Three Square Meals Ch. 045

"Shit! There's a group of Fulmanax drones coming across the bridge the other way!" he exclaimed to the rest of them.

"Shall we go back, and wait for them to pass?" Dana asked him hurriedly.

He shook his head and replied, "They're moving faster than us. They'd catch up before we made it all the way back. We'll have to stick to the side, breathe in, and hope they just walk past us like the others did."

Irillith repositioned the grav-sled to the side of the ramp, leaving a two metre path for the dozen drones to pass. John and the girls held their railguns warily, ready for action at a moment's notice, and they waited for the Fulmanax to walk past them. The squat fungoids moved into single file, and made a detour around them stomping past with their peculiar rolling gait. There were actually sixteen of them in the group, and John breathed a sigh of relief as the last one walked past him. All seemed to be going perfectly, until the last one stopped when it reached the grav-sled, and turned to look at it curiously with its four beady eyes. It stared at the sonic device with interest and reached out to the central core with its four multi-suckered hands.

"Bzap!" Irillith's laser rifle sounded shockingly loud in the tranquil calm of the underground cavern, and a single bright blue laser bolt burned a fist sized hole straight through the Fulmanax drone's face.

Astonishingly it was still alive, and it's arms flailed around wildly, as it let out a long keening wail. Irillith stepped forward and kicked the stricken creature, sending it sailing over the edge of the bridge and into the mists below. Its death scream echoed around the cavern as it plunged to its doom, until it was abruptly and fatally silenced.

Irillith chortled in amusement, as John and the girls turned to look at her in shock. "What?" she asked them, when she realised they were all staring at her. "I couldn't risk it damaging the sonic device."

Screeching cries could now be heard coming from all over the cavern, and John spun to look back along the bridge. "Well the Fulmanax aren't ignoring us any more. We've got incoming warriors at this end," he warned them.

"There's a shitload coming this way too!" Dana cried out in alarm.

John and Alyssa crouched down at one end, sighting down the bridge as the Fungoid warriors surged up the rocky ramp, sickle shaped claws waving frenziedly. John aimed at the lead one, and fired off a three round burst, hitting it square in the torso. Massive chunks of fibrous body parts exploded outwards, leaving three big craters in its chest, but the Fulmanax warrior didn't seem phased in the slightest. It let out a shrieking cry of rage as it stormed towards them, moving incredibly quickly on its three legs.

John readjusted his aim, and shot the creature in the face, leaving three craters in its blocky trunk where the four beady eyes used to be. Still the raging fungoid bore down on them relentlessly.

"What does it take to knock these fuckers down?" he murmured under his breath, watching with alarm as the enraged creature stormed towards him.

Suddenly feeling inspired, he aimed much lower, and with a single, precisely aimed shot, he blew out the leg of the Fulmanax warrior, sending it tumbling to the ground, and rolling off the edge. It shrieked as it fell, until it met the terminal end of a fifty foot drop.

Alyssa had been merrily blasting chunks out of the next warrior along, but having similar limited success. When she saw what John had done, she copied his precise targeting, and sent the next Fulmanax tottering over the edge.

"Take out the legs, and knock them off the bridge," he called to Dana and Rachel. "They seem to shrug off all other damage."

He heard the purring chatter of their railguns, as they followed his targeting advice, and soon Fulmanax warriors could be heard falling to their deaths from behind them as well as in front.

*Well, this is working out marvellously,* Alyssa noted wryly as she shot out the leg of another warrior, then sighted another. *Might I suggest we avoid bringing psychopathic guests with us on our next journey into a nest of hostile creatures?*

*Sounds like good advice to me, XO,* John replied grimly, as he sent high-velocity rounds slamming into his next target. *What has me worried at the moment, is how are we going to get off this bridge? As soon as we move down, we won't be able to use the fall to kill these warriors.*

*Rachel says we need to get her to a warrior corpse so she can examine it,* Alyssa informed him.

"Hold position here for the moment," John said loudly so that they could all hear. "We'll move on when we've thinned the herd a bit."

He fired off several more rounds, helping Alyssa knock the Fungoid soldiers off the bridge. She was methodically taking out one Fulmanax warrior after another, with unerringly accurate shots that blasted out their stocky legs, and as she mowed the aliens down, he noticed a slight flicker of movement on her shoulder. He turned to look more closely, and the golden lioness insignia changed from its wise, restful pose, to a fearsome snarl as she opened fire. He smiled, and rolled his eyes at Dana's unannounced modification.

"Watch to your right!" Irillith cried out, and John glanced that way, then ducked, just in time to avoid a large rock thrown at his head.

A group of Fulmanax drones were hurling heavy rocks at them from the bridge to their right hand side, and they were obviously a lot stronger than they looked, because the rocks were sailing their way with deadly speed and accuracy. John opened up on one of the drones, slamming rounds into its face and knocking it backwards. He then fired a single round into one of its legs, which exploded in a burst of thick fibrous white tissue, and sent it sailing over the edge of the rocky bridge. He used the same technique on the second one, and was about to move on to the third, when Irillith opened up with her laser rifle.

The stream of blue laser fire lit the cavern up brightly, and the bolts of laser energy seared straight through her unfortunate target. She was firing on automatic, and literally cut three of the angry Fulmanax drones in half. The disturbingly resilient creatures were still alive, thrashing angrily on the ground, but without any way of putting momentum in their throws, they had been effectively neutralised.

*Her laser rifle packs more punch than a Gatling laser!* John thought to Alyssa, his shock coming through loud and clear.

*If we ask nicely, do you think she'll let Dana take a peek?* she replied innocently, before she suddenly turned serious. "There's a big surge of them, I'm going to need your help."

John finished off the last of the drones, shooting out its legs as it stumbled backwards from a three round burst, then spun to face down the bridge again. Alyssa was quickly and calmly reloading, which meant that the Fulmanax warriors were only ten metres away from them. He opened up on the first one, sending a couple of bursts into it to slow its momentum, before he aimed at its legs.

The Fulmanax seemed to have realised the danger these leg shots presented, so they had started weaving back and forth, and his first two shots missed. He took a deep breath and concentrated intently, then pulled the trigger, firing a three round burst of hollow point ammo into two of its legs and sending it cartwheeling over the precipice. His ammo counter was reading 204/04, and he fired off the last four rounds before hurrying to slap in another mag. Alyssa had started firing again, but despite sending another falling to its death, they were coming on too fast.

"Stay down," Irillith ordered them sternly, and standing directly above them, cut loose with her laser rifle.

Bright streams of laser bolts flashed over John's head, and he had to squint against the blinding glare. She strafed the laser fire from side to side, melting huge holes in the rampaging Fulmanax warriors and cutting them to pieces. With them tightly packed in a line, the laser bolts were hitting two, sometimes three aliens at a time, and caused massive devastation to their ranks.

After five seconds of continuous fire, she finally stopped shooting, having broken the Fulmanax's charge. When John glanced up at her, he could see steam pouring off the laser rifle as the heat sinks desperately vented all the excess heat. He stood, and looked behind them to check on Dana and Rachel.

*They're doing fine,* Alyssa explained. *There were less coming from behind, and the Fulmanax had to charge over a much longer distance.*

There seemed to be a temporary lull in the fighting, with the Fulmanax forces exhausted for the moment, so John had a quick look around on the other side of the bridge. He could see shambling shapes moving in the mists, but for the moment, they were no longer being charged by Fungoid warriors.

"Let's move on," he said to the girls. "We've stopped them for now."

They continued walking across the bridge, and John drew his sword to put the dismembered Fulmanax warriors out of their misery. He reached the first one that had been cut in half across the waist, also neatly severing its arms. He was about to strike, when he realised he didn't know where.

Rachel walked up to join him and said sombrely, "Cut straight down the middle, and then do the same to the next two pieces if it's still moving."

He nodded, and waved them back, then brought his sword down in an overhead chop, that cleaved through the thick fibrous material. The creature was surprisingly sturdy and difficult to cut though, so it took a second blow to finish chopping it in half. The right half continued to twitch and spasm, so he got ready to cut those pieces in half too, effectively quartering the Fungoid creature.

"These things are crazy," Dana said in a shocked voice. "How can they keep going after literally being cut in half?"

Rachel was staring at the dismembered creature intently. "I have my suspicions," she said cautiously. "I'll be able to tell you shortly."

John cut the right side into neat pieces as well, and the Fulmanax warrior finally stopped thrashing around. Rachel knelt next to the dissected creature, and carefully examined it's bizarre anatomy, gently moving aside it's bloodless white fibrous flesh. It only took her a minute of careful probing, before she found what she was looking for, and she lifted the section of torso, then turned it over.

She pointed to an odd shaped, dark red lump on the back of the creature's head, beneath the scarlet mushroom shaped cap. John's second sword strike had cleaved straight through it, and they could see the purple mass of tendrils beneath the thick red protrusion.

"That's a massively enlarged nerve ganglia. I think these Fulmanax form a hive mind, and these drones and warriors are being controlled by some higher consciousness. That's why they can keep on fighting even after sustaining horrific damage," she explained thoughtfully.

Alyssa looked up at her and asked, "So if we hit them in this red lump on the back of their head, we should be able to take them out instantly?"

Rachel nodded and replied, "Yes, or at the very least cut them off from the hive mind. That will probably prove to be equally as debilitating."

John walked over to the next mangled Fulmanax warrior, and chopped off its one remaining clawed arm when it tried to lash out at him. He then flipped the creature on its front, and plunged his sword into the nerve cluster on its back, causing it to stop lurching around immediately. He looked up at their gifted Doctor and nodded.

"Alright, let's move out," he said, and took the lead, dispatching each of the fallen Fulmanax as he neared them.

They cautiously descended down the ramp on the other side of the bridge, and began to make their way across the vast cavern floor. Weaving a way across proved to be a painstaking process, as the floor was slippery and treacherous, and they had to be ever-vigilant in case of sinkholes. Fortunately they weren't attacked again, although they could hear the sound of ever increasing numbers of Fulmanax moving around in the distance.

After five minutes of careful progress, they could see the far wall ahead of them. Many stalactites and stalagmites had merged here, forming a gallery that led through to another vast chamber. They walked through the gallery, and out onto a ledge that overlooked the next room, and looked on in awe at the sight below them.

The cave they were overlooking was colossal, and much more brightly lit. The illumination was coming from glowing fungus, which was sprouting in abundance over a huge white hill that dominated the floor of the next cavern, perhaps fifty metres below them. Silvery streaks lined the ceiling, glinting in the bright glow from all the luminescent fungus. The ledge wrapped right around the room, providing a wide natural balcony that overlooked the fungus covered hill, and dozens of unlit tunnels led into this room at regular points.

"This is the place," Irillith said with grim satisfaction, and she turned to the sonic device on the grav-sled and began to check it over.

The wet, squelching noises coming from the darkened, mist shrouded cavern behind them were getting louder, and the girls began to glance at each other in alarm.

"Get ready," John warned them. "We're going to be attacked very soon."

Alyssa, Dana, and Rachel, moved back to the main cavern, kneeling in firing positions behind the grav-sled, looking out warily into the gloom. John walked over to Irillith and stood by her side, but she was so engrossed in her work, she didn't seem to be aware of him. He was about to reach out, and place his hand gently on her shoulder, but thought better of it.

"Irillith," he said firmly, jolting her from her absorption. "I need you to light up the area behind us. I think the Fulmanax are readying a charge."

She paused for a moment, then nodded as she unslung her laser rifle from her shoulder, and stood between Dana and Alyssa.

"On three," she warned them, and began counting down. When she reached one, she fired a quick burst, spraying the shots in a wide arc.

"Oh fuck!" Dana said in alarm, as hundreds of Fulmanax warriors were suddenly brightly illuminated by the staccato flash of laser fire.

A cacophonous shriek sounded out through the cavern, and the assembled mass of Fungoid soldiers surged forward, their sharply barbed claws raised, and ready to strike. Alyssa, Dana and Rachel began to open fire with the quiet purr of their railguns, sending high velocity bullets slamming into the enraged Fulmanax.

By concentrating their three round bursts to hit the creatures in the right side of the head, their firepower was proving lethal once more. Scores of the creatures went down, as the sensitive nerve ganglia was blasted to bits. Irillith's laser rifle was proving even more devastating, as she was able to send searing laser bolts straight through the creatures, making every hit to the right side of their head fatal.

John snapped off three round bursts at any that were getting too close, while keeping a wary eye on the overall tactical situation. Despite how quickly the girls were gunning the Fulmanax down, more and more were surging out behind them.

"Use grenades when they get closer," he ordered sternly, firing a three round burst at a warrior that was attempting to sneak around on their flanks.

Suddenly a rhythmic thumping sounded from behind them, along with the sound of a multitude of squelching footfalls. He spun, staring out across the huge room as a huge horde of Fulmanax began to pour out of the tunnels that fed out onto the broad ledge around the chamber. He felt a rising surge of panic, but fought it down immediately as he ran through the pillars into the other chamber.

Flipping open the pouch carrying the explosive grenades that Dana had made for them, he shouldered his railgun, and grabbed a grenade in each hand. Pressing down the activation button, he lobbed one grenade to his left and one to the right, sending them bouncing and rolling around the curved walls of the cavern thirty metres in either direction.

There were a couple of thunderous explosions, as the grenades reached the front wave of the mass of charging Fulmanax. The first several creatures on both sides were blown to bits, sending white fibrous chunks in all directions, and large pieces of the ledge broke off, tumbling down into the cavern below. He quickly readied two more grenades, sending them flying in each direction, and aiming for the exact same spot, even though the lead elements of the Fulmanax were already there.

He heard explosions behind him, as the girls used their own grenades, but he didn't have time to react as several Fulmanax were on top of him. He let go of his railgun, and grabbed his sword, swinging it down in a broad arc, and neatly cutting through the reaching clawed arms of the first warrior. It tried to charge straight into him, so he was forced to sidestep, cutting away one of its legs as he did so, and sending it tumbling to the floor.

There were two more huge explosions from his own grenades, but he was far too busy frantically dodging razor sharp claws to be able to check on the results of the detonations. He just had to pray that the grenades were successful, or they were all doomed. Despite his skilful dodging, one of the Fulmanax managed to lash him with its clawed arms, cutting deep furrows in his armour, and knocking him sideways. It took him a moment to recover his balance, during which time the second warrior slashed its powerful claws across his leg, gouging deep furrows in the armour.

John planted his feet to avoid being knocked over, and performed a quick darting slash, that cleanly cut one of the clawed arms in half. The other two warriors were moving to surround him, so he darted forward, chopping down and cutting away the front leg of the Fulmanax in front of him, making it topple forward. As it fell to the ground at his side, a plunging stab to the back of the head speared the nerve cluster and it collapsed lifelessly.

The remaining two charged forward at him relentlessly, trying to knock him off the ledge, which would mean a long and deadly drop to the floor below. He dived to the side, leaping with all his strength, and they both rushed past him, flinging themselves to their doom. One of them lashed out with both arms however, sinking them into his leg, and the weight of the hulking creature threatened to pull him over with it. He scrabbled behind him as he was dragged closer to the edge, and then punched down with his left fist, driving his armoured fingers into the rock and anchoring himself in place. Brandishing his sword with his right, he slashed out in a wide arc, cutting through the Fulmanax warrior's arms and ended its brief escape from a fatal meeting with the floor below.

He leapt to his feet in alarm, readying his sword in case there were more Fulmanax charging at him, and glanced either way around the ledge. He sighed with relief when he saw the ledges, and the five metre gaps that had been blown out on either side. His grenades had done their work, and the teeming horde of Fulmanax warriors could only flail their arms at him in anger, rendered impotent by the broad chasm he had blasted on the only routes to him.

Sheathing his sword, he picked up his railgun, and turned to check on the girls. *Everything alright there?* he asked Alyssa worriedly.

*It got a bit hairy for a while, and one of them managed to reach Dana, but she's alright, just got knocked on her ass,* the psychic blonde replied.

John smiled and thought to her, *Alright, let's fight this lot back, and th-*

He stopped mid tracks as the ever-present thumping sound got louder, but now he could feel the trembling vibration through his feet. He whirled to look behind him, just as a huge Fulmanax monstrosity burst out of the biggest passage leading from the chamber. It stood nearly fifty-feet tall, looking much the same as a Fulmanax warrior, but much, much larger. It's long arms were thicker than tree trunks, and ended in several wickedly sharp claws. It let out a thunderous, spine chilling roar, and then began to stomp around the ledge, as the rest of the Fulmanax scrambled to get out of its way.