Lt. Ryden Sylvax -The Grevad!

[Ryden Kel]

((Camp Hemera - Drakos Prime))

Leda: ::She turned back to the group:: Welcome to Camp Hemera! This
has been our base of operations since we landed our ship in orbit.
Please, make yourselves at home.

Ryden took in the camp as she spoke, letting his gaze move slowly
across the improvised structures. Everything here felt temporary but
practiced... like it had been rebuilt more than once after failure.

Willow: Thank you for allowing us to visit.

Ryden noted Haukea’s measured respect, the same controlled
acknowledgment she had used at their first meeting. Consistent.
Intentional. The kind of behavior that helped stabilize unfamiliar
social ground.

Ivalyan: Response

Leda: ::She pointed at a large screen that dominated one of the back
walls:: Too much Temurian blood, sweat, and tears have gone into
making it, but this is our map of the cave system so far. You can see
where we’ve marked various encounters with the Grevad, cave-ins,
passages we’ve seen in person, versus what we’ve mapped with drones
and LiDAR, versus what we haven’t been able to access yet. Any
information we have is yours.

Ryden stepped closer with the others, eyes immediately scanning the
display. The cave system wasn’t just extensive... it was chaotic.
Branching networks, collapsed tunnels, unexplored voids. And the
density of marked encounters near the deeper regions stood out more
than anything else.

Too many points of contact clustered too tightly.

Willow: I appreciate you being willing to share this display of your
dedication. Any small exploration of the cave system allows us to use
more cation upon our venture.

Ryden studied the map a moment longer, then spoke quietly as another
tremor rolled faintly through the ground beneath them.

Sylvax: That’s a significant amount of unexplored territory still active.

Ivalyan: Response

He traced a gloved hand near one of the deeper regions without
touching the display.

Sylvax: And most of your encounters seem concentrated along these
lower access points.

He glanced briefly toward Leda.

Leda: ::shuddering:: Must have been the thunder. There are a lot of
storms passing close today. ::turning back to the map:: The Orions
have supposedly been working on a way in from this direction, but
somehow they never seem to make any progress. It’s starting to feel
deliberate.

Sylvax: Whatever’s down there isn’t just defending space. It’s holding it.

Ivalyan: Response

Ryden’s attention sharpened as Leda’s posture tightened slightly at
his observation. Not enough to confirm anything—but enough to suggest
he had not been far off.

Leda: ::crossing her arms tightly:: We had no friends in this sector,
knew no one. When they turned up with an offer –

Another rumble cut through the camp... deeper this time, closer. The
structures around them groaned under the sudden pressure shift. Lights
flickered. Dust drifted down from overhead supports.

A proximity alarm began to wail.

Ryden’s body reacted before the thought fully formed, shoulders
squaring as his attention snapped toward the source of the
disturbance.

Willow: What is the protocol?

Sylvax: Everyone arm yourselves... now!

Ivalyan: Response

Ryden took a half-step toward the exit of the command shelter, already
assessing angles and distances.

Willow: ::Haukea’s hands disappeared under her cloak, searching for
her phase pistol:: Anything! We must get to a safe zone.

Just then, the screams of who Ryden could only assume were other
Temurians within the shaft echoed out of the tunnels, followed by the
snarling beast bursting through one of them.

The Grevad was the first thing Ryden truly saw in the chaos—and “saw”
felt like an inadequate word for it.

It burst from the tunnel mouth in a blur of motion too fast for
something its size, its body low and coiled like a predator built for
collapsing stone corridors rather than open ground. Thick, segmented
plates of mottled charcoal and mineral-blue covered its frame,
resembling living rock until it moved... then the joints flexed with a
wet, deliberate precision that made it clear it was very much alive.

Its forelimbs ended in hooked, asymmetrical claws, one slightly longer
than the other, as though adapted for raking through uneven cave
floors and tearing into reinforced barriers alike. Between the armored
ridges, pale bioluminescent veins pulsed faintly... dim until it
moved, then flaring brighter in short, erratic bursts that seemed tied
to aggression or agitation.

Its head was narrow, almost insectile, with no obvious eyes at first
glance... only recessed sensory pits along the skull that tracked
vibration and heat rather than light. When it opened its jaws, the
sound that followed wasn’t a roar so much as a grinding, layered rasp,
like stone dragged across metal at unnatural speed.

Ryden felt the pressure of its presence before fully registering its
shape... an instinctive, gut-level warning that something in the cave
had evolved to own the dark rather than simply survive it.

And then it moved again.

Sylvax: Take cover!

Ivalyan: Response

The Grevad hit the space like a force of nature rather than an animal.

Its weight alone shattered the outer support struts of the forward
barricade, metal snapping under impact as it surged forward in a low,
twisting motion that carried it across the ground faster than
something that size should have been able to move. The air filled
instantly with the sharp crack of breaking equipment and the echoing
alarm still screaming through Camp Hemera.

Ryden moved on instinct.

Sylvax: Move! Now!

Willow/Ivalyan/Leda: ?

The creature didn’t hesitate. Its sensory pits flared brighter as it
oriented on sound and motion, snapping toward the nearest cluster of
Temurian personnel scrambling to retreat behind the shelter line.

Ryden’s attention locked onto that shift immediately.

Sylvax: It’s tracking vibration...keep your steps light!

Willow/Ivalyan/Leda: ?


-----
Lieutenant Ryden Sylvax
Chief Medical Officer
StarBase 118 Ops
O240109RK1