Corruption Read online

  The woman leaped over the table delivering a series of kicks, her sharp heel just missing its mark.

  I ducked and dodged until a fast kick flung me over the table and hitting the floor.

  I charged at the woman grabbing her, lifting her high and tossing her to her man just as he was gearing up for another punch.

  “Take that bitch!” I cheered while the woman screamed in pain from the blow which knocked her onto the searing griddle.

  “Sico!” The man helped her from the griddle and checked on her wounds. “That bitch is a class!” He sneered at me, if looks could only kill he would win the fight right then and there. “What are you? A soldier?”

  “That’s for me to know and for you to find out baldly.” I spat a glob of mucus and blood from my mouth. I wasn’t sure if I stood a hope in hell of surviving this, I was low specced while they were specced up the ass. If I tried to run now, the man for sure would catch me.

  “She has to be a spy, Aaron!” The woman hollered. “The overlord warned us!”

  “What the fuck?” I backed away from these nut jobs. “Overlord?!”

  The man flew toward me faster than I could register the movement, his fist connected to my gut knocking the half-digested smoothie and the handful of dried cranberries I ate from my stomach.

  I screamed and clawed at my belly, willing myself to not lose consciousness I reached for the butcher’s knife on the table and swung like a madwoman just as I fell back feeling the resistance of the blade as I hit the floor. The woman ran at me like a wild dog knocking me against the grill, the burning pain ate away at my forearm. I screamed just as wildly as the woman.

  “What’s going on here?” Mrs. Creedy opened the door to the brutal scene only realizing too late what she had stumbled upon.

  I reached for the scolding pot of broth and flung it on the distracted woman then took the knife and brought it down in one swift strike piercing the chest bone.

  The lights flickered out.

  CHAPTER FIVE: NANA

  Chaos was the only word I could think of to describe the carnage in the dark, the emergency lights flickered and struggled to light the path. I stumbled back into the darkened dining hall where a pack of bodies clawed for the exits trampling the slow and weak in their path.

  “What the hell is going on?!” My voice trembled, hell I wasn’t even aware that I was trembling. I tripped over something and fell into a shallow pool of blood.

  “Bitch!” That bald man was still alive! He clawed along the walls and reached out to me as I tore myself away and pushed through the crowd, but it wasn’t the exits I was heading to but the grate on the floor in the back. The same one I used to infiltrate this section of the station.

  The coppery smell overpowered all other senses.

  What the hell is happening?! Who’s doing this?

  I pulled open the grate and slipped through hoping no one saw me and activated my commlink. If I could get in touch with Tamika or Krush they would have some answers, please have some answers!

  “Nana? Thank goodness, I hear a lot of commotion and 108 and up is on full lockdown. I can barely get around; everyone is carrying a gun.” Tamika was panting, she was running.

  “Please get me out of here.” I cried on the brink of giving in to fear and despair.

  “Where are you? Still in the hall?”

  “Yeah. Something terrible is happening, everyone is trying to get out, people are dying.”

  “Damn! Tell me what you can.”

  “They attacked me in the kitchens…”

  “Why? Did they find out?”

  “No, they were just crazy, but they called me a spy and said something about some overlord warning them, so maybe they knew I was coming… I don’t know!”

  “Calm down! They trained us to deal with crisis situations, just take your time and breathe.”

  I pulled the coppery air into my lungs and released, going to that special place from my childhood, a cliff overlooking the sea. The salty air replaced the smell of blood and the sounds of the chaotic waves smashed against the rocks.

  “Nana, listen. I’m currently working on restoring some power, even if it’s just getting the emergency lights working properly. If I can get to the master control room 110, then I’m confident I can do it.”

  “What should I do?”

  “I’m having some problem getting in contact with Krush, something is interfering with the long-range comms. Try to get to the comm room on 107 and get word to Krush about what’s happening on board.”

  “I think we should just meet up and get the hell out of here. The mission is a bust.”

  “No! We need the Deus Vult project by any means necessary. We can’t return empty-handed. This is not like you to give up so easily either so get your head on straight and improvise.”

  My hands were sweaty and my finger shook the commlink in my ear but at least I had a job to do, that alone was enough to keep me focused enough to move my body and spring into action. Contact Krush, tell him what’s happening, try to come up with a plan B. I shuffled along the vents leaving the chaos and the coppery stench behind.

  Each venting system supplied oxygen to only that section alone, if an accident or attack vented one section, the others would still run with no problems. This meant that I would have to leave the vents to get to the 107 at some point but I wasn’t eager do it.

  I wanted to wait until Tamika restored the power to leave the vent but knew that would make me the weak link and I didn’t want that. I opened the grate and dropped into the dark hall as a frantic woman ran past muttering something under her breath.

  I closed my eyes accessing the schematics of the station using my navigation implants and groaned as I realized the nearest comm room was in section 9 of 107, across the large doors which sealed it shut.

  Damn, this is not my lucky day, apparently.

  I kept my back pressed against the wall, the others could panic and run around the halls as much as they liked but I would move slow and still, I cursed myself for not going the extra mile and getting the night vision implants when I had the chance….then again, it was between that and the navigation and right now it proved far more helpful in the long run.

  I was making good pace, just a few steps more and I would be near the door. The languid pattering of bare feet against the surface drew my attention, I tried to make out how close or far away the sound was but couldn’t quite tell. This wasn’t the rushing of a frantic person just trying to escape with their lives but someone who moved with a slow purpose and it was moving closer and closer toward me.

  Every muscle tensed and ceased, I wondered if I could get away with pressing my body against the wall as much as I could but the flicking on and off of the lights was enough to give me away.

  I shifted positions to the other side of the hallway and pressed forward hoping to round the corner to the sealed doors before who or what or it came near.

  When I reached the door, I slid into the corner, sinking into myself as the steps became much more pronounced. I kept my hands over my mouth to make myself as silent as I could.

  The steps stopped and the emergency lights flickered on, and worse, they stayed on bathing the naked man with the wet stringy black hair in a soft blue hue. He looked vulnerable but everything told me to remain silent, to not be seen.

  He continued forward passing the door.

  I stood and opened the panel. I closed my eyes and brought up the map again. This door was the only other way out of this section. This meant that once the naked man realized that fact, he would have no other choice but to come back.

  I worked on locating the wires I needed but splicing them with no proper equipment was not going to be easy.

  Sci-fi problems require primal solutions.

  I ran my teeth along the wire, working it until it split then moved onto the next. Once I tied the ends, I needed I stopped. The patter of feet was returning and this time I was certain that the man was coming to the door.

&n
bsp; I flipped the switch loving the small whirl of the mechanism but my small love affair was over the moment the door locked into place with only a slit open, enough for a child or myself if I sucked in my stomach.

  Fuck it!

  I didn’t care if the man was good or not, I just wanted away from him. I pushed myself through the slit, sucking in as much air as possible and falling to the floor. No one was on the other side, which I was glad of, but the naked man stood on the other side. I ducked into the communications room across the hall and closed the door. The room was empty, which was one less problem to deal with, I hid under the console and sure enough, I heard the patter of bare feet coming near until it passed by and becoming distant again.

  Okay, that guy was not freaking normal! I poked my head up and worked the console until I could establish contact with Krush, the third member of our small infiltration team. I couldn’t tell what his class was, his skillset seemed to be all over the place. But I’m guessing he was a pilot or a hacker or both which was a rarity as a pilot fell under the combat specialist primary class rather than the engineer primary, even though you still needed the Engineer Primary to unlock it. But then again, he seemed to be able to use both primary classes and its subclasses with ease. He must have been enhanced like crazy to handle both.

  I had never met the man in person, didn’t even know what he looked like. All I knew was that he had contacted Duke, the leader of The Phantoms, a faction within the United Restoration Movement or U.R.M as we preferred to call ourselves. The phantoms were a stealth unit full of Engineer Primaries, mostly taking on the classes of hackers and techies. No one wanted to be the medics. We prided ourselves on never getting caught and therefore never needing a major patch up during a mission. Which made being a medic worthless.

  Well anyway, Krush hired us for this little heist on the behalf of his so-called benefactor. Some rich asshole Corpo scumbag who wanted us to come here and steal the Deus Vult Project. This Krush was a master hacker as far as I was concerned. He was good, damn good. Where ever he was located I had no clue, but he wasn’t actually on board the ship that got us to this station even though he was the pilot.

  “Krush! Krush? It’s me, Nana, over.”

  “Nana? What’s going on in there? The damn place started closing up before I could get clearance to land.”

  “I don’t know what happened. Everyone was in a panic and killing each other just to get out.” Nana whispered. “So many people are dead…”

  “Then it got out…”

  “It? Are you talking about Project Deus Vult? Is that’s what’s killing everyone?”

  “Nana. I need you to remain focused.”

  “Me asking questions about this damn thing your boss hired us to retrieve is not me being unfocused.” I sighed. “At this point, I need to know what the hell I’m dealing with, because the plan has freaking changed.”

  “I know. I understand. Listen, Nana, it is still very important we retrieve this project and leave as soon as possible.”

  “You still want it? Even after I told you what happened?

  “Yes. Just as your boss still wishes to be paid for this job and my boss is offering yours a lot of credits for this. If we leave now, they may destroy the project and we cannot let that happen. It is imperative that we find a way to subdue the project and capture it alive.”

  “How?”

  “We locate it, and…we vac it is the gist of my plan.”

  “Wait... what? It’s obviously alive! Vaccing it would kill it for sure.”

  “It will shut down but it could be restored once my boss gets ahold of it.”

  “What aren’t you telling me? How would it just shut down and not die? Is it A.I? Is that what it is? A.I was banned years ago!”

  “This project is…special, you will see with your eyes an ordinary man but he is anything but ordinary. Trust me when I say that the longer he kills the harder it will be to stop him and you will want to stop him.”

  “Then how do I do that?”

  “Let’s come up with a good plan B.”

  CHAPTER SIX: THEON

  June 10th, 2163 5:32 am New York Standard Time

  My head felt heavy and my arm was slick with crusted and fresh saliva, it was one of those deep periods of sleep where you come out of it dazed with no sense of time. I hadn’t dreamed of my father in a long time. Now I saw him floating in deep space, his mouth formed words but I couldn’t understand them. Was he warning me against my path or cheering me on giving me the strength to kill my enemies? To make them suffer for what they did to us? I couldn’t stop myself from laughing. My father wasn’t warning me nor cheering me on, he was dead and dead people have no desires, only the living left behind and this was just the beginning of my revenge.

  But now, that dream and its meaning were the least of my concerns; I was over an hour late!

  I hopped out of bed grabbed at my uniform, boots, and locket and was out the door slipping on each item as I rushed down the empty hall cursing myself.

  Anderson was not a fan of tardiness no matter the excuse and now I had to stand in front of him and decide whether to give him one. I picked up the pace running at full speed ahead through the halls of the training camp.

  Where the hell could everyone be? Oh god! The damn base docks, they told us to head directly there! I bolted from the camp passing the vendors selling breakfast in this artificial morning.

  I halted once I saw the ships connected to the docking bay outside. They were the largest ships I had seen among the corporate vessels but then again these also were second-generation space vessels, most likely designed to accommodate mankind’s growing need to carry more staff and crew across interplanetary space. Just how big were these ships going to be in the coming future? Would they soon become massive floating stations drifting throughout space or full kingdoms in the stars?

  The greenish tinted ship was the SS Baphomet, the reddish tinted ship on the other side was the SS Ifrit. Were these only created for Battle Stations? It seems like such a waste if they were.

  I took a deep breath and trekked further toward the docking station until I passed the busy dock workers and stood behind the man who seemed to be the only one rooting for me to succeed. I didn’t see any other recruits around or the other instructors. Anderson leaned forward on the railings looking out the thick near unbreakable glass which protected us from the vacuum of space. Perhaps he too was just as much in awe of the ships as me, at least that’s what I’d like to think.

  “I’m so sorry.” No point in dragging it out, better to rip off the band-aid and be done with it.

  Anderson turned as if he had expected me the entire time, but he was far from satisfied. “Sorry? I put in a good word for you despite the fighting and everything because I believed you were what we needed. But I won’t babysit a child who can’t take responsibility for his actions.”

  “This is will never happen again. I have no excuse.”

  “This is the classic case of leading a horse to water but unable to make him drink.”

  “Chief--”

  “We have already assigned everyone to their ship for Battle Stations, it’s too late, try again next year.”

  “Chief Anderson, you wanted to fast track me because you know how talented I am. I’m the best soldier class among all the other recruits, and I know I will do a damn good job. Your confidence in me isn’t misplaced. I will never embarrass you like this again.”

  “It’s too late, son.” He said more disappointed than angry but still couldn’t wipe away that deep-set scowl.

  “I don’t have next year. If I go back to Earth, I’m a dead man. I’ve made too many enemies; this here is all I have.”

  “I understand. And I wish you would have treated it as such.”

  “Best soldier class, huh?” Zaidan just couldn’t help himself and I hated how I gave him such ammo to use against me. “Just because you’re the best garbage diver around doesn’t mean you’re cut out for military life.”


  Where the hell did this asshole even come from? It’s like he just materialized from thin air to talk shit to me. “Who else scored 8000 points on the leaderboard? It certainly wasn’t you.”

  He just wouldn’t wipe away that shit-eating grin of his but I was more than willing to do it for him if it didn’t cost me everything. “You’re wrong. Being the best isn’t just about scoring the highest points or just being the best at your chosen class. You have to show up for any of that to matter. I wake up on time and I show up when I’m requested. That makes me the best soldier class among the recruits, I’m here to lead and do my damn job.”

  “I’m here now.” Being lectured by the likes of him was enough to make me vomit in my mouth.

  “And it doesn’t matter, everyone has already chosen their classes, and they chose the four-man teams. That leaves you the odd duck out.”

  “No, it leaves one team with only three members, don’t act like I can’t do the math.” I turned to Anderson, done with talking to Zaidan. “Chief Anderson, why send one team in with a disadvantage? Just let me participate.”

  “I’m sorry. But you will have to wait next year, no exceptions.”

  “This is bullshit!”

  “You want to blame anyone blame yourself.” Zaidan took great pleasure in seeing me suffer but I didn’t care, I couldn’t lose this spot I had too much riding on it. “Go back to New Cali and cry at your whore mother’s tits for all we care, this is a military not a daycare.”

  My fist connected with his jaw and we were going at it again, the rage building and mounting uncontrollably.

  “Theon…!” Anderson yelled throwing me off.

  “What is all this ruckus about?” The man was tall and imposing, even more so than his presence on television. This was him, the man himself Ludo Vitiate IV and his son was his splitting but less intimidating image. His long white hair was slick back, his skin was as pale as a vampire and the small red cape he wore draped over the shoulder of his white suit helped push the image along. “I thought the next generation of soldiers were being trained here not bickering and fighting like school children.”