Nick hesitated only briefly before entering the ladies room, finding Judy standing beside a hazard sign standing over a puddle of liquid. Her head spun to face him at the sound of his entry, turning away from the
"Carrots, what did you do?"
"Don't be disgusting. The janitor said someone spilled some lube. I hope he's gonna clean it soon."
Nick sniffed the air between him and the spill. His nose didn't wrinkle in disgust as he'd expected it to, but there was definitely something strange and familiar. Whatever it was, it made him think of vinegar.
Something hit him from behind, hard and painful.
Nick shifted away from the door as the hare, Barry, strode back in with an industrial mop and bucket marked with a giant yellow W. "'scuse me, Marine." He moved the sign aside and started mopping. "'scuse me, Ma'am."
"What was that?" Judy asked.
"What?" Barry asked tersely. Wet coarse yarn slapped the floor as he started mopping.
"No, that." Judy turned her head toward the ceiling with the sharp movement of a prey on high alert. Nick's ears pricked, and he heard it too. The sound of scuffling above their heads. The vent was dripping goo. Nick thought he felt a draught from it.
Barry stopped mopping when he noticed the plip of one last thick drop fall upon the mop handle and cursed in disgust. "Son of a bitch. Park's not gonna like this. The maintenance check was only done two days ago." He wiped the worst of the gunk away and gave a short chuckle. "'least it ain't lube."
Nick locked eyes with Judy. Her big purple eyes stared back at him with a fearful intensity. Nick could feel his own anxiety growing, and the holster for his handgun pressing against his side.
"Maybe… maybe it's the lubricant for the duct hatches. The tubes disconnect sometimes when the hatch opens all the way. It could be that." He knew how shaky that sounded. How shaky his whisper sounded. "The whole colony's a fort. There's no way it could get in here."
"I don't know what the hell ye're talking about, but I gotta call this is in."
Judy kept staring at Nick, not really listening to Barry as he walked out, leaving the mop bucket behind. The scrabbling continued, fading into silence as who or whatever was above their heads crawled further down the duct. Nick saw that her paws was shaking. Her ears must have caught something he couldn't, but he didn't need to. He'd just realized where he'd detected that vinegary scent before.
It wasn't possible. He knew the colony like the back of his paw. It- he hoped to God it wasn't they- couldn't have gotten inside undetected. They couldn't.
"What do we do?" Judy asked.
Nick held out a paw, motioned for her to lower her voice, and slowly pulled out his tiny weapon. He checked the safety then held it with both paws, keeping the barrel aimed at the floor and his finger off the trigger. For now.
"What we're not going to do is draw attention to ourselves." He whispered. "Bogo granted Engineering temporary access to the military channel in case of emergencies. I'll check with her."
He pulled out his radio.
"Park. This is Private Wilde, come in."
He waited for the Chief Engineer's response with bated breath.
"The hell do you want, Nick?"
"The duct in the Aviary Lounge. Did you send anyone inside to check it out?"
"No. Why? Don't tell me someone-"
"Keep your voice down!" Nick hissed. "Send a message to Commander Bogo and tell everyone who works for you to keep out of the ducts."
"Why? What's in there?"
"A feral lifeform may have infiltrated the colony. It's using the air ducts. Whatever it is may not be friendly."
Park was quiet for a few moments. "Ok. Ok, ok. There's a few already in the ducts doing maintenance checks, but they're in other sectors. I'll call them to drop what they're doing and get out. But I swear if this turns to be a false alarm…"
"Rip me a new one later. Just don't take any chances, the morgue's full enough as it is."
He put the radio away and glanced up at the small duct. It wasn't dripping anymore, but was still coated in that drying gunk. He turned to Judy, about to tell her that they were going to walk out the sector quickly but quietly, when something else occurred to him. "The dropship. Hang on, I gotta call the crew and warn them."
He raised the radio back to his muzzle. "Ferroro, this is Private Wilde. We may have a situation, come in."
Nick ushered Judy out of the room and back in the lounge. Once outside, he was suddenly aware of how quiet it all was. The arrival lounge was empty. The cleaning cart stood nearby, abandoned by the hare who used the tools it carried. Something metal clattered, but the sound was muffled, as if coming from an adjoining room. The not-so bright lighting, which he barely bothered with until now, suddenly made the place seem much more sinister. Anything could be hiding behind the rows of seats. Yet he sensed there was no-one else here. For that matter, no-one else anywhere. Ferroro, the llama who would be piloting the ship, was not answering the radio. The large door to the dropship bay was fully open, but there was no sign of the mammal that had opened it.
"Seb, are you hearing this? Seb, come in!" Nick felt his heart sink at the lack of response from the other end. The copilot wasn't answering either.
For a second, he thought that the marine comms had somehow failed altogether, like the colony's… but if that were true, he wouldn't have been able to contact Park.
"Nick, where's the janitor?" Judy whispered. She had watched Nick the entire time he tried and failed to contact the dropship crew.
"I don't know." Came his honest answer.
The next logical step was to send a message out to everyone who had access to the channel. Bogo. Ben. Park. They had to know. But what then? The dropship was a flying tank. If he checked the ship was clear and sealed the hatch, Judy would be safe. But on the other hand, if his instincts were correct, the dropship was already compromised. There was an emergency fire exit nearby. Straight through and out the main exit. Better plan.
"Carrots, we're leaving." With his handgun at the ready, he led Judy to the fire exit, the rabbit holding her case of precious evidence close to her chest. They reached the door without incident. Nick pressed the green button to open it. There was a hiss as the door slid upward, and a scream followed.
Nick froze, his ears pricked. He wanted to believe it was an alarm, but alarms didn't carry that rough rattle that came with extreme terror. No, that was a woman. Somewhere out of sight, in the forked corridor ahead. The sound echoed, and then all was silent again.
At their feet was the source of the clattering they had heard earlier: the wide, warped cover of a large air vent right above their heads.
"Nick." Judy's utterance of his name came out as a whimper.
He didn't respond. His heart was pounding hard enough to hurt. He hoped it wasn't a panic attack. Now wasn't the time to be having a panic attack. If he wanted to nip it in the bud, he had to have a plan. Judy. Protecting Judy was that plan. That and investigating the scream. It was stupid, he knew. But he was a marine, and he had to act like one.
"Stay here, Carrots. And don't. Make. A sound."
He inched toward the fork in the corridor. It was only four meters away, but it may as well have been four miles. He slowed down as he reached the point where the path split. He kept to the left wall, which gave him a better view of the right path. Empty. He peeked around the corner to the other path. That was empty too, but with one major difference. A streak of blood leading from a dropped pulse rifle to an open side hatch.
Nick shone his light on it.
Something slithered in the hatch.
Fuck fucking fuckity fucking fuck fuck FUCK.
Nick came sprinting back to Judy, a finger to his lips stopping her from asking what he'd seen around the corner. He didn't stop running as he grabbed her by the arm and dragged her back into the lounge, slapping a button to shut the door behind them.
"What?" She gasped out, thinking it was safe to do so. Then she heard a heavy thud on the door that had just sealed.
Her heart seemed to stop. The intruder hit the door again. And again. The door was visibly pulsing with each blow.
She glanced at the terrified Nick and his peashooter of an M4P3. She tugged his arm, getting his attention, and pointed to the bathroom. They could hide there.
Then they heard a metal scrambling sound behind the door. The creature had gotten impatient and changed tactics; they could hear it crawling through the ducts above their heads, looking for a quicker way in.
Judy looked around the ceiling, within seconds spotting a large square grate in front of the restroom door. It was painted white, blending into the ceiling. Deliberately insignificant. Until now.
It was already too late to hide in the restroom. The creature was passing right over them, heading straight for the grate.
Judy and Nick backed away, then stepped sideways behind the nearest row of seats. There was a gap beneath the seats, which Judy knelt beside to get a good look. Part of her wished she had her camera.
The grate came crashing down. The creature that followed descended much more gracefully.
It took Judy a moment to realize that it was coming down headfirst, that was the glistening elongated body part emerging from the duct was its head. Long limbs armed with claws guided its way down. When it spun the right way up in mid-air, she spied an even longer, skeletal tail tipped with a thick spearhead. It landed with a thud and surveyed its surroundings, its eyeless face dripping with thick clear fluid. Seeing that very familiar substance pooling at its feet eradicated any trace of doubt left in Judy's terrified mind.
This was her prime suspect. And it was hunting for her.
She could almost hear her heart's rapid beat in her ears. This was not how she wanted the encounter to happen.
She almost gasped when she felt a pressure on her shoulder; Nick put a finger to his lips with his other paw once he got her attention. He motioned to the open door that led to the dropship bay.
Judy realized his plan. The dropship had some vulnerabilities to warship fire, but once the ramp was sealed it would impenetrable to the feral lifeform. They wouldn't even have to take off.
The only problem was getting there without being seen.
They both peeked under the seats to see what the creature was doing.
It was taking slow, steady footsteps, making its way toward their row of seats. They froze, Nick gripping his gun, Judy gripping her case.
She heard the small sound of the Serpent gripping the tops of the backrests as it propped its weight on the seats, looking across the rest of the room.
Saliva dripped on the metal between them. She was too scared to look up.
The seats creaked as the creature took its weight off and began creeping along the seats, moving away from them.
Nick exhaled silently and pointed to the dropship bay door again. Then he pointed at the case Judy was holding, and then pointed at the floor. Judy nodded and put it down as quietly as she could. Until the danger was passed, it was just dead weight.
Between them and the door was another row of seats perpendicular to the one they were hiding behind. It should provide enough cover, so long as they were quiet. And the creature stayed in its area.
Before they could begin to move, the creature stepped around the end of the row of seats. It was a mere two feet from them. Judy felt her heart plummet with despair. One more turn and it would see them.
That was when the exit door opened. The white beam of a flashlight flashed across the creature.
It screeched and threw itself back over the seats, its tail nearly taking Judy off at the neck, ignoring the burst of pulse fire it took to the chest and tearing the marine apart.
Oh, crackers! Oh, crud! Oh, fuck!
"NO!" Nick's cry of horror and rage briefly drowned out the woman's screams as he opened fire, the tiny bullets almost producing sparks on the creature's skull. It stopped and turned to Nick with a snarl, a large scrap of the marine's cloth and flesh in its claws.
"RUN, RUN!" Nick pushed Judy straight into the pool of drool, the slick substance sending her sliding across the floor.
Panic clouded her mind. She rolled onto her front and began crawling under the other row of seats. Her wild, darting eyes could barely focus on the open door ahead. She looked back but could only see flashes of gunfire. The creature was screaming, but she didn't know why.
Where was Nick?! Why wasn't he following her?! How was that thing still standing?!
Nick ran out of bullets and then ran for his life. He passed Barry's cart along the way, the creature screeching in fury as it followed. One of the compartments was open. Nick grabbed a bottle. He unleashed an undignified scream as the creature caught him. Its grip was a vice. It lifted him into the air and turned his body until they were face to face. Its carapace was cracked and marred from the bullets.
His fingers fumbled around the cap. Its dripping jaw lowered.
In the darkness of its mouth lay a smaller set of jaws lined with silver teeth. The cap came off.
The inner jaw opened wide. He jerked the bottle, splashing bleach all over the creature's face.
It hissed and shut its mouth, more startled than pained by the sudden attack. It instinctively dropped Nick as it tried to remove the stinking fluid from its mouth. He ran, visions of his near-death experience flashing before his eyes, hoping that Judy had gotten onto the dropship already.
The bay was huge and dark, consisting of a series of walkways hanging over the deep spaces where the ships would land. The dropship sat on a central platform like a sleeping dragon. He couldn't see Judy. The creature would be after him again soon. He had to radio for help and hide.
The ramp into the dropship was lowered and splattered with blood. Ferrero. The possibility of another one of these things being on board made Nick stop in his tracks. Until now he hadn't considering that there may be more than one intruder.
He heard the creature coming. He ducked behind a crate and began rummaging for a magazine.
He heard the creature enter the bay.
Oh, God…
He couldn't bring himself to use the radio. It would rip him to bits before he could say, "Mayday, mayday!"
He lowered himself down, back propped against the crate. He ejected the empty clip and caught it with his thighs before it could clatter on the floor. He slid in the full clip.
Then he saw the rabbit curled up beside a pile of crates a few feet away. He locked eyes with her. It seemed she had thought twice about entering the dropship, too.
The sight of her somehow eased his nerves. He was still scared shitting shitless, but the reminder of the responsibility he had kept him from succumbing to that terror.
Her eyes slightly narrowed. She disappeared around the crates.
He heard the creature getting closer. He remembered the damage to its carapace. A few more well-placed bullets should put an end to it, but he couldn't be sure.
Then he heard a growl right next to him.
Nick turned his head. All he could see was the spear-tipped tail snaking around the corner. How did it get so close so quietly? He knew he had to move. If he could just get a shot of the creature's head before it saw him…
There was a hiss and suddenly the large bay was alight in crimson. A flare rolled across the floor from Judy's direction. The creature came over and crouched down, staring curiously at the fierce little light.
Nick had a full view of its body, a black silhouette in the flare's blaze. He aimed his gun. Took a breath. Fired.
The bullet hit the creature in the front of the carapace where eyes should be. Yellow liquid spurted out as it snarled in his direction. Nick fired more bullets as it charged, most of them hitting their mark but doing nothing. Not good, this was not goo-
Judy leapt out of nowhere, screaming in exertion as she plunged a screwdriver into the hole Nick had created.
The creature screamed out its agony and flailed as the rabbit retreated, racing back to Nick's side. The screwdriver fell to the ground. Nick saw that the handle was all that was left, parts of it steaming and dissolving before his eyes. It was the blood. He could see it melting holes in the floor as the creature continued to thrash in blind pain and fury, getting too close to a rail. The blood splattered onto the rail, instantly sizzling and eating away at the metal.
Keeping Judy behind him as he aimed his weapon, Nick was distracted by more flashlights. Two more marines, searching for their comrade's killer, spotted the thrashing, bleeding creature and opened fire. Armor piercing rounds sent it reeling back into the weakened rail.
The rail collapsed under its weight, sending it plunging into the darkness below.
One of the marines ran to the edge and searched the lower level with his flashlight. The other strode over to Nick and Judy, carefully moving around the smoking holes in the floor.
"What. The fuck. Was that?" Corporal Hogwash asked.
Nick was staring at the melted floor, shaking like a leaf as shock began to set in. He was going to have a very interesting chat with Flash the next time he saw him.
The Hunter prided itself in reaping head from shoulder with a single slice or a twist of its hand. It sank its wristblades in the dead elephant's thick neck and ripped off the head without straining its muscles, the spine trailing beneath the skull like a dripping red tail.
It moved quickly, bringing the skull to the console beside the gate and holding it up to the retinal scanner. The scanner analyzed the elephant's blank, marble-like eyes before giving the all clear. The Hunter dropped the head, double checked that its cloak hadn't been compromised in the bloody skirmish, and ducked beneath the rising gate. The gate on the other side was rising as well. The guards' response to the slaughter was swift, as expected. The Hunter leapt up to the ceiling and clunk to the piping that made up the sterilization system, watching and waiting as the new squad stormed through the chamber, emerging out the other side. It listened as they reacted with bewildered horror to the scene outside. The Hunter could remember each kill plainly. The Elephant's skull had exploded into red mist with the plasma caster. The rest were picked off one by one with its glaive, each slash of the barbed blade felling them like stalks of wheat. Close quarters combat had been a reckless move, it knew, but after the disaster in the cavern it still had some anger to vent. Cleaving limb from joint had eased its fury, but not all of it. It needed more blood. Serpent blood.
The Hunter clambered along the ceiling, dropped down and exited through the closing inner gate, now inside the colony.
Almost immediately it saw the six marines that had stayed behind to guard the other side of the gate. They were aiming their guns in its general direction, faces twisting in confusion. They were close enough to see the shimmer in the air, and only their bewilderment at what they were seeing stayed their hand. The Hunter would take them. All it needed was a distraction.
As if acting on command, the mine it had left behind in the field of corpses went off, instantly diverting the marines' attention to the flash of white light, and the subsequent shower of dark dirt and claret flesh. Their guns swung away from the Hunter's invisible form. A fatal impulse.
The Hunter flicked the drying blood off its glaive and ran at them.