by J Porteous
The metallic tunnels had given way to something more alive. The walls pulsed, moving slightly at each touch, as if sensitive to their presence. Carl pressed his finger into the spongy mass, lightly at first, then with a more solid force. His finger tore through the outer membrane and a viscous emerald fluid leaked out over his hand. A deep, guttural moan came from further into the cavern. He froze.
'What the fuck do you think you are doing, Rookie?' Justinia hissed.
'The walls,' Carl stuttered, frantically wiping his hands clean of the leaked fluid. 'Something's not right.'
A grim expression painted her face as she studied the hole Carl had made. 'I don't like this,' she said. 'Not one bit.'
Watts tapped on Justinia's shoulder. 'Listen,' he said, pausing to point down in the direction of the moan.
Carl strained, listening to the tunnel. The metal corridors had carried sound well, but this organic matter smothered any noise that dare trespass into its territory. No one will hear us scream down here, he thought, as terror rose inside of him. At first, he heard nothing but their own laboured breathing. Slowly a sound grew in volume, similar to the clicking that the Junkers made, but something was different this time. Something metallic could be heard through the clicks.
He glanced at Justinia, who raised her rifle towards the depths of the tunnel, Watts following suit. Adrenaline surged through Carl's veins, scorching his nerves. He raised his weapon, willing himself to see past the beam of his helmet light.
A creature burst forward into the light. Carl squeezed his trigger, blasting away at the form in front of him. Sparks flew as the rounds met their target, blowing chunks of steel and flesh away from whatever it was. The creature shrieked, rearing up to fill the tunnel.
Justinia charged forward, jamming her rifle up into the creatures jaw, and pinning its head to the ceiling. 'Shoot it!' she yelled. 'Shoot it now!'
Carl stepped forward until he came in line with Watts. Both of them unloaded into the creatures skull. Metal and flesh ripped away in haphazard chunks. A piercing scream left the creature, searing through the sound of gunfire. Its jaw frantically tried to grasp at Justinia's weapon, until it was blasted into bloody pieces from the concentrated rifle fire.
Justinia jumped back, allowing the creature to fall to the floor with a hefty thud. She bent double, gasping for lost breath. 'Nice...shooting...'
Watts crouched down next to the creature, sticking a finger in what had been the creatures head.
'What the fuck is that?' Carl gasped as he sucked in the stale air between words.
'Was is the word,' Watts said, inspecting his fingers. 'It was a Junker.' He ripped a piece of metal from its flesh, waving it towards them both. 'They should be eating this, not made of it.'
'The altered Speaker,' Carl mumbled to himself, looking at the dead creature.
Justinia stood straight. 'That doesn't look like any Junker I've seen,' she said. She stood for a moment, a thoughtful expression painting her features. 'These creatures need their Speaker, right, Watts?'
'Aye,' Watts nodded as he wiped his fingers clean. 'What of it?'
She nodded down to the altered Junker. 'Cut off the head, the rest will die. Or at least lose direction.'
'How do we get to the Speaker though?' Carl said. He pulled the clip from his rifle and studied it in the light from his helmet. 'We've just blasted half a clip each into just one of them.'
Justinia shone her head-lamp at the hole that Carl had punctured in the wall. 'This organic material. It's a skin. Look at the way it bleeds where you punctured it.' Sure enough, the viscous liquid still steadily flowed from the hole. 'What happens when you get bitten by an insect?'
Carl gave her a look. 'What?'
'What happens when you get bitten by an insect?'
Carl shrugged. 'Ignore it? Or slap it.'
'Exactly,' Justinia grinned. 'This is your insect bite, a slight annoyance. No threat. Now imagine if someone started to tear your flesh open instead. You're going to take notice.'
'I don't like where this is going.'
'I do,' Watts said. He pulled out the thermal charge from his kit bag and rolled it around in the palm of his hand. 'I can cause a nasty burn with this thing.'
'I like your thinking, Watts,' Justinia said, her sickening grin spreading.
'Wait,' Carl said, rubbing his head. 'If we set this charge off in here, we are going to bring the whole horde down on us in this tunnel. We'll be torn to shreds.'
'You're right, Rookie,' Justinia said, her grin fading. 'We need to find another tunnel, close by, but far enough that we don't get caught.' A look of excitement flickered on her face as she looked into the darkness of the tunnel. 'Get your shit together, we've got some big game to kill.'
Electricity surged through Carl's nerves as he stood looking into the darkness of the tunnel. He could not help but wonder at what horrors lurked deeper within. He risked a glance back at Watts.
The engineer was looking around, inspecting the fleshy substance around the tunnel walls. Carl forced himself to look back down the tunnel. You wouldn't have got this excitement as pilot of a star cruiser, he told himself. A low moan came from the tunnels ahead of him. He realised how hard he was gripping his rifle. A bead of sweat ran down his face. Maybe boredom wasn't so bad at all. He turned his attention back to Watts, taking his mind away from the maw ahead of him.
'We haven't got all day, Watts,' Justinia said.
'I've only got the one charge,' Watts said, squinting at the wall. 'We're going to need to maximise damage.'
Justinia started prodding the wall. The matter shifted slightly but gave no major response. She pressed her finger along the wall before stopping to stare at something. She prodded gently at a black streak running along the surface of the membrane.
Carl snapped his head forward, the low moan coming from ahead again. 'Do that again,' he said over his shoulder.
She prodded the area again. Another great moan crawled up the tunnel towards them.
'Looks like we've found our weak spot,' she said. 'Watts, set this thing up.'
Watts squinted through his visor at the wall. 'It must be some kind of nervous system. That would explain the Junker coming up when you punctured the wall, Goban.'
'Glad to be of service,' Carl said, eyes not moving from the darkness ahead. Justinia appeared next to him.
'Remember, Rookie, as soon as Watts sets that charge, run like the whole star cluster is on your ass.' She pointed ahead into the darkness. 'We are going to need to beat them back to our side tunnel before they can make it up here.'
Carl swallowed the hard lump in his throat. As much as he tried, he could not stop his rifle from shaking in his grip.
Justinia slapped the back of his helmet, making him jump. 'You hear me, Rookie?'
'Yeah,' he said, not taking his eyes off the tunnel.
Watts whistled for their attention. 'You two ready?'
Justinia looked at Carl, then back to Watts. 'Yeah we're ready, aren't we, Rook?'
Carl had to force the words from his dry throat. 'Yeah. Ready.'
Watts punched the thermal charge through the matter with a sickening thud. The low moan from the darkness became a roar, the sound rushing up to greet them.
'Run!'
Carl sprinted forward into the darkness, Justinia beside him. A loud crack filled the tunnel as the charge detonated. Even at this distance, Carl could feel the lick of heat from the flames. The roar ascended into a shriek, becoming deafeningly loud as they raced towards it. Carl fought to keep his hands on his rifle, rather than covering his ears in defence. He gritted his teeth and pressed further into the tunnel.
'Here!' Justinia shouted, grabbing Carl and pulling him into the side tunnel.
He had been so busy concentrating on simply running that he had not noticed the hole in the side of the tunnel. He stumbled as she dragged him sideways and sprawled out onto the floor. He clambered to his feet and looked back towards the neighbouring tunnel. There was no sign of W
atts.
Justinia crouched next to him, eyes intent on the gloom ahead. 'Come on, Watts, you bastard,' she muttered to herself.
The deafening roar rode up the adjacent tunnel, like an all consuming wave coming to drown them in the depths. There was no doubt that they had their attention.
Carl's mind raced. Would this be his last moment, waiting here in the darkness to be consumed? His stomach fluttered, threatening to spill his last meal. His dry tongue scraped along his teeth. His mind flickered to everything he wanted to say to his parents. He wanted to tell them he was sorry. Sorry for not living up to their expectations, sorry for squandering the money they had saved for his academy education, and sorry he had not told them sooner.
Something lurched forwards into the light. Carl automatically lifted his rifle before Justinia quickly pushed it away.
'Watch your fire, Rookie!'
It was Watts, stumbling into the light of their helmets. The light on his helmet was cracked and useless. Justinia grabbed him and pushed Carl forward.
'Go,' she yelled, over the sound of the Junkers streaming up the next tunnel. 'Just keep going.'
Carl ran. He could not remember the last time he had ran like this. The darkness held no sense of time, he simply ran as fast as his legs would take him. It was an endless hall of flesh, with no end in sight. His lungs burned, but the thought of dying if he stopped forced him onwards into the unknown. He glanced back. Justinia and Watts still followed, just on the edge of his torch beam, racing after him through the dark.
The sound of Junkers had faded into the distance. Carl had not noticed it getting quieter, only coming to the sudden realisation when all he could hear was his own heartbeat pounding in his ears. There was another noise now, low and threatening. The same moaning from before, only louder now, and much closer. The deep sound of it resonated through his body. The corridor started to open up as Carl made his way further forward. He turned back, seeking the others. 'I think this is it. I think this is the chamber.'
Justinia stopped. 'I don't know if we can take another fight,' she said, pointing to where her clips used to be. 'They must have fallen out in the tunnel.' She held her hands on her hips and breathed out a great sigh. 'We are going to need to think this one out.'
'Can't we just talk to it, like the last one?' Carl said.
Justinia almost laughed. 'Just like its friend that we blasted to pieces in the corridor?'
'He may have a point,' Watts said, the others turning to look at him. 'Think about it. The Speaker above told us that it used to be just another Speaker. What's to say that it won't communicate like the other one did?' He patted his pockets. 'Like you said, it's not like we've got the means for a full on fight.'
'Huh,' Justinia grunted. After a moment she shrugged. 'Okay. Why not. We're going to die here if we do nothing anyway. We may as well do something.' She pushed ahead of Carl. 'Let me go first,' she said. 'Keep close, and load up whatever rounds you've got left.'
The three of them walked forward into the darkness, and into the mouth of the cavern. It was different to the last one, the reflective metal replaced with throbbing tissue. Lights punctured the flesh in places, reclaimed from the dead star-ships that the trash planet had claimed. They providing some light, if only a dim.
Carl looked towards the centre of the space. The Speaker bent double in the centre of the cavern. The dark streaks that emerged from the numerous tunnels ran through the fleshy substance and towards the Speaker, creating a network of dark cables at its base. Its flesh had mingled with the metal, just as it had with the altered Junker they had encountered. The dark glow of the lanterns kept it bathed in shadow.
Justinia cleared her throat and stepped forward. 'Speaker.'
The Speaker let out a dull pulse of light and slowly snaked down towards the crew, metal screeching on metal. Its movement seemed pained.
Carl turned to Watts. 'It doesn't look well.'
'No shit, kid,' Watts replied, not taking his eyes off the creature moving towards them.
'Humans?' the Speaker said, its voice faint in comparison to the one from the chamber above. 'You were the ones within my corridors? We did not expect you to return so soon.'
Back? Carl thought. The other Speaker in the cavern above had mentioned something similar. Could the two of them have been mistaken?
'We've been sent by another Speaker,' Justinia replied. 'What are you doing here in the core?'
'You confuse me, human. You know our purpose here, why come otherwise? The extraction was successful. We have what you require. Now you must do what you promised.'
The modified Junkers slowly gathered within the chamber, trickling in from their various tunnels. Carl resisted placing his finger on the trigger of his rifle. How are we getting out of this one? He nodded to Watts, who had his eyes on the gathering horde as well.
Justinia looked back to the both of them, sensing the growing tension. 'Play along and we may get out of here alive,' she whispered. She turned back to the Speaker. 'We've only been sent to retrieve the package, we haven't been told what it is we are meant to be collecting.'
A Junker approached from behind the Speaker, scuttling towards Justinia and placing something on the floor in front of her. Carl watched her eyes widen as she picked the object up and held it up in front of her head-lamp. He stepped forward for a better look. Now his eyes widened too. A Sender stone? What is that doing here in the core of the planet?
Justinia placed it in one of her pouches. 'Thank you, Speaker, you have done well-'
'Our promise, human. Fulfil it.'
The Junkers moved restlessly, their metal mandibles clicking together in unison.
Watts nudged Carl. 'Keep close,' he muttered.
Carl nodded an acknowledgement, his eyes wandering over the wall of Junkers that surrounded them.
'Of course, Speaker,' Justinia said. 'What you are looking for is back at our ship, we simply wanted to ensure you had the object first.'
'You speak in lies, human. We were informed the cure would come to the core with you.'
Carl frowned. The cure?
Justinia stood still for a moment, taken aback. 'The cure?' she asked. 'What is it you need curing from?'
The Speaker came closer to her. 'Do you think of us as fools, human? Your disease is what inflicts us. Look at what we have become because of what your kind brought to us. Give us the cure, human.' The Speaker extended itself and circled the cavern, hovering over the Junkers that had gathered to be an audience. The clicking in the cavern became louder as the Junkers moved in towards them.
Justinia dropped back to where Carl and Watts stood. She shouldered her weapon, watching the Junkers as they marched closer. 'Out of ideas here, guys...'
The clicking stopped. The Junkers stood completely still, frozen by some silent command. The Speaker moved away from them, extending back to the top of the cavern. Complete silence fell.
'Who have you brought with you, human?' the Speaker said.
Justinia stuttered her words. 'We...we didn't bring any-'
'We can feel it. Coming closer. Something burning.'
Carl gripped his rifle tightly into his shoulder. Something was approaching, the occasional roar of a flame could be faintly heard. He looked at Watts. 'Hawke?'
'No,' Watts replied, looking around in an attempt to pinpoint the source of the sound. 'Someone else.'
A bright light burst from one of the tunnels leading into the cavern, the sound of battle cries coming with it. Carl felt hands grab him and haul him behind cover.
The Junkers swarmed forward towards the great jets of flame, trying to stamp them out but getting seared in the process. The smell of burnt flesh and the squeals of dying Junkers sliced through the stale atmosphere. Carl dared a peek over the jagged metal he hid behind, trying to get eyes on who or what was coming to their rescue. Through a gap in bodies Carl could see a uniform, one he knew well. Human military.
'It's the human military,' Carl said, looking back at Justinia
and Watts.
'Human military? What the fuck are they doing here?' Justinia shouted over the din.
'Who cares?' Watts shouted back. 'Let's get out there and give them a hand.'
Carl loaded a fresh clip and gave his spare to Justinia. With a cry, the Space Bastards levelled their rifles and blasted away at the swarming mound of flesh and metal in front of them. Great chunks were blown out of the Junkers, the powerful rounds ripping through exposed skin. The Junkers did not stand a chance. Between being roasted alive or blasted to pieces, they had nowhere to turn.
The battle was over before it had truly began. The last of the Junkers were cornered and roasted by the military flame-throwers within seconds. Some orders were shouted and a group of troopers broke off to cover the entrances, two of them approaching the Space Bastards. One of the troopers pulled his blast mask up, extending a hand towards Carl.
'Corporal Lewyn,' he said, giving a firm handshake. 'Who would have thought the Space Bastards would need saving, eh?'
Justinia rolled her eyes. 'I'm surprised you came at all, Corporal, when you realised it was us.'
'We can't be seen leaving our own to die in some hell hole, can we?' he replied, a slight smirk creasing his face. He looked back at one of the roasted Junkers. 'Ain't seen nothing like them before, any idea what they were?'
The Speaker descended towards them. 'You did this, human. You did this and you killed us.'
The Corporal turned to a couple of platoon members. 'Sort this mess out will you?' he said, pointing up to the Speaker.
'Wait,' Carl said. 'Surely you don't have to do this? Surely there is another way?'
Corporal Lewyn snorted. 'That thing was about to turn you and your friends into mincemeat and you want us to let this thing live? It's a hostile life form as far as I understand it.' He turned and nodded at the troopers as they finished rigging explosives into the Speaker's base.
The cavern shuddered from the blast. The wet flesh of the base had been blown out, covering them in gore. The Speaker sank down until it rested on the floor next to the bodies of the Junkers.
Carl balled his fists. Bastards, the thing was defenceless. 'There was no need for that,' he said, turning to Lewyn. His face twisted with anger. 'It was tricked, betrayed-'