Eyewitness Account: Distal Flenser Attack
JAVIN: I was packing up the adhesive catch trays for analysis when the perimeter alarm sounded. I had first assumed that it was another false alarm - we'd had a number of those from incautious Meantwig operators tromping in after a long day in the field - but then I heard crashing and a sort of high, warbling roar. Hell yes, I was scared! I snatched up my trays and made for the back outpost door. In my haste, I fumbled one of the trays and it landed face down, which made me falter for a second because I remembered how long it took to gather a good dustwisp, but I caught myself and kept running. And it was a good thing I didn't stop for but a second, too, because that's when I saw the thing bearing down on me. INTERVIEWER: The Distal Flenser? JAVIN: Yes. It was this huge, triangular-bodied crustacean coming at me at full gait on its four big pincer limbs. When I bent over for just a moment to reach for the fallen tray, My head went just under a fat gob of yellow-green spit that reeked of bile and acid so bad my eyes started watering. I've heard they spit acid when they're starving out, so it must have been ravenous to chance the outpost. INTERVIEWER: What happened next? JAVIN: So, as I said, I thought 'forget the plate' and just ran like hell for the door. Suddenly, the flenser caught a machine gun volley to the side from one of the auto-armor operators on watch. At first, it only seemed to make the beastie flinch, but a second volley managed to crack into its shell and split it along the lateral seam of its body. It sort of quavered there, like it was trying to decide whether to keep coming after me or charge after the Meantwig that shot it, but then it collapsed. INTERVIEWER: An that's where this fragment came from? JAVIN: (He slides a piece of glassy, redish-tan material closer to the interviewer.) Yes, this is a claw taken from the front left foot. A little keepsake of mine. We took the rest inside for the biology boys to study, but the stench was enough to make even those guys gag. Some of the shell fragments are still bouncing around the Biology Department at PVU, but the Customs Authority wasn't too keen on the skin samples coming back when even their dogs didn't like the smell.
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