Chapter Two: Shadows
"How many Marines do we have left to drop?"
"Combining all four units we brought, we have thirty-two troops. We're going to have to switch around the numbers to even things out."
The nervous voices of Captain Hayes and Lieutenant Falkner echoed throughout the barren conference room. The tone of any talk on the command ship, Turuga, had turned to a morbid murmur following the bagging of whatever dead bodies were recovered. Bullet wounds and what appeared to be knife gashes were spread apart the bodies, spilling blood as if it were sweat. The troops carrying back one particular body were, when last seen, near the toilets vomiting after dropping the body when its arms ripped apart from its torso. The only thought on the officers' minds was how to retaliate for such a strike. Hayes and Falkner were joined by the other lieutenants of the Marine units. The Captains of the other cruisers connected to the comm system and prepared to add their thoughts to the conversation. Falkner began, "Gentlemen, Miss, we have thirty-two Marines remaining. I would not wish to send them down to that Hellhole again, but we have little choice, being members of the Colonial Marines. I was given an order and it shall be carried out."
Lieutenant Reeds added, "My men will carry out their orders. This time they know what to expect."
"Lieutenant," Captain Palmer began, "can we expect more resistance on a second drop?"
"Actually, M'am, in my experience, we can expect lighter. They drove us away and now have a bit of an ego running. They won't throw as much at us."
"Nevertheless, we should send down our full complement."
"Agreed, Captain Hayes. We'll teach those sons of bitches not to fuck with us."
"We need to come up with some kind of plan. We can't go in blind."
"Already on that, sir."
A steady voice interrupted the conversation. A young Marine walked in carrying several papers. "We managed to identify some diagrams from the facility, and we found some schematics. We've already identified several points of entry."
Several hours later, the plan of attack was completely formed. Twenty Marines were going to drop near a rear access point and force their way inside as the remaining Marines would split up and use the environment around to distract the mercenaries. The engagement was simple, the methods of moving throughout the compound were quickly becoming the communal headache. The operation would begin at three-hundred hours.
The dropships came to their arranged destinations with little trouble, discounting minor turbulence and a quick operator error. The landing skids touched down with a gentle grace that only an experienced pilot could deliver. Each dropship released its fatal cargo and prepared for emergency retraction. The operation was carefully monitored by an overhead watchdog, the Hellbird. Hayes and Canter had taken their new craft and were now standing by, waiting for any opposition for the fancy flier to crush.
"I can't stand not seeing what exactly is going on. Normal dropships allow so much more control over these situations."
"That's not our job this time, Sarah. Sit back and relax. If those fighter bastards show up again, we get to do our job."
Canter appeared less than motivated by her Captain's words of encouragement, prompting Hayes to command her, "Very well, Commander. Take her down to fifty meters, but no closer. We need to be able to hunt those things down if they should take off."
"We still won't be able to see anything from fifty up."
"Not see, but we will be able to receive all radio communications with minimal distortion. The weather's getting shitty and it could easily fuck with our transmissions. This way, we not only hear them talking, but we get a decent view of the Southern dropship. We can keep an eye on her, just like a good mommy would."
Canter smiled widely and looked back to her partner, "How did you know?"
Hayes looked at her and raised an eyebrow, "I'm not an idiot, Sarah. Does Forty-Seven know yet?"
Canter looked away and quickly thought of her husband and his antics which had earned him the nickname Forty-Seven three years ago. "No, he doesn't know yet."
"Will it be good news or bad?"
"I think good, he may be a bit shocked. We've talked about kids before, but I don't know if we were quite ready. Either way, it's coming very quickly."
"I think you guys will do just fine. Randy's a good man, he'll take care of you. If he doesn't, you be sure to let me know, get me?"
Canter laughed, "What? You going to bust his balls if he doesn't treat me like a lady? Use that shiny captain's badge and stick it to the weakling commander?"
"On the contrary, Commander. I don't know what would ever possess him to treat you like a lady. You're more of a man than I am."
"The banana I ate this morning is more of a man than you are."
"Don't get jealous simply because I could get more men than you ever could."
Canter laughed and replied, "Checkmate, dickless."
Hayes smiled and placed his eyes back on the landscape before him. The ground was a pale brown color, even in the thick of the night. The vague sound of explosions could be made out as he pictured the marines storming the complex again, taking no prisoners until their siege ended in victory. Tiny flashes of light only confirmed that the explosions were becoming more frequent as the operation went on. Many minutes passed without a single sound or brilliant flash of light. Hayes began to fear that something had happened and the operation was going to fail. His fears were alleviated when he saw the purple flare streak up from the middle of the compound. He muttered to himself, "Let's see the red, let's see the red."
Several tense moments passed for Hayes before another flare shot up into the dark night, this one a flaming red. Hayes and Canter began to cheer wildly as they watched the confirmation sign of success fade into the clouds. Hayes looked down with obvious joy in his eyes, "Take us down, Commander! We have some marines to congratulate!"
Lieutenant Reeds and Captain Hayes watched with interest as several captured mercenaries were loaded onto a dropship for removal. This was the first exchange of three that the dropships would have to make to bring all the prisoners back to the cruisers above. The total prisoner count came to thirty-nine. As the panel of the dropship began to rise, a shout came from within the compound, "This one makes forty," a burly Marine pushed a wheeled chair with a man sitting in it, apparently quite unconscious, "we can shove him in this one. I wonder if he's drunk. Maybe we should strap him to..."
A loud crashing noise sounded off, prompting every eye to gaze at a large dome near the East end of the facility. Several missiles streaked out and began to separate as they flew high into the atmosphere. Hayes grabbed his comm unit and began shouting, "Be warned, missiles have been launched! Execute starship defense measures!"
His warning was soon interrupted by the sounds of explosions and screams before trickling out into static. He franticly called out, "Hello? Hello? Is there anyone up there?"
His calls went unanswered as the grim realization set in that the cruisers had all been destroyed or so damaged they would be inoperable. The chances of survival were minimal with the ships being ready for taking in dropships rather than preparing for an assault against them. Slowly, Hayes dropped the comm as he stared blankly at the ground. He swayed from side to side as he mumbled softly before stating, "The ships are down. My guess would be total loss."
A Marine strapping one of the mercenaries in for eventual takeoff removed his sidearm and put it straight to the man's head, "You tell me if there's any more of those coming you fucking piece of..."
"Back down, Corporal. It's too late. We'll deliver their punishment in a different method. The dropships can't support all of us, so we'll do this my way," Lieutenant Sanders said calmly, "we'll leave them here to die after we bomb the facility until it's nothing but ash."
"Big words, you government whore. Go fuck yourself."
"Shut the fuck up. If you open your mouth one more time I'll stick this gun right up your ass."
"Calm down, Corporal."
"Yes, sir."
Static filled the air as a voice sounded from one of the communicators, "...anyone? Can't hear... channel four. Better?"
A dropship pilot nearby grabbed the device and shouted intently, "Much better, damage report!"
"We didn't sustain any casualties regarding personnel. Be warned, we had to up our power to the comm system for this transmission. We're going to lose the ability to communicate if we want to make any repairs. As of now, we are unable to allow dropships to dock, we'll fix that as soon as we can. Situation on planet allows this?"
"Affirmative, we can deal with some locked up mercenaries."
"Can we dock with the other ships?"
"Negative, every ship was struck there. Our thought was that the missiles were fired prematurely. They probably intended to strike us while the hanger doors were open."
Confirmation of the officer's hypothesis was given as many of the mercenaries dropped their heads to disallow eye contact."
The pilot muttered, "Fuckers."
"We will work on the hanger door, it should..."
The transmission faded into static again as the link was lost. The troops began shuffling around as they found various task to keep themselves busy for the next few hours before Lieutenant Reeds finally called out, "Well I don't know about anyone else, but I would like to spend this time indoors."
"The mercenaries?"
"We'll take small shifts watching them, but they can remain out here, strapped into the dropships."
Several smirks appeared on various troopers. They began to wander inside the compound, their minds drifting to food and drink. Hayes followed them and looked back, nodding to the three Marines who remained to watch the prisoners. The cold slam of metal startled Hayes as the compound doors closed them off from the outside world.
Clashing metal alerted the Marines to the restart of the local mechanical systems. Various pistons began firing, prompting the troops to investigate what had been reactivated. Three troops headed down to the sublevels to activate any remaining power grids that had been shut down by the battles before. Privates Rickson, Allio, and Tanner were ordered to charge whatever grids they could without too much trouble, and head back to the main group as quickly as possible. Allio looked to his partners and asked, "Why do I always get the shit jobs?"
"Because the Lieutenant isn't a fucking idiot, he knows which idiots to send to the simple jobs."
"Thanks, Dan. I'll remember that next time you get yourself in the shitter."
"You can call me Private Rickson on duty, thank you."
"Fuck you, Private Rickson."
"Much better."
"Will you two keep it civilized," Private Tanner spat out, "Let's just get this over with, all right?"
The conversation was dually interrupted by a loud banging sound off in the distance. The Marines headed deeper into the long hallway they had now entered and focused hard to take in whatever light they could. Giving in to the darkness each turned their shoulder lamps on one after another. Allio began to raise his pulse rifle into a ready position. Confused looks from his comrades made him state, "You never know."
Laughing, they proceeded on into the hall. Reaching a dead end after approximately seventy meters, they began looking over what they identified as the local power relay station. Flipping switches and jerking handles began to sound off loud noises in the distance as lights began to spark back to life. The long hallways they had walked down was completely lit, allowing the soldiers to see that its length served a purpose. Various pumps and activation switches covered the walls, connected by a complex series of cables and tubing. Colored bars on each switch implied similar systems that worked as one. Many of the switches appeared to already be in their respective on positions. The Marines moved down the hallway, blindly attempting to make sense of the complicated web of cables. Rickson shouted down the hall, "Hey, Allio, should we just start turning these bitches on?"
"Beats the Hell out of me, think it would hurt?"
"Probably, knowing our luck."
Allio laughed and pulled one of the switches up. A heavy sound began to fill the air, reminiscent of a thick liquid gently flowing. The pumps began to shift up and down along the walls as random pipes started to quietly shift about as they filled with liquid. Seeing the success of one switch, the troops began to activate the remaining ones. More pumps began to work, filling every pipe in the room with whatever liquid the facility appeared to have a vast supply of. A quiet klaxon alerted the troops to a computer screen that indicated that the source of the liquid was jammed. Following the system of pipes became more confusing the closer they got to the other end of the long hall. Tanner looked down to see the pipes all join into one pump that connected into the wall. He looked for an opening, but found nothing. A blinking red light caught his attention, allowing him to find a button located on the pump's side. He pressed it and watched in awe as a simple bulkhead lifted, allowing him to enter on his hands and knees. He crawled through the access tunnel and found himself in a large opening. A single catwalk extended from the end of the tunnel, expanding over a huge cavity in the floor filled with a lightly glowing yellow liquid Tanner called out, "Guys, this way, come in here! Hope you're not claustrophobic!"
Allio and Rickson found themselves on the catwalk with Tanner, staring at the enormous cavern they had discovered. They ventured further into the cavern and found themselves walking a great distance over the yellow liquid. As they walked they noticed how humid the air was getting. A pungent odor began to penetrate their senses over anything else. It became hard to breathe as the air got thicker with moisture. Drops of water fell from overhanging pipes and bulkheads, creating a steady ambient noise that slightly disturbed the peace of the cavern itself. A loud crash from behind forced the soldiers to turn around and glance behind them. A vague shape in the distance alerted them to another creature's presence. A similar noise clapped in the distance, this one from the other side of their position. Rickson listened to the world around him, noting the hissing sound that reminded him of his cat back on Earth. He heard several sounds clash together as a high pitched screech and a metallic bang filled the cavern, echoing throughout. He looked back to find a streak of blood on the catwalk, and only one of his partners remaining. He saw Allio standing with his eyes wide open, looking right at the blood. He yelled, "What the fuck just happened?"
His question went unanswered as the blood began to appear from the back of Allio's head, dripping onto his shoulders. His body collapsed upon the walk, dangling his right arm over the edge. His pulse rifle slipped from his now lifeless hand and made a terrific splash in the liquid below. Without hesitation, Rickson crouched down and held his rifle up to his head, prepared to fire on anything that moved. A shadow danced on the wall ahead of him in a mocking tone. He fired at the wall with little hope of hitting anything. The noise of his rifle made him feel secure and powered as he faced an invisible enemy. Another bang behind him forced him to turn about and fire blindly at the catwalk. A sharp pain rippled through his back as he felt a tremendous force strike him. He threw his hand upon his shoulder and felt a deep gash leading towards his spine. He pulled his hand to his face and began to shake as he saw his own blood on his fingers. A screech again filled the air, followed by the sound of ripping flesh. A black streak flew by his face as he grabbed his left arm, feeling the deep cuts now there. He could feel the bone underneath, broken as it was.
He began running as quickly as he could. The same forceful sting he had felt in his back now struck his legs, immediately causing him to lose balance. He toppled to the catwalk and crouched in a defensive position. Rickson became so distracted with his new wounds that he failed to notice the pair of hands slipping towards his neck from above. Screams filled the cavern as the hands quickly claimed Rickson's neck as they pulled him from the catwalk. With the last bit of his strength, he pulled the knife from his belt and began to swing it wildly in the air above his head. The screams faded into the distance as the overpowering crunch of a lifeless body being broken in half filled the expanse. The knife fell into the pool below after hitting the catwalk lightly on its way down. A small number of liquid drops followed closely. Two drops hit the catwalk, sizzling as they slowly burned their way through the durable metal.
"How long have they been gone now?"
"It doesn't matter, I'm sure they're just trying to find out what grids need to be turned on yet."
"They've already activated the primaries, why worry about anything else?"
"Maybe they don't know they got the primaries already, maybe they found something equally interesting, I don't know, but we don't need to worry. They would have sent a message if anything had gone wrong. Those are three good soldiers who get their jobs done."
"If you say so. I'll be in the lab if you need anything, they've got some interesting information on biochemical weapons we may find useful for prosecution."
Hayes walked away, only lightly considering the conversation he just concluded. His duty was to get whatever troops remained off the planet when he could, his attention did not fall on grunt work.
Lieutenant Reeds walked back to the large cafeteria the troops had made their temporary base of operations. He looked around and took a mental tally of the personnel present. Of the units, four Lieutenants remained: Sanders, Falkner, Penning, and himself. The troops now consisted of seven Sergeants, three Corporals, and fifteen Privates. The only personnel missing from the room were the three Marines he had sent to activate whatever power grids possible and the three assigned to watch over the prisoners outside. He gently nodded to the troops and smiled to the members of his own unit. His feelings drifted towards sorrow as he thought of the many Marines who laid injured back on the cruisers. Even worse was the number of deaths that had escalated quickly in their first drop. He was glad to have whatever troops he did, filing reports for the fallen was already going to be a big enough hassle. His superiors were going to question every action they made before finally realizing they had made the mistake of sending in a strike force confident of its superiority when in fact they were outnumbered and outgunned. Any mercenary force with the capability to damage four star cruisers was well beyond an ordinary team. These mercenaries were obviously well funded ones and it was going to be a heavy investigation to figure out where all the money was coming from. Luckily, investigation was nit part of his job description. His job was to destroy whatever offensive capabilities they had in the facility, clear out the mercenaries, and let the government scientists do the research. All they had left to do was wait for the hangers to be operable again and they would all leave this Hellhole. Only one ship needed to be repaired, the troops could easily all fit inside the cruiser, it would just be a matter of back and forth retrieval procedures for the pilots. That was their job, he didn't care if it was a pain in the ass. His thoughts were answered by a frightening confirmation of his theory. The radio nearby crackled in, "...going to send the other two cruisers back. We can't fix them here, but the Dantrol and Argo are going to remain in orbit until we can bring you up safely."
Reeds attempted to grab the radio before it was snatched away by one of the dropship pilots, he replied quickly, "Captain Palmer, we read you loud and clear. You've got support here, so long as we can get out of here quickly."
Palmer was the captain of the Turuga. She was an intelligent woman with a small wild side that only waited to be unleashed upon some poor idiot stupid enough to attack a government battle cruiser. Reeds trusted a decision to send their support home so long as she was making it. He didn't allow himself to worry about the situation at all, two cruisers was more than enough to haul his troops back home. The prisoners may be a little cramped, but there was always plenty of room back on the planet inside one of their own prison cells. He heard the Captain's voice on the radio again, "Very good, Commander. I'll send them on their way then. Palmer out."
The radio crackled before going quiet. Reeds looked to a clock on the wall and began shifting uncomfortably in the chair he had taken advantage of. He looked around, slightly agitated, for a few minutes before saying, "God damn it, all right, who wants to go find our lost Marines?"
Several laughs answered him before a few random Marines lifted their hands to acknowledge the Lieutenant. He responded, "Excellent, good men. You, you, and you. Don't worry about any fucking power grids, just go get them and bring them back here. Idiots probably got lost looking for the pisser on the way back."
Two Privates and a Corporal stood from their chairs and walked out of the room, following clearly marked signs that led to Power Station A-1. Reeds watched them leave saying, "Corporal Dyson, their lives are in your hands."
Dyson smiled and replied, "I'll do my best to make sure they don't shit themselves before you get a hold of them."
Reeds smiled and looked back to the table in front of him. There was nothing left to do but sit and wait. He looked up and glanced at Lieutenant Falkner who sat across from him at the table asking, "So anybody got a deck of cards?"
Canter carefully twisted dials and pressed buttons to determine the status of the Hellbird. It hadn't taken any obvious damage, but that rarely meant it was completely unscathed. Hayes joined her, only momentarily glancing at the dropships that held the prisoner mercenaries. The three guards were all smoking, rifles placed atop various crates or barrels. They looked at him with both disgust and awe. It was a common occurrence to find Marines and Fleet personnel not getting along. Hayes ignored any hostility that may have been directed at him and proceeded towards the Hellbird. Canter looked to him and smiled before placing her eyes back on the control panel in front of her. He hands worked furiously at the panel to make sure the Hellbird would be ready for take off as soon as they needed to leave. Hayes walked towards the rear of the ship, doing his best to look like he was inspecting the ship. In actuality, he found the entire situation they were in to be boring. Being deserted temporarily on a strange planet was not an uncommon occurrence among dropship pilots and this was no different. His thoughts drifted to matters back home, but not enough to miss the large gash in the ship's hull. He ran his hand over it gently, feeling the jagged edges of the metal caress his fingers. The cut ran for approximately half a meter along the back side of the ship. It wasn't deep and appeared to have done little, if any, damage. He brushed his hand along the last bit of the gash and felt a sharp pain instantly flash through his body. A noise that reminded Hayes of frying bacon prompted him to sniff the air. The smell wasn't anything near bacon as he expected, rather it was a sickly smell that resembled acidic vomit. His fingers began to burn as they turned a bright red color. Hayes quickly jumped in the air out of fear, wiping his hand on the ship's hull and his own clothes. Realizing his error, he took his flight jacket off, tossed it to the ground and reached toward the dirt. He rubbed his hand in the soil until the pain subsided. Frowning, he moved to Canter and stated calmly, "I think one of the fuel routes has corroded, something's got the rear hull all fucked up. Did you see it?"
"I didn't notice, what's wrong?"
"A cut in the hull, looks like something ripped through it. It can't be though, there's some acid on there. Could be the alkaline injectors, smells like shit too."
"Injectors always fail, though I thought they took those old pieces of junk off this baby. Oh well, it's an unnecessary system for what we're doing, we can let the alkaline leak out, we better just make sure it doesn't corrode any more of the hull."
"Hey, wait a tick, Sarah. They always had this problem before, random dropships would have holes in them when the injectors leaked. They got way too close to the generator. I thought they tried to improve on it for the new models."
"What's your point?"
"Aren't the alkaline injectors located on the bottom of the ship near the cockpit?"
"Lieutenant Reeds, sir," Dyson called, "I can't find the troops anywhere. We found the power relays, but there was no sign of them there."
"Corporal, you obviously need to look harder, you found your way back, they should have been able to as well."
"I'm sorry, sir. There was no indication of the way they left out of there. It was obvious they'd been down there, all kinds of switches and levers recently pulled, that type of evidence was obvious. There was no way they could have gotten out of there other than the main entrance from the utility hall."
"Try the comms again, we need to find them before we can even consider taking off."
Several marines scrambled around the room, activating panels and various devices. A slight urgency beckoned their actions to proceed faster than usual. The other lieutenants barked out orders in a hurried method to achieve the best results from their troops.
The mercenaries eyed each other in a hushed and depressed state. They knew the rest of their lives were going to be made miserable, and being kept outside strapped inside a dropship was no way to help things along. Each made quick eye contact with another and quickly switched their gaze to another of the prisoners. Many eyes fell upon the man strapped down that appeared to be completely unconscious. There appeared to be no physical wounds on him, which prompted his comrades to question his state. As if on cue, the mercenary suddenly shifted and moaned. His eyes fluttered open and his vision returned quickly. He understood the situation almost immediately, proving himself correct as he tried to lift his arms. The heavy straps securely held him down. His first thoughts were on panic and anger. As he felt is body send him distress messages be quietly said to the man next to him, "Son of a bitch, when is the last time we ate? I'm hungry as all hell, are these assholes feeding us?"
A warm substance oozed over Tanner's left eye, startling him awake. His vision cleared quickly and he looked about as much as possible. His head was completely restrained, though he could not see with what. Roaming with his eyes, he noted above all that it was dark. There was little light, only enough to see a floor and a wall off to the left. He appeared to be suspended about two meters in the air, but saw no platform below him. Frustration flooded his mind as he attempted to plant his feet on something solid and noticed their hindered movements as well. His entire body felt like it was in a cast, he could barely move, and breathing itself was even difficult. As his senses returned to him, he smelled a horrible odor everywhere around him. The same ooze that covered his eye caked his entire body, though it was much stiffer. He struggled to move only to tire himself uselessly. With heavy groans, Tanner kept shifting his weight to try and break free from the cocoon. Strained grunts echoed throughout whatever room he was in, booming back and forth between seemingly empty walls. He couldn't see anything beyond six or seven meters, filling his mind with all kinds of fantastic images of the horrors that waited in the dark beyond. A light cracking noise informed him that he had freed his head slightly. As he moved, he saw a small flash of light down below him. An oval shaped object was placed on the ground a meter away from him. It had a slight yellow tinge that dulled as it neared the top of the shape into what appeared to be a cross shaped crack. A movement to his right side caught his eye and he did his best to look to see what had occurred. Tanner was unable to describe what he saw with anything of scientific value. He noticed a black shape moving in the shadows, it appeared to be humanoid with a shiny, wet skin. The creature was gone as quickly as it appeared, leaving Tanner with thousands of questions circulating through his head. He quickly noticed the new oval shaped object that had appeared where the creature had darted away from, however. More questions began to fill his mind, but he was interrupted by a strange organic noise. A noise that sounded like the squishing of fruit bellowed in his ears as he saw the cracks on the oval shape widen until they revealed an opening into the oval. The flaps on top folded downwards, giving Tanner a full view into the object. He saw what looked like raw meat sitting in the object. A wet, pink cushion blocked any view into the oval. The layer rippled slightly, then again. He watched wide-eyed in both horror and curiosity, as the layer peeled away slowly. Two slender fingers extended from the oval, then two more, then two more. They had the same yellow tint to them as the oval itself. The fingers appeared bony and weak, like crab legs, though much longer. A total of eight fingers now extended from the oval and began to rise out until they revealed their joining point. A flat, rounded object hoisted itself from the oval with the power of those fingers. Tanner's curiosity quickly turned to fear as he noticed the tail fixed to the back of the hand-shaped object. It was a living creature, it swayed it's long, slender tail back and forth and used its fingers like spider's legs. Quicker than Tanner imagined it could, the creature jumped straight onto his chest. To his surprise, the creature remained still, not impaired by the laws of gravity. It slowly crawled up near his face. Realizing that was the only exposed part of his body, Tanner began to shake his head as much as the cocoon allowed. The creature was unimpressed by his valiant effort. The cold, bony fingers touch his cheek as it brought itself near his mouth. He screamed as loudly as he could. Startling the creature, it quickly brought itself completely over his face, covering his eyes to his mouth. The fingers wrapped themselves around his head and the slender tail around his neck. The creature's grip hurt him, but the pain was of little concern as he noticed the bonding of the creature to his face. He felt a hot liquid cover his skin directly under the creature, ensuring it could not be removed. The creature attempted to open his mouth. Rather, he felt a tube-like object attempting to force its way inside. He kept his mouth closed as much as he could, but made an instinctive attempt to gasp for oxygen. He felt the tube slide itself into his mouth, violating him in a way he found unimaginable. Choking as the tube slid down his throat, he shivered violently as he realized the tube had extended down fully through his throat. He coughed fiercely several times before losing consciousness. As the creature slid its tube down completely into Tanner's lungs, it slightly relaxed the grip it held with his fingers and tail. Two large, circular sacs located near its tail began to expand and contract as it fed its victim air. Tanner, despite his unconscious desires, was still very alive.
"How many Marines do we have left to drop?"
"Combining all four units we brought, we have thirty-two troops. We're going to have to switch around the numbers to even things out."
The nervous voices of Captain Hayes and Lieutenant Falkner echoed throughout the barren conference room. The tone of any talk on the command ship, Turuga, had turned to a morbid murmur following the bagging of whatever dead bodies were recovered. Bullet wounds and what appeared to be knife gashes were spread apart the bodies, spilling blood as if it were sweat. The troops carrying back one particular body were, when last seen, near the toilets vomiting after dropping the body when its arms ripped apart from its torso. The only thought on the officers' minds was how to retaliate for such a strike. Hayes and Falkner were joined by the other lieutenants of the Marine units. The Captains of the other cruisers connected to the comm system and prepared to add their thoughts to the conversation. Falkner began, "Gentlemen, Miss, we have thirty-two Marines remaining. I would not wish to send them down to that Hellhole again, but we have little choice, being members of the Colonial Marines. I was given an order and it shall be carried out."
Lieutenant Reeds added, "My men will carry out their orders. This time they know what to expect."
"Lieutenant," Captain Palmer began, "can we expect more resistance on a second drop?"
"Actually, M'am, in my experience, we can expect lighter. They drove us away and now have a bit of an ego running. They won't throw as much at us."
"Nevertheless, we should send down our full complement."
"Agreed, Captain Hayes. We'll teach those sons of bitches not to fuck with us."
"We need to come up with some kind of plan. We can't go in blind."
"Already on that, sir."
A steady voice interrupted the conversation. A young Marine walked in carrying several papers. "We managed to identify some diagrams from the facility, and we found some schematics. We've already identified several points of entry."
Several hours later, the plan of attack was completely formed. Twenty Marines were going to drop near a rear access point and force their way inside as the remaining Marines would split up and use the environment around to distract the mercenaries. The engagement was simple, the methods of moving throughout the compound were quickly becoming the communal headache. The operation would begin at three-hundred hours.
The dropships came to their arranged destinations with little trouble, discounting minor turbulence and a quick operator error. The landing skids touched down with a gentle grace that only an experienced pilot could deliver. Each dropship released its fatal cargo and prepared for emergency retraction. The operation was carefully monitored by an overhead watchdog, the Hellbird. Hayes and Canter had taken their new craft and were now standing by, waiting for any opposition for the fancy flier to crush.
"I can't stand not seeing what exactly is going on. Normal dropships allow so much more control over these situations."
"That's not our job this time, Sarah. Sit back and relax. If those fighter bastards show up again, we get to do our job."
Canter appeared less than motivated by her Captain's words of encouragement, prompting Hayes to command her, "Very well, Commander. Take her down to fifty meters, but no closer. We need to be able to hunt those things down if they should take off."
"We still won't be able to see anything from fifty up."
"Not see, but we will be able to receive all radio communications with minimal distortion. The weather's getting shitty and it could easily fuck with our transmissions. This way, we not only hear them talking, but we get a decent view of the Southern dropship. We can keep an eye on her, just like a good mommy would."
Canter smiled widely and looked back to her partner, "How did you know?"
Hayes looked at her and raised an eyebrow, "I'm not an idiot, Sarah. Does Forty-Seven know yet?"
Canter looked away and quickly thought of her husband and his antics which had earned him the nickname Forty-Seven three years ago. "No, he doesn't know yet."
"Will it be good news or bad?"
"I think good, he may be a bit shocked. We've talked about kids before, but I don't know if we were quite ready. Either way, it's coming very quickly."
"I think you guys will do just fine. Randy's a good man, he'll take care of you. If he doesn't, you be sure to let me know, get me?"
Canter laughed, "What? You going to bust his balls if he doesn't treat me like a lady? Use that shiny captain's badge and stick it to the weakling commander?"
"On the contrary, Commander. I don't know what would ever possess him to treat you like a lady. You're more of a man than I am."
"The banana I ate this morning is more of a man than you are."
"Don't get jealous simply because I could get more men than you ever could."
Canter laughed and replied, "Checkmate, dickless."
Hayes smiled and placed his eyes back on the landscape before him. The ground was a pale brown color, even in the thick of the night. The vague sound of explosions could be made out as he pictured the marines storming the complex again, taking no prisoners until their siege ended in victory. Tiny flashes of light only confirmed that the explosions were becoming more frequent as the operation went on. Many minutes passed without a single sound or brilliant flash of light. Hayes began to fear that something had happened and the operation was going to fail. His fears were alleviated when he saw the purple flare streak up from the middle of the compound. He muttered to himself, "Let's see the red, let's see the red."
Several tense moments passed for Hayes before another flare shot up into the dark night, this one a flaming red. Hayes and Canter began to cheer wildly as they watched the confirmation sign of success fade into the clouds. Hayes looked down with obvious joy in his eyes, "Take us down, Commander! We have some marines to congratulate!"
Lieutenant Reeds and Captain Hayes watched with interest as several captured mercenaries were loaded onto a dropship for removal. This was the first exchange of three that the dropships would have to make to bring all the prisoners back to the cruisers above. The total prisoner count came to thirty-nine. As the panel of the dropship began to rise, a shout came from within the compound, "This one makes forty," a burly Marine pushed a wheeled chair with a man sitting in it, apparently quite unconscious, "we can shove him in this one. I wonder if he's drunk. Maybe we should strap him to..."
A loud crashing noise sounded off, prompting every eye to gaze at a large dome near the East end of the facility. Several missiles streaked out and began to separate as they flew high into the atmosphere. Hayes grabbed his comm unit and began shouting, "Be warned, missiles have been launched! Execute starship defense measures!"
His warning was soon interrupted by the sounds of explosions and screams before trickling out into static. He franticly called out, "Hello? Hello? Is there anyone up there?"
His calls went unanswered as the grim realization set in that the cruisers had all been destroyed or so damaged they would be inoperable. The chances of survival were minimal with the ships being ready for taking in dropships rather than preparing for an assault against them. Slowly, Hayes dropped the comm as he stared blankly at the ground. He swayed from side to side as he mumbled softly before stating, "The ships are down. My guess would be total loss."
A Marine strapping one of the mercenaries in for eventual takeoff removed his sidearm and put it straight to the man's head, "You tell me if there's any more of those coming you fucking piece of..."
"Back down, Corporal. It's too late. We'll deliver their punishment in a different method. The dropships can't support all of us, so we'll do this my way," Lieutenant Sanders said calmly, "we'll leave them here to die after we bomb the facility until it's nothing but ash."
"Big words, you government whore. Go fuck yourself."
"Shut the fuck up. If you open your mouth one more time I'll stick this gun right up your ass."
"Calm down, Corporal."
"Yes, sir."
Static filled the air as a voice sounded from one of the communicators, "...anyone? Can't hear... channel four. Better?"
A dropship pilot nearby grabbed the device and shouted intently, "Much better, damage report!"
"We didn't sustain any casualties regarding personnel. Be warned, we had to up our power to the comm system for this transmission. We're going to lose the ability to communicate if we want to make any repairs. As of now, we are unable to allow dropships to dock, we'll fix that as soon as we can. Situation on planet allows this?"
"Affirmative, we can deal with some locked up mercenaries."
"Can we dock with the other ships?"
"Negative, every ship was struck there. Our thought was that the missiles were fired prematurely. They probably intended to strike us while the hanger doors were open."
Confirmation of the officer's hypothesis was given as many of the mercenaries dropped their heads to disallow eye contact."
The pilot muttered, "Fuckers."
"We will work on the hanger door, it should..."
The transmission faded into static again as the link was lost. The troops began shuffling around as they found various task to keep themselves busy for the next few hours before Lieutenant Reeds finally called out, "Well I don't know about anyone else, but I would like to spend this time indoors."
"The mercenaries?"
"We'll take small shifts watching them, but they can remain out here, strapped into the dropships."
Several smirks appeared on various troopers. They began to wander inside the compound, their minds drifting to food and drink. Hayes followed them and looked back, nodding to the three Marines who remained to watch the prisoners. The cold slam of metal startled Hayes as the compound doors closed them off from the outside world.
Clashing metal alerted the Marines to the restart of the local mechanical systems. Various pistons began firing, prompting the troops to investigate what had been reactivated. Three troops headed down to the sublevels to activate any remaining power grids that had been shut down by the battles before. Privates Rickson, Allio, and Tanner were ordered to charge whatever grids they could without too much trouble, and head back to the main group as quickly as possible. Allio looked to his partners and asked, "Why do I always get the shit jobs?"
"Because the Lieutenant isn't a fucking idiot, he knows which idiots to send to the simple jobs."
"Thanks, Dan. I'll remember that next time you get yourself in the shitter."
"You can call me Private Rickson on duty, thank you."
"Fuck you, Private Rickson."
"Much better."
"Will you two keep it civilized," Private Tanner spat out, "Let's just get this over with, all right?"
The conversation was dually interrupted by a loud banging sound off in the distance. The Marines headed deeper into the long hallway they had now entered and focused hard to take in whatever light they could. Giving in to the darkness each turned their shoulder lamps on one after another. Allio began to raise his pulse rifle into a ready position. Confused looks from his comrades made him state, "You never know."
Laughing, they proceeded on into the hall. Reaching a dead end after approximately seventy meters, they began looking over what they identified as the local power relay station. Flipping switches and jerking handles began to sound off loud noises in the distance as lights began to spark back to life. The long hallways they had walked down was completely lit, allowing the soldiers to see that its length served a purpose. Various pumps and activation switches covered the walls, connected by a complex series of cables and tubing. Colored bars on each switch implied similar systems that worked as one. Many of the switches appeared to already be in their respective on positions. The Marines moved down the hallway, blindly attempting to make sense of the complicated web of cables. Rickson shouted down the hall, "Hey, Allio, should we just start turning these bitches on?"
"Beats the Hell out of me, think it would hurt?"
"Probably, knowing our luck."
Allio laughed and pulled one of the switches up. A heavy sound began to fill the air, reminiscent of a thick liquid gently flowing. The pumps began to shift up and down along the walls as random pipes started to quietly shift about as they filled with liquid. Seeing the success of one switch, the troops began to activate the remaining ones. More pumps began to work, filling every pipe in the room with whatever liquid the facility appeared to have a vast supply of. A quiet klaxon alerted the troops to a computer screen that indicated that the source of the liquid was jammed. Following the system of pipes became more confusing the closer they got to the other end of the long hall. Tanner looked down to see the pipes all join into one pump that connected into the wall. He looked for an opening, but found nothing. A blinking red light caught his attention, allowing him to find a button located on the pump's side. He pressed it and watched in awe as a simple bulkhead lifted, allowing him to enter on his hands and knees. He crawled through the access tunnel and found himself in a large opening. A single catwalk extended from the end of the tunnel, expanding over a huge cavity in the floor filled with a lightly glowing yellow liquid Tanner called out, "Guys, this way, come in here! Hope you're not claustrophobic!"
Allio and Rickson found themselves on the catwalk with Tanner, staring at the enormous cavern they had discovered. They ventured further into the cavern and found themselves walking a great distance over the yellow liquid. As they walked they noticed how humid the air was getting. A pungent odor began to penetrate their senses over anything else. It became hard to breathe as the air got thicker with moisture. Drops of water fell from overhanging pipes and bulkheads, creating a steady ambient noise that slightly disturbed the peace of the cavern itself. A loud crash from behind forced the soldiers to turn around and glance behind them. A vague shape in the distance alerted them to another creature's presence. A similar noise clapped in the distance, this one from the other side of their position. Rickson listened to the world around him, noting the hissing sound that reminded him of his cat back on Earth. He heard several sounds clash together as a high pitched screech and a metallic bang filled the cavern, echoing throughout. He looked back to find a streak of blood on the catwalk, and only one of his partners remaining. He saw Allio standing with his eyes wide open, looking right at the blood. He yelled, "What the fuck just happened?"
His question went unanswered as the blood began to appear from the back of Allio's head, dripping onto his shoulders. His body collapsed upon the walk, dangling his right arm over the edge. His pulse rifle slipped from his now lifeless hand and made a terrific splash in the liquid below. Without hesitation, Rickson crouched down and held his rifle up to his head, prepared to fire on anything that moved. A shadow danced on the wall ahead of him in a mocking tone. He fired at the wall with little hope of hitting anything. The noise of his rifle made him feel secure and powered as he faced an invisible enemy. Another bang behind him forced him to turn about and fire blindly at the catwalk. A sharp pain rippled through his back as he felt a tremendous force strike him. He threw his hand upon his shoulder and felt a deep gash leading towards his spine. He pulled his hand to his face and began to shake as he saw his own blood on his fingers. A screech again filled the air, followed by the sound of ripping flesh. A black streak flew by his face as he grabbed his left arm, feeling the deep cuts now there. He could feel the bone underneath, broken as it was.
He began running as quickly as he could. The same forceful sting he had felt in his back now struck his legs, immediately causing him to lose balance. He toppled to the catwalk and crouched in a defensive position. Rickson became so distracted with his new wounds that he failed to notice the pair of hands slipping towards his neck from above. Screams filled the cavern as the hands quickly claimed Rickson's neck as they pulled him from the catwalk. With the last bit of his strength, he pulled the knife from his belt and began to swing it wildly in the air above his head. The screams faded into the distance as the overpowering crunch of a lifeless body being broken in half filled the expanse. The knife fell into the pool below after hitting the catwalk lightly on its way down. A small number of liquid drops followed closely. Two drops hit the catwalk, sizzling as they slowly burned their way through the durable metal.
"How long have they been gone now?"
"It doesn't matter, I'm sure they're just trying to find out what grids need to be turned on yet."
"They've already activated the primaries, why worry about anything else?"
"Maybe they don't know they got the primaries already, maybe they found something equally interesting, I don't know, but we don't need to worry. They would have sent a message if anything had gone wrong. Those are three good soldiers who get their jobs done."
"If you say so. I'll be in the lab if you need anything, they've got some interesting information on biochemical weapons we may find useful for prosecution."
Hayes walked away, only lightly considering the conversation he just concluded. His duty was to get whatever troops remained off the planet when he could, his attention did not fall on grunt work.
Lieutenant Reeds walked back to the large cafeteria the troops had made their temporary base of operations. He looked around and took a mental tally of the personnel present. Of the units, four Lieutenants remained: Sanders, Falkner, Penning, and himself. The troops now consisted of seven Sergeants, three Corporals, and fifteen Privates. The only personnel missing from the room were the three Marines he had sent to activate whatever power grids possible and the three assigned to watch over the prisoners outside. He gently nodded to the troops and smiled to the members of his own unit. His feelings drifted towards sorrow as he thought of the many Marines who laid injured back on the cruisers. Even worse was the number of deaths that had escalated quickly in their first drop. He was glad to have whatever troops he did, filing reports for the fallen was already going to be a big enough hassle. His superiors were going to question every action they made before finally realizing they had made the mistake of sending in a strike force confident of its superiority when in fact they were outnumbered and outgunned. Any mercenary force with the capability to damage four star cruisers was well beyond an ordinary team. These mercenaries were obviously well funded ones and it was going to be a heavy investigation to figure out where all the money was coming from. Luckily, investigation was nit part of his job description. His job was to destroy whatever offensive capabilities they had in the facility, clear out the mercenaries, and let the government scientists do the research. All they had left to do was wait for the hangers to be operable again and they would all leave this Hellhole. Only one ship needed to be repaired, the troops could easily all fit inside the cruiser, it would just be a matter of back and forth retrieval procedures for the pilots. That was their job, he didn't care if it was a pain in the ass. His thoughts were answered by a frightening confirmation of his theory. The radio nearby crackled in, "...going to send the other two cruisers back. We can't fix them here, but the Dantrol and Argo are going to remain in orbit until we can bring you up safely."
Reeds attempted to grab the radio before it was snatched away by one of the dropship pilots, he replied quickly, "Captain Palmer, we read you loud and clear. You've got support here, so long as we can get out of here quickly."
Palmer was the captain of the Turuga. She was an intelligent woman with a small wild side that only waited to be unleashed upon some poor idiot stupid enough to attack a government battle cruiser. Reeds trusted a decision to send their support home so long as she was making it. He didn't allow himself to worry about the situation at all, two cruisers was more than enough to haul his troops back home. The prisoners may be a little cramped, but there was always plenty of room back on the planet inside one of their own prison cells. He heard the Captain's voice on the radio again, "Very good, Commander. I'll send them on their way then. Palmer out."
The radio crackled before going quiet. Reeds looked to a clock on the wall and began shifting uncomfortably in the chair he had taken advantage of. He looked around, slightly agitated, for a few minutes before saying, "God damn it, all right, who wants to go find our lost Marines?"
Several laughs answered him before a few random Marines lifted their hands to acknowledge the Lieutenant. He responded, "Excellent, good men. You, you, and you. Don't worry about any fucking power grids, just go get them and bring them back here. Idiots probably got lost looking for the pisser on the way back."
Two Privates and a Corporal stood from their chairs and walked out of the room, following clearly marked signs that led to Power Station A-1. Reeds watched them leave saying, "Corporal Dyson, their lives are in your hands."
Dyson smiled and replied, "I'll do my best to make sure they don't shit themselves before you get a hold of them."
Reeds smiled and looked back to the table in front of him. There was nothing left to do but sit and wait. He looked up and glanced at Lieutenant Falkner who sat across from him at the table asking, "So anybody got a deck of cards?"
Canter carefully twisted dials and pressed buttons to determine the status of the Hellbird. It hadn't taken any obvious damage, but that rarely meant it was completely unscathed. Hayes joined her, only momentarily glancing at the dropships that held the prisoner mercenaries. The three guards were all smoking, rifles placed atop various crates or barrels. They looked at him with both disgust and awe. It was a common occurrence to find Marines and Fleet personnel not getting along. Hayes ignored any hostility that may have been directed at him and proceeded towards the Hellbird. Canter looked to him and smiled before placing her eyes back on the control panel in front of her. He hands worked furiously at the panel to make sure the Hellbird would be ready for take off as soon as they needed to leave. Hayes walked towards the rear of the ship, doing his best to look like he was inspecting the ship. In actuality, he found the entire situation they were in to be boring. Being deserted temporarily on a strange planet was not an uncommon occurrence among dropship pilots and this was no different. His thoughts drifted to matters back home, but not enough to miss the large gash in the ship's hull. He ran his hand over it gently, feeling the jagged edges of the metal caress his fingers. The cut ran for approximately half a meter along the back side of the ship. It wasn't deep and appeared to have done little, if any, damage. He brushed his hand along the last bit of the gash and felt a sharp pain instantly flash through his body. A noise that reminded Hayes of frying bacon prompted him to sniff the air. The smell wasn't anything near bacon as he expected, rather it was a sickly smell that resembled acidic vomit. His fingers began to burn as they turned a bright red color. Hayes quickly jumped in the air out of fear, wiping his hand on the ship's hull and his own clothes. Realizing his error, he took his flight jacket off, tossed it to the ground and reached toward the dirt. He rubbed his hand in the soil until the pain subsided. Frowning, he moved to Canter and stated calmly, "I think one of the fuel routes has corroded, something's got the rear hull all fucked up. Did you see it?"
"I didn't notice, what's wrong?"
"A cut in the hull, looks like something ripped through it. It can't be though, there's some acid on there. Could be the alkaline injectors, smells like shit too."
"Injectors always fail, though I thought they took those old pieces of junk off this baby. Oh well, it's an unnecessary system for what we're doing, we can let the alkaline leak out, we better just make sure it doesn't corrode any more of the hull."
"Hey, wait a tick, Sarah. They always had this problem before, random dropships would have holes in them when the injectors leaked. They got way too close to the generator. I thought they tried to improve on it for the new models."
"What's your point?"
"Aren't the alkaline injectors located on the bottom of the ship near the cockpit?"
"Lieutenant Reeds, sir," Dyson called, "I can't find the troops anywhere. We found the power relays, but there was no sign of them there."
"Corporal, you obviously need to look harder, you found your way back, they should have been able to as well."
"I'm sorry, sir. There was no indication of the way they left out of there. It was obvious they'd been down there, all kinds of switches and levers recently pulled, that type of evidence was obvious. There was no way they could have gotten out of there other than the main entrance from the utility hall."
"Try the comms again, we need to find them before we can even consider taking off."
Several marines scrambled around the room, activating panels and various devices. A slight urgency beckoned their actions to proceed faster than usual. The other lieutenants barked out orders in a hurried method to achieve the best results from their troops.
The mercenaries eyed each other in a hushed and depressed state. They knew the rest of their lives were going to be made miserable, and being kept outside strapped inside a dropship was no way to help things along. Each made quick eye contact with another and quickly switched their gaze to another of the prisoners. Many eyes fell upon the man strapped down that appeared to be completely unconscious. There appeared to be no physical wounds on him, which prompted his comrades to question his state. As if on cue, the mercenary suddenly shifted and moaned. His eyes fluttered open and his vision returned quickly. He understood the situation almost immediately, proving himself correct as he tried to lift his arms. The heavy straps securely held him down. His first thoughts were on panic and anger. As he felt is body send him distress messages be quietly said to the man next to him, "Son of a bitch, when is the last time we ate? I'm hungry as all hell, are these assholes feeding us?"
A warm substance oozed over Tanner's left eye, startling him awake. His vision cleared quickly and he looked about as much as possible. His head was completely restrained, though he could not see with what. Roaming with his eyes, he noted above all that it was dark. There was little light, only enough to see a floor and a wall off to the left. He appeared to be suspended about two meters in the air, but saw no platform below him. Frustration flooded his mind as he attempted to plant his feet on something solid and noticed their hindered movements as well. His entire body felt like it was in a cast, he could barely move, and breathing itself was even difficult. As his senses returned to him, he smelled a horrible odor everywhere around him. The same ooze that covered his eye caked his entire body, though it was much stiffer. He struggled to move only to tire himself uselessly. With heavy groans, Tanner kept shifting his weight to try and break free from the cocoon. Strained grunts echoed throughout whatever room he was in, booming back and forth between seemingly empty walls. He couldn't see anything beyond six or seven meters, filling his mind with all kinds of fantastic images of the horrors that waited in the dark beyond. A light cracking noise informed him that he had freed his head slightly. As he moved, he saw a small flash of light down below him. An oval shaped object was placed on the ground a meter away from him. It had a slight yellow tinge that dulled as it neared the top of the shape into what appeared to be a cross shaped crack. A movement to his right side caught his eye and he did his best to look to see what had occurred. Tanner was unable to describe what he saw with anything of scientific value. He noticed a black shape moving in the shadows, it appeared to be humanoid with a shiny, wet skin. The creature was gone as quickly as it appeared, leaving Tanner with thousands of questions circulating through his head. He quickly noticed the new oval shaped object that had appeared where the creature had darted away from, however. More questions began to fill his mind, but he was interrupted by a strange organic noise. A noise that sounded like the squishing of fruit bellowed in his ears as he saw the cracks on the oval shape widen until they revealed an opening into the oval. The flaps on top folded downwards, giving Tanner a full view into the object. He saw what looked like raw meat sitting in the object. A wet, pink cushion blocked any view into the oval. The layer rippled slightly, then again. He watched wide-eyed in both horror and curiosity, as the layer peeled away slowly. Two slender fingers extended from the oval, then two more, then two more. They had the same yellow tint to them as the oval itself. The fingers appeared bony and weak, like crab legs, though much longer. A total of eight fingers now extended from the oval and began to rise out until they revealed their joining point. A flat, rounded object hoisted itself from the oval with the power of those fingers. Tanner's curiosity quickly turned to fear as he noticed the tail fixed to the back of the hand-shaped object. It was a living creature, it swayed it's long, slender tail back and forth and used its fingers like spider's legs. Quicker than Tanner imagined it could, the creature jumped straight onto his chest. To his surprise, the creature remained still, not impaired by the laws of gravity. It slowly crawled up near his face. Realizing that was the only exposed part of his body, Tanner began to shake his head as much as the cocoon allowed. The creature was unimpressed by his valiant effort. The cold, bony fingers touch his cheek as it brought itself near his mouth. He screamed as loudly as he could. Startling the creature, it quickly brought itself completely over his face, covering his eyes to his mouth. The fingers wrapped themselves around his head and the slender tail around his neck. The creature's grip hurt him, but the pain was of little concern as he noticed the bonding of the creature to his face. He felt a hot liquid cover his skin directly under the creature, ensuring it could not be removed. The creature attempted to open his mouth. Rather, he felt a tube-like object attempting to force its way inside. He kept his mouth closed as much as he could, but made an instinctive attempt to gasp for oxygen. He felt the tube slide itself into his mouth, violating him in a way he found unimaginable. Choking as the tube slid down his throat, he shivered violently as he realized the tube had extended down fully through his throat. He coughed fiercely several times before losing consciousness. As the creature slid its tube down completely into Tanner's lungs, it slightly relaxed the grip it held with his fingers and tail. Two large, circular sacs located near its tail began to expand and contract as it fed its victim air. Tanner, despite his unconscious desires, was still very alive.