Cutlass Sharpened Read Online Free Page B

man
weighing a hundred and forty eight kilograms by Earth Standard, or
Standard for short. The materials were so profound the cable and
hook could easily support four times Stone’s weight.
    The other two Hunters followed him in hooking
their lines to the shuttle’s exterior clamp before bravely diving
headfirst down and running along the smooth vertical wall. They
fell just short of terminal velocity and powerful shoulder lights
spread out the darkness’s grip.
    Eventually they applied breaks on their
cables to land in the bottom. Immediately their critical gaze
landed upon a strange mass seemingly grown from the wall like some
grotesque tumor. Deegen was the first to draw his circular chakram
blades and approach it while Steven said through his com “We
reached the bottom. It’s quite warm, but bearable. The air is
thicker too, but we found what looks like a silver and peach growth
down here. My scanner is telling me it’s organic and non harmful.
You two better get down here quick and see this. Maybe someone can
explain what it is for I sure can’t.”
    “ Has it reacted to you or
moved at all?” Stephanie hooked up her own harness while Renee
rubbed Sparky’s neck before climbing into his saddle between the
double set of wings.
    As he dropped down the tunnel, body glowing
brightly to push the dark away they heard Steven say “No, but it is
sure ugly to look at. I think whatever it is is long dead. Or a
cyst.”
    “ Then don’t touch it till I
get down there.” Stephanie followed down last while Satellite
remained above, keeping an eye on the storm further that is wider
than his eyes can see across the horizon. The highly intelligent
bird didn’t like time constraints, but did as he was
told.
    Sparky landed softly in an expertly done
descent by flaring all four wings and using thick muscle and
tendons made everything smooth. Renee dismounted and came only so
far as the Hunters had and she now knew what was meant by
eerie.
    The object was veined with some kind of
silvery, liquid-like substance while over it was a layer of
yellowish orange skin containing some form of suspended fluid. Even
with Sparky and the Hunters’ bright shoulder lights it could not
fully penetrate the depth of whatever it is.
    A zipping sound followed by a hiss of breaks
told of Stephanie’s arrival. She unclipped the harness and walked
over with her upraised hand brightly shining its own light.
“Fascinating. Babe, you recording all this.”
    “ You bet your firm ass I
am.” Jessica said with unmistakable awe over the Com.
    “ What is it?” Steven asked a
few seconds later.
    “ I’m not entirely sure. The
rock is several hundreds of millions of years old, but what I’m
reading says this mass is more recent than a newborn baby… and
something solid is being contained inside dozens of… what look like
arteries.”
    “ Hold on. You saying this
thing could be millions of years old or less than a
week?”
    “ Precisely. Somehow its
organic makeup is identical to the volcanic rock it’s sticking to
like some kind of octopus, but has DNA. Rock with DNA.”
    “ You’re joking?”
    “ Put up your visor and see
for yourself, Stone.” Stephanie flashed her results to the Hunters
who shared similar confusion. “I’m neither a geneticist or a
Splicer, but I’m telling you that material has been transformed rock into
bioorganic material.” She went silent as she increased the power of
her short range suit scanner to maximum output and stepped back
with a gasp.
    The Hunters reacted instantly by raising
their weapons, forgetting their displays, thinking it moved. They
held like rigid statues, barely breathing.
    Renee harnessed her formidable mental prowess
too, but held it in check to ask “What is it?”
    “ S…So…” Stephanie stuttered.
“Someone is inside that thing. It’s feeding into some strange capsule and I’m
reading a pulse inside the capsule. It’s faint, but I think this
thing is some kind or bioengineered