Hunted

Posted on Jan 22, 2016 @ 11:39am by Lieutenant Commander Aerdan Jos
Edited on on Jan 22, 2016 @ 11:39am

Mission: Promethean

"Hunted" (Continued from "Splatterhouse")


Location: Lavenza II facility
Stardate: 2.160122.0000

Scene: Bottom of the shaft

~*~

There was a rhythmic grinding of machinery below them, pumping out hot air with every disgusting beat of the metallic percussion. It was like listening to hell's personal drum line.

Even Eve had opened her coat, and Aerdan had stripped his, to little avail. The temperature was rising and unless they found a way to travel upwards, this was going to be an ever more miserable trip though monster infested darkness. The Andorian's white hair was matted down to his head with sweat, and his antennae had drooped in dismay.

Though the latter has less to do with the physical discomfort of the oppressive heat and far more to do with the soul-gnawing worry about what had happened to Sam.

They had left her behind.

It was the tactical thing to do. It was the thing he had learned to do in war, it was leadership triage - protecting the team by not risking their lives on someone who might already be dead.

Might.

It made him sick.

"We have to find a way up." Russ Ba'Shen panted, tugging layers off his neck and fanning the flaps of his coat.

"We have to find Perry." Crichton muttered, clenching his jaw at the darkness.

Silence. No one wanted to say the most likely outcome of the animal attack.

Jake whirled, starting the shorter Andorian ExO down, stabbing a finger towards the darkness. "She's still out there. They're still out there. Kass and Barton are still out there! What the hell are we doing?"

"Looking for a way to get to the control center." Aerdan replied back in his eerily soft voice.

Commander Crichton was not a violent man. He knew the stakes of Starfleet, and he understood what had to be done at times, but they weren't talking about whether or not to fire on an Essentialist murderer. They were talking about good Starfleet crewmembers. Friends. Damn near family. "So we just leave them?"

"We move forward to our goal, and once we have control of the situation we search for them in the safest way possible." Jos replied, not backing down a millimeter.

Crichton shook his head, narrowing his eyes at the smaller blue man. Andorians were cold. They came from a cold planet, with cold expressions and cold decisions. Despite the overwhelming heat he shivered. "I don't like it."

Aerdan's expression was steel, but his tone was deeply earnest. "I don't like it either. But it is the safest way to accomplish out goals."

"You guys done?" Eve called, waving her tricorder around. "Because I think I located a turbolift shaft.

"And more vicious beasties?" Russ queried, his phaser at the ready.

Even shook her head slowly - it wasn't a 'no' - more of a 'no clue.' "I can't say for certain. Biological readings are scrambled."

As if on cue everyone fell silent.

Silence

Silence.

Even Aerdan's craned antennae couldn't pick up the scraping sounds of the pasty creatures, giving them just enough reassurance to move forward. "Let's get to the shaft."

Russ took point, Eve and Jake in the middle, Aerdan at the back. They moved as a pod, phasers always at the ready. The lighting was slightly better as they neared the lift, the bulbs brighter, spaced slightly closer together. It was a dim comfort when one was being hunted.

"So how to we ascend - doesn't look like the lift is working." Russ asked, sweeping the area visually as they neared the destination.

"There's bound to be a maintenance ladder - or a stairwell if we're lucky." Crichton replied. "Lifts break, you always build some way to access the things to fix it." As the hallway widened, he made a movement to break from formation, getting a slim blue hand pulling him back for the trouble. "I'm going to find--"

"Sh!" Aerdan hissed a warning. His antennae were standing stock straight.

There was a clatter in the shaft above, and a growl.

"Shit." Russ muttered, skittering backwards as all three officers with phasers brought them to bear on the bottom of the open shaft. "It sounds like something up there is fighting." he whispered.

"Several somethings." Aerdan returned. "The question is are they contained in the shaft?"

"Depends on how the maintenance access is constructed. Usually there's sealed hatched, but if this was a cheap job..." Crichton bit his bottom lip. If this was a cheap job they would easily be screwed and end up on a monster's platter.

Russ rocked on his feet a little, eyes riveted towards the shaft as Jake frantically searched for the access hatch. "Wonder what they're fighting over?"

There are some things one should simply not ask, because fate then feels the need to answer. There was a growl and a snap from above, and something fell. It was a flicker in the darkness, a drooping form like a ragdoll missing a limb or two. It hit the side wall of the open lift shaft with a wet smack before springing back up a few centimeters, as if it was tethered by a band that had lost its elasticity.

Slowly the form spun into the light.

Angelic blond blood soaked ringlets hung in a limp mockery of a porcelain doll. The eyes were wide open, frozen in terror, and the quaintly rouged lips hung open in a constant soundless scream. One arm was missing, terminated in a blood stump, the other have been torn and gnawed at. The legs were in a similar shape.

But it was the tether that hit the nail in the coffin. The flaccid tether which he had first assumed to be a strip of fabric was actually far worse.

She was dangling by her own untangled intestine.

Most of her torso was gone. All of the tender choicest organ meats were ripped away, and obviously fed upon. It looked like something had already fed and left the carcass to the scavengers.

"Oh God!" The words escaped Russ's mouth without thinking - and louder than he wished.

The entire team froze. Above them, in the shaft, the predators froze as well.

Aerdan was the first to move, grabbing Russ Ba'Shen backwards and pulling him in the direction that Jake was wildly flailing. "Here! Follow me!" The engineer called before stuffing his phaser into Eve's hands. "I need to open this hatch, you need to shoot!"

"Open fast" Was all she said as she grabbed the offered weapon and took aim.

As Jake frantically worked to open the gateway to escape, the rest of the team waited to see what was coming down the lift shaft, and they didn't have long to wait.

There were four of them - with black shaggy hair and massive noses. They looked like dogs with the face of blind moles. No eyes were visible, but from the snuffling it was clear they didn't need to see. The first one down leapt on the disemboweled corpse, pulling at the already shredded leg, while the others growled and snuffled at the air. New prey was in town.

"Hurry..." Russ urged towards Jake, gritting his teeth and looking at Aerdan. "Which one do we target?"

"The lead." He paused. "Put you beam on the cutting setting.

Russ' brows hiked sky high. "Not 'vaporize?'"

"Takes too many shots, drains too much power." Aerdan intoned, lifting his weapon as the creatures oriented themselves. "Aim for the flank."

"You're crazy..." Russ muttered

The creatures waffled for a few seconds, between turning attention to the obviously available food source before them and the potential food source behind them. Their noses vibrated, drinking in the smells of sweat and meat. The biggest one moved forward.

Caution played against hunger, and as the hatch clicked the biggest one leapt towards the party. Jake's mutter of "I got it!" was drowned out by the shriek of Aerdan's phaser. The blue beam sheared through the left flank, cutting an impressive gouge into the creatures side. Blood sprayed out as it howled and hit the bulkhead floor a few meters in from of the away team. The pack behind it all lifted their noses simultaneous and sniffed.

Blood.

"Move now!" Aerdan rasped, pushing Jake through the open door and nearly stuffing the rest of the away team with him as the scavengers lunged at their companion, rending the bloody tear and ripped away large chunks of flesh. The hallways behind them was filled by the disgusting sounds of feasting punctuated by the dying shrieks of the injured creature. On the other side Aerdan took aim at the hatch handle and melted the lock. "Lets go."

"Did you just melt the lock?" Jake coughed, starting agape for a second. "What if Kass or Barton or Sam tries to get up in the same way.

"Kass and Barton have phasers, they can easily cut their way in. But I don't trust that these mutated things don't have the dexterity to open unlocked doors. I'm not risking this team." Aerdan responded in even tones. "We need to move."

He didn't mention Perry. It was unspoken, but it made Jake sick. That final phaser blast felt like a nail in the coffin.

He turned and moved his legs upwards, if only so that damn Andorian didn't try to pick him up and carry him.

~*~

Jamie LeBlanc
Lt Commander Aerdan Jos
Executive Officer
USS PHOENIX


"Why do we fly? Because we have dreamt of it for so long that we must"

~Julian Beck