Chapter Six: Snares of the Monsters

A small group was huddled in a circle in the bunker. Renaud was giving orders as Blake watched silently. It was as if Blake was too afraid, or didn't know what to do in such a situation. But it was what is was, and Renaud was the head of the group now. The game plan was simple; the mission was not to find Jarvis. The chances were that he was dead. The objective of the whole operation was to locate and eliminate the two zealots. Or, at least, Durhkhan. In the entire time Durhkhan had been at the outpost, he acted like all he wanted was revenge.

Slowly but surely, Durhkhan was achieving that revenge.

It would be three groups of three searching the compounds. Renaud claimed Van Camp and Snider, and appointed Newell and Grady the leaders of the other two groups. As much as Renaud hated it, Grady had to be in charge of one party. He was the only one that seemed capable. Newell took Stratham and Thurston with him, and Grady took Ambrose and de Roos. And, of course, de Roos was not pleased with this.

Blake had to stay and keep the scientists calm. The scientists still thought Blake was running the show even though he seemed more as a court jester now. Renaud sent Straatman up to watch over Garrett and MacFerran in the radio and radar room. The teams were set, and the chase now began.

The safety bunker had several weapons in it, and the teams loaded up on shotguns and automatic rifles. Renaud grabbed a few grenades.

They set out into the darkened corridors in search of the evil escapees. Perhaps they would find Jarvis, or in Renaud's mind, what was left of him. But when they left, Blake was not watching the door, and two scientists ran off behind them. Ames and Wald were not following the soldiers, but rather going to the labs to run off reports of the energy recorded in the computers. Surely there must be some record of the amount of power that surged through that room when Durhkhan blasted his way through. Ames and Wald were determined to find it.

Renaud, Snider, and Van Camp marched into the first complex, scouting through the kitchen. It was still in disarray from when everyone fled in a blind panic. Greck would surely have a heart attack if he saw his precious galley the way it was now.

Van Camp went into the walk-in freezer. Everything was still there, the way it should be. The odd thing about it was that the door to the freezer had been open. He didn't remember Greck leaving the door open, but unless one of the Protoss had some odd reason to go in there…

The rest of the dining hall was empty. No signs of Jarvis or the escaped monsters. Renaud shook his head and signaled for Snider and Van Camp to follow. They left and went on to explore the rest of their part of the station.

Meanwhile, Newell and his crew searched the second part of the complex. They came to a storage room where Jarvis kept all his janitorial supplies. Newell opened the door and entered, finding nothing. Stratham, however, went into the room across the hall where Durhkhan's armor had been kept. He snooped around, looking for the yellow chain mail. What he found was that Durhkhan had discovered this room. The armor was missing, and so were his blades.

Stratham rushed out back into the hallway and slammed into Thurston. Both fell to the ground, and Newell came out of the supply room to see what the ruckus was about.

"What the hell are you two doing?" asked Newell. Stratham got up quickly as Thurston looked up at him in disbelief.

"That monster was in there!"

"He's in there? Durhkhan and the other one are in there? Let's get them!" Newell charged forward but Stratham stopped him, shaking his head.

"No, no! He was in there! The blades! You know those stupid blue things that shoot out of their arms? They're gone. He must have found them somehow." But Newell wasn't so concerned about what the monster had; he was more concerned about where he was.

"So he may still be in this part of the complex." Newell helped Thurston up. "Thurston, you go down to the security bunker and tell Blake we think we know where they are." A large clang! was heard from above. "Now, Thurston. Go!"

Thurston sprinted off and down to the security bunker, and again another sound was heard. Not as loud as the first, but the same sound indeed. Stratham looked up and then at Newell, who was already heading for the stairs.

----

Durhkhan looked out the broken window and watched as the body was consumed by the snow. He heard faint footsteps behind him. Durhkhan turned to find Phaira-kur approaching him.

You've done very well, my friend, Durhkhan sent telepathically. Phaira-kur only went to look out the window. You're much stronger than I anticipated. Much, much stronger. He looked at the desk and file cabinet that his comrade had thrown. I didn't know you were capable of this. I thought a zealot who was… well, mentally retarded could not perform such things.

Phaira-kur looked at Durhkhan, and then back to the stars.

I notice you like to play with them, Durhkhan said. How do you do that? Do you realize the power that it takes? The movement of the furniture impressed me enough, but you are able to shift these stars without a second thought. You should be a high priest, friend! To be able to control the orbit of stars is amazing. It is something I cannot and never will understand. It took all my psionic strength to warm the area I was stranded in. And even then I almost froze. I bet if you wanted to, you could have the surface of this planet boiling.

There was no response from the other being. He stood silently. Durhkhan shook his head and trotted down the hallway, peering into each room.

The only way I can describe your unique power is that you are not handicapped. Far from it, in fact. I believe you are mentally gifted. So much that it is unmatched. Tassadar had nothing compared to you. Then it is true; the line between genius and insanity is but a thin one.

Then footsteps were heard. Durhkhan spun around and heard small chatter coming down from the hallway. He looked at Phaira-kur, who was already heading towards on office. Durhkhan guessed that Phaira-kur was going to hide, but since his movements were so slow it was hard to tell. Durhkhan heard the humans coming, even louder now, and he went into an office and hid. He propped himself against the wall and wielded the blue laser blades. They hummed peacefully, but the sound of the wind whistling hid it from the human ears.

Grady was the first one to come to the end of the hallway, looking all the way to the window, noticing it was broken. He held up his hand, signaling for de Roos and Ambrose to stop. They did so, and gave a confused look. Grady looked to his immediate right, noticing the large holes in the wall from where the furniture had flown through to hit Jarvis. He shook his head. It was unfathomable.

Then Grady did a double-take. He looked to his left again, his head snapping with incredible speed. In the middle of the hallway was Jarvis's pale! And his mop! Jarvis was here… Or he had been here. The broken window only served as another possibility to the fate of the janitor.

"Hey, Grady," whispered de Roos, "are they here? Huh? Are they?"

Grady, without moving his focus from the holes in the wall, nodded slightly. de Roos gulped and gripped his rifle tightly. Clumsily, Grady retrieved his walkie-talkie from his belt with his shaky hands and lifted it to his mouth.

"Renaud, are you there?" Grady asked. There was only static. He pressed down on the button again. "Renaud, this is Grady. Are you there?" Once again there was static with no response. He placed the walkie-talkie back on his belt. If Renaud wasn't answering, then Grady and his troop were on their own.

The men turned the corner and proceeded down the hallway. Ambrose felt hot and tugged at his own collar. He was starting to sweat. Grady stopped. He was fifteen feet away from the window. Ambrose and de Roos looked over Grady's shoulder and towards the window to see what the matter was. And there, through the shattered glass, the stars moved swiftly through the sky.

Ambrose felt hotter than before, and he even had to wipe the sweat from his brow. The sound of the howling wind seemed to suffocate the men. Not a single one could believe what he was seeing.

"You… you think it's searchlights or something?" Ambrose asked nervously.

"I don't know. God, I hope so," replied Grady. He moved quickly towards the window. He stuck his head out and looked down. There it was. A hand was seen sticking out of an abnormal lump of snow. It was almost a dark blue. Grady closed his eyes and retracted his head. He sat there, hands on the window frame, his head hung low.

de Roos started to approach Grady as Ambrose stood silent. He felt even more heat than before. Ambrose ran his hand through his hair when he felt a sting in his arm. He clutched it to find a burn mark right through his clothing. As the wind started to die, a certain distinctive humming was heard. Grady and de Roos didn't seem to hear it but it bothered Ambrose severely. The humming was so loud! And it seemed to consume him! The heat was now unbearable. He wiped his face and once again felt a pain, but it was on his hand. He slowly turned to find Durhkhan with the blades elongated. Both were on either side of his head, inches away from his ears.

Ambrose froze. His mouth gaped as sound failed to cough through it. The heat closed in, and in one swift motion the blades sawed through the skull and met each other in the middle. The noise was louder than the humming, and Grady and de Roos spun around.

Ambrose fell to his knees with the top half of his head balanced on Durhkhan's laser blades. The top half of his skull was being disintegrated by the second. The blades melted his flesh, destroying the bridge of the nose and coming up under the eyes until they finally rolled out of their sockets and incinerated into the sapphire flames.

The men whipped out their automatic rifles and opened fire. Durhkhan took several hits before he stumbled backwards and hit the wall. He laid there, eyes closed, as if he had drifted into and eternal sleep. Grady pulled out his walkie-talkie again.

"Renaud! Renaud this is Grady, do you read me!" There was a slight pause before the response.

"This is Renaud, go ahead, Grady."

"We got him! We killed the son of a bitch, man!" Grady was excited but frightened to death at the same time. de Roos did not take his focus off the slain beast.

"Okay, good job, Grady. Are you all right?" Renaud asked. Grady did not respond for a good while, but every now and then he heard breathing. "Grady? Is everyone okay?"

"He killed Ambrose."

There was silence. Renaud, on the other end, winced and lifted the walkie-talkie back to his mouth and said, "Okay, Grady. Just sit tight. We'll be there in a few minutes."

"Okay, Renaud. But hurry, we're fucking scared as–"

The walkie-talkie cut off into static. Renaud shook his and tried to reach Grady again, but there was no response. He looked at Snider and Van Camp, who had been listening to the conversation the entire time. They acknowledged what was happening, and all three darted for the third compound.

----

Phaira-kur had wandered off. He had found that his office connected to other offices, and he walked in and out those doors without stepping foot into the hallway. He finally reached the hallway, but exited on the side so that Grady and de Roos could not see him. Of course, he had not done that intentionally. Phaira-kur met a set of stairs that led downward. He trotted down merrily and walked into yet another hallway.

He kept pacing through and unknowingly entered the second compound. He stopped and looked around. He had never seen this before. Well, at least he thought he hadn't.

Just then, a man was running towards him. It was dark, but Phaira-kur definitely knew it was a human. The running man still did not see Phaira-kur. It seemed odd that this man was all by himself. And it looked like he was scared. Phaira-kur then noticed the weapon in his hand. Although he had difficulty determining objects, he recognized the rifle instantly.

His eyes squinted as he clenched his fists. This man was not good. Not a good man at all. To Phaira-kur, the running man the others called Thurston had to be stopped before he hurt his friend, Durhkhan.