There was very little light to be found in the dank, moist tunnels.
Had a creature the senses to scan the place, they would have looked like the inside of the ridged veins of something alive, organic and patterned corridors which seemed to radiate imposing, creeping intent. This, the almost alive walls seemed to whisper, was a place of monsters.
And to many races of the universe, that may have been truth. For this warren of caverns was home to a hive of sibilant, dark creatures that walked on ceilings, lived in the walls, and preyed on all without preference and almost frightening, objective intelligence. Nigh on seven foot as a matter of course, black chitin for skin, prominent bone structure with lean but strong muscle, a vein and indent webbed tubular head which ended in a hungry maw, and a tongue which sported a secondary set. Seemingly just for good measure, but hardly needed, almost as superfluous as the acid the beings - aliens, living nightmares? - possessed.
They had long since colonised the caverns, and the unidentifiable remains of their prey were still plastered to the walls by their hardened, resinous saliva. Holes in cavities and half eaten but still they were gruesome trophies of the hive, testament to their ruthlessness in the varying sizes and forms of the corpses. Anything that was big enough to warrent their attention was caught for their destructive reproductive cycle, or in some cases, to sate their own hunger.
But now the tunnels were quiet, containing only echoes of the agony, all useful materials taken and used. Only the dry rustle and hisses of the tenants echoed chillingly through the black depths now.
Their Queen was in the central chamber of the large warren, the room already large enough to take her bulk and the eggs she laid throughout her intermittant cycles with the minimum of remodelling, though like every corridor of the tunnels, it was coated in the black layers of hard resin, and a mixture of drones and warriors of her hive slept in small holes or indents as an extra lining and a security system all in one. For some of them, who had been unable to catch food so far into the nest, that slumber had become permanent, and they had become a part of the wall itself.
Because they didn't have the eyes to see the two moons, they were very much unaware of the larger picture of their surroundings.
It had previously been the home of a technologically advanced way-faring race, a small, waterlogged planet in orbit around a isolated star with two moons to keep it company. With the introduction of a single egg on a small transport ship, the imperfect race had been rendered to tatters, and had quickly fallen despite their technology. Remnants still floated about the stars, now little better than ill-fated refugees.
But this planet was now the property of the black creatures who had done what they had always done. Store eggs in readiness for the next batch of hosts, and ensure the future safety of the hive. And keep their senses to the skies, where before such things had been arriving in plentiful numbers.
Because of this, when the moons and the binary star the three bodies were orbiting around aligned in a perfect eclipse, rather than marvel at the sight, all they could detect was the new and sudden changes in their surroundings and the panic which hit the creatures above them, many of them too small to bother hunting even for the quickest of their race.
But something deep within the very walls of the caverns detected the same, and the black creatures felt the immediate impact of that.
The walls seemed to shiver and crumble within minutes of the perfect eclipse, seemingly riven to shards by sudden seismic activity. But instead the very fabric of the walls was shifting as though it was alive, lifting, writhing and unfolding underneath the layer of resin and forcing it's way through.
Cries of the surprised workers, dislodged sleepers and the warning bell of the queens screech all echoed through the cavern system in a deafening cacophony as shapes emerged from the walls, crawling on almost every surface of the hive. Four legged and corded with muscle that could have been sculpted, furled wings held close as part of the forelegs and spined tails of stone unfurling, jaggedly fanged mouths opening to let loose guttural rumblings which cut straight through the panicked chorus of the invaders simply because each one sounded like it came from the centre of the planet. No eyes, nose, or ears to be seen, though fan-like structures protruded from the sides of their heads arching upwards and spreading with the opening of the jaws.
In their midst, the black creatures began a campaign of attempting to subdue these invaders, finding that though their claws and teeth dug into the stone at the right angle, any that was removed was quickly filled by more pebbles and loose rock seemingly attracted by the stone creatures individual gravity, held together by chords of nothing they could find no way to cut despite their instinctive rage. Most attacks were simply ignored as the unliving beings moved smoothly in a unified direction to the surface, those that weren't swiftly answered by crushing blows which spilled acid blood and powdered bone.
But the biggest panic for the creatures was when the largest rumbles originated from the nesting chamber, with the eggs and their queen.
The Queen of the Hive was herself in state of enraged panic, seeing the walls come alive, but was unwilling to abandon the egg sac until it became clear the danger was insurmountable.
She cried fiercely as large shapes emerged from the surroundings, pushing aside the black resin, workers, and warriors alike until her nest was raining down about her. And if the black nightmares could be said to feel fear, the Queen felt it like never before. Some of the beings were easily larger than her eggsack and herself combined, moving with an inexorable grace across almost every surface to the exit.
But the biggest shock to the Hive mother was when the floor beneath her chamber trembled as though it was the epicentre of an earthquake. Immediately her concern for her brood spiked, and she cried for her Hive to abandon attack and move the eggs NOW.
Unheeding of her growing almost-terror, the floor continued to heave upwards until she was sat on the back of a creature which was several times her bulk, made of unyielding stone, and tall enough to brush the now considerably extended ceiling of the chamber.
Her cries grew a new desperation, and the workers responded with greater efforts to clear her brood. The creature was angling upwards instead of to the the well traversed entrance, and the Queen was sufficiently aware enough to sense the new danger. It was going to tunnel towards the surface.
In an act almost too fast to be considered, she ripped free of the eggsack - if she lived, she could produce another, even if the action sparked a feeling of loss she couldn't quite define - and began using all her limbs to gather the maximum amount of eggs. She would ensure most survived, that the Hive continued despite the almost impossible circumstances that threatened it.
It was a brief but determined crawl to reach the actual stone floor, and the mammoth being was clambering it's way onto the surface with ponderous but unstoppable movements by the time the Queen had managed to land safely and recollect her senses, the few straggling workers jumping clear as the tree-like tail lifted free of the surrounding rubble.
In the after shocks, and the strange cries of the Stone-Beasts which were gratingly unfamiliar to the Nightmares, that the Queen surveyed her destroyed Hive. The caverns were considerably wider, the walls jagged and all traces of the their resin removed. Years of their habitation had been removed in an unprecedented thirty minutes, as if it had never been there. More than half the Hive were dead from their frenzy of panic, and less than a third of the eggs had survived.
The stench of spilled acid filled the air.
It was a moment that would be recorded in the hereditary DNA memories of the Hive as one of the strangest, strongest and most object lessons in the entirety of the racial conscience.
It was the moment the Nightmares learnt of defeat, pain and loss.
General dislcaimer: nothing in the AVP or Stoneheart universe belongs to me, and this is made for entertainment and non-profit purposes only.
Apologies for the long delay and I hope everyone has been doing well. Had this on the brain so, out it came.