Soul Hunt

Cornered

"Great, now were do we go?"

It was half an hour later and they were standing in an open sided corridor, looking into a large high area that contained what Corporal currently thought of, as a giant laser. The huge machine was firing long rays of electric blue into a tunnel of some sorts.

"Its just typical, you know?" came Bravo's horse grumble from the back.

"The ceiling just has to fall in right before we get to the bulb room, dosent it?"

Due to the size and complexity of the UAC facility, it was common to find that a sector went for a short distance before comming to a room, often nicknamed the bulb, that all the different parts of the sector branched away from like roots.

Bulbs were usualy just short stretches of corridor that were wider than the predecessing and proceeding parts, but they were also usualy defined by a square arch and were sometimes used as extra office space.

The one Corporal and his team had got to, or rather, nearly got to, was currently blocked off by a nightmare of live electrical cables that had been disloged from the roof. Nobody had dared come within five feet of them for fear of being fried.

Corporal felt someone tap his shoulder, turning round, he found himself eye to eye with Maintenece.

"Do you think we should check out the control room?" Maintenece asked, pointing nervously at the small, glass panneled room across the laser area.

"What the hell for?" Asked Corporal, although he had just spotted a supply cabnet next to the door leading into the structure.

"And how the hell do you know its a control room?" Came Securitys voice from behind.

"Well its a small room with big windows inside a bigger room with a big machine, isnt it?" Said Technical, Security grunted, he too had spotted the storage cabnet.

With practised ease, Security vaulted down into the lasers large holding area, swiftly followed by Corporal, and with the help of Maintenece and Technical to lower him, Bravo.

Carefuly, pointing their weapons into all the dark areas they passed, the group of survivors deployed themslves tacticaly towards the lasers control room.

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High amid the steel rafters of the room, the part of Malcom Betruger that wasnt Malcom Betrugers body watched the five men moving below. He had been waiting for the group to arive at the Altha Labs for a while now, having been tipped off by their visual transmition with Sergent Kelly.

At the moment he was focusing mostly on the Sentinent. The slender being was pale enough to be seen clearly in the dim room, Betruger was struck by how graceful the dead man was. It was as if clumsyness was a soley physical trait in human beings.

Drifting down towards the group like a decending mist, he spread his presence across the floor of the area. The pale marine twitched, and the luminus blue gems flashed around the room, staring intently into the many dark corners.

The group reached the control room and carefuly made their way inside, Betruger pressed himself up againsed the glass as the group searched the darkened back area of the room. There was a PDA on the control pannel, and to Betrugers delight, the pale man came forward to retreive it.

Betruger pressed his presence harder againsed the glass, causing it to creak. The dead marine looked up sharply, blue gems staring right though Betruger to scour the room beyond.

Behind the slender man, the two civilians had found a computer and were working at it, with some sort of intent to accessibility no doubt. The two marines were standing at each of the rooms two doors.

Betruger watched the civilian in the lab coat as he gestured to the Sentinent, who looked up from the PDA before moving over to stand by the terminal. After a moment the two marines followed, as far as Betruger could see, they apeared be having an argument.

Perfect.

Stretching himself in the direction of both doors simultainiusly, he seeped himself into both locks before slamming the doors and twisting the locks round.

There were crys of suprise from within the room and one of the men ran to a door to rattle it vainly. Sparing no time, Betruger bunched himself into a ball of energy. The air in and around the room turned heavy with the force of the shockwave as he sent out the summoning.

::They are here!::

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There was a harsh cry from Security as the sound of the doors slamming seemed to tear unbearably loud through the quiet. The five men whipped round, each heart thumping in its owners mouth.

"Oh shit!, OH SHIT!"

With a stumbling bound Maintenece was rattling the door they had come in by. Security was soon beside him.

"Jesus! Somethings melted the locks!"

Corporal stood clutching his head, the buzzing had suddenly become an unbearable vibration inside him. As his vision blurred with pain, he felt more than heard a voice rip through from behind the rough, tortourus sound.

::Their here!::

Gasping, he reopened his eyes, the air had become heavy, everything somehow red and hazy. Vaigly he could hear his comrads swearing and cursing.

Through the red mist, he suddenly felt something wrap around his waist.

With a yowl of fear he leaped forward, all his instincts telling him too run. The lighter rectangle of one of the doors loomed into his blurred vision and he threw himself at it headlong.

There was a creaking groan and Corporal felt the door give way, at the same time, the haze began to lift. He stumbled forward and a muscular arm caught him, a moment later he senced the other beside him.

"There coming!" He yelled, fear choking his throat "Their coming we have to go!"

Faintly from down the corridors, unearthly shreiks could be heard closing in, in desperation, the five men scrambled for the one place that they could escape.

Vaulting over into the holding area, they scrambled, two of them half dragging Bravo, heading for the beam shaft. As they reached it, scores of demons began pouring into the room.

"Ahh hell no!" Yelled someone behind Corporal.

They threw themslves on their bellys, one after the other, scrambling forward into the shaft. The giant beam above their heads sizzled the air dry and cauded their hair to ruffle as if a wind were blowing. As they went, they could hear the scratching of hundreds of claw behind them like rain on a slate roof.

"Someone help me with this!" Shouted someone from the front.

It was Technical. He was crouched next to a ventalaton opening. The opening was covered with a reinforced metal grate and the man was pulling at it in desperation. Corporal felt someone slip past him and a moment later he heard buckshots.

"Maintenece! help Technical!" Roared Security as Bravo loaded his weapon also "Corporal, help me for godsakes!"

Pushing himself up and leaning tighly to the walls of the shaft, Corporal drew his machine gun and proceeded to fire over the heads of his comrads.

The demons were advancing slowly into the tunnel now, slinking, as if apart from gravity, over the four sides. The three marines fired round after round at the oncoming nightmare of claws and fangs but the numbers of the creatures seemed endless.

They were running out of ammo, fast.

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"Jesus Christ!"

Kelly gazed at the screen in horror. Monster! hundreds of them! flooding into the particle beam chamber, no doubt after his men. He whipped round and yelled for a senoir technical.

A man came running through the flurry of staff and soldiers, his labcoat sticking to him and his hair disheviled.

"Get your nose to this screen! Is there a a way out of that beam shaft!?" Demanded Kelly urgently, dreading the answear.

"The man looked intently at the screen, his brow furrowed intently, Kelly felt like screaming, his men were shurley nearly out of ammo by now.

"There will probably be an emergence access opening" the man said "Get up, and il see what I can do."

Kelly jumped out of his seat and stalked over to the headset transmition terminal as the man quickly sat down and began manipulating access codes.

He set the tranmsition for the desperate mens headsets and, trying to keep his voice calm, began to speak.

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Corporal was barley aware of the crackling in his headset until Kellys voice bit into his head for the second time that day.

"Marine! tell those two civilians to stop trying to open the emergency hatch before they damage it! A technition is atempting to remotley open it as we speak!"

Wincing, Corporal yelled Kellys orders over his shoulder, behind him, Maintenece and Technical stared at him as if he had gone mad.

"Why the fuck should we do that!?" yelled Technical into the sudden ominus quiet.

Something had gone horribly wrong.

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