Red Twilight: Demon of the Flowers

Chapter 15 Battle the Zzuragg part 5

Something seems to pound on the walls making the room shake. Dover reaches one hand up and holds his head; he starts to twitch and shake himself like someone might if they were suffering from critical nerve damage. Shadows creep along the walls. Kauri calls for the party to circle.

The ground underfoot crakes, a set of ant-like jaws shoot up through the metal floor then quickly disappear ripping apart a large section of the lab as it does. Kauri tries to shot at the ant-like jaws, but it seems to move to fast for him to lock on to. The monster appears again, and Maize takes a shot at it. Maize yells back "Hit not confirmed."

Chin calls out "Keep your eyes open everyone."

Kauri taps his radio "Command, can you see anything on your end?" there is no replay. "Radio is still down." He whispers to himself.

Slowly the party walks around each other searching for both a target to shoot at and an escape route from this room. Huston whispers "are you sure the radio is out? I can still hear your transmitter buzzing." Not counting the service hatch three doors go into the lab.

The ghostly whisperers shout at Dover, Dover brings his hands up to his ears and pulls them down trying to block out the muffled sound, shadows crawl on the walls, and only Dover seems to be able to see them. Dover brakes formation and run at one of the doors breaking it down when he strikes it then he vanishes into the dark.

Kauri shouts "Dover!" in a split decision Kauri brakes formation to chase after Dover, Maize, and Chin fallow a second behind, Huston needs a second to catch up. The sting Dover had received driving him mad, Kauri fallows the light of muzzles flashes and the sounds of gunshots in the deep as he tries to catch up with Dover. A small stack of dead bugs seems to imply that Dover is clearing the party a path.

The gunshots stop, the flashes stop, there is nothing left to chase. Kauri doesn't want to give up; he chooses a direction on instinct to keep following, a grenade explodes somewhere nearby. A shout comes from the back of the group. Huston calls for "Kauri!"

Kauri stops running to look back, Maize and Chin catch up and stop with him. Kauri looks around "Where is Huston?"

Chin looks back down the path they came from "I lost sight of him."

The party turns back to look for Huston, but their search is cut short when they find the hallway behind them as caved in as has seemingly three floors down. For a moment, Kauri start to break down, his hands find the back of his helmet, and he shouts incoherently.

Stress affects everyone in one way or another, and everyone has their defenses mechanism, Kauri shout, Chin starts rambling, Maize shutters despair beginning to take hold of her thoughts. "what the fuck is going on, what the fuck is going on!" Chin starts to work herself into a rage to keep control of her emotion.

Maize tries to tack charge "we can double back the other way, look for a way around…"

Chin starts to shout "this is shit! We have the best gun and the best armor in the galaxy! And we are getting the shit kicked out of us by a bunch of Cambrian monsters!"

Maize turns to Chin "Keep your cool coyote."

Kauri tries his radio again "Command, do you copy Command…"

Chin barks "there not picking up!"

Maize becomes impatient "your shouting isn't going to change that Sheman." The remark was meant as a joke, a reference to a book Maize read years ago; clearly, Chin doesn't understand.

"You think I don't have ovaries? You don't think I can throw down bitch?" Chin shoves Maize into a wall then puts her hands up ready to start boxing "I am all women under this armor."

Maize pushes herself off the wall and drops into bladed stance waiting for Chin to reach her "I should have known a coyote…"

"A coyote what?" Chin throw the first punch. Maize steps in to meet the blow forcing them into grappling range with each other.

"Coyotes where the last race to sign the nonaggression pact. Apparently, that was for a resin." The two women start rolling on the wall slugging each other.

The fighting comes to a sudden halt when Elion's voice comes on over the radios "this… is Command, …what is your condition?..."

Kauri still aggravated replies "I would say tits up would describe it pretty well. Dover is AWOL, Huston went MIA, and I would say we need an E-VAC SAP. If the court wants this ship back, we are going to need more hand, more boot, and more guns" Kauri notices the lag on the radio "what is your condition?"

Chin jokes "I would say F in the B would sum it up."

"Command was attacked…, I needed to place Cormen… in the freezer. I'm not doing great either."

Kauri thinks a moment "it is time to regroup; we need to get back to the Solaris and get central on the horn."

Elion agrees "you are correct, find the nearest Jerry-tube and make your way to the hall, I will get us in the air." She freezes a moment looking at the specs "Dawg's transmitter just turned back on." She flips over the switchboard noticing that Dawg's transmitter is on the wrong channel "Dawg. If you can hear me you are broadcasting on channel 00-09-00 that is not a secured line; I need you to reset your radio." The single scrabble "is his transmitter damaged?"

"LT. can you see anyone else?" Kauri ask

"yeah, Dover and Huston are both transmitting also."

"you don't have a lock on Dover; he discarded his armor after getting stung."

"Dover is moving; I'm going to jack into his net." Elion's finger dance on her keyboard as she types. She locks on to his transmitter to talk to Huston, and so she can see out his visor. "Huston, you are outside the communications room on the second deck, I read twenty heat signatures within 7 meters of you." The images on the visor are unclear, there is movement, light, but everything is reading inverted. "Huston, I want you to look to your right. There should be a door there. I want you to open it as soon as your 20 is clear." Huston refuses to comply.

Elion yells "Huston, are you reading me? Do you copy?"

Something moves in front of Huston's visor, A cockroach-like monster stands on Huston's chest looking into the armor studding it. The roach opens its mouth revealing a worm-like creature parasitically attached to the roof of its mouth. The worm lets go of the cockroach and jump at Huston's visor; the signal cuts off.

Elion does not see what happens, but the mirror neurons in her brain peace the rest together in gory detail. Elion's hands find her chest as she images the worm breaking the helmet Huston was wearing in half then crawling into his chest using any hole it can find.

Elion sits frozen for a short time before being snapped back into the moment by Kauri "Command, do you have a lock on the others? Where are we regrouping?"

Elion shakes herself slightly to calm down the looks over maps, and schismatic she has of the mining ship "Kauri, turn to face 6, in 515 feet you will see a 'T' intersection you will turn to face 9" the S.M. team starts following Elion's directions, Elion switches to Dawg's channel for a moment "Dawg, you are still on 00 frequency, I need you to reboot then change to channel 700."

The hallways have grown still, scratching and chirping makes hideous ambient noise, the clanging of metal boots on metal floor echoes like thunder, the clawing behind the walls like rain. Kauri calls back to his team "Remember to sweep three before turning to 9."

Elion comes back in "130 feet there will be a hatch at your 3, the number over the hatch will be 4-228-W. if you have opened the right hatch, there will be a vertical shaft on the other side of the door."

"And if not?" Kauri ask

"then you opened 4-228-E, and 4-228-W is at your 6." Elion act playfully briefly "I will be cutting radio off my radio for a minute, I need to get the bird off the ground. Try not to die will I'm away." some people need practical advice.

The team finds the door, Kauri jumps into the pipe first and starts to climb, Mazie stands guard for him, Chin waves Maize forward as she then brings up the rear. Growling and hissing can be heard on every deck, the bugs are fighting each other, slime drips from the walls.

At the top of the ladder, Kauri tries to push the hatch to the roof open, but it seems jammed, he examines the door "Bulkheads are dropped. Maize I need a charger."

Maize pats herself looking for her chargers "out."

"Torch." Kauri request

Chin yells up "I gave it to you."

"Do we have anything that can cut a bulkhead?"

Chin nods "Yeah, how many 76 do you have on you?"

"do you want me to count them now?"

"is it more than 5?"

"yes."

Chin reaches around Maize and crawls up to get nose to nose with Kauri. Chin places her feet up on Kauri hips for balances as she lies on the wall "turn to face me, place one of your knees on my stomach, I need a flat surface, you are going to need to tuck one of your arms behind your back to stabilize yourself and push yourself against me to pin us both in place."

Kauri complies "this is very uncomfortable."

Chin takes several of the tools form her belt and starts disassembling bullets "Just be happy I'm not a man." Chin then pulls one of the lights off her armor and breaks it apart to get to the wiring inside, Chin cuts the bullets into a flower like shape and weaves the electrical wire through them.

"did they teach you how to do this at the academy?" Kauri inquires.

"no, this is how my mom got over the border wall." Chin starts to glue the wire of bullets to the ceiling.

"are you unlicensed?" Maize questions

"I am licensed. My mother wasn't. But you know what they say '…everyone that can run, jump or swim…' my mom was a talented girl, she showed me how to kick ass and blow shit up. Just in case I ever needed it." Chin moves the last bit of wire down; she twists it around the power cord of her light assembly "now this part is going to suck. Keep your heads down and fold your ears in if you can."

Chin turns on her contraption, the chain of bullets explodes in organized chaos cracking the lock and the hinges of the bulkhead. Wall, the team, is still rearing form the blast fingers reach into the door and fling it open, the zombie hyena looks down into the pipe. She reaches in and wraps a hand around Kauri pulling him out of the tunnel.