Pangea Online 3: Vials and Tribulations

by S. L. Rowland

  “Or…” Dean raises his plasma pistol and fires a shot at the slime.

  The white beam pierces through the slime, turning the translucent yellow a deep brown and charring it black at the edges. Steam pours from the hole as it slowly closes before returning to a calm amber.

  Dean shrugs. “It was worth a shot.”

  “Wait, it wasn’t a bad idea.” The way the slime charred at the edges, if the beam was wider it might stay open for longer. “Try to hit it with the pulse blast.”

  He holds his finger on the trigger and the strip of light down the side of the pistol glows brighter. Once the brightness peaks, he pulls the trigger and a blast much larger than the previous one shoots out.

  Instead of being a single beam, this one is shaped like a ball. It tears through the slime, leaving a hole the size of my head in its wake. The slime turns dark brown once again, this time taking longer to regenerate to its normal state.

  “Hmmm. If we could make a hole big enough, we could probably sneak through.” I equip my plasma sword and head toward the wall of slime.

  I’m unable to tell if there is more slime beyond this construct or if it has all migrated to the gate. I activate my plasma sword and a beam of energy flares to life.

  The slime stands tall as I move several feet away from it. It continues to wobble but doesn’t move toward me. Slimes are not intelligent creatures, but that doesn’t mean they can’t be deadly. Water can be deadly to someone who can’t swim.

  As I raise my sword, the slime blisters at the heat, turning an angry brown. I stab the sword into the slime and it sizzles, charring the gooey creature as it melts its gelatinous body. I attempt to carve a makeshift tunnel when Dean’s panicked voice startles me.

  “Run! It’s falling.”

  I look up just in time to witness the top of the slime peeling away from the ceiling. It arches like a wave about to crash all around me. I stow my sword and sprint toward Dean.

  My haptic suit jars my back as the slime crashes into me. Luckily, only the topmost edge hits me, so instead of making friends with the skeleton inside, I’m knocked forward and fall on my face. I crawl to my feet and turn to see a two-foot-tall blob of slime blocking the entirety of the tunnel. There’s no way we’re making it through this way.

  The slime creeps toward us an inch at a time.

  I shake my head at our misfortune. “Looks like we’re going to need to find an alternate route.”

  “Wait, I think I know a way we can get through here.” Dean flashes me a mischievous grin.

  “And how’s that?” I ask, raising one of my eyebrows.

  He pulls the plasma grenade attached to his chest plate and holds it up.

  “We might need those later,” I counter.

  “Yeah, we might. But we actually need one now.” He spins the gleaming grenade in his palm.

  “Alright, this is your show. If you want to use it now, I support you.” I’m here to help Dean and guide him to the best of my ability, but I’ve decided that he will always get the final say. His future is the one on the line, after all.

  He taps the grenade with his index finger, and it begins to glow while also emitting a faint beeping sound. Dean holds on to it for a second and then tosses it into the center of the slime. The grenade bounces on the gelatinous body before being absorbed inside.

  I turn my head away, expecting a splattering of exploded slime guts to rain down upon us, but the explosion is soft. There’s a wave of heat, and when I turn back around, there are only a few remnants of slime that slowly crawl across the floor toward one another. Dean quickly disposes of them with his plasma pistol.

  “Nice job!” I slap him on the back. He really has a knack for innovative solutions.

  With our path cleared, I follow the guided route into the next section of tunnel. We find more slimes in the following tunnel, but they are spread out and easy to eliminate. Several tunnels diverge up ahead, but we stay true to the route and follow a ramp that leads up to the next level.

  At the top of the ramp, my headset guides us through a door and into a storage area. Hundreds of metal crates fill the dimly-lit room.

  “What do you think is inside?” asks Dean.

  My first instinct is to tell him it doesn’t matter, but then I remember the prompt. Fight your way to the control room, gathering weaponry and armor as you do so.

  “Let’s take a look.”

  It takes both of us to pry the lid off the crate, but it’s a good thing we do. As we move from one crate to another, they are filled with weapons, armor, and attachments.

  “Now, this is cool.” He lifts a weapon that looks like a crab claw. There’s a grip in the center, and two tiny nodules facing one another at the tip of each claw. When his fingers wrap around the grip, the weapon comes to life and a streak of plasma energy connects the two nodes.

  Weapon. Plasma Rifle.

  I search through the contents of the crate, finding some extended energy mags, a sniper rifle, and an armor upgrade that adds a plate on our backs to attach more items.

  We both switch out our armor and open a few more crates. In the end, we find several more plasma grenades, pulse grenades, and a plasma shotgun.

  I go for a plasma rifle, which can work at close to medium distance, and elect to keep the plasma sword. Dean discards his pistol and takes the plasma rifle and the plasma sniper rifle. I’m not sure how useful a sniper rifle will be on the ship, but it’s massive, so there is no telling. We cover the rest of the open space on our armor with as many grenades as we can carry.

  “Not a bad haul.” I attach the last pulse grenade to my chest plate, excited to use them later. Each one pulls nearby inanimate objects toward its center before detonating. “Ready to see what’s up next.”

  Dean charges his weapon for a moment, watching the plasma dance between the nodes. “Let’s do it.”

  Our route leads out of the storage room and into another tunnel. Dean scans his badge, and as soon as we enter the tunnel, there’s an odd clicking noise. I recognize the whir of a weapon being charged and push Dean back into the storage room just as the door closes. A beam of energy hits the crease between the two sides of the door and sparks jump through the other side.

  I take Dean’s badge and open the door again. The unsettling clicks continue to ring out from the other side. I try to peek around the edge to see what we’re up against, but my head barely emerges before another shot sends sparks raining down.

  “What is it?” Dean asks.

  “I don’t know. I can’t get a good look.”

  “Lay down some cover fire, and I’ll take a look.”

  I creep up to the door frame and extend my plasma rifle around the corner, firing off a stream of plasma. Dean pokes his head around like a gopher and retreats just as quickly before another barrage explodes against the door frame. He takes his badge back and closes the door again.

  “What is it?” I ask.

  His face is stark white, mirroring the kid behind the avatar. “Robots. Only, there is something off about them.” His lips curl up like he’s seen something disturbing.

  “What do you mean? It can’t be that bad.”

  “They’re like spiders. They have these long metal legs that they are using to cling to the walls. And in the center, they’re humanoid, but like a gaunt skeletal body, except it’s all metal. Then there’s a head…with glowing red eyes that they shoot lasers from.” He shivers, rocking from side to side.

  No wonder he’s freaked out. I still remember the spiders from my days at the orphanage. Their glowing red eyes. At least it explains the clicking I heard.

  I pat him on the shoulder. “It’ll be okay. They aren’t real. We just need to find a way to get past them and we’ll be on to the next horrifying monster.”

  He laughs. “Right.”

  “How many did you see?”

  He grimaces. “At least four.”

  “And they are all on the walls?”

  “Three on the wall, one on the
ceiling.”

  “Not the best odds, but we’re well-stocked as long as we’re in here. Is there anything we can use for cover in the tunnel?”

  Dean frowns. “I’m not sure. Open the door and I’ll take another look.”

  We’re pressing our luck by constantly opening the door, but we need to know what we’re working with. Not having windows makes these doors great for keeping items stored away but terrible for fighting our way through the ship. I take the badge and swipe it in front of the reader.

  I fire a few rounds into the tunnel as Dean scopes out the landscape. He ducks back in, and I close the door as more sparks rain down.

  He keeps his eyes focused on the door, as if it might spontaneously open at any moment. “There’s not much. A few overturned crates and a transport cart. The good news is that the robot spiders don’t seem to be moving any closer. They just kind of move around where they are.”

  “I don’t know if I would trust that once we’re out in the open, though.” A shiver runs through me as I visualize being pinned to the ground beneath one of the gruesome creatures.

  “What if we could lure them off the wall? All four of them at once.”

  “And how exactly do you plan to do that? It’s not like we have any way of forcing them down.”

  He flashes me a grin. The one I’ve learned to mean he has something up his sleeve.

  Dean pries a pulse grenade from his chest plate. “They aren’t living creatures.”

  “I like the way you think.” I prop my plasma rifle on the floor and dig through one of the crates until I find what I’m looking for. I toss Dean a plasma shotgun and take one for myself. “If we’re smashing spiders, we need power over precision.”

  We go over the plan and once we’re ready, I open the door. Dean activates two pulse grenades and tosses them into the tunnel. They glow a bright blue as they soar through the air.

  Beams blast toward our location once again.

  “Alright, get out and hold on tight,” I order.

  We rush through the door just as the pulse grenade activates and head for cover behind an overturned lift. An errant beam catches me in the shoulder before it’s ripped off its trajectory. I catch a glimpse of the deformed robot spiders as they are pried from the ceiling, pulled by the gravitational force of the pulse grenade. It sucks them in like a vacuum. Sparks fly as lasers cut through pipes and wiring on the ceiling. There’s a loud crash inside the storage room as crates are launched against the wall by the pull of the grenade.

  Dean and I are just out of its range, though I can feel the grenade pulling the shotgun against my grip.

  “Fire!” I shout, and we both pull the trigger.

  A blast of plasma erupts from each of our shotguns, peppering the area with white energy where the spiders are pinned in place by the pull of the grenade. The spiders screech in defiance as their limbs are blown apart. Laser beams shoot out in random directions like some grotesque light show. I charge the blast and fire another one as the pulse grenade explodes, finishing off the spiders.

  Metal legs and shrapnel litter the tunnel. Dean kicks one of the spider’s metal skulls and it skids across the floor, the red eyes fading as its energy source depletes.

  “Good job, Dean.” I extend my fist to him and he returns the gesture. “That’s the kind of thinking that will get us through this challenge.”

  He grins. “I’m just glad I didn’t kill us both.”

  “No risk, no reward.” I wink. “Now, let’s finish up here and get moving.”

  Back inside the storage room, several crates are overturned, spilling their contents against the wall from the pull of the grenade. If not for the wall preventing them from exploding with the grenade, we’d probably be space dust right about now.

  We exchange our shotguns for plasma rifles. While the shotguns came in handy against the robot spiders, the plasma rifles are more practical going forward. They offer better fire rate and more utility. I still think Dean should take the shotgun over the sniper rifle, but it’s his choice.

  Our helmets guide us down the tunnel, through a dimly-lit stairwell, and down more tunnels. Aside from a handful of slimes, we go unmolested for a moment, though the rhythmic tapping of spider legs can be heard on the other side of doors, setting my hair on end. The occasional creature crumples the air ducts that wind like a maze throughout the ship. Each time, we hurry past, careful not to linger in the presence of what may be inside.

  The tunnel ends at a large elevator shaft. According to the map of the ship, it’s going to take us up five floors.

  Dean scans the badge, and we both have our plasma rifles pointed at the elevator door as it opens. The elevator is empty, but its insides are coated with some kind of webbing. Thick ropes of gray material drape like curtains along the walls. It’s almost like a giant cocoon that has been ripped open.

  “I just hope it’s not more spiders.” Dean shakes his head, finally lowering his weapon.

  “I second that.” I fight back the shiver that threatens to weasel through my body.

  Inside the elevator, the webbing is too strong to tear through with my hand, so I use my plasma sword to cut a hole so that we can access the interface. After scanning the card, a touch screen asks for our destination. I input the floor number, and we begin to rise.

  The elevator groans as we slowly ascend. A large thirty-three flashes across the screen, and we come to a jerky halt.

  Something lands on the roof of the elevator with a thud, and I instinctively press the screen to keep the doors closed.

  We rock back and forth as whatever creature wreaks havoc overhead. The cables whine as we’re jostled inside. Dean’s eyes are panicked as he holds on to the webbing for stability. After a moment, the elevator quits rocking, and we sit in silence.

  Dean and I both sigh at the same time. He must notice, too, because our eyes meet and he smiles. Even though we both know whatever creature looms above can’t truly hurt us, the fear of the unknown is still very real. It calls to our primal instincts.

  I reach for the control panel. “Time to find out what abomination is waiting for us on the other side.”

  Dean raises his weapon, and I press the button to open the door.

  Before I even have a chance to raise my own weapon, a giant insect the size of a dog launches through the door. Dean blasts it and green ichor splashes on me, covering my faceguard in a thick layer of guts. I quickly close the door as the dying insect writhes on the floor, its abdomen split in half.

  “Holy…” Deans words drift off.

  The insect’s mandible clenches open and closed before it finally quits moving. Six barbed legs curl up from its upside-down body. A thick black carapace with a green sheen is covered with barbs around the edges and a dangerous ridge running down the center of its back. Lacy transparent wings peek out from underneath the shell.

  I kick the dead bug to the back of the elevator. “Before this thing flew in here, were you able to get a look outside?”

  “Barely. I saw a lot of this webbing stuff. It might be some kind of nest.”

  “Great. We’re stuck between a rock and a hard place. We could try to find another way, but based on what we’ve seen so far, we’re screwed no matter where we go.”

  “So what do we do?” Dean crouches and examines our dead friend.

  “We fight our way out and continue on the shortest route possible. At least we know we’re not fighting more enemies than we have to.” I don’t like the thought of fighting our way through a nest of giant space insects, but at least we know what we’re dealing with. “Get ready.”

  Dean raises his plasma rifle, his finger resting on the trigger. This time, when I scan the badge, I rush into position as the door slides open.

  Dean was right, the hallway is filled with the same webbing type material. A buzz fills the space before us as dozens of winged and barbed beetles fly toward us. Our plasma rifles whir to life and beams of hot plasma rip into the swarm. Guts and hollow body parts explo
de around us, obscuring my vision as my visor is once again coated in a thick layer of green. We’re ankle deep in exoskeleton when I realize there’s no way we’re making it out of here.

  I close the door, but three insects manage to make it inside. Dean shoots them with pinpoint accuracy, and one is severed in half by the closing door. Its head falls to the ground, still clenching its pincers. Several thuds continue to beat against the door as insects crash against the outside.

  I stomp the head of the severed insect before it pinches my boot. “This isn’t going to work. There’s too many of them.”

  I pull up a hologram of the ship and instruct my helmet to reroute us. The map shows a stairwell entrance from the floor below that should reconnect with our original route after bypassing a large section of the tunnel.

  I press the icon, and we slowly descend. When we come to a stop, whatever creature that has set up shop on top of the elevator grows restless again, rocking us back and forth before settling down.

  “What are we doing?” asks Dean.

  “Hopefully finding a safer route. It seems like the smart option considering what’s waiting upstairs.”

  He nods and raises his weapon, pointing it at the exit. I open the door. An empty hallway greets us, and we both visibly relax. The overhead lighting is dim and flickering, as if this section is running on backup power.

  We exit the elevator cautiously. The hallway may be quiet, but there could be dangers all around us. There are no giant bugs and no killer robots, but something feels off. We turn a corner for the stairwell marked on the map.

  Sparks jump out from an open panel in the wall. A body lies on the ground, long decayed, but it’s evident from the gash in this person’s clothing that they were attacked. The contents of a box of tools lay scattered around the corpse.

  I crouch beside the body and roll it over. A hole runs from their back through their chest.

  “Gored.” I’ve seen enough blood and guts throughout my time in Pangea that the wound doesn’t bother me. The creature that caused it is another story.