Galactic Calendar 259872/ 2000 [ Sol Year 4387/ Day 154 of 365. Sol standard year]
Days after of Crash landing/ 3
Uninhabited Island /Area near Cavern to underground Passages
Galactic Standard Time / 9035
Racha looked to the right and saw the wall had fallen into the earth. All she could feel was a spark of hope. The one thing she had learned in the service, was that together anything could be defeated.
Xordig stood with the others and Burt who had fired at the green False Fanged. She saw Xordig and a woman in a deckhand jumpsuit roar and charge at the False Fang, and they were both glowing. She stared in total shock as Xordig grabbed the False Fang’s mouth with his bottom hands. When the False Fang tried to strike him with its right paw, he grabbed it with his right upper arm alone.
“That’s it? So easy.” Xordig said with a cocky note in his voice.
A second later the girl was there, glowing red. She slashed through the False Fang’s right arm, severing it from the body. Xordig had jumped backwards as soon as she had done so, dodging the black blood that gushed from the wound.
While that had happened, five spears of rock had flown at the tree, only for the vines to grab them and throw them at Burt. Burt reacted and shot them down, scowling as he did so. “This thing already got something! Locke makes a way up for me! I’ll fire at the back!”
“Why!?” Locke asked in shock a second before they all two howls. suddenly two more of the False Fangs charged from opposite.
“Yeah,” Burt muttered as he fired at the closest one. But he paled as he saw an energy shield tank the shots.
Before Burt could react, Xordig was suddenly there. He slammed the maimed False Fang into the charging one, having carried it with him.
As the other False Fang came at Racha and Paige, the other woman appeared. She had jumped over the False Fang and slashed out with her right arm, severing the thing's head. The woman only chuckled as she looked down at her kill before turning towards Xordig. “Need a hand old one?”
“Nah, Jess…. I just wanted to try and give this thing a change!” Xordig snarled back as he raised the maimed False Fang again before slamming it down again and again. As he stepped back he saw the remains of the two False Fangs he destroyed ooze black blood.
While the combat had happened Locke had taken a moment to make a small ramp for Burt. As Burt ran up the ramp, he kept firing at the fruit the tree was making. With each bolt, one more of this thing’s helpers weren’t being born. But as two more of the False Fangs came at them, more vines came as well.
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Paige fired at the tree, and Racha was horrified when an energy shield like the False Fangs appeared. The vines shot toward the two of them, but then Jess was there. She slashed out with her glowing hands, cutting through the vines.
Paige had kept firing at the tree, her head in pain as she did so. She cursed as each of the shots hit the energy shield. For some reason, she felt the tree was angry and she was confused as to why. But then she saw the truth, one of the vines had fallen to the ground. She fired again and with each bolt, a vine stopped moving. “That’s it! It can’t hold a shield and move its vines! Fire at it, and it can’t grab us!”
“Yeah great! But how do we kill this thing if it has a shield!?” Xordig snarled as he punched another False Fang.
“Physical matter can pass through the shield if it’s like the one that creature had!” Racha called out as she fired at a fruit the tree was growing.
Locke meanwhile had heard Racha’s cry and reacted. He sent two large spears of rock had impaled both of the charging False Fangs.
Paige looked around as she fired at the tree’s trunk, trying to keep calm and think. She could feel the alien hunger of the thing this tree was. She had sensed beasts and people. And this was unlike anything she had ever come across before. It was like this thing was able to think, but only to an extent. The only thing that made sense was that its thoughts were being guided, but how? What could make a biological robot?
Suddenly three vines shot at the woman who had come with the others. But quick shots from her and Racha stopped them. The tree screeched as the vines burned while the woman, Jess smiled at them.
“Thanks!” Jess called out with a grin as she stood in front of them. “Keep firing at the tree! I’ll watch over you two!”
Paige aimed at the tree and tried to keep calm. With help anything could be defeated, she knew that. And now they had to deal with this together!
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Roy looked up out of the inner cave and felt a spark of hope. From the sounds and cries, there were more people from the ship up there. That meant they had to be from the beach escape capsule. Jinn and the others were back with help! But whatever had attacked them, they were fighting them off. They might even be holding their own.
As the little creature started to whimper, Roy reached down. “It’s okay…. Red? Do you like Red as a name?”
The named Red nodded and Roy felt the same spark of affection. He blinked as he looked around, suddenly seeing something else. It was like the stone all around had a glowing substance on it. Without saying anything, he took a deep breath. He had Night vision nanites, and this felt a lot like it but not. He couldn’t describe it, it felt strange, it felt new.
He called up his internal detection nanites and saw nothing new for a moment. Then a strange chemical was detected, slowly growing in density. Looking over everything his nanites told him, he couldn’t find where the chemical was coming from. “Think Roy, think!”
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As Roy starched Red’s shell, he looked up at the battle and stared. From here, he could see Racha, Paige, and four more figures. He couldn’t exactly see them, but only a strange outline of them. Five of them were brighter than the last one, and that one was either Paige or Racha. For a second he wondered why that was, and then he realized what it was. It had to be that the others had a kind of Ability like he did. He wondered if Jinn had kept this from him on purpose, but he knew.
Roy only sighed as he realized he hadn’t seemed to be the most stable. Jinn had to keep quiet to keep him calm. But that didn’t matter, what the others were fighting did.
Whatever it was they were fighting, it was beyond anything he had ever seen before. It was a strange thing, blob-shaped with tendrils coming from all sides. Now and then, a line of the strange outline came from below. He followed the line and saw something below the thing, some kind of creature in a sack of some kind. He didn’t know how he knew this, but he knew it beyond a doubt.
Looking at it, he somehow knew something that shocked him. The blob, the thing that the others were fighting, it was taking something from its captive. It was using that thing to fight the others. So then if he could get rid of the thing or free it, that would be good. A small cry caused him to look down.
He gazed at the source and felt a spark of shame and worry.
Could he even go and kill that thing? If it had tried to hunt down Red, then it was a predator. And if you hunt something, something could be hunting you. That was the Circle.
“I can’t make a tunnel, so how can I kill that thing!?” Roy snarled quietly. He felt a sense of surety then but it wasn’t his. Blinking, he looked down at Red who smiled up at him.
Red walked over to the walls of the cave before looking at him. He opened his mandibles and spat a small blood of black liquid onto the wall. With its chitin-covered front claws, it moved the rock around like it was nothing but mud.
Roy stared in shocked awe. “You’re a borrower. You can make the hole I need!”
Roy looked at the wall but then he went still. The creature had to have a way to defend itself. Maybe even from things attacking it from underground. If he let Red do it alone, the little guy would…… Roy went still and looked at his pistol. He looked at the wall and grinned. “Red, let’s experiment.”
Red spat blob at the wall again, only this time he moved the gunk around a little. Roy aimed and fired a single bolt, and the rock evaporated a good foot. He looked at his little friend and smiled, they would be able to help the others after all!
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The Being created more of its servants and felt what passed for anger. These strange two-leggers had kept it from moving far. And now it could feel the pings of its birther sensing the failure. Already it would be creating a force to take the Being out. If the Ravagers could be held off. But these two walkers, they were strong! If it was able to get their strength for its own.
Then not even its Birther with all its stores of material would be able to survive against the Being! Already it had found a strong source, something powerful! And already it could feel the sparks of thought on how to make it better. Its Strength was working, but the Two-Walkers
were proving how strong they were. No matter what it tried, nothing worked. And with it stuck here, there was nothing it could do!
Plus now that it was planted, it could think so much clearer. It had already figured out that one of them had to be behind the barriers. That alone was something to take, but then and the way the other two were fighting its forces. Once it captured them, it would be unstoppable! Already it was planning out a master servant with the earth power. Set it up near its foes and rain down the very ground itself on them. The ones with strength, their power would break its foes. But each dead Servant taught it something, it could feel it. What it was learning it couldn’t say, but it was there, something was different each time it made another.
But it had to hurry, it was running out of time! Already it felt something coming towards it, something that felt familiar. If it was what it…… feared? Was it feeling fear? Well, whatever it was, the thing was almost here. And it needed to end one battle before the other.
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Roy looked over the hole the two had made. Red had proven to be fast and smart. Together they had made a tunnel that reached the sack. But then when Red saw the shape of the sack, that’s when he felt a lot of anger. Red had wanted to use its spit on the sack and creature, but Roy had mentally pulled him back. Roy shook his head, smiling as he looked down at Red. Somehow he was able to send his thoughts to Red, and the little guy sent his thoughts back. In this strange way, the two had not talked, it was deeper. But he had been able to tamper with his friend's desire to kill something that hunted it.
Thankfully, Red had listened to his fear that whatever had a way to defend itself bellow. It was the height of stupidity to think that this thing wouldn’t have a way, and they needed to be smart. With the tunnel leading right to the head of the creature the thing was draining, then killing it was easy. With everything that they had done, all Roy needed to do was fire one blast and everything would end up there.
“And once I shoot anything could happen. So we gotta be ready,” Roy said as he looked at Red. The little Lesser Arligix was big enough that he had been able to secure the baby onto it. he smiled down at her and rubbed her head. She giggled as Roy looked at Red. “Okay partner, I want you to get back and on the ramp. If this goes bad I want to be out of here fast!”
Red nodded and walked off, leaving Roy alone. He looked down the hole, seeing the head of the thing that had broken through the tunnel. He aimed his blaster, took a deep breath, and fired. The shot hit the sack brunt through it and the creature.
Roy barely had a moment to smile before a roar echoed off the chamber. He looked down the tunnel and paled as a root started to go down it.
“Time to go!” Roy roared as he ran after Red. As they ran up the ramp, the roots came out of the tunnel. Roy aimed and fired, and smiled as the thing screeched again.
It had lost its source material! The two walkers had tricked it! While most of them had fought it, another had killed its material! How dare they! When it sent its roots around, looking for how it found a tunnel, a tunnel that was out of its sight. When it had been fully formed, the sense of the Bearer was lost to it. instead, it saw things based on their Strength. And its sight wasn’t that far. Still, to even think that there was a way to destroy Source Materials was something to consider.
Once it got that strength that let whatever had done it and the memories of how then nothing would stop it! and the dead thing was worth one last Servant, a strong one. This first Destroyer would have to be stronger than the others. The two-walkers strength was the only hope that the Being had now. There was time for nothing else. Let the dregs that had been made as the source die buy it time, it was all they were good for now.
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Xordig had killed another False Fang when the tree released a screech of anger and rage. He could only watch as vines rattled. He stepped back towards Jess when two more False Fangs appeared, only this one was misshapen. The front right paw was stunted only half the size. The other and it hobbled as its back legs were wrongly jointed.
And more surprisingly when they shot them, the shots hit. In seconds the two things were dead.
Xordig blinked before he jumped to dodge a vine trying to get him. He moved to stand with the others as Burt and Racha fired at the tree. But it was when screams came from behind them that everything started to move.
“AGGGGHHH!”
At the scream, Xordig turned and saw a man running at them, a small creature next to him. Xordig almost fired at it before he realized that a baby was on it. and as he watched the man was firing at something, but not at the creature! “What the nova!?”
Paige and Racha turned and stared as the man and creature came towards them. “Roy?! What’s that!?”
Before he could say anything, a root of some kind moved on its own towards them. Fired and then the tree screeched in pain gain.
“Hey,” Roy said as he reached the cave mouth and fired again. “This is Red, my friend. There was this text in my eyes, then he appeared. After that a creature came burst out then it came up here.”
“And that equals those roots how?!” Racha snarled.
Xordig looked at Racha out of the corner of his eye. The way she was talking, reminded him of a few bad missions. Mission where need-to-know details were not in the briefings. And that had resulted in them almost being killed. And the way that most of those people usually had ‘accidents’, well. That was the price of lying to Service Operatives after all.
“Oh, that,” Roy said with a shrug. “Well I think this guy’s sharing what he can see, and well. I saw that big thing was the creature that chased my pal in a sack under the ground. Red’s got this spit that can make rock as easy to move as mud! We made a tunnel, I shot the hunter and now it wants to kill me.”
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“Wait, False Plant’s captive are alive?!” Burt asked as horror came over him. He had heard the stories, and nothing like that had ever been recorded. It might have been forgotten on purpose, he had seen a lot. And people dying trying to save those who they thought could be saved had killed the rescuers most of the time.
“I guess if that’s a False Plant?” Roy said and Burt looked at the tree.
“That’s it!” Xordig said with a note of joy in his voice. “That thing needs active genetic information to make copies! Now we can just retreat!”
“What?!” Burt demanded as he turned to glare at Xordig as the others kept firing at the tree.
“It can’t be faced like this, so SOP is to retreat out of range. Its range. Then we figure out how to kill it! And or deny what it wants!” Xordig said as he started to fire as he looked around.
“There’s a tunnel to a network down there! Roy fell in from someplace other than where we entered! It must know about and wants to spread!” Paige cut in.
Xordig felt his blood freeze. Something like this that WANTED to spread out? And if this thing just needed a source to make things, who knew what it could capture? And the way there was a shield against energy-like attacks? Nothing about this was looking good. “Okay, plan. Locke brings it down, the whole cavern down there. After that we retreat and he locks this thing in here. We find Jinn and then come back and slaughter this thing!”
Roy however asked something, something that showed just how bad this was. “What’s that sound!?”