Parasites Read Online Free Page A

be continued,” she said, then walked after the Marine.
    Jeremy followed, stretching his legs to match her brisk pace. They’d traded in the uncomfortable suits for jumpsuits and regular clothing days ago, something he was grateful for. “What’s going on?” He wondered aloud.
    They cleared the outer seal on the lab and were immediately hit by the wet heat of Vitalis. It pressed against them like a wet blanket, nearly making them stop. A primal roar slammed into them, making them take the step back the climate had been unable to provoke.
    “What the hell is that?” Jeremy wondered aloud.
    “ Look!” Synnamon shouted, pointing over the makeshift barrier that now surrounded the science colony.
    Jeremy followed her finger and saw something straight out of an entertainment vid. It was massive, nearly as big as the quadruped monsters they’d encountered on their first day in. This one walked on two legs, but it had arms as well. Heavily muscled arms that dipped below the edge of the barrier. It was still some distance away but it was looking at the settlement as it approached.
     
     
     
     
    Chapter 7
     
    Two pulse laser turrets whirred to life. Both rotated to bring their cannons on line with the approaching creature, but the one closer to the east facing gate shuddered and ground to a halt with a metal on metal screech. Smoke rose up from the motor housing, giving probably cause to the failure.
    The third and fourth turrets had no line of site, being on the southern and western walls. Jeremy watched as Marines were running to the barricades and falling into position, their rifles at the ready. Some still held their laser rifles but the heavy gunners in the fire teams had either plasma rifles or, in the case of Sergeant Whiskers, the Marine squad leader, a modified slug thrower.
    Ever since they’d learned how resistant the native creatures were to the focused energy weapons many Marines had been trying to come up with alternatives. Grenades were popular, but finite. Ballistic weapons were the next best thing but they were in limited supply.
    The lone unit opened up, letting loose a powerful hum that raised the hair on Jeremy’s arms as the capacitors charged and released at roughly one second intervals. The creature let loose a roar Jeremy suspected he’d be hearing in his right before he woke up in a cold sweat for the next several weeks. What amazed him was that it kept coming at them.
    Pulse lasers possessed enough focused energy to burn a hole through a quarter inch steel plate with a single pulse. The creature was smoking from where the invisible beams struck it, but still it kept on. A preliminary study conducted by Dr. Rice — Synnamon — had shown the hair follicles of the beats they had encountered and some other smaller creatures that had been acquired for study were partially crystalline. The crystallization process was theorized to break up the energy weapons destructive power much like a military grade diffusion shielding, only the organic version seemed to work better.
    “I thought the ultrasonics would keep these things away?” Synnamon cried as it closed to less than fifty yards of the turret.
    “I think it just pissed this one off,” He replied. He backed away as it thundered on, fresh smoke coming as new pulses struck against it. “We need to go!”
    Synnamon hesitated. They stared as the cross between a tyrannosaurus and a few other creatures he couldn’t place smashed one massive front limb into the turret and tore it off the raised dais it was on. The head lunged forward, powerful jaws crushing down on it and squashing the Marine trapped inside before he even knew what had happened. Or so Jeremy hoped, he didn’t want to imagine what it would be like to feel the teeth of a beast like that eating him alive.
    The remains of the turret flew through the air, rolling and hopping along the ground past the gate. The creature swung its head, cold avian eyes sweeping across the compound and