22-12-2005, 05:13 PM
---------------------------------------------------------------------
Chapter 6: The Shaft
---------------------------------------------------------------------
Dusk looked around warily. Whether this was a result of his previous experiences through the broken gates, or whether he had become more human as a result of these experiences he did not know. Cautiously he led the ranger team to the caved entrance of the cave. "It's here" he said. "This is the shaft that the enemies were pouring out of". "Right, let?s get this show on the road" said Scope in a husky voice. "Warhawk, can you blow a hole in this?? "Yes sir!" War Hawk took his guided rocket system from his back holster and aimed it on what his scanner told him to be the weakest point in the rubble wall. "Fire away!"
There was a tremendous explosion, heat waves shimmered through the air breaking around the team, bent double and shielding themselves with their hands they advanced into the shaft.
Half an hour later in the twisted system of shafts and pot holes Finchy noticed something on the wall. "Photon residue, it must have formed as the result of photon based digging equipment operating at such low levels. The pressure caused it to form." A drop of the photon residue was captured in a specimen chamber. It shimmered and flickered relaxingly and contained all the colours in the spectrum visible to the human eye. "Hah, a photon drop, that's what we'll call it for now, right, so you say digging equipment was blasting into the ground here Finchy?" Scope looked over his shoulder as he received no reply. "Finchy, that is right isn't it?". There was silence for a moment or two, and then Finchy responded, turning around shaking slightly. Every footstep, every voice seemed to echo more loudly then usual. "The narrow shaft we came down, sir, was formed naturally, but here where it is straight..." she looked at the shaft wall again "From the earth flow, sir... they were trying to get out! To escape, from something, something terrible".
There was a rumble from the deep, then shrieks, but not those of innocent victims. At least, not those of human victims. They were the shrieks of the spirits trapped inside the distorted, altered beasts, now lumbering their way towards the group of explorers. "Shit" Scopes eyes widened as shadows started appearing from tunnel entrances on all sides. "Analysis, Warhawk?". Warhawk looked closely at the commanding officer "I believe in human terms I can roughly translate it as we are screwed sir". "Why do they always send me on the suicide missions Finchy, you think they're trying to get rid of us Finchy?" The murderous cries came closer. Finchy smirked. "We're not done for yet sir! Look here, it appears some of the men trying to escape before were left alive. See here? There?s a small tunnel, they were trying to dig out manually! Let's hope they made it, eh sir?" The party clambered into the dank tunnel, it may have been scorching hot when it was formed but that was one aspect of the tunnel that had rapidly changed.
"Thank you everyone, I hope you make it out of here alive" Dusk suddenly interrupted. "I must find the cause for these monstrosities so I may prove to the head of office my innocence and clear my name. It may not be worth much now but I hope to see you all again with a better reputation." "What are you blathering on about you stupid robot! Get in the tunnel! That is an ORDER!" boomed Scope, but it was too late, the android had chosen his path, down into the deep. They must follow their own paths into what they hoped would be the light of day. And so the newly formed company was broken as quickly as it had united.
Dusk could only hope the army would be down in the deep still fighting the monsters, he had a horrible feeling that the team that first landed here and dug down (on the ship codenamed the Gran Squall) were all long dead. Brute force could not be his tactic, he must clear his name, clear his memories. They came back to him every day, like drops of summer rain that would never fade away.
---------------------------------------------------------------------
Chapter 7: The Forces in the Deep
---------------------------------------------------------------------
Dusk ran through shaft after shaft. The things, whatever they were, were gaining on him. Not because they were necessarily faster, he thought, but because they seemed to know every shortcut and every single tunnel. It was like some immense force was guiding them to him. The ground beneath his feet suddenly gave way, and he spiralled down, down into the darkness. There what a resounding crash as he hit the metal floor beneath him.
This was odd, thought Dusk. Why was there a metal floor in the lower levels of an underground cavern? As he stood up, a pillar of fire erupted from the middle of the un-natural room. It was huge, sort of square with a circular hole in the middle. Fire blasted from this hole, it must be some kind of pressure valve. What was what looked like human equipment doing down here? There was no time to think about that now. There were two doors at either end of the room, one was locked and the other was violently shaking. Eerie voices came from behind. Suddenly a giant insect-like beast ripped straight through the door. It was a greeny-blue colour and had two huge scythe like arms. Dusk suddenly noticed they had photon blades attached to them, what was going on? He was sure photon technology was not a natural trait of animals in any star system.
The creature slashed at him, once, twice - he dived to his left unsheathing his katana and in one swift movement he cut off one of its arms. As it fell, he caught it by its oozing end and swung it around into the centre of the ugly things chest. As it collapsed, its stomach split open and millions of tiny grasshopper like things scuttled across the floor. Dusk heard a screeching clunk and the locked door unsealed. Something was bringing him closer. As it opened, he saw the interior was cool and coated in a thin layer of ice cold water, how were two such different places situated so close to each other? With a jolt he realised just how deep he must be getting. He continued through the door. It locked behind him.
Memories flow freely as a raging river, but like any one place in the river those memories can only be visited once, you cannot turn back, except in your mind. If you try to go back, you must face eternal darkness, but going forwards offers hope, and so forwards must surely be the only direction to choose, but you must always be wary of the forces in the deep.
Chapter 6: The Shaft
---------------------------------------------------------------------
Dusk looked around warily. Whether this was a result of his previous experiences through the broken gates, or whether he had become more human as a result of these experiences he did not know. Cautiously he led the ranger team to the caved entrance of the cave. "It's here" he said. "This is the shaft that the enemies were pouring out of". "Right, let?s get this show on the road" said Scope in a husky voice. "Warhawk, can you blow a hole in this?? "Yes sir!" War Hawk took his guided rocket system from his back holster and aimed it on what his scanner told him to be the weakest point in the rubble wall. "Fire away!"
There was a tremendous explosion, heat waves shimmered through the air breaking around the team, bent double and shielding themselves with their hands they advanced into the shaft.
Half an hour later in the twisted system of shafts and pot holes Finchy noticed something on the wall. "Photon residue, it must have formed as the result of photon based digging equipment operating at such low levels. The pressure caused it to form." A drop of the photon residue was captured in a specimen chamber. It shimmered and flickered relaxingly and contained all the colours in the spectrum visible to the human eye. "Hah, a photon drop, that's what we'll call it for now, right, so you say digging equipment was blasting into the ground here Finchy?" Scope looked over his shoulder as he received no reply. "Finchy, that is right isn't it?". There was silence for a moment or two, and then Finchy responded, turning around shaking slightly. Every footstep, every voice seemed to echo more loudly then usual. "The narrow shaft we came down, sir, was formed naturally, but here where it is straight..." she looked at the shaft wall again "From the earth flow, sir... they were trying to get out! To escape, from something, something terrible".
There was a rumble from the deep, then shrieks, but not those of innocent victims. At least, not those of human victims. They were the shrieks of the spirits trapped inside the distorted, altered beasts, now lumbering their way towards the group of explorers. "Shit" Scopes eyes widened as shadows started appearing from tunnel entrances on all sides. "Analysis, Warhawk?". Warhawk looked closely at the commanding officer "I believe in human terms I can roughly translate it as we are screwed sir". "Why do they always send me on the suicide missions Finchy, you think they're trying to get rid of us Finchy?" The murderous cries came closer. Finchy smirked. "We're not done for yet sir! Look here, it appears some of the men trying to escape before were left alive. See here? There?s a small tunnel, they were trying to dig out manually! Let's hope they made it, eh sir?" The party clambered into the dank tunnel, it may have been scorching hot when it was formed but that was one aspect of the tunnel that had rapidly changed.
"Thank you everyone, I hope you make it out of here alive" Dusk suddenly interrupted. "I must find the cause for these monstrosities so I may prove to the head of office my innocence and clear my name. It may not be worth much now but I hope to see you all again with a better reputation." "What are you blathering on about you stupid robot! Get in the tunnel! That is an ORDER!" boomed Scope, but it was too late, the android had chosen his path, down into the deep. They must follow their own paths into what they hoped would be the light of day. And so the newly formed company was broken as quickly as it had united.
Dusk could only hope the army would be down in the deep still fighting the monsters, he had a horrible feeling that the team that first landed here and dug down (on the ship codenamed the Gran Squall) were all long dead. Brute force could not be his tactic, he must clear his name, clear his memories. They came back to him every day, like drops of summer rain that would never fade away.
---------------------------------------------------------------------
Chapter 7: The Forces in the Deep
---------------------------------------------------------------------
Dusk ran through shaft after shaft. The things, whatever they were, were gaining on him. Not because they were necessarily faster, he thought, but because they seemed to know every shortcut and every single tunnel. It was like some immense force was guiding them to him. The ground beneath his feet suddenly gave way, and he spiralled down, down into the darkness. There what a resounding crash as he hit the metal floor beneath him.
This was odd, thought Dusk. Why was there a metal floor in the lower levels of an underground cavern? As he stood up, a pillar of fire erupted from the middle of the un-natural room. It was huge, sort of square with a circular hole in the middle. Fire blasted from this hole, it must be some kind of pressure valve. What was what looked like human equipment doing down here? There was no time to think about that now. There were two doors at either end of the room, one was locked and the other was violently shaking. Eerie voices came from behind. Suddenly a giant insect-like beast ripped straight through the door. It was a greeny-blue colour and had two huge scythe like arms. Dusk suddenly noticed they had photon blades attached to them, what was going on? He was sure photon technology was not a natural trait of animals in any star system.
The creature slashed at him, once, twice - he dived to his left unsheathing his katana and in one swift movement he cut off one of its arms. As it fell, he caught it by its oozing end and swung it around into the centre of the ugly things chest. As it collapsed, its stomach split open and millions of tiny grasshopper like things scuttled across the floor. Dusk heard a screeching clunk and the locked door unsealed. Something was bringing him closer. As it opened, he saw the interior was cool and coated in a thin layer of ice cold water, how were two such different places situated so close to each other? With a jolt he realised just how deep he must be getting. He continued through the door. It locked behind him.
Memories flow freely as a raging river, but like any one place in the river those memories can only be visited once, you cannot turn back, except in your mind. If you try to go back, you must face eternal darkness, but going forwards offers hope, and so forwards must surely be the only direction to choose, but you must always be wary of the forces in the deep.