The Industrialist

Damian closely inspected the skeletons without touching them. Some of them had a white translucent liquid. Damian grabbed a femur bone and separated it from the pile, a viscous liquid stretched from it to the pile.

"Critters," Damian said. "Typical if we are near the hive. The queen transforms everything, including the crawling insects, even those that lurk underground. Like those huggers."

"Somebody get the power on," Damian commanded and the two of them separated to find the central breaker.

"The Quantum Flux Capacitors should be with the Generators," Lance said.

"According to the map, we will go in further. It's in the center of this building," one rebel said, his torch light training at the large map on the wall labeled, 'Evacuation Plan'.

They went further deep, two rebels still gone for the power switch. The darkness crept into Lance's skin, goosebumps. He had heard about the critters. He imagined them crawling, twenty or thirty pointy legs skittling against walls, against metal.

The acrid smell grew stronger with each step they took. The piles of dead skeleton humans heaved the passage as if they were entering hell. The dark sinuous passageway, and metal-slab walls surrounding them, made their position dangerous.

The only way to escape was behind them: an easy trap and a buffet for the critters.

"I don't like this, Damian," Lance said, following behind him. Damian led the group inside.

"Me neither," Damian responded.

Reaching the end of the passage, two large metallic doors stood in their way.

"Behind this door is a large room that comprises the generators," one rebel said. He hurriedly places charges on the doors' sides.

As he was ready to detonate them, Damian grabbed his shoulder.

"Wait!" Damian said. "Prepare attack formation. You three, watch our six."

They scattered along the expanse of the doors, farther away. Damian stood in front of Lance, portraying concern.

"Don't worry. Your Exo-armor will give you protection against their teeth. Ready your blasters."

Luke took out three PB 10 poison bombs from his belt holster. Sign of silence had been evident momentarily, Damian checked on their positions. As he raised his hand to signal detonation, the lights powered on, flickering until they were awake. The hum of machinery vibrated along the walls like a large motor engine had turned.

"Now!" Damian commanded and the rebel pressed the trigger.

The charges exploded, only enough to decimate the doors' locks and hinges. The doors fell inside the dim-lighted room and the shrieks loomed, creatures celebrated for the smell of food. The skittling sounds of pointy legs creepingly orchestrated inside the room.

Lance found the generators inside, but the interior of a large expanse of the room, gradually materializing against the darkness, bathed with the curling humanly-large millipedes of black exo-shell carapace covering red flesh.

Their shrieks came out from the disfigured opening on their heads and held hundreds of sharp teeth. Above them held no eyes but only a smooth black exo-shell.

Lance threw three poison bombs inside immediately as the smoke from minute charges settled and it exploded, releasing a blue heavy mist that disoriented the resting Critters.

The rebels cursed upon seeing a grotesque scene of uncurled and skittling creatures of the dark, chaotic, and destructive. The shrieks became cries, some of them escaped towards them and that's when the blasters engaged, poison-bathed lasers burning flesh easily.n/ô/vel/b//jn dot c//om

However, the critters' numbers overwhelmed them, some crawled on the ceiling. Lasers lustered against the dim-lighted room, firing in random directions.

"Don't let them surround us!" Damian screamed.

The attack formation became disarrayed, other rebel soldiers broke from their positions and disintegrated gradually their strength as a group.

Lance threw his last round of poison bombs, one in front of the lined rebels that would serve as their protection and two others inside the room.

The hungry-flesh-munching critters receded their way farther from their supposed meal. A confined and enclosed room provided Lance's weapons such as the poison bombs effective enough to linger the Aiveez nectar, permeating the air of Abominant flesh-burning chemical.

'Chemical reaction at best,' Lance thought.

A few critters dove at some of their comrades. Fortunately, the Exo-Armor protected them, rows of sharky teeth scraping against hardened metal. With extra strength provision of the armor, designed to support movement, the core accelerator whirred loudly as the bearer used sheer strength to push back and throw these critters away.

Others used knives to cut their heads off from their lengthy bodies. Without their armors, the critters must have manducated them easily. Their blasters did their part, killing Abominants instantly tenfold deadly from the original QuasarFlare laser beams.

With the current armaments, they could battle hordes like this but never suffice a hive. Lance only provided their exo

Luckily for Lance, Damian was in front of him and hitting the nearing creatures efficiently.

The appalling smell of abominated blood and flesh of these mutated insects filled the constricted ante-room, poison nectar burning the critter's innards.

Lance heard one rebel scream for help, it was the guy near him. The Critter pulled the leg of the rebel away from them, teeth clasping unto the victim's ankle, his weapon dislodged from his grip, his armored chest scraping against the concrete floor.

Frantically, Lance ran for him. His weapon tugged beside him. He could not shoot the creature pulling the rebel, and into a constricted hole, a vent of some sort, at the bottom of the wall. Lance quickened his steps, strides found sheer confidence, and jumped to grab the outreached hands of his comrade.

He successfully grabbed one hand, but the creature, now inside the hole, had enough strength to pull the two of them.

"Hang on!" Lance shouted. His strength augmented by the armor served no leverage as his belly dragged against the floor, nothing to hold them from the strong pulling force.

"Help!" the young soldier screamed again, his face plastered with hopelessness.

Somehow, on a slight ray of hope, the pulling force had been ceased by another grip that grabbed Lance's shin. It was Damian, both feet mounted on the ground, having a tug-of-war with the creature inside the hole.

"Hold on, both of you. Grab both arms!"

The soldier and Lance reached and found their free hands gripping with each other, firming their connection.

Damian screamed for a pull, kinetic motors inside the armor whirred strongly and successfully pulled the two away from the hole, to where the critters cringed.

The skirmish had halted, the surviving sounds of pointy legs skittled within the walls, through the vents. They had won over the critters, but the blue mist still permeated.

"I am not feeling good," the young soldier meekly said, grunting in pain. As he spoke, blood spluttered from his mouth.

His armor was intact but he lost his foot. No. His entire leg. What remained was the only armor, hollow inside.

The Critter could slurp human flesh even from the casing of their armor easily.

Silence fell on them. No one dared talk. He was a young soldier, probably three years older than Lance.

"I feel cold," the young soldier sobbed. His breathing increased, signifying his panic.

Damian hunkered down beside him and placed his palm on the victim's cheek. "You did good, soldier," Damian whispered. "It's ok. It's ok."

Lance was confused. If Damian meant that he could be saved or the opposite. He looked at his other comrades, standing with saddened faces.

"Hey! Help him!" Lance said. But no one answered. Not even an eye contact with him.

"No, kid. It's alright," the young soldier groaned. "I will be fine. I will miss you all."

"No. No. This can't be." Lance stepped closer to the lying soldier. And a pool of blood splattered as he stepped. Then he realized that the severed leg would drain the soldier's blood.

Then, after a few moments, the soldier stopped breathing, his eyes blankly staring at Lance. Damian's tears fell, but he concealed it from his comrades. Lance witnessed it, though.

Damian carefully dislodged the Exo-kinetic armor from the lifeless body and placed it in a plastic container. As the armor was completely collected, the dead body revealed a lanky kid, who had been beaten by the cruelty of poverty.

Lance felt the guilt, storming inside of him, bringing the cold sweat out from the pores of his forehead.

"Don't worry, kid. We are here for a noble cause. The cause of the Truthseekers," Damian tapped Lance's shoulder. "It's time to collect our price."

They sauntered inside the room after they covered the dead body with a mantle and paid their respects silently.

The generator room held Twenty large generators with a capacity of one thousand megawatts each.

Lance unscrewed the portion of the casing of the nearest generator. As he opened it, a cylindrical smoothed metallic casing was sandwiched by other electronic components and thick wires.

"Quantum Flux Capacitor, at last!" Lance said. He pulled on out and placed it on the casing. Others followed how Lance harvested the Capacitor from the casing of the other twenty gigantic generators.

Hurried footsteps were nearing them, and two soldiers emerged in their midst. They were the ones who powered the facility.

"Damian. We have to hurry! They are coming."