Those Who Work In The Dark

Dubois was waiting in the dark of the station, he didn't hear her approach, but felt the gun barrel press against his spine. A smile spread across his scarred lips, he continued to stare out the window to the vast blackness of space, it comforted him, reminded him of home. The planet he lived on was the leftover of a mining operation, the surface too hot to stay on an entire civilization was built underground, it made it easier on him with his skin condition. And there was always work, always one baron wanting someone else to be put in their place, and the work was good most of the time, kept him prepared for missions like the current one he was on.

"Getting sloppy in your old age."

"I knew you were coming, I figured you'd either kill me or converse with me, I hoped the conversation, but its been years Jan maybe hate has taken up the place where affection used to be." She withdrew the pistol, and hugged her old friend.

"I was surprised when you called, Rim station? You do have a quirky sense of adventure."

"I did not pick the location, she did." Jan pulled back and smiled.

"And you're sure it was a true vision?"

"It wasn't a vision, she visited me directly like the old texts speak of her, but it could simply have been a malfunction in my eye, I do have the older version and I have never upgraded." The newer cybernetics were less obvious and more human looking, Dubois's had a blue hue to the iris and if you were close enough you could hear the motors in it adjusting to track visuals.

"And you believe her?"

"I called all of you here did I not? I do not know what she wants, or why we are here, she simply told me to bring a group of you here and that it will become obvious why we are here when the time comes."

"Well I passed up a lucrative contract to get here, I hope you aren't just having a mental breakdown in your old age."

"Your trust is what keeps me going Jan, just tell the others to be ready, I have a feeling we'll be needed soon." They hugged again and Jan left, Dubois watched out the window, his eye tracking the emptyness of space looking for something, he couldn't explain what, but he felt he should keep watching all the same.

The Numbers Scenario

Morley's office was huge. Wix had dealt with having a bag over his head and being knocked out to arrive in the position he was in, and the first thing he noticed was the size of the office. He couldn't even see the ceiling it was so high up. The walls were lined with computers and tech all doing one thing or another. In the center was a massive throne and on it sat Morley, the founder of the company and supposed immortal. He looked awful, a combination of cybernetic enhancement and rotting flesh. Wix could see several generations of enhancements built into Morley, probably too redudant to remove. He looked nothing like all of his portraits, and talked with a raspy voice that would have been hard to hear if not for the sound system in the room reverberating his message. Wix was alone with Morley, the guards who had brought him there waited outside.

"Lorentino." The voice called it out like a painful memory.

"Yes sir the shifter has been identified as an Imperial officer, Rolando Lorentino." Morley didn't hardly move on the throne, he just sat and stared, Wix felt it extremely unnerving.

"Any relation to Trezlan?"

"Son sir, though we don't know if its..."

"His son, and he's on my ship, perfect, blow it up." Morley laughed.

"The experiment sir."

"Is a failure, the biomechanicals are too random to be useful, and other data we have extracted will do, blow the ship up, kill the Lorentino, do not fail me." Morley's chair turned around and his guards arrived to escort Wix out, they had his black bag and sedative ready.

"Yes sir, thank you sir." And then the world went black for Wix.

Biological, Mostly Lethal

Rolando was following the large female down dark corridors, she hadn't said anything since she snatched him in the darkness. Just lead him deeper into the ship. He could see she too was at one point imperial military, the remains of her patchwork uniform still sort of had her unit on it. She didn't have a traditional weapon, instead she had some kind of spear that was cobbled together from the creatures best Rolando could tell. She was also huge, pushing seven feet and almost double Rolando's size. She was terrifying to Rolando. They eventually came to an alcove. It looked like some kind of maintenance station. Rolando could see most of the vents leading in were secure with a variety of make shift tools and welding. Inside the room was a limited group of supplies with tools and other cobbled together weaponry.

"No one else?" She was standing in front of him now, looking at him with suspicion. He could see metal slightly above her right eye, it didn't look recent, so she may have been augmented prior to whatever brought her here.

"Only survivor, Rolando Lorentino." She paused for a moment eyeing him.

"Lieutenant, hounds, magical specialist."

"Creepy."

"I have a database of all imperial military files, though I admit its out of date, if you've been promoted since then I'm sorry sir. Sergeant Therod exploration division." She extended her hand and Rolando could see the legacy of pain already on it. Therod had a lighter skin tone with red hair a legacy of her family.

"Exploration? Isn't that a?"

"Shit assignment for rejects? Yes sir, you've been assigned to the Rim, so I'm sure you're well aware of shit assignments."

"Noted Therod, so how screwed am I?"

"Completely boned sir, these creatures are relentless, I've been here 6 months and I've had to move locations at least six times, they find ways in, they track you through smell or something I haven't determined. Also someone is watching, that's why I'm in these tunnels, this is an experiment sir, and we're the test subjects."

"Well I'm thankful for the honest no shit assessment. Options?"

"Blow the ship up."

Ten Times Too Many Coincidences

Brubaker was willing to possibly concede, one maybe two Mordere's arriving on rim was a coincidence, maybe some kind of strange co vacation tradition they engaged in. By the time the tenth arrived he suspected something was up. This was one older than the others and clearly the one in charge if they had such a thing. Brubaker had gotten used to his little meetings, Roberts had barricaded his office with most of the active personnel left on the station he refused to even open the door while the Mordere's were still there, they had taken to feeding him through a slot in the door.

"What will I be drinking today?" He didn't know if this was the standard thing this group did, or something they were humoring him.

"It's very rare, from the old world pre apocalypse." This man talked with a bit of hush to his voice he had a scar over his voice box from some trauma.

"Old doesn't mean good." He poured the fluid it came out in a sludge.

"It does mean expensive, and I'm told everyone else took the really good stuff." He took a seat and held the glass up, took a sip and passed it to Brubaker as if to show him it was not poisoned.

"Could just mean the poison was on your lips, or perhaps this is a combo poison, ten elements over a day for me to get it all in, this is the cap and it kills me." The man smiled, the manifest said his name was J. Dubois.

"I'll have to remember that one, but I'm sure as my colleagues said poisoning is not our style, we don't carry the iron for show you see." They had informed Brubaker, several times, but he liked the dance each one had about the drinks.

"So are you going to claim that horse shit about vacation?" Dubois smiled again, the other ones did not smile, apparently he felt more open to smile than his compatriots, he also had an unearthly hew to his skin, the kind you only get from not seeing the sun very often.

"You don't believe us Colonel?"

"Your people are not known for their honesty."

"Words that wound, but you are correct we are not actually here on vacation, but I assure you we are also not here to harm anyone, least of all your cowardly station commander."

"Than what are you here for?"

"You wouldn't believe me if I told you." And that's all J. Dubois would say on the matter and since it was against the law to congregate on the station Brubaker could not compell him to say anything further.

Freedom to Fail

Rolando could feel the corruption creeping up on him. In the past his father had warned him about the blood disease every magical person carries, had warned him specifically about shifters being more likely to fall prey to it specifically because the act of shifting was an intense magical ability and thus corrupted you faster than any other. How Trezlan knew this was in dealing with Rolando's mother who was also a shifter though of a lesser ability to Rolando himself. Her best shift was less than a block from her current location where as Rolando still had no idea on what his limit was. All of that was academic though, the bio humans were hunting him and he was losing his ability to get away from them with non standard means. He was also running out of bullets but the damned creatures weren't running out of themselves.

He was down to his pistol and knife, what he had started with back on the ship, but all the high tech fire power he had left behind either because the shift had shorted it out, or it had run out of ammunition. He had killed twenty of the creatures by his count, with small arms, explosives, and his knife and they kept coming. The initial ones had just bull rushed him, trying to him with numbers or their ability to surround, but the shifting kept those ones at bay. Now they had gotten craftier, he could hear them moving around him, but he hadn't seen one for hours. Which left him to explore the interior of the ship which looked like some kind of science lab gone wrong.

There were labs all over, each one more ruined and destroyed than the last. He figured the creatures must have been created here, and then got loose somehow? But what he couldn't figure is how the people on the freighter had died on the ship,but none of the creatures had been on the ship, or how the freighter had clearly landed, but been able to escape. Or how his ship had been locked in? Someone or something was still in charge, but he knew he didn't have much time, the creatures were hunting him. Rolando was passing by a dark lab when something snagged him, he was about to risk the shift when he heard a voice in his ear.

"Don't move, don't talk, come with me." He did as the voice commanded and disappeared into the dark.

****

"Gods damn it!" The technician pulled away from his console in frustration. He was a young man who knew his career had probably just gone down in flames.

"What?" Wix was still in the room, he had lived in the room since the arrival of the shifter, and they definitely knew he was a shifter now he'd done it several times over large gaps to escape the creatures.

"I lost him sir, he was there I was tracking him and five of the bio's pursuing him and then nothing. I thought maybe they had gotten him, but they weren't close enough and they themselves seem completely confused by where he is as well."

"SUBJECT 13!!!!"

Morley Must Be Informed

Wix didn't want to go to his boss. As much as Walters hated him, he hated Clark even more. Clark was a handsome young man who has seemingly risen in the company on the strength of his looks alone, including being hand picked to lead the bio weapons division, when it seemed the only bio weapon he knew about were the std's he'd given several male and female staff members. Clark knew less about the project than any junior technician working on it, but still he was Wix's superior and he had to report to him whether he wanted to or not. When Wix arrived at Clark's office the young man was just staring at the painting of Morley.

"Sir."

"Come in Wix, do you think I look like Morley? I think I do, we have the same strong chin." Clark tried to take on the same pose as Morley, and Wix thought for a monent he looked similar.

"Not at all sir." Not that Wix would admit it of course. Clark clearly annoyed by his subordinate sat down in his chair with a slump.

"What do you want Wix, do your creatures need more test subjects or something?"

"No sir, we have two active subjects, and that's one of the issues, one of the new ones managed to kill three with relative ease and the biometrics have some discrepancies." Clark's face of annoyance did not change.

"What?"

"He seemingly appeared and disappeared, the only thing that would explain it is if he's a shifter, but the Imperial military would never use a shifter in a combat situation." Clark frowned.

"A shifter?" Wix wanted to kill the moron, he didn't understand literally anything, he wondered again how he ever got to be in charge of anything.

"Just please, please pass this along to senior management." Wix handed the data drive to Clark who took it with as much drive as someone who was handed garbage. Wix left and Clark scrunched his face up.

"I'd shift you, you asshole, maybe I'll feed you to those things you love so much." Clark was going to just disregard the data drive and tell Wix no one in mangement cared, but he decided to forward it to his boss, an icey lady in a business suit he never heard her name, most of the directors simply called her mother for some odd reason. Within minutes of sending the data Mother was storming into his office.

"Where did you get this Clark?" Clark was caught off guard he never saw the woman down on his floor, let alone in such a mood.

"I uhh one of my underlings brought it to me."

"Clark you're such a mistake you don't even know what this is do you?" Clark cowed like a dog wanted to be somewhere else.

"Its a video of a guy Wix said he was possibly a shifter."

"He's a shifter and a Lorentino good gods you're an idiot, Morley must be informed." And with that Mother left and Clark felt the need to evacuate all of his bowels.

Not Having This Conversation

The creatures hadn't emerged into the hanger bay, but Stevens and Rolando knew they were coming, they had to be the noise would bring them out.  Neither man got a good look at the biomen that had killed the soldiers, but what they had seen was terrifying enough. Stevens unlocked what was left of the armory and armed himself, but did not give anything to Rolando, instead he locked it again.

"Come on man don't do this, we're on the same side." Rolando really tired of being suspected of being a bad person, or really just suspected of being dangerous by his ability. He knew he was dangerous, but in this case it was dangerous to the enemy, not to Stevens.

"You're an adviser, advise."

"Stevens I advise you unlock my shackles and give me a gun before I strangle you to death." Stevens pointed his pistol at Rolando.

"Maybe I'll just say the cre HWUH!" A mechanical appendage shot through Stevens neck, his blood spattered in the small cabin compartment. The appendage locked itself around Stevens and started to pull him out of the cabin through the hole it had made. Rolando ran to the man and frantically searched for his keys as the creature kept splattering him in the remains of Stevens blood, just before the rest of Stevens was wrenched through the cabin Rolando snagged his shackle keys. He worked fast applying the double lock to free his wrists and feel the magic rush back in. No sooner had he finished unshackling himself when front door of the ship blew open. There were two creatures in front, which made three in the hangar at least. Rolando first shifted into the armory to snag his pistol and combat knife and that move alone confused the creatures. Which gave him an advantage, they obviously couldn't track his magical movements. He shifted again behind the creatures, gutting one with his knife and shooting the other one through its head. They both collapsed to the ground proving they could die. Which left just the one that had killed Stevens. He went outside and put a bullet through the creatures head and it slumped to the ground Steven's half grotesquely pulled corpse still clutched in its tendril.

"Soldiers can't kill shit, takes a Lorentino to kill shit! IS THAT THE BEST YOU GOT SHIP!?" Rolando felt triumphant, but he could hear more of the things coming and he knew, just knew he had to move or he'd be dead sooner rather than later.

****

Wix couldn't believe it, most tests ended with almost a hundred percent combat effiency, and here was one man who somehow killed three of the creatures. He copied the video of him shouting and immediately made for his office. Morley had to be informed.