An Avian's Past #5

        Cobalt slowly got up from his crouched position, his heart having slowed from panic to a normal jumpy speed. He stood on shaky legs and ever so slowly peered out of the door. Nothing threatening was in sight. Never so carefully in his life did Cobalt walk than those next few seconds, scouting out the surrounding hallways and ambush spots. He suddenly became aware of running feet. Cobalt was about to turn and flee, but then his brain rationalized: It the sound of sandals hitting the ground, not the sound of claws hitting the ground. Cobalt turned towards the noise to see Crystal rapidly approaching. She looked terrified.
        Cobalt didn't ask, since he already knew the only thing to be afraid of on this station. Hell, the only thing besides them that was even alive, to his knowledge. The station was a big place, though. Cobalt turned and trotted away, beckoning for Crystal to follow. Crystal obeyed, darting in after him, taking refuge in the room across the hall that the monster had already searched. He knew that they had the best chance of staying hidden in that position of the room, too. Both of them began to ache in every joint, after crouching there for more than two minutes.
        Come to think of it, he was bone tired. Cobalt felt his eyes droop slowly, as much as he fought to keep them open...
        Crystal was stunned to feel Cobalt suddenly lean into her and seemingly pass out with a contented nehm... She didn't dare try to extricate herself in case she should make a loud sound, so she shook Cobalt softly, alarmed. “Cobalt? Cobalt, wake up.”
        Cobalt's eyes stayed closed, and his breathing deepened. Crystal shook Cobalt harder.
        Still no response.
        Crystal checked Cobalt's pulse: normal, albeit relaxed. She manually opened one of his eyes, to discover that it was weirdly dilated. A sedative? If so, given by whom? Crystal carefully shifted Cobalt to turn him onto his stomach, his beak pointing to the left, and inspected for a wound.
        That was when she saw it: a long, clean slice that spanned more than half of Cobalt's back. “What the hell...?” Crystal slipped Cobalt's shirt off and closely inspected the wound. It wasn't deep at all, and it looked mostly harmless if it was cleaned. Something was wrong, but she didn't know what. She did know, however, that she couldn't do anything about it. She squashed down worry as best she could and decided to follow Cobalt's example.
        Crystal sighed, and laid back against the wall, allowing herself to sort of melt into a comfortable place in the tight niche.


        One and a half nervous and stressed hours later, the U.C Umbra came out of jump speed, and came to relative rest in front of the station.
        “Quite a place...” Dasker said, looking at the architectural behemoth. It was clearly in Apex style: white metal and plenty of glass.
        “Hmmm.” mumbled Mute, nodding.
        “Should we suit up? There isn't really a specified way to approach this sort of situation.” Emjay asked.
        “Let's do it.” Sledge said, strapping on his mask. It had night vision, poison masking, and radio built in. It also doubled as sunglasses, if you were fine with looking like you were chasing a terrorist on the beach. Emjay followed suit, and Mute stood a moment later, hefting his RPG and adjusting his helmet. They were joined by Peach and Cherry, in standard medic attire. The two were rarely apart, and had mostly the same passions and affinities. It was probably why they worked so well together. The sisters (they weren't actually sisters, but they were as close as any two related females could be, and the team called them sisters) had gotten them out of more than a few scrapes('scrapes' having a flexible definition at this juncture).
        Dasker, as usual, would stay behind in the ship. He was their support, and the person who told them who was where and what was who.
        They all shouldered various weapons of their specialty, and entered the teleporter one after the other. They all landed at the same time, ready for an alarm or panic, but only silence greeted them.
        “Weird...I'd have thought some sort of alarm would have been triggered by a massacre.” Emjay said. She looked around at the sleek lobby, and spotted a slumped body against the wall. The blood looked fresh. There were deep slashing wounds all across the corpse, signaling that a large, tapered blade had been used for the deed.
        “No head. Nice.” Cherry said, grimacing. It was true: the barely recognizable apex had no head on their shoulders.
        “Let's just keep moving. We were told of a massacre, so that's what we're going to see. It's just our job to stop whatever caused such a mass murder.” Sledge took point, holding his sledgehammer out in front of him. It had been built with Flexion, an expensive material that doubled the energy put through it. In other words, what would be an ordinary sledgehammer was now something that could destroy a section of wall big enough to crawl through in one good swing. Sledge was a big person, too. Perfect for fighting with a heavy hammer. He also fit the character for a demolitionist, which was his specialty. A large explosion was a thing of beauty to him.
        Needless to say, if Sledge scored a good hit on the murderous creature with the hammer, they knew it was finished.
        They continued down the hall, alert for any calls for help or any signs of an approaching creature.
        After a few tense minutes of searching and listening, they came to the gene lab. The door they came to was the secure one, but that didn't matter to Sledge, who wound up for the swing.
        Suddenly, Sledge felt a hand on his arm. He turned to see Mute, holding a finger to his visor. They all listened, aware that Mute's hearing was more acute than theirs, and heard a quiet clicking. Emjay turned towards the sound, rifle raised. It could be nothing, but it always paid to be cautious.
        The clicking faded, and Mute stood back. Everyone let out a sigh of relief. Sledge continued the swing, giving the door a hefty blow. It cracked down the middle, holding against the assault, but with a second swing the door was demolished.
        They all hurried through the door and saw the ruined laboratory. “What in the...” Peach murmured, nudging aside a beaker with her boot. It made a sharp crackling sound as it rolled over smaller shards of glass. The scene of the massacre awoke something new in all of them. Nothing they had ever seen before had been this...brutal.
        “Looks like something tore through here on a straight course.” Sledge pointed to the path of destruction leading to the door that had been bent by unknown forces.
        “A crawl space.” Cherry said, approaching the hole in the door.
        “It had to have...bent the door upwards. It looks like a warped piece of paper.” Peach said.
        Mute wiped a gloved finger on the ragged edge of the hall, and drew it away. On it was a single, dark blue-green scale.
        “Something scaly squeezed through here. No humanoid that I know has scales on them...” Sledge said aloud to notify the group.
        “You first.” Emjay swept both of her hands towards the hole in the door like she was presenting some beautiful view. Sledge obeyed, followed by Mute. Sledge stood up and drew a breath to say something, but was stilled by Mute again with a touch. Sledge took his hammer in both hands, taking a practice swing.
        A dark shape quickly stole across the hallway, disappearing into another hall in an instant. Too slow, though, because Sledge and Mute had seen it. It was too bulky to be a normal Apex, and definitely wasn't an Avian. There was something wrong with its legs, but neither of the two men had seen exactly what. Cherry emerged, followed by Peach and Emjay.
        “What's the problem?” Cherry asked.
        “We saw something...something big.” Sledge said. “Not apex.”
        “Think it was the...creature?” Emjay asked, fumbling for the word.
        Mute nodded.
        “Should we chase it?” Sledge asked.
        “Negative. Your primary goal is to retrieve the surviving authors of the distress call.” Dasker said. “There is a life form near you, but it has stayed about a hundred meters away at all times.”
        “Any others?” Emjay asked.
        “There are two life forms around two hundred meters away from you, possibly on the next floor up and to your left.” Dasker said.
        “Understood.” Sledge said, “Do you know where an elevator might be?”
        “In the central area of the station, I would guess. You are near to the center, anyway.” Dasker said.
        Sledge wordlessly led the way.