The Soul Eaters (The Thin Hex Line Book 1)

by Gwyndolyn Russell

  The civilians were quiet, hidden in their rooms. Perhaps the silence could preserve their lives. He stopped at an airlock to ask for Jackal.

  "Lieutenant's at the main door of the cargo bay." One of the soldiers said.

  Reaper headed that way. Sure enough, Jackal was holding onto a bar on the wall, trying to get the intercom there to work.

  "Lieutenant," Reaper stopped next to him.

  "There you are!" Jackal looked up to him. "I can't get anything to work. We've lost power through the whole ship. Even life support is down."

  "As long as everything stays sealed, we have time." He looked over to Fenris, "whatever that thing is, it's taking us to B-58."

  "Not possible." Fenris stated. "Eos...do not…" it was at a loss for the word.

  "Have the tech?" Jackal questioned.

  "I suspect whatever that thing is that's hit us, has drained the power to the ship. Our main thrusters are at full power. We're pointed right at the planet."

  "Utopia." Fenris said.

  "What?"

  "This happened to the Utopia." Jackal clarified. "They didn't crash into a planet though."

  "There were none near it." Reaper said.

  "No more eos." Fenris stated. "Only it."

  "Is it aiming to kill us by crashing the ship?"

  The valkyrie shrugged. "Do not care about humans." It pointed at itself. "Wants me."

  "All of this just for you?"

  "They know I come. Know why." Its head tilted. "Normal to...turn away. Not bring to." It hacked and shook its head.

  "Are you okay?" Reaper asked.

  Before he could get an answer, the ship rattled. It seemed the panels were about to rip off.

  "What the hell is that?!" Someone shouted.

  Black tendrils broke through the inner walls. Like vines they grew through the metal. Wherever they held, the panels stopped shaking. They reinforced the ship as it broke into the atmosphere.

  Fenris looked around, watching each of the tendrils.

  The ship jolted; recoiled backwards like it hit a wall at full force. It slowed down. Everyone floated from their positions if they held nothing. The ship tilted down sharply. The rattling calmed. The ship leveled out and everyone touched the floor. The sound was unbearable, making many cover their ears.

  A screech sounded from outside. A massive winged machine skirting across the side of the ship, narrowly dodging it. Wings like that for the ocean let it soar gracefully just below the atmosphere. It, with a few of its own kind, twisted around the ship as it descended to the ground thousands of miles below. Halfway there, the creatures broke away, returning to the clouds above.

  Then the ship came to an abrupt stop on its belly, making loose objects bounce to the ceiling and crash back down. Before anyone could react, the exterior of the ship was surrounded by monstrous sounds. Shrieks, roars, growls. Claws scratched at the surface. They could hear things skittering across the top and over the walls.

  "Christ...are those…" someone stammered.

  "Is anyone hurt?!" Reaper shouted over the commotion.

  "Were good, sir!" Someone answered.

  "Give me a radio check!" Jackal ordered. "Everyone sound off to your team leads!"

  "I'm going to get my suit." Reaper squeezed Jackal's shoulder.

  "Fen, where are you going?" Jackal followed the valkyrie to the cargo bay door.

  "Stay." Fenris said, looking down at him.

  "So you can go alone out there? They'll eat you!"

  "I will make them leave." It said. "When quiet, come out."

  Since the door wouldn't open by the button without power, Fenris pried it open by its strength. It bit through the pain of the chains digging into its body.

  Jackal shouted for Yaaranam and Mjolnir to help. Both gripped the door at either side and held it open for Fenris to go through. It took all their strength to keep the door from snapping shut.

  Jackal tried to follow the valkyrie out the door, but it shoved him to the floor.

  "Hey, what's your---"

  The door nearly shut. Yaaranam uttered a cry, straining on her side. The other soldiers piled up, each gripping the inner edge to pull.

  "Get something to hold it open!" Jackal ordered.

  Those not holding the door frantically searched for anything strong enough to keep it propped open.

  The creatures outside squealed at the sight of Fenris. Some immediately ran off in fear. Out into the cargo bay, Fenris let out its ferocious roar. The eos surrounding the ship shut up. Listened. Those not brave enough ran away while they still could. Those that thought they were bigger and stronger roared back.

  Fenris left the cargo bay. Left their sight. Still focused on the door, they could only listen.

  Thumps of thunder shook the ground. Roars, snarls, and growls trembled the air.

  By time they got something to hold the door open, most of the commotion was over.

  They didn't even see the eos run away. They were gone, save for one that Fenris had pinned to the ground.

  It kicked at the valkyrie with sickle shaped claws, its smaller arms worthless to fight back in this position. Fenris had a foot on its thick tail, jaws around the side of its neck. Its mouth agape, it cried out. Scratched and kicked to no avail.

  "Where'd they all go?" A soldier asked. The team piled out of the ship, rifles at the ready. With no threats in sight, they dropped their guard.

  "Scared off." Mjolnir answered. "Strange...just like wild animals. They won't fight battles they can't win."

  "But they outnumber him." Yaaranam said. "They could have overpowered him."

  "How many would die before that happens? Would it be worth risking your life?"

  "Fen," Jackal approached the valkyrie.

  He could see the look of terror in the creature’s glowing eyes. It knew the end was coming. Still it fought as hard as it could, digging that sickle shaped talon into a soft spot of Fenris' armor. It only resulted in its neck finally snapping, head twisted too far to one side.

  Letting go of its neck, it looked over to Jackal who was gripping his rifle with both hands.

  "Eos should...stay away." It grumbled.

  "That's one of them…?" He asked, slowly stepping closer.

  Fenris shifted in place, taking its foot off the long tail. Before Jackal got a good look at it, the valkyrie shoved its claws through the rib cage and out the other side. The metal cracked and snapped. He could have sworn he heard glass shatter.

  Jackal watched Fenris step back from the valkyrie, its head hung low. It looked like a disappointed dog. It must have been hungry….

  He looked at the eos, finally able to get a good look at one.

  It was much smaller than that giant one he saw before. Tall enough to look a man in the eyes standing straight. Its body held horizontal to the ground and a long, thick tail to keep it balanced. Two legs, long and slender built for running at high speed. It only had one arm, the other ripped off. That arm was long with sharp, grasping claws. A bird like neck and a long, rounded snout lined with flesh tearing teeth. A nasty mash up of flesh and machine with spikes, blades and what have you sprouting out from its back and sides.

  Jackal could not help, but think it was a stupid creature. Why would it try to fight? It clearly would have never won. Not against a valkyrie.

  "Average." Fenris stated. "Many."

  The others gathered around. Everyone wanted to see it. This would be their first encounter. Their first up close look.

  "How many different ones?" Jackal asked.

  "Many."

  "Like a dozen?"

  "More."

  "How many more?"

  "Too high to know."

  "Doesn't sound good," Mjolnir frowned.

  "Reynolds is gonna wanna see this." Jackal looked over to the valkyrie. "Can we take it to her?"

  "Should stay here." It said. "Safe."

  "Someone get the doctor." He ordered. "Yaaranam, get the Captain. I want a perimeter set up around the ship, keep wa
tch at all times. Our radios still work, if you see anything, I want to know."

  Mjolnir clapped his hands. "You heard the Lieutenant! Move your sorry asses before I throw them on post! Pair up and stick together!"

  "What about that thing on the ship?" Jackal noticed the blob of blackness still attached to the ship. It pulsed and writhed, the tendrils spreading further through the panels.

  They approached it. Fenris climbed up the side of the ship to get a closer look. It sniffed at it, looked at it from different angles. A blue light pulsed like a heartbeat from inside, lighting up the flesh at the surface.

  Reaper soon showed up with Reynolds and others from the security and medical teams.

  "What's the damage?" Reaper asked.

  "He hasn't said anything." Jackal gestured up to the valkyrie.

  "It...looks alive."

  "Fascinating…." Reynolds got closer to the blob.

  "Doctor," Jackal said, "we secured a sample for you as well." He pointed over his shoulder. "Fen says to keep it outside to be safe. It's dead, but you'll want to see it."

  A cry of pain caught their attention. Fenris had grabbed the blob, possibly to try to pry it off, but all it was met with was electricity. They could see the bolts of lightning arcing around its arms and chest, jumping from the writhing blob to its hands.

  It couldn't let go. The electricity took over its muscles and forced it to stay in place until finally, Fenris dropped down from it. It fell from the ship and hit the ground with a loud thud.

  Jackal and Reaper rushed over to its smoking frame.

  It coughed and groaned.

  "Okay, so don't touch the mystery blob." Jackal laughed.

  "You okay?" Reaper asked.

  Fenris groaned.

  "Captain, may I set up a research area? This is an amazing opportunity! There is so much here to learn!" Reynolds could barely get her eyes off that blob.

  "Stay with the ship. Do what you need to." Reaper said.

  A distant roar rolled across the field. Fenris sat up. There was no sign of the source, it was too far to see, but Fenris had gone into alert. It bit back the urge to return the roar.

  Whatever it was, it must have been massive. Its roar higher pitch, almost like a shrill shriek.

  They had crashed down in the middle of a field that stretched out for a dozen miles in two directions. On one side of the ship was a dense, temperate forest filled with pale trees fighting to get the most light from the stars above. Any intelligent life ran away from the ship out of fear of the valkyrie's hunger.

  That didn't stop Reaper and Jackal from assuring posts were set up. Yaaranam was tasked with a small team to put up an electric fence around the perimeter. It may not stop the eos from coming, but they would at least have a good warning if one snuck in. Mjolnir helped gather up extra gear. They set up camp and small supply depots in the cargo bay of the ship.

  The air was safe to breathe. Surprisingly oxygen based. Reynolds had her team set up an exterior laboratory to study the eos corpse and the blob.

  THIRTY-SEVEN

  Fenris left within the hour. Insisted that he do his duty as he always had. Which apparently meant going into the wilderness of the unknown on a completely foreign planet we had no way of getting a topography of, nor a way of mapping without physically running around and scanning everything. Reaper saw it as an advantage and gave him one of the cartographers. As long as it was on, Fenris only had to keep it with his person. It would relay all information back to other scanners and systems that were online.

  I wasn't particularly happy about him running off on his own. He said he was always sent out first as a scout. He promised to return when he finished. What condition that was was beyond me. Maybe he would come back with that artifact. Maybe he wouldn't come back at all.

  No one else seemed to notice he was gone. I felt completely alone. Weird how that was. My whole life I was alone at least until I enlisted. Then I had a whole platoon for my family. Until they were wiped out by ravens. Maybe that was why I had a hard time making friends. They would all die eventually. Reaper was all I had; my only family. Fenris, too, now that I had gotten to know him. The strangest thing I had ever met; a universally feared creature grown in a laboratory, and he was a good friend who hardly left my side. I secretly hoped that this friendship wasn't something temporary. I hoped this wasn't his way of leaving me….

  I kept myself busy helping set up the perimeter and made sure everyone was ready in case any eos showed up. I worked with Reaper to set up a rotation schedule so everyone could get plenty of sleep. We kept it to eight hour shifts, one group at a time. Every two hours would be a radio check. We didn't see harm in having fires as long as they were small and under control.

  The first few nights we could hear Fenris out there howling. He must have been having the time of his life. Stretching his legs and moving unhindered for the first time in months. He was away from the prying eyes of humans; no one to judge that hidden monstrous side.

  Then everything went quiet.

  Oddly quiet. As if there were no life around us at all. No sounds of smaller critters like birds, or lizards. We barely heard the wind rustle in the trees, or the grass. The purple and pink tinges of the world replaced all the familiar greens of fauna on the ship and human favored worlds. The silence only added to the foreign feeling.

  Reynolds had figured some stuff out about that weird blob on the ship. It nearly electrocuted anything that touched it, but it was only able to do that because it was eating the power the ship generated. The creature would starve without some form of electricity to eat. The nuclear core of the Syndicate was a perfect source of food for it. As much as it could gorge itself on until the uranium eroded away. The more it ate, the bigger it grew. Its tendrils sprouted thicker and grew longer. They dug further and further into the ship.

  She continued to study it and figure out a way to get a sample from it. She suspected she could use something producing its own electricity. It was a device that didn’t exist. With time on her side, she commissioned Torch for the device.

  After a couple of weeks, Reaper tasked me and Yaaranam with heading out into the unknown to find food. Without the synthesizer, food was going bad at an alarming rate and due to the ration, it would never be eaten quick enough. We needed an alternate source. Reaper hoped there would be something out there. He rightfully suspected there to be nothing. We had no idea if there would be animals, or non-eos life at all. The eos ate everything in sight and we suspected they were not edible at all.

  We were either going to find nothing at all, eos, Fenris, or surprisingly food. Had a better chance at laying an egg spontaneously in my opinion.

  We headed out on foot, each of us with a rifle, canteens, and rope.

  “This is absolutely fascinating!” Nostradamus said. “To think there is life on a planet like this! The chances of it happening are slim to none. Any day now this planet could collide with another, or even an asteroid.”

  I cleared my throat. “I’d rather not think about how we could die at any minute because of something like that.”

  “I have to admit, it is uneasing.” Yaaranam shook her head.

  "But my friends!" Nostradamus' face displayed an exclamation point. "Think of the possibilities! The truths we could discover!"

  "How about we discover some fresh food?" I suggested.

  "Yes, that is why we came!"

  "Do you think the eos infected anything? Are they even safe to consume?" Yaaranam asked, looking up into a tree.

  "Fenris eats them." I knelt down at a bush to check for berries.

  "He can eat anything though."

  "We will have to check any food source for foreign bacteria, nothing will be safe for your consumption without being cleaned." Nostra said.

  "What about these?" Yaaranam held out a handful of white, bark-like shells. Some kind of nut presumably.

  Nostradamus took one and placed it into a tray ejected from his chest. After a few minutes he cheered.
/>   "Yes! Edible! It's a wonderful source of vitamins!"

  She gathered as many as she could find.

  I, meanwhile, had no luck finding berries. When she had plenty of nuts, we moved on. We headed further into the forest. The temperature slowly climbed. The humidity rose.

  Odd calls went back and forth through the trees, their sources unseen. The bushes shifted from needlelike leaves, to wide, vibrant leaves. The shrubs thickened.

  The trees even changed from the thin white trees to thick, ancient behemoths. Nearly smooth bark twisted from individual roots into a single trunk that stretched up to the clouds.

  We had to cut our own path out through the thicket of vines and bushes. It was a natural wall separating the two forests and possibly any wildlife with them.

  Finally, we saw animals. A peculiar creature with four long arms, and two stubby legs perched on a branch just out of my reach. Saucer shaped ears faced me and big pink eyes watched me. Its tail draped down behind it. It chirped, analyzing me just as I analyzed it.

  A tinier one clambered down from a vine above and clung onto its shoulder. It reached out towards me with one of its tiny hands.

  I almost reached back, but its mother pulled it away and climbed up higher.

  There was a lot of little life like that here. Just tucked away and out of sight. Not afraid, but curious.

  The dirt turned to mud the closer we got to a river. A series of stones peeked out of the rushing water giving a slippery surface to walk across.

  We found more fruits and nuts that were edible. All of them piled into bags and pouches.

  We let our guard down. Nothing here was much of a threat. We heard no snarls, or roars in the distance. I assumed Fenris scared them all off. How long would they stay away without his presence? Could it have been a respect thing among the animals? One stuck claim to territory and the others stayed away for fear of their own lives.

  I didn't know much about animals. Never needed to. We didn't have many animals, but cats and dogs on Mars and that was just about as far as my knowledge went.

  My foot sunk a little far into the mud and I stopped to make sure I could get it out. When I continued to walk, Yaaranam shouted.