Post by nbielinski on Aug 3, 2014 7:42:06 GMT
Stefan stared at the familiar sight before him, it was a thick window fitted with an insert of metallic lattice, in order to keep the horrid vacuum of space from tearing him into oblivion. This was something that he had seen a thousand times, either through the visor of an Atmospheric EVA suit, or on his day to day life. What he had now taken note of was the half silvered surface that sat directly in front of his eyes. Recently he had forgotten the mask he wore, but just as someone with glasses will sometimes forget the existence of the item, only to remember it later, he had now begun to think on the modified gas mask. As he shuffled around in his seat his mind started to notice the machine, all its groves and fittings that he had grown to memorize through the years were suddenly thrust forth into his mind and he took care in recalling every aspect of the device. Every nook and cranny of the metal mask was a memory to him, each scratch and etching was a mirrored reflection on his mind. But more importantly he thought of the entire mask itself, how the odd contraption he had "earned" through years of work. He pondered on the word, "earned" and how the representative of NanoTrasen had used it so much as Stefan sat in his hospital bed all the years ago. Before the mask had worn its place onto his face. And before it had become so...familiar.
It had become a time Stefan had played back over and over in his head. His second assignment, from the moment he sat in the small flimsy chair that could barely stand if a stiff wind had blown in its general direction, much less hold up a young man, and got briefed on the "Exciting and profitable mission." The Official of Central Command had told him about, but to Stefan all the words meant were, "Money, money, and a bit more money." So he was interested. Thinking back he realized that this was what lead him to the infernal place he was in. Strapped and suctioned to a machine that kept him alive and masked him away. What a fool he had been.
The station was like any other, labeled as the most amazing and innovative station that NanoTrasen had to offer. In reality it was another bucket of metal and glass hurdling through space in the hopes of reaching a profit. This meant nothing to Atmospheric Technician Oliver Stefan, as the disrepair and malfunctioning state to which the station was given to the crew, meant that he would remain busy the entire time. Yet at this point Stefan had no clue what in gods name he was in for. It seemed like a normal tour on the station, Stefan had been on them before and obviously they had their troubles. Medical bay complaining its too cold, Kitchen complaining the mayonnaise they left in the fridge from a few months back went bad, security complaining that the axe looks too shiny for him to have on hand. But all together it was a normal station, sure it was held together with spit and engineering tape but hell if it kept air in and didn't explode, Stefan was content. Though as anyone could guess by hearing this and seeing Stefan where he is today....on a new station...hiding his torn and scared body from view....forcing himself into solitary occupations such as Atmospherics...You would know that the younger Stefan did not stay content for much longer.
At least one month had passed since Stefan arrived on station, but the station itself was in position for the past year, and it had managed to not fuck up, which was a good sign for the young tech. He assumed that even though the Officer had sold it as a, "New and exciting location for stations to be set up," it wasn't such a horrible area of the galaxy. To him it was another blank spot on the map that he and the crew had to illuminate. And to do so meant working almost the entire day....well day wasn't a good word for it, seeing as how the station ran on its own time system and days were somewhere near 38 hours considering the rotation of the station. None the less, Stefan worked for some time on his duty, making sure air alarms were reading correctly, checking the air supply, pestering the Heads of Staff for a bit more access, chatting with the friendly engineering crew. The entire station seemed to be running fine, all together it was easy money and Stefan wasn't complaining when his bank account updated and gaining credits.
Till the calendar reached the 13th Month and 16th Day of the Station's tour of duty. When suddenly an alarm sounded. It wasn't a regular alarm though, the Technician had heard them, fire alerts, depressurization alerts, air alerts, toxin alerts, security drills, boarding drills. Every alarm NanoTrasen had taught him to recognize, he knew. This alarm was a steady blast of three tones, followed by a robotic voice, he expect from an AI as advanced as a speak n spell in a box of raisins. "Alert! Alert! Heads-Of-Staff-To-Bridge. Alert!" And just like that it died down and there was a short time where everything seemed to go back to normal. Then suddenly the ground reverberated with the sound of jackboots trampling down the halls. The sound of security officers was nothing foreign as Stefan had heard of the random drunk crew member had decided to glass another and got jailed for it. But never in this size. It sounded like the station was preparing for war. That is when the Captain came over the intercom.
His voice was frantic and full of fear. Like a man who had a gun to his head. He said over the radio.
"Uhm...uh...crew....Ahem. C-crew! Its my duty to inform you that an unknown vessel is heading straight for the station. All crew brace for impact in ten minutes. By administrative command I b-bring the threat level up and request everyone to stay in their department unless a head tells them otherwise." And with that the radio clicked off.
Now Stefan was not one to be frightened easily, but when the Chief Engineer came up, fully decked out in EVA gear except for her head, and a nervous look on her face, he was concerned. Before he managed to speak a word, the female officer blurted out in the blink of an eye, "The captain wants engineering ready to deal with breaches, get in EVA gear and collect all the metal and glass you can. Ready up some canisters of air and be ready to move." And with that she was gone, to collect the rest of the engineers. So Stefan went to check over his equipment, he found it all in working condition, thankfully Stefan had managed to bug the rest of the engineers to get global positioning systems as well, and so he saw them all scramble over the system. Laughing at the challenge of repairing a bit of ship, he readied himself up, spare oxygen tanks and all.
The impact was great, like Stefan's entire body was hit by a freight ship at full speed, of course the alarm had come but being a cocky fool Stefan stood his ground and was immediately sprawled, not flung into a wall thanks to the mag boots he wore. And the alarm sounded, screaming out the impact and its site. The rest was a blur, screaming and yelling from the radio, orders, running. As the thoughts mixed together, Oliver refocused his mind and thought back to the entrance to the impact site. He was surrounded by the burnt orange of engineering EVA suits and the unlit walls of the station, the airlocks were all closed and the air was hushed. One engineering tapped the airlock and stepped through, followed by the rest of the unit, all ready to assist in the repair of the station, and possible rescue of survivors. Though the sight of the ship made the thought of survival low for those inside. The focus was getting the area re-pressurized, it was grueling work but Stefan made short work of the broken plates and windows, managing to get some type of atmosphere set up to where humans could wobble through without getting sucked into oblivion. Thats just about the time the security team was allowed in with EVA suits, to clear the small craft stuck in the station. Thats when everything went to hell.
Stefan was working on repairing a window/lattice combination, one used as a more sturdy exchange for a simple window, when a rather loud hissing emerged from behind him. At this point atmosphere had almost been rejuvenated completely in the area and he could hear the chatter of the security officers behind him, all yammering as to what might be inside the crashed vehicle. They had just begun to open it when the loud hissing emerged, Stefan had theorized at the time that it had been the rather low pressure of the craft sucking in more oxygen from the surrounding area. Yet later in life he'd realized nothing he could have imagined nature creating could have made that noise, it was low and long, and echo'd a slight clicking as it ended. Bewildered, the breaching team entered the craft and after what seemed like an eternity of silence, the ships lights went dark. The radio suddenly burst to life with the sounds of orders, reports, individuals stating something had cut off power to the main station. Again, there was silence, excluding the few whispers or the radio that stated another order to the crew. But the sec team opened the door and the hiss did occur, then the entire room went mostly black. A few EVA Suits had headlights and they shot on quickly but at that moment a company of screams and the repeated, "P-ZZINNG" of fire from energy weapons, the inside of the craft was alight with a mixture of colored lights. The screaming grew louder, blood curdling shouts of pain and agony, which frankly shocked the entirety of the engineering crew that sat outside the vehicle awaiting the clearance to strip it of all important items. Before finally, something came out, or as Stefan remembered it, flew out.
To Stefan and the rest of the crew, sitting in the dark wreck of the impact site they did not see what exactly came flying from the inside of the ship, but the visceral spray of liquid and sound of meat being thrown against a wall was sign enough, and signaled something was very, very wrong. Our young techie would have been witness to the horrors that ensued as a vast creature came hurdling forth from the vehicle's wreckage, and with it several pieces of gooey debris. Most of which slammed into walls and broke to pieces, but, rather thankfully, one slammed into Stefan. Breaking ribs and sending him flying into a mass of broken floor panels and wall supports. His breathing became low and his eye lids suddenly gained weight as he passed out amid the pile of metal. This shielding him from the ensuing onslaught that would last at least two hours. When he began to regain consciousness he realized how much trouble he had just failed to witness.
When his brain kick started after two hours of being slowed, his eyes slammed open and he jumped into a sitting position. Only to realize his ribs were broken inward and they prodded his lungs with each movement. None the less, after yelping in pain and grabbing at his chest, he managed to get into a standing position and realized he was surrounded by gore. Hanging from racks, sprawled over tables, leaned against walls, and even on his own EVA suit there was gallons of blood and chunks of human flesh. Along with the occasional pair of legs, or torso, torn from each other, resting on opposite ends of the room. The entire area was a wash with viscera. The young man scrambled for his GPS, hands shaking within the heavy suit and breath heavy it took several moments to clear away the blood from the screen, as his satchel had failed to do anything to keep out the blood seeping over his clothing. He stared at the machine for several moments, realizing that all the signs pointed to the engineering crew, still being inside the room. He assumed this meant engineer became more vacant in terms of crew members as there was not another living soul in the room. And as he surveyed the bodies, hoping to find another human knocked out, or at least on their last legs in the piles of human remains only, after several moments of taking off his helmet to vomit, that the room was lifeless. Unless..it dawned on Stefan, the creature that managed to do all of this, was still in the room.
So needless to say Stefan ran as fast as the magboots and EVA suit would allow, making sure that his ribs did not decide to take a 90 degree turn straight into his lungs, but the pain was still like getting impaled by a RIPLEY and allowing to to slowly turn its drill on and off. Stefan then had the genius idea to get to the medbay in the hopes that someone was indeed alive. Even though all the laser scorches and triple gash marks in the walls said otherwise. But soon, as Stefan reached the medbay, the dead and gore became less apparent. Which was ironic in reality, none the less he had no time for such things as irony as he realized his chest was becoming more and more of a hazard. And he stumbled into the medbay, leaning against a table he took in a full view of the reception area..
Aside from the trash thrown about the room and odd looking stains, it appeared that the medbay was mostly intact. Yet when Stefan walked further in, he realized that the medbay doors seemed to be blasted off the bolts that held them in place. He calmly walked in and observed around the area, looking for any sign of aid or someone still alive. He stopped by the break room, it was empty and covered in trash, he went to the medical sleepers and cryo pods, both were filled with blood. So he decided the storage room was his best help, and leaned himself against the wall as he walked to the room at the end of the hall that seemed to have a very faint light emanating from it. Which was either a sign that Stefan was dying, or that someone might still be alive in the room. He hoped they were human, and friendly.
Indeed the room was populated by a friendly human, a nurse to be exact, a rather attractive nurse that Stefan had met through the coarse of the shift. She was in tears, awash with blood, and clearly had been wounded. Both her legs appeared to be broken. Stefan rushed over and crouched, holding the woman on both her shoulders he asked her what was wrong and how he could help. And over the course of the next twenty minutes she explained how something had cut power to the station, security was torn to ribbons in the impact site, and the rest of the crew piddled off into their departments to hold off until rescue came. To be specific, an Emergency Rescue shuttle would dock at the emergency arm of the station and give the crew five minutes to get aboard before the station itself was bombarded to prevent any ne'er do wells from getting the station for their own.
All this time the nurse had helped Stefan get a brace around his chest which required Stefan to remove the entirety of his EVA equipment, and Stefan promised to help the woman by carrying her to the emergency shuttle. And as Stefan stood he picked the woman up with him and began to carry her bridal style through the medbay storage room. Till he got to the door frame and she suddenly became lighter, and his sight was suddenly blinded by something red. He wasn't sure what had pierced her chest but he knew it wasn't anything good as something held the female figure up, her body slowly twitching and dripping with the crimson liquid, a hand like claw came out and struck at Stefan. Needless to say this sent him flying as the impact was tremendous and painful. It felt as though three bone saws had been heated with welding tools and struck across Stefan's face. And as Stefan fell through the door opposite to the one his adversary stood in, holding the dying remains on his co-worker, his vision started to fail and his mouth filled with blood. Signaling the automatic flight response in his brain.
Bleeding heavily, in his uniform, with a splint over his chest and blood in his eyes. Stefan ran to the emergency arm of the station. Unbeknownst to Stefan there was a rather touchy Research Director on the Station, one that knew a rather large bit of information about the Xenomorphs and knew that the creature could not leave the station alive. To the director it seemed that what must be done was simple, blow up the station. And so Research and Development became his site for first detonation, several home made plasma tank bombs were produced and placed around plasma canisters, in the hopes of detonating them and turning the station into a graveyard. And he announced this, over the public channel, his hopes of making sure the threat did not leave the station alive, and his hope that the crew would forgive him in their final hours. Stefan heard this, in the hallway, three rooms from the pile of explosives and plasma canisters.
The detonation was a painful experience as the director had made sure that the explosion touched all four corners of the station. Oliver heard this before he felt it, the ground trembled and the sound of metal ripping like tissue paper filled his ears before he was thrown against the nearby wall, and pinned there by debris that slashed at his uniform, bits of glass and metal piping thrown at the right angle turned them into darts that pierced his shirt and broke through skin. As the sound of metal tearing and glass shattering died down, the sound of airlocks slamming shut wherever they could started and Oliver was left in darkness as he screamed in pain, pinned to the wall by a rather lengthy pipe through his abdomen, liquid dripping from his body, down the medium sized pipe, and onto the floor.
He had never wished harder that a pipe would move than when it was stuck through him like a needle, and he knew he either had to move it, or die pinned to the wall like a bug in a collectors case. So he placed his gloved hands over the pipe and began to pull, the sound of crunching bone and the occasional collapse of an air pocket within his body was gruesome to say the least. The pain was a thousand times worse, as though a million razors had been placed in his chest and he needed to pull each and every one out in single file. Till the pain of the cold steel against his bare flesh stopped, and a whole new pain started. Within his chest, one of his lungs had finally given up and collapsed. Leaving Oliver gasping for air in a pool of his own blood.
The radio started up again as Stefan began to lose consciousness, something that woke him as up as he could have become. An AI called out again, it was a feminine voice, one that sounded pleased with itself and smug about somehow being still alive after so much carnage, "An emergency shuttle has docked with the station, allotted time for crew rescue: Five minutes." So Stefan turned his wounded and bleeding body to the escape arm and began to crawl through the hulk of the ship, managing to fall several times and almost fall to passing out. Till he finally saw a bright light at the end of the hallway, casting a painful blinding shine into his eyes.
His hands continued to stretch out and pull his mangled body closer and closer to the light, with every movement bones shifted, flesh tore away, and his body leaked out more of its life blood away. Till he reached the threshold of the ship and reached out, and placed his blood soaked hand into the light and was grabbed by something, it was another hand that grabbed him and threw him headlong into the shuttle. Where he passed out as a shouting match of what the hell happened arose. He smiled softly, his face covered in blood, he had made it.
Stefan woke up a week later covered in plastic pipes and tubes that connected him to machines he had never seen. He then passed out for another few days and woke up again in a panic, this time he was covered in a mask, much like a breath mask but more cumbersome and ill fitting. But for some reason he was not allowed to take it off once he awoke, the nurses would not explain it other than, "Do not take it off. Or you will die." Which was cryptic in the least, but he obeyed, passing out again from time to time. Till after several months in both a hospital bed and cryo pods, Stefan awoke for good and began to question those around him as to his whereabouts. Only to receive sighs and blank stares.
Till the day finally came where Stefan awoke to find a rather lengthy man standing at the foot of his bed, a man holding a briefcase and adjusting the tie on his black tweed jacket, occasionally checking his watch several times. One the man in the hospital bed opened his eyes the official spoke, quickly and without many pauses;
"Ahem. Mr. Stefan you are VERY fortunate to be alive, you were in a horrible accident. Nothing we can detail, you should understand that what you might have experienced is classified information. Now we have taken note of your grievous injuries and we hope that you will take this sign of our gratitude. Firstly, we have repaired the...ahem...physical damage as best we could. Secondly, we charged your account only half of what we would normally charge given the extent of the wounds. Thirdly, we uhm...from what I understand your respiratory system is..well...shot. To be frank one of your lungs has collapsed and we will need to grow a whole new one to repair it. Sadly even a 50% discount could not help your account pay for the time and lab materials required to grow the new lung. So we at Nanotransent grant you one of the finest respiratory aids money can buy. You've earned it..."
And the unknown man placed his case at the end of the bed and pulled out a Zeng-Hu F.D.W Model facial respiratory mask. The name was in honor of a man who, many hundreds of years ago, attempted to allow those who were stricken with disfigurement to live a normal life. Sadly this art had still not been perfected, and in Stefan's case it was even worse as his body needed help to even breathe. So the mask was made to fit the situation. The man held up the contraption that look very similar to a regulation gas mask, albeit the filter appeared a bit more complex with a system of fans and motors on the inside, the connection straps that bound the mask to the wearer were much more thick and numerous as it appeared the user would not want to take this off unwillingly. Finally the paint job, it was midnight black, allowed no reflection from the metal frame, and the glass was mirrored so you could stare as long as you wanted at the face plate, and see nothing of the man inside. And seeing his reflection in the glass made Stefan want to put in on faster and faster the longer he looked.
Thats just about where the story has reached so far. The now not so young atmospheric technician spends his days on stations he is needed at, keeping the atmospheric system from falling apart and sitting alone in his workplace. After years and years he has become bound to the machine as much as it has become bound to him. And though he has been forced to never say a word of the failed station he once inhabited, the memory will last with him till the day he passes away. As will the mask, and the scars. Each a piece of his memory.
It had become a time Stefan had played back over and over in his head. His second assignment, from the moment he sat in the small flimsy chair that could barely stand if a stiff wind had blown in its general direction, much less hold up a young man, and got briefed on the "Exciting and profitable mission." The Official of Central Command had told him about, but to Stefan all the words meant were, "Money, money, and a bit more money." So he was interested. Thinking back he realized that this was what lead him to the infernal place he was in. Strapped and suctioned to a machine that kept him alive and masked him away. What a fool he had been.
The station was like any other, labeled as the most amazing and innovative station that NanoTrasen had to offer. In reality it was another bucket of metal and glass hurdling through space in the hopes of reaching a profit. This meant nothing to Atmospheric Technician Oliver Stefan, as the disrepair and malfunctioning state to which the station was given to the crew, meant that he would remain busy the entire time. Yet at this point Stefan had no clue what in gods name he was in for. It seemed like a normal tour on the station, Stefan had been on them before and obviously they had their troubles. Medical bay complaining its too cold, Kitchen complaining the mayonnaise they left in the fridge from a few months back went bad, security complaining that the axe looks too shiny for him to have on hand. But all together it was a normal station, sure it was held together with spit and engineering tape but hell if it kept air in and didn't explode, Stefan was content. Though as anyone could guess by hearing this and seeing Stefan where he is today....on a new station...hiding his torn and scared body from view....forcing himself into solitary occupations such as Atmospherics...You would know that the younger Stefan did not stay content for much longer.
At least one month had passed since Stefan arrived on station, but the station itself was in position for the past year, and it had managed to not fuck up, which was a good sign for the young tech. He assumed that even though the Officer had sold it as a, "New and exciting location for stations to be set up," it wasn't such a horrible area of the galaxy. To him it was another blank spot on the map that he and the crew had to illuminate. And to do so meant working almost the entire day....well day wasn't a good word for it, seeing as how the station ran on its own time system and days were somewhere near 38 hours considering the rotation of the station. None the less, Stefan worked for some time on his duty, making sure air alarms were reading correctly, checking the air supply, pestering the Heads of Staff for a bit more access, chatting with the friendly engineering crew. The entire station seemed to be running fine, all together it was easy money and Stefan wasn't complaining when his bank account updated and gaining credits.
Till the calendar reached the 13th Month and 16th Day of the Station's tour of duty. When suddenly an alarm sounded. It wasn't a regular alarm though, the Technician had heard them, fire alerts, depressurization alerts, air alerts, toxin alerts, security drills, boarding drills. Every alarm NanoTrasen had taught him to recognize, he knew. This alarm was a steady blast of three tones, followed by a robotic voice, he expect from an AI as advanced as a speak n spell in a box of raisins. "Alert! Alert! Heads-Of-Staff-To-Bridge. Alert!" And just like that it died down and there was a short time where everything seemed to go back to normal. Then suddenly the ground reverberated with the sound of jackboots trampling down the halls. The sound of security officers was nothing foreign as Stefan had heard of the random drunk crew member had decided to glass another and got jailed for it. But never in this size. It sounded like the station was preparing for war. That is when the Captain came over the intercom.
His voice was frantic and full of fear. Like a man who had a gun to his head. He said over the radio.
"Uhm...uh...crew....Ahem. C-crew! Its my duty to inform you that an unknown vessel is heading straight for the station. All crew brace for impact in ten minutes. By administrative command I b-bring the threat level up and request everyone to stay in their department unless a head tells them otherwise." And with that the radio clicked off.
Now Stefan was not one to be frightened easily, but when the Chief Engineer came up, fully decked out in EVA gear except for her head, and a nervous look on her face, he was concerned. Before he managed to speak a word, the female officer blurted out in the blink of an eye, "The captain wants engineering ready to deal with breaches, get in EVA gear and collect all the metal and glass you can. Ready up some canisters of air and be ready to move." And with that she was gone, to collect the rest of the engineers. So Stefan went to check over his equipment, he found it all in working condition, thankfully Stefan had managed to bug the rest of the engineers to get global positioning systems as well, and so he saw them all scramble over the system. Laughing at the challenge of repairing a bit of ship, he readied himself up, spare oxygen tanks and all.
The impact was great, like Stefan's entire body was hit by a freight ship at full speed, of course the alarm had come but being a cocky fool Stefan stood his ground and was immediately sprawled, not flung into a wall thanks to the mag boots he wore. And the alarm sounded, screaming out the impact and its site. The rest was a blur, screaming and yelling from the radio, orders, running. As the thoughts mixed together, Oliver refocused his mind and thought back to the entrance to the impact site. He was surrounded by the burnt orange of engineering EVA suits and the unlit walls of the station, the airlocks were all closed and the air was hushed. One engineering tapped the airlock and stepped through, followed by the rest of the unit, all ready to assist in the repair of the station, and possible rescue of survivors. Though the sight of the ship made the thought of survival low for those inside. The focus was getting the area re-pressurized, it was grueling work but Stefan made short work of the broken plates and windows, managing to get some type of atmosphere set up to where humans could wobble through without getting sucked into oblivion. Thats just about the time the security team was allowed in with EVA suits, to clear the small craft stuck in the station. Thats when everything went to hell.
Stefan was working on repairing a window/lattice combination, one used as a more sturdy exchange for a simple window, when a rather loud hissing emerged from behind him. At this point atmosphere had almost been rejuvenated completely in the area and he could hear the chatter of the security officers behind him, all yammering as to what might be inside the crashed vehicle. They had just begun to open it when the loud hissing emerged, Stefan had theorized at the time that it had been the rather low pressure of the craft sucking in more oxygen from the surrounding area. Yet later in life he'd realized nothing he could have imagined nature creating could have made that noise, it was low and long, and echo'd a slight clicking as it ended. Bewildered, the breaching team entered the craft and after what seemed like an eternity of silence, the ships lights went dark. The radio suddenly burst to life with the sounds of orders, reports, individuals stating something had cut off power to the main station. Again, there was silence, excluding the few whispers or the radio that stated another order to the crew. But the sec team opened the door and the hiss did occur, then the entire room went mostly black. A few EVA Suits had headlights and they shot on quickly but at that moment a company of screams and the repeated, "P-ZZINNG" of fire from energy weapons, the inside of the craft was alight with a mixture of colored lights. The screaming grew louder, blood curdling shouts of pain and agony, which frankly shocked the entirety of the engineering crew that sat outside the vehicle awaiting the clearance to strip it of all important items. Before finally, something came out, or as Stefan remembered it, flew out.
To Stefan and the rest of the crew, sitting in the dark wreck of the impact site they did not see what exactly came flying from the inside of the ship, but the visceral spray of liquid and sound of meat being thrown against a wall was sign enough, and signaled something was very, very wrong. Our young techie would have been witness to the horrors that ensued as a vast creature came hurdling forth from the vehicle's wreckage, and with it several pieces of gooey debris. Most of which slammed into walls and broke to pieces, but, rather thankfully, one slammed into Stefan. Breaking ribs and sending him flying into a mass of broken floor panels and wall supports. His breathing became low and his eye lids suddenly gained weight as he passed out amid the pile of metal. This shielding him from the ensuing onslaught that would last at least two hours. When he began to regain consciousness he realized how much trouble he had just failed to witness.
When his brain kick started after two hours of being slowed, his eyes slammed open and he jumped into a sitting position. Only to realize his ribs were broken inward and they prodded his lungs with each movement. None the less, after yelping in pain and grabbing at his chest, he managed to get into a standing position and realized he was surrounded by gore. Hanging from racks, sprawled over tables, leaned against walls, and even on his own EVA suit there was gallons of blood and chunks of human flesh. Along with the occasional pair of legs, or torso, torn from each other, resting on opposite ends of the room. The entire area was a wash with viscera. The young man scrambled for his GPS, hands shaking within the heavy suit and breath heavy it took several moments to clear away the blood from the screen, as his satchel had failed to do anything to keep out the blood seeping over his clothing. He stared at the machine for several moments, realizing that all the signs pointed to the engineering crew, still being inside the room. He assumed this meant engineer became more vacant in terms of crew members as there was not another living soul in the room. And as he surveyed the bodies, hoping to find another human knocked out, or at least on their last legs in the piles of human remains only, after several moments of taking off his helmet to vomit, that the room was lifeless. Unless..it dawned on Stefan, the creature that managed to do all of this, was still in the room.
So needless to say Stefan ran as fast as the magboots and EVA suit would allow, making sure that his ribs did not decide to take a 90 degree turn straight into his lungs, but the pain was still like getting impaled by a RIPLEY and allowing to to slowly turn its drill on and off. Stefan then had the genius idea to get to the medbay in the hopes that someone was indeed alive. Even though all the laser scorches and triple gash marks in the walls said otherwise. But soon, as Stefan reached the medbay, the dead and gore became less apparent. Which was ironic in reality, none the less he had no time for such things as irony as he realized his chest was becoming more and more of a hazard. And he stumbled into the medbay, leaning against a table he took in a full view of the reception area..
Aside from the trash thrown about the room and odd looking stains, it appeared that the medbay was mostly intact. Yet when Stefan walked further in, he realized that the medbay doors seemed to be blasted off the bolts that held them in place. He calmly walked in and observed around the area, looking for any sign of aid or someone still alive. He stopped by the break room, it was empty and covered in trash, he went to the medical sleepers and cryo pods, both were filled with blood. So he decided the storage room was his best help, and leaned himself against the wall as he walked to the room at the end of the hall that seemed to have a very faint light emanating from it. Which was either a sign that Stefan was dying, or that someone might still be alive in the room. He hoped they were human, and friendly.
Indeed the room was populated by a friendly human, a nurse to be exact, a rather attractive nurse that Stefan had met through the coarse of the shift. She was in tears, awash with blood, and clearly had been wounded. Both her legs appeared to be broken. Stefan rushed over and crouched, holding the woman on both her shoulders he asked her what was wrong and how he could help. And over the course of the next twenty minutes she explained how something had cut power to the station, security was torn to ribbons in the impact site, and the rest of the crew piddled off into their departments to hold off until rescue came. To be specific, an Emergency Rescue shuttle would dock at the emergency arm of the station and give the crew five minutes to get aboard before the station itself was bombarded to prevent any ne'er do wells from getting the station for their own.
All this time the nurse had helped Stefan get a brace around his chest which required Stefan to remove the entirety of his EVA equipment, and Stefan promised to help the woman by carrying her to the emergency shuttle. And as Stefan stood he picked the woman up with him and began to carry her bridal style through the medbay storage room. Till he got to the door frame and she suddenly became lighter, and his sight was suddenly blinded by something red. He wasn't sure what had pierced her chest but he knew it wasn't anything good as something held the female figure up, her body slowly twitching and dripping with the crimson liquid, a hand like claw came out and struck at Stefan. Needless to say this sent him flying as the impact was tremendous and painful. It felt as though three bone saws had been heated with welding tools and struck across Stefan's face. And as Stefan fell through the door opposite to the one his adversary stood in, holding the dying remains on his co-worker, his vision started to fail and his mouth filled with blood. Signaling the automatic flight response in his brain.
Bleeding heavily, in his uniform, with a splint over his chest and blood in his eyes. Stefan ran to the emergency arm of the station. Unbeknownst to Stefan there was a rather touchy Research Director on the Station, one that knew a rather large bit of information about the Xenomorphs and knew that the creature could not leave the station alive. To the director it seemed that what must be done was simple, blow up the station. And so Research and Development became his site for first detonation, several home made plasma tank bombs were produced and placed around plasma canisters, in the hopes of detonating them and turning the station into a graveyard. And he announced this, over the public channel, his hopes of making sure the threat did not leave the station alive, and his hope that the crew would forgive him in their final hours. Stefan heard this, in the hallway, three rooms from the pile of explosives and plasma canisters.
The detonation was a painful experience as the director had made sure that the explosion touched all four corners of the station. Oliver heard this before he felt it, the ground trembled and the sound of metal ripping like tissue paper filled his ears before he was thrown against the nearby wall, and pinned there by debris that slashed at his uniform, bits of glass and metal piping thrown at the right angle turned them into darts that pierced his shirt and broke through skin. As the sound of metal tearing and glass shattering died down, the sound of airlocks slamming shut wherever they could started and Oliver was left in darkness as he screamed in pain, pinned to the wall by a rather lengthy pipe through his abdomen, liquid dripping from his body, down the medium sized pipe, and onto the floor.
He had never wished harder that a pipe would move than when it was stuck through him like a needle, and he knew he either had to move it, or die pinned to the wall like a bug in a collectors case. So he placed his gloved hands over the pipe and began to pull, the sound of crunching bone and the occasional collapse of an air pocket within his body was gruesome to say the least. The pain was a thousand times worse, as though a million razors had been placed in his chest and he needed to pull each and every one out in single file. Till the pain of the cold steel against his bare flesh stopped, and a whole new pain started. Within his chest, one of his lungs had finally given up and collapsed. Leaving Oliver gasping for air in a pool of his own blood.
The radio started up again as Stefan began to lose consciousness, something that woke him as up as he could have become. An AI called out again, it was a feminine voice, one that sounded pleased with itself and smug about somehow being still alive after so much carnage, "An emergency shuttle has docked with the station, allotted time for crew rescue: Five minutes." So Stefan turned his wounded and bleeding body to the escape arm and began to crawl through the hulk of the ship, managing to fall several times and almost fall to passing out. Till he finally saw a bright light at the end of the hallway, casting a painful blinding shine into his eyes.
His hands continued to stretch out and pull his mangled body closer and closer to the light, with every movement bones shifted, flesh tore away, and his body leaked out more of its life blood away. Till he reached the threshold of the ship and reached out, and placed his blood soaked hand into the light and was grabbed by something, it was another hand that grabbed him and threw him headlong into the shuttle. Where he passed out as a shouting match of what the hell happened arose. He smiled softly, his face covered in blood, he had made it.
Stefan woke up a week later covered in plastic pipes and tubes that connected him to machines he had never seen. He then passed out for another few days and woke up again in a panic, this time he was covered in a mask, much like a breath mask but more cumbersome and ill fitting. But for some reason he was not allowed to take it off once he awoke, the nurses would not explain it other than, "Do not take it off. Or you will die." Which was cryptic in the least, but he obeyed, passing out again from time to time. Till after several months in both a hospital bed and cryo pods, Stefan awoke for good and began to question those around him as to his whereabouts. Only to receive sighs and blank stares.
Till the day finally came where Stefan awoke to find a rather lengthy man standing at the foot of his bed, a man holding a briefcase and adjusting the tie on his black tweed jacket, occasionally checking his watch several times. One the man in the hospital bed opened his eyes the official spoke, quickly and without many pauses;
"Ahem. Mr. Stefan you are VERY fortunate to be alive, you were in a horrible accident. Nothing we can detail, you should understand that what you might have experienced is classified information. Now we have taken note of your grievous injuries and we hope that you will take this sign of our gratitude. Firstly, we have repaired the...ahem...physical damage as best we could. Secondly, we charged your account only half of what we would normally charge given the extent of the wounds. Thirdly, we uhm...from what I understand your respiratory system is..well...shot. To be frank one of your lungs has collapsed and we will need to grow a whole new one to repair it. Sadly even a 50% discount could not help your account pay for the time and lab materials required to grow the new lung. So we at Nanotransent grant you one of the finest respiratory aids money can buy. You've earned it..."
And the unknown man placed his case at the end of the bed and pulled out a Zeng-Hu F.D.W Model facial respiratory mask. The name was in honor of a man who, many hundreds of years ago, attempted to allow those who were stricken with disfigurement to live a normal life. Sadly this art had still not been perfected, and in Stefan's case it was even worse as his body needed help to even breathe. So the mask was made to fit the situation. The man held up the contraption that look very similar to a regulation gas mask, albeit the filter appeared a bit more complex with a system of fans and motors on the inside, the connection straps that bound the mask to the wearer were much more thick and numerous as it appeared the user would not want to take this off unwillingly. Finally the paint job, it was midnight black, allowed no reflection from the metal frame, and the glass was mirrored so you could stare as long as you wanted at the face plate, and see nothing of the man inside. And seeing his reflection in the glass made Stefan want to put in on faster and faster the longer he looked.
Thats just about where the story has reached so far. The now not so young atmospheric technician spends his days on stations he is needed at, keeping the atmospheric system from falling apart and sitting alone in his workplace. After years and years he has become bound to the machine as much as it has become bound to him. And though he has been forced to never say a word of the failed station he once inhabited, the memory will last with him till the day he passes away. As will the mask, and the scars. Each a piece of his memory.