Amalgam by Mike Duke

Author:Mike Duke [Duke, Mike]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: SPACE YETI Publishing
Published: 2021-08-12T00:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER 13

“Griggs!” Cody shouted over the comms. “We’re coming out the south entrance with our hair on fire and a bogey burning up our ass.”

“Copy that, sir,” Griggs responded and thumbed the safety off. He gritted his teeth and ground his boots into the rocky surface.

Moments later, the door opened, and Teams One and Two piled out at a sprint. Unlike the untrained workers in the cafeteria, they were disciplined enough to not jockey for position and slow the group down. Griggs saw orange flames flash and glow, illuminating the airlock as the interior door shut behind them. Cody dragged Stu outside and closed the outer door. They took off across the rocky terrain for the landing pad, a good two-hundred-meter sprint in full suit before them.

“Brandon,” Cody called out over their comms. “Make sure that bastard follows us, then stand guard and make sure it doesn’t try to get back in.”

“Copy loud and clear, boss,” Brandon said. “But I don’t think there’s going to be any problem getting it to follow you, though.”

Cody and the others had only made it fifty meters when the outer airlock door blew off its tracks and tumbled across the planet’s surface. The alien monstrosity exited, contorted and morphed, adapting its form to the open space. Once it stood at full height, the nightmarish colossus took off for them at a gallop, its movements awkward but far faster than Cody had anticipated.

Griggs squeezed the trigger and unleashed hell. A barrage of explosive shells impacted the gelatinous medium, embedding themselves into it before exploding. The thing’s amalgamated flesh warped and splayed, shrapnel burrowing paths through it that sealed up moments later. Nearby human components within were shredded, but overall, the grenades had little to no effect. The heads folded up like flower buds before they bloom, and the alien charged at Griggs. Despite his continued fire, the creature did not slow or deviate from its course.

“Get out of there, Griggs!” Cody shouted.

“Too late, boss man,” he said with calm acceptance. “Fuck you, motherfucker!” he screamed and held the trigger down. Grenade after grenade launched into the thing but to no avail. He yelled long and loud as several small tentacles shot forward and wrapped around his HEVO suit, snatched him into the air, and proceeded to whip Griggs about, slamming him into the rocky surface over and over. His suit ruptured and split. The tentacles gripped and pried, opening his suit up like an octopus going after an oyster or clam. They pulled him out piece by piece while on the move, assimilating his mass and leaving the shattered suit behind.

“Stu, Bryant, Maynard,” Cody yelled in sequence, “whatever you do, do not stop running for the ship. That’s an order.”

Cody dropped the rifle and pulled the large weapon off his back. He activated the tripod and set the plasma cannon in place. Every step the colossal creature took shook the ground and rattled the weapon, but Cody acquired his target and squeezed the trigger. A ball of green plasma energy discharged from the barrel and swelled in size to a meter in diameter.

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