Acheron Chapter 18 – The Funk of Forty Thousand Years

I'm sorry for the delay, but I took a vacation from work and decided to do some veg'ing in front of my PS4 and recharge my preverbal batteries. I hope you all have caught the latest installment of the series that came out this past weekend, I know I did.

With every hunter that has an instinctual drive, comes the knowledge that the weaker of the prey is the easiest to catch, the strong preying upon the weak as we would say. Wolves on earth have been targeting the old and infirmed for millennia, Orca have been hunting down infant humpback whales for their food since they have existed. Straggler's from the herd are pushed into a corner and taken down, it is just the way of things, it is only a logical means to an end, a means of survival. Sure, the strong and healthy would make for a finer kill, with better meat upon their bones to feed the pack, but the trouble to bring them down outweighs the benefit of doing so. So instinct tells them to go after the easier of the prey first, the stronger to save for last.

It is with this in mind, that I must insist that this chapter might be hard for some to handle, even if I don't go into grand detail, after all the colony was made up originally of fifty to sixty families. And families include children and grandparents, not just the twenty to thirty something adults that we think of and that Hollywood pushes upon us. These inhabitants range anywhere in age, from the infant that is crying in the corner, being soothed by her father, her mother lost in the first attack. To the elderly couple huddled together upon the couch in the Major's office, reassuring each other on how much they loved one another, and that they would make it through this and that they would see their grandkids on earth again.

"I can't fucking believe this," Marie exclaimed as she stood up from the communications station, "Who the fuck do they think they are?"

"A multi-trillion-dollar company that has their finger's in a lot of pies," Edd answered her, "We're the bottom of the food chain here, literally."

"Surely someone will come look for us," Mrs. Jorden purposed, "Our families on earth will wonder why they haven't heard from us."

Kevin had been standing their stoic for a good moment, taking in their situation, breaking his chain of thought to reply, "Yes, our families will be wondering what has happened to us, but who do you think they will go to first." He looked to each of them, "The company, and all they will get is some bull shit technical issue with communications to our sector as a convenient excuse."

Edd adds, "And if what Nazz said to the suite was their true intention, they will come in, get their sample, nuke the place and blame the reactor." He looks toward his husband, "Probably pinning the blame on Kevin, saying something went wrong with the refit he oversaw, and thus leaving no evidence of what really happened here."

"But the military wouldn't help them cover this up," Mrs. Jorden was still looking for hope, since the military are the ones in charge of nuclear weapons.

"They own the military," Marie shot that hope down with her own nuke. "And if they are trying to get one of these things then it's for the military, so of course they are going to help cover it up." Mrs. Jorden sinks into a nearby chair, looking as though she was about to break down, all she could think about was her two children Timmy and Newt.

The ear piece Marie was wearing in her right ear draws her attention, "Sgt. we have a problem," it was hard to make the man out, there was gun fire on his end of the line.

An explosion was heard letting Marie Know that they had set off a charge in the corridor, "Briggs, come in Briggs."

She did not get a direct reply from the man just some gibberish as he directed the others, "Don't use the explosives until they're in the hall," or "Stand your ground."

She grabbed her rifle and headed toward the door, followed closely by Kevin, Edd snatching up a half full flamethrower, "Babe wait here."

"No! I'm coming with you," Kevin could see the determination on Edd's face and didn't have the heart to continue to argue that he thought he would be safer waiting here. They followed Marie down the hall as she directed others who were armed to make their way to the open corridor. Another series of explosions could be heard as they made their way to the open corridor, this set that were in intervals of ten seconds apart. Reaching the junction, she directs Kevin and Edd along with two others to guard their flank just in case these sneaky bastards have found a way around them, then she takes her position behind the makeshift defensive position of large storage crates. "What's the situation Briggs," she calls out as she looks down the hall, pointing her weapon at the group of twenty that were at the other end, sticking low to the ground and to the shadows, some on the walls some on the ceiling, a few dead on the ground.

"They came out of nowhere and rushed us, and this dip shit here," he points to the guy to his left, "Detonates the first round of explosives to soon, only injuring the front two. Since then they have been staying far enough away it's hard for us to get a good shot at them, only a two have come at us since."

She snatches the remote from him, "You fool, they have been testing the defenses, trying to see if there are any more traps." She sees two more lining up to charge, "Make them think we are all out of tricks, use only your rifles, no flamethrowers, lure them in." The two charge and the group lays into them with gunfire, finally dropping the beasts just before they were able to reach them. The next two charge a short time later, dodging as they came down the hall, in a zig zag pattern, using all four surfaces of the corridor to make it hard for them to be able to hit them. Marie having to push them back by resorting to using the flamethrowers at the last second, sending a jet of flame down the hall, it was either that or allow them to break the line.

After this attempt, one of the beast's roars, rallying the troops with its war cry, "That must be their leader," Marie thought to herself and armed the rest of the bombs. The alpha leaps forward, leading his pack into combat, Marie flips the safety cover up and readies her thumb to push the button. But the alpha sees what she was doing and stops in its tracks hissing, causing the rest of the pack to halt as well, taking up a defensive posture once again.

Now to hit rewind, as the door in operations closed behind Edd and the group of armed men and woman made their way to the corridor to assist in its defense. The huddled masses prayed for deliverance from the plight they found themselves in, hoping that the Sergeant would be able to defend them from the onslaught that was knocking at their door. As I stated two chapters ago, there are now 76 of those things on the march and while twenty of them pushed the defensive line and testing that perimeter, the rest were sent on another task. A task most foul, the task of culling the weak and innocent to bolster their own numbers. And as those brave men and woman fought on the first floor with all their might to secure the one way they thought was their weak point, the barricades on the second floor fell. Allowing a flood of claws and teeth to swarm into operations and the adjoining Med Lab, cutting off the survivors only route of escape, those who ran for it in that direction were caught by the second wave. Parents did what they could to protect their child, ultimately only buying the young one a few more moments of freedom, the elderly were defenseless against the massacre brought on by primal rage and furry, as it was now every man for themselves near the end.

Each creature, snatching up one full sized adult or multiple children before running off with them, back the way they came and toward the hive. Killing those who resisted them, or were of no use to them as a suitable host, those who were too small for one of the creatures young to gestate inside of. Laden with their burden they made a hasty retreat, down at the corridor the alpha heard the call of the retreating attack force and withdrew. Leaving those on the first floor thinking they had won and had stayed off an attack. Only to reach the second floor to find not only a hole punched into their "well made" defenses, but a empty battlefield where once the defenseless colonist had once been. Marie collapses on the floor, ashamed that she had been to sure of their defenses and in her exhausted state made a bad choice by pulling all armed men and woman to defend one point.

A/N- As stated before, you do not need to be alive to be used as a host, just as long as your upper body is intact they can still use you as a breeding ground.