News
- At Disney World's 'Living with..
- Clash at Lone Star: vileHawk a..
- [MCSL] Vile vs MouZ
- Team Vile Invited to EG MCSL VII
- Locked topic
General
- Commercial sunscreens are a da..
- Vile dead
- Roll Call
- Vile withdrawn from MCSL
- Vile Logo
- A Few Thoughts From A Vile Gam..
- Thanks Psy!
- boss man
- Photo gallery
- Pre-2012 staff surge
- You know you're a big deal whe..
- Where's the logo change?
- Site..
- shitty writing
- YEAH BUDDY, LIGHTWEIGHT
StarCraft
- Starcraft 2 Fastest Done Right.
- LONG TIME NO SEE
- Spanishiwa!
- Proposed Design Changes To Sta..
- SC2 Names/E-Mails
- Another required initial topic..
- Another required initial topic..
- Required initial topic..
- Coaching
- Clan Vile
Blizzard
- Diablo III beta announced?
- Dota for War3
- Blizzard's secret project
- Official Cataclysm Thread
- Diablo 3 Information
Other
Blogs
The TunnelForums / Special / Contest: The Epic Tome
Reply (statistics)Find this topic interesting? Want to participate? Register on VG today and contribute! |
April 2nd, 2010 6:28pm #1The.Fiend Regular (3) |
|
The Tunnel  Beep. Beep. Beep. Beep. Sergeant Alec opened his eyes, seeing the familiar HUD of his power suit. Beyond the HUD, only darkness. Based on his orientation, Alec could tell that he was lying on his back. Even though the suit seemed fully powered, Alec's eyes already started the initial system boot-up safety check, a procedure that was drilled into him to the point of being instinct. It was always the first thing you did before operating the suit. Always. Oxygen:76%. System power: 82%. Vac-seal: Confirmed. All systems operational. Unit ID: 0A315312F. Operator ID: Sergeant Alec Darwin (32157243D). Operator Life-signs: Stable. Current Position: UNAVAILABLE. Current Heading: UNAVAILABLE. Command Uplink: Not found. Active Connections: 0/152. Last connection: ERROR. The connection to command was oddly not present… Normally a marine in the field would always have an open connection to tactical command, constantly downloading nav points, new orders, enemy unit positions, satellite feeds, and thousands of megabytes of tactical data. In fact, Alec found it odd that he wasn't awakened by his lieutenant screaming at him. but there wasn't any active communication line to members of his squad either. There was no one else. Alec was alone in this dark place. Alec stood up, his actuators and motion enhancement units helping to make the otherwise unwieldy power armor move in a quick almost-fluid motion. He could distinctly hear the sound of metal on metal which echoed through the area. Based on the tactical feedback to his hands, Alec knew he was still holding his gauss rifle. Even if it's operator was unconscious, the suit's default protocols always kept its grip of the weapon. His pinky finger flicked the small switch that would activate the suit's internal light, and the area around him became visible. Alec stood in a passage lined with heavy unpainted steel plates, like the kind used to construct a reinforced bunker. Each of the walls was covered with sporadic patches of rust. The metallic walls were close to him, giving him roughly three feet of room in either direction, just enough to make Alec feel claustrophobic without being truly physically constraining. The ceiling stood about twelve feet, a little higher than Alec's helmet. The look of the construction was distinctly terran, though oddly there was no lighting built into the ceiling or walls. It wasn't inoperable, it literally wasn't there. There were no doors, branching corridors or even ventilation panels either. Only a single steel plate on the right wall was marked with the lettering: C3A1-4RDN1W. The steel tunnel seemed to go in both directions to the length of Alec's light, and then fell into darkness. Everything was a dead silence. A sudden chilling shiver ran down Alec's spine, giving him goose bumps all over his body. Where Am I? How did I get here? I can't remember a thing! Come on Alec… think… think… I have to be deep underground… that's the only way I'd have no connection to command. But where is my squad, why am I alone? God damn, why can't I remember anything! Okay think back, what do you remember… you were on a medivac… you were flying… there were three other marines. And a tank! But why? Where were we going… a tank like that wouldn't fit in a tunnel like this. No way you're fitting a siege tank down here. So why the hell am I here? Why was I unconscious… Maybe it was a stim… did I use a stim? One of the side effects is memory loss… Was that it? There's no sign of combat… I'm not damaged… why would I just collapse? And where the hell's the rest of my squad? Wait… the comm log! Alec pressed the button opening up the communications manager, where he selected the icon of the datadisc with the image of a satellite dish on it. Much to his surprise, Alec saw only a single saved communication. Only one communication saved? But there should be dozens, if not hundreds. Every individual order or situation update gets logged… but there's just one. Communication Date: UNKNOWN. Source ID: UNKNOWN. **Possible data Corruption** Alec double tapped the communication box, triggering it to open. A small comm window appeared in the top right of his HUD, But it only showed a series of static along with the usual annoying sound. Alec was about to cancel the playback but paused abruptly. He thought he heard a voice. A female voice. He couldn't make out the words, but it was definitely a voice. Alec waited, watching the screen. Still no video… but the voice got a little bit clearer. It sounded almost like a child. A little girl. "You have to… *hiss* *static pop* dang- *static* " Alec was about to turn off the unintelligible message when suddenly the last line came in, completely clear and undistorted, speaking in a calm but sad tone. "Only bad things happen in the tunnel." The recording ended. Hell with this… I'm getting out of here… Alec picked the direction that was currently ahead of him and proceeded forward, switching his HUD to display his rear camera feed. He didn't want any nasty surprises, and this place was starting to freak him out. The tunnel filled with the loud booming echo of Alec's heavy metal boots crashing down on the steel-plated floor. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- The marine paused for the fourth (fifth?) time to listen. He could have sworn he heard something resembling a distant clawing sound. Once again there was only silence. Absolute silence. All in my head. It's all in my head. Like that damn cold… it can't be getting colder. That's impossible. The suit's environmentally sealed. It could be the icy void of space out there and I would still be kept comfortably warm, assuming the heating units in the suit were working properly. A quick environmental system diagnostic reported that there was no errors detected. Still he couldn't help but feel that constant chill. And it also felt like it was getting darker too… You've got to focus.. it's just your head playing games with you.. it'll be okay once you find the way out of this tunnel. I've just got to get going again. The faster I get to the end, the faster I- The marine's thought process was broken by the unambiguous audible sound of clawing... and now it was almost constant. It was distant, but unmistakable. He knew the sound of a burrowing zerg when he heard it… and this was definitely a burrowing zerg. Subconsciously, the marine's grip tightened on his gauss rifle. Those bastards can go right through even metal plates this thick. I've seen them burst right through the floors of orbital platforms before. Getting trapped underground with a burrowing zerg, that was almost a death sentence. It could strike from anywhere at any time. They can even come from below and take your legs right off before you can react. He watched up ahead vigilantly, with his rear camera covering his back as best as it could. Still the marine turned once or twice to look behind him. The burrowing sounds were still distant, but he didn't want to take any chances. I can't stay here just waiting to die. At least I'll give that thing a moving target. The marine continued down the corridor, resuming his march. The steel tunnel was an unchanging landscape, it seemed to go on and on and on. No doors, no lights, no side corridors. Just the tunnel. The damn tunnel. Occasionally there was some lettering on the wall designating the section, but usually at least one or two of the letters or numbers were faded. Still, a part of him thought that maybe there was some significance to it all. But the marine had to go on. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- How long have I been walking in this damned tunnel? The clawing sounds… always getting louder and louder. Closer and closer. His whole body was cold now, almost numb and he could feel noticeably weaker. His once sharp perceptions were starting to dull and grow weary with a fatigue. His stomach had the beginnings of nausea. Still he moved onward… his echoing footsteps growing ever slower. And the clawing… always closer and closer. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- The eyes of the man in the suit opened. His HUD was a mess, the display half-garbled and mostly illegible. His metallic shell was a prison of ice. His teeth were chattering in the frigid air. His body was rigid and his muscles were weak. The man in the suit stood in a corridor of reinforced steel plating. The light coming from the suit was dim, only illuminating about ten yards ahead, and not very well at that. There was something printed on one of the wall plates but the print was faded or covered with rust and completely illegible. A dark purple slime seemed to run down from the walls around him. He couldn't tell where it was coming from, but somehow it was everywhere. A loud sound of grinding steel could be heard. Something was behind one of the walls, and very close… The man in the suit couldn't remember who he was or where he came from. This tunnel, that was all he knew... and it wasn't safe. Not anymore. He moved his aching body with what little adrenaline he had left, forcing himself forward. What power the suit had left was failing, as the powered actuators which moved it were responding slowly and sluggishly. The lights continued to fade. Dimmer and dimmer. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- The sound of the booming footsteps of the suit ceased. Moments later, the tunnel became imperishable darkness. The clawing continued for a few seconds, then stopped. There was a brief pause before it resumed. The tearing of metal could be heard, not from the walls, but from the suit itself. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- The thing in the suit awoke. Beep. Beep. The suit was emitting a series of two beeps followed by an automated message, looping every twenty seconds or so. Beep. Beep. The automated voice of the suit repeated its message again: "Warning: Parasite Detected." The thing in the suit paid the message no heed. It's mind held room for only a single thought. Live for the swarm. |