Cold and tired. That’s how he was feeling when he woke up. Brutal waking, the ship’s alarms were screaming, red lights were flashing and the sergeant John was strongly shaking him. The captain Kyle Barnes slowly came out of the stasis numbness.

“Shit Paul, what’s happening?”

“Captain, it’s fucking bad. They’re fucking aliens outside the fucking ship and they’re shooting at us! All the troops are woken up in urgency to take part in the fucking fight!” Responded a little muscular man with a really big mustache.

Kyle noticed the language of his subordinate, cruder than usual, but passed on it. He was now perfectly awake. Looking around he saw his men getting out of their stasis pods and looking around wondering what was happening.

The ship was regularly shaken and some faint explosions could be heard in the distance. At the depth they were, it was quite surprising to feel and hear it. The battle should be very fierce.

It was Kyle duty to gather his unit, to announce the news to it and to lead his men to their operating post.

‘Crap, we don’t really have an operating post attributed to us, we’re not supposed to do a thing before the landing.’

Well shit, Paul could do part of it. Kyle was first gathering more information about the situation.

“Sergeant! Gather the men. They are to equip quickly and be ready to move as soon as possible. I’ll contact the Bridge to get more information and our clear order of mission.”

“Yes, my captain!”

Walking to the side of the room, Kyle stretched his legged, still a bit numb. He also checked his computer wristband, or comband, and learned they had been woken up 62 years after the start of the travel, they should have stayed asleep for at least 100 years. The icon of an incoming communication was blinking, seeing it was coming from the Bridge, he answered immediately.

“Bridge? Here’s ranger captain Barnes. What’s happening?! I heard of aliens, that’s true? What are we supposed to do?”

“Captain, calm down, here’s Private Jack, on the Bridge’s com. An unknown ship appeared on the radar and started shooting at us without warning. We shot back, but those fuckers sent capsules to board us. We have intruder everywhere, your mission is to find and exterminate them. You are to prioritize the security of the access to the lower decks, the passengers and the Bridge must remain safe. You don’t need to make prisoners, but if you managed to do it the ups and the white coat will be pleased.”

“What about the automatic defenses and the security robots?”

“All on the first line, but they’re not as useful as they should be. Nobody knows why. The techs are on it. Don’t expect a mechanical help. Good luck.”

“Thanks.”

Kyle turned himself to looked at his men. They were ready and waiting for the orders.

“Soldiers! We are under attacks by unknown creatures. They manage to infiltrate the ship and it’s our job to clean it up. You have three minutes to be ready to go. Lieutenant, everyone is awake?”

“Yes, Captain! They’re all here and out of bed.”

“Good. Be ready to everything, we have no idea to what they look like.”

“Alright, everyone! You’ve heard the Cap’?” Started to scream the Lieutenant to the men and women of the unit. “Take heavy armament! But not too heavy, we don’t want to destroy the ship! And pronto! Or my right boot will see your asses more close than your little mom!”

While his team prepared itself, Kyle checked the holographic map of his comband to have a better idea of the local situation. The two other units of the sector were also preparing to move. He could see the position of the other officers and his own men on the holo-map. The map didn’t show the location of the enemy, the sensor of the ship would automatically send the information to the holo-map of the officer's comband. It would have been surprising to found some there, they were at the 25th deck, meaning they had 24 level between them and the external structure of the ship. If the enemy had managed to go so deep in the ship, the situation would have been desperate.

When everyone was ready to go, Kyle led his unit in the corridors and elevators of the Mathilde, the Big Carrot as the men renamed the strangely shaped ship. They were heading to the nearest section of the hull, where they had the most chance to cross pass with the aliens. Coordinating themselves with the other units so that they would not cross pass between them and cover more ground, thanks to their comband. They have all received the same orders and were trained for this kind of situation.

The intruders didn’t know what was coming for them.

It’s been three hours that Kyle’s unit was at the 4th deck. They had crossed their first aliens five hours earlier, at the 7th deck. Pushing them back to deck 5 had been rather easy, they did it in just an hour. From the 5th to the 4th deck, another hour has been spent. Since that they were blocked.

The intruders were looking like big bugs, so, without originality, the men named them ‘Bugs’. They move fast and are well coordinated. But the worst part is their shell, it’s tough enough to resist most of the weapons the humans used. They had to use semi-heavy weapons to break the shells, anything heavier was forbidden as it could break through the walls of the corridors. The lighter weapons needed to hit the small weak points situated at the articulations of the Bugs or in the wounds to do any small damage, otherwise, they were useless.

The aliens completely took the two first deck and they are still some small pocket of resistance on the 3rd deck. But the humans’ reinforcements were unable to put their feet on this deck and they would soon be lost to them.

One fourth of the units was scattered in the corridor, their commander officer dead to the bugs. The officer-less soldier were trying to hold their grounds or to rejoin another unit. Thirteen men and women had join Kyle’s unit, taking the place of his seven dead soldiers, he had started the fight with unit of thirty men.

All the light security robots were already destroyed by the bugs and the heavier ones were strategically installed on lower decks. Some of the techs had even begun to reprogram the utility robots, they hoped to send them on the front line to support the fighters.

The command center was even starting to consider the idea of waking up passengers. Some of them had military training.