Fragment by Paul G Swanson (me reader .txt) 📕

so he paid it no attention.
The ship entered the fog with such speed the visual effect was like a bullet being shot into the water. Now above land he could see a small city, with several roads. These were the cordinates so he simply decided to aim for a long stretch of open road. Reducing his flight speed he slowly lowered the tail section first until it touched pavment then killed the engines completly. The nose dropped as he expected it too and coasted waiting for inertia to stop the ship.
It was a perfect landing until the ship lurched slightly with a crash outside. He hadn't realized the road was slightly narrower on the right side, and the wing had clipped the second floor of a small apartment building made of bricks. There was no damage to the ship but it hurt his pride almost as much as it destroyed the building. He cursed silently to himself.

* * *

It was early morning just after ten when the report about several loud noises came in over the dispatch radio. A investigator had already been sent out about three or four hours ago. Jack glanced at his watch, it was now almost three in the afternoon. Ames was far overdue for his check in. Ames was never late. Ever. And that was all Jack need to know. He placed the request for additional backup to be deployed to sector two.
Within minutes the RS police vehicles screamed around the corners of sector two with their sirens blazing. They went full speed until the last moment when the vehicles slammed the brakes and the drivers expertly allowed the rear end to swing wide placing the rear doors only feet from the shops entrance.
The doors burst open and seven heavily armed men wearing anti-riot body suits bolted out and placed their shoulders against Mathenius' shop wall. Observing that the glass door was slightly cracked and stained with a dark unidentifiable substance that made the once translucent glass completely opaque, the unit leader motioned for silence.
He crept up to the door slowly and as silent as a ghost. Very carefully he placed his left ear against the door to try and listen for any noise on the other side. He heard what sounded like plodding, several feet. Maybe for and scratching like claws on metal. Being very confused by the combinations of sound, he hesitated when he heard the noises suddenly become louder.
Suddenly without warning the entire door exploded outward into a million pieces and the unit leader found himself impaled by a long reptilian tail with three spines penetrating his torso lifting him off his feet. He looked down slowly at his killer.
The other six officers stepped back completely stunned. What stood before them was a six foot long, seven hundred pound armored lizard with talons on every extremity and three six inch spikes protruding from the very end of its tail.
"What are you waiting for!?" Cried the leader as his blood ran down his sides in torrents, "Cut it down!" On command the six men unloaded automatic weapons fire into the beasts side.
The beast threw the dying leader at the soldiers as it dropped dead. Blood poured from its wounds and the men saw to their leaders injuries. It was too late however. He was already dead. The two of the remaining officers scanned the shattered doorway quickly to verify the area was cleared from further threats as the other four examined the strange creature.
To them it looked like a giant armor plated gecko with a scorpion tail. A six inch talon was protruding from each of its toes. It also appeared as though the sides of its face were protected by thick carapace shrouding the jaw line.
"The hell is it?" Asked one to which another replied, "The hell should I know. It's ugly as piss though." the two officers the went to investigate the security of the area returned and motioned everyone inside the building.
"Williams, I think you need to see this." Spoke the one man and gestured at the wall.
"Whats up?" Williams now the senior officer on site, stepped forward resigned to his field promotion as the new leader. "Find something?"
"Well," The officer started frowning , "Theres a rather large, um, hole here in the back." He led the group towards the back carefully stepping over fallen merchandise that laid in the aisle. Stopping at the end he pointed to the corner beside the office in the rear.
Williams saw what had his subordinate spooked. Beside a red mess on the floor that used to be a human body, in the wall was a gap large enough to be called a cavern. He stepped forward with drawing a flash light from his vest pocket. Shining it down the vertical drop he saw the remains of another human at the bottom of a shear vertical drop into darkness. In a low voice he said, "I think I found Ames. John and Richard you're coming with me. The rest of you step outside and quarantine the area.
John, Richard and Williams all readied themselves for the descent. Pulling the line from the clip on their belts they fastened the line to the wall with a fast acting substance that only special forces like themselves were allowed to have. Satisfied that he was ready Williams jumped into the void and hung against the wall waiting for the other two to join him.
"Nothing special here." He told them as the engines in their belts slowly lowered them. "Its dark down their, switch to night vision." Pressing a button on his shatter-resistant goggles his vision immediately went from the full spectrum of colors to just different shades of green and black.
As they descended they passed through several layers of faulty pipes that had sent steam swirling around them temporarily shrouding their vision.Williams had a bad feeling about this. Partly to make himself feel better as well and the others he said, "We're just retrieving the body, then we're getting back up there."
Finally they felt the ground beneath their feet. Wondering how far down they were he sighed with relief. Placing two fingers against the transponder surgically implanted in his throat he said, "HQ, retrieving body now. Yeah, its Ames alright. Dammit." He reported with frustration.
John and Richard zipped the body up in a bag and fastened it to another line. "How far down are we exactly?" He wondered aloud. He estimated roughly a hundred-fifty feet below street level. As the body ascended on the spare line he took a brief moment to look around.
He saw pipes running nearly every direction and non functioning lights. Looking left and right he recognized what he discerned to be a maintenance road.The intense steam swirling around them from the faulty pipes made it hard for him the see much farther then thirty feet. He could barely make out a long forgotten forklift in the distance just on the edge of visibility.
"We must be in the construction shaft. No matter, Lets get out of here." They all began to ascend just as a crash in the not fog grabbed their attention. Running from within the mist came six more of the lizards identical to the one topside.
"Holy shit. Full power now!" They simultaneously slapped the buckle and disabled the speed limiter on the engines. Now rising several feet per second, John barely avoided having his feet torn off by the one of the lizards staring up at them.
Williams drew his pistol and locked his sights on one of the creatures. If they made a moved he wanted to be prepared. At first it appeared as though they were safe. He was about to put the weapon away when the creatures started to run up the walls using their talons as hand holds. He could hear the metal being twisted, bent, and pierced by the talons.
He took a shot and got one in the eye grinning in satisfaction as it plummeted back into the darkness. John thinking fast planted a flash bang on one of the struts that they passed.
"Cover your eyes!" The explosion shook Williams eardrums but it didn't seem to effect the lizards. He emptied the rest of his clip into the closest lizards face. As it fell away into the darkness he chucked the empty weapon at the remaining four beasts.
Richard primed a grenade and was preparing to toss it, when one of the beasts leaped from the wall and grappled his legs. The grenade dropped into the distance harmlessly. He screamed in pain as his line snapped from the sudden weight and he fell with the beast back into the void. Down below his grenade exploded illuminating the entire shaft as well as obliterating a steam pipe.
The moment Williams and John reached the top they cut the line with their combat knives and bolted from the wall toward the exit at full speed. It was just as he reached the exit that Williams felt his leg go numb and his body began to fall. His body slammed into the ground halfway out of the door frame. Suddenly he felt himself being yanked back forcefully. In resistance he held firm to the door frame.
Daring to glance up he saw two lizards leap, one flying through the open door and the other smashing through the glass window. He heard automatic gunfire and explosions follow suit.
Unable to hold on any longer he released his grip and found himself flying towards a fang filled maw. Still holding his combat knife he spun his body as he was slid across the floor and brought the knife up just the jaw closed on his arm. Hoping to do the trick he stabbed upward as fast as he could, hoping he was fast enough.
Suddenly it fell dead beside him and began to melt into popping purple goop. Williams looked up and saw a man with a white trench coat holding a small injection gun standing above him. "Yum, Primordial Soup." Apparently he thought it was funniest thing he had ever seen and burst out laughing.
As soon as it was over Williams found himself being hefted from the ground and dragged over to a medical transport. He felt a needle be inserted into his neck. He was told it was something for the pain. Just before he slipped into unconsciousness he heard someone say, "Shame about the arm though."

* * *

Tio waited by the cargo door shuffling his feet impatiently as Moumoru waited for the pressure to be equalized before he opened the door. Everyone with the exception of Seth and Haschel stood behind him. They wanted nothing to do with the planet resting below them. They watched from a cautious distance as the others departed onto the lush green landscape peppered with asphalt and dilapidated buildings.
As they walked into the distance Seth got bored and walked up stairs to the observation dome and contently grabbed a