The Forest

”Those that will not hear must be made to feel.” – old German proverb
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The moonlight above Zeta Halo barely illuminated the path before the Banished search party las they walked through the forest path searching for the missing patrol that had disappeared some time ago. There were talks of possible human resistance in the forest, but this was their third time out in these woods and not even a scent could be detected by the Jiralhanae, still they were ordered to find the missing patrol. 
 
An Unggoy mule, Zubzub, was in the back of the party as he tried to keep up even with the weapons and methane tank he was hauling around, finally he grunted in annoyance and spoke up. “This stupid, we no find humans in days or patrol.” Zubzub whined as the Jiralhanae captain who was next to him looked down and smacked him on the back of the head with an open palm. 
 
“Silence! Your whining will get nowhere!” The captain scolded Zubzub. Rubbing the back of his head Zubzub muttered something under his breath and kept looking around like had been told too for anything suspicious looking. He stopped for a second as the rest of the patrol went ahead putting his attention to a bush, he had seen move, he didn’t even think to alert the others as he readied his plasma pistol and approached the bush. This was it this is where the humans were hiding, he thought as when he had closed in, he jumped through the bush with his pistol raised ready to fire. “Freeze stupid hu-oh.” He stopped mid-sentence when all he saw was a pack of rats scattering away from their recently disturbed spot, he sighed in disappointment and kicked a pebble away until suddenly. 
 
Bang.
 
The cracking of a human’s rifle echoed through the forest as Zubzub jumped and looked around, thinking that shot was at him, then another round was fired. ‘
 
Bang.
 
Suddenly he could hear the captain of the search party shouting out orders as Zubzub quickly ran back to the sound of his search party to make it seem like he hadn’t just wandered off. When he arrived, he saw the scene before him of a Kig-Yar marksman and an elite mercenary lying dead in a splattered pool of blood, brain tissue, and skull fragments. Everyone had found somewhere to hide among the trees, rocks, and any other terrain they could use for cover. There was silence for a moment until again, the rifle was fired, this time a miss. “There! On the cliffs!” The captain said as he ordered for his party to fire in that distance, Zubzub watched from behind a rock still shaking in fear as plasma and spikes peppered the cliffs above. 
 
The captain’s pulse carbine overheated and had forced his attention away from the firing as he looked down to cool down the overheating weapon. “Blasted weapon!” He shouted out. There was another firing of the human weapon as Zubzub looked to where he had heard the sound come from, but his attention was broken as he heard the captain howl out in intense pain. 
 
“My hand! My hand!” He repeated as he dropped the carbine and gripped his wrist staring at the mangled mess of flesh and bone that had been his left hand, a sniper’s bullet decimating it as he fell to his knees and couldn’t get his eyes off what was once his hand. Zubzub, now in full panic mode, dove behind a pile of rocks he saw and curled up into a ball whimpering and softly crying to whatever deity he could think of to let him live. 
 
Bang. Bang. Bang. Was all he could hear around him as the rest of the Search party fell one by one to the sniper, moving with each shot around them. Zubzub had been so focused on himself he didn’t notice the shooting had stopped for some time. He slowly lifted his head to look around and couldn’t see anything but the wounded captain crawling with his remaining good hand and a gut shot leaving him bleeding out towards a mangler as Zubzub heard footsteps coming towards them.
 
“Zubzub no die like this. Zubzub want to live.” He whimpered as he shook in fear as the footsteps got closer until finally, he saw what had ambushed his search party. It was a red colored demon. The demon watched the captain crawl for the mangler, there was a small laugh coming from its helmet as it closed the gap and produced a knife from its waist, standing over the captain it took a fistful of his hair and pulled his head up. 
 
Zubzub watched in horror as the demon slit the captains throat wide open, he screamed in terror as the demon looked up and made eye contact with the terrified mule. There was a moment of stillness between the Unggoy and the demon. It didn’t say a word and pointed its knife at Zubzub and made its over to him, Zubzub crawled back as he tried to get away, but it was pointless the demon was on top of him and as he looked at the bloodied stainless-steel knife in its hand, this had to be it, Zubzub was done for.
 
 
“Wait! Wait! Zubzub has information, Zubzub can be useful to demon!” He tried bargaining as the demon didn’t say a word still and kept staring at the Unggoy. “Please let Zubzub live! Please!” 
 
“Then run.” The demon merely said in a strange accent, Zubzub had never heard from a human before. He put his knife away and grabbed Zubzub by the throat and threw him down into the dirt.
 
Zubzub scurried to get up and quickly made his way back to the outpost screaming loudly and crying thinking it was the only safe place he could go now. He didn’t know what had just happened and he didn’t care, he was just allowed to live, and he wasn’t going to question it. Now it was clear to Zubzub what had happened to the patrol they went looking for and now his search party had been killed by the same demon most likely. Not knowing why, he had too, he looked back and saw the demon creeping its way back into hiding among the forest, knowing it was still watching him run for his life, but he hadn’t seen it coming as the demon fired its sniper one last time and claimed Zubzub’s life.
The spartan had struck once again.