space Odyssey

chapter 2 part 1

Chapter two part one
Alarms sounded over head as alpha Team jogged toward their pods. Admiral ash entered the bridge her skin was paler her hair had turned from grey to white but her emerald green eyes still retained their strength as she entered the bridge charles saluted her as she passed looking down at the blue green gem of a world the Zion was orbiting.
Dantes leg armor connected to his underarmor as trask grabbed his own chest plate and slid it on as it connected to his leg and waist armor Irish grabbed his helmet putting it on as he walked toward his pod.
The bridge showed a holographic image of the planet showing the atmosphere was well within acceptable perimeters. "alpha beta delta and gamma teams are prepped and in the tubes." the tactical officer reported.
Dante watched as the hatch lowered onto his pod he got comfortable the new armor felt more comfortable than the old armor it didn't feel as restrictive. He closed his eyes as the count down timer started.
"launch all teams." admiral ash ordered.
The pods dropped into the launching tubes which adjusted so that the pods would launch at their designated targeted contienants. The pods fired from their tubes suddenly collision warning alarms blared through the bridge. "what's happening!?" ash demanded. "we don't." was the only thing the sensor officer got out before it felt like the Zion was struck by a tidal wave ash was picked up from the floor off her feet and thrown across the bridge everything went dark as primary power was knocked out.
Dante felt something tugging at his pod not the normal tug of a world's gravity he opened his eyes saw a bright blue light and then another ARST pod coming right at his the next thing he knew he was looking up at bright blue sky laying in his pod the front hatch tore off and missing. The Zion drifted in space it's engine dead sparks came from several damaged areas 22 ARST pods drifted around it as it drifted in empty space the blue green planet no where to be seen.
Carter groaned from a ache in his head he slowly came around as he looked around his pod was filling with smoke he nearly jumped out of his seat when he saw he was looking directly down off a cliff but managed to calm himself before he shifted the pods weight too much he ran a diagnostic on his suit using his heads up display his suit had taken quite a beating during the fall his pod was in shambles barely held together but the suit was more or less in working order he on the hand had taken more of the beating than he would have liked during the drop his pod had been hit or it had hit something at faster speeds than he should have been going at the time but in the collision his left arm had gotten pinched between the pod and safety harness fracturing his radius bone the suits onboard medical system had already set the break he had various other bruises and cuts and mild concussion from the impact but his biggest problem was his pod was in barely one piece and hanging off a cliff at the bottom was solid rock surface the pod in its poor condition wouldnt survive the fall. He activated his suits comm relay but it wouldnt respond something had knocked out his communications he took breath and gave his pod a kick at the same time he undid his safety harness grabbing his rifle as the pod dislodged from the cliff carter blew the hatch off it's hinges he used his jump jets in his boot to clear the pod and jet pack to gain altitude and get back toward the cliff he then fired his grapple hook into a rock and reeled himself in landing in a crouch. Dante crawled out of his pod and fell to his hands and knees in the dirt his heads up display was scrambled he pulled his helmet off and heard the sounds wildlife in the forest around him he sat his helmet on to the pod and grabbed his rifle out of the rack it had been secured to amazed it was still there he reached under the seat and retrieved a metal case that had a repair kit he could use to repair his helmet he pulled his pack off his back opening it and put the repair kit into his pack he searched the pod thoroughly for any of the extra gear he ARSTs loaded into the pods in case of emergencies for missions he walked away with extra food ammo along with a emergency distress beacon. He looked around at his surroundings his pod had made a path through the thick jungle on its impact tearing down trees and destroying thick bushes some still smoked from the heat the pod had accumulated on entry otherwise the jungle was thick with large trees that grew so tall that they blocked out the sun. He checked his emergency distress beacon but it had no signal he slid his helmet back on and opened the visor which allowed him to hear what was happening around him. He started off down the path his pod had cleared for him he needed to find shelter and get high enough to activate his beacon to reestablish contact with his team and Zion.
Admiral ash woke to seth flashing a light in her eyes she groaned from a throbbing pain in her head. "good your coming around I was afraid we'd lost you for a minute." Seth said. "what happened?" she asked her voice was weak her throat dry she tried to move but found herself unable to as sharp shards of pain erupting through left arm and right knee and it felt like her ribs had been crushed. "try not to move you were severely injured in the incident the ship was struck by a anomaly it knocked out our main drive and primary reactor we are working off back up reactors while the engineers make repairs." Seth said. "the cryopods?" ash asked feeling another sharp pain in her side that made her wince. "the cryo bay is run by its own reactor it's still functioning at full power all the pods are in the green." Seth assured her. "good what's my casualty report?" she asked. "you need to rest." Seth said but ash grabbed his wrist as he was starting to walk away. "damn it Seth tell me." ash demanded. "thirty wounded five dead two missing." Seth said she let go of Seths wrist and he nodded to her. "I'm sorry Katherine." Seth said walking away. She looked to the bed where her daughter had been in a coma for the last month to find the bed empty tears ran down her face as she looked up at the medical light that was turned off.
Trask stuffed his helmet back into his locker while everyone else was still getting out of their armor. "it's possible they made it right?" Manny asked. "man not now." Duke said. "but I mean they didn't say they were dead." Manny said. "drop it." Duke said. "they were within edge of the blast their pods were most likely vaporized by the blast." Dex said putting to words what the data had shown them of their two missing teammates.
"audio log one private carter cormac callsign Irish I've been seperated from my team for longer than eight hours and my emergency beam back codes aren't working so in accordance with protocol I've started a log. I've got enough food and water to last for three days water to last me four but I believe I can stretch it if I ration. I have set up my emergency distress beacon but so far I have had no luck reestablishing comms with the ship or my team hell I'm not even picking up their life signs." Irish said pausing he sat down on the hill top that had become his camp. "I'm not even sure if anyone survived the drop or what knocked us out of the sky to begin with." he said finishing his first log. Dante found a clearing where he set up his camp he pulled out a audio recording device and set it on a rock. "log entry one day one. I've been seperated from my unit and ship longer than eight hours I've got enough food and water for about a week hoping to stretch it to last longer. I landed at the bottom of a large forest floor not much light at the bottom because of the canopy so if I'm gonna travel I'm need my helmet working." Dante said as he used a tool to open a small panel on to get a look at the circuitry he spent a good portion of the day repairing his helmet he managed to get the visor system to work along with most of its other systems he put the helmet back on and was relieved when his heads up display came to life he grabbed the audio recording device and inserted it into his helmets backport and saw the record icon appear he blinked turning it off and grabbed his rifle he headed out of the tent and took soil samples from the ground for testing he then inserted a probe into a tree the two test told him that the world matched exactly to what the Zion had been searching for. He climbed a tree to the very top to see a bright blue sky with white clouds reminding him of his last sight of earth before being brought aboard the Zion as a small child he activated his emergency distress beacon and used a piece of cord to secure it to so it could broadcast the tree tops would have to work until he found a better suited place. He climbed down and headed back to camp where he stripped out of his armor putting it in a neat stack inside the tent next to his bed roll he sat down on the floor and opened a protein bar he broke off a small piece and popped it into his mouth it was tasteless but it gave him the protein he would need to be active until he was rescued.
"the FTL drive is gonna be down for a while." Bradley said. Admiral ash had recovered enough to be moving around the ship which was now operating on half power. "we need to get back to that planet Bradley." she said. "and I'm telling you it's gonna be a while I've got damage teams repairing major damage all over the ship I have a reactor that tried to meltdown when I brought it back online the FTL drive sustained significant damage from whatever hit us." Bradley said. His arms crossed in his seat across the table from her. "we do have some idea on what hit us according to sensors at the time it was a hyperspace window highly unstable it caught the Zion and the ARST pods and displaced all of us here in this uncharted region." Leonard said. "I'm not a astrophysicist but if we got caught in the window wouldn't it have scattered the pods separate from the ship?" roan asked. "yes I was wondering the same." Seth said. "unless it was intentionally designed to do this those pods are designed to withstand the harshest of conditions and we had our shields up if we hadn't had them up it's very likely the ship wouldn't have survived the event I believe we triggered some type of mine that detonated when we were in range." Leonard explained. "I see if we return to that planet we could trigger a second device and next time we might not be so lucky." ash said. "what about my men?" trask asked. The room went silent Leonard cleared his throat to speak. "if they didn't appear with us then they might have either been displaced in a separate region or they were vaporized by the horizon of the window if they got that far either way they would survive in their pods for a two weeks at most pending on supplies and air supply but finding them would be like looking for a needle in a galaxy size hay stack." Leonard said. Trask closed his eyes and got up from the table. "permission to be excused ma'am." trask requested. "granted." ash answered. Trask left the room he went to the wall of heros and looked at the ID tags in his hand he hadn't entered their names he didn't want to accept they were lost to such a accident but the facts were hard to argue with all the numbers were against one let alone both of his men surviving the blast he scanned the names into the wall adding private Dante Jones callsign fixer and private carter cormac callsign Irish to the list of KIA.
Head medical officer Seth Harris entered the medical bay he headed to the morgue and entered a where he turned on the lights He walked the wall of preservation chambers for the bodies until he got to Allison ash's tube he put a hand on the tube closing his eyes in guilt the jolt from the blast had disabled her life support system and she was gone before anyone could do anything to save her he had been ordered to perform a detailed autopsy to find out what exactly the aliens had done to her. Roan entered the morgue looking as sad as seth felt. "I never thought I would be doing this to fellow crew member." roan said. "it happens to us all eventually." Seth said. He entered the code to the capsule but stopped when he felt the pod vibrate he put his hand back on the pod and felt it again a continous rythem his eyes widened in shock he pressed a button on the tube that showed the vitals of the occupant and saw a heart beat and brain activity. "uhm it's not suppose to do that." roan said. "no when people go in there they aren't suppose to be doing that anymore." Seth said. "okay just letting you know as fair warning if it's flesh eating zombie that comes out of there I am tripping you so I can get security I'll remember you fondly." roan said. "remember your foot is still healing." Seth said raising his foot aiming it at roans ankle as he opened the pod and Allison sat up taking a deep panicked breath. "what the hell happened!" she yelled looking around covering herself with the sheet from the pod. "what am I doing in the morgue!?" she demanded. "this.... Uhm... May take some explaining." Seth said. "by who?" roan asked. Seth gave a shrug with his shoulders.
Dante was woken from his sleep by a roar it reminded him of recordings of lions or tigers from earth's history he heard the sound of twigs snapping under foot and a low rumbling growl from a predator it was drawing closer toward his tent he wasn't surprised it was basic instinct for any predator to investigate new comers Dante had invaded it's territory now it was trying to figure out where he sat in the food chain he knew he'd get late night visitors from the local wildlife. He picked up his rifle and switched it to stun he wanted to avoid hurting or killing the animal but he was going to discourage it from trying to prey on him he pulled on his chest plates and helmet activating it's night vision it's motion tracker was picking up a single signal circling his camps outer edge he opened the tent and crept outside into the darkness he aimed at the creatures location but the signal went away from him after a minute it had vanished from his scopes entirely Dante lowered his rifle and went back into his tent sealing it back up he tossed the rifle back on the floor he pulled off his helmet and chest plate laying back down but sleep wouldn't come to him the rest of the night.
Irish hadn't slept the night before he was too restless he kept hearing noises from below roars of some creature putting down it's stake on territory it came from the thick forest that seemed to cover much of the planet the mountainous region he had landed on seemed to over look the forest and separate it from large flat lands and beyond those was a large blue ocean he spent his day wandering the area around his camp to get the lay of the land his visors motion detector detected the flying creatures in the air they seemed to be predatory in nature but weren't very big he doubted they would attempt to attack him they were most likely scavengers which was a sign that food was in short supply on the mountain tops these birds were waiting for him to drop dead so they could feast but it could be a sign that they had nest in the area and therefore could be source of protein for him if he needed it. Something caught his eye a metal hatch blackened steel slightly twisted and crumbled and half buried in the mountain side he jogged over to it clearing the area with a quick scan with his rifle he knelt down at the jagged piece of metal wiped soot off of it he found that it was the hatch to a ARST pod the name was mostly burned off but each pod had the callsign of its occupants three letters remained legible (fi_e_) he lowered his head wrapped a fist against the metal as he recalled his pods diagnostic report it had collided with another object another pod it had struck fixers pod Dantes pod. "sorry brother." Irish muttered under breath. He caught movement out the corner of his eye and his motion tracker picked it up as well he spun on his heel rifle raised seeing the briefest of glimpses of a black shape a person maybe running away down the slope of the mountain he followed but by the time he crest the top the figure had disappeared he flicked on his communicator. "this is Irish does anyone copy?" he said getting no response. "I repeat this is Irish is anyone reading this transmission?" he asked getting only static as a answer he shut off his communicator to conserve the power supply for his armor.
Admiral ash doctors Seth and roan with Allison sat at a briefing table ash looked stunned to see her daughter not only alive but awake sitting across from her. "tell me allie whats the last thing you remember?" Seth asked. Allison took a moment to answer as she thought back recalling floating in the pod of blue liquid feeling sharp needles pentrating her skin seeing the faces of the aliens as they watched she swallowed a ball forming in her throat and did her best to keep from choking on the memory. "I was captured by the aliens put in a pod they did something to me." she said. Ash looked away covering her mouth in grief that her daughter went through the ordeal. "teams alpha through gamma rescued you and ARST carter cormac from captivity when you were brought aboard you weren't responsive and your body was showing extensive gene modification I undid what I could but much of it was beyond my understanding." Seth said. "we had to put you in a medically induced coma while you under went treatment." roan explained. Allison nodded her understanding to what she was hearing even though it was hard to hear she felt violated by the aliens who had captured her. "none of that explains why I woke in the morgue and when the aliens captured me they didn't get Sam dukes ward did they?" Allison asked. "no Sam is safe and sound thanks to you." ash said in a comforting tone. "you were in the morgue because the Zion was struck by what we believe to be a hyperspace mine the blast displaced us in space and knocked out our primary reactor the surge disabled your life support and you were clinically deceased by the time anyone could get to you that was nearly two days ago." Seth said. Allison looked like she had misheard him or couldn't believe what was being said she felt like she was going to get sick none of it made any sense. "thats impossible the brain can't survive without oxygen if my heart had stopped and you weren't keeping me alive then I should be dead there shouldn't have been a way to revive me." she said. "allie." roan said getting her attention. "no one revived you but you we believe it's a result of the gene modification done to you." roan explained. "we would like to continue your treatment a new set of scans and blood work so we will better know how to counter whatever they did." Seth said. "do it whatever it takes." Allison said. Everyone nodded and stood. "I should go speak to Dante he's probably at the bar if he believes I'm dead." Allison said. Everyone gave eachother quiet looks and Seth let out a breath. "perhaps you should sit back down." Seth said.
Dante sat on a branch half way up one of the large trees he turned on his communicator. "Zion this is alpha five do you copy?" he asked. "hello this ARST callsign fixer if your receiving this message please respond." Dante called. "I don't know if anyone is receiving this or what y'all are doing up there but it's been three days food and water reserves are half way depleted lost some to some little rat critter I'm sending this transmission on all frequencies and all bandwidths along with a data burst of my findings of the planet and my camp locations guesamated spot on it." Dante said. He began to climb down only for a roar to freeze him in his tracks it was close and it was below him he put a hand to his pistol only for spot on his radar to move away from him he climbed down and looked in the soil to see a deep impression of a foot it was larger than his with three toes tipped with claws the creature stood up right on two legs and from his pervious encounters he knew it hunted alone it was a apex predator he knew it wouldn't wait too much longer before it came after him so he needed to be ready.
Irish woke to his motion sensor going off it picked up motion just outside his tent he grabbed his rifle and charged out the door only to see nothing he lowered his rifle activating his communicator. "this is Irish is anyone on this channel I repeat are there any other people on this channel?" Irish demanded. He cursed and switched off his comlink he turned and saw some of his rations were missing he had taken careful stock of what he had so that he wouldn't run out but now he was missing at least half of what he had left in his reserves. He took off his helmet and tossed it into his tent out of frustration. "damn it come on!" he yelled he was answered by a rumbling thunder he looked off toward the coast to see powerful storm building. "just fucking great." Irish grumbled heading back into his tent laying down he activated his recorder. "this makes day three my rations have been cut in half I don't know what or who is stealing my food if it was Dante or any of the others they would have identified themselves by now I kinda wish Katie was here she would like this place." Irish said he was quiet for a long moment and nodded to himself. "I think I'll set traps." he stated.
Admiral ash sat on the bridge of the Zion as they began to bring systems online it had taken four days to get the ship repaired enough to try to bring the primary reactor back to full power and bring the FTL drive back online. "all systems are in the green ma'am." Charles reported. "alright bring the FTL drive online." she ordered. Charles nodded to a officer who pressed a button suddenly alarms began blaring through the bridge and everything went dark again. "what happened!" she demanded. "engineering performed a emergency shut down ma'am." the officer reported. She pulled out her comlink to see Bradly was calling her she answered the call. "the FTL drive sent a surge through the reactor pushed it beyond red we were about to explode I almost didn't catch it in time." Bradly reported. "how bad is the damage?" she asked. "three of my guys are being rushed to medical with bad radiation burns and the reactor suffered more minor damage it's gonna take more time to clean up the radiation and repair the damaged components." Bradly stated mildly annoyed. "alright do what you can." ash said leaning back in her chair she looked down seeing her left hand trembling on its own another sign her nervasystem was dying Charles noticed it and saw a ensign looking at her worried. "back to your duties ensign you can admire your commanding officers later." Charles said sharply. She had stopped hiding her condition or she to put it better she had informed the crew they could stop playing dumb about it.
Trask and his team sat in the mess hall eating while looking over potential systems the long range drones had discovered they had identified three worlds that might have the minerals needed for the factories to produce the parts needed to fully repair the ship and one world that could possibly be the next potential earth. "I think heading to system 341 would be a good bet for minerals." Dex said. "nope those aliens have a presence there they took out the drone on its return trip." Manny said. "and 359 as the same radiation those stalkers were from but at higher levels." Duke said. "I have to find replacements for fixer and irish." trask stated looking at a list of potential candidates. "I think we should petition the captain to let us go back to that planet and confirm whether they are dead or not if they made it to the planet then they could be alive they had supplies for three days in their packs a week in their pods." Duke said. Trask shook his head sitting the pad down. "the admiral won't endanger the ship again that system as been locked out of navigation besides the reactor and FTL drive aren't getting along right now we couldn't go if we wanted to." trask said. "according to the data there is 1 percent chance that they could have survived at least one of them." Dex said. "yeah that's not enough for the admiral." trask said.
Carter put the dead creature on a rock he sat his helmet to the side to where it could record what he was about to do it had been near five days his food stores were nearly completely gone and he was running low on calories. He spent much of his time now out of his armor he had stripped out of it and was in his fatigues now he had grown a bushy unkept beard and his hair had grown out slightly he drew his knife and sat down next to his kill. "this....this is a alien dog I think but today it's lunch and maybe dinner depending what I can get from it." carter said. He ran a scanner over it to make sure it was safe to ingest and smiled at the results. "okay roan this one is for you one dead alien creature and if you guys ever come back for me I'll try to trap you a live one but for now a guy's gotta eat." carter said he used his knife to slice the creature open from belly to chest and allowed everything to fall out of it he pulled out the organs and sat them aside most he could identify fairly easy heart liver kidney stomach intestine he then skinned the creature removing it's tan fur he seperated the legs and head from the body and carefully removed the meat from the bones he made a fire and stuck the meat on sticks where he let them cook. He cataloged and scanned the organs to be part of a report no one was gonna see. He cut up the heart putting it in a pot and poured water and some greens he had found and tested into the pot he closed it and put it over the fire as well he then sat back putting on a boonie hat and chewed on some of the edible grass with his rifle in his lap.
The sun was about to set once his food was cooked he began eating he finished off two of the four cabobs and drank the soup he had made finding it extremely filling the meat was a bit gamey for his taste but it would work he left his last two cabobs on the plate and lower his chin to his chest hiding his eyes under the brim of his hat until he heard a noise a moment later and raised his rifle he looked up seeing the figure of a man hidden in shadows mostly but the hand illuminated by the fire was that of a human.
"figured you'd be hungry by now I didn't have much to steal in the first place." carter said with a smile the hand began to retract but Carter's rifle charging to fire froze him in his tracks. "now... Now no need for you to bolt I cooked you dinner. Sit take a load off have some common fucking courtesy." carter said. The man sat down and Carter turned on his rifles muzzle lamp illuminating the man in front of him he wore a grey shirt and dirty green pants he had a bushy brown greying beard his skin was slightly wrinkled and red from being out in the sun he had piercing light blue eyes but he had a tattoo that Carter himself had only recently gotten the mark of a ARST. "who are you brother?" carter asked. "lieutenant Marcus cole from the colony ship vigil." Marcus answered. "private carter cormac callsign Irish colony ship Zion." carter said. "wasn't aware there were any others left." Marcus said. "well to be honest we thought the vigil along with the others were either destroyed or had gone too far out of range to be heard from." carter said. "the vigil was destroyed lost with all hands well most of them." Marcus said as he picked up the food and started eating. "I'm sorry." carter said. "I'm sorry to for the Zion." Marcus said. "why you say that?" carter asked. "because the Zion was destroyed when you got here." Marcus said. "how do you know that?" carter asked. "let me guess how you got to this paradise you and your team were deploying to do your survey when a explosion came out of no where and you woke up here?" Marcus asked carter nodded his confirmation. "well that was a hyperspace mine they open a unstable hyperspace window you and I got lucky because when a window opens up it ejects a gravity wave to push matter too close to event horizon out of the way which meant we were pushed out of range before it actually opened the vigil Zion and the other pods would have been sucked into the window and spat out in a random system to keep this planet undisturbed and debris free." Marcus said. "and you know it was a hyperspace mine and how it works so well how?" carter asked. Marcus put the plate back on the ground wiping his mouth he pointed to the rifle. "how about you put that down and I show you tomorrow." Marcus said. Carter thought it over and lowered his rifle. "you can crash here if you want." carter said. Going back to his tent he opened the flap and went to bed Marcus looked in and saw the rifle aimed at the entrance and Carter's pistol in his opposite hand aimed at the window of the tent he stepped away from the tent and unpacked his own bed roll on the ground.
Dante crept through the forest thick roots snaked across the ground covering much of the ground there was very little exposed soil making travel difficult and time consuming as roots could give way under the wieght of Dantes armor.
He made it to another clearing where he used his grapple hook joined with his jump jets to climb to the top of one of the larger trees granting him a better look at his surroundings the forest seemed to go on as far as the eye could see to his west was a large mountain range and following it south he saw where the forest ended and sea shore began it would take him days to travel the distance on foot and his supplies wouldn't hold out that long he needed to get to a better hunting ground the creatures in the forest were either two small and elusive to be a stable food supply he burned more calories than he gained by hunting them and any potential prey was normally scared off by his stalking predator if he climbed to the top of the lower mountain range he could find the nest of the flying beast he had seen in the sky if he got to the shore he could try his hand at fishing both were better locations than his current one. He performed calculations in on his HUD and decided on a plan of action he was going for the mountains due to the fact he was closer to them than to the shore. He gave it a running jump and launched himself off the tree he then activated his jet pack sending himself blasting toward the mountain range his fuel reserves ran down quickly but he kept it going until he had fully depleted the jet packs reserves he then fired his jumpjets continuously increasing the distance he had covered but after thirty seconds those to had been depleted he fired his grapple hook to its maximum range striking a tall tree and repelling himself off it retracting the hook and cable he repeated this at least three times until his grapple hooks launching mechanism was depleted as well he then allowed his armor to do the one thing it could still do break his fall as he collided into the canopy of the forest going through several branches before coming to a stop he had gone through the first two layers of the canopy but had landed on a more sturdy branch the fall had left him sore beaten and battered three cracked ribs a dislocated shoulder and a fractured wrist otherwise the armor had done it's job his sensors didn't detect any major bleeding the injuries would have left him in serious condition if he didn't have medical supplies but his armors internal medical system had already gotten to work on setting his fractures and injected a serum that would increase his bodies abilities to heal as for the dislocated shoulder he would have to deal with that himself but according to his HUD he had cut days off his journey  to the mountains now he just needed to take a night to patch himself up.
Doctors Seth harris and roan had spent the entire day in the examination labs  going over the latest test results and scans of Allison    what they were seeing wasnt like anything either of them had seen before while any external changes had been reversed and she remained human but everything was dialed up to eleven her bodies cells were more resilient her immune system was stronger and her brain was showing increased activity and her body had become physically more resilient meaning she would recover from injuries quicker and her body could handle more strain than a normal human which made sense considering what the aliens had apparently had in store for the victims that under went the full genetic alteration Seth sniffed a cup of brown cold coffee and shrugged before downing the cup. "you know how old that cup was old timer?" roan asked not looking up from the data he was reviewing. "a couple days." Seth shrugged. "three days old the one they just brought you is to your left." roan said as he sipped on his own cup of coffee. "it doesn't matter." Seth said. "I don't get it shouldn't the gene therapy have restored her to her original state why is so much of her still altered?" roan asked. "it appears more than one form of gene modification was used on her." Seth said. "so what we have to make new gene therapies to reverse these changes?" roan said. "honestly these changes are so perfectly done I doubt the genes can ever be fully reverted the best we could hope for at this point is to suppress the  Genes expression which would restore her to her original state." Seth said as he continued to look at the data. Roan stretched out in his chair and rubbed his eyes under his glasses. "that kind of treatment would require regular treatments for the rest of her life." roan said. Seth nodded as he flipped through another series of test results. "but if we don't do that then the gene alteration could potentially escalate and her body would continue to change." Seth said. Roan nodded in agreement too bad we couldn't make it where she could keep all the beneficial changes without the condition advances with her current condition she is practically immune to diseases and most toxins and with that brain activity I wouldn't be surprised if she could learn and think faster than any normal human." roan said. Seth nodded and looked to a second screen that had admiral ash's latest test results and a idea struck him. He got up popping his back from the stiffness of sitting for so long. "I need to run a new series of test." Seth said as he left the lab. Allison flipped through information about the hyperspace mine incident including launch logs of the ARST pods and before she knew it she had begun to perform calculations advanced formulas that she had never been able to do before but was perfectly clear to her now. "Allison?" came Seth's voice she turned to see the older man with a look of concern on his face. "are you alright Alli?" Seth asked. She cleared her throat and turned of the displays she had been working on and got up to face the doctor. "I'm okay doc what's up more test?" she asked. "yes of sorts I want to get a better understanding of the resilence your body has gained so I'm gonna need a fresh blood sample." Seth asked. "by now I'm surprised I any left to give." Allison said in a joking tone. "we are close Alli we just need time and we'll have you back to normal but until then keep us informed on any changes you notice anything at all." Seth said as he rolled up Allison's sleeve and inserted the needle extracting a vial of blood from her arm. She closed her eyes nodded. "there is something." she said she tapped the screens and brought the equations back to the screen and Seth looked at for a long moment. "you did this you understand this?" he asked astonished at what he was seeing. She nodded yes and he copied the equation and sent it to the examination labs. "we need to get you under the scanner." Seth said. He lead her back to medical and on his way he sent the admiral a message to head to the medical bay.
Once the admiral arrived she saw that roan had called in other scientist they were looking at a advanced equation that she couldn't make heads or tails of.  She saw allison back in the scanner a image of her brain was on a screen and she knew from how brightly it was lit up that it wasnt good. "I thought she was getting better?" ash demanded. "better is relative physically she is in better condition than most people on this ship the problem is her genes are continuing to mutate further from being human we slow it in one region and it picks up in other regions this time it's her brain she created a new form of mathematics she thought it she was performing a advanced equation around the detonation of the hyperspace mine to the velocities of the ARST pods of Carter and Dante but half the math wasn't anything used by humans." Seth said.
Ash looked at him confused and concerned. "what do you mean it's not human?" she asked. "well after the battle we scavenged a few of the destroyed alien vessels for parts to see what we could use to make improvements to the Zion but we found some computers intact and we found what thought was their form of mathematics but we didn't know for sure until we saw what your daughter had done and while their weapons and shields weren't anything special from what your daughters work as shown they were light years ahead of us when it comes to FTL technology." roan said walking over. "are you saying she understands those aliens language?" ash demanded. "she didn't know she was understanding it to her eyes it was English but subconsciously yes she can read and write in alien." roan said. Ash took a seat and covered her eyes with her right hand. "what in the verse were they trying to do?" ash said. "actually it's not what they did its what we did." roan said. Ash looked up at him sharply and he gave her a nervous smile. "the original purpose for the gene modification was to for purpose of procreation the aliens have difficulty reproducing naturally so they use other species for genetic diversity when we stopped the genes from doing what they were originally meant to do they started modifying everything else mainly because the gene modifers were more advanced than what we originally thought." roan explained. "is there anyway to return her to normal or keep the changes from progressing?" ash demanded. "at this point in time we can only treat it as it occurs but we are working on a treatment that will suppress the genes responsible for the alterations." Seth explained. 
Ash looked back to her daughter she wasn't suppose to put one person over the rest but as a mother she couldn't help it she needed her daughter to be okay she needed some good news to come out of this mess. Allison was let out of the scanner got up slowly she looked tired drained but her eyes still had that strength that they always had. "go get some rest Allison." ash ordered. "ma'am I think Dante and Carter are alive back on that planet I think we can rescue them." she said. "I'm sorry Alli even if they were alive I can't risk the Zion we barely survived the last time we must put the needs of the many over the needs of the few." ash said and she hated that it needed to be said hated that it would hurt her daughter more because of how close she had come to alpha squad. "we don't need to risk the Zion we can use the hoppers they have hyperspace drives they can get to the planet pick them up and come back." Allison said. "sorry Alli that wouldn't work the raven doesn't have a powerful enough drive to get their fast enough and isn't armored or shielded heavily one detonation of a hyperspace mine and there won't be anything left to find." Leonard said from the computer going over the alien equations. Allison stormed off angry she went to the hangar bay catwalk overlooking the ravens that were being serviced. She heard foot steps behind her and looked seeing trask Dex Manny Duke decker and tech with the specter pilot Miranda. "so we hear you got a plan to rescue our missing teammates?" trask asked. Allison smiled gratefully at them and wiped a tear from her eye.
Carter and Marcus walked through the valley it was already noon they had started right before sun rise  now the sun was beating down on them it was a warm spring day Marcus and him hadn't said a word the entire time there wasn't much to say all Carter could do was wait and see where this man was taking him.
Dante got to the top of the mountain top and pulled himself over the edge laying on his back out of breath it reminded him too much of his training to become a ARST climbing mountains for hours going on long runs and traveling through harsh terrain all it was missing was a drill instructor berating him and firing stun rounds at him he saw a bloom of smoke in the distance something the forest canopy had hidden from him he got to his feet slowly and walked in the direction of the smoke his body was still sore from the stunts he had pulled the night before but he kept pushing himself on the bloom of smoke wasn't from a wild fire it was too isolated and too small it was definitely a camp fire he made it to a camp site the embers were still warm and the tent was the same as the one he had in his own survival pack he looked at the identification number. "Irish." Dante muttered he went inside the  tent to see irishes armor stacked in the corner he checked it and found the power supply was low due to damage most likely from the hard landing he didn't see any weapons or ammo and his pack was gone meaning Irish had cut down on what he was carrying to move faster it was also a sign he would be returning to the camp eventually as he had left a lot of supplies behind he could sit and wait or follow in irishes foot steps and try to track him down. He removed the jump jets from his boots.
He removed the jet kits from his pack which lightened what he had to carry and it put less of a strain on his armors battery. He walked outside the tent and saw something he hadn't expected two different tracks heading away from the camp and to the ledge where a rope had been set up for climbing he looked out where the rope lead it was to the flat lands green fields he gave the rope a test pull and was satisfied it would support his weight he began his descent down the mountain it was easier going since he had a rope and wasnt carrying a hundred pounds of deadwieght on his back and feet made it to the bottom in less then four hours he once there he took a break to hydrate and eat some of the food left in Carter's camp he spotted Carter's and the mystery person's tracks they were heading further from the mountain and toward a smaller forested area.
Miranda had ordered the modifications done to the raven while Dex brought extra medical supplies decker and Duke brought extra ammo and rations while tech assisted in the refit of the ship meanwhile Allison waited for the modifications to be complete and tried to work out a way to avoid the mines by using the sensor logs and reports from the first incident to gather information on the mines range they couldn't detonate too close to the planet otherwise the planet would suffer damage from the hyperspace window opening and it couldn't be too far away otherwise they would be triggered by space debris she made a red field around the planet and using the blast radius of the first mine she was able to gauge distance between the mines and was confident if they could locate the mines they could plot a safe course through the minefield it was the best they had to go on. Alpha Team began loading the supplies in the bird when flight deck chief Konrad stiles approached like he was ready for a fight he looked at a data pad and then looked at the dropship. "what in the hell is going on here?" he demanded his eyes shooting daggers at Miranda. "nothing sir a simple refit and a scouting run." Miranda said. "I don't have anything in my logs about a refit or any upcoming missions." stiles said. "really thats weird I got my orders this morning sir." Miranda said. "bullshit show me the orders than." stiles ordered. Miranda pulled out a data and unlocked it she then transferred some data to stiles datapad he looked at and it turned out to be a picture of a dog he raised a brow in confusion he looked up and Miranda shot him in the chest with a stun bolt knocking him. Rubies voice came over their comlinks I cleared your bird for take off now get our guys back." Ruby said. Miranda gestured for everyone to get into the dropship as trask dragged the unconicous stiles to a safe distance he would be out for hours and probably have trouble remembering what had happened. The ARSTs loaded into the dropship as did Allison Miranda got in the pilot seat and powered the ship up they blasted out of the hangar and the admirals voice came over the comms. "flight  R3217 reverse course and return to the hangar immediately this is your only warning." ash ordered Miranda turned the comms array off and powered up the hyperspace drive entering hyperspace before the Zion could do anything to stop them.
Carter and Marcus arrived to a large domed structure hidden in the forest at the end of the flatlands it was large standing four stories high the trees barely managed to keep it concealed from being seen overhead the structure was made of a smooth silver metal that was cold to the touch. "what is this thing?" carter asked. "it's what controls the mines the locals don't like visitors." Marcus said. "what locals I haven't seen any sign of sapient life on this planet definitely nothing advanced enough to build this." carter said. "they don't use advanced technology except for this." Marcus said. "have you seen these locals?" carter asked. "not directly but I've seen the signs of them found their tracks and heard them around my camp they watch they listen and learn." Marcus said. "well how do we get in this thing?" carter asked. Marcus felt along the side until a portion glowed at the touch he pressed it with his hand and a door way opened. Carter and him entered the structure it was a large hollow structure with a single chair. "this is what they use to control the mines I've tried activating it but it won't respond to me." Marcus said. Carter pulled his pack off his back and pulled out a few square blast charges. "what are you doing?" Marcus asked in a tone of disbelief. "they wreck our shit I wreck theirs if we can't use it to deactivate the field then we make it where they can't be triggered. "you don't know if that will make the mines inert you could wind up detonating them all." Marcus said. "that's a risk I'm willing to take." carter said. Marcus got in between him and the chair.
"This planet could be a new home for humanity if we can gain control over this device we might be able to use it to contact the other ships but if you do that and those mines detonated it will rip this planet apart killing everyone and everything on it!" Marcus said. "I don't care everyone I knew was on Zion these bastards took them from me now move." carter ordered as he leveled his rifle to Marcus's chest. "your going to shoot the only other human on this planet to blow up this alien structure?" Marcus demanded. "if I have to now get out of the way." carter ordered. "what's going on here!" came a voice carter didn't think he'd ever hear again he turned to see Dante standing in the doorway his rifle aimed in the space between carter and Marcus. "who the hell are you?" Marcus asked. "I was about to ask you the same question." Dante answered. "Dante Marcus, marcus Dante. Marcus is a ARST from the vigil got stuck here the same as us." carter explained keeping his rifle aimed at Marcus's chest. "okay gonna need a little more than that like why you guys are aiming weapons at eachother." Dante said. "that chair is the control device for this place it controls what destroyed the Zion and vigil I want to blow it up so it can't be used again." carter said. "he doesn't know if the mines will go inert afterward it could very well set off the remaining mines  which could destroy the planet." Marcus added. Dante nodded his understanding and he fully entered the room he tapped carter on the shoulder. "put the rifle down at least until we know what we are dealing with." Dante said. Carter saw Dantes rifle was slightly aimed at Carter's hip. Carter took a breath and lowered his rifle alarms suddenly sounded and the room was flooded in red light a holographic image of the planet appeared in the air showing the locations of all the mines it showed four ships approaching the planet it showed the designs of the ships and Carter and Dante couldnt believe their eyes it was the aliens the ones who had attacked the Zion and captured carter and Allison a fifth signal appeared this one was smaller and when the image provided a detailed look at the fifth ship it looked like a raven class scout ship the images showed the alien fleet moving to capture the smaller vessel even as mines began move toward the ships. Dante climbed into the chair in a attempt to stop the mines but it didn't respond to anything a  spot lit up on the floor and four humaniod reptilian aliens emerged they stood six foot tall and wore lathered armor over their scaly exterior each had sharp white teeth in their mouths clawed hands and long whip like tails each held a rifle of some sort they let out a roar that was all too familiar to Dante he'd heard it every night in the forest carter went to raise his rifle only for a stasis field to be generated around him and Marcus one of the aliens grabbed Dante by the chest plate and flung him across the room he landed hard on left shoulder dislocating it and sending knives of through his chest even as a stasis field was put around him.  They saw one of the alien ships get taken out by one of the mines.
Miranda cursed as she flew the dropship between bolts of energy fire returning fire with the dropships twin front mounted canons but compared to the larger alien vessels she might as well have been throwing pebbles at the thing. One of the alien vessels blown in half as a hyperspace window opened right next to it the decompressing remains of the ship were drawn through the window to be ejected somewhere else in a nearby system she dodged and weaved through swarms of starfighters and barely avoided one of the mines detonating taking out a squadron of fighters. "those aren't stagnant mines like we thought they are seekers!" Manny yelled. "no shit!" miranda yelled back as she did a barrel roll to avoid a collision with a fighter more mines had moved to intercept the ships she fired a volley of missiles destroying the ones heading for them even as a second larger alien warship was blown to pieces by a hyperspace window.
Dante Carter and Marcus watched in horror as the number of vessels quickly diminished Dante could tell by the way the raven was flying it was miranda the Zion must have survived what had happened and sent a scout ship ahead of them. "help them!" Dante ordered only to get a annoyed growl as a response from the aliens. "you want to be left alone thats fine let our ship come get us and we'll leave we will never come back here again!" carter yelled. "or destroy that ship more will come hundreds more you'll run out of mines eventually!" Marcus yelled. The aliens watched as another cluster of alien vessels appeared then another and another it let out a low rumbling growl and sat in the chair which lit on contact the ground started shaking and the number of mines increased but now instead of targeting every vessel the mines avoided the raven and went after the growing alien fleet.
This gave the raven the chance it needed to come in to the planets atmosphere Dante reactivated his suits transponder and watched as the raven changed course toward the transponder. "let us go and we won't be back." Dante said the aliens released the stasis fields around them and quickly disarmed all three of them before pressing a button suddenly the three were back at the mountain top and the raven was coming toward them Dante and Carter waved the ship to them. Miranda smiled out of relief. "looks like both of them survived even made a new friend." Miranda said as she brought the bird in for a landing the side hatch opened and trask Dex duke Duke, Manny and decker jumped out Manny and decker secured the perimeter while Dex used a scanner on all three of them. "enjoy your vacation?" trask asked. "I wouldn't recommend the hotel the staff are kinda dicks." carter said. Trask patted him on the shoulder. "come on get in time to get back to work." trask said. "amen to that brother." carter said climbing into the raven and dropping into one of the seats it's cushion was hard bumpy rough and might as well have been made marshmallows to Carter as he relaxed on the seat the rumble of the ravens engines was like music to his ears.
Dante climbed in next and saw Allison who wrapped her arms around his neck in a tight embrace he wrapped his arms around hugging her tightly tears of joy flowed down his face behind his visor he was relieved to see her awake again. Trask looked to Marcus who gave him a salute. "ARST of vigil lieutenant Marcus Cole sir." Marcus said. "at ease get on the ship we are going home." trask ordered trask helped Marcus onto the ship and gestured for the rest to pile in and they did so trask saw in the distance more round mines were being launched into space to replenish those that had been used he hoped the pass they had gotten coming in would hold while they left. The side hatches closed and sealed and Miranda brought the ship into the air taking it straight up through the atmosphere and into the void of space the alien fleet was gone but no mines pursued them the Zion suddenly appeared out of hyperspace. "R3217 you are cleared to board hangar three security personnel and medical will be waiting do not put up any resistance." Charles voice came through the speaker. Miranda looked back at the others. "are you guys sure you want to go back to the ship they sound kinda pissed." she said. "it'll be fine." trask assured as Miranda flew into the hangar landing on the designated pad. Omally and Seth both stood with their respective teams Vance stood with the leader of beta team and in front of them all standing next to the admiral was flight chief stiles. The ravens crew doors opened and security stepped forward placing trask Dex duke decker Manny and tech under arrest. Dante Carter Allison and Marcus were taken by medical teams and once everyone was out of the ship Miranda disembarked and was likewise put in restraints the admiral looked at them all her eyes cold hardened and her features were tense she was clearly angered that they had gone against orders put themselves at risk and all in all had acted insubordinate. "I'm relieved that Dante Carter and this new comer are safe but it doesn't change the fact you all disobeyed a direct order you endangered your lives and assaulted a superior officer these actions can't go unpunished so I'm docking your teams rations confining you all to quarters and there will be a formal legal review. Dante Carter and the new comer will be exempt from the punishment you will all provide detailed reports of your actions and it better be perfect." ash said as they were all lead away either to medical or their quarters.
Seth ran scans on both Dante and Carter who were put in quarantine incase they had ingested unknown pathogens or parasites once the scans and test came back clear they were allowed to return to their quarters for R&R meanwhile Allison sat in a exam room waiting on her mother who came in and closed the door behind her locking it. "alpha Team is one of my best ARST teams  they are loyal and dedicated you practically had them commit mutiny." ash said.  "we succeeded in bringing them back that's the important thing." Allison said. Ash's face became twisted with anger. "what would you have done if you had gotten to that planet and they were dead you would have flushed those men's careers down the refresher for nothing two men aren't worth the lives of ever man woman and child on this ship the last ship of humanity now that I know what happened to the vigil." ash said. "you made the same exact call yourself you sent all of the ARSTs to retrieve me and Irish some died on that operation but you decided it was worth it!" Allison said. Ash's face burned red with anger and resentment. "that was a completely different situation you hadn't been lost in a explosion above a alien planet you were captured in the middle of battle I knew you and him were alive!" ash stated.
"it was blind luck that those men survived the landing and lasted as long as they had on that planet and there was no possible way for you to have known for sure to risk the lives of seven people!" ash said.  "the aliens knew we were coming." Allison said. "what?" ash asked her mood gone from angry to concerned. "they had beat us there they were waiting for us." Allison stated. Ash turned unlocked the door and left the room without a word she went to Seth. "I want Allison and Carter scanned for tracking devices immediately." ash said before she headed for the exit. "Katherine wait a minute I need to talk to you about your condition." Seth said. Ash closed her eyes knowing it wasn't gonna be good news the treatments had allowed her to stay active but she had been feeling the progression of the sickness. "what is it?" she asked without turning around. "I believe I can cure you." Seth said ash looked back at him in disbelief a tear ran down her face or at least she thought it had been a tear but when she wiped it from her face it was red another sign the sickness was still wreaking havoc in her body Seth approached and guided her into a chair he ran a scanner over her eyes. "you have several ruptured blood vessels in your eyes we need to get your next round of treatments started." Seth said. "the cure you talked about?" she asked. "it's not ready I'm still running test but I believe I can make a serum from your daughters altered genes to boost your bodies immune system it would be able to fight off the sickness on its own and any damage it has done I can repair." Seth explained. "won't that put me in the same boat as Allison?" ash asked. "there is a risk but I believe it's small I'm continuing my test you just need to hold on until it's ready." Seth said she nodded and pulled him into a hug he hugged her back running his hand through her hair and saw some of her hair had come out when he had done so he closed his eyes saying prey to a god he hadn't believed in, in years but he would take any help he could get.
Trask stood in front of the wall of heros a ocean of names of good men he brought up Dante and Carter's names and erased them wishing it was so easy to bring more from the wall back he lingered on one name in general Theodore trask he ran a finger over the name and lowered his head.
Dante laid in his bed exhausted his body was sore and all he wanted to do was sleep his door chimed and he opened his eyes. "come in." Dante yelled the door opened and Allison walked in she sat on the edge of his bed. "we need to talk." she said and he rolled over to give her his undivided attention.