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Survival Instincts by GLADIATRRR3000
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Survival Instincts, Chapter 1/2
Date: 31 August 2004, 4:57 AM
Travis Keller woke up early. So early, in fact, that no one in his household had woken up yet. He blinked his eyes, clearing his vision, then looked at his digital clock. "Damn," he muttered to himself. "Looks like I have to start breakfast."
He slowly kicked the covers off his bed, then stood up. He walked over to his dresser, which automatically opened up when he was near it, displaying several drawers of clothes. Travis grabbed a pair of jeans, a blank white t-shirt, and his hat and walked out his room. Sunlight was creeping in through the blinds, and Travis squinted at the light. "Open blinds." He said.
On cue, the home computer system opened the blinds, recognizing Travis's voice. He walked into the kitchen, tapped on a monitor on the wall, and pressed a sequence of buttons. "A dozen eggs, scrambled, salted and peppered. Six pieces of toast, butter, no jelly. Twenty-four pieces of bacon. And three glasses of orange juice, if we have it." Travis said clearly.
The computer beeped twice, acknowledging the order, and began cooking the food. Travis heard someone walking down the stairs, and he turned to see who had woken up. His older brother, Tom, on a one-week vacation from his reconnaissance vessel on the moon of Seta VI, grumbled at him, then sat down at the couch facing the windows overlooking the city. "TV down. Channel... Thirty-Seven." He said to a computer on his right. Seconds later, the TV screen rolled down over the window and turned to channel 37.
Travis heard a loud BING! noise behind him, turned around and opened the food container. He pulled out the bacon, eggs, and toast and slid them across the counter towards the liquid dispenser. Three cups were pulled out by mechanical arms, which then retreated into small slots in the wall when orange juice dripped out of the nozzles above the cups. "Breakfast is ready." He said to his brother, who leapt over the couch and shoveled eggs onto a plate.
"Man, the computer on our ship never made food like the home models here on Seta." Tom said happily, as he munched on his bacon. "Dad's night job ends in an hour, right?"
"Yeah, but he won't get back for about two. After work he grabs a coffee down at that coffee place near the boatyard. Remember that place?" Travis asked.
"Yep. After breakfast, what do you say we go hunting?" Tom said.
"Sorry," said Travis, now somewhat depressed. "I told Kristy that I'd go on a hike with her. If I backed out, she'd kill me."
Tom laughed, but didn't say anything. He pushed his plate to the center of the counter, which opened up and dropped the dirty dishes into the dishwasher. "Well, I'm going to go see a movie. I'll be back in about three hours. When should your little date be over?"
"Should be over by then, if I'm lucky." Travis mumbled. "But, with her, you never know if she's going to..."
"If you hate her so much, why don't you leave her?" Tom laughed. "I mean, that girl across the street seems pretty nice. Then again, she might just want your TV."
Travis laughed, grabbed his boots, and headed outside. From his house, he could see the boatyards several miles away, and further than that, the place his dad worked. He looked out at the ocean, which was bright yellow with the rising sun, and sighed. "Well, maybe the hike won't be too bad." He said to himself, walking down his steps.
Transmission from Warship VI. Receiving.... Received.
Shall I display the message? Message displayed. Forever is the Covenant's Glory.
Closing in on human colony, Excellencies. Several reconnaissance ships were spotted, but we destroyed all in our path. No human radio signals were detected. We are unexpected, and all simulations show that the Ancient Artifact will be obtained within several cycles.
Forever is the Covenant's Glory.
End of Message.
Travis met up with Kristy a block down the road. They said their hellos, then headed into the mountains which were behind the city, only a few blocks down the road. Travis looked to the right, saw his house, and sighed. "Grav-Wrestling is on..." he thought to himself, as he picked up a walking stick.
After several awkward minutes, Kristy said, "So, I hear your brother is back from space?"
"Yeah. Who told you?"
"Your dad. I saw him down at the docks this morning, unloading cargo. He seems like a nice guy." She was obviously trying to start a conversation, sensing that Travis was bored.
"Who? My brother or my dad?"
"Your dad." She said. "The trail I want to show you is on the right. Right here." She pointed to a small pathway leading up further into the hills.
Travis looked up the mountain, his eyes following the trail, and sighed. This was going to be a long, long date.
Survival Instincts, Chapter 1
Date: 31 August 2004, 4:58 AM
Transmission from Warship VI. Receiving.... Received.
Shall I display the message? Message displayed. Forever is the Covenant's Glory.
We have closed in on the human colony. Shall we commence attack?
Forever is the Covenant's Glory.
End of Message. Send reply?
Commence attack immediately. Leave none alive.
Message sent.
An hour later, Travis was at the top of a cliff. Panting, he laid down on a boulder, pulled out a water bottle, and chugged half of it in a second. He wiped his mouth and looked around. "Wow. The view up here is really something." He said, looking over the entire city. He was used to a view like this, except he could see over the mountains behind him into the deep forest, and over the city and see miles out into the ocean. "How did you find this place?"
Kristy smiled and looked out at the ocean. "I've been hiking with my parents for years. They found this place when they were dating... I thought it'd be fun to bring you up here too."
Travis thought about the statement for a second, then gulped. "Er... how about if we go a little farther up the mountain? Might as well get to the top now."
Kristy sighed. "I've tried before. The path ends up there. Nothing up there but caves. Caves and trees."
Travis looked out at the ocean and spotted a small ship flying over the town. "Is that the shuttle from Earth? It's not supposed to arrive until Thursday..."
Kristy looked out at the city, concentrating hard to find the ship Travis mentioned. "That one? No, that doesn't look like a shuttle. Maybe it's a cargo ship?"
"Too small." Travis wondered. "Maybe..." Travis ended his sentence early, when dozens more of those ships came through the clouds.
"What in the..." He muttered.
Kristy screamed and pointed behind them. Travis turned and gasped as the clouds parted, revealing a large Covenant warship. He was at a loss for words. Kristy, however, was screaming. "I've seen that before! At school! It's a Covenant attack ship! How did they find this planet? It's an Inner Colony! They'd have to go through dozens of other planets to get here!"
Travis looked over the town, now riddled with small explosions. From this distance, he could see buildings being blown apart, their metal frames melting from the plasma. He could also see the streets filled with civilians, all of them running from the docks, unaware that there were dozens of ships in front of them. Then, just when Travis thought it couldn't get worse...
The ships lowered onto the ground, their sides opening. Out poured at least 100 Covenant troops. Hard to tell what Covenant species from the distance, but he could see the tall, human like figure of the Elites, the stubby, almost ape like Grunts, and the glimmering shields of the Jackals. He could hear the screams from miles away. He turned to look at Kristy, and saw that she was looking through binoculars. "Oh, no! How could this happen?" She said, her hands shaking so much she dropped the binoculars.
Travis picked them up, and looked through them. He could see Elites and Jackals tearing people apart like tissue paper, laughing as they did so. Every now and then, a police officer would drive by, only to be swiftly killed as hundreds of plasma beams fired at him. As a building fell, it knocked several dropships out of the sky, which exploded when they hit the ground, followed by tons upon tons of drywall, concrete, and fire.
People were jumping into the ocean, where several of the native species of the planet, all carnivorous, tore them apart. Large, shark like creatures named Jars, 20 feet long, tore them to shreds as people ran into the waters, trying to avoid the Covenant. The shores were turning dark red with blood.
Then, another Covenant warship flew across the sky, blotting out the sun. Now, the only thing illuminating the city were the fires and the plasma streaking across the sky.
Travis dropped the binoculars, got on his hands and knees, and threw up the eggs and bacon that he had eaten for breakfast. Kristy grabbed his shoulder and tugged. "We have to go down there! We have to get supplies!" She screamed.
"If we go down, we're dead!" He yelled at her.
"We're dead if we stay up here and starve, come on!" And with that, she ran down the trail. Travis tried to keep up, but lost sight of her within minutes. He stumbled, fell, and rolled a few feet, got up, then ran again. When he reached the bottom of the path, he saw Kristy heading towards the city. "Kristy, wait!" He yelled after her, but was drowned out by a ship flying overhead.
He sprinted for half a minute, then finally caught up to her as she ran towards his house. She grabbed a rock, threw it through one of his windows, and ran inside. "Hey, the door was open!" He yelled angrily, as instinct told him that breaking windows was a bad thing.
She ignored him, grabbing all the fruit and vegetables on the counter, ran to his fridge, and emptied it into her hiking backpack. "We have enough food and water for several days. Do you have any beef jerky? Anything that's non-perishable?" She asked, her voice breaking.
"No..." He said thinking.
"Well, let's hurry up and get out of here before the Covenant find us." She said, running for the broken window.
"Wait!" He said, running upstairs into the attic. He pushed aside a box, opened a crate, and grabbed his brother's hunting rifle. He felt around the bottom of the box, found the small container of bullets, then ran back downstairs. "Ok, let's go."
When they ran down the block, several screaming people ran by. "The Covenant! The Covenant! Run for your lives!" They were screaming.
They ignored them, running further up the street. He saw a car drive up, hit an elderly man, then lose control and drive into a house, which collapsed on top of it. Travis held on to the gun tighter, trying to load it while running, and heard a familiar voice. "Travis, thank God, it's you! Wait up!" called Tom.
Travis grabbed Kristy's shoulder and motioned for her to stop. "Tom, you got out of the theater?" He asked, relieved to see him.
"Yeah. The movie was sold out, so I started driving around town, buying groceries, when I heard screaming. I saw what happened, then I rushed home in the car. I saw you running down the street, so I decided to catch up to you."
"Hurry up! Let's hide in the caves at the top of the mountain!" Kristy called after them. Tom nodded, patted Travis on the back, and began running with them.
They were half a block from the edge of town when a dropship flew past them and landed a few hundred feet away, letting all the Covenant inside out. It was a smaller dropship, so only a dozen Grunts and Jackals climbed out. Laughing, they opened fire on the group of people in front of them. A woman in her late thirties was shot in the face, melting her skull, splattering blood on the cement when she fell. A young teen, a guy from Travis's school was hit in the stomach, and fell to the ground, screaming. He went quiet a second later.
Travis, instinctively, raised the rifle and pointed it at a Jackal. The Jackal saw him, tried to position the shield to protect him, but it was too late. The hunting rifle, designed to pierce the three inch flesh of the wild creatures of the forests, tore a hole through the light-shield, blew a hole in the Jackal's torso, and hit the Grunt's methane tank behind him. There was a bluish purple explosion, and when it died away, there were 3 dead Grunts and the dead Jackal.
Travis pulled on the pump, emptying the barrel of the gun and loading a new bullet into it. He aimed at a Grunt, who was pistol-whipping a small child, and blew the top half of it off. "Holy Hell, Travis, I never knew you could shoot like that!" yelled Tom.
"Neither did I!" Travis yelled back, pumping the rifle again and firing at another Jackal.
Tom confiscated the weapons from the dead Covenant, then tossed one to Kristy. "Travis, give me the rifle. This plasma pistol is lighter and has less kickback."
Travis handed him the rifle, then grabbed a plasma pistol, which he began shooting at the remaining Grunts. Several other people had picked up fallen Covenant weapons and fired at them too. After several moments, the path was cleared. "Follow us!" Shouted Kristy to the group of thirty or so people.
Some were reluctant to follow a 16-year-old girl, but did anyway when they heard the whining of Banshees overhead. She led them up the path that they had gone up earlier on their date, and hid them in the caves she had mentioned. Except for the dampness, it was a good hideout. The cave went deep into the mountain, which could help if they needed to escape. Although it was early, some people lied down and closed their eyes, breathing hard. No one could fall asleep.
Travis didn't know what was worse. Being in the city with the Covenant, or having to listen to his friends, people in the city, screaming and dying. Explosions could be head late into the night, then a large explosion shook the cave. People screamed, but were quieted down by Tom. "Keep quiet, or they might find us." He said, in an eerily calm voice.
At nightfall, Travis tried to fall asleep, but the horrors of the day past kept him awake in the nightmare. He had always heard of these terrors happening out in space, with the outer colonies, but to happen to his planet was something completely different. He could hear a baby crying, and old woman praying in a different language. The school's bully was sobbing into his jacket sleeves. Several people were at the mouth of the cave, holding their chests, watching the city fall to ruin.
Travis took a deep breath, turned towards his brother, and asked, "The UNSC will come, right? We're going to live, aren't we?"
Tom clasped his hands together, staring intently at them and didn't answer.
Survival Instincts, Chapter 2
Date: 29 November 2004, 4:19 AM
Travis woke with a jump. In the few waking moments after sleep, when all was calm and blissful, he had forgotten why he was in a dark cave with 2-dozen other people. Suddenly, he remembered the terrible, horrible attack on his home planet, Seta VI. Hoping against hope that it was a terrible dream, although he knew it was reality, he walked to the mouth of the cave and stared down at his once beautiful seaside ocean city.
The city lay in ruins. No building taller than two stories was left standing, and everything else was either burned to the ground or reduced to rubble and molten metal. He could see Banshees flying over the city, every now and then swooping down and raining plasma at survivors. He leaned against the cave wall and forced down the gagging feeling he was encountering. Several other people were watching the city as well, most of them crying silently. Several older men were staring out into space, no emotions on their faces. One of the women in the back had a radio, switching frequencies every few seconds, desperately searching for signs of other survivors.
Travis heard Tom stand up, brush the spiders off his jeans, and walk over to him. "I checked our food." He said, looking towards the docks, which were now sending a huge plume of smoke into the sky. "We only have enough fruit for three more people. We need to go out there... salvage some food."
Travis tried to tell him that that was suicide, but all that came out was a squeaking noise. He cleared his throat, thought for a minute, and replied, "I'm coming with you."
Tom nodded. He knew that taking him would be a hassle, but figured he needed to get something in his mind to forget the screams of yesterday. Travis walked to the back, grabbed a plasma pistol and the hunting rifle, and handed the rifle to Tom. "Alright, everyone." Tom said, waking several younger kids up. "We need a few more people to find food. We don't have enough to last an hour. If you feel up to it, grab a Covenant plasma weapon and meet us at the edge of the cave."
Travis watched an elderly man grab a pistol and follow them. They waited several minutes, but no one else joined them. "Well, we better get going. No body talk unless you need to, and if they Covenant find you and chase you, don't head back here. Lead them away from everyone else."
The elderly man nodded. "I'm Tom, by the way, and this is Travis, my brother." Tom gestured towards Travis.
"Patterson. We should check to see if the produce shop near the edge of the forest is still up, before we head deeper into town." The old man wheezed.
"Good idea. Let's go." Tom said, nodding. They jogged to the bottom of the trail, careful to wipe their footprints to leave no trace. As they ran through the forest, they would duck behind large bushes when a ship flew overhead. When they reached the edge of the city, Tom motioned for them to stop. They all looked around and knelt beside him.
"Ok. Looks like the produce shop is still standing, but there are three Elites about two hundred feet to the... Northeast... see them?" He pointed. The old man nodded, and Travis saw them seconds later. "Let's avoid all contact with them. They don't know we're here, and I don't want them to. Cross the street as fast as you can, and hide behind that dumpster to the left of the store."
They nodded and moved to the edge of the street. They looked both ways, saw a Ghost moving up the hill in the other direction, and ran across quickly, diving behind the dumpster. "Ok, Travis, melt the lock to the back door. Your plasma pistol is a lot quieter than my rifle." Travis nodded, moved towards the door near the back corner of the store, and shot the small padlock several times. It turned white hot and seeped off the door. Tom shoved the steel door open.
Inside, there was the smell of fruit and vegetables gone slightly bad. The power, out for almost a day, left the produce out in the air, so they were slightly rotting. Tom grabbed a Nectarine, imported from Earth, smelled it, then took a big bite. He spat out a small bit of the pit, then smiled. "They're still good." He said, handing one to Patterson and Travis.
They grabbed the plastic bags from the dispenser near the cash register and filled them all with different fruits. They went to the juice section, grabbed 9 gallons of orange juice, and headed for the back again. Travis struggled with the weight, but Tom grabbed the juice containers from him. "I'll take them." He said, wincing as more weight was added to his backpack.
They moved slowly out the back door and to the front of the store. They hid behind the dumpster, looking around for any signs of Covenant. The three Elites down the road had moved on, and there were no ships in the air near them. "Come on, let's hurry back." Said Tom.
As they moved out into the street, the ground started shaking. Travis noticed it first. It began shaking hard, as if something heavy were moving across it. They dove to the bushes at the other side of the road, and hid, not moving. Travis realized that it wasn't the ground shaking, but the air vibrating. There was a Wraith tank going down the street, hovering two feet off the ground. They held their breath as it went by. When it turned the corner and the air stopped shaking, they stood and ran.
Then, Travis stopped. He heard the one sound that he feared: the sound of a Covenant laughing. Despite themselves, all three of them turned to look. A Grunt was staring at them, laughing. It turned and ran back around the corner, and they could hear the barking of at least three-dozen more Grunts. "Run." Tom said.
They both turned and ran up the hill. Patterson broke off from Tom and Travis, running towards the caves. Tom and Travis were too busy to notice this, and kept running straight up the mountain. Travis threw his backpack into the bushes near the trail that led up to the caves, but ran down a different path. Tom threw the juice containers into the small river, which got stuck in rocks and stopped moving. "If we live, we can come back for them." Tom said over his shoulder to Travis.
They ran a quarter mile up the hill. Too tired to keep going, they hid behind a boulder, breathing hard. They sat in silence for a couple of minutes, praying that the Grunts had lost the scent. Then they heard more barking coming up the trail. Seconds later, the Grunts were running by. Tom and Travis stopped breathing. Just when the Grunts had passed them over, one barked at the group. The pack stopped and started sniffing the air, noses pointing towards the sky. "How...good...can...they...smell?" Travis whispered out of the side of his mouth, answered only by the laughing of the Grunts.
Travis screamed as a Grunt leapt out from the side of the boulder. Before the Grunt could fire his pistol, Travis had punched it in its face, temporarily stunning it. Tom took this second to shoot its stomach out. The other Grunts, now positive there were humans there, ran around the sides of the boulder. Travis was firing his plasma pistol as fast as it allowed, hitting the Grunts as they appeared. They were going down quickly, and only a few got a shot off, all clean misses.
Travis's gun overheated, and another Grunt turned and fired at him. Travis ducked, kicked the Grunt's skinny legs out, and shoved the white-hot edge of the pistol in its face. The Grunt screamed in agony, firing random plasma beams out. One hit the boulder behind Travis, which dripped molten rock on his leg. Travis screamed, letting go of his gun and the Grunt and clutching the burn. The Grunt rolled over, sat up, and laughed. The laugh was a half-whimper, but it stood up and leveled its pistol at Travis's face. Tom rammed the butt of the rifle into the Grunt's skull, and the Grunt snapped his head back. It stood for a moment, it's eyes crossed, then fell to the ground with a snapping noise. "Hurry, let's go." Tom told Travis, hoisting him over his shoulder. "Before more come."
As Tom carried him farther up the mountainside, Travis passed out with pain.
He enjoyed the peaceful sleep.
Survival Instincts, Chapter 3
Date: 29 November 2004, 4:23 AM
For the second time in 12 hours, Travis woke up not knowing where he was or why he was there. He tried to stand, but the pain in his leg made him stay where he was. Brushing the ants out of his hair, he sat up. He looked down at his leg and saw the left leg of his jeans torn off and wrapped around where he was burned. Wincing, he slowly peeled a small bit of the makeshift bandage off the burn to look at it. It was turning dark red, but didn't appear to be in horrible condition. The molten rock had stopped at the muscle, only burning a square inch of flesh. The area around it was turning purple, but other that that, he was fine.
He stood up, putting his weight on his right leg and looked around. Tom had carried him to the top of the mountain, or somewhere near it. They were on top of a large cliff that gave them an even greater view of the city. "Well," Travis said to himself. "Would have been a greater view of the city, if it were still there."
He could see the two Covenant warships floating several thousand feet above the ocean a few miles out to sea. He could see the hundreds of troop transports flying through the air, looking like flies at the distance. Banshees, sounding only like a soft breeze so far away, were on patrol routes throughout the city. But what caught Travis's attention was that there were hundreds of Elites, Jackals, and Grunts lined up at the very edge of the forest. All facing towards the giant warships in the sky, they stood there, silent from what Travis could hear, not moving or turning.
"They've been doing that for an hour, or at least since we got up here." Tom said, motioning towards the line of Covenant at the forest's edge. "I wonder what they're up to."
Travis didn't say anything, but walked over towards him. "We should get back to the cave. Tell everyone to move out, since all those Covenant are right at our doorstep. We should probably move deeper into the forest." He said, gently rubbing his burn.
"Remember what everyone told us? Don't go into the forest; there's creatures out there we haven't tamed yet." Tom said. "Remember those wolves that were being transported to the zoo from Earth? The cargo ship landed at the quarantine base a few miles out, but the truck delivering them never made it here."
Travis nodded, remembering the story. "There were a few dozen of them, one third of what was left on Earth. I don't know how easily they adapted to our environment, but if they escaped, then you can bet the environment couldn't adapt to them fast enough." Tom continued.
Travis cut him off. "Well, it's either a slow, painful death by the Covenant, or run and hide with only a small chance of getting eaten."
"Yeah, true. We could try reaching the quarantine bay. Maybe we could send a radio transmission to the UNSC to come help, if they haven't realized this planet is gone yet." Tom said. "Well, you're right. Let's head back to the cave and tell everyone to move farther into the forest. Let's just hope the Covenant don't know we're here."
Transmission from Field Master Zukamee. Receiving.... Received.
Shall I display the message? Message displayed. Forever is the Covenant's Glory.
Excellencies, we have discovered several survivors of the initial assault making refuge in the mountains at the edge of the human outpost. Initial reports state that they are not armed and are not considered dangerous, however, they seem to be near where the Ancient Artifact lies. Radiation from the human "Nuclear Silos" nearby distorts the actual location of the Ancient Artifact. Simulations show that if we proceed bombardment of the survivors, there is a 48% chance that the Artifact is damaged or destroyed. As your Excellencies know, this is unacceptable, and we are therefore asking how we should continue. Forever is the Covenant's Glory.
End of Message. Reply cannot be sent at this time, your Excellencies, as all energy is diverted to coolant leakage in sector nine. We shall alert you at once when the problem is solved.
Tom carried Travis down the path that he had been unconscious for. Tom lost his footing twice, but regained his balance by grabbing on to tree branches or boulders. Near the bottom of the path, Travis recognized the boulder that they had hidden behind when they were chased by the pack of Grunts, but all the bodies were gone, leaving neon blue trails of blood leading into the forest to their right. "Something dragged the corpses off..." Tom muttered. "I'm going to put you down for a while. I'm going to get all the weapons that the Covenant dropped."
After several minutes of sitting and watching Tom pick plasma pistols and rifles up, Tom walked over to him, handed him a dozen weapons, and picked him up. Travis had trouble holding them all, but found it easy to stick his hands through the crescent shape of the pistols and supporting them on his arm while grabbing the rifles. Tom carried him farther down the mountain to where they had left the food and juice. A few bottles have been swept away by the river, but all the fruit was there. Tom picked up the backpack filled with fruit and waded into the water, grabbing the jugs of orange juice.
They continued up the path to the caves. For several minutes all Travis heard was the heavy breathing of Tom and all he saw was the back of his head. Halfway up the trail, Tom stopped for a second, looked over his shoulder, and said, "Close your eyes and hold your breath." Travis did as he was told, but as Tom pressed on, Travis peeked his eyes open a little and saw what looked like the burning corpse of Patterson, still clutching a burning backpack.
When they reached the cave, it was almost noon. People near the front smiled weakly as they saw them carrying food, while others jumped up and rushed over, grabbing handfuls of apples and oranges, sticking out their hands as cups for the orange juice. Tom set Travis down, and several men, early twenties, took the weapons away from him and placed them in a neat pile on the other side of the cave. A woman was singing a nursery rhyme to a baby, and a little girl was humming to herself, throwing rocks to the back of the cave. "Everyone," Tom said loudly, waiting for everyone to turn towards him. "The Covenant are grouping at the bottom of the forest and we believe they are heading towards us." There were several gasps and screams at this. "I believe we need to head deeper into the forest to get away, but..."
A middle-aged woman cut him off. "Who decided that you get to make all the decisions? What makes you think we'll be safer out there? We would have no shelter, no cover, no place to keep warm..." She said harshly.
"Listen, I saw them. They're going to come up here, searching every cave and every rock for us. They know we're here. We can either leave now, or die when they find us." Tom said, a hint of anger in his voice, but overall calmly. "If you want to stay, fine, but I'm not leaving here with a heavy conscience as well as a heavy burden. Anyone who feels they should leave, grab whatever is yours and follow me."
Twenty of the twenty-four people stood, grabbed a plasma weapon and some food and juice, walked towards the front of the cave and stood there, waiting for Tom. The four stragglers sat in the cave, staring at the walls. "Fools," said the woman. "You're all fools! They'll find you! They'll find you and kill you all! Go on, leave us! I hope your deaths are quick and painless, for your sake."
Some mothers covered their children's ears, and the twenty people walked away. Travis could hear the woman with a baby still in the cave, still singing a nursery rhyme. "Hush little baby, don't you cry, momma's going to sing you a lullaby..."
The rhyme could be heard for a minute as the walked down the path, leaving an eerie silence when it finally died away.
Your Excellencies, coolant leak repaired. Sending power to radio transmitter. Reply to Message?
Send the troops up the mountain. Order them to use no explosives. Find and kill all the humans, no matter what the cost is, short of damaging or destroying the Artifact. A reward will be granted to the one who returns with the most human heads.
Message Sent.
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