Ns - The Behemoth
Fire_Eel
Join Date: 2003-08-19 Member: 19950Members
Join Date: 2003-08-19 Member: 19950Members
<div class="IPBDescription">My first NS fan fiction ever!</div> <span style='font-family:Times'><span style='font-size:21pt;line-height:100%'>The Behemoth</span></span>
<span style='font-size:21pt;line-height:100%'>Prologue</span>
The war between the Kharaa and TSA had went on for months, years.....an eternity. Mankind has met his match at last, and the Kharaa are every bit as strong and as intelligent as man are. In his attempt to defeat the alien threat however, the TSA designed and created the biggest spaceship ever to exist - The Behemoth, codename - BH.
The Behemoth was built in a total period of 3 years, it was made with Neo-Titanium Alloy, fixed with dozens and dozens of boosters, jets, propellers, it was equiped with the most advanced technology such as NanoBytes, Nano-machinery, Nano-weaponry such as SuperSonic Turrets, Vulcan Cannons, Nano-Missiles, life support capsules, tons of food, provision, water. The Behemoth could support more than 15 000 people for more than 50 years. Having the size of a city, spawning miles long and a mile high. It was not designed for colonising though, it was designed to assault the Kharaa. To explore space and to find and destroy every last Kharaa there was.
8 Months after the final completion of the Behemoth. It set out to space from Earth, towards the unknown depths of space, towards Kharaa territory. With it carried exactly 15 896 TSA marines, scientists, doctors, engineers, everyone needed as they were travelling in space for at least 5 years.
Everyone were hopeful, excited, nervous and glad about the Behemoth leaving to combat the Kharaa. It was a historical moment for humanity. It was one of the proudest achievements of the TSA. Everyone felt that there was hope at last, that the Behemoth would indeed be able to defeat the Kharra. They were wrong.
TSA 4 Star Officer Marcus was offered a chance to board the Behemoth but he turned it down, much to the confusion of others. Why would someone want to reject such a golden opportunity? Marcus had told the TSA that there is no chance of the Behemoth surviving against the Kharaa, only a fool's hope. No one heeded his advice, no one cared about what he said, no one listened to him. He was right.
7 Months after the Behemoth left Earth, all contacts with the Behemoth were lost. Everything was gone, either the Behemoth had suddenly disappeared completely, or it had been destroyed. However, it was more logical to say that the Behemoth's satellite communication system had been damaged or destroyed. Some said that the Behemoth had been sucked into a black hole, some claimed that the Behemoth had crashed into a planet, some guessed that the Behemoth must had been exposed to harmful cosmic rays which would cause all of the crew to die. No one could guess exactly what had happened to the Behemoth.
Here was the last transmission with the Behemoth 11 minutes before all contact were lost.
"Burt here, how does it look from Behemoth?"
"Hmmm....same thing, some strange unknown planets which we can probably never ever reach."
"Fine, I asked you, how did it looked."
"Listen Burt, its just that.....I miss home, I miss you, I miss my parents. I really didn't know why I decided to leave on the Behemoth. Its so.....lonely."
"Ain't there thousands of others with you?"
"Yeah, but I don't get to meet all of them, and it just isn't as warm as home"
"You chose it yourself Struk"
"Don't call me Struk, its a silly name"
"Fine, so you were saying, it would take at least another 2 years before you come back?"
"Uh huh"
"No kidding?"
"Nope, anyway, ya know, I just have this baaaaddddd feeling something terrible is gonna happen today."
"Touch wood"
"No, seriously. Its that....its like a sixth sense to you"
"Wow, I am so 'amazed' "
"Yeah right"
"I am! Seriously"
"Only a fool would believe you"
"A fool like you?"
"Who are you trying to kid? Me?"
"Yes, you"
"And guess what? Its working"
"Good, anyway, have I told you that your idol, Rock'R Roy is dead?"
"..............."
"Hey are you there?"
"..............."
"Hellllllloooooooo?"
"..............."
"Struk?"
"..............."
"Hello? Do you copy? Its Burt"
"..............."
"Com'mon man, just because I called you Struk doesn't mean you have to...."
~static~
That was the end of the last transmission and it ended suddenly, without a goodbye, without any hints to what had happened next, without any hints to the very fate of the Behemoth and its crew of 15 896 who were never seen again.
Little did man know that the very weapons they would build to defeat the Kharaa would be the very weapons that they would have to face. Little did they know it was a weapon which would almost wipe humanity out.
---------------------
How is this story? Its my first ever NS FanFiction!
<span style='font-size:21pt;line-height:100%'>Prologue</span>
The war between the Kharaa and TSA had went on for months, years.....an eternity. Mankind has met his match at last, and the Kharaa are every bit as strong and as intelligent as man are. In his attempt to defeat the alien threat however, the TSA designed and created the biggest spaceship ever to exist - The Behemoth, codename - BH.
The Behemoth was built in a total period of 3 years, it was made with Neo-Titanium Alloy, fixed with dozens and dozens of boosters, jets, propellers, it was equiped with the most advanced technology such as NanoBytes, Nano-machinery, Nano-weaponry such as SuperSonic Turrets, Vulcan Cannons, Nano-Missiles, life support capsules, tons of food, provision, water. The Behemoth could support more than 15 000 people for more than 50 years. Having the size of a city, spawning miles long and a mile high. It was not designed for colonising though, it was designed to assault the Kharaa. To explore space and to find and destroy every last Kharaa there was.
8 Months after the final completion of the Behemoth. It set out to space from Earth, towards the unknown depths of space, towards Kharaa territory. With it carried exactly 15 896 TSA marines, scientists, doctors, engineers, everyone needed as they were travelling in space for at least 5 years.
Everyone were hopeful, excited, nervous and glad about the Behemoth leaving to combat the Kharaa. It was a historical moment for humanity. It was one of the proudest achievements of the TSA. Everyone felt that there was hope at last, that the Behemoth would indeed be able to defeat the Kharra. They were wrong.
TSA 4 Star Officer Marcus was offered a chance to board the Behemoth but he turned it down, much to the confusion of others. Why would someone want to reject such a golden opportunity? Marcus had told the TSA that there is no chance of the Behemoth surviving against the Kharaa, only a fool's hope. No one heeded his advice, no one cared about what he said, no one listened to him. He was right.
7 Months after the Behemoth left Earth, all contacts with the Behemoth were lost. Everything was gone, either the Behemoth had suddenly disappeared completely, or it had been destroyed. However, it was more logical to say that the Behemoth's satellite communication system had been damaged or destroyed. Some said that the Behemoth had been sucked into a black hole, some claimed that the Behemoth had crashed into a planet, some guessed that the Behemoth must had been exposed to harmful cosmic rays which would cause all of the crew to die. No one could guess exactly what had happened to the Behemoth.
Here was the last transmission with the Behemoth 11 minutes before all contact were lost.
"Burt here, how does it look from Behemoth?"
"Hmmm....same thing, some strange unknown planets which we can probably never ever reach."
"Fine, I asked you, how did it looked."
"Listen Burt, its just that.....I miss home, I miss you, I miss my parents. I really didn't know why I decided to leave on the Behemoth. Its so.....lonely."
"Ain't there thousands of others with you?"
"Yeah, but I don't get to meet all of them, and it just isn't as warm as home"
"You chose it yourself Struk"
"Don't call me Struk, its a silly name"
"Fine, so you were saying, it would take at least another 2 years before you come back?"
"Uh huh"
"No kidding?"
"Nope, anyway, ya know, I just have this baaaaddddd feeling something terrible is gonna happen today."
"Touch wood"
"No, seriously. Its that....its like a sixth sense to you"
"Wow, I am so 'amazed' "
"Yeah right"
"I am! Seriously"
"Only a fool would believe you"
"A fool like you?"
"Who are you trying to kid? Me?"
"Yes, you"
"And guess what? Its working"
"Good, anyway, have I told you that your idol, Rock'R Roy is dead?"
"..............."
"Hey are you there?"
"..............."
"Hellllllloooooooo?"
"..............."
"Struk?"
"..............."
"Hello? Do you copy? Its Burt"
"..............."
"Com'mon man, just because I called you Struk doesn't mean you have to...."
~static~
That was the end of the last transmission and it ended suddenly, without a goodbye, without any hints to what had happened next, without any hints to the very fate of the Behemoth and its crew of 15 896 who were never seen again.
Little did man know that the very weapons they would build to defeat the Kharaa would be the very weapons that they would have to face. Little did they know it was a weapon which would almost wipe humanity out.
---------------------
How is this story? Its my first ever NS FanFiction!
Comments
For a long time, man has always pondered over the question - Are we alone in the Universe? The question was answered, but not exactly the way we wanted. Yes, the Kharaa, creatures of nightmare, aliens of terror, man's ultimate enemy, at least that's what man think.
Time : 1600
Location : Near the moon
Status : An unknown object appeared from behind the moon and began heading directly for Earth. It has only recently been identified as the missing Behemoth, which had been missing for 7 months.
A gigantic spaceship the size of a city called the 'Behemoth' moves rapidly in space, heading directly towards Earth, waiting......for unlucky humans to find it.
From a faraway place, a smaller spaceship known as the EX-200 moves towards the BH silencely. Little did the crew of the EX-200 knew the disaster that they were heading directly towards.
Inside the 25-metre spaceship, Commander Reza stood on the main bridge rallying his troops. "Ok team, you know what to do. As Marines of the TSA, we need to do this fast and efficent. As soon as we arrive on BH, we spread out, check for any survivors and direct BH back to Earth." Surronding him was about twenty Light-Armor Marines, some nervous, some excited, but all felt a weird omnious feeling that the mission wasn't going to be as easy as they think. With a battle scar on his cheek, a skull-like face and 2 small beady eyes, Commander Reza looked devious. However, he wasn't really as fearsome as he looked.
Static formed on a screen in front of Stella, the officer in charge of communications with BH. "Commander?" She calls out.
"Yes, any response from BH yet?" Reza asked, half expecting a 'no' answer.
"No, apparently not. Its weird, its not been very long since BH left Earth. But since then, all contact have been lost. I have tried, re-tried, and kept trying and trying but I just couldn't get a response. Its almost as if BH itself is dead. Any ideas, comm?" She asked, worried.
"Negative" Reza walked away, but as he stared from a screen showing BH, a drop of sweat formed on his forehead. He could almost picture his own demise along with the ship, that the Behemoth was a spaceship of doom, of.....
"COMMANDER!!!" Stella was now jerking his arm.
"Yes, yes, what?!" Reza asked, irritated.
"I called you thrice, and......hey, why are you sweating so much?" Stella asked in concern.
Ten minutes soon passed and the EX-200 has gotten very close to BH. The gigantic spaceship dominated the much smaller spaceship like a human compared to an ant.
Sitting on a small foldable ramp, the handsome blond known as Jack could not help but felt delighted at going to the Behemoth. It was his dream to go on the Behemoth many months ago, but due to his low rank, he was neither selected nor allowed to go on the Behemoth. "Yo" A Marine with a space helmet and a jet pack sat next to him.
Jack "Mike?"
Mike "Yeah?"
Jack "What's with that dorky looking helmet?"
Mike "To allow me to survive in space"
Jack "Yea, Commander Reza was telling us to equip ourselves with the helmet in 5 minutes time"
Mike "You better put one on your bonehead now"
Jack "Why?"
Mike "Just do it, here, I already selected one for you"
Jack "Thanks"
Mike "So.....that's Behemoth?"
Jack "Yup, gorgeous isn't it?"
Mike "Apparently, several months ago, Earth lost all contact with the BH"
Jack "Any chance of a Kharaa Invasion?"
Mike "It's highly unlikely, the ship is far too powerful. It comes with onboard weapons, dozens of nuclear missiles, hundreds of Vulcan Cannons and....."
Their conversation were cut short when an enormous Sonic Cannon at BH's outerwall unfolded out of a hatch. A small light on it flickered, the sound of its battery charging up could be clearly heard. It rised up high and turned to aim at the EX-200 moving towards it.
"What the....." Reza exclaimed in bewilderment.
The Sonic Cannon fired a shockwave at the EX-200, dealing a direct hit. Half of the EX-200 explodes, sending all the people flying out screaming. Stella grabbed a metal bar as she was being pulled out into space. Her eyes widened in shock when she saw the metal bar loosened, and almost immediately, it broke. With nothing to hold on to, the once-cheerful TSA Officer gave a final scream as she was sucked right into space. Stella was never seen again. Only those that had helmets and jet packs could survive in the vacuum of space.
Half a minute later, the entire EX-200 explodes into a huge fireball, engulfing and incinerating the rest of the crew alive. Having destroyed the apparent threat, the Sonic Cannon unfolded back into the hatch.
Jack and Mike used their jetpacks and launched themselves at BH. The moment they got a firm grip on BH's outerwall, they pulled open an emergency hatch. Carefully propelling themselves into the ship, they arrived at an airlock. Mike punched a button at the control circuit and the emergency hatch slowly closed with the sound of compressed gas being released. Taking off their helmets and dumping their burnt-out Jet Packs away, Jack and Mike stared, wide-eye at each other, what just happened?
Jack was sweating heavily, this was a situation he had never experienced and he went hysterical.
Jack "Oh god........oh my god"
Mike "Jesus, BH was hostile!"
Jack "Everyone died, Mike, everyone!"
Mike "Yes, I know"
Jack "DON'T YOU GET IT?! WE ARE LEFT ALONE OUT HERE!"
Mike "Calm down! The TSA trained us for situations like this, now what we have to do is to look for survivors and try to get back to Earth."
Jack "Oh god, Stella.......she's gone, I saw her get pulled out into space but I could do nothing......................."
Tears swelled at Jack's eyes as he went down on his knees.
Mike "Jack, listen, it wasn't your fault, no one, not even Commander Reza had predicted this."
Jack "But......why would BH attack us?"
Mike "I don't know, unless........"
Jack and Mike stared at each other, both knowing what it could mean. They reloaded and checked all their weapons, their sidearms, their equipment, when all was done, they set out together. Mike lifted the cold handle of a security door and pushed forward. The door creaked loudly as it slowly opened.
Impatiently, Jack kicked open the door. Darkness laid ahead, a place of darkness which he did not knew. Taking a deep breath, the two of them lurched forward and gasped, for they had entered an enormous hanger far bigger than their ex-spaceship. It was taller than the tallest tree they had ever seen. It was wider than the biggest shopping centre. It was longer than they could discribe, for they could not actually see this place well. The hanger looked like it had not been used for months and a pungent smell was everywhere. Under the errie darkness of this mysterious place, Jack and Mike slowly inched forward, trying not to bump into anything. They unknowingly walked past a half-eaten human hand in a puddle of blood.
Switching on their flashlights, Mike and Jack begun searching for a door or a switch. The air was still and the place was quiet. There was an ominous feeling, as if something bad would happen. There was also an extremely weird stench, as if......it was from something unhuman. Worse of all, the area smelled of death. They couldn't wait to get out of this hellish place.
Soon, they had found a switch and flicked it on quickly. The lights flicked repeatedly several times, and illuminated the entire hanger, making it smaller than what it had seemed at first glance.
All of a sudden, smoked emerged from the edge of a security door in the distance and it flew open. Amidst the smoke, Jack and Mike could make out the shape of two humans rolling out and sprawling on the floor, groaning in pain.
Its was Sophie and Jeff.
Sophie "Thank goodness! You guys are alive too!"
Jeff "Am I more glad to see your ugly face, Mike!"
Jack "Jesus, are you guys hurt?"
Mike "What a relief, lets hope we are not the only ones who survived."
The hanger was noisy with murmurs of comfort as everyone tried to analysis the situation : They were now trapped in a huge unknown spaceship. They did not know if there was any more survivors other than them, they did not know if there were anyone else, they did not know if there was a Kharaa invasion or not. However, one thing was certain : Something was very wrong.
As they begun a dissusion and tried to think of a plan, no one realised they were not alone. There was another creature in the same hanger as them, cloaked it was, and monstrously big, ready to pick on anyone who scattered.
"Eh?" Jeff turned his head, he could had sworn he heard something, it could have been a drop of water, or a footstep. Whatever it was, he was sure that there was something.
As Jeff slowly backed away and looked up, trying to gaze at the entire hanger. However, he could see nothing but cranes, crates, boxes, lifts..........
A drop of saliva dripped on his head.
"Huh?" Jeff begun but before he could even finished his sentence, a huge creature uncloaked itself. It chomped on him and lifted him into the air.
Everyone heard a loud muffed scream and turning around, they saw the biggest Onos they had ever seen. Jeff's legs were sticking out of its mouth and kicking crazily. 4-metres high and seven-metres long, the gigantic Onos let out a grunt and swung its head, Jeff was flung many metres away. He smashed into the wall with a sickening 'crunch' sound and fell down on the hard ground, revealing rows after rows of fresh bite marks, all from the same jaw on his back.
Jeff never got up again.
The gigantic Onos let out a terrifyingly loud battle cry and charged at everyone. Mike, Sophie and Jack dashed out of the way as the Onos charged past them, completing trampling several smaller crates in the way.
Everyone could only stared in awe and shock at the Onos sheer might and power.
As Mike ran, the Onos stormed after him. "MIKE!!! BEHIND YOU!!!" Sophie screamed. Mike rolled away at the right moment, narrowly dodging the Onos deadly horns as it rammed into several tall metal crates, smashing them completely.
The Onos now turned and face Sophie, blood dripping down its jaws, almost smiling. "Oh my god....." Sophie muttered and she froze as the Onos charged at her.
"Sophie! Run!" Jack cried in alarm. Summoning his courage and strength, Mike leapt and grabbed Sophie just as Onos went past them......towards Jack's direction.
Jack jumped away, just in time to avoid getting impaled but the Onos mighty body slammed into him and he flew away, hitting a crate and falling unconscious on the floor.
As Sophie desperately punched a button repeatedly and the door to an emergency lift began slidding open, Mike sped towards Jack. The Onos stamped its feet loudly as it made its way to Jack's body.
"DIE BEAST!" Sophie screamed as she unloaded her entire LMG clip into the Onos head. Bullets after bullets hit and bounched off the Onos armored head. The LMG had completely no effect against such a mighty creature.
Mike pulled Jack's body away just in time as the Onos jaws slammed shut in mid air. It let out a roar of rage as Mike slumped Jack onto his shoulder and dashed at the lift as fast as his legs could take him. The Onos got ready to charge as it stamped its feet, and when it did charged, it moved at a unbelievable speed with amazing power directly at the lift. Sophie was already in the lift, looking at the Onos charging reminded her of a train.
Mike hurled Jack's body at her waiting arms and he dived right into the lift as the doors slided close just in time. The Onos rammed into the thick lift door, forming a huge dent. Unfortunately, its might was monstrous and even the thick lift door couldn't last for long. Sophie and Mike began praying to dear god that the lift could move up fast enough. The lift began rising up, and Sophie managed to let out a weak smile.
At this moment, the Onos bored its nose horn through the lift door and it sent the crumpled piece of metal flying away. "NO!!! GET AWAY!!!" Sophie screamed while Mike stared wide-eye as the Onos stuck its head into the lift and jammed the lift. It opened it jaws wide and revealed rows of sharp teeth, ready to swallow the person closest to it : Jack. Staring at the Onos blood-thirsty eyes and disgusting saliva dripping down, Sophie trembled with fear while she punched the "up" button at the lift over and over again.
Mike unholstered his sidearm Pistol and pumped several rounds into the Onos mouth. Grunting in pain, it stepped back and now the lift could move up at last. As the Onos faded from view, Mike and Sophie sighed in relief. Seeing that its preys have escaped, the 10-tonnes Onos let out a final roar of anger and decided to eat the still-fresh body of Jeff. It was going to kill and eat the humans who escaped from it. Oh yes, it was going to kill every single human it ever sees.
Sweat dripped down Mike and Sophie, and they were so drained of their strength that they simply slumped onto each other and laid there like a bunch of corspes.
How long more could they survive? Why would they agree to go on such a crazy mission? These were the questions going through Sophies mind before she finally closed her tired eyes..........................
In this hellish place, they were the hunted and the Kharaa, were the hunters.
The lift took forever to go up, and neither Mike nor Sophie bothered to do anything. A sudden jolt sent Sophie jerking up. "Ugh......what happened?" Jack moaned in pain as he rubbed his head with a clammy hand.
"Jack! You are awake!" Sophie cried in relief.
"Blood!" Jack exclaimed loudly as he stared at his palm which was covered in fresh blood.
"Thank Mike, he risked his life to save you." Jack glanced at Mike who was smiling like a hero would, and flashbacks of when Mike had saved his life when he was attacked by a Skulk went through his mind.
<span style='font-family:Times'>It was their first mission together. Jack, Mike, Hoz and squad leader, Sarutobi. An ill-fated mission it was, for the superiors who arranged this mission never expected the abandoned Pol Satellite Facility to be Kharaa-infested. It was originally a simple mission : The satellite facility had not been used for years, and there were traces of refugees taking shelter there. They were to locate the refugees and direct them to Earth. It was a mistake.
They were not very well-equiped, for no one expected any Kharaas. The only person with arms was Sarutobi, a Light Machine Gun. Afterall, they were supposed to find harmless refugees, not stumble on deadly Kharaa. What's more, they had never even seen Kharaa before.
The door seemed dark and mysterious, yet they were told nothing dangerous lingered inside. Unfortunately for them, as soon as the four of them entered the door, they were assaulted. The reception desk looked relatively harmless, at least that was until a large green inhuman form leapt from the desk and hit Hoz. He fell, with blood splashing onto us and never got up again. What followed on was beyond their control. Two more monsters leapt out of nowhere and ripped Sarutobi apart. He didn't even have time to shoot.
A monster jumped at Jack and he screamed and closed his eyes. There were sudden gunshots and chaos took over. It was as if the whole place was a battlefield. When he opened his eyes again, all three monsters laid dead on the floor. Blood was scattered about and Mike was crouched on the floor, LMG in one hand, and his other hand was covered in blood. But he saved Jack. It wasn't until much later that Jack learned those monsters were called 'Skulks'</span>
"I will clean your wound later, now lets go, this is dangerous territory" Sophie said grimly.
"What exactly was that Kharaa which attacked us?" Jack questioned dispite knowing he wouldn't get an answer.
"By the way, where are we?" Jack remarked, as he took a look at the strange squarish-enclosed area with a side that looks as if there was once a door there but it got broke open.
"An emergency lift that had its door destroyed by a giant Kharaa" Mike answered as he stood up.
"BLAM!!! BLAM!!! BLAM!!!"
"HEY WHAT THE!?" Mike shouted in shock as he barely evaded several bullets that narrowly whizzed past his head.
Bending down, Jack and Sophie raised their Light Machine Guns as they did not know what was ahead of the lift.
"GET AWAY!!! GET AWAY!!! ARGH!!!!!" The screams of a hysterical man could be heard, it was a scream of shock and fear.
"Whoever it is, we are not hostile." Sophie assured the screaming man. "Lower your gun, we won't hurt ya." Jack shouted. Carefully, all 3 of them took a peek. It turned out to be Tex.
"Tex! You are alive!" Sophie cried happily as she ran up to him and gasped.
Tex's whole face was dripping with sweat, his eyes were bulging, he was panting like a dog and there was a huge bite wound on his leg. "Oh my god, what happened?" Mike curiously asked.
"They....they....they are dead! They are all dead! Ohhhh....." Tex cried out as he sobbed uncontrollably and knelt down on the floor. Obviously, Tex had went through something nightmarish and must had seen his teammates died in front of him. He too must had been attacked, which explained the bite mark on his leg. "Take it easy, we are here with you" Jack tried to console Tex. A dull red light accompanied the unfavouring situation.
"Shall I....clean that wound?" Sophie nervously asked, afraid of Tex's outburst. "I...I....NO!!! NO!!! DON'T COME NEAR ME!!! DON'T COME NEAR ME!!! NOOO!!!!" Tex screamed like a mad man as he suddenly collasped to the floor and desperately crawled away from the three like a dog. "Relax Tex, we are just......" Mike tried to reassure him. "GO AWAY!!!" Tex shouted angrily as he pointed his pistol at Mike's face. "GET THE F*** OUT OF HERE!" Tex had now turned into a lunatic, pointing his gun at everyone and sobbing and cursing.
"Fine....fine.....we will leave you alone then." Mike raised his hand in a no-threat signal as he slowly back off.
"Let's go" Jack turned the other direction and began walking away while rubbing his head.
"But we can't leave him here!" Sophie wailed.
"So what do you expect us to do? Take him with us? He's a goddamned lunatic for pity's sake! He could shoot us all!" Mike uttered angrily as he too joined Jack. Sophie took a final look at Tex, her old flame, her old lover, the lunatic who was now beyond hope. "Goodbye Tex" Sophie said her final goodbye as she shedded a tear.
"Hey Mike, fill me in on what happened just now" Jack began a conversation with Mike as the three of them opened a door and entered a menacing long corridor. Long pipes and silver metal tubes hanged over their head.
"Hey! What's that?!" Mike shouted in alert as he raised his LMG and fired at a small green creature. The creature jumped into the air and leapt away into a vent faster than the human eye could see. "Lets go!" Mike shouted as the three of them dashed to where the creature previously was.
At the very spot where the creature was, there was now several bullet holes and a small puddle of greenish-yellowish blood. "Yup, definitely Kharaa." Mike studied the blood and came to a conclusion. "Skulk?" Sophie said with a guess. "Probably, I think we......"
An inhuman screech came from inside the vent near them and the three of them raised their guns as they jumped up in a hurry.
All of a sudden, everyone heard a ear-piercing scream came from where they had just left from. It was Tex screaming.
Nitpick 1: You seem to jump around in tenses, and it makes the reading feel weird
Nitpick 2: It feels that there are too many passive sentences and sentences that start "It was.." or "there is..." which makes the story sound less lively.
It is very interesting though. Keep it up
Dun worry, I will try to correct my mistakes. Anyway, I am glad u guys like this story.
"Oh my god, Tex!" Sophie mumbled in fright. "What the hell are you waiting for?! Lets go save him!" Jack shouted as he and Mike sprinted as fast as they could back to the room where they had left Tex. Sophie chased after them, completely neglecting the fact that there was a Skulk in the vent near them. The screams continued on.
After 20 seconds of running, Sophie caught up with Mike and Jack, who were standing speechless in front of a closed door. "What are the two of you waiting for? Open it! Tex is on the other side!" Sophie snarled impatiently. "Sophie, I hate to tell you this, but the door is locked." Jack turned to face Sophie with the I-am-sorry-look. Despite knowing that the door was locked, Sophie tried with all her strength to pull the handle but it was locked tight, no way of breaking through. Determined not to give up, Sophie begun kicking the door furiously but all she did was hurt her feet. "SCREW THIS DOOR!" Sophie begun cursing as she pumped rounds after rounds of pistol lead into the door despite knowing it was Nano-Protected. "Get a hold of yourself!" Mike roared angrily as he grabbed Sophie's shoulders and jerked her several times. "Do you know what you sound like?! A madman!" lectured Mike as he stopped. "Not madman, you mean madwoman." corrected Jack. "Shut up!" Mike yelled.
"Say.....why has Tex gone all quiet?" Jack reminded the two of them. "Oh no......we're too late!" Sophie wailed as she came down on her knees. "Its all my fault, my fault! I should never have left him back there" mumbled Sophie as tears began rolling down her cheeks. "Listen....its not your fault, its just that....ugh....." Mike suddenly remembered the talk he had with Jack much earlier on. "Shhh....guys, I am trying to listen," Jack had now placed his ear on the locked door, trying to hear what's on the other side.
There appeared to be some light tapping sounds, followed by a snorking, and an inhuman screech, sounding almost exactly like what the 3 of them heard from the vent just now. "THE VENT!" Jack screamed as the 3 of them looked back far ahead to the corridor and the vent in which they had saw and heard the Skulk.
"S***...........the vent which the Skulk leapt into must lead directly to the room where we left Tex," Jack sighed as he scratched dried blood off his head and face. "Now that I think of it, I think I saw a vent beside the lift just now."
Feeling hopeless and guilty, the 3 slumped down ahead of the locked door. This mission was a mistake, a terrible mistake, a foolish choice which all 3 of them made, already they had witnessed so many deaths. Already..............
"GUYS!" Jack jumped as he suddenly remembered something. "What?!" Mike half-heartedly asked. "Have all of you forgotten?! If we heard the Skulk screeched at the vent beside us just now, how could the skulk run to Tex and attack him almost immediately?!" Mike and Sophie stared white-faced at Jack. What he said certainly made sense, this would probably mean..........there are two Skulks!
It was also at this precise moment that the Skulk decided to strike. There was a loud 'tap' followed by a snarl and Jack fell backwards and hit the floor hard as a Skulk leapt on him. "NO!" Jack screamed as the Skulk opened its mouth wide, revealing rows of sharp teeth and Jack closed his eyes in horror. Suddenly, a loud shriek was heard and the Skulk was off him.
Mike had kicked the Skulk away and now it leapt at Sophie. Sophie raised her hands to defend herself as the Skulk's clawed foot slashed her arm. Screaming in pain, Sophie waved her hands wildly and hit the Skulk in the face, making it even madder. Mike unholstered his sidearm pistol and fired three clean shots at the Skulk's back. It then leapt up on the ceiling with great agility. Holding his LMG clumsily, Jack fired wild shots at the Skulk but all his bullets missed. The Skulk now made a leap for Mike and knocked him down. Jumping on Mike, the Skulk prepared to bite. Unfortunately for the Skulk, its throat was directly above the nozzle of Mikes pistol. A pistol shot killed the creature and its body now laid motionless on Mike's chest.
Mike kicked the Skulk's body to the side and pointed his pistol at it a final time to confirm that it was indeed dead. Seeing its lifeless eyes and the blood-filled hole in its head, Mike reloaded and kept his pistol.
Jack's chest plate now had a huge cut on it though Jack's body was barely hurt. His Nano-Armor had saved his life. Mike too didn't suffer much injury except for a painful back and some cuts on his armor. Sophie however wasn't so lucky, she now had a huge gash on the back of her hand and was bleeding badly. For such a painful wound however, Sophie was holding it well and didn't cry or scream like she usually did. "Ugh, Mike, this is disgusting. Your face is covered in Skulk blood," Jack exclaimed as he pointed at Mike's blood-covered face.
Mike stood up and immediately screamed in pain as a cloaked Skulk had suddenly leapt on his back and sank its claws into his unarmored shoulder.
As soon as I watched the 2 intros for Dino Crisis 3, I was like............"WTH?!".
Screaming in pain, Mike struggled with the ambushing Skulk as he blindly stumbled around, crashing down next to Sophie head first. "MIKE!" Sophie screamed as she could do nothing but watched in horror.
Utilizing a strength he didn't know he possessed, Jack gave a warcry and charged up to the Skulk, smashing its face with the butt of his Light Machine Gun, sending the Skulk sprawling on the floor. Almost immediately, Jack unloaded the rest of his LMG bullets into the fallen Skulk, ending its life.
Luckily, Mike was not seriously injured other than a deep cut on his left shoulder. "Get up guys! We have no time to waste! This is a danger zone!" Jack rushed the two.
"Help us will you?! You are the only guy whos uninjured here!" Sophie retaliated. Knowing better than to argue, Jack pulled the both of them up and leaded the two forward as they ran back to the corridor.......past the vent.......and another inhuman screech sounded from the vent.
"Oh no........" Sophie moaned, almost couldn't believing their luck.
"Watch this!" Jack took out a B-Grenade, pulled off its pin with a finger, and hurled his grenade deep into the vent. "LETS GO!" Jack cried as the three sprinted forward, making sure they were well away from the blast zone. Jack constantly looked back, making sure a Skulk didn't appeared for he now knew first hand how fast it would take for a Skulk to run out and leap at them from behind.
<span style='font-size:14pt;line-height:100%'>BOOM!!!!!!</span>
The B-Grenade exploded and debris flew while an unstoppable flame raged. The shrieks of a dying creature could be heard amidst the blast explosion. An invisible wave of heat scorched the back of the three as they charged forward without stopping. An inferno now engulfed the corridor as it blazed impossibly fast towards the running three.
At last, Jack and Mike reached the other side of the corridor towards a conveniently opened door while Sophie was fast approaching with the menacing flames threatening to reach out and grab her. "Close it quick!" Mike shouted. Sophie slammed the door behind her in time.
Under the burning flame, part of the door melted into a strange burning dark substance. Luckily, the flame soon subsided and they were now safe. "Jack......next time, DON'T THROW A DAMN GRENADE SO CLOSE TO OURSELVES!!! GET IT?!" Mike roared into Jack's face angrily as Sophie stood at a corner, too drained of her strength to even bother.
"Guys, we have arrived at the Shaft Room D" said Sophie as she stared at a 'Shaft Room D' sign. Apparently, they were now in a T-Shaped room with 5 doors. They was also 2 potted plants but both had decayed badly, one even had a weird greenish-yellowish fern or algae growth on it. Mike stared at the potted plant in alarm - Bacterium.
"Guys, I do not know what we are supposed to do but I do know where we are supposed to go now" Sophie said as she pointed at a 'Girl's Toilet Room'. "You guys go the boy's toilet while I go the girl's toilet" Sophie turned and headed for the girl's toilet but Jack held her non-injured hand suddenly. "Huh?" Sophie uttered in surprise as she blushed and turned her head slowly to look at the handsome blond in front of her known as Jack. "Yes?" She asked slowly.
"Come with us to the guy's toilet, if you go to the girl's toilet alone, you may get attacked" Jack replied and turning away sharply, heading for the boy's toilet. "..............................................................................." Sophie almost couldn't believe what just happened. "I think I will use the girl's toilet ALONE!" Sophie shouted as she ran into the girl's toilet without turning back, leaving Jack puzzled. Was it something he said?
Mike gasped when he entered the toilet, for he saw a vent on the ceiling. Also, the boy's toilet was amazingly clean and dry, as if it had never been used. Even the floor was polished, the mirrors were un-stained and he could see a faint reflection of himself on the walls.
"GUYS!!!!!!!" Sophie screamed suddenly. Thinking that something terrible had happened, Jack and Mike charged into the girl's toilet as fast as they could. Bacterium growths were everywhere, on the basin, on the toilet bowl, in the dustbin. Also, there were....cockroaches, a lot of cockroaches were crawling everywhere. The Bacterium growth lead all the way up to the vent on the ceiling. "I didn't know the Kharaa was so perverted!" Jack remarked as he made his way back to the boy's toilet and Mike and Sophie followed closely behind.
Sophie, Mike and Jack now stared suspiciously at the vent on the ceiling in the boy's toilet. After a while though, they dismissed the vent as being dangerous and took turns to use the cubicles. "Hey Sophie, if you wanna undress in front of us, we won't mind!" Mike sniggled as he dashed into an unused cubicle before Sophie could catch him while Jack laughed loudly. "I can't believe you creeps......" Sophie complained. How could they joke in a time like this?!
She stared at the vent with a LMG in her hand, ready to pump in a lot of lead into anything inhuman that comes out of the vent. Deep in her mind though, she remembered Tex's screams, the look on his face and the happy times they had together.
The group took a rest, dressed and cleaned their wounds, checked and reloaded their weapons, ate whatever rations they had left ( luckily for them, Sophie had several packs of MREs with her though that was all they had left ). Surprisingly too, the water supply was still around and the water was so clean, the group could drink the tapwater.
Finally, Mike felt that they had enough rest and he was the first to leave the boy's room. As soon as Sophie and Jack had got out as well, Mike pinched their shoulders, placed a finger on his lips for the keep-quiet sign, and with his hands, did a follow-me signal. Although they did not understand what was going on, Jack and Sophie followed Mike as he crept to the wall beside the girl's toilet.
The three could clearly hear flapping sounds from inside the girl's toilet.
Edition - Edited grammer mistakes for Chapter 6
Edition - Added chapter names for all the chapters
"What's that?" whispered Jack as he stroked his Light Machine Gun. Mike and Sophie stared at Jack as if they were staring at a geek. "What?" Jack asked uneasily.
"Don't you know? Obviously its a Lerk! Haven't you ever encountered one before?!" Mike whispered, stunned.
"No" Jack looked away, as if he was hiding something.
"Jack, I will have a serious talk with you after this is over" Mike exclaimed sternly.
"Follow me, you two" Mike whispered as he sneaked away from the girl's toilet stealthily.
"Why do we need to run away from Lerks?" Jack questioned.
"Oooh.....for heaven's sake, you wouldn't wanna face a Lerk head on" Sophie uttered quietly as she rubbed her injured hand.
Arriving at a metal door labeled 'Virgo Office C', Mike tried pulling the handle only to have the handle give out a 'chic click' sound. Locked.
Mike turned the other way and sneaked to another metal door labeled 'Taurus Welfare'. He tried pulling the handle, it was locked as well! Mike couldn't believe his luck, the last place to go to is another door which was at least eight metres in front of them. Mike headed towards the door and stopped. Sounds could be heard from 'Taurus Welfare' room, whatever it was, Mike placed his ear on the metal door and listened.
There was a scream, a scream of agony. Mike hurrily backed away from the door and almost immediately, it bursted open and a marine stumbled out screaming and collasped to the floor. One look at him told everyone something was very wrong with him.
The marine's face was humilated beyong recognition. His hair was falling, his skin was peeling off, worst of all, his face was melting and rotting away rapidly. Even his Nano-Armor had been corroded too much to serve as any form of protection. He moaned in agony and seemed to uttered "help". The three stared at the doomed marine in fear and shock, Mike knew only one thing could have caused this to the marine : Spore from a Lerk.
It was also at this moment that a greenish partially-transparent cloud floated out, or rather, it bursted out from the open door so quickly that if Mike haven't pulled Jack away, the cloud would had got him. Jack knew instinctively that this was what they called 'Spore'. The spore rapidly engulfed the dying marine and he let out a final scream before the spore completely covered him. Now blocked from their view, neither the marine nor his remains were ever seen again.
At this point, a loud high-pitched cackling cry could be hear amidst the thick cloud of spore. Several similer high-pitched cackles could be heard echoing through the girl's toilet and the entire Shaft Room D. Sophie and Mike both knew this was the hunting cry of Lerks which they use to communicate with one another when prey have been found. In this case, the three of them were the prey.
"LET'S GO NOW NOW NOW!!!" Mike cried as he grabbed Sophie's and Jack's hand as they charged to the last door. Mike kicked the door and it flew open. "GO GO GO!!!" Mike shouted and the three scrambled forward as fast as lighting. Now in a rather long and plain looking room with tables, chairs and cardboards, they charged towards the closest door and kicked it open, never stopping for even a second.
Meanwhile, flapping sounds and the same cackling cries of the Lerks could be heard right behind them. They ran on and ran on, past rooms, pass supplies, pass computers, through doors. Finally, the three stopped at the 'Cargo Transfer Room' beside a small glass box with a button and a warning sign on it. The sign read 'Warning : Emergency Shu......' Mike didn't have time to read it all and he punched the glass box.
'Beep Beep Beep' alarm signals echoed through the room and an enormous red blast door began sliding down from the ceiling. A glaring red light flashed at their faces.
"Let's go!" Sophie urged them and they continued forward. Jack however, ran for a while and couldn't help but looked behind. The blast door was still sliding down, it was only 2 metres from the ground, 1.5 metres, 1 metre, 0.5 metre, 0.4 metre, 0.3 metre............................
A cackling cry alerted everyone and a Lerk approached from the distance, sensing that its prey were escaping, it flapped its wings and glided into the air, it then swooped down in a 45 deg angle with lighting speed. The blast door was only 0.2 metre from the ground when the Lerk swooped under it............and got trapped. It was too big to get through and as the door continued proceeding downwards, the Lerk let out a high-pitched scream as it was crushed under the blast door with a disgusting 'squash' sound. 'Wham!' The blast door closed down completely at last, and greenish-yellow blood along with the membrane of a wing was sticking out. "Ugh, that stinks" Sophie complained as they left the room.
At long last, they had arrived at a large globe-shaped room with an enormous orb in the middle, labeled 'Topogeography Room'. "Let's rest here" groaned Jack as he crouched down onto the cold floor.
"Jack, tell me the truth, are you really a Sergent?" Mike crouched down beside Jack.
"Yes, of course I am! After all, only Sergents and above were allowed to participate in the retrievel of BH" Jack replied.
"I don't believe you, many months ago when we were both Privates and I saved your life from Skulks, you acted stupidly. Just now when we were attacked once again, you acted the same way as before. Not only that, you threw a B-Grenade so close to us that it endangered our lifes. You did not know what was a Lerk, you did not behaved approprately when the Lerks attacked us" Mike questioned again, looking hard at Jack.
Jack moved away immediately but Mike grabbed his shoulder. "Tell me, are you or are you not a Sergent? Look at my eyes! Tell me the secret code assigned to all the Sergents or above for this mission!"
Jack's heart skipped a beat, and he swallowed his breath. "I....I....forgot" He answered quietly and looked down.
"There never was a secret code you fool!" Sophie cut in.
"So.....you are not a Sergent then, then what's your rank? Look at me!" Mike dominated over the trembling Jack as he repeatedly probbed Jack for an answer.
"Fine, I will tell you the truth then. I...I....am......a Private" Jack shot out his answer and looked away guiltily.
"Jack.....why? Why do you do it? Why trick us? Why go on such a difficult mission when you do not yet have the experience?" Sophie shook her head, almost couldn't believing the words coming out of Jack's mouth.
"Mike" Jack looked up. "We were both Privates then, we both braved dangers together, we both took the tests, we both were buddies, but.......you out-shined me, you were a much better marine than I was. You were stronger, more smart, more tough. Pretty soon, we took the promotion tests. You passed with flying colours. I failed....miserably. I lied to you, I told you I passed and was assigned to another squad. I couldn't bear to tell you, or face you and said that I had failed. I.....I....I didn't wanted to lag behind while everyone I knew went on.......I also.....wanted very much to board the Behemoth but I wasn't allowed to......so I bought a false Sergent pass and badge from the black market. I went on the EX-200, no one noticed there was an extra marine on the team, no one could tell I was the odd one out, that I was a Private. I was glad then, that no one had discovered my true identiy, that you were on the same spaceship and could help me. It was a mistake, I now realised that.....I never was meant for a mission like this. I.....I.....I......am so sorry, Mike. I am so sorry I lied to you Mike. I didn't wanted to really trick the two of you. Please, forgive me"
Their conversion was interrupted when the door on the side slided open, and no one else but the great Commander Reza and another marine walked through. "Gentlemen, am I interrupting?" He asked with a sly grin.
"Commander Reza!" Jack, Sophie and Mike cried gladly. The one man capable of leading them to victory, to defeat the Kharra, to escape out of the cursed place. "I have come back to you now, at the turn of the tide" Reza said, smiling.
"I heard the conversation just now, it was.....kinda touching, actually, ya know? Private....." Commander Reza glanced at Jack's false Sergent badge "Jack, I suppose. Is that your name?" Jack nodded his head, feeling ashamed. "Do not worry, although what you did is certainly punishable in the code of the FronstierMen, I will not report this matter to my higher-ups" Jack smiled in relief. "If we ever get out of BH alive that is" Reza added.
The marine next to Reza stood forward, "I guess I should introduce myself. I supposed all of you have heard the last transmission between BH and Earth. There was a person named Burt, that's me" As the group shook hands with each other, Reza interupted again "People, this is no time for such formalities. As every of you can see on this map" Reza begun, pointing at a map showing the layout of Behemoth. "We are right now, on the second level, Topogeography Room. What we need to do, is to get onto Sub-Command Room on third level, which won't be easy. We will go there by this way" Reza scratched a line on the map showing the path which they will be going by. "We will pass by a Resource Nozzel, and go all the way till we reach the lift. We move up, go all the way to Sub-Control Room. Currently, I have uploaded the layout of BH into my Mini-Map. Until then, we must all stay as one. I do not know if there are anymore survivors other than us, I hope there is. Anyway, this is the plan for now. Understood?"
"WE GET YOU SIR!" everyone said loudly. "Shhh.....not so loud, we do not want every Kharaa on the ship to come hunting us down" Reza replied. "Sir" Jack raised his hand. "I should add, that on our way up here, we met a huge Kharaa species which I estimated to be at least 5 metres high. It looked almost like an Onos, and it got Jeff" Reza's eyes widen, "If what you say is true, then we wouldn't know what else is there on BH. Be careful people, try your best not to make too much noise or you may alert the Kharaa to us, and we will be in deep trouble"
"Sir, do you know which part of space are we currently at?" Sophie questioned. "Good question. If you see from this globe which represents the overall part of space which BH is at, you can see from the white dot at the right that it represents the moon. The red dot far away is Mars. The green dot at the direct centre is BH and the blue dot facing BH is Earth. This means one thing marines" Reza exclaimed as he glanced at his watch. "It has only been 3.07 hours since EX-200 was destroyed. BH has passed by the moon for a couple of hours as well. That means there if BH continues on at its present velocity, there is only at least 8 hours before BH lands on Earth, if thats where BH is heading"
"A huge spaceship full of Kharaa is going to land on Earth?! The Kharaa are planning a direct invasion?! But as far as my memory goes, the Kharaa have never done something so large-scaled before!" Sophie cried, aghast. "Precisely, and that's what worries me the most. Until then, lets set off. We have spent enough time here. Also, do not give me the We-Get-You-Crap. I have heard that for years and I am bloody tired of hearing it again. Let's go!" Reza held his Light Machine Gun up high and his fellow marines marched after him. The war was going to begin in 8 hours and they had to prevent it no matter what.
For some odd reason though I thought commander Reza was a girl... Until like the we get you sir part (from starship troopers I presume?)
Keep it coming! And happy new year <!--emo&::asrifle::--><img src='http://www.unknownworlds.com/forums/html/emoticons/asrifle.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='asrifle.gif'><!--endemo-->
PS: Earlier in the story a skulk 'ripped her arm' (sophie) but then it later says its just a deep cut on the backside of her hand, perhaps you could fix that so it doesnt sound like she got amputated? lol
Gashed
clipped
Love your story BTW.
I'll make your a part of the behemoth if you want, my map ns_decay dosnt have much of a design.......at all.
PM me, I'll give you my msn/aim
Just send me a PM, with a decline or accept.
"ONE SKULK DOWN!!!"
"Good job, another to go"
"Watch out Burt! Behind you!"
"BWAHHHH!!!!!!"
"BLAM BLAM BLAM BLAM BLAM!!!!!!!!!!"
"I am out of ammo!"
"Here's a spare clip!"
"SHOOT SHOOT SHOOT! He's coming back!"
"Oh my god!"
"BLAM!!!"
"We got the Skulk!"
Greenish-Yellowish blood was covering the entire room. One Skulk laid dead on a bed with many holes all over its body. Pillows, blankets and feathers were scattered everywhere while another Skulk had been blown into several pieces. Its body was on the table while its leg was below a chair and foreleg on another bed. Burt slanted against a wall as several small crumpled pieces of Nano Plate dropped off his badly damaged Nano Armor.
"Burt, you all right?" Sophie asked, concerned for Burt. "Yeah, I think I am.......URGH!!!!" Burt suddenly vomited blood and collasped to the floor. "BURT!" Everyone screamed as he clutched his stomach in great pain. "Someone help him, please, also, I feel....kinda.......dizzy......" Sophie moaned as she clamped on to a metal bar with her trembling hand, she staggered for a while and fainted onto Jack's waiting arms. The gash on her hand had opened up again, and blood was dripping out slowly.
Soon, Sophie and Burt were both lifted to 2 clean beds and their injuries were examined, Reza realised just how serious the situation was. The Skulk had leaped directly at Burt's stomach and not only had it damaged part of Burt's Nano Armor, it had also shattered 2 of Burt's ribs. Meanwhile, Sophie was suffering from a loss of blood, the wound on her hand which was earlier ripped slightly by a Skulk was bandaged, however, the wound soon opened up again. Now, she begun to sweat profusely as she mumbled indistinguishable words.
Reza, Mike and Jack came to a conclusion. They had to get to the supplies room and get resupply, they had ran out of rations, food, and were soon running out of ammo as well.
"Mike, Jack, the 2 of you have to stay here to take care of them two, meanwhile, I will go to the Supplies Room alone. I know the way as I have BH's layout in my minimap. "But Commander, we......" Jack argued. "DO NOT argue with me, Private Jack, for I was not assigned as your Commander for nothing. I know what I am doing. What you need to do is to take care of them, make sure no aliens come and attack. That's a direct order! Get it?" Reza sternly lectured Jack. "Yes, sir, good luck, sir" Jack and Mike both said, much to the annoyance of Reza for there was no need for them to be so formal in a life-or-death-situation like this. Following suit, Reza took with him 1 final spare clip of LMG bullets and 1 spare clip of Pistol bullets, Reza left.
Striding forward at a constant pace, checking the minimap every moment and so, Reza uttered to himself silencely, "No time.......left, left, right. Door. Left. Right. Door. Damn.....which door. Right, no left.............So far so good" No aliens had approached him yet, nothing to hinder him, no locked doors. Everything was going smoothly according to plan.
At last, the Supplies Room. Fortunately again, the door was not locked, and as Reza entered, a nauseous smell filled his nose. "Ugh......dust and dead bugs" Reza thought in disgust.
Meanwhile, Mike had picklocked open a small white cardboard. Inside contained photos, a diary, some stationaries, some money, letters, useless stuff and at last, painkillers!
Reza was shocked, in a kind of happy way, for he realised he had just stumbled upon rows after rows of weapons much more advanced than the LMGs and Pistols everyone had, and the guns were in working conditions too. Reza threw his LMG and LMG clip away. Smiling, he tied 2 Shotguns and 3 Heavy Machine Guns together into a bundle using a strong cable. He took with him 2 spare Shotgun clips and 3 spare HMG clips. He also equiped himself with 2 kgs of MREs, several rows of bandage, painkillers and nano-medpacks. Ready to leave at last, Reza grunted as he used his last bit of strength to lift everything off the ground. The guns were a lot heavier than he thought and would surely delayed him. Nevertheless, he must hurry.
Huffing and puffing, Reza kicked open the door, and heard it. Few people other than frontline TSA Frontiersmen would hear this sound, for it was the sound of a blinking Fade. The blinking sound was coming closer and closer. Reza had seen Fades before though personally, he had never managed to kill one before. Nonetheless, that was when he had LMGs only, now it was different, he had with him plenty of heavy guns! Reza had tied the cable a lot tighter than he thought and he struggled hard to untie the cable. "Come loose! Come loose! You CREEP!" Reza cursed as he repeatedly pulled the cable but it stubbornly refused to go loose. Anytime now, the Fade would see appear.
Reza's eyes darted about wildly as he made an effort to spot the deadly beast before it spotted him. His heart skipped a beat when he saw the Fade from more than 10 metres away. In just a mere second, the Fade had blinked right in front of Reza. Reza had never seen a Fade so upclose before, it was so close, he could smell its pungent breath and body odour. Its eyes looked cruel and savaged, its dirty teeth were lined with saliva, its body was full of veins and bacterium growth, its claw feet tapped on the metal floor excitedly, its muscles clearly shown under the light and a strange pus dripped out of the Fade's shoulder tube which was supposed to shoot Acid Rockets. The Fade gave a loud snarl, raised its clawed arms and prepared to slash Reza apart. "NO!" was Reza's final thoughts before the Fade swing its arms down and stopped. The claws were just a few inches from Reza's face but something had made the Fade stopped attacking. The Fade raised its head, made a weird croaking sound. It then turned another direction and blinked away. Within a second, the Fade had gone completely out of view.
Reza couldn't believe what just happened. Did the Fade felt some mercy for him at the last moment? Was the Fade a rebellion Kharaa which helped humans or was it something else? Reza checked his minimap a last time and headed back to find the others.
Jack gobbled down the MREs hungrily as if he had not eaten for days while Mike gulped down water from a tap.
Burt activated a nano-medpack and immediately, it begun releasing small nano-machines into the air which Burt inhaled through his mouth and nose. Once inside, the nano-machines went to work, repairing Burt's damaged cells, fixing his raptured blood vessels, replacing his lost blood, the nanos flooded his system, replacing lost body fluid, patching up his shattered ribs. The nanos finally ran out of energy and faded into Burt's blood stream as nutrients for him to absorb. Minutes later, Burt was healed almost completely, his energy was restored and his body functioning like usual again, Burt stood up and stretched his arms as if nothing had happened earlier.
It was Sophies turn, and it took the nano-machines way faster to heal her than it did for Burt. No more nano-medpacks were left, and Mike had to settle for bandages and painkillers for the fresh wound on his shoulder.
Burt examined the white cardboard which Mike had opened earlier, and he was stunned when he saw the golden pen, the gift which he had gave to his best friend, Struk. "Jesus........" Burt muttered, almost unbelieving of what he saw in front of him. A diary laid beside the pen, and there although there wasn't a name, the handwriting was clearly that of Struk. Opening the pages, Burt hand shook with astonishment as he read the last few pages, dumbfounded. It was the final recount of the days that followed after Burt's last tranmission with Struk.
<span style='font-family:Courier'>Day 893 - The satellite and commuications system scrambled, something has gone terribly wrong. I was having a fine chat with Burt when the transmission went screwy. Pete said it was Earth's commuication problem that went wrong, I highly suspect so. Pete, being the communications officer in charge appeared to be hiding something from me. Perhaps my prediction is right, perhaps something terrible will happen today.
Day 894 - ****! I still didn't get to see Major Utiza! Everyone's gone dark.......silence........I think something's wrong.
Day 895 - (Blank)
Day 896 - (Blank)
Day 897 - What the hell is going on here?! Everyone's keeping their mouth shut! Traz, Ixa, Weoling, Kanalies and Jona all are ignorant about everything......so am I.
Day 898 - I caught Pete before he got away, and it took a combined effort of the 16 of us before we squeezed the truth out of Pete, there appears to be a Kharaa infilitration on BH. Its kinda understandable as BH is so big, it takes days to get from one end to another! It appears that the Kharaa were what's been attacking our communications system. Pete cannot confirm with me if theres indeed Kharaa infestation and he says he doesn't know anything else. If I find out hes still keeping something from us, I will personally kill him.
Day 899 - (Blank)
Day 900 - 3 Power failures in a row! What the **** is happening to BH?!
Day 901 - Nothing much happened today, everyone's quiet and in low spirits. Maybe there is indeed Kharaa infilitration. Seug Min volunteered to take a trip to the other part of BH to check out what's going on.
Day 902 - (Blank)
Day 903 - (Blank)
Day 904 - Full alert. A Kharaa attack has been confirmed. Personally, as I was lying on my bed today, I saw a Skulk in the vent above, luckily, I had my LMG with me so I shot the **** out of the bloody creature. I haven't seen Seug Min since several days ago......I have a bad feeling about this........
Day 905 - Still no signs of him, also, many others were sent to the frontline to deal with the Kharaa. I hope for the best.
Day 906 - Only Ixa returned! He said the others all died! How could that be?!
Day 907 - Ixa died from his injuries, I blasted the brains out of an invading Lerk today but one of its spikes went into my shoulder! ****ing creature! I am going to see the medic!
Day 908 - (Blank)
Day 909 - I am feeling hopeless......Seug Min never returned. I guess he died. Of so many of my friends, only Lyax survived. She has suggested to me that we hide from the others but I do not know how useful is this......
Day 910 - Why did I come to BH? I regret with every moment of my life coming to BH. More than half of the crew has died. Perhaps I will be the next......
Day 911 - I have been sent to the frontline to fight with the Kharaa today, and my record goes to a total of 7 aliens. For the first time for a long time, I was in high spirits.
Day 912 - (Blank)
Day 913 - (Blank)
Day 914 - Earth has not sent help yet, we are doomed. More than 75% of BH offically belongs to the Kharaa. Maybe we should activate the self-destruct sequence to take down all the Kharaa with us...........
Day 915 - My end is near. The aliens are breaking through the door, I do not know what's my future holds other than death. As much as I want, I would had ( ends )</span>
The rest of the diary is empty. Burt sobbed quietly after he reads the diary, Struk must had died. For many months, he had wondered what happened to Struk, now the truth was clear.
At last, everyone's energy was refilled, they drank their last gulps of water, ate as much MREs as they could consume and left the room. Headed for the lift, Reza and Mike were given shotguns while the rest were given HMGs, whatever they were going to meet at the Resource Nozzel, they did not know. Reza secretly thanked the inventor of nano-medpacks for without nano-medpacks, countless marines would had died, and a lot of money and resource would had been wasted.
Jack "Sophie"
Sophie "Yes?"
Jack "You still alright?"
Sophie 'Yeah, I 'm fine, thanks"
Jack "About the injury on your hand......"
Sophie "This? Oh well, thanks to the nano-medpack, I won't have an ugly scar over my hand"
Jack "Are you scared and all?"
Sophie "Scared? Why should I be scared?"
Jack "Good for you......."
Sophie "Are you scared of something?"
Jack "Only one thing......the giant Onos"
Sophie "So am I........"
Jack "Sophie, do not worry, for I am with you"
"Heads up!" Reza alerted everyone as they were coming around to a corner. Sloushing sounds could be heard, along with a constant bubbling noise. Reza held a finger to his lip in a keep-quiet signal, he then did a wait-here signal with his palm and cautiously took a quick peek from his position.
"Oh......crap" Reza uttered under his breath in frustration. Under the dim light, from almost 20 metres away, Reza could vaguely make out the shape of a fat Gorge, a towering Resource Chamber and an Offense Chamber.
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Sneak Peek to future chapters...........
- Power Failure
- Queen
- Scorpian That Hovars Without Flapping
On par with 'It came about because'?
If I can remember well, in chapter 9 you put 'sophie mumbered' Fix it to mumbled
Keep pumping out those chapters <!--emo&:D--><img src='http://www.unknownworlds.com/forums/html/emoticons/biggrin.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='biggrin.gif'><!--endemo-->