Prince of Shadows by Mercforhire
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Prince of Shadows: The Shadows Emerge
Date: 14 September 2002, 10:32 pm
He walked down the dust-ridden corridor, a solemn expression on his face. Evenly spaced torches that were far enough apart to not give complete light lit the dim hallways. He had to be careful for there were traps everywhere. He had a strange feeling in his gut, a feeling of being watched. He looked around but saw nothing he attempted to calm himself, but it was to no avail. He was absent-mindedly trembling then he heard footsteps, something was coming towards him. He reached for his pistol that was holstered at his hip. He turned around and saw a light it was coming at him at a steady unwavering pace. He called out to the light "I'm not afraid of you!"
A young hoarse voice called back "Hordillon is that you?"
He let out a sigh and returned his pistol to its holster. "Yes it is I." Hordillon had been worried for no reason; of course one was bound to be worried. They were currently on the planet Alpha Sigmus, the team of archeologists had been sent there by ONI to investigate some ancient ruins. So far they had found hundreds of booby traps, and quite advanced the booby traps were considering the ruins were close to two thousand years old. The UNSC had sent some of their troops with the ONI team and so far all the marine had managed to do was fall on traps and get lost in the many labyrinths that made up the ruins. The young trooper he had mistaken for a ghost edged closer to him his assault rifle steadied, it's light almost blinding him. "Come on soldier I don't have all day." Hordillon was getting a bit angry now, he walked toward the trooper but what he found shocked him.
"Good Lord." Hodillon muttered to himself. The trooper was covered with blood and had a shocked look on his face. Hordillon ran towards him and as he came closer the troopers legs began to buckle, the trooper fell to the ground Hordillon just barely catching the troopers head. "Good God what happened soldier?" Hordillon put the soliders back against a wall and handed him his canteen.
"Sir sir we must leave everywhere monsters going." The marine started coughing.
"It's alright son now tell me what happened." Hordillon tried to act considered yet stern at the same time. The marine's breathing was heavy and he was having problems getting under control.
"Sir their were monsters... they were everywhere... they killed... they killed everyone else...."
"What?" Hordillon didn't even let him finish his sentence. "What do you mean killed them all?"
"Everyone in alpha unit is dead sir... ahhh!" The young marine let out a scream. Alpha unit was to investigate the first ruin beta unit was to check out the second.
"Have you heard from Beta unit?" Hordillon was just stalling the marine while he was thinking about what to do next.
"No no sssir..." The marine was wounded badly and obviously scared by whatever he had seen.
"Well son can you walk?" Hordillon was forty-seven years old and he had frequent health problems he probably couldn't carry the marine out.
"Yesss sir." Hordillon got up and the marine followed him. There were ten marines and ten archeologists in Alpha team and it would take a small party of anything to take down the eighteen men that were back at the camp. He had tried to reason with his superior that setting up camp inside the ruins was a bad idea. Well it was too late for that now, he was walking at a rather slow pace and every four or five seconds he would turn around and check on the marine. They reached the area that Alpha team had called home for the better part of the past six days. When Hordillon arrived at Alpha Teams camp he was immediately surprised. There were no bodies or blood or any sign of a fight not even a scrape on the walls. He looked back at the marine again the blood on him was real enough, the marine was a little jumpy now and he was making jerky movements with his assault rifle. Perhaps the others were playing a trick on him, he smiled oh what a wonderful sense of humor someone has. "Alright you guys are hilarious you can come out now."
"Ssssir what are you... talkkking abouttt?"
Hordillon laughed, "Heh you know exactly what I'm talking, so where is everybody seriously."
"Sssir this is no joke I..." The marine didn't even finish his sentence he looked up and fired off a burst of fire from his assault rifle. "No no no... not again." Shadows began to move about the marine fired at everyone. There were hundreds of moving shadows Hordillon's face turned pale.
"Oh no good lord no. Run!" He ran the marine following as close as he could, they were almost to the edge of the ruins. The shadows were getting closer to them now. He was almost their he could see the light at the end of the ruins. Hordillon tripped his flashlight bounced out of his pack and shown back towards the marine and the shadows chasing him. The light from the flashlight hit the shadow creatures and they let out a muffled growl before running back.
"Son, use the light on your assault rifle." The marine did as he was told and the two of them back out of the ruins their lights not allowing the shadows to come closer. They got out of the ruins where four pelicans full of marines waited. One of the marines came up to him.
"Hordillon we received the emergency beacon from Alpha unit and came as quickly as possible."
"What emergency beacon?" Hordillon had forgotten about his emergency beacon he should of set it off when he found the marine for the first time. The bloodied marine spoke "Sssir I ssset off my beacon before I fffofound you." The soldiers who had arrived showed them to the pelicans.
Hordillon smiled the best he could after what had happened, "Well son you might have saved us both." The pelicans took off they were heading back to the orbiting ship Light's Darkness. Hordillon was happy to leave that place behind him, he was already thinking about how to word his resignation letter.
<TO BE CONTINUED>
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