***
Patrick thought he could hear something, so he strained his hearing to try and make out what the sound was. It was someone – or something – heading towards his current location. The human quickly glanced around but there was nowhere he could go even if he wanted to hide. Out of desperation he tried to open the door to his cage one more time but the lock steadfastly refused to budge. He took a deep breath and then gulped as he decided that a series of rapid footsteps was definitely getting closer. Patrick’s eyes widened in fear as an alien raced into the room, holding a pistol in one hand. The creature laid eyes on Patrick before raising his weapon and pointing it straight at the imprisoned human. With his heart thudding powerfully in his chest and adrenaline flowing all around his body, Patrick squeezed his eyes shut and waited for the inevitable. Except that it didn’t happen. Instead of feeling searing pain as the rounds from the creature’s weapon penetrated his skin, Patrick felt nothing at all. He heard a loud squeal of shock so he opened his eyes again and nearly had a heart attack. A large creature clad entirely in some kind of armour loomed ominously over everything in the room. The being’s head and face were totally masked by a helmet and it carried what appeared to be a large rifle of some description. Patrick’s jaw dropped in shock and he backed away from the sight of the enormous creature in pure terror. The armoured monstrosity’s boots made heavy booming sounds as it walked forwards towards the rapidly backpedalling alien holding the pistol. With a visibly shaking hand, the comparatively tiny creature raised and fired his weapon, sending thin beams of red laser energy at the oncoming monster. The beams erupted in a burst of sparks that did nothing to either damage the armour or slow the being down. Seconds later the armour-clad giant had closed the gap and now stood virtually toe to toe with the terrified alien. It raised its weapon and brought it down hard on the smaller creature’s head, knocking him out instantly. The alien fell to the ground and landed in a heap on the rocky floor. This set off the dog/bird creature barking and racing around its tiny cage, either in fear, aggression or both at the sight of the newcomer.
The huge creature turned around and quickly surveyed the room with its weapon raised threateningly. Upon noticing Patrick, it began stomping over to the cage in which he was imprisoned. The human breathed rapidly and backed away as far as he could until he was standing in the pile of bones and skeletal remains that he swore he would never go near. This was it. He was totally trapped and had some kind of armoured monster aiming a large weapon at him as it stood a metre or so from the cage door. For what felt like forever, the armour-clad creature stood perfectly still with its weapon raised and pointing directly at Patrick, however it did not fire. After a few moments (which felt infinitely longer to the terrified human) it lowered its weapon before removing its helmet. Patrick gulped as he laid eyes on the alien face that he saw. He did not know the creature’s species, but it had a large head with reddish skin and was smoothly bald all over. It had a somewhat round nose that sat below two dark eyes that did not appear to blink as they stared at him. The alien’s head was rather bare except for its eyes, nose, mouth, small ears and three strips of tattooed symbols which ran from the creature’s forehead down to the back of its head.
The huge alien sniffed several times before opening its mouth and shouting in a version of Standard even more badly pronounced than Saleek’s, ‘Hey Saleek! Get in ‘ere. Think I’ve found somethin’!’
Patrick blinked and furrowed his brow before looking at the entrance to the chamber.
It couldn’t be....could it?
As if on cue, the spiky lyan himself entered the room and laid eyes on the armoured creature before turning to look at Patrick.
His green lips parted and formed his trademark grin as he said, ‘Patrick! There you are!’
The lyan rushed over to the cage.
‘Are you OK? Are you hurt?’ he asked a visibly shaken Patrick.
After a few moments, Patrick stammered, ‘Y-yeah, I-I think I’m O-OK...’
The human looked over Saleek’s shoulder at the big alien behind him. The lyan glanced over his shoulder to see what Patrick was looking at, before turning around again and chuckling.
‘Oh, that? Don’t worry ‘bout him, he’s with me. Relax, he ain’t gonna hurt you. His name is Kracht. He’s a Buskpod. He’s helping me to rescue you.’
‘H-He is?’ stammered the human, eyes fixed on the colossal shape of the armoured alien.
‘He sure is. C’mon, let’s get you outta there. Stay where you are and don’t move,’ instructed Saleek as he took two paces backwards and grabbed one of his pistols from his back pocket.
He raised the gun, pointed it at the lock on the cage door and pressed the trigger contact. A beam shot from the pistol and bathed the lock in a yellow glow. The lock twisted and buckled before melting away completely under the intense heat generated by the weapon.
‘That takes care of the lock. I’ll take care of the door,’ said Kracht as he strode past Saleek and grabbed the cage door with an armoured hand.
He pulled and accidently ripped the entire door from its mountings before shrugging and tossing it aside the way most people would discard an empty crisp packet. The door hit the rocky ground with a clatter which made the dog/bird creature yelp in surprise.
‘C’mon Patrick, come with us,’ said Saleek as he motioned for the human to hurry up.
Still somewhat shaken, Patrick tentatively walked out of the remains of the front part of the cage and stood beside the lyan.
‘Can you walk?’ asked Saleek.
‘I should be OK to walk,’ replied Patrick, his voice calming down a little.
‘Can we leave already?’ asked Kracht, looking bored.
He was itching to either get out of the underground tunnel network or have another fight, whichever happened first.
‘All right, we’ve got what we came for, let’s get outta here!’ said Saleek.
‘Finally,’ muttered Kracht impatiently as he put on his helmet again.
‘OK, I’ll lead the way. Kracht, you bring up the rear. Patrick, stay in the middle and keep behind me,’ said the lyan.
‘OK,’ said Patrick as he nodded in understanding.
‘All right, follow me!’ exclaimed Saleek as he darted out of the chamber and headed for the surface.