Wayward

Darkness Falling

The clouds had came rolling in like a wave over the top of the mountain. Kellerman knew it would only be a few more hours until another nightfall and they would have to make camp soon. The first time had been stressful to say the least as they had staved off the feline creatures during shifts, but this one would be the most trying. God knows what they would encounter up here. He knew they had to be quite a way up in the altitude scale of this God forsaken rock for the small comms equipment to reach anything, but they had to try. Paranoia was running rampant through his three marines as every rock shift, noise, or unexplainable occurrence became a new threat. They were shook up enough that even Bozeman was staying quiet which was a rarity to anyone that knew her. Kellerman made sure to keep his rifle close to him. The quietness of this place was getting to him as well. The fog they had encountered hadn't really gone away either as it kept coming back in over and over again, like a foreboding omen trying to convince them to turn back. The white light from the planet's star made the fog bank almost glow when it had a chance to peek through the clouds. Kellerman was prepared to stay here as long as he had to, but he was hoping that wouldn't be too much longer now. The further they went up the mountainside, the more apparent this places civilization became as they encountered strewn about ruins and signs of past life. The architecture here resembled the ancient buildings Kellerman had seen at the crash site, which was good for him since he wouldn't have to corral Bozeman off trying to collect more research. He had a hunch that just up this shrub infested path there would be something to take refuge in for the night. There had to be, it was too conveniently placed. "Max," he heard Mozkov call out. He knew what she was going to say. "As soon as we get through this path we're making camp," he said. Rain began to fall, the chaotic noise of the drops blending in with the crunch of the groups boots, though luckily the mist around them was beginning to clear out as it continued its cycle. Kellerman was glad about that, less cover meant fewer potential threats. As he turned with the trail he could see that it leveled out about twenty feet above. The stress he was feeling fell away as he and his group crested the trail and found a clearing about one hundred feet in diameter. In the middle sat ruins of the same sort the marines had encountered throughout their journey although this one was seemingly more intact, although still collapsed in on itself. Kellerman signaled the group to fan out and secure the perimeter. Since Max was lead he decided to go straight ahead to the side of the circular structure towards where the trail continued up the mountain face. It was clear on his side. "Clear," came everyone. Everyone except Bozeman. "Clear," she eventually said. Kellerman decided to walk around to where Bozeman was. They finally made it, some sort of staging point in this hellish situation. "Regroup on Bozeman's side," Kellerman said through his wrist comm. Despite his annoyance with Bozeman, he honestly liked his rag-tag crew of marines. The attachment he was currently serving with on the Ragnus was full of Draylon campaign veterans, like himself, and some of the best scoring recruits the Terran Space Force could offer. "Max there's some scripting on this side of the building," Mozkov said over the comm. "We have Bozeman for that," he said while look at his side of the structure. It was completely collapsed on this side. It looked as though it was built partially without a roof, at least this side of the building didn't have anything that resembled it on the ground. Perhaps it was just never finished and time just reclaimed an incomplete project? He could see through the overgrowth and vines  there was enough room to make camp inside the somewhat small building. The architecture was vaguely familiar though, he didn't have time to think about that. As he rounded the building all three of his marines were standing and staring at the glyphs that had been chiseled into the wall. "Are you sure it's not a warning or something," he heard Kalil say as he approached the group. "I'm sure, this is just some sort of cultural myth," she said. Kira, who was on the far side of the group shot a look of perplexion at Max when she saw him round the building. From this side Max could see the whole plains and valley that the group had originally started in with the crash. The rain was pouring down there, opposed to light rain which caught his crew. If he looked long enough he could probably find the crash site. Kellerman walked to the side of Kalil, who was the closest to him out of the three and looked at what was causing so much of a ruckus. The glyphs started with the forming of this planet, the usual stuff he's seen on glyphs, but as he followed them down he began to notice a different shape that became more prevalent as the etchings got more recent. The last glyph had a group of four people standing in front of this thing. It had spindly arms ending in three almost skeletal fingers and a thin body to match. The figure had no legs though, as every single etch of it seemed as though it was unfinished, atleast if we're trying to display a humanoid. It didn't take long for Max to realize the reason why his marines were so concerned was that the last work depicted four figures standing up against this creature. "It's just some drawing by a a long dead people, stop getting concerned over it," Max said making sure to raise his voice. The sun was beginning to set and they didn't have time for this. "Set up inside the building, now," he continued, displeased with his marines, "Kalil make sure that comm equipment doesn't walk off." "Copy," Kalil said as he tightened the straps enough that they started to dig into in his already tired shoulders. Mozkov tried to open the door but it wouldn't budge. There was a contraption in the middle of it, but she wasn't about to waste time with an archaic design as she instead kicked the door down. Dust flew out of where the door was and subsequent crashes told everyone that she had damaged more than the just the doorway. She entered and Kellerman followed right behind her with his rifle at the ready. The place smelled old and the lights from the groups weapons, helmets, and flashlights were enough to show that it contained nothing more than dust and plants. The floor was made out of something that resembled Damascus steel  but sounded like hardwood when being walked on. The dust kicked up from the door and entrance floated about and covered everything above head height like a cloak. "It's clear," Kellerman shouted. The dust began settling, whether it was floating out into the dusk, rainy sky or coming back to rest on the ancient flooring and what looked like bricks strewn about on it. Kellerman looked around and quickly decided the best place to set up was on the west wall as it was the most intact and still had a roof. A beam of the same material as the floor laid at an angle keeping the partially fallen over wall upright. From this angle the door faced to the right and the majorly collapsed part of the structure lay in front of them. Kellerman pointed to the west wall and said, "Over there, that will give us the best defensive position." "Aye," Kalil said as he walked over and removed the equipment off his back and laid it on the floor. Kellerman stopped and took a moment to survey his crew, and gather his thoughts. Kalil was obviously the most tired, Bozeman looked as annoyed as she always was and Mozkov sat in the corner created by the rubble reading whatever she had decided to put in her pack. Kellerman sat down beside her. He ran his fingers across tge floor and found the floor was not only coarse feeling, but slightly warm to the touch. "Do you remember when were held up in a monastery on Centauri III," Kellerman asked as he stared out the mound of debris that made up the east wall. One of the planets moons had already began to rise, illuminating every rain drop that came through it's beams, which Kellerman focused on. "First thought I had when I saw this place," she said not even looking up at him. "We'll maybe tonight will go smoother than that," he said with a chuckle. "We'll there's no Iradian pirates here, only ravenous wildlife, so I'm guessing it will as long as our watch doesn't fall asleep," she said as she turned a page. Max knew that that would probably spell doom for everyone and was the last thing that needed to happen, especially now, there could be anything up here and not a whole lot of places to run. "We have rifles for a reason Kira, even if someone like us failed at their job, I imagine we would be fine," he said. "If, you say so, Max" she said not even looking at him again. "Fine, you have first watch then," Kellerman ordered. "If you should awake to my screaming, then you'll know something has gone horribly wrong," she said looking up with a smirk. Kellerman ignored that as he tried to go to sleep. There was nothing on this planet that would keep him from getting off it, he thought.

Kellerman was awaken by Kira shaking him. He looked at his wrist piece to see the time and was about to say something but quickly had his mouth covered as she put a finger to her lips. Kira pointed to one of her ears. It was obvious she wanted him to listen, but he couldn't hear anything besides the standard rain fall, wind whistle, and shrubs moving. Wait, the shrubs didn't rustle like that before. Kira backed off of Max and turned back to the opening as he sat up and slowly looked around. Bozeman was wide awake crouched with her rifle in her hands but Kalil was still asleep with the comm equipment beside him. A hiss and clicking began emanating from the southern wall where the door had been. Kira with eyes wide snapped her neck back at the place and then looked at Max. Max slowly pushed himself off the ground and into a crouching position, careful not disturb the bricks strewn about him. He made sure to train his rifle at the original entrance to the ruins. He looked back at the group in time enough to see Bozeman practically beating Kalil awake, making sure to cover his mouth so he wouldn't alert whatever it was that was roaming the premises. Kellerman could see something shifting in the shadows just outside the planet's twin moonlight. Then he saw something red. Then two red things. Then they disappeared for a half second and then went away completely, as suddenly they appeared. Whatever it was had just looked in his direction, and what felt like into his soul. Whether it had seen him or not depended on how well the animal could see in the dark. There was a noise from Kellerman's left. He quickly turned his head to see Kalil strapping the comm equipment as quietly as he could to himself. Kellerman motioned for him to quiet down and Kalil nodded his head. For all they knew this was a life or death situation. Kellerman looked at Bozeman. She shrugged her shoulders. That was exactly what he didn't want to see. The hissing hadn't died down either. Maybe there was more than one? The clicking seemed to be coming from everywhere behind them. Something had followed their trail and it was something that was probably dangerous considering the things they had already encountered on this planet.  Bozeman began motioning as frantically as she could to the clearing in front of the debris. Kellerman looked and saw a large shape but couldn't makeout its exact details. It wasn't moving quickly either. He couldn't tell whether it was pacing or just truly moving that slowly. Half of him wanted to flash it with light and shoot it without thinking twice, but he knew better than that. There could be anything out there. And he wasn't going to put his marines in a no win situation. Kellerman started devising a plan. He motioned. He pointed to the clearing and then made a half circle and pointed to the wall behind him. The group stared at him their training helping them understand what he was saying through his hands. He tapped his rifle mounted light and and pointed at each one and where to mount. He signaled four, then to move out into the clearing. They all moved silently like ghosts over the clutter and positioned two elements on either side of the opening. As soon as the hissing had gotten to the opposite side they would vault over the ruins and make their way as fast as possible to the continuation of the trail. The clicking was almost through the clearing. Through the moonlight Max could see something being drug behind it. Again the pale moonlight wasn"t enough for them to make out what had tracked them. Kellerman had the feeling the weren't going to make it as the creature had made it about halfway where they wanted it to be. The hissing had gotten substantially quieter now. Kellerman didn't know why he had the feeling they weren't going to make it but they had an obvious need to try and escape this thing. It had finally reached its apex. Kellerman held three fingers, then two, then one. He got over the rubble and made sure his marines did too. As Bozeman climbed over the fallen ruins he listened and could still hear the thing on the other side through the rain. He would wait to turn his light on until they were halfway to the trail. The group followed him as the lunar light guided them to their destination. As they almost reached the trail a screech rang out. Kellerman didn't waste time as he quickly yelled out, "Kill it!" All four marines swung around with their lights on to see....nothing. No matter where they swung their beams of light they were met with the same emptiness. Kellerman knew an ambush when he saw one. "Back, back towards the ruins!," he yelled. The pure adrenaline made feel as though his hearing almost super human. There were noises coming from seemingly everywhere as they drew closer to their abandoned refuge. There was no doubt about it. If they were being stalked before, they were being hunted now and whatever it was seemed as though it was going to make a sport of it. Kellerman reached the crumbled wall first and quickly got over making sure to sweep the area with his light. It was clear. He covered his marines as they all cornered themselves against the back wall again. It began to quiet down but that could be a bad thing. Kellerman could swear he heard a deep guttural noise in the distance over the rain fall that sounded like laughter but he knew that was probably the paranoia playing tricks on him. Their main priority currently was to survive. There would be no rest for the hunted now, as it would be more than a few hours before darkness gave way to light.