Galactic Calendar 259872/ 2000 [ Sol Year 4387/ Day 154 of 365. Sol standard year]
Days after of Crash landing/ 3
Uninhabited Island / Underground tunnel/ Circle Cavern
Galactic Standard Time / 0500
As Al woke up, he blinked. It took him a few moments to understand, but when he saw the cave beyond Jinn’s head everything came back. He yawned as he got up, looking around the cavern. Seeing Roy farther back in the cave with Burt at the mouth caused him to stop. As his thoughts from before came flooding back, he looked at Jinn with a hard look. Jinn meanwhile had his back to his friend, looking through his pack.
As Jinn turned and Al saw his face, Jinn's smile dropped. Al figured that his thoughts were visible on his face, and he gestured towards the top of the ramp. Jinn nodded before he turned and walked towards the ramp. Al followed after a few moments, a strange look on his face as he looked at Burt. Part of him didn’t trust him, but part of him did. There was no reason that he would know where the colony ships were heading, and it might not have been passed down.
But as he followed after Jinn upwards, something about Burt bothered him. He couldn’t say just what it was, there was just something there. The man had told them a lot, and how dangerous this place was. But there was something that he wasn’t saying, something just told him there was something there.
“We’ve got a problem,” Al said softly as they reached the cave mouth.
Jinn looked back at him, a strange look in his eyes. “Something about what Burt told us?”
“Yeah, the ships he named? They went in opposite directions according to the records they left,” Al said bluntly.
Jinn blinked before he looked at his friend sharply, a hard look in his eyes. “So how did they crash on the same planet?”
“I think I know…….. I…..” Al said as he looked away.
“What is it, my friend? Whatever it is, I won’t judge you for it. I’m the last person to do that,” Jinn said as he looked at Al.
Al looked away and tried to gather his strength. For as long as Al knew his friend, there was always something there, something that Jinn had to be ashamed of. That was still there, and Ed knew
“I’m not what you think I am. I’m a condemned heretic,” Al said as he looked away.
“And that means what?” Jinn asked bluntly and Ed turned his head around in shock.
“A Heretic from the Scholar’s Way! That means that either I or someone I was close to was declared an enemy of my faith! Haven’t you read what true Heretics have done!?” Al asked in shock.
Jinn just looked away, staying silent for a few moments. “Ed, I don’t know if I ever told you this. But the Scholar’s Way? I didn’t even learn that existed until three weeks before I joined the ship.”
Al looked at Jinn, shocked beyond words. He just couldn’t understand how that was possible.
Heretics of Scholar’s Way were in the collective myths as villains! The longest-running cartoon even had one as the leader of one of the villain teams! They were in video games as the bad guys, the big enemy in movies! It took him a long time, but finally, he spoke, his voice a raspy thing. “What? What kind of world did you grow up on?!”
“The world was normal. The group I was born into, well they weren’t. It’s complicated. And something I don’t want to talk about if I don’t have to. So what did you figure out?” Jinn asked.
Al looked at him and shook his head. As surprising as this part of Jinn’s past was, now wasn’t the time. What he had to do was tell his friend how deep in the black hole they were. “Have you ever heard about things called Ruins?”
“Ruins? Oh, those things. A space-based one then,” Jinn said in a matter-of-fact tone.
Al only stared at his friend, trying to understand this. Somehow, Jinn knew about Ruins. He knew about things that the government tried to keep hidden. And he just figured out that a space-based Ruin was behind all this. “How? Just how and what world were you raised on? What kind of group….?”
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Jinn turned away, his mind going dark places. Unconsciously his left hand went to a scar on his right arm. He remembered how he felt when he discovered the truth about the people who raised him. The pain he had felt when he realized that every wound he gained, every sleepless night was worthless. The sheer mental anguish that every dead body he left behind meant nothing. “Scum who wanted to use everyone they raised. It’s hard to talk about. So how bad do you think this is for us?”
Al looked out at the dark forest around them and stayed silent for a few minutes. He took a deep breath and sighed. “Bad, very bad. Every ship that they never found the wreckage of might have crashed here. From the time of the War the Ruins makers died in to now. Every species, even the dead ones might be here. And every culture that ever sent a ship into space too.”
Jinn took a deep breath as he tried and failed to think about this. If that was true, and it probably was, then all Jinn could think of was chaos. That meant that this planet was probably a mess, with the cultures that Burt told them about only the tip. There were probably even worse ones out there, and then there were the native ‘beasts’.
He had been worried, but with the Ruin angle, he was sure. The thing that awoke his ability was external. If it was a side effect of passing through the Ruin or something on this planet, he didn’t know. But whatever it was, it was from after the ship encountered the Ruin, that much was obvious. But would they survive to find out if there was another Ruin in orbit?
They had only run into the creatures of one island, and that meant that they had a limit on how big they could grow. A larger food source, limitless space, and who knows how large they could get. Or how many of the really strong ones could have in their packs? And who knows if those leaders things could plan and think? There might be wars being fought in the ruins of crashed ships right now. And then there were his new abilities and the powers the beasts had shown. Or how large some of them might be…….. Jinn went still, as terror flashed through him. The thoughts he had been having suddenly joined. Who knew just what the larger creatures could do if they even existed?
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“Jinn! JINN!” Al’s voice caused Jinn to look at him.
As he stared at his friend, some of the horror and fear Jinn felt had to show in his eyes. For as he watched, Al grew pale.
“What is it?” Al whispered.
“The powers that the creatures we’ve fought so far. Every one of them was caged on this island. How powerful could they grow if they had no limits? Is a vine beast controlling a full forest? An Insectiod three times as large as the big one? A spider the size of the Spirit?” Jinn asked with horror in his voice
Al sank to his knees, the sheer terror that he felt at Jinn’s words took his voice. “With all those things out there, how can we survive here? Forget about escaping the planet, how can we even live longer than a day?”
“Simple. We have to get to the Yard-Ship. If we could power on the factory section, we could make things to help us. Weapons, exo-frames, even a spacecraft or probe to summon help. We have to get there soon,” Jinn said as he looked up at the sky. He could already see a light to what he hoped was east.
After a few moments of silence, he looked at Ed, finding his friend looking at him with a shocked look.
“So simple a thing. Do you think it’ll be that easy? We have no idea the condition of the ship. Even after I get it online, we might end up with a broken ship. There’s a reason it crashed after all,” Al said softly.
“Simple nothing! This is going to be hard, I can feel it. But we don’t have a choice! If half of what Burt told us is true, we need an edge. At least we can use the ship as a place to hide from, a fort maybe. I don’t expect the capsules to last too long,” Jinn said just as softly.
Before they could say anything more, a large buzzing came from above them. Looking up, Jinn saw a large swarm of red flying worms pass over the tops of the trees. As they watched the swarm fly off, Jinn felt his blood freeze as he realized where they were going. “No.”
“Jinn? What is it?” Al asked and Jinn ignored him, looking around.
“Aether Comet,” Jinn said softly. As blue energy enveloped him, he felt its power flow through him. Activating one strain of the nanites within himself, he went into motion. Flash-dashing towards one of the trees, he looked up. Jumping from branch to branch until he soon broke the tree line and could see the ocean in the distance.
As he shot higher into the air, he looked toward the swarm and saw it fly toward the river. There, against rocks was a strange mass that the worms were flying towards. Looking beyond he saw an escape capsule. It was just beyond the river and he could see it had a wall around it. As he fell, he thought he saw something flash through the worms and hoped his nanites had recorded it.
As he dropped down, his mind raced faster. As he jumped from branch to branch going down, he tried to keep calm. His mind went over what it could have been,. but not quite coming to a good answer. As he landed, he called up the image his nanites saved and saw what he had seen.
“Jinn! What was it?” Al asked as Jinn just stood there.
“A corpse in the river against the stones we’ll need to pass over. Somehow those things found out about it. We might have trouble there,” Jinn said softly.
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Al looked at his friend, trying to understand. For a few moments, he just stood there, his mind trying to understand what Jinn was talking about. But after a few moments, Al admitted that this was beyond his knowledge. “I don’t get it. What trouble? I guess I’m too city worlder to understand.”
Jinn’s energy cloak died down as he looked at Al. he took a deep breath and sighed, looking at his friend. “I’ll explain it to the others, just know that when we try and go over the river? We’ll probably be attacked.”
“Attacked? By what?” Al asked and looked up. “That swarm? A few attacks and they should all run away. Right?”
Jinn only shook his head. “No, I mean attacked by anything drawn to the same thing the swarm is drawn to. Food. And anything that comes will be hungry. And hungry things fight harder to kill. To eat what they kill.”
“Oh,” Al said softly as he felt his blood leave his face.
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As she fought her way back to wakefulness, Racha blinked as she looked around. For a second or two, she almost didn’t understand where she was. but as her gaze found Burt, then she understood. As she got up she looked around, seeing Paige and Sara both asleep outside the cave. After not finding Al or Jinn, she reasoned that they had gone on watch. But it was when a hand fell onto her shoulder that she reacted.
Without a sound she pulled forward, grabbing the hand and throwing whoever it was forward.
Seeing Jinn flying through the air, she watched as he landed and dashed towards her silently. As he threw a right punch, she blocked and moved towards him. As she lashed out with her left arm, Jinn deflected it and moved to the right.
When Racha tried to counter it Jinn lunged to the left and moved around her, dashing towards the ramp. She watched him as he stopped, turned until he was looking at her then bowed. Racha felt her face heat up as she suddenly understood. What had happened was a sparring match. Any other time she would have exploded, but the baby behind her killed that reaction.
As she tried to keep calm, Jinn gestured for her to follow him. As she walked after him, she could only scowl. All she could think about was how she was going to give that fool a piece of her mind. As they reached the mouth of the cavern, she turned to him but stopped at the look on Jinn’s face.
“What happened?” Racha asked and Jinn sighed.
“We’ve come into a meteor storm. About ten, fifteen minutes ago a swarm of those flying worms passed overhead. I went up the tree and saw their target, the river. There’s a corpse and something shiny against rocks there. And that means predators are coming after the scavengers,” Jinn said bluntly.
Racha looked at him before she started to curse. “Oh, Nova! That means the predators might try and kill us! Great, just great! And any more good news?”
“Yes. There's an escape capsule near the river on the other side. With luck, we can drop off Roy and the kid. Maybe there's an officer there, or someone that the chief can coordinate with,” Jinn said with a grin.
Racha Almost said something before she stopped. “Okay. Next issue, our new arrival. What’s your take on him?”
“I think he’s playing something close to his vest. There’s something else he’s not telling us. Remember how he talked about his home, how he heard? There’s no way anyone loyal wouldn’t try and get home if it was attacked. If it was possible that is,” Jinn said with a hard stare down into the cavern.
Racha looked at him, frowning. As much as she didn’t want to admit it, there was something in what he said. There were stories told around the lunchroom tables back in the Service barracks. Tales about how some soldiers were the first wave of relief when their worlds were attacked. And how they got revenge when they couldn’t make it there in time, how they broke through impossible odds. And with that thought, she understood what Jinn meant. “Then there must have been something that kept him from doing that. But what?”
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As the flying things picked at the dead thing, the hunter watched and waited. When it had sensed the dead meat, it had taken a bit and been disgusted. The taste was all wrong and the hard stuff almost broke one of its teeth! No, the best thing to do was let the smell bring in good prey, something it could like to eat.
As the worms bit and ate the dead thing, the hunter watched. It knew that all it had to do was wait, that sooner or later something would come along. As it watched, it wondered if it should just kill and eat some of the swarm. They were the lure of course, but after a while, it just wasn’t working right. Best to just eat then.
Before the hunter could move, it saw a rustling from a plant near the forest. As it watched, a small quadruped green lizard the size of a dog with a long snout came out. As it stood up and looked around, a frill unfolded from its neck. The frill had five black lines on each side and ten purple spots, and as the hunter watched the spots started to glow. Ten purple energy bullets formed around the lizard before they shot at the flying things. As the swarm reacted, some flew away but fifty flew towards the lizard. As the worms flew over land, fifty more energy bullets came from the forest behind the first lizard.
As the hunter watched, five more of the lizards came out. Three of the six lizards seemed to be guarding as two of them picked up the remains of the flying things. As the hunter watched, they threw them toward the first lizard. The first lizard started to move the remains into piles as two more lizards came out of the forest. As the two newcomers came towards the piles, they opened their frills and formed a cup with them. After that, they started to put the remains into them as they stood on their back legs.
As the hunter stayed still, it wondered what to do. The lizard things were too small for a good meal and the swarm was starting to gather again. The lizards had only hunted some of the swam, and with its lesser numbers more would come for them. All in all, they had made it easier for the hunter.
As it decided to wait, a roar was heard. From the other side of the river, a large beast appeared. It was a large red feline-like creature with six legs and a long tail that ended in a bone ball. Its head had four eyes with two horns that went forward and started below its two ears. It roared again as it leaped from rock to rock, charging toward the lizards. All the hunter could do was feel joy, these were always tasty. With that thought, the hunter struck.
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As the lizards watched the feline beast charge at them they started to activate their power. If they could hold it off for a few moments then the gathers could retreat and feed their pack. Even if most of the guards died, then their kind would live on. As their far fangs formed they prepared to fire. But from the side of the rocks towards the great waters four long fleshy things shot out. They coiled around the feline in mid jump, squeezing it. As the feline tried to fight free it was pulled under the waters. Moments later the lizards could smell life liquid seep out from a kill.
As one the lizards all went still, one of the liquid killers was hiding there! After a few moments, the lizards moved. They took half the food they killed, and dashed into the forest, hoping to get to safety.