Shadows in the dark

The group swelled as they passed the side tunnel; the staff there had followed their training and maintained their position, but were clearly nervous about it with one of the three keeping an eye on the tunnel back to the entrance from which the sounds of combat were now much louder. “Follow, fast’k. If we lose the stairwell’k…” Yril’k’s voice was tense with concern as she gathered the remainder of the squad and they barrelled on. From up ahead, the darkness was now lit with distant flashes from the weapons of the security team. Rounding a final corner, Dustin tried to process everything he saw.

Up ahead, two of their guards were firing down the far passageway. Something big filled the space; it coiled and writhed as the pulses from their weapons struck it, looking more like a worm than anything else in the light of muzzle flashes. Behind the front line, another member of the team was holding one hand tight over the arm of the last member - or at least, where her arm had been, the limb now lying a short way away. Yril’k gave a rapid series of loud clicks - clear sounds that carried through the gunfire where human words wouldn’t. Dustin didn’t understand their meaning - they didn’t appear to be words in Vex’ess, but the reaction from her squad was instant.

The assembled group split, two turning to watch the way they’d come, while the others moved forward to relieve the pressured stair guards, weapons already spitting fire at the hostile entity. Meli darted over to the wounded crewman, dropping down and running a scanner over the wound. Leaving the medical situation to his science officer, Dustin raised his own weapon and joined the firing line alongside Yril’k.

Where two pulse carbines hadn’t done more than hold the beast at bay, the hail of fire from almost the entire squad began to drive it back. As it moved into the darkness, Dustin tried to think about the maps of the place he’d looked at in the abbot’s study before they’d descended. There should be the final stairwell up ahead if it kept retreating; as it moved he noted the end of the bloodtrail from the fallen monk emerge from under the thing’s shadow. So, the monk had been attacked here too. Was this monster also responsible for cutting the power?

Time for those questions later. For now, they advanced slowly, their weapons seemingly not managing to damage the entity but certainly forcing it to back off. The end of the corridor approached, a dark void to their left in the distance indicating the stairway to the lowest level. Suddenly, the thing in front of them spun - Dustin got a hint of tail, an outline of what could have been ears or horns and it swirled away downward. Yril’k gave another string of those clicking orders and four of the squad moved forward to cover the stairway. Raising the barrel of her gun over one shoulder, the insect woman glanced at the others, then gestured to the two who had been fighting when they’d arrived. “Report’k.”

The story as they told it worried Dustin. The small group had been running a standard cover of the tunnels, two watching the darkness while the other two hovered on the stairwell, keeping one eye on the route the captain and his team had taken so that they could reinforce either position as needed. From nowhere, something - a whip of night, one of the crewmen had described it - had flicked out and carved the limb from the injured guard before anyone could react. They’d opened fire at that point, able to hold it at bay until the rest of the team arrived.

One other thing nagged at him. “How did you know they were under attack, Yril’k? You moved long before we heard any gunfire.” The insect woman briefly flicked her gaze sideways from where she’d been monitoring the stairwell before returning to her vigil and speaking without looking at him. “Human’k pheromones carry clearly’k in dead air. There was’k a draft where the power cables go up’k. I sensed injury’k. More importantly now, what do you want to do’k?” Dustin frowned, his own gaze peering into the darkness beneath.

“We can’t leave that thing. But we’ve no way of knowing if there are any more on this floor; there was that T-junction after all. I really don’t like the idea of one of them getting in between us and our way out.” He grimaced, then tapped his communicator. “Sammie, can you hear me?” The line was crackly with static from the depth under the rock, but clear enough that he could make out the reply of “Captain?”. Glancing at Yril’k, he gave his orders. “Get another two squads sent down from security. There’s too much space to sweep efficiently with the people we have, and there’s something hostile down here. Oh, and get Rye to bring a team from engineering down too. Power’s been cut and I want the lights back on.”

It was a tense hour before all the reinforcements arrived. Meli had left and returned, making the decision to evacuate the injured crewmember to Bleu’s team who would hopefully be able to reattach the arm without too much difficulty. When she joined him in his vigil over the dark route further down, she also brought good news. “One of the backup squads and Rye’s team were heading down as I left the infirmary - I’ve sent them direct to get the lights on and sweep the floor behind us.” Sure enough, not long after the Velca had spoken the nearest lights gave a thin flicker before blinking fully into life, flooding the passageway with a dim orange glow.

“I’m not sure that light makes it any less spooky, but at least we might get to see… nope.” Dustin began, peering down the stairwell. “Next floor down’s still dark. We’ll wait for the other squad to finish their sweep and for Rye to get here, then continue.” More tense waiting ensued; Dustin took a turn at guarding once more, his trigger finger tight and the muzzle of his weapon pointing down the stairs ready to fire at the slightest hint of movement. None came before the rest of the crew he’d summoned arrived; with an additional twenty security staff - even if Yril’k viewed them as amateurs currently - he felt a lot more confident to continue their journey into the void.

When they reached the next floor, the group froze. There should have been passageways leading in three directions according to Dustin’s recollection of the map of this lowest level - but instead there was only a single tunnel, the routes on either side having had their walls neatly caved in. “Power’s that way, no other routes around.” Rye hissed, gesturing at one of the cave-ins. Dustin grimaced, somehow he’d expected that. “We move forward. You four watch the collapsed passages just in case. I doubt that thing can fit through the gaps, but better not risk it.” He gave the order, indicating for four of the initial squad to stay behind - they’d been fighting the longest, and they needed a break.

The tunnel snaked around in the dark; more collapsed passageways as they went. “This feels more like a nest or a den than a basement.” He said to nobody in particular, the observation causing him to regret making it almost as soon as the words had passed his lips. Turning one more corner, he found that his words were even more true than he could have imagined.

The passageway ended in a chamber - this wasn’t on the plans; a cave that had seemingly been melted rather than carved from the rock. Odd drips of stone projected from the edges; in the middle there loomed something that looked remarkably like an altar. As Dustin’s eyes flickered across the scene, he took in small details seemingly at random - although the bulk of his consciousness was on bringing his weapon up to fully point at the dark shape he could make out against some kind of background phosphorescence present in the cave. Those small details told a story though - a glowing, green-black cylinder on the altar, torn open tins with symbols he recognised from somewhere but couldn’t say where, and the bodies and skeletons of a range of animals covered the floor of the space. Whatever else this was, it was clearly a nest for the creature in front of them.