The Baldie, The Clone, and the Sabre: Chapter 3

[Martzin]

Reno was leaning against the wall, having a quick smoke whilst Suro was finishing up the Sentry's placement. As he was smoking, he began to ponder; what exactly happened here? He began to think and theorize about possible situations which could've happened, hoping he could make sense of what he's seen and heard on the radio.

He just could not pinpoint as to what the gigantic hole blown in the colonist's chest was all about, but based on listening to Command it was the result of a parasite bursting out of your chest. They found tons of scientists in the RnD dome like that, all with the spider-crabs next to them. Powalski thought it was the crabs making people burst, considering that's how one of his marines was killed. Alpha Squad said giant lizards were breaking into the Nexus and trying to drag marines away, and Bravo reported the same thing. Reno had yet to encounter this, but almost immediately he remembered Ray seeing movement in the bushes. He began to wonder, what if that was a lizard? Where did the gas come from? Why did Kopchek's boots melt apart? What could the noises he heard in Meddome have been? So many questions, so little answers!

Reno flicked away the now used cigarette, and smushed it with his boot. He scanned around the Robotics dome, noticing Caddy was holding a drill spanning longer than his arm.
Suro walked next to Reno and leaned against the wall, holding out her hand and asking:
"Got a cig?"
Reno slipped a cigarette out of the box strapped to his helmet, and silently handed it to Suro.
She pulled a lighter from her pocket and with one swift click, she set it alight.
"Thanks," she said, as she put the cigarette in her mouth and began to puff in the nicotine.
"So, you're done, right?" Reno asked.
"An Engie's job is never done sarge," she meditatively responded.
Reno let out a weak simper, still reflecting on his experience.
"So, 'bout these lizards..." Suro stopped talking, expecting a response.
"What about them?" Reno replied.
"I mean, you seen any?"
"Dubi might have, when we were in the jungle."
"Yeah, the jungle..." She stopped for a moment to puff smoke from her mouth, before continuing,
"So, you think we'll ever see the lizards up-close? Like, see them for real?"
"We probably already have," Reno calloused.
"Uh, you okay, Reno? You don't seem like yourself."
"Yeah, I'm fine. Just hoping that marine makes it out alive..."
"Oh, yeah... him."
"Yep, him." Reno bitterly repeated.
"Y'know, his name was Foster. Just so you... you know."
"Foster..." Reno mumbled to himself, attempting to dig up memories of 'Foster'. He could recall a few, mostly on how he would help Kopchek drag wounded marines behind the lines. He must have been too burnt for Kopchek to recognize him.
"Thanks, Suro."
"No problem, sarge."
The two layed against the cold steel wall for a second, completely silent.
And then suddenly, there was an eruption of wild incoherent screaming coming from outside the dome.
The sentry immediately lit up and began to unload it's ammo, the loud shots booming through-out the dome, the bullet cases flying out into the air. The marines immediately mobilized and ran out side.
Reno himself quickly ran out, and on the paved dirt trail they saw a marine laying on the ground, with something wrapped around his face.

He immediately ran towards the marine, kneeling beside him, and tried to rip the thing off his face.
It was gripping tightly onto the man's face, and Reno grunted in strain: "Someone fucking help me!"
Another marine quickly ran over and helped pull the thing off, before it finally let go. The pull had it fly into the air a good 10 feet, before it quickly slapped back onto the ground, letting out something similar to a rattling sound and then curling up where it landed.
The other marine sighed and yelled, "It was one of those fuckin' crabs!"
Reno quickly averted his head back to the marine: it was Caddy. Reno put his 2 fingers down onto his neck; he was still beating.
Kopchek immediately ran over and put her health analyzer onto his neck.

"He's still alive, sarge! Just asleep!"
"Thank god!" he cried, and began to shake Caddy back and forth, all the while yelling in his ear.
"Does anyone hear that sizzling?" another marine inquired.
"Shit, yeah..." Ray responded.
And then immediately after Ray had said that, Caddy's eyes opened, accompanied by a loud gasp.
"Jesus! Fuck!" he immediately yelled, before leaning up.
"You feeling okay, Caddy?" Reno asked.
"Huh? Yes, I'm fine... 'Sept for those dirty ass fucking crabs!"
"Now we know what they do," Suro snarked.
"Hey, well wouldja look at that..." Ray interrupted.
Reno looked at the ground just beyond where Caddy's head was laying. It was covered in a sizzling green liquid, seemingly melting the gravel underneath it.
Ray approached and squatted next to it.
"Is this acid?" Dubi put forward, hesitantly putting his index finger forward to the bubbling fluid.
He quickly pulled his hand back and sucked the air through his teeth, exclaiming;
"Yep, it's fucking acid. That shit burnt my finger!"
Reno lightly shook Caddy's shoulder, before getting onto his headset.

"Command, you saw all that, right?"
"Yer god damn right I did, son. 'Grats on rescuing your fellow marine, sergeant. Hope you enjoyed your first encounter with these fuckin' lizards, out."
Kopchek helped Caddy back onto his feet, and the 2 walked back inside the dome. Suro accompanied them.
"Let's go Ray," Reno ordered, with him following as they went back inside. Suro was crouched next to the sentry, focused completely on the trail infront of her.
Reno looked at her whilst walking by, and she gave back the thumbs-up while still looking out.
Caddy sat on the table next to the drill, slouched over and looking at his helmet.
"It... It fucked up my helmet!" Caddy cried, sounding almost hysterical.
"You'll get a new one!" Ray yelled.
Reno was kneeling against one of the many machine frames inside the dome, shaken but relieved he had managed to save one of his troops.
Not long after, Suro went back to work at her impromptu sentrynest, adding and revising parts of it.
"Charlie Squad! Charlie Squad!"
"This is Reno, over?"
"Charlie Squad, rally up ALL of your squad, and I mean all of it! You've been selected to go past the river and fight these slimy lizard fucks back to the hole they crawled out of! Over!"
"Sir, me and my squad's barely had any contact with the threat..."
"Lochlann's fireteam has! Just refer to him for the rest of your boots to learn from! You're headed to the North East caves, you'll see a crashed shuttle in the rocks! That's where yer headed to, out!"
Reno let out a heavy sigh upon hearing his new orders. He clenched his fist and went to his Squad's channel.
"Fireteam B, get to the Robotics Dome. We're rallying up for a push across the river, over."
"10-4, sir. Headed there now, out."
Reno looked at the men in his squad, all waiting for something to do besides hide out in a little metal ball.
"Alright men, form a line! STS!"
The troops quickly formed up infront of their sergeant, all facing him side-to-side.
"Our new orders are to charge across the river and take the lizards head-on! Lochlann and his men should get here soon, and once they're here we'll be sent out. Everyone got that?"
"Aye aye sir!" the whole line erupted.

Reno stood there infront of the line, looking at the faces of the marines he had. They looked a tad bit washed-out, but still eager to fight.
"Suro, break down your sentrynest and pack it up."
Suro showed a vexed expression on her face, as she left the line and began to deconstruct most of the fortifications.
"The rest of you, form up a staggered column." The marines immediately reorganized their positions into that of the desired one, and Reno again waited for Lochlann.
Soon enough a group of men entered through the East door, with Lochlann at the head of the group.
Lochlann, get your men in a position and prepare to push up!" Reno ordered, and thus Lochlann formed his men up into a staggered column.
"Command, my squad's all here. We'll be pushing up, over."
The CO responded, "Godspeed, marines. We'll be watching over the helmet cam, out."
Reno walked to the helm of his fireteam, and took one last look over his shoulder. He saw Suro join into the squad, and thus he looked forward and slid his sabre out.
"Oorah, marines!" Reno yelled, as he raised his sabre up, and led the men out.
The march was not long, and soon enough Reno was standing at the riverbank, the shallow water being illuminated by the glowing plants that sprouted out from beneath the waves.
Reno took his valiant steps into the water, everything up to the thigh getting drenched.
"Lochlann!" Reno called out. Lochlann waded his way through the river, over to Reno.
"Yeah, sarge?"
"Can you tell us about what we're fighting?"
"Well, of course..."
"There's small little red fuckers that are fast and pounce on you the second they can, but they're pretty easy to kill. Then there's the ones that turn invisible and..."
"Invisible?" Reno responded.
"Yeah, invisible. They just pop out of view, and... yeah."
Reno sighed heavily, and clenched onto his sabre's handle.
"Anything else?"
"Look out for any lizards that have green sacs on the side of their heads, they spit acid at you."
Reno's eyes widened, and he silently nodded. They were attacked by a lizard. The ones that must've spit that burning acid-gas that nearly melted one of his men into a blood-puddle.
"That's all I can think of, sarge."
"Dismissed," Reno said, now facing straight forward.

In the distance he could see the shore of the river, wet and sandy as expected. But as he got closer, and as he could see deeper into the bank, the black weeds were spread across the ground. Soon enough he could hear things in the darkness rustle, the air getting heavier, as the world grew more silent, and each step Reno took was one with an air of suspense and anticipation of what is soon to come...
He could hear a marine behind him take a deep breath, holding her rifle tightly with her sweaty hands. The only thing that Reno heard afterwards was that of the water rushing to and fro in between his feet, stopping when he took a step onto the riverbank.
Reno kept walking, sabre in hand and a revolver in the other.
Healy caught up with Reno and whispered, "Any minute now... they'll sneak up on us."
"Stay frosty!" Healy yelled out, maybe out of instinct.
And then soon enough, a glob of acid hit the ground. The air immediately exploded into a green ball of gas, to which the squad had separated and was now in full force. The crab-spiders were being flung from out of the pitch blackness onto the marines, with Reno barely dodging one himself. He desperately began to fire back, accompanied by his squad all letting loose their M41A assault rifles and Lochlann's smart gun was going off the charts, constantly darting back and forth, the screams of man and alien alike filling the air. Reno was sprinting forward, his squad close behind him, as they shot the nothingness all around them, in vain hopes it would surpress the enemy's attacks. Out of nowhere, in the midst of the chaos and fighting, Reno had stumbled upon what appeared to be a sandstone wall and a sand-colored door.

In the panic, Reno quickly had the door open, and he rushed inside.
"GET THE FUCK IN HERE!" he hollered out, and the squad quickly made their way inside the building.
The last few men pinned the lizards off of them, and in the short glimpse before the door closed Reno could see a towering monstrosity lumber it's way just barely into his field of view. Reno opened up the next door, and the squad continued their push through-out, untangling their boots that occasionally got stuck in the weeds.
Reno managed to put his sabre to good use when he was pounced by one of the red lizards Lochlann had mentioned, and with one fell swoop he slashed it's front legs off, followed by a thrust into it's head, whereupon the ugly clawed beast quit it's screaming. The face was now a green mess of melting acid, but Reno's attention quickly diverted away upon hearing the muffled screams of one of his marines. When he looked back he saw a crowd of his troops on one lying on the ground, as they ripped the giant spider from his face. They shook him for a while and he grabbed his rifle and got back up.

Things were quiet for a while, atleast inside the building. They could hear all of the clawed monsters of this planet squirming and scheming for their way to break in and slaughter all his men. He could hear the breathing of that gargantuan beast, as each step it took it would rumble the earth. In their quick moment of terrorized solitude, Caddy had yelled:
"What the fuck is that stomping thing outside?!"
"It's a fucking lizard!" Lochlann answered, "One of the big ones that'll rip you in half! If you see that shit, you better fuckin' book it, man!"
As soon as Healy had responded to Caddy's question of fear, they could hear the metal door being smashed against.
"FUCKIN' MOVE IT, MARINES!" Reno yelled, and they continued to run through the sand-stone labyrinth they were caught in.
The squad soon learned that the creatures were in there, too, for one of them had jumped on a marine from above and began to sink it's claws into his body. The creature was quickly killed, but the marine had been gravely wounded, with Vasilia going to work on him.
All around they could hear the creatures sneaking and crawling, and oddly Reno could hear the sounds of ominous violins very faintly.
"Kopchek, you better not take long with him!"
"I'm going as fast as I can!" she yelled, still patching up the poor man.
"Sarge, my smart-gun is going off the god damn charts!" Healy yelled anxiously.
"FUCKING SHOOT THEN!" Ray responded, and Healy quickly lit up the hallway they had come from.
In those moments of light brought on by the muzzle-flashes of Healy's smart gun, everyone saw that the hallway they were coming from was literally covered in the bodies of the monsters. Every marine quickly darted to one side of the room, trying to hold them off with their guns as Kopchek continued to help the man.
"THEY'RE GETTING TOO CLOSE!" Lochlann yelled, and Reno began to approach him.
"GET THE FUCK BACK!" Reno shouted in his ear, but Healy was suddenly thrown onto the ground, forcing Reno to stumble back.
To his horror, one of the horrific beasts was dragging Lochlann by the ankle back into the infested hallway.
Reno heard the blood in his ears pump, and he made a break towards Healy. He desperately grabbed onto his hands and tried to pull him away, thrashing wildly at the space around him so as to prevent one from pouncing him. Lochlann screamed desperately for help, Reno trying to dig into the ground with his heels, but alas it was no use. Reno's hands slipped through Lochlann's, and he was dragged off faster than ever into the unforgiving abyss.
"HEALLYYY!!" Reno desperately cried, but knowing he would end up like him he crawled away from the hallway, and started to fire his gun.

"I'M DONE! GO, GO, GO!" Kopchek exclaimed, helping the wounded marine up. The squad quickly ran into another room, Reno at the end holding the lizards back as they flooded into the room they were just in.
Reno quickly closed the door and looked back. He could hear those gargoyles shrieking and crawling along the weeds.
The only way left to go was into a small passage of rocks that led into the caves.
"Is this even an offensive anymore?!" cried Suro.
"Into the caves, marines! It's our only chance!" Reno ordered. He went ahead of his squad, keeping watch for the path they would sprint through.
Behind him however, he heard the deep-pitched shriek of another one of those disgusting monsters, and he quickly turned back towards the room.
All of his men were on the ground, the gigantic 4-legged creature with the crested head having knocked them all off their feet.
Reno was not about to lose any more men, and so he raised his sabre and charged straight at the overgrown brute.
He wailed away at the thing's face, dicing it with his sabre, it's acid blood flying into the air, some of it sprinkling onto Reno's himself. The creature began to bite Reno in defense, while the other marines got up and filled it's sides with bullets.

The giant tried to back up out of the room, but another lizard was blocking it's way and forcing it back inside.
Reno was in a frenzied haze of fury and adrenaline, and he was beginning to get tunnel vision as he cut open this gargoyle's face. But he could not hold it off for much long, as he was splashed on his right side with more burning acid. He desperately kept going, and he knew very well that this 4-legged beast was slowly dying. It tried to block Reno's sword with it's large crested head, as it continued to chomp down on Reno's body.

But Reno was again attacked by an outside source, with one of the spider-crabs flinging out and grabbing Reno's helmet. It quickly wrenched it off his head, and began to squeeze his skull from the top.
The pain became excruciating as Reno stumbled away, trying to rip the crab from his head.
He could now feel the burning pain manifesting in his side and head, and he started to become drowsy and confused, watching as his whole squad started to get overwhelmed and ravaged by these creatures.
So many were pounced and dragged away, slashed to hell or burnt under a blanket of acid. Reno limped his way out into the small cave passage, hoping he might get away. But he was simply pounced onto the ground and fell face-flat, and dragged off kicking and screaming deeper into the caves...

[Byosfeer]

Featuring Jeff Jej when

also +1 for emotional rollercoaster

[Monoo]

RIP Healy

was good... will be waiting for the next one.

[McRipfist]

WEW. This is good shit, man. Keep up the great work.

[Eenkogneeto]

rip ;-;7
doomed from the start, not enough deus ex claymorina, too much being assigned to the most likely to get people killed tasks.
I accept your portrayal of Suro as suitably canon.

[Monoo]

I think you're in need of a replacement smartgunner... heh... hah...

[Karmac]

subtle reference best reference

[Martzin]

Man, all this positive feedback's making me a bit giddy...
I just want to say thanks to all the people who've been keeping track of the little story.
Next chapter might be up in 3-4 days, not really sure about it.

Featuring Jeff Jej when

Maybe if you close your eyes, click your heels three times, and say "Throw me in, Martzin, throw me in!" just hard enough you will be put in... juuust maybe.

I accept your portrayal of Suro as suitably canon.

So I portray Suro good, yeah?

[Eenkogneeto]

So I portray Suro good, yeah?

Yeah, Moreso than I would have expected. Bretty gud.

[Martzin]

Well, here's a sad update for the story.

So I've been getting Writer's Fatigue alot quite lately and since it's the holidays, I figure fuck it.

The next few chapters are going to be delayed indefinitely, atleast until Chapter 6 is done and I'm proud of how it's turned out.
I wish I didn't have to say it all so bluntly but I think leaving you guys in the dark about the whereabouts of the story is a dick move, so yeah.

I'll still be working on the story, and this doesn't mean I'm giving up or anything like that. Chapter 4 will be released eventually, and it will be soon.


lol disregard all that shit cuz i've finished Chapter 6 off(albeit prematurely) but the story's back on track, things are gud now

[Karmac]

danke