by P P Corcoran
The male and female Alphas approached gradually, from opposite sides of the encompassing circle. Halting periodically to ascertain if there was any reaction from the Thing. Bodies low to the ground. Back legs compacted, each loaded with compressed energy, ready to release, ready to pounce. Edging forward, paw by paw.
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The Creature remained motionless, providing no acknowledgment of the encircling presence, noting the two lifeforms at a range of four meters, with another forty, ten meters beyond.
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As one, the pack growled at the strange Thing in front of them, having no shape resembling any animal living in their forest. Betraying no behavior signaling either aggression or submissiveness to the wolves. The Thing stood silently in the gloom, absent of visible defenses or obvious areas of weakness. However, the Thing’s scent sharply penetrated their olfactory receptors, registering a mixture of rage, fear and death. Without warning. At incredible speed. The Alphas launched themselves into the air. Intent on tearing apart the invader.
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The Creature responded in a blur. Rotating its core ninety-degrees, barbed tentacles flashed out. Needle-sharp spurs, as long and as thick as a man’s finger, punched through rib cages. Each spur injecting lethal doses of curare poison, more potent and toxic than any poison dart made by South American tribesmen. In a blur of motion the Creature rotated ninety degrees, two additional barbed tentacles penetrated the wolves’ ears entering their skulls, releasing poison into the Alpha’s brains. Death was instantaneous.
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The pack was stunned by violent deaths of the Alphas who now lay still on the forest floor. Instinct pushed them back. Like a ripple from a pebble dropped into a pond, the wolves backtracked a few meters, to safety. Except for M12. The Beta wolf raised his head to the stars and let loose a deafening howl in lament of his brother. One by one the pack joined his chorus of despair the haunting sound reverberating up and down the valley. The pack had a new Alpha.
With the packs anger and remorse still echoing in his ears M12 began slowly trotting in a wide circle around the Thing. His keen eyesight searching out a weak spot. Any difference Any indication of a head or a flank that could provide a target for attack. He found none. Upon returning to his original position, the pack looked to M12 for direction. Baring his incisors he began to inch forward. Following his lead all forty wolves began closing in on the Thing. After a few steps, M12 stopped and reevaluated the situation; the pack mirroring him. Advancing the length of a wolf M12 paused once more. The Thing remained motionless in the center of the circling wolves. M12 and the pack cautiously advanced again, reducing the space between them and the Thing by another wolf length.
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The Creature evaluated the decreasing gap between it and the surrounding forty lifeforms, measuring each individual distance with precision. Gauging that distance against the reach of its own tentacles still hanging loosely by its sides. The lifeforms remained beyond its effective reach. 0.92 Earth hours until the portal reopened.
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M12 and the pack had now closed to within what he now judged to be a gap of four wolves from the Thing. To his left stood his grey and white sister. On his right, the silver sister, the lifeless bodies of the two dead Alphas lay in front of them. This close to the Thing, the reek of rotting vegetation, intensified the release of aggressive steroids, inducing a feral rage M12 could barely contain. Tail straight out, horizontal to the ground behind him. Fur along his back erect, incisors bared, he steeled himself for the onslaught. But before he could launch himself at the Thing, the grey and white sister leapt into the air, only to be struck down dead by a tentacle spur tearing through her throat. This close to the Thing, the wolves’ aggressive rage overrode any lingering survival impulses; only the law of the jungle endured. ‘The strength of the pack is the wolf, and the strength of the wolf is the pack’. While the grey and white sister, lay bleeding out, on the ground, the pack leapt to the attack.
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The Creature met the onslaught with deadly precision, more than matching the ferocity of the lifeforms. With incredibly efficiency, the barbed spurs struck, dispensing lethal poison, killing wolf after wolf. All the while the wolf’s teeth and claws ripped and slashed at the Creature.
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As a tentacle spur killed the pack mate in front of M12, he seized the opportunity to clamp his teeth tightly around the tentacle. The McKenzie Wolf’s jaws are the most powerful of all wolves, forty-two teeth, with massive molars capable of crushing moose femur bones. Exerting 1500lb of bite pressure, M12 tore the barbed pad of the Thing’s tentacle before retreating to a safe distance of four wolves.
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If the Creature felt pain, it did not exhibit any indication which might alert the lifeforms to the damage sustained from the concentrated assault. Twelve additional dead lifeforms had joined the original Alphas scattered across the forest floor but the Creature had lost a tentacle pad to them. The lifeforms razor sharp teeth had repeatedly torn deep into its thick scale-like skin. The open cuts now exposed to the caustic oxygen of Earth’s atmosphere which ate into the raw lacerations and the soft flesh below. Running diagnostics on the overall extent of injuries, the Creature channeled a treacly sap to congeal and protect the wounds. Thirty lifeforms remained as the Creature analyzed amending its current defensive strategy to one of offense. Concluding for the moment that defense remained the most appropriate. 0.79 Earth hours until the portal opened.
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The condensed vapor from the surrounding wolves’ heavy breathing in the cool Alaskan air shrouded the Thing in a cloud of mist. M12’s heartbeat slowed as he focused completely on the Thing, trying to gauge any sign or indication their foe might be hurt. His hunter’s experience told him that it could be a good tactical decision to withdraw from a dangerous prey. If the quarry were sufficiently wounded, the injuries inflicted, would take their toll, weakening the prey and lessening the danger to the pack. However, the Thing in front of M12 showed no signs of impairment, with the exception of the missing paw, M12 tore off. He might have waited longer. Continued to assess the condition of the Thing, but he could sense the anger flooding through the pack. They wanted this Thing dead, and they wanted it dead quickly. As new Alpha, his role became recognizing the needs of the pack and acting upon them.
‘The strength of the pack is the wolf, and the strength of the wolf is the pack’.
With an ear-piercing howl he flung himself and the pack once more into the fray.
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A s the lifeforms retreated , the Creature counted twenty-two dead on the ground while the remaining twenty encircled it, at a distance of four meters, averaging seventeen degrees apart. The last assault was as ferocious in its intensity as it had been its savagery. The Creature was unable to rationalize the aggressiveness of the repeated suicidal strikes. Any sane lifeform should have withdrawn after sustaining such horrific losses. The Creature ran diagnostics on its own fresh injuries and channeled additional sap to aid protection from the corrosive atmosphere. Once more, it reviewed the options available to it. Defense or offense. Both were dismissed considering the extent of the injuries it had sustained from the lifeforms. Only one option was now available. Survival. 0.54 Earth hours until the portal opened.
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M12’s eyes regarded the ground before him. Another ten of his brothers and sisters lay dead amongst the blood-spattered leaves and brush that made up the clearing. A decision needed to be made. Twenty wolves strong, the pack remained a formidable force. Strong enough to fend off any incursions by neighboring packs. M12 could acknowledge their losses against a remarkable adversary and retreat. Should M12 decide to withdraw, the pack would follow him back to the valley, and life for the McCarthy wolves would endure. However, if he persisted, even killing the Thing in the next offensive wave, based on its defenses so far, there would undoubtedly be additional losses. The consequences of further depleting the packs numbers would mean the McCarthy wolves would lose their valley. They would
become a rouge pack, having to travel with stealth through other wolf territories, always wary and fearful of contact from aggressive enemy packs. Warily new Alpha made another circuit of the clearing, methodically gauging the damage inflicted upon the Thing standing motionless at its center.
During the last assault, they had bit off another two deadly paws, leaving four, just as lethal. Completing his circuit of the Thing, he now understood with a certainty, this strange Thing did not belong inside the forest, or the world of the wolf. Listening to his wolf brain, he slipped into a space beside the sliver colored sister. M12’s honed senses told him that victory was within his grasp. ‘The strength of the pack is the wolf, and the strength of the wolf is the pack’. M12 lunged forward a baying howl, filling the forest. The McCarthy pack charged again.
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The Creature counted thirty-nine dead. The three lifeforms still standing spaced themselves evenly around it a bare four meters away. The last attack had developed into a desperate, fraught struggle. The lifeforms, weakened and slowed by their previous assaults; but for every one the Creature struck down, another two managed to breach its defenses. Biting and clawing. Incisors gnawing, digging deep through the protective scales. Tearing mouthfuls of sensitive inner layers from its body. Ripping and renting fresh wounds open, exposing them to the unforgiving oxygen. As the assault endured, the Creature’s multiple scenario analysis concluded that it had the upper hand and the death of the attacking lifeforms was only a matter of time. Without warning, the lifeforms broke from the fray, retreating to safety.
If the Creature possessed emotions, they might have registered disappointment with victory so close. Dispassionately it noted its worsening health status, confirmed by the severity of multiple bites and lesions, resulting in a life-threatening situation. The damage had reached such an extent that it prevented the application of protective sap to the new lacerations, letting oxygen etch, even deeper into open wounds. The relentless forays had torn off six tentacle pads, severely limiting its defenses. Unremitting visceral assaults ripped and shredded numerous areas of the 360-degree visual array, leaving numerous zones completely blind. The Creature rotated ten degrees to compensate as best it could.0.38 Earth hours until the portal opened.
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M12 strained to regulate his breathing back to normal. The last wave formed a different pattern than previous tactics. Darting forward. Inflicting damage before retreating rapidly to avoid retaliation. Push forward again, bite, and retreat. However, the packs rising sense of desperation, escalated and changed the organized foray to a rabid chaotic melee. A kill or be killed; fight to the death. Amid the blood and carnage, something within M12’s intrinsic leadership quality, something within the madness of the protracted conflict, screamed at him! Withdraw and evaluate the condition of the remainder of the pack. Only at his direction, did the remaining wolves relent.
By one shoulder, an old grey stood Elderly, but strong and experienced. On his other, stood the silver sister, who time after time, proved herself worthy of the female Alpha position. Realization of the lethal impact, the Thing had dispensed to his pack, stirred an additional aggressive boost as M12 dug deep inside himself. Maximizing his anger and hostility. He would need all available rage for the imminent, final assault. For when finished, only the wolves or the Thing would remain in the forest, nothing else. Focused, he began to trot around the perimeter, wary of the deadly reach of the Thing’s paws. Searching for weakness, target areas, anywhere the Thing might be vulnerable. The silver sister fell in behind him, followed by the old grey. Together they circled the Thing, looking for flaws or faults in the Thing’s defenses.
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The Creature watched the three lifeforms circling. After a few circuits, the black lifeform accelerated, pulling away from the other two. The sliver lifeform allowed a gap to open between itself and the black lifeform before it too increased its pace. Once a third gap had been established the grey lifeform matched the other two lifeforms pace. All three now raced around the clearing. Visually following the lifeforms proved problematic for the Creature due to the visual sensory damage it had suffered during the numerous assaults. Monitoring each of their individual paths became impossible. Away from the Creature’s last remaining tentacle pad, the lifeforms reduced the boundary from four meters to three meters, then back to four meters. The Creature recognized the systematic testing for visual gaps, an urgent problem needing correction if it was to survive long enough to get back home.
Starting at a subdued ultra-frequency, the Creature began pulsing multi-band sound waves, ricocheting of the encompassing trees, registering stationary solid objects. This basic form of echolocation had limited effectiveness, but provided the Creature with a form of binary information, filling the voids in the damaged visual sensory system. Between the gaps, the lifeforms were there or they were not. If there, the sonar pinged into their soft body, registering its presence. When not there, the sonar pinged on solid trees. Satisfied it had secured a potential failing in defenses, the Creature continued to monitor the progress of the three lifeforms. In an effort to improve the quality of echolocation transmission, it incrementally increased the ultrasonic frequency range. At the sixty-seven-megahertz level, the quality of echolocation, marginally improved, so the Creature increased the range of ultrasonic frequency, towards seventy-megahertz. 0.25 Earth hours until the portal opened.
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As the wolves circled , probing for vulnerability, M12 sensed the Thing might be waiting on something. Something about this specific spot must be important. Throughout the protracted fight, the Thing remained fixed exactly where the pack had first encountered it. Even when the wolves had been their most ferocious, the Thing did not move into the safety of the forest, which would have made contact more difficult for the wolves, because of the trees. Using the protection of the forest, the wolves could only have reached through narrow openings, limiting their effectiveness. This puzzled M12; what is so special about this exact spot? What made this strange Thing refuse the protection of the forest?
As they persistently probed the safety limits, they discovered areas absent of a response, if a wolf drifted in a little closer. Areas, where the Thing did not even raise a limb in preparation to repel an attack. This was new. In the continuing long drawn battle with this strange Thing, where nothing changed, new was good. Could the Thing be weaker in these areas?
Even without the poison paws, the Thing’s limbs and reflexes proved enormously effective, thrashing wolves unconscious to the ground, with preciseness throughout the fight. M12 prepared to launch himself into an identified weak area, when the Thing started screaming. At first, the scream stayed level, loud as the cry of a wounded coyote. After a moment however, the screams increased in pitch and volume. M12 felt the screams batter at his ears. Quickly the screaming sounds went from mildly annoying, to irritating to unbearable pain. For the first time since the fight began, the screams forced the wolves to retreat beyond the four-wolf distance they had maintained.. However, increased distance, only provided M12 and his surviving pack mates meager respite from the pain inflicted by the intensifying screams of the Thing.
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The Creature went through the ultrasonic frequencies, observing that once beyond the 67-megahertz range, the lifeforms ceased their circling. Using the last of its limited energy, the Creature increased the frequency. In response, the lifeforms not only ceased their predatory intentions but withdrew, increasing the distance between them.
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Beyond the Thing, originated a loud fracturing sound. The same noise which initially alerted M12 causing him to wake the pack from their sleep and had led them here to this bloody battle site. M12 focused through the excruciating pain, seeing nothing behind the Thing except darkness. He sensed that whatever was the source of the sound, it and the Thing were connected. M12 forced his brain to work through the pain which threatened to push him into unconsciousness. Could this sound be the reason why the Thing chose to in the openness and not s
eek the protection of the trees? The rules of the fight had shifted. Something happened; something changed to the Thing’s advantage. M12’s perception on the change of events grew, as the Thing, with subtle slowness, began to move towards the growing black dot of darkness.
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The portal began to open. The Creature calculated 0.13 Earth hours until the opening was large enough to allow it to pass through. In six Earth minutes, it could return home, leaving Earth and these aggressive lifeforms behind.
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Incensed the Thing which had killed so many of his brothers and sisters might somehow live; the Alpha howled a rallying cry into the Alaskan night sky. M12 would die before he let the Thing escape. Frustration provided the spark which ignited and drove intense anger. M12 ignored the increasingly painful screams of the Thing. The pain now fueling his rage and fury. M12 howled again, signaling engagement. Deep in his wolf brain, he knew the Thing must not live. Howling one last time, calling on the law of the jungle to aid him one last time.
“The strength of the pack is the wolf, and the strength of the wolf is the pack”.
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As the Creature moved towards the portal, two separate events registered on the remains of the sensory array. Firstly, the absence of all three lifeforms from its remaining visual sensors. Second, all three lifeforms hurtled directly towards echolocation pulse points. The Creature ignored them as it concentrated on reaching the portal and home.