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Silence filled the air between us as he stared upon me, and my gaze fell upon him. “What's your name… Given the insignia, I suppose 1st Lieutenant then?" the old man spoke. Realizing he was technically my superior back home, I stood firm, saluting, stating, “Ah yes, Lieutenant Nicholas Valentine, sir. I am… Well, was an MP. The promotion was honorary, to first." Letting off a laugh, he exhaled slowly, wiping a tear from his eye. “Ah… We're not home anymore my good man, knock it off with the formalities." He spoke, smirking as his shoulders were covered by a blue and gold jacket that he didn't wear on his arms, a white formal dress shirt and white pants covered his body. “Though I suppose the boys back home didn't exactly prepare you for what was going to happen, nor did they even know…" he started, rubbing his chin.

Sighing softly, he held his hands on his hips, looking out into the depths of space for several moments. Mere moments later, the ship shook again, the lights in the deck flickering. “Shit, shit. Apollo, status report." The old man spoke up, pressing his palm against his deck chair as he sat down; a spherical globe appearing before him. “Admiral, I detect multiple hostile boarding. Primary engines are offline, and shields are down. Battalions two through five are at the engineering deck, yet we detect another breach in the life support mainframe. One and six through ten are holding off via the engine deck. The life support breach pipe is minimal, there will not be a large invasion force there, however, life signs indicate that there are trespassers traveling through now. I will attempt to activate emergency shielding, but that will buy only minutes." It spoke, the eyeless hologram in front of him flickering.

Groaning softly, the old man turned to me, my brow lifting. “I know it's a bit sudden, but would you mind helping me out here?" he asked, tapping several buttons on his chair. “I'm an old man, don't quite have the agility that you do." He spoke, pointing to a capsule-like stall that opened, saying, “Step in there, it'll get you out of that suit first, and into something a little more practical." I looked back and forth between him and the stall several times before cautiously stepping into the capsule. I had no reason, at this point to distrust him, seeing as he was probably the only familiar thing I knew about here.

As I walked into it, I noticed several markings of a humanoid body and how to stand. Moments passed as I mirrored it, the capsule sealing, hands and feet being locked into place immediately. Struggling slightly, I saw two small arms with laser pointers at the tips move rapidly around my suit, the hard fibers and well-woven patches that were designed back on Earth shattering before me like paper. The ground was littered with the materials that I once wore over my main clothes, which were a plain white t-shirt and khaki pants. My limbs, however were locked into place still, much to my dismay. I held my breath, knowing the air was alright, but at the same time, not wanting to get sliced to bits seemed like a good idea to me.

A few moments later, the arms that once held the lasers retracted and multiple arms with needles strung with metallic and glowing threads surrounded me. Gulping slightly, I closed my eyes as I felt whirring all around me, comforting cloth quickly being swirled around my body and neck. Opening my eyes, I saw all the needles weaving and waving fibers all along my arms, my hands, my fingers, my torso. A skin-tight vest, gloves and pants were being crafted relatively quickly. They felt extremely lightweight, covering my entire body apart from my head and boots. As the first layer was laid down, the glowing needles took their turn weaving and waving their way around me, lacing in-between with the first layer, intertwining the silken-feeling cloth with a glossy, red glowing material, making several stripes and shapes across my chest, arms and legs.

As that layer finished, the original metal threaded needles and the glowing needles swayed and swirled simultaneously, the outer portion of my suit quickly being sewed together, lining all three layers on both my arms and legs. Moments later, the capsule pinged, the doors open, the needles retracting. Looking at my arms and legs, now covered in the black cloth; clenching my hands into balled fists as I stepped out, my boots hitting against the metal on the ground. I bent my arms back and forth, stretching the fibers around me as they comfortably adjusted and stayed skin-tight without feeling restraints. “…Damn, I don't think I've ever worn something this comfortable." I spoke, slowly stepping towards Vasiliy as he smiled, watching me walk out the container. “You look almost as good in that as I did, hah!" he exclaimed, slapping his hands on my shoulders with a wide smile on his face.

I let off a soft chuckle as he walked off towards a large translucent glass lock. Pressing his hand against it, the glass faded, and flashed away. I told myself at this point that I shouldn't be surprised by the technology around here. Everything seemed so… Surreal, so futuristic. As the lock opened, a large locker next to him popped up from the ground, a black helmet with red eyes and a gas filter on the end. Along with that was a rifle that glowed a pure blue and a pistol that followed the same color. “Slightly better than your ballistics you brought from home. Good model though, old, but good nonetheless." The old man spoke, picking up the helmet before tossing it to me.

Staring at the glowing eyes, I slipped the mask on first, my vision being relatively clear with several signals all along the visors across both eyes. “Just take it easy with the sensor, it adapts quickly, detects heat signals on command, and you can switch to night on vocal command. It's got a built in chained-AI; much better than the ones back home, and it can even understand English, ha!" he bellowed, patting my shoulder multiple times. “I'm still a bit blown back by all of this, but I'll get used to it eventually." I replied, picking up the rifle afterwards, holding it in front of me and using the dot scope to look around. It was relatively lightweight, but it looked nice, and I had a feeling that it would be useful. In my other hand, I lifted the pistol, pointing it around the room before nodding to him.

“One more thing about your suit that you may like. Go ahead, tap your guns somewhere on your suit!" he exclaimed, the old admiral smiling as he took the hand which held the pistol, tapping it against my leg as the fibers grew around it, making itself a holster. Surprised, I smiled. “Damn, I've got a million questions when I get back…" I said, looking to him before curiously moving the rifle around my back, tapping my spine with it as the cloth expanded to hold it into place. “…because this stuff is really damn nice." I added, the mask echoing my voice.

“Right, pleasantries aside, I need you to get some work done!" he exclaimed, clapping his hands before moving to his chair as the entire ship shook, the lights flickering. “Fuck!" he yelled, grabbing a bracelet from his chair and snapping it on my wrist. “Get going! Tap the green button and it'll lead you to life support. We can't afford to lose those systems." He spoke, the old man moving back to his chair as I waved the rifle I was given around. “I uh… Listen Sir, I'm no…" I started to say, realizing I wasn't exactly a soldier. “Don't worry, the lasers are heat seeking, just like electricity. Aim in the general direction and it'll hit them. It's you or them at this point; they're invading us." He spoke, looking at me.

Sighing softly, I nodded, pushing the button before jogging out the door into the hallway. The red lights around me flashed rapidly as my boots slammed down against the metallic floor time and time again. Too many questions were running about in my mind, but as far as I understood, this was the sanest thought to work with; the only other of my kind for the moment. I didn't know if there were others near, but it gave me some solace to know that I wasn't exactly alone on this end of… Wherever I was.

The tailored suit that was attached to me was rather comfortable to work with, moving was much easier, the rifle in my hands feeling heavy, the old ballistic pistol on one side of my body, the new energy or lightening based one on my other side. I hadn't time to practice, so I sincerely hoped that whatever minimal practice I've had back home with my grandfather would come in handy here.

“Right turn." A voice spoke, its tone metallic and soft. Looking around, I saw nothing but the desolate hallways and flashing lights about. “Right turn." It repeated, the voice now directly in my ears. Sighing softly, I nodded, realizing that it wasn't outlandish for the suit to have some sort of GPS built in. Heading down the right corridor, I ran down two flights of stairs, being guided by the sensors built into the system.

As I headed up to a large airlock door, a new voice command spoke, “Pressure in Life Support wing is below 80 Kilopascals, would you like to enable EVA?" I tried to think for a few moments what that meant exactly. Pascal… Unit of pressure… Air pressure? Biting my lower lip, I asked, “Is it safe without EVA?"

A short pause before I received a response, “While it is sustainable, it is advised if you do not wish to suffer ill-effect of hypoxia. Non-EVA recommended time in current pressure and rate of pressure loss is approximately five minutes."

Sighing softly, I commanded, “Enable EVA. I would rather not pass out with… Whatever is here." A hiss came from my suit as it tightened up, the automated voice responding, “Suit locked. Internal air filter, activated. Helmet locked. EVA fully enabled."

Stretching my arms, I opened the airlock, the pressure difference lurching me forward slightly as I lost balance. My heart raced, and with the hissing of air at the far end of life support being pushed outside of the ship, I knew it wasn't a good idea. There was a massive pipe with a shimmering purple gate slammed into the side of the ship, most likely from the outside. Moving behind a series of crates, I took cover, only the top of my head visible as I peered at it, watching it, clutching my only form of defense tightly in my hands. Through the suit, I could even feel myself sweating, the nervousness permeating throughout me.

Suddenly, the gate vanished, and five forms hopped out, down to the floor with loud thuds. “Enemies analyzed." The suit spoke.

Two of them wore matching (but inverted from one to another) blue and black armor, a shimmering silver coated faceplate guarding whatever was behind the helmet. They both had metallic rifle that shimmered green through it in their hands and stood slightly smaller than the average human. “Voraan, most like reptilians on Terra." The suit began to inform me, “Plasma grade semi-automatic rifle in hands, detecting six fusion grenades between the two of them. The species has internal bio-armor which nullifies the effects of low-caliber projectile weaponry. Activating radiation shielding."

My suit flashed blue, garnering their attention for a few moments. They took cover, started to fire at me. I wasn't exactly in the most advantageous position so I darted for higher ground, thinking back to all the movies where it was the best idea to work with. As I ran up steps, a searing pain shot through my left leg, the shielding on my suit flashing several times as green goo sizzled away at it, before the shield dissipated the goo.

Taking cover, I pushed a large crate in the way of the steps to buy me a few moments. “Shield absorbed damage. Current charge and power usage suggests that nine more shots are acceptable to take before physical damage from any energies or physical anomalies begins." It spoke, which for the first time, was something I understood. Don't get shot. Easy enough, I hope.

Peering over, I saw what appeared to be a three-meter giant bending down to a large metal crate, lifting it up high above his head before tossing it in my direction. Barely moving out of the way, I received another information bit from the suit. “Andrasi; Like most Mollusks back on Terra, they move slow, however they have extremely high quantities of physical strength and tall stature, due to their home planet's high gravity and oxygen count. Weapons equipped: Drill-hammer, alloy unknown; plasma pistol. This suit will at best sustain a single hit from it, but no more before being torn open to the environment." It spoke, making me bite my lower lip as I continued to run head-on into what seemed to be an invisible wall.

To my despair and luck, the invisible wall was another cloaked alien, who bore a shimmering sword of light against me. It raised it up high, slamming it down, barely giving me enough time to roll out of the way before I realized I had dropped my rifle, pulling out my energy sidearm and unloading it at him, the superheated shots searing his metal plates away, purple blood splattering against the floor.

It was then that my suit finally decided to speak up. “Ilhons, an amphibian-like creature whose biological structure allows it to camouflage into its environment extremely well. Activating heat sensor in right eye to detect its signature." It spoke up as a red lens covered my eye to see the being howling in pain, turning to me and waving its sword at me with its full fury.

I didn't think I had much of a chance to make it out of here alive before a turret popped down from the ceiling, two searing red lasers shooting from it, slamming into the Ilhons' head, the alien falling over, defeated. Victory wasn't so sweet as I received three plasma blasts into my back, the searing pain jolting me onto my feet as I took cover behind a crate.

Beeping. Rapid beeping. It was approaching at a quick pace until I saw it on the floor in front of me. “Take cover." The suit informed me as I dove to the side, behind a nearby machine as it went off, destroying the turret above me, scorching the ground where I was as it blasted outwards, then imploded inwards, the body of the once-invisible species now torn in half, their armor shredded like butter.

Turning my head, I noticed a massive hammer swinging at me; unfortunately, I was too late to dodge it as it slammed into my torso. Hearing several cracks, I flew what felt like a dozen meters into a wall, my suit's sensors flashing as the shield downed. I couldn't move, beyond a futile attempt to nudge myself to sit up straight as the two identical aliens pointed their guns at me, approaching closer, the Andrasi inching towards me. Stopping before me, they turned their heads towards another sound, the fifth alien.

Speeding in front of me, almost inhumanly, it knelt, a device on its wrist spraying a blue light over me as my suit shut down, the lack of pressure making me gasp, my eyes opening and closing. It reached its hands out towards my head, myself powerless to interfere. Once it was off, I felt a deep chill across my body, seeing a purple and gold helmet whose helmet was swung back, its lithe form and swaying, singular tail behind it unnerving me. Sticking out its sharp fingers, it lifted my head up, making me cough blood up in a response, it getting over the helmet.

I couldn't see well at this point, my vision fading in and out of black. I gasped, my body begged for air, blood filling my lungs, the lack of oxygen entering my body. Standing up, the gold and purple helmeted species pointed at the mollusk and pointed at the hole that was bored into the ship.

I mustered all the strength I could to speak, “D-don't…" After that, it all went black. Unrecognizable voices still filled the air for several moments, and I could feel my body being lifted, thrown carelessly for a few minutes before all sensation was lost to me.

…

…

…

I awoke to a scalding pain on my chest.