Hellworld (Deathstalker Prelude)

by Green, Simon R.

  She wondered idly what she’d be facing when the time came. The scale of the buildings meant it would be big, probably around nine to ten feet tall. She remembered the statues from the plain, frowned slightly, and then shrugged. It didn’t matter. Whatever it was, she could handle it. She was an Investigator.

  She sat up straight suddenly. A faint repetitive sound came clearly to her on the quiet. She looked quickly around her, but there was no trace of any movement, and she couldn’t place which direction the sound was coming from. Krystel stubbed out her cigar and put what was left of it back in her pocket for later. She stood up, sword and disrupter in hand, and slapped her left wrist against her side. The glowing force shield appeared on her arm. She stood waiting, confident and ready, checking out possible cover and escape routes. Whatever was coming sounded large and heavy and determined, but the sounds echoed round and round the square until she couldn’t tell where they originated. Captain Hunter and Dr. Williams should be somewhere close at hand by now, but she knew she couldn’t afford to depend on them. The sound was drawing nearer. A long, wailing howl suddenly broke the silence, shrill and powerful and horribly angry. Krystel’s hackles rose sharply. Something about the awful sound touched her deeply on some basic, primitive level, and she felt a sudden impulse to turn and run until she’d left the alien city far behind her. She crushed the thought ruthlessly. She was an Investigator, and it was just another alien.

  Investigators killed aliens. That was their function, their reason for being.

  She moved quickly into a shadowed alcove and set her back against the wall. The approaching footsteps were like thunder. The beast howled again, and for the first time Krystel caught a glimpse of something moving beyond the high wall of rubble. She raised her gun, and waited for a target. The rubble suddenly burst apart as the alien crashed through it. Shards of broken stone and metal flew through the air like jagged hail. The beast stepped out into the square, and Krystel’s face screwed up in disgust.

  It was tall, well over twenty feet. It would have been taller if it hadn’t been for the stooping back and thrust-forward head. It was dirty white in colour, its rough hide more like scale than skin. It walked on two legs, and it looked something like a man. Great slabs of muscle corded and bunched on its huge form, but the proportions were somehow wrong. Disturbingly wrong. The twisted arms hung almost to the ground. One arm ended in a viciously clawed hand. The other erupted into a mass of writhing tentacles. Its face was a rigid mask of sharp-edged bone. The great snarling mouth was full of jagged teeth. There were two lidless eyes, yellow as urine, with no trace of pupil or retina. It lurched awkwardly forward into the square, as though searching for some sound or scent it couldn’t quite detect.

  Krystel had to fight down an urge to look away. It wasn’t the alien’s form, ugly though it was; she’d seen worse in her time. The alien’s flesh was rotten and decaying, and it left a trail pf foulness behind it. Nubs of discoloured bone showed through the splitting hide, which stretched and tore with every movement. In places, the flesh seemed to stir and writhe of its own volition, as though maggots seethed beneath the surface.

  Krystel took a long, slow breath to steady herself, took careful aim with her disrupter, and pressed the stud. The beam of searing energy hit just above the creature’s eyes, and the entire head exploded in a flurry of bloody flesh and bone. The alien slumped to its knees, fell on its side, and lay still. Krystel watched carefully to be sure it was dead, feeling almost let down. Is that it? she thought finally, holstering her gun. All that planning and preparation, and the stupid creature went down under a single disrupter shot. She smiled briefly. She should have known. Investigators killed aliens. That’s just the way it was.

  She stepped out of the alcove and walked unhurriedly across the square towards the unmoving alien. It was certainly big enough, even larger than she’d expected. Where the hell had it been hiding all this time? More importantly, how many more creatures like this were there, and where were they hiding? Hunter and Williams appeared from different sides of the square, guns in hand, and walked over to join her. Krystel looked thoughtfully at the dead alien. At twenty feet tall, it was probably the biggest thing she’d ever shot. Maybe she should have it stuffed and mounted as a trophy. She was about ten feet away when the alien suddenly lurched to its feet. It stood swaying for a moment, and then a new head thrust up from the bloody ruin of its neck. The eyes opened slowly, the eyelids parting stickily, and then its great mouth gaped wide as the alien’s horrid voice echoed across the square.

  Krystel grabbed for her gun, knowing even as she did so that the energy crystal hadn’t had time to recharge yet. The alien whirled round to face her, and she brought her force shield up between them. The claymore was a solid weight in her hand. Close up, she could see the rotting flesh writhing and falling apart on the alien’s body. The stench was appalling. It looked steadily at her with its dull yellow eyes, and its grinning mouth stretched impossibly wide. It was reaching for her with its clawed hand when two bolts of searing energy tore its neck and chest apart. Flesh and blood spattered against Krystel’s shield, and she backed quickly away as the alien swung round to face the men who had hurt it. Already its shifting flesh was making good the gaping holes in its chest and throat. Hunter and Williams activated their force shields as the alien turned on them. The tentacles on the end of its right arm stretched impossibly as they reached for the two men.

  “This way!” yelled Krystel, indicating with her sword the nearest of the escape routes she’d spotted earlier. She ran for the narrow passageway, and Hunter and Williams ran after her. The alien howled deafeningly and lurched after them. Krystel glanced back over her shoulder. The alien was already closing the gap, moving impossibly quickly for its bulk. Krystel ran full tilt down the passageway between the two buildings, Hunter and Williams sprinting after her, and tried to figure out where the hell to head for next. They weren’t going to be able to outrun the creature. She needed somewhere they could make a stand.

  She raked the buildings around her with a desperate glare, and then spotted an open doorway to her right. Without slowing her pace she changed direction, and raced for it. She charged through, gun and sword at the ready, but the gloomy chamber before her appeared to be deserted. Hunter and Williams crowded through after her, and the three of them looked quickly round for something they could use to block the doorway. The room was empty, save for a dozen or so gleaming metallic spirals hanging from the ceiling. Krystel spotted another doorway on the opposite side of the room and padded quickly over to peer into the shadowy opening. She gestured for Hunter and Williams to join her, and then stepped over the threshold.

  The new room was even darker, but they didn’t dare use a lantern. The alien might see it. They shut off their force shields, sat down with their backs to the wall, and waited for their eyes to adjust to the gloom. Everything was still and quiet; the only sound in the huge room was their own slowing breathing.

  “I can’t hear it anymore,” said Williams. “Can you?”

  “It’s still out there,” said Hunter. “It knows we can’t have gone far.”

  “What the hell was it?” asked Williams. “I saw it die, and it got up again. It’s like something out of legend. The undead, the beasts that cannot die …”

  “Superstition is for immature minds,” snapped Krystel. “Whatever that alien is, it’s real enough. I’ve still got some of its blood on my uniform. And when I blew its head off, it took some time before it could recover enough to grow another. It can be hurt. Stunned.”

  “But can it be killed?” said Williams. “Or is it already dead? Its flesh was decaying … I know decomposing flesh when I see it!”

  “Keep your voice down,” said Hunter. “Do you want it to hear you?”

  Williams shut up. Hunter leaned his head back against the wall and closed his eyes for a moment. There had to be a way out of this, if only he could think of it. He had to think of something; he was the Captain. It was his responsibility.
It was a pity the pinnace was so far away. Its guns would have blown the dien into so many pieces, it would never have been able to put itself back together again. But he might as well wish for the moons. Even if he could summon the pinnace by remote control, by the time it reached the city everything would be over, one way or another. He looked at Krystel.

  “Any comments, Investigator?”

  “Our guns should have recharged by now,” said Krystel. “Maybe if we all hit it with disrupters at the same time …”

  “That sounds more like a last resort than a plan of action,” said Hunter. “But for want of anything better I suppose it’ll have to do.”

  “There’s always the concussion grenades,” said Williams.

  “Not accurate enough. That thing can move bloody quickly when it puts its mind to it. Any other suggestions?”

  “Retreat,” said Krystel. “Get the hell out of the city and leave the alien behind. Most creatures have a strong sense of territory; if we put enough space between us and it, it should lose interest in us.”

  “That’s a lot of ifs and maybes,” said Williams. “You’re supposed to be an expert on alien forms. Haven’t you got anything definite you can tell us?”

  “It’s huge, it’s angry, and it’s dangerous,” said Krystel. “It can regenerate damaged tissue. Our weapons are useless against it, and it will quite definitely kill us if we don’t start acting intelligently. On the other hand, for all its power, it doesn’t appear to be very bright. With its advantages, I suppose it doesn’t have to be. But all the time we’re sitting here arguing, it’s getting closer. It could be here any minute.”

  Hunter closed his eyes and tried hard to concentrate. There had to be a way out of this.

  “If it was going to come straight in here after us, it would have been here by now,” he said finally. “So what’s stopping it?”

  Krystel shrugged. “I can’t advise you, Captain. I don’t have enough information. Normally, with a new species like this I’d spend months checking it out from a distance, before even thinking of approaching it.”

  She broke off as Williams suddenly sat up straight. “It’s entered the building,” he said flatly. “I can hear it.”

  Hunter held his breath and listened, but couldn’t hear anything. He looked at Krystel, who shrugged slightly. Hunter bit his lip. More of the good doctor’s hidden augmentations, presumably. Williams stirred restlessly.

  “We can’t just sit here in the dark, Captain. We’ve got to do something.”

  “Keep your voice down,” said Krystel. “We don’t know how good its hearing is. And there’s no point in just running blindly.”

  “There’s no point in just waiting here for the damned thing to find us! Captain, we’ve got to get out of here!”

  There was a sudden stench of corruption, and the room was suddenly darker as the alien’s bulk loomed up outside the huge doorway. Its horrid roar was deafening in the confined space.

  “Disrupters!” yelled Hunter, as the three of them scrambled to their feet. “Aim for the head!”

  The three disrupters fired almost as one, and the alien’s head blew apart. But this time, the creature didn’t fall. It braced itself on its massive legs and groped blindly through a doorway for its attackers. The three of them backed quickly away, holstering their guns and activating their force shields. Krystel drew her claymore and hacked at the writhing tentacles as they reached for her face. The blade cut cleanly through the rotten flesh, but the wounds healed themselves in seconds. A new head burst up out of the bloody mess of its neck. Its yellow eyes shone in the darkness.

  Hunter swung his sword with all his strength, and the blade sliced through the shifting white flesh and out again, without leaving a wound. The alien cut at Hunter with its clawed hand, and he put up his force shield between them. The impact of the blow sent him staggering backwards. Krystel yelled at the beast to get its attention, and when it turned on her she sliced at its arm with the edge of her shield. The glowing energy field sheared clean through the wrist, severing the clawed hand. It fell to the floor, the fingers still curling and uncurling. The claws dug furrows in the floor. A pale blood spurted from the stump. The alien screamed, and batted at Krystel with its injured arm. The Investigator threw herself to one side. The blow barely clipped her in passing, but she was still slammed against the wall. Hunter grabbed her before her knees could buckle, but she quickly got her breath back and shrugged him off.

  “There’s another doorway on the far side of the room!” she shouted. “Take Williams and get out of here. I’ll hold the creature back to give you a start. I’ll join you as soon as I can. Now move it!”

  Williams turned and ran for the other doorway, and Hunter reluctantly followed him. Krystel had to know what she was doing. She was an Investigator.

  The alien forced its massive body through the doorway, wrecking the surrounding wall in the process. Krystel moved in close and hacked at the beast with her claymore and shield, her mouth stretched in a tight and nasty grin, her eyes gleaming with a killing fever. The alien howled endlessly, its wailing voice almost unbearable at close range. The sheer fury of Krystel’s attack held the alien where it was, but its wounds healed in seconds, and even through her killing rage, Krystel knew she wasn’t really hurting it. She snarled once into its grinning face, and then turned and ran. The alien lurched after her, but she was already across the room and plunging through the far doorway by the time it had started to build up speed. Hunter and Williams were waiting for her at the base of a tall tower. A ramp led up the side of the wall into darkness.

  “This way!” said Hunter. “There’s no other choice. If nothing else, this should put some space between us and the creature. Move it!”

  He led the way up the ramp, with Williams and Krystel crowding close behind. After a while, they calmed down enough to turn off their force shields, to save energy. The steep slope made the going hard, and Hunter’s thighs were soon aching fiercely. He drove himself on regardless, and snarled at the others when they looked like slowing. He couldn’t hear the alien yet, but he had no doubt it was still on their trail. He held his field lantern out before him, its golden light illuminating the tower above and below him. He watched his feet carefully; as before, there was no safety rail, and a slip at the wrong moment could easily prove fatal. The tower seemed to go on forever, and the drop just kept getting longer. He scowled into the gloom ahead. How the hell could everything have gone wrong so quickly? Doors came and went in the wall beside him, but he kept pressing on. He could hear the alien coming up the ramp after them. It was getting closer.

  And finally they ran out of ramp. Bright light fell through an open doorway, and Hunter had no choice but to plunge into it. He lurched to a halt as the brilliant sunlight blinded him, and he blinked painfully for several moments before his sight returned. He turned off his field lantern and put it back in his backpack as he looked quickly around him.

  Huge, enigmatic structures covered the length and breadth of the roof, dwarfing Hunter and his companions. The towering shapes were complex and bizarre, composed of a pearly iridescent material that softened and distorted every detail until they passed beyond meaning and into mystery. Hunter stared silently about him, unable to react at all. They were too bewildering, too alien, for any reaction of his to make sense. They were beyond any rational or emotional response. They simply were, and Hunter couldn’t tear his eyes away from them.

  “Fascinating,” said Krystel. “I wonder what they do?”

  Her voice broke the spell, and Hunter shook his head, disorientated. “Save the questions for another day,” he said finally. “That creature will be here any minute. Start looking for a way off this roof.”

  “Wait a minute,” said Williams unexpectedly. “I have a problem. I can’t seem to raise the pinnace computers.”

  Hunter looked at him blankly for a moment, and then activated his own comm implant. He reached out for the computers, but there was nothing there; only silence. It was lik
e reaching out in the dark for a light switch and finding only empty space. Hunter swallowed hard. He’d known that one day he’d have to learn to do without the computers, but the sudden silence had caught him unprepared. “Investigator, Williams; can you hear me?”

  “Not through my comm unit,” said Krystel. “We’re cut off, Captain.”

  “We’ve got to get back to the pinnace,” said Williams urgently. “We’ve got to re-establish contact. All my work, all my memories are there!”

  “One thing at a time, Doctor,” said Hunter. “First, we get off the roof; then we’ll decide what to do next.”

  “Quiet!” said Krystel. “The creature’s almost here.” She moved over to the doorway, pulled a concussion grenade from her bandolier, primed it, and tossed it down the ramp. She backed quickly away, and the tower shook as the grenade exploded some distance below.

  “That should slow it down,” said Krystel. She looked at Hunter. “There’s only one way of this roof, Captain, and we both know what it is. The bridges.”

  She gestured at the gossamer metal strands that hung between the tower and its surrounding buildings, and Hunter winced.

  “I was afraid you were going to say that. I don’t trust those things. They look as though they’d blow away in a good wind.”

  “The aliens must have used them,” said Williams. “And they weigh a hell of a lot more than we do.”

  Hunter looked at the webbing again, and then back at the doorway. “All right; let’s do it. And quickly, before I get a rush of brains to the head and realise how crazy this is.”