“Come on, Aparna,” I said. “Don’t jinx it.”
* * *
Ion Ardeleanu literally said, That went better than I thought, before he slipped and fell on the moss, and something the size of a panther came for him out of the natal jelly.
We didn’t see it coming. Ardeleanu was walking up from a small sloping hill, and Niamh was ahead of him on the climb. It’s fair to say my and Aparna’s attention was on Niamh, not on Ardeleanu, on account that Niamh was our friend, and also because it was Ardeleanu’s role to be security, and thus, to be secure. Unlike the rest of us, this wasn’t his first time on an away mission. We thought he knew what he was doing. We weren’t prepared for his slip, his fall, and then the creature bursting out of the jelly to come for him.
Aparna and I were twenty meters away from Niamh when it happened; they were in turn ten meters ahead of Ardeleanu. We were close enough to Niamh that they saw our expressions change, and turned to see what happened. Niamh had their baton out, as had Aparna; once their instruments were planted, they were ready to assist in their own defense.
This came in handy for Ardeleanu because Niamh didn’t waste any time. They sprinted to where he was, somehow not slipping and falling, and started whacking away at the creature that was now trying to yank Ardeleanu back down the slope, toward the kaiju natal jelly. Aparna and I ran to assist.
Niamh’s baton whacking had managed to dislodge the creature from the fallen biologist, and now it, apparently pissed, started making threatening movements toward Niamh. Niamh was not impressed and swung at the thing again, and this time there was a notable pop as an arc of voltage went from the baton to what passed for the creature’s face. Niamh had turned on the electric part of the baton. The creature backed off, rapidly, shaking its face, but didn’t retreat entirely.
Aparna went to Ardeleanu and checked his wounds; I went to Niamh, who was looking pissed and ready to get into it with the creature.
“You okay?” I asked.
“What a stupid question to ask right now,” Niamh said, which meant yes, they were okay.
The creature stood its ground several yards away, sizing us up.
I shouted back to Aparna, “How is it?”
“Left leg’s torn up and bleeding,” she said.
“I’m fine,” Ardeleanu said, and tried to get up.
Aparna put a hand on his chest to keep him from moving. “He’s really not fine at all.”
I nodded at that and switched my headset over to Satie. “Chopper Two, come in.”
“You don’t have to tell me, I see it,” Satie said. “Coming to you for an emergency extract.”
“Thank you,” I said.
The creature started making a noise.
“I think you should know there are more of those things on the way,” Satie said. “I see them coming up through the jelly.”
“Got it,” I said. I raised my canister launcher, and per instruction, launched a canister past the creature and into the natal jelly beyond, where it went off with an impressive poof and cloud of metal dust and pheromones.
The creature looked back at the puff and then slowly and decidedly back to us.
“So, that’s not great,” I said. I handed my shotgun to Niamh. “If that thing moves, shoot it,” I said.
“Fucking obviously,” they said. I went back to Aparna and Ardeleanu, who was still trying to get up.
“I can move,” he assured me.
“Jesus, shut up,” I said, and took his shotgun and canister launcher from him. “Pick one,” I said to Aparna. She took the canister launcher. I reloaded my own canister launcher from my bandolier and then picked up the shotgun. “Chopper is coming to us,” I told her.
“I know,” she said, and motioned up with her head. Satie was moving in position for descent. “I’m going to need help getting him into the helicopter.”
“I can do it,” Ardeleanu said.
“Shut up,” we both said to him. “I’ll send Niamh back when he gets here,” I said to Aparna.
She nodded; I went back to Niamh.
“Fucker hasn’t moved,” Niamh said.
“No,” I agreed. “It’s waiting for backup.” I pointed into the jelly, where several more of the creatures were making their way toward us. A few of them had gotten sidetracked by the delicious-smelling canister, but others were picking their way toward us.
“Thank God we set up those instrument packages,” Niamh said. “Now base can watch us get eaten in high definition.”