Ancient Evil
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WARNING! I OWN ALL CHARACTERS IN THIS STORY! THE ENTIRE WORK IS MADEUP! DO NOT COPY OR TAKE IDEAS! Sorry for the legal stuff, but it had to be said. Anyways. This story takes place in the year 3047 A.D. It's through the eyes of a miner on the Cruiser SSC-447, which lands on a distant, alien planet in search of a rare mineral known as XPR-17C, which is used to power the Earth's defenses. There will be blood, gore, evil, torture, and death. It will be graphic, it will be disturbing, reader discretion is advised.
I opened my eyes while laying on the stiff-matress of the cot. It was a boring, dreary room, chrome metal everywhere, and the closest thing to color was the hinted grey-blue of the floor. I lay there a minute, wondering if I should just go back to sleep, but it would be a cramped slumber. My tail couldn't even stay on the damned mattress. I sighed and stood up, stretching from the stuffy nap.
With a start, I remembered that we will finally be landing today! I rushed over to the porthole, and I could see a huge, brown mass of a planet. There must be some XPR buried here somewhere, if not everywhere. It looked like it hadn't been touched in years! I quickly got dressed and opened the door, and was immediatlly greeted by a crowd of other miners jostling andrushing to get to the cargo bay, to prep the machinery. I heard my name being called, "Louis! Hey, over here buddy!"
I grinned and caught up with my friend Richard, who is a guard for General Tenatz. "Richy, pal, why arent you up with Tenatz?" I clapped him on the shoulder, and he grinned a very wolfy grin.
"I've been assigned to guard your mining expedition, along with 4 or 5 other guys. Though I don't know why, if anything we'll probably just run into a few bugs or something. No big deal, even you miners could step on them." He laughed heartily, and I joined him on the way to the cargo bay. He was a big, stocky wolf, he walked, talked and moved with confidence, and was always kind. He was always wearing the ceramic armor that was assigned to him, I think it was because he was always wanting to be prepared for an emergency. His gun was always on his back, the stock folded over and the barrel void of rounds. He only took it off to sleep and clean it. "here we are, pal," he looked around the cargo bay, admiring the huge machinery and containers.
The assorted miners were getting to their pre-determined equipment, ecstatic to finally get off this ship and feel soil on their paws again. I found my expedition team of about 7 other foxes and wolves. We were waiting on 3 more, a fox and a raccoon. The expedition leader stood up and called role. "Mokkan?"
"Here."
"Heather?"
"Here."
"Louis?"
"Here."
This went on for about a minute, with the leader checking off a list and then flipping through papers to write a sentence. Finally, we heard the intercom crackle to life.
"ALL DEPARTING PERSONELL, TRIPLE CHECK YOUR EQUIPMENT, TAKE THREE ROLE CALLS, MAKE SURE MORALE IS GOOD, AND PREP FOR TOUCHDOWN IN T-MINUS 4 MINUTES. THIS MESSAGE REPEATS."
And it did repeat, the only difference was the countdown. Richard came over to the group and sat down next to me, tapping a claw on his chair from nervousness. "Hey, Richy, it'll be fine. Try to calm down, I know it's a big thing, we've been on this ship for years now. Try to make it a good thing." I patted his back, avoiding the gun, even if it was empty. He licked his lips and nodded, a far away look in his eyes.
"Well, you know Louis," He told me, still staring off,"There's a rumour floating around that we're not really here for the XPR, that it's for some..thing." I looked at him quizzically and he flustered. "Well, I, I mean, it could be anything, right? I mean, like, the XPR supply has been above substantial when we left, and it would have stayed that way. Why would we need more? Is there like some secret race we haven't been told about?" He shook his head and closed his eyes.
"ALL DEPARTING PERSONELL, TOUCHDOWN IMMINENT, PREP FOR IMPACT. EQUIP MASKS AND SUITS, DOOR OPENS IN ONE MINUTE."
Everybody slipped on their masks and suits, which were made of a fabric and loose plastic. The only part still sticking out was everyone's tails, which seemed pretty funny to me. Then a jolt knocked everyone off balance, and the speakers announced;"WE HAVE IMPACT. WELCOME TO PARADISE, LADIES AND GENTLEMEN."
The big cargo doors opened, which were about 200 meters high and 450 meters wide. I heard Richard sigh, and everyone else stood there staring into the sunlight. After a little while, everyone started moving. I walked out behind the tractors and drills, with my expedition. The ground was vibrating, pebbles were jumping from the heavy machinery. I could barely hear myself think, let alone talk. I opened a text channel to Richard, who was facing the same epidemic. I sent him a message saying 'so, u ready to go spelunking in the depths of an unexplord alien planet's bowels? XD' He tapped his tacpad on his wrist, read it and shook his head laughing. I received; 'O yeahh, cuz u know i like dem bowels. ;)' I laughed to myself, and the expedition stopped at a hill.
He was still sleeping, dreaming of his past, thousands of years, buried in the depths of this rock, reliving the defilement, worship, and the pain of his imprisonment. He started feeling something new, a vibration, moving the rocks around him. He awoke, finally, feeling the power surging through him, the power he forgot he had, and started pulling the rock away, to his side. He felt a gush of cold his his hand as he pushed it through, and he welcomed it, and pulled himself out. He was in a cave, his niche, the one he had lived in for years. It still had all his things in there, the wall paintings, the gnarled corpses of his offerings, nothing but string and marrow now. The ground was still vibrating, but more so, and he could tell something was happening. More offerings.
Good. He was hungry.
"All right! Start drilling here!" said the expedition leader into his radio, and the huge drill pounded into the top of the hill. The dirt and dust it dug up flew high into the air, and when it fell it coated everything in a thick blanket. I was talking to Richard over the text channel for about 10 minutes, and my body had grown accustomed to the vibrations. I sent a text to the leader asking when we'll start mining, and he said the drill was making a tunnel for them to take an elevator through, to get at a system of natural caves. I gave the ok, and switched back to Richard's channel. When I was in the middle of typing a message, the drilling stopped and the crews started to set up the elevator. It was frighteningly quiet, and still. Richard and I just opened a regular voice channel.
"So, Louis, you really think we're gonna find any XPR in here? It seems like too dry a place to find anything like that." Richard stood watching the crews set up, with his arms crossed behind his back.
"XPR is like a fossil fuel, if anything of any organic material has ever lived here, it'll leave XPR for the taking. Meaning, that there doesn't have to be any water for their to be life. Besides, " I said, " Sure as Hell beats sitting on that ship another hour." He nodded. The crew finished the elevator, a real basic platform, and the mining expedition climbed on board. I took a deep, shaky breath, and pressed the button to go down.
The descent was slow, a little rickety, and made me filled with anticipation. I was tapping my paw the entire time, looking around at the other miners who were doing the same. One of the vixens piped up, "Hey, Chief, how's the air here? Is it breathable? This suit is really starting to make me chlaustrophobic."
The Expedition leader, who from now on I'll call Chief, looked at his wrist pad. "As a matter of fact, you can change it off. Once we get to the bottom, the crews will have it airlocked. You can change then, but you'll just have to suffer a little longer Heather." He looked at her and smirked, and I just looked away.
"Well, when do we get to the bottom?" asked Heather. "I'd like to get out of this suit ASAP, it's too small and crampy." Chief laughed to himself and a jolt answered her.
Chief stepped off, and said,"Alright, you all know the drill, digging team every 40 meters, 2 miners per team, and farthest miner gets the guard." Everyone started taking off their suits, stretching and sighing from the release from the cramped thing. I rolled my shoulders, stretched my arms and legs, and grabbed my gear.
Richard stood next to the Chief, "Alright, whoever feels like taking a hike on top of the digging, you're with me." No one wanted to dig without help, so nobody went. I walked up to him and we went off. He smiled, knowing I was the only one who would stand to be around a guard.
"Louis," The Chief pulled me to the side before I went," Make sure you keep constant radio check, I don't want to lose you on the first expedition." I smiled and nodded knowingly, and he turned to the rest and said, "Well? What are you all loafing around for? Let's find some XPR!"
one hour later
Richard and I had set up the digging equipment, a small drill and crank, set up to deliver the mineral to a transport to take the dirt elsewhere. I started the machine, and started to use an old fashioned pickaxe that everyone had. It was a metal alloy, meaning that it was virtually indestructible. That didn't mean the same thing with the handle. I took a swing, and the head flew off the handle. It went over a pile, bounced off the wall, and around a corner. I laughed a little, and asked Richard if he could pass it to me. He nodded with a smile, and went to get it.
I started tinkering with the drill, checking the blades, belt pressure, and I heard Richard screamed and stopped abrubtly. I spun around quickly, vaulted over the pile of rubble, and went around the corner. What I saw was nightmarish.
A creature the size of a truck was holding down Richard to the ground, it had long, gnarled claws, arms that looked like a tree trunk, it's legs were stretched taut with muscles, it's tail was long as a whip, constantly flicking around behind it. It's face was like a bear's, except more ripped apart, the cheekbone was showing, bleached a bright white. It was breathing heavily, hard, ragged breaths, it's eyes were a faintly glowing yellow, never blinking. I stopped in my tracks, watching with horror.
The Beast put it's face close to Richards, who was breathing heavily and trying to look away. He started hyper ventalating, and looked up to see me standing there. The Beast raked Richard's chest with it's claws, and Richard started spitting up blood. The life was slowly draining from his eyes, and he mouthed a word, with blood seeping from his mouth; run. The Beast then ripped him open, it's claws tearing into his gut. It sighed, then started pulling out his organs. Richard's face was locked in pain, still staring into my eyes, and I felt myself tearing up. Then I remembered the pistol, I've always had it, but never acknowledged it. I drew it, and when I looked back up, the Beast was gone.
And so was Richard.
I backed up, the gun held tighly, my knuckles turning white through my dark fur. I spun around, my heart beating in my ears. How could this be happening? Why? Dear God, Richard. Richard was dead. I sat down and sobbed quietlly, shaking and shivering uncontrolably. Why did Richard have to die? I hope he is dead, I thought. Better than living through that. I had to tell the Chief, I had to tell General Tenatz, everyone. The radio!
I picked it up from the cart and tuned to the Chief's channel with shaking paws. I almost dropped the radio, and I put it up to my head. I pressed the call button, and the Chief picked up. "Hello? Louis? Louis, do you copy?"
I gulped and said into the mouthpiece, "Richard's gone."
The Chief said,"I knew it, we should have had a different guard. What the hell was he doing?"
I started to feel my eyes burn and my throat get dry, and I told him,"He was getting eaten alive." I dropped the radio and started sobbing again.
There was silence. Then I heard the Chief's voice,"Louis? You come back here, I've called the General, we're pulling off this planet. Louis? Do you copy? Dammit!"
I layed there, shivering, my tail curled up tightly around my chest, crying silently. What if it came back for me? What if it didn't even know I was there? It must have, because it fled so quickly and took Richard. How'd it even MOVE that fast, anyways? It doesn't matter. I need to get out of here. I slowly got up, still shivering a little bit. I took a few steps towards the entrance, and I heard rocks fluttering, bouncing down the cave, the roof, the ceiling. Was it coming back for me? Could it be stalking me now, the entrails of my friend being melted away in its gut? I started running for the entrance, paws pounding the ground.
General Tenatz was calling for an ERTB, or Emergency Return To Base. Miners were coming back to the ship in a huff, thinking it was just a drill, and they all wanted to continue mining. He began to make his announcement over the intercom. "I doubt almost any of you know the reason for this ERTB. I'm not going to lie to you all, but one of our expedition teams has been lost. An unknown hostile has been reported to be 'eating a guard alive'. We do not know just how accurate this is, but I'm not going to lose any more lives in the name of fuel. We will be sending in an extract team to try to fetch them, take down this hostile, and bring as many of our personell home safely. We'll be making a straightshot back to Earth, Give these people luck and your prayers." There was a stunned silence, and everyone returned the equipment to it's places, and all sat down or stood around, waiting.
I found two more miners, hiding in a corner, both with pistols drawn. They saw me and joined me in stony silence. We ran through the caverns, and then found more. Pretty soon, the whole expedition was with me, running through the caves, looking for the exit. I stopped suddenly, ears swiveling around to hear something. Was that...crunching? Dear God, it's coming...it's coming... I shouted at the top of my lungs,"Everyone, get the fuck out! It's coming, run! Run, Dammit!" I started pushing and pulling in the direction we were running, hearing the crunching getting louder. There, finally the elevator, and the Chief...
The Chief...
It was tearing him apart. Alive. Not eating him, but just tearing out his entrails. He was gasping, and crying, his face was blank, but he still shuddered. His eyes swiveled to us, and he started trying to say something. Before he could, the Beast grabbed the top of his head, then ripped off his jaw with a sickening crunch. His tongue dangled there, useless, flopping and bleeding, his teeth on his upper jaw suspended in the air. His eyes had widened in fear, then rolled back in his head. He started to vomit, just, dripping out, and blood mixed with it, making it a purple gooey mess. The creature then stopped suddenly, and stood up. "I can smell your fear, mortals." He turned to face us, and it felt like he was looking at everyone in the eyes at once. Heather aimed her pistol at him and fired, 4 shots, aimed at the chest.
All four bullets seemed to curve away, not even glancing it. The Beast smiled, showing curved, chiseled teeth. It grabbed Heather, the vixen, who was killed from the Beast smashing her head into a pulp in it's fist. It tossed her corpse to the side, then made a move for the next miner. Me and a few other miners turned and ran, a couple others stood their in shock, the Beast's next targets. I thought with a pang of guilt, at least they'll distract it long enough for me to get away. I had to get out. But we were 100 meters underground. And the only way up is by the elevator.
And the Beast was at the elevator.
10 minutes later
I was running in the caves, feeling rocks fall down every once in a while, the lights would blink out everyonce in a while. Occasionally I would hear a scream, then it would abruptly stop. Each time I would pray under my breath that I wouldn't be next. I heard scraping on a wall, and I slowed to a stop. A miner was trying to dig through the wall to get up, clawing at the wall frantically with bloodied paws without letting up. I swallowed, looked down and contemplated what to do. She was probably going mad, but Hell, werent we all? Then again, she could be the only sane one here. I held my breath; there was the Beast, creeping up on her, noiselessly, the only sound was her clawing at the rocks. I could feel my heart racing, and heard it, it was a miracle nothing else did. It jumped up in the niche she dug, she screamed at the top of her lungs and was silenced, and I took off running. I never ran so fast in my life, I felt like my legs were going to fall off.
There, the elevator, I could see it! Way down the cave, at least 60 more meters! Something grabbed my arm, and I swung out with my fist, and to my surprise it swore. "ow, fuck, man!" It was a guard! "Where's this 'killer'?" He said sarcasticly, he obviously thought it was some accident, and I felt like I wouldn't be able to tell him in time. I looked back at the elevator frantically, escape was so close, so close.
"Are their bios on screen?" asked General Tenatz, looking at a computer moniter.
A scientist pressed a few buttons on her wrist pad, "They are now, sir. All 6 soldiers are being tracked and monitered." Tenatz nodded, biting his nail, staring at the screen.
"And the camera feeds?" he asked.
The same scientist tapped more icons, and 6 videos appeared on another screen. Another scientist was sitting at that moniter, and was listening to audio with a headset. "Is that..." He started, unplugging them,"growling?"
A deep, rumbling noise came through, then cracking along with it, and the second feed was finding something. "Put it on the main screen," Tenatz ordered. The scientist tapped in some keys, and the second camera feed stopped dead in it's tracks; the biggest abomination they had ever seen was tearing a miner open, who was twitching every once in a while, the creature was pulling out his intestines, sliding it over one hand like a rope coil, setting it off to the side. It then pulled out the liver, and it cut it open and wrang out like a rag. Tenatz felt naseus, several in the room vomited. He held down a key on the computer and ordered,"Corporal Howwit, light that fucker up."
I heard a machine gun fire off a dozen or so bullets, and the soldier loosened his grip on my arm. I backed away from the gunfire, because that meant the Beast was near. The other soldiers started shooting too, and I ran away, hearing bloodcurdling screams, bullets pinging off equipment and rock, and I ran into the elevator. I pounded the button, and the door started to close. I breathed a sigh of relief, then, right before the door closed, I saw the Beast walk over, bit the head off a soldier, saw the door and dropped the corpse and bolted for it. I backed into the far corner, and the elevator started to move ever so slowly. But the beast didn't come after me, as far as I know, and I noticed I had escaped. I was alive.
I was alive. I thanked God over and over, praying for those who had died, and the elevator stopped. There. The door to freedom. I started laughing hysterically, kicked it open, and started running to the ship. The Cargo Bay doors were open! They were waitting for me!
I started to lose my breath from exhaustion, but I noticed with a chill running down my spine that I couldn't get it back. I had forgotten the suit. The fucking suit, and after everything I had just been through. I could feel my breath leave, and I breathed in nothing, it was all in vain. Well, hey, at least I would get to see Richard again, right?
Louis died that day, he suffocated from lack of air; the soldiers and miners were all killed in the cave that day also, from the Beast. The Beast went back into eternal slumber, fresh corpses decorating his throne room. General Tenatz ordered for the planet to be marked with a planetary strike, and for all future mining sites to be thouroughly searched for any bio-signs.