AVP Ultimate Prey 36

Through my monitor, I saw them assembling something. It was a long tube on a tripod. They aimed it at the mouth of the cavern.

Lara whispered, "What are they doing?"

Connor replied, "I don't know... it looks like a rocket launcher."-pg.306 chpt.11

BOOM! The launcher sent out a shuddering wave, throwing us back. Something shot into the cavern. There was a silence followed by a cloud of yellow smoke pouring from the opening. It slowly drifted away and the tall creatures took up a position in front of it. They formed a small line and held onto
bladed weapons including spears and oddly shaped swords.

"What the hell?" asked Kevin.

"I'm getting a weird reading on that smoke cloud," said Connor. "The chemical has some kind of strange enzyme compound.'

"To do what?" asked Kevin.

And then we heard it. Clicking sounds, like fingernails tapping on ceramic, began emanating from the cavern. A few at first, then more and more until it sounded like a crashing wave.

"It sounds like giant bugs," I said aloud.

"Then that was a bug bomb," Brendan whispered into the comm.

The mouth of the cavern somehow grew blacker, and then a swarm of insect-like creatures lunged out of the cave at the hunters. I panned my holo-cam toward it and zoomed in. It was a horrid sight. Hundreds of agile shapes with no facial appearance except devilish metallic teeth crawled and ran toward the creatures with the bladed weapons. As the huge insects emerged, the hunters picked away at them with shoulder-mounted lasers, blasting holes in their oblong skulls which erupted with yellowish liquid that made the ground smoke. The battle-scarred hunter stood at the forefront using a large metal blade to slit limbs and heads from the bugs, acrobatically moving out of the way after each kill to avoid the spray of blood. The less-experienced hunters focused on using their shoulder cannons to pick off the bugs before they got close.

Some of the bugs seemed disoriented as they came out of the cavern. I wondered if the missile they launched had done something besides just piss them off. It reminded me of how security forces used stun grenades and vomit gas to break up rioters. Wave after wave of bugs kept coming out of the cavern. The hunters held their ground, hacking and slashing until the bodies were piled so high they had to move to higher ground to avoid leaping attacks from the bugs. When the old hunter was distracted, trying to protect one of the younger ones, a bug got close to him, and he barely got it by the throat in time. A hideous mouth within a mouth snapped at him. The hunter ignored it and used his blade to slash into the air and sever the end of the sharp tail the bug was about to impale him with. Clearly he'd fought these creatures before and knew their ways.

A younger hunter tried to strike at a trio of monsters and was distracted. A sharp tail stuck through his side, and he fell to the ground. The bugs tried to drag him into the mouth of the cavern, but the older one unleashed a flurry of plasma fire and slashing with his wrist blades, leaving pieces of smoking obsidian bug parts scattered about. The third hunter dragged the injured one back toward the ship and used his shoulder cannon to pick off bugs from afar.-pg.307-308 chpt.11

The older hunter had cleared a wide swath and the bugs, still pouring out of the cave, but in fewer numbers, avoided him. He resorted to using his shoulder weapon to pick them off. Somehow, I could sense his reluctance even though I had no idea what was under the mask. The other hunters, now bolder, began moving farther into clusters of bugs and slashed them to the ground. The bugs were fewer and fewer, and began scrambling off in different directions. I feared they'd come toward us. I saw the obsidian black carapace of one of the giant bugs as it slithered to where Connor was hiding. Before I could warn him, it leaped forward and wrapped its tail around Connor's neck. I let out a scream and stood up, watching the massive insect
drag him across the ground and toward a small ravine. I started after him, but Brendan grabbed me by the ankle, stopping me.-pg.309 chpt.11

As the creature was about to pull Connor into the crevice, it stopped suddenly when a metal spear stabbed through its skull and pinned it to the ground. The younger hunter emerged from behind the rocks and pulled his weapon from the bug's skull.-pg.310 chpt.11