The drive back to base was long,dreary and boring. The featureless terrain rolled on and on , with only a small icy outcropping here and there to break the doldrums. A bag of saline hung from above Reaper's stretcher with the injection port freshly used for a dose of pleasing morphine. The edge it gave him made his trip more bearable. With the light playing against the ice, lighting up the landscape like a chandelier, it certainly looked spectacular to him. For that short time, the place didn't seem so bad to him.
When the quakes came back though, he wished he had some more morphine. Ross kept his attention split on the road ahead and on his patient. The aftershock frequency had increased , cracks were appearing and shards of ice rising up in a mist of water. "Cap, this place isnt going to last. We gotta pack up the moment we get there and get to that tunnel" he radioed.
Ryuki's hand was sweating. The controller arms had grown moist from his hand. It wasn't the quakes that worried him. That tunnel , it could either be what saves them or what kills them. Crumbling ice was dangerous enough but at least he knew to expect them. An ominous light at the end of an ice strewn tunnel was not so comforting.
The aftershocks continued until they reached the was odd that it stopped, Ryuki thought. There was no time though to dwell on it. The order was already radioed; the camp was packed up and ready by the time they returned. One last check of the elevator was made. The steel pylons and girders showed signs of heavy strain. Only a matter of time before it collapsed outright.
The armored flight decks of their mechs the replaced the open cabins of the buggy's didn't seem to afford any safety to Ryuki. It seemed either were equally vulnerable to whatever lurked in the darkness. And in the end, they wouldn't even have that, Ryuki thought.
A slow ping of the heads up map revealed the direction of the marker. The green dot of the beacon blinked as it transmitted out. Two of the mechs needed to be at a distance from each other, their computers triangulating the beacon's location and relaying out to the others. Instinctively , the formed a V formation as they travelled across the tundra.
Thermal scopes revealed long, winding tunnels under them ,still warm from the the stubby ,slick arms that created them. They twined together, bundled up like cables ,all heading for the same place. That tunnel. That tunnel was a path into the snake pit. It was a trap waiting to be set off. Or it could be the way out,off this frozen pile.
Everyone checked their systems incessantly. Check, re-check ,check again, check the guidance modules, check the fire control computers, check the fuel gages , check, confirm ,re-check ,check to make sure that the autopilot was functioning and not leading them into a solid wall. Check that a round is chambered in the pistol, just in case. No one said it, but everyone thought it. Just in case it comes to that.
They closed in on the tunnel , their thermoptics seeing a blazing fire ahead of them. The ice wall hid a massive structure, its silhouette marked by the dim blue gradients of transient heat sources. It sat there like an ancient monument , maybe built by the creatures that scurried under them.
But why a tunnel? These things dug underground so easily it almost looked like they were swimming through the solid ice. They don't need above ground tunnels. Then again, with every trembling quake , their tunnels surely wouldn't last either. That must be why those entwined burrows all stretched toward that solid piece of work idling in the distance, to get to safety.. Perhaps, its their way off this crumbling frozen ball. Or they might just be trouble makers.
Still, that tunnel had no perceivable purpose. There weren't any signs of recent use other then Reaper's impromptu shelter. That light too , what was it? Ryuki imagined a black shapeless horror waiting behind that light. Its mass of flesh much like the possesed warmachines they found in the hanger.
Its skinless sinew squirming with every muscle twitch, just waiting for prey. Gnashing teeth and an endlessly barbed tongue licking up the tiny morsels of its previous meal. In the shadows, there really wasn't any way to tell it wasn't a monstrosity waiting for them.
It was the klaxon of the unknown ,that tiny thought that seemed to ring like a bad case of tinnitus. It was always there, nagging, squirming ,antagnoizing. Waitingin the gaps of memory , wedging anxiety whenever a doubt was raised. What was that sound? That was the unknown filling the mind with fear. What was that flash of light? It was the shadows jostling for the kill.
Ryuki could hear it in their voices, the fear of the the undecipherable. The slight quiver when they spoke of what the structure was, the tremble in their speech when they tried to explain the things they saw. No doubt their foreheads were dripping from the cold air buffeting their warm bodies and anxious breathing.
They passed the horizon and were in viewing distance of the beacon. A red light mounted to its end pipped steadily though the light seemed to be absorbed wholly by the ice,making it seem like a dot against the darkness. Cracks had formed a web around the entrance , making it seem like a path into a spider's lair. Wolf spiders would build lairs that were hidden from sight to ambush prey as they walked past. A mental note for Ryuki.
Not much could be done about the equipment. Most of it would have to be left behind. The base was redeployed, just so there was some kind of fortification to hold their gear. And just in case something decided to snoop around. The deployable autoturrets were tossed out. Their bodies expanded onto tripods and their turrets lifted off the ground on telescoping masts. Each sported a compound eye, with its red irises looking eerily menacing.
They hastily tossed their armored vests over their arctic uniforms. Their instinctive preparation followed with armor plates fitted into carriers , their holsters strapped tight to their legs and ammo bandoliers stuffed with magazines and plastic explosives. At least they got to the helmets. Worn under their hoods, the sealed plasteel headgear looked like death masks from an otherworldly funeral. Two round eyes sat on the face plates with a dim red glow spilling out. Barry quipped about yetis , no one laughed.
A tense few moments passed as they wondered who would take the first step over the threshold. Ryuki, still setting up his rifle sights, walked passed them without looking."Alright lets move in", he said as he shifted his view to the tunnel.
They didn't notice his anxiety. His eyes focused onto the floor in front of him, trying to avoid first sight with whatever was at the other end. He kept chiding himself over this hidden cowardice. Your their leader, face the path that they're afraid to take alone. You have to do this or they'll see it as a sign of trouble. Ryuki kept talking in his mind , ignoring the quiet chatter behind them.
None of the others noticed Ryuki's forced gaze. They looked at the walls, marveling at the clean, almost mechanically carved walls. Not a single claw mark in sight. Those creatures couldn't have done it. Something that could stand up right and use its hands freely had to build it. As amazing as it was to see such a structure so far away from civilization , an equally terrifying image began to develop in their minds. The existence of the cargo-lift was evidence that someone was using it. But with no signs of any kind of human presence, only a few possibilities remained. Almost all of which were disastrous if true.
The ice seemed to receded as they approached the end of the tunnel. A gust of warm air passed them, with the hot air mixing with the cold surface of their visors, leaving behind a mist of obscuring condensation. Warm air was slowly filling up their suits, making their sweaty bodies stick to their clothing. A bright light ,still seemingly a kilometer away , kept getting brighter as they approached it.
Puddles of steaming water sat inside mushy craters of ice. Icicles on the roof of the tunnel dripped water like stalactites in a cave. In fact, the entire tunnel seemed to just be leading to a massive cave. Sound seemed to echo off the walls and travel far , like a deep cavern. It made their voices alien and disturbing , giving their thoughts a tinge of paranoia. Sure it would have been obvious that it was just their speech being reflected back. But the helmets were thick and the reverb oddly loud. Only a foolhardy soldier wouldn't consider what was talking back.
At the end of the tunnel, a grand chamber opened up to them. The walls were sweating, the heat lifting up from the ground from cracks and vents in the of have melted ice regularly fell from the ceiling. The walls seemed to slowly flow down to the ground It all seemed too unstable to last long.
And still the darkness seemed to consume everything. The light, they found out , was a flood lamp running on a portable fuel cell. The area seemed to have been in use only a short time before they arrived. Yet again though no footprints. Maybe the prints melted along with the ice, though that still didnt explain why there were no marks anywhere.
"Well, looks like we need to venture deeper. Anyone have anything to they need to do or say before we go in? Doesnt look like we'll be coming back this way any time soon", Ryuki said over the radio. The others stood limp, exhausted and tired from the rapid change in temperature and the consequent stickiness from their sweat. "I got one thing to say", Barry radioed. "Lets not wander away , thats how these kinds of movies start off".
Warm drops of water met the surface of reinforced metal of whatever it was that was buried in the ice, plunking as they bounced off and into the floor.. Much of the cavern looked on the verge of melting away. There were vents of steam popping up out of every crevice , like a caldera of a capped volcano. Hot steam, enough to make some permanent scars. The heat source wasn't obvious but the intensity of the steam meant it was very powerful.
A short walk from the mouth of the cavern , they reached a shear wall of greyish blue metal. Karin tapped on it, looking for any sign of hollowed out spaces , only finding that the solid hide of the structure was much more than any bunker she had seen. No luck finding a place to cut open. That lamp though bothered them, especially Ryuki. Someone must have been here and with no footprints leading out, it meant they were still in there somewhere. The ice was too warm to stay solid long enough to dig out tunnels. So the only other place anyone could have gone to was behind the meters thick armor of this ancient ,yet familiar monolith.
Sheets of ice kept sliding off the side of it, racing down and then shattering once they touched the ground. Footing was difficult to find, with every step the ice seemed to get weaker. The puddles were forming everywhere, and with them the loss of any kind of solid ground.
"If we don't get inside this thing, we might as well get our diving gear" Barry's voice echoed in the cavern.
"I really don't mind swimming if it means not going into this, most probable, death trap" Wasp said as she wiped the condensation off her visor.