Starsnatcher - Trapped In An Alien World [COMPLETE]

Chapter 5.8 (Part 2)

We stood in a circle around the car.

"Everyone, gather behind me!" Crick transmitted. "We must emulate the enemies' strategy by hiding in the forest. Once we possess cover ourselves, we can wait for them to approach us rather than endanger ourselves."

I took my palm pistol and my flashlight out of my bag. Then, I tied both these gadgets around my palms. While it made me a more susceptible target, the flashlight told me what my friends and enemies did right now.

Crick fixated a tree stump. Not a good hiding place itself, but behind it extended a small natural trench covered in leaves and shrubs.

Crick walked between the stump and the trench. Helix followed, carrying a Gauss rifle. I hurried behind the two.

Crick ordered our scooters to follow. Unfortunately, they were next to useless in the forest as long as it wasn't trimmed by robots. Thus, they had to wait before the stumps.

As we entered the threshold into the woods, we were a rifle-length apart each. I don't think we ever stood so close to one another without being forced to.

The trench was just barely deep enough to hide a Seizer. If we jumped down, I had to duck.

Crick shined over it with their flashlight, making sure no enemies got there before us. They shone behind each bush, each cranny, and each crevice they could find.

Gunshots roared.

I lunged into the trench, crouching with my hands held over my head. A useless gesture, given that they couldn't do anything my helmet didn't.

Crick and Helix hid to my left and right respectively. Helix climbed on a rock to look outside the trench. Their black top segment faded into the night and they were wise enough not to use their flashlight, relying on radar instead.

Crick, by contrast, didn't move a muscle. The closest thing to a life sign we got was a faint flicker.

"What's with Crick?" I asked.

"Professor got shot between the bottom and middle segment," Helix transmitted. "I will take care of them once we survive, but for all practical purposes, they are out of commission for this fight."

Did Helix know how to use the antimatter rifle?

We don't need it, I told myself. Most enemies were near the boulder. Crick killed them all. The worst is over already.

Without warning, Helix fired a salvo of supersonic bullets.

I sank deeper into my crouch. No matter what, Helix didn't stop the barrage. Their rifle's thunderclaps dominated the nightly forest soundscape. Since I heard nothing else, I assumed there was no counterfire.

I rose my head to ground level and shone with my flashlight. Four funnel-shaped figures lumbered towards our trench. Starsnatchers in all shapes and sizes. The smallest was barely larger than a Seizer, the largest stood at least twice as tall as me when upright. Most looked normal. Only the smallest had one of these creepy branch arms while another had rows of eyes all across its body.

Two of them carried rifles, yet both pointed to the ground. One dropped theirs. I didn't get the impression this was a gesture of peace.

No matter how hard Helix fired, they didn't slow down. When Helix shot the eye monster in the eyes, it grew new ones.

The Seizer focused their barrage on the largest of the lot. Wounds punctured its body and slimy green vomit bled out of them. Within seconds, the wounds closed.

Was this why we couldn't kill them? Was this why, no matter how many robots we sent at them, their numbers just didn't decline?

Every time we blew a Starsnatcher's brain out, it grew a new one. Every time we bombed one to pieces, it pulled itself together.