Alien Existance
Chapter 2: The First Expedition
The sky was shrouded with a mist that hindered, but did not completely halt, the parties march through the wilds. It swirled as they passed through it, like some phantom recoiling from being near living things. Footfalls were barely audible, muffled by the moisture, and no other sound could be heard ... quiet as a graveyard.
The small party of five walked cautiously through this intimidating space. This was after all alien territory, and there was no point in being careless. Revival stations had not yet been erected to counter the truly massive disadvantage of being dead, but these men were used to it. Years of long hardships in fighting wars on distant planets where revival was simply not an option had a way of making you stronger. And this affinity had lead them to be selected as the first explorers away from camp.
Captain Tellar raised his arm and made a fist. Immediately the other four stopped. Absolute silence. Captain Tellar looked to be listening for something. He turned to Sergeant Dulum and made a circular spiral signal in the air in front of his face. Immedialty Sergeant Dulum pulled a pack off his back, quietly and quickly opened a small pocket of it, and depressed a few buttons, before turning back to the Captain and shaking his head. The radar was clear. That didn't mean there wasn't trouble, just no trouble that humans could detect.
The Captain raised his arm once more and motioned for slow advance. Hoisting their weapons the small group continued in the mist. The swamp land they walked through was not badly overgrown, only in patches did the grass come to about chest height, but the ground was exceedingly soft, making silent progress that more difficult. The Solomate Outbackos carried by the men were held ready should anything be encountered.
A gentle trill broke the silence. An almost bird like sound that they had never heard before. Immediately each man turned in a direction, another man to his back looking the opposite way, with Sergeant Dulum in the middle, who immediatly pulled off his pack and opened the radar screen again. This time the result was different.
He raised two fingers and pointed southwards, raised another three and pointed to the north west and finally another two and pointed east. Something had been spotted, and it was all around them.
Another bird chirping filled the ears of the soldiers. Dulum raised 5 fingers and pointed south. There were now 9 unknowns in the south.
Captain Tellar instructed his men to prep for anything, but repeated the words of the ships Captain in his mind: "We are new here, and we do not know the intentions of any creatures we meet. Lets not start our relationship with intelligent beings as hostile." The order was passed to only shoot on his command.
A shape rushed past, swirling the mist around the men on their west side. The soldier who faced that way waved his free hand in front of his eyes, saying his view was obscured he didn't see anything.
Then another went by them on the south, the soft squelch of quick feet heard as it rushed by. Steady men, they are trying to test us. The twittering and tweeting was also picking up now, becoming steadily louder. A look at Dulum produced an open fist closing ... they were moving closer en masse.
Sergeant Gita never saw the creature that burst through the curtain of mist, grabbed him by the face and pulled him away. His neck snapped as soon as the creatures jaw closed around him. And no one else saw what took him either. Only the sound of a large object being hurriedly dragged away.
The Captain broke his mens silence, speaking for the first time in hours. "MAN DOWN. Assume battle ready positions. These bastards are not friendly." Each man immediatly brought weapons up to their faces and readied to fire at anything that moved.
Damn that was fast, thought Captain Tellar. I've never seen something move that fast. His anger over losing a man so easily threatened to overwhelm his thinking before he got it under control.
The marsh suddenly exploded in a cacophony of bird-noise. Deafening the soldiers; who ignored it and continued to scan the mist. A shape approached to the north and immediatly laser fire errupted, striking whatever it was. Another from the south, west ... both went down.
But Captain Tellar saw the inevitable. They were being toyed with now. In a short space of time the mass would attack. A few more showed their presence and were gunned down, then another 6 appeared ....
As the sun began to set over this inhospitable region, the laser fire became punctuated with screams of men being taken down. Until at last the final scream of Captain Tellar, last survivor of the first expedition into the planets interior, filled the night air before being suddenly cut off.
Silence filled the swamp once more.
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