- A Fat Bell End
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- Senior Member
Reclaimer. There is a Covenant craft approaching the station. Given it's vector, there is little I can do to prevent it from reaching us. You must hurry. The corridor leading to the station's hub is ten meters ahead of your current position.
"Just beyond the devil himself," Ethan groused.
Without further delay, Ethan unslung his sidearm and fired a single shot at the creature. Nothing. Not a sound from the creature as the bullet slammed through it's arm, spraying gore onto the bulkhead behind it. The sac creatures writhed horribly, moving like a wave toward Ethan, then fell back as if bound to the massive creature by a force.
Suddenly, the creature's torso dropped to the floor, and it bagan to approach Ethan. It moved slowly, inexorably, and all the while those eyes remained fixated on Ethan.
Ethan shuddered as he watched it's four arms scrabble against the sterile floor of the station; how it's front twisted independantly from it's hind section. In horror, he marveled at how mere seconds before the creature was so human, anatomically. With the haste of fear, he fired a second shot. It struck the creature squarely in the back, passing through harmlessly to meet the station's floor with a muted clang. Ethan shook his head in dismay.
A dismal realization had struck home. His bullets wouldn't do a bit of good against this nightmare. Dismay began to take it's hold as visions of the sickly encounter from earlier flooded into his mind. The feel of rotting flesh giving way to his boot in that cold hanger...
Ethan took a breath and lowered the energy shield before him. An idea had struck him, but he would only get one chance to make it work, if it even would work. He stood his ground, awaiting the dark fate that approached him, and holstered his sidearm. Watching the creature approach, his hands empty save for the lifeless hilt of the Covenant shield, Ethan suddenly felt very naked.
The creature was now just five meters from where Ethan stood, the teeming legions of sac creatures following obediantly behind. Ethan surveyed his surroundings, drinking in every detail, searching for anything that could be of advantage.
Four meters. The creature approached, it's four barbed appendages clasped tightly in front of it's bulk; a horrifying mesh of rotting flesh and cruel efficiency, punctuated by the viscious barbs intertwined before it.
Three meters. Ethan felt his hands quaver, felt the adrenaline flooding into his system like a drug. The creature before him raised it's arms aloft, a look of torment and hunger etched into it's face.
Two meters. The time to act had come. Ethan held the hilt of the energy shield with a death-grip. The creature's eyes widened as it rose to it's full height, those four barbed arms pointed directly toward the figure before them, prone before it's killing strike.
But the strike never came. Ethan launched himself toward the horror with a blinding speed. Yet it was a fraction of a second too slow. Two massive arms swept across his path, battering Ethan to the floor. He slid through the legions of sac creatures, parting their teeming mass as he went. Yet none of them attacked. Stars filled Ethan's head, his vision darkening briefly. He looked up just in time to see the nightmare sprinting toward him, viscious barbs held aloft, flashing angrily under the paneled lighting overhead.
Ethan smiled to himself. Maybe he would get two chances to get it right. Ethan sat upright, bracing himself as the massive form crashed into him with the force of a battering ram. With all of the strength his enhanced muscles possessed, ethan drove his fist into the creature's chest. For a moment, the creature stopped, searching Ethan's visor with those monstrous eyes. It raised it's arms for their killing stroke, it's face twisted in what only could have passed for a demented smile. With an effort, Ethan twisted his wrist, sending forth the blade of energy from it's embedded hilt. It crackled to life with an explosion of gore, tearing the nightmare creature apart from within. Ethan wretched as the rain of flesh and splintered bone ensued, sending the sac creatures into a flurry of movement.
But there was no time to revel in his victory. Even as he rose, Ethan unslung his rifle, spraying blindly into the waves of creatures, now dispearsing. They flooded away from their fallen leader, blanketing the floor, the walls, the ceiling with their pallid mass. spores flew by the millions, darkening the air around him. Air filters whined as Ethan's armor tried to compensate, choked by the billions of particles surrounding him.
At once thay bagan to regroup, the sac creatures crawling atop one another, clamboring desperately to reach him. He could see his goal; A slight depression in the wall, buried beneath a small colony of the horrors.
He sprayed a burst from his assault rifle, cringing as the cluster ofcreatures exploded in a series of hollow pops, dosens more following in a chain reaction of doom. Clouds of the envenomed spores choked the air. Ethan looked toward the opening, gauging his next move, and within a second's time he knew what had to be done.
Ethan slung his rifle and bolted for the door, the sickly feel of dozens of the spidery creatures giving way beneath his feet. As the door neared, he strugled to keep his footing, his boots sliding across the countless dead sac-creatures. The once sterile floor was now a mess of gore and decay. He could feel the creatures clawing at him, clinging to his armor as he sprinted past. The screeching groan of steel filled the teeming hall as the nightmares tore into the seams of his armor. He could feel the razor points of their myriad apendages as they found purchase on his flesh.
Looking up, Ethan saw the dim glow of the door's control panel, just ahead. Amidst the hell in which he was entombed, it was the best sight he could remember ever having seen. He dove forward, slamming his fist into the palm sized panel.
Immediately it sighed open and Ethan rolled inside, carrying with him five of the nightmares, clawing more fervently than ever before. He rolled onto his back, slamming a fist onto the door's opposite control, sealing him into the hub's darkened connecting hallway, alone, but for the five horrors slowly killing him.