readbooksol Chapter 247 247: The Indigenous People's Favor
Chapter 247 247: The Indigenous People's Favor
After the unfortunate reptilian native was swallowed, a sickening gulp echoed through the cavern.
...followed by the grotesque squelch of moving intestines!
The swallowed lizardman was still screaming in terror from inside the beast's stomach! The cries, muffled by the thick layer of flesh, sounded deep and distorted.
Using their night-vision optics, the Marines finally got a clear look at the enormous creature. Their hearts pounded, and a wave of nausea hit them. Everyone instinctively took a few steps back. They had never seen such a grotesque subterranean monster; it was like a nightmare straight out of a horror movie.
It was a repulsive worm, as thick as an industrial water tank and a full five meters long!
It was incredibly massive. The beast resembled a segmented centipede covered in heavy armor plating. It had no eyes, only a giant, circular maw. In fact, this mouth spanned the entire width of its body and was lined with thousands of tiny, razor-sharp teeth! Swallowing a single lizardman was like a mere snack.
The monster reared its head high like a viper poised to strike. Its massive body writhed slightly as it began to digest the meal it had just swallowed. The visible squirming of its digestive tract in the dim cave, combined with the muffled screams of the trapped native, created an absolutely horrifying scene.
The Federation Marines were appalled. This was the largest and most disgusting subterranean predator they had encountered. Compared to this giant worm, the lizardmen were practically cute!
While the squad was still recovering from the shock, the reptilian natives suddenly shrieked and scrambled back to their feet. They were clearly in a state of extreme panic.
However, they didn't run away. Instead, they formed a defensive circle around their chieftain, ready to retreat or launch a desperate attack at any moment.
The leader in the center stood about 1.2 meters tall and was the most physically imposing member of the pack. He wore a crude bone necklace and seemed to be rapidly assessing the situation.
It was a three-way standoff. The natives were heavily outmatched, and the strength of the strange, cold, metal giants remained unknown. The chieftain hesitated, weighing whether to risk total annihilation in a fight...
Sergeant Will and the others quickly regained their composure.
They realized that these massive, armored worms were the true apex predators of this underground ecosystem. The lizardmen were absolutely no match for them. Even with primitive intelligence, surviving down here was a miracle!
It became obvious that the massive spike pit was actually designed to trap these worms. They never expected a squad of Federation Marines to stumble into it instead. Now that the trap was sprung and filled with armored men, even a mindless worm wouldn't blindly jump in.
"Sarge? Do we engage?" a Marine whispered over the comms.
The giant worm hesitated. Through its infrared vision, the tall, metal figures down in the pit registered as freezing cold, just like dead rocks. It didn't know what they were, but their unnatural chill triggered a primal sense of danger.
However! There were so many lizardmen right across the gap, an absolute feast! If it could eat just a few more, it wouldn't need to hunt for months.
Driven by its simple, ravenous brain, it couldn't resist the temptation of an easy meal. Ignoring the freezing metal giants, it swiftly bypassed the pit and lunged at the natives!
Faced with the charging monstrosity, the lizardmen panicked. But at a sharp bark from their chieftain, they held their ground, raising their spears in a desperate, fearless display.
However, positioned right between the charging worm and the natives were the Federation Marines!
Sergeant Will and his team were briefly startled as the monster rushed their flank, but their expressions quickly hardened into cold, lethal focus. This thing wasn't an intelligent alien; it was just a mindless, oversized bug. You want to ignore a squad of Federation Marines?
"Open fire! Light it up!" Will roared.
He raised his heavy Gauss rifle, and a barrage of high-velocity rounds immediately erupted from the barrel. They refused to believe a simple bug could withstand military-grade firepower! This wasn't some bio-engineered super-weapon; it was just a natural predator. Thick scales or not, did it really think it could bulldoze through humanity's finest?
Boom-boom-boom!
The armor-piercing rounds had an incredibly high muzzle velocity, hitting 2,000 meters per second. Furthermore, they were loaded with explosive tips—upon impact, they detonated violently, capable of shredding right through a heavy tank's armor! This was the source of the Marines' absolute confidence.
In a split second, the monster's head was peppered with direct hits.
The high-velocity rounds tore through its thick armored scales with a sickening crunch, tearing it open as easily as a tin can. Thick armor plating or not, the beast was no match for military-grade Gauss rifles!
The Marines continuously fired as they stepped back, ensuring they wouldn't get splashed by the foul, exploding gore.
In less than three seconds, the worm's head was completely obliterated. It collapsed heavily to the cavern floor, its massive, headless body twitching violently in the dirt as its primitive nervous system fired its last remaining impulses.
"Kha!"
"Kha!"
The reptilian natives stared with wide, unblinking eyes, utterly paralyzed by the sheer, overwhelming firepower of the Marines.
What was that? Fire? Lightning? The wrath of the gods?
A series of deafening roars, and the invincible sandworm was reduced to a mangled corpse. It happened in the blink of an eye! They only saw flashes of blinding light, completely unable to process what had just occurred. How could their most terrifying natural predator be slaughtered so effortlessly? Their captured companion was still moaning inside the beast's stomach, proving how fast the giant had fallen!
For the first time, a profound, soul-crushing fear gripped the natives' hearts.
If the sandworm was a nightmare they could only defeat with heavy casualties... then what were these towering metal beings? Their power was unimaginable—like gods walking the earth! It dawned on them that their earlier skirmish with the trapped giant was a complete joke; the metal beings could have wiped them all out in an instant!
Even the shrewd and powerful chieftain stood frozen, completely dumbfounded. His mind went entirely blank, the sheer shock overriding even his primal terror.
"...Cut open the stomach and get the native out. Let's see if it can still be saved," Sergeant Will ordered the Marine to his left. "Watch yourself. Don't let the stomach acid splash onto your armor."
"On it, Sarge!" the young Marine replied. He walked over to the twitching corpse and activated his high-frequency plasma-saw.
The unfortunate native trapped inside the beast's digestive tract was still thrashing around in a panic. They could see the slight bulge of the victim shifting under the thick hide, but the struggles were growing weaker, the muffled cries fading fast. The native wouldn't last more than a few minutes in that acid bath; they had to act fast.
Using the mechanized strength of his suit, the Marine flipped the heavy carcass over and brought the humming blade to its underbelly.
While the worm's back was heavily armored, its underside—lined with dozens of centipede-like legs—was covered in a thick, chitinous shell. It was tough, but against a military-grade plasma-saw, it melted away like cheap plastic. Despite his casual attitude, the Marine was incredibly precise, controlling the depth of his cut to avoid puncturing the stomach lining too deeply. Who knew how highly concentrated the acid inside was? Getting splashed would be a disaster.
Still stunned, the pack of lizardmen seemed to sense the humans' lack of hostility. Instead of fleeing, they stayed put, nervously whispering among themselves in hushed, clicking tones. At the same time, they kept their unblinking eyes glued to the Marine performing the surgery. After all, their packmate was still trapped inside.
A minute later, a spherical, slime-covered mass tumbled out onto the cave floor, it was the swallowed native!
It had tightly curled into a defensive ball, using its tough outer scales to shield its vital organs from the sandworm's digestive juices. It was a solid survival tactic, but without outside intervention, it would have eventually been dissolved anyway.
Even after hitting the fresh air, the lizardman stayed tightly curled, letting out a few weak, trembling whimpers.
The other natives immediately rushed forward, but skidded to an abrupt halt when they realized the towering metal giants were in their way.
Sergeant Will stepped forward, gently picked up the curled-up native, and carefully offered it back to the pack.
The natives hurriedly retrieved their companion. Sensing the undeniable gesture of goodwill, they let out a series of excited barks. They quickly carried the victim over to a nearby mud puddle, frantically scrubbing away the highly corrosive stomach acid.
A few minutes later, the unfortunate lizardman uncurled and miraculously stood back up. They were an incredibly resilient species!
Several other natives then hurried over to the sandworm's corpse, busying themselves with the carcass. They grew increasingly excited, raising their arms and shouting enthusiastically, "Gara-tak! Gara-tak!"
A few of the quicker-witted Marines finally put the pieces together. They had heard the natives yell "Gara-tak!" when they thought they had trapped the squad earlier. It was clearly a victory cheer or a battle cry!
A squishy, brain-like organ was quickly carved out of the monster's remains and respectfully presented to Sergeant Will. The chieftain began gesturing and clicking wildly, appearing incredibly enthusiastic.
"Sarge, they're offering you the spoils of war! You'd better take it!"
"It's a local custom! Don't be rude!"
"You should probably take a bite! Alien bug brains are packed with protein!" the Marines joked over the comms.
"Quietdown, all of you!" Sergeant Will snapped, though he couldn't hide his relief. He turned to the men behind him. "Pull out your digital data-pads, the ones loaded with the visual dictionaries. I'm going to try and communicate with them... Let's see if we can get them to guide us back to the surface!"