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The rumbling continues to grow louder, and your grip on Errat's shoulder slackens, the two of you going very still.
“Get your gun.” You murmur, reaching into your robe and finding the hilt of your laspistol.
“Yeah, good idea.” Errat's voice sounds hollow, and you hear the sound of his hand smacking into his seat and the metal hull as he fumbles in the dark.
Raising your laspistol, you glance at the screen only to see that the luminescent ammo counter on the back is out. You pull the power pack out of it's socket and press it in again, your heart sinking. The screen flickers once, displaying <span class="mu-s">00</span> in glowing red text. A flash of light catches your attention, and you look up to see that the lumens of Cad's truck are flickering. They show dim, tiny pinpricks of light before abruptly flaring into life again before the strain seems to overwhelm them and they blink out again.
A building whine starts to admit from the weapon in your hand, and you look down. The ammo indicator was brightening, and soon enough the display began abruptly counting up, then cutting out. Your shots went from none, to eighty, to twenty, then twenty one...
The lumens illuminating the dials in Errat's dashboard flicker slightly, needles jumping before falling limp again. His own stablights flicker- and then you see it.
A creature. Pale, long-limbed and skittering on pointed hands and feet is caught in the light. It screeches at the sudden brightness, scurrying back away from the bed of Cad's truck and into the darkness. Another thing moves behind it, thick and stocky from where it's hands and feet have thickened into paws. Your gaze turns as you see on the other side a fleeing shape with far too many hands dragging limply behind it.
“<span class="mu-i">That's</span> a sleeper?” You ask, eyes wide.
“No-” Errat's reply was cut off by a distant, immense wave of sound that cut off all your hearing. The pistol wavers in your hand, and you hear Errat fail to suppress a whimper of fear beside you. You knew the sound, you knew it in your bones, but you couldn't begin to explain how you knew it, or from where. The sky was flaring green with the light of a distant sun, and the deep, thrumming <span class="mu-i">drone</span> returned. The unmistakable sound of a immense warhorn. “<span class="mu-i">That</span> is!”
Again, you feel a brief weight on your chest as it reverberates through you, and it's something even the creatures around you seem to feel, breaking off and clustering briefly before one of their number shepherds the others forward. It stands vaguely on two legs, and a part of you deeply <span class="mu-i">recoils</span> from the sight as you recognize the perversion of the human form for what it is. An understanding that leads you to look at the... <span class="mu-i">pack</span> around you with renewed horror.
“This wasn't supposed to happen!" Errat gasps between hard breaths. “We were following the guides! They're supposed to veer wide around the sleepers!”
