The Infestation

Maw of the Spider

Shawn Rider, ace pilot of the Lightray, grimaced while looking over the completed scan of the unnamed planet he now orbited. He had followed a distress signal to the planet, though the signal was a week old. Likely the sender had already perished or gotten themselves out of distress. However, Shawn pursued it anyway; if he could bring word back to the families, that would at least give them a measure of closure.

He was beginning to regret his decision. The scan of the planet indicated that there was a vast amount of water, a large number of lowlands, and many biological indicators. This meant there were going to be swamps, lots of swamps. Probably all of the land, aside from any mountain ridges, would be swamps.

Before he could change his mind and back out, Shawn brought his spacecraft in closer to the planet. The Lightray was a small passenger ship that Shawn had modified to allow him to take on exploratory campaigns, mapping the galaxy for all of humanity. This, of course, meant that he was perfectly capable of flying the ship in both vacuum and atmosphere, as required for truly understanding terrestrial worlds. Scanners were great, but nothing beat old-fashioned, visual recon.

The magi-tech engine and power core that fueled the ship made use of a weight reducing enchantment. This, of course, reduced the power required to achieve planetary orbit. However, this was a more complex feat than most realized. Since the power required increased exponentially the more one reduced weight, it had to be balanced against the power required for thrust. Fortunately, computers handled those calculations automatically.

Descending through the thick, cloudy atmosphere, Shawn confirmed his worst fears. The landscape he could see via his visual scanners was green and wet, only occasionally broken through by rocky ridges. He set his navigational computer to begin calculating the distress signal origin, and sat back to watch the landscape below, hoping to find any good locations to land.

The hours passed slowly, watching the landscape turn into ocean, then back into land. Finally, Shawn circled above the signal location while deciding the optimal landing location. There was a ridge of stone jutting out from the swamp, and he began to descend towards it, looking to land anywhere remotely flat.

As he was descending, Shawn heard a droning buzz over his audio sensors. It was growing steadily louder, its source approaching. He checked the visual sensors in time to see a large, chitinous creature slam into his kinetic shielding. It appeared to have done substantial harm to itself, as it fell away from the Lightray, trailing green ichor.

“Great, bugs...” Shawn muttered as he piloted the Lightray into a gentle landing. It wasn't an optimal location, the craft was ten degrees off level, but it was the best he could find on this slice of Hell.

Double checking the atmospheric readings, Shawn determined that the air was breathable. He strapped up on weaponry for his excursion, a rail rifle and pistols, a large bore shotgun that was more akin to a handheld cannon, and an enchanted longsword that would glow with a soft yellow light in the dark.

Satisfied that he was as prepared as he could possibly be, Shawn lowered the landing platform and stepped off the Lightray. Outside his ship, he grimaced at the wall of heat and humidity. It felt as though he had walked into a sauna that stunk of sweet decay all while wearing clothes.

As his foot hit the stony ground, a flash of movement caught his eye. The bug that had slammed into his shields earlier sped right at him. Shawn held his ground, staring the bug down. It slammed once more into the kinetic shields of the Lightray, falling to the ground stunned.

Shawn strode over to the creature, disgust on his face. “Just had to be bugs, didn't it?” With a swift slash of his sword, he dispatched the creature. Pausing a moment, he examined the carcass. It looked most like a large praying mantis, long, narrow body and claws the size of machetes.

Pulling out his Mobile Palmtop Device, or MPD, he set his current location on the crude map it had generated from his scans. The terrain features on the map lacked detail, but it would help him keep the location of his ship.

Map set, Shawn set off down the rocky ridge. As he descended towards the swamp, the humidity continued to rise until his shirt and pants were completely damp. The other aggravation he found was the constant buzzing. It seemed the planet had countless normal sized bugs to accompany the overlarge variety. Shawn tried to examine a few of them, but they never sat still for long. They were constantly in flight, zipping this way and that, so he gave up on the endeavor. Fortunately, whatever they were so busy with, it did not seem to include him so his choice to ignore them seemed a prudent enough choice for now.

Soon enough, the stone began to turn to mud. Glad for his boots, Shawn trekked on, eyes peeled for any more of the large bugs. He could hear deeper droning noises in the near distance, indicating their presence, but, much like the smaller varieties, they seemed to be uninterested in him. For now at least.

As he marched ever closer to the signal that was his beacon, the mud slowly got deeper before turning to standing water. The plant life, mostly large ferns and small scrubby trees, grew thicker and thicker, until Shawn had to unsheathe his sword and proceed using it to clear his path. Fortunately, the enchantment also protected the blade's edge against dulling; anything as soft as the plant life before him would give his sword no pause.

As he edged ever closer to the source of the signal, the buzzing began to lessen in volume. It felt as though the bugs were collectively holding their breath, watching to see what he would do next.

Finally, he broke through one last tree, hacking its limbs apart, to find a trail of wasted plants several meters across. A few new, green shoots poked out of the water here and there, but the trail was otherwise fresh. Looking one way, then the other, Shawn saw what he had come to find. There, perhaps a hundred meters to his left, lay the wreckage of a spacecraft.

As he started towards the wreckage, Shawn heard the buzzing intensify. Behind him, several of the larger bugs flew out of the foliage, bearing directly for him. Shawn took off at a run; he figured it would be better to fight where he could have a solid wall at his back. Trouble was, the bugs were catching up too fast.

Listening carefully, waiting until the last moment, Shawn jumped to the side and slashed with his sword. The bug in the front of the swarm cut itself in half as it impacted the blade, flying off in two pieces trailing green ichor. Shawn danced back a few more paces, allowing the remaining four bugs to fly past him.

Jamming his blade into the mud at his feet, Shawn pulled his rail rifle up from its harness. The bugs were already turning, flying back for another pass at him. He fired, once, twice, thrice, and three of the bugs exploded as they were impacted by solid metal shells propelled by railgun technology powered by a magi-tech battery.

Shawn tried to dodge out of the way of the fourth, but he had waited too long. The fourth bug slashed across his upper back with its claws. Hissing in pain, Shawn turned and fired one last time, blasting the final bug to smithereens.

He had a moment to catch his breath and sheathe his sword before the droning buzz grew louder once more. “Nine Hells! How many of these damnable bugs are there?” Shawn took off at a sprint once more, his shoulders aching with each step. He could feel his blood dripping down his back, even over the general dampness of the humid climate.

Gritting his teeth, Shawn poured forth a final burst of energy, spinning to put the ship at his back. Another half dozen of the flying bugs were speeding towards him, and he could hear a crashing sound that accompanied them. As he fired on the flying bugs, another bug crashed out of the trees. It looked like a giant centipede, its body a meter in diameter, its many rows of long limbs stabbing the ground as it slithered its way towards him.

“Nine Hells...” Shawn breathed, switching to target the new creature. The few shots he could fire before the flying bugs were upon him seemed to crack its chitin, but it was otherwise unbothered. He dropped the rifle to let it rest on its strap against his belly and pulled his sword forth once more. A quick slash split another flyer and parried the attack of a second. The third managed to slice a gash into Shawn's forearm before he could pull back all the way.

Shawn rolled across the ship to his left, dodging the centipede as it slammed face-first into the wreckage. It cried out in pain as it reared to the sky. Shawn took its momentary distraction to deal with the two remaining flyers.

The centipede turned to face him, its chitin a spider web of cracks. Shawn slowly backed away, leaning his sword against the ship as he did. The centipede watched, clearly somewhat dazed. He slowly drew his shotgun from its sling, pulling a full metal slug to load. As he did, the centipede reared back and lunged. Shawn fired, the giant slug blasting through the centipede's chitin and blowing its head clean off.

But, it was too late to stop its charge. Shawn clumsily threw himself to the side, but the bulk of the creature still came down on his right leg. Shawn could distinctly hear a snap, from bone, not chitin. “Damn it...” he hissed. Leaning forward, Shawn rolled the centipede off his leg and pulled it free.

Gritting his teeth, Shawn began dragging himself through the muck and the water. On the far side of the ship, he found a breach in the hull large enough to pull himself inside. To his surprise, he found himself in a med-bay. “Pinch me, I must be dreaming. Who ever would think I would be so lucky as to hit the med bay first?” The ship had rolled in the crash, so everything was oriented strangely, but Shawn pulled himself over to the storage cupboards anyway.

Shawn pulled a couple of rolls of anti-microbial bandage wraps from his pouch and wrapped his arm and shoulder with some difficulty. He breathed heavily for a moment while waiting for the sting of the the antimicrobial to wear off. Rifling through the cupboards for several minutes, he found a chemical compress wrap. It would work to hold his fractured leg in place long enough to return to his ship.

After wrapping his leg, Shawn sat, deep in thought. He had to wait for the compress to finish setting anyway, so he spent the time analyzing the experience so far. The The planet was clearly quite dangerous, so he would mark it a danger level four, or military grade squad recommended. After all, what sort of lunatic would attempt to explore this sort of planet all alone? Oh, right, he would.

Shawn sighed and massaged his forehead. Why had he decided to come here again? Whatever the case was, it was time to make himself scarce. He stood and limped his way to the bridge. There, he found the ship log, which would contain both manual and automatic entries. He copied it to his MPD, and from there sent it to his own ship's mainframe in an isolated package to be examined later.

His MPD beeped as it finished the transfer, and as it did, the ground shook beneath him. Shawn stumbled and fell back into the pilots chair as the entire ship tipped forward and began sliding rapidly. He watched from his seat, horrified as the ship was swallowed by a massive sinkhole.

While sliding into the depths of the earth, Shawn began a quick diagnostics on the wrecked ship's systems. It seemed the power core was still partially operational, so he started by powering on all the lights. He was just in time to see the ship crash into a massive underground cavern. The floor was covered in water, much like the swamp above. Taking a mental note of the remainder of the ship's functions, Shawn decided to look around outside the ship for a bit.

He stepped out into the water. A stream was pouring down from the swamp above. Placing a hand into the water, Shawn felt it flowing slowly away from the ship. It seemed there was a place where it could drain ahead.

Following the direction of the water flow, Shawn began his steady march, limping slightly from his broken leg. As he left the light from the ship, he turned on a light mounted on his rail rifle, using that to guide his step. After about five minutes, he found the edge of the cavern, a tunnel sprouting from its side. Leaning down to test the water once more, Shawn determined that the water was flowing down the tunnel.

As he took his first step into the tunnel, it felt different. Whereas he had been stepping on the carved stone of the cavern, there was now spring beneath his boot. Shawn took a closer look at the tunnel wall before stumbling back a couple of steps. The wall was made of web. Spider web, if he wasn't mistaken. Layer upon layer of the stuff had been built up until it covered the walls and floor.

“Nine Hells,” Shawn spat, wrinkling his nose. “No way I'm going in there.”

But, as he turned to leave, he heard something that gave him pause. A scream broke the silence. A human scream. Someone was alive down here.

Growling in frustration, Shawn turned back to the tunnel. Nothing for it, he marched slowly but surely into another layer of hell.

Tension high, Shawn continually scanned every surface of the tunnel, eyes peeled for any movement. He grew more and more suspicious with each passing moment. The webbing looked fresh, so where were its occupants?

Finally, the tunnel opened to another large cavern. It was, like the tunnel, plastered with webs, though here they not only covered the walls, but were interspersed throughout the space as well. Shawn scanned the space, looking desperately for any motion.

He moved slowly into the room, passing between and under strands of webbing as thick around as his forearm. In the back corner, he could see motion. Something was thrashing wildly where it was caught in the webbing. Shawn crept over, and could distinguish distinctly human limbs waving wildly.

“Shh, shh,” He whispered, trying to calm the person. “Listen, I'm going to try to get you out, but you're going to need to calm down. I think there are creatures down here and I don't want you to attract their attention.” Holding his rifle in his left hand so he could keep his light on the person, he drew his sword. With a quick slash, the person slumped, still trapped within the webbing, but no longer suspended.

Shawn felt an itch at his back; something was watching him. He whirled, and came face to face with a nightmare. A great spider-like creature stood before him. Its body was large, spherical, and covered in jagged chitin. Its head split at the middle, revealing a great maw filled with gnashing fangs. Above its mouth was a scattering of beady, black eyes, randomly assorted as if someone had tossed a handful at the creature's face. It's legs were long and thick, and to Shawn's revulsion, he could see, on the end of a leg raised towards him, a distinctly human eye.

The creature stared at him, completely still as it took in the sight of the intruder. “Well, what now?” Shawn asked, impatience overtaking his fear. If the creature was going to string him up, then he would rather get it over with.

The creature's other front leg raised to reveal a human-looking mouth. The creature spoke with a calm voice. “Why do you intrude upon my domain, human?”

Completely taken aback, Shawn gaped at the spider.

“Need I repeat myself?” it asked. “I asked why you are here.”

“I... I received a distress signal.”

“Curiosity. Very well. It seems you will join your fellow humans. You may perish, relieved to know that your corpse will feed the hordes of Chi'zneth'gora.”

The name rolled quite easily from the spider's mouth, but its utterance caused Shawn's stomach to twist in dread. “Is that you? These bugs are your hordes?”

“Oh, no,” the spider said. “I am a mere servant, one who builds the armies. Chi'zneth'gora is much greater. To even gaze upon him is a danger to simple humans such as yourself. Is there anything else you wish to know of the master's glory? You are going to your death after all, satiate your curiosity now so that you may have much to ponder while you hang until your demise.”

“Just one thing...” Shawn muttered, sheathing his sword. “The one thing I would like to know is...” While speaking, Shawn slowly reached to grab his shotgun, along with a special shell. “How do your kind deal with fire?” In a whirl, Shawn loading the gun and brought it to bare before firing. The gun belched a spray of flames, accompanied by a scattering of magnesium pellets ignited as they embedded into the spider's chitin. That special, enchanted shell was one of Shawn's emergency plans; he didn't have many of them on hand due to their expensive nature.

The creature screeched, a horrid, inhuman sound that threw Shawn's balance off. Fighting through the sound, he turned to the human he had rescued. He dropped the shotgun, its barrel was cherry red and warped. No longer usable, it was just dead weight. He pulled a utility knife and slashed the webbing snaring the person, ripping large chunks away to reveal a woman inside. He picked her up and slung her over his left shoulder in time to see countless bugs streaming though the tunnels towards them. There were the flyers he had seen above, though they were joined by spiders and several other varieties Shawn was too busy to pick out.

Shawn took off at a run dodging around webbing that was starting to catch fire. “On my waist there are two rail pistols!” he called to the woman. “Can you use them? If you can, take them and shoot anything that gets too close.” The giant spider's wail had died off, and he could see the creature recovering in his peripheral vision.

He felt the woman snag the guns from his side as he approached the tunnel he had arrived through. He could hear the woman begin firing from his shoulder and grinned. His kinda woman, just escaped from a spider's web and already ready to blast monsters.

Shawn focused on the tunnel ahead, which was also swarming with creatures. His back began to feel warm as the fire on the webbing continued to grow. The magnesium, as well as the enchantment backing it, wouldn't be put out by the mere presence of water. While it wouldn't burn all the webbing, it would disincentivize the bugs from following them.

Shawn had his sword out in his right hand, leading with wide arcing slashes to dispatch as many of the bugs from ahead as he could. He didn't bother to stop and make sure they died, being out of his way was enough. His arm began to tire as he reached the cavern where he had left the wrecked ship.

“Can you run?” Shawn called to the woman. “I'll be able to carve a path more effectively if I have both arms”

She wiggled her legs a bit, checking her mobility. “Seems like it! Drop me, I can keep up.”

Shawn set the woman down. “Keep up! Don't worry about behind, keep our periphery clear!”

“On it!”

Having barely slowed his run, Shawn now sheathed his blade and pulled his rail-rifle. Here, the advantage of rail technology shined. With older, powder rifles, the magazine capacity was limited. Since rail rifles generated firing power from a magi-tech battery, their ammunition was much smaller, allowing for much larger capacities.

Shawn put this ability to full use, blasting bug after bug to pieces as he crossed the cavern. As they reached the ship, the two turned and began clearing a space around.

“I have a plan!” Shawn called to the woman. “Can you hold them off for a minute?” The woman nodded. “You want the rifle?” Another nod. Shawn stepped back and reloaded. While the capacity was huge, it was still best to keep it fresh. He slung the rifle over her back and took one of the pistols, just in case. He slipped a pistol magazine and three shotgun shells into her pocket. “When I call, throw those shells. They're enchanted magnesium rounds, so they should burn in the water. Then get to the escape pod.”

“Understood!” The woman had switched to firing from the rifle. Shawn stepped into the hole in the hull and the woman followed, not missing a beat.

Shawn dashed through the ship to the power source. There, he quickly examined the runes that contained the power and regulated output. While he was no expert in runes or enchantment, Shawn knew enough to blow things up. He adjusted the limiter and containment runes; now the power would steadily grow higher, held back by the strengthened containment rune, until it exploded. He had less than a minute to work now.

Shawn sprinted towards the escape pod when he heard the woman cry out, “I'm being overwhelmed! The big spider is back!”

“Fall back!” Shawn called. He heard the magnesium shells explode a moment later and saw the woman running his way.

As Shawn reached the escaped pod room, he slammed the button to open the pod facing up the sinkhole. Waiting a moment, he gave the woman a boost, then leapt up and pulled himself into the pod as well. Just in time too, a swarm of bugs burst into the room after them. As Shawn closed the pod, he heard a slamming on the exterior of the pod. The woman shrieked as he turned to see the giant spider had returned, one of the legs, with an eye on the end, peering into the pod.

The spider heaved itself up until it was looking at them with the cluster of eyes on its head. “You cannot escape, foolish humans. Chi'zneth'gora is everywhere, he shall conquer all. You merely delay the inevitable.”

Reaching the end of his mental countdown, Shawn said, “You want something to eat? Try this then.” He hit the eject button and the pod released, firing its thruster. As it did, the power core exploded behind them, launching the pod upwards. The spider's head exploded as they blasted through it.

As they sailed through the spider, everything fell quiet. Even through the pod, they had been able to hear the buzzing and clacking of the bugs in their march, but now they could only hear the sound of the air speeding past them.

Soon enough, the pod popped back onto the surface, landing with a splash. Shawn and the woman took a moment to catch their breath. After a few moments, Shawn opened the pod. The silence continued. “Come on, no need to waste this opportunity.” He pulled the woman after him and they took off back towards his ship.

They trekked through the swamp and up the stony ridge without seeing any sign of any bugs, including the tiny, normal sized ones. After boarding, Shawn set about launching immediately, and as the ship entered low orbit, he stepped away to show the woman to the showers, figuring she would want to wash herself of the planet's gunk.

When she returned, Shawn felt his eyes go wide. Hidden beneath a layer of webs, mud, and muck was a bombshell. She was tall and had a curvy build that was apparent even under the loose shirt and pants she had borrowed from him. Her hair was long and blonde. She had full, pink lips, a cute nose, and gorgeous sapphire blue eyes.

She had also been saying something to him that he now realized he hadn't heard at all. “Sorry, what was that? I was lost in thought.”

The woman laughed, “I'm sure you were. Anyway I was thanking you for the shower. I figured I should introduce myself. I'm Chloe.”

“I'm Shawn,” he replied. “Uh, I don't want to be to forward but, do you... uh, do you have a plan? I don't really have any pressing destinations, I can take you wherever you might need to go.”

“Well, I should report my crew's demise,” Chloe said with a grimace. “After that, I dunno.” She shrugged.

“Well, I usually travel alone,” Shawn said, putting on a pensive face. “That said, you hold yourself well in a firefight. Would you be interested in joining the crew of the Lightray?”

Chloe chewed absently on her bottom lip while she considered. “Perhaps. I don't have anything else lined up, and exploration is my thing...” She continued to consider. “Yeah, I suppose that does sound like an alright idea, for now at least.” She gave Shawn a wink. “Now you should probably take a shower yourself.”

Shawn laughed and left the bridge. He supposed there were parables about this kind of situation, finding priceless gemstones among the muck. He grinned at that thought. Things seemed to be looking up for this lonely wanderer.