can't tell you, because I don't know. The anomaly is disrupting my sensors, What I do know is that it is very close and from my observations, is highly dangerous. Is that satisfactory?" Tobey hesitantly shrugged his shoulders.- "Yeah I guess. So what's the plan machine lady?" - "Please refer to me as Metis. The plan is for all of you to make your way through maintenance section 3 which is to your left and make your way around central processing into my core, you may wish to take caution as splinters are roaming around the vicinity, I do not wish for any of you to come to any harm."
I was glad to hear that she didn't want us to get hurt but it was just the way she said It that made her come off as sounding strange, maybe It was just my imagination or paranoia. Tyson led the way with Lola close behind him, I'd probably be more useful if I had more than just a wrench and a screwdriver. Tyson leaned against a corner and held his fist up, everyone was still but their heads were moving as though they were speaking to each other, which was kind of rude as I was right here. Lola and Tobey put their weapons away and unsheathed their knives, what were they doing? The two went up ahead quietly, I looked around the corner to see them sneaking up behind several lumbering splinters. They swiftly jabbed their blades into the splinter's heads, I cringed at the squishing sound they made. Tyson walked up calmly to the last one and grabbed it by the head, all I saw and heard was a quick twist and a loud snap. They all seemed a little too good at this sort of thing.
We made our way around maintenance section 3 and into central processing, when we got there, there were way more than just a few splinters. There had to be about a dozen of them, all spread out around the area. The air was cool in here, I could see my breath as I exhaled. There was something different about these splinters, they were all standing there motionless as If they were frozen stiff, It would make sense with how cold It is in here. "Alright no sudden movements, we don't want to wake these things up." We all stayed close together as we slowly navigated through the cluster of frozen splinters. With each step I took, I thought I could hear movement and whispers, I felt like I was in a morbid ice sculpture gallery. I heard ice shifting behind me, when I turned to look I saw one whose face was shrouded by a black mass, it began vibrating, and before I knew it and all the others exploded. Frozen debris hit me right in the face obscuring my vision, something sharp sliced my arm as I was blinded.
I screamed out in pain as I was knocked to the floor, my uniform stuck to the freezing floor making it difficult to get up. -"Light them up! Someone get her up!" Tyson yelled. Gunfire erupted around me, I put pressure on my arm so I wouldn't bleed out. Lola quickly came over to help me and grabbed me by my good arm.- "Give me a gun" She surprisingly didn't even argue back and gave me her handgun. The splinter that got me was similar to the ones that were chasing Tobey and me when we were climbing between decks, It had a fleshy mouth with multiple jaws filled with jagged teeth, except its arms were bladed with sharpened bones. I aimed at its head with the gun shaking in my hand from the pain. I unloaded the magazine into it, disgusting black gore spewed from it as I shot it, I also fired into the other ones as Lola dragged me out by the arm. She's saved my sorry ass enough for me to owe her a life debt, one I don't think I'll ever be able to repay, we could argue about that after all of this.
We barely made it out of the freezing room and into the warm A.I core, the door shut closed before they could get to us.- "Hey, let me take a look at that." Tyson walked over to me and inspected the wound on my arm, he took out his medkit and preceded to bandage it up, that was nice of him. The core was a lot more spacious and clean than I had expected, It was a lot like the upper decks with the smooth white paneling everywhere.- "Hello, who's there?" A familiar voice echoed from somewhere in the room, I stood up to get a better look, and a dark-skinned woman appeared from around the corner.- "Lilith?" I asked peeking past Tyson, her eyes lit up with surprise as she looked at us.- "Holy shit! Metis wasn't lying, she told me you were alive. I didn't believe her but now I understand how you were able to make it here, what the hell happened?" That was going to take a while to explain in-depth, for now, I'll give her a short explanation.-"The artifact, something activated it and caused all of...this to happen, it took Dr. Murray and those things killed most everyone else on the research team." For the first time ever, I saw genuine dread on her face, she was still human after all.
"Oh my god, so what do we do? Metis said she had a plan but has failed to elaborate on it so far." Before I or anyone could say anything, Metis chimed in with her hologram appearing in front of us out of the holo-emitter.- "I believe I have discovered the only possible means of escape, the Ebony." We all looked at her in anticipation, I certainly was. "The Ebony is still in cargo bay 2, I'm detecting no life signs there, if you all hurry that will be your only means of escape." We all murmured amongst ourselves. "One moment, I'm detecting an..." A piercing screech interrupted us. -"What the fuck was that?" Tobey whispered. - "An anomaly is Pzzz...present, I suggest finding a means of escape while you still can." There was a sound of flesh slapping against glass coming from above us, I looked up and I really wish I hadn't. A long exo-skeletal hand reached slowly onto a glass panel, it crawled closer down towards us, Its body and face finally came into full view. The creature's face was almost too horrific to look at with its sunken-in features and a black hole of a mouth that was elongated beyond reason, it looked as if someone twisted and contorted a Voidrian into something more disturbing than ever before. "That would be chief engineer Typhik, he is the anomaly."
"You two get back, now!" Tyson urged us to get back. The three marines aimed at the splinter, It slunk back into the shadows and stalked us like prey. -"Seriously? The one other Voidrian on the ship had to get turned into one of those things, we've got to get the hell out of here." As soon as everyone loosened up slightly, it pounced towards us from the ceiling. We all scrambled as it came down on us with the intent to kill now. All Lilith and I could do was stay out of the way as the three marines had to fight this abomination by themselves, I'd wish Damien were here but I wouldn't want him to have to fight this monster. They opened fire on it, causing it to screech out either in pain or aggression. Typhik swiped violently at them with its gnarled claws, it skittered around quickly on four legs as it attacked them. - "Shoot its legs!" Lilith called out. Typhik shot a death glare back at her. -"I've got an idea, keep it distracted!" Lola shouted confidently.
She got behind Typhik as It made its way towards Lilith and me, I shakenly fired what bullets I had left into its face with disappointing results, It had gotten right in front of us to finish us off. Lola jumped on its back and began emptying her magazine into its back, it violently writhed in pain as she jabbed her knife into its neck repeatedly spilling viscous tar-like blood all over the floor. -"Que te parece esa perra!" Lola grunted in frustration as she perforated its neck. Its neck did a 180 to face her, she gasped in shock. As Lola was about to fall off, it grabbed her with all ten spindly fingers and impaled her with its sharpened digits, then dropped her to the ground.- "Fuck! Lola no!" Tyson yelled out in anger. -"Everyone leave! I can neutralize it, and get Lola away from here." Tyson picked Lola up while Tobey distracted Typhik away from us. What had Metis planned?
We all ran out of the A.I core as fast as we could, then the door closed shut. "Metis, what're you doing?" I asked unsure of what she was doing. Typhik turned its attention away from us to metis, it began banging on the containment cell that held her. - "I wasn't going to make it with you zzz...anyway, whatever it is has corrupted my programming too much, I'm commencing a plasma purge inside my core to kill Typhik...so you can all be safe." Typhik slammed itself futilely even more against the glass.- "Won't that..?" - "Yes, now go! Thank you for being so kind to me. I'm sorry Alice." Was the last thing she said before plasma gas vented into the room, we all heard Typhiks agonizing screeching, It was over.
I looked over to see Tyson hunched with Lola in his arms.- "T...Tyson? We got the bastard right?" She was struggling to speak between gasping breaths. Tyson looked out into the core room - "We did, Metis got him. She saved Alice and Lilith too." Tyson lifted her helmet off revealing what had once been a strong yet young face, straight black hair was strewn across her face with blood sticking to it. She let out one last breath before the light in her eyes faded. "Lola?" Was all Tobey could muster in a hushed breath. - "I'm sorry Lola, you did good...you did good."