0-SA (The Last Ship Series)

Chapter Four: The First

Raven had started preparing the Irinaut for transportation back to their main base. She had cuffed his ankles and wrists in with solid black mechanisms designed to explode on at the push of a button. Her suit had a sort of device that was connected with her watch. When she had got to his neck, she saw he had what looked like bottles wrapped around his neck. Dark purple feathers with gold streaks ran through them. The soldier tilted her head, "I've never seen one with feathers covering the gills. I can't put this one on his neck."

"Why the hell not?" Sage looked at the unconscious beast, everyone had their eyes on it, as if they were expecting it to just jump up and attack.

"They breathe through the gills on their neck, and their face. If I put this on this neck it requires taking that off. We'd kill it." Raven shoved the collar back in her bag, "The other's are functional. If he runs we won't have a hard time catching him. Obviously he doesn't want to be infected either, otherwise he wouldn't be suited up like this himself. He's trying to survive." She had began to pull out the darts in his leg. The soldier looked over him quietly, "How are we even going to get him back to base?" She hooked the detonation button on her sash after tossing the empty tranquilizers in her bag. "We sure as hell aren't going to carry him."

William scoffed, "We should of brought the wheels."

"Enough." Jacques looked over the Irinaut, "We have him down. Sage and I can go grab the truck. We'll bring it over and hall him in. We'll just keep the lights off heading over and switch on the night lights." He pointed at his goggles before looking over at Sage, "We should be able to coast it most of the way once we get down over the hill. Once we load him up, we gas it and get out of here." The spores we're beginning to stick to their black clothing. The material was sleek like and easy to clean of the spores, but that didn't stop them from trying.

"So, we're just going to hang out with this big guy then?" William laughed, "Great. You don't think those shots going off didn't attract them?" William shook his head before giving a half hearted shrug, "You know what, fine. You all give it a go. We'll wait here." He slammed his back into the wall before slouching himself against it.

Sage threw her rifle over her shoulder, "Alright, so it's settled then. I'll go with Captain and you two hang out here with the leech head. Make conversation." She wiggled her fingers in a taunting gesture towards the both of them, earning a middle finger from William.

Jacques grabbed the ammunition bag and tossed it at Sage, "We'll be back in two hours. Just stay put. He should stay asleep plenty long enough. Raven dosed him with enough to put down a elephant." He adjusted his pack on his back before started to walk towards the opening in the building, "We'll be back soon. Keep an eye on that thing and secure the perimeter. Don't let us come back into a bloody mess."

"We won't have anything better to do." William pulled his tablet from his pack, starting to go over his videos, "Enjoy your walk. I'm gonna have a good time sitting on my ass."

Raven shook her head, digging at the mask on her face, and wiping off her goggles, "God I can't wait to take this thing off." She placed herself next to William, her hand resting on the button of her sash, the one connected to the Irinaut. She stretched her legs out, "I've never seen one like that."

"Won't be long before we'll be able to shower and just forget this place for now, and this ugly fucker." William focused on the Irinaut, "Yeah. I didn't expect them to look so, healthy."

Raven shrugged, pointing at his legs, "The way he glows. His veins look like fluorescent gold. The sick ones just have that blackened tar." She crossed her leg over top of the other, "Why would we need to capture a healthy Irinaut though? Why not kill him with the rest?"

"We'll we've not exactly ever been able to communicate with them, but we know this leech head is capable of understanding us, and even attempting reasoning. He tried with his friends there." William let out a soft grunt as he got himself comfortable, his gun pointed at the other worldly being.

"What do you think they'll do to him back there?" Raven rolled her head to the side before staring at William.

"Honestly, I could care less. These things have destroyed our planet. Sure some got lucky and we're able to split on those ships, but us, we're not going anywhere." He shrugged, a heavy sigh came from him, "And as long as they keep showing up, I don't think we'll ever be able to stop the spores from driving everyone mad and leading them to their deaths." William didn't care for the aliens. No one did. The fact that they had a mission to obtain a live one wasn't something that had ever been brought on to the team.

Raven couldn't help her peaked curiosity. The female stood up and walked over to the beast before crouching down in front of it, "What I still want to know, is why he's the only one we've ever seen that isn't sick."