12 Miles Below

Father instantly bailed on the idea of subtlety. He tossed the rifle out of his hands, trusting the strap would hold, and spun around. Hand now free, he reached out and yanked me off my feet, sprinting through the obstacle course, with no regards for any trap. Lights shone as he tripped countless wires.

I had a miserable full view on what happened to that sorry goat in the meanwhile.

Four white disk-like bodies landed further away from the dying animal. They struck the ground, dropping from the ceiling on six long legs, each limb ending in thin pointed spikes. Their body was like that of an armored crab. But they had the agility and dexterity of a spider with those long legs.

But the real danger to the goat was what stayed on the ceiling.

A pale blue light shot from the cavern roof at the doomed goat before it could collapse, illuminating the rock in a blue hue. This glow surrounded the goat, lifting it off its feet with a lurch into the air. There, the animal floated, slowly rotating on itself, hooves flailing around with panic. I could even see the clumps of blood floating around in ball-like orbs, merging together, spinning around aimlessly.

The spider-automatons moved across the terrain like water streams over rocks, legs a blur. Rushing at impressive speed to reach the goat given their size. Likely to skewer the almost-dead victim with those sharp limbs. I hadn't seen any other weapons they could have used.

Those spiders didn't get the chance. A loud whistle came from the ceiling, caused by a steel spike shooting through the air. It skewered into the goat before any of the spiders could have their slice. If it hadn't died from that spike, it certainly did after three more shots hit it. These came from different directions, catching the trapped animal all across its body. It spun with every hit, it's hooves limp.

We were next.

Father leapt to the side, as a spike impaled the area he’d been sprinting through. More landfalls of the spider like automatons happened behind us. The full nest was rousing now.

I knew what was going to happen next the moment that haze of blue appeared around us, and so did Father. As fast as reflex, he tossed me out of the beam, "Run!" He yelled, turning on himself and drawing out his rifle to aim upwards, as his feet lifted off the ground.

I hit the ground and rolled, a spike impaled itself by my feet and burrowed into the rock a good inch. Message received as intended, I scrambled to my feet, bolting for the tunnel and trying my best to be unpredictable.

Whistling spikes fought against the rifle's barking burst of fire for dominance. Whatever was happening, Father was taking hits. I could hear the frizz of the winterscar armor shields deflecting hits. A lot of hits.

Something big cracked on the ceiling followed by a shattering crunch on the ground. I couldn't tell what was going on, my head fixed straight to the tunnel.

As I was starting to think I'd get impaled any moment now, a winking of gold caught my eyes. Under a rock way, a smaller metal door flashed at me. Closer to me then the tunnels were.

Footfalls were everywhere. Something behind me was catching up.

I made a snap choice and changed course for the small door frame.

Something shoved my foot down and a moment later, I realized I couldn’t tug my foot away. A glance down showed the reason: A spike had punched through my calf muscles and skewered me into the ground. There wasn’t any pain, or shock. I grabbed the metal spike and pulled up, but found it firmly impaled into the ground.

A metal gauntlet wrapped itself over the spike and pulled the entire thing out of the ground in one fluid motion. Father had made it to me.

He hadn’t pulled the spike out of my calf, just freed me from the ground. Without a second wasted, he grabbed my collar and lifted me up.

I swear I could feel the throw before it even happened. Again, he launched me forward like a toy. Sailing straight, I flew to the glowing gold doors - which were now open. They must have opened up while I’d been fumbling against the spike.

I skidded to a quick stop inside the tunnel, on the smooth ground. A glance behind me showed Father hadn't been able to follow. Held up fighting off one of those spider-like automatons instead.

The thing towered above him. It's body several times his mass, while it's legs almost twice as tall as he was. I hadn't noticed details from a distance but now that it was close I could. First, it didn't have two eyes. Instead it had eyes all around the edges of its dome shell, almost like shellfish would. It looked like a fat frisbee with six legs, but far, far more terrifying. And agile like nothing I'd seen before.

The machine danced around, striking at father like a surgeon. Each hit, planned out to isolate him away from the door. All its legs moved interchangeably, some to hold it up and others to attack with. It clearly could move those limbs for anything in a pinch. And it moved with twitchy movements that shouldn't be possible for its size.

I wasn't going to make the same mistake twice over. Fear didn't control me this time, experience or the stimulants had dampened it. I felt whole, lucid and most importantly - in control.

I rolled over to my knee and reached for my pistol.

The other spiders caught up and circled around but didn't interrupt the life and death fight going on in front. Whatever was on the ceiling shooting spikes had stopped as well. I wasn't sure if it was out of respect for the duel or that they couldn't get a clear shot with the spider in the way.

Father fought back like a cornered animal in those few seconds I primed my pistol. He hadn't drawn out his knife, the spider kept him too hung up on defense. Even up to the point of having to tank some hits with his damaged armor. Every bit of his focus was on avoiding those impaling limbs.

I lined up my shot, considering where the best target point could be.

Even if the creature’s body wasn't angled to me, it somehow spotted my movements. The machine reacted, lifting three of its legs to protect its core in anticipation. It looked like a lopsided tripod now. Rectangular holographic shielding flared to life across it's limbs. Lighting up the surroundings in pale blue light. It looked like relic armor shielding, the same color and appearance too. Only more permanent.

I opened fire, not letting it get a chance to fully close up it’s legs into one massive shield.

The bullets hit the fortified white carapace instead, chipping the ceramic armor, dealing next to no damage, just as the legs locked into place.

It lowered one of those legs an inch, a few violet eyes peeking out from between the limbs. The machine looked almost bewildered. As if it had been expecting a hail of bullets or some massive weapon. And couldn't believe such a puny shot was what happened instead.

That was a big mistake on it's part. Father was not an opponent you could afford to forget about.

The man didn't waste the chance, smashing at an exposed leg with a savage kick. He rolled out of the way as the spider lost balance and came crashing forward. It's legs flailed about in the air trying to catch itself as it toppled down.

In a split second, it decided to face-plant on the ground instead, and use those legs to cover exposed parts. Given the man next to it had a loaded weapon and good reason to use it, that turned out a smart choice.

Bullets riddled the shielded legs. Shots sought out any exposed mechanical parts from the sloppy last second defense. White ceramic plating flew off in dusty chips from the attack. Nothing managed to do more damage than that.

The spider's armor held, no longer smooth and polished, but still had plenty of life left. The blue shielding undulated like a wave at the furious impacts, no sign of damage behind. In moments, the window of time to hit something important evaporated. The spider had shored up it's defense into something more respectable.

With a quick duck to avoid one flying spike, Father turned his rifle up next, giving up on damaging the spider. He aimed at whatever was clinging to the ceiling, backtracking blindly backwards. Firing single shot hits each time he had lined up a shot.

At least those ceiling targets seemed weak to the weapon.

Barnacle like, with one violet eye peeking deep from their center, hooded by the shell. They had no arms or legs, only a turret that tracked after Father. A bulky more conventional looking weapon.

I could take a guess that those were the ones that shot spikes, and a moment later, was proven right. Their aim was good. But a single eye? That seemed like a major weakness.

A weakness I could exploit.

I lined up the iron sights on the pistol. A bullet shot out, flying true and breaking the violet glow of one of these. They quickly reacted to my presence, but not before I had fired another three shots, which managed to blind a second of these creatures.

Spikes hurled down into my tunnel and I avoided them by hugging the sides of the walls, which obscured line of sight.

When the spikes stopped raining down, I took a look at the situation.

Shots clinked across Father’s armor as he continued to backtrack in my direction. He was only able to dodge a handful, even as he saw them coming. But just the same, they couldn't dodge his shots either. And he was doing damage to their population. Like I had done, he was also aiming for their eyes, expertly taking them out with one bullet each.

I added my own shots into the mix, nailing another two as he mowed six down with speed.

The spider Father had been fighting was still hunched over, covering all it’s eyes. It’s vision seemed blinded in the process. And so, it hadn’t noticed Father had stopped attacking it, as he steadily retreated.

Seven more spikes hailed down around and into him as his rifle clicked empty. A few missed him, but others hit hard, finally breaking the relic armor's shield reserves. The next spike would probably penetrate his armor if it hit. And he was still only halfway to the door. I continued to open fire, trying to keep the spike throwers switching up targets to me. They seemed at least smart enough to know attacking the target who could duck into cover wasn’t going to come with results.

The spider peeked through its legs again when it heard the rifle stop shooting. Immediately it screeched bloody murder - It's prey hadn't been attacking it at all, but instead making a run for it. Bamboozled twice now. The angry monster leapt out to chase after him, fury radiating out.

Three more spikes rained down on Father, two of which he avoided. The third flew true. But the old man still had cards left to play. The rifle flipped up sideways, he turned it into a makeshift shield. The spike ripped to the other side and remained lodged in the brutalized rifle. It wasn't ever going to be shooting another bullet after that. But Father's armor was spared the hit. He continued to use it as a shield, stopping two more spikes in their tracks.

The spider had caught up right after. Lucky for us, it's size and Father’s close distance to the tunnel was obscuring the stationary ceiling automatons. I shifted my aim back at the spider, ready to unload the last three shots in my pistol. It wouldn’t be much, but maybe I could take one of its eyes down at this distance.

The spider still didn't take chances, two legs up this time, covering the important parts. Looks like it remembered Father was liable to cripple it’s stance if it stood on three legs.

Those energy shields were once more active in anticipation for whatever I had in store. And the other four were all used up to keep the spider moving after Father. It was in range to attack, but now found itself with no spare limbs to spear him with, unless it was willing to expose something to my pistol.

I could hear it’s frustration through the screeching coming from the creature. Still, it chased after Father, likely planning something different.

Father twisted around and gave his full attention to accelerating into the tunnel. He crossed the tunnel territory in seconds, sliding down the incline right through the doorway.

The door sealed shut the instant he'd crossed the line.

It snapped viciously down on an outstretched automaton limb trailing inches behind.

The machine limb was severed at the midsection, blue energy shield and all, clearly no match for how strong this door was.

Pounding could be heard on the other side, followed by angered screeches. But nothing was coming through that door.

We’d made it.

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