INTERSTELLAR NIGHTMARES - THE DESCENT

Chapter 12

After killing off the rest of the glyphids, we walked back to the egg we accidentally left. I had my Subata out, as I ran out of napalm canisters. Kurt barely had any ammo left in his Leadstorm, as I saw from the HUD screen. Fredrick picked up the egg and deposited it. "Alright!" Fredrick grunted, "We have met our quota!"

Our earpieces squeaked to life. "Lights read green, team," Mission Control said, "time to take it home. Management will be pleased." Kurt looked at all of us. "I'm not," he huffed, "I'm tired. But hey, it makes me feel better anyway. Say, are you boys ready to leave this hellhole?" I nodded, and the other two also wished to, evident by their positive mumbles. "Then let's get out of here," he said, holding the button on the M.U.L.E. down.

"Drop pod inbound," Mission Control said, "hold tight." We waited there for a minute, then he heard the horn blare out. It was the area we came in from, I realized. "Let's move!" Morris shouted, and we all broke into sprints. The bugs started coming out of the walls around us as we went, and we blew them down with no issue. "Shit," Kurt moaned, "out of ammo!" He dropped the Leadstorm to his waist and yanked his Bulldog from its holster.

We ran until we found a formation of holes in the wall. "What's that?" Fredrick stopped as he stared into the holes. We all stopped and looked back. "I don't know," Morris said, walking over, "but we need to get moving." Just as Morris reached to grab Fredrick's arm, small glyphids shot out of the holes and skittered toward all of us. This managed to startle us, so we ran.

"What in the bloody hell were those?" Kurt asked, seeming a bit unnerved. "No idea, but I'll do the research when we get back to the Rig," I responded. We eventually got to the first room and the drop pod was sitting there, unopened. The floodlights showered the room with the precious resource of light.

"Damnit, Molly!" Fredrick cursed, "Get your tin ass over here, and hurry, please! We wanna go home!" Glyphids crawled from around the corner instead of the M.U.L.E.. Fredrick started firing and Morris soon joined in with his Deepcore PGL.

I fired at anything I saw move in dim light on the edges of where the floodlights couldn't reach. "What's that sound?" Kurt mumbled. I heard it too. A... buzzing sound? Then a green flash in the dark, hovering still from above.

"There!" I shouted, firing at the glow. A barb barely missed Morris, causing him to jump, and start firing too. The creature let out a pained squeak as it fell from the sky, its body being shown by the light of the M.U.L.E., which came in soon after it fell. "Come on, Molly! We don't have forever!" Kurt shouted, firing a round into a glyphid's head, pulverizing it.

The M.U.L.E. waddled to the side of the drop pod. The hiss soon rang out, and the doors opened. "Go, go, go!" Fredrick said, backing up slowly. Us three ran in. "Wait!" Morris shouted, pressing a button on his gauntlet. Soon enough, his sentry, now a condensed metal disk-like structure, flew in and landed in Morris's bag. Fredrick kept firing at bugs while slowly backing up. After all the few were down, he ran into the pod.

"Get us out of here!" Fredrick shouted, slamming his fist on the button beside the door. The doors then closed, and we all got buckled. "Retrieving drop pod," Mission Control said, "Great work out there." We felt the pod rumble, and I looked at the depth we were at.

We weren't even a kilometer under the surface, so the lift-off was quick, and we were back in the Rig before we knew it. The drop pod docked then the doors opened to our home far from home. The alarm lights were going off until they shut off abruptly.

We all unbuckled and walked out. "Unkarr's balls, that was intense," Kurt said, taking off his helmet and wiping his forehead. I nodded, moving my goggles onto my helmet. "It sure was," I agreed.

Morris immediately went to take care of his hygienic needs. "After this, we'll need a round of something special," Fredrick sighed before disappearing into his bay too. "Do that research for me, William," Kurt huffed, "we'll sure need it. Thank you for looking out for us." He walked into his bay, and I just stood there, looking at my armor. It was stained with green patches. I'm glad to help you, brothers, I thought to myself before heading into my bay.

I took my shower, used the bathroom, and even washed my armor clean of stains. Afterward, I walked out to be greeted by the boys with mugs of a particular design. "Egg Cracker Special," Kurt announced, "for oncoming Yuletide!" "Really?" I said, picking up the mug. "Yep," Fredrick, "part eggnog, part alcohol, full dwarvish... almost, hehehe!" I nodded, looking at the design on the foam. It was a cracked eggshell symbol, nothing too fancy.

"Bottoms up, friends! To Yuletide!" Kurt shouted. We all echoed back, slammed out mugs together, and downed the Egg Cracker Specials. It tasted much better than the Leaf Lover's or the Glyphid Slammers. They deliberately tried to sweeten them! That's a tie there, I thought.

"That is absolutely phenomenal!" Morris exclaimed. "Damn, I want more of that!" Fredrick shouted. "Refill for the both of us?' Morris asked Fredrick. "I'll take another to go, I'll be doing research," I added. "I won't get any more," Kurt yawned, "I'm taking my happy ass to bed." He walked out as we three ordered refills for our drinks. Funny enough, we couldn't get refills, so we just ordered an entire new round of only three.

When I took my drink to my bay, I immediately went to the terminal to do research. I first went for the small bugs we found crawling from the holes in the walls. These were apparently called Glyphid Swarmers and were at an early stage of glyphid life.

I thought of them as more of babies. They were not even a foot tall, had no armor, and their skin tone looked closer to mine instead of the pale brown topped with the olive drab armor. The only troublesome thing was that their teeth and claws were sharper, almost like puppies or kittens would have sharper teeth and claws for protection early on.

The second was an entirely new creature species we've yet to see until now: Mactera. This specific one was called the Mactera Spawn. The mactera spawn are flying insectoid creatures that have four wings, a large mouth, and a big glowing gut.

Their way of hunting was stated in the entry, and it made my skin crawl. They shoot acid-filled barbs at their prey to liquidate their innards before sucking it out with a bayonet-sized proboscis. Let's hope that doesn't happen to any of us, I thought, shivering at the thought. I took a sip and continued searching through the Miners' Manual until it was time to rest.

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