INTERSTELLAR NIGHTMARES - THE DESCENT

Chapter 9

   I just kept firing. The praetorian approached closer and closer as a large flaming figure instead of a beast. It reminded me of the olden tales of elementals, it looked vaguely like the Fire Elemental from the stories. I dropped my CRSPR as I snapped out of daydreaming, realizing the praetorian was about to hit me.

   The CRSPR was caught by the strap keeping it onto me, and I yanked my pickaxe from its tube-like slot on my belt. I swung at it at full force, and the pickaxe became embedded into the side of its head. It roared out in pain, trying to recoil back, but it was dazed and stuck. I tugged my pickaxe towards me, and the head blew open. The praetorian dropped with a loud thud. I looked down in shock.

   Its right mandible had fallen off from the tear, and a huge chasm was torn into the side of its head. I felt bad because I've never been up close and personally like that with one. On the other hand, I was terrified of it because it was going to kill me, it had the intent. I slowly put my pickaxe away and stared at it for a minute. I killed this praetorian, I thought, with only a pickaxe and adrenaline.

   I looked up to see the last of the ambush being killed off. The biggest thing of all of this was my action to save them and to put my own life in danger. As long as they're alive and not hurt, I thought, then it'd all be okay. I walked back over as they killed the last bug, being sure to be quick to not choke on the gas.

   "Nicely done, boys," Kurt said, "the course of action we took made it quite a bit easier." He looked at me, smirked, and nodded. "You were the main one, dragging that bastard away from us," Kurt complimented.

   I didn't know what to say or how to feel. I put up an act of not being phased by the ambush. "Let's keep forging on," I declared, "the mission will be like this ambush was if we continue like we just started." It made me feel better, I realized. I was lying to myself and felt better about it. I guess it isn't a lie anymore, I thought.

   "That's the spirit!" Morris cheered. "Rock and Stone!" Fredrick added before we continued making our way. We continued towards the low-hanging egg deposit in a fairly good mood, but it changed when we made it to the sack. It looked even more grotesque than in the pictures!

   "Gross," Fredrick mumbled as we looked at it. I decided I'd be the one to dig it out, so I got out my drilling arms. "Aye, I'll take care of this one," I informed as I pushed into the mass of oddly warm tissue in the dark cave walls.

   After a second or two, out came an egg! It was green with purple veins in it... it also pulsed a little bit and gave off a sort of dark magenta glow. "Egg's out!" I shouted, but I was only met with an earthshaking wail from deep inside of the planet.

   "What the hell was that?" Morris asked worriedly. I could tell by his face and me being able to hear the gears work in his head that he was trying to make sense of the noise. "Not sure," I sighed.

   "Maybe the planet's alive!" Fredrick teased. "I hope not! That'd be insanity!" Morris replied while holding his helmet. "Pull it together, boy! This ain't no brethren moon!" Kurt reassured, but he was met back with the looks of confusion.

   Fredrick's face soon dropped. "Whatever it is, it's not important right now! We got some fuckers on the way!" he shouted as he ran beside Kurt, got on one knee, and started firing off at what I assumed to be bugs just behind the flarelight.

   With a flare thrown by Kurt and it hitting a glyphid in the head, my suspicions were correct. "Shit!" Kurt shouted out of instinct as he yanked up his Leadstorm.

   After a short whirl, the ear-splitting bellow of the machine of war ripped the air around it, soon joined with buckshot. I decided to add the final ingredient of fire. The ambush didn't last long with all four of us ripping and burning them all down before they could reach us.

   The next egg deposit was just a few paces away, so we all agreed to keep moving and made it there in only a few seconds. "Moleboy," Kurt demanded, "drill here. It'll be the fastest way to get that egg again, as we don't got a faster means of breaking terrain." I walked over with no hesitation, getting out the drills. I put them on the fleshy tendril-infested wall and started drilling.

   It was easy to dig all the way through the rock and a bit easier to get through the juicy, fleshy bits. I stopped and turned off the flashlight on my shoulder. I remembered that the last egg pulsed that purple-ish glow in the dark. Surely enough, the glow shone through the fleshy walls, and I dug deeper towards it. I saw the egg soon enough and stopped drilling.

   "Flare, going up!" Fredrick shouted as he fired a new high-intensity flare into the ceiling. "Oi, fellas!" I hollered back at them. They all turned to me. "I found the egg, it'll be out shortly," I explained. Kurt gave me a thumbs-up. I then got out my pickaxe, still covered in the slightly alkaline blood of the praetorian.

   I started mining through the fleshy walls of the sack holding the egg. After a few minutes, I managed to tug it free. "Got it!" I shouted. I walked out, and the loud, rumbling roar shook the earth around us again. It sounded like it came from the sack...? I looked back but saw nothing new.

   "Huh," I huffed "wasn't that something? Louder this time." Morris didn't look entirely thrilled by the noise, but Fredrick patted his back. "Freaky, but not too bad," Kurt answered, "Two eggs down though!"

   We soon heard the digging. "Well shit," Kurt sighed. "Get ready, might be a swarm! Sounds big!" Fredrick yelled out, and Morris shot to building his sentry. We all quickly got into formation and waited for the swarm. Soon enough, grunts stormed over the cliff we'd just dug into, and started climbing down.

    I used my flame to streak a line in front of them to try to stop their advance, but they kept walking. "They must be insane!" I shouted in surprise, soon hearing the fire of my friends booming through the cave system. It didn't take long to flatten the wave, and we soon realized it wasn't a swarm. It was yet another ambush.

   "Misjudged," Fredrick sighed  "but at least we were ready." Kurt looked back and nodded. "After all, ammunition is dispensable," Kurt confirmed, "our lives aren't."

   I loaded a fresh canister of napalm into the CRSPR to not be caught off guard and sealed off the other, open canister with a big bolt-like item that you can just screw onto a canister and put away.

   It reminded me of lidded drinking cups back in Brawnlyn. Soon I started thinking about Brawnlyn again, and how I've already grown to miss Earth as a whole. My homesickness was pulled away by Kurt snapping his finger to get my attention. "Wake up, Moleboy," Kurt told me, "don't lose yourself now."

   "Sorry," I apologized, "just miss home." There was a moment of silence. Kurt stared at me for a moment before looking down slightly, then back up again. "We all do," Kurt said, sounding dejected, "but for a long while, we'll be here. I had to leave my wife and my kid to come here, plus the nation I served for over twenty years. We were in a tough spot financially thanks to the crown's treatment of us vets. So whatever happened for you to be here, I bet I can understand your feeling of being homesick." He nodded to me. "We're all in this together," he said, "and we'll kick ass here to show them our frustration. And to show them we're dwarves."

   Morris nodded, a slight smile showing through his facial hair. "Now, let's rear up and kick some ass!" Fredrick yelled out, "Rock and Stone!" We all echoed the age-old motto of dwarves from times past. "We're going for the next egg," Morris said, "and it won't be as easy."

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