Galactic Calendar 259872/ 2000 [ Sol Year 4387/ Day 155 of 365. Sol standard year]
Days after of Crash landing/ 5
Uninhabited Island /Beach near crashed escape Capsule 20045
Galactic Standard Time / 0720
Jinn stared at the dust cloud and gritted his teeth. He was cursing out his actions for not keeping an eye on the thing once he saw it. The one thing that he felt was that he should have noticed that the creature wasn’t acting normally for any animal. His experience with such matters was low, but he should have done more before this thing attacked.
But as the dust settled, he was ready for almost anything. But as the dust cleared away, he stared and barely kept from throwing up. The bird-serpent’s body was decayed, with holes all over the top. For a second he almost thought that the body had just died, but then he wondered how the thing had stayed in the air. That question was answered in the most unsettling way.
From his location, he could see things growing out of some of the holes. In every third hole, there was a green mass that grew vines that joined together between the middle set of wings. There were also green vines in every second of the empty holes. But what was most unsettling was the fact that each of the vines was pulsing. The vines grew together into a large tree-like thing with six branches in a star formation. At the top was a green sphere with tentacles that moved like they had muscles in them. He could see the branches moving around, but all six of them ended in sharp points with thorns on them.
But the true horror was its ‘face’. It didn’t have a face, instead, the green mass had broken the face, and there was only a large yellow flower where the eyes would be. There were four long tentacles behind the flower, and one tentacle was broken off at the tip.
“What in the name of the Waves!?” Burt whispered in horror.
Without a word, the tentacles started to whip around at the group.
“Fall back!” Jinn bellowed as he pulled out his blade, quickly forming it into its sword form. He slashed out with it, slicing through the tentacle that attacked him. He moved backwards, his pistol aiming at the bird-serpent. To Jinn’s horror, the monster didn’t react. Then he realized that the reason that it didn’t react was because the creature was dead. What had attacked them was a plant. That explained why Paige couldn’t hear it, she couldn’t hear plants. But what was this thing!? How could this monster plant control the creature’s body!? All Jinn knew was this was going to be a hard fight.
Another tentacle came at him, but he dashed to the left and fired his pistol at the ‘tree’. A vine intercepted it and he gritted his teeth. He looked around and saw the others fighting against it.
“So can’t we just leave this thing!?” Burt asked as he dodged and fired.
“We’re in the route Locke will use! We can’t let this thing kill the others!” Racha barked as she fired at the monster. A tentacle came at her, but instead of grabbing her, it slapped her, sending her into the air. She rolled into a ball before she hit the ground and moved for a few feet before she got back to her feet.
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As she got back to her feet she fought down a wince. Her left arm was loose, there was nothing that she could do to move. She had had this enough to know what had happened, somehow she had dislocated it. Pulling out her pistol, she looked at the plant thing and saw it sticking two of its tentacles into the ground. They weren’t going deeper down, only staying there as the other vines seemed to be striking at anything.
The more she looked at this thing, the more she had a strange and terrible feeling. It was when three more of the tentacles slammed into the ground. She stared as more of the tentacles broke out of the corpse, and then she knew.
“It can’t think! Everyone, move away! To the sea!” Racha roared and then she ran followed.
As the others all ran, Racha looked over her shoulder. She watched as the other tentacles slammed into the ground. As the body of the serpent-bird began to decay as she watched, all Racha could feel was anger and rage. She had hoped she was wrong, but she was right. As they watched, the corpse was fully destroyed as the tree grew taller.
“Why did we fall back?” Jinn asked quietly.
“And how will that let this thing attack us better!?” Jess asked as she flexed her hands.
“It wasn’t attacking us, it was planting itself. It wants to spread. So aim for the trunk!” Racha barked and started to fire at the ‘tree’.
As others fired the tree started to grow a fruit from one of the branches. As the tree was hit, the fruit kept growing until it was five feet wide. It fell from the branch and spattered on the ground.
From the remains came a strange creature. It was five feet tall and had a forward-facing body that ended in a large tail a foot wide. Its face was a maw of needle-sharp teeth, and it had five eyes in a star formation. It had four arms, one above the other. Each one ended in a large spike.
“No….. FALSE PLANT!” Burt exclaimed in horror as he started to fire wildly.
Racha had heard all about them from Burt last night. She knew exactly what this monstrosity was and what it meant. If this thing could prey on the survivors!
“New plan! Jinn, Jess, hand the beast, keep it off us! Everyone else, take down the plant!” Racha barked as she moved her weapon down, hitting ever lower on the tree. Part of her was hoping that she might be able to tear the tree in half. But as they all fired at it, the four-armed lancer thing attacked.
Jinn suddenly appeared by it and grabbed one of its arms. “Let’s have a nice talk closer to the ocean!”
Before the Lancer-Thing could do more than try and hit him, Jinn had disappeared again.
“Good luck! Aether Enhance; Flame!” Jess called out as she ran towards the water, a red aura engulfing her.
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Racha had to admit to herself, that she was jealous of their powers. She remembered a dozen investigations where something like that would have been useful.
“More fruit are growing!! Keep firing!!” Burt screamed in panic.
Racha gritted her teeth, she had to focus! This was what was important, not where Jinn had gone.
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Jinn came out of the ‘dash’ above the beach, the Lancer-Thing disoriented. Without a thought, he threw the Lancer thing in the direction opposite the Yard-Ship. Jinn looked around, he and the creature were within ten feet of the ocean. Looking back from where he had come, he saw the others a hundred feet away. Jess was running towards them, already glowing red. For a second, he wondered if he would be able to handle this before she got here. Well, only one way to find out!
As it got back to its feet, Jinn studied it. As it got to his feet, it looked at him and screeched. He just clenched his blade as he sent the command for it to change into its sword form. He smirked as he looked at it, pointing his sword and chuckling. “Round one!”
With a screech, the beast ran at him its four lances pointing up and down. Jinn ran at it, firing his pistol as he charged on. The first few bolts hit the lances, and then a bolt hit from the right that exploded into flames. The Lancer screeched and thrashed before it rolled to the right, putting the flames out.
Jinn only stared, shocked at this. Part of him was shocked that the Lancer hadn’t gone towards the water. The other part suddenly remembered something that he had learned long ago. For a moment he wondered how the creature knew that, but then he remembered where the creature had fallen.
Without waiting another minute, he charged at the Lancer as Jess kept firing.
“THE WATER! GET IT INTO THE WATER!” Jinn barked as he ran.
The Lancer turned and roared, slashing its lances down at him. Jinn blocked them with his sword flat side moments before an explosion flared up on the Lancer’s side. As it screamed in pain, Jinn moved.
He moved back and while it was off balance, he grabbed one of its arms and ‘dashed’ into the air above the ocean. He threw it down into the water before he ‘dashed’ back onto land.
“What was that supposed to do….. Okay. I see,” Jess said as she watched the Lancer hit the water.
As soon as that happened, the Lancer started to scream in pain. It tried to get back onto land, but Jinn started to fire. “Aim at its legs!”
As Jess joined her blasts to his, the False Plant kept trying to get out of the water. But as it moved, its body started to shake. When it was a foot away from the land, it collapsed. It quivered for a few moments before it decayed before their eyes.
“What happened!?” Jess asked, her voice shaking a little.
Jinn could hardly believe his eyes. He had thought that the most would be a way to slow it down, but this? This was beyond anything that he thought possible.
“Saltwater,” Jinn breathed out in a shocked tone. He turned his head and looked at Jess, smirking as he did so. “Salt water is their weakness, their acid!”
Jess looked at the ocean, and with a smirk turned to Jinn. “Got an empty bottle or something that can hold liquids?”
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As she fired at the False Plant, Paige kept her ‘ear’ open. So far, they had been doing well. The tree was being kept from making any more fruit, and they hadn’t been attacked. The roots had been broken, and they were slowly moving away from it. All in all, she thought that sooner or later they would kill this thing.
As she shot another fruit before it grew, the tree suddenly released a large crack sound. Then a mouth formed and two large tentacles shot out as it roared.
Racha fired as she screamed. “BACK! BACK!”
As the group moved, Sk’p stayed in front next to her.
She glared at him, and he only grinned back.
“You stay, I’ll stay! So ready to move?!” Sk’p asked with a savage grin.
Racha almost growled at him before she nodded, taking a step backwards. They couldn’t even think of arguing with each other now, they had to act together. So she took a step, and Sk’p took another as they both fired at the two tentacles as they came at them.
With a scowl on her face, Racha looked at the tree. From the story that Burt told them, she had to wonder that this was one of the ‘Mother Trees’ that he spoke of. If so, then where had this thing come from? She remembered the things that had hatched the trees. Why could this one’s source fly and the other couldn’t?
Suddenly a howl formed beyond the tree causing the group to look beyond the tree. Coming over the hill was a large wolf, at least five feet tall. It was an almost normal-looking wolf, with a large sail down its back and a foot tall. Besides the sail, the wolf’s fur was a strange-looking purple. Its mouth had four fangs that went down. It looked at the scene before it threw back its head. But before it could howl, a single bolt destroyed its head.
Racha looked at Burt who was still aiming in that direction, and then saw him fire again. Turning around, she paled as she saw the tree sending tentacles towards the corpse.
“NO! Burt, Sk’p, keep the tentacles from getting that corpse! Sara, Paige, aim at the tree!” Racha barked as she fired. She didn’t know what she expected, but this was getting bad. The way that Paige didn’t react told her that maybe the wolves weren’t the source of the ‘scream’ she ‘heard’. And that was both a good and bad thing. That meant the ‘screamer’ was still out there, and that was very bad.
Even worse, the battle between the two forces was done. And that means that the winner or loser might come here soon. They had to destroy this thing before that happened and they were overrun!
As three more of the tentacles came towards the corpse, Racha fired at their source. They had to handle this before more of the Wolves or the apes made it here!
Suddenly, Jinn was right in front of the mouth and threw something into it the mouth.
“Drink up!” He called out before he ‘dashed’ away and landed next to Racha. He smiled at her as four tentacles swarmed at him. Bust just before they reached him they stopped a foot away from him. “Oh, hi Racha. How was your fight?”
Racha only blinked as the tree suddenly started to come apart. As everyone watched, the tree slowly crumbled into dust.
“What was that!?” Burt exclaimed, shock in his voice.
“Salt water is a poison to them. At least this one. But we can try and figure that out later, for now, we need to move!” Jess called out from behind the group.
Racha looked at Jinn for a few seconds before she nodded. “Their right! Move now!”
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As he followed after them, Burt tried and failed to think how this was possible. The idea that something as simple as salt water could kill False Tress was shocking. A terror of the Forest Realm could be defeated by simple salt water? For a few seconds, he stayed quiet as they ran, trying to wrap his head around this.
The False Plants were one of the horror stories everyone knew! The one in the clear might have been the first one he had seen, but he knew the stories. But then it was always a relative or someone else who had seen the things, never the person telling the stories.
“You okay?” Sk’p asked next to him.
Burt looked up and nodded, trying to find a way to explain to put his thoughts in order. “Just shocked. I mean the False Plants were one of the stories told so we’d know about them so we could run. I never thought that I would ever find something so easy to kill them. I mean who would?”
Sk’p only nodded and chuckled a little. “As my people used to say, the best currents are the hard ones. Keep moving on, and life will surprise you.”
Burt only looked at him and chuckled a little. That kind of belief was something that he could get behind. From all the Realms he joined through, the friends and foes he had met. The one lesson that had so many variations was to keep moving forward.
“Yeah, I know. Still the……” Burt trailed off as he looked behind him and saw something in the distance for a moment. He blinked and looked again, seeing all the bushes around the area. They were perfect if someone or something wanted to stalk others.
His eyes went around the area, truly seeing it for the first time. His wild run had him look down, following the others. All that his knowledge and wits told him was one thing, that they had walked into a trap.
“Oh by the depths! Everyone stop! We’re in a kill box! Back to back!” Burt barked as he aimed all around.
The others all heard him, Jinn and Racha gazed around them and started to curse.
Quickly, everyone got into a circle and aimed out. For a few seconds, nothing happened. Just when Burt was going to curse himself for that, a voice called out.
“Not often I see people like us here! What brought you to this hell?” The voice that spoke sounded gruff and wasn’t identifiable as male or female. And to his anger, it came from the empty space to Burt’s left.
Burt aimed his weapon, and then suddenly remembered an old trick.
“Whoever is next to me, tell the others on the to keep watching their front. This might be a trick,” Burt said softly and he hoped that they understood.
He felt someone squeeze his right arm and he hoped that was the sign they understood.
“My name is Racha! Who are you!?” Racha called out with a hard edge to her voice.
“My name is Maikil! And who are you to ask me that? What are you doing here? I saw the trails in the sky a few days ago, were they you all?” Maikil asked from Burt’s right.
Burt whipped his head around, trying to still his heart. He had known something was wrong here, but this was beyond his worst dread. How could whoever this was moving so fast? Or was his first thought right?
“Yes, we came down a few days ago. We mean you no harm. All we want to do is pass by and make it to that ship,” Racha said with a calm edge.
“The ship? What you came down in wasn’t that good? Or was it in some place that you can’t protect?” Maikil asked with curiosity in his voice.
Burt scowled as he looked straight ahead. This time the voice had come from right behind them. Just what was this person?! And how were they doing it? At first, he thought it was a trick like Jinn’s, but this was too much. This being was moving so fast without leaving a single mark of passage. Just how was this possible?
“No, we seek to get it working if we can. Now who are you?” Jinn asked from behind Burt.
“Get home working? Oh, you want to turn the weapons back on!” The voice said, now sounding cheerful. “Why didn’t you say that?”