Space Marines

         “Okay Headhunters.” A raspy voice came over the headset of Marine Private Thomas Andrews. A second later, the owner of the voice came through the airlock leading from the Prometheus to the Orion.

         “Hey Sarge, do we know what’s going on yet?” Malone asked; the slightest hint of worry in his voice.

         “Does it matter Malone?” Sergeant Tommie Daniels said coldly. “We got the distress call from the Orion three days ago and it’s our job to go in and help them. Or have you forgotten your job Marine?”

“No sir!” Malone replied.

Moving the short distance between airlock doors, all three men moved as one. Formed as a triangle, slowly turning so that each covered a direction including the way they came from, they stop at the bay door of the Orion.

“Andrews, get up here and do your job. Malone, cover our flank.” Sarge barked the orders.

Approaching the airlock door, Andrews knelt down to break the computer code to open it. “Oh man, this is gonna be simple.” Andrews chuckled. “It’s only a class B laser lock. Give me two seconds and I’ll have it open.” He no more than finished his sentence and the silence of the tunnel between the doors was broken by a small popping and then the familiar hiss of the airlock door opening.

“Okay men, lock and load. We don’t know what we’re up against here.”  Sarge said. As if on cue, he heard the sound of weapons chambering their respective rounds.

Moving up to where Andrews once stood, Sarge took out what looked like an over-sized straw that had been sealed at both ends. Calmly he bent the tube in the middle until it made a small cracking sound, then proceeded to shake it until an intensely bright white light radiated from his hands. After a few seconds of shaking the glow stick, Sarge tossed it into the room on the other side of the door.

“Alright; through this door, should be the first of two cargo bays.” Andrews said while looking at a small pad connected to his left arm. “We have to go through this one to get to the bridge.”

Making their way into the first cargo bay and taking in their surroundings, all three men instantly see a rather foreboding image. Inside the roughly twenty foot by fifteen foot cargo bay stood two large energy cages that left just enough room to walk around.

“My god; what were they transporting in these things?” Malone said slightly higher than a whisper.

“No idea but whatever it is, is on this ship somewhere.” Sarge said looking over the other energy cage.

Moving onward, the three men approached the open door to the next area. “This should be a small cross section hallway according to the schematics” Andrews was referring to the pad again.

As they approached the doorway, there was a loud noise behind them as if something fell from a short height off the ground. All three men turned as one cohesive unit as it appeared as if out of thin air. A feline looking creature with six legs and mottled grey skin and two tentacles rough six feet in length protruding from its back standing roughly the size of a small pony was in a crouched position.

“Jesus, what is that thing?!” Malone exclaimed.

“I’m not sure but I bet I know what was in the cages now.” Andrew replied.

“I don’t know what it is or where it came from. Drop it men. Open fire!” Sarge ordered.

Before either man could react, the beast began to shimmer then suddenly vanished. A split second later there was a sound much like the pop of a gun. Out of nowhere, the creature was behind Malone, piercing his back with both tentacles. His mouth opened in a silent scream, Malone just suddenly went limp on the creatures’ out-stretched tentacles. Dropping Malone’s lifeless body to the ground, the creature turned to face Andrews. Without thinking and doing what came second nature with their training, both men opened fire on the beast. After several rounds from each weapon, the creature finally fell to the ground.

Looking around to make sure everything had calmed down Andrews kneeled down to check on their fallen partner. “He’s gone.” Andrews lowered his head in disbelief.

“Sarge, what the hell was that thing?”

“I have no idea but let’s check the other cage. The last thing we need is for one of those to sneak up on us again.”

Slowly approaching the other cage, both men saw the grizzly sight. Another of the creatures, except this one was apparently killed by something. It had two large holes in each of its sides just behind each shoulder.

“Looks like these two didn’t want to share a room.” Andrews chuckled.

“No matter, let’s get a move on.” Sarge said harshly.

Making their way through the small corridor, the men notice large claw marks on the door to the next cargo bay. The door had large dents in it as though something had tried to beat the door down but couldn’t get through. Opening the door to a rather ghastly sight, both men had to fight back the urge to throw up on the spot. At first they didn’t realize what they were looking at, but just a second later, and they both came to realize what it was. Various sized pieces of meat lay strewn throughout the room along with a single large energy cage. At first they thought maybe it was just from feeding time for the creature. But then as their vision refocused, they realized that the pieces of meat were actually human remains. Approaching the cage, Sarge slowly looked around the edge only to see more carnage. Only this time it wasn’t pieces of meat strewn everywhere, but the body of a woman. She was a small woman with short blonde hair. Noticing a name tag on her lab coat, Andrews read the name to himself; Dr. Michelle Connors.

“Well, I guess we know what happened now.” Sarge said lowering his head.

Out of nowhere, Sarge was knocked to the ground, something large riding him to the ground. Rolling over as he fell, Sarge was looking into the jaws of another of the creatures. As he tried to reach for his sidearm, the creature pinned his arms to the ground at his sides. Just as the creature reared back for the kill, it was suddenly pelted with gun fire. With the creature falling quietly onto its side, Sarge quickly got to his feet, pulling his sidearm and covering the creature to make sure it wasn’t getting back up.

“Damn, we don’t get paid near enough for this crap.” Sarge said while lightly kicking the dead creature’s body.

“Any idea what those things were Sarge?” Andrews asked.

“No idea. But I plan to find out when we get back home”

Both Marines took several hours gathering what bodies they could find of the crew of the Orion and Malone’s body as well. Once everything was in place, Sarge gave Andrews the go ahead to engage the self-destruct sequence for the Orion. Ten minutes later, they were at a safe distance as the Orion safely exploded in the distance taking any remains of the creatures with it.