Our calls were unanswered, the words drowned out by the howling wind. I cursed, and slung my lasgun over my shoulder. Elara did it as I did, out of habit. However, I did not even need to look back to know she was apprehensive. 

She voiced her concerns just as I predicted. "Sir, I don't advise we-"  

"Our men are down there." I cut her off. Elara might be lax when it came to fraternization, but she was responsible when it counted. However, when it was needed, I was not. "Get on the vox and call it in. We can worry on who's listening in later. Just don't advertise I'm with you. If they're ours, they'll already know." 

There was a moment's hesitation, before a burst of static and Elara's voice ringing in. "Forward unit to base, unit two is missing. We have found their trail." She rattled off brief coordinates as I began the slow descent down the wintry slope. The decline was rather sharp, but the indention made by the falling men showed the hard ground was not too far beneath the snow, and it was far less than impossible. Despite the wind and the blood on the trail, only a few feet to my right the thirty meters we descended, it wasn't that unpleasant of an experience. Perhaps it was a small way of coping with the unexpected violence, but I was reminded of one of the few times in my life I appreciated my father. We were on the trail of a large Primus Deer in the Askian mountains, and spent three days tracking through the snow. His endurance had been inspiring, leading me out of the wilds with our prize in tow. It only made my resentment of him that much greater, and the wish to outdo him.

The decline ended in a sharp, ten foot drop. Unfortunately, I did not know that, and slipped, falling the ten feet onto an embankment of snow. Elara slowed to a stop above me, calling out if I was alright. It was mostly my pride that was wounded.

"It was deliberate!" I called, hastily getting to my feet. My tailbone ached, but otherwise I was fine. "Didn't want you to go first." 

"Such a gentleman," she responded diplomatically, dropping down next to me with far more grace. She added, "sir" as she patted herself down. 

However, the limited flat ground we found ourselves on looked to be the natural porch to some sort of roughly hewed tunnel in the ground. The tunnel was large enough for the both of us to walk in abreast, and the curiosity of its existence was superseded when, as the wind died down, we were granted a clearer picture of the first few meters of the mysterious cavern. What I saw then brought a shock of terror down my spine, and I gaped. Beside me, Elara gasped.

"Throne above, what could have done this?" I asked breathlessly, stepping forward, lasgun held high. 

On the floor of the tunnel's mouth, I saw what looked like the remnants of a kill. It was chunks of bloodied meat and bone, a visceral collage of slaughter. Someone or something had taken a chainsword or something equally as deadly, and had hacked this victim apart so violently, I would have never guessed it had once been human, did I not see tatters of our uniform in the pile of gore. 

Our horror was interrupted by another scream down the tunnel, shattering our focus. I recognized the voice. "It's Carigen!" I yelled, which meant the poor soul before our feet was Colfax. I glanced at Elara, and despite the fear in her eyes, I knew she was with me. "Let's move." 

We stepped past poor Colfax, keeping silent with our lasguns raised. I flipped mine to full auto, and despite my earlier claim being a bluster, I refused to get behind Elara. She did not look to be complaining, and I wondered just what had made this tunnel in the mountain. It did not look like something carved by man, but it was too big to be an animal's burrow, even a large animal. The ground was almost perfectly flat, as if blades had evened most of the inconsistencies in the earth. We couldn't move quickly, because despite the symmetrical tunnel, the darkness was quickly closing in. Twelve meters in, even the light reflected off the ice and snow was getting dim, but we heard a wet, squelching in the dark. The sound turned my stomach, but when I activated the illuminator mounted on my lasgun, something I had been loathe to do before to give away our position, I was faced with another of my men meeting a terrible fate. 

The upper body of Carigen shook gently, his face a mask of distress and terror. It faced us as if expecting our arrival in a grisly welcome. I turned my light to the left, but whatever had been devouring the lower half of the trooper moved quicker than I could react. I pulled the trigger, a stream of lasbolts erupting from the barrel with loud [i]CRACK[/i]s that echoed off the tunnel walls, hitting the floor where the beast had been a moment before. I only saw pieces of it. Scythe-like protrusions along the back, a slick, armored hide, I couldn't be sure how many limbs. It rushed down another tunnel, and to my surprise I found we were at an underground crossroads, five different tunnels leaving a central chamber. I stepped over Carigen and returned to firing down the tunnel the abomination had sped down. I couldn't be sure if I heard a cry of pain. I believe I did, but Elara was at my side, begging us to go.  

I knew she was right. Both men dead, and I couldn't be sure I had killed...whatever the hells it was. I ripped Carigen's dogtag off his corpse, and together we ran back into the snowy landscape. We needed to warn the others, and we likely needed a bloody drink as well.