At the Speed of Silence.
A note to the reader. The species isn't defined, that way you can decide on how you want to make it.
At the Speed of Silence.
A hallway, in a deserted mansion, has been sitting undisturbed for years. Dust has settled into a layer nearly an inch thick in some places. Suddenly, a soft light slowly brightens the doorway at one end. Without anymore warning, the light blazes, large beacons in the darkness, carresing the walls, bobbing up and down.
The sound of rubber soled boots pounding down the long hallway echo back and forth. Heavy breathing, panting to keep bodies supplied with oxygen. The klick-klatter of equipment hitting together keeps in time with the boots, the force of each sprinted step jarring them into slight mobility.
Then skidding around a corner; a squeaking sound as someone slips sideways. A muffled clattering sound as the person connects with the ground. The sounds of the boots continues down the hallway, leaving behind the recovering fallen one without a second thought.
Something else makes a sound. It is low, and deadly sounding. The fallen one fires into the darkness that has taken form in front of him.
Bright flashes strobe the corner, blasting the small area with wicked after images burnt into retinas. The man scrambles to get up, to get away from more of the dark beasts. With a sudden boom of compressed air, another dark figure forms into reality next to the struggling man.
He doean't say a word as a large scythelike appendage chops into his head with a meaty thunk. The helmeted head splits completely in two, and a gurgle of blood splashes into the darkness. As the lifeless body clatteres to the floor again, the arterial blood is sucked away, giving mass to the ghostly forms. They descend upon the body with glittering fangs, the crunching and snapping of bones and cartilage the only sound to be made.
Another hallway, this one shorter than the last and with less dust, shudders slightly from an explosion. Then a second explosion, this one very loud in the confined space, blasting a sizable portion of wall upon the floor. The bright lights of before flash wildly through the resettling dust. Armored bodies jump through the opening in a heavily rushed but orderly fashion. More thudding of boots and heavy breathing take form again as the explosion's echo dies out.
Another popping boom echos in front of the leader; the blckness sucking te light in as if a black hole. A whiplike tentacle peirces forward through the lead persons thigh, slamming into the wall and pinning her against it. She doesn't scream, or make any sound other than heavier breathing, then lifts up her weapon and fires round after round into the being. The others fall back in a clamor, firing at the appearence also.
It twitches from the fire, but still descends upon the woman, more of the thin whips slamming home into her body in various places. Blood spills out, getting soaked up like before, giving form to the beast.
The remaining persons run down the hallway, not turning to look back. They reach the end of the hallway, the double doors slightly ajar, the faint glow of early breaking day just a slight haft of light. The first two slam bodily into the metal doors, making the hinges squeale in protest. They pull back to the walls as the second pair hits, this time forcing the doors to part more. This pair moves back too as the third pair finally breaks the doors outwards, the left door completely buckling over, banging the ground with a loud slam. The black clad figures run through the parking lot, beelining straight for their armored vehicles waiting just on the other side.
As the last one to enter the single transport, slamming the door shut behind himself, the remaining warriors breath collective sighs of relief. The one that took the driver's seat even smiles tiredly at his partner. She smiles back, and they knock their foreheads together, the armor _klack_ing together. As she pulls back, still smiling, the mans blood washes over her face. Instantly her smile is wiped away, and she she brings her rifle to bear, firing through his body into the dark specter on the other side.
The people in the back of the truck look up sharply, relief suddenly forgotten. With another subsonic boom, a dark beast appeares in the red light of the passenger compartment. The armored truck rocks back and forth from the ferocity of the attacking beings, flashes of light strobing out of the windows, announcing each shot fired. A man pops the back hatch open and jumps out, only to be snagged back into the metal hull by the phantom's barbed hooks. Soon after, the lights stop flashing, and the vehicle slowly stops rocking on its suspension.
A man in a small room with seven others smacks his headset onto the table in front of him. The small whack as it hits makes everyone ion the room jump and look at him for a moment, the headset rebounding in the near zero G of the space staion. His teeth grit together, and his blood boils in rage. They had been so close! With a sigh, he leaned back into his cushioned chair, still staring at the large screen that showed the dissapating heat signatures of the dead people. He rubs his hands over his eyes, trying to squish the tiredness out of himself. He looks sharply to his left, thinking he saw a dark image flicker to hi side, but there is nothing there. With a grunt he signs off of his module, then spins away, looking for where his headset had floated off to.
A woman two seats over, waves her hand, getting his attention, then lightly slings his headset to him. He nods a thanks, then heads to his quarters. As his door slides open, the unlit appartment apparently swallowing the gentle yellow light from behind him, he spies a dark shape flutter into his bedroom. Curiosity burning inside of him, he slides a light riot shotgun from under a table, and as quietly as possible, sneaks into his room. He is met with a hard slam to his head, concussing him.
As he drops to the ground, his finger instinctively sqeezes in reflex to the head trauma, and the room is illuminated with the bright blast of the shotgun. At least 30 dark forms are silently waiting in his room, growling predatorily.
Outside the man's room, a service crewman jumps at the ringing bang of the weapon. Without a word he runs to the nearest alarm caster. He fumbles with the latch for a few seconds, then snaps it back, exposing the blass seal over the emergency lock down button. He pulls his arm back, then punches forward. His hand never makes it to the alarm, instead, the blood squirting stump of his forearm, about halfway down, breaks into the service box.
All through out the orbital platform, alarms suddenly whooped, and red emergency lights flashed around in circles. People walking through hallways and corridors start to sprint for their designated staions, and work crews working on the outside of the station itself leave what they are doing alone to jet themselves to the safety bays.
Back inside, there is complete chaos. Crew members aren't reporting to their stations, and some rooms have stopped responding to hails. One hallway is stampeded by frightened personel, running from dark specters, only to be shut in by the automated sealing doors. The station goes on lockdown, and many are caught in between unyeilding doors and service passageways. The red lights are soon accompanied by the yellow lights of the unauthorized boarders warning. Racks of guns open up as marines in full kit rush for the armory, pulling out weapons for intership fighting. Flamethrowers and low calliber weapons are most common of these weapons, though a few frag launchers are set into the underbarrels of some for 'insurance'.
Firefights rage through station, some breaking through the thick skin of the hull and explosively decompressing areas, spewing out air and personel alike. The dark beasts, however, do not seem to be affected.
Seeing from his vantagepoint at command the command center, the captain sent a cursory note to high command some several parsecs away, then set the Auto-Destruct sequence to five seconds. Just as the last command confirmed, a hollow shoop-bang emitted outside of the room, the marine on guard firing his grenade launcher. The doos blew inwards however, and a spector stood to its full hieght right in front of the captain. It was huge, even by comparrison to the other's of its kind. It growled, making the captain's skin ripple from the force of it. It took a step forwards, but a beeping caught its attention. It looked to the side, and for the first time, noticed the countdown timer. It beeped zero then flashed bright white, and as it roared in defiance, smashedthe captain to the ground and ripped into him. The captain smiled without a word the whole time.
The messgae wrote, 'Our sins have finally caught up with us at Capriconus.'