Right here’s yet another idea I had for a story. It’s only a tester, to see what you lot think of it, so let me know if I should carry on with it. Suggestions welcome, R/R.

Chapter 1.

Mining Colony: Calisto 748.

 Corporal Anna Johnson sat silently, hidden in the shadows of the room, praying for dawn. All she wanted was to survive the night, nothing else. Anything that happened after that was a bonus in her books.

They should never have come here, she knew that now, but before she had only been following orders, playing the obedient soldier. Now she was the only one left. Everyone else had been picked off one by one, slaughtered and tormented by the creatures sent to hunt them.

Even Reece was gone…Reece…Anna sighed it hurt to think of him, her sniper partner, her comrade, her most trusted friend. The one who had been beside her from the start, and had sworn to be there at the end.

Anna closed her eyes the tears threatening to escape again. This was the end and Reece wasn’t beside her like he’d promised…

A screech sounded in the distance, answered by another somewhere in the dark behind the door. Closer than before.

Tightening her grip on the 9mm gun in her hand, Anna waited in the darkness to face the end alone and allow her mind to replay the last hellish 3 weeks of her life…

 3 weeks previous…

Aboard the military space station ‘Gypsy Seeker’.

Lieutenant Carlos Reece sat silently, his dark eyes resting calmly on the paper file before him as he and the rest of his squad mates read over the latest orders from High Command. He glanced up, catching the gaze of his sniper partner, Corporal Anna Johnson, who gave a slight, almost imaginary shake of her head. She wasn’t happy with the details of the latest mission, anymore than he was.

Tucking a loose strand of her dark hair behind her ear, Johnson looked expectantly at her partner; surely he wasn’t going to go along with this. It was too risky, the details too vague.

Reece glanced at his commanding officer, a Major Eric Philips, who was still engrossed in his orders, and shrugged silently at his sniper partner.

Reece’s younger brother, Antonio shifted in his seat and closed his file, with a shake of his head.

Major Philips raised his head slightly to look at his talented and experienced team of men and women. “I assume from the various glances and shrugs being passed amongst you, that none of you are happy with this mission?”

“Permission to speak freely, Sir?” Medical Officer Dillon asked, her green eyes shifting back to the file in front of her.

The Major nodded at the red headed woman, “Permission granted”.

“With all due respect sir, surely even you can see this is too risky. The details are too vague, it lacks vital information.” Dillon paused with a frown. “High Command can’t even tell us how long Calisto 248 has been under martial law. There’s no information as to what sort of problem we’re facing, we don’t know whether it’s a quarantine situation, hostage negotiation or simply a technical fault in the communication equipment.”

Several of the other marines were nodding in agreement at Dillon’s assessment of the lack information provided by High Command.

Major Philips smiled at his team, “I understand you all have worries about this, but I wouldn’t have accepted the mission if I had any doubts we couldn’t complete it. We are ladies and gentlemen, the best of the best. Take confidence it that.

We are on route to the Vega Prime quadrant as we speak. We should arrive in Calisto 248s orbit within a month, which mean people we’re going into the freezers.

Our main objective is to find out the reason for loss of contact and if possible fix it. In the event that we encounter hostilities of any kind we are to neutralise the threat quickly and effectively by any means possible, to ensure the Colony’s Survival as a mining station. I’m sure you all know how many influential companies have invested in Calisto 248?”

The squad nodded, they all knew several corporations had invested large amounts of money into the mining colony, including the international Corporation known as Mila-Tech, the same company who had been supplying the Unified Nations Marine Core, with weaponry and state of the art technology since before the plague of 2022, almost sixty years. Without Mila-Tech the marine core wouldn’t be-able to operate effectively, and without the marines there would be chaos throughout the quadrants and outlying colonies.

“Now,” the Major continued, “I want Cryo-stasis tubes prepped and ready for use by 0830hrs. A Systems diagnostic by 0800hrs, including auto-pilot and life support.

Lieutenant Reece, Corporal Johnson, you two are in charge of weapons prepping and checking ammunition stores. Understood?”

The two snipers nodded “Yes Sir”.

Major Philips gave a nod, and turned to look at his Flight Officer, Rose Franks. “Officer Franks, I want ‘The Rio’ prepped and ready for departure from this station by 0700hrs.

Lets get to it people.”  

Stepping onto the docking bay, where ‘The Rio’ was silently waiting for them. Anna Johnson gave a sigh, she never thought she’d get tired of the core, living a well structured life, something she’d never had back on earth. Now though the idea of spending the next few weeks frozen in stasis turned her stomach. Seven years in the core, half of that time spent sleeping in a tube, and she still suffered with claustrophobia.

Reece came to stand beside her, his heavy boots announcing his approach. He offered her a slight smile in greeting, his gaze resting on the grey metal of the ‘The Rio’s’ hull.

“I have a bad feeling about this Carlos,” she murmured.

The Lieutenant turned to look at her, seemingly unbothered by his partner’s lack of formalities when addressing her commanding officer.  Such formalities were rarely used this far from High Command, unless in the presence of another ranking officer from outside your own squad.

“We may as well go walking in with our eyes closed”.

Carlos gave a silent nod, “I know but we’ve done worse, and I’ll be watching your back just like all the other times, it’ll be no different”.

Johnson gave a half hearted smile and nod, before moving towards the ship that would carry them to Calisto 248, “C’mon Reece we’ve a got a job to do and only a few hours to get it done”.

Reece watched as his friend disappeared inside the space craft, pushing aside his own half baked feelings a dread…