Mothership Alpha

Mothership Alpha

by GG

*5 years before the Universal Empire*

“My name is David Hunter. As I write this me and my crew, Bravo Team, of the Universal Court’s chief detective unit—I.E.S., also known as Investigate. Explore. Stop.—are currently en route to the docking bay of the once medical testing vessel, Mothership Alpha. A host of accounts from passing spaceships have detailed sounds echoing on their radios from the ship—moans, gun shots, and what sounds like a bat screaming. The Universal Court, despite the current DAF takeover, enlisted a squadron of the Intergalactic Guard to investigate; the squadron never returned. We can only assume the worst, and my job is to find what did this, and stop it. The confines of this transport ship I’m in are, interesting to say the least. There is a Novajuice maker, a holographic typewriter, and some beds. The rest of Bravo Team, Allison Keys, and Mark Aaron, have already landed on the vessel by now, I’m sure—I just hope they are alright. My transport-ship’s captain, Chad Jacobs, just yelled that we’re ten seconds from docking, signing off now.”

The Detective, David, closes off his pocket note keeper, placing it within his pocket as he stands up from a bench and stares out the window into open Space—its eery nothingness filling his mind with wonder. “Hunter, here we are.” Chad, the transport ship captain exclaimed, as the ship pulled into the docking bay of the colossal Mothership. David was prepared for what he was about to enter, making sure the safety on his Lightgun, a medium-range dark-black colored weapon, loaded with thirty rounds of pure solar energy, was off. He didn’t have any extra cartridges for the small weapon—he didn’t think he needed anymore.

David was twenty-three years old; his hair was a not too short not too long dark brown, with hazel eyes, tan skin, and a muscular build which was covered by a dark-red Zanyester vest decorated with his unit’s name, I.E.S., on the shoulder; a beige colored shirt was underneath his vest, and he wore blue tactical pants, and black fingerless gloves. The ship landed within the docking bay, the hum from the silencer on the rockets slowly dying down as the balancer prongs made contact with the rusted metal. Chad pressed a button on the top of his control panel, tapping into the Mothership’s magnetic field and closing the docking bay gate, allowing Oxygen to run through the facility. The transport captain wore a military-grade helmet, with a tactical vest and blue camouflaged pants; few people have ever even seen his face in detail.

“She’s all yours.” Chad said, as he leaned back on the chair. “Be right here when I get back, and make sure to pick up your link if I radio in for help.” David demanded back. “You got it, just…Be cautious in there, alright? I know you’re trained for these search, investigate and explore missions, but this seems a little different than anything we’ve dealt with before.” Chad exclaimed, with an unsettling level of fear in his voice. David nodded, before placing both hands on his Lightgun’s hilt and aiming it up to the ceiling in typical military fashion, walking down the transport ship’s steps and stepping foot for the first time within the Mothership. Beginning, his mission. The docking bay looked like a massive rundown storage facility, with boxes thrown everywhere, the walls and floor rusted; a ramp led up to a platform, which was closed off by a door. A sharp glare of light startled the Detective for a moment. David moved his gaze from the rusted ground, looking up, noticing a flickering light by the side of a door at the top of the ramp. The light turned on and off at incalculable times, which would fill anyone with a slight feeling of dread. He blinked a few times, before making his was up the ramp—gun in hand. The door led into a hall, which branched out into four separate corridors—and a door at the far end.

David looked around, before noticing a computer to his right—instantly walking over. He peered his head through the doorframe, aiming his gun on the inside, before finally lunging over to the computer. The device resembled most year U.C. 15 age computers, it being merely a panel of light with a holographic keyboard. Yet, the panel of light was damaged, the screen appearing red instead of the usual blue; it functioned still, and David looked around once more, before placing his lightgun within its holster and turning on the computer. The Universal Court’s logo, a red and blue shield with swords behind it, appeared on the terminal. The screen proclaimed that it needed a password to continue, much to David’s dismay. “And I’m guessing whoever knows the password is dead by now, maybe they left something behind…” David thought, before lifting his head up from the terminal and looking around the small cubicle.

He opened up closets, drawers, looked behind the cubicle and even the computer itself—giving the room the complete runaround, much to no avail. “I guess I’ll have to move on then, but damn—there could’ve been useful information on that terminal. Maybe I should radio the others, they might have some clues that I’m lacking.” David thought, and started to reach for his radio, before a booming sound filled his ears. The Detective immediately looked behind him, pulling out his lightgun and walking outside the cubicle, gun aimed in-front and ready. The sound was like that of a hard object repeatedly hitting a wall, but the infrequent times the sound happened, almost made it seem—calculated. David walked through the hall, analyzing intently to see where the sound was coming from. “Am I losing my mind?! Or is that sound, human.” Just as these thoughts entered the young detective’s mind, a massive plating of metal burst open from behind him.

He immediately turned behind himself, looking and aiming down at the busted metal plate, before walking over to it—but just as he walked over towards the plate, an entire shadow began to fall from the compartment where the plate had launched out of. David watched, as a body fell out and onto the plate, aiming his gun at the corpse. The body’s face seemed torn off, with patches of a purple-pulsating liquid on his body. “What could have done this.” David said out-loud, bending over and investigating the body, making sure not to get too close. A note fell out from the dead-man’s pocket; David’s eyes immediately rushed over to the note, as he grabbed it, and it read out a name, “Lilian. Must be this poor man’s wife, rest in peace.” David proclaimed with sorrow, before taking the note and trekking back to the computer terminal.

Once there, he immediately rebooted the device and inputted the name, ‘Lilian’; the password entered was correct, and the screen unlocked revealing a screensaver of an eery-looking home somewhere on a forested planet—but the most important thing that took David’s eyes were files labeled, “EXPERI-01, EXPERI-02, and EXPERI-00.” Hunter clicked on the first file, 01, and up came a list of disclaimer notices for the staff about engaging a creature named, “Vepris.” The file read about the creature’s bat-like appearance, and blob-fish like skin texture. “What the Hell were they doing here…” The file continued to read about failures to combine a substance known as, Malice, with biological lifeforms. At the bottom of the page there was data for a map of the entire ship; David took out his holographic note-keeper, known as a Tetron, which resembles a rectangle of blue glass and functions like an extremely advanced smartphone, and downloaded the map onto it virtually.

Hunter activated his Tetron, and a 3D virtual map of the entire ship came into view, but before he could give it a look—a sound like that of a rubber-sole invoking force against metal filled his ears; David turned around to the doorless corridor, to see a horror unlike any other. The dead man walked, his face purple and falling off. His hands had transformed to claws, and were bulbous and bleeding like his torso, which was covered in a purple gelatinous substance. David backed up in complete and unrivaled shock, as the monster moaned in what seemed like pain, before firing a ray of purple at the Detective—whom rolled away just barely. David had no thoughts, as the creature cornered him within the cubicle; with no other choice, as its saliva and slime drew closer, Hunter rammed the creature with his shoulder—making sure no slime touched his body—before bolting outside of the cubicle back into the hall to gain more ground.

A bead of sweat rolled down David’s forehead, as he backed up down the hall, the monster slowly walking outside the cubicle and into the hall—determined to kill him. The feeling of dread was like no other. David Hunter took aim at the purple thing’s head, and unloaded a perfect shot directly into it; the creature staggered back yelling in pain, but did not cease its assault—tanking a blast of pure sharp light fractals to its brain. Taken aback that his clean shot did not phase the monster, David looked to his left, back at the damaged part of the wall where the beast had first fallen out of; the Detective grabbed a sharp stake of metal from the wreckage and threw it at the man, it impaling it in the chest, before he fired one more round of light into the creature’s brain. The abomination fell to its knees, before falling to the ground—dead.

The Detective breathed a sigh of relief, before checking a panel on the side of his gun which showed how much ammunition remained; 28 rounds. No words were said to the air, as David immediately grabbed his radio and attempted to get into contact with his other two teammates. “Allison, Mark? Come in! It’s me David Hunter, this is extremely serious come in!” The young Detective yelled to the lifeless corridor, but to no answer.“Well” He sighed, “Not how I thought my Sunday would go.”

Part 1 end.