stories I've heard in the guild." As they advanced, slower now, she explained. "When the Principal sent the first teams of Hunters to Ragol after
Pioneer One, they found unknown structures beneath the surface. The first were obviously mines that the colony built, but the deeper they got, the more...
alien it became."
"Alien?" Ben said as they stepped into another cavern. "Yeah, this qualifies as alien," he muttered, looking over the lines of flesh as
they spread out over the walls and floor. Bone and blood vessels were becoming visible as well.
"At first, it seemed to be an alien vessel of some sort, possibly a ship," Amy continued. "But the deeper they went, the more wrong it became.
Metal was replaced by bone, wires by blood... The place became twisted, tainted. Sander, one of the team that explored it, once mentioned a 'brain
chamber' but wouldn't say anything else... as for what was beyond that, no one's been able to get a word out of the team ever since that day."
"And we're still walking forward why?" Ben asked.
"Because there are people down here," Noriko said. "Look at how it's infesting the rock. Could you imagine if this taint claimed a
person?" She shivered, her optics showing the unease her masked face tried to hide. "We have to get them out of here," she said as she stepped
around a pulsing muscle.
"One thing I don't understand," Amy said. "The ship was twisted and tainted by... something inside it. That I get, even if it really creeps
me out. But we're halfway across the planet. How did it get all the way here? Is it like some kind of demented infection?"
"How does something like this spread?" Noriko wondered as they moved into another tunnel, trying not to look at the bone and blood tunnel supports.
"Or is it under the surface of the entire planet?"
"That's a reassuring thought," Amy muttered. "Thanks so very much."
"I'm not seeing anything that looks like technology," Ben said. "Just... the taint." He swallowed back the bile in his throat, then
paused. "Do you hear that?"
Amy stopped walking, her ears twitching slightly. "Retching. Someone's throwing up."
"Can't blame them," Noriko said, breaking into a slight jog. The other two followed her, coming out into a circular cavern, with two other ways
out. Near one of the exits, a main was leaned over, throwing up whatever was left in his stomach.
"Hey there," Ben said in a friendly tone. The man looked up, obviously surprised by the arrival of three figures in armor and packing a small
arsenal.
"Hunters Guild," Amy said, tapping the emblem on her neck collar. "We were sent to find you people."
"Colm Lang," he said weakly. "Welcome to your personal nightmare."
"You look about as happy at this place as I feel," Ben noted.
"Yeah... I'd heard rumors there was something a little odd, but -" his voice cut off as he stumbled back, staring at the floor in horror. As they
all watched, the vomit was absorbed into the muscles it had struck, the organic parts swelling and expanding.
"I think I'm gonna be sick now," Ben managed.
"Don't feed this thing," Amy said quietly, squeezing his arm gently. He nodded, breathing in and out for a moment, before turning to Colm.
"Needless to say, the sooner we find you people and get you out, the happier I'll be."
The man nodded, but looked forlorn. "You mean you didn't check the transporter?"
"We fixed it," Noriko said. "Staying here is not on our list of things to do."
"Well, I'm more then happy to leave, most of us are," he replied eagerly. "But Director Osbourne and his team won't want to go."
"They'd stay down here?" Ben managed.
The man shrugged. "From what he's told us, they were the ones that found this, this place, and they've apparently been working on it for over six
months. He was saying he'd found something big, and I don't think he's gonna leave."
"Then where is he?" Noriko asked. "I'll drag him out if I have to."
"I'll show you."
***
Colm led them through the next few tunnels, as the flesh sections expanded rapidly. Strange webbing emerged from the ceiling, the floor shifted under their
step, and all four of them began to hear, and feel, an unsettling pulsing sensation running through the area. "What the heck is doing that?" Noriko
wondered.
"I wish I knew," Colm said. "I think it's coming from the walls themselves... it's what got to me the most, hence my being back closer
to the transporter. Director Osbourne wanted everyone to stick close together, just in case. In case of what, he wasn't saying."
"Well, that's nice... what the hell's the deal with this place?" Ben asked.
"Not a damn clue," Colm said. "There was the occasional oddity, things that didn't make sense. Last month Simon Hancock came in with second
degree burns on his arm. He said a shield-cell blew out when he was testing it, but there weren't any tests scheduled that day."
"He did it down here?" Amy said.
"Apparently."
"How many people knew about this before they ended up down here?" Ben wondered.
"I asked a few people... maybe a third of us," Colm said. "The rest of us found out when the perimeter fence went down and the beasts swarmed
in."
"Start from the beginning," Amy asked. "All we know is that the place got swarmed by animals and everyone used the transporter and ended up down
here instead of on Pioneer."
"That's a pretty accurate summary," he admitted. "Things got really odd yesterday. A whole herd of Booma parked themselves near the
perimeter, a few of them trying to get through and getting fried. A few Hildebears showed up, some Rappys... then they just sat there. For about three
hours."
"Those things actually stood still that long?" Amy asked, surprised.
Colm nodded "Yeah, it was really creeping us out too. A few of them moved and howled a bit, but for the most part, it was like they were waiting for
something. Then all of a sudden half the beasts threw themselves at the perimeter fence. That thing wasn't designed to fry that many at once and went down.
That's when we all panicked and ran for the transporters." He laughed slightly. "Of course, we didn't know the damn thing was set up to beam
us all down here. If I had, I'd probably have taken my chances with the Booma."
Ben was about to comment when he thought he heard something. Spinning, he brought his rifle up and swept the room, seeing nothing. "Ben?" Amy asked
quietly.
"Could've sworn I heard something move," he muttered, lowering it again.
"Everyone down here seems to have that happen," Colm said. "I hate to even think about why." Ben nodded slowly, turning and following him
again. "Anyway, we're just about there." He led them down one more tunnel, which exited into a much larger cavern then any of the others. Here,
the area was almost entirely flesh, although most of the floor had been covered by thick canvas. The three newcomers noted the number of tunnels that led off,
as well as the large number of people gathered, but more importantly, the massive bone plate on the distant wall, the blood vessels running through it shaped
almost like some kind of text.
"What the hell..." Noriko murmured as they walked forward, a number of the people around seeing them and backing away slightly. Ben and Amy nodded
and smiled at them slightly, keeping their weapons pointed at the ground.
After a moment, a somewhat obese man came towards them, a scowl on his face. "Doctor Lang, just who are these people?" he demanded, tugging at the
sleeves of his somewhat dirty business suit.
"Amy Rose and Noriko Dorden of the Hunters Guild," Amy said with a slight bow. "This is Ben Cook of the independent starship Duskwalker. You
must be Director Osbourne."
"Yes, of course," he said, still tugging at his sleeves.
"When contact was lost with your facility, we were ordered to locate you and make certain you were alright, along with providing transport back to Pioneer
Two," Ben said. The other man gave him a surprised look.
"You obviously have dealt with those pests above," he said, his somewhat high pitched voice trying to sound authoritative and failing.
"For the time being," Amy said. "But with the damage they caused, we'll have to evacuate the facility until the military or a full Hunter
strike team can provide cover for the repair teams."
"That's simply not possible," he said. "We can't allow this research to be delayed. There's simply too much here to waste any more
time."
"Yeah, about that," Noriko piped up. "We've checked with the Guild and the Principal Office. You guys didn't have authorization to be
down here, which leaves me wondering... what's so important that you guys felt you could risk one of the toughest laws on Ragol?"
Osbourne looked down at what, to him, looked like a young girl. "Perhaps it's not clear to you," he said in a condescending tone, "but what
we've found down here may be a breakthrough in technology that surpasses even the photonic discoveries made last century!" He waved a hand across the
walls. "All of this growth is artificial, directed by a set of 'programming codes'. This could totally revolutionize technology as we know
it!"
As he continued to speak on what he believed he had found, Amy shot Ben a look. He merely shrugged back.
***
Back on the surface, Skuld was sitting on a crate, checking over her rifle, while Fiona played a small game of catch with the Ragolian womans mag, another Sato
like Amys. As she reattached the twin focusing rods that took the place of the barrel on more conventional weapons, she looked up to see the tiny robot fumble
a catch, the ball bouncing off its oversized head. She snickered, then looked past it, towards the fence, and her mood faded. "Fiona,"she said in a
no nonsense voice, dropping off the crate and arming her Justy.
Fiona turned, following her gaze, before backing up slightly as she saw over a dozen yellow-furred Booma emerge from the bushes, barking and moving as close to
the energy fence as they dared. She took her pistol from its holster, tapping off the safety. "Over there too," she said suddenly, pointing at a
second group of Booma that had emerged further down.
"Okay, this is odd," Skuld mused, reaching up to tap her radio. "Chris, Optimal, we've got something going on up here."
"How so?" came Optimals bored response, the Cast still sitting in the transporter room in case Amy and the others called.
"More then twenty Boomas poking at the perimeter fence," she said.
"Not just Boomas," Fiona noted, nodding at a pack of massive canine beasts that had joined the Boomas.
"Okay, add some Wolves," Skuld added as Sato drifted up to rest above her shoulder, chirping softly. She looked over the fence, already battered from
the disaster that had hit the facility the previous day. "Guys, if they hit the fence I don't think it will hold."
"If it goes, can we take them?" Chris asked from the control room.
"You think you can get those turrets back up and not shooting us?" she replied.
"Turning them on is easy. The other part... The more I look at this, the more I think these turrets were deliberately altered to target humans."
Skuld looked over at Fiona, who merely shrugged.
"Chris, why would someone do that?" she demanded.
***
"How the hell would I know?" Chris said, looking across the monitors in front of him. "Look, the fact is, I can't turn these things back on
safely."
"Then we might have a problem," Skuld responded honestly. "We can kill these off with a bit of effort, but I get the feeling that these
won't be the only ones." As she spoke, Chris tied into the security cameras, looking along the Perimeter, finding even more animals surrounding the
base.
"They're not. I'm seeing at least another forty Booma, twenty wolves, I'm not even going to bother counting the Rappys wandering in..."
he sighed. "I'd say we're in trouble."
"That fence goes, it's only a matter of time before we go down by sheer weight of numbers," Optimal said. Chris shook his head, then spoke again.
"Skuld, I know you hired us, but as Duskwalkers captain, I'm recommending we pull out of here."
"Agreed," she replied. "But what about 'Riko and the others? It's not like we can leave leave them or the staff members trapped
underground."
"I'll teleport down and get them back up here," Chris said, already out of his chair and sprinting towards the door.
"Hey, I'm already in the transporter room, I could just-"
"No, we'll need you up here," Skuld said. "We're going to need some bigger guns up here, especially if we're gonna have to wait for
those people. Get back to the ship and grab one of those monsters you insisted on bringing."
Optimals grumbling about not getting to go underground vanished as Chris sprinted towards the transporter room, the red-black Cast barreling past him down the
corridor.
***
"Director Osbourne, not to sound dismissive, but we are seven hundred meters underground," Ben pointed out. "Given that it's unlikely anyone
else could have come down here..."
"But someone else has been down here," he said, looking down his nose at the off-worlder. "In addition to the organic elements that fills these
chambers, we've found a number of artifacts that seem to come from a society that uses some similar technological elements to common galactic
science." He gestured at a long bench that was filled with what looked a lot like armor and weapons.
Ben walked over and looked at one of the incredibly ornate pistols. "Impressive," he noted. "And hardly reassuring. You're telling me that
this is some sort of alien growth, and either its creators or another race came down here to try and destroy it. Either because they'd lost control of it,
or it was seen as a major threat."
"How could you know that?" the director responded. "Besides, that hardly matters, it's in the past. What matters is the value this biotech
has to society now. Properly harnessed, it could give us the ability to claim this world and truly remake it in our image."
"Director," Amy said, slight annoyance on her face. "This growth matches unnervingly close to what was found under the ruins of Pioneer One.
Even then, we're looking at something that is able to tunnel through rock and metal ore at incredible depths."
"Absorb," Noriko disagreed. Everyone looked at her. "Didn't you notice it back in the earlier tunnels? The organics ran through the center
of the rock formations without any disruptions or rubble on the floor."
"Yes, we'd noticed that. Another remarkable ability. We believe it actually breaks down the rock and soil into its base elements, which it them
absorbs into its larger mass. We've done some tests, and we believe that it can actually do the same with almost any inorganic material. We were able to
'feed' it samples of refined Trinium alloys, and if anything, it actually enjoys processed materials more. Most likely due to the removal of
impurities-"
"Okay, that's it," Amy said. "The last thing I need to hear is about how this stuff can eat through anything. Here's how it is Director
Osbourne," she continued in a cold voice, stepping forward. "We were sent here by Principal Tyrell, making me the voice of legal authority on this
matter. I'm issuing an evacuation order for this facility. You're to take all your people, including those wounded in the attack yesterday," she
said with a glance at several men and woman with makeshift bandages, "get them back up to the surface and board the ship currently on the landing pad, and
leave with us. This discovery of yours will be assessed by the military and the Hunters Guild. Should it be considered safe, you might be allowed to return.
Assuming of course you're not charged with unauthorized exploration of the Ragolian underground."
Osbourne backed up, obviously not used to being told what to do, or being interrupted. "We can't just leave this!" he protested. "We've
nearly managed to tap into this technology. It's taken us over a year to-"
"I don't care." He blinked at her cold response, then sneered.
"Of course you don't. You hunters don't care about technology unless it helps you, and this could take your place in saving Ragol-" he shut
up as Ben came over, glaring at him.
"The lady said to move," he began, only to be cut off by another pulse through the flesh, this one louder then the rest, followed by a dull rumble
they all felt. "What was that?"
"I, I don't know," Osbourne said. "That's never happened before."
"That a good thing or a bad?" Noriko wondered. A high pitched scream cut through the air, coming from one of the side tunnels. "Bad," all
three hunters said in unison.
Ben flicked off the safety on his rifle. "You stay, I'll go," he said, jogging towards the tunnel. "Get them moving!"
"Okay," Amy said, glaring at the director.
Ben skidded to a halt as he exited the tunnel, into another cavern filled with people, equipment, and something else. "Oh boy," he managed. Across
the cavern, a strangely distorted creature stood over a pair of bodies. Standing nearly seven feet tall, the beast was the same distorted color as the alien
growth, with a distorted humanoid shape, its legs, arms and upper torso freakishly over sized. Its left hand was some sort of claw, while the other had a
massive blade growing out from its wrist, its victims blood running along it.
"Everybody down!" Ben yelled, raising his rifle. As the people nearby took cover, the creature turned to face him, somehow seeing him despite the
fact it had no head. Before it could do anything else, he opened fire, emptying half his clip into it... only to have the space around it twist and shift, the
bullets seemingly passing through unnoticed to shred the wall behind him. The spacer lowered his rifle, a look of shock on his face. "How in the
hell...?"
***
Raising its sword-arm, the creature approached Ben, ignoring the frightened civilians trying to find something to hide behind. The spacer tossed his rifle
aside and pulled a combat knife from his belt as he darted forward, aiming to keep its attention. Darting back to avoid a slash, he stabbed at it, noting it
seemed to worry about that particular attack, before ducking under another swing and and then leaping over a workbench, rolling as he hit the flesh floor.
His opponent kicked the bench over and moved on him again. Ben faked with the knife in his right hand before nailing it with a punch from his left. It
stumbled, its sword-arm waving, and Ben didn't quite dodge fast enough, hissing as it sliced his own arm slightly. Ever so slightly distracted, the man
took a vicious backhand to the face from the beasts claw hand, knocking him to the floor.
***
Chris appeared in a flash of green light, looking around the underground transporter chamber. Ignoring the corpse off to one side, he stepped off the platform
and tapped his radio. "Amy, Ben, 'Riko, you guys reading me?" he asked.
"Chris!" Amys voice responded. "We've got trouble!"
"Down here too?" he asked, jogging down the tunnel. "Things are going wrong upstairs, we're pulling out. Did you find the survivors?"
"We're trying to pull them out now, but there's something else down here. Ben went to check and..."
"Get those people moving, I'll meet you halfway!" he ordered, breaking into a sprint.
***
"On it," she said, taking her hand off the radio. "Okay people, we're heading back to the transporter," she called out, looking around
the several dozen people that were coming in from the side corridors. "As soon as you're on the surface, head for the ship on the landing pad."
"We can't just leave," Osbourne protested.
"Move!" she roared. "Ben, how are you doing?"
***
"Not so good," he growled as he crawled back, avoiding another swing from the blade. Kicking out, he knocked it back long enough to get to his feet,
backing away slightly. As it moved towards him again, it was hit in the side by a steady stream of photon fire. Noriko stepped out of the entrance tunnel, her
Varista roaring. After the third or forth shot however, it warped the space around itself again, the shots curving around. Ben watched for a moment, noting
that the claw-arm seemed to be the source of the warping, glowing from within with a purple light, before looking around for his knife.
The knife had fallen among the tools and equipment from the bench that had been knocked over earlier, along with several of the recovered alien weapons. Seeing
a long, silver blade in the pile, he ignored the knife and reached for the sword. Turning back to the fight, he cursed and swung the sword up to block the
monsters sword-arm as it came down at it. Even as the shock of the impact ran down his arms, he pushed forward, breaking the deadlock and swinging at the
claw-arm.
The creature moved back and blocked the blow, as Noriko ignited her twin daggers and charged at it from the side. "Left arm," Ben hissed, coming at
the beast from the other side, forcing it to split its attention. "Something in it let it do that stunt."
"Swell," the small Cast said, spinning down to attack its legs. "What is this thing?"
"You're asking me?"
***
Skidding to a halt, Chris looked up at the flesh in shock. "What in the hell?" he murmured, watching as the blood vessels pulsed, then seemed to
swell. Backing up, he barely avoided being splattered by the dark red fluid as the vessel popped and something dived at him.
Reacting on instinct, he swung his rifle up, slamming the butt into it, knocking it across the floor. It bounced and paused, hovering above the ground,
slightly stunned. It looked like some sort of manta ray, only twisted and deformed, the flesh mottled and scarred. Hissing, it darted back towards him again.
Chris raised his rifle and put two shots through it. Squealing, it dissolved into a black mist.
Chris lowered his weapon, staring at the fading mist uneasily. After a moment, the sound of screams caught his attention again. Cursing under his breath, he
broke into a run, charging down the tunnels, and nearly slamming into the people coming the other way. "Hunters Guild!" he called out as the first
few people panicked further at the sight of him. "I'm with the Guild!" Pushing on through the line, he looked for the others. "Where are my
friends?"
"Back in the main area," someone replied. "There's something back there!" He pushed on past Chris, who scowled and kept moving.
"Head back to the transporter!" he called out. "Our ship's on the landing pad! Go!"
***
Noriko spun, catching the creatures blade between her own, the force of the blow knocking her back. Pulling the left ripper back, she hooked the right one
around the blade and pulled it down. Ben took the opening, running the thing though from behind. It squawked for a moment, then slumped down, dissolving into a
black mist.
"Damn," he managed, backing away slightly.
"Yeah," Noriko agreed, looking around. "You see where the civilians went?"
"Away, I'm guessing," Ben responded, resting against a bench to catch his breath. "Can you blame them?" The Cast shrugged.
"Anyway, I say we get the feth out of..." His voice trailed off as he heard a strange hissing noise. Standing up, he looked over at the far wall, the
flesh pulsing and distorting as figures emerged from within it. Figures somewhat similar to the first beast. "Wonderful."
"You think they're bulletproof too?" 'Riko asked. Ben snatched up his rifle from the ground and opened fire. The creatures were shredded,
hanging out of the wall at odd angles.
"Nope," he replied, pulling out the empty clip and reloading. "But I only have so many bullets. Let's get out of here."
"Gladly," she said, sprinting for the exit, the human close behind.
***
The Boomas roared, throwing themselves against the fence, energy crackling along it, flash frying them. Skuld watched as, all along the perimeter, the native
wildlife threw themselves into the energy fields. They held for nearly four seconds before the generators blew out in small clouds of fire and sparks, the
fence fields fading away.
"Wow," Fiona breathed as she reached Skuld with a bag of ammo clips. The Ragolian nodded, raising her Justy and opening fire on the nearest batch of
Booma. Fiona dropped the bag and pulled out her own weapon, doing the same.
"Where's Optimal?" Skuld asked.
"Pulling out a really big gun," she replied as she dropped a Booma. "Doesn't look like all your other guns."
A chuckle made itself heard over the radio. "It's certainly not a Ragolian weapon kid. But I've found it has its benefits." Skuld looked over
her shoulder to see Optimal stomping down Duskwalkers entry ramp carrying a massive black cannon, power cables and ammo feeds running around to a massive
backpack.
"What in the name of the Ancients is that monster?" Skuld wondered.
"They call it a Heavy Bolter," Optimal replied, raising the cannon and firing. The large caliber shells tore through the animals flesh, detonating
inside and slaughtering the beasts. "Imperial weapon. They may be religious nuts, but they make some damn impressive toys."
"Good Lord," Fiona managed, watching as Optimal tore apart the animals on the other side of the ship.
"That's Optimal for you," Skuld chuckled, blasting a Hildebear. "Now, if the others will get back up here, maybe we'll see space
again." Fiona nodded, tracking a wolf that tried to flank them.
***
"Chris?!" Amy exclaimed as Chris sprinted towards her. "What're you-?"
"We're leaving. Now," he said. "Where's Ben and 'Riko?"
"Here!" Ben called out, stopping as he and Noriko emerged from a tunnel. Turning, he fired a long burst back down it, getting a series of agonized
screams back. "You said we're leaving?"
"Pretty much. All hell's breaking loose up top as well," Chris said. "We get these people out of here, the Guild can do the rest." He
glanced at the sword in Bens hand. "Where'd you get that?"
"Long story," he responded, running again. Chris shrugged and followed.
***
Colm knelt down to help a woman that had tripped over. "Keep moving," he said as he helped her up, looking back down the tunnel. The flesh in the
tunnel was pulsing and shifting, seemingly reacting to the panic and chaos within it. Shuddering, he pushed on.
Nearby, Osbourne muttered under his breath as he walked along, wringing his hands. "This is all so wrong," he protested. "We had it under
control. There was no sign of it acting like this before now... It has to be the Guild."
Colm looked at him oddly. "How'd you figure that boss?" he wondered.
"This only happened when they arrived. It must understand that they're hostile, and it's responding to that. If we can convince it-"
The younger man scowled, stepping up close. "Even if you're right, how the hell are we supposed to communicate with it?" he demanded, before a
scream from ahead of them caught his attention. Pushing past Osbourne, he ran towards the noise, stopping at the end of the tunnel. Two deformed figures stood
over the bodies of several people, blood running down the swords fused into their arms. Silently, they looked up at him, the tiny appendage on their shoulders
flopping around uselessly, before marching forward. "Hell..." he murmured, backing up.
Osbourne stumbled past him, holding up his hands in a calming gesture. "It's alright," he said in a shaky voice. "We didn't mean for the
Hunters to come down here. We're not going to let them hurt you." Colm stared at the man in shock, and more then a little disgust.
The creatures never slowed, one of them raising it's left sword arm over its head. "Don't you understand?" the facility director protested,
his eyes widening. "We want to help you!"
Colm started to reach forward to grab Osbourne and pull him back, when a blue-haired blur raced past him, the staff in her arms crackling with photon energy.
The sword collided with Amys staff as she placed herself between the monster and the human, before she brought the other end up, cracking the beasts chest and
knocking it back. Spinning the polearm, she attacked the other one.
The other Hunters emerged behind Colm, watching as Amy tore into the pair. "She's good," Chris mused.
"It's a talent," Noriko replied, before a noise from the walls caught her attention. More of the monsters were emerging. "How many of these
things are there?" she wondered, raising her Varista and firing. Ben and Chris did the same, although a few more 'hatched' fast enough to stumble
into the brawl with Amy.
The crystals in her staff glowing with power, Amy tore them apart, never slowing down as she seemed to dance around them. Above her, Sato hovered, chirping
occasionally, before his eyes glowed brightly and he began spinning around, his chirping changing pitch. "Flarewave!" she ordered, swinging her staff
around to get the room needed.
"Down," Noriko said, ducking. Chris, Ben and Colm took her advice, Ben reaching up and yanking Osbourne down by the collar, as Sato pumped all of the
photonic energy he'd gathered directly into Amys staff. The energy bleedoff giving her a visible aura, Amy brought her staff around in a wide arc, a wave
of power launching outwards, reducing the beasts to a shower of limbs and parts that dissolved into mist.
"Woah," Chris managed as he stood up. "Remind me never to get you out for my blood." Amy smirked, lowering her weapon and looking around,
then backing up, horrified. "What?" he asked, following her gaze to see the bodies of the creatures victims. As they watched, the flesh floor rose up
around the corpses, seizing it in an unbreakable hold. Almost instantly, the blood began to be drained from them, the human flesh burning from the acids the
beast used to digest the flesh.
"God help us," Noriko whispered, looking away. "What is with this place?"
"It's feeding," Colm said quietly. "That's why it's attacking us now. All the injured and the dead gave it a snack. It knows it can
eat us. That's all we are to it."
"Enough figuring it out," Ben growled. "Let's just get the heck out of-" his words cut off in a scream as pain lanced through his head.
At the same time, all the other humans experienced the same pain, leaving Noriko, the only Cast present, confused and more then a little terrified.
"Guys?!" she nearly screamed, grabbing at Ben's shoulder.
"Nnnggg..." he managed, wiping away a blood nose. "The feth was that?" he demanded.
"Telepathic shockwave," Colm replied, managing to stand up. "I think this thing just 'woke up.' We just got a dose of... whatever makes
it up."
"Telepathy?" Osbourne whimpered. "I've never heard of something with so powerful a mind. Imagine what it must have seen, what it could tell
us?"
"Yeah, well I don't plan on being around long enough for it to try and talk to us again," Ben spat, kneeling down next to Amy. "Are you
alright?"
The woman was still on her hands and knees, eyes forced shut. "It's too old, seen too much," she gasped. "It's forgotten itself to
survive, all it has left is its needs."
Ben placed a hand on her shoulder. "What does it need?" he asked softly.
"Death," she whispered, opening her eyes and looking up at him. "Ben, it lives solely to bring an end to all life. Nothing more. If it wakes up,
if it's not stopped-"
"It will be," he promised her. "We'll get the guild down here in force and destroy it-" Amys panicked yelp drew his attention. Looking
down, he saw that the flesh floor had shifted, rising up around her exposed hands and knees. "Give me a hand here!" he yelled at the others, trying
to pull her free. The woman gasped, forcing back a scream as it moved up her wrists, the smell of burning flesh making itself known.
Growling, Chris fired into the flesh right next to Amy, shredding it and loosening the grip just enough for Ben and Colm to pull the woman loose.
Ben looked over her wounds with an expression of horror on his face. Amys hands and knees looked like they'd suffered third degree burns, flesh stripped
and shredded, blood running down the skin. The woman whimpered slightly, already slipping into shock.
"Does your ship have a medbay?" Colm asked, looking over the injuries with a professionals eye. Ben nodded. "We need to get her there now."
Ben nodded, breaking into a run, holding Amy close. The others followed.
***
Optimal backed up as the Hildebear leapt at him, his heavy bolter roaring. The beasts head was blown apart, crashing into the ground at the Casts feet.
"How many of these things are there?" he growled.
"How the hell am I supposed to know?" Skuld snapped back, ejecting a spent power cell. Locking a new one into place, she tabbed a button near the
trigger. When she fired again, the shot charged slower and was much more powerful, felling a Booma in one shot. "What's taking them so long?" she
muttered. "We can't keep this up much longer."
As if on cue, the doors to the main building were thrown open, people running out. "Finally!" the tiny hunter said. "Fiona, get them on the
ship." The other woman nodded, sprinting towards them. Luckily, she was able to point them towards Duskwalker with little difficulty... until she saw Ben
and Amy.
"Oh my God!" she exclaimed, getting out of the way as Ben charged past her. "What happened?"
"I honestly don't know how to explain it," Ben admitted. "There's still a few people down there. Chris and 'Riko have got the
rear." That said, he ran up the entry ramp, heading for the rear stairs, some man she didn't recognize close behind.
"Here!" Ben said, pushing open the medbay doors and placing Amy on a bed. Colm moved to a side bench, looking it over.
"Standard layout, good," he murmured, opening a drawer and taking out an injector. "This should dull the pain," he said to her softly,
injecting it into her neck.
"That's good," she managed, her breathing calming somewhat. Colm moved his attention to her hands. Carefully he turned her left hand over,
studying the palms.
"When this is over, Osbourne and I are going to have a little talk," Ben muttered, watching her.
"Won't that be fun," Colm said. Ben nodded, looking down at Amy as she fell asleep, before sighing. "I need to prep the ship for
launch." The doctor nodded at him as he brushed a hand through her hair, then turned and left.
***
"It seems that the humans have survived their adventure in Falz," said a cloaked figure, watching from within the treeline.
"Some of them," replied his companion, her voice sounding like music, even when speaking. "Enough of them, anyway. They will carry the story
back to their kin in their precious city."
"... Honored One, I must ask," he said, bowing his head. "Why did we allow the humans to find this fragment? Surely our warriors could bind Falz
again, far better then the primitives."
She nodded. "Indeed. But that would cost the lives of many of our warriors, leaving their souls in the grip of this daemon. But the humans that are
foolish enough to try and claim this world are not totally ignorant. They have had a glimpse of Falz, and they are just smart enough to suspect what he could
be. When these people tell their kin what is here, the humans will come in force. Falz will feed on many of them and gain power, but it will be brief and
fleeting. They will force him back into slumber. And our own people will remained unharmed." She smiled coldly. "We may not even need to help them
give their lives for us."
***
"Last group!" Noriko said, working the transporter controls. Chris nodded, firing his carbine back down the tunnel one last time, before moving over
to the side of the machine. "What're you doing?"
"I don't want to risk these thing figuring out how to use this thing," he said, pulling a small explosive charge from his vest and fixing to the
transporter. "Is ten seconds after we teleport enough?"
"Plenty," she replied, entering the last commands and leaping onto the platform. "Let's go already!" Chris nodded, jumping on, and
they, along with the last three facility members, vanished in a flash of light.
Reappearing back in the facility, they leapt off the platform and sprinted down the hallways, heading for Duskwalker. "Ben, we're all on the
surface!" Chris reported into his radio. "How're we doing?"
"Getting ready to launch now. Hurry it up, the guys are running low on ammo, and there's a lot of wildlife down here." As if to back up his
statement, the windows at the end of the hall shattered and a Booma roared, pulling itself through the opening. Chris and Noriko barely even slowed as their
weapons cut it down.
A second later, a window to their left shattered and another Booma lunged through. Chris spun, bringing his weapon around, only to jerk to a halt as his chest
erupted in pain. Somewhat surprised, he looked down at the creatures claw before his vision began to fade, and the last thing he heard was Norikos enraged
scream.
***
Skuld backed ever closer to Duskwalker, her Justy starting to overheat as she kept firing nonstop. On the other side of the ship, Optimal was beginning to have
the same problem, the roar of his cannon starting to be drowned out by the ships engines powering up.
As she stopped to reload, she saw the last group emerge from the main building, two of the men carrying a badly wounded Chris between them.
"Finally!" she said. "Ben, last group's on it's way. What's your status?"
"In the air as soon as you're on," came the response. Skuld grinned, turning and running back up the ramp, Optimal and the others close behind.
Fiona hit the door controls as the last of them passed her. "Ben, punch it!" she snapped into the comm panel. In the control room, Ben grinned,
powering up the VTOL engines, lifting the ship off the ground, then rammed the main engines up to speed, racing away from the doomed base and climbing into the
sky.
***
"What happened?" Colm asked as Chris was carried into the medbay.
"Booma claw," Noriko replied as the man was placed on the second bed, Colm checking Amy one last time before moving to Chris. Taking a pair of
scissors, he cut away the mans shirt, frowning at the large wound just below his ribcage, angled upwards. He studied it for a moment, then went to the comm
panel.
"Ben, I need you to contact Pioneer and declare a medical emergency. We need a site-to-site teleport to an operating theater."
"Amy's that bad?" his shocked voice responded.
"No, it's Chris. He was wounded by a Booma on the way out. There's massive internal bleeding, possibly a punctured lung. We need to get him into
surgery now."
Ben looked down at the comm panel in the console, his expression somewhere between horror and surprise. For nearly ten seconds, he stared silently, before
pulling his attention back to the moment. "On it. Pioneer ATC, this is Independent Ship Duskwalker declaring a medical emergency..."
***
Pioneer One, they found unknown structures beneath the surface. The first were obviously mines that the colony built, but the deeper they got, the more...
alien it became."
"Alien?" Ben said as they stepped into another cavern. "Yeah, this qualifies as alien," he muttered, looking over the lines of flesh as
they spread out over the walls and floor. Bone and blood vessels were becoming visible as well.
"At first, it seemed to be an alien vessel of some sort, possibly a ship," Amy continued. "But the deeper they went, the more wrong it became.
Metal was replaced by bone, wires by blood... The place became twisted, tainted. Sander, one of the team that explored it, once mentioned a 'brain
chamber' but wouldn't say anything else... as for what was beyond that, no one's been able to get a word out of the team ever since that day."
"And we're still walking forward why?" Ben asked.
"Because there are people down here," Noriko said. "Look at how it's infesting the rock. Could you imagine if this taint claimed a
person?" She shivered, her optics showing the unease her masked face tried to hide. "We have to get them out of here," she said as she stepped
around a pulsing muscle.
"One thing I don't understand," Amy said. "The ship was twisted and tainted by... something inside it. That I get, even if it really creeps
me out. But we're halfway across the planet. How did it get all the way here? Is it like some kind of demented infection?"
"How does something like this spread?" Noriko wondered as they moved into another tunnel, trying not to look at the bone and blood tunnel supports.
"Or is it under the surface of the entire planet?"
"That's a reassuring thought," Amy muttered. "Thanks so very much."
"I'm not seeing anything that looks like technology," Ben said. "Just... the taint." He swallowed back the bile in his throat, then
paused. "Do you hear that?"
Amy stopped walking, her ears twitching slightly. "Retching. Someone's throwing up."
"Can't blame them," Noriko said, breaking into a slight jog. The other two followed her, coming out into a circular cavern, with two other ways
out. Near one of the exits, a main was leaned over, throwing up whatever was left in his stomach.
"Hey there," Ben said in a friendly tone. The man looked up, obviously surprised by the arrival of three figures in armor and packing a small
arsenal.
"Hunters Guild," Amy said, tapping the emblem on her neck collar. "We were sent to find you people."
"Colm Lang," he said weakly. "Welcome to your personal nightmare."
"You look about as happy at this place as I feel," Ben noted.
"Yeah... I'd heard rumors there was something a little odd, but -" his voice cut off as he stumbled back, staring at the floor in horror. As they
all watched, the vomit was absorbed into the muscles it had struck, the organic parts swelling and expanding.
"I think I'm gonna be sick now," Ben managed.
"Don't feed this thing," Amy said quietly, squeezing his arm gently. He nodded, breathing in and out for a moment, before turning to Colm.
"Needless to say, the sooner we find you people and get you out, the happier I'll be."
The man nodded, but looked forlorn. "You mean you didn't check the transporter?"
"We fixed it," Noriko said. "Staying here is not on our list of things to do."
"Well, I'm more then happy to leave, most of us are," he replied eagerly. "But Director Osbourne and his team won't want to go."
"They'd stay down here?" Ben managed.
The man shrugged. "From what he's told us, they were the ones that found this, this place, and they've apparently been working on it for over six
months. He was saying he'd found something big, and I don't think he's gonna leave."
"Then where is he?" Noriko asked. "I'll drag him out if I have to."
"I'll show you."
***
Colm led them through the next few tunnels, as the flesh sections expanded rapidly. Strange webbing emerged from the ceiling, the floor shifted under their
step, and all four of them began to hear, and feel, an unsettling pulsing sensation running through the area. "What the heck is doing that?" Noriko
wondered.
"I wish I knew," Colm said. "I think it's coming from the walls themselves... it's what got to me the most, hence my being back closer
to the transporter. Director Osbourne wanted everyone to stick close together, just in case. In case of what, he wasn't saying."
"Well, that's nice... what the hell's the deal with this place?" Ben asked.
"Not a damn clue," Colm said. "There was the occasional oddity, things that didn't make sense. Last month Simon Hancock came in with second
degree burns on his arm. He said a shield-cell blew out when he was testing it, but there weren't any tests scheduled that day."
"He did it down here?" Amy said.
"Apparently."
"How many people knew about this before they ended up down here?" Ben wondered.
"I asked a few people... maybe a third of us," Colm said. "The rest of us found out when the perimeter fence went down and the beasts swarmed
in."
"Start from the beginning," Amy asked. "All we know is that the place got swarmed by animals and everyone used the transporter and ended up down
here instead of on Pioneer."
"That's a pretty accurate summary," he admitted. "Things got really odd yesterday. A whole herd of Booma parked themselves near the
perimeter, a few of them trying to get through and getting fried. A few Hildebears showed up, some Rappys... then they just sat there. For about three
hours."
"Those things actually stood still that long?" Amy asked, surprised.
Colm nodded "Yeah, it was really creeping us out too. A few of them moved and howled a bit, but for the most part, it was like they were waiting for
something. Then all of a sudden half the beasts threw themselves at the perimeter fence. That thing wasn't designed to fry that many at once and went down.
That's when we all panicked and ran for the transporters." He laughed slightly. "Of course, we didn't know the damn thing was set up to beam
us all down here. If I had, I'd probably have taken my chances with the Booma."
Ben was about to comment when he thought he heard something. Spinning, he brought his rifle up and swept the room, seeing nothing. "Ben?" Amy asked
quietly.
"Could've sworn I heard something move," he muttered, lowering it again.
"Everyone down here seems to have that happen," Colm said. "I hate to even think about why." Ben nodded slowly, turning and following him
again. "Anyway, we're just about there." He led them down one more tunnel, which exited into a much larger cavern then any of the others. Here,
the area was almost entirely flesh, although most of the floor had been covered by thick canvas. The three newcomers noted the number of tunnels that led off,
as well as the large number of people gathered, but more importantly, the massive bone plate on the distant wall, the blood vessels running through it shaped
almost like some kind of text.
"What the hell..." Noriko murmured as they walked forward, a number of the people around seeing them and backing away slightly. Ben and Amy nodded
and smiled at them slightly, keeping their weapons pointed at the ground.
After a moment, a somewhat obese man came towards them, a scowl on his face. "Doctor Lang, just who are these people?" he demanded, tugging at the
sleeves of his somewhat dirty business suit.
"Amy Rose and Noriko Dorden of the Hunters Guild," Amy said with a slight bow. "This is Ben Cook of the independent starship Duskwalker. You
must be Director Osbourne."
"Yes, of course," he said, still tugging at his sleeves.
"When contact was lost with your facility, we were ordered to locate you and make certain you were alright, along with providing transport back to Pioneer
Two," Ben said. The other man gave him a surprised look.
"You obviously have dealt with those pests above," he said, his somewhat high pitched voice trying to sound authoritative and failing.
"For the time being," Amy said. "But with the damage they caused, we'll have to evacuate the facility until the military or a full Hunter
strike team can provide cover for the repair teams."
"That's simply not possible," he said. "We can't allow this research to be delayed. There's simply too much here to waste any more
time."
"Yeah, about that," Noriko piped up. "We've checked with the Guild and the Principal Office. You guys didn't have authorization to be
down here, which leaves me wondering... what's so important that you guys felt you could risk one of the toughest laws on Ragol?"
Osbourne looked down at what, to him, looked like a young girl. "Perhaps it's not clear to you," he said in a condescending tone, "but what
we've found down here may be a breakthrough in technology that surpasses even the photonic discoveries made last century!" He waved a hand across the
walls. "All of this growth is artificial, directed by a set of 'programming codes'. This could totally revolutionize technology as we know
it!"
As he continued to speak on what he believed he had found, Amy shot Ben a look. He merely shrugged back.
***
Back on the surface, Skuld was sitting on a crate, checking over her rifle, while Fiona played a small game of catch with the Ragolian womans mag, another Sato
like Amys. As she reattached the twin focusing rods that took the place of the barrel on more conventional weapons, she looked up to see the tiny robot fumble
a catch, the ball bouncing off its oversized head. She snickered, then looked past it, towards the fence, and her mood faded. "Fiona,"she said in a
no nonsense voice, dropping off the crate and arming her Justy.
Fiona turned, following her gaze, before backing up slightly as she saw over a dozen yellow-furred Booma emerge from the bushes, barking and moving as close to
the energy fence as they dared. She took her pistol from its holster, tapping off the safety. "Over there too," she said suddenly, pointing at a
second group of Booma that had emerged further down.
"Okay, this is odd," Skuld mused, reaching up to tap her radio. "Chris, Optimal, we've got something going on up here."
"How so?" came Optimals bored response, the Cast still sitting in the transporter room in case Amy and the others called.
"More then twenty Boomas poking at the perimeter fence," she said.
"Not just Boomas," Fiona noted, nodding at a pack of massive canine beasts that had joined the Boomas.
"Okay, add some Wolves," Skuld added as Sato drifted up to rest above her shoulder, chirping softly. She looked over the fence, already battered from
the disaster that had hit the facility the previous day. "Guys, if they hit the fence I don't think it will hold."
"If it goes, can we take them?" Chris asked from the control room.
"You think you can get those turrets back up and not shooting us?" she replied.
"Turning them on is easy. The other part... The more I look at this, the more I think these turrets were deliberately altered to target humans."
Skuld looked over at Fiona, who merely shrugged.
"Chris, why would someone do that?" she demanded.
***
"How the hell would I know?" Chris said, looking across the monitors in front of him. "Look, the fact is, I can't turn these things back on
safely."
"Then we might have a problem," Skuld responded honestly. "We can kill these off with a bit of effort, but I get the feeling that these
won't be the only ones." As she spoke, Chris tied into the security cameras, looking along the Perimeter, finding even more animals surrounding the
base.
"They're not. I'm seeing at least another forty Booma, twenty wolves, I'm not even going to bother counting the Rappys wandering in..."
he sighed. "I'd say we're in trouble."
"That fence goes, it's only a matter of time before we go down by sheer weight of numbers," Optimal said. Chris shook his head, then spoke again.
"Skuld, I know you hired us, but as Duskwalkers captain, I'm recommending we pull out of here."
"Agreed," she replied. "But what about 'Riko and the others? It's not like we can leave leave them or the staff members trapped
underground."
"I'll teleport down and get them back up here," Chris said, already out of his chair and sprinting towards the door.
"Hey, I'm already in the transporter room, I could just-"
"No, we'll need you up here," Skuld said. "We're going to need some bigger guns up here, especially if we're gonna have to wait for
those people. Get back to the ship and grab one of those monsters you insisted on bringing."
Optimals grumbling about not getting to go underground vanished as Chris sprinted towards the transporter room, the red-black Cast barreling past him down the
corridor.
***
"Director Osbourne, not to sound dismissive, but we are seven hundred meters underground," Ben pointed out. "Given that it's unlikely anyone
else could have come down here..."
"But someone else has been down here," he said, looking down his nose at the off-worlder. "In addition to the organic elements that fills these
chambers, we've found a number of artifacts that seem to come from a society that uses some similar technological elements to common galactic
science." He gestured at a long bench that was filled with what looked a lot like armor and weapons.
Ben walked over and looked at one of the incredibly ornate pistols. "Impressive," he noted. "And hardly reassuring. You're telling me that
this is some sort of alien growth, and either its creators or another race came down here to try and destroy it. Either because they'd lost control of it,
or it was seen as a major threat."
"How could you know that?" the director responded. "Besides, that hardly matters, it's in the past. What matters is the value this biotech
has to society now. Properly harnessed, it could give us the ability to claim this world and truly remake it in our image."
"Director," Amy said, slight annoyance on her face. "This growth matches unnervingly close to what was found under the ruins of Pioneer One.
Even then, we're looking at something that is able to tunnel through rock and metal ore at incredible depths."
"Absorb," Noriko disagreed. Everyone looked at her. "Didn't you notice it back in the earlier tunnels? The organics ran through the center
of the rock formations without any disruptions or rubble on the floor."
"Yes, we'd noticed that. Another remarkable ability. We believe it actually breaks down the rock and soil into its base elements, which it them
absorbs into its larger mass. We've done some tests, and we believe that it can actually do the same with almost any inorganic material. We were able to
'feed' it samples of refined Trinium alloys, and if anything, it actually enjoys processed materials more. Most likely due to the removal of
impurities-"
"Okay, that's it," Amy said. "The last thing I need to hear is about how this stuff can eat through anything. Here's how it is Director
Osbourne," she continued in a cold voice, stepping forward. "We were sent here by Principal Tyrell, making me the voice of legal authority on this
matter. I'm issuing an evacuation order for this facility. You're to take all your people, including those wounded in the attack yesterday," she
said with a glance at several men and woman with makeshift bandages, "get them back up to the surface and board the ship currently on the landing pad, and
leave with us. This discovery of yours will be assessed by the military and the Hunters Guild. Should it be considered safe, you might be allowed to return.
Assuming of course you're not charged with unauthorized exploration of the Ragolian underground."
Osbourne backed up, obviously not used to being told what to do, or being interrupted. "We can't just leave this!" he protested. "We've
nearly managed to tap into this technology. It's taken us over a year to-"
"I don't care." He blinked at her cold response, then sneered.
"Of course you don't. You hunters don't care about technology unless it helps you, and this could take your place in saving Ragol-" he shut
up as Ben came over, glaring at him.
"The lady said to move," he began, only to be cut off by another pulse through the flesh, this one louder then the rest, followed by a dull rumble
they all felt. "What was that?"
"I, I don't know," Osbourne said. "That's never happened before."
"That a good thing or a bad?" Noriko wondered. A high pitched scream cut through the air, coming from one of the side tunnels. "Bad," all
three hunters said in unison.
Ben flicked off the safety on his rifle. "You stay, I'll go," he said, jogging towards the tunnel. "Get them moving!"
"Okay," Amy said, glaring at the director.
Ben skidded to a halt as he exited the tunnel, into another cavern filled with people, equipment, and something else. "Oh boy," he managed. Across
the cavern, a strangely distorted creature stood over a pair of bodies. Standing nearly seven feet tall, the beast was the same distorted color as the alien
growth, with a distorted humanoid shape, its legs, arms and upper torso freakishly over sized. Its left hand was some sort of claw, while the other had a
massive blade growing out from its wrist, its victims blood running along it.
"Everybody down!" Ben yelled, raising his rifle. As the people nearby took cover, the creature turned to face him, somehow seeing him despite the
fact it had no head. Before it could do anything else, he opened fire, emptying half his clip into it... only to have the space around it twist and shift, the
bullets seemingly passing through unnoticed to shred the wall behind him. The spacer lowered his rifle, a look of shock on his face. "How in the
hell...?"
***
Raising its sword-arm, the creature approached Ben, ignoring the frightened civilians trying to find something to hide behind. The spacer tossed his rifle
aside and pulled a combat knife from his belt as he darted forward, aiming to keep its attention. Darting back to avoid a slash, he stabbed at it, noting it
seemed to worry about that particular attack, before ducking under another swing and and then leaping over a workbench, rolling as he hit the flesh floor.
His opponent kicked the bench over and moved on him again. Ben faked with the knife in his right hand before nailing it with a punch from his left. It
stumbled, its sword-arm waving, and Ben didn't quite dodge fast enough, hissing as it sliced his own arm slightly. Ever so slightly distracted, the man
took a vicious backhand to the face from the beasts claw hand, knocking him to the floor.
***
Chris appeared in a flash of green light, looking around the underground transporter chamber. Ignoring the corpse off to one side, he stepped off the platform
and tapped his radio. "Amy, Ben, 'Riko, you guys reading me?" he asked.
"Chris!" Amys voice responded. "We've got trouble!"
"Down here too?" he asked, jogging down the tunnel. "Things are going wrong upstairs, we're pulling out. Did you find the survivors?"
"We're trying to pull them out now, but there's something else down here. Ben went to check and..."
"Get those people moving, I'll meet you halfway!" he ordered, breaking into a sprint.
***
"On it," she said, taking her hand off the radio. "Okay people, we're heading back to the transporter," she called out, looking around
the several dozen people that were coming in from the side corridors. "As soon as you're on the surface, head for the ship on the landing pad."
"We can't just leave," Osbourne protested.
"Move!" she roared. "Ben, how are you doing?"
***
"Not so good," he growled as he crawled back, avoiding another swing from the blade. Kicking out, he knocked it back long enough to get to his feet,
backing away slightly. As it moved towards him again, it was hit in the side by a steady stream of photon fire. Noriko stepped out of the entrance tunnel, her
Varista roaring. After the third or forth shot however, it warped the space around itself again, the shots curving around. Ben watched for a moment, noting
that the claw-arm seemed to be the source of the warping, glowing from within with a purple light, before looking around for his knife.
The knife had fallen among the tools and equipment from the bench that had been knocked over earlier, along with several of the recovered alien weapons. Seeing
a long, silver blade in the pile, he ignored the knife and reached for the sword. Turning back to the fight, he cursed and swung the sword up to block the
monsters sword-arm as it came down at it. Even as the shock of the impact ran down his arms, he pushed forward, breaking the deadlock and swinging at the
claw-arm.
The creature moved back and blocked the blow, as Noriko ignited her twin daggers and charged at it from the side. "Left arm," Ben hissed, coming at
the beast from the other side, forcing it to split its attention. "Something in it let it do that stunt."
"Swell," the small Cast said, spinning down to attack its legs. "What is this thing?"
"You're asking me?"
***
Skidding to a halt, Chris looked up at the flesh in shock. "What in the hell?" he murmured, watching as the blood vessels pulsed, then seemed to
swell. Backing up, he barely avoided being splattered by the dark red fluid as the vessel popped and something dived at him.
Reacting on instinct, he swung his rifle up, slamming the butt into it, knocking it across the floor. It bounced and paused, hovering above the ground,
slightly stunned. It looked like some sort of manta ray, only twisted and deformed, the flesh mottled and scarred. Hissing, it darted back towards him again.
Chris raised his rifle and put two shots through it. Squealing, it dissolved into a black mist.
Chris lowered his weapon, staring at the fading mist uneasily. After a moment, the sound of screams caught his attention again. Cursing under his breath, he
broke into a run, charging down the tunnels, and nearly slamming into the people coming the other way. "Hunters Guild!" he called out as the first
few people panicked further at the sight of him. "I'm with the Guild!" Pushing on through the line, he looked for the others. "Where are my
friends?"
"Back in the main area," someone replied. "There's something back there!" He pushed on past Chris, who scowled and kept moving.
"Head back to the transporter!" he called out. "Our ship's on the landing pad! Go!"
***
Noriko spun, catching the creatures blade between her own, the force of the blow knocking her back. Pulling the left ripper back, she hooked the right one
around the blade and pulled it down. Ben took the opening, running the thing though from behind. It squawked for a moment, then slumped down, dissolving into a
black mist.
"Damn," he managed, backing away slightly.
"Yeah," Noriko agreed, looking around. "You see where the civilians went?"
"Away, I'm guessing," Ben responded, resting against a bench to catch his breath. "Can you blame them?" The Cast shrugged.
"Anyway, I say we get the feth out of..." His voice trailed off as he heard a strange hissing noise. Standing up, he looked over at the far wall, the
flesh pulsing and distorting as figures emerged from within it. Figures somewhat similar to the first beast. "Wonderful."
"You think they're bulletproof too?" 'Riko asked. Ben snatched up his rifle from the ground and opened fire. The creatures were shredded,
hanging out of the wall at odd angles.
"Nope," he replied, pulling out the empty clip and reloading. "But I only have so many bullets. Let's get out of here."
"Gladly," she said, sprinting for the exit, the human close behind.
***
The Boomas roared, throwing themselves against the fence, energy crackling along it, flash frying them. Skuld watched as, all along the perimeter, the native
wildlife threw themselves into the energy fields. They held for nearly four seconds before the generators blew out in small clouds of fire and sparks, the
fence fields fading away.
"Wow," Fiona breathed as she reached Skuld with a bag of ammo clips. The Ragolian nodded, raising her Justy and opening fire on the nearest batch of
Booma. Fiona dropped the bag and pulled out her own weapon, doing the same.
"Where's Optimal?" Skuld asked.
"Pulling out a really big gun," she replied as she dropped a Booma. "Doesn't look like all your other guns."
A chuckle made itself heard over the radio. "It's certainly not a Ragolian weapon kid. But I've found it has its benefits." Skuld looked over
her shoulder to see Optimal stomping down Duskwalkers entry ramp carrying a massive black cannon, power cables and ammo feeds running around to a massive
backpack.
"What in the name of the Ancients is that monster?" Skuld wondered.
"They call it a Heavy Bolter," Optimal replied, raising the cannon and firing. The large caliber shells tore through the animals flesh, detonating
inside and slaughtering the beasts. "Imperial weapon. They may be religious nuts, but they make some damn impressive toys."
"Good Lord," Fiona managed, watching as Optimal tore apart the animals on the other side of the ship.
"That's Optimal for you," Skuld chuckled, blasting a Hildebear. "Now, if the others will get back up here, maybe we'll see space
again." Fiona nodded, tracking a wolf that tried to flank them.
***
"Chris?!" Amy exclaimed as Chris sprinted towards her. "What're you-?"
"We're leaving. Now," he said. "Where's Ben and 'Riko?"
"Here!" Ben called out, stopping as he and Noriko emerged from a tunnel. Turning, he fired a long burst back down it, getting a series of agonized
screams back. "You said we're leaving?"
"Pretty much. All hell's breaking loose up top as well," Chris said. "We get these people out of here, the Guild can do the rest." He
glanced at the sword in Bens hand. "Where'd you get that?"
"Long story," he responded, running again. Chris shrugged and followed.
***
Colm knelt down to help a woman that had tripped over. "Keep moving," he said as he helped her up, looking back down the tunnel. The flesh in the
tunnel was pulsing and shifting, seemingly reacting to the panic and chaos within it. Shuddering, he pushed on.
Nearby, Osbourne muttered under his breath as he walked along, wringing his hands. "This is all so wrong," he protested. "We had it under
control. There was no sign of it acting like this before now... It has to be the Guild."
Colm looked at him oddly. "How'd you figure that boss?" he wondered.
"This only happened when they arrived. It must understand that they're hostile, and it's responding to that. If we can convince it-"
The younger man scowled, stepping up close. "Even if you're right, how the hell are we supposed to communicate with it?" he demanded, before a
scream from ahead of them caught his attention. Pushing past Osbourne, he ran towards the noise, stopping at the end of the tunnel. Two deformed figures stood
over the bodies of several people, blood running down the swords fused into their arms. Silently, they looked up at him, the tiny appendage on their shoulders
flopping around uselessly, before marching forward. "Hell..." he murmured, backing up.
Osbourne stumbled past him, holding up his hands in a calming gesture. "It's alright," he said in a shaky voice. "We didn't mean for the
Hunters to come down here. We're not going to let them hurt you." Colm stared at the man in shock, and more then a little disgust.
The creatures never slowed, one of them raising it's left sword arm over its head. "Don't you understand?" the facility director protested,
his eyes widening. "We want to help you!"
Colm started to reach forward to grab Osbourne and pull him back, when a blue-haired blur raced past him, the staff in her arms crackling with photon energy.
The sword collided with Amys staff as she placed herself between the monster and the human, before she brought the other end up, cracking the beasts chest and
knocking it back. Spinning the polearm, she attacked the other one.
The other Hunters emerged behind Colm, watching as Amy tore into the pair. "She's good," Chris mused.
"It's a talent," Noriko replied, before a noise from the walls caught her attention. More of the monsters were emerging. "How many of these
things are there?" she wondered, raising her Varista and firing. Ben and Chris did the same, although a few more 'hatched' fast enough to stumble
into the brawl with Amy.
The crystals in her staff glowing with power, Amy tore them apart, never slowing down as she seemed to dance around them. Above her, Sato hovered, chirping
occasionally, before his eyes glowed brightly and he began spinning around, his chirping changing pitch. "Flarewave!" she ordered, swinging her staff
around to get the room needed.
"Down," Noriko said, ducking. Chris, Ben and Colm took her advice, Ben reaching up and yanking Osbourne down by the collar, as Sato pumped all of the
photonic energy he'd gathered directly into Amys staff. The energy bleedoff giving her a visible aura, Amy brought her staff around in a wide arc, a wave
of power launching outwards, reducing the beasts to a shower of limbs and parts that dissolved into mist.
"Woah," Chris managed as he stood up. "Remind me never to get you out for my blood." Amy smirked, lowering her weapon and looking around,
then backing up, horrified. "What?" he asked, following her gaze to see the bodies of the creatures victims. As they watched, the flesh floor rose up
around the corpses, seizing it in an unbreakable hold. Almost instantly, the blood began to be drained from them, the human flesh burning from the acids the
beast used to digest the flesh.
"God help us," Noriko whispered, looking away. "What is with this place?"
"It's feeding," Colm said quietly. "That's why it's attacking us now. All the injured and the dead gave it a snack. It knows it can
eat us. That's all we are to it."
"Enough figuring it out," Ben growled. "Let's just get the heck out of-" his words cut off in a scream as pain lanced through his head.
At the same time, all the other humans experienced the same pain, leaving Noriko, the only Cast present, confused and more then a little terrified.
"Guys?!" she nearly screamed, grabbing at Ben's shoulder.
"Nnnggg..." he managed, wiping away a blood nose. "The feth was that?" he demanded.
"Telepathic shockwave," Colm replied, managing to stand up. "I think this thing just 'woke up.' We just got a dose of... whatever makes
it up."
"Telepathy?" Osbourne whimpered. "I've never heard of something with so powerful a mind. Imagine what it must have seen, what it could tell
us?"
"Yeah, well I don't plan on being around long enough for it to try and talk to us again," Ben spat, kneeling down next to Amy. "Are you
alright?"
The woman was still on her hands and knees, eyes forced shut. "It's too old, seen too much," she gasped. "It's forgotten itself to
survive, all it has left is its needs."
Ben placed a hand on her shoulder. "What does it need?" he asked softly.
"Death," she whispered, opening her eyes and looking up at him. "Ben, it lives solely to bring an end to all life. Nothing more. If it wakes up,
if it's not stopped-"
"It will be," he promised her. "We'll get the guild down here in force and destroy it-" Amys panicked yelp drew his attention. Looking
down, he saw that the flesh floor had shifted, rising up around her exposed hands and knees. "Give me a hand here!" he yelled at the others, trying
to pull her free. The woman gasped, forcing back a scream as it moved up her wrists, the smell of burning flesh making itself known.
Growling, Chris fired into the flesh right next to Amy, shredding it and loosening the grip just enough for Ben and Colm to pull the woman loose.
Ben looked over her wounds with an expression of horror on his face. Amys hands and knees looked like they'd suffered third degree burns, flesh stripped
and shredded, blood running down the skin. The woman whimpered slightly, already slipping into shock.
"Does your ship have a medbay?" Colm asked, looking over the injuries with a professionals eye. Ben nodded. "We need to get her there now."
Ben nodded, breaking into a run, holding Amy close. The others followed.
***
Optimal backed up as the Hildebear leapt at him, his heavy bolter roaring. The beasts head was blown apart, crashing into the ground at the Casts feet.
"How many of these things are there?" he growled.
"How the hell am I supposed to know?" Skuld snapped back, ejecting a spent power cell. Locking a new one into place, she tabbed a button near the
trigger. When she fired again, the shot charged slower and was much more powerful, felling a Booma in one shot. "What's taking them so long?" she
muttered. "We can't keep this up much longer."
As if on cue, the doors to the main building were thrown open, people running out. "Finally!" the tiny hunter said. "Fiona, get them on the
ship." The other woman nodded, sprinting towards them. Luckily, she was able to point them towards Duskwalker with little difficulty... until she saw Ben
and Amy.
"Oh my God!" she exclaimed, getting out of the way as Ben charged past her. "What happened?"
"I honestly don't know how to explain it," Ben admitted. "There's still a few people down there. Chris and 'Riko have got the
rear." That said, he ran up the entry ramp, heading for the rear stairs, some man she didn't recognize close behind.
"Here!" Ben said, pushing open the medbay doors and placing Amy on a bed. Colm moved to a side bench, looking it over.
"Standard layout, good," he murmured, opening a drawer and taking out an injector. "This should dull the pain," he said to her softly,
injecting it into her neck.
"That's good," she managed, her breathing calming somewhat. Colm moved his attention to her hands. Carefully he turned her left hand over,
studying the palms.
"When this is over, Osbourne and I are going to have a little talk," Ben muttered, watching her.
"Won't that be fun," Colm said. Ben nodded, looking down at Amy as she fell asleep, before sighing. "I need to prep the ship for
launch." The doctor nodded at him as he brushed a hand through her hair, then turned and left.
***
"It seems that the humans have survived their adventure in Falz," said a cloaked figure, watching from within the treeline.
"Some of them," replied his companion, her voice sounding like music, even when speaking. "Enough of them, anyway. They will carry the story
back to their kin in their precious city."
"... Honored One, I must ask," he said, bowing his head. "Why did we allow the humans to find this fragment? Surely our warriors could bind Falz
again, far better then the primitives."
She nodded. "Indeed. But that would cost the lives of many of our warriors, leaving their souls in the grip of this daemon. But the humans that are
foolish enough to try and claim this world are not totally ignorant. They have had a glimpse of Falz, and they are just smart enough to suspect what he could
be. When these people tell their kin what is here, the humans will come in force. Falz will feed on many of them and gain power, but it will be brief and
fleeting. They will force him back into slumber. And our own people will remained unharmed." She smiled coldly. "We may not even need to help them
give their lives for us."
***
"Last group!" Noriko said, working the transporter controls. Chris nodded, firing his carbine back down the tunnel one last time, before moving over
to the side of the machine. "What're you doing?"
"I don't want to risk these thing figuring out how to use this thing," he said, pulling a small explosive charge from his vest and fixing to the
transporter. "Is ten seconds after we teleport enough?"
"Plenty," she replied, entering the last commands and leaping onto the platform. "Let's go already!" Chris nodded, jumping on, and
they, along with the last three facility members, vanished in a flash of light.
Reappearing back in the facility, they leapt off the platform and sprinted down the hallways, heading for Duskwalker. "Ben, we're all on the
surface!" Chris reported into his radio. "How're we doing?"
"Getting ready to launch now. Hurry it up, the guys are running low on ammo, and there's a lot of wildlife down here." As if to back up his
statement, the windows at the end of the hall shattered and a Booma roared, pulling itself through the opening. Chris and Noriko barely even slowed as their
weapons cut it down.
A second later, a window to their left shattered and another Booma lunged through. Chris spun, bringing his weapon around, only to jerk to a halt as his chest
erupted in pain. Somewhat surprised, he looked down at the creatures claw before his vision began to fade, and the last thing he heard was Norikos enraged
scream.
***
Skuld backed ever closer to Duskwalker, her Justy starting to overheat as she kept firing nonstop. On the other side of the ship, Optimal was beginning to have
the same problem, the roar of his cannon starting to be drowned out by the ships engines powering up.
As she stopped to reload, she saw the last group emerge from the main building, two of the men carrying a badly wounded Chris between them.
"Finally!" she said. "Ben, last group's on it's way. What's your status?"
"In the air as soon as you're on," came the response. Skuld grinned, turning and running back up the ramp, Optimal and the others close behind.
Fiona hit the door controls as the last of them passed her. "Ben, punch it!" she snapped into the comm panel. In the control room, Ben grinned,
powering up the VTOL engines, lifting the ship off the ground, then rammed the main engines up to speed, racing away from the doomed base and climbing into the
sky.
***
"What happened?" Colm asked as Chris was carried into the medbay.
"Booma claw," Noriko replied as the man was placed on the second bed, Colm checking Amy one last time before moving to Chris. Taking a pair of
scissors, he cut away the mans shirt, frowning at the large wound just below his ribcage, angled upwards. He studied it for a moment, then went to the comm
panel.
"Ben, I need you to contact Pioneer and declare a medical emergency. We need a site-to-site teleport to an operating theater."
"Amy's that bad?" his shocked voice responded.
"No, it's Chris. He was wounded by a Booma on the way out. There's massive internal bleeding, possibly a punctured lung. We need to get him into
surgery now."
Ben looked down at the comm panel in the console, his expression somewhere between horror and surprise. For nearly ten seconds, he stared silently, before
pulling his attention back to the moment. "On it. Pioneer ATC, this is Independent Ship Duskwalker declaring a medical emergency..."
***