The Cavern of Scarabs
Posted on Sat Aug 30th, 2025 @ 4:37pm by Captain Edmund Merrick & Warrant Officer Mercy Ryan & Sergeant Andrew Shy
Edited on on Wed Sep 10th, 2025 @ 8:34am
1,706 words; about a 9 minute read
Mission:
Episode 16 - Silent Cries
Location: Beneath the surface of Wren IX
Timeline: MD010 0845 hrs
The cavern naturally arched upwards, much like the other one. This though was devoid of any building structures. There were instead what looked to be something like planters, though they were devoid of any plant life there.
A wide hard packed dirt path led to a field of some sort, on one side of the field was a shallow ditch, which had a small culvert leading into it. There was the sound of water dripping in here, but no other sound except for maybe a breeze coming from somewhere.
Things were so eerily quiet, that Edmund jumped when his HUD screamed out an alarm
He called for the HUD to check what the alarm was about and his heart sank. Besides Audie having been swept out from where his team was, two more blips one Gaagii and the other, Sina, two of the scouting team had been injured and sent up to the Pioneer, and the other T'Lar was running for her life!
"Teams if you can hear me, someone meet up with T'Lar!" there was static, Edmund didn't know if anyone got his message. "T'Lar watch your six!"
Edmund called over his comms "anything on your scopes, Shy, Mercy?"
There was something that pinged upon the HUD, a sound that was like metallic little legs pitter pattering at a rapid pace coming from that metallic pipe which led to the shallow ditch. What came flowing out looked almost like water, glossy--wasn't water it was--
"Oh, Gods!" Mercy shouted as she realised that the floor was awash with metallic scarabs. "Skipper, the floor is covered with bugs." She reported.
Andrew's phaser pistols came up and he used voice commands to switch them to setting five. Wide beam. To try and sweep the floor that was suddenly coming alive along his assigned sector. He wasn't scared for some reason.
Maybe they were just too busy.
His fire raked over the scurrying bugs as they closed in on the marines and he yelled, louder than he'd intended, into the comm. "Captain. We better pick em up and put em down...they're going to hem us in."
Edmund winced when Shy's voice rang over the coms. He was switching over to wide beam as he moved.
"Right with you!"
Mercy switched from 'Ruby' to her carbine and put it on wide beam, the bugs died only to be replaced by their brethren.
Biting his lip, Andrew sprinted ahead as the bugs crowded around and he ended running atop some and skidding like he was on ice over the last ten meters before he got turned around and his beam fire laced out like he was wielding a broom, sweeping the skittering bugs clear so the others had a clear path.
The metallic smell of burning bugs filled the area, as Mercy moved through the cleared path.
As the others moved toward him, Andrew watched with dismay as more bugs came after them. Like the walls, floor and ceiling were alive and coming after them. His sweeping fire cleared a path but the bugs were crowding upon one another: all coming after them, trying to cut them off.
Edmund sprinted towards Shy, taking advantage of the cleared path, though his HUD showed the clear path that they had gone down was fast filling up, behind them. He took the next path clearing task, making a semi-circle just to keep them from being over run,
"They seem rather eager to get to us." Edmund quipped, "Did someone ring the dinner bell?" working to mask his worry.
"How are you doing with your battery packs?" Edmund called out noting that the weapons panel was indicating his pack was running low on his phaser rifle.
"I have a couple for my carbine, the ones for 'Ruby' aren't compatible, but, I could use them as grenades." Mercy said as she attempted to get through a wall of bugs.
Something was occurring to Edmund, and it made him cringe, the bugs could be making certain that his group would expend their batteries. He frowned, then gave a half smile, grenade, he had a few left.
"Shy, Mercy, frag out!" Edmund giving them the heads up as to what he was going to do.
He calculated as to where to put the grenade where it would do damage and make a hole for them to progress forward. There will be bug shrapnel that they wouldn't be able to avoid.
"Get ready-" the grenade hit where he wished it to, exploding cutting a swathe in the ranks of the bugs, sending a ripple out like a huge rock which was thrown into a pool, sending bits in all directions. "Move, move!"
He heard the tink tink of parts rattling against the armor, he moved quickly forward to the central area where the grenade hit, feeling the boots slip a little bit as he came to a stop, turning to send a grenade to hit behind them to cover Shy and Mercy's movement.
Andrew sprinted ahead, his augmented strides pushing him along, till he was forced to skid to a halt as they reached a fork in the road. "Left or right, Captain?" He said over the com, his voice calm. "Looks like the left route goes up and mostly the direction we want to go...and. Captain. I'm picking up a faint fleet transponder shadow from the right. But that takes us downward. At least as far as I can tell. Want me to scout it while you and Mercy take the other route?"
"No, not gonna happen. There's a faint fleet transponder shadow? We're going to investigate, all of us. " Edmund snapped out quite firmly. "Double time it now!" he wasn't going to ignore that signal, not one whit.
He could hear the sound of the metallic scarabs dropping from the ceiling, like heavy rain hitting the metal roof of a building. The sound was chilling. He tossed a grenade to close up the opening behind them, Edmund already following after Shy and Mercy.
Mercy took point, as they followed the signal, 'Ruby' back in her arms.
As Mercy moved to point, Andrew found a firing position consisting of a small alcove and slipped into it, turning to provide covering fire as the sniper pushed and the captain rolled past. A wave of scarabs followed after a few seconds coating walls, ceiling and deck like water running down a pipe. As the wave approached, Andrew dropped his carbine to retract on it's sling while he pulled a pair of his own grenades. He set the pulse grenades to full charge and fit them together through contact plates, forming a shaped charge.
The time it took to do that, though only a few seconds was more than enough for the wave of metallic bug the size of his gauntleted fist to converge on him. Or rather sweep past where he was standing, ignoring him? Perplexed, Andrew noted the scarabs actually seemed to be trying to avoid him.
Shrugging mentally at the oddness of combat, he slapped the charges against the walls and sprinted after the others, "Sealing charges out," Andrew called over the coms as he ran to catch up. "This door is closing."
Mercy took cover as Shy's explosion cut them off from the bulk of the bugs. As she wiped the dust from her suit, she hoped 1st Lt. O'Rourke had brought extra ammo.
Edmund momentarily glanced back towards Shy and the scarabs that were chasing after them. There was a momentary flash of curiosity when he noticed that the bugs seemed to avoid Shy.
It was but a flash though, as something else took his attention. Going around the curve it led out to a bridge which stretched out over a chasm connecting this part of the their 'city' to the other side.
Edmund kicked into high gear crossing over the bridge, as he got to the center he found that huge chunk of it wasn't there. Running broad jump that was the theory, a burst of speed, Edmund utilized his boots to give more of a boost to the jump and landed on the other side, skidding as he landed. He turned to watch for the others to join him.
Mercy strapped 'Ruby' to her chest. She then got a run up, engaging her suit's boosters as she jumped from the bridge.
Reaching the other side, she slipped in the loose sand, putting out her arm to avoid crash into the rock wall.
At his turn to move, Andrew first backed to the middle of the tunnel, then turned and sprinted as he hit the edge of the detonator's GO zone and tripped. The shaped charges blew into the tunnel roof and sides, crumbling stone after which gravity did the rest and the loose stone filled the passage. Keeping his pace, he soon reached the chasm, his built up speed was enough to carry him over. Skidding to a stop, he reorientated and checked his readings.
"Definite fleet signals and I'm picking up an all hands from the Sergeant Major, sir," Andrew said, making sure the signal was boosted through his own gear and reached the others. "Looks like they're in a tight spot."
A flash of worry, Edmund nodded "Lets go." turning on his heel heading down the tunnel, following the upgraded signal Andrew sent to them. He shouted out, his words drifting in the air.
"Who wants to live forever?"
Mercy made short prayer to the three deities of her mother's religion to keep her and the rest of the Marines and crew safe, then followed the others.
She'd never thought of herself as religious, but in a situation like this, it couldn't hurt.
A Joint Post By
Sergeant Andrew Shy;
Tactical Systems Operator, Team 2, The Cure
USS Pioneer;
Captain Edmund Merrick
Company Commanding Officer Officer, The Cure
USS Pioneer
Warrant Officer Mercy Ryan
Sniper, Team 1, The Cure
USS Pioneer
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