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Jessie
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As Jessie looked on in shock, one of the trees was changing before his eyes. Six legs, each one a deep green and ending in four claws shot out of the trunk. As the roots started to thrash around, a large green triangle snout shot out from their center. Above it, there was a single red eye on a black sclera. It shook itself, and the tree slowly came apart, leaving nothing but pieces of wood and a few branches. Its body was reptilian and long, at least ten feet long. The six legs were five feet tall, and the body gave the beast another three feet. Its head was on the body with the six roots breaking apart to reveal beaked tentacles.
All at once, Jessie understood what he was seeing, but how? Had this thing just been hibernating inside the trees? Another terrible idea formed in his mind. A thought so out there that he almost dropped his rifle in shock. But he kept his nerves and aimed at the monster. He spared a glance at the others and saw that only the patrollers, Zevortro and Terra held weapons. The diggers had their shovels, and the rest had nothing. That meant that when the beast saw them, he would have to try and get its attention, and force it to follow him. They had to find a way to kill this thing!
But then the beast turned its head a little and saw them. As they all watched it turned its body towards them and roared!
The others cried out in fear and terror, and Jessie felt something wash over him. He stared at the beast and then he understood, that thing was using a Power! Unlike the Paralyzer Beast, this thing was trying to use terror! And the only reason he was holding his own was because of his Power! In that situation, he almost let his control slip. But he held it in, and then he knew what to do to raise morale.
As the beast took a lazy step forward, it suddenly cried out as Jessie shot out its eye! As the beast roared in pain, the terror field disappeared.
Everyone blinked and realized that what they had been feeling wasn’t their own emotions. Jessie took the imitative again, firing at the beast.
“This thing is like the thing that attacked us, that paralyzer thing! Don’t let it win, be brave!” Jessie roared as he fired at the beast again. But one of the beast’s tentacles flicked and grabbed a rock that it threw in the blast's path. Jessie gritted his teeth and fired again, and the beast jumped to the side. He stared in shock as if he hadn’t fired.
He looked down and saw Terra aiming her rifle, and she fired again as he watched. Her shots were leading the monster away from the group.
“Get ready to fight! Protect the capsule!” Terra called out as she raised her weapon. She kept calling out as she fired. “That thing is inside our shield! We have to kill it here and now!”
“Everyone, get your weapons!” Zevortro roared as he fired, this shot hitting one of the monster’s tentacles. “And protect the door to the capsule!”
As he fired at the monster, Jessie kept his eyes on the other tree. There was a chance that this thing wasn’t alone. And if they had two of them, then the deckhands could be in real trouble!
As the beast moved backwards, the other tree started to twitch to Jessie’s horror. As he watched, a leg suddenly thrust out of the tree. “NO!”
Without even thinking, he ran at the tree. As he ran, he switched modes on his rifle, activating the energy blade. As he ran he heard the other beast roared and he felt the rush of that terror go over him. Without breaking, he ran at the other tree as a second and third leg broke free. As the head started to thrust itself out, he was there. He speared the beast straight through its eye and the beast roared in pain. Then one of the tentacles grabbed. Jessie roared in pain for a brief second before it threw him through the air towards the shield.
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Terra.
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Stolen story; please report.
“NO!” Terra roared in anger as she saw what had happened. The first beast roared at them again, and she felt the same fear and terror hit her. But she stood and tried to force herself to fire, but she couldn’t move.
“What is this?” Bryke was able to say through a frozen face.
“Feels like that thing that Jinn saved us from. But I think this is it,” Zevortro was able to gasp out.
Terra kept her eyes on the first beast as it walked towards them, its healed eye glaring at them. As she tried to move, she saw the anger in the beast’s eye as it came closer. And she saw something else in that orb, hunger.
As the beast moved towards them, she felt so cold as the terror paralyzed her. She tried to force herself to move, to do something. As the beast came within five feet of them it kept growling, and finally, she broke through the ice. An inferno blazed to life within her, and she was finally able to move.
“YAAAHHHH!” She screamed as she fired again, and a bolt covered in a blue-white glow shot out. The bolt hit the beast’s eye, and a sphere of ice with jointing crystals formed. There was red on the white crystals, and the beast shrieked in pain.
She panted and looked at the beast as it thrashed. She could only stare at the beast in shock. “What happened? What did Jessie do to this thing?”
“Not Jessie, you,” Vivis said softly.
Terra turned around and saw everyone looking at her. She only then saw the blue-white glow shining on them. Then she looked down at her body and stared in shock. She was covered in a white-blue glow that engulfed her body. And the flame, she felt something hot within in, as if it was past her organs.
Terra only stared in shock, and then she noticed the letters. Aether Template acquired. Shot Operative; 1st skill, Blast Enhance; Ice. She blinked as she tried to understand just what this was, but nothing made sense.
A roar from the other beast caused her to turn, and she felt something crash over her. But unlike before, she brushed it off. She looked at the others and saw them frozen. And then she scowled and turned, firing at the second beast. But the beast threw a rock and the rock hit the shot. But the blast forced the others to react, and they were all able to move again.
“Split up! Keep firing but split up!” Zevortro roared as he fired at the second beast as he ran to the right.
“Nova to that! Time to find out where the first’s heart is!” Bryke snarled as he ran at the first. It was only then that Terra remembered that he had one of the modified rifles.
As she watched, Bryke’s rifle formed the energy blade. Bryke ran right at it as it rolled on the ground. With a savage roar, Bryke sank the energy blade to the hilt of the beast’s body near its tail. He pulled the blade along and left smoking flesh as he ran past the beast’s head, severing a few of the tentacles.
Terra had to admit, that what Bryke had done? She had rarely if ever seen the like off the screen. As the first beast gushed blood, a strange and dark liquid. The beast moved its tentacles, then it fell to the ground as Bryke aimed and fired at the second beast. As she joined her fire to his, all Terra could feel was a sense that soon, they would win!
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Duncan
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Duncan looked up as someone pounded on the door to his room. He didn’t know what was going on, but if this was another problem like Leonator? Then he was going to punch whoever it was in the face.
He got up and walked towards the door. But it opened, to reveal three deckhands he didn’t know.
“What is it?” He asked, a very strange feeling of anger forming. If this was a problem that Terra could handle.
“Sir! One of the trees, it had things in it!” One of the deckhands stammered out.
Duncan blinked, not understanding what this person was talking about.
“Yeah! A beast almost as big as the tree was round, and just as long! It had six legs and one eye! It was like that thing that attacked us! Terra and the others are holding it off, she ordered us to hold the doors!” The second of the deckhands said, fear in their voice.
Duncan looked at them and felt nothing but terror. The trees were Trojan horses?! That, that! Frankly, he didn’t know what to think of that. But the others were fighting it? And it could paralyze people? He had to hope that they were able to keep apart and fight, kill it, and then….. he went still as he went over what he had heard. They said that one of the trees had a creature in it. Did that, mean the other tree was empty? Or had they not been able to see if the tree was clean?
He shook himself back to reality and then looked at the deckhands. “Well, don’t stand there! I want this capsule locked down! You, the one that hasn’t spoken yet! Go and get the passengers in deep in the capsule! I want a firing line made at that door now!”
“SIR! The deckhands all saluted him and he went back to his room. The office had a few panels and camera feeds that he might be able to know if the others were alive. It was a long shot, but it was the only thing he had to do. The others would either deal with the threat, or they would die. And the worst thing was that there was nothing that he could do to help them.
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Dalila
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As she ran and fired, Dalila wondered if the veteran story would last. She had never said that she had stayed with the signals unit. If she had said she trained with the security branch to cross-train, then it might hold up. But as the first beast died, all she cared about was killing the second one. And so far, it was moving away from them.
The others had made their stand near the prisoner, and the beast stayed away from the Null Gravity area. That might be the only good thing, that the fields covered the Capsule. But that same beast had hidden behind one of the masses of dirt. Whenever they tried to get around to attack it, it threw stones at them. After one almost hit Terra's head, she ordered them to hold the beast there. It had been a slow siege since, but there was a chance. She saw a simple way to kill it, either get in close and destroy its heart. But how could Bryke do that? Or shot through the brain or heart, but they didn't know where those organs were. And the way it was protecting itself, that was good, better than a basic beast as far as she was concerned.
“Come on! We can kill it if we can get it out!” Another Deckhand yelled out and the beast roared again.
Suddenly the beast broke cover and was running towards the nearest shield console.
For a second, she didn’t understand. Then she did, and her eyes went wide as she saw it move. “NO!”
She fired but the beast crashed into the shield console there, and that quarter of the shield fell. The beast got back to its feet and roared at them again, but it was too far. It ran out of the shield and disappeared into the forest.
“NO! NO! NO!” Terra cried out in denial. She started to move, then stopped and looked at Jessie’s body. “Someone go and make sure he’s alright! Dalila, Vivian, with me!”
Dalila understood what Terra wanted, she and Vivian were the only ones that could repair the console. There was a possibility that they couldn’t but if they could, she knew it wouldn’t be a fast job.