Short Story #1
Infestation
By: RanmaChan
The floor of the dark metal passageway groaned and screeched under the heavy footsteps of the soldiers. The troopers flinched at every groan of the metal, and shuddered at every screech. The men knew that the screeching was not only the aging metal flooring, but also the monsters that infested it. The soldiers wore heavy carapace armor, bearing the dark blue and orange colors of the space defense force, marines corps. Their footsteps continued to ring on the dark metal flooring as they hurried, their orange colors giving them an almost comical look in the darkness.
The squad was made up of six men, two in front, two in the middle, and two in the rear. The hallways were thin and long, and the heavy armor only allowed two of the troopers to walk abreast. Two men in front held metal shields and deactivated chainswords. They were the strongest of the group, ready to hold off anything that sprang from the darkness. The last two pairs had a shotgun and a hand flamer, to create a withering hail of fire and lead in both the front lines, and back.
The thin hallways carried sounds from distant parts of the ship. The most prominent sounds were long blood curdling screams, and the sounds of liquids, presumably blood, dripping onto the cold iron floors. The soldiers, though frightened, kept their vigilant watch both in front and behind them. When they came to passages branching off the main corridor they stopped and waited, on guard for the nightmares that had taken control of the vessel.
Movement registered on the scanner as they stopped, coming from both behind and in front of the squad. One of the soldiers cried out in horror as a chittering mass of creatures suddenly started swarming from every corridor they had passed, and every corridor that was to come. chainswords revved up, their whirling monomolecular-edged teeth creating a scream to compete with the sounds the monsters were making.
Safeties clicked off on shotguns and flamers, shells were pumped into firing chambers, and pilot lights flickered to life. In an instant the darkness was abolished as liquid promethium caught alight and flowed down corridors. Razor sharp pellets burst from shotgun barrels and bounced off bulkheads creating a storm of death.
The noise was almost more frightening then the screams coming from the bridge. The smells of burnt flesh and vaporized blood filled the air, along with the cloying scent of fear. Unnatural alien blood painted the dark walls, and limbs flew in the air as chainswords cut through chitin armor. The metal shields rang out with hits as claws tore at the metal, almost tearing the barriers away from the sweating human hands.
The attack was over as quickly as it had come, and silence once again regained its oppressive dominance on the group. All that was left of the alien horde were twitching limbs and burning bodies. chainswords stopped their mad screams, and guns were once again held only at the ready. The soldiers moved on, stepping over or past the cracking fires and dark green alien blood.
Ragged breathing accompanied the rhythm of footsteps as once again the squad moved along the dark corridors. Slowly they moved out of sight, the shadows consuming them as they made their way to the bridge. There they would confront the heart of the infestation.