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Intermission
The winds whipped around the green grass as the hovercraft above opened a door and a black cable dropped from it.
The sun shone through the grey clouds, and the mist covering the swamps near the Control Tower lay still.
No movement from any large native creatures at first glance, the android noted.
"I'm not picking anything out of the ordinary, you are clear to go!" said a voice in the pilot's cockpit.
Nodding, he quickly pocketed the sensor in his leg compartment and double checking his 'mate supply and his personal weapon cache, grabbed the cable with his two hands and dropped down to the small plateau.
As the Hucast touched the ground, a voice from the comm crackled over: "Are you clear? Over"
The android clicked the comm's button once.
The voice in the intercomm responded: "Roger that! I will be back at 1600 hours with a fresh supply of healing and tracking equipment. Do you copy?"
Again, the android's only response was a single click on the comm's button.
"Good luck and godspeed, agent Shadowfacts! Over and out!"
With that, the sleek, dull-grey hovercraft quickly sped away into the clouds, leaving the black and red armored single figure standing over the plateau.
Shadowfacts, without wasting any more time, quickly took out a small gun that had a small harpoon in its barrel.
Looking down from the plateau, he noticed a small but sturdy-looking tree protuding from a side of the cliff. He pointed the gun at the tree and squeezed the trigger.
A small air-pressured-propelled spike flew from the weapon and hit the small tree in its trunk. Grabbing the gun's handle with both hands, the android jumped off the plateau and into the air.
Swinging at great speed, the hucast let go of the gun just seconds after he passed below the branch. The small tree buckled under the weight and cracked.
Enough speed to let him cross over the deep gorge beneath him and land on the huge green tree on the very border of the cliff, but killing enough of the momentum as not to crush his frame when he landed on the tree's branches.
Grabbing one branch with one hand, he swung off to the side and began to slide down the trunk towards the ground.
When he hit the ground with his feet, he quickly took out the small weapon hilt from the belt. Pulling the motion sensor from his leg pocket, he noticed only small game inhabited this part of the forest.
Moments later, trickling rain began to pour. The skies didn't seemed that clouded, but it still rained.
Shadowfacts kept the weapon in his hand but not activated. He quickly ran to an outcropping of rocks, without making any sounds at all.
Quickly looking to the sides, he slid over a large stream that ran just some 50 feet from the rocks.
Next to the stream, he crouched down and looked to his sides. He quickly glanced the motion sensor. He noticed that only a small area just left of him had any significant movement. Gazing quickly, he noticed water spray rising from the foliage.
Silently as a hunting cat, he crept towards the mist, stopping just a few feet shy.
The ground gave way to a sudden fall, around 300 feet deep. The roar of water splashing against the rocks below deafened everything else.
The waterfall seemed to drop forever into the abyss. And around it, all kinds of plants and flowers sprung about. I looked like a colorful rainbow, made beautiful by the alien nature of this place.
Shadowfacts silently pocketed both sensor and weapon in his belt. Taking two steps back, he sprung forward and jumped into the air.
In midair, he shot his arms forward and grabbed a long, sinuous vine that was in his way. With the momentum, he spun forward and around the vine.
letting go, he directed his fall to the next vine he saw available.
As he shot through the air, he felt a strange tremor in his sidepocket. The motion sensor!
Taking hold of the next vine just in time, he saw only foliage surrounding the area. He expected to see strange creatures waiting for him, but he only saw plants all around him.
At that moment, before he grabbed an outstretched root to swing from, his senses felt the approaching danger, and with a quick twist of his abdomen, taking out his weapon hilt and turning the photon blade on, he managed to parry a very powerful blow from a scythe-like blade that seemingly came out of the trees.
With a clash of sparks, the hucast grabbed the root with one hand, swung over and landed over the thick part of the root with both feet. He turned the photon blade off and put the weapon hilt back in his belt. He raised his arms in case he needed his hands free.
Looking at the tree that just attacked him, he noticed giant flowers with colorful tones all around him. Suddenly, he noticed, the flowers were looking at him, not the sky. Springing towards the wall, he barely managed to dodge a barrage of... some kind of strange energy.
Just by grazing one of the orb-like energy pulses, it made a particular and strange disruption on his armor. Shadowfacts didn't know what kind of energy was this, but he didn't have anything to counter this. He would rely on his reflexes to dodge and weave.
As he leapt to the wall, he bounced back into the stem of the strange flower. He noticed the thing had some sort of appendages, which in turn had metallic looking blades attached to them.
One of these blades tried to impale him as he dropped on the creature. The android deftly grabbed the blade with his naked palms, and twisting his body backwards, somersaulted over the plant monster.
Before the flower could again shoot its energy pulse, Shadowfacts grabbed his melee weapon's hilt, turned the blade on and threw it blade first into the center of it.
With a loud >thump< and a shrill screech, the plant creature slumped to the side and fell off the cliff-face.
Shadowfacts, still on top of it, used it to jump off to a nearby vine. Grabbing it and twriling around it as he tried to check for another hold near him.
Seeing the lake below him, he decided to take the plunge into its dark waters.
He could sense many other plant creatures shifting about, aware of his intrusive presence.
Weighless in mid-air, he put his arms to his sides, grabbing one weapon with one hand and the sensor with the other.
A small splash into the ice cold water later, the hucast swam back to the shore with haste.
Checking its equipment, nothing was missing except the weapon he had used to kill the creature just seconds ago.
Gazing to the lake, he noticed mists covering the rest of the way and the outline of the Control Tower some 700 yards from his position.
He could see a thunderstorm coming over the horizon. The gray clouds were giving way to more darker ones, and the rain was getting heavier.
Checking for any kind of signals on his sensor, he withdrew a small pair of binoculars and skimmed the surface of the lake before him.
The lake ended abruptly in what it seemed a black metallic dam with a large walkway over it. Dim lightposts every once and then allowed the android to see parts of its surface.
From what he could make out, it seemed the walkway wasn't completed and it was abruptly stopped.
He saw a couple of tool boxes around, so maybe the workers had to flee in a hurry.
Over the surface, in several places, he noticed posts with slowly twirling parts. Some of them stood unmoving. Others kept a slower pace.
Those must be the dam power generators, using natural motion from the waters to provide energy to the security systems in this small outpost on Gal Da Val island.
This reminded Shadowfacts that his young partner Prefe had disappeared some days ago in a exploratory run over this area.
He was still green, but it was strange that the small craft and the crew was missing too.
Considering the bizarre creature he had just killed, he thought the worst.
Quickly pushing those thoughts aside, he clicked the comm three times and waited.
A small crackled voice came over and said:
"Is the area secured for the drop? Over"
The android clicked twice the comm button.
"Are there hostiles in the area? Over"
The android cliked once.
There was a silence.
"Can you determine the amount of hostiles? Over"
Two clicks.
"Do you need immediate extraction? Over"
Shadowfacts was about to click once when he noticed a small platform near his position.
He got to his feet and quickly gazing to the lake, he noticed a small route he could use to deposit the small platform transport device he was charged to deploy.
"I repeat, do you need immediate extraction? Over"
Two clicks came over as an answer.
"Will you continue with the mission? Over"
One click and Shadowfacts quickly clicked the button.
He knew a certain code language based on the lenght and rhythm of clicks to convey a message.
Silence then a moment later a response came over:
"You want to deploy the transport device right now? But your current position shows that you are nowhere near than the last recorded position of the last team that landed on Gal Da Val. Are you sure of this? The Chief of Operations won't be happy about this"
One click came back as an answer.
"Very well. Move over to the position for the device to be deployed and stand fast. Be on the lookout for hostile activity. One friendly craft will arrive in approximately 2 minutes. Over and out!"
As soon as the voice died out, the hucast sprinted next to the lake's edge, hurrying over the small platform.
He could feel the gazing of strange eyes, intent on his movements. The sooner the ship could arrive, the better.
He noticed a strange creature, rising from the ground. At first, it seemed some kind of vegetable, but the long sinowy arms attached to what it seemed the stem, gave it away as a threat.
Grabbing another weapon from his belt, he pulled out twin vulcans and as he ran, fired a full burst into the thing.
Photon bullets impacted on the creature's head time and time again.
Suddenly, the hucast realized he had stirred up the hornets' nest.
All around him, hundreds of these plant monsters came to life, popping up from the ground.
As he continued to squeezed the triggers, he ran as fast as his legs allowed him to.
As far as he knew, he wouldn't last the 2 minutes. Even if the ship were in low orbit and it sped thru the atmosphere as fast as it could, there were just too many for him to take out.
A huge flower, this time greenish in tint, appeared from one side. It spat a similar disruption energy orb at the android as it dashed by.
The android reflexes kicked in, allowing him to dodge the attack.
Turning to his side, he concentrated all the vulcan fire into the flower and part of the stem.
A loud screech made him turn to his side.
A large greenish plant creature opened what it seemed a huge maw and before it bit Shadowfacts in the left arm, hundreds of tiny razor teeth inside the mouth seemed to grow an inch, just enough to perforate the armor.
The hucast reeled backwards, but as he did, he kept the trigger pressed on his vulcan. Several bullets tore the creature's head in pieces.
Getting up quickly, he noticed in the dark skies north of him a blue glow getting closer.
It was the Hialeah!
Swiftly opening fire again, he jumped over the carcass of the monster that had bitten him.
Running even faster, he somersaulted over a trio of creatures. He managed to land on the platform and even though in his wounded condition, he took out his backpack quickly and laid it on the ground.
This wasn't the best spot to prepare a transporter device, but it was the closest any team had ever managed so far.
As he pressed some buttons in quick sucession, he noticed some dark forms moving in the water. Quickly stepping to the side, he opened fire once again with his single vulcan. as he fired, he noticed the photon charge was quickly depleting.
Throwing the weapon aside, he grabbed a gladius from his belt and turned the blade on.
Several monsters leapt at him from the waters, and in quick spins and agile turns, Shadowfacts managed to cut them all as they were in the air.
At the cockpit of the Hialeah, two pilots were struggling to mantain the ship aloft in the thunder and hurricane winds around it.
"Our man is in trouble! I can register about 75 hostile life forms surrounding him and increasing!"
"Roger that!" said a man in the back.
He quickly grabbed a large cannon in the weapon cache and stood next to the entry door, one hand grabbing a handle to better stabilize himself, he shouted:
"Open the side door! I'll provide him some support fire!!"
"Roger that Sgt. Gaseous!" shouted one of the pilots.
The vehicle sped over Shadowfacts, turning viciously.
The hucast thought the vehicle had either lost control or missed him amid the dozens of creatures.
Suddenly, a couple of highly concentrated photon charges blew huge gaps in the mass of monsters that surrounded him.
Shadowfacts glanced quickly to his side and noticed that the device was functional. His mission was accomplished. He sliced sideways to his left and then once to his right to make some of the creatures recoil.
A long black cord dropped from the side door of the Hialeah, and the android quickly made towards it.
A bigger monster crept from the water and took hold of the cable, pulling the hovercraft to a side.
The pilots quickly scrambled for control, and barely managed to avoid the vehicle to crash against the huge metal gates just below it.
Gaseous, secured by firmly planting his feet on the door's frame and his other hand still gripping the side handle, opened fire five more times, leaving great holes in the squirming mass of plants.
"Shadowfacts! Quickly! Deal with the cord! The ship will crash if you don't!!!" he shouted as loud as his lungs could let him.
The android dashed to a side, leapt onto the railing and flipped over the air and onto the cord.
As he did, he plunged the gladius into the creature's head, making it release the ship.
Suddenly, the ship regained its balance and both pilots made it climb quickly into the air. The android climbed the cord as well as it could and as soon as he entered the side door, Gaseous closed it manually.
"Good job agent! Is the transporter unit deployed?" he looked at the silent hucast next to him.
The black armored android nodded in affirmation.
"Excellent! I believe our mission is completed then! I will see to it that you get some rest and repairs before the next mission!"
The hovership quickly crossed the cloud cover and sped out to space, where it would meet Deneb for docking.
One of the pilots suddenly shouted to the back:
"Sarge, transmission from HQ!"
"Patch it through corporal!" he shouted back.
As soon as the top brass appeared on the screen, Gaseous began to excitedly recount their mission report.
Shadowfacts, however, didn't seemed interested in what kind of conversation the Sarge and HQ were having. He knew, he was sloppy. He needed to increase his abilities before long, if he ever planned to seek out the only other android that had bested him in combat and assasination skills.
Maybe the rumours that his foe was dead were exaggerated.
He knew Aziel was alive.
To be continued...
 Tsunami K · Wed Sep 13, 2006 @ 09:41pm · 0 Comments |
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