Paralyzed

8.3.5 SW
20:25/21 SW-CP-Local Time
Crowning Point > Reactor > Maintenance Tunnels

Saygin moved in as wide an arc as he could around the motionless alien towards the fallen soldier.

As soon as he was in Buddy's line of sight, he motioned for the drone to stay put, hoping to hell that Gauss was paying attention to his video feed.

Saygin could see the man now, it was Officer Dokes. The man had a few holes in his uniform and vest, likely due to splashes of acid from the alien's blood, but he didn't seem to be bleeding a lot. In fact, Saygin didn't see any serious signs of injury except for a small puddle and some blood spatter. It was certainly not enough blood loss to kill the man so clearly some of it wasn't even his. Saygin followed the blood with his flashlight and saw that there was more of it. Small streaks of it led down the corridor where Gauss had mentioned the actual nest was located.

Saygin attempted to determine the cause of Dokes' death. Upon inspecting the body, Saygin determined that Dokes had a slice and puncture through his vest that wasn’t actually too deep and as he turned the man’s face over, he could see that Dokes’ wide, frightened eyes darting around. He was breathing albeit very shallow and it seemed as if he was trying to speak, but couldn’t move or make a sound.

"Oh shit!" Saygin exclaimed through gritted teeth, with a start. He began pulling off Dokes' vest to better assess his wounds and render aid.

Although it was clear that Dokes was still alive, his body was limp, he was in some kind of paralytic state, but this might have made it easier for Saygin to remove the combat vest.

The fact that a slice had been punched all the way through the vest and into Dokes told of the strength and lethality of the beast that did it. As for Dokes’ wound, it was a thin slit about 2 inches in length on the right side of his rib cage. A smear of semi-dried blood streaked down from the wound but it appeared as if the flow was now staunched and Dokes was not actively bleeding out. Typically that kind of stab wound doesn’t heal itself.

Suddenly a voice scraped through static over the comms like a snow shovel on concrete.

tzzt Sargent, - - is Sharpey. Come in. Over. tzzt