James Somers - The rise of Lucin

"Affirmative."

KALE and Juli were holding hands at the computer console. They were still looking through information; at least they were pretending to look through the data. Juli had placed her hand on top of Kale's as it lay on the tabletop. Kale hadn't taken his eyes off of the screen, but he had turned his hand over to take hers and hold it.

The power flickered several times and then the computer and all of the lights went dark. A lone emergency light pod switched itself on in the far corner of the room. Juli squeezed Kale's hand tightly, "What's happening?!"

"I'm not sure, but it can't be good," said Kale.

The pair got up from their seats and crossed the room, trying not to bump into the furniture. "Emil?!" shouted Kale as they searched for their friend.

"I'm here," said Emil as he made his way across the room toward them, "I guess you two didn't turn out the lights to kiss, huh"

Kale would have blushed, had it not been a dangerous situation they were in. "Let's just get out of here and see if this power outage is everywhere," said Kale.

The group made their way through the dark maze of tables and printed books on shelves and out into the corridor in from of the library. "Looks like the power is off everywhere," said Emil.

"We need to get to your father," said Juli.

"Let's make our way back to the war room," said Kale. He and Emil pulled their weapons and kept them at the ready. "Keep your senses sharp, Emil," said Kale. "There's no telling what kind of surprises we might find in the dark."

POWER conduit control boxes, sparked out their anger over the attack by the aerogores. The cables were severed that supplied power to the base and the junction boxes were destroyed. All the lights in the corridor were out except for a few lone emergency lights here and there.

The group of aerogores moved quickly to the end of the maintenance corridor. The door clicked as a manual release switch engaged through the actions of someone on the other side. The door opened and a man with a hand held light moved just inside the door. As his light illuminated the group of aerogores in the corridor, he tried to scream, but he wasn't allowed the time.

The aerogores pounced and the first kill was made. They were inside the main compound now. The group of reptilian predators surged forward in great numbers. There were people everywhere, all waiting to be plucked by the deadly beasts, but to feed was not their purpose. They moved swiftly into the populace. Screams began to flood the corridors of the underground base as the aerogores spread out in every direction they could.

ALEC was at the north entrance to the conference room trying to finagle the manual door control to get it open. Two soldiers acting as his personal bodyguards were with him as the door unlocked and slid open under the manual release mechanism he had activated.

Suddenly, as he stepped into the doorway, a gaping maw snatched him up ferociously. Rows of hot knives pierced his body as he screamed and then the reptilian beast rent him in two, tossing the remains across the room. Alec's bodyguards immediately fired at the nightmare as it stepped into the room, barely visible in the low emergency lighting.

Tiet and Wynn had their blades drawn and ignited-Grod activated his plasma glove. The beast launched a burst of flame at one soldier as another of the monsters sailed over the first into the conference room, pinning the other man to the floor and tearing away his life in an instant. A spicor from Wynn's hand caught the first animal in the side of the head; disintegrating a large enough portion to drop it dead. Tiet deftly carved an arc of light into the second as it was busy dismantling the bodyguard pinned under its foot.

Multiple screeches coming from the room beyond the open doorway were cause enough for Tiet to back away from his kill. There were more of them; a lot more.

"Aerogores!" shouted Grod. "Just like the ones we faced out in the city."

"Or those same ones have tracked us down here," said Wynn.

Behind them, an ellipse of light carved through the other locked doors. The piece fell into the room and Kale and Emil entered.

"Not these things again!?" said Kale

More of the creatures were beginning to move into the room; sniffing at their dead ones and glaring at the burning corpse of the first bodyguard that had been attacked.

"Tiet, I don't think this is a fight we want to have right now," said Wynn.

"We've got to get everyone out of here!"

Tiet tapped on his communicator pin. "Mirah, evacuate the facility. You've got to get to the ship now and get out of the base."

"I can't leave. My patient, Ramah, is too weak."

"Don't worry, I'm sending the boys down to help." He turned to them. "Boys, get down to the Med-lab and help her get the girl to the ship. Tell everyone you come across to get to the ships and evacuate the base immediately."

Grod blasted one of the beasts standing in the doorway with his plasma glove. It writhed in agony and after a few seconds, moved no more.

"And be careful," said Wynn. "They may have entered the base through more than one entrance."

"Come on guys!" said Juli, terrified, from just beyond the portal they had cut to gain entrance.

They obeyed without any argument; stepping back through and heading away quickly into the darkness with the glow cast by their ignited blades as their only light.

Flame erupted from one of the aerogores as it peeked inside the room from behind the two dead in the doorway. The men could hear many more writhing and screeching in the darkness beyond.

"Maybe we can hold them here," suggested Tiet as Grod fired more bursts of plasma energy at the creatures trying to enter through the doorway.

Pounding from above drew their attention. They looked up only to find another aerogore smashing its way through the mesh grille that covered the ventilation conduit in the ceiling. It fell by its own weight into the room, just in front of them, and recovered quickly; springing into action against them. Tiet was the closest and bounded away from its lightning fast strike as Wynn hit it broadside with a spicor disc. It howled and fell over going wild from the pain of having a quarter of its abdomen obliterated by the resulting dispersion burst.

Heavy steps were heard again from above as more of the monsters filed through the conduit and headed into the room. Tiet leapt over the one still writhing on the ground and followed his companions out of the conference room using the portal cut by the boys. There was almost no emergency lighting visible at all in the corridor. They hoped they were alone for the moment. The lack of light gave the animals a definite advantage.

"I don't sense anything out here," said Wynn cautiously.

Behind them, multiple aerogores were pounding away at the locked doors. The cut portal was much too small for any of them to fit through, but they were denting the door noticeably and it was quickly giving way to the abuse.

"They'll be through that door in seconds," said Grod.

"Come on, we've got to warn everyone we can to get out of here before the place becomes overrun with those things," said Tiet as he ran off into the dark corridors ahead with the others taking up pursuit.

KALE, Juli and Emil moved quickly through the darkened corridors of the base. They entered one of the junction areas with a larger chamber and other corridors heading off in different directions from it. It contained a service hall that normally would have had people eating inside, but the place was abandoned at the moment.

Emil's foot bumped into something as they made their way through the area. He lowered his ignited blade and saw the upper portion of a woman's body lying on the ground at his feet. He stepped back in disgust; her lower body was nowhere to be found.