OGENUS EARTH 🌎 🌊 {Dystopian Sci-Fi Adventure}

The Hand That Feeds

Meg was the first to reach the mangled door to the shipping hatch's control room.

She skidded over the slippery puddle of blood leaking out onto the floor. Just beyond the blasted entrance was the body of a woman crumpled on the tiles, her expression frozen and her throat sliced from ear to ear.

"Keep going. I can enter the code." Arturo panted from atop Big Joe's shoulder blades.

"Hurry." Harrison needlessly instructed, aiming his plasma gun down the hall.

The shouts of Gayle and the other Sirens were getting close enough to make him worry. As their stampeding feet rounded the corner, Harrison raised the tip of his gun to fire.

A powerful blast rocked the ground as it sliced into the ceiling and rained metallic debris and sparks on the Sirens. Two women were knocked down and smashed by a filleted I-beam, sending a severed head bouncing across the tiles.

Arturo's hands swept over the projected keypad while Big Joe dangled him above the dead body of the unfortunate woman on the floor.

"Can you go any faster?" Big Joe called out over the rumble of another blast.

"Almost..." Arturo cautioned, "there!"

Meg jumped aside to let Big Joe plow through the sideways part of the shipping bay doors.

Harrison was still firing, trying to hold their position as Meg ducked inside.

"C'mon!" Big Joe bellowed over the commotion.

Harrison backed up, shooting at any movement or sound. As the others tumbled into his beloved Black Marlin, Harrison took one final shot at the door of the shipping bay, tearing the metal frame to splay like the petals of a deadly flower. He turned and clamored up the retracting plank as Gayle's screams rounded the corner to join them.

Big Joe was already at the controls, sealing the doors and powering up the shields as Gayle took aim with her plasma gun.

A powerful blast rocked the ship backward.

"A couple more direct hits and they're through our shields!" Big Joe yelled down the hall at Arturo.

Arturo was talking to MAX, trying to get him to connect to Coeuss before the Sirens realized what he'd done. Outside, Gayle yowled like a wild animal.

"Guys?" Harrison called back. "How's that hatch door coming?"

"Calibrating, please hold." MAX chirped back unaware of the hell the rest had been through.

A pleasantly pitched melody blossomed over the speakers, which enraged Harrison enough to jump up, fully intending to throw the bot. He stalked towards the back, ready to tear MAX's head from its globular body when the music was drowned by a second plasma shot.

Again the Black Marlin teetered, sending everyone scrambling and Harrison flying. His wiry torso bounced off the ship's wall, visibly rattling his head back and forth.

"Scheisse!" Big Joe caterwauled as he hauled himself back up to the controls. He thought their ship was about to crack in two from the rumbling and abrasive screech of metal.

When he realized that it was the moan of the hatch doors, Big Joe found enough energy to hoot.

"Harrison!" Big Joe called, while Meg pulled down a bench for Arturo to strap himself into. "The doors! They're opening!"

"Get those engines ready for a sonic push!" Harrison yelled.

Meg hadn't begun to work on her own seat when the ship lurched sideways, tossing her against the wall.