Volume 5: Gamma-20, Chapter 5.30

Gamma-20 looked back and forth between me and Roote, then just turned her glowing gaze on me—as though Roote wasn’t even worth considering.

“You really think you can stand against me, mister anomaly?” She said tauntingly.

Me and Roote were formed up tight behind our repulser barriers, keeping our weapons aimed at her face, “You want to know what’s my deal—why you smell another Predazoan on me?” I asked her.

Gamma-20 flashed me a vicious smile, long rows of razor-sharp fangs framed by the huge mandibles, “You’re just trying to stall for your friends.”

I nodded, “Duh, but you’re curious nonetheless.”

Gamma-20 narrowed her glowing yellow eyes at me, then settled down on the ground almost like a massive housecat, “Go on.”

I gestured to myself, “I know Alpha-03; I call her Eve, she’s my mate.”

Gamma-20 leaned back quickly, looking like the confession startled her—almost like she was afraid, “You’re lying!”

Roote chanced a brief glance my way, probably wondering what I was going for.

Honestly I didn’t really have a plan at this point, just trying to buy time like I admitted—no idea what else we could do.

I shook my head, “You’re telling me you can’t smell the difference between the Predazoans? It’s obviously an Alpha Predazoan stench that’s on me.”

“Why would my big sister care about something as insignificant as you?” She demanded.

I smiled then, “I became her new Prime after you all escaped from NX-947b; she reached perfection when she consumed human biomass and took the form of my mate.”

Gamma-20 fully stood up then and hissed at me, “You’re lying! You’re a vile deceiver; there’s no way some pitiful mortal could become the center of her supremacy drive, no way she would ever take you as a mate, and no way she’s already achieved perfection!” She shrieked.

I shrugged, “If that’s what you think.” I said, then fired my rifle at her.

Obviously she’d been expecting it and jumped over us and the repulser barriers. Moving fast, I spun my barrier around just in time to block a swipe from her tail, then followed up by shooting her hindleg.

She screeched as the acid burned into her, and when she spun after me, I noticed she was moving slower than before, and since the acid destabilized her cellular structure, she couldn’t immediately regenerate from the injury.

Roote followed up with a steady stream from his plasma torch, burning away at the spot of flesh that was dissolving thanks to the acid. She shrieked again as the plasma on top of the acid seemed to cause her terrible pain.

She jumped over us on the other side of the catwalk on top of another row of smaller tanks, but she was moving slow enough now I could more easily track her movements, and I followed up by shooting her leg again, totally debilitating her.

Gamma-20 hissed and screamed her otherworldly fury, and she tried to dodge around us again, moving even slower, and I couldn’t help but feel a brief flash of hope in thinking maybe I could cripple her enough to slow her down to the point I would stand a real chance against her.

But I was a fool to think I could ever cripple a Predazoan; sparing no time at all, Gamma-20 simply ripped off her hindleg while it was being burned away by the acid, then she threw the huge chunk of meat after us.

The force of the leg getting thrown into our repulser shields was enough to drain away the energy of Roote’s barrier and disable it, so we were forced to split up then; I quickly grabbed my barrier and rushed around a corner and turned it into a portable shield once more, holding it in front of me as though it was the only thing that would save me now. In response to our desperation, Gamma-20 let out a shrill, taunting laugh.

“Don’t run away little bug; show me why Alpha-03 has claimed you.” She said in a mocking tone.

I took a deep breath to control my nerves, then ran back around the same corner to confront Gamma-20, only to find she wasn’t there—couldn’t see Roote anywhere either.

But I heard his scream.

I ran through the little maze of tanks on the catwalk, hearing his scream echo all around so I couldn’t pinpoint his location. He screamed again, then again, and a third time I heard him call out my name, and then his final scream barely sounded like it would belong to a person—but it was right around the corner this time.

I was sure I was too late, but there was no way I could abandon him; I rounded the next corner to find Roote’s blocky head still attached to his thick, alien spinal column, looking like it was straight-up pulled out of his body—blood and gore splashed over everything around it.

“Fuck, no, Roote.” I said, rushing over to the head even knowing there was nothing I could do.

But of course, that’s what Gamma-20 had been planning on, and I didn’t need some keen sense of danger to know it was a trap; at the last minute I held the repulser barrier above my head to protect me as Gamma-20 came crashing down on top of me.

She screeched and laughed all the while, finding my attempts to defend against her quite pitiful. She assailed me with her tentacles, swiped at me with her claws, even tried to bite the shield that was protecting me.

Still, I held on tight, scrambling to move in time to catch her attacks; it seemed like she was just playing with me now—like a giant cat, and I was the mouse, helpless before her ferocity.

“Warning! Warning! Inner-tank failsafe confirmed; please evacuate the area before finalizing the purge. Warning! Warning!” I heard the robotic voice announce all around us, with flashing yellow lights framing the ceiling of the main tank.

Gamma-20 hissed in anger, finally pausing in her relentless assault, and I took the window to shoot her in the chest with the acid rounds—hitting her with a solid multi-bullet burst.

Gamma-20 shrieked again and jumped far away from me, screaming and cursing all the while. In the distance I could see Willa and Durgo rushing towards me, frantic and desperate to get the hell out of here now—the thought of fighting the Predazoan definitely abandoned.

“Go, hurry to the door! Someone needs to escape no matter what!” Durgo insisted.

My conscience got the better of me then, and even though I knew I could easily escape without the others slowing me down, I just didn’t have it in me to abandon anyone now.

Instead, I met them halfway and covered them from behind while we all started for the exit together.

“You’re a fool Adam!” Durgo hissed through his voice modulator, “The mission should always take priority even—”

“Oh, will you just shut the fuck up!?” Willa snapped.

Before I could add anything else, Gamma-20 slammed down in the middle of us, pushing us all apart as we defended against her with our repulser shields. Gamma-20 looked worse than I thought she would from just a few shots to the chest; the acid rounds must’ve been even more effective than I first thought.

The Predazoan looked absolutely livid, yellow eyes blazing with fury, the front of her carapace was still smoldering and bubbling away. She wasn’t in the mood to play anymore, no time for jokes or even threats; without another comprehensible word, she shrieked at us so loud it caused me to fall back on my knees.

I aimed the carbine rifle at her, but Gamma-20 batted it away easily, knocking it out of my hands. Then, she stood up as tall as she could, and she seemed to expand slightly, then her body just ripped in half down the middle—head to tail along her spine. The strange weasel-centipede body fell away as a massive black orb with hundreds of yellow eyes and circular lamprey mouths pulled itself out of the old shell by a hundred dark tentacles that had a strange iridescent glow to them—like a huge version of her drone forms with khrona crystals melted into her flesh.

“Split up, it’s the only way—” Durgo started, but Gamma-20 snatched him up in a dozen tentacles and simply flung him away from us as though he weighed nothing.

“Form up, back-to-back!” Will ordered, and we closed in together with our repulser shields protecting us in a tight sphere.

Gamma-20 shrieked at us with her hundred mouths sounding like a chorus of banshees, whipping into our shields with her tentacles, causing the barrier to flash out wildly.

“We’re not going to last long like this!” Willa said.

I looked around quickly with my enhanced perception and saw the carbine rifle was only a few dozen feet away.

“Willa, go for the rifle, I’ll draw her attention.” I told her.

Willa looked back at me, “What are you—”

I moved away from Willa, activated both of my proton blades, and then rushed forward to confront Gamma-20 head-on.

She shrieked and slashed at me, and I ducked and danced around her tentacle onslaught, cutting away at as many of her erratic limbs as I could. My initial momentum seemed to take her by surprise, but she caught up quickly; even putting all my effort into my speed and strength, pushing so hard my vision started getting blurry, Gamma-20 could still easily out-speed me.

I dodged a few tentacles, cut into a few others, then started getting struck by a few, than slashed by a couple more, and then Gamma-20 got a hold of me, lifted me up, then slammed me into the catwalk so hard I saw stars. She slammed me into the ground again, then slammed me into a nearby storage tank, causing it to ring out like a gong.

I was beyond dizzy then, totally exhausted, wondering if this was how I was going to die after all.

Gamma-20 held me up in front of her hundreds of eyes and greedy mouths, snarling with little tongues curling up like she was eager to consume me.

I spat into her closest eye, “Fuck you.” I wheezed.

Gamma-20 shrieked again, then started lowering me towards her many mouths—

“Eat this you monster!” Willa said, holding the heavy carbine rifle, and then started unloading on the Predazoan.

Gamma-20 screamed as the acid rounds ripped into her, and she dropped me on the ground as she retreated into the shadows again.

Willa didn’t stop in her assault, firing blindly at any shadow she thought moved. She rushed over to stand protectively before me.

“Can you still move?” Willa asked.

I waved her off quickly, “I’ll do you one better; I’m going to carry us out of here—just keeping firing that gun at anything that moves.” I instructed.

“What do you mean you’re—” Willa started, but once again her words cut off as I picked her up in the classic fireman’s carry over my shoulder—awkward since she was larger than me, but with my enhanced strength her size wasn’t a burden, even with my injuries.

I refused to look back or even try to guess what Gamma-20 was doing then and instead raced for the exit as fast as I could—pushing past all the pain, the injuries and the blood, knowing this wouldn’t be the end of us, not here and not now.

Willa kept firing at shadows all the while, and I prayed she found her mark enough to keep the Predazoan at bay. In no time at all I saw a subtle light growing closer on the catwalk, the exit to the main tank—with Durgo beside it waving us on through.

“Hurry up, hurry!” His voice modulator crackled.

“I thought you said the mission should—” I started.

“Just shut the fuck up and come on!” Durgo urged.

The moment I passed him he threw down the last of our repulser barriers to cover the doorway just in time to block Gamma-20 from getting through.

“Close the door, quick!” Durgo ordered.

I dropped Willa and rushed over to the door and slammed it shut against Gamma-20’s furious hissing, and the moment the door was closed I heard a terrible shriek, then violent pounding against the siding of the tank so loud it echoed all around us.

Durgo rushed over to the control console on the outside of the tank and started typing frantically to complete the protocol.

Just then, another thud that sounded like warped metal, and I could see a dent form as Gamma-20 was trying to brute force her way out of the massive tank.

“Do it!” I shouted.

Durgo slammed his finger against the console to finalize the purge.

“Confirmed, purging tank F.04-3558.” The robotic voice announced.

There were some relief valves around the tank’s framing that hissed and unleashed huge streams of steam, and I could just barely hear Gamma-20 shrieking, but it slowly dwindled away to nothing.

“Gadow, purge the vents and activate the shielding now!” I ordered through the headset.

“Copy, just a moment.” Gadow responded quickly.

There was a brief couple of seconds where no one moved—no one even breathed, waiting to confirm it was all finally finished.

“Well?” I demanded.

I heard a long sigh of relief from the headset, “We did it; the tank and vents were totally purged, and the outer shielding for

Jessipie-90

is fully engaged.” Gadow confirmed.