Codename Alpha: Intervention

Chapter Eight - Animals

Time seemed to grind to a halt as I analyzed the gun Eric was carrying. At the very least, he was pointing it towards the ceiling with his finger off the trigger, but it was still off of safety, and rather, set to fully-automatic. Alarmingly, he'd also gone for one of the bigger guns in the ship's arsenal - an old Kirril-designed MM-6 automatic shotgun.

Analyzing his gun couldn't keep me out of the present situation for long. A multitude of things all happened simultaneously - first of all, David muttered what was likely a very vulgar English word, I asked what the hell he was doing, and he shouted for us all to get our paws up.

"Eric, what are you doing?" I exclaimed once more, hopefully louder. Still, he didn't answer.

"I said paws above your heads! And stop talking!" He shouted, then lowering the shotgun down, still not pointing it directly at any of us. David and Marine both immediately complied with the order, and soon after, I did too. Before anything else, David leaned out of the room, and shouted down the hall. "I got one of the humans in here!" He then turned back to us. "Listen, all of you. I'm not here to hurt you." The unnerving, almost crazed look in his eyes said otherwise. "Neither is anyone else. All things considered, the guns are for show, but..." he turned the shotgun so the safety was in full view, pointing to it with his other hand. "Safeties are off, so don't try anything." We all silently nodded along, and I swallowed hard. I could hear that Marine was trying to hold back panting.

Any last hope I had of this being a prank disappeared as I watched someone else carrying a gun, another MM-6, albeit with a box magazine, bang on the door of the quarters across from us - Gamble and Zagernik, a Novayan leopard and grasslands cat. It became shockingly clear why both Eric, Molotov, and god knows how many others were acting weird - they had been planning, and obviously preparing for, some type of mutiny.

A spotted wolf, wearing casuals consisting of desert camouflage sweatpants and a gray t-shirt, stepped into the room. This one had a submachine gun I couldn't immediately recognize with an integral suppressor and laser sight slung around their chest. "Vance, Human, you're with me," he said, as he took it off and pointed it at them both. "Keep your paws up."

Wordlessly, they both stepped out of the room, both having a gun trained to the back of their heads. David shot a nervous glance back my way just before disappearing out of my sight. Trying to avoid eye contact with Eric, who was still standing there, I glanced towards Marine's laptop, which was still in the middle of the game. Whoever she was playing with was still running around, and Eric seemed to notice as well. "Tell them that she had to go," he ordered. "You can put your paws down," he added, lowering the shotgun.

Deep down, I knew that my brother wouldn't shoot me, but certainly in the moment, the last thing I wanted were my brains spread across the bulkhead in my quarters. Doing as he ordered, I walked to her laptop and said "sorry, i gtg to bed" in the chat, then quickly sent the message and closed the computer. I turned back to Eric, and just... well, stood there awkwardly, unsure of what the hell I was meant to do next.

"Alright. Come with me," he sighed. He stepped out of the corridor, and I followed close behind. I watched as, around us, people from their quarters were being gathered in the corridor. Both Marine and David were out of sight. "Conrad, why weren't you responding to any of my messages?" More than anything, he just sounded concerned, which I found very odd.

I hesitated to answer as we stepped into the stairwell, but I figured that it probably not a good choice to refuse to answer questions posed by a man with a shotgun. "I-I didn't see them," I stuttered, somehow making the truth sound like a lie. "I didn't... I don't..." I was then silent, not wanting to say much more.

"I see. Well, better now than later. Listen, man, I'm sorry you had to learn about it this way, but... we're forcing Commander Ibrahimov to step down. He's not being hurt, rest assured. We just knew that there's no way we could convince him to simply step down from his position. We also know that there are people who won't take so kindly to the leadership change. We're gathering anyone who wasn't immediately aware of this all and gathering them in the shuttlebay, just to be safe."