Howling Wilderness: (Science Fiction Adventure by Ulysses Namon

Author:Ulysses Namon [Namon, Ulysses]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2023-07-02T16:00:00+00:00

The Hellbender followed the expedition’s chemical trail through the corridor. It didn’t know why they’d chosen this path over so many other possibilities. One of the Hellbender’s recon probes discovered a route that led back to the surface, but they’d chosen the largest and straightest. Simple-minded humans.

As focused as the robot was, it took note that in all probability, this structure was likely artificial just like everything else it had seen since finding that hatch. All chemical and bioscans indicated that the flora, fauna, and even this rock structure on Dasos were not produced by natural processes. In fact, the only things of natural origin inside these chambers and corridors were the expedition members themselves.

The Hellbender’s motion tracker detected a flicker of movement. Not much, just on the edge of its detection range. Something smaller than a human following in the shadows. All of the targets the combat bot was looking for were bigger than this contact. As the robot kept going, the bioscanner detected more of these creatures joining with the original. Whatever they were, they did not appear its profile database. The Hellbender started running system checks to determine how these new contacts were able to get so close without being detected.

The answer was an air current. The Hellbender finally detected the breeze heading down the corridor, and it was now upwind of the creatures following behind. They were cagey, though even as their numbers grew, they remained just out of sight. With night vision and thermal imaging active, an individual creature would still only appear every so often as it briefly darted from one side passageway to another.

At the end of the expedition’s chemical trail was an open shaft that dropped far out of sight and extended past the range of any sensor the Hellbender had at its disposal. That meant the shaft had to reach over ten miles at minimum. It noticed a mysterious light at the bottom as well, but none of that mattered. If that was where the expedition went, that was where the Hellbender would go as well.

With the absence of fear, the combat bot switched to bipedal mode and stepped off the edge.

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