Galactic Calendar 259872/ 2000 [ Sol Year 4387/ Day 154 of 365. Sol standard year]
Days after of Crash landing/ 2
Uninhabited Island / Clearing of Escape Capsule # 405
Galactic Standard Time / 1150
Duncan sighed as he looked around the main chamber. So far, everything above was going perfectly. He wondered for a moment if this was the right move, but he didn’t have a better one. This might just work, but he was risking a lot. But with the other towers being set up, the risk was manageable.
“Everyone, thank you for coming. Now I know we’ve asked a lot of you over the last day. And I won’t apologize for keeping you all safe, but there is good news!” Duncan began only for Bradford to march forward.
“And what is that sir? Will we have gruel with tonight’s meal? The creature that attacked us was beaten back, so why are you still holding us inside this capsule? Why are we still living off recycled air?!” Bradford demanded.
Duncan only looked at Bradford, a scowl barely kept off his face. He knew that Bradford was
“Because of the bat that attacked. It flew away, and I don’t know if it will come back,” Duncan said bluntly as he looked around the crowd. As he did he tried to show fear, fear that he didn’t feel. “And if that bat was here, other flyers have to be. At the time, I had no way to protect anyone from attacks from above.”
Bradford only looked at Duncan as fearful whispers broke out behind him. Duncan only looked at the crowd, a strange feeling of pride going through him as he saw Bradford not react. Even he knew that if someone held the air, then they held control of the battle. But with the shield, the survivors would have a change.
“But we don’t have to worry about that now! Nothing that attacks us, from the sky to the ground will be able to do so now!” Duncan called out, looking around with a grin on his face. He saw Bradford look at him, his eyes widened and that bothered him. So one of his men had told Bradford what they found or asked for help then, bad. But then, it was manageable, and something to put Terra on. If he had a way to feed Bradford false information, then that was a victory.
“No, because we set up force field towers! With the power of the sun above, we’ll be safer! Not if anything attacks us, we’ll know first and react! Now I still want you all to stay down here but I’ll let the airlock stay open! So we can all breathe fresh air!” Duncan said as he looked around, and smiled.
The passengers all screamed in joy, but Duncan kept his eyes locked on Bradford. He knew that Bradford was trying to figure out how to spin this. He had dealt with enough politicians to know just how they thought. And he had cleaned up enough messes made by them to know how bad this could get. All he could do was keep fighting, keep hoping. He had to keep command long enough to hand it over to someone who Bradford wouldn’t fight against. As he saw the happy faces of the passengers, he bit back a sigh.
“And I have an announcement to make, something that I was hiding from all of you. We still don’t know where we are in space, but this place? It’s an island,” Duncan admitted as he looked around.
“And I have another revelation to give out, the party that discovered this? They saw something else. I won’t say what, but they saw something that could keep us a lot safer. For now, I want you all to just rest. And the last check on our supplies found a lot of jumpsuits. Anyone that wants to change can now do so!” Duncan said with a small smile. As the people all roared he opened the door, letting the fresh air come into the chamber. As a few people walked past him into the light, he kept his eyes on Bradford.
As people walked by him, Duncan might have imagined it but Bradford’s eyes seemed to glint. It might have been a trick of the light but Duncan felt that he should keep an eye on Bradford more. If Bradford had developed powers like Jinn had, then he might be in worse trouble than he thought. He scowled as he saw Jones moving towards the airlock, grabbing him as he tried to go outside. “Jones, you’re on food duty. Go and get lunch ready.”
“What? But sir!” Jones said, only to look away as he saw Duncan’s glare. “Yes sir.”
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Bradford looked at Duncan as the others all talked amongst themselves. He had to admit, Duncan had played his hands perfectly. The fact that the old fool had shield towers? How? They were all military surplus at least, and that was expensive. Was this whole capsule nothing more than Duncan’s craft? Did he stock it himself? Was he connected to what happened to the Spirit? Was this all part of a bigger plan?
As Duncan looked at him, Bradford barely kept a sigh of relief down when Duncan turned to talk to Jones. It seems that that little fool was good for something after all. he turned and walked deeper into the capsule, trying to let his mind go over what he knew. He had gotten his ticket and used doing something nice for his company as a cover. What Bradford wanted was to find a way to get ahold of his target. He had bought so many tickets just to get his handpicked team aboard.
He stopped as that thought sparked something. Had he been right after all? Did those scum do what he feared they were planning? No! He slammed his fist against the wall, trying to keep calm. After everything that he had done, the palms he had greased and people he had sent against those scum. Was it all for nothing, had done it, was he too late? After everything, could it have been nothing but worthless actions? He couldn’t let that thought take over his mind.
He had set up enough countermeasures incase this failed. He knew they would activated if anything happened to him and he couldn't give the kill command. Once he was out of contract long enough, all his forces would move. Within the next month, his forces would move and take control of his world. Once that happened, they would call on all the forces that he had hired, those who felt as he did. All the cults would call on their followers and gather in his system, and help fortify it. They would become a bulwark, nothing would be able to take their home! The only problem would be if…..
But suddenly everything he went still. He started to sweat as his eyes shrank. His home would become a fortress, nothing could get into it. But if the war didn’t happen, if the people behind this weren’t even remotely connected to that. Then all his plans and actions, then everything that will happen to his system would be known. And with no great war, then the Federation would have to take action against his planet. And the Federation only dealt with treason one way, the same way. Overwhelming firepower and the best forces they could muster.
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Those thoughts filled him with dread. Once they started, his forces would soon become too strong for all but the Federation’s First Fleet. And if that was true, and the War he feared didn’t happen…… this was very bad. Could his plan instead create the very thing they were supposed to stop? If his system defeated one small fleet, then any others sent against his world would be even stronger. And with how long it took to make ships, that would make the Federation vulnerable. Any number of threats that were content to hide away might instead attack. And with the First Fleet involved, their role as a fast response unit would fall to another fleet.
He swallowed and pushed off the wall, trying and failing to think of anything that might help. He was so stupid, everything that he had planned for, everything that he had ever hoped for. It would just make his home die. And if they found out what he had done, what he had planned and allied with. That meant that everything he had done would be worthless, his name would be worthless. Everything that he had worked for, everything he had done to be remembered would be dust. If he didn’t find a way to contact the Federation within a month, then they might not have a Federation to come back to.
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Within the forest, shadows watched the shield and another flying worm die by slamming into it. For a few moments, nothing happened before a branch moved.
“Don’t move anything!” A sharp voice barked and the branch slowly moved back.
“Sorry boss. I just wanted to see better.”
“I know, but we’ve already got enough info about this one! We can head home and talk to the others!”
“Right, you are sir. Still, they don’t look like soldiers. Think the war’s done by now?”
“If we’re lucky, if we’re lucky!”
The forest was silent, a few small plants being pushed out of the way as whoever had been talking left.
Terra looked past the shield into the forest beyond. So far a few of the flying worms had attacked the shield. One had even fired a bolt of lightning at the shield that took it down by one and a half percent. Not even the worst a small arms fire could do that, and that was a problem. But with more towers being set up, the force field would only become stronger. All in all, it would take something massively deadly to even think of breaking through the shield! And the most something like that paralyzer thing would be able to do was maybe bash away twenty percent. But the shield was so strong do to the strength this world’s sun had. There had never been anything that was even remotely like this star found before. Most suns were strong sure, but this one?
She only looked up and laughed a little, and tried to think of anything that might have caused this. But no matter what she thought of, whatever she thought of was wrong. Still, when they made contact, this might be something that might give the company a lot of credits.
And that wasn’t even thinking about the way this planet was! The creatures alone were a biologist's dream! And she knew of a few hunters who would love to try their luck against these things. And if she was honest, there were even more who would want to pilot drones against them. All in all, this planet was a source of profit that she couldn’t even think about how people might react. The few Corp planets would send in their ‘Indentured’ workers here. The Scholars would make this place the target of a crusade to set up a lab temple.
“So, everything okay boss?” A voice caused Terra to turn and see Bob coming towards her with a rifle in his hands. He looked out at the forest and frowned as another flying worm flew into the shield. “I don’t like this boss. Why can’t they see it, can they even see at all?”
“Maybe, but that’s not what’s bothering you. What don’t I see?” Terra asked and Bob just shrugged. Terra watched him looking around with a scowl on his face.
“I don’t know. This place is too green, too closed off. Give me the desert and sand, I’d be able to tell you if anything passed near us. Here, those trees? I’m hitting zero and aiming at shadows. But something was here, something watched us. I saw something out of the corner of my eye around there. Had to have been there five minutes I think,” Bob said softly as he pointed towards the north side of the clearing.
Terra barely bit back a curse. If something was watching them, then that meant whatever it was might be able to think. And that was a game changer. If that was true, then that meant anything that could think could plan. And plans were able to deal with any barrier. And if it want to get inside, unless the thinker didn’t know what it had to get around. If this thing couldn’t understand what it was seeing, then maybe they had a chance.
Terra looked around, trying to think. She had to tell Duncan about this, this could change everything! Before she took a step, a thought hit her. If whatever was able to think, then they could plan. And the best plan to get people away from one side was to make a commotion on the other side!
Terra spun around as screeches came from the east. As her eyes saw the source of the noise, she stared in horror. At the east face, ten of the humanoid insectoids were slamming their arms against the shield! As she watched she saw most of the other deckhands start to move in that direction and paled. “No. No! All forces stay where you are! I want one spare member from all groups to come with me to back up the east! Bob stay here!”
As she ran towards the shield tower one of the other deckhands made it there first. But as she made it there, she saw the insectoids and their all red shells.
“What’s the drain?!” Terra demanded as she ran past him, two more deckhands coming behind her.
“We’re at around 85 percent! We’re dropping one-third a percent more than the shield can regenerate! What do we do?” The deckhand asked in terror as the insectoids screeched.
Terra scowled as she knew how bad this was. Once the shield dropped to around 45 percent, it would drop. Then those things would swarm in and they would have to fight claw to fist. The first idea she had was to fall back to the crater, but if that happened they would need to close the airlock. And then that means the creatures could claw into it wherever they wanted. So that means that they only had one single action that they could do now.
“Hold the lines! As soon as the shield falls, open fire! We hold until the shield is up, then kill them all!” Terra barked as she raised her weapon.
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Bob only looked around, trying to figure out what to do. This attack, something about it was wrong. There was something in his brain that cried out, something more was going on. There had been times when his instincts had saved his life, and times when he was jumping at shadows. All he could only hope was that this was one of the second times.
As he turned and looked past the shield into the forest, he paled as he saw movement. As he watched three more of the insectoids surged out of the trees and started to claw at the shield. As he stared in horror, he thought for a moment that the worms had done what these things wanted. But then that was impossible! He had thought that maybe some of the things here could think, but how could they control the worms? Flyers needed to be trained from a young age, and those worms didn’t even have brains!
He shook his head as he moved towards the nearest shield tower. He smiled as he saw the section of the shield was holding at one hundred percent.
“Wait….” Bob thought as he looked through the shield. Unlike the insectoid to the east, these had black shells while the others were all red. Could that mean they were from different hives? “Wait…… fifth-year science class…. Hey! Hey! Eyes on me freaks!”
Bob fired at the insectoids and they roared. He moved his aim, fired again, and saw the creatures follow his shots, swarming towards when the shot hit. He grinned, this was just what they needed now.
As the hard-shelled ones slashed at the strange transparent thing, they all looked at the meat. They had lost much when that strange creature had charged into one of their hunting groups. Only one of their watcher caste had been able to return to the hive. After that, two parties had been sent out, one to find the beast and one to find where it had come from. At first, they only found the scattered ruins of the creature’s path. Finally, when the leader and watcher were content to return they heard it. The strange noise that brought them here.
This strange thing they were able to see through was unlike anything they had ever heard of. It was keeping them from the softskins inside it. They watched, seeing the flying things kill themselves, drawn in by the sound. They felt the sound change and with a gesture from their leader, they attacked. Already they could hear the sounds of this thing weaken, so something would happen. All they needed was one chance to strike and kill this thing, take its power for their own! A way to call the little flyers to their deaths, perfect. No longer would the hordes that darken the skies threaten them.
Cries from their right caused them to turn and then they lost all reason as they detected the scent of others.
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Terra looked on in shock. One minute the insectoids were going to break in then the next something changed. They all turned their heads towards where Bob was and screeched as they charged along the shield. Terra turned her head and saw five red shelled insectoids that looked like the black ones. Only these were charging at the first group. In moments they met and started to slaughter each other!
“Science,” Bob’s voice caused Terra to turn and look at him. He walked over with a savage grin. At Terra’s look, all he did was grin. “Old science lesson. On my world whenever bugs of different hives met, they fought to the death.”