8 Corporation Dilemma 3

"Hear me?"

A voice sounded out. I opened my eyes and saw the Captain staring at me with her helmet on. She tapped the side of my face before lending me a hand to stand up. I wobbled for a bit and seeing that I felt rather fatigued. My attention went to my body. I wasn't wearing my power armor.

"What happen?" I asked.

"Fell down the lower middle sector of the ship. You landed heavily and the impact damaged your power armor beyond repair. All you have now is the exoskeleton and the mask."

She handed me the mask. I wore it around my face. I adjusted the exoskeleton and fitted it with my body. It looked terrible but I could still use the power armor enough to lift the packs that I am carrying. The situation has gone south as I thought it would be.

"So how do we escape from this place?"

The room where we are was quite desolate. There were only silence and the looming shadows. The halls were dimly lit, I couldn't see far from where we are. The rooms have this distinct sense of loneliness that it was hard to imagine that people were once occupying this place before the alien infestation happened. What happened to this place that it ended up in a nightmare?

"Hmm, we can climb through the western wing, and then clamber above to the next sector."

"Sounds fair enough for me, is the place safe for passage?"

She stroked her chin, "Just a few aliens that we can handle easily."

"Is that so?" I said.

I picked myself up and grabbed my laser rifle and smacked the side of it. Captain also flicked the switch of her rifle as she switches the mode of it to blaster mode. I don't have any information to this place other than that we already sealed the middle sector. The problem was that we are sealed inside the sector as well.

We walked along the hallway. Metal walls plated with many layers to make sure that ship doesn't collapse inwards. Implosion happens when the materials are too brittle. I remember a case of a spaceship become scrap because of compression.

The compression happens when the energy inside the ship could not be stored because of the brittle materials. The metal plates are usually made from materials that were forged to have negative density matter. The ship itself has a great life support system. The air that I was breathing was clean and filtered. The stench from the aliens stayed above.

We entered a room. Long tables and chairs, the mess hall was filled with tin cans and supply. There was a refrigerator and when opened there were still supplies inside. Just in case I took some and pocketed them. Captain gave me a bland glance before surveying the room. When we deem the room clear we stopped to eat our fill. Honestly, we don't know what will happen so we ate.

...

No signs of life, and just empty halls filled with deathly silence. A creepy ominous feeling looms over me. The thought of staying quiet bothered me. Had to chat up with the Captain so I don't turn insane, then I remembered that Captain was a woman of few words.

The blandness of the interior design of the ship made me unsettled. Only when we penetrated through the crossing and clambered up to the safe location was that we started to smell something familiar. The odor of the arachnid-type aliens was a strangely welcoming smell.

Captain and I had to stack up and started to plan our route. We will be charging to the middle, then use the left flank to outrun the enemies. There are various materials in the left route that we could use it to hinder the enemy. We started on the plan. It was smooth sailing until the 'materials' that we tried to use to hinder the enemy didn't work.

Had to blast open the pipes and seal the enemies until we were able to kill them by plasma exposure. They melted like butter the moment we caught a glimpse inside the room we sealed the aliens. We continued onwards until we located the passageway leading to the safer sectors.

That's what I thought. But when we open the airlocks of the door we met two people who looked like they were twins. They have the same blonde hair and the only difference was that their names and the weapon they carry. The one with the ponytail carried plasma pistol and a laser rifle. The other twin has a long flowing hair.

"You guys are?" I asked.

The two looked at each other before saying, "I am Katia, and this is my sister Olga."

"Regina Doll," Captain pointed at me. "He's Nix Villa, both of us are Freelancers."

"So they sent another team?" said the twins. "Hmm, you two smell of death and alien blood. Heavily armed to the teeth with power suits and explosives, quite the payload you have there, brother."

"What are two doing here? Stuck? You don't want to go there."

"We weren't. We were curious who was opening the airlocks. I thought we were the only breathing ones," said Katia who was caressing her laser rifle. Olga was watching us with eagle-like eyes.

"So want to team up?" Captain said. "Or are you going to rob us and I have to kill both of you here?"

The Twins widened their eyes at Captain and looked at each other. Both started to laugh and giggle, they held their stomach as they said, "Of course we would like to team up. Killing the aliens is a great job but killing an army worth of them gets tiresome."

"I see," said Captain. "Glad to have two extra pairs of hands then. Shall we go then?"

"No," said Olga. "Let's find Henry Jims first. He should be back soon."

"I see."

Captain and I went inside the area while the twins locked the door behind us. They led us to where they were resting and started to tell us what happened.

...

It took about an hour and a half for the man named Henry Jims to arrive. He was a tall and lean man with a medium build. He has black hair that reaches his and he sports a full beard. He was armed with typical plasma pistol and anti-material rifle. It was the kind of rifle that could blow a hole through any thick metal plating.

Olga and Katia knew this Henry Jims. He was quite pleased when he saw the twins alive. He was smiling. He ignored us for a minute before approaching us with his right hand extended. I shook his hand and said, "Name's Nix, the other one is Captain Regina."

He sidled towards a wall and leaned on it. He folded his arms like a protective barrier. His rifle slung on his back. He idled for a while before speaking, "Thought we'd be the only one sent here. I guess the bastards change their minds?"

"We're hired after the whole ship went missing. We're supposed to go with a fleet but our pod separated with the fleet. Commander Charlotte left us behind with Major Tom."

"Major Tom – that cowardly armchair loving fuck?" scowled the twins.

"That's him," I commented. "He should be up in the hangars along with the survivors."

"You two sealed the middle sector?" said Henry.

"We did," Captain said with a blank expression. "Middle Sector's sealed up like a can. We pressurized the area and the aliens should be dying by now. We made sure to blow them up with plasma charges. To put it bluntly, they are in a tin can filled with plasma."

Olga and Katia looked at Captain with a certain surprise in their eyes. Henry Jims smirked at the stoic confidence that Captain has. He taps his arm and said, "That's great. We cleaned up the lower sectors and there are no signs of the enemy there. Though I admit that there are other things we should worry about rather than the aliens."

I observed, "The survivors or the Corporation Dilemma that we are in? I am sure that they would bomb the ship if they can. Major Tom is our guarantee and even if he dies we can try and upload his situation on the NET and cost the Corporation some problem."

Captain commented, "We can sue the enemies and they can fork in some cash. And if that doesn't work we can try crossing the other side of the sector and steal the gunships. You guys know about this, right?"

I looked at the Captain. When did she learn of this? The twin and Henry Jims looked at Captain dully. Henry Jims said, "That's right. We're planning to cross the sectors and steal the gunships. There are four gunships and seven interceptor ships on the broadside hangar of the ship. The problem is that we have to cross the horde of aliens if we want to get there."

...

We walked back to the safe sector. A drunken moron was preaching about something while holding a wrench. We ignored the moron and chucked in the sector. We inform the survivors about the sealing of the middle sector. They were quite surprised to find the twins and Henry Jims still alive.

The survivors thought they died the moment that the infestation happened. That wasn't the case and even if it was they didn't even try to assume that they were still alive. Anger flared upon the twins and Henry Jims as they begin to hustle the bastard.

I stopped referring to the black man by his name. He was a greedy bastard and it seems like he was 'celebrating' when we didn't return. Captain and I weren't murderous enough so we let the twins and Henry Jims deal with the bastard.

Their hustling was quite intense. By the time they were done, we have special access to the sectors. We can explore the sectors and loot for anything that we want. The survivors were not that willing to cooperate but coaxing them about getting out of the stadium-class spaceship was all that it takes to make them agree to us.

The survivors mended my exoskeleton. We already have access to the ship so they reinforced the power armor into something more durable. It looked heavy and padded but it was light and easy to maneuver. Katia and Olga and Henry Jims outfitted themselves with full body power armor too.

Katia and Olga were dressed in tight leather suits. I didn't mean to stare at the female engineers outfitted but they had certain allures that make them irresistible to my eyes. I would have watched longer if the Captain didn't elbow my side for some reason. It was probably rude of me.

We agreed to come along with the Katia and Olga and Henry Jims. I wanted to be ready as possible so I procure a web of pouches and armed myself with frag grenades and even took an old light machine gun and fitted it with a bayonet. They have quite the armory in the ship. They found it weird that I was armed to the teeth with primitive weapons but it is not like they are going to use them anyway. Not to mention that they are disposable and I won't have to worry about keeping them. Still, I still have my laser rifle just in case things go south.

We were done arming ourselves so we went to the node connecting to the area where we need to go. It was tight and it took us moments until we got to the airlock. There was a control panel in the right. I operated the door controls while the others took positions and readied themselves to fire at the enemy. The door slowly opens, creaking, and clanging eerily. I let go of the control panel and took aimed in front.

There were hordes of aliens. Most of them were arachnid-type alien and their number was something that I didn't expect. But the worst part was that they have web shooters. That was enough of a cue for us to run and gun.