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Sation 3: Part I
Date: 27 August 2006, 2:45 pm
The blankness of space surrounded the small station. The emptiness of sound was all too clear to the suited man. He floated aimlessly around the station's hull, keeping the cleaning equipment on his back secure.
"One last stop, then I am heading back in," he said into his headset.
The station's AI responded with a gentle, female voice, "Understood Jack."
Jack reached his stop, with was the full length of the tether, and was a portside window that led into Jin Chang's room. Jack paused a second, and looked into the window to see if the female audio specialist was in. But unfortunately his peepshow was now where inside. So he continued with his job, and cleaned the window whistling to himself.
He stared into the blackness of space apprehensively, then with admiration. A lot of stars could be seen from their location, which happened to be on the dark side of Europa. As soon as he was done with the window he headed back towards the sealed bay from which he had left.
"Alice, can you open Bay 3's third door please?" Jack asked into his headset.
The AI responded with "Yes Jack," and opened the door for him quickly.
He floated into the zero atmosphere room, pressed a button, and watched as air filled the room, and jettisoned the vacuum out of there. He took off his helmet, and opened the second door after the atmosphere had filled the small compartment. He floated in, feeling the pull from the rotation, and landed on the circular surface.
Drake, his coworker, walked up with his suit on. "How's it out there Jack?"
"It's fine. All there is to worry about is getting windows clean," Jack told him, taking the tether off his suit.
"And the peepshow?" Drake asked with a smile, taking the tether from Jack.
"Nada."
"That sucks…" Drake said putting on his helmet. "See you when I return."
"See you then," Jack said walking off to Closet 23. It was a designated Space Walk Suit Closet. He took off the suit and revealed his skin tight "Habitat" suit that provided him with the necessary nutrition's and stuff when he is on spacewalks. He had nothing else on under the black suit, so he left it on. Besides it belonged in his quarter's closet.
He glanced down to his watch, seeing it was 13:05, "Awesome, lunch time." He walked briskly on the circular floor and made his way around the station until he was at the mess hall. He walked in, noticing it was filled with all 12 other people on the station. The only two not in was Drake, and himself, but now he was in it, so that brought the total up to 13.
One of the men within the hall stood up, and made a rather childish announcement. "Oh look, it's the window washer! Where's your bud Jack?"
Jack gave him a look of disgust as he responded. "Shut up Ricky. It's not like I don't have another job you know. All you do is go from bathroom to bathroom cleaning up shit!" Jack got his food, and sat down across the hall from Ricky, who now was embarrassed, and sat down quickly.
Jack was sitting with a small group of guys and girls, only three others. George, right next to him, was Jack's assistant for the Slipspace monitoring systems. Jean, Jack's roommate, was the only female who worked in the electrometer section. Lilly, the last of them, was Drake's roommate, and was the mess hall cook.
"So how'd the windows go?" George asked with a smile.
"They went boring. Nothing to see… I guess that's 'cause it's lunch time," Jack said looking at his food. "Beef stew again Lilly?"
"Well the Prometheus sent twelve boxes of beef to us. How else am I going to get rid of all that meat?" she asked, showing off a big questionable smile.
"I don't know, maybe for once you could cook us some steaks!" Jack told her sarcastically. He stood up, putting his bowl on George's tray. "Here you go. I'm not that hungry." He turned to Jean then, holding his empty tray in his hands. "I'm heading over to the room before work starts up again. Anything you need?"
Jean looked up slowly, and then started, "Yeah, could you get me my sweat shirt? The gray one, not the brown one. And I need my contacts, these aren't feeling right. Grab the ones marked "G". And I'd like it if you could get me a rubber band, my hair's been getting in the way too much recently.
"You got it," Jack said, turning away. He dumped his tray into the cleaning pile, and walked out, taking a glance at Jin before he left. He walked slowly to his room, which was only across the hall. He opened the door solemnly, swiping his card before the scanner.
He slowly made his way to the bathroom, where he took off his "Habitat" suit and stood there stark naked, staring at the shower before him. He climbed in, and showered quickly. Once he was done he dressed in a pair of jeans and a long sleeved shirt. He put on some sneakers, and grabbed everything Jean wanted.
Now it was time for work. He walked down the hall, spotting Jin squeezing into her own post. Jack stared at her breasts just before she disappeared, and then his glimmer of happiness was gone. He stopped by Jean's post, and handed her the stuff she required, and then moved along to his own post.
Nothing was there but George and a bunch of sensory equipment. He sat down quietly, and George spun around in his chair to face him.
"Nothing," George said.
"Nada," Jack repeated. "There's always nothing. Nothing, nothing, nothing. Why'd they even set up this damn post anyways? I mean what idiot thought the Covenant would even get this far? We don't even wear our uniforms here… It's such a waste of men and space."
"Why are you always putting yourself into such a bad mood? You hate the world too much," George said with a dumb smile.
"Shut up George," Jack said silently. He stared at George's ugly, fat face. His pig nose stared back at Jack, and it disgusted him. George was always so dumb, so fool hearted. Jack had the urge to throw up in disgust of George, but he didn't. Because if he did, then he'd have to see Doctor Wayne, who would automatically put him on room arrest for being sick. Then Jean wouldn't talk, let alone notice him. And she was the only thing keeping him sane at night. Then he wouldn't be able to see Jin naked through the window. And worst of all, he wouldn't eat the steak that Lilly wasn't preparing, but instead he'd have to eat some disgusting processed smoothie that would make him throw up again, and start the whole thing over.
He shook the thought of throwing up from his head, and turned from George and faced the panels of sensors. Nothing moved, nothing read anything different. And nothing would. Nothing ever happened here at Europa. Nothing ever happened in the Sol System. All it was was ship building, and preparation at Earth.
Suddenly there was a glimmer of hope, a sensor was beeping rapidly.
"What is it?" George asked.
"Shut up dumb ass," Jack said, sitting up. Suddenly another sensor went off. An object could be seen on the Slipspace monitoring screen. It was a small mass, but it held no human shape.
"We've got Covenant whispers!" Jack shouted. "Alice, alert the station!"
Alice's voice boomed over the station wide intercom, "Alert. Covenant Slipspace whispers detected."
The whole station was thrown into pandemonium, and the start of something big was here.
Station 3: Part II
Date: 27 August 2006, 8:28 pm
"What's going on?!" Jean screamed, running into Jack's post.
"Listen to Alice!" Jack screamed back at her.
"I know that! I mean what do we do now?" she asked.
"Well I guess we notify Earth. Which is Dearson's problem, not ours," Jack said. "We just keep watching, and see if any more come."
The screams of Drake running down the hall could be hear very easily from Jack's post. "Ahhh! It's the end! Our hope lies on the "Lone Spartan"!" He stopped at Jacks post, and leaned on the doorway catching his breath.
"You mean that Reach survivor?" Jean asked.
"Yeah him. He'll save Earth. If he could survive Reach, he's got to be tough as nails."
"Tenchi was watching the live feed of the ceremony on one of the MAC Stations orbiting Earth. He was there, that Spartan was," Jack told them.
"I guess it's getting cut short," Jean said quietly.
Jack stood up and pushed his way through the door. He ran on the circular floor towards Dearson's post. He burst in, finding himself not the first. Incessant rambling filled his ears, and a live feed from Earth was on the TV on a file cabinet.
"Look guys, I'm trying to get through, but the live feed is interfering. I'm sure the Covie's are already there by now. It's not our problem!" Dearson yelled at the mob of people.
"What are we supposed to do, just sit back and watch?!" Jin yelled.
"There's nothing we can do!" Dearson retorted. Suddenly the feed cut off, just after Captain Keyes received an award for her father.
"They're there alright," Jack said aloud. Everyone was quiet, watching the black TV. It was silent, and nothing showed up.
"You suppose they're dead?" Lilly asked.
"No. They just had to turn the cameras off," Jack replied.
"What now?" Jean asked, walking in.
"We wait…" Dearson said.
Jack walked out, heading back to his post. Jean followed him.
"How long do we have to be on standby?" Jean asked.
"Ten hours, at least," Jack responded.
"See you after ten hours," Jean said, departing him.
"See you then," Jack told her, going back into his post. He sat there again, staring at George's ugly face, wondering whether to throw up or not, knowing he wouldn't.
Ten hours later Jack was lying in bed, staring through the darkness at the ceiling.
"Do you think it's the end Jack?" he heard Jean ask.
"No…" he said tonelessly.
"Why not?"
"It wasn't a large mass of ships… It'll be chopped liver to the MAC stations," he said with a smirk.
The rest of the night was silent, but Jack couldn't sleep a wink. It was 4:00 in what seemed to be seconds, and it was time for him to begin his window washing shift. He got out of bed silently, and headed off to the bathroom, where he put on his "Habitat" suit, and then went off to Closet 23, and then Bay 3's third door.
He went out into space, and decided to take a look in Jin's window first. She was there, and she was stark naked, staring into the mirror. Jack stared at her naked body with lust, but just couldn't have it. He needed something though, the urge was on him, and he felt like an animal. It was overriding his mind.
Suddenly he found himself back in his room with Jean, lying in bed with her. He shot up, a bewildered look on his face. He stood up, and stared at her apprehensively. She was asleep with a smile, but she was nude, and so was he. He left quickly to the bathroom, where in which he scrubbed himself almost to the point of chaffing. The wrong that he did had to be washed off, but he just couldn't get it off.
He got out quickly, dressed, and left the room all before she could wake up. He checked his watch, it was 8:00, and he hadn't washed any windows. He decided not to, and headed off to his post. George wasn't in there, which was a good thing, because if he was, Jack would have thrown up for sure. He sat there in silence, watching panels of motionless sensors.
A few noises could be heard from outside of his post. News casts about the events in New Mombassa, and people heading off to their own posts. He sat there, curled into a ball, the shock of events taking there toll. He was hoping that George wouldn't show up. For whatever reason, George just couldn't show up.
But he did, and Jack threw up after looking at his ugly little pig nose on that ugly fat face. Now Jack was on room arrest by request of Doctor Wayne, and he couldn't look at Jin naked, but Jean was talking to him, but not about what he wanted to talk about.
"Why'd you do it?" she asked him, putting the glass of disgusting smoothie next to his bed.
"I don't know Jean. It just, it just came over me, alright?" he said with irritation.
"Oh come on Jack. I mean," she said, starting to blush, "it was the best I had ever had…"
"Ohhh come on!!" Jack moaned. "I don't want to hear about your sex life Jean."
They both raised an eyebrow as screams erupted in the hallway. Drake ran in screaming at them both, "George is dead! The Covie's got 'em. They got 'em!"
"No they didn't!" Jack yelled at him.
"Yeah they did! His body has plasma scorches all over it!"
"Bull shit! You're just a madman, and have been ever since you got here!"
"It's for real Jack!" he said, running off.
Jack sighed and looked to Jean. "So what happened?"
"Oh well you just waltzed in and got straight to bus-"
"No, I mean what happened in Africa?"
"You didn't watch the news? The ship jumped out of there, in atmosphere!" she said with extreme emphasis. "Te whole city's gone to dust, and the Navy finished off the remains, but-"
Alarms went off, and Alice's voice broke in on the intercom. "Slipspace ruptures on other the other side of Io. All personnel to posts."
Jack and Jean jumped up and ran out into the hall. Drake was running back at them screaming "They're here again! They're here!!"
Jack ran, pulling Jean with him, towards his post. Hers was right next to his, so he left her there, and went into his own. He sat down immediately, seeing George was fine and healthy there too.
"How many is it?" Jack asked, watching a few monitors.
"The probes haven't confirmed, but it seems to be a small fleet. More than yesterday, but not a considerable amount. I'd say about 20 or 30," George responded.
"Why didn't they pass us by?" Jack asked, watching the screens. They showed the camera views from probes rounding the circumference of Io.
"Perhaps they wanted a look at Earth before they attacked."
"That's not they're style. Either they know we're here, or they're something they want…"
Station 3: Part III
Date: 30 August 2006, 6:52 pm
"AAHHHH they're here!!! They're here!" Drake was shouting. He was running down the hall, and stopped at Jack's post again. "They're here Jack! They're here!" Then he ran away just as he said that.
"What is wrong with him Jack? Did he hit his head or something?" George asked, turning to Jack.
"No one cares. No one much cares for him. If anything, he probably got some sulfur in his suit," Jack said, focusing on the screen.
"Sulfur?" George asked, turning back to the screen.
"Yeah, the volcanoes on Io's surface spew sulfur out. That's what we clean off the windows."
"I didn't know that."
"You should have…" Jack said, watching the screen with an unseen intensity.
"What's up with you Jack?" George asked, smiling.
"Are you a dumb ass?! The Covenant are on the other side of Io you idiot."
Suddenly the screen turned red with the view of Jupiter. There sat a good sized group of white glistening Covenant ships. There were about 20 battle cruisers, and 2 assault carriers. One assault carrier, accompanied by a few battle cruisers, turned, and headed straight for the camera.
"Oh shit," Jack said, jumping up.
"What?" George asked, unaware of the situation.
"You fucking idiot. Just shut up!" Jack said, running out of the door. He moved quickly on the rotating circular floor, until he reached Dearson's office. "We're in trouble sir."
"What's that?" Dearson asked, turning to Jack.
"One of the assault carriers and a few battle cruisers turned towards our position. They're headed this way sir."
Suddenly Alice's voice broke out on the intercom again. "Slipspace ruptures, they're leaving the vicinity. Five ships entering the danger zone."
Dearson's face grew concerned. "Alice! Tell everyone to get ready for boarding craft. All men to the bays, armed to the teeth!"
"Understood sir!" Alice replied. A second later the announcement was on.
Dearson looked at Jack with intense eyes. "Get ready boy."
It was only minutes before Jack was in Bay 3 holding the sleek assault rifle aimed at the doors. A strap of grenades hung from his shoulder, and a pistol was holstered at his hip.
"You suppose we're toast?" Jean asked, holding her own assault rifle apprehensively.
"I don't know Jean…" Jack said, turning to her slightly. "Alice, progress report!"
"Boarding craft 10 seconds away."
"You know Jack, you're totally different. It's like this… is a good thing for you. A change I suppose," Jean said, with a smile.
"Yeah? Well, let's just get ready for this shit."
There they were, right on time. The boarding craft hit the station with tremendous shock, setting the station off course. The ends of the ships rammed into the glass, and proceeded to create a perfect hole in the windows, leaving no cracks.
A parade of Grunts jumped out of the ship, meeting their doom as a barrage of bullets spewed from Jack's and Drake's guns. Jean was reluctant to shoot, fearing the backfire. This wasn't what she was hired for. She was supposed to be back analyzing pointless arrays of electric data. But once the split chinned Elites arrived she began to fire, out of fear.
The Grunts had died easily enough, being foolish enough to jump out first. The Elites had come out just as Jack and Drake were reloading, and Jean was the only one shooting. Suddenly plasma bolts were flying back at them, and Drake and Jack were forced to hide. Jean was still in the open, firing away.
Jack turned from around the box, seeing a bolt flying straight for Jean. His instincts took over, and he jumped for her. He was soaring across the box, and landed on her with a thud, nearly missing the bolt. He rolled off quickly, taking a grenade from the strap and tossing it at the Elite.
It exploded, sending pieces of the alien through the air. Jack picked up Jean, and yelled to Drake quickly. "We gotta get out of here!"
He ran to the door that headed towards the rest of the ship, pulling Jean behind him. Drake was backing up towards them, still shooting. As soon as he was through the door Jack shut it, sealing off the aliens from them.
"What now?" Jean asked, staggering to her feet.
"We gotta get off the station. Come on, to the escape pods!" Jack said, turning and running down the hall.
The other's followed, and but they all came to a stop at Bay 2. Inside George lay on the ground, his body riddled with plasma scorches. Jack shut the door after he saw that, and just as he did an Elite pounded on the door.
"I told you Jack…" Drake said calmly.
"Told me what?" Jack said, turning to him.
"That Drake was dead…"
Jack's face filled with confusion, but he turned away, and headed towards the escape pods on the other side of the station. All three were running, blocking the hall completely. It was just a matter of seconds before they reached them, and they all jumped into one.
Jack sat down at the controls, Drake sealed the hatch, and Jean strapped herself in. Jack started to press a series of buttons, getting the ship ready to launch off of the station.
"Look where we're going to go!" Jean said.
Jack looked up, seeing they were facing Io. "Oh well…" and he pressed the launch button, sending them speeding from Station 3. They were cruising at a rather fast speed, and the view of Station 3 was opening. They could see all of it now, but the space behind it was blocked by the assault carrier.
"We're screwed Jack!" Jean yelled, tears starting to flow from her eyes.
"Shut up! Just shut up Jean!" Jack yelled.
Jack looked back at Io, seeing that they were coming in fast. He began to pull up on the Bumble Bee craft, so that the hull was going to hit. The thrusters switched on, and began to slow their ascent. The ground was coming closer, and Jack was staring intensely.
"We're screwed! We're screwed!" Jean yelled.
Then they hit the surface.
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