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 / After 1250
Bradford looked up at the ceiling. He had slipped into the bathroom to have a moment alone, trying to think. He knew there was a chance here for him to take power, but should he? There was no way he saw that led to this little group surviving longer than Duncan had been doing. And then there was that resource that Duncan said they found. Now that he had time to think about it, it was interesting that Duncan never said what it was. That might be what they
Bradford tried to call up his new abilities, but nothing happened. He took a deep breath and tried to think, that was all he could do. With the fact that he had only been able to contact one of his people, he was alone. He needed all the edges he could get, he was so far behind he might die! He was stuck in a capsule in a forest with monsters all around them. To keep them safe all passengers were all stuck in the capsule. But Duncan had said only until they had a secondary defensive line ready.
And for all that Bradford hated not being in control, Duncan was doing everything right. So far they had weathered attacks, found a food source they lost and now they were hiding in a shield. They had been attacked, attacked again after finding new food. But and now monsters were being drawn to them because of the shield that protected them. But Bradford had to say he would done everything Duncan did!
“And then there’s Jones to think about. And Operative Brute is here, so where are the others? And how could I contact him and not the others?” Bradford muttered under his breath. Once again he cursed the fact that he let Jones’s cult bribe him! But he had used the money to build a few off-the-books defenses for his home, so there was that. And he had barely had contact with those people in years! Plus he had been making a plan to kill them after all. They were just another group that wanted to scam people and use religion to do it. Plus they were Humanity supremacists, and those types were only good for scapegoats!
“And if that bastard speaks up, then I’m screwed! Duncan will make a cell just for me! I need to get rid of him, but how?” Bradford muttered as he tried to think of anything at all. But no matter what he did, there was no easy way out of this! “Why did I accept the money?! Couldn’t I have made a charity to buy them?”
After a deep breath, Bradford walked out of the bathroom, a smile on his face. He never noticed that something in the very small vents had been watching him. That something had heard everything that he had said.
<>------------------------------------------------<>------------------------------------------------<>
Jones looked up at the shield from the bottom of a trench four feet deep. Personally, the idea of the shield was a travesty! These things had to be trained to obey their rightful masters! Instead, they were showing that they were cowards, food things for them to eat! And because of that, they had drawn in two groups of lesser ones that fought amongst themselves!
And to make matters worse, now they were defiling the land itself to make Duncan feel better! The trench he was in was being made around the crater, something about a firing line. As if they would work if a stampede charged at them! And he had heard that the shield, the vile thing itself was overcharged. That means that even through the night it would last, so then when would it fall? So why were they working like animals to make a trench at all? It was only that the shield made it cool that this torture was bearable!
“Hey, Jones!” A male voice behind him caused him to turn and look at the speaker, Jessie.
“What do you want Jessie?” Jones asked, trying to see if he could use Jessie.
“Just letting you know that the boss wants us to take a water break. And good work. We’re almost halfway there already!” Jessie said with a grin.
Jones looked shocked and climbed up the trench. He looked around, seeing that the workers were walking towards a stations with water. For a moment he wondered just where the stations had come from. Then he shook his head, the thought dying as he turned to more important things. With a scowl he looked around, seeing the passengers in blank jumpsuits. Sir Bradford had sent out a call, and Jones had been shocked. Then he reasoned this was to get in Duncan’s good graces, and he relaxed. Any plan to trick that fool Duncan was good for him, but still.
“Coming man? You’ve been working as hard as the rest of us!” Jessie said with a grin.
“Think we’re almost done?” And what are we going to do with the dirt?” Jones asked with a sigh as he tried to hide his feelings.
Jones just shrugged.” Don’t know. Maybe make a wall or something if we can turn it into anything. But that’s the Chief’s decision.”
“Of course. It’s his decision. Of course,” Jones said as he growled and turned away, walking towards the nearest line.
<>------------------------------------------------<>------------------------------------------------<>
Jessie watched Jones go, a realistic smile on his face. Inside, he was raging that he couldn’t just kill Jones and get it over with. He hated cowards who let their teams die, and Jessie was sure that Jones-scum had done it! After all the years Jessie spent as a bounty hunter, you learn how to tell that. But then everything went wrong. To think that they would go on the same ship that he signed up on.
When he had signed onto the Spirit, he had expected a few decades of peace. A few normal years, just relaxation. But then he felt the Voids those things were thanks to their Tech. and after a little search, he found them. After watching them without them knowing, he knew what he had to do. Get a job on another ship! Thankfully, his contract was planet to planet. So after a talk with his commander, and a preset recorded message, he had his papers all set. But what happens before they even make it to the next planet? This! And he had no way to contact his ship, with his Armor on it! So here he was, trying to make nice with traitors! If his trainer could see him now, but then he had put the scum down himself.
He sighed as he looked at the Energy shield, and tried to hide a scowl. There was something about it, something that he couldn’t place. He knew he had better senses than baseline Humans, but there was just something there.
“How was Jones?” Terra asked from behind him.
Ensure your favorite authors get the support they deserve. Read this novel on Royal Road.
He turned and looked at her, sighing as he shook his head. He had offered to talk to Jones and now he was regretting it. “Nothing! The scum keeps everything close to the chest. I don’t know what we can do.”
“This was a long shot, my friend. And we expected it. But it’s good to work together again,” Terra said with a smirk.
“Yeah, and hopefully this time will be better than breaking out!” Jessie said with a grin.
“You know I was shocked that mister ‘I work alone’ was signing on. What’s the story?” Terra asked and Jessie just sighed.
Jessie looked at Terra, trying to think on what to say. Terra had always been someone who valued the system and believed most people did as well. Before they met, she probably thought everyone did. “A rival bounty hunter tried to blow me up, and then some lower-ranked ones joined in. I left the game and decided to see how the world evolves for a while.”
“Oh,” Terra said.
Jessie looked away, cursing his need to be honest with her. But then the two of them had gone through a year of hell together. She had gone back to her schooling and he had become a bounty hunter. And they had stayed in contact, but they had promised not to let things pass about where they were. So to say they were surprised to see each other when they met on the Spirit was like saying water was wet.
“Come on girl, let’s get something to drink! We’ve got to patrol the shield after all!” Jessie said with a grin.
<>------------------------------------------------<>------------------------------------------------<>
Duncan sighed as he looked over the figures again. So far the supplies had been tailed, and with everything here, they were running out of food. Unless they were rescued in three weeks they would starve. And that meant that they had to find local sources once the party made it back from the Yard Ship. With everything that happened, he was starting to see this as a lost cause.
The fact the shield called in monsters, that would make defense harder. If they set up in the ship, they would need to make a wall. If the ship had the right tech, then they could make weapons, maybe even robots. For a moment he thought of the force multiplier creation of robots would be, and he sighed. He had so many people here to protect, and any idea that would help should be investigated. But still, robots? After he had argued against anything more than drones on his ship? Still, needs must.
With a sigh he looked at the screen, frowning. So far he hadn’t been able to open the capsule’s black box, and he knew nothing about what happened to the ship. He remembered that meeting, and how he was going to go to a party a few days later. Some kind of party for the senator of a mainly human world. Most of the passengers had to have been from that is, so that explained why the group was only human. But that party had been days away, and that meant time had passed aboard the ship.
But they had gone to FTL before the meeting was over. And that meant the ship had moved to another system. Then whatever had happened did so after they left FTL. But his memories told him they were going to exit into a dead system. The same system they had gone through dozens of times. Nothing ever happened there, nothing at all. “So what did happen?”
No matter what he did, he couldn’t think of anything that might have caused the crash. This world was unlike anything he had ever heard of, and the creatures! Those things would have either caused the planet to be forbidden or had a research station on it. So how did escape capsules crash onto the island? Where was the rest of the ship? And why did they not remember the last few days?
“Duncan, what are you looking at here?” He muttered to himself as he tried and failed to think of anything that might explain all this. There was something here, something that he couldn’t see. Something that he knew about, something that would explain everything. This place was so crazy, it…… Duncan went still as a strange thought hit him. For a moment he stayed still, trying to find holes in his thought. But there was nothing that he could see that would cancel it out.
“Oh NOVA!” Duncan cried out as he grabbed his cane and got up, scrambling towards the door. He had to talk to Terra. The kid was practically one of his officers at this point, and she needed to know what he figured out.
<>------------------------------------------------<>------------------------------------------------<>
Jones sighed as he walked away from the station, a bottle clutched in his right hand. He only looked around, seeing the people all looking around in awe. He snarled and almost walked into someone who had stood still.
“Watch it pagan!” The man spat as he turned. The man had short black hair and eyes, and a small patched beard on his chin.
Jones was about to spit back when he saw a small chain around the man’s neck. It was the fact that the chain was black on the right side and white on the other that stopped him.
The man looked at Jones then his left hand went to his necklace and the man turned away. “Just don’t do it again!”
“Wait sibling of peace,” Jones said softly.
The man turned and moved his hand away from the chain. “What did you call me?”
Jones stared at the man for a moment before he pulled back his right sleeve. He showed his inner arm to the man, revealing a tattoo of a grey circle, half white and black to the man.
The man went still before smiling at Jones. “Brother, it is a pleasure to meet one of the faithful here! I am Kenny Gormilis sir, and it is a true honor to meet someone from the Central Temple!”
“No honors sir, I am only Jones, a guard turned missionary. Are there others of the Faith here,” Jones asked quietly.
Kenny shook his head. “If there are I haven’t seen any of us. I only bought my chains because of a fashion trend my date at the time loved.”
“Ahh. And is she here?” Jones asked, looking around.
“Thankfully no, she was cheating on me. Dumped me a few days ago, left the ship with her new lover at the last Planet stop,” Kenny said softly.
Jones sighed and shook his head.
“But holiness, how can you help this? Isn’t it against the teachings?” Kenny asked.
“One must do what one’s high commander ordered. And Sir Bradford spoke up for Duncan. As Sir Bradford has helped the Order, I decided to volunteer,” Jones said softly.
“Sir Bradford helped the Order?! I knew I liked him!” Kenny said with a grin.
Jones looked at Kenny and tried to not smile. Just talking to a fellow believer was like his soul was being healed. To have gone so long among the non-believers, and to have met one who followed the same road? This was a blessing from creation itself! And with his revelation, he had to share it.
“And as I believe that this is the Land of Deliverance, we must move carefully my friend. This is it, we have to slowly gain power…..”Jones trailed off as Kenny stepped backwards in shock.
Before Jones could say anything, he went still. Kenny looked at him before turning around as well to see what Jones had.
There climbing the hill was Duncan himself! The man looked around before moving towards a station on the right. Jones looked there and saw Terra walking with Jessie.
<>------------------------------------------------<>------------------------------------------------<>
“Terra!” Duncan’s hard voice caused Terra to turn.
Walking towards her and Jessie, Duncan looked like he had seen his mortal enemy. For a second, Terra just looked around. She was trying to find anything that might explain what had caused Duncan to react this way, but the was nothing.
“Chief?!” Terra asked as Duncan got to them.
“We need to talk, now!” Duncan growls as he looks at Jessie.
“Sir, whatever you have to say to me, you can say to Jessie,” Terra said as Jessie saluted.
Duncan looks at Jessie then turns to look at Terra. “And you trust him?”
“He pulled me out of a terrible situation a long time ago sir. He’s someone who can handle himself and keep it to himself,” Terra said with a hard look.
“Fine, fine. That’s completely fine. So, I was thinking about how we got here. And by that I mean what made us forget about everything. And I was thinking how impossible it all is. And that’s when I figured it out. This is the result of a Ruin,” Duncan said softly.
Terra looked at him in complete shock. She turned her head to stare at Jessie and saw a flash of something in his eyes. She knew the chaos that a single Ruin had caused her and Jessie during their escape. To think that there was a Ruin was why they couldn’t remember, that tracked with what they knew.
“Makes sense. After what we saw there, I don’t think that Terra and I would disagree with that idea,” Jessie said with a hard voice.
“Yes…. Wait. You’re Ruin Raiders!?” Duncan asked in shock.
Terra felt a spark of anger. Raiding the Ruins, that had been the reason she had been captured. The reason that Jessie had been born. And what they had wanted to do to her, she hoped they died in agony.
“She’s not, nor me. Let’s just say that I was raised by terrible people who threw others I cared about into Ruins. It was before I met Terra,” Jessie said as he held up a hand to stop Duncan from talking.
“Well, that’s something. And that means that there might be some of their robots around here. And that means they could destroy us easily. How long do you think the shield will hold?” Duncan asked with a blank look.
“Against those things? Not long. But there is a ruin involved, the robots don’t move far beyond the complex itself. So, shield that affects our memories?” Jessie asked.
Terra went still, seeing how that could have been abused. The people who had captured her alone, the ways they could have used that.
“Only thing that makes sense. As my old captain said once, throw out the impossible when dealing with Ruins. But the creatures out there are my main problem with the idea,” Duncan said softly.
Terra looked at him as if what he wasn’t saying made sense. And she saw the same thing he did. But Jessie spoke what Terri was thinking first.
“Wait, hold on. If the Ruins are involved, then maybe they made those things. But a Ruin in good enough shape to affect the planet in two ways? That’s never been seen on any planet, and I’ve seen a lot of the sites the Government doesn’t talk about!” Jessie said with a snarl.
Duncan nodded. “Yeah, and we’ll talk about that you and me. But no Ruin has more than one effect. And no planet has ever been found with multiple Ruins on it. So what makes this place so different?”
Terra turned around, looking anywhere as she tried to think of anything to say. But as she opened her mouth he paused. Squinting her eyes, she looked beyond the shield. “What’s that?”
As she watched, in the distance at least a good hundred yards away a swarm of flying things took flight.