The mission sounded too good to be true. A lush colonial world, but the primary colonization team had up and vanished. Aurin Shepard jumped at the chance to join the team of Marines being sent out to investigate.
Ever since she'd joined the Alliance 5 years ago, she'd been training for this kind of mission. After her biotic potential had been discovered and she'd been implanted with the L3, she'd been through one intensive training program after another. First, it was harnessing her biotics. Then, on her 18th birthday, she enlisted in the Alliance Navy. She'd spent a year at Basic and then the next 3 in Special Forces, her unique mix of survival skills and unparalleled biotic strength (for an L3, anyway), the perfect for progressing through the proficiency levels. Upon graduating the N7 program, she'd hoped to be out among the stars. Though for her it was more about seeing the galaxy than it was about fighting the good fight.
She'd spent that first year post-graduation on various crews, going after pirates and slavers raiding human colonies. She was fighting that good fight, but she still felt like she should be doing more. Which is why she'd immediately volunteered for the mission to Akuze. It seemed like the perfect opportunity to see a part of the galaxy that few humans had been and to really challenge herself in the process. After all, they'd put out a call for the best of the best, due to the mysterious nature of the colonists disappearance. Shepard was the only N7 to sign up, but she'd recognized some of the other members of the unit from Basic and Special Forces. A few she'd even served with on previous missions.
The mission briefing, gear requisition and finding a bunk on the ship went exactly the way she'd always imagined and it wasn't long before she was headed out to the newest of human colonies. She had to admit that she was excited to be underway.
It was midday when they touched down just outside of the colony. The sun shown down, bright, but not hot. The weather was, in fact, perfect. The setting was tranquil and Shepard could see why anyone would want to colonize this planet. The squad commander split the team of 50 marines into 4 groups and divided the map of the colony into quadrants. Shepard's team got the northwest quadrant: the colonists' living quarters and other communal space.
The planet was lush. Reminded her of old photographs of Earth she'd seen countless times. The colony, however, was completely deserted. It brought to mind ghost towns from old vids she'd snuck into theaters to watch as a teenager. It was eerie, the juxtaposition of verdant flora and the complete absence of fauna. She could hear what she thought may be some form of avian life coming from the forest, but in the settlement there was absolute silence, save for the marines' occasional check-ins over comms.
Her team inspected pre-fab colonial building after pre-fab colonial building. Some beds were made, some looked like its occupant had just gotten up, blanket folded open half across the cot. Datapads were on tables. The communal kitchen was stocked with food, dishes and flatware stored in cupboards and drawers. Everything was in its proper place, evidence of settlement, just without the settlers. A sense of dread crept up her spine. They swept through their quadrant two, three times and could find no evidence of the colonists' fate.
As dusk approached all four teams gathered back at the landing site, reported their findings, or rather, complete lack thereof, and put about setting up camp. They didn't want to accidentally interfere with any evidence they'd missed in the night, and so set up cots in tents near the shuttle. It was technically Aurin's first time "camping," but the thrill was missing, like the colonists. The entire team was on edge. They'd been expecting to find tracks, or, worst-case scenario, blood and bodies, but there had been absolutely nothing.
After settling in, they ate dinner, a few of the men attempted conversation, but it was hollow, forced. Captain said they'd split into two teams bright and early; one to sweep through the forest to the east and the other to recon the foothills to the west. The general consensus had been to turn in, with none of the usual camaraderie that went along with the first night on a new assignment.
There were enough women on the team that they had their own tent, which was a nice change of pace from the usual fart jokes and junk scratching that was probably even now going on in the men's tents. The girls talked at length about the mission, wondering aloud what could have happened. Eventually, they'd all freaked each other out and gradually drifted off into silence. Shepard wasn't sure how long she lay there, still unable to shake that crawling sensation at the base of her spine, but she drifted off into a troubled sleep.
She woke with a start. Couldn't be sure if she'd actually heard anything or merely imagined it so she lay there, eyes wide open, adjusting to the darkness. There. She felt it again. A faint rumbling she would have otherwise written off as an earthquake had it been any less steady. Constant. And increasing in frequency? She just couldn't be certain. She decided to get up and put on her gear. She wanted to verify that something was going on before alerting the camp. No need to wake spooked Marines for a nightmare, after all. They'd just give her hell the next day. She'd always been jumpy – growing up on the streets did that to you – but her instincts had gotten her this far, so she never ignored them.
She opened the flap of the tent in time to see a giant… worm thing rise out of the ground directly beneath the men's tent across the camp.
"The fuck! Everyone up! We're under attack!" she yelled to the sleeping soldiers inside. She'd have yelled louder but the screams of the occupants of that other tent cut through the night. She could barely calm her heart enough to hear through the sound of it pounding in her ears. She had to run back in to her bunk to grab her shotgun. She had her pistol but didn't really think it would have much effect on the thing attacking the camp. She didn't really think her shotgun would fare much better, to be honest, but she needed to have it in her hands.
She reached it as she felt the ground tremble beneath her feet. The other women were half into their armor by now, but she had the feeling that it wasn't going to do any of them any good. She got off a round directly into the face of the creature, a second worm thing, as it punched through the earth in front of her. To their credit, the other women didn't scream as they struggled to kit out before it was too late.
Shepard's shotgun blast had ripped into the thing's face, but it was huge and the injury only seemed to enrage it.
"Fuck!"
She scrambled back, throwing a Warp field into the gaping maw that had opened up as it rose higher from the ground, and tumbled backward over her cot. It hissed into the air and the fabric of the tent began disintegrating around them.
"Acid! It spits some kind of acid!" someone, she didn't recognize the voice, managed to get out.
She watched in horror as for a brief second a scrap of melting fabric struck the nearest Marine who'd just managed to buckle her helmet on and was leveling her assault rifle at the worm thing. As she fired, the acid began eating into her armor, and she screamed as it ate its way into the delicate flesh underneath.
"Oh shit!" Shepard wasn't the only one yelling now. The camp had come alive with the sound of screams, shouting and gunfire.
The one that had come up into her tent went back below, the women who were still alive ringed around it, blasting away, but it had a tough hide - had to, she figured, seeing how easily it traveled through the earth - and it seemed unfazed. It snatched one of the women up, swallowing her whole, before disappearing.
She turned and ran. She had to get to the BFG. Their regular ammo wasn't enough. Her biotics weren't enough. And there were at least two of those worm things. Correction, she thought, orienting herself, searching for the shuttle and the munitions locker, there were four of them. She could see them all now, towering over the camp.
As she finally spotted the shuttle through the bursts of fire - Why did it have to be a moonless planet! - she saw one of them pluck another Marine off the ground and swallow him whole. She felt, and thought she could make out another one sliding back underground, a tentacle of some kind lashing out, wrapping around the ankle of another Marine. He fired off several rounds, severing the first tentacle, but a second lashed out and dragged him below the ground.
The tents slept ten, and out of the five they'd erected none remained. Hers had been disintegrated around them. The one across from hers had been ripped in two. Yet another one had completely collapsed into the ground. She wondered, briefly, as she ran if any of the men who'd been inside that one had even had warning enough to wake before they were swallowed by the ground below.
The final tent, the one that stood between her and the shuttle, appeared to be writhing on the ground. It looked a little like hers had after the worm thing's saliva had made contact and she had the sick feeling that the writhing came from the men trapped inside. She had to find a way around that one.
She could see another Marine out of the corner of her eye, heading for the shuttle just as she was. She saw the ground trembling behind him as one of the worm thing's head surfaced. It was too close and she knew he wasn't going to make it, even before the thing bit him in half before diving back below.
She felt the ground tremble beneath her feet and she spun off to her left, leaping over the side of the hole that had opened in front of her. The woman who'd been behind her was not as lucky and fell headlong into the yawning chasm. Aurin hit the ground rolling, and pulled up to find she'd reached her destination. She climbed into the shuttle and went straight for the munitions locker.
Every Alliance shuttle was equipped with a rocket launcher. She'd just managed to find it as she heard a loud explosion outside. She grinned triumphantly. One of the men must've made it to the Mako and was firing off the cannon. She strapped on the ammo belt and hoisted the launcher just as the shuttle lurched, slamming her backwards into the wall. Dazed, she shook off a possible concussion, wishing she'd had time to strap on her helmet, and ran to the door.
Another loud bang and the blast lit the night sky. Whoever was in the Mako had scored a direct hit on one of those monsters. That actually seemed to be working. It was rocked back by the blow and she wasted no time lining up a shot, straight at the thing's head. It exploded, blowing acid and whatever it had for blood across the field. She sincerely hoped no one was in the way. She'd seen enough soldiers melt before her eyes tonight.
She heard the Mako take another shot, saw it on the other side of the field in that brief flash of light. She could see the worm thing it had aimed at, but caught no sight of the other two she had seen earlier. The Marine in the Mako fired off a second shot at the second worm, but in that flash, Shepard caught sight of a third monster right behind it. She saw it ratchet back and spew forth that acid saliva. Watched in horror as it actually set the vehicle on fire. It arched back, preparing to spit another round of acid, so she launched a rocket directly into the back of its head.
And immediately felt the shuttle start to shake again. Shit! That's got to be the fourth one. She had just enough time to realize that and leap out and away from the vehicle as it was engulfed in acid spit. A droplet splashed off and hissed to the ground inches from where she'd landed. If she made it through this, she swore she'd thank all the gods ever worshiped in the entire galaxy. Through the pounding of her heart she could hear the Mako's turret creaking around for one final shot. Whoever was manning the thing managed to blow the head right off that third worm thing before it exploded.
She hit the deck as flaming hot chunks of acid covered metal shot through the air. In the light from the flames, she glanced back at her final adversary. Saw that it had taken a piece of shrapnel as it burrowed back into the ground. She scrambled to her feet – hell if she was just going to stand there and let it swallow her from below – and took off running for the nearest intact building. There had to be a reason the colonists' settlement was still standing and she wasn't about to take any more chances. Besides, a high vantage point would give her a better shot at that final son of a bitch.
As she was climbing to the roof, she realized that she couldn't hear anything beyond the crackle of the flames of the burning Mako. No sounds of gunfire. No panicked screams and no Marines shouting orders to regroup. She made it to the top without feeling the telltale rumbling of a monster surfacing near her. She could barely make out a tinge of pink on the horizon. Day was breaking. The thought occurred to her that those monsters were nocturnal hunters – after all, they had not been attacked yesterday – and for the first time ever was extremely grateful that some planets had shorter than standard Earth nights.