The Vanguard Incident:
Part 2:
Above Ceres; a Station drifted in a slow, silent arc above the dwarf-planet, its metallic structure a dull grey as it followed the slow rotation of the planet; inside of the grey metal station, the halls were pristine, practically glowing beneath a harsh white light that was just too bright despite purposely being dulled down.
It had become a recurring complaint amongst the crew who tried their best to operate the orbital station; at present; Astra – a Commonwealth Orbital Station, was mostly silent, its occupants having turned in for their rest rotations creating an eerie stillness filled only by the occasional creak of the metal hull and the static of machinery.
The Station existed for only one single purpose – to act as the main communication station for Vanguard on the surface of Ceres; the sole lifeline.
At the stations operation centre, only two of the crew were active on the ‘Night shift; at the main communications station; Sophie Ackford, she was sat heavily focused on one of her two screens for her telemetry feeds, when a ping snapped her focus to the main screen, noticing a strange blip, blinking, she flicked her eyes briefly to the time displayed, reading it as 02:14.
Returning her focus, she stared for a moment, beginning to suspect a ghost in the system, she was about to return her focus to the second screen when a second ping came through, a second blip that demanded attention, yet…, it showed now origin tag, no encryption head or even a routing signature, just simply a flicker on a sensor.
Lifting her attention, she looked around the empty room before her gaze landed onto the only other person nearby “Um…., Arthur” she murmured with a soft Oxford lilt, barely above the hum of the consoles “Something’s just come up on my screen”
Arthur Kessell lifted his head, looking over to her with a typical expectant expression “T’Vanguard tryin’ t’ get into contact?” he asked with a strong Lancastrian drawl
“No….” she answered “This doesn’t seem to be from the Vanguard Station” she added, her eyes returning back to the screen, expecting something to happen; for a moment, the space just seemed to drag out, then, a sudden spike came.
Sophie blinked as she adjusted her posture in her chair, Arthur, noting the sound, pushed himself up, immediately moving to come over to look at Sophie’s screen, as they tried to work out what they were looking at, the stations lights flickered, a brief dimming like a momentary fluctuation.
“Tha’s not normal” Arthur said quietly, lifting his head to look up at the light a moment, his left eye narrowing in confusion before his gaze returned to Sophie’s screen, first to the screen the blips had been registered, then to the second, the one monitoring the Vanguard Station; the Station though, was no longer registered on the screen “Where’s t’Vanguard?” he said, urgency sharpening his tone as he stared at the now-blank screen
“I….” Sophie flickered her gaze between the screens, the displays then flickered more violently, for a moment, she thought they were about to shut off entirely, she leaned back in her chair, her posture rigid in surprise, her expression tight “I think we’ve got some kind of problem here”
“Y’Don’t Say” Arthur muttered, staring at the telemetry – his eyes widening a little as another ping came through; another blip, followed by another
Then, something came through on the second screen, a string of text that the computer initially registered simply as ‘Problem Detected’ before the auto-translator tried deciphering what was on the screen, constantly flickering with a brief processing bar to then flicker back to ‘Unable to Translate’ – when the Astra’s emergency linguistic parser finally registered it, the pair watched as the message resolved into something they could finally ready, it read simply as; We See You Invader
Sophie’s eyes widened, her posture was rigid as she stared suddenly unsure how to breath – Arthur blinked, as far as the team was aware, there was no other nation present “We need t’wake t’captain” he rumbled, his voice though, it had lost all trace of casualness – now, it was tight with a sense of urgency as he stared at the message
Surface of Ceres, Vanguard Station
In Vanguard’s Zone-Seven; Erika and Tammy reacted to the screech of static that erupted through the earpieces of their helmets causing them to twist sharply, Erika started to quickly bang her hand against the side, while Tammy closed her eyes tightly and tried to push through it until everything started to settle, though, it didn’t stop – instead all the lighting that was present simply shut off suddenly, like the rest of station, Erika and Tammy found themselves stood in the darkness of what was supposed to be a new corridor that now felt like it was old and unwelcoming.
Exchanging glances, Erika and Tammy briefly cast their gaze around, the sensation that they were not alone spiked immediately as Erika’s attention fixed to the window, searching for the signs of movement in the distance, though, the entire exterior was now just a void of darkness “Tse nedobre” Erika whispered
“I can’t see anything at all” Tammy flicked her attention to the same spot, staring through the window for any sign of movement, though, the sudden claustrophobic sensation of the corridor drew her attention away from the window and along the darkness, moving her hand, she found where to turn the headlamps of her helmet on providing them some illumination; Erika copied the action, looking in the opposite direction for a moment before looking to Tammy
“Do you have that….” Erika stuttered as she looked at Tammy, who just nodded slowly, answering without needing Erika to even finish
In the command station, just like the rest of the station was now plunged into darkness, save for the soft glow of torches flicked on, the entire facility was eerily silent as Vincent stood rigid, his silhouette dark against the pointless glow of a dark screen “Micheal!…, Daniella!; I need an update!” he barked
Micheal Taylor, already halfway across the room when he heard Vincent bark, his leg banging into something as he rushed in the darkness, reaching and quickly moving his hands over the auxiliary panel, though he quickly discovered that he couldn’t get the system to restart “Auxiliary is not responding!” he shouted, his voice tight “This isn’t an accident!”
Daniella was crouched beside him, now holding a torch as she reached her hand forwards to work on the manual override “Is it some kind of feedback loop?”
“I’m still on ‘accident’..” Micheal replied, lifting his gaze to her then back at the panel “We should be the only ones here”
Turning the torch in their direction; Vincent stared with narrowed eyes towards Micheal and Daniella, processing, then turned his attention to the dark screens again, then around the dark command centre, though, when text appears on one of the screen, the white text provided a distinct enough glow to turn his attention down, looking at it carefully, not understanding what it said as he stared.
Sebastian meanwhile was already sprinting down corridors, the headlamp on his helmet glowing softly as he rushed along the wide corridors, along the twists and turns as he followed its directional aids pointing him towards Zone-Seven, as he raced down, he passed a few other workers stood in confusion, uncertain what they’re supposed to be doing, those watching Sebastian then exchanged more controlled glances – as Sebastian reached the access point to cross into Zone-Seven, he felt the sudden shift in the air as he opened the door.
As he crossed the threshold, he suddenly felt as though he’d just stepped into a hunting ground, where the Predator was already ready to pounce, his body simply went rigid for a moment, his eyes scanning the darkness, looking for signs of movement by crates.
As he stood silently, he was certain he could hear little clicks somewhere nearby causing him to turn his head, his headlamps providing a soft illumination over the space for a moment, but he couldn’t see anything out of place.
Swallowing, Sebastian forced himself forwards, his eyes scanning everywhere around him as he started moving forwards through the wide corridor, as he walked, he kept looking for any sign of movement, but when he heard another click, he halted; pausing only hallway before he could reach the next connecting door, the one that should take him to the viewing corridor, where Erika and Tammy should be, now though, as his eyes locked onto it, his ears were locked onto the sounds of clicking; the soft, delicate sound, the kind of sound one could make using their tongue, a distinctive sound that did not match the creak of metal.
Slowly turning, Sebastian moved his head slowly, letting the lamp drift slowly, looking for any movement as he started to back up towards the connecting doorway, yet still, nothing was out of place, but he knew he was not alone at that moment.
When his back hit the door, he quickly turned to open it, pushing it open, having to put effort in due to the lack of power and, once he got through, he started pushing it closed again, once closed, he let out a breath, then turned and started running down the corridor, spotting the soft glow of headlamps further down, and locating Erika and Tammy who were still not wanting to move, though as Sebastian reached them, he felt the return of that same feeling, as though a predator was right there and ready to pounce.
Outside of the station, Damien and Valerie’s transport rumbled across the uneven terrain, its heavy wheels kicking up plumes of fine dust that drifted lazily in low-gravity; inside, Damien and Valerie sat in a tense silence, their focus on getting their transport back to the station, Damien’s eyes flicked about the controls a moment, then he reached for the communications panel hoping that now, they should have a signal.
Still, like previous attempts, it only came back as static, Damien immediately frowned “Right then” he rumbled with a his Scottish drawl “Somethin’ is wrong, we should ‘ave a signal by now; even if there ‘as bee a surge, we should ‘ave summat”
Valerie looked at him, her expression tight with rising concern, nodding, she flicked her eyes forwards, staring at the screens a moment before looking through the glass screen, the basin where the Vanguard Station slowly came into view; a dark indentation in an endless grey, usually, there would be lights visible to give an indication of where the station sat, instead, it was just a void of darkness and a darker silhouette that they could just barely make out.
Valerie blinked as she leaned forwards “The station has no power?”
Damien gave a slow nod as he stared out of the window, then flicked his attention down to the screens; as he brought the transport to a controlled stop at the edge of the ridge overlooking where the station should be, he stood up, moving to collect his helmet, lifting and putting it on, securing it in place.
Failing to get a response on the radio, Valerie looked to Damien “Do you think it’s a power failure?”
“Maybe” Damien answered, glancing back as he moved to the weapons locker, his eyes lifting towards the glass a moment, staring out, looking towards the dark silhouette in the basin, he processed it all carefully “Or maybe we’re not alone out here” he considered, looking back to Valerie
Valerie looked at him carefully, then she rose up, collecting her helmet ad pulling it on over her head and securing it; Damien meanwhile opened up the weapons locker, collecting a weapon clearly based on an old Enfield design with clear alterations for its use off-Earth, moving, he looked to Valerie “Lets go”
Valerie gave a slow nod, she understood why they would be going on foot, without anyone aware of their return, they wouldn’t be able to get inside the facility, and, without knowing what was happening, it felt a little more on the cautious side to approach with as small of a silhouette as possible rather than with a potentially detectable machine.
Moving from the safety of the pressurised cabin, they made for the final hatch, Damien moving to begin the opening sequence, Valerie following him out to what was now beginning to feel like a planet that no longer felt empty.
Written By: Westley H.
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