The elevator jarred as Nikhara pried the ceiling hatch off and slung it the side. It bounced of the nearby wall and fell into the darkness below us.

The noisy clang and dong of the metal door resounded loudly through the elevator shaft as she scanned the interior with her helmets external light.

“So much for the act of surprise,” I muttered quietly to myself.

She hopped inside first, and I followed suit soon after. My body ached fiercely from the long climb down here. And I was thankful to be able to rest to my arms and legs.

“I think this still has power,” I heard Nikhara mutter through her speakers as she idly glanced over the elevator floor keys.

“Only one way to find out,” I suggested and moved passed her to press the button for the lowest floor. The small enclosure lurched, and we stumbled around as the elevator began to grind our descend.

“I really don’t like that sound,” Nikhara called as she dropped the sword on the floor and tried to press herself into the corner.

“Growing pain,” I said to her and catching a hold of the grab-rail I felt a moment of weightlessness as my feet came off the ground.

Then the lights in the cabin flicked on as some sort of stabilisation kick in and our descend slowed and smoothed down, but not by much. I saw that Nikhara had her light beam cast through the open ceiling hatch. And following its direction I saw the speed of which we were moving downwards at and gulped.

We were possibly going as fast as the mag-train on the surface. Then a thought popped into my mind and I cursed.

“What’s wrong?” Nikhara asked me, almost intuitively.

“Should’ve checked the security booth above us. They might’ve had eyes on what’s below,” I told her, and she nodded her head ponderously.

“Yeah. That would’ve been a good idea. But there’s no sense in worrying about that now,” she informed me, and I could only agree with her. “Blue Bitch is at the bottom. But Andrea can’t put the drone through unless we open one of the doors manually.”

I rubbed my at nose as I thought. “We’ll have to send this one back up a floor or so. Then we’ll need to open the doors afterwards. I reckon the other elevator is probably being held open down there. Which is why we couldn’t call it.”

“Got it. I’ll inform her of the plan,” Nikhara replied. I looked across at the twenty-nine floor keys and saw that we were eight away from the bottom.

A few minutes later, when I saw that we were two floors away from the button I motioned Nikhara over. She half-walked, half-stumbled over to me. “We need to get back up there,” I said and gesture to the ceiling hatch.

“Good idea,” she mumbled through her speaker’s and bending over she swayed and grabbed the black bone sword off the floor.

Then crouching down she launched herself straight through the gap and thumped onto the ceiling. “So fucking hot,” I mumbled and shook my head in awe.

Leaping myself, didn’t bring me more than a few feet off the floor, but my outstretched hand was caught Nikhara and she pulled me up effortlessly after her. Then I gasped as the entire wall behind her fell away and we were suddenly looking down upon a massive impact crater and cavern through a mesh sheeting that replaced the shaft’s wall.

Black jagged stalactite jutted up hundreds of feet in the massive cavern, other’s curved like the ribcage of some prehistoric monster long dead and buried beneath the earth.

Each shelf and ripple in the ground went down a layer, until they descended at the middle where I saw a circular facility with the centre of it wide open.

Then directly beneath us, I saw the dead bodies. Unlike the slumped-over dead bodies on surface side. These had been fought and hacked apart brutally. Even from where I stood on top of the elevator I could see the coppery-green glint of berinium bullet casings.

I caught movement along the left side of the platform beneath us and saw two of the knights standing guard and three of hunter xeno’s prowling around like they were on constant alert of scurrying prey.

“Ah shit. This isn’t good,” I said to Nikhara, as the knights drew their weapons and faced our lowering elevator. I crouched down and lowered myself, so I wasn’t immediately seen.

Then the three hunter xeno’s growled simultaneously, and I knew we were in for a fight.

“I’ll take the three hunters. You take the two knights,” I whispered to Nikhara and the orc-dryad nodded hesitantly. I honestly wasn’t even sure I could even kill the hunters without having to use my revolver. And I didn’t like our odds if that was the case.

Nikhara’s ‘borrowed’ sword would certainly do the trick against both the knights and hunters. But she couldn’t fight all of them alone. Then our elevator slowed as we pressed down even with the platform. The doors of the cabin beneath us dinged as they slid open.

Peering out I could just make out the confused tilt of the knights heads as they examined the seemingly empty space.

Then I nodded at Nikhara and my orc-dryad wife tightened her grip on her sword and dropped down into the cabin. As soon as she hit the ground she rolled forward and swept her weapon out the nearest knight. Who just managed to bring his mace up in time to block the swipe aimed for his neck.

Beyond them I saw and heard the three hunters growling and hissing like feral cats as they raced towards the fighting trio.

Now it was time for me to join the fight.

I affirmed my grip on my rifle and dropped downwards into the cabin below. I didn’t roll forward like Nikhara had though, as she and the two knights were duelling literally nine feet ahead of me. I stumbled backwards and bashed into the rear wall of elevator cabin.

Then seized my rifle up and pointed the barrel at the right knight trying to stick my wife with a long wicked black bone knife.

I squeezed the trigger, and my gun barked in annoyance as fire, smoke, and lead sprayed the helm of the knight knocking him off balance. This allowed Nikhara to dart in and sweep her sword out to slammed the flat of the blade against knight’s shoulder.

It tumbled into a heap of limbs and flailed as it tried to stand. Luckily this gave me an opening to exit the cabin, and slammed my fist against the button to send the elevator up a floor or two.

The doors dinged behind me as I sprinted at the knight and leapt, planting my leading foot squarely on the jaw of its chitinous skull helm. I heard a crunch emanate beneath my boot and I jumped off to land beyond it.

Three hunters skidded to a halt as they saw me and fanned out. Two of them wore civilian clothing, where the third on my right wore Zaria naval uniform.

The gun kicked in my grip and rounds scattered across the hunter directly in front of me. One of the bullet’s I’d fired graze its cheek and it hissed as it ducked out of the way.

I ran passed them and deeper into the facility. Sprinting around corners, tables and hopping over benches. I spotted a fallen vending machine and lunged for it, sliding over its prone surface. I whipped about as I heard the hunters racing after me skid around the corner.

The first one around the bend, hissed and yawned open its maw to show me its rows of needle-sharp teeth. My rifle flashed as I squeezed the trigger, and shattered his jaw, nose and upper skull as the gun bucked in my hands.

Then my weapon clicked as the hunter I’d shot sprawled across the floor dead.

Ejecting the magazine, I switched it for another one and racked the slide with a press of a button.

I brought my aim back on point, just as the second hunter xeno drifted around the corner tightly and leapt over the body of its dead comrade.

Shots rent the air, as I trailed smoke and lead across its lower-face and upper-torso. I tore its lower-jaw and neck apart but the rounds that impacted the triangular plates across it chest, pinged off in several directions.

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The hunter yowled like a wounded animal and swerved into a waist high wall with a solid thump. I figured it wasn’t dead but before I could check the third hunter in naval uniform prowled around the bend.

When it saw me, its dead comrade, and another wounded it slowly stalked backwards around the corner before I could get a shot off.

This one was certainly smarter.

“Agh shit,” I cursed as I realised it was time to play stalker and not prey. Jumping out from behind the vending machine. I slowly approached the short steps leading passed the waist high wall.

I could hear the heavy hissing breaths of the hunter behind it and saw it was clutching weakly at its wounds. For a half second before I squeezed the trigger and destroyed its uncovered head. I saw a spark of clarity contort its features. The twisted torment of the person it had once been.

Then I fanned several bullet holes across it head and dark brain matter exploded outwards spraying the wall and floor.

I slowly crept towards the bend the hunter had backed into. As I approached I could hear Nikhara grunting and the clanging of weapons as she clashed with the knights. I just hope that the last hunter hadn’t backed track to attack her.

Moving around the corner I pulled in my stomach as claws flashed out of the shadow and barely scraped along the armour plates.

I heard the rent of berinium as the claws marred the surface of my armoured stomach. Before I could react fast enough the hunter leapt out of the shadows and pounced on me.

I brought my rifle up, but did no better than using it to shield my face and neck as the hunter tried to gouge my eyes and throat.

It was supremely heavy, and I struggled to not bow my back as it tried to push me to the ground. Bracing my feet on the floor, I grunted and sprinted for the nearest wall to slam the xeno into it.

It yowled as it hit and crumpled off me as I smashed it into the wall once again. I swung the butt of my rifle around and bashed the stock into the side of its neck as it moved to stand and lash out at me.

I felt the crunch of it vertebrae reverberate up through the rifle. Its head lulled loosely to the left and I snapped my weapon up and slammed the stock down again, hitting the side of its face. Its mouth sprayed open and several deathly sharp teeth spat onto my left leg plates.

As I moved to back to shoot it, its right arm shot out and the sound of several crunching bones as its arm extended unnaturally for my face.

I just managed to knock the strike aside, but took four long scratches across my right jaw and neck. Then I unloaded the rest of my magazine on the things head.

My gun clicked empty a moment later and I blinked as the mushy remains of its skull and brain seemed to have been pulverised.

I stumbled backwards and gasped.

“Shit,” I muttered and felt at my face and neck. The wounds were already healing, and I fought the urge to itch at the site.

Then I heard a loud clang of metal and twisted around, the sound coming back the way I’d come. Unloading the spent mag, I went to retrieve another and frowned as my hand brushed the last magazine in my carry webbing.

Slamming the fresh mag in place I ran to find Nikhara.

My orc-dryad wife was apparently doing fine. I found the knight with the mace first, each of his limbs had been severed off and his head had been stomped in.

I heard Nikhara growling through her external speakers and sprinted into a dark room, alighted by the small displays of terminals. She had her sword still, but it wavered as she kept it between herself and the knife wielding knight.

I suspected she had finally gotten tired from fighting them, as I entered the room and came up behind the knight I saw Nikhara’s helmet twitch towards me.

If she had been fighting any other opponent, they would’ve seen the slight twitch towards their right. The knights on the other hand seemed to be singularly focused. And that bit of information worked to our advantage. I darted forward at the same time Nikhara did to engage the xeno knight head-on.

My boots thundered heavily across the floor as I dived into a slide and smashed both my feet in a double kick to the back of the knights legs.

It stumbled forward and fell onto its knees, and quickly lashed backwards with its short blade. I tried to dodged away but the knife punched through my left hand.

“Fuck!” I snapped and bit back another curse as Nikhara rammed her blade through the distracted knight’s throat. I heard the chitinous armour crunch as it was penetrated and the knight viciously yanked its blade out of my hand, tearing it through and between my middle fingers.

“Arrgghh shit,” I hissed and snapped my foot out to launched it across the knight’s skull helm, snapping it to right. Pale green cracks emanated where I’d hit, and I heard a distant wail, as if someone were flaying their very soul.

Then a burst of green light exploded through the hollow eyes of the knights and burst outwards in twin beams that raked across the interior of the room. It caused no harm, but I sure as shit was ready for it to explode. Clutching my wounded hand and scrambling on my ass backwards, I watched as Nikhara’s swords launched out the things throat like a white-hot shooting star and spun to impale a wall.

The knight convulsed violently and the entirety of it chitinous armour bled pale green light through the cracks arcing across it.

For a brief moment I saw the black of the chitin armour bleed white and green before the knight gave one last massive convulse and shrivelled up like all the moisture had been drained from its body.

It collapsed onto the floor and slowly began to crumble like brittle bits of charred wood.

I was slack jawed and gaping at the scene. Nikhara stumbled up from where I guess she had fallen and twisted her helmet off her head.

“What just happened?” the orc-dryad breathed and looked at me like it was my doing.

“Your sword,” I croaked, my mouth feeling dry all of a sudden. I pointed at where the now impaled blade gleamed like a silvery white bone. Small rivulets of green ran like veins across the blades surface.

“I guess you found their weakness,” I told her and tried to climb to my feet. Nikhara walked over to her weapon and tentatively removed it from the wall.

“It’s not as heavy as it was before,” she muttered and spun the sword in her grip.

“Well. That’s great and all but my hand hurts like a bitch, and just where the hell is Andii’s drone?”

“Ah, yes. Your implant’s glitched. Blue Bitch had to climb up a few floors in order to return to us. Should be here in a few minutes.”

“Y-you d-don’t have a f-few minutes,” gasped a trembling voice and I spun to see a tattered caramel-skinned woman wearing a lab coat over her bloodied white blouse and ripped skirt. Her legs were clad in skin-tight stockings, and her feet bore glossy black high-heels. Her curly dark-brunette hair was matted with sweat, blood and bits of debris. Her face marred by tear stained make-up and more blood.

I opened my mouth to reply but the air sizzled before me, and a bright flash of purple light filled everything.

“O-oh god. T-t-they freed the s-seed,” the woman trembled and half-stumbled, half-fell away from the door. “W-we need to get out of h-here, n-now!” the woman screamed as a shockwave of concussive air blew across the cavern and I felt my boots slide on the metal floor.

I looked out of the terminal room and saw in the distance, towards the centre of the crater and the circular observation section. A lance of purple roiling energy erupted upwards in a beam that shot and burrowed through ceiling.

My gut coiled at the sight and something within me squirmed to get away from it. That I wasn’t yet ready to face it.

“What is it?” I heard Nikhara muttered loudly.

The trembling woman scampered to her feet and responded with a light accent I couldn’t place. “It’s the seed. I-I don’t know all the details of how it was found. But, a few years ago scanners picked up a frequency and traced it here. They began to get a large vital response within crust of the planet. They’re uh, used to be a this … big black tree down here above the seed,” she explained, and her voice grew more steady as she spoke.

“Then some of the researchers began to take samples of the bark a-and something happened. Then the tree died and dissolved—which is certainly odd for a tree—then the dreams started then--”

“Dreams? what dream?” I interrupted her, but her gaze went unfocused and she began to muttered nonsensically to herself.

“M-made of bones-- Wandering … years on end i-in that desolate place. The s-sky wasn’t- it wasn’t right. And the things on the other side--”

“What about this seed. when did that come about?” Nikhara asked the woman softly as I stared at the purple light beam. It hadn’t faltered once since it had started.

The trembling woman blinked owlishly and looked about herself as if just now realising she was standing and speaking to us. “The seed? y-yes. The seed. It showed us- well a few of us saw things. Some didn’t see anything at all. Lucky few,” she muttered quietly. “Y-yes, uhhh… seed. It formed not long after the tree died. Raised right out of the ground. They took samples, realised it was organic -and bone- and used ultrasound to detect a heartbeat within. Not long after that a specialist showed up and threatened to shut down the whole entire operation and--”

I blocked her out as the purple beam pulsed bright and violently in the distance, then shut off completely. “I think whatever was going to happen, just finished happening,” I cut the conversation short.

Turning to the frightened woman I caught her arm and dragged her tentatively over to a desk, “hide under there until we get back. Do you have a name?” I asked her and she nodded.

Taking a moment to consider what it was and then told me, “Sidney Raven.”

“Well Sidney, I’m Marcus. Can you wait here for us to return?” I asked her softly, and I heard her repeat my name over and over like a mantra. As if my name could ground her back in reality and grant her some measure of protection.

“I-I can do this,” she muttered and nodded at me.

I squeezed her hand reassuringly. “We’ll be a few minutes okay,” I said softly to her.

“Don’t die,” I heard her plead, and her voice crackled with emotion. Standing up I strode over to Nikhara and eyed her new blade.

“You all good?” she cocked an eyebrow at me.

“Yes. Let’s go see what all the fuss is about shall we. Any word from Andrea’s drone yet?” I asked her in return. Nikhara shook her head a fraction and then yanked her helmet back on. I walked outside the room and checked my rifle while I paced until Nikhara came out.

“Blue Bitch was having trouble getting around the elevator cabin. It should be with us in a moment or two--” before Nikhara could finish I heard several loud growling hisses erupt behind me.

I heard Sidney whimper from inside the room.

Prowling out from the shadows in the nearby research building, seven hunters lead by a knight wielding a spear spotted us.

I saw Nikhara swipe her sword up into a ready guard. And her sword send a wave of green energy crackling in an arc at the enemy.

Stunned by I’d just seen my wife do, I blinked and gasped as the knights spear erupted at the tip with a purple flame-like aura.

“Is it just me… or did everything suddenly get harder to understand?” I said rhetorically and heard Nikhara snort as she stopped examining her blade. Her slash had cut a deep furrow in the ground between us and them. But the speed of the energy arc had been so slow and predictable, that the hunters and knight had simply stepped aside to avoid it.

This novel is the work of Rhys Thomas. If you are reading this and it has not been published by Rhys Thomas, then this work has been stolen. Please report this to Amazon and me at email: [email protected]