The DOOM Chronicles

Chapter 02: Something in the Shadows

So far, the situation was a bust.

The first pod she'd checked out had a corpse in it, one she recognized. One of the technical staff that she hadn't really gotten to know too well. He was a pasty, kind of scrawny guy who mostly kept to himself. He'd not gotten secured properly in the pod and the crash had killed him. He didn't have anything of any real value on him, and neither did his pod. The second pod was at least empty, so either it had launched on accident and then popped when it had hit the surface, or, more likely, whoever was in it had walked away.

Someone who, hopefully, knew more than she did.

Her mind also settled as she crossed the surface of the moon, now making her way towards her next destination: the lone structure. Kyra remembered that the Icarus had been in the process of coming back. She had been onboard that ship for close to a month. That's how long tours tended to last. So far, since signing up with the UAC, she'd done six of these. Six miserable months out in the deeper reaches of the solar system, trying not to go crazy, trying to keep well-maintained, well-trained, preparing for some kind of emergency.

There'd been none.

Well, not until now.

This particularly boring job had involved taking a series of scans of Neptune and its moon Triton. There was always the off chance of some kind of attack, or the crew might, in some capacity, go a little crazy, or a malfunction or meteor strike or something of the like, which was why the UAC insisted on having some Marines on standby. But it had all gone according to plan. Probably the only good thing about it was that Kyra had managed to get laid several times with a friend she'd made during the last tour who'd ended up getting thrown onboard the Icarus with her. He was probably ten years younger than her, a cute Corporal named Garret, and he was a pretty good friend with benefits. He was skilled and discreet.

He understood from the beginning that sex was as far as it would ever go.

She wondered, suddenly, if he had survived the incident.

As she zeroed in on the structure, Kyra pushed herself, strained her memories, trying to clear the mental fog. They had been coming back, and...there had been some kind of distress call. Yes. She remembered now. It had been the middle of the night, inasmuch as there was any kind of night or day in space. She and Garret had been asleep in her cabin. A call had roused her from that sleep, the pilots warning them that they were picking up a distress call and they were obligated to investigate, given that it was a Union Aerospace Corporation facility.

She and Garret had gotten up, showered, and dressed as fast as they could, then had started making for the bridge.

And...

Something had happened. She remembered an explosion and...

Nothing else after that.

Obviously someone had gotten her to a pod and into this suit. Probably Garret. Had he made it out okay? Had any of the others? There had been a small squadron of Marines onboard under her command, and a few dozen technicians, medics, pilots, and the other random assortment of personnel that made ships run.

So far, she just had one confirmed KIA.

Well, hopefully the answers would be forthcoming. She had arrived at the structure. It wasn't very large, whatever it was, just a squat, metal thing. As she moved in towards one of the windows, she activated her radio. It wouldn't be as powerful without the rover boosting it, but it should still be worth something.

"This is Staff Sergeant Kyra Morgan to anyone receiving, please respond. Over."

Still nothing. She peered in through the window. There was a room waiting beyond. She could see things: a pair of cots, an examination table, some cabinets and counterspace, several crates. From what she could see, the place looked like it had been raided. All of the drawers to the cabinets were open, the crates cracked open as well. Well, great. Kyra moved over to the airlock and tried it. It opened up. She stepped in and cycled through.