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   “HAPPY 40, DAD!”
   A man looked at his coffee-cup as he poured coffee in it.
   – “46, and still going strong, Captain?” a young man said to him, while standing in attention.
   – “You bet, sonny!” the man replied. “What is it?”
   – “We have a report of a meteor-strike in the northeastern regions of Russia, sir!”
   – “Origin?” the captain asked as he took a sip of the coffee.
   – “Wraith, sir.”
   – “Thought so…” the captain said with a sigh as he walked to his desk. “What troops do we have in the area?”
   – “We had a military base in the region, and the troops are scattered randomly around the area in villages and cities, sir.”
   The captain froze. After a couple seconds of complete still-sitting he put his cup on his desk.
   – “Had?”
   – “Well, it... It got overrun in less than a day, sir.” the young man said, fearing the response. “The Wraiths had an incredible force within the meteor, sir.”
   – “Great…” the captain said with a sigh.
   – “The Wraiths also seem to have been able to either take over the mind of animals, or then to transform themselves into the shape of these animals, sir.”
   – “What?” the captain asked, taking the file from the young man’s hands and opened it.
   – “There have been reports of spider and insect –like wraiths, sir.”
   The captain read through the file with a surprised look on his face.
   – “I see…” the captain said as he was reading. “Lieutenant, organize a team and send them in to destroy the meteor-core.”
   – “Yes sir.” the lieutenant said, saluted and left the room.

   – “So who are these new guys anyways?”
   – “Don’t know… Rumor has it that they’ve been through quite a lot, sometimes being the sole survivors…”
   – “Hey, you smoke?”
   A man reached a pack of cigarettes to Steel.
   – “Thanks, but no thanks.” Steel said. “I don’t like the idea of being intoxicated even the slightest bit when the wraiths burst up through the ground and knock this humvee over, and kill us all ‘cuz we’re busy smoking!”
   The driver spat her cigarette out the window.
   – “Well, since you put it that way!” she said with a laugh.
   – “The name’s Petrov.” the man with the pack of cigarettes said, shaking Steels hand. “The driver is Bridget, and the dude in the front-seat is Keegan. He changed his last name to Keegan, because Tottori Yamamoto was too hard for most of us Russians to pronounce!”
   – “Shut it back there!” Keegan interrupted. “My name is Tottori Keegan. My parents changed our last name as we emigrated from Japan.”
   – “My name’s Steel.” Steel said. “That’s Ryans. We’ve had quite a rough day and not much sleep. He’s good at sleeping, no matter the circumstances anyways!”
   Ryans was sleeping beside Steel. Petrov laughed.
   – “Yup, it sure takes skills to be able to sleep while Bridget’s driving!” Petrov said. “Welcome to Siberia!”
   – “ETA 10 minutes!” Bridget called out. “Prepare yourselves for some wraith-killing action!”
   Steel nudged Ryans in his ribs.
   – “Wake up, sleeping beauty! We’re almost there! Put yer gasmasks on, and check yer guns!”
   They came around a turn and saw a cliff with a huge crater in it. A big rock was in the middle of the crater, burning with a blue-ish flame.
   – “Full throttle!” Bridget said. “HERE WE GO!”
   Petrov grabbed the MG on the roof as Keegan, Ryans and Steel used the windows to fire at the wraiths. They raced straight through the wraiths that never expected the attack, firing at them as they went.
   – “Get as close to the core as you can with the humvee, from there we’ll take it on foot!” Keegan said.
   And, as expected, they reached a spot from where they couldn’t go further with the humvee. They stopped and cleansed the area of any wraiths.
   – “Alrighties!” Ryans said as he skipped out. “So, from hereon we go by foot.”
   – “Proceed as a team.” Keegan said as he started walking. “At the first fork we’ll split up.”
   – “Aight!” Steel said. “Let’s get to it!”

   …

   – "Keegan, get out of there!”
   – “DAMN, there are a lot of them in here!”
   – “Shit! Grenade’s primed, Keegan, run!”
   Steel and Petrov froze as they heard the explosion through their headsets. The gunshots never ceased.
   – “Ryans, come in!” Steel said into his headset. “Ryans, what’s happening?”
   – “What the hell are these things?” Ryans’ voice called out. “Spiders of some sort?”
   – “Some people call them Arachids…” Petrov said as he looked at Steel. “The wraiths have the ability to mimic other creature’s looks, but still keeping the blue-ish fire around them.”
   – “Makes this mission SO much easier…” Steel said, rolling his eyes. “Ryans, do you need support?”
   – “…not anymore.” Ryans said as the gunfire ceased. “They’re all dead around here. I don’t know what happened to Keegan, though! I got knocked down by the blast, and lost sight of him!”
   – “Ryans, incoming! We got to go!”
   – “Keegan’s on his own…” Steel said and turned to Petrov. “This meteor is like Swiss cheese, drilled with holes and tunnels everywhere, twisting in all possible directions… It’ll take ages for us to track down the core!”
   – “Get to it!” Bridget said on the radio. “We’ll make it! Keep searching for the core and put a satchel at it!”
   Steel and Petrov looked at each other and started walking down the tunnels again, in hope to find Keegan, Bridget and Ryans, or the core.

   …

   – “Shit, Steel, they’re right behind you!”
   – “Run, man, RUN!”
   – “The tunnel’s twisting!” Steel said panting. “Which way?”
   – “Take the next turn left, Ryans should be right ahead!”
   He took the leftmost tunnel, hoping to catch up with Ryans.
   – “Crap! Steel, find another way!” Petrov’s voice suddenly cried on the radio. “The tunnel gets wide and elevated!”
   Steel knew what that meant. The creatures would have no match to climb the steep walls and elevations, while he would have to keep it to the pathway, which wasn’t that fast to run on.
   – “Not much of a choice here, Petrov!” Steel replied as he kept running. “They’re breathing down my neck, LITERALLY!”
   He turned quickly and fired a burst at the Arachid which was a couple feet away from him while he was running.
   – “Petrov, deploy a satchel where the tunnel gets wide! Blow it the second I’m through!”
   – “…got it!” Petrov’s voice came after a handful of gunshots. “Setting it up, haul your ass over here, double-time!”
   Steel kept running, followed tightly by the awful sound of claws and numerous feet clittering all over the walls of the tight tunnel.
   – “Shit! We’ve been engaged!”
   It was Ryans. The sound of gunfire started to come through the speaker of the headset.
   – “Holy fuck! This place is CRAWLING with them!”
   – “Bridget, TORCH THEM!”
   Steel kept running, without paying much attention. He had to get to the opening.
   – “Petrov!” he said into his headset. “I see the opening! Get ready!”
   – “Aight!” Petrov’s voice replied. “Shit… Sounds like you have a whole damn platoon of them behind you! Faster, Steel! Faster!”
   Steel rushed with all the strength he had left and leaped out through the hole.
   – “GOT ‘EM!”

   ...immense heat...

   ...an enormous force-wave...

   ...a thud, and a hollow crack of bones...

   ...blood-spatter...

   ...and then it was all dark.

   ...