Chapter 824: Something Else On The Ship

We continued moving through the dark corridors of the ship, trying to look for the generator room that hopefully might help us turn the lights on.

There were a few rooms along the way and we checked inside them to see what was inside them.

Unfortunately, none of them led to the generator room as they had placed the crew’s bunks in this part of the ship as well.

Figuring that it should be deeper inside, we proceeded onwards while still keeping an eye out for anything that moved.

After all... We still don’t know what caused the wound on that guy’s chest.

We reached a part of the corridor where a large, reinforced door was embedded in the wall on our right which, judging by the wall itself, should be the door to the generator room.

I pressed myself against the side of the door, taking a moment to check that Yumiko was ready, prompting her to nod her head at me.

I hit the console to open the door and waited as the door slid open before I tried to peek around it.

Light came from within, revealing the room to be indeed the generator room as I had thought.

I took a moment to check that the coast was clear before beckoning to Yumiko, both of us slipping into the generator room silently.

We took a moment to scan the rest of the room with our flashlight to make sure that the coast was clear until I noticed a trail of blood on the ground leading towards a corner of the room where the generator controls were.

I followed the trail, keeping my gun up and pointed in the corner as I approached the end of the blood trail while also keeping an ear open to see if there were any sounds coming from there.

Hearing and seeing nothing, I rounded the corner to peek around it, flashing my light to illuminate the corner.

What I found was a dead guy slumped against the console with his guts spilled out all over the floor, clearly already dead. His hand was placed on top of a lever that had the words ’Lighting’ on it so I’m guessing he’s the reason why the lights were shut off on the ship.

There was also a deep slash mark across his back so if I had to piece together what happened... This guy got attacked and stumbled his way to the console to shut off the lights while his guts were spilling out of his body.

But why? He not only shut off the lights for this room but also shut it off for the entire ship as well... Why would he do something like that?

This made no sense at all...

Unless... Whatever that attacked him wouldn’t be able to attack the rest of the crew if the lights were shut off?

Hmm... This raised more questions than answers...

I turned to Yumiko, "Should we keep the lights off?"

She paused for a moment before she jerked her chin at the dead guy, "We can check if he has a way to contact the rest of the crew, Mistress."

Right... I guess I should have thought of that when we came across the first guy in the corridor but I guess I felt too exposed out there to even think about it.

I went over to the dead guy and searched around for his personal terminal, which wasn’t that hard considering the fact that it was dropped near his feet.

The guy must have been holding on to it before he died.

I picked it up and used him to unlock it, opening up to the recent messages to see if there were any clues there first.

Aside from some random messages, there was nothing else there so I went to check his recent call list.

The contact at the very top was listed as ’Captain’ so I assume that this guy was supposed to be the captain of this ship. Maybe they even instructed him to turn off the lights to begin with?

I tried to use that personal terminal to call the number, the screen popping up to start its connection to the receiver.

It rang a few times before the screen changed to show a fearful looking man looking right back at me.

His face of fear changed into confusion quickly as he realised who the caller was.

"You... Who are you? How are you able to call me from this personal terminal?" He asked.

"Are you aware of where your ship is right now?"

He blinked at me before his eyes lit up, "Did we make it? We didn’t know where that Warp Gate was headed to and we couldn’t stay to make sure so we did a blind jump! Did we reach a civilised space?!"

"I suppose I will just say yes for now. What is going on in this ship? Why are the lights off?"

He gasped, "Whatever you do, do not turn the lights back on! It’s the only reason why the rest of us are alive right now!"

"And why? What’s killing your crew?"

He hesitated for a moment as he considered his words, "First thing’s first... Who are you?"

"I’m a Merc who just so happened to be nearby when your ship jumped in. I tried hailing your ship and got no response so we decided to board it to check what’s wrong with your ship."

I didn’t feel the need to tell him he’s currently within a system controlled by Crusaders Inc. so I left out that information.

He let out a sigh of relief, "Oh, ok... Then I guess I can tell you."

Hmm? What was he afraid that I would be that he might not be able to tell me what happened?

He continued, "We took a job transporting... Well... Some ’special’ goods... And let’s just say that the ’special’ goods is something that would kill you if it wasn’t properly contained..."

I narrowed my eyes, "You’re transporting some kind of killer alien creature and now it’s loose somewhere in the ship?"

He pursed his lips before saying a single word, "Plural..."

"You’re transporting several alien creatures and they’re all now set loose in the ship?!"

He grimaced, "Look, I know how fucked up my situation is, alright? I thought we were pretty much dead before you called me! It’s already a fucking miracle that you’re here so no need to tell me what I already know!"

Yumiko appeared beside me, "He sounds like he’s more trouble than he’s worth, Mistress. I suggest we just leave the ship and return to ours."

His eyes widened in panic, "Wait, wait, wait! I’m sorry! I’m sorry! Please help us!! I’ve already lost more than half my crew to these things! We don’t want to die here!"

"What even are these creatures?" I asked.

"Fuck if I know. Some guy arranged for them to be transported, my job was just to transport them. That’s all I know about them."

"Well how did they even get out in the first place then?"

"I don’t know! They were locked in these boxes down in the cargo bay and they just suddenly got out and started killing everyone!"

"What even are they?"

"Like I said, I don’t know! From the cameras, they look like some four legged creature with spikes for hands or something, I don’t know what to tell you!"

I nodded at the dead guy beside me, "Did you tell this guy to turn off the lights?"

He grimaced again, "Yes... It seems like the creatures relies on its sight to see us and it can’t see us in the dark... So I gave the order to shut off the lights..."

"You don’t have any weapons to fight back with?"

"We only have small weapons... Pistols... They barely do anything to them..."

I sighed, "Fine... Do you have a plan to deal with this?"

"I mean... Short of having you hunt them down? Not really?"

"How many of them are there?"

"I can’t be sure but... Probably anywhere between five to eight?"

Ok, that’s not too bad... I think I should be able to handle that many with just Yumiko and myself.

"And where are you now?" I asked.

"We’ve barricaded ourselves inside my room right now. Please, you have to help us..."

I pursed my lips before letting out another sigh, "Sit tight then... I’ll call you again if there’s something else I need to know... And also, I’ll be turning on the lights."

He gasped, "Wait! If you turn it on, they can see you!"

"We’re literally walking around with flashlights anyway so they’ll see us with it. Better to have the lights on so we can see them and kill them instead of having them come out from the darkness."

"Are... Are you sure you can kill them?"

"I don’t know? You’re not exactly helpful in telling me what they are and whether my shotgun that can blast through power armour is able to blast through them? So why don’t you just shut up and sit tight over there?"

He immediately snapped his mouth shut and I shut off the call.

I then reached out to grab the light lever.

Guess we’re doing this...