Snippet #1710721

"Its basic physics brother Winthrow. A celestial body which supports life forms must have an atmosphere, in order to.......What was that?" Striker's comments were cut off by a strange sound coming from the corner of the room. Slowly creeping toward the sound Striker and Mark braced themselves, both expecting to see the dead bodies of brothers Entenmann and Barnett. What they were faced with upon turning the corner was far more hideous then either could have imagined. They had indeed found the bodies of their fellow brothers, but these were fresh kills, thus they knew that the creature was still alive. The smell of burning flesh was finally beginning to make sense, the creature had only been horribly burned by the explosion and not destroyed. The bodies lay in an obscene manner, strung from the ceiling like a side of cattle-beef, their sexual organs torn from their bodies, their spinal cords exposed and dripping fluid. It was then that Striker realized what the creature was after and why it attacked males and not females. He remembered the discussion that the brother were having before they had embarked on their ill-fated search, the question of what the creature was after, what was it that the monks had that the female pilot lacked. It had apparently gotten all that it need from the males internally, although how the creature absorbed the various genes, chromosomes and so forth was beyond Andrew's and Mark's knowledge. After seeing the horribly disfigured bodies of its latest victim it was clear that the creature was now on a completely new scavenger hunt.