Chapter 31: Ch. 31 True Death
Mars
In the brightly lit Atrium Beta, Drake took a moment to survey their surroundings, his eyes scanning the once-familiar room that now played tricks on their perception. The holographic display above the stage continued its cycling images of Mars, seemingly unfazed by the disconcerting situation.
Falken's hushed voice cut through the uneasy silence,
"Brother..."
Drake turned to him, his gaze meeting Falken's, awaiting the continuation of his brother's thoughts. However, Falken trailed off, his expression under his helmet a mix of concern and uncertainty.
"Seems we've fallen into a snare," Drake calmly responded, surprising even himself with the steadiness of his tone. He glanced around the room, confirming that the door on the other side of the room still remained, and the door at the back of the stage was still open.
"The only thing I can think is that the exit is still here; something is altering our perception of reality somehow," Drake continued, his analytical mind trying to make sense of the situation.
Falken questioned,
"So you think some kind of tech is making it a wall to our minds?"
Drake shrugged, acknowledging the speculative nature of his assessment.
"Just a guess. It's either that or we've really stepped in it, and one of the Empire's Blessed are here, using their gift to fuck us."
The mere mention of the Blessed sent a shiver down Falken's spine. He knew well of the Empire's claim to these extraordinary individuals, each possessing powers that defied nature itself. Falken's mind flashed back to the memory of killing a single Thrasher, an encounter that had left them both in the infirmary for over a month.
"Freaks of nature, all of them," Falken thought, the memory lingering in the recesses of his mind. The Thrasher fight had been the single hardest and closest they had ever come to death. The rumor persisted that it took three coordinated teams of Thrashers to take down one combat-oriented Blessed freak. If one of the Pale Feather Blessed were here...
Falken abruptly halted the train of thought, a sense of dread settling over him. He didn't want to entertain the possibility.
Drake let out a resigned sigh before responding.
"Well, we are already caught. We could play its game and venture deeper into this place."
Drake's gaze shifted to his brother, both of them locked in a silent exchange of understanding. After a moment, Drake nodded, acknowledging the gravity of the situation.
"Yeah, I don't like that either. But unless you have a bomb that can blow this wall, I don't think we have any other choice."
Falken blinked, processing Drake's words. Then, with a mischievous glint in his eyes, he replied,
"Well, I don't have a bomb, but I have something like it."
Without further explanation, Falken delved into his pack, retrieving the small device he had been casually tossing around before the mission.
Drake's incredulous response cut through the tense atmosphere,
"You were tossing around a bomb?!"
Falken, unfazed, pressed a few buttons on the device while explaining, "Give me some credit; it's not armed. And it's not exactly a bomb; it's a small Emberspace drive, brand new tech I ripped from that fancy ship. Super compact."
Drake, still grappling with the audacity of his brother's actions, was interrupted as Falken confidently pressed a final button on the side of the device and declared, "Now it is armed."
The realization of Falken's improvised solution sank in, and a glimmer of admiration flickered in Drake's eyes.
With a bemused shake of his head, Drake approached Falken, acknowledging his brother's ingenuity with a faint laugh. "Great job. I'll watch your back, plant the thing, and blow it." With those words, Drake positioned himself in front of Falken, putting himself in between the rest of the room and his brother.
As Falken knelt down to place the armed Emberspace drive, Drake scanned the room once more. The unsettling feeling in his stomach had reached its crescendo. Questions swirled in his mind—why was he feeling this way? What was manipulating their perceptions? The uncertainty clawed at him, creating a disconcerting backdrop to their predicament.
In an instant, as if summoned by the thoughts, one of those faceless figures materialized on the stage. The featureless silhouette stood in eerie silence, its presence sending a chill down Drake's spine.
Without hesitation, Drake unleashed a beam of energy from his Aurum Beam-caster towards the faceless creature. Accompanied by an odd metallic screech, the beam pierced the stage, boring a hole straight through the gray material. However, the faceless entity had instantly shifted, reappearing three feet to the right of where the beam had struck. The disconcerting part was the doorway at the back of the stage, which seemed to be growing in size, undergoing a bizarre transformation that defied the laws of reality. The concrete stretched and cracked as if forcibly altered by an unseen force.
Recognizing the urgency of the situation, Drake wasted no time. With another metallic screech, he fired again and again at the elusive figure. However, the faceless creature continued its unnerving dance, effortlessly evading the beams. Frustration etched Drake's features as he grappled with the enigmatic adversary.
It wasn't until a second beam, this time from Falken's Aurum Beam-caster, connected with the creature just as it rematerialized. Drake glanced down at his brother, and Falken gave him a short nod.
At that moment, Drake couldn't help but think, "Lucky fuck guessed where it was going to reappear."
The twins remained locked in a high-stakes dance with the inexplicable; their every move met with an eerie counterplay from the faceless entity.
The creature now sported a gaping hole in its chest, and an inky black liquid spilled out of the wound; however, the wound didn't seem to slow it down. Recognizing the futility of the ongoing struggle, Falken made a quick decision. He grabbed Drake, propelling them both away from the Emberspace drive while still firing at the faceless figure, which bizarrely remained stationed on the stage.
The brothers reached the door on the opposite side of the atrium just as a blinding white light erupted from where Falken had planted the Emberspace drive. Golden flames enveloped the wall, punching a hole through the concrete and the rock beyond. The ground quaked from the force of the explosion, sending shockwaves reverberating in every direction. Through the deafening cacophony, Falken could hear Drake's shout, "What the fuck?!"
As Falken turned his attention to where Drake was shooting, he saw an awful sight.
From the expanded dark doorway at the rear of the stage, an imposing figure emerged. Towering at over nine feet, the humanoid entity possessed a rust-red complexion that seemed to flicker with an unsettling luminescence. Its entire form was a grotesque canvas adorned with writhing faces of unknown creatures, each contorted in agony and fused to its body. A cacophony of screams echoed from the multitude of faces embedded within its flesh, creating an otherworldly chorus that sent shivers down Falken's spine.
In a frantic rush, Falken managed to hoist himself and his brother to their feet. Urgency gripped him as he screamed at Drake,
"WE NEED TO GO!"
However, Drake appeared transfixed, his gaze locked onto the monstrous apparition. The pieces of a horrifying revelation fell into place in Drake's mind – the ominous feeling that had haunted him this entire time wasn't a mere dread of the mission but a foreboding of this malevolent being, a harbinger of his death.
Fueled by desperation, Falken seized his brother, dragging him towards the breach they had created in the chamber. Aghast, Falken glanced back, and horror seized him as inky black tendrils began to snake their way across the opening, weaving a tapestry of distorted reality and stitching the hole back together.
Determined, Falken planted his feet, exerting every ounce of strength to pull his brother through, but with each passing moment, the passage diminished.
As their singular means of escape dwindled, Falken heard Drake gasp. Swinging around, Falken witnessed Drake rising on his own, pushing Falken aside with a sudden surge of strength. Falken tumbled through the shrinking breach, landing with a disorienting thud. When he looked up, dread washed over him as he beheld Drake, levitating in apparent defiance of gravity.
To Falken's horror, the rust-colored figure extended its hand towards Drake, orchestrating his eerie levitation. The black tendrils intensified, cinching the exit smaller and smaller, leaving Falken powerless against the encroaching nightmare. The looming creature closed in on Drake, nearing the point of contact.
Falken, fueled by desperation, aimed his Aurum Beam-caster at the creature and discharged a searing beam of energy. The attack successfully severed the extended arm of the creature, accompanied by an unearthly screech. Yet, in the same breath, the beam-caster succumbed to a catastrophic malfunction from the tumble, erupting in golden flames that engulfed Falken's arm in excruciating pain.
Falken's agonized cry pierced the air as the searing flames enveloped his arm. Frantically, he attempted to quell the inferno, each passing second intensifying the searing pain. After an excruciating ten seconds that felt like an eternity, Falken finally managed to extinguish the golden flames, but the damage was already done. The relentless fire had burnt through his EVA suit, rendering his arm a charred and useless mass.
Falken gritted his beak against the searing pain in his burnt arm as he swiftly retrieved a small device from his pouch. The armband, designed for emergency situations, was a lifeline in this dire moment. Suppressing his cry of pain, he secured the band around his charred wrist and activated it. A golden field shot up from the bracelet, connecting to key points on his EVA suit, pressurizing it and temporarily stemming the breach caused by the flames. The relief was palpable, but Falken's focus shifted back to the unfolding horror.
Glancing through the small hole, Falken's heart sank at the sight of the red, horrifying creature, now upright. With its remaining arm, the entity had placed it over Drake's face, and an ominous sense of dread settled over Falken. In a nightmarish seven seconds that felt like an eternity, Drake's screams of agony pierced the air, sending shivers down Falken's spine. His brother's blood-curdling, gut-wrenching cries echoed in the confined space, etching a place in Falken's mind forever.
Falken could only watch in absolute horror as his brother's face collapsed in on itself, the features distorting and disappearing into his head. The creature's grip seemed to violate the very essence of Drake's existence. The stump at the creature's shoulder, where Falken had severed its arm, became a grotesque canvas where his brother's face, beak, and all grew and contorted in pain.
Then, with a surreal finality, the hole through which Falken observed this nightmare was sealed shut. The room returned to an eerie silence, the echoes of Drake's screams lingering in Falken's mind like a haunting refrain. Staring at the now-sealed breach, Falken's mind reeled, grappling with the indescribable horror he had just witnessed. Falken stood up on shaky legs and started to move, shifting into autopilot, trying to refrain from going mad.
As Falken stumbled out of the cave's mouth, battered and broken, a crackly voice cut through the unsettling silence in his comms. It was Soonie.
"Falken, kid, do you read me? A storm whipped up outside; you need to return."
Responding through gritted teeth, Falken conveyed the grim reality, his pain evident in the shaky undertones of his voice,
"Yeah, I read you. I'm hurt bad, and something got Drake. I'm sending you my ping. I need help."
Soonie's response came with a note of confusion,
"Huh? Uh, you said you're injured? I'm coming out, kid."
Falken continued his unsteady descent down the mountain, the dusty winds swirling around him, blurring his vision. He knew the general direction of the ship, but his ability to stay upright was waning.
As Falken fought against the pain and exhaustion, a dust storm began to pick up on the mountainside. The echoes of his brother's agonizing screams reverberated in his mind, providing an eerie motivation to keep moving. He stumbled over a larger rock, falling to his knees. With sheer determination, he used his one functioning arm to lift himself up and press on, each step an agonizing effort.
Suddenly, through the dusty tempest, a figure emerged. It was Soonie, clad in an EVA suit. Without hesitation, she moved to Falken's side, slipping under his good arm for support. Her voice cut through the howling wind,
"I gotcha, kid. Holy hell, that don't look good."
Together, they navigated the treacherous descent; slowly but surely, they made their way back to the Pin Feather.
Soonie guided Falken to one of the seats in the Pin Feather, urging him to sit down. Immediately, she went for the first aid kit, her movements swift and purposeful. As the Pin Feather's door hissed shut, sealing the atmosphere within the ship, Falken hazily used his good hand to fumble with his helmet. After a struggle, he managed to free himself from the confinement of the EVA suit.
Returning with a box, Soonie pressed a button on it, deploying a Medi-Sentry that glided over to Falken. The Medi-Sentry deactivated the emergency field and began scanning Falken's injured arm. Meanwhile, Soonie removed her own helmet, revealing her distinctive plumage of purple and red, along with piercing red eyes. She fixed a grave gaze on Falken and questioned, "What the hell happened in there? As soon as you went in, we lost all comms with you."
Falken, gritting his beak through the pain of the Medi-Sentry's examination, began to recount the harrowing events,
"We made it to this terrarium hallway, lots of plants and shit, but past there, we found this atrium, stage and all. This weird fucking faceless creature appeared, and then... this big fucking monster. It... it got Drake... holy fuck... that thing... it killed my brother. It... it was warping our perceptions, Soonie. I hurt it though, took its arm, but... it... the fucking thing..it took..."
Anticipating the rising distress in Falken's voice, Soonie raised her hand toward him, "Breathe, kid, breathe. You're not making any sense. Who are you talking about? Who is Drake?"
To his maddening horror, Falken slowly looked up and saw only concern on Soonie's face.
Weekly Power Status
-- Power
Ranking 
-- Power
stone