Queen's note: warning hell monstrosity incoming in this chapter. Scary things, cannon gore and body horror. I think that's the right term? [does not help I've been watching dead space stuff so… yeah. Monsters man.]

Winston does. Not. Approve.

B.F.D.G.

Chapter Four:

Feet First into the Dark

Something was distinctly wrong.

It crawled and prickled against Winston's nerves from at the base of his neck and up the back of his head. It would have made his hair stand up on end if he had any left, still felt like there were goosebumps.

Feeling that odd goosebumps prickle but against his instincts instead of physically that is. Like something crawling under the scalp and prickling through. It was something the man was familiar with over the last years that Winston had to track it down. Not give to the first impulse to freeze, Winston had far more training and hard earned lessons.

The new scarring on his head and back pulled to remind him of the most recent lessons.

"Vega, what's the count so far?" Winston asked, having a feeling as there was a warning click before Vega spoke inside his helmet comms.

"I am forty percent through roll call, but there are several rigs that are showing in odd places for their normal habits." VEGA spoke, bringing up a translucent window in Winston's heads up display on the lower left to show the count of 25 anomalies so far with the count of the colony. "According to the active monitors they are not dead, but are giving no indication of, or minimal neural activity."

"Where at?"

"One location is at the sub level three of the complex you are in Commander. The second location is near the Lazarus labs, the complex beside it to the north to be precise."

Winston stopped short, pressing a hidden comms switch in the side of his chest plate. A sustained pressure that had to be held for five seconds. It would send a first warning alert, so to say, of a possible breach from the other dimension. It was a quick, quiet way for rapid attention without panicking people.

His men would start to converge on his area. "Vega, link me to Deegan. He should be by the advanced research sprawl."

"Yes commander," VEGA answered promptly, and was already activating the battle network for the Elite Guard without being asked. Giving it top priority in the communication systems. VEGA did not have to be told to start isolating some areas and giving a warning about an atmosphere breach as the need to move people still awake in the hazard. It was thankfully still so early in the morning that it was 'night' for most of the colony.

"Winston." A voice growled over the comms more than the rasp of his own, "What's going on?"

"I think we have two possibilities for a proto-gore nest." Winston said, "One where I'm at with the big guy we dragged back, and the other over by your current location."

The snarled curse was in French, Deegan took a breath, "Vega?"

"I'm sending you the location of the odd reading of… nine confirmed individual rigs." VEGA sad, also pinpointing the location near Winston. "There are two separate channels in the battle network for the teams heading to your locations."

"That's… under the base ground level." Winston realized stepping to one of the now closed vents, listening before starting to the lift that they moved the big guy through in the first place from the portal tower to here. He paused and stared at something that had been seemingly cut off by the closing vent slats by the lift.

Winston stopped to pick up what looked like a withered vine. It was almost like the black from bruising and had an almost skin feel to it through his gloves.

"Vega make sure my step daughter is safe?" Deegan was asking on the comms, a moment of selfishness as it sounded like he was jogging in his end.

Something… slithered to Winston's right, just on the inside of the wall he was beside.

The man frowned and pulled out the blade from the sheath on his lower chest. It was made from the same alloy of his armor and ship hulls. Massively strong but did not conduct heat easily.

"I will Commander Deegan, miss Lana is already in the botany lab 58. She's on the far side of the colony with your husband." VEGA said before Winston suddenly moved. It was a smooth rolling motion that the man wedged the long bland into the closed vent slates to physically open them enough to look inside.

For just a moment, Winston stared back at the glowing, sickly yellow eyes of the not quite person huddled in the vent and maintenance space. It was just that moment where they seemed confused at seeing the red and black 'solid' helmet that he got such a good look at it. Winston could not tell if this was once a man or woman, as… parts seemed to be missing on top of how the form was so emaciated. No fat in the body or face, hair half grown out and in stringy clumps, something like oil dripping. The swaying form was covered in that same oily black substance that was hard to tell if it was just clinging to it or was being produced by it.

The small back and forth movement stopped as it looked up from messing with some exposed wires in the floor. Long bony fingers that seemed to be elongated were going still in the almost gentle tugging of a… power line.

Winston growled as the thing finally seemed to recognize him as something alive and human despite his armor. The physical expression in the face seemed unmoving, but the glowing eyes reflected sudden hate. Both coiling to launch, Winston felt his own enhanced strength kicking in as he grabbed the vent cover and ripped it off the welds as the creature launched to his left. Scrambling and pulling with it for just a moment to liquid energy line.

The guardsman was already half way inside the small maintenance and vent area, bringing his plasma pistol out of sub-space storage and aimed at the dark mass as some of the shimmering fluid splashed against his right shoulder. The man did not fire as the dark thin form dove into a hole in the floor some ten feet away, more slithered into it with wiggling, trailing the black substance and what looked like tendrils of fleshy plant vines.

Winston pulled back, snarling softly before the distinct sound of the lights shutting off on the floor he was in. The leak was already stopped by automatic systems.

"Commander Winston, I'm being physically shut out of-" VEGA's voice started to warn before it warped as the lights rapidly shut off with the air filters, sweeping from one side of the hall. Or rather the building and then to the other and leaving the man standing in the complete dark, but for the glow of the diluted argent energy on his armor.

The man's helmet kicked in its systems, highlighting all the edges before the filtered light of the colony came in through the hallway lights. It was still enough that he was sure the life support had been shut off for his suit to automatically start scrubbing the air. Not everything was completely powerless as a few dim lights started to try and turn on.

"Well."

Winston shifted, taking his rifle off his back and hooked the pistol on his thigh. This situation deserved a curse.

"Fuck."

This comms cracked softly before VEGA's voice came over the battle network instead of a personal line through this section of the colony. "I apologize Commander, someone has physically shut me out of the building."

"That's fine Vega," It only sort of was, but Winston had dealt without a live feed from the colony AI he could again. He slid his blade back into the sheath, lowering his plasma rifle and stood there. Being tempting bait for the thing to come back into the vent, as his guard was clearly down. "ETA on my men?"

"This is Jackson sir, I have five Guardsmen with me. We're approaching the tram station on the third level now, just below you sir." A familiar voice spoke in the communication network for the guards.

"There's an unknown type of possessed in your level now," Winston turned as he was not attacked. Going for the lift door and had to manually pull the door open. "I'm not sure what it's covered in, but it looks like oil, and there's some questionable limbs or tendrils coming off it."

"Copy,"

"Richard reporting on site, with two Guardsmen on level two."

Winston listened to a few more voices chiming into the network as he swung under the lift and into the emergency ladder section. Using a hand on the wall and the other on the sliding bar on the other side. As he did so there were small green lights flickering on at the right edge of his HUD as other Elite Guards were coming in range not just into their comms network. He had twelve guardsmen at the moment. Vega was showing another eight converging on the building as well.

"Keep in mind, we have not only the big guy but two civilians on level four." Winston said as he paused on the third level, stepping out to that area and saw a black edged hole in the wall, and another farther down the hall in the floor. He saw Jackson kneeling down, in his pale armor but for a red right arm, near enough to toss a small drone, 'Bitty,' inside. Yet not so close to being in grabbing distance.

As the drone stopped its free fall and turned in the air Winston stepped closer. Just enough power came back, likely rerouted by those on the second level to let their armor link to the motion sensors. It was not the best tracking system but it worked surprisingly well.

It did let them see three unknown things moving past motion sensors of doors that would not open. The Guardsmen on the second level were already swinging around in unison, as one unknown was getting too close to them. As something was marked as now heading to Winston's group as well from his left. The man lifted his rifle as he spotted movement, Winston was not the only one to fire as the dark thing was practically crawling as it darted across the ground, aiming for the only non-altered in the group at the back.

One of the engineers that had not gone through the final augmentation to be an Elite Guard but still more than capable on Mars. Not someone Winston would risk through a rift or portal but he was happy to have them here.

There was a rapid pulsing sound before an almost human-like scream and scrambling. The altered creature slid the last few feet before stopping. Its chest, left shoulder and legs all smoldered from the plasma that was just starting to cool.

"Well," Jackson hummed after a moment, his voice flat, "That looks lovely."

"It smells as good as it looks," the engineer said from the side, as she was the only one without a sealed suit. The woman was not even that close.

"Lovely," Jackson snorted as he stood up, the drone coming back and landing in his hand. "Tia, you're the live bait right now, stay close between the rest of us."

"Fun."

Winston chuckled at the deadpan but was proud as his men were shifting positions. Going over to flip the creature over, grimacing a bit at what was left. The unnatural yellow glow in the eyes had faded, leaving just a milky film of something dead. "Vega, are you linked to my helmet? Can you tell who this was?"

"I am now, and scanning." The AI spoke up, "I have an updated count of likely missing people. The head count is almost finished Commander."

"How many are missing?" Winston said, touching the black 'skin' finding it strange even through his gloves, like something that was mimicking what skin should feel like but did not get it right. There was also something vine-like in the joints, as if trying to grow through or start to elongate the emaciated form. It took a second for the man to realize this was. It the same one he saw before, that had been smaller and not as broad in the shoulders even with no bulk of muscle and fat.

"I can confirm 45 as of this morning, but I have a suspicion that the number will be closer to 65." VEGA reported, "The number of rigs have not changed in the sublevel of the complex you are in as far as I can tell. However I can not locate an additional 23 separate rigs so far on the colony, although they are showing green for life support."

"Can you estimate when those anomalies of missing people started?" Winston asked.

"It can't be that long." Jackson frowned, having been kept up with the information before by VEGA. He tossed his drone back up in the air after linking it to a port on the right forearm to upload the data to VEGA. It unfurled and hovered around him in an orbit.

"It was not, most seem to have been within the last 23 hours, four seem to be over 43 hours ago." VEGA spoke, as he monitored both groups of Elite guards. Deegen's men were already moving to the lower sections of the advanced research complex. The colony AI was still fully connected there, a few spots aside and was helping the Elite Guard systematically moving the night shift personnel out. Still under the guise of a breach of atmosphere, as it was a 'normal' thing to happen off and on throughout the colony despite best efforts.

"Commander," Richard's voice spoke up on the comms, "I think we found a new passage you'll want to see. It seems to lead straight down to dirt even from the second level."

Well, that seemed promising.

"Vega, how far out are the rest of my men?" Winston asked, heading to the lift again, as the fastest way down that did not involve going through tight, questionable spaces. The others in his group were smoothly moving with him, following their Commander.

"They should be arriving in ten minutes."

"I want them to do a full sweep of the building, and close any access points, and post some guards at the sealed cutting room." Winston said as he took the trip down to the second floor first. Stepping out to find three Guardsmen waiting for his group there, covering the area of the cross halls as the rest came down. "I have a feeling they might be setting up the gore nest… portal to try and get that big guy back. The AR complex is not only the closest to the original rifts to hell at the bottom of that canyon but there's a straight path as a drone flies from there to here."

"The Slayer would be considered a valuable- asset?- that the supposed higher, or noble creatures of the Hell realm would want back under their control, judging by the scripts in the tomb the sarcophagus was inside of." VEGA hummed faintly over the channel, the AI was thinking and working on it so much a 'train of thought' but a several cargo hauler ships worth of thoughts at this mentioned possibility for this now normally empty building at a target instead of being closer to the population centers of the colony.

"Those blast doors will stay locked?" Winston asked, crouching down at the edge of the new hole in the hall he was led to. Sure enough it was part of the support that had been hollowed out and a light was dropped down. It looked like another liquid energy leak had been bitten into the power line. It was still draining down to the dark red earth and stone at the far bottom.

This was most likely how the primary power was cut and Vega was shut out. As not only that spot that seemingly was broken into with bite marks, but following up on the power line a thick black fleshy, or skin-like vine twisting up to where the Guardsmen were. The same thing that looked like Winston found in the hall, cut off what had been on the first possessed, and in the joints of the second that was killed.

"Bitty, go check it out." Jackson motioned his current active drone to go down. Reaching for another inside the red armor of his right arm to get and activate it.

The drone gave a soft chirp and floated down the opening. Just barely big enough for a Guardsman to go one at a time, it would be a cramped, tight path. It was not something any of them were going to do.

"With the added codes it will remain locked for several hours. Short of a massive, consistent physical attack." VEGA said, though he knew his technician could word through those Codes, as the colony AI had been teaching Cassidy personally about himself. Her entire working career over the last six years had been working on and with VEGA's servers and code to keep him running smoothly. Cassidy could work through the code he left, but it might be a few hours and unless something catastrophic was going to happen inside… she would see the message VEGA left.

The Colony AI did not pause his activities, but had to consider that something like the 'Great Slayer' waking up without being able to respond was… concerning. There was clear evidence he was the only thing Hell native creatures considered a predator of themselves, and the 'unending rage' he had for hell. That did not guarantee a peaceful personality towards humans, it also did not mean there would be an aggressive response to the humans either.

…he wanted the connection back to the building to protect his humans…

VEGA reinforced his control over those population centers he did have, sealing each section and bringing only every sensor and camera to comb through to look for any other anomalies like what was unfolding at this lab and the advanced research complex. Having messages left on personal devices of the need to quarantine for the 'breaches' to keep those people awake in place. While at the same time mapping how to evacuate as many as he could to the satellite colonies on Phobos and Deimos.

This also brought up an issue that VEGA needed to have more evacuation ships made and placed in new locations. There were not enough evacuation ships, something that should have been fixed earlier this last year.

The headcount finished, and Vega linked to both of the Elite Guard leaders, "Commanders, I've finished the head count. There are a total of 73 likely missing, judging by the anomaly of not being able to track them and their lifesigns still showing. I found another anomaly tied to this as well. There are only three matching signs of matching heart rate and neural activity- and I'm not ever sure it can be considered activity."

"There might be a third location." Winston scowled, getting an agreement from Deegan. The man already on the first floor now with his new team. Twelve not including himself, two of those unaltered but they should hold their own. That group of second eight were just entering the complex. Their green dots flicked to life on the left side as they started to clear the building from the top down. "Jackson?"

"Bitty found a route for use that's more controlled," Jackson reported, watching the feed from his first drone scout, letting the second finish booting up. "We just need to get to the basement level, it almost looks like a sink hole just opened up there, sediment is still settling."

"Which one is that?" Richard asked, glancing at the small camera drone getting into the air.

"Tibby."

"Got it fixed finally?"

"More than half rebuilt after the last expedition," Jackson said as the little drone buzzed and then circled each person in the team, learning who was who before stilling in the air to wait for the right motion to head to the front and check the corners first. Saving the team some time, though the Guardsmen would still be careful, it was good to have another optic around. "But Tibby's the best of them all at scouting with Bitty."

"How many do you have with you?" Winston asked as he checked his rifle, back to full charge.

"Just these two, Commander, the rest were getting cleaned out when I heard the call." Jackson said with an apologetic edge to his voice.

"We'll make due with them," Winsten reassured as he followed the three scouts to the basement. "Let's find where this nest is before an uncontrolled portal can open."

"Yes Sir."

Added note, come hang out with me and some others on my discord server, its low impact but I like to do requests there and talk with people! just tack out the '-' spaces from the link http-s:-/-discord.-gg/vKtjkvG5

Review! [omg there's a review I thought no one was reading this!]

Echo-Flower: HI FREIND! I really apricated that! hopefully you enjoy this one!