City of fire

A question still remained, despite Defia’s explanation. “What do we’k do about the zombie’k?” Yril’k said, voicing what they were all thinking. “I doubt’k that just ‘shoot it in the head’k’ will suffice if’k it is partially Fractal.”

Dustin pulled up their makeshift map of the spire, looking to see if there was any possible route they could take that would allow them to bypass the still stationary entity blocking their path. Much to his annoyance, there didn’t appear to be any route back beyond the point they were at besides just ploughing through the monster in their way.

“Alright” he said at last, checking his pulse carbine once more to be on the safe side. “There’s no other passages we can take, so the plan is we go in and see what it does. If it just stands there, we get some footage on our helmet cams, sneak past and run like hell. If it turns out to be hostile, we light it up until Defia figures out how we kill it. Everyone understand?”

A round of nods followed, at which point Dustin and the others rose from their crouched huddle. Swallowing hard, Dustin steadied himself - then walked with a calm he didn’t feel around the corner and towards the waiting figure. As he approached, he could see that Defia’s hunch about the creature’s construction was correct; the tough, elongated Moa’thif skull was barely covered with a thin layer of black Fractal mass, a dull orange glow occupying the space where it’s eyes should have been.

The thing turned to face him as soon as it noticed his approach; a blank stare coming from those hollow glowing sockets. Beyond that, it didn’t move - just standing and watching as he slowly edged his way past, Sammie close on his heels. The squad moved as quickly as they dared past the zombie, it’s eerie skeletal expression doing nothing for any of their nerves.

They’d almost all made it past when the thing moved. With a hesitant, shuddering gait it shifted, shuffling towards where Yril’k was bringing up the end of the line. Dustin shouldered his weapon, pivoting back to keep the pulse carbine trained on the creature. As it stepped closer, the mouth of the skull unhinged, dropping into the morass of Fractal matter that coated it’s body before the zombie began to emit a hissing sound like a television left on static.

Yril’k raised her blade arms slowly, not wanting to appear threatening but equally not about to be caught out in a fight - but before she could do anything, Defia flowed forward. The rogue Fractal had all but blended into the background in the gloom of the lower tunnels, but now she glowed, her arms throwing off sparks as she ran. One hand connected with the zombie’s skull, the other plunged into the middle of its torso before twisting, sparks flying as she discharged voltage directly into it’s core.

With a cracking sound the skull came free, her fingers hooked into its eye sockets as the Fractal mass convulsed and fell away, bones scattering on the floor. “Statement. It was emitting a distress signal. We should run.” Defia punctuated her words by dropping the heavy skull onto the pile of remains with as much decorum as she could in the circumstances, turning, and charging back towards them.

Dustin and the others didn’t hesitate. If there were more zombies down on this level then… the sound of shuffling feet echoed along the side passages as they ran, multiple dim glows now shining in the distance. “How… many… of them… do you think there are?” Sammie panted as she bolted for the exit, fingers clutched tight around her carbine.

The rogue Fractal tilted her head to one side. “Statement. I detect approximately twenty-eight moving bodies based on footstep echoes. There may be more. Advise immediate retreat.”

Down the passages they fled; they’d actually made it almost back to the lift before the encroaching horde cornered them. Turning a corner, Dustin skidded to a halt before dropping to a knee and shouldering his weapon once more. Close behind, Sammie almost slammed into his back before looking past him and swearing as she too took up a firing position.

The corridor ahead was blocked by over a half dozen of the zombie-like creatures. No two bodies were the same - all were comprised of Fractal matter enveloping bone, but where the previous one had been a full Moa’thif, here there were ones with no head, or two heads, some with too many and others with too few limbs. Yril’k paused behind the two humans. “There’k is no alternative path’k from here. We fight’k?” She asked, shifting her weight as she did so.

Dustin glanced at Defia. “Statement. The units are hostile. Addendum. There are more coming.”

That was all he needed to know. “Light them up, we’ve only got to get to the end of this corridor then across the room on the far side and we’re basically back at the lift,” he said, taking aim at the nearest zombie and squeezing the trigger. The kick of the pulse carbine was reassuring, it’s whine as it charged another shot echoed by Sammie’s. Their first volley slammed into the creatures, clouds of Fractal mass spraying out from where the weapons had struck.

Yril’k leaped forward on the heels of the human weapons fire. The covering on her blade arms slid back with a click as she dropped onto the nearest Fractal entity, the two scythes stabbing down repeatedly as she rode its collapsing form to the floor. Defia meanwhile stood looking back the way they had come with an expression of intense concentration. “Statement. Expedite your retreat. I will hold off those behind,” she said before dropping into a crouch and darting back the way they had come.

Dustin didn’t have time to stop and think about what the rogue Fractal was up to; while the zombie Yril’k had attacked had fallen, the ones that he and Sammie had hit were still moving, as were their so-far unharmed friends. Glancing at the slowly crumbling corpse of the one Yril’k had jumped on, he made a decision. “Switch to burst fire!” he yelled to Sammie, adding “lots of smaller hits rather than one big one!”

The pilot didn’t need telling a second time. Fire spat down the corridor as the pair of humans advanced, their weapons holding one half of the passage clear of foes and shredding any Fractal zombie foolish enough to move into their firing arc. Yril’k meanwhile stalked the other half of the passage in a blur of spinning limbs and puncturing blades.

They didn’t have long before they’d lose the edge in melee, Dustin knew - already, wisps of smoke trailed behind each of the Vex’ess warrior’s strikes as the acid atmosphere started to eat into her biological weapons. There was also the issue of their foes; while the first wave had fallen beneath the combined attacks of his party, those at the back were left intact long enough to retaliate.

Three of the monsters shuffled together, their mouths unhinging before letting out a blistering gout of flame down the passageway. Dustin and Sammie rolled to the side, returning upright and opening fire once more as they did so. Pulse carbine rounds slammed into the flamethrowers, their heads twisting back from the impact. The heat sensor on Dustin’s suit pinged an alert as another gust of flames struck where he’d just been standing, the creature turning it’s head to follow him before the attack halted as Yril’k’s arm severed the monster’s extremity at the neck.

Dustin didn’t have time to catch his breath - Yril’k’s blow had only temporarily halted the firestorm, the creature reforming before resuming it’s flame-throwing, from the palm of it’s hand this time. The rattle as Sammie switched to full auto and hosed the beast down with rounds rang in his ears, her face grim beneath the visor of her helmet.

Breaking through to the lift, Dustin hauled his pilot on before being joined by Yril’k, the Vex’ess woman leaping backwards from where she’d severed the limbs of yet another of the nightmarish things. “Defia?!” He yelled through both his communicator and suit speakers. “Get back here!”

There was a crackle from the communicator. “Statement. On my way. Start the lift. There are more than I expected.”

Punching the elevator controls, Dustin grabbed onto the rail as the platform began to ascend. Down the way they had come, orange glow brightened until it looked like the entire city was on fire. Out of that tunnel of light a single shadow emerged, Defia sprinting flat out for the elevator and escape. For a terrible moment, it looked like she wouldn’t make it - and then she crouched mid step and launched herself into the air, slamming into Dustin’s arms as the platform slid up into it’s shaft, sealing them off from the horrors below.