The Story
Introduction
You spent a half-year on a tin-can of a transport vessel to get to Phobos. Reports of mental illness and even death during these claustrophobic journeys were a bit too frequent for comfort. It was not always this way. At one time slipgates were used to instantaneously travel across the solar system. This technology promised to bring the galaxy to humanity's fingertips... However, horrors from an ancient civilization bled through. Grotesque beings, evolved into a state of mindlessness, hunted anything with a hint of life. You learned that military records codenamed this enemy Quake and enacted "Operation Counterstrike" to intercept the invasion. Eventually the flood of monstrosities ceased and the operation was deemed successful. However, no one active on the ground during the operation survived nor came back. Perhaps a group of rangers subdued Quake wherever the other end of the slipgate took them? Either way, the transport slipgates were closed, preventing anyone... anything... from returning...
Aged out of the active military, guard duty on Phobos became the last option for you and your comrades to make ends meet. The destination, outpost LXIV, used the last authorized use of slipgate technology to mine high purity gadolinium from an interstellar object. Theoretically, atomic mining prevented anything living to slip through, and the magnetic properties of gadolinium made it a prime resource for this method. It was a mystery what anyone would do with all of that gadolinium as it was not valuable enough to be guarded. However, what needed to be guarded were the workers themselves. Aboard the transit vessel to Phobos, you were briefed that there were incidents of personnel becoming violent and escaping; thus the workers were to be carefully watched. The job felt like prison-duty, and would grind the humanity out of anyone, but the fellow guards protected each other like family. You served with them in the military and you serve with them now.
Your comrades made up for the lack of living relatives back on Earth. You shared your secrets with them, and they shared their secrets with you. Perhaps the most important secret was related to Operation Counterstrike. During a retirement ceremony of one of the generals, he lamented in confidence that the Quake incident was incorrectly treated as an invasion. He whispered of uninvestigated reports of broken sanity, missing soldiers, and missing equipment. The general believed that Quake had a hunger for flesh and technology and the incident was a theft instead of an invasion. At first this seemed like minor details that only the top tier of military strategists would care about. However you were told by a major to never speak of this knowledge as it could cost lives if leaked. This was the first and only threat of such a nature you have ever encountered in your service. Hearing about the incidents on Phobos reminded you of these rumors and brought feelings of dread. However, the vessel was a one-way ride and you would not abandon your comrades either. Together, despite a constant feeling of unease, you all did your duty.
The stillness of the moon exaggerates any twitchy behavior of the workers. There is rising tension here, perhaps due to the confinement of the mining facility. Thankfully it is the last day for many of us, and a chance to be free from whatever haunts outpost LXIV. Earlier, you felt the arrival of the returning transport vessel with an unusually large rumble. It was a feeling of relief to know the transport was here, but the feeling would change. The clank of axes, blasts of shotguns, and wails of suffering now echo through the passages of the facility. You hear screams around each corner, only to find nothing. Where are your comrades? Either they are being pulled away from this world or you are losing your mind. Eventually you find stains of blood and scraps of viscera. Something is tearing life apart. Nearby you hear inhuman grunts and the clacking of movement. You do not know what is going on, but if you have to cut your way through hell itself, you will find out...