Shit…what the hell was going on in there. I alighted at the top of the ramp, checking the clip in my shotgun…full…good…Taking a deep breath I ran up the remaining few feet of the ramp, spun the corner, and spotted what had been making the noise. A rumbler, beant low to the ground, was feasting on the corpse of what was once probably a UNN official, although now it resembled no more than a mass of gore and bones. Careful not to disturb it, I slowly raised the cold steel barrel of the shotgun to the middle of it’s back, where the head would emerge on the other side… and fired. The pellets spread out, ripping the thick flesh to tatters, again and again I pulled back on the trigger…letting out a roar, the beast collapsed. I dropped down against the cold wall of the coridoor, catching my breathe in the breif moment of respite… naturally more would be along soon, they always knew when one died and where. I grabbed another clip from my pack and shoved it into the barrel of the shotgun, it fell back out. I stared dumbfounded at the gun. "Shit," I swore under my breath, the damn thing has gone and jammed, now of all times. ‘No matter, it’s only a few hundred meters to the shuttle bay, just one short sprint and I’ll be there, don’t lose your cool now..’I discarded the jammed gun in the corner, pulled free the heavy wrench from my belt and set off. Rounding the first corner, thankfully, nothing, now, which way was it to shuttle bay control…. I skidded to a halt as I came on a break in the passageway, off to my left I could hear a faint clicking… midwives..shit… I looked down at the datapad on my watch…30 seconds until Xerexes would come back online…

"Shodan, Shodan… which way to the shuttle bay control., please, help me…" I panted into the mircophone headset.

"Ahhh…insect….so…so…so..soooo you wish my aid…. Well perhaps you should have con…con…con..consiiiiidddddered that beforeeee your little insurection… you really think that you can stop me….the Von Braun is mine insect…and so is the faster than light drive….."Shodan laughed her cold mechanical laugh… I threw down the headset… dammit… I knew it…I knew she had plans for the FTL engine…curse this whole bloody debacle…Swinging around, I could make out three of those cyborgs bitches coming this way… damn..escape routes all cut off now…off to my left…the cargo bays….I’ll hole up in there until they pass. I ran through the blast doors of cargo bay A, and hit the emergency lockdown button… The doors closed with a resounding thunk… I lent over and caught my breathe… the control panel had fried itself…dammit

"Well look what you’ve gone and done now.. trapped in here…what next ey.." I pondered the situation a moment more… than went and sat down by a pillar towards the center of the room. No way out of here now…unless… I pulled the small console from my pack, logging into a nearby wall outlet…now if only I could find some way of contacting him…I checked a scematic of the bridge deck… no signs of any human life.. dammit that R-grade cyber gear must be masking his signature…wait… the tram… I looked down at the screen, the tram was moving, that would mean someone would have to be inside it…I hacked into the camera system, getting a view from station 2…the silver bullet of the tram slowed to a halt, yes…it was him…the UNN marine climbed out of the tram, and surveyed the entrance to the Rickenbacker umbilical…noting it’s locked status, he returned to the tram…

Without hesitation I logged onto the intercom hub for the transit system…

"Marine…I’ve finally found you… I have vital information for you… but I’m trapped in Cargo bay A, come quick."

From the viewscreen I saw the halfman half machine nod as the message came through over the loud speaker…nothing left to do now but wait I guess…Walking over to a ladder, I climbed up onto the upper level of the cargo bay, moving over to a shielded viewing window…so as to see the first sign of someone coming for the door. Midwives…pacing back and forth…carrying…eggs…what could possibly be going on out there.I watched the procession of the many as they moved down the corridoor…they must be loading the shuttles with those damn things… shit…can’t use them to getaway now… should’ve listend to Tommy and Rebecca, they knew what they were talking about…shouldn’t have argued with them about the saftey of an escape pod launch …shit..I settled back into a corner, pulling out my console as I did. Well…nothing better to do..

Rerouting the security measures, I hacked straight through Xerxes into shodan’s primary data loop…let’s see…she’d be storing her concious thought patterns in there somewhere…so much data…who would’ve thought a machine could become self-aware…

Now…just as a failsafe… I grabbed the console input plug… and ran it into the outlet in my wrist were the UNN had attached the Pis Amp whilst I was in training…uploading what I knew of her plans straight into shodans primary data loop sent shivers down my spine…then…whilst jacked in…I submitted my signature to the Bio Reconstruction machine up on the Rickenbacker bridge…just in case…

I pulled out the cord…and shut down my console…now I only had to wait…

Suddenly… a voice rung out from a speaker high on the opposite wall…

"You thinkkkk that you ca ca cannnnnnn outsmart me puppet????? Well…for that insolence you will now pay…" Shodan’s laughter rang out across the room as she finished … the lights all dimmed…and a low whirring began off to my left somewhere…

"Narrowing threat range…" No…Shodan had activated a matinence bot somewhere in the room… dammit… I climbed back down the ladder… moving from box to box…staying hidden wherever I could… I spied the hulking silver beast across the room…moving towards the blast door…

"NO!" I screamed outloud… It plugged it’s , matinence tool into the fried panel… the blast doors screeched open as I ran towards the droid..only a few more feet, I raised my wrench and smashed it down, hard, onto the motor mechanism at the back of the droid…it exploded…throwing chunks of metal towards me…I was knocked back..into the pillar I had rested near before…

I try to rise…but find my legs no longer work…clicking on the console…I insert a log disc…

"They’ve got me now… and Shodan has abandoned me…I’m not surprised…I’ve discovered her plans for the faster than light drive..her will is only matched by her imagination… if she gains access to the …" The light on the console flicked off…power out…how appropriate…

clicking noises…I looked up… it was one of those midwife bitches…holding and egg…and next to her…next to her… a floating appirition of some sort…

"Delacroix….the many offered you our warmth, but you refused…Instead siding with the machine mother… well… where is your saviour now…." It speaks with the voice of Korechien…and all the others….

"You cannot win…any of you…he will come…he will come and…"I try to finish my sentence…but the blood blocks my throat…fire races through my chest as my lungs too fill...I know that I die….but the reconstruction process…it should begin now shouldn;t it…damn Shodan…damn her to hell… Korechin wavered before me than vanished… the midwife approaches… blood…running freely from me now…she lifts her arm to strike…an explosion…behind me…..boots running…the roar of an assualt rifle…a face peering down, his eyes covered by strange cybernetic goggles…he starts to move towards me….too late……