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The Cradle

“There’s nothing normal about this.” Dr Wetherall grunted, watching Thebes’ video feed from underneath the lake. “Some of the fauna here is definitely outsize, but why?” Dr Ngata mused, watching the same footage. “It could be a combination of factors - perhaps an arms race at the top of the food chain? Or a big surplus of energy being used up, maybe? All just guesswork at the moment.”

Dr Wetherall nodded sagely before jumping back in. “Biology aside, I’m afraid we’re ill-equipped to analyse the ‘intelligence’ of that worm or any of the other creatures just now. All our artificial intelligence experts are stuck in the real world. I’m just a Systems tech who didn’t have the killer instinct to become a Terraformer or the connections to make it as a Builder.” Dr Ngata put an arm around his colleague. “He’s too modest! You also make a great cup of camomile tea, don’t you?” Dr Wetherall chuckled wearily, patting Dr Ngata on the back. “If you’ll stop dropping tissue samples in them, yes!”

595 kept quiet, but she could feel some type of external intelligence right at that second. It presented as more of a feeling than any discernible readout. Some icy presence cupping her face with their hands and staring into her eyes. Hungry? Yes... She looked around at the other members of the team; none of them appeared to have noticed. The icy hand turned her head back so it faced forward. Why do i see you, alone? 595 deactivated her implants and squeezed her eyes tightly shut for a couple of seconds. When she opened them again, the presence was gone.

“Speaking of which...perhaps we should work on the language divergence problem some more while we walk. What do you say? Could help us bring in more help when we set up camp.” Dr Wetherall asked Nirann, pulling up the latest workings on his suit’s wrist interface.

The Cradle

“Me too, droid! My armour can match what’s on my skin, but it’s forbidden during operations.” Carthage sighed, hefting her murderous little weapon and walking on. “Let’s hope it doesn’t come to that, Nirann. Let’s get going.” 595 chuckled in response to the imposing metal figure.

They advanced through the lakeside forest in dead silence. They were tightly packed together to avoid being picked off, apart from Rareth, and kept their weapons trained at all trees within a few metres of their formation. However they needn’t have bothered; the tree all remained perfectly statuesque, not taking the slightest bit of notice.

As they neared the far end of the basin, the trees thinned out. The team clambered carefully up a rock fall and then scaled the sheer cliffs two at a time. A slight breeze was wafting the humid air when Thebes completed their ascent.

They were on the right side of a rushing rapid. White foam coursed along the top of the water as it careened down a sharp slope and into the basin below. The path they were on wasn’t heading directly at the bright light on the mountainside, but there weren’t any other options immediately available. Smooth canyonsides loomed up on either side. “Let’s go.” Thebes ordered.

The Cradle

Carthage took her SMG back from Thebes; he’d kept it safe for her after she’d vacated her suit. She checked it over while walking to where all the gear was stashed. Athena met her in the middle - the sniper’s faceplate peeled back to reveal sparkling green eyes, an angular dark brown face and a relieved smile. Carthage and Athena locked hands and touched foreheads briefly. “You can’t get rid of me just yet.” Carthage grinned.

“The Datius is right. Get mobile everyone, we’re behind schedule.” Thebes concurred, moving to stand near Rareth with his rifle raised. “You should recon the waterfall, we’ll catch up.” He suggested.

“Nice tats.” 595 commented, moving to the centre and picking up the cargo she’d dropped during the firefight. Carthage looked at her. “Thanks, spook. It’s mood ink, so i actually can wear my heart on my sleeve.” The soldier stuck her tongue out, and 595 noticed it was separated for a few centimetres down the middle, like a snake. She glanced at Carthage’s whole body tattoos again and grunted with surprise.

The intricate artworks were all slowly moving around her body. An ancient bireme was sailing across choppy waters on her left arm, toward an enormous city of white buildings on a hill with a palace on top across her chest. A sea monster with too many limbs engulfed a lighthouse on the other arm. On that wrist, there was an anatomically correct Human heart, beating very rapidly.

“Very nice. You ok with your load?” 595 asked, shouldering her pack. “Yeah, i’ll be fine.” Carthage huffed, grabbing up some of the equipment but Athena took it off her. “You’re travelling light, we’ll share your load.” Memnon backed toward them, still training his repeater at the trees nearby. Athena hooked some of the webbing onto his armour.

595 looked at Nirann, who was all ready to move. “Good shooting back there. Are you at carrying capacity?”

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The Cradle

The creature fought a desperate rearguard action to keep the energy blade away from its body while it tried to escape. It’s fleshy body warped and elongated as it gradually wiggled down a tight hole underneath it. Eventually, it detached from the gigantic river delta tentacles that fed into the lake bed on either side, and completely disappeared.

What followed was an enormous explosion from Carthage’ suit self-destructing, which forced a jet of superheated vapour back up through the hole and into the air above the lake.

---

“We’re operational. The trees stopped moving just before that explosion. What was down there?” Knossos asked, helping 595 to her feet while he replied to Rareth. The Sacred Band were mostly looking out at the lake, and the giant plume of water.

The tree trying to bludgeon 595 to death had frozen in place, it’s tendrils loosening enough for her to slide right out onto the floor. She looked back at it; it had been an impressive specimen at the start of the fight. Now, targeted carbine shots from Nirann, still standing in the perfect centre of the group, had stripped it back to little more than a stump with a few core branches. They had held onto her for dear life, trying to choke their prey. But, they’d ultimately met their match in the Agent’s state of the art lightweight combat armour.

“Nothing good.” Thebes responded to Knossos’ questioning out loud, emerging from the lake in a cascade of water with Carthage still tucked around his waist. “But we got her out.” Carthage gasped for air, then grinned wolfishly and athletically uncoupled from her team leader. “Cry your filthy heart out, you alien bastard!” She roared triumphantly, dacning ecstatically around in a circle before spitting a big wad of phlegm into the lake. She then grasped Thebes’ arm in a respectful gesture, and pointed at Rareth. “Thank you both. For saving me.”

Carthage’s olive skin was covered in exquisite skin art, from neck to toe. Her short dark hair had lain pinned to the back of her head but now hung in wet clumps to her forehead, ears, and nape. Her eyes were jet black and she wore a tight navy-issue crop top, shorts and sole-covers.

595 helped Dr Ngata back to his feet. “Thank you, for helping.” She said, by way of reconciliation. He nodded solemnly, dusting himself off. “I’m sorry - for earlier. You were right, i..-” 595 put a comforting hand on his shoulder. “It’s okay, we’re all okay.” She was still angry at the scientist, but had to be careful with her emotions in here.

“Show us the feed. I wanna see.” 595 called, striding back towards Nirann and the rest of their gear.

The Cradle

The beast gurgled in distress, shuddering to try and shake off the assailants. With Rareth’s help, Thebes managed to regain his footing and haul Carthage some of the way out of the beak. Her suit was battered and sparking from where the jaws had crushed it. But try as they might, she wouldn’t come free entirely. The beak had locked in place, with just her head and torso protruding.

“My legs are stuck on it’s teeth!” Carthage yelled, just as the creature’s body dropped dramatically into the sediment. Where before they had to climb up the beast to get to the mouth, now it was level with the lakebed. Thebes looked around him and shot at a couple of tentacles. “We’re sinking.” He concluded grimly. He turned back to Carthage. “You’re going to have to eject your suit. I’ll carry you to the surface.” She nodded, and her suit started flashing red. “I’ll give the fucker something to chew on.”

It was Thebes’ turn to nod. He looked at Rareth and then back to Carthage. “On three, we’ll haul her out and then get clear. One, two, three!”

The creature fell further into the hole it was either sitting on top of, or busy digging, as the front of Carthage’s suit peeled neatly away. A cloud of bubbles erupted out and up to the surface as she lunged forward, pulled towards them by both arms. She wrapped her legs around Thebes midriff, and he savagely kicked the empty shell of her flashing suit. It fell fully into the creature’s mouth, and the beak sealed shut.

“Go, now!” Thebes called, turning and firing at the tentacles as they all rushed forward. Carthage pulled his sidearm out and joined in. Thebes set his jet pack to use everything it had and pushed off toward the side of the lake, near the top.

The propulsion unit kicked in, shooting them through the water above the creature like a missile, milliseconds before tentacles collided where they’d been standing.

The Cradle

The tentacles swept across the lakebed, coming at Thebes and Rareth like wrecking balls travelling at the speed of sound. Under the water and this close to the source, they didn’t fully unfurl. Instead, they packed together like fleshy fists, trying to kill its prey before eating it.

Thebes used his suit’s propulsion unit to juke left out of the way of the initial crushing blow, but another smaller tentacle tripped him up. He dragged his energy dagger along the side of it on the way down; blue-black ichor sprayed all over Thebes armour, the tentacle wiggling frantically away.

Floating back to his feet, Thebes was buffeted by the mace coming free of the lakebed beside him. Jetting above the writhing tentacle mace, he unholstered his rifle and shot down at the mass with one hand. It reacted quickly, flicking up at him. The mace clipped his legs, sending the soldier spinning head over heels toward the beast’s mouth.

“Rareth, keep it occupied; I’m going to free Carthage.” Thebes ordered, firing at the creature’s mouth whenever his spinning trajectory granted him a line of sight. Another of the tentacles rushed in to grab his floating form, so Thebes activated another little burst on his projector pack, shooting him out of the way. The current took him perfectly to the top of the creature’s main body, where he had to pump the brakes to avoid crashing into the thing’s beak.

He clunked over to Carthage, who was trapped in the corner of the mouth, firing up at the tentacles ranging to attack them. “Carthage, assessment.” Thebes called, turning to fire upon the tentacles as well. “My suit legs are all messed up. This thing is chewing them.” Carthage grunted. “There’s a spot in this thing’s throat that it doesn’t like getting shot, but i can’t do that and move away.”

“Understood, let’s do it together.” Thebes said, just as another tentacle returned from the surface of the lake and smashed into both of them from above. Thebes considerable heft bounced against Carthage’s suit, giving her the shove she needed to dislodge. “I’m falling!” She yelled alongside the system alarms pinging in his ears. Thebes quickly bent down and grabbed her hand as she fell in. The beak grinded up against Carthage’ suit, trying to crush her. She yelled out.

The same tentacle that had done the damage tried to finish the job, jabbing Thebes to remove him from the mouth area. He held on, anchored in place by his grip on his teammate.

The Cradle

Athena was already bounding through the fireball when Thebes gave the order. Her railgun had collapsed down into its most compact version and now operated as a shotgun. Instead of firing one tungsten round over vast distances, it burst it into a dozen pellets with devastating stopping power. She pushed Dr Wetherall down onto the floor and crouched over him. “Steady on! What’re you doing?!” He asked, trying to look up at her. “Stay down.” She commanded, shredding an oncoming vine, and then another.

Knossos crashed through a wall of branches moments after it closed shut, separating the Sacred Band from 595 and Dr Ngata. The tree which had grabbed the agent was on fire and weakening fast, but it seemed determined to finish off the Agent. It was waving her around like a rag doll, with the xenobiologist desperately hanging onto her legs. “It can’t throw us both in!” He shouted.” 595 had riddled the bough with her energy pistol, but still couldn’t wiggle free. Knossos ran over, ducking under a branch which threatened to knock him out, and grabbed onto the limb holding the Agent. “Ngata, pull her in 3, 2, 1!” He grunted, heaving with all his might.

Thebes crashed into the murky water, dodging the tentacles which seemed to lose sight of him and head ashore to attack his team instead. “Watch out, big branches coming from the water!” He called. “Copy that, I’ve got em.” Memnon replied, hefting his sap-covered repeater and opening fire on the tentacles while branches tried in vain to lift him.

Getting back to his feet, Thebes shared a quick nod with Rareth before diving under the water. He struck out powerfully from the shore, heading quickly downwards toward the bottom. It took a few seconds for his vision to adjust, and he had to take a moment to assess what was actually there once he could see.

An enormous sea creature that struck Thebes as a fleshy, off-white lotus flower sat at the bottom of the lake. It’s main body looked a couple of hundred metres in diameter, and it had dozens of thick arms protruding from the sides of it’s body. These arms split into hundreds of smaller limbs that dug into the earth on both sides of the lake. “It must be controlling all those trees.” Thebes realised out loud as they both plunged down towards it. “There she is. Carthage, come in!” Her suit lights flailed in the deep darkness, right next to a gaping beak filled with sharp teeth. “GET OUT OF HERE!” The female soldier yelled, just as energy rounds from her SMG arced across the creature’s mouthparts.

Circling the monster’s maw were eight long, thick tentacles. Three of them had already risen to the surface to destroy the humans up top. The remaining five jostled for position to knock the human it had tried to eat into its mouth. Carthage had lodged herself in the corner of the thing’s mouth, and Thebes thought it looked to be trying to force her fully inside. “Hold on, we’re coming!” Thebes snapped, falling like a stone toward her. Just then, three of the tentacles stopped circling Carthage and rocketed through the water toward them.

The Cradle

Dr Wetherall fell out of the tree and clattered to the floor at Carthage’ feet. She drew her knife and slashed at a few oncoming branches. Wary now, they stayed just out of reach, the blue orbs studying her and Rareth. Then, the entire tree lunged forward, swatting Rareth away and scooping up the slender Human soldier in its clutches.

It rose back up to full height, creaked backwards, and shot Carthage out like a rock from a slingshot toward the lake. Just as she flew into the air, the charges she’d primed detonated inside the mess of tree branches, creating a massive fireball that cauterised the site. The entire valley seemed to reverberate with angry screams.

Carthage gracefully sailed through the air, preparing to plunge feet first into the shallows of the lake. That is until a long, fleshy tentacle with the same pale colour as the trees burst from the depths and grabbed her. “Uh oh.” She had time to say, before the tentacle vanished back into the water with her secured to the end of it.

“Carthage, come in!” Thebes called, savagely slicing through razor-sharp vines in the middle of the ruckus. “Athena, secure Dr Wetherall! Knossos, help Dr Ngata! Rest of you, Focus fire on the trees! I’m going after her.” He burst through the swirling mass of branches, some of them on fire, onto the ‘beach’ of the lake. As if to greet him, three more large tentacles emerged from the choppy water and rushed toward him. “Oh shit.” He growled, diving to one side.

The Cradle

“Why did you do that?” Dr Ngata complained, looking at the agent as she holstered her pistol. “I was watching it, and that creature wasn’t going to attack us; believe me. If anything, it was trying to-” 595 quickly rounded on the scientist, cutting him off. “Let’s get one thing straight, ok? If you see something, ANYTHING, moving in the area, you let the rest of us know. Not after you’ve had a chance to study it, not once you’ve added it to your codex, right-a-fucking-way. All our lives depend on it. You got that?”

“I’m trying to help us all out, you crazy bitch! Analysing the fauna before you shoot the fuck out of it will give clues as to what other kinds of organisms might live here!” Dr Ngata shot back, violently poking the agent’s breastplate with one suited finger. “Or would you rather we all traipse around here with our thumbs in our asses and no idea which way is up?” 595 slapped the man’s finger away from her. “Don’t give me that; It’s our job to keep you safe! And in a place like this, we can only do that by assuming everything is hostile until proven otherwise. And now we need to add the trees to that list too!”

“Umm, guys...what are these trees up to?” Dr Wetherall interrupted. 595 and Dr Ngata both looked at the other scientist. He was in between Carthage and Athena, with his back to both of them. They were all looking at one of the trees. A noticeable creaking, rustling sound hadn’t stopped since the plant had grabbed that winged beast. Now, all of it’s blue luminescent orbs had turned to face them. The branches weren’t droopy anymore, but rigid and alert, like the tree was shocked to see them. Scanning the area, 595 noticed all the other trees were doing the same.

“We need to move. Now!” Thebes barked. 595 drew her pistol again as they began jogging raggedly in formation. They only made it a few dozen steps, passing a couple more of the trees before all hell broke loose.

Four trees, one on each point of the compass, all lunged forward as one. Their branches engulfed the team, grabbing at arms, heads, legs, weapons, everything. Comms erupted as everyone began shouting at once, and gunfire exploded in 595’s ears.

Right in front of her she saw two strong branches grab each of Dr Wetherall’s ankles, pull him off his feet and drag him out of formation towards one of the trees. Carthage leapt forward and grabbed one of the scientist’s hands as the branches pulled him off the floor and into the air. With her other hand, Carthage shot wildly up into the tree limbs.

Another offshoot wrapped around 595’s midriff and her suit’s pressure alarm blared. She shot her pistol straight down through the branch as it dragged her backwards toward the water. Gouts of blue flame rushed past her face from Memnon’s arm cannon, setting the tree behind her ablaze. A shrill squealing sound filled the whole basin, emanating from the tree as the orbs burst and from the lake. The grip around 595’s waist lessened, but didn’t give way.

Dr Ngata wiggled free of the thin stem wrapped around his wrist and ran for the agent, diving to grab her feet and slow the drag down. “SHOOT IT!” He screamed at her. “I’m fucking trying! Grab the knife from my right thigh!” 595 shouted back, pumping energy into the bough around her body.