INTERSTELLAR NIGHTMARES - DISTANT TERROR

Chapter 17

   It took us a bit, but we eventually breached the cave. We all unbuckled, readied ourselves, and checked our weapons over again. "You all cleaned your guns, right?" Kurt checked up with positive response. I didn't exactly clean mine, but there aren't as many moving parts as their firearms, so I shook my head no. "Let's hope it can still hold up," he sighed.

   He pressed the button and out shot the doors. "Here we go again!" Fredrick cried as we ran out. We immediately ran out into a group of bugs! Fredrick squaked and started firing when he realized, instantly alerting all the bugs to our presence besides the pod. "Bugs!" Morris yelled as he began to set up his sentry.

   Kurt held his fire for the time being, keeping an eye out for any larger bugs coming in. I, on the other hand, ran up beside Fredrick and blanketed the bugs ahead in raging heat.

   As ash flew through the air and bullets deafened my ears, a praetorion raised its arms as it climbed over the ledge ahead of us. Unfortunately, it caught the attention of Morris's sentry and Kurt's gun, bringing about a tsunami of rounds and the warcry of the monstrous machine of the Leadstorm. I also turned my attention to it and continued to burn it until it dropped.

   The praetorian was the last of the miniature wave to kick off our mission. "Well," I grumbled, "that oughtta be it. Let's move." With the prompt, Fredrick shot some flares into the ceiling, flooding the cave with wonderful light to push away the smothering darkness.

   The minerals in the walls shimmered, as did the crystal formations everywhere around us. Nitra was the most abundant of these minerals, but there was some gold and even less morkite. "Let's get it!" Fredrick exclaimed, "shoot me a pancake up there!"

   As Morris and Fredrick worked on getting the veins of minerals higher up, I took off to collect the easier bits. I trekked to a nearby nitra vein and began picking away at it, smashing out the red, triangular crystals from the wall.

   Kurt also went off, but he was on the other side of the cavern. As I focused on the crystals though, I started hearing a sound. It was a low blinking sound. I took a moment to look around, and not too far away, I saw a pulsing orange light. I approached the small light and saw it was... a helmet! It looked like an old Brawnlynian space soldier helmet.

   I gently picked it up and examined it. It still feels tough, I thought as I felt how structurally sound it still was. I looked it over for a second, finding a plug port on its side. Curious, I plugged in my Terrain Scanner to the helmet. It took a moment, but it downloaded a coordinate! The light faded from the helmet shortly after.

   With a soft sigh, I went back to mining out the nitra the rest of the way and retreated back to where the others. The drop pod gad left already, leaving a massive hole drilled into the Hoxxian earth below it. Near the crater stood Kurt, looking at his Terrain Scanner.

   "Any idea what it is?" I questioned. Kurt looked up and tilted his head side to side a bit. "It might be armor if it was a helmet one of us found," he explained, "Me and my boys had to use it a couple times to find the bodies of unfortunate soldiers... it wasn't pretty."

   I shook my head slightly. I thought for a moment what it'd be like to see someone in such a condition, whatever that would be. Anything brutal could happen out there, I thought, not too much unlike it could here. After realizing the silence, I spoke again. "Well, let's hope we don't find a body," I muttered. "Scared of a bit of blood?" Kurt asked with a smirk.

   I shook my head, answering "Nah, gotta deal with a bit of it in biology anyway. It's more of the body... that's for forensics, not biology." Kurt shrugged and added "Fair, but I feel that biology is probably a part of forensics. You gotta know how life works before you know how death works, right?" I thought on it for a second, giving back a shrug of my own.

   "Aye!" Fredrick shot down from above, "We need to get moving now! Yappin' comes later!" Morris came up from behind Fredrick with a huff. "He's excited, eh lads?" he giggled.

   I shifted my gaze around the cavern until I found the dirt patch. I jogged towards it while getting my drills out, the others joining along behind evident by their footsteps. I stopped and took a peak at the Terrain Scanner to adjust my angle before plowing through the dirt.

   Upon breaching through to the other side, a familiar click screech rang out. "Shit," Fredrick choked before getting a hold, "Grabber incoming!" I was confused, as I had no feeling like I did before. Why do I not feel... horrid? I wondered.

   We all slowed our pace and proceeded further, waiting for the bug to ring around the corner. The screams of the bug kept echoing from the caves deep stomach, but no sign of it came in. Morris got distracted on glowing green crystals in the walls and began to chip away at it, but before doing so, he placed his sentry and built it up just in case.

   As he mined, me and Fredrick kept our approach going as Kurt hung back with Morris. "It's so dark... lemme toss a flare," Fredrick growled. He dropped his GK2 for his sling to hold and pulled out a flare. With a pull, a shake, and a toss, blue light lit the cave... and the grabber flying towards us.

   "Oh shit!" I exclaimed before opening fire on it, though I missed. It swung by and snatched Fredrick, who screamed out for help as it tightly gripped him. I dropped my CRSPR as it quickly opened the gap between me and it, all the while Fredrick tried to fight the bug.

   I pulled out my Subata and took aim... then fired! It hit the back of the bug, but it didn't care and disappeared into the darkness. "Freddy!" I shouted as I chased it into the darkness.

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