Dear Readers,
I do realize that there are some errors in my story(ies). But if
SHODAN can warp reality why can't I warp a game just a little to make a
better story...Enjoy

SKELETON CREW
PART II

The food steps of the soldiers echoed from the other side ofthe bulkhead.
Then they were gone.

I looked around. The red lights made the doctor’s white coats look like they
were drenched in blood. I put out my hand to the doctor.
“Can I see your PDA for a moment?” I asked as I took a long, deep breath.
I switched it on. The map’s green light illuminated my face. The doctors
huddled around me.
“Alright. We’re right here, next to the bulkhead. Are there any air ducts
nearby?” I asked circling my finger around the map.
“None, the Med/Sci sector is the only one without them,” a doctor said.
“Why?” I replied frustrated.
“For fear of contamination. You know, if something hazardous leaked out into
the air ducts and circulated in the ship…Bad things could happen,” said the
smaller doctor.
“Alright, then we go back to the autopsy room and get the lieutenant’s key”
I said without confidence.
“Here take thepistol,” I added, throwing a doctor my handgun.

In a straight line we slowly proceeded down the corridors. I tried to
imitate what the soldiers had done, the ducking, rolling, covering each
other, but didn’t seem to work when I did it. Static. Static?My PDA! I
violently dug my hand into my pocket and clicked my PDA on.
“Hello?” I yelled over the static.
“This is Dr. Politio, who is t—“
“Thank god, Politio!” I said looking over at the rest of the doctors. They
were now celebrating.
“Dr, we’re locked inside the R and A sector. Dr. Miller is dead but we’re
fine.”
“Listen to me, security te---, they’re sterilizing the se--,they killed
Mitchell, Reeves, they—“ she replied.
“Listen Dr, you’re breaking up. Where were you before? “ I said with
disbelief and excitement. With Politio we might actually get out of here
alive.
“Hiding… hol- on. Wait…t—ere. Ok fixed the receptor coil. Can you hear me
now?” Politio said with a little hope.
“Yes, thank god.” I said
The doctors were staring at me intently.
“Alright…I was hiding from Bronson’s security teams. They’re killing any
crewmembers that have come in contact with the annelids,” exclaimed Politio.
I started moving quicker to the end of hallway.
“Annelids?” I asked.
“Very unique and dangerous organisms,” Politio replied.
We had reached the end of the hallway and entered the autopsy room.

“Dr, once we get the key, what precautions should we take when we exit this
sector?” I said nodding to the doctors that everything was going to be ok.
“The security teams are regrouping on the Command deck. As for the annelids,
I don’t know. They could be anywhere,” Politio replied trailing off.
“Fuck. So they could be right outside the door when we leave?” I asked
annoyed at her lack of information.
“No, I can see the R and A sector bulkhead from my here. No one’s there. I
have a pistol and some ammo here for your group when y—“
“Politio?” I asked looking at the doctors who were taking the R and A sector
card from the fallen lieutenant.
“Forget her, we got the key now and that’s all that matters” a doctor said
to me as he started running for the door.
I had to agree with the guy. I mean, all she had done for me so far was get
me into this mess.

I caught up with the group at the bulkhead. The doctor with the handgun and
myself positioned ourselves right in front of the bulkhead. A doctor swiped
the card through and backed away quickly as it began to open. Slowly but
surely.

The bright lights blasted into the dark R and A sector. I squinted and
slowly, against the light exited the hellhole. We all adjusted to the light
and locked the door behind us.

Xerxes voice came on.
“We have a hull breach in Engineering. Medical assistance is require-. We
will fulfill the glory of the Many.”
“Sounds like a hacker got into Xerxes,” a doctor said shaking his head.
I raised my assault rifle and cautiously moved down the hall. The doctors
crouched behind me and in no time we had reached the place Politio’s should
have been. The door had been torn off and some shells were on the floor.
“Bronson?” asked a doctor.
“No, it’s too messy” I replied looking over the fallen door.
“WE ARE WE ARE”
“What?” I said turning to look at the doctors who were looking down the
corridor.
“WE ARE WE ARE”
“Oh, fuck” I said discharging some bullets.
“WE ARE WE ARE” the voices said, getting louder.
“WE ARE WE ARE”
“Shut up!” I screamed discharging more bullets into nothing.
Then they stopped. One of my discharged shells hit the floor. It rolled away.
“Ok, ok, ok” I muttered to myself.

“Politio said she had some bullets and med hypos in heroffice. Get those.
She has a security computer in her office.Hack that. Everyone onboard was
ahacker pretty much, right?”

We all entered her hideaway. Strangely we felt like children in a toy store,
taking medical kits and bullet rounds. I took three med hypos and a clip. I
felt satisfied.

I liked being in charge. I hit the ON button on Politio’s computer. She had
been accessing something on OS upgrades. A doctor looked over my shoulder.
“Hey, aren’t those illegal?” He said.
“Yeah, I think…” I said exiting the program.

I brought up the screen with the security cameras. I accessed the one around
the corner fromwhat is now our hideaway. Three bodies lay there, ravaged. I
accessed another one in cryogenics. Someone was still in their stasis pod.
PoorGuy.

The doctors didn’t move.
“Well come one you guys,” I said again motioning towards Cryogenics.
“No offense guys but we do need another member to our resistance party…”
The doctors were staring at the computer screen. I turned around and switched
to another camera. A crewmember had barricaded himself inside an office.
“Who’s that?” a doctor whispered.
The crewmember was firing a shotgun. I panned the camera around just as a
large creature pounced onto the crewmember. The screen dissolved into
blackness.
“Jesus” a doctor said backing away from the computer.

We all exited our fort. We felt incredibly vulnerable. I raised my rifle and
we slowly moved down the hallway, stepping over bloodied bodies. An elevator
at the end of the hallway opened. We all ducted for cover. I heard the door
close. I took adeep breath and peered around the corner. Someone was
standing at the end of the corner.

It was dark except for the light behind this mysterious person. His shadow
led up to where wewere hiding. It began walking towards us, each footstep
echoing.

The doctors all looked at me and in their eyes I could see “kill it…kill
whoever it is out there”.

It stopped and surveyed its surroundings. It spoke with the same raspy voice
like whatever was in the R and A sector. Itcalled out in pity…
“What is this?” it said
It’s voice changed to a normal man’s voice.
“What’s happened to me?” he said raising his shotgun and staring at his
bloody flesh.
A doctor got up and took out a med hypo.
“Jesus, what happened to you?” the doctor said reaching for the man’s arm.
The figure’s eyes moved up revealing they were yellow. They stared at the
doctor for a second. It cocked its head to one side and began to moan.
“Now, just hold st-“ the doctor said.
It raised it shotgun and at point blank range blew the doctor apart. The
doctor screamed as the slug tore through his flesh. He fell with a sickening
thump.

I turned around my corner and fired a few standard bullets into it’s back.
It recoiled and charged but my hail of bullets cut it down to size. My PDA
crackled. Shit. If it’s Politio I’m telling her to fuck off.

The doctors were looking over their fallen comrade. Dwindling numbers…first
sign of defeat. I listened to my PDA…It was Erin Bloome.
“Shawn?” she said worriedly.
“Oh thank god Erin. You’re ok?” I replied delighted, sort of.
“I can’t talk. I’m in Hydroponics. I found these schematics on ------
co---. They were for these illegal upgrades.“ she kept talking.
“Alright. So?” I said.
“They were for building something, it requires DNA samples to make. I-“ she
stopped.
“Erin?”
“Yes sorry. It requires DNA samples to finish it. The DNA samples for this
prototype…It was mine…” Erin said, trailing off.
“I want you to meet me here on Hydroponics. Everyone is dead or running and
I’m all alone…I can’t stand it anymore” she added.

The doctors stared at me. No, we ain’t going on a rescue mission they thought
staring at the bloody corpses.
“Ok, she is my friend. I’m going after her. If you wanna come or not, I’m
still going. I have the assault rifle and I have the ammo so if you want to
stay alive…” I said with my cracking voice.
“Come with me…” I exclaimed walking towards the elevator to Hydroponics.

I could tell no one was following me. I felt the doctor’s eyes leaving me,
focusing somewhere else. The elevator doors swished open and I entered. I
hit the Hydroponic’s deck button and the elevator began moving. Another
eternity.

The elevator stopped, my stomach lurched up my throat but settled once again
in its proper place. The doors opened. Hydroponics looked barren as it did
before. Maybe the annelids haven’t reached this deck yet. I crept down to
my workplace. Ten of my comrades lay strewn about. Some had been shot in
their chairs, others had had time to react. A gun cocked behind me.
“You fuckin one of them?” the voice behind me said.
“Fuck no!” I yelled back dropping my assault rifle.
“Turn the fuck around” the voice said.
I turned and was met with three people. They had dark spots under their eyes
and looked like, how should I say, shit.

I was filled with joy but quickly it came to me. Their appearance, looked
like they worked late, really late. Their personality didn’t look like they
were sunny people. The Skeleton Crew. I should have known.
“Huh…so you guys are the skeleton crew” I said looking themover, I knew I
was better than them.
“Hey man, fuck you!” one of them replied. One of them held him back.
“Alright listen, we’re just as good as you guys are” the rather violent one
said.

Then it popped into my head. My friend Kessler who had been transferred to
the Skeleton Crew days before, before this…It was him!
“Holy Shit…Kessler?” I said picking my assault rifle up.
“Jesus Christ…Shawn? Kessler said in a forgiving voice.
The men released him and Kessler approached me.
“Sorry” I said.
“It’s alright…what are you doing here?” Kessler said.

A light down the hall flashed then burnt out.
“This is XERXES. Would any medical personnel report to Hydroponics deck for
inspection.”

“Best not to listen to him…gets to your head after a while” one of the
skeleton crewmen said.
“I’m here looking for Erin Bloome. You seen her?" I asked looking around
the bunch as they shook their heads.
“I gotta find her” I said under my breath as I approached the door to
Hydroponics B.

“You should tell him.” Someone muttered behind me.
A long pause.
Kessler moved forward from the group, I paused.
“Shawn…Hydroponics is crawling with annelids…They’re growing eggs and they
made cyborgs out of the nurses to look after them…It’s terrible…I don’t
think you should waste your time looking for Erin…”
I looked at him with my most serious expression.
“I’m going”

The Third And LastChapter is Soon To Come…