Edited by Nod-Flareon
The cavern wall smashed and fell apart, revealing the massive creature that was the Rock Worm. Close to the same height as the Brumak the Chief had taken care of not several hours previous, the worm's monstrous head was alone easily as tall as the entire height of one Brumak. Eyes like a spider, shining black with no pupil of any kind; it stared at them, a terrible aberration.
Opening its jaw-less mouth, a second fleshy section of its face started to emerge out. A second jaw, eyeless and pulsating, it had tendrils similar to any insects, but rather the size of a small crane. It looked like it had puked out a section of it's intestines that just so happened to have a mouth attached.
"Fuck me."
"Rather not," a distracted Mark responded to Richard, who still stared, opened mouthed at the monstrosity.
"Anyone want to commit suicide now?" Baird asked, looking at his pistol like he had a rock for a weapon. The average feeling was now hopelessness. Only the Chief took a step foreword, staring down almost certain death. Raising his rifle and glaring through the scope, he spied the fleshy area, and pulled the trigger once. The row of bullets hit, and sounded like they stuck.
"Great," he said, lowering the gun, his first idea completely gone. "Cortana?"
"You got me Chief- I don't know anything about it or its biology aside from the fact that it's huge!" The AI responded rather desperately.
"And don't look at me," Baird shouted his eyes darting around the ground in thought," I don't know anything about these! Rock Worms have only been officially spotted twice!"
"He's not alone" Marcus growled, staring at the top of the creature, as it slowly squirmed out of the massive hole. A lone figure, the size of a Theron Guard walked out, just on top of the monster. Wearing similar armor to the general the Chief had encountered, but red and black instead of standard dark colors, it wore a headdress helmet that stood up a foot or two, apparently signifying its class.
"NO WAY!!" Baird gasped, staring at the newly come Locust," A Kantus!"
"Great, what the hell do they do exactly?" Dom said, as the Locust stood atop the worm, staring at them, growling some sort of language.
"Another version of the Theron Guard- they're like priests on a battlefield! They can get the injured Locust up and going again, and have been reported to command larger beasts while The Theron Guards command soldiers," Baird said, getting faster and faster as the Kantus howled and the Worm began crawling out little by little, displaying a fleshy underbelly, and a powerful shiny shell surrounding it's main body.
Eventually it curled up, similarly to a cobra, the Locust still atop the head of the beast, and its head atop its body. The worm made another snarl like growl, saliva dripping from its still extended jaw.
"Baird, you had better have an idea or I will feed you to it," Marcus shouted desperately as they all began to step back.
"Does 'Running Away' count for an idea??" Baird whimpered as the worm suddenly trashed out, and began flying toward them, sliding on the ground like a massive snake.
"Good enough!!" Mark screamed as they all turned, and ran full pelt away from the advancing beast. The ground ended close however, and they soon ran into the same wall the Wretches had come to run up and away from the monstrous beast. The beast continued, even as they stopped, turning to face the coming doom.
"Just move aside as it's about to hit," The chief said, readying himself to sprint aside before it smashed them against the wall. "Now!"
"The Worm made contact with none of them, each one being able to dart to the side, as it smashed into a the wall. The Kantus riding the monster laid down, and disappeared with the top of the monster as it slid through the wall, disappearing from view as it's massive entirety slid away. Finally, the groups could see each other again.
"Great. We can avoid it, now how do we stop it?" Howard said, looking at his weapon in his hand. "I doubt a shotgun is going to do much against that damn thing."
"Imulsion, I bet it could will kill it," Baird said, staring into the glowing liquid churning from the rumble of the Rock Worm," it kills anything if it's exposed directly to it for too long."
"So," Marcus began, "we have our little worm go for a swim and we can get out of this mess?"
"That sounds like a logical plan for this group," Cortana added," if you can get it into the substance without killing yourself in the process."
"Leave that to me," The chief sounded, sure he knew what steered the monster. His idea was simple, kick off the Kantus, and then drive the monster into the Imulsion. The only question was how to get on the thing that was as massive as a dinosaur, and tougher than one. "you all keep it distracted, run around and keep it's attention on you. I'll get rid of its boss."
"Yeah, easy job for you!" Baird growled to the chief.
"Want to do it for me?"
Baird scoffed, but didn't retaliate.
"Alright, we're going over there," Marcus pointed to another, larger area in the Imulsion filled cavern to a natural platform at least twice as wide as the one they currently stood on. "You had better use your big monkey Spartan self to kick some ass before we're worm chow."
The chief nodded, but was tempted to ask 'monkey Spartan self' back at the sergeant. From behind them, the rumbling started again. The worm was returning. So the chief ran, getting distance just as the others began their run. He got far ahead of them, turned, and stopped to face the now shaking wall from where they once were. They all ran by him, as he prepared to start running again. He would need to get all the speed he could to get as high as he needed to be. Luckily for him, he spotted a large boulder jutting out of the Imulsion, just tall enough for a well needed boost of height.
The wall broke, and the Soldier started his run. As the Worm howled again and broke free of the side of the cavern, the Chief turned for the boulder, and continued to gain speed, his feet making mini-quakes of their own, as a metric ton began to gain speed. The Monster spotted him, and the Kantus apparently approved of its next action as it began to dive for the chief.
The Spartan leapt, flying for the Boulder, and the worm changed its path, spotting the divide of Imulsion as an obstacle. The Chief continued his momentum as he grabbed a section of the rock, pulled around, and slingshot himself to the Kantus, who unfortunately had been watching the Spartan's progress. Landing right next to the Locust, the Chief aimed a punch into the Kantus' skull, just as it avoided the attack to retaliate with a kick to the Spartan's side.
The kick was strong, very strong. Enough to push the Spartan back a foot to the side. Again he struck out for the Locust as the Worm continued on. The Kantus avoided the attack completely, grabbed the back of his armor, and used his own momentum to redirect his attack to fall off the worm, right into the Imulsion.
Grabbing wildly, the chief grabbed a strange stump tendril along the side of its body, halting his fall into the super-hot substance. Rubbery and tough, he held to it as hard as he could. Finally, the Kantus ran over, and attempted to stomp the Spartan off the worm, which as the chief looked down its body, saw that it was still chasing the Gears, weaving left and right after them. Looking back up, the Kantus landed a clean stomp on his helmet, and he slipped his grip, again grabbing another stub on its side.
Finally, his grip slipped, and he fell, just past the Imulsion and onto the ground. Rolling from the impact, he quickly got back up, watching as the worm again crashed into a wall, driving its head into the solid rock as if it were dust. Its entire body again disappeared, and the scattered group found themselves walking to the center, heaving form all the running.
"Great," Richard gasped," once it passes us, it can't get us."
"But we can't get it, period!" Cole growled, who seemed the most likely to charge in the still open hole where the worm had veered off into. "Damn what would I do for a roasted worm on a plate!"
"I don't think its skin can be penetrated with what we have," Carey breathed, staring at the ground, actually sitting down among the group. "We really need to dump this thing into Imulsion."
"I'm good with that plan," Marcus added, finally catching his breath and standing up to the Chief. "You had some trouble up there?"
The Spartan nodded. "They're tougher than I thought. Better at unarmed combat than Theron Guards."
"Great," Marcus growled again, staring at the indentions where the monstrous worm had carved out of the ground. "So we need a way to get close enough, but at the same time, get far enough away so that it can't throttle us, right?"
"Yeah, pretty much."
The group sighed collectively. Finally sitting down, they realized how much of an impossible creature this was to kill. Of all the things they had come across, the situation seemed worse than any other, aside from two against a single general on a train heading for certain death via Imulsion. Or the time the entire Ark was going to explode but they got away just in time to land on the planet. OR the one time a berserker had decided to start pummeling a passing cargo truck Alpha Squad happened to be in, and they got away with it completely cooked.
"I've been through worse," The chief said, staring at the Imulsion, trying to conceived a method of victory.
"Same here… I think." Marcus said, staring around at his squad.
"Uh-" Mark spoke up, unsure if to add. "We've been through bad stuff. But we have time to learn… I guess."
The Spartan stared at the ground, the wall, and then an imaginary Rock Worm, Bursting through the wall in his mind. His weapon at the moment, his battle rifle was perfect, if it got the perfect range. But he saw that as a near impossibility, as he saw how fast the locust was on top of the Worm. So, he thought of another way. Moving his vision to the two squads watching him, he found the answer.
Looking into the ledge that the platform had before descending into the Imulsion, the chief knew there was a way. He just had to be sure that whoever was going to do it was ready for it.
"Sergeant Fenix," the chief suddenly said, surprising the experienced soldier.
"What? You got something?" The Sergeant walked over, just as the rumbling started up again.
"There's no time, just stay still."
The chief grabbed the armor around the Sergeant, and literally lifted him off his feet and held him like a turret. The other squads stared, but the tremors got louder.
"Uh, Chief?" Marcus slowly said, realizing that the others were backing away, seeing as how the rumbling was growing louder and louder by the second," you want to fill me in on the details? Maybe tell me why aren't we moving aside… or why you're holding me like this?"
"When I say go," the chief explained, as calmly as he could," jump and shoot right for the Kantus."
"Wait," Marcus's eyes widened, and he looked up," you're going to throw me!?"
"Get ready-" the chief pushed back, feeling his and Marcus's weight shift off his normal balance. The wall again started to crumble, as the Worm again emerged. Its fleshy mouth open and snarling as it made right for the two by the ledge, the Chief again made straight for the monster. Each step was harder and harder, but he eventually had the speed to lunge. "Go!"
"Shiit!" Marcus yelled as he was thrown, head first just above the head of the worm. The Chief just missed the open mouth of the creature, and smashed into its side, falling past it as roughly as he had before, spinning near uncontrollably, until he finally stopped.
Marcus pulled his shotgun out in one hand, pointed it in front of him, still in mid air, and pulled the trigger. The Kantus, possibly twenty feet away from him, snarling as he soared above, received a mild blast, stumbling back as the Gear landed harshly behind it. Turning to face the still stumbling Kantus, Marcus cocked the shotgun once, walked up to the recovering Locust, and fired at it's torso, blowing it's entire upper body apart, it's lower arms falling to the ground, it's head shattering and coating the parts of the worm in brains, guts and blood while the still standing legs fell backwards, spilling whatever was left at Marcus' feet.
"Got it!" Marcus shouted, looking down at the others. "I got it- oh shit!" he turned and saw the worm not turning from the lake of yellow glowing liquid just ahead of them. Deciding to run to the back of the beast, he began to hurtle run to the end of the worm, which ironically made him look like he was running in mid air, as the worm was slithering around the same speed to what he was running at.
The Worm, just before it realized it was about to go face first into the Liquid hell, veered left, and into a wall, but not before a large section of it's fleshy underbelly was scorched from falling into the Imulsion. It paused its movement, having Marcus flip around from the sudden stop of inertia, land on his back and fall off the smaller tail section of the worm. After a moment, it continued to whimper and push itself into the dirt, clearing its path into the ground. Finally, after catching itself drifting into Imulsion twice more, it slithered away completely, leaving the dismantled body of its rider behind.
"…What now?" Mark said, pulling up Marcus and nodding to him. "Do we hang around, or what?"
"No, we should probably follow it," Baird shouted from the back of the group, just getting past Cole as he did. "All locust head back home when they're defeated- or die in honor. I'm not sure anyone has seen a Rock Worm retreat yet, but we should follow it-"
"What?" Dom asked, turning to face Baird as if he had just seen a monster suddenly burst from the blonde's chest. "We follow that thing? Just after it damn near ate us or smushed us flat?"
"It's going to want to heal, and to do that," Baird growled back," it needs to head to a safe place- a Locust fortress. Where I'm sure they might have an emergence hole somewhere to get the hell out of this place."
"Alright," Marcus said suddenly, loading the Shotgun again, spinning it as he did," we're going after it."
"And to think," Richard breathed," we were just trying to get rid of it a moment ago… now we want it to come back."
"Yeah, I know man," Dom lightly said back.
"Lets get moving then."
The nine men walked into the hole created by one of the largest locusts abominations ever known. The glistening and simmering Imulsion left behind bubbled suddenly, as a large bubble formed, and popped. Gasses escaping from the bubble, they floated up and into the many holes within the ceiling. The Imulsion had began to boil.
It was only a matter of time the collected vaporized Imulsion would escape.
Bwuhahah! Tis shorter! Im an Medieval man! (starts to dance)
Ahh, anyway, about that little delay… the time I was up in Frostburg was WORTH IT! OMG AWESOME WIN! Epic win for all I care! Only I had no time whatsoever to even LOOK at my story progress. Yeah, sorry about that.
But I did come back with some action, right? Riiight?
So, as far as chapters are concerned, Friday may not always be the best for now on. I'll always try to get at least once per week, but I can not honestly say any more.
So yeah, before I go, two last things to say-
Next time I post a chapter for this story, my poll goes down, so if you still want a chance to decide on my next 'writing' project, you might wanna get over there in the next week or so. And in the meantime, go spend five minutes and read my other story! I promise you, even if you don't have any clue what it is about, it is a worthy read, and you will understand the story in due time.
So seeya guys, and hope to post this weekend once again!
EZB
OH WAIT!
First off, I need to die from last chapter- (Reptile jumps into the room, from Mortal Kombat)
About time you friggen showed up- (Gets swallowed by Reptile, who chews for a moment, and then spits out a row of bones, forming a Skelton, only to fall apart. The Real EZB shows up behind him and pats him on the shoulder)
Thanks. And now for this weeks death… wtf could it be?
(some blonde dude, holding a bible runs up, pointing at EZB) Strange person: I decree upon thou, face divine intervention; OUR LORDS WRATH!! (lightning and fire rains down like a laser form the sky)
WOW HOLY SHIIIIIT!! (is vaporized)
