The next chapter is posted! Enjoy :)

The elevator door slid open to the floor where the lab was. The pair made it only a couple yards down the hall when they heard a small crashing sound coming from one of the rooms to the left of them.

Not a few moments later, there was a loud resounding bang as something large and strong started to throw itself against the metal door.

Air'ik started to growl, knowing what it was. He also heard the familiar screech of a hard meat a little further down on the right, followed by humans screaming in terror.

"We need to hurry, Da'dtou-di. The kainde amedha have already infiltrated this floor. We must get to our weapons and quick!" Air'ik said hastily.

He motioned for her to move faster as they sped up down the hall. It was just their luck that the lab had to be the room the furthest down the hall.

They were now a few meters from the labs doors when something came crashing through the ceiling tiles above them and landed a few feet in front of them.

The hunter let out a menacing growl when he saw it was two hard meats. They zeroed in on the yautja and human woman and started to stalk towards them with a low hiss.

Air'ik made to stand in front of Aurora. He had no protection. The only thing covering him was his loincloth. But that doesn't mean he was going to back down from a fight. He was never one to show h'dlak during a fight or a hunt, even when the odds were against him.

He crouched down and spread his arms and let out a bellowing roar signaling his challenge to the two hard meats.

While Aurora just stood there for a moment. She never saw something so scary in all her life. The small holographic images Air'ik showed her of the kainde amedha were nothing compared to the real thing that stood before them now.

Both the hard meats let out a shriek and charged him. Air'ik stood there and waited for them to come. The one in the lead leapt at him. And the hunter rolled onto his back and threw his hands and feet up in front of him. Once the serpent connected, he threw it over his body and sent it flying to the end of the hall.

Air'ik barely missed it when the second one lunged at him and narrowly missed the tail that stabbed into the floor beside his head on the tiled floor.

"Air'ik!" Aurora yelled.

She wanted to help him. But what can she do!? They needed their weapons!

"Aurora! Stay back!" He barked, while still never taking his gaze off of the hard meat that was on top of him.

The young woman shook her head. A hiss sounded to her left as the first hard meat he threw now had its sights on her.

Her heart started to race, and her breathing started to come in short paths. And she started to look around for something, anything she could use to defend herself.

When her eyes strayed to a metal and glass case on the wall about ten feet down the hall to her right. Aurora recognized what it was and sprinted down to it. The hard meat gave chase.

She stopped in front of the case and tried to open it. Only to find it locked.

"FUCK!" She yelled.

Aurora was about to kick it in. But the hard meat was face and dove for her. She quickly leapt back with a yelp as it narrowly missed her. It crashed into the side of the wall, breaking the glass case for her. And she watched as the emergency ax fell to the floor.

Well, at least the ax was now out of the locked case. Bad news was, now the hard meat was blocking her way to it.

Before she could think of how to get to the weapon, the second hard meat crashed into the other. A loud roar followed from the hunter. Aurora could only glance at Air'ik before she darted over to grab the ax and held it in front of her.

She then made her way back to the hunter's side. Luckily, Air'ik wasn't too banged up. He surprisingly only had a couple small, shallow scratches on his body.

While he was relieved that she was still standing and now had something that could pass for a weapon, it still wasn't enough. Air'ik wanted to draw both the hard meats attention back on him and then tell her to run down to the lab and get the weapons.

He figures if he charges them both first this time, it will do the trick and they will both turn their focus on him again and give her the chance to run.

"Aurora, I will make the first move on them this time. When I charge them, I want you to run down to that lab and ge the weapons." He instructed.

The young woman looked at him like he was nuts.

"What!? Have you fucking lost it!? No way am I leaving you here on your own to fight them! Plus, what makes you think there aren't more of these things down by the lab!? No! We need to stick together and get down there together!" Aurora argued.

He let out a disgruntled growl, followed by a string of clicks. He didn't want her to stay behind with him. But she had a point. There could be more kainde amedha waiting for them down the hall. And it be worse if he sent her down alone into what could be an ambush with more of them.

"Alright, but you follow my lead." He ordered.

Not a few moments later, the hunter charged them. They both leapt at him at the same time. He dodged one and body slammed into the other. While Aurora tucked and rolled to avoid any collision with the monsters.

Air'ik let out a grunt went the one he was wrestling with trailed its sharp claws down his front.

The other turned its attention to Aurora again, seeing her as the weaker prey. It stalked towards her, as she stood there on shaky legs with the ax held in front of her.

As badly afraid she was and wanted to help Air'ik, she knew she had to deal with the dangerous threat right in front of her first.

It lunged at her with a shriek.

Aurora let out a scream mixed with fear and anger. As it was about to make contact, she side stepped out of the way. It barely skimmed past her hip as she quickly turned after her sidestep and swiftly brought the ax down on its neck.

It squealed as she brought it down into the back of its neck.

Adrenaline was now pumping full force through her body. She didn't stop with one swing. Aurora slammed down the ax repeatedly and violently into its neck, hacking away at it.

The slams of the blade were so rapid, that the hard meat couldn't shake her off as she started to decapitate it.

By now, Air'ik had already dealt a fatal blow to the one on top of him when he grasped its jaw in one hand and the side of its head in his other hand and violently jerked it, there was a sickening snap as he snapped the hard meat's neck.

He then shoved the body off of him. And rose to his feet with every intention of helping Aurora. Only to be surprised when he saw her hacking away at the second hard meat's neck with the ax like a crazy woman.

The hard meat dropped to the floor when she severed a little more than halfway through its neck. But even as it laid there, she continued hacking away until its head separated from its body completely.

Only then did she finally stop and tried to catch her breath. Her heart was beating so fast, she thought it was going to burst through her rib cage.

She only snapped out of her stupor when she felt a large warm hand on her shoulder.

Aurora looked up and saw Air'ik looking down at her. Pride was ever present in his eyes as he glanced down at her.

"Well done, Da'dtou-di. Just when I thought you couldn't amaze me even more, you exceeded my expectations yet again." He softly said to her.

Her mouth twitched as a smile started to make its way to her face.

Their victory was abruptly interrupted though, when a hard meat finally, busted through that door they passed earlier at the beginning of the hall.

The hard meat shook its body, letting the debris fly off of it. Before it sharply turned its head in their direction. It let out a screech and started down the hall towards them.

The pair braced themselves for what was coming. When suddenly a loud echoing bang filled the hall. And the back end of the creature's head exploded. It came to a sliding halt a mere few feet away from them, dead.

They looked up to see who shot it. And Aurora's mouth dropped open at who had just saved them.

A little further down the hall, was none other then Briggs. He was just lowering his shot gun a small tuft of smoke still rose from the end of the barrel.

"Briggs!" Aurora yelled.

She dropped the ax, that's blade was now corroding and slowing melting from the creature's acidic blood. And sprinted down the hall to him. He slowly met her halfway, and they embraced each other once they got there.

Aurora held onto him for a few moments, before he slowly retracted his arms and looked her over.

"You alright, kid?" He asked, voice laced with worry.

A couple happy tears escaped her eyes, and she nodded with a smile.

"Yeah, but what are you doing here!? And how did you find me!?" She asked.

By now, Air'ik made his way to her side. He looked down at the dead hard meat as he passed it and turned his gaze back to the older ooman male.

"Nice shot." Air'ik said.

"Thanks." He replied to the hunter. Before turning back to Aurora.

"Robin phoned me yesterday and told me you were being kept here. She also told me everything that one of the agents here told her about your situation and how they were trying to figure out a way to get you out.

Obviously, I was not going to sit around and wait for shit. Once she told me, know I had to find a way to help. So, I pack up all the ammo I could and brought some of my best guns with me." He explained.

She opened her mouth to say something. When she was cut off by more of those god-awful screeching sounds of those serpents.

"You two can discuss more as we get down to the lab. But we need to move now. Briggs can cover us since he is currently armed. Let's go." Air'ik said.

He then lightly grasped Aurora arm and started to guide them back down the hall. Briggs was struggling a bit to keep up. But he managed.

Within the next couple minutes, they were able to successfully make it down to the lab.

When the door slid open, Aurora gasped at the carnage that was in there. So many bodies were gutted and strung about. It was like someone one tossed these people into a giant blender and hit puree'.

She started to feel a bit queasy with all the guts and gore littering the floor. Even Briggs was horrified at the grizzly sight.

Air'ik quickly made his way over to the back table that had all of their equipment on it. And went to work putting on his awu'asa. Starting with his thermal netting before moving onto his metal cod piece.

Aurora snapped out of her stupor long enough to join him. She quickly stripped out of the baggy clothes she wore until she was only in her sports bra and underwear. Then she slipped into her thermal netting and got to work with the rest of her armor.

They tried to dress as quickly as possible, while Briggs stood guard, watching for more of those creatures.

"How did you even manage to get this far, Briggs? How did you get passed the front gates and security?" Aurora asks, while Air'ik helped her with her chest plate.

"When I got up to the gate, I noticed there was no one there. In fact, I couldn't see anyone out and about. Which I thought was kind of strange since with a base like this there would always be someone stationed outside. This I remember from my days when I served in the Marines.

I then heard what sounded like a small explosion coming from within the building. So, I popped the jeep into gear and barreled through the chain length gate. And I didn't stop there, I kept going and drove right through the glass front doors.

I looked around and still didn't notice anyone. The reception room was completely vacant. So, I got out and started to arm myself. Grabbed one of my shotguns, my AR-15, and a couple of my pistols, along with a backpack full of ammo, and headed straight for the elevator.

The first couple floors I went down, I didn't see any people. I did however see one of those things. It made its way towards me and I took a couple shots at it. I hit it twice, it screeched in pain, before it turn tailed and ran.

I didn't bother to follow it, because my main focus was to look for you. I looked through as many rooms as I could. I the doors I couldn't open, I knocked and called your name and waited to see if you would respond. When I was met with silence, I moved on.

I spent a good fifteen minutes or so on the first couple floors looking for you, before I came down to this floor." Briggs explained.

"The fact that you didn't see any armed guards or soldiers, must mean they sent them all down to the lower levels to combat the hard meats." Air'ik deduced.

"Is that what they are called?" Briggs asked.

"Yeah, and as you can see, they are very dangerous and have bad fucking attitudes to match." Aurora said, as she put on the last of her weapons.

"And here, I thought it was members of my sister in-law's family." Briggs lightly joked as he walked over to them.

Aurora snorted, not surprising he would joke about that. The older man was never fond of his brother's wife or her family. So, he'd knock them every chance he got. Then a thought hit her.

"Briggs, by any chance did you bump into Robin or Wilson on the way down? We split from them, and they left to go get more weapons from the armory." Aurora asked.

She was a little dejected when he shook his head.

"No, haven't seen them. But they got to be around here somewhere. And we'll find them." He assured her.

Aurora nodded. And the three of them headed out of the lab and back down the hall.

"Should we wait a little longer to see if they show up? Or head down to the basement to take out the rest of those ugly bastards?" Aurora asked the hunter.

"We should head down. We can't afford to wait and waste time. Every moment that goes by, may bring kainde amedha closer to the surface. And it will be better and easier to track them and kill them while they are still contained within the vicinity. Because once they break free and into the marshes, they may be harder to track." Air'ik stated.

"It's quiet out here. A little too quiet. This doesn't seem good." Robin said, as they made their way across the field right outside of the base.

"That's because if I had to guess, they must've sent every soldier they have down to contain those serpents. But that just makes it easier for us to get into the armory. Most of the new shipment was left in there. And those are the weapons I want to get to. Because the guns in there pack the firepower we will need to bring those bastards down." Wilson told her, as they ran across the grass to the armory building in front of them.

The pair made it there within the next five minutes. Robin stood there winded and trying to catch her breath while Wilson punched in the access code. Moments later the door unlocked, and Wilson opened it and directed her into the place.

Robin looked around, amazed at all the weapons that were lined in several rows across the floor. Surprisingly, Wilson bypassed the several rows of rifles and pistols, and instead went to a few large crates off to the far corner near the front.

He grabbed a crowbar off from the side and shoved it into the top of the first crate and pried it open.

The young woman peaked inside, and her eyes widened at the weapon inside.

"Fuck." She muttered, as Wilson got to work hauling it out.

Meanwhile, back inside the building, Air'ik, Aurora, and Briggs headed down to the basement level.

They had their weapons trained on the elevator door as it slid open, clearly expecting to step into a warzone.

Instead, it was eerily quiet. A black slimy residue coated the floor, walls, and ceiling of the poorly lit hall. And within the residue was a horrifying sight.

Bodies of numerous soldiers and agents were stuck to the walls. Even a few were stuck to the ceiling.

"Jesus Christ." Briggs muttered, as he looked around at the carnage.

To Aurora, it was equivalent to walking through a grotesque graveyard. None of the soldiers appeared to be alive. Some had holes in their skulls, while a few others were missing some limbs.

She quickly looked away when she caught sight of one unfortunate bastard who was suspended to the wall, and it appeared half of his face was melted off. It was denuded of flesh, and she clearly could see his skull, complete with what was left of the eye socket.

As he looked around, Air'ik can't say he was surprised by this outcome. It was clear these oomans had no idea what they were truly up against and didn't come into this fight with enough firepower.

But just when they thought there were no signs of life, they heard the distinct sounds of gunfire. But it sounded like it was further away.

The hunter motioned for the young woman and older man to move on and follow him. They followed the sounds of the gunshots. Stepping over bodies here and there as they went.

Until Next Time ;)