CHAPTER 61: Getting to know Adam
Captain Joe Krysti stood in front of a door. All that could be seen beyond was a solid wall of black. Behind him were 19 of the soldiers under his company command. They each had a knife and sword at their belt, made from alien metal. They were shaped by alien techniques in an alien dimensional bubble. The blades were able to easily cut through thick human metal plates, though they didn’t cut effortlessly through a wooden bowl. These weapons were “lent” to his troops by a teenager as a test. Each soldier still carried their firearms, but it was questionable if they would be useful.
That was not what he had been expecting when the Colonel requested him for the quiet mission to the unimportant town of Jackson. Captain Krysti couldn’t help but think this as he stared at the foreboding black door.
A hand pressed against his shoulder. The hand was light, but its strength and presence were immense.
“Don’t worry, I’ll check first,” Adam said, trying to sound reassuring. The attempt felt off to Captain Krysti. Knowing that Adam was actually an unaffiliated weapon capable of killing every one of his troops left him feeling even more wary.
Every man present had spent yesterday power leveling with Sentinel Army squads. They had all reached level 2. Captain Krysti liked how the increased levels helped him feel stronger, quicker, and more capable. Just knowing that strength could be increased so easily would incentivize his men to follow missions like this. Yet there was still too much unknown, both about the enemies and the allies.
“You have no idea what’s through there?” Krysti asked the boy, not for the first time.
“Of course I know what is in there. Invaders that need to die,” said Adam flippantly. Even trained and experienced soldiers were concerned about having to kill. Yet this boy spoke of it casually, as if he was just exterminating some vermin. That didn’t help the captain’s nerves.
“I’ve told you. We don’t know until we go in. Look…” Adam waved his hand into the black. The hand passed through it with no effort and then came back out. “The barrier is open. Let’s get through it.”
Once more, Captain Krysti hesitated in moving forward. Their training and years of missions had impressed on him not to move into an unknown situation. However, he could feel Adam’s patience wearing down.
“Should we not send a scout?” he asked, knowing that it could be interpreted that he was being cowardly. Never once had he thought of himself as cowardly, but right now he felt it difficult to move forward.
“Captain, I get that it's difficult to step into an unknown black portal. Yet, I’m doing you guys a big favor by bringing you. You’ll get levels faster here, hone your skills without guns, and experience what it takes to survive. I brought you instead of other people who could benefit from it. On top of that, I am here. Now, I’m not giving you another chance. Move into the portal or I’ll do it by myself and never extend another invite to you and your troops.”
A shiver went down his spine as Captain Krysti firmed his resolve, closed his eyes, and walked forward. There was no differing sensation as he passed through the barrier, but he knew it when he was somewhere else. The pressure had increased and instead of smooth flooring under his boots, there was rocky ground that almost tripped him. He opened his eyes and found nothing changed from when they had been closed.
He jumped when a hand grabbed him and moved him to the side. Then he heard gasps and movement as his troops came through the barrier and found only darkness. Shuffling and calming sounds followed his soldiers as they were moved out of the way by, he assumed, Adam, making room for those entering.
Once all sound stopped, Adam spoke up. Captain Krysti felt like he was a kid in the cub scouts, he was so unprepared, needing the adult leaders to tell them what should have been obvious.
“This is good,” Adam started cheerfully. “We’re in a series of underground tunnels.”
“Why is that good?” one of the soldiers asked with trepidation.
“It’s good because it means we have clear paths to follow and we can’t be surrounded. We can create choke points if we need to. You guys are kind of letting me down here. Get yourselves together!”
“Sorry, sir,” the soldier apologized sincerely.
"Also, the tunnels seem very…” the sound of a heavy impact echoed and the walls and ground vibrated, too quickly for even Captain Krysti to say anything. “Yeah, the tunnels are plenty stable. I’m not concerned about cave ins. It’s dark and I assume none of you have natural night vision. Neither do I, by the way. It’s too dark to see but I assume you brought a fix for that, Captain?”
“Er, yes. We should have a few options,” Captain Krysti responded. The company analyst, Charles, had made sure to pack for a lot of possible needs. It had also seemed like Adam was testing him when he told him to guess at what might be needed and then watched him put together a list. The equipment was spread out to different packs or they would be too heavy for each soldier.
“We have a few powerful electric lanterns, night vision goggles, flares, and regular flashlights. Which would you recommend?”
Adam thought about it for a moment. “Underground we don’t want smoke, so no flares. If you have enough night vision goggles for everyone then that would be fine. The lanterns will cast a lot of shadows, but if you keep them in front of you can also blind subterranean creatures.” There was a scratching noise and a burst of air, then Adam continued. “Let’s try out the lanterns. Make sure you keep your eyes closed until they’re all the way on.”
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The captain gave orders and two of the soldiers dug out the lanterns from their packs by feel. Each soldier had been made to memorize what they had in their packs and where it was stored, so that everything would stay organized and quick to pack or unpack. Counting helped Krysti keep his mind off things until he felt the light through his eyelids. His eyes opened slowly, blinking frequently to get used to the light. Then the captain almost fell backwards.
Adam was standing near the lanterns, holding what at first looked like a dog the size of himself by the throat. The beast’s face was pushed towards the light, and while it did struggle it seemed more against the grip Adam held it with than the light.
“Guess they don’t use sight at all. No eyes either. That means they use other senses to hunt,” Adam announced.
The beast was out of a horror movie. It looked like a dog, vaguely in shape, but as he got closer, he noticed that it really didn’t have eyes, or a nose. Its ears were rounded and covered with a mound of skin, a membrane underneath like a frog’s. Behind the neck were jagged slits that opened and closed with its breathing. The paws did not have toes, instead there were talons, each the size of the captain’s hand, curved and sharp; three in the front and two in the back.
“Looks like the claws let them dig through rock, as well as walk on the sides or roof of the tunnels. Make sure to look up if we enter larger tunnels,” Adam analyzed. The captain had no idea how he could be so calm with that thing trying to claw him.
Then the little slit where a mouth should be opened like a parachute of skin with little bone fragments on it, almost like a net to catch prey. Adam snatched out and grabbed the extra skin at the base of the mouth, preventing it from extending further. The thing made choking noises as it tried to get the net back in its mouth.
“That is both terrifying and cool,” said Adam with no inflection that would show he was terrified. “Anyway, everyone get a stab in here to get XP from it.”
The soldiers, as scared of Adam as of the beast, lined up and each took a turn stabbing it. As terrifying as it was, the captain could see how distasteful everyone found torturing the captured foe. Each stab brought a puppy like squeal and moan that he couldn’t help but frown at.
“Do we really need to do this?” the captain asked. Adam’s eyes snapped to his own. The frightening intensity that Adam could bring, people called it his scary face, put pressure on every part of the captain. The well-trained veteran of combat wanted to shrink back and cower in the presence of that look.
“The better question is how seriously are you taking protecting our planet? This is an invader. This is something come to kill and pillage. Why would you give them the power? We aren’t playing cops and robbers. We are playing kill them before they kill you. Why is everyone having so much trouble figuring that out?!” Adam bemoaned. It showed how frustrated he was when his skin began turning red and his fist clenched, unintentionally snapping the neck of the beast.
The captain saw something within Adam in that moment, something beyond the anger and violence. Adam desperately wanted people to care about this. When he and his men discussed the Sentinel Army’s videos, they always spoke about what a killer Adam was. Violent and brutal.
Terrenidon “Crawler [8]” killed. 327 shared XP gained.
“Seriously, Krysti, get yourself together or leave. I’m not interested in carrying dead weight.”
Captain Krysti flinched at the words. There seemed to be a difference here. The army trained them to handle combat, but also to avoid it and to only kill when necessary. Adam came across more as a warlord, ready and willing to kill anything that stood against him. When aimed at the invaders, Adam was unforgiving and remorseless, and he expected everyone else to be too. It was so different than when the captain had seen Adam interacting with his own people and the civilians. They were like two separate Adams, but he could understand why both were necessary and could coexist.
What if Adam really did have a sense of what was coming. He wasn’t making them torture the creature. He was making sure as many people benefited from its death as possible. Adam wasn’t hording strength to take over, he was spreading the strength around while teaching.
The pitiful Terrenidon had been whining and he had thought of it like an earth beast. Yet, what if it had gotten out into the mall? What if it had used those claws on the civilians? Would anyone have been able to stop it?
Adam had protected them when they couldn’t see. Instead of killing the creature he held it until everyone had a chance to observe. Then he was analyzing the enemy and doing it where everyone else could see. Some of the fear the captain was feeling fell away and he nodded to Adam, considering that maybe the shock of the absurd situation combined with Adam being a teenager was blinding him to the leadership that Adam was showing.
“You’re right. It seems we were mentally unprepared. We’ll try to handle this better,” the captain said.
He immediately noticed the demeanor of the soldiers change. It was minor but they seemed to stop looking at what was right in front of them and tried to be more alert to their surroundings.
“Good,” Adam said while tossing the corpse to the side. “Because there are four more waiting about 50 feet down the tunnel.”
The soldiers burst into motion. The ones with shields stood up and moved to the front. Packs were checked and then slung on backs. Some pulled their guns while others grabbed their swords.
“Spears would have been better in here instead of swords,” Adam mused idly. “I’ll need to make sure people learn and carry both.”
Evaluating and planning, learning from the situations for others even though he could just power through it, thought the captain.
Adam took command. He guided the group forward slowly, leading with the lanterns. They were warned before the new beasts appeared in the light. The beasts had higher levels, but the humans had twenty men with strong equipment. Trying to fight with shields and swords was awkward, but he would trust it was necessary. All the soldiers learned some hand to hand and how to fight with knives in boot camp, but it wasn’t constantly trained like firearms.
When the beasts came into the light, the captain only saw three. Two were on the floor and the third was clinging to the ceiling with its claws.
“Where’s the fourth?”
Adam crept forward a few steps, then punched the wall and ripped one of the beasts out of a small tunnel. It had been waiting until they reached it to burst out of the final bit of rock. The thing squirmed and whined, and at the sounds the other three attacked. The speed felt overwhelming.
Two were blocked from moving forward by the shields, and the third sped across the ceiling slightly slower. Several gunshots rang out. While most of them hit, they barely broke skin.
“Bad move on the guns,” said Adam, still holding the creature. “They tunnel through rock, so of course their skin is tough. Also, we’ve now confirmed they react mostly to sound or vibrations because three more are coming.”
“How do you know that?” screamed a soldier as he dropped his gun and pulled his sword. Adam calmly broke all four legs of the Terrenidon he held then tossed it down the tunnel. Then in a burst of speed he grabbed the one attacking the closest shield carrier.
“I can sense the number of creatures around me and three got angrier when the gun was fired. They’re moving towards us. Kill these fast. There is something different about the incoming three.”