THE FALL OF ROSENROT STATION

ALIEN

He remained within the loader for the next thirty minutes or so. Then he opened the cab and leaving his kitbag on the seat he clambered out.

He went over to the dead hostile and examined it. Then he used his palmcoder to take a full scan of the corpse. The last thing to do was take a tissue sample. He crouched and took out the equipment needed and took a sliver of tissue from its chest. He appended the new data references to his log.

He added a few lines to his personal log as well.

I've seen this tissue before. It is fibrous and well supplied with veins and blood. Just like the tumour discovered on corpse003. There must be a connection. Perhaps someone in the lab on 17 can help me.

He packed up his equipment then sat in the cab of the loader and had some small portion of his food and half a bottle of water. Then he got back put of the cab and went to the side of the storage unit. He tapped on the steel wall. The bulkhead was thick here and there was no way through into the next storage unit without a plasma cutter or equivelent.

He slowly made his way to the door of the unit and he unlocked the door and looked outside both ways. There was nothing in sight. He paused for a minute then he turned around and closedm2sr m2 the door and returned to the loader. He went around to the forks and removed the safety bar. Then he climbed back inside the loader and shut the cab and started it. He practised moving the forks a bit and practised going forward and back and then finally he drove it carefully forward with its forks near the floor and extended. The forks pressed against the bottom of the shutterdoor. A little more pressure and there was a pop and the forks had punched through a join between the lightweight slats. He lifted the fork up and then there was a load clang and the joint broke. He pulled the loader backwards then and free of the door. He got out of the loader and went and looked at the shutterdoor. There was a slat of light that fell through across his legs. He reached down and grabbed the shutterdoor by its broken section and lifted it up. It came away from the locking slat which stayed on the floor. The shutter door slid easily up into the ceiling. Once the way was open he returned to the loader and shut himself inside. He waited about ten minutes and when no hostiles came to investigate the noise he drove the loader out through the opened shutterdoor. The treads crumpled the locked portion left behind and there was a bump but then he emerged with the loader out into the wide passageway between storage units.

Over the next few hours he slowly and methodically opened three more units using the method he had devised with the loader.

He had just popped open the third storage unit when he happened to glance out of the loader to the left in time to notice some shadowy thing drag itself into the passageway.

He switched off the loader and opened the right door. He did not allow the door to lift up fully and as he held it he slipped out below it. Then he carefully lowered the door back down. He crouched there a moment then crept around the front of the loader and peered around the side. The creature had covered another twenty meters or so. It's pale bulk twisted with each step in some wierd ambulation. He moved quickly beyond the front of the loader and he lifted the broken shutterdoor enough for him to duck underneath while holding it in place and then still holding the broken edge he lowered it carefully and silently back down.

It was pitch black inside the storage unit. He began moving further in, feeling his way between two pallets piled high with boxes. Then there was nothing on either side of him and nothing in front either. He let go of the packing case behind him and was suddenly standing in empty space with nothing to orient himself by but the floor. He shuffled forward cautiously and on the third step banged his ankle on some steel thing. The sudden pain made his eyes water. He flung his hands out and down and felt out some hard edged boxes beneath plastic. He leaned against the box with one hand and reached for his kitbag with his other, when he realised he had left it in the loader along with his torch. He had his palmcoder at least. He took that out now and turned the screen on. He held it close shielding the light with his body and keeping it away from the shutterdoor.

He had run into a steel packing crate that was piled high with boxes. The boxes were covered over with a thick plastic. He tried to scratch a hole in the plastic but it was tougher than it looked.

There was a sound behind him that made the hair on the back of his neck stand on end. It was a slight sound. Someone or something was breathing with their face pressed to the gap in the shutterdoor. Then there was a creak and the lightweight panels of the shutterdoor bowed inward as some bulk was thrust up against it.

He had blanked the screen of his palmcoder and he stood perfectly still and waited. Eventually there was another creak, this time as the creature dropped back down off the shutterdoor. Then it began to move away. It breathed wetly and it dragged one foot heavily as it walked and he listened to these two sounds gradually diminish until at some point he could no longer hear them except inside his imagination.

He gave it ten minutes and then another. Finally he uncoiled himself there in the dark and with the light of his palmcoder made his way back to the shutterdoor. He stooped and grabbed the broken edge and raised the door up above his head and blinked in the bright harsh light that suddenly assailed him. When he could see again he looked out and looked up and down the passage but that pale bloated thing was gone.

He turned around to see what salvage he had found. The first thing he saw was a pallet of water drums for an office watercooler. And all around were boxes piled onto pallets. Further in were sacks. He went to the loader and opened his kitbag that sat in the seat where he had left it. From his kitbag he retrieved a foldblade knife. It was smaller. Smaller than his hand, even when he extended the blade. He shouldered his bag and advanced on the nearest crate. It was piled high with boxes and covered with plastic film. He made short work of the film, cutting it crosswise both ways and then opening it out. Then he slit the closest box open and peered inside. It was food. Dehydrated meals. Dozens of them. He slit another box open. It was the same.

He looked around until his eyes fell on what he needed. It was parked inside against the wall. A small-wheeled autodolley with a small amount of embedded circuitry. He put away his foldblade and then he went over to the autodolley and towed it out and lifted it over the broken lip and then parked beside the loader.

Next he carried out the boxes, three boxes of meals, and finally one of the containers of water. He put them on the dolley and used the straps to tie them in place. He took out his palmcoder and tapped into the autodolley and after a few minutes had some workable commands. He told the autodolley to turn on. He told it to follow. It's induction engine whined and then it was on his heels. He added a distance modifyer. It backed off. When he started walking it followed it maintained the same distance of several meters. He looked at the storage unit and then he walked to the shutterdoor and pulled it down.

MET 15-22 Have obtained supplies for informants. Requisition of supplies as per ap220 see order 001. Proceeding to level 17 on foot.

PN See documentation on what supplies were taken from station stores. Value of supplies does not exceed five hundred credits and may be fully invoiced against General Systems. Therefore this does not fall under the definition of looting and instead falls under emergency need.