This is a chain story I am keeping alive on Hive while I wait for my writing partner to become available again.
This is a Chain story passed between @zakludick and @therneau. Each writer authors a post based on the events of previous episodes and carries on the story.
There is very little collusion between the writers as it is challenging to discover and develop a story by attuning the writing to the partner's plot, style, and presentation.
Last Time on Space Lore KT
Dr. Adendorff and Lieutenant Frey lead their people towards Pinnacle One base, which is meant to mean safety, but they see it on fire in the distance and something large and monsterous tearing into the walls.
Space Lore Log SLKT#3
The entire structure shook and groaned. Pinnacle One base was one single structure built into a natural rise in the topography, a bastion of steel and cement that was as strong as a fortified military bunker.
It was not, however, built for the purpose of warfare. It was the best that money could buy from what the best of Earth's structural engineers could design so they may have a decent structure that could survive the high gravity of Earth V1 and all terrestrial hazards that they might encounter.
Lydia knew all of this because she had been one of those structural engineers. She had been hired for this job because of her extensive knowledge and practical experience in building large structures.
Yet now she was crawling on her hands and knees, bruised and bleeding in several places but nothing life-threatening, through the wreckage that Pinnacle One had become.
The creature had been spotted some weeks ago. It had seemed to arrive and dissapear into the jungles, curiously looking at the base and then scattering before further contact.
It had taken years to build Pinnacle One and they had never even detected a lifeform as large as this one. Last week Lydia had been in the boardroom with Stephen McCallin, Security Chief of Pinnacle One, and Jeffrey Henderson, Lead Scientist.
They had been discussing the creature and its behavior. Lydia had remarked at its behavior, almost like that of a skittish cat. Yet, there was nothing feline about this creature.
It had been difficult for anyone to classify the creature. One thing was certain: It was like nothing on Earth.
Suddenly, a mere hour ago, the creature had mounted a nearby rise, as though to stand as high as possible and bellowed an earth-shattering challenge.
Like rolling thunder, the creature had stormed the base and none of the base's defenses did anything to slow the creature as it mounted the walls and took massive swipes at the guns and fences, flattening any resistance.
She was in the wing of Pinnacle One where she had been when the attack began, because the creature had set about causing the structure immense damage.
She could hear it roaring and tearing into the structure elsewhere.
At the same time there was a groan above here that was a deep rumble of a thousand tonnes of steel reinforces concrete. "This is not going to last long." She muttered to herself and crawled further.
As though her words were prophesied, the unmistakable snap of the reinforcing steel and a part of the structure slammed down where she had been huddling a few moments ago.
She began to crawl faster away from the collapsing part of the structure. A chill ran down her spine as she heard the approaching rumble. As though drawn to the sound of the collapse, somewhere outside the creature had rushed to where Lydia was!
A roar filled the air, shaking and vibrating the dirt on the concrete beside her face and fingers as she crawled. The bellow was followed by a series of crashes as the animal hammered into the structure.
Fist-sized pieces of the structure were falling all around her. Two of the pieces struck her body painfully and another smashed into her right leg. She could feel in a split second before the pain registered that something had broken.
She could not suppress her scream of pain and fear.
I am going to die here!
There was a shuffle of masonry and the movement changed direction until it came from right above her.
Its found me!
Sunlight tore down through to lay itself on her injured skin. It was impossible to think of this as real. She had been four levels down.
This meant that the four levels above her were pulverized.
There was a pair of claw-tipped hands that ripped a massive chunk of the building skywards and tossed it aside. Each of these movements possibly took the lives of dozens of people.
Yet she could not hear much. She was in agony. She was certain that this was the end, she would die here and her parents would have the ultimate regret of never seeing her again.
Despite the size of the rubble removed, the creature's face was mostly obscured as it peered down at her. The sunlight was blotted out and was replaced by the creature's face. Most of what Lydia could see was just one of its massive eyes.
Like a dome of spun glass, the eye had a round pupul in the center and around it an iris made up of many colours. Maybe it would have been blue-grey from afar, but nearby there were greens, reds and yellows among the blue-grey colours as well.
The eyeball rolled around in it's socket for a second and then zoned in on her and dialated.
It sees me!
There was a high pitched keening noise and then a bass rumble rumble. Suddenly she was covered again in sunlight and the monstorously large face was gone.
Log SLKT#3 completed!
I hope you guys enjoyed that!
Other Space Lore stories:
| by @zakludick | by @therneau |
|---|---|
| Branch Log | Queen |
| SLZT #26/Q1 | |
| SLZT.Q2 | *** |
| SLZT.Q3 | *** |
| by @zakludick | by @therneau |
|---|---|
| New Earth | SLKT |
| SLKT #1 | |
| SLKT #2 | *** |
| You are Here! | *** |
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