-Devil's right hand, Steve Earle
OXIC JUNGLEA lone, slight figure pushed their way through the countless fronds from the trees that made up the Toxic Jungle. Stopping occasionally to collect small odds and ends from the innumerable species of plants living there. The figure stopped. It spoke; voice muffled by an oxy-filter mask covering the lower half of its face "Something's not right", one could dtell at least that the explorer was female. She pushed the flight cap back to reveal narrowed dark, gray-green eyes that surveyed the area suspiciously. The explorer looked to the side, straining her ears…
Crackcrackcrack! Crackcrackcrack!
IT didn't take an idiot to figure out what that sound meant, gunshots, she took off, sprinting in the direction of the fire. As she ran she pulled a CZ-150a Assault Rifle off her shoulder and flicked the safety of the automatic weapon. Ahead the gunfire grew more and more intense. As she neared the site of the battle she saw what was going on. A ring of men and women were attacking insects she had never seen before that poured out of a gaping pit in the centre of a large clearing. The new insects were almost spider-like: a blob shaped body with four legs jutting from under it, three long mandibles each tipped with a spike, two long, scythe tipped arms above the upper mandibles and two smaller ones below. Each of the insects had eight eyes. The mandibles each held two, plus one on either side between them, and between the mandibles a gaping maw ringed with teeth. As she stared, shocked and disgusted by the battle and the hideous creatures a cloud of spores exploded behind her and something lifted her bodily into the air. Then it began to crush her, she new that before long her body would be ripped in half. One of the insects had picked her up, staring at her with its blank red eyes and giving a high pitched scream of victory that turned to a scream of pain as the insect's side was torn open. The attack continued, blowing off on mandible, a leg and both the insect's right-side arms. It finally crashed to the ground in a pool of its own bluish blood. Another two reared up, her instincts took over and she opened fire, the first insect was torn apart from the inside, she had fired into its gaping mouth. She rolled to dodge an attack by the second one and opened fire, blowing off two mandibles before the creature fell dead.
"We got 'em on the ropes, move to the hole! Bughole team get the charge ready!"
She stood up from the cloud of dust and one could see that she was about seventeen or eighteen, with short reddish brown hair. Then she saw what she had down, the CZ-150a fell from her hands as she crashed to the ground…
…Meanwhile in the centre of the clearing, at the rim of the pit Matton Maguire didn't have time to save the girl a second, no wait fiftieth time. He was pouring fore from his plastic, Wexley G-36 down into the pit. It was a high-tech weapon, plenty longer than an average assault rifle but fairly thin, rectangular body up about three quarters of the barrel and cylindrical at the end. Long transparent 50 round magazine, folding stock and carrying handle with a laser sight mounted on it. The weapon ran dry, Matton pressed a small button and the curved magazine fell out not having time to hit the ground before he slammed another one in, pulled the action back and opened fire again. The short weapon shook in his hands as it churned through the fifty 10mm rounds in the magazine.
"Charge's ready Matton!" Another soldier, Diesel shouted
"Toss it!" Matton ordered as he blasted another bug, this one fell back down and hit another two bugs along the way. "Two for one!" Matton shouted, at that moment a small cylinder fell down the hole.
"Charge away, everyone to cover!"
Matton sprinted in the direction of the fainted girl, scooping her up he dived into a small trench worn by the passing of many insects. He lay there with the unconscious girl for a few moments before the charge went off. A tall column of flame, clods of earth, plants and spore punched up twenty metres into the air, accompanied by a deafening boom! and a shockwave that flattened several small trees nearby. As the clods of earth began to rain down Matton stood, listening, nothing, the bugs were toast. In fact there were several charred bodies around the smoking crater that had one been a bughole. The other member of his ad hoc strikeforce stood as well or emerged from behind rocks and trees, cheering. Matton joined in, this was a victory of the Bugs, and it should be celebrated, they had too few victories. The girl stirred and moaned, her eyes fluttered open…
…When she regained consciousness the first thing Nausicaa heard was cheering, the first thing she felt was a killer of a headache, the first thing she saw was a tall man dressed in a cap, tattered shirt, flak vest and jeans holding a high tech assault rifle. He also had military webbing that held ammunition, a large revolver and several grenades.
"Name's Matton Maguire, Bug Hunter's my trade" Matton said, he stretched out a black leather gloved hand attached to a thick arm. Nausicaa took the proffered hand and Matton hauled to her feet without any effort. As her vision cleared Nausicaa saw about twenty people, men and women of various appearances were standing, carrying various weapons. Most had the same high-tech weapon Matton was carrying but others had shotguns, different assault rifles, longrifles or flamers. And most had spatters of bluish blood on their clothes. "What have you done? You savages!"
"What the hell you one kid? We just saved a lot o' innocent people, those Bugs aren't like your docile Insects, they're nasty. Their driven by only one thing: the desire to feed" Matton snapped. Stupid girl, who was she to question the man who was saving people's lives. The Bugs weren't insects, they weren't there to conserve the Jungle, they were there to consume it.
"What are you talking about?" Nausicaa asked, perplexed.
"The Bugs are an offshoot of the Insects, granted, but they aren't treehuggers like the Insects. They have only one desire like I said, to feed; If we don't fight them they'll consume every living thing on the planet. Including your precious insects, I once saw a swarm o' these things take down an Ohmu, never stood a chance. But these babies do" Matton patted the long G-36 now slung over his shoulder.
"Well, this is a new development, I hope you'll come back to my town with me so we can talk this over more fully." Nausicaa said, if what Matton said was true, then these truly were dangerous times to be alive. She had grown used to the normally peaceful Insects, but creature that were driven only by the desire to feed?
"We'd be honoured to accept" Matton replied, smiling behind his mask. Then to his team "Alright you apes, we're moving out. Let's go before we have a worn bursting through the ground. Or worse…"
From above a human figure watched the group troop out from the clearing, smoke still issuing from the now sealed Bughole. It was not a huge loss, the Bugs would dig another hole somewhere else, perhaps closer to a town. The figure, dressed in black robes with a hood and mask over its face had one comment on the situation "Fools, they think that if they kill lots of Bugs they've scored a victory. I know the truth: there's only one kind of victory when you're dealing with the bugs, the one that buys you time enough to reload for the next wave. If the Toxic Jungle doesn't wipe out Humanity the Bugs will gladly do it" with that the figure danced from tree limb to tree limb, following the group, intent on carrying out its plan for them, and for the girl they traveled with…