Our Silent Lives Conquer Worlds

Das Unsterbliche Herz

"Okay, let's move out!"

Delta Squad just finished dealing with the horde of Locust attacking their fellow Gears, and now they were advancing ahead into the tunnels. Kurfürst glanced to Dom, who was looking far more alert than usual thanks to the news Anya had for him.

Maria, someone dear to him, Kurfürst guessed his wife, was down here somewhere.

The ground began to rumble, another cause from the serious Seismic activity that Anya warned them about as rocks began to fall onto the pathway. Kurfürst grabbed Benjamin and jumped forward, keeping the young man safely to her body as she took the brunt of the dive.

She stood up with Ben, swiping the dust from him. "You okay Carmine?"

"Y-Yeah...thanks for that."

She nodded and looked back to the wall, seeing it collapsed from where they originally came from. "This area isn't stable, we have to keep moving so we don't become victims to another cave in like that."

It was pretty dark in the tunnels, but Jack was able to provide light for them as they traveled. Ben was looking at the many red growths around, even going as far as to touch one. "What are these glowy things?"

"What do I look like, a Botanist? Some type of plant, I don't know what." Marcus was the one to reply, so Kurfürst bent down and grabbed one of them from the floor.

With a tear, she ripped open the soft flesh of it and saw the fibrous insides, with seeds and wet "flesh" inside. "Yep, these are fruits. Not sure if they're edible for humans however..."

...

"Kurfürst, don't you-" Dom was about to grab the fruit from her hands, but recoiled when she bit into it, slowly chewing the fruit before swallowing. She looked over to Dom, who had his arms out. "Really?"

"What? Only one way to find these things out."

"Well, how'd it taste?"

She looked to Marcus, throwing the rest of the fruit over the side. "Bitter, but had a pretty nice aftertaste."

They reach another set of bramble, and after they cut through the thick vines, they were met with...a worm. They watched the weird yet massive worm just waddle across the ground, going towards a piece of the fruits they found and eating it.

"Control, you have any info on this thing? It looks like a big snake...or a worm, made of stone."

"Recent intel lists it as a Rockworm. Not sure if it's dangerous, but we do know it's an indigenous cave creature that feeds on plants."

Kurfürst looked at the glowing fruit hanging from the ceiling, smirking. "Glowing plants Anya?"

"Right. We had reports that these are one of the creature's main food sources...we also know that it's near indestructible, bullets just don't affect them at all."

The comms closed, and Kurfürst picked up a loose stone and hurled it at the fruit, knocking it to the floor. The Rockworm immediately started to crawl to it, like a beacon.

"Well, that's quite interesting." She walked up to the worm and put a hand on it's hide, feeling how it truly does feel like solid rock.

They continued on past the worm, which didn't care about them, down into the further parts of the caverns. "Hey Marcus, you think Dizzy and Tai made it up there?"

"I'll answer that Dom. Dizzy is safe, and last I saw Tai he was fine as well."

Dom nodded to the answer, and they only went further in. They found several Rockworms resting and eating, but they also saw Locust ahead of them on a battlement with a Troika turret.