A cracking discovery

They moved quickly, with very few words spoken. Initially, Kaliasi looked at him wearily whenever he was raising his hand to his nose, in a fear that he might really be infected with something, but she figured out quickly that he was making fun of her. It wasn't that funny to her.

The guards were nowhere to be found. Empty corridors with opened airlocks guided them... Somewhere. Mark tried to enquire about their destination and questioned her sense of direction several times, but she ignored that, seemingly knowing where to go. In reality, she had no idea at all, and just followed a path of no resistance. The safest option.

Or so it would seem.

When they crossed another airlock, it suddenly sealed behind them. Mark turned his head towards it, but kept marching forward with his weapon ready.

"The airlock closed."

"I heard. No need to make a fuss about it." She responded, but walked with less confidence now that the way back was cut off.

"I'm not making a fuss about it, just stating the fact."

She stopped, and turned to him.

"You are stating an obvious fact, there is absolutely no need for that statement, so you are making a fu-"

A sudden, piercing scream took her out of the incoming argument with him. Her lips spread, her eyes looked terrified.

"We have to go. Fast." She began to jog towards the next open airlock.

"Why?" He followed, matching her pace with ease.

"Just trust me on this one!"

They ran, constantly surrounded by steel like corridors, until they found a fork in the road, the hallway was splitting three ways. So they stopped.

"Which way?"

"Shush, I'm trying to think." She answered, nervously attempting to listen in to the voices.

A few seconds later, Mark just picked a direction.

"Did I tell you to go there?!"

She whispered and screamed at him at the same time. Basically hissed, but in a weird, accepting way.

"No, but we can't stall. One thing that military taught me is that a bad decision is better than nothing."

Kaliasi huffed at him, but ultimately followed.

"And what good did your military do?"

"It's the biggest in the wo... Well, the biggest and the most advanced on my planet."

"Your planet? Do you own it?" She showed him her tongue, playfully.

"Planet I'm from. It was just an expression and you know it!"

He stopped, because the wall on the right side was glass in here. Or something similar to it.

They both could see blurred silhouettes of several figures, violently moving. They couldn't hear any voices through that glass, but Mark knew what was happening on the other side.

A massive silhouette followed the smaller ones. There were people running on the other side of that glass. When they could not run anymore, they fought a losing battle. And then there was ****.

Whatever was hunting on the other side of that glass, randomly smashed one of it's arms against the glass. Cracks appeared.

"Hurry!"

Kaliasi pat Mark on the back and pointed at the nearest open airlock, just a dozen or so steps away from them. They began to run towards it, not looking back, and when they got through, the woman instantly approached a little console on the right side of it, and shut it down.

"What the hell was that thing?"

"I... Eee, look!" Kaliasi pointed behind Mark, towards the corridor.

"No explain, you definitely know what is that!"

"Not the time, Mark. Look!" She pointed again.

"What is more important than you explaining to m-." Mark turned around, and seeing as one of those backwards knee bending aliens was jumping at him, he took a swing with his pole like weapon.

And then the air cracked, like a small lightning hit the ground.

He didn't even feel it connect, it was that smooth. That powerful. The stench of a burnt flesh and metal was almost overwhelming.

"Ewww."

Kaliasi said, and moved to the side. Her stomach definitely couldn't deal with this.

Mark raised his head and looked towards the corridor. There were more of them, at least five visible ones. They were approaching slowly, in a little hops, keeping low to the ground. They already learned that this primitive alien is not to be disregarded.