Chương 3: Trapped

Ch. 3 - Trapped [Floor 2] [Bosses: 12] Floor two was an incredible view of a gorgeous field of green. A vast prairie that stretched further than I could see. There was no light per say, it was just a brightness above that glowed from every which direction. Like a long LED light that grew infinitely long and wide. It wasn't harsh, it was a warm color that wasn't hard the eyes and reminded me of the tablets that talked about a sunrise. Some romantic tales of a planet probably long dead.

Pollen stuck to the plating with each step.

Phil's red armor went sickly colored from the amount he rolled over. The greenery was incredible, I had never seen so much plant life. The colony had a flora block that of course was next to Z block. They turned it into a private park for those that could afford it. That was neither here nor there though.

"Hey, Jacob," I said, correcting myself.

"Team leader Jacob. How come so many more bosses are alive here?"

"Same reason as above," he said.

"We don't want to mess with the ones that can melt your hull with a glance."

"And the portal? Is it far from here?"

"Yeah. It's a tradeoff. You can see forever away, but that means the portals have to be further out of reach. And they never zap you the same place twice. So you need to get your bearings and not go blind in these open expanses. Don't be fooled by how inviting it all looks. The safety zones aren't until every third zone. At any-" The ground rumbled before he could finish.

"Phil!" Phil's mech zoomed forward, reached into his inventory pulling a spike. He drilled it onto the ground and kept driving it further and further. Eric rolled back and affixed a forearm attachment and shield. Two cannons appeared from both Eric and Jacob's mechs. I didn't know what to grab, so I held the pickaxe in hand.

"Come here," said Eric. I did as instructed and we all formed a circle around the spike. The rumbling stopped and the throttles in my hands stopped shaking. A strange calm befell the serene environment. SWOOSH. The ground ahead cratered and a creature of my nightmares exploded from the ground. Its underbelly was light brown and smooth. Its back was dark green from a mixture of the pollen that it hurtled everywhere from its scale like spine.

It resembled a giant worm with four pincer like protrusions around the head that moved like spider legs. Its maw expanded to just where it's underbelly began. It had eyes in between the scales that darted back and forth.

"Shoot!" came the order from Jacob. They fired round after round. Red splotches covered the green landscape as they shot over and over at the underbelly. I loaded the minigun and fired too. I knew it wouldn't do anything, but I wasn't about to be the only one not doing something. The worm retreated back underground, but we stayed put. The ground beneath us rumbled but still, the team didn't move. I followed their lead despite the earthquake below us. It popped up again, opposite of where it was last time.

They shot without the command and peppered it with whatever munitions their weapons produced. The worm stopped moving and its eyes stopped darting. They turned glossy white and cold.

"Dang," said Eric.

"Predator Worms right off the rip."

"What are those?"

"They are usually docile. They aren't supposed to attack. The spike is to keep the ground below from being turned into a hole. Like a reverse umbrella. Anyway, it's more so it doesn't accidentally soften the ground below where you're standing. Not as a permanent fixture."

"Yeah," said Jacob.

"I'm not liking this. Sorry, kid. We need to get out of here and figure out your mech on the third floor." I wanted to ask if something was wrong, but even I could tell they were on edge. Clearly something was wrong and stupid questions might net me a stupid answer. So I kept my mouth shut as we sprinted across the field. Phil and I had to use thrusters to keep with the two speedier units. [ENERGY LEVEL: 40%] More shaking on the ground underneath caught us by surprise, but we didn't stop. We kept running.

The world shook with each step the mechs stamped to the ground. More and more rumbling from my throttles shook my vision.

"I see it!" yelled Eric. A blue glow radiated from a cave punched into the hill. A sinking feeling swirled in the pit of my stomach.

"But protocol," I muttered.

"Screw protocol! We don't have a choice!" yelled Eric.

"My sensors are picking up six Predator Worms behind us. You want to stay for that?"

"I get your fear kid, but it's a 1/100 chance," said Jacob.

"I like my odds." We all jumped straight into the blue portal as the Predator Worms neared. The tale has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the violation. There was no notification that we had entered a new floor. Just an inky blackness that was darker than the first floor. No one spoke for a long moment. Eric broke the silence.

"Hey Boss. Aren't you really bad at gambling?"

"Not... now... Eric," said Jacob.

"Mayday, Mayday. Requesting immediate aid. Coordinates are pinned. All nearby units, please respond. We are in a hidden Boss Room. Please provide aid. Confirmation based on System Notification, we are in a Boss Room."

"Why haven't they attacked?" I asked. I flicked on the night vision and it didn't help.

"Because they haven't noticed us, yet," said Phil. I toggled to thermal and my screens lit up like a beacon. I shuddered and tried to calm my breathing, but it just wouldn't slow.

"Sir," was all I could muster. A boss monster known for its assigned difficulty and how quickly it can overwhelm an experienced squad. Amongst the dozens of the eight foot beasts was a main body that hid amongst them. It had simple weapons that by itself wasn't a big deal. But over time, it could eat away at the armor platings and hull integrity. Some mechs had shields but my gatherer didn't. It was also an intelligent beast according to the academy.

The screen was so bright from extreme heat that the cloaks exhumed. I didn't wait for an order, I couldn't wait. I grabbed the pickaxe in one hand and twisted the torso at the waist to spin. My pick landed on the head of one of them that it spurt purple blood on Phil's mech. The cloak dissipated all at once and the oblong black flesh crumpled to the ground. It had an oblong neck holding an elongated oval head with teeth that went around to where its ears would be if it had any.

It had no eyes and relied on sound and surprise. The simple spear-like weapon dropped to the ground.

"Thermals! Thermals!" yelled Jacob.

"It's a a duplicant!" All at once lasers crackled the air and burst all around. Jacob's and Eric's mechs were spinning in circles taking out scores of them. The purple ooze sprayed in every direction and we just kept shooting. They came alive, shooting at us. A chunk of my armor plating disintegrated. Phil dropped a shield bubble that we huddled around, but it required a constant energy supply Phil's mech had to maintain. He couldn't move, couldn't react. But it stopped most projectiles from entering.

Jacob was blasting as soon as his weapon got off cooldown. Eric was slamming his bladed claws in large swaths, turning his mech purple. I didn't let off the trigger of my minigun. It took an entire second to bring one down with conventional bullets. Just one. Each second they just kept coming. [ENERGY RESERVES: 30%]"I'm starting to run low," voiced Phil.

"Tell me you found him."

"I'm still looking," said Jacob.

"There are too many bodies now!" I swung my pickaxe and whiffed. But I should've hit it. I kicked the encroaching one away and blasted it with the barrel at its torso. A precious moment was almost too costly, but I flicked from thermals to night vision. I know I should've hit. In that split second, my heart sank to my stomach. The head of the pickaxe had vanished. I don't know how, but it was gone. A crash from Eric's mech jolted me from spiraling.

"I lost my damn legs! I don't know how!" he yelled over comms. Think, think. How did you... the blood? But what did it do? His mech should at least be resistant to acid. And I had tungsten? How did it deteriorate? How is it gone? No time, just say what you think.

"I think it's the blood!" I said.

"I lost my pickaxe." I jammed it at another that got close to the bubble and hurled it like a rotten lollipop.

"That's impossible!" said Jacob.

"They shouldn't be able to..." he trailed off.

"Oh God. I think they mutated. Eric! Eric no!" With no front legs on his quad, he was outside the bubble and the spray of bullets all seemed to head into his direction.

"I can't!" yelled Eric. His mech struggled against the barrage before the amor gave out.

"Phil!" yelled Jacob.

"I can't!" yelled Phil.

"We're all dead if I let go!"

"Rook! Help me pull him back!" I slammed the thrusters into his direction and yanked with clamped onto any piece of the armor I could. I pulled, slammed on the pedal to force backwards momentum. Only the back half of the mech came with me. The cockpit side was fully outside the bubble and Eric went silent. [ENERGY RESERVES: 20%]"NO!" yelled Jacob. His voice was deafening in the cacophony. I dropped the back half of the mech and spun towards Phil who was getting swarmed.

Another two angled towards me and I emptied the barrel on them. I was almost out of ammo and I was starting to panic.

"I'm almost out of energy here. Tell me you found him!" yelled Phil.

"I'm trying. There are just so many of them!" There! Atop the pillar!" Jacob left the safety of the bubble and leapt into the storm.

"No! Jacob! Get back!" yelled Phil. Jacob didn't respond. His mech bounced on the walls and galloped at full speed towards the darkness.

"How does he know it's different?" I yelled.

"It's different. The alpha is the one that isn't cloaked or is a few degrees cooler than the rest." I took a deep breath and switched from thermals to night vision. I scanned the area in front of me and found nothing amongst the bodies, until something moved among them. My breathing quickened. It was slightly larger than the mountain of corpses that littered the surrounding.

"Can there be two?" I asked, my breath struggling to catch up. No one responded. The shields were sputtering to stay activated. [ENERGY RESERVES: 10%]"It was a mimic!" yelled Jacob. His mech was peppered in shots and the armor plates were crashing on the ground.

"Phil. Tell Mellissa, I love her. Would you send the message?" Then his comms went silent. The shield collapsed and the bullets stopped. A spear split into my armor and severed the shoulder connection. Another two rammed into the legs. I slammed the hydraulic release on the legs and blasted them. The tracks auto activated and I was the same height as the beasts. My heart was racing as I pushed into the movement I saw.

"This is Phil Sanders of squad 1. Mellissa, Jacob loves you. Sabrina, I'm sorry the last memory of us is an argument. I love you sis-" My mech was getting speared and speared. [HULL INTEGRITY: 10%] [ENERGY RESERVES: 5%] For some reason, Ania was the person that entered my thoughts. The one person that was better at me at literally everything. I couldn't beat her in the sims. And I wondered if her here, would've tipped the scales a little. That thought ran through my head and it made me... so angry.

Rage from the deepest part of my soul filled the void in my heart and was fueling me in the last would be moments of my life. I slammed the gas pedal, making the tracks scream with the little thrust I could manage. I slammed into the pile of bodies, yelling as loud as I could. I had one arm and I slammed the barrel into the surprised Alpha Duplicant and squeezed the trigger. I blasted and blasted. My tracks were giving warnings that they were inoperable. A hull breech was detected on my sensors.

A spear sheered off the armor of the cockpit, exposing me to the air. I yelled and my finger hurt until the barrel ran dry. Purple blood sprayed around the armor and onto my suit. My respirator fell onto the ground cracking on impact. The barrel was bright red after turning for what felt like an eternity. I closed my eyes, waiting for the end. It didn't happen.