Storm' Fury: The Shenkar War (55 page)

              The creature that had attacked Aldis stopped and noted the rest of the group a short distance away. The beast was something you would only see in your worst nightmares. If Steve had to classify the creature he would say it looked somewhat like a giant centipede. When it reared up it stood eight feet in height and its massive body moved along several dozen legs. The length of the creature was unknown as the body extended around the corner deeper into the tunnel from which it came. It did not seem to have any visible eyes but two antennas moved back and forth. The most disturbing part was its gaping mouth that seemed to split three ways to open up and reveal row upon row of needle like teeth. Saliva dripped from the mouth as it shifted its head back and forth. Its skin seemed to undulate as it shifted its weight back and forth for several moments. Then much to Steve’s surprise the undulating stopped and the creature’s skin began to fall from its body.  It took Steve several moments to realize it was not the centipede’s skin but hundreds of tiny centipedes that clung to the large body that were falling to the tunnel floor. Quickly the creatures moved off down the tunnel, towards the rest of the team.

              “What the hell are those?” Private Reuban asked.

              “Whatever the hell they are I can guarantee they are not friendly, can we open fire?” stated Sergeant Robinson, stepping forward as he turned his energy cannon in the direction of the creatures.

              “Fire at will!” Steve commanded as he pulled his plasma sword free of his utility belt.

              The words were barely out of his mouth when Sergeant Robinson opened up with his energy cannon. The cannon was devastating as it tore through the small creatures as they advanced their way towards the group. Soon privates Reuban,Xang and Dewitt also brought their energy rifles to bear upon the advancing wave of creatures which effectively stopped them in their tracks.

Steve and Peter advanced towards the larger creature in an attempt to rescue Aldis.  For the most part the smaller creatures ignored Steve and Peter, which Steve found rather odd but decided he would have to figure out why later. Any creature that came close enough to them, died quickly, as they were cut in two by the swing of a plasma sword.

              As they closed in on the main creature, it seemed to rear back for a moment then launched itself forward again slightly. A thick stream of yellowish liquid shot forth, missing Steve but hitting Peter square in the chest.

              “What the hell?” said Peter, disgust in his voice.

              The reason for the liquid became clear very quickly as smoke began to rise from Peter’s chest as the liquid quickly ate through the armor of his uniform. Realizing the danger it created Peter quickly moved to remove his uniform but Steve knew it was already too late. Peter’s hand had barely begun to remove his uniform when the liquid made contact with his skin and Peter screamed out in pain. For how fast the liquid had eaten through Peter’s armor, it was nothing in comparison to what it did to skin. Peter’s hands attempted to scrap the caustic liquid from his skin but only flesh came away, revealing the bone and muscle beneath. Peter fell to his knees, screaming for several moments, before he coughed up blood and fell to the tunnel floor where he fell silent. 

              Having dispatched the remainder of the smaller creatures the rest of the team had stood by horrified at what they had witnessed. Only Sergeant Robinson seemed to shake it off and turned his cannon upon the large creature.  He let loose a heavy unrelenting assault of energy into the creature’s mouth, forcing the creatures head to snap backwards. When this happened, Steve moved in quickly to pull Aldis free of the immediate area of the larger beast.

              A whine began to emit from Sergeant Robinson’s assault weapon indicating it was in danger of overloading but he ignored it as he continued his assault. The rest of the team finally snapped out of their trances and turned their weapons upon the creature. Under the combined assault, the creature fell to the floor dead, the entire upper half of its body reduced to a mass of gore from the energy rifles.

              The thick stench of burned flesh permeated the air as silence descended upon the immediate area.  Steve pulled Aldis closer to the group, keeping his eye on the expanding pool of dark yellow greenish liquid that oozed from the creature’s body. Once he felt it was safe he carefully set Aldis’s limp form on the tunnel floor and checked his vital signs. Blood covered Aldis’s face from a large gash at the top of his head. His pulse was weak but steady which made Steve feel better. When Steve had seen the impact Aldis had suffered, when he had slammed into the tunnel wall, he had feared it might have killed him. Any normal man or woman it just might have but the nanites had immediately went to work steadying their host’s vital signs, preventing him from dying. Steve retrieved a small canister from the pack he had been carrying and used the nano-foam within to seal the open wound on Aldis’s head.

              “Is he going to be okay?” asked Dewitt from behind him.

              Looking up he saw that Private Dewitt looked on, concern clear upon her face.

              “Yeah, he should be fine, the nano-foam should seal and repair the wound, he just needs some rest,” Steve said as he stood.

              They stood there for a moment in silence before Dewitt spoke again, her voice soft and just barely above a whisper.

              “I thought you guys were indestructible. What a horrible way to die.”

              Following her gaze he saw that she looked at the body of Lieutenant Bowmount.

              “No, we die just like any other person…I lost many friends when I was aboard the
Sacrifice
.”

              “What should we do about him, sir?” Xang asked as he walked over to join the pair.

              Steve opened his pack and retrieved an item he had hoped he would not need.

              “We put him in this,” Steve said as he held up the body bag.

              Steve and Xang moved forward and lay the body bag out beside the body of Bowmount. Xang moved to grab Bowmount’s upper half of his body to move him but Steve held up a hand to stop him.

“Be careful not to get any of that liquid on you,” Steve warned as he looked closer at the massive wound.

The closer inspection revealed that Bowmount’s entire chest cavity had melted under the assault of the caustic liquid to leave a gaping hole all the way through to his spine. Nothing had survived the assault, melting organ and bone alike. Steve spotted some remnants of the liquid but it did not appear to be melting the flesh it was attached to. Retrieving a pen from his pocket he used the end to remove some of the liquid.

While initially it had been very fluidic as it had sprayed forth from the creature, now it was more gelatinous. Steve also noted that it did not seem to be melting the end of the pen in which it clung too.

“Seems to have gone inert, I don’t believe it represents any more danger but lets be careful anyways,” Steve explained as he stuffed the pen in a pocket on Bowmount’s uniform then moved to grab his legs.

Together the pair lifted Bowmount’s body, taking care not to make any sudden movements for fear of the body tearing itself in half. Steve had feared this would happen but luckily enough of Bowmount’s back muscles had still been intact to shift the body to the body bag. Before he zipped the bag closed, Steve quickly went over the body removing any useful gear and personal effects. Setting the items aside, he would secure them within his own pack, he then slid the zipper closed. Once the task had been completed Steve stood up and looked around.

“We won’t be able to take his body with us; it would be too hard to carry and would hinder us if we encounter anymore hostiles.”

“Should we return to the ship?” Dewitt asked, her voice trembling slightly, clearly still shaken up over the whole event.

“No, we need to get the Intel on the manufacturing plants as soon as possible. We will have to hide the body until we can retrieve it later,” Steve said as he surveyed the area.

The tunnel did not offer many places that you could hide a shoe, nevermind a body. An idea struck him and he walked over to where the creature lay. Carefully he pushed on the side of the beast and it shifted slightly. The flesh was very pliable which would make this easier.

“Bring his body over here, we will shift the creatures body and hide Bowmount’s body beneath. While any Shenkar coming along will obviously wonder how the creature was killed, I seriously doubt they will investigate close enough to discover his body.”

Robinson bent down, easily lifted the body in his arms, and then walked over to stand beside Steve.

“Place him here,” Steve said, indicating a spot parallel to the dead creature, “Xang and Reuban, when Sergeant Robinson and I lift this section of the creature, you two will push the body beneath.

With their tasks outlined, everyone did as asked and soon Bowmounts body was secured beneath the creature’s bulk and well out of sight.

“Everyone look around and make sure to secure any evidence of our presence,” Steve said as he gathered up his pack and secured Bowmounts plasma sword to his utility belt.

A soft groan emitted from where Aldis was laying as he moved to sit up. Steve moved over to knee beside him and to help him sit up.

“How are you feeling?” Steve asked.

“Like I got hit by a semi-truck.What happened?” Aldis said as he looked around, a slightly dazed look upon his face.

“That is not very far from the truth,” Steve said as he pointed to the carcass of the creature that lay further up the tunnel.

“That thing is huge, is everyone all right? Where is Bowmount?” Aldis said as he looked around.

“He didn’t make it, the creature hit him with a jet of extremely caustic liquid. Before he could even get his armor off it had melted through and attacked his body.”

Aldis looked again at the creature, a far off look upon his face.

“This is my fault, I should have been more aware, I shouldn’t have moved off by myself. I was just trying to get a scan of the tunnel up ahead,” he said in a low voice.

Steve tilted his head sideways slightly as he rested a hand upon Aldis’s right shoulder.

“Don’t think that, if you had been aware and able to give a warning you cannot say it would have made any difference. The creature did not come after us immediately, we attacked it and that was when Bowmount was hit. As for your scan, it was beneficial; I was able to use data you collected that will bend us back in the correct direction.

Aldis looked up at Steve for a few moments before he nodded and once again moved to get up.

“My head has cleared up and I imagine we need to complete our mission so enough of us sitting around.”

Steve helped Aldis to his feet. Once he was sure Aldis was really okay he turned to the rest of the group.

“Everyone gather your packs. We are moving out.”

The team readied themselves and once again moved off down the tunnel from where the creature had come. Steve took one last look around and moved off. As he passed the creature he made a silent prayer to himself that they do not run into anymore of these creatures. It also occurred to him that he should warn Liam’s party of these creatures but when he attempted to contact him he only received static in return.

“Strange,” he muttered to himself as he took a reading of the surrounding tunnel.

Scans revealed an unknown element which seemed to be interfering with communications. This meant that when they did find the manufacturing plants there would be no way he could contact anyone to coordinate an assault. While his orders had been mainly scouting out the targets, if the opportunity was there he could choose to destroy the targets but it required the clearance from Admiral Kelvin or General Leonid.

“Things can never be easy,” Steve muttered to himself

“Everything okay?” asked Aldis.

“No, seems an unknown element in the surrounding rock is interfering with communications. We have no way of contacting any of the other teams. We also missed our scheduled check in, with the others.”

“Guess we are on our own until we rendezvous with the ship.”

Steve didn’t say anything but only continued on as he thought of all the possible scenarios that could go wrong with this mission. He suddenly wished he had chosen to lead the team to assault the station instead of this. For all he knew, Evan was probably sitting back and relaxing at this point.

January 31
st
, 2014 3:49pm EST