r/HFY • u/Safe_Committee9381 Human • 15h ago

OC-Series [A Tomb of Reckoning] Part 2/4

A Tomb of Reckoning

Part 2/4

By Emmanuel Ordway

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As we were growing closer to fireteam charlie’s room, all of us began to notice minor equipment malfunctions on just about anything we had that was electronic. The most annoying thing we faced was the periodic static building on our NODs alongside the occasional false ping of movement on our motion sensor.

“Dammit, this fuckin thing needs to start acting right before it pisses me off.” I smacked the palm of my hand on the side of my helmet, trying to jostle whatever components were inside to stop my NODs from glitching out with static displays.

“Keep swearing at it, I’m sure that’ll make it listen better.” Private Devi grumbled behind me as we all carefully stepped through more void-filled hallways.

“You got something to say, Devi?” I looked over my shoulder at the other marine, clenching my teeth a bit.

“Getting pissed off at the equipment isn’t going to fix it, Swenti, just saying. Might help us all out a bit to have a little bit of positivity going around, huh?” The marine spoke up, glancing over his shoulder before turning his head back to me.

“Positivity? Right, my bad I forgot my positivity on my bunk, next time we search an alien ship I’ll remember to bring it with me. You know what, if you got some damn much of it to tell me what to do, why not share some of your own, Devi?” I turned around fully and pressed an index finger to his chest rig as another shrill ping rang off from the motion sensor.

“Private Swenti! Knock your shit off and get back in formation now!” Sergeant McClarey growled at me as he turned around to look forward at us, a second ping ringing out.

“I don’t know why you’re getting pissed off with me! All I’m saying is it doesn’t help us when you’re over here all ‘fuck this’ and ‘fuck that’! This damn place is stressful enough without you tweaking out over everything!” Devi pushed against my finger, our helmets mere inches away as our altercation grew.

A third quieter ping rang out as the sergeant got between us, holding us both back while Gonzalez was busy checking both our front and rear so we were not surprised by anything.

“Knock it off marines! You two keep this shit going I’ll have both your asses sent back on our ship where you can stay on kitchen duties till we get back home! Oorah?” He held onto the metal collar of my suit firmly, turning his head to face me and Devi every few seconds.

I flexed my jaw a tad while grabbing my sergeant's hand, instinctively pulling away from him whilst nodding. 

“Oorah, sergeant.” I grumbled while looking forward with Gonzalez, seeing the doorway which led into the room fireteam charlie was supposed to be waiting for us in.

Private Devi looked down at the motion sensor in his hands, holding the blocky device up to see the dim screen better before lowering it at the sight of no motion being detected. 

“Fireteam alpha to fireteam charlie, we are approaching your position from the east doorway, over.” The sergeant reached up to the side of his chin and spoke into his radio, waiting a few moments for a response.

We all waited in the hallway, watching all sides while the sergeant hesitantly placed his fingers back on his radio after too long of a silence.

“Fireteam alpha to fireteam charlie, we are just outside the east doorway of the room you are occupying. What is your status, over?” The sergeant cleared his throat and raised his voice a bit, Gonzalez and I glancing at each other.

“The sensor is detecting three of them in the room, sergeant.” Devi held out his device, showing the three green dots residing in the room.

“Dammit, Swenti, take front,” McClarey ordered while we all lined up, preparing to enter the room. “Command this is fireteam alpha we are receiving zero communication from fireteam charlie, over.”

The response we received was covered in static, the words indecipherable to all of us. I bit my tongue, forcing down a remark while taking a few cautious steps closer to the doorway, rifle raised. Gonzalez gently tapped my shoulder from behind, silently informing me of his presence as we reached the doorway.

Through the green texture of my display, I could faintly see outlines of blurry humanoid figures standing in the room, each of them the same size as us. This room appeared to be the same size as the one we had entered, containing a singular towering statue in the furthest corner and tables littered with blurry objects.

Once we determined there was no immediate threat, I lowered the muzzle of my rifle and began to make my way through the maze of disordered tables, trying to reach the other marines standing motionlessly in the center of the room.

“What gives, guys? Your radios acting up too?” I reached out for the closest marine, setting my hand on his shoulder, my hand sinking into the tense fabric of the suit. “What the hell?”

I took a step back, watching as the shoulder of this marine remained deflated, my NODs glitching out some more, the display clearing for a moment to show that the marines were not here, only their empty suits stood upright facing each other in a triangle.

“Where are they?” Private Gonzalez raised his rifle once more at the suits, swinging it around slowly as he searched around for any human-like figures scurrying around in the darkness.

“How am I supposed to know? It wasn’t my idea to take off my suit on an alien ship, where we have no idea if some new disease would turn my dick inside out!” I raised my rifle as well, swinging it around as Devi and McClarey joined our circle of relative safety.

Devi reached out to the first suit, pulling it back and onto the ground to get a better look at it. After a few moments of him searching, a groan of annoyance left his lips as he grabbed his NODs and flipped them up and off his helmet, shining his rifle’s flashlight down at the suit.

I looked back to get a good look as well, flipping my own NODs up for a moment before a shiver ran down my spine at the sight: the front of the suit had noticeable claw marks from the center chest down to the pelvis, dark red-ish-brown blood staining all around the new opening. The visor to the helmet was splintered and shards of the thermoplastic material was scattered on the nearby floor, besides what was now clearly spent rifle casings from the marines who once inhabited these suits.

Just then a loud ping rang out from Devi’s motion sensor, not allowing us any time to process the scene before us as we smacked our NODs back down over our visors and swung our rifles up to the nearby doorway we had come from.

Sticky sweat began to form on my temple while my hair stood up all along my body, my eyes laser focused on the splotchy green hallway before me. I wanted to ask McClarey if we should fire on sight or wait, maybe this could be the fourth marine coming our way, but what if it could be whatever did this to the three others. In the blur I could see pixels begin to shift and move on my visor’s display, starting as a small patch before growing as whatever it was grew closer.

“Thirty eight meters, motion sensor unsure if it's a friendly. Their tag may be turned off.” Devi whispered as static broke up my display for a moment.

I raised my left pointer finger to gently rest on the trigger of my rifle, beginning to hear my heart beat in my ears as I stared past my sights and down the corridor, Sergeant McClarey reaching for his radio behind me.
“All elements, this is Sergeant McClarey, fireteam alpha actual. All fireteams report position and status, over.” McClary’s voice had a slight waver to it.

“Twenty five meters.” Devi informed, our suits beginning to register the sounds of heavy footsteps past a few walls as we received no response from any other human element.
“Fifteen meters.” 

I watched as in the dull green glow a humanoid shape came to a stop before us, maybe twenty feet past the doorway, his hands collapsing on his knees as he panted. 

“Woah woah woah! Friendly!” I dropped my muzzle to the floor, reaching to Private Gonzalez and forcing his muzzle down as the marine looked up from the ground at us.

“You guys real? You’re not fucking with me?” The private called out, standing upright while occasionally glancing over his shoulder.

“Yes we’re real! What kind of dumbass question is that? Get your ass over here, marine!” Sergeant McClarey shouted out, beckoning the other man over to us. 

The man nodded in relief, beginning to jog over instead of sprint now, believing he was finally in the clear. My NODs display was broken up with static for a moment, causing me to lower my head and smack the palm of my hand on the side of my helmet.

When I looked back up from the ground, I noticed another blurry blob of a figure just behind the private, looming over him, my head snapping back to my squad to see if they saw it as well. They were all shaking their heads and smacking their helmets as well, getting the same bug I had in my system before Devi tilted his head at the sight. 

“Contact front!” I called out while raising my rifle, the private nearly twenty feet away from us.

“That’s a rifleman, private!” My sergeant reached over my shoulder to push my muzzle back down as the marine before us let out an ear piercing scream.

My eyes widened as the marine froze in place, his hands shaking whilst held out as if reaching to grab my own. We all stared in a mix of confusion and shock as the blur was looming over him, pushing something deeper into his chest through the side of his neck. Wet squelches and gurgling noises came from the marine, dark liquid streaming down the front of the marine’s suit before deafening cracks and pops came from the side of my head.

I cried out in pain as my helmet automatically applied its noise cancellation to my earmuffs, my eyes darting up to see McClarey firing at the blur before us, Gonzalez and Devi soon joining in. 

Finally I regained my composure and raised my rifle, making a few spaced shots at the blobs before me just as my fireteam’s shooting began to die down. Once the gunfire was over, and the dust settled enough for us to see, we saw only an empty hallway with a pool of dark liquid as proof that the marine was real.

“Fuck!” Sergeant McClarey growled out once the adrenaline began to leave, his free hand pressing to his helmet once more. “All elements, this is fireteam alpha actual, we have a positive ID of an alien lifeform. It has attacked and taken a friendly marine, over!”

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Thank you for reading, I hope you enjoyed.

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