_ _ _ _Captain Elliott Terra Pov_ _ _ _
I remember the sound of screams, desperate cries for help that were mixed with the sound of gunfire, it was complete and utter mayhem to say the least. Those damned things that now poured through my ship like a virus infecting a body, they spread out through the metal corridors and ventilation shafts dragging away those they could while killing the rest.
Men and women fought for their lives step by step but they were losing ground by the second as they fled toward the few remaining ways of escape. All the while, as this once proud vessel fell, I issued orders through my coms to the rest of the ship from the bridge, directing those I could towards salvation.
I was alone, those who had been with me some time ago were now all either dead or...or worse, honestly, I didn't want to think about it. I had sealed off all the entrances I could but I knew those abominations would get in here eventually, it was just a matter of time before they did after all.
I was using the monitors to guide all those I could find, all the while I was keeping an eye on the parts of the ship that had been overtaken. There was one camera that I checked over and over again, there was something there that shouldn't have been, it wasn't something that should have appeared so quickly, it shouldn't have but there it was. In the deepest bowels of the ship, in a place where there were barely any working cameras left, a queen could be seen.
How did it get there without anyone noticing? Where did it come from? We had only bought one of the creatures on board after all, so how were there already so many of them? How did they manage to start a hive so quickly? I had no answer to any of these questions, the banging against the door behind me as something tried to force its way inside gave me little time to think of theories.
I don't know how long passed, how long it took for the things on the other side of the door to tear their way through it, I don't even remember how many I killed before they overcame me. In the end the outcome was the same, I had attempted to put a bullet through my skull before they could take me, I, unfortunately, failed.
My consciousness drifted in and out as I was dragged through the corridors that filled what was once my ship, it was theirs now. I could still hear people shouting in my coms, some calling for me, others just screamed until they inevitably all went silent. Soon however I felt my body go weightless as everything dissipated into darkness, I couldn't feel, I couldn't hear, I couldn't see. All I could do was float as my barely conscious mind was overcome by a strange tranquil calmness, all my fear, all my panic it just vanished as I lingered there for who knows how long.
Eventually something changed however, slowly my senses returned to me one after another as my vision was filled with light. My emotions also came back to confusion, dread, panic, worry, all of it came floating back in an instant. Just as my eyes were adjusting to the light however, something smacked into the back of my head and once again, everything went dark.
_ _ _ _Flashback End_ _ _ _
(That took a while, thankfully I am definitely getting faster that's for sure.) I hummed to myself as I moved through the ship.
Nearly four hundred, that's about the number of individuals that I had just spent the last few days indoctrinating, Navara had definitely gone out of her way to capture quite a few people during the battle for the Perseus. There was quite the variety as well, most of them were marines but there were also dozens of mechanics, medical personnel, some of the command staff and so on.
Right now they were all just getting their bearings while also working to repair the damage to the ship, I even saw someone trying to get a busted up power loader back up and operational. Honestly, I really wanted to try that thing out at some point, however my current form made that nearly impossible considering it wasn't designed to be used by a chibi version of a xenomorph queen.
Anyway, overall the process had gone relatively smoothly, if not a little annoying. Turns out that I couldn't indoctrinate people while they were in my Sanctuary storage much to my irritation, and so I had to pull them out one by one. They weren't exactly cooperative to say the least, thankfully however, knocking them out worked just fine as an alternative, even if some of them may have had a slight headache after the experience.
After wondering for a bit I eventually came to a metal door, a metal door that led to the command deck. "Open it, would you please." I hummed to the guard standing outside of it.
"Right away ma'am." The guard responded as he quickly tapped on a nearby console causing the door to slide open.
"Thanks." I said as I walked inside.
"No problem at all."
(Well, he seems nice...) I mused to myself internally.
Walking into the command deck I immediately took a look around the place, the room was what you'd expect from a futuristic spaceship and was filled with a dozen or so people. Some of them were just looking at various monitors while others were speaking through head sets as they directed repair teams to move throughout the ship.
Additionally, in the center of the room was a group of five individuals, two of which I recognised immediately. There was Edward as well as Harper, they were talking to three others who I remember indoctrinating recently.
The first was Captain Elliott Terra of the Perseus, a man who I hadn't expected to be captured by Navara. Apparently he was the "captain goes down with the ship" kind of individual, as he had been primarily focused on getting as many people evacuated as possible instead of leaving the Perseus himself, something that I couldn't help but respect to some degree. In fact that's why he had apparently been captured to begin with, not that he went down without a fight of course.
Anyway, he was well built overall for someone who looked in their late forties and had a relatively tall and muscular frame all things considered. He had keen eyes and a handsome face with sharp features with a rather prominent extended goatee. His hair was shortly cut and was mostly brown in color with some gray hairs mixed in. He was currently wearing a dark green and black military uniform with a few fancy looking medals fastened to his chest, although I didn't know what any of them actually meant.
Next was a woman named Eno Hamara, the apparent head medical officer of the Perseus and was currently wearing the kind of outfit you would probably expect for someone of that profession. From her appearance she seemed part Japanese, part something else I couldn't place, maybe Australian, it was hard to tell. Anyway, she was a somewhat short woman with shoulder length brown hair and bright amber eyes, despite her appearance, which practically screamed "Cute and pretty short stack", the way she carried herself made you think twice about that assumption. The most interesting thing about her however, was the fact that she actually had a prosthetic arm, her right arm had completely been replaced with a mechanical one from what I could tell.
Finally there was Eric Walters, the current head engineer of the Perseus, the old one had been used as a host to birth one of my many grandchildren apparently. He had messy dark blonde hair and slightly tanned skin, he was also wearing rectangular glasses as well as a clearly stained engineering outfit. Honestly, he was the most ordinary looking out of the three, not that I meant that in a mean way.
"Miss Carmen." Edward said with a respectful nod.
"Greetings my queen." Harper also greeted along with the other three.
(They would probably be trying to kill me by now if I hadn't indoctrinated them...) I sighed internally as I glanced at the three in question before deciding to push that guilt aside for now.
"So how are things going here?" I asked after a second of silence.
"Well, I took it upon myself to come over and get our new friends here up to speed on current events." Edward mused calm and pleasant as ever. "Miss Harper here decided to help out as she had nothing much to do as of late."
"I see..." I muttered before continuing. "Anything else of note that you were discussing?"
"Other than the fact that we are still repairing the damage caused by your...child." Elliott said, causing me to glance away somewhat awkwardly. "We have been discussing possible future endeavors."
"Mainly we were trying to find various ways for us to increase our current productivity without straining what little manpower we have." Eric added while adjusting his glasses slightly.
Eno nodded to that in agreement. "Indeed, we need to get things done, however pushing everyone past their limits would only cause more problems that I'd rather we prevent beforehand."
"Even with over five hundred or so people now we are still understaffed in many areas, such as mining or construction." Harper said, her usual stand offishness is still noticeable even now.
"About that, is it possible to produce more Synthetics?" I asked, turning to Eric
(While yes, they do creep me the hell out, I can't deny that they're very useful.) I thought to myself, already dreading having more of them walking around. (Thankfully they are not the near sentient kind of Synthetics, so using them like this isn't an issue to me.)
"The ship does have a rather large engineering bay, however it may take a bit before we can start producing things as complicated as them." He answered thoughtfully. "We can just copy the programming from the other Synthetics, so that won't be an issue at all thankfully, however actually building them is a problem."
"Can the matter converters help with that?" Elliott asked, clearly interested in finding a solution.
(Matter converters?) I thought confused for a second before I remembered. (Oh right, that's what they've been calling the 3D printer things I gave them.)
Eric thought for a moment before nodding. "Possibly, so long as they can make all the necessary components we should be able to accelerate production."
"Good, because we're going to need them." Eno sighed with a shake of her head. "I'd rather keep the injuries to our marines and staff to a minimum if at all possible, at least until we can get a proper medical facility built and operational."
"Is the Perseus's medical wing not sufficient?" I mused curiously.
"It will do for now, however it was built specifically for injuries given from creatures and weapons from our universe, we don't have the equipment to deal with injuries from giant mutant wolves and whatever else we may encounter down the road."
"Ah..."