Chapter 9: Chapter 9

Clearing the mothership from the bridge down was far less of a chore than starting from the bottom up. I had master control of everything, which meant once I figured out the right buttons, they couldn’t move freely across the ship to reinforce and I could clear up everything piecemeal.

I do mean just myself. Considering the bloody task ahead, and the potential to meet unfortunate experiments, I gave the task of securing the bridge to a very eager Piper and Nat. They just had to keep an eye on the ship’s security feeds, while making sure nothing other than me goes in and out of the bridge’s teleporter. Simple work, but it would keep them occupied enough.

The alien weapons we salvaged from the initial repulsing party were impressive, though I didn’t like the old-school aesthetics. Can’t complain, since the alien atomizers were a far superior choice for the girls to use compared to laser pistols or SMGs. I still stuck with my beam gun though, since I already tweaked it to deal insta-ash-making damage. Plus, it’s my first weapon mod for the game, so I had emotional attachments to it.

Even before leaving the bridge the Zetan casualties were racking up. Master control meant I got the turrets and drones set to ‘kill everything’, waiting for entire sections of the ship to either cull the Zetans before the defenses were brought down, or be completely purged of the aliens. The latter occurred more frequently in less guarded parts of the ship, like the engine and storage rooms.

The holding cells were empty, which was weird. I expected some NPCs from the game to be there. Maybe things were different, like how it was with the Wright sisters?

Eh, ponder later, purge the alien now. I left the girls with a mountain of atomizers and disintegrators, I had my first experience teleporting. Felt tingly all over, but otherwise I made it to my destination without any issues. I started at the holding cells, which were empty save for the smoking alien corpses freshly killed from the automated turrets. The cells themselves were empty and pristine, so probably the people I knew from the game really didn’t exist for reasons, or they were put away or already disposed of.

Well, time to confirm the answer. After shooting up the turrets and a quick check for anything interesting (de nada on that) I exited to the next section of the ship. A quick entry of basically admin password and the doors unlocked for my convenience.

Why they put basically prison cells next to the exposed infrastructure of the ship instead of the cryo lab is something I’ll never understand. The so-called ‘steamworks’ was basically a room full of pipes that presumably carried important stuff like fuel, air and whatnot throughout the ship. There were some aliens hiding about, a few guards but most were cowering unarmed types.

Didn’t matter to me, I just went to console mode and selected everyone in sight. My beam gun did its work, spitting lances of death to each and every one of them. I have to say, for my first weapon mod I was very satisfied with how it looked and felt in this reality, especially compared to my armor mod which was basically a different, futuristic looking combat armor without anything special on it. The fact that I could actually use the beam selector as I imagined it, instead of having to mod it on some workbench like how it’d work in game, was a blessing I’d take even from Cthulhu.

Not that I needed to switch modes here; any damage I dealt to the ship I could simply reset after all. So no need for precise, thin beams to cut things up, I’m fine sticking with the default ‘screw you and everything on you’ beams. Having console shooting mode helps a ton too, removing any potential for human twitchyness. It was better than the game’s VATS too, since I actually moved while under console influence to adjust my point of fire to ensure my selected targets were properly dead.

Eleven seconds to clear the place, and after another unsuccessful attempt at scavenging anything useful, I moved on to the main connecting section which was the engineering core. Clearing it out wasn’t a big deal, but again I didn’t find anyone I expected to find in-game. The cryo pods here were empty, with neither cowboy, samurai, soldier or astronaut in them. Well, I guess I don’t have to worry about socializing?

Just to make sure, I headed for the cryo lab and storage next. As soon as I entered that part of the ship, I quickly realized something was wrong. It was too cold, evidenced by the fact that within a few feet from the entrance, the surface of the hallways were covered in frost. My boots crunched on ice as I cautiously explored the place, thankful I ramped up my damage reduction to only feel a bit chilly instead of getting my lungs frozen.

The Zetans were frozen dead, stuck in anguished and surprised poses as the cold took them. It seemed to be a quick thing, seeing how nobody made it close to the exit. The drones moved sluggishly and I put them down like the rest of the activated defenses I met earlier. It was an eerie thing, hearing only the humming of the ship, the hissing of cold air, ice crunching,and my own breathing. With the labs empty, I headed to the storage section.

Not good. Not good at all.

All the cryo pods were frosted over, but upon a closer inspection, the occupants were completely covered in ice, like a bug stuck in an ice cube. Using the console, the text outlining the occupants gave the status of dead. Hoping it was due to the cryonic process, I activated a few pods’ defrosting system to see if it would restore the occupants.

It wasn’t due to the cryonic process. My head turned to take in the rows of iced-over cryo pods while in console view.

You are reading story Uncommon Wealth at novel35.com

They were dead. All of them.

… The bridge’s lights went off and on after I reseted the damage, did it mean the entire ship got a reboot as well and that somehow screwed things up for the cryo units?

Did I just kill everyone here?

I blinked, my legs suddenly feeling like jelly. Okay, deep breaths, slow breaths. Let’s walk ourselves through this, alright? I entered console mode again, using the time dilation to try figuring things out. Resetting the pods didn’t do anything for the people inside. I couldn’t get any useful information from the console’s usual gibberish or the alien’s own brand of gibberish.

And then I found a simplified status tracker in one of the alien consoles. The entire section of the ship was functioning as normal up until the ship’s power winked in and out, and then temperature plummeted in an instant. The temperature controls are still working on heating up the place, but judging from the graph display, it’d take a while before the ice melts.

So yeah, I just accidentally murdered several hundred - if not thousand - alien abductees in their stasis pods. Great work, me.

Oh shit, the other mothership. It’d have its own stock of abductees. What...what if I didn’t find the people I expected to from the DLC because...because they were on that other ship?

I remained in console mode to fully grasp what I just did for a bit longer. The pit in my stomach was an intense sensation I’ve never felt before, and I felt like I should just collapse and curl up as waves of guilt and shame threatened to drown me. How many people could’ve been rescued? What would Piper and Nat think? The thought of the girls being utterly afraid and disgusted of me hit hard.

No. No, no, no. I didn’t know, right? But that’s still… And the girls...

My mind struggled to stay afloat for long microseconds. Only the sudden interruption broke me from the console to grab my attention.

“Sev?” It was Piper’s voice, echoing from hidden speakers. She must’ve found how to use the comms. “What’s going on? Are you ok?” She sounded worried.

I took a deep breath to shove everything down. Right. The ship still needed clearing, the girls were tough but if they got overwhelmed by the aliens it would make their lives worse. Purge ship now, worry about...this...whole thing later. I exhaled slowly, shaking my head and speaking aloud in case she could hear me.

“It’s all good. Just...found something I didn’t expect.”

I exited the frosted section of the ship, putting as much of my attention to the task of killing aliens instead of giving whatever crippling emotion a chance to crawl up again.

You can find story with these keywords: Uncommon Wealth, Read Uncommon Wealth, Uncommon Wealth novel, Uncommon Wealth book, Uncommon Wealth story, Uncommon Wealth full, Uncommon Wealth Latest Chapter