“There is one more thing that I need to show you.” Lord Alexander said “And prepare yourselves, because this is going to come as something as a shock I think. Follow me”
He led the way round the shuttering around the Hyperion prototype to yet another heavy security door. Unlike the previous doors which had a numeric key pad to gain access, this one had an additional security feature in the form of a retinal scanner. Lord Alexander leaned in to the scanner and after a pause the door locks disengaged and the door slowly swung open. After the modified natural look of the cavern we had just left the area that we moved into was a complete contrast. Bright white painted walls and high powered lights, gleaming stainless steel worktops and cabinets, and around the pristine walls, clear plastic tubes filled with a pale green liquid that bubbled. The tubes were cloudy but we could see vague shapes within them and as we moved through the room, technicians moved around us purposefully.
We were led over to the tubes and as we got nearer we could see more clearly the shapes within. The first few tubes in the row contained human bodies, hooked up through a network of pipes to what we guessed were nutrient and oxygen tanks. We could see that some of the bodies showed the signs of battle damage and as we looked it became clear that the tanks were being used as healing tubes. This was confirmed by Lord Alexander as he explained that the tubes were filled with a nutrient gel containing antibiotics and nanobots and even the most battle damaged bodies could be repaired very quickly. Before we even had time to ask about the technology rediscoveries that had allowed the development of nanobots we were moving along the row and the biggest shock of the day came into view.
The last tube in the row contained something that definitely wasn’t human. We could see something that looked far more like a large tadpole. There was no movement in the tube, and none of the pipework running to external supplies but as we got closer and peered into the tank the shape twisted, the head end charging towards the wall of the tube making us recoil in horror as a slit opened revealing row after row of razor sharp teeth, small, almost vestigial appendages writhed just behind the head and the rest of the body thrashed and writhed driving the vicious head forward. We had never expected anything like this and the thought of thousands of these foul creatures emerging from their eggs and swarming inexorably across the landscape was terrifying.
“This is how they are when they emerge from the meteorites. The growth rate after that is incredible and they move tremendously quickly” Lord Alexander told us “The first time a camp was attacked they were overwhelmed by thirty thousand of these monstrosities and in the four hours that we estimate they had from hatching to attack they had grown to ten feet in length and those appendages you see were capable of tearing a man in half with minimal effort. They are devastating and without working together I’m not sure even our camp could withstand a sustained attack. You can see our position, and I’m sure you can image that it is only made worse by mistrust and treachery on the part of the Red Maw and the rival groups that are constantly looking for a way to reduce our defenses and over-run us.”
Sirius shook his head slowly and responded for us all
“We need to gain a proper understanding of exactly what we are facing. I presume that you have already carried out analysis on these creatures and have begun to work out their strengths and weaknesses, but I would suggest that you let Natasha study them as well. She has a knack of finding ways of combating lets call them unusual opponents and perhaps she will spot something that your people have missed.”
With that it was agreed. Natasha would work with Alexanders people to come up with a technique to effectively fight the Hatchlings, and the rest of us would work with Alexander himself to strengthen and refine the camps defenses and come up with a strategy to combat the multiple threats that the camp faced……
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