Menagerie - Martin Day [1]
Jenn soon saw the true objects of her study in action. A soldier was patrolling a gunmetal-grey corridor, his features rigidly impassive. He rounded a corner and came face to face with a creature. Instantly he released three rounds at point-blank range and — the animal's arms powered forward — reached with his free hand for his comm unit.
His hands found space where his right shoulder and upper chest should have been.
The bloodless arm clattered to the floor, spasmodic mechanics flexing the hand and drumming against the grip of the rifle.
The android pitched forwards, the pink lips babbling with grotesque disinterest. 'Human death would have occurred approximately two seconds ago as a result of massive haemorrhage to the shoulder and —'
`Save the reports for later,' snapped Jenn. 'Increase realism for all other androids to maximum: turn off automatic cauterisation, take emotional simulation up to maximum.'
The sound of laser fire soon brought others running. With the enhanced programming the men and women looked tense. Beads of desalinated sweat clung to their brows.
The creature seemed to have vanished. The 'dead' android was motionless.
`Can't have gone far,' said the leader of the group, looking about him. 'We've not been passed, and with this length of corridor . . .' He trailed off, and looked upwards, gun raised at the tall roof.
There were only shadows.
`Thank God for that,' he muttered. 'I thought that —'
A man at the end of the group exploded in a shower of red. A creature, cool and dripping, stood in his place.
A volley of blaster fire ripped into the monster, but not before it had effortlessly torn two women to pieces, their choking screams swamped by the noise of the guns.
The leader raised his weapon, but he was furthest from the monster and unable to fire without risking hitting the other troopers.
He had a few seconds to admire the creature. Although humanoid, four massive arms extended from its shoulders and chest, the lower two bent back on themselves like the claws of a mantis. Its entire body appeared to lack a covering of skin, strong silver muscle and sinew rippling as it moved. Genetically bred to prioritize its own survival above all other considerations, it wasted no time bellowing at the pain it felt as one arm was torn from its body by the laser fire. It ran forward on triple-jointed legs. The leader noticed for the first time a rough hole in the floor near the ruptured feet of the second dead man, and a similar half-concealed hole near the corner. The creature had tunnelled under the floor, and simply forced its way up again, through the soldier that stood there.
The creature reached out for a trooper with an arm as powerful as an industrial piston. Its clawed hand plunged into the chest of the soldier, moving effortlessly through the synthetic tissue. The claws withdrew and the man fell silently to the floor. The other arms lunged forwards. A trooper threw herself towards the ground and away from the outstretched talons.
There was a gap now, through which the leader could aim. Instantly he added his fire to that of his companions, and the stench of burning meat filled his nostrils. The creature was collapsing at last, its huge claws flailing blindly. One trooper got too close to the animal's death throes and lost most of his lower leg.
Soon all that remained of their attacker was a single grey leg and part of an arm, blackened and twisted. Traces of the lower face could be seen, awash with blood that was not its own.
The leader tapped his comm unit as the remaining soldiers fanned out from the broiling haze surrounding the corpse. 'Trooper twelve to Centre. One test subject destroyed. Four troopers lost, one severely injured and unlikely to survive.' The man nearest to the burning creature was whinnying deep down in his throat, holding on to what was left of his leg.
`You'll never play the piano again,' said a woman, looking down at the injured man callously.
`They were less