Sound - An original fiction

**Disclaimer**
Some strong language and violence will be present in this fiction. Those overly squeamish among us may want to pass up on reading this.



Chapter 1: Wings

There was a rustling in the undergrowth of the dense forest. Captain Saunders raised the sights of his M16 rifle to his eye and swung the barrel at the movement. A squirrel rushed out and the man's meaty finger left the trigger.

He lowered the weapon and continued moving quietly through the dense greenery, pausing only to investigate similar sounds in the forest, occasionally looking up and to the sides and scaring birds, snakes, frogs, and all other sorts of creatures out of their niches in the forest.

As he reached his destination, a small clearing where the only large plants present were ten enormous redwood trees, he hid behind a smaller tree on the outskirts of the clearing. Looking to his left, he spotted another man, dressed in combat gear and camouflage like himself. He raised his left hand, palm open, and the man further down the clearing acknowledged with a nod. The Captain looked to his right and saw an identically dressed man who also raised his hand in acknowledgment. Now looking behind him, the big man gave one final signal, it was received by a gillied man in a tree stand located in the highest tree around, besides the looming redwoods. The sniper gave an almost imperceptible nod and without hesitation, the Captain threw a small, spherical device into the clearing.

Immediately after he threw it, he crouched behind the tree that he was using as cover. Within seconds, the device emitted a high, piercing noise that echoed through the forest. The canopies of the trees erupted with movement and activity as a dozen humanoid figures leaped from the redwoods and screeched at a similar tone, falling toward the ground.

Their screeches, however, were louder and knocked down several trees around the clearing as they fell through the sky. The instant before they hit the ground, the lead creature spread its arms, and a thin membrane was seen between his arms and torso. The others followed suit, and sped through the air, weaving between trees. As they passed the Captain, he was able to see that green and gold feathers covered the entirety of their muscle bound bodies, and their feet each had 3 talons, two in the front and one protruding from the back. All this was seen and processed in an instant, however, as bullets erupted from the guns of the soldiers. They tore through the bodies of the flying creatures and the winged beasts fell, littering the forest with their majestic bodies.

Saunders removed the earplugs from his ears and replaced them with an earpiece and microphone. "How many did we get," the Captain inquired into the communication device resting on his head.

He heard Ghost's reply as the sniper reported from above, ?Looks like all but one, sir.?

"Damn," was the collective reply from the other three troops.

"Alpha Team reporting, Phase 1 complete. Do you copy, control?" Captain Saunders asked through his headset.

"Roger that, Captain," was the reply from DC, "Complete Phase 2 of operation Songbird and proceed to the primary extraction point, Alpha Team."

The team converged on their leader's position and Ghost made his way down the tree using whichever limbs he could easily grab a hold of.

"Bones," Saunders grunted.

"Yessir?" was the reply from the slightly thinner of the two approaching men.

"Phase 2." Was all the large colored man said.

"On your command, sir," replied Bones.

"All clear, Sparky?" asked Saunders.

"As a whistle," came the reply from the bigger man.

"At your discretion, Bones," ordered his leader as the ordnance expert made his way toward the clearing. He placed and armed several charges of plastic explosive at the base of each redwood and spoke through his headset as his triggered the final charge.

"Let's get out of this hellhole," he said, "I think a bug bit me in the ***, clean through my pants."

Chuckling, the Captain gave the order, "Alpha Team, on me, advance to primary extraction point." Jogging through the forest in a diamond formation, headed by Saunders, the team stayed alert for any further danger. It did not come, however as they eventually made it to a clearing several miles away, where a helicopter was waiting for them, it's cargo bay open and rotors spinning. Alpha Team entered the bay and the chopper took off, spiraling into the sky and streaking across the forest.

"Hit it, Bones," Saunders said, nudging his partner who clicked a detonator that he held in his gloved hand. The forest erupted in a ball of fire as the C4 explosive detonated, igniting the redwoods as they fell and spreading flames throughout the forest. The team began to disarm as they discharged their weapons and laid them to the side, removing their combat gear as well.

"Son of a-" was all that they heard before an ear-splitting screech lit up the sky, shattering the glass in the helicopter's cockpit. Falling to the ground holding their bleeding ears, the team that had so flawlessly converted the mission just moments ago was eliminated by the remaining member of the flock, who had capsized the man-made machine with its given gifts. The green and golden beast flew away into the bright, mid afternoon sun, leaving the mechanical wreck to spiral to the ground, enveloping the bodies of the four soldiers and the pilot in the flames that they had initiated.

« Last edited by Yogi_Bear on Jul 30th 2011 »

Curious Prologue. I didn't see any glaring mistake.

I would like to say more to make this review more interesting but I got nothing... Will be reading.

Interesting. It's got my attention, I'll be reading more.
On a different point, I'm curious how most of the symbols didn't get changed to question marks. On my FF pretty well all of the quotations and apostrophes were changed.

They got changed on mine too, but I went through and fixed them all, I thought. Thanks for reading and commenting, I'll have the next chapter up soon.

Sorry for the delay. I'll try to get these things up more quickly. I wrote this when I wrote the first chapter, but I was planning on writing the next chapter before I posted this one.

Chapter 2: Bubbles
The interior of the sub smelled, synthetic, like a doctor's office, Private Martinez noticed. He directed his thoughts back to the mission at hand, however, and looked to the rest of his team, all dressed exactly like him, dark blue wetsuits that stretched from their toes and ended at their helmet-covered heads, and flippers, like those a SCUBA diver might wear.

Of course, he knew everything about their equipment, from how it was manufactured to how it worked, right down to the microscopic details. He took special interest in the helmets that they all wore, clear plastic face shields that fit into a dark blue shell and kept visibility clear and focused while preventing water to contact the skin, maintaining pressure and also acting as a breathing and communication device.

He was snapped out of his analysis by the signal of his leader. "Ready up, men," Captain Walton said. The rest of the squad responded with a nod, and moved to the back of the submarine.

"Bravo Team is a go," Walton said through his communicator.

"Roger, Bravo Team," was the reply from the pilot of the submarine. "Enter the airlock and prepare for launch."

"Ready to go, team?" Walton asked. Each of the remaining members nodded. He pressed a button on the wall and the doors to the airlock slid open.

The team entered one by one and as soon as the doors closed behind them, the door in front of them opened and water rushed into the airlock chamber. The four soldiers entered the water and moved through it effortlessly using a propulsion system built into their suits that moved the water as little as possible, away from the submarine and further into the depths. The team fell into a diamond formation with Martinez at the back

"Keep going, we're detecting strong frequencies ahead of your position," was the report from the submarine.

As they continued through the salty water, Forge - the soldier on the left point of the diamond - gasped as a tool fell from his belt. He reached down to grab it as they heard another report from the sub, "Now they're behind you, or..." there was a pause and the voice returned, frantic, "You're right in the middle of them, I'm hearing their sounds everywhere!" Now sounding panicked, their mission controller continued, "Oh ****, they detected that motion, Forge, damnit, they know you're here, men."

No sooner had this been said when Ramirez heard a grunt from Walton through the communicator and whirled around to see a spear sticking from their captain. As his blood swam out from the gaping wound in his body, the remaining three members of the team took a defensive stance, back to back, and raised their specially designed rifles, looking for further attacks. They came, swiftly and efficiently as humanoid figures rose from the depths, or came from above, then attacking from the sides when the soldiers were not looking. The water was filled with deep sounds that must have been emanating from the strange tentacles that Flipper, the fourth member of the squad, noticed before the scaly figure sliced his head from his shoulders with a curved sword.

It was impossible to know how many there were and they came from every direction. But Ramirez heard another member of his squad grunt. "It must be Forge," he thought, for some reason exercising logic while this situation called for pure animal instincts.

He turned and fired. His bullets hit something, and rich green blood mixed with the red blood already littering the water. He knew that he was the only one left, and protocol called for a standing fight to the end. However, he knew that he could not defeat these things, for all he knew the one he had shot was only wounded, so he gave up and retreated.

The young soldier swam back toward the sub, using both his manpower and the power of the propulsion system in his suit. As the submarine came into view he saw the pilot in the front seat, fiddling with some controls, when suddenly a shape came hurtling though the water at supersonic speeds and tore through the sub, leaving a jagged hole in the middle and causing water to run in and flood the cabin.

The last thing that Ramirez noticed before he felt the barbed spear enter his back was the pilot of the underwater vehicle scrambling to get an oxygen tank secured to his back before the water swallowed him up.

« Last edited by Yogi_Bear on Sep 22nd 2011 »

Whoa, this sure is bleak. But awesome, too. I can't see the main plot yet, but I'll be sure to keep reading this.

Intriguing. I can't say i can see where this is going, what with all the main characters dying and stuff, but I agree with 1 : 2, Awesome. And ill be looking forward for the next chapter.