Pumpking

Issue 44

I scrambled at the edge, swinging my arm over with the speed and agility of someone who knew their upper body strength would only last so long. I smacked my head through the other side; squirming and wriggling like a worm until I finally touched ground and kicked forward.

I came out in an ungraceful mess on the hallway carpet; taking a few minutes to right myself and sit up.

Right deck, but I had a ways to go before I hit the bridge. I needed to be smart about this; cover ground quietly. Noise alerted me.

"Hörde du det? Jag tror att vi saknade någon här uppe."

I looked around for a place to hide. I was in the open, exposed.

Energy roiled out of my fingers even as I sent it spiking along the floor like a wave.

The two plant-heads rounding the corner split in half, not even showing more than a brief look of surprise before they hit the ground.

I'd no idea my Power would do that.

I didn't look at their bodies. I couldn't afford to get sick again. I needed to concentrate, survive, move forward.

It was the thinking of someone in a trauma situation, the thoughts of a soldier in a warzone, and this was a warzone.

I stuck to the wall as I moved past them. trying not to watch my feet, but also wanting not to step on body parts.

I found another dead technician and a hero here.

I didn't recognize her; a small Asian woman in light pink leotard. She looked pretty, but the gaping hole in her stomach took that away from her.

It served to remind me that I wasn't immune to bullets or ray-gun blasts. I had to be instinct, I had to be survival.

The symbiote squirmed against my skin, black tendrils spreading over me, working their way up, under my flesh.

Someone once asked me if it hurt to have the symbiote inside my skin the way it was; the truth is, it was sort of pleasant.

It had spread over my stomach, covering my midsection and working up to my chest. The outer shell was hardening like some sort of armour. I hadn't thought it might grow with use, maybe it would engulf me. That was better than dying today.

I took the next corner wide. Three pods had penetrated in a neat little row here; no sign of their pilots.

Great, could be six plant-heads to each pod, give or take; so... so I would deal with them when I had to.

More bodies, more destruction.

A woman curled over a man, shot from behind. Most of these people were the civilians who worked for the pantheon, the souls that kept the ship afloat, who manned the guns while the champions were off fighting the lead ships.

I was sure they knew what they were in for when they signed up, I'm sure it was an honour to die saving others. It shamed me, knowing that, thinking about their selfless sacrifice. How could I demand anything less of myself?

I came across two downed plant-heads next, their bodies burned from extreme heat. I didn't know who had done it, but good to see the fighting here hadn't been one sided.

I stopped a corridor away from the bridge.

The area cameras were pointed my direction, that there was a lot of noise coming from up there. Whimpering, screams, chaos... god I shouldn't have come here. I should have laid low.

Self preservation? What was I doing here? Some sort of hero? Did I think that anything would change or be different if I rushed in and died here today? But I couldn't do nothing.

I wasn't going to sit back and accept helplessness graciously. They would take me, kicking and screaming from the gates of hell today.

I drew myself up, feeling the crawling of the symbiote had already reached my chest; chiton covering my heart, spreading over my arms now, up toward my neck. I could feel it in my head, stronger, more visceral than ever before.

We breathed out. Sensed the world around us. Tasted violence and fear and death.

We smiled, the grinning visage of grim determination.

The guards on the door didn't see the spike of power, roaring like a wave across the ground as we crouched low, taking caution not to cause ourselves injury. Patients, tactics. Concepts of the Host.

We stopped at the door. The orange gleam of our vision drifting around, taking in the limp, broken bodies of the rebellious seedlings. Seedlings that did not report to the hive had to be exterminated.

The door. Our claws touch at the edges of the door, forgetting that the Host knows how to open it. For a moment we purr, sensing the hapless, unknowing seedlings within.

Their deaths will bring the hive victory, and it is their place to further the hive. Then, the Host reminds us how to use the door, how to stand aside.

The sharp sting of burning fire runs along the exoskeleton, a blast from a lucky, trigger happy seedling inside the doorway- catching us on the side. But the exoskeleton is singed, undamaged. We brush off the broken hole in the clothing and reach out with our mind.

"Nothing but juice to the Hive," We crush its insides, force the tiny parts so close together that they split. This causes the explosion- attention, attention and fear from these wayward seedlings.

I gasped back into myself. Fighting away the bestial instincts, the chaos of the symbiote's thoughts like a swimmer breaking through the surface of the water.

I find myself standing in front of a view-screen monitor. The horrified gaze of plant-heads and humans alike focused on me. In one hand, over my head, I hold the trembling body of a plant-head. Around me; I can see their desiccated corpses, the lifeless bodies of well over a dozen; the room is filled with smoke, foam and a few techs huddling in a corner, looking very much afraid. Afraid of me.

"Do you think you can intimidate the Pumpkin King?" The creature on the screen asks. His accent not alien, more European.

I blinked at him, glancing back to the plant-head I was holding. His gun on the ground, his viny arms wrapping around my wrist, claws scrambling at the black carapace lining my body.

"I do not need to intimidate you. To intimidate someone, they must first pose a threat of violence or ability to cause you harm. Your people do not. You have one choice, surrender. Or die." My voice was gravelly, dark. It wasn't mine.

I sent a spike through the plant-head in my hands; dropping him. his brains splattered upward and over the command consoles around me.

I turned my gaze to the strange alien ship. It was too far away for the Hem'Skaar, but they didn't know that.

"But decide quickly, because I can do this all day."

I hit what I hoped was the end call button and the screen went blank.

I was dizzy.