The Unfathomable Beast of Xanadu IV (PART TWO)
On the Trail of the Beast
Click here for PART ONE, or Click here for PART THREE. Thanks for reading!
I was unsure what to expect from Freddie's crews for these jobs. Usually, you get some mercs, a few sad souls living on Darluca, or a combination of the two.
I found myself with three others, riding in the back of a transport shuttle to the nearby planet of Xanadu-IV. We’ll go from largest to smallest.
At nearly eight feet tall, the most impressive member of our crew was Drognan. He was human at one point, but not much of the human was left. His skin was covered from head to toe in shimmering silver scales. His eyes had slits running through the irises, and any time he opened his mouth, a forked tongue slithered out.
DNA splicing, reptilian if I had to guess. Some people just changed a few things, but others got into it. It was an addiction if you let it get out of control. Drognan was an extreme case but not the worst I’d ever seen.
Sitting beside him, coming in at a respectable six feet, was your average merc who joined jobs like these for the adrenaline rush—a different addiction.
His name was Anthony, but he went by Tony. He was the kind of guy who had tattoos on every square inch of his body and looked at his guns like he wanted to fuck them. It's not the worst kind of merc, but not the best either.
That left the last member of the team barely coming in at five feet. He was a Sluggoth, which is what it sounds like: a sentient slug. He wore loose-fitting clothes, had a thin layer of slime glistening on his exposed skin, and had two eyes atop stalks protruding from the top of his head.
Sluggoths were nice enough, but something about seeing a slug standing upright with teeth just weirded me the fuck out. His name was Grido.
“Been a while since I’ve had a good fight,” Drognan said, brandishing a thick serrated knife.
“What about that job on Frenella? I thought that one was good,” Tony replied, holstering one of his pistols.
“Frenella was a warm-up. Looking forward to this one, I hear it’s got tits like you wouldn’t believe.”
Everyone shot Drognan the same look of utter confusion.
“Why the fuck would it have tits? It’s a monster, not some broad. Who the hell told you that?”
Drognan gestured with his knife to Grido, whose eyes widened at the prospect of being brought into the conversation.
“Well, I never said it would have breasts. I simply shared my hypothesis about the creature’s inherent telepathic abilities.”
I sat back and shook my head. Here we go.
“So, you’re saying it could have tits?” Tony asked. His curiosity was thoroughly piqued.
“The creature has a central cerebral cortex, but its body is made from thousands of microscopic entities. They all share the same mental connection, like a hive mind. The telepathic force allows the creature to alter its appearance from the viewer's perspective. It could become what you fear most or the object of your desire. Whatever suits its needs most.”
Tony nodded along, but he wasn’t following.
“So, it's a shapeshifter then?” I asked.
Tony, Drognan, and Grido looked at me for the first time.
“Well, not technically. The creature can alter its size and shape, but it manipulates your senses by overtaking your brain. It can make you see, feel, or experience whatever it wants.”
“Okay, so what does it want then?” I asked.
“That’s the million-credit question. I doubt it wants to be captured and displayed in Freddie’s collection, but that’s not our choice.”
The conversation petered out. Fine by me; it was bad enough that I knew their names. Knowing as little as possible about your squad for such jobs was best. It makes their inevitable deaths easier. I reviewed the mission brief again while waiting for us to land.
***
The landing coordinates put us near some ancient ruins on the surface. The desert sand has eroded most structures, leaving only half-broken walls and smooth pillars. The equipment from the archaeological expedition that last arrived on Xanadu-IV was still strewn about, albeit covered in sand.
Everyone armed up the second they stepped off the craft. Drognan held a laser rifle, semi-automatic from the looks of it. One burst would tear through anything organic, leaving nothing but scorched remains.
Tony had a pair of pistols, revolvers, to be precise. They were ancient but well-preserved. Each sported an ivory grip and gold trim, which did nothing to make them more lethal but somehow fit perfectly with his personality.
I was a lousy shot, so I had a shotgun with incendiary shells. If anything got close enough for it to be effective, the spread would ensure I couldn’t miss.
Meanwhile, Grido had the most pathetic pistol you could imagine. He probably didn’t even know how to turn the safety off. I felt kind of bad for the guy.
Drognan took point, leading us into the center of the plaza. A makeshift fence surrounded an opening in the ground ahead. As we approached the edge, it was clear this was how the previous team had met their end.
Dried streaks of blood still stained the makeshift steps leading down into the depths.
“Something dragged them down from the looks of it,” Tony said.
Grido looked up at the blazing sun in the sky above us. It was massive due to Xanadu-IV being the closest planet to it in the solar system.
“Perhaps it does not like the sun?” Grido asked.
“I will drag it out here, kicking and screaming,” Drognan declared.
“Then, by all means, you can go first,” I replied.
Drognan ignored my joke and stepped over the fence. Tony took offense to it, glaring at me as he stepped over the makeshift fence and followed the hulking merc down.
“Fucking pussy,” Tony whispered.
I ignored him, stepping down the bloodstained steps as Grido followed in the back. The air was cool and musty, and darkness quickly took hold as we headed deeper. Everyone activated their shoulder-mounted flashlights.
At the end of the stairs, we entered an underground chamber. It was a chapel of some sort, with rows of wood pews on either side of the chamber and worn tapestries hanging from the walls. Their colors were faded, and the images were barely legible after all this time.
At the back of the chamber was a stone altar with a faded carving on the front, and behind that were two entryways. We moved down the center between the pews, guns at the ready. It was deathly quiet; every footstep echoed throughout the cavern.
We approached the front altar. Drognan crouched down to shine his light on the carving across the front. It had faded with time but seemed to depict a woman with six arms, three on each side of her body. The other details were too eroded.
“Hah, I fucking knew it! Tits like you wouldn’t believe,” Drognan chuckled.
We all leaned in to look at the carving.
“Huh. Well, I’ll be damned. Alright, you win the bet,” Tony said.
I shook my head. “No one is going to mention the fact that she has six arms?”
Grido was silent during the conversation, carefully examining what detail was left on the faded carving.
“Fascinating. They must have worshipped the creature. Strange that it would take on such a peculiar appearance,” Grido said.
“Maybe the civilization that lived here had six arms? Would make sense for her to take on a form they’d recognize,” I said.
Grido nodded. “Yes, that could be it.”
“Enough nerd talk; we’ve got a job to do!” Drognan said.
He went to the back of the chapel with renewed vigor. Two doorways were carved into the back wall, equal in size and height. Drognan walked to the left with Tony.
“You and the slug should take the other way. We’ll find it faster if we split up,” Drognan said.
“Yeah, and we’ll die faster, too,” I replied.
Tony scoffed. “I thought you were some big shot merc like us? What’s the matter, can’t handle it?”
On second thought...
“You know what? Fuck it. Grido and I will handle it. Let’s split up.”
Drognan and Tony’s laughs echoed through the chapel as they started down the pathway on the left. I turned to Grido, who was visibly shaking beneath the glossy veneer of slime on his skin.
“It’s going to be fine. Probably. Just stay behind me, alright?”
He nodded.
“Make sure your safety is off, too,” I said, gesturing to his gun.
He looked it over much longer than I would have liked but found the switch and flashed me a nervous smile.
I hate those teeth.
We made our way down the passage. It was a slender tunnel, and claustrophobia was starting to set in. My chest tightened as the walls seemed to close in. I was begging for another open area or just some fucking room to breathe.
After what felt like an eternity, the tunnel ended, and we stepped out onto a stone overlook and a staircase leading down.
In front of us was a gigantic hollow cavern beneath the planet's surface. We stood overlooking an entire city. The architecture was strange; it hurt my eyes if I focused too long.
Twisted spires made from a peculiar material rose up from buildings that seemed to shimmer like a mirage. No matter how hard I tried, I couldn’t identify any specific details. It was as if the material that made up the buildings defied logic.
“Incredible! It seems to be some sort of non-euclidian architecture! Could this be a vision from the beast? A distraction?” Grido asked.
I clutched my head and looked away from it.
“It’s making my head hurt looking at it. Like staring into the sun.”
“I imagine it would! Such geometries are not physically possible. This is truly fascinating!” Grido said.
“Well, I’m glad you’re having a good time.”
A piercing shriek echoed through the cavern from somewhere in the city. The stutter of gunfire followed it. I curled my finger around the trigger of my shotgun and started down the stone steps toward the city below.
I looked back and saw Grido keeping pace, though he was panting within seconds. My lungs were on fire by the time I reached the city streets. Gunfire still punctured the brief silence, joined by more inhuman shrieks.
“It’s coming from that way!” I shouted, pointing to the left.
As Grido and I wandered through the labyrinthine streets, I kept my eyes on the uneven stone pathways below my feet. Every time my eyes wandered to the shimmering, oily exteriors of the buildings, I felt like someone was driving a knife into my temples. Another scream, but this time it was different. Lower in pitch.
Grido and I turned a corner, and the smell hit me first. A powerful metallic smell, like hot copper, combined with the pungent odor of sulfur. I didn’t have much breakfast, but it came up immediately. I turned and vomited hot bile to the side as my eyes tried to understand what I saw.
Drognan and Tony were torn apart. Their bodies were shredded, so you couldn’t tell where one ended and the other began. It was a steaming pile of flesh, organs, and tattered limbs. My eyes broke free from the horror in front of me just long enough to spot a woman looking out from one of the buildings nearby.
“Selena?”
The woman shrieked, and her body exploded into a cloud of chittering insects in the blink of an eye. The cloud swarmed around some sort of mass in the center, carrying it through the air as it soared down the street and retreated into an alley.
Just like the buildings, I couldn’t focus my gaze on it. The moment I did, my eyeballs started shaking like my hands after a week-long bender.
I looked over to Grido, who was frozen solid. I couldn’t blame the guy.
“Grido, hey, you still with me?” I asked.
His eyestalks might as well have turned to stone. I reached out and touched his shoulder. He let out a gasp and turned his bewildered gaze to me.
“Don’t look at it, okay? Look at me. We need to figure out a plan.”
Grido let out a squeak, but nothing I could use. I saw a device hanging from his waist that hadn’t caught my eye until that moment. The screen was flashing, cycling through multiple colors.
“Hey, what’s that thing doing?” I asked, pointing to the device.
Grido broke free of his daze and plucked the gadget from his side. He looked down at the screen and tapped a few buttons on the surface.
“I’m getting a huge spike in radiation nearby,” he said.
“Is it from the creature?” I asked.
He shook his head.
“No, something like this? It’s a bomb, gotta be.”
Finally, some good luck.
“Do you think it’s a leftover from the last expedition?”
Grido nodded. “Could be. I imagine they would have tried killing it before restricting the entire planet.”
“Okay! Lead the way, man, we’re gonna arm that bomb and get the fuck out of here!”
“What about Freddie? We can’t come back empty-handed.”
Oh, how I had waited for that day when I could say those two words.
“Fuck Freddie.”
Grido laughed. “Good enough for me. Cover me, I’ll lead the way.”
Click here to Read Part Three!
Author’s Note: This piece was originally published on Vocal, so if you can’t wait for part three, you’ll find the full piece there. Otherwise, stay tuned for part 3 here on Subtack!
I like stories of ancient monsters and places you shouldn’t visit. Every time I read one, I tell myself that even though I like it, I wouldn’t write such a story. It’s almost a lie. Somehow, I keep forgetting that my first book, The Seekers: Soul Ties, also featured ancient abandoned structures and ancient magic. I guess the crucial differences make my story feel different from all the rest I ever read or seen, hence my self-deception.
Anyway. The characters were quite diverse and felt alive. The descriptions were good. So, you did a good job, Bradley.
But since the archeologists did try to blow up the monster, the concept is familiar to the people of this world, so I don’t understand why the planet wasn’t bombarded from the orbit until the monster was dead. You don’t mess around with the safety of the galaxy.