Chapter 205 - Cave Ecology

Three days later…

A cold panic struck through Ollie’s heart, his left leg buckling as he began to fall. The cavern’s ceiling oscillated before his eyes, and was about to disappear when a metallic glove grabbed his arm with a firm grip, hauling him up in one single fluid motion.

Ollie panted, each breath heating up the helmet as he stared down the crevice that he had just nearly fallen through, loose pebbles and gravel tumbling with little clicks down into the unknowable depths.

“Didn’t you listen to what I said?” The exosuit in front of him lectured him through the radio, groaning to herself as she attempted to stretch. There were hardly any gaps in the armor, mobility was severely restricted far more than normal. “Follow me and my steps exactly, alright? And keep your lantern on.”

“Sorry, Mari,” Ollie spoke rapidly into his own inbuilt radio. “But still, it is necessary to turn off the lantern in order to truly see the natural flora and fauna in their native habitats.”

“What part of this is ‘natural’ to you? If anything, it looks like a mishmash of anything and everything. Nothing makes sense in this place. Plants can grow upside down here!” Mari jabbed her thumb upwards, pointing towards a creepy tree that seemed to snake downwards in a tight spiral like a spring, as though it was ready to lunge at anything it sensed below.

The floor was covered in moss, feeding off the sparse radioactive crystals that dotted the landscape, the fungus and ferns glowing in the dark and providing a bare minimal light, though it was still too far too dark for research purposes. At best, Ollie could only see the outline of Mari’s exosuit in the mild darkness.

“When we bring the lightcapturer film back, we’ll learn exactly how the ecosystem works.” Ollie tapped his lightcapturer, a bulky package slung to his back.

“Right, but your safety is number one. Don’t forget you’re the lead of the designers now. Everyone, keep moving! We won’t stop until we find a proper resting point!” Mari ordered to the rest of the group, signaling.

Two scouts armed with rifles and disposable Detonation Spears took up the rear, protecting the two arctech engineers who carried the Arcia Energy Detectors along with them. The mineral ants had long left them behind, unwilling to enter the crevice with them.

“Weird…” Ollie muttered, his body tensing up as he came to a certain realization.

“What is it?” Mari whispered.

“There’s none of that spore stuff. Nor is there any biofilm coating the floor at all.”

“Maybe that thing isn’t here?”

“Our scouts were infected around this point, so there should be at least some signs of it.” Ollie swung his arctech lantern in his free hand around, his other grabbing nearby outcrops for temporary support and to check for the coating of biofilm that they experienced. “Any of you spotted the coral cocoon?”

The rest of the squad sounded off one by one to reply in the negative, having not seen a single glimpse of it. Ollie racked his brain, wondering if his assumptions were wrong.

Ollie was not the only one second-guessing himself on this small scouting expedition. Mari, too, was undergoing a phase of imposter syndrome herself, trying to act tough in front of the others while in reality, she was also running through everything she had learned from training with Kyle over the months, along with instructions. Find a safe spot, assess surroundings, ensure safety of members. Safety over research. She mouthed the sayings to herself repeatedly, assuring herself that she was doing the right thing and banishing all doubts.

“Ollie, maybe the coral cocoon only releases it when encountering predators as a defensive measure.” One of the engineers offered his conjecture, with Ollie seriously considering.

“Hey, there will be time to think later. Keep moving!” Mari hurried them on, knowing every minute wasted would be potentially life-threatening.

The landscape and habitat seemed to transform as they went deeper, the foilage and coverage of moss, fungi, and other cavernous plants beginning to increase in density all around them.

“Everyone airtight? Check your air tanks and filters. Sound off?” Mari forced them to check, noticing the copious amounts of unknown glowing mushrooms, delicate rock-like fruits hanging from branches, and small skittering of yet-to-be-discovered insects. The chance of a similar infection or disease being transmitted was far too high.

Ollie glanced down at his arm, an analog arctech meter reading for his tank still set at full, while the gas mask filter was still functional, purging unwanted molecules, chemical scents, and airborne insects from getting into the suit.

“Alright.” Mari nodded, continuing the trek deeper and deeper into the underground jungle.

They soon reached an unnatural clearing, utterly devoid of any lifeforms. It was as though the jungle around them had decided to specifically avoid this place, with Mari immediately halting the group.

The surface of the floor was rugged and unruly, the terrain treacherous with undulating peaks and dips, but it was also the area that had the brightest light for some strange reason. The fungi, moss and algae along the edge of the clearing were all thriving better than they had seen near the entrance, the glow bright enough for them to see clearly in the dark.

Mari glanced to the side, not seeing a clear way around it other than to scale the walls, though the path was extremely narrow. “It’s too dangerous to move ahead; we’ll stop here.”

“But we haven’t seen anything to do with the coral cocoon yet!” Ollie protested, but to no avail, as Mari began to put down her backpack, revealing a larger arctech radio and some structural fittings to install it into the ground permanently.

“No way in hell I’m letting any of you onto that small pathway.” Mari refused to budge. “You three can check out the surroundings, but stay within 20 meters of me! You two, make sure they stay safe.”

The scouts saluted, escorting the engineers as they reluctantly began to set up the Arcia Energy Detectors, placing them on the ground. Mari began to install the sizeable arctech radio permanently, forming a sort of communication relay that would allow them to communicate with the outside. As she began to pinch and screw in a bolt, she noticed one of the engineers attempting to investigate the empty clearing.

“Hey! Don’t go to that clearing until we got a better picture of what the hell is going on in there.”

“But there’s nothing there that would hurt me!”

“Did the lack of living things there not clue you in?” Mari groaned. “Now, you stay back until I give the all-clear, okay? Of course, we’re going to investigate it, but only when everyone is ready.”

As Mari and the engineer quarreled, Ollie was already fully engrossed in the surroundings, bending close to look at smaller little mites crawling across the surface of rocks or moss, along with a few airborne insects that zipped around, landing onto the brighter fungi that illuminated much of the area.

He watched as a single fruit shaped like a diamond with spikes cracked off its branch, slamming into the ground with a loud thud and squashing hundreds of mites underneath. But soon, the fruit’s shell was slowly starting to be covered in mites, their tiny mandibles slowly chewing away at the hard shell, decomposing it. What seemed to be branches, rock chips, and blackened leaves were abundant across the cavern’s floor.

Ollie noticed that it wasn’t just mites that ruled the cavern’s floor – worms and other decomposers also squirmed their way through the dense decomposing organic matter, scouring and scavenging for anything to feed. He even observed a shelled earthworm circling the forest floor, consuming food before returning to a specific spot to digest its nutrients, glowing minute quartz-like crystal coming out from the other end.

He quickly ordered the other engineers to observe other areas, spreading out to gather evidence while the scouts kept their eyes peeled for any signs of danger, their rifles at the ready.

One of the engineers also witnessed a similar shelled earthworm performing the same routine. “Fascinating. The plants seem to absorb the effects of the larger crystals, emitting light, which in turn fuels the algae, moss, and other secondary producers. The insects then feed off both the decomposing waste organic matter or the fruits, and in turn, some of them can churn out material similar to that of the larger crystals. It’s a complete ecosystem!”

“But something is missing.” Ollie wondered out loud. “There must be predators of some sort, a secondary consumer of the primary consumers. Where are they?”

“Predators? I don’t think a wyvern could live in here, and the mineral ants don’t seem to want to come in here either.” Mari was confused, asking as she continued to fiddle with the radio selection, checking its structural integrity.

“The predators I am referring to need not be large or capable of eating humans. Smaller predators like birds, cats, and fishes could find a role in this ecosystem as well. Otherwise, the insects would be in full abundance, and we should see them everywhere…” Ollie’s voice trailed off, his conclusion already a startling sign.

“So something is culling the insects here, and we haven’t seen it yet.” Mari finished off for him.

Ollie couldn’t help agreeing; the scouts’ wariness heightened even further as they turned on their lanterns, shining a blinding beam of light wherever their rifles pointed. Yet, despite their vigilance, they did not see anything that matched the descriptions.

As Ollie and the engineers investigated further, they finally found something: a single coral cocoon, except it was completely dormant, its tentacle-like branches stationary and unnerving. None of the squad dared to approach it, only quickly examining the nearby surfaces for any signs of the spores and biofilm released.

“None. Nothing at all. How is this possible?” The other engineer exclaimed. “Perhaps it is the insects or other plants who are consuming the spores and biofilm produced?”

A sudden rumbling erupted from the walls, frightening the squad into defensive positions. “Form up!” Mari quickly dropped her tools, grabbing a Detonation Spear herself. Ollie and the two engineers retreated towards her, the squad of six now arranged towards the source of the sound.

The beams of light from the scouts’ rifles hardly showed anything even as they scanned the myriad of holes and tunnels in the cavern, unable to pierce deeper into their cavities.

“Was that just an earthquake?” Mari asked out loud, inching forward with her spear readied to stab ahead. She changed her vision, focusing on the flow of arcia energy only to see one giant mass of arcia energy, concentrated into a single core of sorts.

Before she could warn the squad, the source of the rumbling lunged out, bursting from the deep foliage and darkness with a roar that shook the cavern. Mari and the squad instinctively winced, their ears ringing from the roar as loose pebbles and dirt began to fall from the ceiling.

What stood before them was a terror like none of them had ever seen before: a blue-armored creature with tendrils for a face, save for a gaping hole in the middle that served as its vocal mouth, while sharp rows of teeth lined the inner walls of its mouth. Its six legs jabbed sharply into the ground, the soft meat covered by the same blue armor shell as well.

“Shit!” Mari grunted as she immediately threw her spear towards it, not waiting to become a meal for the monster. With a deafening blast, the spear ignited, the brilliant ball of flame erupting and engulfing the monster’s entire length completely. “RUN!” Mari ordered Ollie and the two engineers.

The engineers quickly complied, not wanting to get in the way of Mari and scouts. One of the engineers lunged for the open clearing instead of following Ollie and the other, his mind infused with panic as he sought the quickest direct path of escape.

“Don’t cross the clearing; the monster can see you!” Ollie warned, but the engineer didn’t listen, continuing to sprint with abandon.

However, as soon as he reached the center of the clearing, the engineer suddenly came to a halt, bouts of jolting pain and sharp shrieks suddenly flooding the radio channel. “Urk~! ARGHHHH!”

Ollie’s eyes widened as the engineer’s exosuit began to fall apart before his eyes, somehow the armor plates losing their internal structure and cracking apart at the seams.

With the metal armor now gone, everyone could see the reason why the engineer was screaming – his arms and hands were slowly being melted off, as though his muscles could no longer cling to his bones and had lost all cohesion, his flesh turning into a sludge slowly but surely before his very eyes.

“What the fuck?!” Mari exclaimed as she leaped out of the way, the monster’s legs attempting to crush her while its head swopped in.

“Mari, we can’t run! The sides are too narrow and steep, and the clearing is dangerous!” Ollie reported.

“Then stay where you are - time for me to prove my worth!”