The attack was sudden and occurred with no warnings at all. One moment everything was calm and peaceful, and then the next there was a marine who was screaming as he was swiftly taken by the jaws of a large beast.
"Holy shit!" James yelled upon this happening as another marine was practically and unconsciously swatted away by the creature's tail while it bit down on the marine in its mouth causing him to cry out in pain.
Meanwhile, their platoon CO wasted literally no time, and yelled with a fire in his voice as he aimed his gun at the beast. "Light it up!"
This was followed by the all of them quickly unloading dozens of rounds into the creature, but to everyone's surprise, their weapons did basically nothing to it. Besides, of course, pissing it off even more.
"What the hell is this thing made of!?" One marine questioned loudly as Carver continued to fire bullet after bullet into the animal before witnessing it chuck the marine in its mouth at somebody.
"I don't know, but it's not going down!" Bisenti answered in the same loud voice the man before him had spoken in.
Unbeknownst to Carver, what was thrown was only half of the marine that was in its mouth, the rest of the guy that had been its jaws was currently being swallowed. It wasted no time after doing this, and swiftly pounced on the marine that had been knocked over by the corpse, effectively killing the man with its weight.
With two members of the platoon down, their platoon CO pulled out what appeared to be a grenade, and threw it at the creature while yelling. "Grenade out!"
The grenade exploded on impact, and unlike their rifles, managed to do some damage as well as knock it down on its side.
As it scrambled to get back on its legs, the marines continued to unload into it, and it wasn't long before it stopped moving.
"Hold fire! Hold fire!" First Sergeant Tarkov shouted upon witnessing it stop moving, which was repeated by several others. Soon, everybody stopped shooting, but none of them dared to move their weapons off of it. No, all weapons were trained on it and were ready to be fired again if it tried to move.
Believing it to be dead, their platoon CO calmly and slowly approached the creature. He didn't get too close to it out of fear of it still possibly being alive, but he did get close enough to have a good look at it.
The animal was big, not as big as an elephant, but big nonetheless. It had eight legs in total and looked more along the lines of a reptile than anything else. Its belly had been torn to shreds, which gave reason for him to believe that while it had thick armor, it did have a weak spot which was its belly.
He also took this time to see if the marine that had been jumped on was still alive as well as the one that had been thrown, but the sight he saw made it clear as day that those two were dead.
With a sigh escaping his lips, he turned on his comlink, and said in an emotionless voice. "Archangel, you there?"
"I'm here, what is it, Lieutenant?" Came a response after a couple of seconds.
"Just encountered one of the wildlife, definitely not friendly, killed Brooks and Trehan." He revealed.
"I'm sorry to hear that," Archangel declared in a sincere voice before asking. "Do you guys need evac?"
"No, we're-" He started before being interrupted by Riley who had shouted to him with concern clear as day written in his voice. "Uh Lieutenant, we got a problem!"
"Hold up, one of my guys are saying there's a problem." He declared before turning off the transmitter and directing his attention to Riley. "What's the problem soldier?" He then demanded in a loud and firm tone.
"Butkus is gone, I saw him get hit by that things tail, and went to get him up, but he's not here!" Riley revealed before picking up something off the ground which happened to be a rifle. "The only thing that's over here is his rifle, sir!"
After hearing that, there was a bit of commotion that transpired.
One marine questioned with a hint of anger in his voice. "Are you saying something just came and took him without any of us noticing while we fighting that thing?"
While another said in a more fearful manner. "Could it have been another one of those creatures we just fought?"
"Doubt it," James denied in a serious filled voice. "If it was another one of those things then it would have for sure joined in on the fight, and not just take Butkus and run."
"Unless it was in need to feed its young!" Diaz countered. "It could have been in dire need of food and decided to take him back to its nest while this one distracted us."
"Alright, now you're just grasping at straws here," James stated in a disapproving fashion which was met by a couple of affirmations.
"Enough, all of you now." Their platoon CO ordered before anyone else had a chance to put their two cents in. This had caused nearly everyone to direct their attention towards him, and once he was certain he had all of it, he spoke some more.
"Now, I don't know what happened to Butkus, but throwing out your conspiracy theories won't help us find him, so here's what we're going to do. I'm going to take squads one and two, and do a perimeter sweep. While I'm doing that, First Sergeant Tarkov here will take squads three and four and checks the inside of the ruins. We'll keep an eye out for him, but if we're unable to locate him, we make it official that he's MIA and request for evac, understood?"
"Yes sir!" The marines complied, albeit a few were a little reluctant in confirming this.
"Good, now move it out!" Their commanding officer shouted in an approving manner as he motioned for them to start moving.
This tale has been unlawfully lifted without the author's consent. Report any appearances on Amazon.
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After it was established what they were going to be doing, Carver along with the rest of his squad and squad four looked for an entrance to the ancient structure. It took them a decent while to find one, and there was barely any chatter that went on as they searched.
James, of course, attempted to brighten the mood a little, but ultimately failed due to the death of two brothers in arms still weighing in on their minds along with the loss of Butkus.
As for the entrance to the structure, the best word to describe the feeling it gave off was ominous. They couldn't really see anything from their position because of where the sun was right now so they had no choice but to turn on their weapon's flashlight.
Once they were on, the marines illuminated the room as best as they possibly could and saw what one would typically expect in some old ancient looking building. They saw a bunch of cobwebs, dust, debris, and a good amount of skeleton bones.
"And the LT seriously wants us to check this place out?" A Hispanic marine named Alexander Garcia questioned as they continued to scan what they could see from the outside. "I'm getting nothing but a bunch of bad vibes from this place." He appended in a slightly more stern tone.
The building was in no way made by humans, nor was it designed by any of the alien races humanity has made contact with. Of course, it was worth noting that none of the people here were experts in archaeology, so there was a chance they could be wrong.
"Apparently so, although if we're looking for Butkus, it doesn't like he was taken in through here." James asserted in a somewhat nonchalant manner.
"We have our orders, and while I do not like the thought of checking a place like this out, our orders stand." First Sergeant Tarkov declared in a resolute tone before looking at Carver and saying to him. "Carver, you got point."
At this, Carver exhaled loudly and reluctantly said, "understood, First Sergeant." Before slowly and cautiously advancing into the room. He didn't like the idea of being the first one into the building, and had almost asked if his superior was being serious, but in the end, decided to keep that to himself.
The reason why he moved tentatively was because he did not want to accidentally step on a pressure plate or something similar to that and activate a booby trap. He had seen a decent amount of adventure movies growing up, and because of what he saw in them, he did not want to end up getting impaled by some spikes or set ablaze somehow.
Eventually, after he was a good five to seven meters into the building and out of distance of the flashlights, Carver heard First Sergeant Tarkov call out to him. "You see anything, Carver?"
"Nope, this place is practically an abyss, First Sergeant! I can barely see what's in front of me." Carver practically yelled after coming to a halt and shining his flashlight on the ground to make sure there was nothing beneath him. Of course, all he saw on the ground was some rubble and bones of a dead species.
There was a silence that passed after this, and it wasn't long after he had pointed out the difficulty to see he heard what sounded like someone activating a flare from behind. With his interest now piqued, Carver looked over his shoulder just in time to see a flare coming at him and lighting up th room even more. This wasn't the only flare that was thrown, several others were chucked into the building and it wasn't long before he had a much more easier time at seeing.
"That make it easier for you to see?" First Sergeant Tarkov inquired as he entered the structure with the rest of the squads in tow or slightly in front of him.
"... Why didn't we just begin with that?" Carver queried with a mass amount of confusion in his voice.
"I didn't think it was needed to be honest." He answered in a casual manner while shrugging his shoulders. "Now let's check this place out."
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Captain Yevgenny carried a neutral expression as he silently listened to his crew begin the preparations needed for them to enter the planet's atmosphere. Usually, it wouldn't take them this long to make all the preparations, but because of the sorry state the ship was in, they were being extra careful and making sure no problems would arise upon entering or descending.
"I understand that some of you are scared or concerned right now, but I promise you that if you trust in me, I will get you back home to your families and friends. Have faith in your Captain." The words he had spoken when announcing what he had planned on doing still echoed inside of his head.
"This isn't going to be easy." He thought as he closed his eyes and gently rubbed them with his right index finger and thumb. He had to believe in himself and that he was going to get them out of this predicament they were in, but he wasn't going to lie to himself and say that these upcoming weeks to possibly months would be a breeze.
No, he was somewhat of a realist, and while it most definitely would be easier if he didn't have to look out for a bunch of people, he swore an oath, and he was going to see to it that the majority of the people onboard the Beatrix make it back to their families. He might not be able to make sure everyone survives what is to come, but he was going to try his damn hardest at it.
"Captain, sir, almost all preparations are ready, ETA of being done is ten minutes." A crewman stated causing Yevgenny to lower his hand down to his mouth and look at him.
"Understood, what's the status in the shuttle bay?" Yevgenny inquired.
"Uh, almost all nonessential personnel are loaded up and ready ago, should be done by the time preparations are done." The crewman claimed. "Although, they might need some more time to load up some more supplies, but that shouldn't take them too long, sir."
In response to this, Yevgenny said, "understood, notify me when they're done, and then we shall proceed as planned."
"Yes, sir!" The crewman affirmed with a salute before turning around and walking away back to his station.
While he moved away, Yevgenny averted his gaze back to the planet ahead of them and muttered under his breath. "Here's hoping you don't be the death of us."
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After underhand tossing a flare into the room, Carver gave it a quick scan before signaling James and Hoffman that was okay to enter. The two then proceeded to enter the room and after giving it an even thorough scan they both said, "clear!"
With it made clear that the room was safe to enter several others entered the room including First Sergeant Tarkov.
"Alrighty, what are we going to find in here?" First Sergeant Tarkov wondered aloud as his eyes glanced around the room.
"Probably nothing except what we see right now." James muttered in a not so quiet voice since First Sergeant Tarkov shot him a look, which was something he ended up seeing. Meanwhile, Hoffman and a few others merely snickered.
This wasn't the first room they had checked, in fact, it was actually the fourth and so far there hasn't been really anything that stood out and caught their attention. The only thing that did one of those was what appeared to be some writing on the walls, but none of them had the slightest clue of what was written, so they took a picture of it to give to the scientist team onboard the Beatrix.
As First Sergeant Tarkov began to lay into James for his somewhat snarky remark, Carver tried to figure out what exactly this building was used for. At first, he thought it was something along the lines of like a researching outpost, but because two of the rooms were filled with nothing but the remains of the deceased he started to rule that possibility out.
"Actually now that I think about it, this place could still be a researching facility since we haven't confirmed if there's an underground level to this place." Carver thought after giving it a bit more thought. He had started to assume that the structure was the remains of like a fallout bunker, but it wasn't long after he thought of that he came back to the possibility of it being a place of study.
"Anyways, while I do not want to agree with Vargas, he does appear to be right." First Sergeant Tarkov announced a few seconds after he was done grilling James which pulled Carver out of his thoughts. "We'll check the last few rooms out since we've come this far, but after that, we're calling it and pulling out. If we stumble upon a pathway that leads further down or something similar to that, we'll make a note of it, and then somebody else can explore it when they come to check this place out."
"Understood, First Sergeant."