Killing Floor
Posted on Sun Jun 20th, 2021 @ 11:08am by Alden Loxley & Jonas Bailey & Whit
Mission:
I Ain't Fraid of No Ghost...
Location: Gaishan Settlement, Ghost
Timeline: November 1st
Alden had last checked in with Ali two hours ago, the radio working as the three suited figures had left on Echo's Mule, bound for Gaishan's entrance. That blocky box-shaped metallic, sealed hab stuck out of the impressively fiercesome steel-grey mountains as if someone had felt a need to advertise its presence. Echo sat about half a mile (800 metres) away from that entrance point, easy to spot, like a lure on the open landing pad as they each took a last look backwards.
Nothing outside hinted at what they might find within. No response came from calling ahead, and while Gaishan's big front airlock allowed them in, it took a little coaxing to allow them through that second wide hatch. Alden wasted no time in lifting the control panel, then ran a quick bypass with crocodile clips and a wry smile as Jonas drove the Mule on through. Gaishan so far had that feel of a series of giant shipping containers having been dumped on a planet to provide a functional working space for the terraformers, nothing fancy or unnecessary and everything built to survive a harsh outer world.
Beyond the wide airlock's point, the onward corridor into a wider reception space was completely dark, lit only by their suit's exterior torches. Still in the protective gear, the three men tested the air. Breathable. Temperature normal. Alden unscrewed the link and then lifted his suit helmet over his head, sucking in a lungful of fine air and exhaling.
"We're good," he stated, in case that demonstrative act hadn't been suffficient. "Where is everybody....?"
Somewhere off to Jonas' left, a blinking red light summoned his attention towards what might be a work station console.
"Good question there, Alden," said Jonas. "Maybe that little blinky light can help us find the answer. Or maybe it's just a light switch." He walked over to the area and shined the light from his helmet on it. "Or it could be one of those 'don't push that red button' deals and someone did and that's where everybody went. Poof."
Whit cast a weather eye across the entire setup. "I reckon something's gone happened to the welcoming committee," he said. "Not a soul to be seen..." Walking up to the console, Whit pressed the flashing button. "Somebody sounded the alarm but they didn't finish the sequence. Must not a' had time. S'pose we oughta take a gander about. They ain't here, so they must be somewhere."
Turning on his helm light, Whit started scanning in a methodic search grid, hoping for anything that stood out. What looked like a hastily scrawled 'A' laid on its side. Whit's light hovered over it a spell, but then he kept up the search grid of the light.
"If the power's off, then anybody here ain't liable to be hospitable," Whit remarked. "We best tread lightly, least till we can flick the power back on."
Alden kept his gaze outward into the darkness while Jonas and Whit explored their tech options. Just in case this was a lure of some kind, he focused on the shadows and aimed his Model B just ahead of his visual sweep. Nothing.
"Agreed," he said, simply, in response to both men. Then, when the red blinking went off and Whit's suit light scanned into the darkness, Alden moved physically forward into that cleared space. "Baby steps it is," he noted, following the line of metal trunking on the wall to the inevitable armoured circuit box at the junction of the reception area and the onward T junction of corridor. A circuit box that had a fire axe deftly and casually planted right in the middle of its metal door. "I'm really, really, not liking the look of this...." Alden said on a concerned exhale.
At the T-junction, a jammed open door rested against a metal desk that took up the lower half of the way forward, inviting them to step through into the further reaches of the hab.
"Left or right?" Alden offered his companions the choice, just in case Whit had any preference.
"How's about one goes left, one goes right, and another plays backup," Whit suggested, "going ten paces a' time b'twixt callbacks, until somebody finds somethin'."
"Seems fair 'nuff," responded Alden, already fed of wearing the full environment suit, but not wanting to ditch it either. "I'll go left," he said, and he climbed over the desk-barrier and jumped down to the far side. "Looks clear," came the shout over his shoulder followed by the sound of his boots on the metal corridor's floor as he marched boldly towards the next junction.
"I'll go right," Whit said to Jonas. "Keep our intrepid captain on his feet, yeah?"
Jonas nodded. "You got it, preacher. He'll be walking outta here on his two."
The right side yielded another A mark to Whit's keen eye, then some twenty steps further along a trail of blood along the wall as if someone had dragged a wounded hand in a deliberate line. No sign of any body, but there were marks of someone's enthusiasm with a shotgun all around the next door which was closed, its control panel utterly destroyed.
"Found somethin'," Whit called back, then began eyeballing the surrounding area.
Between the mangled door control and the spray-and-pray number someone had done all around the edges, he figured this was the place to be. First things were first. Whit passed the sign of the cross over his chest, and then gave the sealed door a distinctive rhythmic tapping.
"Cooper? If you're in there, open on up!"
There was no reply from beyond that sealed door, but Whit did hear a shout from behind him, back down the corridor where Alden and Jonas had wandered.
"Bodies!" Alden's voice called, loud and echoey down that long metal corridor. The Echo's captain stood too far away for Whit to physically see, but sound carried easily in the lonely space even without the radios to boost it. "Lots of them..." Came the secondary revelation, this time via the comms.
Whit let out a groan. "Coop, ni zuì hao bùyào zuò..." Heading back the way he'd come, Whit called back to Alden. "How many? And how fresh?"
"Too many..." Alden said on an exhale, standing amongst the battlefield for a moment before crouching down to take a closer look. He was wishing he was back in the sealed environment suit right now, because looking at these dead folks, they'd not gone quietly into their last night. "Couple days at most, maybe?" He guessed. "Smell kinda funky, look way worse." One word stayed - unwanted - in his mind, but Alden didn't voice it yet, . Reavers?
"Don't seem to be any survivors," Whit said with a touch of grief to his voice. Clearly he'd been looking for someone in particular. The gears in his head began to shift from search and rescue to search and... "Still, there's gotta' be a sign as to them who did this."
The suit helmet attached to the belt of his suit clunked against that hard flooring as Alden nudged one of the bodies over to lie on its back. The face was a haunting reminder of a man they'd left in hospital back on Santo, if Daiyu's fingers had been hard long claws... bone was visible through the remnants of gory flesh and Whit was right, no one here was alive.
"Mebbe," said Alden, his voice quiet and more confident than hopeful. "Could be whoever you're looking fer, ain't here."
"I pray not," Whit said as his eyes roved across the grisly scene.
Over where Jonas stood, he could see some of the dead had gotten that way via the merciful application of mere bullets - headshots and chunky exit wounds - but their skin was torn, clothing shredded and bloody.
It was a grisly scene, to be sure. Jonas had seen bad, but this was worse. He shook his head and continued forward. He only hoped that it wasn't Reavers.
"Whatcha find in t'other direction?" Alden asked the Shepherd, standing up to regard Whit with a serious look. He looked furtive, edgy clearly he really didn't want to be hanging around here for long.
"Damaged doors, scratch marks, makeshift defensive measures..." Whit look Alden directly in the eye. "You thinkin' what I'm thinking?"
"I reckon I am," Alden said on an unhappy exhale.
Without any initial sound or warning, the lights and internal cameras suddenly came back up in a quickfire chain of linked clicks and burrs along the ceilings. Pale yellow light cast an unwanted and far clearer view of the dead, highlighting a nastiness level that had previously only been hinted at. Alden immediately backed up in the direction Whit had come from. "Let's get outta here," he said.
And then they all heard it, via the connected Gaishan PA system, now apparently back online too.
Gunfire.
Alden looked to Whit. "You expecting this?"
"Not at first but now I'm fixin' to expect much worse," Whit said. Looking around, he found a loose pipe that pried free from the wall without too much leverage. He hefted it over his shoulder in preparation for what might come. "I'm thinkin' you might want to call back to your ship."
"Worse?" said Alden with a frown. It wasn't really a question, and as he watched Whit get ready to rumble, Alden's expression spoke of how much he didn't love this latest development. "Yeah," he agreed, miserably. "Keep a weather eye." He backed up against the nearest wall to ensure anything inbound would be visible, did a quick upward check - clear - and clicked the comm channel back to reach Echo.
"Ali - Echo - y'all there?" The Firefly's captain checked. "We got trouble. Stay locked down and keep checking the perimeter. Ali - hit me up on a private channel, please." Then he turned back to Whit and Jonas, off-comm and in person. "Head towards your damaged doors or towards the firing?" Alden asked Whit, confident on the answer, but willing to let their patron make the call.
Jonas rolled a couple of bodies over and picked up the guns from underneath it. He was betting that they'd been emptied, but hoping not. No ammo. He rolled a few more in the hopes of finding enough ammo to pull together for one weapon. Nothing. Frustrated, Jonas kicked the last one and a sword tumbled from his hands. "Anything goes when your life's on the line," he said. He reached down and picked it up, wiping blood and residue on what was left of the corpse's shirt.
"Any word?" Whit asked Alden. The tension of the situation was escalating by the minute.
"Chloe, switch to channel Delta for me," Alden ordered gently. He waited for that to happen her end, then once he was speaking privately and solely to Chloe on the bridge, he told the engineer what he'd wanted to inform Alison. "Whatever happened here," the Echo's captain said. "Looks like Reavers." He let that sink in for a couple of seconds then continued. "Everyone we've found so far is dead. Messy dead. But now we've got gunfire so we're checking it out. Let Ali know, and do whatever it takes to keep everyone safe. If you move position let me know when you can, okay?"
That done, waiting on a response from his engineer, Echo's captain turned to answer Whit.
"They're safe for now," Alden said. "Alison's found some kinda critter though." He couldn't worry too much about that, and he trusted his pilot enough to not ask more questions right now. A frown, a sigh and he checked his weapon, looked to Jonas and frowned. "Wishing I'd brought me a shotgun," he noted with a scrunching of his features, then, with a refocus on Whit... "Guessing we going at the sounds of trouble, then huh?" Alden asked, a wry expression accompanying his question to the Shepherd.
"Could you live with yourself if you didn't?" Whit asked. Then he gestured for Alden to lead the way.
"Don't reckon I could, no," admitted Alden without issue or hesitation. He looked from Jonas to Whit and then turned to the corridor ahead, Model B in hand, trigger finger resting along its guard.
To be Continued...
