Ark 17
A squad of eight marines arrives, fully armed and ready to go.
Two heavy gunners, carrying grenade launchers and a complement of frag and smoke grenades, with automatic pistols as back-up. (Hayes, her nose now slightly crooked from her encounter with Dawson's elbow not so long ago, and Ramirez.)
Four regular infantry, carrying automatic rifles and automatic pistols. (Brooks, Anderson, Novak, and Dixon.)
One medic. (Castor.)
One Team Leader (Almerton, though he has been ordered to defer to Reyes.)
The shuttle crew consists of a pilot, co-pilot, and two technicians. The pilot, an Air Force Warrant Officer Gorman, gives Reyes a smile as the squad boards, "Well, this ought to be fun. We're going to dock on 42's aft outer ring port. Colonel says its vacant - which says to me that they launched one of their shuttles. Everyone ready to go?"
Ark 42
Akemi and Joy were sitting in the cramped crew quarters section of the forward outer ring of Ark 42. It was dark - main power had been lost two days ago. Rations were low, the air was getting heavy, and the 3000 plus survivors were starting to lose hope.
The launch from Earth had been chaotic. One of the shuttles, carrying more than a thousand people, hadn't quite docked when Colonel Munroe gave the order to activate the hyper drive. Some say he had panicked, that the enemy attack ships were still at least two minutes away. Others said he had made the right choice - sacrifice a thousand to save nearly 9000. Most of Ark 42's marine attachment had been on that shuttle, however.
Regardless, something strange had happened. Akemi and Joy and a few others on the ship heard voices, strange whispers in their minds, while the ship was in hyperspace. After nearly 9 hours in hyperspace, the hyperdrive deactivated on its own. Joy and Akemi and the others who had heard the voices felt drawn to the hyper drive, called to it, an urge they couldn't resist. When a biologist, Dr. Harold Thompson, touched the black egg-like hyper drive, it shattered. Inside was something out of a nightmare. An eight foot tall monster that vaguely resembled an orangutan with tusks jutting from its mouth, a feral yet intelligent red gleam in its eyes.
The creature took the crew by surprise, tearing apart what few military forces the ship had on board. Those who heard the voices...those who survived the beast's initial attack, were able to seal off the forward section of the outer ring. But that had left 6000 people with that...thing. The screams of the dying and the screeching howls of the creature echoed through the ship.
Dr. Alexander Locke, an astrophysicist and one of the "chosen" as he called those who heard the voices, had been the one to seal off the rest of the ship. With Colonel Munroe unaccounted for, he assumed command. That was five days ago. Two days ago, power had gone out. The screams were gone now...replaced by an unsettling silence.
Akemi was one of only 14 surviving military members left. The rest of the survivors were civilians. The 10 surviving "Chosen", including Akemi and Joy, had started to exhibit strange powers. Akemi had a level of endurance she'd never experienced before and an almost unnatural amount of luck. Joy, meanwhile, found she was able to soothe the panic of the survivors and inspire them to keep up hope. Dr. Alexander Locke demonstrated the most startling changes - he could conjure a spectral hand out of thin air and use it just like a regular hand up to 30 feet away.