The Original Beefcake

"Carlos, engage the two on your left! I will finish those," Marcus shouted and Burst jumped through the dense falling snow. His momentum carried him right on top of two Gropers, and he descended onto them without regard to his own health. Marcus crashed into the leading Groper and the pair of tusks scratched over his unprotected skin. For more than one reason, he had done away with his heavy armor for now. Marcus delivered a downward strike and shattered the head of the monster, and completely smashed it into the soft snow. The second Groper roared and charged into Marcus, but he used Burst to dodge to the side and kicked the basic monster into the chest. Carapace, as always, neutralized the knock back on Marcus even on this snowy ground, but the monster broke apart and the remnants colored the snow red and black.

Marcus looked around in the densely falling snow. Any more of them around here, Xeen?

No, this area is clear.

Marcus turned around and started to sprint back towards the trucks. Four days after the first sighting of the third stage monster, and they were constantly defending against waves of Gropers. The weather had turned bad, with heavy snowfall and winds. With every day that went by, more and more of the beasts attacked the camp, and the trucks were surrounded by a graveyard of monsters. At least two hundred had been killed, most of them were buried under the ever falling snow.

"Marcus, we need you over here. We have a big one." Grace's voice urged him to move faster. "Copy," he quickly acknowledged and started to use Burst. Since yesterday, evolved Gropers had also shown up, and they were a nasty bunch. Marcus quickly reached the northern defense perimeter and saw the others engage with a swarm of Gropers, with one massive beast in the middle. The evolved Groper moved at a glacial speed, thick legs stomped into the snow and moved the heavy body forward. Twice the size of an elephant and with the ability to create shields like a Guardian, those behemoths were a real problem for the team.

"Keep the small ones away from Marcus, and let him do his thing," Grace said over com and Marcus charged up a 25% Impulse Wave. That was about the power he could withstand without blowing his arm into pieces. It still broke his bones and he couldn't stay on his feet, of course. Marcus rushed towards the flank of the mega Groper and ducked under the swing of the mighty tusks. Those guys were even slower than him!

The half transparent shield of the monster was only a meter away from Marcus. He clenched his teeth and smashed his fist into the shield. Impulse Wave rushed through the shield, the giant fell and so did Marcus. As he came up again, still aching from his arm healing, he saw how Grace gutted the exposed belly of the evolved Groper. Once they fall down their shield collapses, something the raid had learned yesterday under great pains.

Reserving his endurance, Marcus watched the rest clean up the basic monsters before they came together for a quick report. "Everybody good? Any wounds? No? Good. Great work as usual Marcus, recover your endurance," Grace said, and the rest gave him a thumbs up and smiles. "What is the time?" Marcus asked, and Rita checked her watch. "Two hours," she said, and Marcus nodded. Janette would sleep for another two hours. Until she woke up, the whole raid would be on high alert.

Two hours and more than a dozen Gropers later, Marcus waved the scent of fresh coffee into the face of Janette. "No, Achara. I don't want to get up yet," Janette muttered, and turned around again. "Would you rather be eaten by a monster?" Marcus asked, and she instantly sat straight in her bed. Janette glared at him, but only for a second, then she took the cup of coffee and the plate with food he had prepared. "Status?" She asked, as she gnawed on a piece of bread. "Nothing major, Gropers and one evolved Groper. But they come in greater waves and are more organized," Marcus said, and sat down next to her on the bed.

Janette looked a good bit more healthy after six hours of sleep. Marcus knew, the tension and stress of the last days ate away at her and made it hard for her to sleep. Medication was the only way for Janette to find rest these days. But it couldn't be helped, they all depended on her ability to spot the 'Big Bad' monster before it could attack. When she was asleep, they all were in extreme danger.

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"That bastard is controlling them," Janette said, and sipped on her coffee. That was actually very likely according to Xeen, Marcus thought.

The behavior of the monsters is hard to explain otherwise. Not only the increasing numbers of attacks, but the coordination is a strong indicator that the 'Big Bad' has some control ability. Which would be in line with a smaller, but more capable monster.

So this wont end until we kill that thing.

That, or we leave.

Leaving wasn't a good option. They had hardly gained anything from this raid yet. The scientists were working hard all the time, but many areas of the ship were behind heavily sealed doors, like the one they had seen before. "Okay, let me finish this and I will get ready for my shift. How is learning the alien language coming along?" Janette asked, and started to change into her combat uniform. "Slowly, we haven't found enough material yet. And… Carmen is increasingly suspicious of me," Marcus said, and finished with a sigh. "Between a rock and a hard place then?" Janette said, and put on her boots. "Kinda," Marcus said, and helped her to adjust her armor.

"I will stretch my legs. Who is with me in the first shift?" Janette asked, and put her helmet on. "Carlos and Alistair. I will join the scientists in the wreck," Marcus answered, and followed her out into the snow. He was only wearing light clothing, in spite of the cold and snow. Marcus had found the armor under these circumstances less than useful. His vitality was taking care of the cold… in a way he honestly still didn't fully understand.

Xeen had tried to explain it to him, but more than homeostasis and local fields, Marcus didn't understand.

Fundamentals Marcus. You need to learn the fundamentals if you wish to understand the more complex interactions of abilities.

Please be merciful, I am just a simple human, Marcus jested.

I will not accept flimsy excuses. You are more than intelligent enough to grasp these concepts. Let go of your worries and use your energy on things that move you forward.

Easier said than done, Marcus thought as he entered the shipwreck. He used the tracker to find where Rita and the scientists were and quickly joined them. Many rooms on the way were marked as explored, but hadn't yielded much beyond random junk. Of course Bianca saw this differently, everything was a puzzle piece to understand the people, who once lived here. Marcus joined Rita working through more rooms, under the watchful eyes of Carmen. By now they had a good feeling about the size of the ship. It was at least 400 meters long and about 100 meters wide, with 20 decks in total. By far not all of that space was accessible right now and many lower areas were completely crushed by the landing.

Searching through the rooms was tiresome work, and any time the dull sound of gun fire reached them, they stopped and waited for a call for help. In a large room, located in the upper decks, Rita discovered a locked container. "Some kind of a safe. I will try to break it open. If it fails, Grace has to do us the honor later," Rita said, as Carmen came through the nearby door. 'Break open' had instantly triggered her 'Barbarians!' alarm and she scolded Rita for a few seconds. "First we check, then we carefully open the container. Minimal force," Carmen said.

Marcus tried to stay in the background to not agitate her further. Things have been bad enough lately. Carmen, Malcolm and Bianca were smart and had great observational and analytical skills. In short, they knew something was different with Marcus. And because Marcus and the rest were pretending everything was normal, it caused ever growing frictions between them. Drawn in by the promise of discovery, Bianca and Malcolm also joined them, just as Rita started to mess with the safe.

"A real world lootbox," Malcolm said and Marcus had to laugh. They watched as Rita forced the door to the container open, using one of her metal fragments. It took a few minutes of 'limited force' to wear down the container, but her efforts paid off. With a sudden, loud sound the door sprung open and revealed the inside. Carmen wore white gloves and retrieved the items from the container one by one. A direct energy pistol, a small box, and an electronic tablet (by the looks of it).

The box held something akin to a military medal, at least Rita thought so. It was golden and silver, and had letters and symbols engraved in it. Besides the scientific value it would sell nicely. The pistol looked in good shape, and if a tech company was interested, could be worth millions. But the real treasure was the tablet. Carmen gently pressed small buttons on the side and against all expectations the screen lit up. Rows and rows of alien symbols appeared and Malcolm whistled. "I think this is an e-reader. Jackpot Marcus, with this you should be able to translate their language," Rita said, as they watched page after page of symbols scroll by. "Ehm… yeah," Marcus answered. Carmen's face was white and Marcus could see a lot of strain in her facial features.

"ENOUGH!" Carmen said, and she was nearly shouting. Bianca and Malcolm stopped inspecting the medal and pistol and looked at her with great worry. "You are a smart man Marcus, but even your father wouldn't be able to translate an unknown alien language from scratch in a matter of days. And he is by far the greatest language expert of our generation, maybe even of this century! Tell me how it is possible that everybody around here finds it plausible you could JUST LIKE THAT translate this language." Carmen was agitated, she breathed hard and waved the e-reader around as she spoke. Marcus tried to formulate an answer, when Carmen suddenly became unsteady and collapsed to the floor. "CARMEN!" Bianca screamed.