Natural Selection - The Behemoth : Source
Fire_Eel
Join Date: 2003-08-19 Member: 19950Members
Join Date: 2003-08-19 Member: 19950Members
<div class="IPBDescription">It's back! Checked and rewritten</div> Firstly, I want to thank everyone for their support and compliments to my fanfictions. Last year, I did a fanfic known as The Behemoth, followed by Nightmare. Unfortunately, due to my exams, I stopped playing NS, and couldn't find time to continue Nightmare. Surprisingly, many have messaged me while I was away telling me they liked my story, and wanted me to continue my fanfics.
Unfortunately, I lost most of Nightmare's chapters. Then, someone suggested that I should rewrite Behemoth. Part of the edited Behemoth was lost, but I could check for all mistakes and rewrite it once more, with additional parts and so on. It would(IMO) be a little silly to still let it have the same name. Thus, I changed the name alittle.
Feel free to give me any comments, both positive and negative. And point out any errors I have commited, or any part of my story that seems weird. I can't give an update everyday as I have work, but I will try to rewrite and post as fast as I can
And let me present to everyone - The Behemoth : Source
<span style='font-size:21pt;line-height:100%'>Introduction</span>
For a long time, the race of man has always pondered over the question – Are we alone in the Universe? Through the years, technology has advanced to a point where even distant galaxies many light years away from Earth are conquered, and foreign planets colonised. The question was answered, but not exactly the way anyone had wanted or even expected.
Mankind encountered an alien terror in the Ariadne Arm galaxy, the Kharaa. They are the creatures of nightmare, man's ultimate enemy, capable of things no other life forms could ever do. They spawn from the Bacterium, a microscoptic threat which challenges man's advanced nano technology. Even though the Kharaa lack any form of technology, their speed, power and strength are more than a match for man’s advanced weaponry. Mankind has met his nemesis at last, and the Kharaa are every bit as strong and as intelligent as humans are, if not better.
Mongolians in Sanjii were among the first to encounter this alien threat. They were slaughtered, and all that remained of their doomed last stand were audio transmissions screaming, “Kharaa! Kharaa!” That meant “Watch out” in their language, but the marines who found the radio transmissions assumed that “Kharaa” was the name of the aliens. Although the real meaning of Kharaa was discovered, the name had already stuck on. And everyone now refers to these awesome but terrifying creatures as the Kharaa.
There was no negotiation, no chance of peace or neutrality. A war broke out in the Ariadne Arm between man and Kharaa at once – A losing battle. There was no stopping the Kharaa as they are unnaturally smart and brutal, sneaking past defenses, taking no hostages and slaughtering everyone. Eventually, countless space stations, space facilities and other important sites were taken by the Kharaa. Planets were wiped clean of human life. Entire spaceships were lost, countless people were killed. The Kharaa was merciless. Trillions of dollars were lost, and no one could deal with the Kharaa. Humanity’s future expansion seemed doomed.
A major organisation, the Trans System Authority, better known as TSA was the only viable option capable of dealing with the Kharaa. All other attempts by other major organisations had failed badly. The TSA trained new recruits into experienced marines known as the Frontiersmen. They are the new force formed specifically to deal with the Kharaa threat. At last, the forces of humanity and Kharaa seemed even.
The war between the Kharaa and Frontiersmen has went on for months, years……an eternity. In an attempt to defeat the alien threat however, the TSA designed and created the biggest spaceship ever to exist - The Behemoth, codename - BH.
The Behemoth was built in a total period of three years. She was mainly comprised of the recently invented Neo Titanium Alloy, and supported entirely by Nanotech. She was fixed with dozens of boosters, jets and propellers. She was equipped with the most advanced technology such as nano byte equipment, nano machinery, nano weaponry such as super sonic turrets, vulcan cannons, neutron missiles, purified hydrogen bombs, life support capsules, tons of food, provision and water. The Behemoth could support more than fifteen thousand people for more than fifty years. She was the size of a city, spawning four thousand metres long and eight hundred metres high. She was not designed for colonizing though; she was designed to assault the Kharaa. She was to explore space and to find and eradicate every last Kharaa there was, even if it meant a slow-and-costly quarantine-or-destroy operation against every infested spaceship out there.
Eight months after the final completion of The Behemoth, she set out to space from Earth, towards the Ariadne Arm Galaxy, towards Kharaa territory. Onboard her was exactly fifteen thousand, nine hundred and seventy-six TSA marines, scientists, doctors, engineers, everyone needed as they would be travelling in space for at least five years.
Everyone was hopeful, excited, nervous and glad about The Behemoth leaving to combat the Kharaa. It was a historical moment for humanity. She was one of the proudest achievements of the TSA. Everyone felt that there was hope at last, that The Behemoth would indeed be able to defeat the Kharaa.
They were wrong.
TSA Four Stars Officer Marcus was offered a chance to board The Behemoth but he turned it down, much to the confusion of others. It was surprising that someone would want to reject such a golden opportunity. Only the best and the luckiest were selected for that operation. Marcus had told the TSA that there is no chance of The Behemoth surviving against the Kharaa, only a fool’s hope. The Kharaa simply appeared in a spaceship suddenly without any warning. Making the spaceship bigger would not prevent the inevitable, it simply made the problem worst. No one heeded his advice, no one cared about what he said, no one listened to him.
He was right.
Thirteen months after The Behemoth left Earth, all contact with her was lost. Everything was gone, either The Behemoth had suddenly disappeared completely, or she had been destroyed. However, TSA had told the public that The Behemoth’s satellite communication system had merely been damaged or destroyed. Some said that The Behemoth had been sucked into a black hole, others claimed that The Behemoth had crashed into a planet, there was even hypothesis that the The Behemoth must had been exposed to harmful cosmic rays which would cause all of the crew to die. Unfortunately, no one could guess exactly what had happened to The Behemoth, and TSA denied every single one of the claims.
Eventually, as time passed, The Behemoth passed out of knowledge. She became nothing more than a painful memory for the TSA, that they had wasted so much time and resource on it, that they had needlessly sacrificed so many people.
Here is the last transmission Earth made with The Behemoth eleven minutes before all contact were lost.
~static~
“Burt here. Struk, you there?”
“Hey! Burt! What’s up?”
“Nothing much, how does it look from BH?”
“Mmmm…same thing, some strange unknown planets which we can probably never ever reach.”
“Too bad. Hey, you sound pretty miserable. Is everything okay there?”
“Listen Burt, it’s just that……I miss home, I miss you, I miss my parents. I really didn't know why I decided to leave on The Behemoth. It’s so…lonely.”
“Ain't there thousands of others with you?”
“Yeah, but I don't get to meet all of them, and it just isn’t as warm as home”
“You chose it yourself! You chose to get on BH!”
“Yeah I know. It was a pretty stupid choice of mine”
“Fine, so you were saying yesterday, it would take at least another 2 years before you come back?”
“Uh huh.”
“No kidding?”
“Nope, anyway, ya know, I just have this baaaaddddd feeling something terrible is gonna happen today.”
“You always have that feeling”
“No, seriously. It’s that…its like a sixth sense to you”
“Wow, I am so ‘amazed’!”
“Yeah right!”
“I am! Seriously!”
“Only a fool would believe you.”
“A fool like you?”
“Who are you trying to kid? Me?”
“Yes, you.”
“And guess what? It’s working.”
“Good, anyway, have I told you that your idol, Rock’R Roy is dead?”
“…………”
“Hey, are you there?”
“…………”
“Hello? Struk?”
“…………”
“Hey! Stop kidding man!”
“…………”
“Hello? Do you copy? It’s Burt.”
“…………”
~static~
That was the end of the last transmission and it ended suddenly, without a goodbye, without any hints to what had happened next, without any hints to the very fate of The Behemoth and her crew of nearly sixteen thousand who were never seen again.
Little did man know that the very weapons they would build to defeat the Kharaa would be the very weapons that they would have to face. Little did they know she was a weapon, which would almost wipe humanity out.
Unfortunately, I lost most of Nightmare's chapters. Then, someone suggested that I should rewrite Behemoth. Part of the edited Behemoth was lost, but I could check for all mistakes and rewrite it once more, with additional parts and so on. It would(IMO) be a little silly to still let it have the same name. Thus, I changed the name alittle.
Feel free to give me any comments, both positive and negative. And point out any errors I have commited, or any part of my story that seems weird. I can't give an update everyday as I have work, but I will try to rewrite and post as fast as I can
And let me present to everyone - The Behemoth : Source
<span style='font-size:21pt;line-height:100%'>Introduction</span>
For a long time, the race of man has always pondered over the question – Are we alone in the Universe? Through the years, technology has advanced to a point where even distant galaxies many light years away from Earth are conquered, and foreign planets colonised. The question was answered, but not exactly the way anyone had wanted or even expected.
Mankind encountered an alien terror in the Ariadne Arm galaxy, the Kharaa. They are the creatures of nightmare, man's ultimate enemy, capable of things no other life forms could ever do. They spawn from the Bacterium, a microscoptic threat which challenges man's advanced nano technology. Even though the Kharaa lack any form of technology, their speed, power and strength are more than a match for man’s advanced weaponry. Mankind has met his nemesis at last, and the Kharaa are every bit as strong and as intelligent as humans are, if not better.
Mongolians in Sanjii were among the first to encounter this alien threat. They were slaughtered, and all that remained of their doomed last stand were audio transmissions screaming, “Kharaa! Kharaa!” That meant “Watch out” in their language, but the marines who found the radio transmissions assumed that “Kharaa” was the name of the aliens. Although the real meaning of Kharaa was discovered, the name had already stuck on. And everyone now refers to these awesome but terrifying creatures as the Kharaa.
There was no negotiation, no chance of peace or neutrality. A war broke out in the Ariadne Arm between man and Kharaa at once – A losing battle. There was no stopping the Kharaa as they are unnaturally smart and brutal, sneaking past defenses, taking no hostages and slaughtering everyone. Eventually, countless space stations, space facilities and other important sites were taken by the Kharaa. Planets were wiped clean of human life. Entire spaceships were lost, countless people were killed. The Kharaa was merciless. Trillions of dollars were lost, and no one could deal with the Kharaa. Humanity’s future expansion seemed doomed.
A major organisation, the Trans System Authority, better known as TSA was the only viable option capable of dealing with the Kharaa. All other attempts by other major organisations had failed badly. The TSA trained new recruits into experienced marines known as the Frontiersmen. They are the new force formed specifically to deal with the Kharaa threat. At last, the forces of humanity and Kharaa seemed even.
The war between the Kharaa and Frontiersmen has went on for months, years……an eternity. In an attempt to defeat the alien threat however, the TSA designed and created the biggest spaceship ever to exist - The Behemoth, codename - BH.
The Behemoth was built in a total period of three years. She was mainly comprised of the recently invented Neo Titanium Alloy, and supported entirely by Nanotech. She was fixed with dozens of boosters, jets and propellers. She was equipped with the most advanced technology such as nano byte equipment, nano machinery, nano weaponry such as super sonic turrets, vulcan cannons, neutron missiles, purified hydrogen bombs, life support capsules, tons of food, provision and water. The Behemoth could support more than fifteen thousand people for more than fifty years. She was the size of a city, spawning four thousand metres long and eight hundred metres high. She was not designed for colonizing though; she was designed to assault the Kharaa. She was to explore space and to find and eradicate every last Kharaa there was, even if it meant a slow-and-costly quarantine-or-destroy operation against every infested spaceship out there.
Eight months after the final completion of The Behemoth, she set out to space from Earth, towards the Ariadne Arm Galaxy, towards Kharaa territory. Onboard her was exactly fifteen thousand, nine hundred and seventy-six TSA marines, scientists, doctors, engineers, everyone needed as they would be travelling in space for at least five years.
Everyone was hopeful, excited, nervous and glad about The Behemoth leaving to combat the Kharaa. It was a historical moment for humanity. She was one of the proudest achievements of the TSA. Everyone felt that there was hope at last, that The Behemoth would indeed be able to defeat the Kharaa.
They were wrong.
TSA Four Stars Officer Marcus was offered a chance to board The Behemoth but he turned it down, much to the confusion of others. It was surprising that someone would want to reject such a golden opportunity. Only the best and the luckiest were selected for that operation. Marcus had told the TSA that there is no chance of The Behemoth surviving against the Kharaa, only a fool’s hope. The Kharaa simply appeared in a spaceship suddenly without any warning. Making the spaceship bigger would not prevent the inevitable, it simply made the problem worst. No one heeded his advice, no one cared about what he said, no one listened to him.
He was right.
Thirteen months after The Behemoth left Earth, all contact with her was lost. Everything was gone, either The Behemoth had suddenly disappeared completely, or she had been destroyed. However, TSA had told the public that The Behemoth’s satellite communication system had merely been damaged or destroyed. Some said that The Behemoth had been sucked into a black hole, others claimed that The Behemoth had crashed into a planet, there was even hypothesis that the The Behemoth must had been exposed to harmful cosmic rays which would cause all of the crew to die. Unfortunately, no one could guess exactly what had happened to The Behemoth, and TSA denied every single one of the claims.
Eventually, as time passed, The Behemoth passed out of knowledge. She became nothing more than a painful memory for the TSA, that they had wasted so much time and resource on it, that they had needlessly sacrificed so many people.
Here is the last transmission Earth made with The Behemoth eleven minutes before all contact were lost.
~static~
“Burt here. Struk, you there?”
“Hey! Burt! What’s up?”
“Nothing much, how does it look from BH?”
“Mmmm…same thing, some strange unknown planets which we can probably never ever reach.”
“Too bad. Hey, you sound pretty miserable. Is everything okay there?”
“Listen Burt, it’s just that……I miss home, I miss you, I miss my parents. I really didn't know why I decided to leave on The Behemoth. It’s so…lonely.”
“Ain't there thousands of others with you?”
“Yeah, but I don't get to meet all of them, and it just isn’t as warm as home”
“You chose it yourself! You chose to get on BH!”
“Yeah I know. It was a pretty stupid choice of mine”
“Fine, so you were saying yesterday, it would take at least another 2 years before you come back?”
“Uh huh.”
“No kidding?”
“Nope, anyway, ya know, I just have this baaaaddddd feeling something terrible is gonna happen today.”
“You always have that feeling”
“No, seriously. It’s that…its like a sixth sense to you”
“Wow, I am so ‘amazed’!”
“Yeah right!”
“I am! Seriously!”
“Only a fool would believe you.”
“A fool like you?”
“Who are you trying to kid? Me?”
“Yes, you.”
“And guess what? It’s working.”
“Good, anyway, have I told you that your idol, Rock’R Roy is dead?”
“…………”
“Hey, are you there?”
“…………”
“Hello? Struk?”
“…………”
“Hey! Stop kidding man!”
“…………”
“Hello? Do you copy? It’s Burt.”
“…………”
~static~
That was the end of the last transmission and it ended suddenly, without a goodbye, without any hints to what had happened next, without any hints to the very fate of The Behemoth and her crew of nearly sixteen thousand who were never seen again.
Little did man know that the very weapons they would build to defeat the Kharaa would be the very weapons that they would have to face. Little did they know she was a weapon, which would almost wipe humanity out.
Comments
<span style='font-family:Courier'>1 Month Before It Happened......</span>
Watson put on his walkman-connected-headset as he laid on his bed, reading a book titled ‘Anatomy of Skulks’ in big shiny letters. Blaring rock music bombarded his eardrums as he tapped his feet repeatedly to the music.
He could barely notice the low annoying hum from the window, a problem that had been around since he first stepped onto The Behemoth. Not that he could do much about it, his superiors didn’t give a damn to such a trival problem.
Watson was a timid man, despite being six foot tall. Looks and temperament were two different things. His size was of no advantage to him, be it in social life or in combating Kharaa. In school, he used to get bullied by smaller guys. In combat, the Kharaa didn’t care. He towered over Skulks, but they still swarmed him like he was a plate of tasty chicken for their starving bellies. He even had scars to prove his close call with death.
Right now, the thing that still troubled him was the fact he was practically stuck on The Behemoth.
Nothing here ever changed. Not the guns he was issued, the teammates who stayed in his room with him, nor the fat arse Sergeant Hanks. Not even the sights beyond the window changed.
From the window came the vast darkness of space with flickering stars from the distant galaxies. Not a single infested planet was close, despite what everyone else had been boasting about. Earth could not be seen either, The Behemoth was too far away from Earth. After all, she was all the way at the Ariadne Arm!
Light years away to be exact, Watson thought unhappily. Somehow, he felt that he had been forced onto this gigantic spaceship. His superiors had told him that they ‘hoped’ he would participate in the first operation of The Behemoth.
Hope made it sound nice, made it sound like he had a choice.
Fat hope. Watson knew better than to reject it. Even until now, he thought. Now! There was still no Kharaa to fight. Watson guessed that he was suffering from a lack of excitement.
And there was absolutely nothing for him to do. He had seen his superiors and friends leave The Behemoth for some rescue missions. Every once in a while, they would receive a call that a certain spaceship has been taken by the Kharaa. But he was NEVER selected for any of the missions! Even now, his three teammates were away on a cleanup mission on an expensive but infested ship.
But why? Why would they have to send him on this stupid mission to search-and-destroy the Kharaa? Why would they have to build this hideously stupid spaceship? It’s not as if the Kharaa are really found on distant planets anyway. They simply appeared on a spaceship or space station when you least expect it.
And kill everyone.
And TSA is pretty short on resources, yet they could still build The Behemoth.
How stupid. His thoughts moved back to his book.
It was disgustingly amusing to be looking at the dissected picture of a Skulk. He could clearly see the gruesome insides of the Skulk. Amazingly, it seemed partially similar to a regular dog, considering the big differences between the temperament of the two animals.
Skulks are a small dog-sized species of Kharaa which weight about as much as a human. They are the most common Kharaa life form, and specialize as the scouts. Even so, a Skulk would have little trouble ripping a human apart in mere seconds. They are covered in a dry bumpy biological armor that is usually brownish-green and filled with large bulging blood vessels. Each limp ended in a huge curved claw, capable of slicing a hand off, and its long snout was armed with many jagged teeth. To compliment all that, they have one of the strongest bite when compared to Earth-animals.
The Skulk was laid on a surgery table with its belly facing upwards. Well, the belly had been carefully sliced open and the inside of the Skulk was clearly visible. The table was stained green from all the blood and the four limbs of the Skulk were outstretched.
As Watson inspected the details of the picture, he could make out what seemed like a ribcage in the chest of the Skulk. Mingled with the ribcage were long and bloody organs. They coiled around the ribcage, coiled around the other organs and there were also……holes?
Bullet holes, Watson realized. The Skulk must had been shot dead first, and then an autopsy performed on its body. He could suddenly notice that there were also several other holes among the organs and even limbs.
No bones were visible, beside the ribcage. Watson could also see that there was a long line running from the top to the bottom from the bloody interior of the Skulk. Was it the backbone? Unlikely. It was in a similar position to a normal backbone, and yet it seemed……
Watson suddenly felt nauseous, and he glanced looked away quickly.
Disgusting, what were the scientists thinking when they decided to dissect the Skulk? Then again, doing so would allow the TSA to understand the Kharaa better, and fight them better.
Tiredly, Watson placed the book carefully on the table and stretched his limbs lazily. When could he return to Earth? His bed, his computer, his lovely wife…
From the corner of his eyes, Watson suddenly caught a slight glimpse of a shooting star. Excitedly, he flung off his headset on the bed and rushed to the window and peered forward, trying to spot his target through the thick glass.
Unfortunately, he was greeted with the same view from before. Stars and nothing else.
Too late, Watson thought in dismay. It’s gone.
Disappointed, he was about to pick up his book again when there was a crackle of static from the helmet on his table.
~Static~
“Hey! Watson?” A hoarse voice sounded.
Watson held up the helmet to his ear but he didn’t put it on.
“Watson? Are you there?” The voice asked again.
“Yeah, I am. Who’s this?” Watson replied.
There was another crackle of static, “You have three seconds to guess before you own me a beer.”
“Only one idiot I know would say that – Ed.” Watson said.
“Yes, that’s me alright. I knew it! Fat arse Hanks didn’t select you for that mission!”
Annoyed, Watson asked, “Fine, he didn’t. So what the hell are you looking for me for?!”
There was a cackle of laughter for a moment before Ed said, “Hey man! I know you are feeling pretty miserable right now. But I’ve got a serious problem here.”
Watson let out a loud sigh. What was wrong with him?
“Watson, recently, you noticed anything……strange?” Ed said, suddenly sounding serious.
“Strange?” Watson spoke with a slight confusion in his voice. “Like what?”
“Like……well, just strange. Weird, unusual…out of place.” Ed replied.
“I hope it doesn't concern me. Please define your version of strange.” Watson said uncomfortably.
“Like hearing strange sounds come from your vent,” Ed explained.
“No, I didn’t notice that.” Watson said.
“Or…or…” Ed now sounded panicky.
Watson quickly glanced up at his vent to make sure there was nothing wrong, and he asked, “Or what?”
“Watson. I know you really ain't gonna believe me...” Ed stammered.
“I will!” Watson interrupted.
“Seeing weird algae-like growths in your room and toilet or anywhere else.” Ed said.
By now, Watson had sat on his bed. “Algae-like growths?”
“Erm, yeah, stuff like that.” Ed said.
Watson let out another sigh, he still don’t understand Ed’s point! “So you said algae-like growths? What are they like?”
“Yeah. Algae-like growths. They are kinda…greenish or yellowish…you know, kind of like…” Ed stammered.
Watson sat straight up. “Like Bacterium.”
“How did you know?” Ed questioned in surprise. “Unless you got the same thing growing in your room as well?”
“No, I don’t. But for one, I am not stupid. Usually Bacterium looks green and yellow. And with it comes,” Watson swallowed his breath. “Kharaa.”
“Yes. Watson, I fear that we got a Kharaa invasion.” Ed added.
“That’s…absurd! Look! The Behemoth is the most advanced ship, ever! We got thousands and thousands of armed marines here. Why the hell would the Kharaa want to attack us?” despite trying to sound confident, Watson couldn’t hide the fear in his voice.
“You are scared as well?” Ed asked. “Why not tell fat arse Hanks?”
“He would say we are crazy or something!” Watson replied.
“Watson! This concerns our safety and…” Ed’s voice fell silent.
“And what?” Watson demanded.
There was no reply.
“Ed? Hey Ed? You there?” Watson asked in concern.
He could faintly hear some scraping sounds followed by the sound of Ed breathing heavily. A loud unearthly rip and some loud banging clank of metal against metal then followed.
What’s happening? Clearly something is wrong. But what?
There was a sudden scream and gunshots. Ed was screaming in fear. There was more crackle of static from the helmet and Watson could pick up Ed screaming “Help help!” and “Watson!” Finally, it ended off with a loud “No!” and the helmet simply went dead.
“Ed?” Watson asked with a shaky voice. “Ed?!”
For a moment, Watson sat there, dumbfounded. He clutched his helmet tightly, ever hopeful that he would get a reply from Ed again.
But there was no reply.
“Ed! Ed!” Watson screamed at his helmet. “Ed! What’s wrong?!”
Nothing but silence answered him.
Immediately, Watson snatched his LMG from the wall and checked it.
The LMG was the standard Light Machine Gun used by most marines. They were light, cheap and very effective. Easily firing over ten rounds per second and damaging enough to deal with most Kharaa threats, LMGs were very lethal weapons in the right hands and in the right team. But not for his LMG. There was not a single scratch or stain on his LMG, and it was polished to perfection. But there was a serious problem with it.
It was out of ammo. Oh hell, please don't do this to me...Watson thought in frustration.
He felt his trousers and pockets desperately, hoping that somehow, a clip of ammo would miraclously be there. There was none.
How stupid, Watson thought. How wonderfully stupid. He had completely neglected to inform his superiors that he had no ammo. His eyes swept across the room for his teammate’s guns or ammo, but all were missing.
And at a time like this!
From the corner of his eye, Watson spotted the little emergency red button, hardly noticeable on the wall beside the switches.
Hastily, Watson moved forward, arm outstretched to press the red button. He had to get someone to help Ed. And he had to warn everyone else.
All of a sudden, there was a growl from the vent. A low menacing growl from a creature that he didn't want to face without weapons.
Watson froze. What is that? He swallowed his breath and stared hard at the daunting ceiling vent. Another snarl sounded, this time Watson was clear. This was definitely a Kharaa invasion.
There was now a scraping sound echoing from the vent. Watson could spot a shadow moving behind the bars of the vent. Whatever it was, it was breaking through.
I have to warn everyone, Watson thought and he dashed forward to press the red button.
At this moment, the vent suddenly broke apart with a bang into several pieces of sharp metal debris.
As the sharp metal rained down, Watson raised both arms to protect himself. Metal cut into his bare flesh but he remained in the position, waiting for the expected attack to come from the top.
But the attack didn’t come from the top, the creature was already on the floor.
Without any warning, Watson suddenly felt something clamp on to his leg which was followed by a horrifying piercing pain on his ankle.
As he was being yanked down by fangs and teeth, Watson opened his mouth to scream.
<span style='font-size:14pt;line-height:100%'>1a) Asteroid Rex</span>
<span style='font-family:Courier'>Trans System Authority Command Headquarters
Planet : Earth
Location : Classified</span>
“Guys! Guys!” Benny yelled at the top of his voice suddenly, alerting everyone.
He sat on his chair, and in front of him were several super-computers and a huge radar-linked-map. A variety of colours, data and little dots covered the metre-long screen.
“You got a problem, son?” Officer Alarry approached him. He was a short but stern looking man with a pipe in his mouth. “The rest of you, I will handle things here. Get back to your positions.”
“Sir!” Benny stood up and did a quick salute. “You know the asteroid we located heading for Earth several days ago?”
Alarry grinned, balancing the pipe between his stained teeth. “You mean Asteroid Rex? That damn rock’s gonna get blasted apart by our nuclear missiles in a few days anyway.”
He remembered now. Three days ago, HQ had picked up an object travelling at an incredible speed towards Earth. HQ picks up all large objects in this region, thus, nothing bigger than ten metres can enter or leave the solar system without being detected. Meanwhile, the super-computers would sort out every single one of the objects, identifying them as spaceships, rocks or other stuff. This was to prevent and watch out for pirates, potentially dangerous asteroids, or un-identified spaceships.
Due to the huge concentration of meteorite dust that had collected in the region of space, TSA had not been aware of the object before. Worst still, the dust prevented a proper image of the object to be obtained. TSA decided that, because of the size and nature of the unknown object, it was an asteroid. Since it was on direct collision course with Earth, TSA ordered a nuclear strike on the asteroid when it was within firing distance.
He had given the asteroid a name - Rex, which was exactly the same name as his dog, or rather, his wife's dog. He hated that dog. Obviously, HQ refused to achknowledge that name for the asteroid, but he still chose to use it. The thought that Rex would be blasted apart in a few days time delighted him.
“I am afraid, Sir, that Rex is not an asteroid.” Benny said nervously.
“No?” Alarry’s eyes widened. “Then what is it? A meteor? A comet?”
“No, Sir. I have estimated its projected speed and trajectory. Rex appears to have come from the Ariadne Arm.” Alarry remained silent, as Benny continued on, “I cannot be sure, but my latest data scans revealed it to be about four thousand metres long and eight hundred metres high, more or less.”
“That’s interesting and pretty unusual in my opinion for a chunk of rock in space. That seems more like the dimensions of a spaceship.” Alarry said, unmoved.
“Well, Sir. That occurred to me too, so I did a checklist, TSA-owned or not of any spaceships that could possibly be of that size. And…I found one, TSA-owned.” Benny said gravely.
The words struck Alarry as if it was news that his family had died in a car accident. His heart skipped a beat as the pipe fell from his lips and hit the metal floor with a loud ‘clink’.
“BH…The Behemoth…” He murmured.
At the mention of The Behemoth, several others who were minding their own computers suddenly turned and stared at the two of them.
Alarry placed a hand on Benny’s chair, “Can you contact BH?”
Benny shook his head.
“How long before it reaches Earth?” the Officer asked.
Benny ran his finger across several lines on the screen and said, “My best estimate if it continues at this speed…five days and it comes into range of our nuclear missiles. It’s your call, Sir.”
Alarry picked up his pipe and stroked his chin uneasily. It was incredible that BH would actually return towards Earth, and the fact it couldn't be contacted was downright scary. Why? Of all places, why Earth?
He considered his options currently and finally said, “Benny, contact David and Owens. I want you to explain this situation to the President as well as the forty-three TSA Generals around the universe.”
“Sir?” Benny asked. “Is it...that serious?”
“Do you question my judgement, Benny? This matter is dead serious. We must act quickly before the entire universe is thrown into utter chaos.” came the reply.
“I am sorry! Sir! I will get it done right away!” Benny apologised.
Alarry was engaged in his own thoughts however, and muttered, “Why is it, that BH chose to return from the Ariadne Arm to man's homeworld - Earth.”
“Beats me. Maybe they miss home? Anyway, is there anything else you would require me to do?” Benny asked.
“Get our Frontiersmen who are still on Earth ready. I want them operational within a day! Prepare a spaceship with phase portals. Make sure it is coded to match that of BH. Our marines will then phase to BH's infantry portals if possible.” Alarry instructed.
“Who then, will be the combat commander in charged?” Benny asked.
“I know one man on Earth who wouldn’t fail me. Get me Commander Reza.” Alarry replied.
"THE Reza?" Benny questioned, startled for a moment, then he grinned. "Certainly, Sir! I will get that done."
Reza had always in a kind of way, been Benny's hero. It was said that in battle, Reza's skills were un-matched. In a Command Console, Reza led his troops to sure-victory. In training, Reza aced everyone else. If there was anyone capable of completing this top-piority mission, Reza could. It was simply pure luck that Reza happened to be training a new group of recruits on Earth.
"That's about it. I will be off, I expect to see my marines ready when I return." Alarry said finally, and left, ignoring the many curious stares from the people around.
As soon as he left their view however, and entered the lift alone, he let out a long sigh. Even in the lift, a conspicuous insignia of the TSA was imprinted on the ceiling.
The TSA was highly proud of their unmistakable insignia, and made it a point to put it everywhere. It was a prideful silver with a tint of blue. A single revolver handle pointed downwards where a sharp blade was connected, and in the middle, two metallic flapping wings separated the gun and sword. Altogether, the insignia had a mark of antiquity in it, and yet possessed an aura of cutting-edge technology.
Instead of feeling a sense of pride as he should however, Alarry felt shame. He was one of those against the idea of sending The Behemoth into the Ariadne Arm. Now that it had returned, he was getting suspicious.
In all his years of experience as an Officer, Alarry had never felt like this before. Whatever it was, he had a very bad feeling about this.......
And why would pipes go out in the future? It makes you look really smart and wise. <!--emo&;)--><img src='http://www.unknownworlds.com/forums/html/emoticons/wink-fix.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='wink-fix.gif' /><!--endemo-->
“BH, do you copy? I repeat, BH. Do you copy?”
Stella let out a loud sigh as she inserted raw data into her console. She knew that the chances of her getting a response were low, but she had to keep trying. After all, she was the Officer in charge of communications. Commander Reza doesn’t take ‘it doesn't work, so I will give up’ for an answer.
The EX-200 headed towards the moon swiftly. She was an advanced TSA combat spaceship, newly built and this would be her first mission. She was designed and meant for search-and-rescue mission. The EX-200 was forty metres from one end to another, and could carry up to twenty-five marines, and ten more crew. She was also heavily armored, with the the TSA insignia painted onto her round hull and the every single one of her grey metal shields. Every side was armored, and the EX-200 even carried a huge excess of infantry equipment as well as five battle-operational Phase Portals. Those meant that spaceships similar to the EX-200 were usually in the Ariadne Arm whenever a Kharaa threat arises. They are capable of teleporting ready-to-fight marines to the infested spaceships, and provide a near endless supply of medpacks and equipment. All qualities which were vital to the war against the Kharaa.
This time it was different. The EX-200 had been drifting in this part of space near the moon waiting for something.
Inside the EX-200, Commander Reza stood on the main bridge rallying his troops. He was a battle-hardcore man. Grim, stern, intelligent, and to compliment all that, his face was bony and hard, like that of a skull. With a battle scar on his cheek, and two small beady eyes, Reza looked devious. However, he wasn't really as fearsome as he looked. A legend among other marines, he was said to have taken out two Onoses with a LMG alone, and saved the entire squad. This was no easy feat, as Onoses were the mightest and toughest Kharaa lifeforms.
A man used to commanding, his clear loud voice echoed over the EX-200.
“Ok squad,” Reza barked. “You know what to do. As Frontiersmen of the TSA, we need to do this fast and efficiently. As soon as we arrive on BH, we spread out, check for any survivors and direct BH back to Earth.”
Reza had been repeating the same thing over and over since last week. Surrounding him was about twenty-five marines, they were tired of hearing the same briefing over and over again. Some of them could even rehearse Reza’s speech.
That didn’t help them to ease their excitement. Some of the marines were nervous, some excited, but all felt a weird ominous feeling that the mission wasn't going to be as easy as they thought. But none dared to question Reza anything more about the details.
They knew the standard search-and-rescue protocol : Phase in next to a functionable Command Console, build up a temperory base, then find all survivors and destroy all threats. This time however, all attempts to teleport into The Behemoth had failed. A proper phase shift coordinate could not be established, and that meant manually entering though other methods. This rarely occured, and few of the marines had ever been trained for that. This severely lowered their odds of a success, as a location of a Command Console could not even be pinpointed.
Tex rubbed his chin uneasily as he considered the chances of there being a survivor to rescue. Somehow, if there really was a Kharaa threat, then the chance of anyone still alive would be zero. The Kharaa never spared anyone, they slaughtered everyone if they ever got a chance. It had even been said that they kill simply for the sake of killing.
However, there was still a long time before they could actually find their target. With that thought, Tex yawned lazily and laid back.
“Tex!” Reza roared suddenly as he pointed a finger directly at the tall lanky man.
“Huh?!” Tex jolted up as he glanced around quickly. Meanwhile, everyone stared at him with serious expressions, though many were suppressing their desires to giggle.
“Tell me, are my briefings that…BORING?!” Reza shouted suddenly and Tex actually jerked back from the shock.
“No! No!” Tex stammered. “It’s just that I…I…”
Reza held Tex in his fearsome gaze as the two of them stared at each other. For a long time, nobody spoke a word.
“One more time and you are gonna get it from me. You hit, marine?” Reza questioned in a low dangerous voice.
Tex nodded his head profusely.
“One more thing,” Reza said loudly. “Anyone here not by the rank of Corporal?”
Everyone shuffled uneasily and glanced at one another. Out of the twenty-five marines, only one raised his hand. Tex.
“You again!” Reza shouted. “Enough with your damn jokes! Everyone here who participates in this mission is at least by the rank of Corporal. Since you are not a Corporal, I am throwing you out of the ship!”
“No, sir!” Tex stuttered. “What I wanted to ask you was, why would Corporals be needed?”
Reza stared hard at Tex, and said, “For giving me a false alarm, down a hundred for you. Meanwhile I will explain why.”
Tex’s face went red, either it was from embarrassment or from anger, but he went down on fours anyway. Though no one said it, it was clearly evident that Tex had raised his hand as a joke, and did not meant to ask Reza that question, which was something that Reza hated: Jokers in his squad.
Reza was about to say something when one of the marines shouted, “Look!” and pointed at the moon.
Everyone fell silent as a point stuck out from the shadow of the moon, distorting its perfect roundness. The dark shape grew longer, and detached itself. A huge spaceship suddenly emerged, eclipsed under the moon’s shadow all along. It was The Behemoth.
Reza smiled as he saw the others gaped at The Behemoth in awe. The target they had been waiting for so long was finally here. Time to get to work.
He remembered that The Behemoth supposedly went missing more than seven months ago somewhere in the middle of the Ariadne Arm. And when it was spotted again, it was mistaken to be an asteroid, and it immediately went straight for the Earth. All attempts to contact The Behemoth had failed, and the Infantry Portals on her seemed to faulty as they could not teleport in. In his opinion, this was very strange, and terrifying.
From afar, The Behemoth looked like nothing more than a small grey rectangular box. As she grew in size however, the many fine details on her body were soon becoming visible. Lateral lines tens of metres wide, flashed with lights and ran across from her hull to her end. An enormous TSA insignia at least a hundred metres across was on her side. Huge boosters even bigger than the EX-200 were fixed on the tail of The Behemoth and propelled her forward, their flame leaving a trail of blue in her wake.
The gigantic city-sized spaceship was gleaming with hundreds of small lights. It dwarfed the EX-200 so much that eventually, as the two spaceships came closer, it’s shadow had completely eclipsed the incoming spaceship.
Little did the crew of the EX-200 know the disaster that they were about to head into.
“Wow…wow!” Tex couldn’t help but splutter the words out. The Behemoth was-just-so-big! He had heard of it before, and he had seen pictures, but this was beyond anything he had imagined.
Reza squinted, he could barely make out the little details of The Behemoth. Somehow, he could see that there were hundreds of flashing lights, hatches, guns and more. They would have to find a way to enter.
“Okay squad!” Reza instructed. “We are getting pretty close to BH. As I stated before, due to some unknown problem, a link can't be established between BH's Infantry Portals and our Phase Portals, therefore, we must proceed with another plan. In about twenty minutes time, EX-200 would cease all movement. BH would then go right past us, and during then, we would hitch a ride by manually entering BH. So, as I had emphasized earlier, once we are all in, immediately establish contact with one another and look for survivors! I don’t want anyone going off-path and getting lost, for one thing: If you miss the ride, you could go floating into space…forever.”
At his words, many marines tensed. To go floating into space forever was likely to be the worst death possible.
Stella yawned and laid back on her chair lazily, suddenly the TSA logo formed on her console and there was static from her audio transmitter.
“Oh!” she exclaimed and leaned forward and stared carefully at the screen. Was there a response from The Behemoth at last? As she typed in several commands, her excitement soon turned into disappointment. “Commander?”
Reza abruptly stopped his briefing as he quickly marched to Stella.
“Yes? Any response from BH yet?” Reza asked, half expecting a ‘no’ answer.
“No, apparently not. It’s weird, it has not been very long since BH left Earth. But since then, all contact have been lost. I have tried, re-tried, and kept trying and trying but I got was…” She kept quiet.
“Was what?” Reza demanded.
“Static.” Stella answered simply.
“Static? So what’s wrong with static?” Reza asked.
Stella leaned back again as she answered, “The thing is, if there is nobody on BH, then we wouldn’t get a response, not even static. However, getting static means that BH is still able to contact us, only that it’s not of the correct type of response everyone else expects.”
“Okay, go on. Though I really don’t get what you mean.” Reza admitted.
“It means, whoever is on BH that is receiving our message may be attempting to reply. But whoever that is does not understand English.” Stella said, worried. “So it can also mean that BH is not inhabited by humans. So you got any idea what to do?”
“Negative.” Reza walked away, but as he stared from a screen showing BH, a drop of sweat formed on his forehead. Not human? May be trying to reply?
He could tell there was something wrong with The Behemoth, something evil. It was like a sixth sense, that his instincts were telling him not to go near The Behemoth, that The Behemoth was a spaceship of doom………
“Commander Reza!!!” Stella yelled and jerked his arm suddenly.
“Yes! Yes! What?!” Reza asked, irritated.
“I called you thrice, and, hey! Why are you sweating so much?” Stella asked in concern.
“Never mind about that. I will get my men ready soon, and we will try to teleport into BH again. I hope the coding is right and there is a link this time.” Reza said.
“Reza. There is still no link. The coding is right, but there is no link yet as I got the same response - Static. My best guess is that the Infantry Portals at BH must be faulty or destroyed.” Stella answered.
“Fine. We will leave it at that.” Reza said.
"Not just that. Even the Command Consoles could be gone as well too. If that is so, I am afraid this mission could be jeopardized." Stella added.
Reza frowned at her words, but he said nothing and walked off, clearly deep in thoughts.
Minutes soon passed and The Behemoth and EX-200 were closing in on each other. The gigantic spaceship dominated the much smaller spaceship like a human compared to an ant. An aura of mystery surrounded the metropolis-like spaceship.
Soon, the very lives of every single one of the marines would change.
Sitting on a seat in front of an observation screen, Jack could not help but felt delighted at going to The Behemoth. He was dressed from top to bottom in the easily recognized green nano armor of the TSA except his head. Jack’s body was of ordinary athletic quality, nothing impressive, though he might have been more suited to be a male model considering his fine and handsome features. He was blond, with large blue eyes, blessed with an almost flawless complexion and pearly white teeth.
It was Jack’s dream to go on The Behemoth many months ago, but due to his low rank, he was neither selected nor allowed to go on The Behemoth. As he continued gazing at The Behemoth from the screen, a well-built man approached him.
He towered over Jack by a foot and was clad in green armor as well. However, under the armor was a body full of muscle and strength. Even his boylish face was covered with a helmet, but it was unlike the normal helmets of standard TSA Frontiersmen. Extra nano plates had been added to the bottom, and there was reinforced glass covering his entire face as well. In his huge palm was another spare helmet.
“Yo.” The man greeted Jack, who still remained motionless and continued to stare at the screen.
Jack remained silent for a while before he turned. “Mike?”
“Yeah. What's up?” Mike asked.
“Hi. I am just admiring her.” Jack said, pointing at The Behemoth through the screen.
“You seem lost in thought.” Mike pointed out.
“Just thinking about what Commander Reza said earlier,” Jack replied. “About the Corporal part. Why ain’t marines lower than Corporal rank allowed on this mission?”
Mike widened his eyes. “I expected you to know. Well, let’s just say this mission is of a magnitude greater than any of the missions most of us have ever been on. Let’s just say, if someone like a Private were to come on this mission, he would most definitely lack the experience, or the skills to deal with the difficulties we are likely to encounter.”
“Okay, I get it. Then what's with that weird looking helmet?” Jack questioned, pointing to Mike’s head.
Mike smiled gently. “To allow me to survive in the vacuum of space.”
“We fight the Kharaa…in space?” Jack asked, his eyes widening in disbelief.
In response to that question, Mike begun to laugh loudly. “No. AND that is if there is even any Xenoforms in BH.”
“Good, I ‘d seriously hate freaking space Kharaa.” Jack remarked.
“Good. Cause they don’t exist…yet. By the way, you still remember Commander Reza’s latest order?” Mike asked.
“Yeah, Commander Reza was telling us to equip ourselves with the helmet in five minutes time.” Jack said.
“You better put one on your bonehead now.” Mike added and passed the helmet to Jack.
Confused, Jack asked, “Right now?”
“Just do it, here. Here, I already selected one for you.” Mike forcefully pushed the helmet into Jack’s hand.
“Why? I hate the feeling of the metal around my head, makes me feel…so enclosed.” Jack persistently said.
Mike narrowed his eyebrows. “Cause you’ re a big mushroom head and it would take forever for us to help you fit it on.”
“Okay…but that’s a lame excuse. Give me a better one.” Jack demanded.
“Seriously, Reza hates it when his marines delay stuff, marines like you.” Mike pointed to Jack’s head. “If an emergency arised, think of the consequences if you do not have the time to equip your helmet.”
“Thanks. But…this don’t look like the usual marine’s helmet, are they new?” Jack frowned and asked.
Mike looked confused. “What? You never seen one of these before?”
“……No.” Jack answered simply. “And why is everyone addressing The Behemoth as BH?”
Mike seemed puzzled. “Erm, you are kidding me right? BH is the codename. And these are Mark II helmets, designed for tactical missions when we need to go into space. Since we can't teleport to BH, we gotta get there manually through space.”
Jack laughed awkwardly for a while and said, “Yeah yeah, just kidding.”
“You ready to board BH yet?” Mike said, pointing at the huge incoming spaceship.
“Obviously.” Jack answered.
“Me too. Actually, don’t you think BH looks…” Mike rubbed his chin as he thought of a suitable word. “Dilapidated. Ramshackled. Tumbledowned.”
“What the hell do they mean?” Jack asked. “English please?”
Mike shrugged his shoulders. “Old? Well, treat it positively. I think BH looks good.”
“Yup, gorgeous isn't she?” Jack replied with a grin.
“Apparently, several months ago, Earth lost all contact with BH.” Mike explained.
“Any chance of a Kharaa Invasion?” Jack asked. There better not be, he thought in fear.
Mike regarded Jack’s question for a while before he said, “It's highly unlikely, BH is far too powerful. She comes with onboard weapons, dozens of purified hydrogen bombs, hundreds of vulcan cannons and…”
Their conversation was cut short by a blinking white light which flared on the side of The Behemoth. The light was so bright that even when filtered by the screen, it forced everyone staring at it to look away.
A large hatch on the outerwall of The Behemoth flipped open, and a bizzare machine with a pointed end gleaming under the rays of the sun raised out of the open hole. It rotated and pointed in the direction of the EX-200 which approached The Behemoth. A dazzling light on it flickered repeatedly, the generators were charging up.
The pointed end was aiming directly at the incoming EX-200.
“Sir?” Stella said, pointing at the screen. “Look!”
“What the? That is the...” Reza exclaimed in bewilderment as he stared at the errie machine.
It looked strangely familiar. He searched his memories for a while and finally remembered that it was a Class-WS Sonic Cannon, highly similar to the normal Siege Cannons built by marines.
Only that this one was about fifty metres across and would had little trouble wiping out the EX-200 in one hit.
And it was ready to shoot anytime.
“Stella! Contact BH NOW!” Reza cried.
Stella gave a whimper of fear as she desperately punched in commands into her console. “BH? BH? Do you read me? This is the EX-200, under Commander Reza. Our ID Code is…”
“Evasive maneuvers!” Reza yelled suddenly.
The Sonic Cannon fired a sonic shockwave at the EX-200, just as the sidewinder boosters on the EX-200 lit into action.
There was a sudden flash of light on the right side screens and everyone shielded their eyes. It was a near hit. The deadly shockwave had blazed past the right of the EX-200, but the tremendous heat burnt and charred the side armor of the spaceship. As the light faded, the armor was still glowing red hot, windows burnt and begun to melt.
Reza’s heart skipped a beat. He had never engaged in space combat like this before, why was The Behemoth attacking them? He glanced at the enormous spaceship again.
This time, he saw many more smaller hatches flipping open, and vulcan guns unfolding themselves. There were about twenty vulcan guns aiming at the EX-200 now.
A chill ran down Reza’s spine, they were not going to survive this!
All at once, the vulcans fired tens of thousands of powerful bullets per second. Many bullets missed, but many more hit and bounced off the thick titanium shields of the EX-200. The armor shielded them for a while, but Reza knew that anytime now, the armor would be breached and they would all be space junks.
“Combat crew!” Reza cried. “Get our machine cannons into position!”
“Sir?” A combat crew asked. “Shouldn’t we try to escape?”
“There’s no time! Just do it!” Reza roared.
The combat crew held a cross-shaped pedal as targeting crosshairs formed on their screen.
Reza held an emergency handrail and said, “Target their vulcan guns! Fire at will!”
'Pom pom pom' cannon sounds were heard as the EX-200 rocked violently. Reza saw bright lights flashing from the screen as yellow shards of superfast bullets exchanged between the two spaceships. On the surface of The Behemoth, several vulcan cannons were reduced to small eruptions of flame, but they quickly subsided. Dozens more were still firing at them.
There was a sudden jerk, as several explosions rocked the EX-200.
People fell from their seats, but Reza remained rooted to the floor, with his hand firmly on a bar.
“Damage? Status report!” Reza shouted.
His crew turned slowly towards him and said gravely, “Machine cannons…are gone.”
“Everyone!” Reza announced. “Prepare yourself! This ship would explode any time! Get your helmets on!”
“What?!” Jack cried. He stared at Mike nervously, what was going on?! “Hey Mike, I– ”
“Do as he said!” Mike yelled as he wrenched open a storage locker door, in it were several jet packs.
These expensive machines were prototype equipment only used in the uttermost of need. Double boosters allowed a marine free flight in any direction even with gravity. In space, their efficency almost tripled due to the lack of gravity. The fuel were supplied directly via a chemical catalyst battery which automatically recharged in mere seconds and could last for an extremely long time.
Pipes hissed as Mike detached the delicate machine. He handed it to Jack who quickly slinged two belts around his shoulders and fastened the jet pack on his back with the boosters pointing downwards.
Mike fastened one onto himself and was about to pass more jet packs around when the EX-200 suddenly jolted and jerked violently………
Under the sustained fire, the shields gave way and bullets were tearing through the hull of the EX-200, marines died screaming.
No longer able to stay on balance, the EX-200 shifted to one side awkwardly as her boosters exploded one after another. The Sonic Cannon reloaded itself and charged.
It fired, and scored a direct hit on the front of the EX-200.
The nose of the EX-200 exploded, incinerating the unfortunate pilots at once. The shockwave punched a huge hole at the front, the vacuum sending many more flying out screaming.
Jack cried out as he was being sucked out. This is it, he thought.
All of a sudden, another force gripped his hand and he turned to see what it was.
Mike. One of his hands was on a handrail and the other was holding on to Jack.
“Don’t let go no matter what!” Mike cried.
Jack stared at the open hole in fear. He could see people and equipment being sucked out into the oblivion of space. Soon, the same would happen to him. It was inevitable.
They had the jet packs after all, and there was still a slight chance of them surviving if they were to fly out into space. Anytime now, the EX-200 would explode and kill them all.
Jack glanced at Mike, who nodded his head understandably.
Stella grabbed her computer as she was being pulled out into space. Her eyes widened in shock when she saw the monitor loosened, and almost immediately, it broke. With nothing to hold on to, she gave a final scream as she was sucked out of the EX-200.
Mike counted three seconds before he let go of the handrail, but his grip on Jack’s hand never loosened. Together, the unseen power of the vacuum pulled them towards the hole. A weird buzzing sound was in their ear and they saw themselves going past consoles…lockers…the hole…and finally, into the vast darkness of space. They spun round and round helplessly, unable to even control the direction they were flying at.
With no time to equip themselves properly, many who flew out died from decompression in space. Only those that had helmets and jetpacks could survive in the vacuum of space.
Half a minute later, the entire EX-200 exploded into a huge fireball, engulfing and incinerating the rest of the crew alive. The only proof that she had ever existed were the debris and fragments, now scattering apart in space, along with the bodies.
Having destroyed the apparent threat, the light on the sonic cannon faded and it unfolded back into the hatch, along with the vulcan guns, ignoring the many dead marines and burning debris in space drifting about aimlessly.
The EX-200 has been obliterated.
Basically you all are the new fan-fic trail blazers! So get burnin!
<span style='font-size:14pt;line-height:100%'>2a) The Ride</span>
Jack’s head ached, his bones ached, his muscles ached, every part of his body was in pain. But he was not concerned about such things. He was happy. There was a field of beautiful flowers around him, roses and orchids. But more beautiful than any of the things was Dorie.
She sat opposite him, and smiled. Jack smiled back too. She was so beautiful, how could anyone not fall in love with a beauty like her? Her large crimson eyes were perfect…her rosy cheeks were perfect…her luxurious lips were perfect…her body was perfect…
“Jack…” Dorie said.
“Dorie!” Jack yelled. “I ‘ve done it! I ‘ve done it at last!”
“Done it?” Dorie asked.
Jack grinned happily. “I am now an official TSA Frontiersman! I ‘ve done what you have always wanted me to do for you!”
“Jack…that’s so foolish of you…” Dorie muttered.
“What?” Jack asked. “Why?”
“I…called you to join the TSA…so that while you were away, I could be with Rob.” Dorie said emotionlessly.
“No…” Jack mumbled. “No…you are lying!”
Dorie’s figure began to fade. She began to appear translucent, her body became transparent, and the flowers around them begun to wither.
“NO!” Jack screamed and rushed forward. He grabbed at her but it was too late, she had disappeared completely. His hands grasped at air and nothingness. He had lost Dorie forever.
The pain came back, so intense that he wanted to cry out in agony. And finally, he was forced to awake from the nightmare.
Jack opened his eyes. Was he dead?
No, he was still floating in space, only not as fast as before. Where was he? He spun round to see that Mike was beside him, and that surrounding the two of them were thousands of pieces of debris. But no one else could be seen.
Jack’s helmet crackled with static, and suddenly he heard Mike’s voice.
“Hey, Jack. You okay?” Mike asked in concern.
“Yeah, I am fine. What the hell just happened?” Jack questioned.
Mike merely shrugged his shoulders and answered, “I don’t know. BH just…suddenly attacked, for no reason at all.”
Jack glanced around him at all the debris and wrecked remains – until he saw the charred bodies lying around.
“Where?! Where the hell is everyone?! Where the hell is our ship?!” Jack uttered nervously.
Mike pointed at The Behemoth. “They died. EX-200 was destroyed but I guess –”
“WHAT THE HELL IS GOING ON?!?!” Jack screamed.
“BH just went crazy, and I am going to find out what is wrong.” Mike said.
“Oh god…” Jack muttered.
“I still find it hard to believe BH was hostile.” Mike said.
Without any warning, Jack suddenly went hysterical and grabbed Mike’s shoulders. “Everyone died! Mike! Everyone died! We will die too!”
“Calm down!” Mike rebuked him. “I am sad too! But we must do what we have to do!”
Jack refused to calm down. He had never experienced such a situation before. A situation where he is stranded in space, and everyone else just died in front of him.
“Don’t you get it?! We are left alone out here! We will be killed off as well!” He screamed.
“Calm down dammit! The TSA trained us for situations like this! Now what we are gonna do is to look for survivors and try to get back to Earth.” Mike assured him.
Even from his helmet, Mike could see tears swelling on Jack’s eyes and could hear him swearing and cursing.
Mike placed a hand on Jack’s shoulder. “Hey, not everyone is dead yet.”
“They…” Jack stammered. “We are not alone?”
“Of course not! We are not the only ones with jetpacks and helmets you know? I saw some others with the same equipment and they went into BH.” Mike explained.
“Why didn’t you contact them?!” Jack asked, shocked and half-angry.
“Well…I tried. But, they were too far away. Fortunately for you, you were still in my frequency. Now stop crying! I bet Commander Reza also made it to BH!” Mike said.
“So, what do we do?” Jack asked.
“Isn’t it obvious?! We got to get to BH! See? She’s still moving. Continue to linger here and we would be left behind! Remember what Reza said? We might be lost in space forever. Come on!” Mike answered and faced The Behemoth.
The two of them used their jetpacks and propelled themselves towards BH. She was still moving rapidly, but thankfully, they were close enough to reach it.
The moment they were near, they moved along her side staying a metre away, looking for anything to hold on to. Jack swallowed his breath. She was moving too fast! Everything was speeding away from them, everything almost looked like a blur, how could they hope to enter?
“There!” Mike shouted.
“What?!” Jack asked.
“Our ride – See those handrails. Coming towards us now…about fifty metres away.” Mike pointed to the far side of BH.
Jack squint his eyes, but he could not see them. “Where?!”
“Grab on to my legs.” Mike instructed. “Thirty metres…twenty…ten…”
Jack did as he was told and grabbed on to Mike’s legs tightly. Mike suddenly jet forward and reached out. His fingers hooked around the handrails and the two of them were yanked abruptly along with BH as it continued to move. Due to inertia, the difference in their speed were so great that Mike's arms were stretched and his bones were strained. His body was numb for a moment before the immense pain hit him, and he almost felt sure that his hands would break.
Mike felt like screaming, his combined mass with Jack's was too much for his arms to handle. With a superhuman effort, he gritted his teeth and pulled himself close and wrapped his arms around the handrail, allowing Jack to cling on as well.
“These emergency handrails were normally used by crewmen who are repairing or need to travel along BH’s outerwall. They would use this to move about safely as long as they did not let go of the emergency handrails.” Mike explained to Jack as he slowly regained his strength.
“Yeah, thanks for that info. You know? I REALLY needed to know that!” Jack replied in a sarcastic voice.
Mike and Jack moved about by grabbing their way forward on the handrail like a monkey-bar till they reached an emergency hatch. It was a large squarish door with a red outline and a huge wheel in the middle.
Mike was about to hold the wheel when static suddenly crackled in their helmets followed by screams of “Help!”
They spun around, somewhere in the distance ahead they saw a tiny speck. It steadily grew into a four limbed figure, the shape of a marine. He was floating a metre from the side of The Behemoth. As he came closer however, it became evident that he could not control his movement and his jetpacks emitted sparks. It was not functioning. The marine waved his limbs wildly and tried again and again to grab on to The Behemoth. Yet no matter how much he tried, he could not move his body close enough to touch the handrails.
“Grab him!” Jack cried.
Mike tensed up. The marine was getting closer, if they failed to catch him, he would simply pass by them, and if he still failed to hold on to the handrails, The Behemoth would move past him he would probably float in space forever.
The marine was only twenty metres away. Mike reached out his hand, and so did the marine. The speed of which they were moving was dazzling. When the marine was only one metre away, Mike made a grab for him.
He missed.
“No!!!” The doomed marine screamed as he passed by them.
He continued to float and desperately made a grab for anything. Mike and Jack watched gravely as they sped away from him, soon, his figure faded out of view and into the darkness of space and his unstopping screams ended with static once more as he had left their audio range.
“He was so close! SO CLOSE!!!" Jack cursed.
Mike said nothing but simply saluted with his free hand. He had seen marines die before, especially just now when BH destroyed their ship, but this was different. He had a chance to save that marine, he could had prevented him from suffering that slow and painful death. But utimately, he failed. Mike didn't know it would feel this way, to watch a marine whom you could had but failed to save disappear into the oblivion.
“Forget him. Let's go, we can't save him now. May his soul rest in peace.” Mike said.
Together, the two of them turned the wheel and the emergency hatch slide open. They propelled themselves into The Behemoth and arrived at a small and dark room with multiple switches.
“This must be the airlock.” Mike exclaimed.
Mike punched a button at the control circuit and the emergency hatch slowly closed. There was a loud ‘whoosh’ as the foreign air was sucked out, followed with the sound of compressed gas being released. The room began to flash red.
“Okay. What did you touch?” Jack asked.
Mike shrugged his shoulders. “Beats me.”
“Airlock safe and sanitized in ten seconds…” A computer voice announced.
Mike was about to say something when he heard Jack gasped. Following suit, he started to suffocate as a seemingly invisible force reached out and smothered him.
“The air is getting heavier!” Jack cried suddenly as he lifted a hand to his throat. “I can’t breath!”
“And you know what? You are still wearing your helmet, so oxygen is still provided to you!” Mike growled.
“Six…five…” The computer voice continued.
The gravity soon stabilized itself and the two of them could breathe easily once more. Despite that, they still felt a weird lump in their belly.
“Two…one…Airlock secured.” The computer voice announced and the room flashed green.
“Talk about weird…” Jack remarked unhappily.
“Dump your space helmet,” Mike instructed. “Such helmets were only suitable for space usage and would only obstruct our view here.”
“But we…” Jack argued.
“NO Buts!” Mike interrupted.
Ignoring his teammate, Mike unbuckled his jetpack and examined it. Its chemical catalyst battery had burnt out. This effectively means that both their jet packs were now useless.
“Without a proper helmet, we look downright awkward in this light armor!” Jack protested. “And why can’t we use our jet packs? Ain’t they supposed to have unlimited fuel?”
“Goddammit! Just make do with whatever we got ok?! And another thing, there is NO such thing as unlimited.” Mike rebuked his reluctant teammate in anger.
He stopped suddenly as he realized that Jack was sweating heavily and breathing rapidly, either from shock or from the fear and excitement of everything else. But he darkly suspected it was from fear of death.
“Jack, you alright?” Mike asked in concern.
He didn’t reply, but remained silent.
“Jack, listen, it was unavoidable, no one, not even Commander Reza had predicted this.” Mike explained.
“Yes I know.” Jack said.
“So why are you still sulking?” Mike asked.
Jack raised his head slowly. “Why would BH attack us?”
“I don't know, unless……” Mike stopped.
They stared at each other, both knowing that their darkest fear were about to come true.
Mike and Jack unclipped their guns from their belt. Jack suddenly noticed Mike had an extra pistol in his arsenal. It was a police-grade handgun, small and deadly. With its impressive range and almost-perfect accuracy, the pistol could deal a devastating amount of damage over a quick period of time, making it well suited to most combat situations.
“First, let’s check our equipment.” Mike said. “What’s your armor status? Mine is full.”
“Yeah, mine too.” Jack replied.
“Ammo? I have two spare clips of LMG ammo, and two spare clips of pistol ammo.” Mike said.
“By the way, where did you get that?” Jack asked, pointing to the attractive pistol.
Mike regarded Jack for a moment before he slapped his forehead. “Oh my god…are you dumb or what?”
“Huh?” Jack stammered in surprise.
“Listen you…” Mike uttered angrily. “I don’t know what the hell is wrong with you, but apparently when guns were being issued, you must had been dreaming!”
To Mike’s words, Jack remained silent.
They checked their weapons; everything was in working order. Next, they checked their ammunition. Total, they had three spare clips of LMG ammo while Mike had additional two clips of pistol ammo. They lacked proper helmets, but the nano armor on their bodies should provide a sufficient amount of protection as long as attacks were not directed to the head. Lastly, both also had a Hand Grenade each.
The H-Grenade is the latest developed weapon for the Frontiersmen. It is a small slim and silver canister grenade. Once the ring is pulled, the H-Grenade has an auto-Bacterium detecting system that would explode immediately in the presence of a Kharaa, or three seconds if it doesn’t come into contact. It is for safety purposes, should the safety pin be pulled in the wrong time, the marine can make a quick getaway. H-Grenades are a combination of fused Nanite and deadly shrapnel, creating a deadly combination of an explosion followed by a outwards nova of the piercing shrapnel. It is one of the most useful weapons, but a standard of only a single H-Grenade is issued per marine, and H-Grenades remain hard to prime and use.
“Jack, besides our weapons and ammo, did you bring anything else with you?” Mike questioned.
Jack shrugged his shoulders. “Nah.”
“Damn,” Mike cursed. “This means we have got no food besides the two packets of Military-Ready-To-Eat crackers.”
“How long will they last us?” Jack asked.
“Not long, depending on how hungry we get, we got to find food soon.” Mike said.
When everything had been done, they set out together. Mike lifted the cold handle of a security door and pushed forward. The door creaked loudly as it slowly opened.
“Be on guard Jack, we don’t know what’s down here…” Mike said.
Impatiently, Jack kicked open the door and gasped at the sight beyond him. Darkness laid ahead, a place of darkness that he feared. Taking a deep breath, the two of them lurched forward and froze, for they had entered an enormous hanger far bigger than their ex-spaceship.
It was roughly about sixty metres tall or even higher. From one end to the other end was the length of a football field. They could also vaguely make out the shape of many crates scattered around, although they could not actually see this place well. The hanger looked like it had not been used for months and a pungent smell was everywhere.
“One thing,” Mike pointed out. “We do not have our helmets with us anymore. We will no longer have the advantage of a radar to warn us of any enemies, or the ability to send or receive transmissions from any allies.”
“Damn.” Jack cursed. “Now what?”
“Use your eyes and your ears and your nose. We were given those for a reason! Remember, adapt or die!” Mike instructed. “Let’s go.”
Jack was reluctant to leave the safety of the airlock, but he followed Mike. Under the errie darkness of this mysterious place, Jack and Mike slowly inched forward, trying not to bump into anything. They unknowingly walked past a half-eaten human hand in a puddle of blood.
Switching on their flashlights, Mike and Jack begun searching for a door or a switch. The air was still and the place was quiet. There was an ominous feeling, as if something bad would happen.
There was also an extremely weird stench, as if…it was from something unhuman. Worse of all, the area smelled of death.
“I can't wait to get out of this cursed place!” Jack complained.
“Quiet.” Mike whispered, his eyes and ears perked up. He was listening intently, preparing himself should a Kharaa suddenly spring out. In the cover of darkness like this, the Kharaa have the advantage.
Mike pointed his flashlight at a two metre tall crate. The TSA logo was imprinted there, but the colour had faded. This storage hanger clearly had been vacant for a very long time.
As they felt along the wall, they found a small box. It was the control circuits for the hanger and they excitedly pried it open and flicked on all the switches quickly. The lights flickered repeatedly several times, and illuminated the entire hanger in a brilliant light. Now they could see the thousands of multiple colored crates scattered throughout the entire area, and the tall cranes, ramps, lifts and forklifts all used for transportation or shifting the giant crates about.
“Wow…” Jack exclaimed. “This…is the hanger? Amazing. Simply amazing.”
“Quiet, we may not be alone in this place for all we know– ”
All of a sudden, smoke emerged from the edge of a security door in the distance and it flew open, the piece of metal scrapping against the floor with sparks. Instinctively, Jack and Mike raised their LMGs and slowly advanced towards the door.
Amidst the smoke, Jack and Mike could make out the shape of two humans rolling out and sprawling on the floor, groaning in pain. They immediately lowered their guns and ran towards their companions. Mike instantly recognized them.
It was Sophie and Jeff.
Sophie was one of the rare female marines among them all. She was a small-frame girl who was only slightly older than twenty. She was not beautiful, but definitely cute and slender. Her naturally grey hair was tied up in a neat bundle. Sophie was also one of the more serious one among all of the marines.
Jeff meanwhile was a mysterious guy. He never revealed his age to anyone, and would only be known as a poker-face joker who was always cheerful. Somehow, he was also always trying to hit on the girls.
“Sophie! Jeff!” Jack and Mike cried in unison.
“Thank goodness! You guys are alive too!” Sophie cried in relief as she looked up.
“Am I more glad to see your ugly face, Mike!” Jeff exclaimed with a grin.
Jack bent down and pulled the two of them up as he asked, “You guys hurt?”
“Yeah, a little. My arse feels sore.” Jeff answered.
The hanger was noisy with murmurs of comfort as everyone tried to analysis the situation. They were now trapped in a huge unknown spaceship. They did not know where were all the other survivors, they did not know if there were anyone else, they did not know if there was a Kharaa invasion or not.
However, one thing was certain : Something was very wrong, and BH registered them as an enemy.
“So, are we the only ones that survived?” Jack asked.
Sophie frowned. “Nah, I don’t think so. And I hope not.
“So what the hell do we do?” Jack questioned.
Jeff stared at him for a moment and turned to face the others. “Is he dumb?”
“No,” Mike spoke tiredly. “He’s plain stupid.”
Jack opened his mouth in protest but stopped when Mike made a slashing motion with his fingers. Clearly, they were getting tired of his amateurish behavior.
As they begun a discussion and tried to think of a plan, no one realized they were not alone. There was another creature in the same hanger as them, almost invisible it was, although it stood right beside them, and ready to pick on anyone who scattered.
"Eh?" Jeff turned his head, he could had sworn he heard something, it could have been a drop of water, or a footstep. Whatever it was, he was sure that there was something he heard.
He slowly backed away and looked up, trying to gaze at the entire hanger. However, he could see nothing but cranes, crates, boxes, lifts..........
Suddenly, he heard heavy breathing directly above.
"Huh?" Jeff begun but before he could even finished his sentence, a monstrously huge creature sudden revealed itself behind his back. Darkness closed in around Jeff as it chomped on him and lifted him into the air.
Everyone heard a loud muffed scream and turning around, they saw a dark horrible shape.
Four metres high and seven metres long. A huge reddish monster on all fours had Jeff in its jaws. Green patches were all over its massive body and its feet had huge hooves almost similar to that of an elephant, only that it was much bigger. Its head and back was covered with layers of thick carapace and a huge frill protected its neck. A single metre-long horn tipped its nose and from each shoulder, a single horn several metres long stuck out. Several tendrils ending in hooks waved about on its back. Huge veins and deadly spikes covered its limbs, back and even lined its underbelly. Rippling raw muscles allowed it strength to knock down anything, even a tank. Its tiny but cruel eyes were of an unnatural amber colour.
They had to look up, because it was so big, and only then did they see the two limbs jagging out between its teeth.
“Jeff!” Sophie screamed.
It was the biggest Onos they had ever seen. Jeff's legs were sticking out of its mouth and kicking crazily. Letting out a snarl, the gigantic Onos lifted its head and opened its jaws even wider. Meanwhile, Jeff continued to scream.
Too stunned to even shoot, they watched in horror as it suddenly slammed its jaws shut with a sickening ‘crunch’ sound and Jeff abruptly became silent. His feet stopped kicking and soon disappeared up the Onos throat, it licked its jaws clean before letting out a satisfied grunt.
So far, any1 encountered any error or weird parts in my story so far and need changing? Feel free to point 'em out.
Had to change many of my conversation words due to the annoying swear filter <!--emo&???--><img src='http://www.unknownworlds.com/forums/html/emoticons/confused-fix.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='confused-fix.gif' /><!--endemo-->
Frankly, for a sense of realisim, certain words that are too strong, vulgar or aggressive must be used. Not that I included any f-words in my story though.
Let me test some here.
"****!" "Bastards!" "****!"
"Sh!t! "B@stards!" "Son of a b!tch!"
As i said earlier. JACK IS SO NEWB!!!! <!--emo&::asrifle::--><img src='http://www.unknownworlds.com/forums/html/emoticons/asrifle.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='asrifle.gif' /><!--endemo-->
I am trying to let as much stuff be from the game as possible, at least people can visualize better.
Anyway, if any1 sees an error or misuse of words, please send me a private msg telling me where it is. I have problem checking every single word as my story is so long. Thanks.
Drops of bloody saliva dripped down its jaws as the giant Onos peered around. Its tiny but fearsome eyeballs rolled about until they fixed on Jack.
Jack froze, where were Sophie and Mike? Why haven’t they fired?
He turned around and to his shock, saw that they were running. Hunger blazed in the Onos eyes. Clearly, one human was not enough to satisfy its hunger.
Jack trembled with fear. What chances did he have against such a terrible opponent more thna twice his height? He glanced at his LMG for a while but thought that it would be useless. He had to run.
The Onos took a step towards him but he was frozen in that position. A mix of fear and awe had caused an expected cramp in his legs. Jack stood glued to the floor even as Mike and Sophie were shouting to him.
“Run! What the hell are you doing?!” Mike cried. “Quick! He’s coming!”
Jack wished he could. His heart skipped a beat as the Onos took another step closer. It was moving slowly, deliberately, taking its time, seemingly taunting him, knowing that he couldn’t run. It was playing with its food.
Move! Jack shouted in his mind. Move!
He couldn’t. His knees were shaky and he no longer felt his feet.
Move! You idiot! Jack screamed internally.
The Onos growled loudly and trotted forward. Clearly, it was getting impatient to eat him.
“Jack! Will – you – please – RUN?!” Sophie yelled.
Everything became a blur. Jack could see the Onos approaching him. Its jaws dripping with a red liquid. He knew his fate would be the same as Jeff : A quick but painful death. Jack stared up at its chin as the Onos growled again, and opened its maw wide.
Without any warning, Jack’s knees suddenly gave way and he collapsed. There was a gruesome snap above him as the Onos jaws slammed shut in mid air. Something wet and sticky dripped on his head. He wiped the liquid away and stared at it in disgust. It was a drop of bloody saliva.
Bullets suddenly struck the Onos in the face and Jack turned to see Mike and Sophie firing upon it. It roared in anger and shook its head furiously as more bullets showered it, annoying it more than they hurt it. Seeing how the others fought for him however, Jack came to his senses.
No! He couldn’t be eaten by this monster! Jack felt a new strength in him and he sprung to his feet and darted blindly away from the Onos. He didn’t cared where he was going, but he dashed into a maze of enormous crates, zigzagging left and right. Finally, he came to a dead end of crates and stayed there. Neither the Onos nor Sophie and Mike were in sight.
“Jack!” Mike yelled desperately. The Onos had zoned out of his aim and went after Jack.
“Where are you? He has gone after you! Be careful!” Sophie warned.
Jack felt like yelling back to them, but he dared not. He was afraid of attracting the Onos to him. He looked in front fearfully but it was nowhere in sight. Uttering prayers under his lips, Jack raised his LMG and pointed in front, hoping never to see the Onos approach. He could still hear its grunts and thunderous footsteps, but he didn’t know where it was.
“Sophie,” Mike said, glancing about. “Did you see any exits? Any ways to get us out? Somewhere high?”
Sophie considered Mike’s words for a brief moment. “Somewhere high…yes. I saw a lift just now. Somewhere behind, on my eight.”
“Get it open. I will find Jack.” Mike instructed.
The dreaded tip of the Onos nose horn appeared before a turning corner, and it grew into a full horn, its head, and finally its entire body blocked the passage in front of Jack. It turned to face him, and snarled at him hungrily.
Jack trembled with fright as he faced the incoming Onos.
“Up here!” Mike suddenly shouted.
Jack spun round to see Mike perched on the crates behind him.
“How did you…” Jack begun.
“There’s no time!” Mike interrupted. “Hold my hand!”
The Onos lowered its head, its three horns pointed directly at Jack, and it charged forward like an unstoppable freight train as the floor shuddered with its every step.
Mike pulled Jack up the crate and the two of them leapt off from the other side into the open just in time as the Onos slammed twenty tonnes of pure fury and power into the crate they were on, sending it into the air.
“DOWN!!!” Mike screamed.
The two of them ducked as the crate flew directly over their heads, a shadow passed them and they felt a whoosh of wind. Jack saw the crate smash into the wall in front of him and was reduced into pieces.
“Jack! Run!” Mike yelled as he took aim at the Onos body and pulled the trigger.
Jack could hear gunshots, he was sure that Mike was shooting at it. He heeded Mike’s instructions and darted in the direction of Sophie, who was busy working on the controls of the lift.
“Sophie! Is it done yet?!” Mike screamed as he faced the Onos.
“Almost! The damn security system's hard to crack!” Sophie yelled.
Mike’s LMG suddenly stopped shooting, its clip had ran dry. He dived away as the Onos charged pass him, it’s horn swinging past his body narrowly. Mike hit the floor hard and rolled, but he quickly got up again and ran towards Sophie and Jack.
“Can you open the lift now?!” Jack cried at Sophie, who continued to fumble with the controls.
“I am trying!” Sophie argued. “its password require six – ”
Jack suddenly punched in ‘123456’ and the lift door automatically slided open, and Sophie stared at him, her mouth agape with surprise.
“Sophie? Get in and – WATCH OUT!!!” Mike suddenly screamed.
The colossal Onos bellowed and charged straight at everyone. Mike, Sophie and Jack dashed out of the way as it lumbered past them, smashing apart several smaller crates in the way.
Everyone could only stare in awe and shock at its sheer might and power.
To turn at such a high speed, the Onos could only run in a wide curve to prevent itself from falling on its side. However, it was soom facing them again and suddenly gained in speed as it let out another roar and charged again.
“Everyone!” Mike warned. “Spread out!”
In the midst of all these, he suddenly learnt the Onos weakness : It was fast, but didn’t have enough agility. It was clumsy and bulky, so much so that it was hard for it to change direction.
The three of them scattered, bolting in different directions at once.
As Mike ran, the Onos ignored the others and stormed after him.
“Mike! Behind you!” Sophie screamed.
Mike abruptly turned away from the Onos path, narrowly dodging the deadly horns and trunk-thick legs as it rammed into several tall metal crates. It continued to push forward blindly, smashing the crates against the walls and flattening them completely.
The three of them sickly realized the same thing could happen to them.
The Onos now turned and face Sophie, saliva dripping down its jaws, almost smiling.
“Oh my god.....” Sophie muttered and she bolted away with the Onos hot on her trail.
“Sophie! Run!” Jack cried in alarm.
“What the hell does it look like I am doing?!” She screamed back.
She too, knew about the Onos disadvantage in changing direction. She didn’t turn to look but she knew it was hot on her heels. Darting left and right, Sophie hoped to shake off the Onos. Next, she ran among the clustered stacks of crates, hoping to hide among them.
Spinning around, Sophie sighed in relief as she saw that the Onos was nowhere in sight.
Without any warning, the crates in front of her shattered as the powerful monster charged right through them. Sophie froze in fear and surprise at the unexpected attack.
“Sophie!” Summoning his courage and strength, Mike leapt and grabbed Sophie just as Onos went past them......directly towards Jack’s direction.
Jack was dumbfounded for a second, then he jumped away, just in time to avoid getting impaled but the its massive legs slammed into him and he flew away, hitting the wall and falling unconscious on the floor.
“No!” Mike cried as he sped towards Jack. “Sophie! Hit the lift!”
At his command, Sophie ran into the lift and prepared it to send them to the next level. Meanwhile, the Onos spun round and lumbered towards Jack.
“Die! You freak of nature!” she shouted as she unloaded her entire LMG clip into the Onos. Bullets after bullets hit and bounced off the carapace on its side. The LMG had completely no effect against such a mighty creature other than to annoy it.
Gripping both his legs, Mike yanked Jack away from the path of the Onos. It went past the two of them and rammed into the other wall.
“Run for it!” Sophie cried as she fed a new clip into her gun.
Mike slumped Jack onto his shoulder and dashed at the lift. Letting out a roar of rage, the Onos charged full-speed at the two of them, knocking crates and machines away as if they were paper boxes.
Hurling Jack into Sophie’s waiting arms, Mike then dived right into the lift as the doors slide close behind him. Finally, the lift begun a slow ascent and Sophie managed to let out a weak smile.
All of a sudden, there was a tremendous bang from the other side and a huge dent caved into the thick lift door. Sirens and blinking lights flashed over their head and the lift halted.
“Oh no, hell no.” Mike muttered under his breath.
Ramming into the thick lift door repeatedly with its monstrous strength, the Onos bored its great nose horn through the door. It then twisted its head sideways, forcing the lift door to slide open.
“Get back from the door!” Mike warned as he pressed his back against the wall.
“The door! Close it!” Sophie shouted and reached forward to press the ‘close’ button.
At this moment, the Onos suddenly stuck its snout into the jammed lift. Screaming in fear, Sophie fell on her back and kicked at its horn desperately.
Sniffing at the interior of the lift, the Onos knew that food was inside and it opened its jaws wide. Rows of sharp yellow teeth filled with saliva lined its great jaw and it lurched forward, trying to grab them.
Mike grabbed onto Jack’s shoulder and yanked him away as the Onos jaws slammed shut in mid air. Enraged, it reached forward once more and snapped at the three of them. Sophie pushed herself against the lift while Mike huddled Jack’s body close to him.
Letting another bellow, the Onos got down awkwardly on its knee and tried to squeeze its entire head into the lift.
It can’t reach us! Mike realized. Its head is too big. He unholstered his Pistol and pumped several rounds down the foul blackness of the Onos throat. Grunting in pain and anger, it pulled its head out and stepped back.
Seizing the chance, Mike lunged forward and punched the ‘up’ button. As the damaged lift doors slid close, the Onos faded from view. Mike and Sophie sighed in relief when the lift moved up, this time without any interruptions.
As they slumped onto each other, Mike and Sophie could still hear the angry bellows of the Onos. They were so drained of their strength that they simply ignore everything else and laid there like a bunch of corpses.
How long more could they survive? Why would they agree to go on such a crazy mission? These were the questions going through Sophie's mind before she finally closed her tired eyes.
In this hellish place, they were the hunted and the Kharaa were the hunters.
I hope u guys like my story, and I plead to those who have already seen the old version not to reveal spoilers.
How many chapers do u guys feel is good?
Anyway, I am also taking a little break after this chapter 1
anyway,remember their lack of weapons.I think a good ending to the onos would have been a trick.They could have made him charge into a wall or something and crack his horns and his face plate,as they pepper him with bullets,killing him. <!--emo&::asrifle::--><img src='http://www.unknownworlds.com/forums/html/emoticons/asrifle.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='asrifle.gif' /><!--endemo-->
or,sence the behemoth has all these weapons inside and out,they could have gotten sophie to operate a seige cannon she found under a slideing door in the floor,and pump a seige shell into him.Maybe miss once or twice to build up tension,but kill him none the less <!--emo&::onos::--><img src='http://www.unknownworlds.com/forums/html/emoticons/tiny.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='tiny.gif' /><!--endemo-->
the way the onos kept comig at the, that was the best. <!--emo&::onos::--><img src='http://www.unknownworlds.com/forums/html/emoticons/tiny.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='tiny.gif' /><!--endemo-->