Shadow Part3: Survival
Posted By: MasterSushi<mastersushifp@hotmail.com>
Date: 24 September 2004, 10:48 AM
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Dedicated to the memory of Jeanne Unwin. She was an Aunt to as all.
Shadow took a second to take in what was happening. He scanned the scene as quick as he could. The thing charging at him was unarmed. It's jaw seemed quadruple-hinged, a top jaw with two pairs of mandibles for a lower jaw and it's legs were double jointed. Its hands had four fingers, two middle fingers and two thumb-like fingers on the outside of the hand. Its armour was a glorious blue and it roared ominously. The four much smaller creatures stayed on a mound behind the first creature, strange devices which Shadow labelled guns to be safe, were concealed at the moment behind a glowing, green ball that the ends of the weapons seemed to be creating. Shadow turned his attention to the larger creature. He quickly dodged a downward slash made by the thing's arms and regained his footing. He leapt at the alien and thumped his fists onto the back of the alien's head. The thing collapsed to the ground presumably dead. Shadow turned to the lesser creatures and heard a hissing noise which was followed by four bright green spheres that crackled in the air next to Shadow. He prepared to jump towards them when one of his ribs cracked out of place. Next thing he knew his body was being hurled toward the westward sea. The salt stroked his face while a searing pain clicked his rib back. He staggered to his feet when a splash of emerald flashed into his chest. It pushed him back into the sea and he screamed. It was unlike him to do more than grunt at pain but this was a different pain from a bullet or knife wound. He could feel his chest being scalded. His attire was burnt through and his flesh was close to being melted. He stood back to his feet and charged at the now standing, blue alien. His attack with a knife was parried and he was disarmed. His skull pressed into his backbone as a strike to his cranium echoed through his brain. He ran inelegantly towards the minor creatures. A quick blow snapped two alien's spines and Shadow took one of their weapons. He hastily found how to operate it and aimed it at another of the creatures. It blew an orange shielded alien's head backwards and another lethal blow dropped him. Shadow was fascinated with the weapon as it dumped a waste onto the sand. While taking out the last little one he found it could fire smaller shots if he didn't 'overcharge' it and little waste was disposed of. Now for some vengeance. An overcharged shot to the head dimmed the shimmer surrounding the roaring creature, which looked like a shield. It was like the Mjolnir armour's shield in development for the Spartan program. He fired twice more to kill it and one more to make sure it was definitely dead this time.
He ran back down the beach and burrowed at the sand trying to find the comms. He knew they couldn't be buried to deeply so he dug four quick holes. Another quick hole and he found something. But it wasn't a comms system. A hole revealed itself from under the soft sand and Shadow wondered whether to drop down into it. A horseshoe shaped ship like the one he had seen on the disk swirled overhead. Then another. And another. Volleys of thick purple matter crashed towards him. They splashed and scoured the sand, melting it into glass. The ships landed in the encampment and Shadow immediately thought it best to go down the hole then stay and fight. It was dark in the hole and Shadow had to feel for the walls. Grooves in the walls led to twisting corridors and sharp corners. He was careful not to trip on debris on the floor and occasionally found small rooms. Strange glyphs on the walls lit up and hypnotized Shadow temporarily. He broke from the trances as fast as he could and scampered on. He preferred the dark corridors. Being part of the Tenebrae sect of fighters he was trained to work in the dark. He faltered in one of the passageways. Bang, bang. Footsteps pounded on a metal floor. It was a classic and unmistakable sound. A sound he despised. It was coming from behind him, he was sure. Time to run. As he ran he heard the banging speed up. It was almost in sync with his own. He ran down the passageways. Tributaries led from his own corridor, but he decided to run forwards. He could run faster in a straight line. Much faster. He had no time to feel his way and before long he slammed into a wall. Panicking, he felt for other passages. He found none. The banging slowed again. Then there was a roar. An almighty roar. Two roars. A bolt of green flashed from in front of him. He jumped but there was nowhere to jump to. As he landed he could only drop to the floor onto his belly. The bolt cut into the wall and molten jade material fell onto Shadow once again scalding him. He got up again and aimed at where the muzzle flash had been. There was a flash of green from his shot and another roar. Had he killed it? He squinted and could still see two objects moving in the darkness. They seemed to have a good idea where he was too, but Shadow couldn't stay to fight. He would be staying to die. He couldn't run either. Could he? He leapt over the heads of the bulky creatures and ran into a little room. It was well lit in here and Shadow might be able to get a good look at the things. He looked for grooves on the ceiling. Anything he could hang onto. Excellent. There were some large gashes above the door. They would be perfect. He jumped to grabbed two of the crannies and then swung his legs up so he was crouching but on the ceiling. He pushed his heels into more crevices and studied the doorway. The banging was coming closer. Before long the aliens came coming for him. The things were just short of remarkable. Gleaming blue armour was hefted upon them. Spines protruded from their backs. Their weapons seemed almost welded onto their arms and on their other arm was a giant metal shield. Around their waists however was a small band of fleshy orange. Letting go of one crack Shadow withdrew a long, silver knife from his belt. When both the creatures were facing the other way he dropped down, silent as a breath of air and thrust the blade into the thing's back. He ripped the sharp edge out in a gruesome direction to make sure it would be dead. The other thing turned and let out a mighty howl. It charged at him, shield low and before he could react it crushed his left leg with its mighty safeguard. Shadow collapsed to the floor. But noticed a fleshy, uncovered armpit under the alien's potent shield. He crawled under the shield and thrust the bloody blade into it. With another tearing motion he ensured the lumbering beast's fate. Orange blood spurted across his face and torso and the monster thudded on the ground beside him. Shadow wanted to sleep, wanted to rest. But he couldn't. He had to keep running. Sheathing the knife, he ran down one of the branching corridors and slipped back into the gloom.
Pestis and fourteen other Ignigena warriors made their way to a briefing room. He was happy to be part of an Ignigena squad again rather than a mixed one. He was a firm believer that hard-hitting units were better than those stealth teams and such. They walked into the briefing room were MM Shoten waited for them. "This is gonna be fast men, so listen up. A Tenebrae team was sent up to an Immani planet to recover more information about them." Pestis knew that large amounts of Tenebrae teams had been sent to the planet where he had been previously, to find out more about the new aliens. "They never called back. We're sending you in to find them. A quick recon suggests that the aliens they've been doing dodgy dealing with are down there too. We know a little more about them now. They use plasma technology. This stuff burns and melts so we advise you don't get hit by it. We sent those disks off to ONI and they've come up with some names. ONI and us are the only people that know about this and they're trying to keep it quiet, you hear? Based on sat pictures of the last operation, two new aliens have been identified." Blurred pictures flashed onto the screen. He pointed at one of the creatures with the glowing shields. These are Jackals, all right? And this little bugger." He pointed at the blue armoured creature. "Is an Elite. They've been identified as part of the 'Covenant'. We have heard of them before but this is an opportunity to learn a lot more about them. Any questions?"
"Sir, Elite is a stupid name." Asked one of the fighters.
"I know, but ONI will do what they will. Any others?"
"Why Jackals?" Asked Bustum another fighter.
"Apparently they're hunters and scouts. Work in packs. But ONI was pretty blurry about their reasons. Probably because it's NOT important! So are there any other questions that aren't about names?"
"Do you know who that is?" Pestis pointed out the black smudge on the screen.
"It's one of the Tenebrae. We don't know who but consider it a last survivor. He's your objective as well." The picture clicked forwards. A fight flicked raggedly in front of their eyes. In the last picture the smudge was gone and the alien's corpses lay strewn across the beach. There was a small hole just visible in the sand and a large smear of purple 'plasma' was about to impact with the satellite. "We assume he dropped into what looks like a hole. Either that or it's his dead body. Pestis is Squad Leader, now go."
Pestis and the twelve other male combatants stepped into one changing room while the two females stepped into the one parallel. Pestis stepped into the usual camouflage colours, but as they were Ignigena the suits had an orangey haze about them. They each took stolen MA5B Assault Rifles and while the others took large amounts of extra ammunition, Pestis was forced to follow the tradition of every Ignigena Squad Leader, which meant he had to carry a M90 as well. They weighed a lot together but he'd carried heavier. He was surprised to see one of his squad handling an almost antique MA2B of 2525. They each took four sulphur dioxide and three sulphur trioxide grenades. They were filled with the stuff and if those aliens had lungs they would be in a lot of pain. When they were ready they ran to a pelican bay to get lifted to the scene.
Eto Tolkamee stepped of the cramped craft and onto the sand. The glyph on the back of his red armour gleamed in the sun. He took the plasma rifle from his belt and roared. Those foolish creatures had once again let the nameless ones succeed in stealing from them. He wanted to ask, why? but knew better than to question The Exalted Ones judgement of allying with the things. He knew that under the alien's home planet there was a complex made by the Old Ones, but he would have rather taken it by force. He hit what the nameless ones had immorally named a Jackal round the head signalling to it to get out of his way. Hunters, as they had been named, had already entered the complex after the surviving creature. He feared that the Hunters would damage the complex with their large weapons. Other than that everything was fine at the moment. They would enter the complex take the nameless one and have him executed. Yes. Everything was going brilliantly.
To be continued...
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