“We should be careful here,” Senli was quick to relay. “The planet definitely doesn’t want us going into that cave.”
“How odd, does it think it’ll collapse?” Nathym pondered but then shook his head. “It doesn’t matter! What we need is right here! So there’s no point in going any further. Now let’s see…” the man began scanning the power source right away, scowling a bit when his suit confirmed it as ‘Nathyum’.
Dozens of the radiant stones dotted the cave entrance, clearly pulsing with energy. Milky swirls shimmered throughout the minerals, making the color more of a pale orange. After a few more quick tests of the power source and the rocky encasing around it, Nathym unhooked a tool attached to his lower back.
The extractor was placed over the mineral and it got to work right away, whirring and grinding at the cave, attempting to free the glowing stone in one piece. While the scientist dutifully monitored the machine’s progress, all Senli could do was really look around and keep watch, trying not to stare too deeply into the dark void that was the cave’s mouth.
Another message floated into her ears. 🟢I see your goal now, you can take what you need. But mind your hand, don’t give into greed.🟢
“Umm, the planet says it’s okay for us to take the Nathyum, but it basically said we shouldn’t take too much,” The Eavesdropper relayed it over to her
“That’s fine,” Nathym gave a short answer, focused on the work in front of him. “Don’t need much anyways. It certainly isn’t like we’ll mine the whole place dry but… This is already proving difficult.” The man pulled the extractor off the rock to check its progress and confirm what he was witnessing.
“Dammit, this stuff is much harder than I’d imagined. And we definitely didn’t account for it. At this rate it might take a few hours even for one. While I don’t mind sitting out here for that long, the excavator might run out of charge before then. Mawhg me, I knew we should have brought a charging pack out with us just in case, but I didn’t want to lug it all the way out here since I doubted we’d need it, and then we would have had to drag it back. Hindsight’s a Draz.”
The Engineer set his hoverpuck back down but rose it up a few feet, making it float in place. He then sat on it and sighed. “I’ll call Xard and ask him to bring us one. Assuming he’s up for it, he should have built up enough energy that he could just fly right over. And we can have him take you back with him if you want, or I guess you could just ride back, though I’m not sure how I’d feel about you making the trip by yourself.”
“No wait,” Senli stopped him, shushing the man with her hands. She was desperately trying to hear what the Nathyum was whispering to her.
🔶Sorry to make you sad, I don’t mean to be fickle. To get your hands on me, just give me a tickle.🔶
“This is going to sound weird, but I think we need to tickle it,” The Eavesdropper reported, steadily moving her hand towards one of the minerals.
“Huh, what?” That caught Nathym off-guard, clearly in disbelief. “How does that make any scientific sense? No, wait, this is an alien planet afterall, so we can assume some of the laws of nature that we know may not apply here. Go ahead.”
She placed her hand slowly on the stone, waiting for any hint of resistance or complaint from the Nathyum, but it never came. So she gently began wriggling her fingers, and the girl swore she heard a giggle not only from the mineral itself, but the embedding rock that was holding onto it.
The encasing cavern suddenly receded, and the glowing ore slipped right out of the wall. Senli reached out her hands and caught it, surprised at how light the Nathyum felt in her hands.
“That’s incredible!” Nathym leapt to his feet, returning to his side of the cavern entrance. He pressed his hand against the closest mineral, palming it for a second before making his fingers dance. Just like the before, the stone popped right out of the socket with no resistance.
And the two of them kept going, Senli glided her hands along the rocky threshold, removing the Nathyum one at a time. As they both worked, they filled the packs on the back of their suits with each new stone, utilizing the convenient deposit right over their shoulders. It honestly felt like they were removing more than they’d initially set out for, but hearing them giggle made Senli want to keep going.
But then the fun stopped quickly, as P2’s voice bellowed in her ears more deeply, more enrapturing than ever before. 🟢It was fine to take some, but too many is wrong. Stay your hand now before they sing their song.🟢
The warning stopped the girl in her tracks, and she glanced over to Nathym who was still diligently mining away. “Do you think that’s enough?” She posed the issue as a question. “I don’t think we should take too many more.”
“Just a couple extra,” the man insisted. “Each one will save us days or even weeks of synthesis time. We should at least fill our packs, then we can return home proud—a job well done. This may be our only chance here, so we don’t want to regret not doing everything we could.”
Senli didn’t exactly want to argue with the leader of the mission and someone so much more well-versed in such fields. But yet… The planet repeated its warning, and then once more. Again and again, it never stopped spouting it, practically rumbling into the girl’s ears.
But what cut through was even more unsettling. The Nathyum that were still embedded began to hum. No, that wasn’t quite right. It was more like they were harmonizing.
The noise was making her brain start to rattle, and she knew they were in danger. Mawhg etiquette, she needed to stop this before it was too late. Senli rushed over to her companion and grabbed his arm, pulling it away from the rock that he was tickling. “Nathym, we have to stop, now!”
“Huh, what’s wrong?” The Engineer only looked at her with confusion, though he could see her distress. “Okay, you understand it more than I do, so I’ll trust you.” He stepped away, making no further attempt at the rock he’d been scratching. But what he’d done already was already enough to make the stone giggle itself free.
It slipped out of its casing and hit the ground with a soft thud. And while that particular gem didn’t do anything of interest, those that remained embedded in the maw of the cave began to blink.
“Aghhh!” Senli suddenly crouched down in pain, slamming her hands against her helmet in a desperate and fruitless attempt to plug her ears. The song had begun, but to her, it sounded like a piercing, ear-assaulting alarm.
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“What’s wrong, Senli?! What’s happening?!” Nathym bent down to check on her, not hearing the same deafening ballad.
But then it all went quiet except for the words of the world. 🟢I’ve silenced the song, but it’s too late. They’ve been alerted, and they’re rather irate. You ignored my warning, did you have your fun? Listen to me now, human. You have to run!🟢
“It’s-! We-’ve to!” Senli began trying to mouth words, to say anything coherent and useful, but the panic and pain was so much that not even her enchanted suit could completely soothe.
But before she could form a complete thought, a new voice entered the fray. “This is Xard, do you copy?”
“Xard, do you know anything?” Nathym responded immediately. “We have some sort of situation. I’m not sure what’s happening, but it’s crippled Senli.”
The Artillery’s voice picked up in pace and anxiousness. “There’s something moving your way! The scanner just detected signs of life coming from the core of the world. And it’s headed directly towards you, and fast. You should get out of there immediately!”
“Right! We’re headed back!” Nathym hoisted Senli up to her feet, making sure she could stand before placing both of their hoverpucks on front of them. The pair hopped on and began the journey back to their ship—what now felt like a terrifying distance away.
They barely made it a few feet before the ground beneath them started to rumble. Fortunately, due to the puck’s hover tech, it kept them stabilized, but it was still deeply unsettling. And just as they made it over the rim into the crater they’d traversed through on the first half of their trip, the cave behind them erupted.
Senli turned her head just in time to catch it emerging from the bowels of the world. What was it though? She couldn’t quite comprehend what she was seeing. It was like an ooze, tinted the same rustic green as the ground beneath their feet. There didn’t appear to be any notable appendages, or eyes, or anything to produce senses, just more slime that continued to pour out of the cave.
And when it was all done, the giant ball of viscous was easily as big as a skycraft hanger. Limbs, if she could call them such, exploded out in every direction—hundreds of them—stretching dozens of feet as they writhed. They had joints that bent wildly, zigzagging and twisting, and finally, at the end of each one, a mouth sprouted, dripping drool. And then they all screamed at once.
“The mawhging zjik is that?!” Nathym could no longer contain his composure either, shrieking at the alien monstrosity that was unlike anything they had ever seen.
“I don’t know, but it’s coming for us!” Senli didn’t mince words. Though the creature had yet to charge—still throwing its tantrum—its intentions were clear. It was going to hunt them down.
“Zjik, zjik, zjik!” The Engineer vented his frustration once more, but then he took action. He pulled up his arm and attempted to fiddle with the panel on his sleeve, but due to his nerves and the chaos, it was too difficult to concentrate and push the buttons precisely.
And as he fumbled around, their hunter began its pursuit. All the limbs retracted back into the liquid body, and the entire mound started to roll forward. It was hard to make out exactly how it was moving, but more importantly, how was it so Cosdamn fast?!
“Mawhg it!” Nathym gave up on the touch controls. “Voice override! Hoverpuck limit release!” Long poles popped up out of the front of each puck, sprouting handles at the top that made them closer to scooters in fashion. “Grab hold, Senli, and don’t let go. This is about to get much faster! Course lock: Base. Speed: Maximum!”
The girl barely managed to get a grip on the handles before the pucks lurched forward. They went from their speed of roughly an intense sprint to that of a car maxing out the pedal. It certainly felt more assuring, but Senli certainly didn’t feel safe yet, and she did what she could to avoid looking back, not wanting to know how close the monster was on their tail.
“Xard, come in!” Nathym shouted once more now that they were cruising through the crater.
“This is Xard.”
Nathym took a deep breath then explained everything as urgently as he could. “We’re rushing back as fast as we can, but there’s a monster chasing after us. I doubt we’re gonna shake this thing, so we’ll have to bunker down for the time being. We have the power source, so we should be able to teleport home once the refinement is complete.”
“So I need you to activate the barrier shield. It has a good amount of strength already, but to be safe, I want you to funnel in as much as you can until we get there. Every Kinet you have stored. Don’t save anything!”
“Damn, is it that menacing?!” Xard couldn’t help but ask. “I’m watching through the camera feeds, but it’s hard to make out. Nevermind. I’m on it. Get back safe!”
“Nathym!” Senli cried out as soon as their conversation was over. She had done what she’d promised herself she wasn’t going to do: look back at the monster. “I’m pretty sure it’s still gaining on us!”
“Damn it, how?!” the man whirled his head back to confirm. “Zjik, alright. Voice override! Camera Control-Mode Change, Minus One: Assault!” All but one of the floating cameras that had been trailing behind them suddenly stopped mid-flight and turned around. Each open cracked open like an eggshell, splitting in half, revealing a turret hidden inside.
They began firing at the monster as they flew around the gooey monster like buzzing hornets. It did serve to slow the creature down… for a moment. Limbs sprouted out of it once more and they snapped at the cameras in a blink of an eye, catching them all on the first strike, and swallowing them down in a single mouthful.
The monster then resumed its charge, unamused and unappreciative of the light snack that it had been fed. The limbs it had sprouted didn’t recede either. Instead, they began lunging forward, strike after strike, trying to nab the prey in front of it. The two Fiends were still a good distance away, so it was more like the monster was trying to intimidate and terrify them. And it was working.
With each snap, the ravenous maws got closer, inch by inch, closing the gap. Senli felt like she was losing her mind witnessing the indescribable horror that wanted to rip her to shreds. Before this was over, she’d certainly have need of the space suit’s waste recycling functions. That was, if she hadn’t already. The girl wasn’t exactly in communication with her bowels and bladder during the present crisis.
“I have another plan, Senli, but I’ll need you to trust me!” Nathym shouted over to her. “Our suits have built in cloaking functions from Rezin, and while I don’t know how it’s sensing us, I have to hope that they’ll work. It doesn’t last forever, just a few minutes, maybe long enough for it to lose our scent. But we need to get out of its path first, or it’ll just plow through us anyways.”
“When I say so, let go of the handle and fall backwards off the puck! Do you understand?!” the leader gave his insane order.
“That’s crazy!” the girl shouted back. “But alright, I trust you!”
“Wait for my signal, it’ll be right near the rim of the crater!” Nathym informed her. Even though they were speeding along, with a preying monster right behind them, it couldn’t come soon enough.
It was still a horrific gauntlet of a few minutes, with the monster edging ever closer with each passing second. Even though they were in pressurized suits, Senli would have sworn that she felt the beast’s breath lapping at her back. She thought about using the gun holstered to her hip to try and fight back, but seeing how ineffective the turrets had been, it felt like it could only cause more trouble, and the thought only brought upon cascading despair. The calming effect of her suit went into overdrive, but even it couldn’t keep up with the looming dread of death.
“Voice Override! Puck Control-Manual Steering. On my mark, Senli!” Nathym’s voice cut through the girl’s crisis, giving her just a glimpse of comfort at the moment before her demise. Could his plan really save them? She’d have to at least try! “Now!”
They were practically just inches from cresting the rim of the crater, and Senli let go of the handle. She fell backwards as her legs just reached the open air, and just beyond her feet, Nathym crashed his puck directly into hers.