“Yeah!” Another man screamed. “Why haven’t you armed us so we can defend ourselves?!”
“You bring up a great point,” O’Malley replied. “Which is why we’re invoking the emergency colonial draft protocols and-”
A bloodcurdling scream cut O’Malley off. The crowd searched for the source until they saw the grisly spectacle of a Tritop tearing a child apart. The crowd howled in fear as more Tritops swarmed in from all sides, a raging flood that couldn’t be contained.
“All soldiers respond now!” O’Malley screamed as he opened fire on the incoming Tritops. Other soldiers joined in, but it wasn’t enough to stave off the tide.
Sulture picked Joey up and seized Katrina by the hand. He led them through the mire of broken bodies and scattered limbs until they’d reached the emergency station.
“Take Joey and hide under here!” Sulture ordered as he handed his son off to Katrina. She crawled under a desk and held him close while Sulture tinkered with the emergency beacon to get a signal out to the Core.
“Angkor Colony under attack! I repeat: Angkor Colony under attack! We’re being overrun by hostile aliens! Send help! I repeat, send help immediately!” Sulture screamed into the mic.
The screech of sheared metal rang outside until the satellite crashed into the ground. Sulture stood frozen as he realized that his only connection with the Core had just been severed like a vital artery. He walked outside in a dumbfounded state and looked at the crinkled dish.
“Adam!” Katrina screamed behind him. But it was too late. As he looked to his wife he was thrown away from his family by a Tritop. Two more dived into the shack and took Joey and Katrina. They screamed in horror as they were carried off through the colony.
“NO!” Sulture howled. He dived into the shack, grabbed a can of pheromone spray, an assault rifle, two clips of ammo and sprinted off to the East.
Murph and Erikson heard Joey and Katrina call out Sulture’s name as they were being carried across the field outside the colony. The Tritops easily leapt over the fence and ran into the jungle. In a mad dash, Sulture shot the terminal, which shut down a section of the perimeter fence. Murph and Erikson shared a look, then sprinted after them.
The Tritops leaped from tree to tree, and Sulture couldn’t keep up. The roar of a hoverbike whipped past him. The soldier on top stopped a few metres ahead.
“Take it. Save them. We’ll follow on my tracker,” he said. Sulture thanked him and tossed the can of pheromones to him.
“Makes you invisible,” He said as he revved the bike and took off in pursuit.
The trees ahead were adorned in a gruesome display of human bodies. Pods which contained infant Tritops clung to the trees by the thousands. The pods were beaded over with human blood, a crimson blanket made possible by the gruesome sacrifice committed by these demented creatures. The jungle reeked of death from the bodies in various states of decay.
Sulture pushed the throttle as hard as he could, and wished the hover bike would go faster. Katrina and Joey begged him to save them through the trees in a hysteric plea for life. The Tritops split off in different directions.
“Adam! Save Joey! Promise me that you’ll save him!” Katrina screamed.
The creatures finally made it to a pair of trees which didn’t have any bodies crucified to them. Bile swirled in Sulture’s stomach as he looked at his wife and his son being split apart.
“I promise I’ll save him! I promise you Katrina! I love you!” Sulture screamed.
“I love you too,” Katrina said as the beast pinned her to the tree. Sulture saw the alien draw a knife with its leg and slash Katrina’s throat.
“MOMMY!” Joey screamed in despair. Sulture shot at the Tritop that was holding Joey, but missed.
The Tritop then drew a wooden stake and stabbed it through Joey’s chest. The poor boy coughed up a mouthful of blood before the Tritop slashed his throat and silenced his pleas.
Both Tritops leaped down to the ground in front of Sulture. They growled and sniffed the air but were confused. They couldn’t smell the intruder.
Sulture shot and killed the Tritop which killed Katrina. He aimed at the second one, pulled the trigger, but his clip was out of ammo. He threw the gun away from him and charged at the alien.
He unleashed a deep, guttural howl that echoed for miles. It was a bellow for the departed, an outcry that sacrificed his humanity upon an altar to a cosmos that had forsaken him and so many others. It was a roar overcome with bloodlust, a thirst awakened that could never be satiated.
Sulture struck the Tritop with a left hook which stunned the beast. Tritops may be strong and able to rip a man apart, but they were also small and a fit man could easily lift one of them. He unleashed a flurry of blows against the alien’s cranium, each strike elicited shrieks of pain from the creature and he backed it to a tree. He grabbed the alien’s face, his maniacal fingers searching for the beast’s eyes, not noticing the sharp edge it used to slit his son’s throat. The Tritop pierced him twice in the thigh and slashed across his chest.
Sulture stomped on the joint which connected the hip to the leg bones. There was a loud crack, followed by a shriek in pain. The Tritop dropped its primitive knife, which he grabbed. The alien’s eyes betrayed fear, while he gritted his teeth in anticipation of the bloodletting to come.
Sulture hacked and slashed at the muscles to stop the Tritop from moving, stabbed its vital organs, all in the hope of inflicting as much pain as possible. To stop the awful shrieking, he grabbed the top of the Tritop’s mouth and slowly dragged the knife across the its throat. Blood erupted through the slit, and the screeching finally stopped.
Sulture let the body drop to the ground, and he heard a cough nearby.
He dropped his knife and ran over to Katrina. Her body was covered in blood, and he kneeled before his wife, covered in gore himself.
“Oh God, Katrina. I’m sorry I couldn’t save you two. Please...I’m so sorry,” Sulture whimpered as the tears flowed from his face. Katrina’s lips moved while she stared at her husband. He leaned in to hear her last words.
“It’s okay, we’ll be together again,” She whispered. “Please, save the colony.”
“They will pay for this...all of these god damned aliens! They will pay! I swear...on my life!” Sulture said.
Katrina gave her last breath as Sulture helplessly watched her life leave her body. He wailed in agony, until he noticed movement out of the corner of his eye.
Another Tritop.
Before Sulture could react, the Tritop dragged Joey’s body into the trees. He rushed over and climbed the tree. The Tritop stabbed Joey with a hose at the base of his neck, then leaped away.
He followed the hose as it drained the blood from his little boy. It led into a primitive irrigation network, which sprayed blood over the infant pods.
Sulture watched as the Tritops grounded human organs into food which they devoured like ravenous wolves.
The chirps from the Tritops echoed, the stench of putrid flesh ingrained within the jungle filled his nostrils. His mind swirled as he realized that the native species on this planet sought to devour all of the colonists.
Sulture leaped down from the tree and kneeled in the dirt. His hands were covered in a brackish mess of blood and gore. His foe’s lifeless body was on the ground next to him. It’s clouded, listless eyes stared into the distance, and its tongue dangled from its maw. Katrina’s and Joey’s screams still echoed in his ears. His spine rattled as he heard his family in their death throes, taken from him by the alien species of this world.
Sulture felt the pillars of his humanity collapse and crash down upon him. All desire for discovery had vanished. It was as if some ancient demon had baptized him, tore his humanity out of his soul and exchanged it with the bloodlust of extermination. A strange calm nestled into his mind. His brilliance would bring about the apocalypse of the Tritops. They had made a crucial mistake: they didn’t kill him. If the Tritops had killed Dr. Adam Sulture, the Angkor co
lony wouldn’t survive. Now, it was the Tritops who were in danger, for Sulture would never rest until these jungles fell silent and the Tritop species were driven into extinction.
Sulture felt Angkor’s mantle being placed upon his shoulders, like Atlas being tasked to burden Earth. A small knife lied on the ground. It too was covered in the blood and gore from its former master. He reached for the knife, the handle slicked from the intermingled blood of both species. He seized the dead alien barely a metre away, and a low screech left its body. He jerked the knife up to protect himself, but realized the cry was only air escaping the Tritop’s lungs. He dragged the corpse in front of him, placed the knife on the neck and carved with unholy fervor.
“Adam?” Murph asked nervously. Sulture turned and faced the group. His eyes no longer held the spark of scientific curiosity. They’d become hollow and savage, revealing a shattered soul inside. Sulture leaped to his feet and the guardsmen raised their guns in a reflex.
“I finally understand. I realize what I need to do here,” Sulture said with demented inspiration as he looked off into the distance. An evil grin creased his lips. In one hand he squeezed the knife, and in the other was the decapitated head of the alien that killed his family. His arms were covered in blood, and his black fingers pressed against the eyes of the alien head.
Murph was the only one without his gun raised. “Shh. It’s okay Adam. Mind uh, tossing that knife away?”
“Huh?” Sulture looked up. “Oh, yeah,” he said as he forced a grin. He tossed the knife away from the group. Murph turned and gestured to the other soldiers to lower their guns.
“Now, uh what were you saying bud?” Murph asked.
“I finally understand how we need to deal with these…things,” Sulture said as he raised the alien head to the group.
“Conquer them?” Murph asked.
“No. Conquest is not enough,” Sulture replied. “We need to drive them to extinction.”
“Extinction? How are you going to do that?” Erikson asked.
Sulture’s icy glare pierced Erikson into the depths of his soul and for the first time, Erikson was uncomfortable around the biologist.
“Billions of species in this universe have gone extinct. What makes you think these can’t be terminated?” Sulture asked as he raised the head.
“So you’re going to play God?” Erikson asked.
“No,” Sulture replied. “God had mercy.”
Two soldiers climbed into the tree and took special care to retrieve Joey’s body. They gave Sulture his lifeless boy and he wept while the other men remained silent out of respect.
“C’mon boys, let’s give ‘em a proper burial,” Murph said to the guard.
Sulture kissed his little boy on the forehead. He gently placed Joey next to Katrina. The men toiled in the midday heat, digging a grave with short military-issued folding shovels. The Tritops were oblivious to the intruders, but kept investigating the smell of Tritop blood. After half an hour, Sulture’s wife and son were laid to rest.
As the men walked into the colonial square, dismembered bodies littered the area. Huts had been decimated while people pulled each other out of the wreckage. Most were in mourning, devastated from the attack the Tritops had unleashed. O’Malley was directing soldiers where to go, but he held his head in shame. Sulture approached him.
“I’m taking over the colony,” Sulture whispered. “I’m going to erase the Tritop species from the historical record. If you want in or out, it’s your decision, but make it quick.”
“You sure about this?” O’Malley asked.
“It’s the only way we’ll survive,” Sulture replied. He walked to the middle of the square. A crowd had gathered around the man who was covered in Tritop blood and carried one of their heads in his hand. He turned to face the crowd and held the head high.
“Communication with the Core was knocked out during the latest attack. We’re on our own now. These things…we cannot coexist with them - I saw them drain the blood of my son to spray on their infants. I witnessed them grind and consume the organs of humans they captured today! I have the means to exterminate these monsters, but in exchange I’m going to need absolute authority to wipe this threat out. The guard is with me, I hope you will be too,” Sulture said as he dropped the alien head and walked towards the Command Station.
As the crowd rushed in, one man grabbed the Tritop head and mounted it on a pole. He staked the pole into the ground, and raised the decapitated head for all to see. People murmured, even cheered about someone who was going to fight back against the Tritops.
On his way to the station, Sulture came across Toub. He looked upon Sulture with a gaze that only another man who lost his child would know. Toub placed his hand on Sulture’s shoulder. Sulture blinked his tears away.
“Can you make some earplugs for the soldiers?” He asked. Toub forced a smile and nodded.
Sulture entered the Command Station, where Murph, Erikson, and other members of the guard were waiting for him.
“First thing I need to do is clean up. Murph, will you dress my wounds?” Sulture asked.
“Yeah bud, but we have to make it quick. We just suffered a massacre and I got at least 30 percent of the people who’re still alive to tend to out there. Kinda violated my Hippocratic Oath by running off with you,” Murph replied.
“Of course,” Sulture replied. “Do we have any idea of how many we lost today?”
“Too soon to tell,” O’Malley replied as he walked through the door. “Projections of deceased are in the four hundreds, number injured are about the same.”
“That would put the total of able bodied colonists at-”
“Just over six hundred,” Murph said.
“Jesus Christ,” Erikson said. “That’s all we have left out of the combined three thousand civilians and soldiers who arrived here?”
“Yeah, it’s bleak,” Murph said.
“An understatement,” Sulture said. “However, we can make their numbers account for nothing, but we need time in order to execute my plan.”
“Which is…?” Erikson asked.
“I’ll explain in a moment,” Sulture replied. “First, we need to develop a plan of retaliation against these beasts. We should widen the colony and create a buffer zone in the jungle.”
“That’ll leave us even more acreage to defend!” O’Malley said.
“We don’t have to defend it, we just show the Tritops what happens when they wander into our midst. We send a message to them. If they come here, they will die.”
Sulture felt the warm water cascade over his shoulders and bring a sense of relief. The blood and gore rinsed off of his body, and flowed down the drain. He walked out and gazed at himself in the mirror. His eyes looked hollow, a husk of a man staring in the reflection.
“Help us!” Katrina screamed.
“Daddy!” Joey cried.
Sulture hissed as he felt the blood rush to his temples.
“I promise I’ll save him!” Sulture said. He saw Katrina lying on the ground, covered in blood. She turned her head up to him, her cloudy eyes fixed on his.
“You failed us Adam. You failed to keep your promise!”
Sulture howled in anger and punched the mirror. A spiderweb crack was etched along the surface, with blood smeared along the edges of the inner circle. Blood trickled down his knuckles and into the sink. He grabbed some glue, sealed up his wounds, and got dressed. He grabbed a map of the colony and brought it to his new desk. As Sulture unfolded the map, Erikson walked in.
“Sir, I’ve rounded up the remaining members of the guard. They’re at the laboratory now.”
“Excellent,” Sulture said as he looked at the map.
“What’re we going to do?” Erikson asked.
“Erikson, we have an enemy that uses guerrilla tactics to fight against us. They hide in our jungles, attack us at night and have sought to bleed this colony dry. We cannot confront them head on because they have numbers on their side. Phase one of my plan
is simple: We burn the jungle surrounding the colony.”
“What good will that do?” Erikson asked.
“It allows us to see them coming,” Sulture replied. “Come, I’ll show you.” The two men left the command station and went to the laboratory.
The entire remainder of the guard stood outside of the laboratory. As they saw Sulture approach, Erikson ensured that the men saluted him. Sulture returned the salute and took them to the back of the lab which contained several drums.
“What’s all this?” Erikson asked.
“I’ve tasked Toub with mass-producing the Tritop pheromones. Our goal is to make the colony invisible to the savages. Within a few weeks the pheromones will wear off and the Tritops will change their scent. However, we may as well use what we have. Spread the pheromones around the fence. Can you assemble five teams of six men each Erikson?”
“Yes sir,” he replied. “This will keep the Tritops out right?”
“Only for a few weeks until they change their scent, but since I know how to harvest and grow cultures, it will be much faster next time. Ideally the Tritops will see us as one of them, and therefore leave us alone,” Sulture explained.
“I thought you said you had the means to eliminate these freaks,” a soldier said.
“I did, which is why we’re moving onto the next phase of my plan,” Sulture replied. “Can one of you give me access to the colonial weapon stores? I need to see what we have to work with.”
“It’s locked sir. Griffin sealed it up before he left,” one of the soldiers said.
“And none of you have the pass code?” Sulture asked.
They all shook their heads no.
“Does anyone think they can change it?” Sulture asked.
“I believe so,” one of the soldiers said.
“Excellent. What’s your name?”
“Brooks, sir.”
“Excellent,” Sulture nodded. “Erikson and Brooks, with me.”
At the weapons stores, Brooks struggled with the access panel. He attempted several passwords, all to no avail.
Horsemen United: Horsemen Origins Books 1-5 Page 4
