Following orders

Two armed guards entered Achille's room and stood at attention. Achille waved them to ease as she pour two drinks out.

"Ma'am, we're here to take the prisoner back to their cell." announced one guard. They produced a pair to restraints and moved over to Aniello. He held out his arms for the restraints but the guard's attempt to apply them was cut off by Achille placing a drink into Aniello's hands.

"That won't be necessary. Aniello is no longer a prisoner and has been pardoned for his crimes. You can return to your post now." Achille informed the guard and sat down. She motioned for Aniello to join her. Aniello looked from her to the guard between promptly taking his seat.

"I- um. But-" the guard stumbled over their words. They quickly regained their composure and stood to attention. They turned to the door and exited while still carrying the restraints, leaving the second guard by themselves.

"Will there be anything else?" queried Achille to the remaining guard.

"You have 3 new messages from the other star points. They're marked confidential and high priority. There's also an incoming call from the lower decks for you. It's marked a urgent but I assumed that their problems weren't worth your attention" informed the guard. Achille nodded and the guard left with the other. Achille made their way to a console by the door and opened their messages. They read and deleted two of the new messages, ignored the third and opened the call from the lower decks.

Suddenly, screams of personnel in the lower decks filled the room. The sound of weapons firing rapidly in the background quickly began to fade until the call went blank. A new message popped up on the console simply stating:

'SHIP IS UNDER ATTACK!'

"Stay here! Don't come out unless I personally tell you to! Follow no one else's orders! Understood!?" Achille fired the orders at Aniello who nodded in minimal understanding. Achille grabbed her helmet and walked out the door.

The elevator took Achille down to the lower decks. The inner doors opened but the outer doors barely moved due to heavy damage. Achille pried their fingers in between them and pulled them open. The bodies of multiple guards, soldiers, and workers alike were scattered on the floor and walls with bloodied wounds covering them. Achille followed the corridor around the corner and spotted a group of three soldiers tending to a woman on the floor.

"What's going on here!?" demanded Achille. Two of the soldiers continued to tend to the woman as the other stood up to address Achille.

"We're not entirely sure ourselves ma'am. Personnel have been acting rampant and attacking each other. We've had to take care of a few." The soldier nodded towards the corridor of bodies Achille had walked through previously and then looked at the woman on the floor. "This one was barely conscious when we found her. We hope to get some intel out of her once she's able to- "

A loud bang echoed through the corridor. The group looked at a large bulk-head door just a few metres away. Another bang echoed and the door visibly shook under the force. Achille began walking over to the door and the bangs grew in intensity. Something was either trying to get through or someone was trying to escape from the other side. Either way, they were desperate.

But the bangs had just stopped.

Had they given up.

Be killed?

Or had the distraction worked?

A projectile ricocheted off of Achille's helmet and she quickly put up her shield. The three soldiers and the woman began firing away at Achille; pushing her further back towards the door. A stay projectile struck the door controls and the locking mechanism failed. The bulk-head flew open and a sea of personnel began charging towards her.

Achille ducked down letting some of the projectiles take out a chunk of the horde. A swift roll towards the wall and dive at one of the soldiers took them down to the floor. Achille grabbed their hand with the weapon in and fired two shots up into the helmets of the two standing and one into the chest of the woman of the floor. Achille rolled over to place the final soldier on top on her and launched them into the horde to slow them down.

But it didn't do much. A hurried scramble to grab a weapon and get onto her feet lead Achille into sprinting for the elevator. Blind firing behind her gave her enough of a gap to reach the elevator and smash an order into the control panel. The last thing she saw was a sea of motionless, purple eyed people staring at her as the doors closed.

Achille slumped down onto the floor and took off her helmet to catch her breath. A quick inspection saw that the projectile to her head barely avoided penetrating the entire helmet and a millimetre more precise would've killed her instantly.

"Achille. Your presence is rejected in the grand hall immediately." spoke a woman on the control panel.

"Not now!" barked Achille

"Let me reiterate," the voice shifted to a male voice, "grand hall... now." Achille looked up at the control panel. A woman smiled back at her with glowing purple eyes and a sly smile.

"Demitri, what the fuck have you done." mumbled Achille. The elevator quickly shifted its velocity and travelled towards the grand hall.