Watchers in the dark
09 Sep 2022RedivivusCrowd
Ignite the soul of fire, unleash the whrirwind...Royce lay flat, eyes glued to his rangefinders and scanning the area below from atop a ridge shadowed by a jagged fin shaped structure protruding from the ground behind him, it was large enough that he had initially misidentified it as part of the terrain.
Rise from the deep and up into the light...
In light of the disturbing revelations that prolonged exposure to Thargoid technology could induce psychotic episodes and self destructive behaviour, the Colonel had seen fit to upgrade them to BSL-5 rated armour. But that alone didn't stop the dark thoughts from occasionally surfacing in the back of his mind as he scanned the ridges and peaks in his vicinity.
Colonel Lavery had brought in a SCARF pilot to speak to the Legionnaires who'd be deploying for this mission. He told them the best way to protect their minds was to construct a mental 'baseline' and watch out for any deviation or abnormalities from said baseline.
The hope was that this along with their equipment and rotating deployments to the site in question would be enough to protect the legionnaires from any backlash from the current object of Royce's interest, he continued to silently recite his mantra to himself.
Stretching out before him was a vast open area, circular in shape and surrounded by jagged ridges and cliffs. In the center lay a similarly round structure of what was now evidently non human construction, theories abounded regarding the purpose of sites like this but very little was known for certain.
To his side another Legionnaire lay unmoving while Royce took his turn keeping an eye on the site below, aside from her smaller size her armour was identical to Royce's, a modified artemis suit fitted with upgraded life support functionality, ideal for long watches such as this.
A flashing light on his helmet's HUD quickly dispelled any hopes of a peaceful and boring watch. Royce stretched his leg and gave his fellow legionnaire a solid kick in the shin.
The woman quickly snapped upright, levelling a rifle in front of her scanning for threats before seeing that Royce was her only company, she sheepishly put her weapon back on safe before crawling over to lie alongside Royce.
Royce turned to arch an eyebrow at her before turning back to face the site below them, "Feeling a little jumpy are we Ms Ramirez?" Ramirez inspected her wrist mounted data terminal before turning to scowl at him. "It's still another 40 minutes till my shift, what'd you wake me for? Getting lonely already?"
Royce ignored the sneer in her voice, "We have an unresolved sensor contact 3 kilometres above us. Too far away for LIDAR so I'm waiting for it to get closer."
This prompted the other Legionnaire to look upwards at the dark airless sky above them, of course there was no way she'd be able to spot something that far away with the naked eye but Royce supposed it was simply human instinct to try anyway.
Royce checked his own data terminal again after a few moments had passed, "1.5K away, you should be able to spot in now, orient your scope to point 8 and go straight up from there. Ramirez raised her own rangefinders and wordlessly followed his directions, after a few moments of silence she spoke.
"Have eyes on... an adder? Something that small no wonder we didn't pick it up till it was right on top of us. It looks like it's coming in for a landing in the clearing around the central structure. Should we send a report to Lion Heart?"
The legionnaires had been ordered to maintain radio silence until they had something noteworthy to report, Royce was pretty confident this qualified as he turned towards a small device planted in the ground behind them, a laser burst transmitter, it's dish pointed above them.
He quickly typed in a message on his wrist terminal and hit send, VESSEL SPOTTED APPROACHING SURFACE SITE, CLASSIFICATION: ADDER
The dish then promptly oriented so that it was now pointing above them as it quickly sent a directed burst transmission to their ship stationed in orbit above the planet, which relayed their message to Pride of Jormbu, the SCARF Fleet Carrier on station to provide assistance.
They quickly received a response, ACKNOWLEDGED, CONTINUE TO OBSERVE.
The Adder continued descending until it reached a point where it could be seen without optics, the ship's landing gear extended as it slowly touched down, now firmly anchored to the ground.
A hatch on the rear of the ship opened, a trio of armoured figures jumped down to the ground, the use of a ladder unnecessary given the world's weak gravity, half that of earth.
Ramirez contiumed tracking them, "Their gear looks shoddy as hell, like they picked it out of the bargain bin at pioneer supply. They're movi... holy shit is that a pickaxe?!"
True enough, two of them were hefting pickaxes while the third carried a rifle of some sort as they walked towards one of several organic structures in the vicinity of the central facility.
Royces confusion and bewilderment quickly gave way to realisation and shock. Those crazy bastards are here to mine meta alloys! With pickaxes?!"
Royce began furiously typing commands into his terminal as the trio arrived at the base of the stalk, reminiscent of a palm tree one would find at tourist worlds. A moment later the dish oriented to the sky and began slowly tracking an unseen target above them as Royce now spoke directly in real time with Pride of Jormbu.
"Lion Heart, this is Watcher 1, I have 3 unidentified human contacts mining for meta alloys with pickaxes, how copy? Over." Ramirez briefly turned to look at Royce in surprise before directing her attention back towards the three witless miners below them, who had now begun hacking away at the base of the structure, evidently opting to bring the whole thing down rather than try to climb to the top.
"They probably saw no movement or activity from orbit and thought it was safe." Ramirez watched on helplessly with her rangefinders. "Won't be long till...xeno contacts sighted!"
The two legionnaires radios crackled as they received a response relayed through the ship above them, "Watchers 1 and 2, this is Lion Heart, you are to remain in position and not attempt to interfere or intervene in any way, how copy? Over."
The miners had thought because they hadn't seen any on their approach in that the site was safe for the moment. They're wrong, dead wrong.
From in between jagged spires and from within the shadows of the terrain surrounding the surface site the scavengers began to emerge.
But that wasn't unnerved the legionnaires.
They're stalking them... like prey. I've never seen anything like this. Rather than charging straight at the miners, 12 of the alien constructs were slowly encircling them, and creeping forward slowly.
"You see how they're staying low to the ground? Their sentry isn't gonna see them until they're right on top of them." At which point it'll be far too late. Royce pulled back the charging handle on his AR-50, racking a round into the chamber as he started rising.
Without turning around Ramirez spoke in an uncharacteristically soft voice, "Don't Royce." Royce gritted his teeth as he watched on helplessly, "They don't stand a chance against that many scavengers! We can..."
"We can't do anything!" Ramirez barked, still watching the scene below. "Even if we hadn't received explicit orders not to take action we're too far away. They're already dead, they just don't know it yet."
Just as Royce was about to argue back the scavengers made their move. They rushed from all around the miners at once, the one with the rifle was on the ground before the other two realised what was happening.
Royce couldn't hear anything in the airless crater but he could imagine the screams of the three witless miners as they were sprayed with acid, the three of them writhing around on the ground for a few moments before they mercifully expired.
Once they became still three of the scavengers dragged their bodies into the central structure, the organic door opening and closing behind them. The rest faded back into the shadows of the spires and peaks surrounding the site.
Ramirez watched the whole thing, remaining motionless throughout. "Nothing we could have done, report it in." Royce could do nothing but take in a long breath before typing in a message to Lion Heart.
HUMAN SUBJECTS TERMINATED BY XENO CONTACTS, CLASSIFICATION: SCAVENGERS, NUMBER: 12.
The two legionnaires silently watched the site below until they received a response.
RISK HAS BECOME UNACCEPTABLE, MOVE TO LZ BRAVO AND EXTRACT, ACKNOWLEDGE. Royce sent back an acknowledgement and began packing up the transmitter.
"Ship will be at LZ in 10 mikes, let's try to be there when it arrives." Ramirez nodded, quickly packing her extra oxygen tanks and rations into her pack, ready to go within a minute.
Royce took one last look at the site before the two of them began hiking towards their extraction, trying to keep his thoughts away from what he'd just witnessed.
Ignite the soul of fire, unleash the whirlwind... The sight of melting flesh and the echoes of screams lurked in the back of his mind. Rise from the deep and up into the light...