Out of Space

Chapter 28: Stalker

James knocked at the opened hatch of the medical bay, "Hey Karl, still alive?" He pokes his head in, seeing Karl laying on 1 of the hospital beds, with a bandage wrapped around his thigh. "How are you?"

"Hey Corp," Karl replies weakly. "I feel weak. Doc says I lost too much blood. Almost didn't make." He gives a weak smile. "Thanks for saving me."

"Don't sweat it. Good to see you better." James pats Karl's shoulder. "Well, get out of here soon, you owe me a beer!"

"Sure, on me. Invite that red head of yours along too." Karl gave a wink.

"Come on, you mean Kristine and me?" James laughs, "Nah, she probably have someone else."

"What someone else?" Kristine asks from the hatch. "What evil plots are you guys planning?"

"Erm no," James quickly replies, his face turning slightly red from embarrassment while Karl struggles to not laugh.

"Urgh, help! Don't make me laugh." Karl moans, "It hurts!"

Kristine shakes her head. Men! "So how are you doing Karl?"

"Better, Doc says a week or so, and I am good as new." Karl responses. "So how did the ruins exploration went?"

Kristine starts to tell the two of them about what they found in the ruins and what the ruins used to be. The trio starts talking about their theories and thoughts about who build the fort and also about the green skins.

Suddenly, an alert went off from their communication devices. After a quick read of the message, both James and Kristine look up at each other before turning to Karl. "We got a silent mobilization. Got to go, see you later," James and Kristine dash out of the medical bay, meeting several other crews also rushing to their stations. Halfway, James, and Kristine split off in different directions. "Be careful!" Kristine yells after James before heading to her assign station.

"What do we have?" Blake connects his comms to the bridge as their communicators flashed a priority alert message.

"Sir, perimeter sensors are picking up something massive and closing in."

"Roger that, I'll be at the bridge in 5mins." Blake cut the connection and turns to Dr. Sharon, "We continue this discussion later on. For now, any experiments with the Staff, do it with at least 2 assistants." Exiting the lab, he looks at XO Ford, "Put a couple of guards to guard that thing. It seems dangerous."

"Yes, Sir" Ford replies. Both of them hurries towards the bridge. As they enter the bridge, everyone inside was very tense, staring at the main display. "What in the world..."

A UAV hovers 30m off the ground, it's camera facing the massive wolf as it creeps stealthily through the thick undergrowth towards the base colony. The imagery is directly displayed on the bridge main screen, shocks everyone.

"How big is that thing?" Blake walks up and stands in front of the display. "Do we have an estimation of its size?"

"Computer simulations gauge it to be over 9m tall and 18m in length." Came back the reply. "Target has just crossed the 5km mark and closing in!"

The silvered back giant wolf pauses its movement and sniffs the air, looking directly at the hover UAV. The UAV coated with dazzle camouflage pattern, designed to blend into the sky makes less noise than the wings of a hummingbird. The wolf tilts its head, as it senses something watching it, but it is unable to see or smell anything. After a while of confusion, it continues its slow crawl towards the base colony.

To the crew in the bridge, the way the wolf crawls through the undergrowth looks hilarious, but judging from its size, it no longer is a laughing matter. "Do we have anything to kill it with?" Blake asks. How the fuck are we going to fight something that size!

"No, the Marines do not have anti-armor weaponry. We are not issued with anything more other than our individual weapons!" Lt Frank who entered the bridge just after Blake and Ford stares wide-eyed at the screen. "Command did not expect us to do any ground combat!"

"Point defense laser?' Blake called out to the weapons officer. "Status?"

"Dead, sir, we do not have enough power for the PD lasers!" Weapons reports. "Missiles are ready, but only launcher 1 to 8 are cleared to be fired."

Blake hits the comms and connects with Engineering."Chief Matt! Can we divert all power to weapons?"

"Yes, we can but it should only be able to give us enough power to fire 1 or 2 shot with the PD lasers before it drains all power from the capacitors." Chief Matt replies back. "And I need some time to reroute the power and charge up the capacitors."

"Do it!" Blake orders before he turns to the weapons officer. "Open missile bays 1 to 8."

"Aye, aye. Opening missile 1 to 8." The weapons officer punches in some keys and several clanging echoes could be heard in the distance. "Missile 1 to 8 open and ready. Sir!"

"All hands, battle stations, this is not a drill..." Ford alerted the crew through the comms network. "Repeat ... this is not a drill!"

All the of personnel working outside except for the security forces, dropped their work and rushed back towards the ship. People in an orderly manner, lined up at the entrance ports and the cargo ramp, while the flight deck launch bay is already starting to close up.

James rushed down the ramp and ran towards a concrete bunker built next to the unfinished wall. Goddamnit, why must there be a situation now! He huffs and puffs as he ran a distance of over 2km. Can't it wait when I am not onboard the ship?

Finally, he reaches the bunker with the words N-3 stencil on the walls, banging on the armored door which was salvaged from the ship.

"Hey Corp! Glad you decided to join us!" James sees Mills grinning face as he enters the bunker. "Having fun, jogging?"

"Shut...up..." James slumps against a side bench and pauses to catch his breath. "All ... here?"

"Yup, you are the last!" Mills replies, pointing out everyone in the bunker.

James sees Pvt Bartley, giving a small wave of acknowledgment from the forward firing slits and 2 other black-clad security members, peering out of the viewports.

"Corp, so what's the deal? More drills?" Mills asks as he settles down at 1 of the firing ports.

"Wait, I need to download the mission data." James pulls out his tablet and starts checking the mission brief. "hmmm ... what the hell! Mills! Come here!"

Mills wondering what all the fuss is about, he leans over and looks at the tablet, which James is holding up to him. "Yea? HOLY FUCK!" Mills yells, causing everyone in the bunker to gather around to view the mission data.

"Is this a joke?" 1 of the security guys asks. "A 9-meter tall wolf?"

"Oh boy, I'm screwed. Mommy is here for her kids that I killed." Mills groans. "Wait! Big Guy! You killed more wolves than me!" He points at Bartley, who just shrugs his shoulders.

"Enough, Mills! Stop whining." James kept the tablet and look at the room of frightened soldiers, except for Bartley whose expression doesn't seem to change.

"Question now is, how the hell do we kill that thing!"