3 Lost

Boundless purple mists consumed the scarred mountainside, blotting out the sky, burying Fel and his squad in darkness.

'Fel, what i- h st-f, bzz,' Shelab's communication fizzled out.

Warnings littered his vision and his Personal Assistance System activated, something that only happened in dire times.

'Alert, pilot cut off from the main network, system recommends to evacuate to safety.'

'Alert, pilot is within the corrosive cloud, system recommends to seal air intakes and use emergency oxygen supply and evacuate to safety.'

'Damn this thing's annoying.' Fel crawled over to cover to gather his thoughts, his suit hissing as it sealed its air intakes and engaged the emergency oxygen supply. 'I can't just run away and abandon my mates. Without me, they'll die without a doubt!'

'Reminder, emergency oxygen supply will last for five hours with a normal breathing pace, strong emotions such as anger and vexation will increase oxygen consumption.'

'You're an increase in oxygen consumption' grumbled Fel as he concentrated on the surrounding mists.

Off to his side, he heard several muffled gunshots. Wishing to reunite with his squad mates, Fel crawled his way along the battlefield towards the disturbance, only to nearly collide into the side of a massive shadow mere moments later. Fel leapt back like a grasshopper and slipped under the shadow of a rock, blending into his surroundings. The shadow halted for a moment, hissing at Fel's location, drops of venom melting small holes in the ground as they fell. The standoff continued for half a minute, only disturbed when several bullets rocketed towards it, causing it to rear up in a rage and slither off to its hidden foe.

'It must be the mate of that rank 2 Cursed Centipede judging from the length of the shadow and extensive use of poison. But a Cursed Centipede doesn't have an ability like this, it must be a rank 3 monsters. In that case, it's a Doom Centipede… just how unlucky am I?' Peeking around a boulder he checked his current condition, 'My energy levels are at 73%, I'll need at least 90% before I can even think of fighting a rank 3 monster. I must find Royce, no, the core of the Cursed Centipede should've survived, that's my best bet!'

Although he worried about the rest of his squad, fighting head-on with the Doom Centipede right now would be just asking for death. Anyway, the surrounding gunshots weren't lessening so they should all still be alive. With their power armour, they should be able to hang on for another half hour. It took ten minutes of manoeuvring through the battlefield to reach the corpse of the Cursed Centipede. There wasn't another brush up with the Doom Centipede, but it never hurt to be careful. Fel took out a sturdy machete and wrenched apart the fractured carapace from the charred skull of the Cursed Centipede. Fel cut out a neat square in the bone and reached inside, rummaging around and taking out a glowing, sickly green sphere. Although a few shallow fissures that ran over its surface, it was intact.

'A little damaged and drained from the fight with only around 30% of its original energy left. Enough to get me to 90% charge. With Royce's core, I could've gotten back up to peak combat ability. I guess you get what you get.'

Fel gripped the orb and activated a few functions. His reactor hummed and whirred, drawing out the energy from the glowing orb, causing it to dim and lose its brilliance, deepening the fissures on its surface. A minute later, the fissures had dug right into the centre of the now dull orb that shattered like glass. The digital gauge at the edge of Fel's vision showed that he was at 87% charge. Well, better than nothing.

The sounds of the reactor died down and Fel, yet again, resumed his journey through the battlefield but before he could even take a dozen steps forward, a large figure barreled out of the mists and fell at his feet. A quick inspection showed that it was a suit of power armour with a small red wing on its shoulder plate.

'Reyla?'

'Haha, sorry Fel, it got me good,' She rolled over, exposing a large gash on her chest plate. 'The mist got into my suit and corroded my energy pathways. It hasn't got into my oxygen supply but I can't move, half of my joints have melted!'

'Don't worry, I'll get you to a safe place, just hang on for now,' assured Fel as he hoisted her up, tucked her body behind a solid-looking boulder. As Fel strode back into the open, he heard a faint whisper behind him.

'Good Hunting'

Continuing onward, Fel stalked the battleground. This time it took five minutes for him to find the Doom Centipede, catching its silhouette off in the distance. After finding a flat section of land he reached around to a hidden compartment his back and took out eight octagonal plates. It was time to lay a trap. With the aid of his system, he placed each of them on the eight corners of a perfect octagon, half burying them into the ground and attaching them with a taunt, hair-thin wire. Fel strode to the centre of the formation and placed a cylindrical object on the ground, pressing a button on its side and running off behind a rock.

As he took out a miniature detonator, that he had attached to the trap, the cylinder burst into an array of spectacular lights and loud, annoying sounds. The faint silhouette in the distance turned around and rushed towards the disturbance as if it had a personal vendetta against this light show. But as it entered the hidden trap, Fel pressed down onto the mini detonator that spurred his creation into action. The signal shot through the wire, activating the octagonal plates that pushed out vast amounts of yellow natural energy into the wires connecting them. Unlike the blue natural energy that Fel used, this new form of natural energy was harsh on the eyes, as if merely looking at it could slice you apart.

In the centre of the formation, the Doom Centipede had just realised that it had been duped. The yellow light burned away the poisonous mist in its vicinity, allowing for the trap to show its true ability. Eye-catching lines of sharp, yellow natural energy burst out from the octagonal plates, connecting each of them and forming a mysterious octagram between them. In a matter of seconds, the yellow light was so bright, you couldn't even see what was happening within, the natural energy clashing in the centre of the octagram, spiralling up into the air like a grand, towering pillar. The sturdy flesh of the Doom Centipede sloughed off its great body like clay, causing it to wail out in an eerie, hollow tone. By the time it crawled out of the trap it had lost a third of its body and its mighty barrier.

'The Exorcism Formation is as effective as ever! If only it didn't consume so much energy…' Fel checked his energy levels that showed that he was only at 55% charge. A single activation of the Exorcism Formation had cost him over 30% of his energy, but the effects were worth it.

'I mustn't lose this opportunity, I have to go in for the kill.' Fel took a moment to take an inventory of his items, hoisting up a rifle at his side and retrieving a massive, lightsabre-like object from his thigh.

'Power at 55%, structural integrity at 96%, AWM Rifle, check, Energy Sabre, check, all systems functional. Powering up the reactor and Engaging rank 3 Doom Centipede.'

Fel's reactor whirred as he dashed towards the Doom Centipede. He propped up his rifle and pressed a button, causing the surrounding natural energy to stream towards the hidden air intakes, pushing Fel's reactor to revolve faster and faster. Three seconds later, a massive bullet rocketed out of the barrel and smashed into the body of the Doom Centipede, smashing through it and crashing into a cliff behind it. The Doom Centipede's maimed body split in half, leaving it unable to retaliate against Fel's onslaught.

Grim-faced, Fel tossed aside his rifle, taking up his Energy Sabre in both hands, flicking a switch on its side as he did so, causing the Sabre to kick into high gear, sucking in great amounts of natural energy from the reactor. The poor reactor revolved even faster, groaning and creaking as it did so. Even the suit rattled and cough out steam as the vast volumes of natural energy flooded its pathways, the Evolved Power Armour couldn't handle this.

But the suit held on, despite the immense amount of pressure it was under, allowing for the natural energy to converge and concentrate at the mouth of the Sabre. In the next moment, the concentrated mass of natural energy exceeded its critical point and burst out from the hilt, splaying out to a length of ten metres long.

Pupils shrunk to a needle-like point, Fel brought the beam of natural energy down onto the Doom Centipede, vaporising its massive body. The excess energy ran amok, clearing out the poisonous mists, allowing the sun to touch the ground once more. After Fel's eyes adjusted to the light, he took in the surrounding scene.

His attack had carved out a deep trench into the ground, over ten metres long and a metre and a half in depth and width. It was still smoking and its surface was molten. The attack was devastating, it would be a miracle if the Doom Centipede survived.

A synthetic voice disrupted Fel's line of thought, 'Unit has re-connected to the nexus.'

'So annoy- oh wait, it's not spamming me for once!'

'Notice, poison cloud has dissipated, unsealing air vents and recovering emergency oxygen supply.'

'Alert, units energy pathways are damaged, energy output restricted to 50%.'

'Alert, pilot overdrew the reactor, energy output restricted to 5%.'

'Alert, unit is overheated. Deactivating strength enhancing systems. System recommends immediate repairs.'

'Why do I do this to myself?!'

Fel cast his now red-hot Energy Sabre to the side. It was a useless lump of alloy now, he had ruined the thing by overdrawing its capabilities. Dropping to the ground in exhaustion, Fel opened his protective face-plate, breathing in deep gulps of air. He could finally take a breather.

Fel lay on the ground, his body leaden and his mind worn. His rest was short, being disturbed by the voice of Donnick above him.

'Hey, you ok?'

'Yep, I'm fine. As you can see my suits... damaged, but with help, I should be able to get back to base.'

Getting onto his feet, Fel closed his face-plate and walked over towards the tattered remains of the Doom Centipede. With luck, he might get something useful.

As he approached the remains, Fel noticed a particularity large chunk of flesh left over, looking closer, Fel noticed that it was the Doom Centipede's head, with its dull beady eyes, gazing out into the distance. The fact that it survived was a miracle. Fel's eye saw that fine silver lines spanned across its smooth carapace, this wasn't a feature of Doom Centipedes. This one had mutated. A carapace that could survive such destructive power would be worth millions!

Fel took out his machete to pry the thick carapace from the Doom Centipede's flesh but, as time would tell, it wasn't an easy task.

'Damn. What's with this?' Going at it with a newborn fervour, Fel placed his leg on the grip of the machete, intending to use the weight of him and his entire suit of Evolved Power Armour as leverage. But before he got a proper foothold, a hint of life returned to the dull eyes of the Doom Centipede.

'Shit!' Falling over due to his unstable position, Fel jumped back to his feet and resumed his escape.

Without his suit's strength-enhancing system, he was only a fit human being. Without his combat systems, he was only a rather skilled, fleshy soldier. As of now, the advanced piece of technology he wore was a deadweight, only able to protect him from the harsh environment and flying stone shards. A cold, piece of metal.

This gave the Doom Centipede an opportunity. With a vicious glint in its eyes, it emitted an ominous glow. Only a second later, the glow encompassed its entire head, increasing in intensity and erupting into a massive wave of sinister, purple fire. Fel had only got a few metres away from the head at this point and the wall of fire was at his heels.

As if some higher being had heard his pleas, the shock wave of the explosion, that had ridden ahead of the fire, had opened a crevasse in the ground. With a new burst of vigour, Fel soared forwards and dived into the crevasse, followed by a billowing gale of purple fire. But the crevasse was deeper than expected. Fel tumbled down the narrow crevasse for five, entire, minutes, crashing down into the corner of a dark cavern.