As she aimed her weapon, Vivis tried to understand just what she had gotten into. The crash landing had been hard enough, from the flying worms to the beasts. But here she was, ready to fight and kill monsters that were attacking her. And here she was, ready to fight and kill. Not bad for a girl who wanted to be on the bridge of a starship.
“Hope this works people,” Zevortro muttered to her left.
“Just keep quiet man,” Bryke said softly.
“Come on. This is a crazy plan! You can’t lie about that! This all hinges on Jessie being chased by those things! They could escape or there could be more of them!” Zevortro said, a scowl in his voice. “And there’s nothing in the plan if something else doesn’t come and hit us!”
Vivis had to admit, he wasn’t too wrong. The whole thing was slapped together, but she knew why. The boss had seconds to come up with a play. And this keeps the three of them safe while he’s the one that’s going into danger. She wanted to think that was him taking the hardest part of this plan. Part of him trying to keep them out of harm’s way the most he could
As they heard the sound of wood being broken echoed off the shield, she gripped her weapon tighter.
Looking through the trees and bushes, she saw something coming closer. By the movement of the tops of the branches, Jessie was coming in fast.
“Get ready!” Bryke called out to her left.
A moment later, Jessie crashed through the bushes, the three monsters behind him. Three fast shots from each of the three deckhands in hiding caused the monsters to die.
Jessie turned around as the others came out of hiding.
Zevortro pointed his rifle in the direction the monsters had come from. “That’s all there was boss?”
“Yeah. That was all. For now,” Jessie said as he dropped down to look over the dead monsters.
Vivis turned to look down and wince. The shots had destroyed each of the bodies of the monsters to different extents. One had three holes through its side and head, one had its face destroyed. But one of them just had a hole through its forehead. “Nice.”
“Yeah, we’ll take this one! We need to move now. I don’t like being out here,” Jessie said.
Vivis nodded with a shudder as she looked around. But then she blinked and saw some more of those pod fruits. They were five feet away, and they looked perfect. The speed at which these fruits seemed to grow back was something else. She was sure that this tree was emptied of them just a day ago.
“Sir, the Fruit!” Vivis said, pointing as Jessie started to stand up.
Jessie looked towards her and blinked as he saw the trees. With a strangled laugh, he moved past Vivis and looked left and right. He turned back, a strange look on his face. “There are over thirty of them on this tree alone! And there are five more on both sides!”
“That’s a feast!” Bryke declared in shock.
Jessie only laughed as he almost took another step before he stopped and turned around. His grin was almost splitting his face and his eyes shined.
“Yes, it is! But we can’t stay and get them. Vivis, get a few of them now. We’ll get back under the shield and see if we can’t send out a scavenging group. You two, grab the monster with just a hole in its head. I’ll be on overwatch,” Jessie declared.
Vivis nodded, and she turned but stopped as she saw Bryke standing there. His eyes were wide and he was looking at the trees behind Jessie. He was staring like there was something so important there. And in that moment, looking at him she understood what he had seen.
“Fuck! Jessie, down now!” She roared as she threw herself to the right.
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To his credit, Jessie just reacted, but it was only half successful. He lunged to the left as something lunged out of the tree and he screamed in pain.
Vivis rolled to her feet and saw a large inset-like creature standing there on two legs their size. It was as tall as they were and had grey chitin with splashes of green all over. It had two arms that ended in sharp-looking organic blades and one of them was slick with blood. The face this monster had was nothing but three multifaceted eyes in a triangle. The eyes were above a large dart-like horn that the monster brought its bloody blade to. As she watched, it seemed to suck up the blood into the horn, and then it screeched.
“KIL IT!” Zevortro bellowed as he started to fire. The Insect seemed to know who was firing and jumped away from him. As he and Bryke kept firing at it, the insect monster kept jumping, dodging each blast. “How is it dodging all of them!?”
“No clue!” Bryke said with a snarl. He aimed and fired at where the monster might land. But the creature seemed to jump out of the air and moved higher. “How I that possible!?”
“No clue,” Vivis muttered as she moved towards Jessie.
That was all she could think about for now; was Jessie still alive? This thing had struck him first, and that was enough to put him down. Vivis didn’t know what to do, and that was bad. The monster could have its blade coated in a natural poison. The closer she got, the worse she thought it would be. Jessie was in a small pool of blood that had to be his. As she watched, the pool kept growing bigger.
If Jessie was dead, then they had no choice. They would be stuck out here until the monster died. Something that deadly and fast? There was no way that they could let that thing into the shield. There would be no other choice.
She reached him and felt the wind coming at her. Without thinking, she grabbed Jessie’s body and pushed him away. Then she threw herself over him to land beyond him. A moment later, she was three feet away from the jumping monster’s ‘face’. With a swift motion, her rifle was pointing at the monster and she fired. But again, the monster jumped away, and that was become too old too fast.
“You okay Vivis?!” Zevortro cried out as Vivis heard more lasers being fired. They hit the trees in the air, trying to keep the monster away from her.
She almost was touched, but then she heard Jessie moan. Without a word, she rolled him over and looked him over. She found that he only had a single slice through his left shoulder that bled slowly. Looking where she found him, she stared in shock at the small puddle that was growing bigger every second. Looking around, she saw a small bowl in the ground, and water bubbling up from the earth. She looked back at Jessie and saw that the wound was high enough on him that it didn’t touch the water. The coloring must have been because of the blood flowing down his arm. But what could…….. she looked at the spring, a small smile forming on her face.
“Here! Lead it there!”Vivis called out as she pointed at the small spring.
Without a word, the others kept firing at the monster, and it kept dodging. But thankfully, it was moving towards the spring. Within moments, it landed and it slipped, falling onto its back. Without a word, Zevortro lunged and slammed his body onto the monster. He thrust his dagger into the creature’s head. It moved for a moment, then it went still.
“Ohhhhh. What hit me?” Jessie moaned as he got up. Then he screamed and grabbed his wound. “GAHHHHH! THAT Stings! What was that thing?!”
“This!” Zevortro spat as he moved his body off the monster.
<>------------------------------------------------<>------------------------------------------------<>
Jessie looked at the creature, his mind going blank. Then he looked up at the others and he swallowed. “One slash?”
“One slash boss. You just went down,” Bryke said bluntly.
Jessie looked at the new corpse and swallowed. “Forget the fruit, take that and the other. If there are more of them, we need to know what it can do.”
“Got it! Think you can handle it, boss?” Vivis asked as she looked at his wound.
Jessie tried to move his arm and winced at the pain. “NOOO. I don’t think so! Bring the other one, we’re doing two loads!”
“You’re in first sit, and we’ll come back for the rest!” Vivis said sternly as she moved to his good side and moved to help him walk. “Medic’s orders.”
Jessie looked like he wanted to argue, but he nodded. He stayed silent as B2 and Zevortro took up guard station as Vivis helped him walk to the shield. Once there, he raised his hand and the shield opened.
“Welcome back…. SIR!” Tiffi screamed as she saw Jessie’s arm. “Marctor, get the medic!”
“NO!” Jessie barked as he walked into the shield. He eyed Marctor and scowled at him. “You stay there until my part is all back inside! And that’s an order!”
Marctor only looked at him and then pressed a button and the hole closed up.
As soon as he saw the hole close, Jessie sighed and sank down, gritting his teeth. “Good. Now go get Terra!”
Terra smiled as she saw the readings on the shield go back to full strength. “Good, that’s good!”
Terra actually felt like laughing. They had handled everything perfectly. She saw the state of Roch and she had to admit that she almost giggled. She hadn’t thought of that, but it worked out perfectly. With what she knew now and the help of Bradford, they might get through with no riot about how they're treating Roch. When Qiana told her that her equipment had been wiped and she couldn’t remember doing it, that was enough. The presence of an element that was a threat had to be held in a cell. And the way he was right now, it was all but a cell.
And when Jessie came back with the body of one of the monsters attacking the shield, they might figure out how. And then they could work on a way to block it.
“Ma’am!” A voice called up.
Terra looked up and saw a deckhand with a bald head, blue eyes, and orange-tinted white skin running at her. She frowned, wondering just what the problem was. Maybe she had thought the problem was done before it was.
As the man came closer, she frowned. “Wait, you’re one of the ones that Jessie took with him. What happened?”
“Ma’am!” The man said as he came to attention. “Jessie is down! He’s okay, but he’s injured badly!”
“What!? What happened to him?! Was it what was attacking the shield?!” Terra demanded, terrible thoughts going through her head.
“No ma’am! It was something else! It attacked him from behind. Two of the others are bringing in that body and one of the things that attacked the shield inside now!” The deckhand said with a grin.
Terra just blinked and then looked at where Jessie had run. She could see him, leaning against the station there and she scowled. She ran off, the other deckhand falling in step behind her.
Jessie looked, at one of the female deckhands putting his arm into a sling. “Hey, Terra! You should see the other one!”
“Jessie! What happened!?” Terra said with shock and horror in her voice. She had sent him out and he came back injured. This was the worst outcome for her first day as the second in command.
“Ambusher. Had a completely natural job done too. Completely blended into the trees. If my team hadn’t had my back, I don’t know what might have happened!” Jessie said as the shield opened.
Terra looked at it as two people brought in a strange-looking biped insect creature their size. She looked over the blades in place of the horn on its face and tried to understand what she was seeing. This world had shown so many strange creatures, but what was this one?