Cmdr Niples "Gruesome tactics"

Commander Seymour Niples
On the harsh surface of Ffion
 
Niples battled his way through the strong winds, hoping that his team were behind him. As he reached a craggy ridge he looked behind him to get a report from the science officers.
 
Half of the group had gone.
The security team had gone off on their own, Steev and Kayn were missing and Nik Florentyn was still back at the Starbug.
 
The only people left in his team were Dr. Van Threk, Nurse Coffey, and the scientists Marlene and Phil.
"Where is everyone?" panicked Niples.
"Erm... I think they all went their separate ways a few miles back." said Phil, wondering if he should have said something sooner.
Seymour was about to say something else but something else distracted his attention. "Can you feel that?" he asked.
 
"Feel what?" asked the curious science officer Marlene Cauty.
"The tremours...." continued Dr. Van Threk, starting to feel a little unsettled. "I can feel them, they're really close..."
Phil took out his portable scanner and said something that would have been more useful a few seconds earlier.
 
"Uh oh...."
 
The ground underneath the group suddenly exploded outwards, knocking Niples upwards as tough scaly skin appeared beneath his legs. The giant bug waited for the sand to settle so that it's fearsome form would paralyse its prey just by looking at it.
Dr. Van Threk was the closest to its mouth, others had been knocked clear but Sydney just stood there and gawped at the spiny creature as it flailed it's tendrills around her.
 
Sharp claws grabbed the chief medical officer by her midsection and squeezed untill her body went limp. The doctor barely had time to squeel before she was lunged into the creatures hinged mouth.
Her life flashed before her eyes, childhood, graduation at the medical academy, her transfer to the Blue Dwarf in April, she thought about her parents she had left behind, but now she would never see them again.
 
The creature brought it's jaws down with a sickening crunch. Only a smear of red down the side of the bug's mouth remained of Dr. Van Threk.
 
Phil DeBuggure, Marlene Cauty and Nurse Coffey looked away in disgust at the sickening point of kill. The nurse had just seen her boss been mercilessly slaughtered, Phil realised it was a bad idea to have come to the planet afterall.
Marlene stood in shock after what she had just seen, she didn't notice the bug had it's small devilish eyes trained on her next.
 
Seymour looked down from the top of the giant bug- where he had landed when it came out of the ground underneath him. He couldn't see what was happening very well, but he assumed it wasn't good.
 
Marlene Cauty was knocked down by a clean swipe of the creatures claws. As she looked up from the ground she could see the creature raising it's sharp tendrill, ready to pierce her soft body with it and eat her like a sausage on a stick.
 
The creature brought the tendrill down.
 
There was the sudden sound of gunfire and the tendrill was completely severred from the bug, falling limply to the ground.
The creature roared in pain and turned suddenly, knocking Commander Niples flying off of it's back. He landed on the dry, cracked ground beneith. 
 
The bug faced it's attacker, Major Frank Harris stood with his weapon raised, blowing the smoke out of the barrel.
"I'll get this one guv." said Penny Lloyd next to him as she finished loading the grenade launcher -then blew it to bits.
 
==================================Lt. David "Onion" BallAssistant Helm officer/ Pilot  USS Endeavour-ACommander Seymour Niples  JMC Blue DwarfWWW.Geocities.com/BlueDwarf2000Are you being paid for being online? I am! http://www.alladvantage.com/home.asp?refid=IJU209==================================