Beyond Sol

Chapter 7G

I jolted Muhammed until he woke up from his foetal position on the floor. "Wake the fuck up." He jolted to life.
"Awwwww, fuck." He rubbed his head in wincing pain. I didn't care. "Where in the gods of heaven are we?" He glared up at the main panel window that stretched Ring 1. The Ixtal came in and out of view, KLMA-3B growing ever smaller in the distance. Barely visible at all, stuck in its position of a half crescent.
"Nowhere good. Wake the others up and meet me in the airlock with metal cutting equipment." I walked out of the cafeteria where the five were left stunned or unconscious. I whipped open the airlock door to the tube, jumping down. I stopped myself reaching the middle, pushing myself off towards the CSA docking port. Through the hull every window I saw was filled with the massive ship that took up the view. A grey, motionless tone with some identifying logos. I couldn't make them out with any symbols on them.
Once in the airlock, the exterior door unlatched, opening up. I grazed my wrist across the grey cold metal, a panel sliding open on the craft, a arm holder extended out, grabbing my right arm. I jerked my arm away from it, although I was too late. "Motherfucker!" Something similar to an iron extended out from the panel, burning a mission patch of sorts into the top of my wrist. It spanned the whole top, similar to the ones I saw on the hull. The whole process happened in about five seconds before the configuration retracted back into the sealed panel. My wrist burned and stung, I shook it around before inspecting the patch, the area was swollen and red. A small red light in the centre of the patch blinked. Fuck.
The other five, dragging along weapons and duffels bags of steel cutting equipment. "Right. Mind explaining whatever that is?" Emma asked, floating into the airlock with a snarl.
"Don't be a dickhead." James unzipped the bags, floating upside down. He pulled out the steel cutters themselves, along with the large brick batteries, welding masks and such.
"Don't shoot me in my back, asshole." Emma clung to the ceiling of the docking port.
"Don't strangle Carter." Muhammed snapped back, digging out a C02 cutter.
"He's right," Amelia sighed.
"Don't fight. I'll send all of you out the airlock." I hid my burn patch away, grabbing a C02 cutter, welding mask and battery from Muhammed.
"I'd like my question to be answered." Emma fidgeted with her fingers.
"Doesn't matter what it is. Matters what's in it. Masks on!" I tapped a button on my left watch, a malware upload process to the ship initiating. I began cutting out a square hole in the frame, James floating up to help. It took atleast ten minutes of pure cutting to get through. Once the whole frame was cut out we left it.
"Grab the guns. Kill anything and everything in here—it just tried to kill us. Once we're clear, we find a way to its core. Why rebuild our ship when they can do it for us?" I grabbed a rifle, along with an exoskeleton suit.
"Right..." Eliza yoinked an exoskeleton and a rifle with the others, suiting up in a matter of minutes. I sealed my helmet, a hiss of air flooding my helmet. I drilled the last little bit, grabbing my rifle and slowly pushing the four-feet thick metal brick. Emma helped, giving it all her might, levering herself off a metal ring. The brick suddenly fell down, which was odd. Artificial gravity without a spin.
It crashed, ringing all of our ears through the helmets. "Fuck that was loud." James hid in the corner, waiting. The inside was quite dark, murmuring of Aeson's inside.
"VOID, what are we looking at here?" I pressed my hand against a radio on the side of my helmet where my ear would be.
"X-ray light." I always loved VOID, he had more of a human feel than AETHER.
"Switch to X-rays." I radioed to the others, my helmet view lighting up artificially. I'm assuming they can't see us yet—we're in a small hole in the wall of what looks like 20 feet off the ground in light they can't see. "How many of you have been in the Marines or Air Force?"
"I'm British," Eliza sighed.
"They still have Marines-Nevermind. I'll take that as a no." I looked at the others, James, Muhammed and Emma raising their hands. "Marines?"
"Yeah." They agreed. "We're all technically Air Force." Muhammed nodded.
"Make sure the others don't die. Let's roll." I grabbed a rope from the floating duffel bag, tying off an end to a hook in the docking port. With my gun in one hand, I hoisted myself down, it wasn't your everyday one minute rope slide, in seconds I was on the ground twenty feet down in a plaza of sorts. Two staircases leading up on the sides, two leading down right by them. Planets decorated the place, as well with an array of mission patches. It featured a sleek grey carpet, the 'natives' featuring a humanoid body, although their muscles were much, much more defined. Their eyes seemed different as well—most likely because they don't see in our spectrum of light. Through the centre between the stair cases, which had a clearance of around six metres, continued down to more rooms.
We hoisted ourselves down with inches of clearance from each other, seven years of training pays off. Once at the bottom, which was on top of the four feet thick metal brick, we detached ourselves from the rope. "Detach!" I shouted, my clip coming off with me. I flicked the safety off, mowing down the crowd that had collected. "Rise and shine motherfuckers."
"Ah, be gentle Carter." Eliza detached from the rope, flicking her safety off and sniping random gobyers on the floor above, which the stairs led up to. I fiddled around with a smoke bomb and flash bang on my combat belt, pulling the pin on both at the same time, throwing them. The flash bang went off first, blinding the armed forces that were moments away from storming the plaza from the floor above. Once the smoke went off, they crashed down the stairs.
"Juaknam!" One yelled, gasping for air.
"VOID, talk to me what do these guys breathe?!" I shot the forces that had just stormed the place.
"Mostly Carbon Monoxide." VOID identified targets through the smoke with a laser system.
"James, Emma, take everything below! Amelia, Eliza, I want everyone on this floor dead or dying! Muhammed your with me!" I pulled a dichlorodifluoromethane and chloroform grenade. The chloroform will knock them out for now, the dichlorodifluoromethane will kill them afterwards.
"Copy!" Muhammed jogged up the stairs, rifle trained. I followed after him, turning sharply to the right. It was an L shaped configuration. Once you're up the stairs you turn 180 degrees to a long corridor. A glass rail separated the drop and the corridor, a seating buffet just to the left once you're in the corridor, a large glass panel that curved to the roof covered by the spin of Ring 1.
"Go, go, go!" I shouted, filling the buffet with lead. VOID displayed digital versions of text on doors through the helmet. A door just ahead at the end of the hallway reading BRIDGE. That's where I go. "Up ahead!"
"On it!" Muhammed fired a shot at the keypad on the wall, throwing himself with a flying kick at the door.
"No one works like Muhammed! Not in this house!" The door was knocked right down, the room filling with smoke. "Get on the motherfucking ground!" I yelled, my rifle trained on the seven Aeson's that piloted the bridge. Four workstations, three command seats. Small stairs lead down a few inches, two workstations placed floor level with it near the front. Two behind the command seats, on the normal floor level and the three command seats placed at the very back of the lowered ground.
VOID translated the command into Aesonian. "¿JAKANA UKIAN EA'KALU!" The seven complied obediently, laying flat on the ground. I mean, why get shot when you can just listen to a bunch of angry alien dickheads that have big scary weapons? Seems like hell of a deal to me.
"Drop the fucking guns." Muhammed flicked his safety off. They flung the guns away, one of them glancing at another on the floor. He mouthed something, although I couldn't make out what it was. A movement in his left pocket.
"Stop fucking mov-" A blast of light, a loud explosion trembling my ears. "Fucker!" The floor underneath us collapsed. Dust and silicate mixed with a fluid of some sort, I'd assume pipes underneath that bursted, blinded my visor view. "Ah-! Ah fuck! Muhammed!" I landed on a chair below, we were in some sort of cafeteria.
"Motherfuckers! Aah-Aah! I cant fucking see!" Muhammed panicked, flaring around.
"Switch to instrumental and digital! Stop panicking! The air'll kill you in seconds, don't use up your oxygen!" I tried scraping off the silicate and dust, which had solidified as mud on my visor by now.
"I know!" He scrambled to his feet, un-holstering his side arm, firing a shot at one of the heat signatures on his digital display. The bullet squealed when it penetrated the fleshy skin, smoke billowing out of the puncture.
"Don't shoot randomly, dick!" I shouted, only before being tackled into sharp edges, presumably of a concrete like material. "Ah, fucker! Get off me!" I wiped and scraped the silicate mud off my visor, slapping it in its eyes. "Motherfucker!" I flung the knife out his hands, pinning him down on the concrete that once supported the bridge above. "Eat shit!" I grabbed a clog oil line out of the disintegrating concrete, shoving it far down his throat. With a lunge back at me, I stumbled back, tripping over one of these bricks.
Muhammed fired shots randomly at the fight, narrowly missing my head. "I'll deal with him! Go grab the data!" I shouted, throwing punches at its head.
"Uh, yeah!" He scurried out of the cafeteria through a back door, leaving just the two of us to fight it out. Only one walks out. With a look of determination, it grabbed its knife that lay beside me. I rolled over, the Aeson stabbing the concrete, conveniently breaking his hand. I sprung to my feet, tackling him into a large concrete brick.
"Die you fucker!" I smashed a chipped piece of concrete against its head. Despite its injuries, it still fought back, it turned into a fist fight quickly, punches and dodging being thrown. I lunged at it with a sharpened piece of wood, about to land on its head. I overshot him, giving him an advantage. He threw his knife up, cutting right through the exoskeleton like butter, and my skin. In flesh tearing pain, I landed in a pile of concrete, water and oil spraying down on me. "Aah-Ah, ah fuck." I held my abdomen and leg, high pressure blood spraying out. "Ah, fuck, Carter to s-squad. I'm in a sticky si-situation. Yeah...I need help." I got out, passing out abruptly.
The Aeson fluttered out of the room, leaving my motionless, limp body to rest.

I awoke in a panic, I was in my bed, although it was off. My eyes dilated, my astigmatism really telling me to fuck off. The lights crossed my vision, my closest was there, space posters lining the wall, check, two shitty desks, check, shitty bed frame, check, pens and books scattered, check, unorganised old clothes lining the floor, check. My abdomen, thigh, and quad burned. I stretched my arms up, excruciating pain to my abdomen. I slid the Ares program hoodie off, biodegradable stitches sown my abdomen together, I stretched my Beyond Sol sweat pants down, the stitches stretching down to my kneecap.
I threw my legs over the side of my bed, leaving my messy Artemis blanket where it sat. Just the thought of walking hurt, but I gathered up enough pussy-courage to start walking to my door. I scanned my wrist over the scanner. A red X notifying me I wasn't well enough to command the mission temporarily, I told it to fuck off with two wires. I stumbled out, an old meal sitting on the cafeteria tables. Christ, how long was I out. Once I cleared the staterooms, the projector simply examined a trans-planetary procedure. Normal, I guess, we're transiting... To wherever god knows. I hotwired the airlock doors again, slipping into the support tube awkwardly. Halfway down, where the circular windows came into view, gave me a pretty good idea where we were.
The middle of fucking no where.
I entered the main hull, the pressure on my leg much easier. I slipped through the hull, making my way into the bridge. There, Muhammed and Eliza read. Muhammed closed his book, letting it float by the control panel. "You're supposed to be in your quarters." Muhammed grunted, icing his head.
"Should've had a system prevent hotwiring...where are we transiting to?" I clung to the doorframe.
"3E. Why?" Eliza threw her book behind her, bouncing off a computer system.
"That's at the edge of the heliodisk?..."
"Pack a winter jacket honey." Muhammed leaned back in his seat, sinking into it gently.
"Don't call me honey..." A proximity alarm sounded, 1.2 million klicks, medium sized asteroid. "It's fine." I began floating out of the bridge, Eliza stopping me abruptly.
"Wait!" She shouted. I looked back. "Are you gonna tell him?" She asked Muhammed, a look of fear filling her eyes. Something was wrong, something happened. She rubbed her hands together slightly in her lap, a red stench squeezing out.
"Yeah...I guess." Muhammed turned to face me. The same red stench covering his usually dusty, war torn hands. "We won the fight on the ship...but the lower deck collapsed on Emma." Muhammed said, clasping his hands together, hunched over depressingly. I floated there for a second. I took in the situation.
"Is she still onboard?" I kept my composure. It wasn't particularly hard—someone was bound to die on the mission. We were trained for this. Yeah. But two? Christ.
"Affirmative." Eliza sighed, leaning back.
"AETHER, update crew roster to five. Deactivate Emma's station. Prepare the ISRO airlock for procedure 872, article 9817." I sighed, swiftly rotating myself around, leaving the bridge.  The walls seemed to close around me, the windows flickering on and off, planets cycling in and out of view. I stopped. I'm not crazy, I'm not crazy, I'm not crazy. Earth sat gently, wispy orange clouds forming pillars directly into space. "Oh man...Why the fuck did I get chosen." I floated numb, rejoicing the choices I made. "I'm gonna kill everyone." I continued on my merrily way, slinging upright into Ring 1.

With my Exoskeleton dawned, Me and Muhammed gently pushed in Emma's limp body, only covered by a full scale EVU. A neatly folded British flag, split in half sharing a Canadian side was sealed to the unit. Once the unit was fully in, the interior closed shut. "Depressurizing airlock now." Muhammed whimpered, gently pushing down on the digital depressurize button with shaky hands. The air rushed out with a whoosh, the name plate on Emma's suit glistening in the sunlight that suddenly shined in.
"Opening exterior." With a gentle clink and clunk, the exterior door opened vertically, a chime from our watches notifying our magnetic boots activated. Emma's did too. I ignored it, remembering the speech. "Emily Ekerland, the crew of the I.S.C Spectrum commend your body to the stars and forever lasting joy." I tapped a panel on her watch, Muhammed and I pushed her body out. Small RCS blocks accelerating her body away into a black horror.
With a clink, the exterior door closed shut, air rushing in, filling the space once again. Only without an extra person.