Lokians 1: Beyond the End of the World (15 page)

“
Something feels wrong,” Imes
replied.

Before they came to grips with the heart of
the statement, a commotion came in through their earpieces.

****

Adams led a team through another tunnel. He
moved at a tremendous rate without even a light. Within minutes he
was lost to his team. Fitzpatrick took the rear, grumbling about
his idiocy, and DeReaux, who was in front of her, asked her to keep
quiet. The new leader, since Adam’s departure, was Korit. Behind
him was his partner, Lom-Pu, who carried two sidearms.

“
Where the fuck did he run off to?”
Fitzpatrick whispered.

“
Don’t know. I hope he knows what he’s
doing,” DeReaux replied, softly.

“
Your friend seems rather foolish,”
Korit commented. Lom-Pu noticed movement, and whispered in
Thewlish. “Its Adams on his way back,” “Korit
translated.

Their lights revealed as much. “I’ll take the
rear,” Adams cackled. “This Lokian is turning around. Be prepared
to shoot it in the mouth!”

He moved past the crew then stayed facing the
opposite direction, peering into the darkness. Soon, a slithering,
scurrying sound resounded. Korit remained steady, his cannon aimed
into the darkness, when smooth, brown tentacles broke free from the
shroud. The alien let loose a powerful burst from his cannon.

As the bolt of energy rushed forward, it lit
the tunnel, showing a glimpse of a monstrous, round mouth filled
with concentric rows of razor, sharp, metal teeth. They spun in
circular fashions, both clockwise and counter clockwise. The Lokian
was more machine than creature, but the plasma burst exploded in a
dazzling array upon striking the gaping maw.

Tentacles flailed in rage and ferocity
coupled with a thunderous hiss. Lom-Pu dipped in front of Korit,
both arms pointing twin guns at the writhing beast. She fired
repeatedly, unleashing a strobe effect.

During the intermittent, light display,
DeReaux took aim, firing into the mouth. Unexpectedly, the Lokian
rocked its mass against the frozen walls. Ice fell, and the thing
spewed a blast of acid, covering Lom-Pu.

She flailed back and hit the ground hard. The
acid mixed with the ice underneath, resulting in a viscous surface,
forcing the screaming Thewl to slide down the declining path, and
towards the Lokian. Korit tried to grab hold of her, but the tunnel
shook from the creature’s heavy movement.

“
Son of a bitch,” Fitzpatrick yelled.
She and DeReaux fired past Korit, who was unable to keep his
footing. Chunks of exoskeleton erupted from bullets. “Get some! Get
some!”

Having backed away to leave his comrade for
dead, Korit grunted and fired a blast of super heated H-4, which
flamed out in a bluish-green haze. Heat immediately flooded the
tunnel. The concentrated heat, set the Lokian on fire before it
exploded, painting the walls in smoldering chunks of chitin.

The cannon ceased. The flame and light died
out, leaving only the gun lights to illuminate their environment.
Korit’s display had melted a portion of the interior, covering them
with droplets of water. Everyone was on edge, on the verge of
vomiting or screaming. DeReaux wiped his visor free of goo and
water.

“
No time to rest,” Adams
said.

“
What?” DeReaux cried out.

“
Reinforcements from the
rear!”

“
Oh, son of a bitch,” Fitzpatrick
exclaimed.

Korit knelt over the melted corpse of his
partner. Taking a sorrowful breath, he backed away to force his way
beyond the others. Adams attempted to halt his blitzkrieg, but the
giant overpowered him, so he pulled out two, black, baton-type
weapons before giving chase.

With little more than haggard breaths over
the comms., other crew mates from other tunnels spoke words of
distress, yet Korit stared into the darkness. He heard a trace of
movement, felt it in his bones, and he pulled a small, round,
silvery ball from a compartment on his right thigh.

“
Enough of this,” he
whispered.

After pressing a button on the device, he
tossed it. It lit up the whole shaft a blinding white. By the time
eyes readjusted, Adams pulled up the flank, followed by Fitzpatrick
and DeReaux, who took knees to steady their aim at three lanky,
shiny, Lokians.

They were radically different from the
tunneler, and looked like bipedal crabs with enormous limbs. Most
gruesome was their heads; eight, black eyes leered hungrily at the
crew. Metallic hoses ran rampant throughout their exoskeletons.

“
Ew,” Adams remarked.

The brawlers ran forwards with all four arms
outstretched. Korit fired his cannon, hitting the first one with no
problem. The blast knocked the creature back, but the other two
flanked the falling creature. One struck Korit in the sternum,
totally flooring him; they were bad, they were tall, and they
weren’t playing around.

Adams leapt headlong—his batons glowing
bright red—and performed a lateral summersault. No sooner had he
landed on fists and knees, he started smashing into an alien. His
weapons flashed brighter on impact, sending limbs sailing.
Fitzpatrick and DeReaux each fired a round at the head of the
brawler bearing down on the rising Korit. Its head burst, but the
Lokian kept striking wildly.

“
God damnit,” Fitzpatrick
screamed.

“
Keep your eyes on it,” DeReaux
grunted.

“
I know!”

The scenario playing out in front of her
wasn’t nearly what she expected of battle. Between horrid,
shrieking monsters and the bobbing weaves of Adams, the athletic,
there was a lot to take in, but she exhaled, firing into the
Lokians. Korit, finally able to take aim, blasted the last one in
the chest, blowing it to bits. DeReaux and Fitzpatrick were left
astonished, their fingers cemented to their weapons.

Adams shut off his batons and put them away.
He dusted himself off like it had been no big deal. Korit picked up
his light emitting device, shut it off, and motioned to move.

“
Fitzpatrick,” DeReaux asked when they
made it back to the partially dissolved Thewl.

She didn’t reply, but shook her head in
disbelief, returning wide eyes. They both walked over to Korit, who
stood over his deceased partner.

“
I’m sorry, Korit,” Fitzpatrick said,
solemnly.

“
We are all prepared for a final
journey. It’s a shame hers came to an end so abruptly.”

They carefully made their way past remnants
of the smoldering tunneler, but soon came to a dead end. Adams
approached the wall blocking their path. He ran a gloved hand over
the damaged rock then turned to address everyone.

“
These tunnelers use a mechanical mouth
to grind the stone and ice as they expel acid to melt it. We’ll
have a devil of a time blasting through….”

“
We have equipment. I’ll go get it and
return with a few men to help us. I need to tell them about Lom-Pu
as it is,” Korit replied.

DeReaux placed a hand on the Thewl’s forearm.
“We all go. We’re a crew.”

They all nodded and made their way back.

Chapter Eight

Jun waited for a moment. Sparks slowly
vanished in the darkness as the grinding sound grew fainter. The
creature was inching forward, eating new depths into the icy
tunnel. After an initial moment of hesitation, Jun whispered.

“
We need to strike one at a time. If we
stay a few feet apart, I can kneel and fire until the Lokian turns
and comes at me. Then, I’ll run behind the rest of you, and the
next in line can fire at the creature.”

O’Hara nodded, saying, “If we take turns
moving, we should be able to take it out without getting hurt.”

Hurriedly, they spread out when Adams’s voice
erupted into their earpieces, talking about Lokians spewing acid to
dissolve the rock.

“
Oh, my goodness,” Nandesrikahl
said.

“
Holy fuckin’ crap,” Marty heaved. “We
gotta’ watch for that shit.”

“
Copy,” O’Hara ground his
teeth.

“
Ready? I’ll fire,” Jun said, and took
a shot.

The green-blue light emitted by his weapon
flashed through the corridor. Small bits of ice and rock fell on
the crew as the beast at the other end thrashed against constricted
space. Running back turned out to be more difficult than the Thewl
assumed, so he fired more rounds while back peddling. He stumbled,
sliding on the icy ground, but O’Hara was ready; he took a knee,
trying to keep his rifle steady.

Scared beyond belief, the Human realized he
wasn’t training. He wasn’t up against anything remotely familiar,
and they all stood a chance of dying. The other Thewl’s death choke
wormed through his mind.

Flicking his gun light on revealed a
mechanical mouth mere yards away. Vicious, metal teeth, spinning in
circular destruction drew closer. The Lokian thundered its way
forwards, unleashing a deafening clamor. Before the captain popped
off a round, ropey tentacles slapped him across the helmet, spider
webbing his visor. He tried to scramble back, but another tentacle
caught his leg, reeling him towards churning death.

Screaming, and shooting wildly as bullets
ricocheted off the stone walls, sending ice everywhere, O’Hara
begged for assistance. Martinez wasted no time. He ran to help,
when a blast of light filled the tunnel, causing him to falter. Jun
had tossed a lighting device, which brought them all to utter
dread; O’Hara was dangling by an appendage.

“
I gotcha’, Cap!” Marty dropped his
weapon to snatch a colossus grenade from his belt, an explosive
like claymores made to cling to objects. “Eat this, you son of a
bitch!”

He slammed the colossus against the beast’s
jaw. Nandesrikahl was right behind, firing at the tentacle. The
chitinous appendage slammed O’Hara against the ceiling before the
colossus went off. The explosion blew teeth and goo everywhere,
covering everything. Muffled sounds of pain slipped from the
captain’s mouth as he slid onto his side. Jun and Sura took the
forefront, unleashing hot fury into the Lokian’s headless mass.
Martinez and Nandesrikahl pulled O’Hara free from friendly
fire.

To their amazement, the tunneler charged them
by way of tiny, metallic hooks protruding from its undercarriage.
Realizing they were still in danger, Marty called a retreat while
strategically placing charges along the walls. Stumbling backwards
over melted ice and strewn debris, the crew managed to get
away.

The explosives finally went off, resulting in
a minor quake. Ice and stone peppered the men from overhead. After
a final rumble, the damaged corridor collapsed with the tunneler
caught in the uproar. It hissed a long, hateful exhale before
everything came to a silent standstill.

Continuing their retreat, and fearing a cave
in, Jun tried to force them back to the entrance as quickly as
possible, but O’Hara was unable to cover ground. The cracked visor
had him in a blind panic. He latched on to whoever was in
front.

“
You are losing life support,” a
robotic voice penetrated O’Hara’s ears. The suit monitoring system
provided detailed information regarding heart rate, blood pressure,
and more, medical jargon. “Temperature dropping. Losing Oxygen.
Recommend you return to a safe zone.”

O’Hara fumbled with the oxygen hoses behind
his helmet, looking for leaks, not that he was able to find them
wearing gauntlets, but his crew pushed him to keep moving.

“
My fucking suit,” he gasped.
“Shit!”

“
Please, Captain, try to remain calm.
It’ll take at least fifteen minutes to return to the ship,”
Nandesrikahl said.

“
We have to move quickly,” Sura
added.

****

Swain’s crew didn’t have a chance to enjoy
their view for long. The captain’s fight echoed over their comms.
seconds after their arrival, leaving them rattled. They exchanged
looks of shock, but when Jun contacted the Explorer, Swain
spoke.

“
Captain, listen to me. It’s Swain.
Override your suit stability function, and set it to survival mode.
It’ll conserve oxygen, regulate your temperature, and conserve
power.”

His information was sufficient to calm the
captain. “Override code alpha six beta nine. Engage survival mode.
Swain, what should I do about my visor?”

“
I don’t know. How bad is
it?”

Martinez replied, “It’s not that bad, just
spider webbed.”

“
Okay, Captain, sounds like you’re
okay. If you’re maintaining pressure, you can get back top side
without a hitch.”

****

While O’Hara’s battle came to a head, the
fourth team was treading much more slowly. They hadn’t come across
danger, but hearing the others fight rattled their nerves. Scanning
the environment with gun lights, smooth, blue, frozen walls
reflected mesmerizing beams.

“
Captain, are you hurt,” Day
asked.

“
Uhh…broken, but not battered,” he
said.

“
I think you have it backwards,”
Franklin laughed.

Ignoring him, he continued, “Having some
difficulty moving, but I’ll manage. I want everyone else to be
careful, out.”

She took a deep breath.
I don’t want
anyone else to get hurt,
she thought. Becker swished by her to
take point.

“
Hey,” Day called, “slow
down.”

“
We should get a move on,” Becker
argued. “We know what these things can do.”