Zaden

DISCOVERY

“Captain, you work fast”, said the rather excited commander.

Well, you could hear the excitement, but seeing it, that was another thing. That woman was a freaking robot, programmed with only one expression. As my Pa’s generation would say, “As in, her face too hard”, and hard it was.
We mangled up the harpy in a containment chamber, and after signaling the ship with our bracelets, a warp portal appeared before us, and a team of biologist rushed in to take the specimen and rushed back out. In seconds, they were gone.

"Ok, captain, we’ll study what we have here, and await more good results," said the commander again.

This time I wasnt sure if she was teasing me on purpose, or if she was just a sadist that enjoys watching people suffer……. Why? Because, as the comms’ went off, I swear, I freaking saw her smirk at me, with a subtle-maniacal “Hmph!” at the end. Now I'm sure, she is definitely out to get me.

The night was rather rough, but the morning was much quieter. We checked up on our defense shield, as always, to confirm its functionality. All check up reports came back positive but I wondered, how the heck did our freak harpy get in.

“Captain, small tremors are inbound”, shouted a trooper.

“What again!!!”, I shouted, this time, hopefully, within my mind. At this point I couldnt differentiate no more, because of the stress.

I rushed off to check what was happening at the west side of the camp.

“What’s going on Ade?”, I asked.

“We are detecting small vibrations approaching rhythmically”

Ade, you are the leader of the camp guard, not the choir What do you mean by rhythmically?”

“Captain, we think the vibrations are sounds of huge organisms…… walking towards us” He replied rather confused.

I looked up to see if I could catch a glimpse of it. If it’s huge, we should see it, right? But there was nothing in sight.

Seconds later, we heard a loud boom on the shield. We moved back slowly. Again, we heard another boom, but this time, twice, from two different sources. It felt like giant hands or tools were slamming on the shield.

“Men, weapons ready and set to Kill!!” I shouted in haste.

Again, the boom sound came, but now, it was three, then four booms, then five, six, seven, eight. It was just all over the camp, everywhere was being hit until suddenly, it stopped.

We moved slowly towards the center of the camp, taking care with every step.

Captain, your cabin, its flattened!!! A trooper shouted from the east end.

“For goodness sake, what’s going on? I shouted. My cabin was just the first, other facilities were getting stomped on as the strange phenomenon approached the center of the camp, towards us. We could now feel the vibrations, these were most definitely giant creatures.

“Captain, what do we do”, asked Ade

“Captain!!!” He shouted. But I was dazed. I’m no superhero. How can I fulfill my lofty wish? Are people going to die again, by the hands of another unknown enemy. 

I needed to call the ship. I hastily switched on my bracelet and slammed on the icon.

“Open fire!” I shouted.

Everyone fired. It was extremely sporadic. And Like expected, we just damaged the camp more. In seconds everywhere was a wreck. We were finally, like herded sheep, at the center of the camp, all fifty of us. But we didnt stop, we continued to fire helplessly, and then came another Boom.

It was happening again... bodies in the air, we were all in the air. I couldnt help but watch troopers cough out blood in buckets, human bodies mangled like a chewing gum. Body parts flying like confetti. If you could see it. It was a beautiful, horrific meaty-firework, painted in red. 
I slammed hard on the floor with my bionic arm in shambles. I couldnt express any emotion. Ade was unconscious, Joy was a mangled meat something. If not for her rank, you would not recognize her. Another Boom goes off.

I looked up and watched as the shield was continuously slammed over and over... A few booms later, it was all gone.  In just a few minutes, the best we had was reduced to rubbish.

“Aaaaaaaaah! Who the f*** are you, what the heck is all this, why do this?” I shouted immensely.
I didnt get any reply, all I just saw was the transparent body of the of some strange reptilian like creatures leaving the camp as I passed out.

“Captain, Captain”, a voice called.

I slowly opened my eyes and found myself in the Mothership bay. Medical personnel were moving back and forth, carrying dead body parts. I stood up, walked past my friend, Ade, and went to find the commander, with my malfunctioned bionic leg and dismembered bionic arm.

Few minutes later……….

Where is she?” I shouted as I walked towards the control room.

Captain, what are you doing here, you are supposed to be recuperating” Her voice called out.

The guards that held onto me earlier let go.

“You sent us to die, didnt you” I shouted

“Emotions captain, emotions. You all did a darn good job.” She replied

“What good job, we all died out there, what in heavens name is going on commander”

She sighed, looked up and said, “Please, escort our two-time hero out, Thank you”

The guards came back, picked me up, and dragged me out as I screamed at her.

I was amazed at how uncertain everything was around me, and how foolish I had become. I couldnt do anything else than sleep on my bed as I was watched by guards. This vacation had become a wonderful nightmare.