The Planet 6.3

6.3 Corridor D54-2

I knew the answer was at Corridor D54-2. Duggan was still out. Damned I might have given you him more than a headache. Nguyen confirmed it.

“You gave him a concussion. He’s flat out for at least a day.” Nguyen was right. The commander was attached to the recovery unit. It looked like an eight feet freak measuring six inches in length and width that was attached to his face like in the old movie that they still rerun to scare the kids.

“Next time hit his crotch.” Nguyen was helpful. “Blow his balls off. He won’t fuck anyone anymore.”

“Back off!” I glared at Nguyen. “I am going to check out the corridors. I am taking Peggy.”

Peggy remained seated with the Corsair. She was not moving. She was still cradling the other.

“Fuck your friend. Peggy, you are moving. I am your senior here.” I had to pull rank. “You are still a ….soldier. You have …”

“I know my duty, Sir.” Peggy stood up after she pulled herself away. “Don’t bitch about it.”  

Soon the two of us were on our way towards Corridor D54-2. We did not meet any droids; working or battle droids. Either one was bad news to us but we were prepared. I have the pencil explosives on ready for the toss. I will blow them to pieces if they were seen. Our recon was hampered then by the dust. I mentioned before it was everywhere but during the recon, it was also in the air. It was as if it was dusted with and was hampering our view. Peggy and myself got the gas mask on. We do have the risk of biological and chemical threat then. It helped us to be prepared.

“Sir, we have count of metals in the air.” Peggy was point and doing her task like the professional we were paid to do. Her face mask have a built-in contaminants filter to give the results. Mine was not. Not all constructs were the same.

“Screw the analysis. I want to see the so named spirits.”

“Ghosts you mean?” Peggy was playing me for a fool. I brushed off the dirt that was coated on the face mask goggles. That was my tenth time I been doing it but it will soon get coated. I decided to turn on my goggle alternative views. I switched between thermal to infra and then to what we termed as shadow shaded. Heck! I don’t know what it does but it gave me a runny headache. It was displaying analysis printout on the left side of the screen as if I was expected to read it. It would have helped if they stopped scrolling it vertically.

One line seems to be flashing

That was the irritant that gave me the headache.

It read as Element L 391.

How was to I know what is Element L 391? I am only a mercenary construct. I was paid to pay to kill and not read mineral listings.

“Peggy, what is the flashing on the goggles screen?” I communicated to her on the comms when we were at start of Corridor D54-2. She was still on point. She stopped to lean on the wall while she adjusted her goggle. I stood opposite her to wait. I was to ask again when she responded back with a hostile look. With the face mask on, well she looked like a freaking impression of an alien from the old days of interpretation of how they should look like. Oval eyes and nozzles for breathing; ironically they did not add in the mouth, well as if aliens do need it at all. I have not seen an alien yet; not even with a hundred years of space exploration by the Earthlings. I guess the ‘welcome, I am from Earth probes’ were a waste of money but we done more than that. We have colonized over ten habitable planets with our own overcrowded and dying from the daily humping on its sub-terrain for resources and staking in new caverns for housing. Even with the ten planets occupied, half of it was mining explored and the other half was used for the elites who could afford the fare there. I won’t bicker if I was given a two thousand miles spread of land for my home compared to my four hundred feet concrete bunker on the eighty nine floor with my neighbor a stone throw away.

Maybe we are the Uno numero. Sure feel lonely out there.

We were surely alone. Despite what Dmitri told us, there were no dead bodies there. It was only dusts.

“Hold your orgasm. I am almost there.” Peggy gets horny in a manner of speech when she’s upset. “I am reading it. It’s Element L 391-2. It may the stuff they were mining here.”

Geez, the sensor went cautious on it. I need the tech section to recalibrate the system.

“What the hell is Element L 391-2?”  I hollered back.

“Get an education, you nitwit.” I loved Peggy when she goes for the upper position. I was to compliment her when I noticed the dust had accumulated over her legs. It was like a layer of coating up to her knees. It was not a fucking coat but a mass of layers on her.

“Peggy, can you move your legs?”