The Passage

[LouisTBR]

13th Fall, 5501...
A psychic ship falls in the distance. The colonists of Stratsburg flee to the closest room, the battery room. They can hear the mechanoids inside, clanking against the dilapidated hull. No-one wants to move.

Suddenly, the granite door comes crashing open...

"Y'all alright?" Sergei asks, biting off a chunk of chocolate. The colonists shiver in fear. Lucya lifts a trembling finger and points beyond the walls.
"They're here!" she whispers, curling tightly in the corner. Sergei turns his head to look. The skin where his ear had once been was red and blistered.

Sergei's face fell. Looking over at his shivering friends and family, he curled his right arm and carefully lifted the stock of his sniper rifle. He brought it into his two hands and stepped through the thick snow towards the cave passage. The colonists all stayed huddled, few craned their necks to see their companion.

The door to the cave cranked open. It was rarely used, and covered in mossy plant-life. Sergei looked up at the limestone rocks overhead and crept through the ever-tightening passageway. On the walls were insect glow orbs, which illuminated the otherwise pitch-black alleyway in various unearthly tones.

As Sergei crept along, the grit on the hard stone ground crunched under his boots. Scarabs and spiders scuttled to their crevices as he made his way through the cave.

Sergei was on his chest, crawling through the last piece of the cave. The air was dry and vegetation didn't grow. There was nothing to show Sergei the way. Then, as he rolled onto his back, he saw a shimmering light. He tried to crawl toward it, but his head hit what he thought was a rock.

A terrible clanking sound echoed in the cave as a scyther brought its heavy Plasteel arm down onto Sergei's spine. Sergei cried out in pain as the scyther readied its' other arm. Sergei screamed for help back toward the colony, but there came no reply...

Sergei's rifle clattered against the Scyther's blade as it came down for the third time. It blocked the razor sharp metal from slicing straight through his abdomen. Realising this bought him some time, Sergei pulled himself forwards and fumbled for a rock. The ground was covered in grit falling from the ceiling, and Sergei's heart fluttered when he grabbed something that wasn't quite a rock. He had a megascarab in his hand.

He recoiled in horror, fumbling the insect into the air. It let out a croak and reached out its large claw toward the Scyther's raised arm. It clamped down on the metal and snapped one of the arm's support wires. The scyther tried to bring its blade down, but the insect had snipped its hydraulics! Sergei squeezed his eyes shut and anticipated his fate.

After 5 seconds, it became clear to Sergei that something had gone astray. He looked up to see the Scyther's piercing red eyes bearing down, its blade permanently raised. Sergei, seizing the opportunity, took his rifle and thrust the barrel tip into the scyther's torso. It was softer than he expected, and seemed to be made of some sort of elastic Synthread. Sergei put more force into his weapon, piercing a hole into the mesh. The scyther's body rings seized up and began to convulse with electricity. Sparks flew from the hole which Sergei had made, causing him to drop the rifle and instinctively lift his head away from the danger.

A hollow thunk sounded throughout the cave as Sergei hit his head on a particularly hard piece of limestone. He groaned and dropped back to the floor, his feet narrowly avoiding the falling body of the scyther. Its eyes lit up brightly for one last time, and shortly plunged the cave into darkness once more...

[Falloutlover]

It's lit!