Chapter 6: Whispers in the Bush
Marbo crouched unmoving amidst the lush ferns, observing the alien patrol passing directly below his vantage point. The smooth white armor plates and bulky pulse weaponry marked them as Tau, recent trespassers upon the deadly jungles of Catachan. They moved awkwardly through the terrain, crushing ancient roots underfoot and tearing through delicate jungle flora. VTOL drones buzzed overhead, sweeping sensor beams stabbing down trying in vain to penetrate the impenetrable tangle of vegetation. These naïve interlopers were ripe for exploitation.
A faint grin split Marbo's mud-smeared face. The living spirit of Catachan would aid her native son today against those who had defiled this land uninvited. Marbo had spent many patient weeks secretly tracking and studying his prey - learning patrol routes, numbers, and potential weaknesses. A range of lethal countermeasures had been prepared, tuned to turn the jungle itself against the aliens. For all their vaunted technology, the Tau were helplessly blind to the native threats that Marbo knew intimately. Today, that fatal lesson would be hammered home.
Rising soundlessly from the ferns, Marbo expertly mimicked the shrill cry of a native blood shrike, creating the illusion of danger ahead. As the Tau froze and scanned for the threat, Marbo subtly pulled a vine taut across the trail behind them before loosening it to snap back with a crack against the bark. Spooked by the strange jungle noises surrounding them, the aliens opened fire, shredding vibrant flowering plants and gouging smoking craters into living tree trunks. But their pulse rounds hit nothing living. They never saw Marbo circle silently behind their group with predatory grace.
His Catachan fang knife flashed in the dim forest light, slipping between the seams of the Tau's armor to spill vibrant azure blood across the dark fertile soil. Before the first victim finished spasming at Marbo's feet, he had already moved on to the next. Pulling another vine tight caused a Tau to stumble sideways into Marbo's descending blade, nearly decapitating him. The Aliens' drone cameras and sensors failed to detect the specter moving fluidly among them.
Marbo continued to thin the ranks, leaving smoking craters and scorched alien corpses behind. But the Tau remained ignorant, firing blindly at an enemy they could not see or comprehend. A heavy log swung down from concealment, crushing another alien against a broad trunk with pulping force. Marbo permitted himself a feral smile. These aliens were finally learning respect for Catachan's dangers. But the lesson was far from over. There were far worse fates than his knife in this death world.
By sunset, the jungle floor ran blue with the ebbing life fluids of a dozen Tau, their nutrients feeding the ancient trees. The rich smell of blood permeated the air, beckoning other predators. Heavy footsteps echoed ahead, along with the snap of massive jaws. Through the hanging vines, Marbo watched the hulking shape of a Catachan Devil approaching the slain aliens. Marbo turned and slipped away, satisfied. The planet's apex predator had arrived to claim its due from those who trespassed here.
The Tau had barely tasted a fraction of the horrors seething beneath Catachan's deceptively lush façade. Their technology and weapons meant nothing against such primordial savagery. The jungle brooked no interlopers here. Its spirit was ancient, and it would endure long after these aliens had been digesting in screaming agony within the bellies of its children. And Marbo would also endure, for his purpose was eternally bound to defending Catachan's lethal secrets. There were always more enemies to meet the same grisly fate. For now, the concealing jungle shadows welcomed home its loyal hunter once more.