Lopwrath - The Mine (Episode 2 of the story)
Click here to read the first episode of Lopwrath
November 02 - 29129 (A long time ago)
Outside Notum Mine near Omni-2
Taking place just after episode 1
Jein adjusted the Omni-issued helmet that was sitting uncomfortably on his head. Every breath he took it condensed annoyingly on his visor, blurring his vision for a split second. It was boiling hot, and he was sweating. His armour kept sticking into places he never even knew he had, and his shoes squealched with the sweat that had gathered in the soles. His body was tired. His brain was tired. He was tired.
"Hey watch out!"
The sudden shout from behind him brought him back to his senses. He quickly dived onto the floor narrowly escaping the stone that missed him. A stone?
"Ahh for the love of... Do you guys have to mess around?" Jein looked over to his two co-workers - Liot and Yern - who were pretending to shoot each other with bullets made out of air. Liot fell to the ground in supposed agony, before coming back to life as a supposed zombie.
"Guys! Grow up will you!"
Liot and Yern both pushed each other away and went to sit over by Jein. The three guys got on relativly well, and generally accepted Jein as their leader, although he was of the same rank as them. They had been guarding outside the Notum Mine near Omni-2 for the last 3 years.
"What's on your mind Jein?" Liot, the tall, young, handsome man took a seat next to his friend. Liot was a good man, if a little immature at times, but he was good at his job. Very good.
"Ahh... not much. You guys been reading the newspapers lately? The ICC is still carrying on that investigation into what's going on with those miners. Think they still aren't being treated properly. Well... I know that we never mistreat any miners on this mine? Right?" Jein wasn't the most toughest man on the field, his heart was bigger than his gun. But he knew what he was doing.
"I would never mistreat any miners. Heck, one of those miners if my best friend. He introduced my to my wife. Good man, that Iotrop. Good miner too. Down in the deepest mine he is, with that tight-ass nanomage... Jergot I think his name is." Yern was a short little guy, but like the other two, his heart was in the right place. He had a beautiful wife, and was expecting a child soon. He was the only one that had his life pretty much perfect so far. The other guys were jealous, but didn't say anything.
"Yeah, good man that Iotrop is. Don't know much about that Jergot. Wouldn't touch any of those Nanomages with a bargepole to be honest - they scare me. Ow!" Liot was stopped in the middle of his speach, courtesy of a large stone thrown by Yern. "Haha, come here you son of a..." Yern went to chase the short little man, who was surprisingly fast.
Jein didn't move as normal. He sighed, and inspected his gun whilst the other two chased each other like children. As he was about to try to wipe a little bit of dust off of his scope the ground shook, causing him to drop his gun. It rolled down the bank that they were sitting on, down towards the entrance to the mine.
Jein slowly stood up. He motioned for his dancing friends to ceom over to him.
"Shh!" He whispered, "Keep quiet guys! I think I just heard something." Jein and his friends kept as still as they could. Though they couldn't tell what it was, surely enough there were sounds coming from the mine.
Very quiet sounds...
Very quiet...
Screams.
"Oh crap! Something is going on in there! Yern! Liot! Get over there and cover the entrance now!" Jein commanded his friends, who obediantly went straight over to the entrance and aimed their guns down into the darkness.
Jein sprinted down the hill, and grabbed his gun. He was so tense, he could hear his own heartbeat. At least, he thought it was his heartbeat. It could have been more shakes.
As the three stayed at the top, their guns were glued into the void before them, searching for anything su****ous. Every few seconds they heard deep screams, gunshots and explosions. The cave illuminated every now and again, flashes filling the darkness from explosions deep below.
"Jein! We can't stay here! We have to get down there now!" Yern had to yell to be heard over the explosions. Jein wasn't sure. He knew he had to get down there and stop whatever evil was going on down there but... He was scared. No! No time to be scared! People are in trouble down there!
"You're right! Comon guys, lets go!"
The three of them ran down. Ran down as heroes. Ran down there as true men. Ran down as friends.
As they reached the end of the first tunnel, they came into a wide area, a sort of room where the notum was dropped off to be picked up by surface transport. Barrels of explosives used to help mine were scatterd all over the place
"Look! Over there!" Liot pointed over to another tunnel, leading further into a cave. An atrox was over there, with his pistol, shooting maddly into the tunnel. Shooting at.. something. He was slowly moving backwards, yet facing the tunnel all the time.
Bang!
Bang!
Bang!
Click!
As the pistol run out of ammo the atrox panicked, and threw the gun down the tunnel. As he turned to face the three friends they saw the true horror of the mine.
The atrox's eyes and tounge were ripped out, and he had half his right arm ripped off. Jein couldn't help screaming in shock... In fright...
The atrox started to run towards the three friends, but, as he couldn't see, tripped over on the bumpy floor. He was about 20 feet from them.
"Help......... Me......."
He was lying there helplessly on the floor, begging the nearest person to come and save him.
"Please.... someone... help me...."
Tears formed in Jein's eyes. He knew there was nothing they could do. Even if it was safe to run over there, the atrox had no chance of help getting to him in time.
"Jein... Should I?" Liot looked over to his buddy. Jein could see Liot was crying. No man could stay sane after seeing what they had seen. Jein nodded.
Liot knew what he had to do.
He looked into his scope, and aimed at the dying atrox.
"Please..... anyone... help me... its.. coming"
The crosshair was aimed at the atrox's head. Reluctantly, Liot squeezed the trigger. He knew it was the best thing to do.
Bang!
As the flash from the shot filled the cave, the three friends could see what the atrox had been chased by.
Just for a split second... They could see the enemy. It was twice as big as them, and looked nothing liked what was seen on Rubi-Ka before. The thing was blood red, either naturally or covered in blood, and even looked so slightly...
Human...
As the three realised what horror stood before them they looked at each other. The same though raced through all their heads.
"Kill it!"
They started shooting wildly into the darkness, only being able to aim because of the flash from their comrades guns. The beast just wouldn't go down. With a quick movement of its arm, it grabbed Liot by the leg and started squeezing.
"Argh!!!!!!"
Whilst dangling from the massive beasts iron grip Liot tensed all his muscles and pulled himself up onto the monster. The moneter roared, nearly knocking Liot off. He saw his chance, and shot into the beats mouth. In agony, the beast dropped Liot onto the floor.
As Liot tried to stand he realised his leg was in pieces, his bone was shattered. Liot went hysterical, but soon grasped hold of reality again, and started using his arms to pull himself towards his friends.
Yern couldn't bear to see his friend in pain, and ran to help him.
"Yern no! Get back over by Jein now!" Liot tried to warn him, but it was no good. The beast picked up the somewhat smaller of the three with ease and threw him with incredible force into a nearby cart full of the sharp notum crystals.
The beast picked up Liot, and glared its hundreds of blood red teeth.
"Jein! The explosives! You know what you have to do!" Liot screamed with his last ounce of strength whilst being crushed by the thing.
Jein knew what he had to do alright. He aimed at the center barrel with his scope.
"See you later you big piece of mutated crap!"
And with that he squeezed the trigger. The beast screamed loudly before the entire mine collapsed in on itself.
No one ever knew about the three friends, who gave their lives to stop the monster from being released into Rubi-Ka.
No one ever knew of the brave fight they put up to save all of you living today.
No one ever knew that such a beast is still trapped in the depths of that cave.
No one still knows today....
Click here to read chapter 3
Click here to read chapter 4
Click here to read chapter five of Lopwrath
OOC:
Well... here it is, the second part of the ongoing series. Please post any comments below - I hope it gave the effect I wanted it to give.
Or send me a tell - Halouk (RK2)
