The heavy fog made everything wet, the cold gray painting the world in silent hues in spite of the bright sun Cobra knew to be burning above.

Her exo gear gave a mechanical whir as she touched down, the suits designed to mask their presence in the mist with the metal smell.

After all, they were hunting a TBD.

These creatures hunted too, apex predators that seemed almost extraterrestrial. Using sound and scent, but blind completely.

She tapped her gear with rubbery gripped fingers, hatches opening along her hips dropping little orbs into her hands one at a time. Prewinded they were then thrown up into the air, the rotor spinning out as she released them. the little drones were designed to cast out lasers in all directions, high powered beams that cut through the fog. Each one lasted about sixty minutes so she only threw up six as she mapped the street, and saved a good dozen for if the hunt went longer.

“The chase is on,” she whispered into the mask that covered her nose and mouth to mask her breathing from the TBD.

The mist wasn’t toxic, in fact it was good for you, but even the sound of steady breathing and the scent of your breath could draw in a hungry TBD.

These creatures were massive, coming up from deep below, from a vast ocean that we had in our hubris tapped into in search of ringwoodite. Drilling had brought the creatures to the rig’s location, and when the pressure broke it was all over.

Fractures had opened up faster than any had expected, massive quakes and tsunamis wiping out coastal cities in the aftermath of what people called, The Cracking. But the worst took over a year to be noticed.

Along with the ringwoodite fissures, a strange biomass was detected too, huge blobs that floated up to the surface in clouds of bubbles.

The first TBD.

They had no info yet on this one, they only knew a rough idea of how big it was using an at sea sub surface displacement detection system developed by the hunters guild. The scans told them that they were potentially dealing with a Lind type, which thankfully meant it would not be flying about, but it might like climbing.

CLICKCLICK

Two clicks, the hunt was on.

The mist was heavily ionized, and made communication difficult, absorbing electricity. The clicks were just a special device made to make noise to coordinate between hunters; the problem with that was~

The air swooshed as something huge moved in the gloom above her head. Bits of debris rained down behind her along the sidewalk as the TBD moved through its new domain. It was heavy sounding, slithering body tearing towards the sound of the clicks emanation as it dropped to the ground passing by one of her drones.

Bear or Panda, either one who had made the click, was setting up their position.

The TBD were nasty things if you saw them, the guild gave them magical sounding code names, like dragon, or hydra, but really it was just a shape. The actual TBD looked more like a tardigrade, with gelatinous bodies that looked almost clear, their glowing organs visible through their flesh. Cobra had seen many at sea, she had been hunting since the beginning, working mostly back in the Indian oceans coastal region.

But exposed to he air the TBD start to bleed hydrogen gas at an incredible rate to balance their bodymass. This caused a rapid change from bulbous to… well, whatever they would become.

CLICK

Coming from her other side, the sound of the TBD crashed along the street towards her and the sharp crack of the clicker.

She had to dodge quickly as a bus suddenly came rolling through the fog towards her, her enhanced suit letting her jump over it in time.

She jumped up high catching a lamp post and swung up to a ledge looking for more movement, the special contact lenses they wore giving an edge as the holographic display highlighted movement before she saw it using the little laser drones.

This TBD was fast.

The TBD were predatory animals, forced to the surface by their own biology they quickly bled off their excess weight, going from gelatinous and nondescript to lean, and very hungry. They were predators to be sure, able to fit through any space their enamel beaks could fit through. Once on the surface their sense of smell could lead them right to where people were hiding, their ability to sniff out proven time and again untrickable. It was why people trapped outside of bunkers were told never to stay near the bunker, and why hunting parties were never more than four to eight people, anything bigger made the potential of being scent tracked too high.

The clicks began, coming in greater frequency as the two lancers worked to bring the TBD to where they wanted it.

She added a click of her own now and then, just to help them triangulate.

The others would bring themselves to her as they got visual.

The silence crept into your brain after a time, the only sound when the creature would lash out at the sudden clicks they made.

All power cut to the area left them in gloomy dusk, and a silence as the heavy fog drank in everything.

But the TBD weren’t stupid, they always began to realize when they had become the hunted, already the time between clicks, and the sound of a strike were growing.

A creaking door to her right.

A crunch of falling concrete down the block to her left.

Something moved along the street.

Cobra ducked behind a big SUV thankfully most people followed the rules of pulling off to the side streets, and purging their gastank during a fog roll. They worked as cover for hunters, but also a funnel for the sightless creatures that hunted with scent and sound.

The heavy claw of the TBD gently grasped the roof of the SUV she hid behind, thick enamel puncturing the steel like butter.

It’s huge head reered out of the mists, long beak like a stork sweeping out over as it materialized out of the haze, longer than a city bus it looked like a sword made of black steel, shining wetly as it’s lip launchers back. I stretched out its long neck over her so she could see it’s faintly glowing throat through its translucent flesh, it had clearly eaten something, the faint pulsing in its crop evident.

Then it did something, something she had never seen before~

CLICK

Its jaws moved so fast she barely saw it, but the click, it was a perfect match to their noise makers, more specifically, hers.

She froze, didn’t even breath,

The TBD was imitating them.

They had never had the opportunity to study the TBD, they were too violent, and dangerous, capable of digging through carbon steel with their beaks and claws to get into bunkers. Then there was the fog they exuded, it was such a high hydrogen content that any spark could cause an explosion that could level ten blocks past the fog’s radius. So it was always the task to put them down fast, and let the fog dissipate.

Why had they never studied them?

Cobra couldn’t move, any sound and it would be on her, but the others were coordinating with the TBD.

It clicked again, this time moving off of her cover, sliding away to smash into a building.

She set her first wire trap, trying to time it with the falling debris, but she was so shaken, she grabbed an unwound unit.

The mechanical hiss as it primed seemed like the loudest thing she had ever heard for some reason, and she quickly dodged away just as the SUV was punched through by the TBD’s beak and dragged up to it and torn to shreds.

“Help~”

The whisper came at her so quietly she almost missed it for the voice inside her head.

Cobra looked up.

But so too did the sound of shredding metal and glass stop too.

Cobra peaked up from her hiding place, watching as the TBD slithered back into the mist still chewing on the gas tank for a petroleum snack.

That would hopefully keep it busy for a moment.

She looked into the window of the car, finding a woman staring back at her.

With the first trap set so close, and the TBD hunting here, this car was no place to hide.

She quickly put a finger to her lips, then sprayed foam all along the door before cutting through the glass. The hot knife sparked a little so they had to be super careful. She pushed the window in, quickly getting a spare mask on the woman so she could breath normally and silently.

The woman clutched to Cobra desperately, but Cobra grabbed her and pushed her down, taking her shoes off and wrapping her feet in the same tape the hunters used going barefoot.

She firmly grabbed the woman’s cheeks, grabbing her hand and pushing a concussion grenade and a felt tipped marker into her grip.

Hopefully the woman had at least heard the PSA on what to do in this situation, the tears in her eyes said she did as she sobbed.

It was a sobering thing to watch someone cry in silence, begging and pleading, grasping at Cobra’s suit desperately. But it was no use.

Her words would have fallen on deaf ears even if Cobra could hear her.

The advanced warning system gave people good warning, this TBD had been spotted half an hour before it made landfall.

Cobra grabbed a compass and the marker, writing the directions on the woman’s arm and pointing the way she needed to go.

CLICK

A pause, but it was close.

CLICK

Farther off, Panda or Bear, neither had figured it out yet.

CLICKCLICK

The TBD, responding.

Cobra grabbed the women’s free hand and wrote again, one word, in big letters.

RUN