Chapter 3. Scream.

Benu twitched nervously in his seat. There was still nothing showing on the sensor scans and there’d been no word from Gwynzer. “Relax,” he told himself, “it’ll take them longer than that to get in to position. They’ll call if there’s a problem.”

The instrument panel before him beeped and startled him from his thoughts, “Yes Sir?”

“Ben, we lost Thomas.” Gwynzers voice sounded tinny through the electronic scrubbers, but he could still pick up a trace of emotion through it.

“What? How?” Benu asked, his own shock evident.

“He got sick, real quick. No sign of any bio hazards or chemical spill and the rest of us seem ok. Maybe some new weapon the Imperials have deployed, I don’t know. Sam doesn’t know of anything natural that acts that fast.”

“Maybe you should pull back boss.”

“We found what looks like some kind of accident, Thomas did… There was blood on the floor and Thomas must have touched it, maybe that was the carrier. Samzi has given the rest of us a clean sweep and we’ve medically scrubbed anything that came in to contact with it. We should be ok, don’t think it’s an airborne virus.”

“Gwyn, I’d fell better if you just got out of there. Something doesn’t feel right.”

“Just hole up down there Ben, get in the vehicles, seal the hatches and treat it like a bio attack until we find out more. Samzi can’t find any trace of anything foreign, so like I said I don’t think it’s airborne.”

“Boss,”

Gwynzer cut him off before he could continue, “Follow orders soldier. We have a mission and we WILL complete it.”

“Aye Sir.” Answered Benu, then closed the frequency down. Gwynzer was wrong, he could feel it. He stepped out of the hatch again and turned, almost bumping in to Krenyo and some of the other men in the armour column.

“Everything alright Ben, you look a little pale.” Krenyo looked at him quizzically, a flicker of concern showing across his features.

“Black Intel. They lost a man.”

“They had a contact? Why didn’t they call in?”

Benu shook his head. “Not a contact. He got sick. Fast. Maybe something Imperial, a weapon. The others are fine, Gwynzer doesn’t think it’s airborne but said we should seal up and treat for bio attack.”

Krenyo mulled it over for a moment before nodding. “Ok, everyone climb aboard your vehicle, seal in and activate full air scrubbing.”

The men immediately obeyed, climbing on and into T1-Bs, APC Freerunners and Mortar Freerunners. Engines fired up and hummed as the systems activated, while door seals hissed closed, perfectly cutting the men off from any outside contamination.

“It’s getting dark anyway Ben,” Krenyo addressed the ashen faced young slicer and threw an arm over his shoulder, “Come on, me and Impy here will keep you company.”

The name threw Ben and he considered it for an instant as he and Krenyo clambered aboard. “Impy?”

“Former Stormy. I defected a while back but some things just stick ya know.” The man answered Ben’s question gruffly as he swung the hatch shut behind them. “Don’t worry junior, I been on the right team for a couple years now.”

The remark was enough to make Ben grin again as he swung his chair back to face the bank of screens and data terminals, “Ok old timer, well try to keep up. I don’t think we got anything big enough to carry your wrinkly old frame up there.”

Krenyo smiled at the remark and glanced over to Impy who caught the look and nodded before he reached over and playfully cuffed Benu. “The kid’ll be alright,” thought Krenyo, “Impy knows how to size the new guys up.”

Outside, the sky flared to bright red as the sun threw one last effort to light the landscape before sinking below the horizon. Night drew quickly, engulfing everything in darkness. No lights could be seen from any of the Imperial installations and no moon hung in the sky. Clouds obscured the distant stars, as if conspiring with the elements to lock the surface in darkness.

Ati and Blind stood silent guard in the towers walkway. Below them Gwynzer and Samzi finished cleaning up the area where Thomas had passed away. They had removed all his weapons and Gwynzer tucked away a small letter. He made every member of his squad write one before any operation, in case anything happened it was something that could be sent to a loved one. That final goodbye you could never make in person.

Samzi had already moved off to rejoin the others, and Gwynzer was ready to move on. “Sorry pal,” he whispered, resting a hand on Thomas’s shoulder and gripping it, “we’ll come back for you. I promise.” He gave it one last shake and squeezed his eye’s shut, forcing back the tears and gritting his teeth against the rising lump sticking in his throat. He stood and threw a final salute then turned on his heal and headed off through the never ending darkness to find his men.

“Boss,” whispered Ati, “I’ve spread the heavy gear around, I’ll take Thomas’s A280, should be more effective than the launcher, specially in these corridors.”

“Aye,” said Gwynzer, “Good idea, but I want you to keep the shield, any trouble that’s the first thing you use, we’ll cover you.”

“You got it sir,” answered Ati, “still no sign of anything moving up ahead.”

“Ok, before we move any further I want everyone on masks, no point taking a risk.” Even as he said it Gwynzer was already reaching for his own respirator, a small personal filter that would scrub the air of any germ or chemical and render it safe to the user.

He opened a localised com channel back to Slyfox instructing him to do the same adding, “Hold tight for the moment, we’re still sorting things out up here.”

The others were fastening the masks around their faces, securing the harnesses to ensure a tight seal against the skin when Blind cursed. “Must have dropped it getting over those crates. Be right back Sir, sorry.” He slipped back down the ramp towards Thomas to retrieve the item while the others checked each other and made sure each mask was properly fitted.

“Hurry up!” Gwynzer called to him as he sank from view, “we need to make up some time.” Ati coughed behind him and he and Samzi spun in alarm, the medic already pulling out his medpack.

Blind barely heard the muffled noises behind him as he strode back to the crates. He could already make them out in the gloom, a bundle on the floor beside them marked Thomas’s lifeless form. He advanced quicker now, eager to retrieve his mask and get back to the group. Even though that had been a friend on the floor, dead bodies made him twitchy. He flicked on a small penlight, one specially designed for covert op’s with a dim yellow light that gave everything a sickly pale tone. There it was, on the floor near Thomas’s foot.

“They could have picked it up for me,” he scowled to himself and reached forward, “lazy hutts probably didn’t do a proper search before they left.”

The foot twitched. He shrank back in alarm, “Thomas?” The bundle on the floor remained motionless, “Easy now,” thought Blind, “it’s just your mind playing tricks. When you moved the light the shadows moved, that’s all. Just get the mask and get out of here.”

He reached forward again and heard it. A shallow, almost inaudible, rasping sound. He stopped, his hand still outstretched and cocked his head to listen. It was coming from that, thing, he couldn’t think of the corpse as Thomas, his friend wasn’t in there now. Samzi said he was dead, he had to be. Samzi never made mistakes. The foot moved and this time so did the head. Blind fell backwards in shock,

“Samzi! Boss!” he shouted, “He’s still alive!”

Thomas was moving a little more now and Blind rushed forward to prop him up, “Easy mate, they’re coming back for you now. Those Imp’s must have a sensor block running after all, Samzi’s bio scans said you were dead.”

Thomas moaned as the rasping heavy breathing in his chest quickened.

“Whats that buddy? Didn’t catch it, just take it easy. Whisper it, you need to save your breath.” Blind dipped his head and placed his ear close to Thomas’s mouth to try and catch the feeble words. His sick friend reached up with both hands and gripped Blinds head tightly. Too tightly. And they felt cold. He tried to pull away from them as Thomas opened his mouth again. Blind could feel his hot fetid breath against his cheek, it smelt terrible, the copper tang of blood assaulting his sense of smell.

“Easy pal, I’m...Aaarrrrrrrrrrrgghh!” Blind screamed as Thomas lunged forward and sank his teeth deep in to his neck. Sharp points punctured through skin and in to his windpipe cutting off the sound as blood seeped from the open wound. Thomas pulled back and tore a section from Blinds throat, whose eye’s widened in disbelief and shock. He could see in to Thomas’s eye’s now, there was no one behind them. This wasn’t his friend, no soul occupied the body that gripped him. The thing opened it’s mouth again and Blind screamed in silent terror as it tore back in to his throat.

Bite my shiny metal Tie Fighter!

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