The Invisible Universe

Alpha Division: Part 8

"Get her out of here for god sake! Give her to Delta, they can deal with it." Colter directed, managing to finally stand up clear from any debris.

I watched as the injured woman was carefully lifted up by a pair of neighbouring volunteers and carted off outside; the bit of wood sticking out of her leg shining brightly with her own blood in stark torch light.  Her anguished moans and cries became a muffled drone as the trio passed outside.

"Well that's three more dead Slugs, well done Rickey." Happy said in his usual tone. Colter meanwhile stepped towards the deceased aliens, broken glass crunching underfoot.

"Forget the Slugs, nice shot on that bloody mine. I mean you were the one to set it off, but who cares when you've got aim like that." Colter praised. Moving over to my position he bent down and took hold of the broken device and held it up to the light. "During the Mesatonian Offensive, these little beauties where all the craze, being used left right and centre, and if they were hidden well then you could forget about touching the ground any time soon. So good spot Rickey, we could have been up there for hours." He said, discarding the destroyed mine as if it was nothing more than just another piece of broken desk. "Right enough about that, lets get up there."

The team pushed forward, mostly just continuing on from where they left off, as if the last few minutes had been nothing more than a bad dream. The dead bodies being ignored. I was now one of the lead men since the previous leads had been launched to the back of the room. Taking controlled steps I moved over to the dead Slugs and along with a couple others, quickly cast my rifle up and around the first turn in the thick metal stairs.

"Clear." I stated before starting my climb. The staircase was darker than the entrance hall, there being no windows to let in any light. As a result mine and my team torches became the only source of light, constricting our view even more. The now crisp and defined beams of light cut their way through the overbearing darkness like knifes as we made clearing drills round every turn in the stairs. The thick concrete walls were the only witnesses to our movements however as there seemed to be no sign of Slug activity. I found this particularly odd. A cramped area like this with limited places for movement seemed like the perfect place for an ambush, and yet the Slugs seemed to of ignored it. Maybe this was a sign of their, quite literal, alien way of thinking. Or maybe there weren't any left to make use of this perfect space. Either way the next few minutes became some of the most tense moments of my life, as every turn presented yet another chance for my theories to be wrong. Every turn was another chance to be faced with a roaring monstrosity. Every turn was another chance for me to be killed. Despite this, the climb continued without contact.    

"Look out for more Grav-mines Rickey." Happy beamed from just behind my shoulder like some sort of oversized parrot.  It was fair to say he didn't need to tell me, as I spent the first few minutes looking entirely at the floor in the hopes of detecting more. However I soon realised that wasn't a practical way to proceed, so I soon abandoned my pedantic search and instead focused on the possibility of a Slug rearing its ugly head at the next turn in the climb.

However floor after floor, none did. Each stressful turn remaining as empty as the last. I didn't let that give me reason to drop my guard, for all I know this was just the next step in the Slugs devious plan. Lull everyone into a false sense of security before unleashing hell. I activated another Adrenaline node just to air on the safe side, if anything was going to happen I would be ready.

Continuing my ascent with a heart rate close to 170 bpm, what was left of the climb went by very quickly and before I know it I was stacked up against a large double door at the top that led into the control room. Resisting the urge to move as the adrenaline was shouting at me to do so, happy and the rest took up their positions behind me. 

"See, only one more room left, this whole thing has gone faster than I thought." Happy whispered stacking up alongside me like some sort of overtly positive shadow. Despite his inappropriate tone, I couldn't help but feel the same way, a sense of relief about being so close to the end. It was probably due to the copious amounts of hormones filling my blood, but it felt odd to actually have some positive thoughts running through my mind. Given the situation that was the last thing I expected, but I took what I could get and allowed a small smile to appear on my face.

"Right well, lets do it." I said as the last remaining soldiers made their way up the final turn.

We moved in, keeping tightly packed as we went. We didn't need a breach charge since upon testing the door, I found it was unlocked. After passing through the door I made an immediate left turn, sweeping my rifle as far left as the room would allow. Happy did the mirror image on the right hand side while Colter and a collection of others pushed straight down the middle. The room wasn't as dark as the stairs had been, the broken out windows and partially collapsed roof letting in the bright moonlight from outside, casting a twilight gloom over the interior.

Even in the low light it was clear that Alphas rocket had indeed done a great deal of damage. All surfaces were charred black with a thin layer of soot already beginning to form. Any bits of wooden furniture had been completely destroyed leaving only the splintery remnants behind. Large bits of debris from the collapsed roof covered the floor like a depressing collage. The defence control panels and system access points meanwhile looked largely ok. Their tough outer casings only suffering from the smallest of bumps and scratches. I let out a sigh of relief, they were our objective and it was good to finally see them intact after Alphas rocket. 

Pushing as far left as I could I suddenly became aware of yet another mild humming sound coming from some unseen source. The thought of activating another Grav-mine in such a confided space didn't help reduce my already excessive heart rate. I immediately began to scan the floor and was about to inform everyone else to do the same, but before I could, the humming made a dramatic increase in volume. It was now loud enough for me to understand it was coming from behind me, so I turned to confront the source of the noise. I didn't like what I saw.

The door everyone had come through was now blocked by a bright blue forcefield, cutting off about half of the team outside the room. Along with this I heard a tremendous, bone shaking moan as a particularly well built Slug burst out from behind one of the control panels.

Before anyone could react it slammed into the tight formation moving down the middle of the room, sending everyone flying. One of whom landed on Happy with a heavy thud. I aimed my rifle, but the Slug hit my right shoulder with one of its huge forearms before I could pull the trigger. I lost grip of my rifle and hit the wall hard, struggling to keep my legs from buckling underneath me. A man named Simon had manged to find his feet and was about to fire but it was too late. The Slug grabbed hold of him and simply threw him out of the window like it was passing a rugby ball, Simon screaming as he went.

Colter meanwhile had found his footing and took the opportunity to attack. Striking the Slug with a sturdy piece of metal plating he had found on the floor. The Slug, buckling slightly, turned and sent a few hits Colter's way, Colter managing to use the metal plating to deflect most of the force. Acting on instinct, I took hold of a meaty looking metal pipe, that I presumed had been part of the roof at some point, and brought it down on the slugs shoulder. It moaned in what I hoped was pain before hitting Colter with both arms, pushing him a decent distance away before quickly turning to me. I manged to dodge a few hard punches before someone else from the group, a man who I think was called Robin, got a few hits in with his obviously broken rifle. The Slug ignored me, quickly tuning to bring down two heavy fists on the poor man, his spine bending under the force. The sound of his spine breaking was such a sickening sound I think I almost felt the urge to be sick right there and then.

Colter cried out in response to this, literally throwing himself at the Slug, pressing his make-do shield firmly between him and it. The blow was enough to cause the Slug to stagger, but it quickly responded by launching the half crazed squad leader back to where he had come from. The monstrous creature then turned its attention back to me. I swung at it, but it grabbed  one end of my club and tossed it aside like a twig. The Slug was moaning its ghostly war-cry as it brought up both of its cumbersome forearms in the same way it had for Robin. I meanwhile in my panic, I had stupidly backed myself into a tight space between two control terminals. I braced for the inevitable.