Bubbles in a stream of night

The light of multiple torches converged on the creature, and Dustin heard Meli’s sharp intake of breath. Now properly illuminated, the beast looked like a combination between a lizard and a bat; what had been a swirling void during their gunfight was now revealed to be thick wings covered in pitch-black scales. Under those wings, powerful muscles contracted on it’s legs and it sprang to the side. As their weapons tracked the beast, Dustin realised that along with wings it also had wiry forearms, each holding something dark and coiled. With a hiss as it landed, the beast flicked out with one of those arms and Dustin dove to the side on instinct. A moment later, a strand of darkness whipped through the space where he had been stood, leaving a line carved into the floor of the chamber.

From around him, firearms started to bark - their charges slamming into the creature only for it to pull it’s wings in like a shield, the thick scales seemingly blocking any damage. Glancing up, he saw Yril’k and was shocked. The insect woman, far from leading the charge as he expected was just stood staring at the beast, a look of horror on her face. “Yril’k!” Dustin’s yell of concern seemed to cut through whatever was going on with the Vex’ess and she shook her head to clear it before adding her own weapon to the wall of projectiles harrying their foe.

The whip cracked out again - this time the crewman being targeted wasn’t as quick to react as Dustin had been. A line opened across the man’s chest and he dropped to the floor, face suddenly pale in the torchlight. Meli dropped beside him, medical spray already out and scanner running over the wound. The attack hadn’t been without harm to the malevolent thing on the other side of the room however - it’d had to move it’s wing out of the way to launch the blow, and rounds had slammed into it during the short time it’d been exposed. Now, one of it’s wings hung at an angle, gaps appearing in it’s defence every time it shifted position.

“Focus on the gaps!” Dustin yelled, threading a shot through at the top of the beast and seemingly adding to the damage to it’s injured wing. A moment later, a tail flashed out from under it and sent the nearest two of his crew flying. “Shit! Watch the tail” he added, jumping as he did so to barely avoid being struck himself. More rounds peppered out; Meli had pulled the injured crewman back down the passage and the ones hit by the tail now limped after her, clutching what Dustin suspected from the amount of **** involved were broken ribs.

Another round from Dustin’s weapon, and the wing finally broke completely - but instead of dropping to hang limp at the creature’s side as he’d expected, it crumbled into what looked like dust. As soon as that happened, the beast let out a sound somewhere between a howl of pain and a hiss of anger and turned - this time springing for the altar. As it landed by the odd black and green cylinder, Dustin suddenly remembered where he’d seen those symbols on the cans before. “Everyone out! RUN!” he yelled, turning and doing his best to drag the still firing Yril’k with him as the thing they had hunted pushed down on the top of the glowing device.

The crew did their best to follow their captain’s order; they barrelled out of the chamber, and had made it partway back to where Meli had set up an emergency medical station before the first gravitational wave hit. The Velca’s head whipped around as she felt the shift wash over her - and then they were all lifted, dragged back down towards the room and thrust forward, the rough stone of the roof scraping along their limbs and backs as they tumbled, the aftershocks throwing them back to the foot of the stairs. From behind, there was the dull rumble of collapsing stone; as they managed to untangle themselves from the pile they had been dumped in, a cloud of rock dust billowed over the group.

Dustin sat on the bottom step and took a breath. The remaining dust in the air made him cough, but he was alive. Glancing over at Meli, and then down at the crewman she was tending he realized there would be time to review what had happened later. For now - they needed to get the injured to proper medical care. With many of the junior staff limping, nursing a broken arm or cracked ribs it ended up being a team effort with the group helping each other to make their way back up the multiple flights. About halfway up they thankfully met Bleu’s team - summoned by Meli - coming down, and from that point on it was a rush to the ship for checking over and healing sprays.

The adrenaline wore off about an hour later; Dustin was sat slumped in a chair in the medbay when the abbot entered, speaking softly as he did so. “Ambassador - I heard about what happened, is everyone alright? I had no idea something so vicious lived on this planet, please believe me.” Dustin groggily waved the man to another chair before replying. “Pretty sure it was a visitor to the system. I’ve encountered things, not identical, but similar to that one before. Bleu tells me everyone should be fine with treatment, your monk included. Was a close call though; one of my security team is going to be in the medbay under intensive observation for a week, and another will have a month of rehab where their arm was reattached.”

Seeing the worry in the old man’s eyes, Dustin tried to give a smile that he didn’t really feel. “Do not worry about it, abbot. Risk is part of our job. Is the abbey alright? There was a cave in on the lowest floor…?” The abbot nodded. “Thankfully, it was at the end of a passageway going far deeper into the mountain than the rest of the abbey. We have run scans with assistance from your engineer and it all seems to still be structurally sound - although it will take us many months to reclaim that space.” Dustin shifted and winced as a particularly painful bruise rubbed against the arm of his chair. “I’m glad of that. When you are excavating - it’s unlikely anything survived, but if you find any strange symbols you don’t recognise can you image them and send them to EarthGov as a priority?”

The abbot blinked and nodded in agreement, although not without asking a question. “I thought it was just some form of tunnelling creature? Why would there be symbols?” Dustin pondered what he should tell the kindly old man, and opted eventually for the truth, if not the entirely whole truth. “I don’t know exactly what it was - but it was connected to the things we are searching for as proctors. Before the chamber collapsed, I saw tins marked with symbols I encountered when I had a run in with our quarry previously. I doubt there are any more of those things on the planet; it was probably left behind at some point. We know they have ways of avoiding detection.”

With the old man leaving the ship with a worried look on his face and a promise to contact the human government should anything turn up, Dustin limped his way out of medbay and up to the bridge. There he found Sammie, Meli and Rye all clustered around a terminal with concerned looks on their faces. In the corner, a worried looking young man in an ensign’s uniform was sitting rigidly, staring straight ahead. As Dustin entered, Sammie glanced over and spoke. “Alright, ensign, the captain’s here. He’ll give you further orders.”

The young man snapped upright and to attention, speaking rapidly as he did so. “Yes ma’am. Captain, I wish to report an anomalous reading on the sensors. The Squadron Leader had ordered the bridge clear besides myself to provide additional help with the unloading, and I was monitoring my terminal when… this is going to sound impossible sir, but the sensors picked up a weave bubble collapse under the abbey.” Dustin looked at the ensign and nodded. “You reported it to the squadron leader, and then she ordered you to sit and wait I presume? Good work, ensign. What you just witnessed is classified - significantly so.”

Before Dustin could say any more, the ensign raised his hand. “With permission sir, my report is not yet done.” Dustin raised an eyebrow. “Oh? And what’s your name, ensign?” The junior officer took a deep breath. “Ensign Bradley, sir. When the bubble collapse was detected, the sensors attempted but failed to lock onto it’s destination - it seemed to be something the science officer had set up, so I surmised it was important. I didn’t have time to request permission, but I doubled up the scan using the long range comms antenna to allow for an additional point of triangulation.”

At that, Meli glanced up from where she’d been reviewing the logs. “That was unusually quick thinking by the ensign, husband. We’d not have managed to get an end point for the jump without it.” Dustin nodded, then turned back to the ensign. “Alright, lieutenant. I’ll speak with Star Command about getting you clearance so you can be filled in on what you observed, but for now you’re to speak of it to nobody outside of the senior staff - and even then, only with either myself or the chief science officer present. On that note, you’re transferred from general rotation to the science team; I want you regularly working in the rotation for Meli’s bridge station.” The bemused officer raised his hand. “Sir… I’m not a lieutenant, I’m just an ensign.” Dustin grinned. “Your quick thinking just got us a trail to follow for our main mission - and I need quick thinkers on my bridge. Go grab yourself a set of bars from the supply, you’ve just been promoted lieutenant.”