“Agreed,” Nevin nodded. “It cracked my visor.”
“Is your HUD okay?” Ryan questioned.
“Yeah, its good. Not sure if I’m airtight anymore though. Can’t tell so far.”
I moved closer to the dead creature that had assaulted me. It was tall, likely near three meters in height. It had two long, bladed fingers on each hand, as well as rounded thumb. Its face seemed to be terribly misshapen, being quite wide with a large mouth.
“Could these things have been collecting these Marines to use as food?” I asked, looking over to see Phil observing the body with me.
“Entirely possible. Given the fact they took the time to collect the bodies says a lot itself,” he replied.
“Stay alert team, there may be more,” Ryan warned.
I reached down and scooped up my pistol from the ground. Observing it for a moment, I held it up in a tactical stance and approached the body pile. I heard a slight chatter and a moan nearby. Ryan shot me a quick glance, then nodded. He had heard it too. I slowly stepped around the pile to see that the cave forked off into four directions, giving the enemy multiple points of attack. Phil moved in on the other side of the bodies, and aimed his gun down one of the caves, illuminating it.
“Clear,” he said quietly.
I pointed my H-81 down the nearest tunnel and fired when I saw one of the creatures crouched before me. I managed to get off three shots before it tackled me, sending me into the pile of corpses. I held on tightly to my pistol, not letting it slip from my hand. As the Tredecim attempted to begin bashing me, I turned my wrist so I could fire again, putting four shots into its head. It fell limp, its weight still holding me down. I sighed, satisfied with the kill, and slid it off me.
“You good James?” Phil asked as he relaxed his readily aimed shotgun.
“Yeah, that one wasn’t so bad.”
The others made their way around the bodies and looked at the corpse before me.
“This is why we need to stay in each other’s line of sight,” Ryan said.
There was a brief moment of silence before Nevin spoke up.
“You guys think these caves lead to their capital?”
“Honestly, no. I suspect that this is nothing more than a village of them,” Phil said.
“Agreed,” Ryan said flatly. “Though I still think we should explore. We need to better understand these things… and we still don’t know for sure they are Tredecim. We’re making assumptions.”
“There’s four routes. Which should we take?” Nevin asked.
“Well… Gah, I hate to split us up after all this, but we need to cover ground too. We’ll do teams of two and three. Phil, you’re with me. Cass, Nev, you two go with James,” Ryan ordered.
“On it,” Nevin said, moving to stand by me.
I reloaded my pistol and moved slowly down the tunnel that the creature had recently emerged from. Nevin moved up beside me, his SMG-56 held at his shoulder as we progressed. Ambient drips and crumbling sounds kept me on edge, ever wary as to what may lurk ahead. We had gone far enough into the cave that our only light was from our flashlights, with all other areas being shrouded in a veil of darkness. I slowly swayed the pistol, trying to get an idea of every corner, crevice, and crack that the cave wall had.
A short distance ahead, the cave suddenly dropped off, the sound of running water filling the air. I held tightly to the edge and lowered myself down, landing softly on the rock below. This area appeared to be a sort of underground river, though the water couldn’t have been more than a meter deep. I heard Nevin and Cass splash down behind me as I began walking down the river, following the water. On the edges, the water went no higher than my ankles.
“This appears to be water, but surely not enough for them to survive off of,” Nevin said quietly.
“We don’t know how much water it takes for them to survive. Perhaps its not nearly as much as humans,” I replied.
“We’re assuming they even need water at all,” Cassidy added softly.
As we proceeded down the river, faint noises could be heard from various directions. I could tell the cave wasn’t clear yet, and that somewhere, more Tredecim still lurked.
“I hear something. I think it’s a waterfall,” Nevin stated.
I listened carefully and before long I too heard the noise. We picked up the pace, moving quickly in the direction of the sound. It was a short amount of time before we reached the edge of the water, where it poured gently into a massive cistern. The three of us scanned the area with our flashlights, unveiling a tremendous clearing in the cave, with the center filled with water. Along the edges appeared to be structures, carved out of the cave’s stone walls.
“Shoot!” Cassidy exclaimed, abruptly pointing her light straight up. “Four of ‘em, they saw me.”
She turned off her flashlight, with Nevin and I following suit. We could only hope they wouldn’t find us without any light.
Just then, my COM activated.
“James, this is Ryan. We found some sort of camp of them. Just had a rough fight. Three of them are dead. They appear to be able to see in the dark without trouble… there are no lights around here and they still located us fine. Phil says they may be using some sort of echolocation or sound-based detection method, but I think they just have good eyes.”
Before I had a moment to respond I heard a splash followed by a large hand securing itself around my leg and pulling me off the edge. I had originally estimated it was about ten meters from the start of the waterfall to the surface of the water below, and I now found myself falling in complete darkness that entire distance. The fall felt longer than it should have, perhaps a mental illusion from the lack of sight.
I felt the impact as I splashed into the water below, still being grasped by the creature. I frantically moved to turn on my light, now seemingly the best way to even the playing field.
Continuing to sink, I felt the monster begin its attack, taking heavy swipes at my armor. Then, two lights illuminated the water. The renewed ability to see gave me a chance to click my light back on, then take a swing at the Tredecim. I landed two blows to its face, causing it to relent its grip on my ankle. Immediately I began moving back upward, grappling protruding stones along the edge, in an attempt to escape the water. At last I breached the surface, pulling myself onto the hard shore.
The moment I was able to, I turned around, seating myself on the rock and aiming my pistol back into the cistern. As expected the Tredecim burst forth, giving me a clear shot at its face. Four subsequent 9mm rounds to the jaw and brain silenced the substantial creature.
“Nevin! Over here,” I called, hoping to regroup.
“We have a plan, you’re our distraction!” Nevin replied, aiming his light straight at me as yet another Tredecim knocked me to the ground.
As I slammed face-first across the cave floor, I realized that these beatings were getting old… fast. Nevin unleashed a long burst from his SMG to free me from the beast. I began crawling forward as quickly as I could, then heard another approaching from behind. Quickly, I did a roll to the side, resulting in the Tredecim missing me and sliding past. I hopped to my feet and put several rounds into the creature as Nevin’s SMG added support.
I saw one of the doorways into the structures along the edges and sprinted toward it. As I neared I dove forward, ending in a roll. I landed back on my feet inside the stone cutout and carefully observed my surroundings.
Firstly I noticed more writing on the wall, similar to that found near the entrance to the cave. Secondly I saw a bowl shape carved into the floor, approximately four meters in length. The inside of it was incredibly smooth, leading me to believe it may have been some sort of bed for the creatures. Scanning quickly, I saw two others bowls, as well as a large pile of sticks with three propped against each other. I immediately assumed they were for use in the creation of fire, adding another layer of intelligence to these creatures.
I heard one of them let loose a series of unusual noises outsid
e the doorway. In response, I quickly moved against the wall, completely hidden from sight from outside. I tried to keep calm, calling on all of my training, though the situation I found myself in was one we had never trained for.
I heard footsteps approaching, coming ever closer to my doorway. One of the creatures stepped in looking away from me first. Knowing it was a head’s turn away from seeing me, I aimed and pulled the trigger three times. I was treated with a bang followed by two clicks.
“Prex…” I mumbled to myself, realizing I had to reload.
The bloodied Tredecim lunged toward me, and acting fast I pulled out my combat knife. The monster drove itself into the knife, spurting its dark blood across my visor. Its two great arms swung around me hard, as if in a bear hug. It began to squeeze, creating noticeable pressure on my armor. Breathing quickly became difficult, causing a slight panic to start in my mind. I tried to move the knife for another stab, but did not have enough room to move, so I jerked the knife upward, pulling toward the beast’s neck.
At last it released, allowing me a gasp of air and another moment’s peace. I slid my knife back in its sheath and reloaded my pistol as fast as I could.
I exited the structure to see Nevin and Cassidy on the other side of the cistern, engaging several of the Tredecim. I took this as an opportunity to update Ryan.
“Sir, we’ve got a serious problem,” I panted. “We ran across some sort of nest of these things. I might even go so far as to call it a village. We can talk specifics later, but I don’t think we can kill ‘em all.”
“A what? An entire village? They’re civilized? Uh…” Ryan paused for a moment, trying to decide how to respond. “Push forward. Keep going in until you get out. Phil and I’s path appears to be leading us upward, we’re thinkin’ to one of those Observation Posts the UED guys were talking about.”
“Copy that, keep pushing forward,” I replied, moving in toward my teammates.
“James!” Nevin called out, noticing my approach. “We can’t take all these things. We’re takin’ a—” Nevin was interrupted by yet another Tredecim knocking him to the floor.
I placed several rounds in its skull before responding to Nevin.
“I know, we need to go. Now!” I ordered.
The three of us took off in a dead sprint toward another tunnel at the far end of the cavernous room. The opening was about the size of the original cave entrance, meaning simply getting there would do little to stop the Tredecim rampaging behind us. I looked back over my shoulder to see a group of three of them gaining on us.
Looking ahead I tried to run even quicker, even to the point of keeping up with Nevin. We entered the smaller tunnel, which immediately took a hard turn to the right. Nevin reached out his hand against the cave wall and twirled around the corner, with me pulling a similar stunt. Upon further thought, the tunnels may not stop the Tredecim, but their substantial size would complicate fitting multiple at high speed into the small space.
We barreled down the next direction with Cassidy doing her best to keep up with us. To my surprise, Nevin disappeared from before me, falling down into something. I tried to slow down, but was too late, joining him in the pit. To my pleasure however, I saw snow.
“Hop down!” I called out to Cass, figuring she was holding position after the falls.
I immediately began running down the narrow, declining path toward the snow. As I reached the base I leaped forth, both hands extended in front of me. The fall was just five meters, but was still enough for a deep impact in the snow. I found myself completely submerged by it, though not overly deep. I heard a second impact behind me, followed shortly after by a third.
Despite the urge to get up and run, I just lay there, face down in the snow, making no attempt to escape further. I lay there for as long as a minute not bothered by anything but the silent patter of snow in the hole my armored body now filled.
“You good James?” I heard Nevin ask from behind me.
I stood up slowly, looking back toward the hole I had jumped from to see a single Tredecim doing nothing but watching. Then looking to the right, I saw Nevin, standing directly beside me.
“Yeah, I’m fine.”
“It’s just watching us. Perhaps it only attacked ‘cause we were in its territory,” Nevin suggested.
“Maybe…” I murmured.
“I say we rendezvous with Ryan ASAP,” Cassidy said plainly, rising from the snow.
I clicked on the COM, hoping Ryan and Phil would be easy to find.
“Ryan, James here. We’re out. One of ‘em’s watching us. You say you were near one of those towers?”
“James, I think we see you. Look up,” Ryan replied.
I allowed my eyes to rise, before long they arrived upon a tower, exactly like the others, placed atop the mountain.
“Yeah, I can confirm. I see the tower. Anything good in there?”
“A dead Tredecim.”
“Dead when you got there?” I asked.
“No. It was acting awfully odd though. It was hunched over on its knees with its arms pushed out in front of it. I dunno, maybe a stretch or prayer pose?” he replied.
“No clue. Where’re we going to regroup?”
“Give us a sec, I’m still checking out the surroundings. There. That might be a good sign. I see some pretty heavy smoke coming from a crater a little ways out. If I were to take a guess…” Ryan paused. “I’d say it’s a life pod.”
I became excited. A life pod meant that there might be survivors… Fellow Elonians who could join us. Perhaps it would even be Max. I still had difficulty trying to decide if the squad was better off without him or not, but the thought of him being dead bothered me. He was one of us… a Ranger.
“Alright, Phil and I are coming down. The cliff face to our left appears to be traversable. Barely. You three move around and meet us at the base.”
“10-4,” I said plainly, taking a final look at the Tredecim that still stood watching us.
As we began to move away from the opening in the mountain, I heard a noise behind me, causing me to quickly look back. The Tredecim was gone, the cavernous opening now empty. I brushed it off and continued to trek through the snow. It had to have been several hours since our crash-landing in the Corsair.
As we turned the curve of the mountain we could see Phil and Ryan sliding down the mountainside. They seemed to be carefully moving between various outcroppings that allowed them to keep their speed in check.
At last they arrived on ground level. It was nice to be a full unit again.
“Before we get rolling, let’s run a status report. Mine and Phil’s armor’s fine, essentially undamaged, though we are both running a little low on ammo. Phil has more than I do though,” Ryan announced.
“My armor has taken a beating, but nothing worse than you already knew. James took almost all the hits in the tunnels,” Nevin said, nudging me slightly.
“I have a few mags for my H-81 still, and haven’t fired my SR-4 since we got here,” I began. “As for my armor, it feels fine, but I’ve had at least four of those things roll around with me.”
“I think they’re afraid to hit a girl, I mean… I haven’t been hit yet. Ammo’s a bit low though,” Cassidy said with a smile.
We laughed a bit before deciding it was time to move. Though it seemed the Tredecim were content with remaining inside their cave, it was clear from the UED camp that they were willing to leave it when they needed to. With haste we made our way toward the billowing smoke cloud that lay before us. It was a fairly long run, through a plain environment seemingly devoid of life.
Chapter 14
This Is Real War
When at last we arrived at the crater, Ryan’s suspicions were confirmed. Lodged into the ground was an Elonian life pod, smoke rising from its nose. A small amount of blood seemed to be leading away from the tail door before being covered by the endless snow. Ryan and I hopped down into the crater, no more than two meters at its deepest point, and approached the pod.
I looked inside the damaged craft and images started playing in my mind. Enphuerzo. Our flaming transport descending at incredible speeds toward the ground. Jenkins. Rob.
I came back to reality and saw an empty pod. A blood splatter adorned the floor in front of one of the seats, though no other signs of life were present. It certainly wasn’t Max’s escape pod.
“They’re still alive. Just… where did they go?”
“Uh… I… I don’t know. I’d expect them to look for shelter though, considering they don’t have power armor to help deal with the cold,” I suggested.
“Agreed. Most likely they would find one of those towers and camp out inside it.”
We moved on, heading toward the next structure that jutted out of the ground. We had to be close. We couldn’t be the only Elonians who lived.
“You know…” I started, thinking back to the caves while we walked. “There were sticks in one of those structures… but where are the trees?”
Nevin turned and stared at me, clearly thinking.
“I… I’m not sure,” he said shortly afterword, the others clearly reaching the same conclusion.
“I don’t see how trees could survive out here, the snow’s substantial and if this planet doesn’t have a real sun, I can’t imagine plant life ever being supported,” Philip pointed out.
“Just another mystery to solve,” Ryan said thoughtfully, exhaling as he spoke.
We walked silently for several more minutes before finally reaching the next Observation Post. There was blood splattered across the side of the doorway. To the left of the tower was a small mound, mostly covered in snow. Despite the cover, it appeared that the mound’s base was composed of bodies clothed in arctic camo. UED.
“Alright team, we’re here. Phil, stack up,” Ryan ordered as they each took a side of the open doorway.
He took a deep breath, before making his move.
“Now!” he ordered.
Both soldiers turned into the doorway and moved in.
“Clear.”
Nevin, Cassidy, and I entered the doorway behind them. A blood trail led up the stairs. It had to be them. It had to be the survivors.
The War Across the Stars Page 15
