CH4

”What the hell is going on here?!” I could not restrain myself any longer. Draco was right. Somebody has been playing with us this whole time.

I looked again at the hole above me. Circular, 1 cm in diameter, maybe less. That would match our theory about the leak. The problem is, we are alive (ok, that might not be a problem per se). This whole situation is fucking impossible! Where does this light comes from? And how-

“We need to rethink our next move.” Draco said calmly. I recognized this tone. The same calm I saw in his eyes when we decided to surrender our freedom, for the sake of the Brotherhood, more than half a year ago. “This puncture is no accident. Perfectly round, must’ve been made on purpose. Shame that the coating of this ship is so thick. I’d love to peer and see what’s on the other side”

That posed us another question. What in the world could penetrate twenty centimeters of graphen enforced steel and cables?

“At least we don’t have to look through this place blindly” There was no humor in my voice. Even if the situation was incomprehensible to me, this must still be treated as part of the mission. Unforeseen complications, nothing more. We will find out what is going on here – one way or another. Just like that. Control yourself, Ares.

And this room could really come useful in solving some of our current supply issues. A small storage with spare uniforms, a couple of packages containing food rations and some things that could help the crew survive in case their mission gets prolonged in an emergency. There may have not been a single major accident of an earthen space craft since more than a quarter of a century ago, but ISOB always wants to play it safe. Not all of them are total retards, I have to give them that.

“Found something useful?” I asked, looking how Draco ransacks yet another box with governmental insignia on it.

“This should be a med kit, and this…” He gave me one of the boxes “will provide us with light.”

I opened the box. Inside laid four finger sized neon flares. You only had to unpack them and shake a little to get fairly pleasing glow. I took one and activated it.

“Is that everything?”

“No weapons, only food and clothes. No point in taking them, until we find out what we’re up against.”

“True.” And to hell with this mess. It was time to find out.

After we looked through the entire level the only thing left was the elevator.

“Ugh, kch… Ok, this should be enough.” I said when we moved the metal frame and unveiled dark elevator shaft laying behind. I turned around. Not too big, but we should be able to squeeze through.

“Who’s going first?” Draco asked.

The shaft led upward into the dark, there was no way to tell how long it was.

”Apparently, we have only one way available.” I looked at the crushed elevator blocking our way down. So, it seems the bridge must be above us. “I’ll go first. Stay close.”

I grabbed the floppy line that had been powering the box and started climbing. I could see in the weak light - provided by one of the flares I tied to my belt – that my brother was right behind me.

It was not long before I spotted the outline of another door looming on my left.

“Why did you stop?” I heard Draco’s whispered.

“This should be our way to the bridge.”

“Can you open it by yourself?”

“I think so… Give me a sec.” I climbed a bit higher so I could grab one segment of the door with my right hand and put my left foot against one of the walls. After steading my grip I pushed off the wall. At first, nothing happened but after two or three seconds I could feel the door moving. At least my efforts to stay in shape this whole time paid off.

“Before we go, do you still think we don’t need an informer?” Draco spoke again. ”This situation is strange even by our standards.”

Ha, the time when you hear a Hunter telling you that you should be careful, is the time to really think about your position.

“…You may be right. If we find someone alive we’ll try talking first, but do not let anybody catch you off guard.”

“I hope somebody will try.” I did not have to look down to know he was smiling.

I stepped outside the shaft and found myself standing in an almost exactly identical hall like the one below. There was only one difference; another body laid under the wall on my left. I gestured for my brother to come out.

“Give me some light here” Draco was the first one to approach the corpse ”Ugh, this one’s a lieutenant. That’s nice… Oh Geez, and he has a present for us. Look at that.”

After some struggle he gave me our ex-officer’s holster. And inside…

“H&K USr-43. Semi-automatic, fifteen 18mm bullets.” I took out the mag “Full, and these are not blanks.”

I gave it back to him. Draco had always been better with handguns, even though we were both familiar with USr. This model was in use all around the Union, even before the War, originally designed for cops and gendarmerie; put into service in late 2080s. God, my Modern Weapons Implementation teacher at the Academy would beat me up for such a description.

“Do you know what that means?”

I simply nodded. Any member of our organization is dangerous on his (or her) own, armed or not. But to give us a weapon freely? No, the Government had learned their lesson. After we spilt enough blood their ignorance had to shatter; not even a tenth of what these scums has been saying about us is true but we all worked hard to earn our reputation and to live up to it. Whatever has been going on with this ship, I doubted it was going according to their plans.

But just as I was going to tell Draco that we needed to move something else caught my attention. A sound coming from the shaft. I quickly signed silence with my hand. I did not know if Draco also heard something or if it was just pure reflex but his head turned in the direction of the now half-open elevator doors.

Kschs.

I heard it again.

Ok, something is definitely moving over there. Maybe we damaged something when we were climbing. Or maybe not.

I gave my flare to Draco and signed go left. He took his newly obtained gun and nodded. I moved to the left side of the door. If someone is going to pay us a visit it would be better to take him alive. At least for now. If that was not possible… I could only hope that my brother had not lost any of his skills as a marksman.