Finally, the ground had stopped shaking. The trees swayed naturally from the breath of the breeze. The creatures of the planet still remained silent, much like the remaining crew of The Evergreen. Solomon leaned against a large tall rock, his eyes cast into the woodland, unmoving. The day he most feared had fallen upon him, he had lost Kyril and Eve.
"Commander." came a voice, almost distant and seemingly distorted, as if coming from beneath the ground itself. "Commander." it came again, a little more defined. A soft delicate voice. He recognised it, but couldn't place it."Jesus, Sol, you need to give us orders!" came the voice, louder and more clear, but this time, a pain shot through his right cheek as something hard made contact. Blankly turning his head to the source, he managed to focus on Lyra. Had she been there long? Why did she look so panicked? And then, as cleansing as a fresh spring rain, absolute recognition of his surroundings forced him on to his muddied boots. As if waking from a warm soft dream, he seemed to feel the coldness of the air, the smell of burning and blood. Trees surrounded the landing party. The escape pod had carved a dark crater through the ground, throwing mud and trees to the sides, finally coming to a halt, the crew exited and tended to the wounded, only minor damage was committed to the crew, that was the one good grace that befell them.
The trees spoke, yawned and gasped. The surviving crew turned to listen to their words. "can't be..." began Solomon as he shook his head. "Tree's can't talk..." Sandra looked over slowly and shared a concerned glance with Lyra at Solomon's whispered madness. To them, the trees weren't talking, but emitting the music of battle. Cracks and bangs echoed, almost drowning out the shouts and screams of the victims, possibly the Gryph, as the words carried the similar autotuned voice and language of the aliens. The screams became louder, coming closer. The gunfire had lessened, but then came the grinding sound of heavy machines moving, followed by a crisp thud and then an explosion, Lyra felt the pressure of the air push against her from the explosive force. Soon, all was quiet. The silence seemed to last a lifetime, it was only mere minutes before the void of noise was broken by the sound of leaves getting crushed underfoot, followed shortly after by an unimaginable roar. It sounded more like multiple creatures crammed into one vocal chord, all fighting for dominance, rising and falling during the roar.
Many footsteps came closer and closer, the sun was against the survivors faces, so they didn't see the bloodied Gryph soldiers until they were already fleeing past them. Screaming frantically, their native tongues flapping in pure fear, eyes bulging and their limbs flailing as they ran. The roar came again, the Gryph did not show any signs of noticing the surviving humans, Lyra noticed that they were armoured soldiers, but bore no weapons.
The unnatural roar came again, more deafening. Then a flash of red through the trees. And another. Lyra pulled her pistol from her holster, followed by many others. "Gentlemen. Prepare to defend yourselves." called Lyra, cocking her weapon. Another flash of red. The group pulled themselves together into a tight knit circle, covering all angles of advance. A flash of teeth charged from the tree line. The creature was met with a volley of fire. The circle broke, the soldiers broke away from the crew, the two types fell apart, soldiers moving up as one unit, firing with total accuracy. Crew firing little by little, missing most shots, some stood their ground, some curled up making themselves as small as humanly possible, but most fled towards the long armoured escape pod. The gouged metal skin had mud smeared over the hull, and the opened rear offered them sanctuary from the advancing creatures, "what the hell! Did you see them?" cried out a crew woman as she crashed into the deepest wall of the pod. "Yeah, what's wrong with them? They don't look like the briefing showed them! They look dead!" screamed a crewman, curling his sweat beaded head around the pod entrance, catching a glance of the creatures. Their skin had paled, their eyes glazed over, white and dead. Their front claws had extended, creating scythes that they vaulted themselves over the landscape. He didn't get chance to relay this information back to the cowering other nine crew. His limp body fell forward into the grassy land at the base of the ramp, his head rolled to a crew woman's feet and she let out a blood curdling scream that attracted the creature. A scythe blindly jabbed inside, reaching for prey, gouging out large crevices through the metal deck plating.
The dank and blistered leathery flesh of the muzzle slowly came closer through the entrance of the escape pod, breathing heavily through sharp bloodied teeth, casting rotten breath over the shivering, cowering crew, moving ever closer.
Solomon slammed another clip home into his rifle, and started discharging the bullets into the advancing creatures. Long grass hid the fallen. Only the tell tales of blood spatter on the leaves showed where the dead lay, their bodies torn and changing, hidden from sight.
The mutated abominations clambered over their dead to spread their infectious life to their awaiting victims. Roaring their contorted and stretched thin vocal chords almost to a point they broke and shattered. Sandra saw the horde advance, in a sea of pale red and white needle teeth, their scythes propelling them forward with great ease, she turned to flee to the escape pod, thinking the armoured hull would protect her, as she spun on her heels, her weapon empty, she heard the ear splitting scream, and saw a Mare with its large and tightly contoured head inside the escape pod. Pulling out a frantically flailing crew member who scream and swore in a panic.