Chapter 11: Downpour

“We are left with one option and only one,” Carlos said. “We have to go to the hatch and blow it open. It is the only way to get off the ship.”

“How?” Zalika asked as she was trying to regain her composure again. “If we leave here, the Emphra will have us. I don’t think we would make it twenty feet out the door before it grabs us.”

Carlos seemed to shake his head. “We got to try it at least ... I ... I don’t want to die like the rest had. I don’t want the Emphra come and eat me when we have nowhere to run.”

“The hive mind...” Kole remarked. “Bekra, there were two Emphra that we saw in that piece of debris. We saw a horde of our own crew go after us, yet we only saw two of them.”

“The Emphra from what I know,” Bekra explained. “It is a single consciousness. Each pool, as you saw in that recording, is one personality or consciousness that operates independently. It can spread out and try to possess as many people or individuals as possible.”

“Do the Emphra reproduce?”

“They ... they do ... not the way we would. They act more like bacteria than anything else. They consume and then divide. In this case, the Emphra takes a person and then breaks them down. It makes itself bigger and then divides into smaller ones.”

“From the recordings, we have seen, there are variations to the actions the Emphra take when they go after us.”

“Yeah,” Carlos remarked. “When it went after Karine’s team, they melted the doors instead of blowing it open. When they went after Cruz, they blew it open even though they didn’t have to.”

“Yeah...” Kole said as he was thinking hard. “This means that they might have separate personalities for each one. It knew what it was doing when it blew the doors to Cruz.”

“Yes,” Bekra did a couple of quick nods. “The Emphra has a harder time possessing someone if they kill themselves like Karine’s team did. It was trying to get to Cruz in a new way because there was a higher chance that he and Adrian would turn their own guns to themselves.”

“They want us, but we are slightly more valuable if they can ambush and possess us rather than just killing its hosts.”

“That is an interesting idea, Staff Sergeant,” Carlos commented. “But how does that help us?”

“The Emphra seem to cluster together when they work as a horde. Bekra, continue to explain how the Emphra operate when they try to make more of themselves.”

“The Emphra will divide itself and make more Emphra when they have a food source and if they choose to eat,” Bekra explained. “At least from what I know ... they need our biomass to take over and control ships. They don’t have the same abilities to manipulate the controls, so they possess a person to do it or simply remake the system so they can use it. When they choose to ... eat, they will break down a person and split to make more. The new Emphra that are born from it will remain close to it.”

“Just like a hive mind or a child following its parent,” Kole took note. “What happens if you kill the parent?”

Bekra tried to understand the question. “They ... the Emphra will remain with the parent for a long time. I can’t remember the stories ... a year or two, I think before they begin to veer away from it and begin to operate as an individual Emphra. If you kill the parent Emphra ... the other ones will stop and not operate.”

Kole pointed his finger at Carlos. “There it is ... some sort of information we can go off of. There are only two Emphra on this ship, and the rest are their kids. If we can kill the two Emphra, the rest will shut down?”

“Maybe,” Bekra nodded.

“If we can kill the parent, then we can at least give ourselves an edge to get the fuck off this ship.”

“Yeah, but how are we going to kill it?” Zalika asked. “My augmented arm won’t be able to kill the thing.”

“Felix’s spare power core is near the elevator,” Chuang remarked as he looked at the door and to the elevator shaft.

“Yeah,” Zalika nodded. “It means that we have to go and get it.”

“And if somebody goes and gets it, we might not live long enough to enjoy the risk,” Carlos added.

“I ... I will take the risk,” Chuang said. “I will go and get it.”

“No ... no, I will go and try to get it,” Zalika said, trying to assert herself.

“I should be the one to go and get it,” Kole said.

“Well ... I wouldn’t recommend sending more than one out there,” Carlos said. “If a person fails, then ... yeah.”

“There is another issue in doing this,” Kole commented. “The moment we open those doors and start roaming around, how long will the Emphra start putting things together that there are more humans and Itreans walking around this ship?”

“I should be the one to go,” Bekra remarked as her tail twitched.

“It is true,” Zalika remarked. “Itreans have made themselves more resistant to Emphra attacks, including their own bodies. Compared to us, it would take much longer for the Emphra to possess you. I don’t know ... I don’t want you to go out there.”

“Why?”

“I ... don’t want you to die. Better for me to die than you.”

“You need someone to modify your arm,” Carlos commented. “Don’t look at me to go out there.”

The conversation seemed to stop the moment that Chuang began to walk forward. His direction was taking him out of the bridge and towards the elevator shaft.

“Hey! Where do you think you are going?” Zalika asked him.

“Chuang, get back here,” Kole ordered him.

He didn’t stop walking as he marched out of the ventral bridge. He kept his rifle at the ready as he was trying to make sense of his feelings.

“I can’t ... I can’t stop,” Chuang stammered in his words. “I have to be the one to do it and no one else.”

“Why do you say that?” Kole asked.

“I am the most expendable, Staff Sergeant. Zalika and Bekra have each other. Carlos has a wife. I am the lowest and least experienced of the team ... and I don’t want to die down here.”

“You don’t have to prove that you have balls, kid,” Zalika said. “Let us try to come up with a more reasonable solution.”

Chuang insisted as he walked out to the elevator. He looked up as he could see the sentry turret that was perched onto the bulkhead of the shaft. He could see the emergency access area for him to escape. There was a moment of hesitation in his eyes as he turned to look at them.

“I ... I have to do it,” Chuang told them. “If we don’t, then we die anyway. I have a hunch, though ... I have been thinking about it, and I noticed something when it comes to the Emphra. I think that the Emphra that attacked Karine’s team is still there in the bow of the ship. The other that attacked Cruz and Adrian is on the other side ... there might be a chance for me to get it since the power core would be between both of them.”

“It ... might make sense,” Carlos commented. “One attacked one way, and another attacked differently. Both may be working together or working separately to try to get us. But that is just a guess ... we have no way of really confirming that.”

“It is enough for me to try,” Chuang replied. “I saw brave men and women die today. I am a marine. I am ready to give my life for the cause if it means saving all of you. You are good people ... I want to see you live.”

The words seemed to hit home. Kole sighed. The matter was that there was no perfect solution as he thought about it. He looked at the console. It was very well possible that one of the Emphra and its horde was near the ship’s front section if it was still there.

“If the Emphra are in the stern, then it will completely block the route of escape for everyone else,” Kole commented. “Somebody will have to go out there and retrieve that core. Chuang ... are you up to the task? If not, then I will do it.”

Zalika had noticed the Staff Sergeant’s words. He was giving him a direct choice and one that he could willingly turn down. It was the first time he saw true bravery coming out of the rookie’s mouth and actions.

“Yes,” Chuang didn’t hesitate to answer.

The words were enough to convince Kole. Time was of the essence.

“Do it,” Kole told him.

Zalika sighed as she looked at him.

“Chuang catch,” Carlos said as he pulled out one of his disk grenades and tossed it to him. With a careful simple toss, the zero gravity environments carried it all the way to Chuang as he grabbed it in the air. “The center red button activates a timer. Press it again, and it will detonate it immediately.”

It was a suicidal run by many that Zalika acknowledged. She already knew what the grenade was for.

“We are going to need the tools to make the upgrades to your arm, Zalika,” Carlos told her.

“Yeah ... I will go ahead and retrieve them,” she replied as she watched Chuang leave. “They are all up in the deck above in the battery room where I did the repairs before.”

“Alright...” Kole replied.

A few minutes later, in the Columbus’ pitch-black ominous passageway, the elevator door that led down to the ventral bridge began to creak open slowly.

Carefully and meticulously, a person’s hand was trying to use a lever to open the blast doors that led out to the passageway. Small sounds could be heard as the door would inch its way open.

Chuang was observing through the crack of the elevator door as he slapped the grenade to his side. He could not see anything outside, but that could change at any time. He had to do this quietly, carefully, and quickly at the same time. It was no simple matter. The Emphra may be at the areas he thought they were at, but they could be at the very door.

His breathing was staggered as he had slowly cracked it open to the point that he could squeeze through. His fear was already up. Even with the brevity of courage, this was no mere mission. Death for him might have been easy, but lives were on the line. If he failed, then someone else might have to do it, if they even got the chance at all.

With his large body armor frame and PDW-20c close at bay, he stepped out into the passageway. His boots were making small clicking sounds that seemed to echo around him. Being stealthy was going to be incredibly challenging.

“I am in the passageway...” Chuang whispered to the others, trying to keep his voice low.

“We can tell,” Kole replied to him through his comms. The voice was quiet to ensure that any sound didn’t travel far.

For Chuang, he could not see anything around him on both sides of the passageway. There was some floating debris around him from the blasted doors that traveled through the central corridor. The slight banging sounds were the only things that provided any noise in the hallway. A massive breached hole was ahead of him from the elevator on the other side of the door he came from. His hand went to the hatch panel in preparation for closing the elevator door.

“No...” Kole informed him. “We are making an extreme risk on this.”

“Any loud noise or vibration, and it could cause the Emphra to come after you,” Bekra said. “The closing doors will agitate them.”

“The doors will be open though...” Chuang replied as he grabbed his rifle and began to look around.

“We know,” Kole said.

“It might be possible to grab the sides of the door and still pry them closed,” Carlos commented. “I still wouldn’t want to risk it unless you have the power core.”

Chuang looked ahead and down the aft section of the passageway. To his right was the blasted door that led to the other elevator. He knew that going that direction was certain death.

His visor’s night vision ability could only see the darkness. Regardless, the quality was at its best. His sight vision was still limited as he began to make his slow march towards the Columbus aft section.

His breathing was hard. His nerves were at his peak. The slight noises of the moving debris didn’t help any. He did his best to look back and forth as he tried to see if there was anything forward or behind him.

“You are doing well...” Zalika said, trying to assure him.

“Trying...” Chuang said. “Trying...”

“We know, kid ... we know.”

There was a loud, thumping sound that echoed above him. He looked up and could only see the ceiling above him.

“That was most likely from deck 2 or 3,” Carlos told him. “It wasn’t near you.”

Chuang was still breathing hard as he tried to keep his composure. He shook a little bit as he kept his rifle close. He continued his march forward. Each step seemed to keep him more and more together, though.

“I still don’t see them...” Chuang commented.

“That is good. Keep going. You are about a quarter of the way to the centripetal ring elevator,” Carlos said.

Chuang felt the need to move faster. Moving faster wouldn’t do much better as he was scanning the passageway for anything. So far, there was nothing.

“He could try to use his vectoring thrusters to move him down the passageway quicker and more quietly,” Zalika said.

“Going too fast, and he may literally bump into them and not have a chance to react,” Bekra said.

“If he goes too fast, he could also miss the power core device,” Carlos said. “I am looking through his feed to try to find it. Some of this debris is rather thick.”

Chuang kept his walk steady as he was looking at every piece of floating debris. He was alarmed as he could see a floating hand in the air. Whoever it belonged to was no concern to him, and he tried not to think about it.

“The power core should be large enough to pick out,” Carlos commented. “It should be cylindrical, black, and box-like.”

“Carlos,” Kole asked him. “Are you keeping an eye on your sentry turret feed?”

“Yes,” he replied. “So far, I don’t see anything coming.”

“Zalika, how goes the tool finding?”

“I ... found one of them far,” she answered. “Trying to find the other one.”

“If need be, grab the ones if you are not sure of,” Carlos added. “We aren’t exactly trying to be tidy here.”

“Good thinking.”

Chuang’s walk was still uneventful. He heard another thumping sound ahead of him and could not tell the distance of it. He was moving his magnetic boots as quickly as possible. There was still nothing there of any interest. He was blowing past closed doors as he made his advancement in quick succession.

“Still don’t see it,” Chuang said.

“We will find it,” Carlos said. “No matter what.”

“You think ... that it went the other way? You think that it might have gone and drifted back down the shaft or ... went in the direction of the engines.”

“Who knows? ... but don’t think that.”

“If ... if I encounter one of our own ... where is the best place to shoot them?”

“Legs or arms,” Bekra said. “The Emphra still need the body functioning enough to use it. If it takes too much damage or is dead, the Emphra will leave the body. Disabling them is your only option. Of course ... they may still vacate it anyway.”

It was quiet as the debris was less in the section he was walking through. It was like walking through a clearing for him. There were the occasional bangs in the distance. The passageway was starting to change as he could see a more circular like tube hallway.

“You are almost there,” Carlos said. “The elevator should be on your left. Pray that it is there.”

“If it isn’t, return back to here,” Kole said. “We will just try to make our way out regardless.”

“Copy...” Chuang replied. He could almost hear the sound of breathing ahead of him but still didn’t see anything threatening ahead of him. Each second of walking felt like a minute had passed.

A door could be seen to his left. The open door had to be it. A sense of relief began to hit him. His heart was beating faster as he hoped in heaven that the power core was there or nearby.

“Found the elevator ... still don’t see the core yet,” Chuang commented.

Chuang’s heart skipped a beat as he heard a bang from behind him.

“Staff Sergeant,” Carlos said. “I am picking up audio readings from the sentry turret. It is in the direction of our elevator ... main passageway ... near the forward stern.”

Chuang’s eyes looked around the elevator as much as he could. He looked down at the melted holed out deck. He could listen to his breathing intensify and could not tell if he heard his own breath or something else. He would look to his right in the passageway for a brief second, but he knew that every second he was taking looking away from that elevator was time that he would never get again. He couldn’t see anything, but he could still feel like something was approaching.

“Might be magnetized to the elevator or the elevator shaft,” Carlos noted. “Keep looking.”

His eyes continued to scan the interior. It was here that he finally spotted it. Jutting on the wall’s left portion side was a black cylindrical box device perched at an odd angle. It was sticking to the wall. He himself almost mistook it for something else. It was barely within arm’s reach unless he disengaged from the deck to go and retrieve it.

“I found it ... I think,” Chuang nervously said.

“That is it,” Carlos replied. “Can you reach it?”

Chuang could feel like something was going to grab him. The hairs on his neck were standing on in. It was now or never as he reached forward and had two fingers touching it. He missed it but was sure that he could grab it. He tried again, and this time his hand got it. It almost slipped from his fingers as the magnets detached from the unit, and it stuck to his hand. He had it as he pulled back to the main deck. The device was somewhat bulky, but he had the power core in his hand.

“I got it ... I...” Chuang’s words were halted the moment he looked to the right.

Within a mere meter of him was a person that was staring at him. The hollow silver eyes were staring into him as the man’s head was tilted to the side. Dressed in a red and blue jumpsuit, the husk of the man was startling to behold.

“Foooood... , “ the man said to Chuang. A small smile began to develop on his face.

“Ah!” Chuang replied naturally as he backed up and almost stumbled. The possessed man tried to reach for him when Chuang stumbled back.

“Mooorre fooood...” The man said again as he tried to reach forward. It barely nicked Chuang’s helmet as a small amount of the acidic mercury grazed it. A centimeter closer and the results would have been different.

“Run, Chuang,” Bekra said. “Get back here now!”

Chuang didn’t need to be told that twice. He began to move as fast as his magnetic boots could take him. He could hear more individuals behind the man as he knew that this man was just the beginning. The Emphra had spotted him, and it was a matter of time before the full force of it was going to bear down on him.

Running in zero gravity was no easy feat to accomplish. Running too fast risked the possibility of the boots not properly engaging with the deck floor. It was actually possible for him to end up flying into the air by accident and end up losing control of his movement. The stomping on the ground was loud as he was moving as fast as he possibly could carry.

“Chuang, use your thrusters!” Zalika told him. “You are in zero gravity. Use the thrusters and fly down that hallway if you need to.”

It was a simple reminder for him about the laws of gravity. His training rushed back into his head as the adrenaline was working overtime. He leaped forward from the deck as he went and activated his thrusters. With a rifle in one hand and the power core in the other, he began to accelerate to faster speeds than a typical human run.

Within a couple of seconds, he had sped down the passageway going past a few doors. He was taking a severe risk. The situation was critical, and blowing down the speeds he was going was something that even his night vision was struggling to keep up. If there were something else there, he would literally run right into it. With the Emphra, that was obviously a bad thing.

“Almost there,” Kole said. “Don’t overshoot yourself.”

“Stop, Chuang, stop!” Carlos announced to him next.

He could see the elevator door that was still open as he had left it. Within about ten seconds, he was nearing the door. He immediately moved his legs forward and activated his thrusters on his boots again to try to slow himself down, but there was a problem.

He slowed down rapidly and could already see something coming. Two crew members that were under the control of the Emphra were already getting close to the elevator door. At first, the husk bodies were going towards Chuang’s direction. They were shambling and not in a fast hurry.

Chuang planted his feet back on the deck as the magnetic boots stuck to the deck. He was about several meters from the two crew members as they closed in on him and the door. There was no way that he could get through to it with them in the way. With one hand, he used his rifle and arm attachment to keep the gun perfectly steady as he opened fire on the nearest crew member. He rapidly pulled the trigger set on semi-automatic as four rounds hit the closest person in the arm and the side hip.

“Fooood... , “ the lead crewmember, a possessed woman, said as parts of her body began to spew blood and mercury all over the place.

The gun’s firing still reverberated through the passageway. The noise was apparent as he could hear more personnel coming from right behind the woman. He had no time as he pointed the rifle and shot the other closest individual. This shot went straight to the head by accident as the body recoiled back.

Chuang knew that it was the heat of the moment. He had made a mistake by killing the husk possessed body like that. He could already see the woman was about to reach toward him again.

Instinctively and perhaps foolishly, Chuang reacted by lifting his leg and kicking the woman square in the chest. The moment the boot struck, it slammed into the body and pushed it back. The blood and mercury seemed to activate immediately in response to the attack. The boot hit the blood that was pouring out of the woman as it hit the bottom of his boot. It began to act like an acid dissolving the lower portion of his boot. Alarms were flashing on his armor with the damage to the right bottom part of his boot.

Chuang looked over to his right as he could see the opening to the elevator. Down there was safety ... perhaps. His first goal was evident, and he did what he was supposed to do. He slipped the power core device inside, saw the emergency access, and tossed it in that direction with a quick aim. Zero gravity guided the device as it flew free from his hands. It smacked the side elevator wall as a corner hit the hatch and passed down the shaft. He had succeeded in his job, but there was a problem, and it was the most obvious one.

He turned back as he was getting ready to start slipping through the elevator, but a problem had occurred. A horde of the Emphra possessed crew, and the silver liquid was closing in on him. He had a moment to think as he looked at the elevator and back at the horde.

“Come on, come on,” Zalika said.

“He can’t...” Bekra replied. “He knows it.”

Chuang could see the issue. If he went into the elevator, the horde and Emphra would see it. They wouldn’t stop, and they had the means to achieve their goal of getting around the ship. The moment that he would go in, the Emphra would devote all their resources to punching through, and Kole, Carlos, Zalika, and Bekra would be blockaded in their attempt to escape. How long it would take to modify the laser weapon might not be enough to mount a defense.

Chuang knew that he was doomed. He succeeded in his main goal and gave a fighting chance to Kole and the team. His life was forfeit, but he had to make sure that it would count.

“I am sorry, guys...” Chuang told them. “My journey ends on this ship.”

“No ... no...” Zalika replied.

“I can’t come in ... they will follow me to you guys.”

Chuang looked at the access panel and pulled the lever hard. The elevator doors slammed shut hard as he began to back away from it. He could see the horde closing in. One of the crew members happened to be a familiar face. It was none other than Clarence himself. The captain was now just a possessed doll controlled by the Emphra. His eyes were the same solid silver as the rest of the husks.

“Moooore fooood,” Clarence said, almost gesturing to the elevator door and the loud clashing closing door sound. The others seemed concentrated on Chuang like zombies.

“No!” Chuang said as he saw a piece of floating debris in the air. He debated about running to the blasted elevator beside him. His goal was to get away as far as possible. The further away from that elevator, the better, and there was only one way to go. He had to flee back to the aft section of the vessel.

The debris was little more than a busted metal like pipe as he began to smack the walls as hard as he could.

“Come and get it bitches!” Chuang yelled out. “Come and get some fresh meat here!”

Clarence’s head turned away from the closed elevator door and towards Chuang. For the marine, he had hoped that it was good enough. The Emphra were relentless, but maybe ... just maybe, they had a one-track mind. There was no way of truly knowing it or not. For now, the Emphra were all focused on Chuang.

Chuang began to walk backward as he began to make a few shots at the horde of crewmembers. It was difficult to tell, but there had to be at least ten of them together. The remnants were those that attacked and survived the explosion of Karine’s M19 launcher. He was trying to do his best as he let go of the metal pipe. He began to shoot at the heads of the husk bodies. A couple of the shots hit the mark as the silver mercury began to leak out. The dead bodies only spurred the Emphra to begin pooling out of the bodies that they could no longer control.

“Come on, come on!” Chuang yelled. “Come and get it! All you can eat right here!”

“Fooood...” the horde called out in unison. It was working. The horde and pooling mercury had moved past the closed elevator door. Chuang was using his equipment to the best of his abilities. The PDW-20c’s optic lens would target the heads as he saw fit as he began to shoot the bodies. Bullets would enter and exit the skulls, blowing brains out as the mercury flew out to regather itself on the body. The dead bodies were frozen to the deck as the Emphra were exiting in greater and greater numbers.

One of the horde members had a pistol in his hand as he attempted to shoot at him. Several shots were fired as the bullets bounced off the armor.

There was one problem in his backward retreat. The right boot was not functioning correctly. The melted portion of the boot was having a more challenging time magnetizing to the deck plate. He would stumble as he kept shooting. The Emphra were gathering together as one was forming into a large pool of the substance. It was huge in size.

Chuang was breathing hard. Adrenaline was the only thing keeping him alive. It was like looking at a wall of death. The Emphra was terrifying in its pure state. It crawled and moved on the deck faster and faster as it tried to overtake him.

Chuang was doing his best. The more ground he made, the better. Luring the Emphra away from Kole’s team was imperative. Each step was doing just that.

“It’s working...” Bekra said on his comms.

“I got the power core,” Carlos said. “Thank you, Chuang.”

“Sorry ... that...” he couldn’t complete his sentence as he began to turn and head aft of the ship.

He was running for his very life now. The thumping was loud as the boots slammed into the deck. The mercury was moving at around his speed. It had left the remaining bodies behind as it crawled on the deck and the walls. There was no way to run around it. Going to its direction simply meant death or becoming part of the Emphra.

There was one inevitable outcome in this situation. Chuang was making grounds as the Emphra was chasing him. As he ran, he could hear the footsteps and crawling of the other Emphra and its horde that was aft of the ship heading to him. He was nearing the centripetal ring module passageway where he got the power core. He knew that he was trapped.

He stopped and turned around as he took aim at the Emphra. The moving mercury was methodical and unstoppable as he took aim and fired a few rounds into the sludge itself. The bullets harmlessly splashed into it, doing nothing to the entity. It was getting closer and closer.

“Zalika ... Kole... , “ Chuang gasped as he grabbed the disk grenade from his side. “Tell my brother Mizu what I did today.”

Back in the power room near the ventral bridge, Zalika grabbed the final tool as she watched the feed from her visor. She could watch as Chuang held the disk grenade and pressed the button. He held it up to his head as the mercury was about to grab his feet and work its way up to his body.

“I will...” Zalika told him.

Chuang pressed the button one last time as the grenade went off. The explosion went directly into his visor as the feed went static. Zalika had a tear leave her eye as she gritted her teeth and pressed a button on her wrist computer. The channel closed out. She closed her eyes as she tried to get a hold of herself a little bit. Her realization of the seventeen marines was now down to four. The new marine fresh from boot camp was gone. The effort and energy of being with this individual were seemingly for nothing.