Eventually, the Xenomorphs exhausted their food source. They climbed out of the water, shaking their coats as they did, and began to regroup. The largest amongst them let out a few deep, commanding calls, and the group fell in line behind them. They began leading their pack back into the jungle, strutting confidently into the depths of the foliage once again. Some of the omnivorous creatures munched on the plant life as they marched home, tearing angrily at the various vines and undergrowth. The larger Sparkhooves didn’t touch the stuff, but the runty, scrappy looking fellows in the very back tore into the veggies with a combination of dissatisfaction and hunger-borne enthusiasm. The group trundled on for a short while before something confusing happened.
Some of the Xenomorphs began to smell the faint hint of their favorite food. It didn’t attract the attention of the larger buffalo, but it seized the tiny imaginations of a handful of fellows bringing up the rear. They stopped and began to sniff curiously in the air, and then they heard it. Back toward the river, they heard the soft low of one of their fellows, the call that signified the finding of good food. Eyes bright with hunger and greed, a half dozen smaller Sparkhooves turned around and backtracked to the riverbank once again. The scent grew stronger and more tantalizing as they did, and a second call prompted them to move faster. Dark eyes widened as they broke the tree line and saw a pile of succulent fish right on the shoreline, scales gleaming in the afternoon light. The buffalo dashed forward to chow down on the feast, letting out cries of happiness as they did. They never saw the enemy until it was too late.
In total silence, two groups of Pioneers dashed out of the trees and approached the Xenomorphs in a lightning pincer attack. Four men struck from one side of the bank while another four covered the other direction. They were practically on top of the beasts before they were noticed, and the creatures had only a short moment to cry out in surprise before the battle began. Daniel struck out with his spear, taking one of the Xenomorphs directly in the neck. His colleague beside him stabbed it right in the haunch, but the creature only bellowed in anger in response. Blue horns began to shine with that familiar electric light, and Hardgrave felt the thrill of fear. Dancing around to reposition, he jabbed the beast at an angle in its ribs, exactly where the heart should be. He felt the blow strike home and the beast gave a great shudder, the light in its horns dying away as quickly as it came. It staggered a little and collapsed, and Daniel withdrew his spear again before taking the moment to assess the battlefield.
The two men next to him had downed one Sparkhoof with no major issue, and he saw another Xenomorph lying dead on the other side of the pincer. On the downside, one of the men on the other side had also been laid low, though he had no visible wounds. The three others were distracted by one seriously wounded yet livid looking beast, who stabbed and bit viciously at the Pioneers trying to finish it off. The remaining two Sparkhoofs had cut their losses and broken away from the group, running back toward the trees. Daniel charged after then, feet pounding in the mud with the thrill of concern. It wasn’t as though they hadn’t planned for this, however.
The Dunid and O’Riley appeared from the shadows of the jungle and charged the fleeing Sparkhooves. The towering, dome-headed shaggy-man leaped on top of one of the creatures with a low pitched, vibrato cry. His claws dug into the beast’s tough hide, and they began wrestling mightily, kicking up clods of dirt in their struggle for control. Strong as he was, the Dunid wouldn’t win that contest. But Daniel quickly signaled for the men following him the help the non-human finish off his prey. Hardgrave was more concerned about O’Riley. The man had readied his spear courageously, but he was no match for the mighty beast. The creature took the blow on its shoulder and barely slowed down as it knocked him away and ran into the trees, Daniel hot in pursuit. They couldn’t allow it to join up with the others, as no one knew how sophisticated Sparkhoof communication was. If it relayed to its fellows what was happening on the riverside, and they came for revenge, the Pioneers were as good as dead.
O’Riley had managed to wound this Sparkhoof, however, and the gash was deeper than the animal first let on. The beast would have easily outrun Daniel normally, but the longer they ran the more it was clearly losing steam. Daniel ran up alongside the Xenomorph and prodded it in the side, forcing the creature off the beaten path and away from its fellows. He herded it as best as he could as man and beast crashed through the jungle in a clumsy, exhausting struggle. Daniel switched to following the creature from behind, choosing the path of least resistance and waiting for his opening to finish it off. His breath came hot and ragged, but his eyes remained laser focused on the dark figure just in front of him. And then, it vanished.
Hardgrave’s eyes widened in a split second of total confusion until his momentum pushed him right to the spot that it vanished. And then he was falling. His legs windmilled in a panic and he heard the sharp smack of bone and rock colliding below him, followed by a squeal of anguish. Daniel didn’t have a moment to feel fear before his legs made contact with soft, steeply sloping dirt. It turned his freefall into an awkward stumbling tumble. At some point, his spear hit something, and he lost his grip on it. Flailing, he crashed onto hard rock and continued a roll that turned into a slide across a smooth stone floor. Daniel scrabbled to arrest his momentum before finally coming to a stop. He stumbled drunkenly to his feet, gasping in pain, and coughing up dirt. Glancing around in a daze, trying to figure out what happened, the first thing that caught his eye was the glimmer of electric light.
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Instincts took over and Daniel leapt to the side as an arc of blue lightning scorched the air where he used to stand. The Sparkoof had gotten up and aimed its horns at Daniel while he was trying to get his bearings. Even in the low light, Hardgrave could tell that the beast was seriously injured, its fur totally matted with dark blood on its right side. The beast was putting all its weight on its left leg, and it didn’t pursue Daniel or try to gore him. It just stared at him with hateful dark eyes as it charged up another attack. But the Pioneer didn’t take that laying down.
In a flash of blue, Daniel’s pistol was in his hand, and he fired at the creature just as it hit full charge. The bullet struck the buffalo square in the forehead, forcing it to flinch and shoot its lightning harmlessly into the wall on Daniel’s left. The next bullet took the Xenomorph in the left shoulder, causing it to collapse. The final bullet took the creature right in the heart. Daniel winced at all the noise, the sound of the firearm oppressively loud in this more closed arena, but it had been necessary.
They had decided to try not to use guns in this hunt for several reasons. On the one hand, the rifles were of a low enough caliber that they would only be of marginal use against the Sparkhooves, unless the Pioneers hit something critical. On the other, the sound of the firearms could alert the other, larger pack members. But Daniel’s hand cannon was powerful, and he’d had no choice but to take the risk. He dislodged the cylinder of his revolver and touched each empty casing, storing them away and replacing them with a fresh bullet in an instant of sapphire light, before slotting the piece back into place. Then he looked around more closely.
The cavern was strange, with walls and a floor far smoother than a normal cave ought to be. There was some sign of water erosion, but it wasn’t major, causing Daniel to get a little suspicious. He spied his spear on the ground near the dead Sparkhoof and went to retrieve it. He saw his notification ping and pulled it up:
“Corpse of a Sparkhoof: Weight 416 kgs. Value: 5,650 Credits.”
Daniel’s eyes nearly popped out of his skull at the bottom-line figure. This thing alone was close to the combined value of everything he had collected so far. The HUD gave him a detailed assessment and breakdown of everything, and he saw that much of the corpse’s value came from the skin and the horns. The horns alone were worth 1,500 total. His excitement was only slightly dinged by the fact that this valuation assumed that the corpse was processed correctly. He could get it processed when he got back to base, which would incur a fee, or he could process it himself. But if he butchered the corpse incorrectly, that could lead to a lower value, especially the skin. Frowning at all this info, he just shrugged and whisked the corpse away. He would figure that out later.
He looked back up the shaft and considered climbing back up. It would be hard without someone at the top to help him, so he decided to wait for rescue. Someone from the team would probably come along to check on him. For now, he wanted to explore. Daniel turned away from the exit and started walking into the darkness. He tapped his Codex under his clothes, and it flashed before emanating a brilliant blue light that cut through the blackness. He chuckled a little at using the valuable interdimensional storage device as a flashlight, but it used such a small amount of charge that there was no real waste. As he walked, the large cavern narrowed into a tunnel that seemed even more artificial that the cave, and Daniel felt his heartrate speed up. That was promising.
He wasn’t walking long before the passageway came to an end, and his light illuminated a carving on the far wall. At the end of the tunnel was a flat mural that depicted four figures. All were winged humanoids, and all were males, though each drawing had a distinct character. The man in the top right was the largest of the bunch. He was chiseled with muscle, bedecked in tough looking battle armor, and holding aloft a flaming sword. He looked like he could eat Daniel for breakfast but was too noble to do so. The one in the top left was slighter and less warlike, still armored, though more lightly so. He carried what looked like a carved animal horn in his right hand and was raising it up to his lips. Below him was another man, still less warlike but with a distinct air of intelligence and long flowing hair. He was dressed in a long, flowing robe, and was unarmed, showing his palms to the viewer. Those palms, however, were ringed in more fire. The final figure, in the bottom right, was garbed in form fitting leather, however he looked whipcord strong and ready to pounce. He carried two wicked, curved daggers, otherwise unadorned but extremely lethal. His gaze was a third weapon, boring into the viewer, and he actually did look like he would eat Daniel for breakfast.
In the center of the men was a simple sphere, carved rays of light emanating from it. Daniel felt drawn to it, and he reached up to place his hand in the center. Then, something happened.