U.S.S.A HellField

Chapter 2 The blood Witch

Who was that? As soon as I noticed her, she was gone. I don't think they saw her at all, I didn't need another Sorceress situation on my hands right now. I crawled as best as I could to get away; a harrowing screech echoed from above. My captors all looked like they had collectively shit themselves again, with increased terror. I was halfway up the rocky incline, they still hadn't noticed me dragging myself away...yet. All I heard next was the sound of air whooshing like a bomb dropping from the sky. The yell made by the one standing in the middle of the sacrificial altar was almost as bad as Pvt. Helms. A large metal rod speared him through his chest, pinkish-purple blood spewed from the massive exit wound. I wasn't completely wrong, Jesus Christ.

"Thu futak!"  They all shouted in unison, I didn't need a translator for what that meant. A moment later, before we could process what had just happened. She landed on the spear, sliding gracefully down the spear to his impaled body. Blood splashed everywhere as she did so, she then, through some herculean feat of strength. kicked his body with both legs, launching herself many meters up while brandishing the bloodied silver polearm.- "Oh fuck."  I rushed to get the hell out of this death pit. The loose gravel beneath me was giving out under my weight, making it very difficult to make it up the steep incline. The aliens open fire on her with strange energy weapons, they were either too scared shitless to steady their aim or she was just too fast for them to hit. She moved with savage grace, then a lucky shot hit her in the abdomen. I couldn't tell if she was hurt by it, she seemed almost unfazed by the direct hit. 

As the alien raised his weapon; she had, in the blink of an eye, severed both of his arms in two swings. He stumbled back in shock, violet leaked from his dismembered appendages. Her messy, disheveled hair made it difficult to see her face. Though that sadistic grin she made, was clear as day. She grabbed him with one hand and used him to shield herself from the last alien's volley of bright yellow light. When she got close enough to him, she threw the laser charred underling at him, knocking him to the ground. I continued to crawl up the pathway while she was distracted by him, when I looked back, I saw her walk up to him slowly, like a predator about to finish off her prey. She lifted him up and...bit into his neck, it looked like she was drinking his blood. I could hear her voracious slurping from here, I would be sick to my stomach if I wasn't trying to escape with my life. 

Then I felt it, her gaze staring daggers into me, just when I had reached the top. I tried standing up and walking away, but that didn't work out so well. I only had one option left, I had to defend myself. I charged my plasma cannon and aimed in her direction, but she was gone. I decided to take my chances and crawled my way to the alien's vehicle, the inside was a lot like a dune buggy, with only minor differences. I looked for a way to start it but had no luck, maybe the armor could tell me how to start it. "What fuel does this vehicle use and how do I activate It?"  Text appeared on my HUD, I had to get an A.I. for this armor, something that could talk to me. 'Primitive extraterrestrial vehicle runs on a hydrocarbon fuel source. If the ignition key cannot be found, insert a digit '  So it ran on gas? Well shit, that works for me. I put my finger into whatever looked like a lock cylinder. When I got to the right hole, a strange mechanism popped out and engaged with it, It's been a while since I heard the rumble of a real car. I stepped on the strange gas pedal, I could feel pain surge through my leg now. I gritted my teeth and went dead weight on the pedal. 

 There were almost no roads to speak of, the hell kind of planet was this? And who was that woman? She had long ragged blond hair and no clothing to speak of but showed no sign of normal female nudity. Her purple skin was covered in strange alien runes and caked in blood and dirt. Though she was the closest thing to a human I've seen on this dustball, she acted like a blood-thirsty animal. I drove in one direction for about an hour or so, all I ever saw were animals predating on each other and old crumbled ruins that dotted the landscape. I had originally thought I had traveled into the future but I noticed that any remaining writing on what looked like signs wasn't in any human language. So I clearly wasn't on Earth, or even in the Sol system. This planet could pass for Mars though, with how red and barren it is. I could feel myself drifting asleep, a bad habit most people have picked up from years of being in the front seat of self-driving cars. I noticed something bright falling out of the sky, it looked like a shooting star or a meteor.  Judging from the angle it was falling, it looked like it came from where I had fallen from. I drove as fast as I could towards it. Maybe something fell with me? 

As I got closer, the blood-red sun got lower, Until the 4 pale blue moons became visible. While it wasn't something I paid much attention to before while on other planets. The view without any light pollution was beautiful, I could even faintly see nebulae in the distance. When I arrived where it had landed, I found there to be a pod of some kind. It was silver and sleek, no way it could contain a person. I carefully stepped out of the vehicle, using a pike that was inside as a crutch to help me walk. There was writing on the side, it was covered in dirt that had stuck to it from reentry. I wiped away at it revealing something I had never expected to follow me. 'U.S.S.A. Umbra A.I. pod.' Was this the ship's A.I.? How could it have followed me here? I thought it would have been deactivated or destroyed, did Ch'zzisk send it through? There was only one way to find out, I just had to figure out how to open the pod. I remember only speaking to it a few times aboard the Umbra, and that was only because I wanted to learn about the ship. "Armor, how do I open this pod to retrieve the construct inside?"  That was definitely fancier terminology than I'm used to using. 

'Open the small hatch on the front of the pod, then Press hand to hand scanner.' I pressed my hand against the scanner and it gave out a soft beep. The pod let out a small hiss of pressure as what looked to be an AI module popped out. The module glowed a bright blue light out of its sides that gave it a mysterious allure, I looked wide-eyed into its bright light. so how was I supposed to remove it? A new list of instructions appeared and I followed each one carefully as I didn't want to risk damaging the unit. I was now down to the last one. 'Remove module slowly but firmly' I stood up, as painful as it was then gripped the module's handle. I carefully pulled it out of the socket it was contained in, this seemed like something that would be a two-person job, but I was able to pull it out fairly effortlessly. It caught on something at the end which made it difficult to pull out, I didn't need this. I gave a few pulls and then yanked it out, causing me to fall to the ground.  "Ow"  I held it out in front of me, it illuminated magnificently against my visor and into my eyes. "Let's see if you'll be useful."