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 / 0840
Jinn felt his heart freeze as he looked up the ramp. If Sk’p was right, then they had a big problem. They couldn’t let this go without checking it, that was insane. It would leave an enemy at their back, and that was something that he couldn’t let happen.
“Everyone, stay here. Sk’p, Al, with me!” Jinn said as he ran up the ramp, Sk,p, and Al following behind him. All that Jinn could think of was what these things would look like. He had seen so many monsters, and here were more of them.
“What do you think Jinn? As bad as the Giant Spider?” Al asked as they reached the top.
Jinn said nothing as he looked around. The ledge was a good thirty feet wide and long. To the right was the cave mouth set in the stone wall, and it was at least fifteen feet wide and long. To the right was open air and the tops of the maze. He could see trees and a mountain a few miles away with a plateau. That had to be where Chief Duncan and the others were, it had to be.
A low buzzing caused Jinn to turn towards the open air ahead, and he saw a large brown insect thing five feet tall. It had a body made of three segments each a foot long. There was a long spike stinger on the last segment and wings on the middle one. The front had mandibles and he saw that there were three eyes set in a triangle facing them.
He had only seen it for a moment before the insect sped past, but five more of them followed the first. It was only then that they all heard the cries of birds, and somehow he knew it was from a battle.
Sharing a look with the others, Jinn mentally debated if he should lead them back down. They had seen enough to know there were enemies, but would they come after them? They needed to know just what was here. Looking into the other's eyes, he saw the same emotions there. He sighed and looked at them in turn. “You all feel the same way, don’t you?”
Sk’p only sighed and shook his head. “That we have to move on, even though we’re going into the black hole?”
“No other choice,” Al said bluntly, looking at the cave mouth with his rifle pointed at it. “We need to know before we can leave. There’s just no other thing to do.”
Jinn sighed and shook his head, having come to the same realization. There was nothing more they could do but move ahead. But there was something that they had to do first. “Yeah. But we need to check on what’s going on out there. Sk’p, Al? Stay here. I’ll check out and bring back data on what’s out there. If something comes out from that cave, start firing.”
At their nods, Jinn turned away. He knew that he could trust Al, and Sk’p was part of his home’s military. If those two were taken out before they could get a shot off, then they were in a worse location than he thought.
With a few slow steps, he reached far enough to look out towards the battle sounds. He gazed and paled in shock. There were at least twenty of those flying bugs! They were fighting five red birds with wing spans at least ten feet wide twenty feet away! They looked like a strange mix of vultures and parrots over twenty feet tall. They had feathers the color of flames with long bare necks. He watched as one of them shot out and bit one of the bugs clean in two before two of the bugs charged the attacker. Before they could sting the neck, another of the birds opened its mouth and shot two fireballs at them.
Jinn stared at the battle as one of the birds shot a fireball at one of the bugs. This bug had torn the neck of one of the birds open with its stinger. But as the bug burned, the bird that it had killed exploded into a massive fireball. As the remains flew to the ground, Jinn stared. “Is there movant there?”
The sounds of buzzing to the left made a spark of shock and horror go through him. He moved backwards to get away from the opening, falling onto his back. But he was still able to see twenty of the flying bugs speed by.
Jinn barely made it back to his feet then he was moving back to the opening. He pulled out a modern telescope, a small circle of metal. Looking through, he saw the corpse of the downed bird and paled in horror. Around the remains were four young birds, eating the remains and that of the but that made the corpse. He watched as one of the birds attacked one of its siblings from behind.
If he had a normal upbringing, he would have been throwing up now. The impossibility of this island had once again shocked him. The very idea that a species could make more of themselves by dying, was a game changer. Just send in a few of them at the enemy, and they were their own second wave. And the bugs seemed to be mindless in their attacks. “Okay. Whatever Al makes, he’s going to need to give it some weapons.”
This alone was enough to know they had to move faster! The others, the passengers were in greater danger! They needed to be warned! If Locke made an opening above, the bugs could attack! Fliers in a compact space? Bad idea for any defenders there!
He turned and saw the cave mouth, sending a jolt through his mind. He was struck with a thought, that maybe the fliers weren’t the only thing those bugs had as fighters. If something that could track and walk came after the group, then that would be bad. If the bugs flew ahead and attacked the group from behind, they might die.
But if they knew, they could watch for them. And if they were fast, they might slip by them. But the one thing he knew, was that this problem was too big for him alone to decide.
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Al looked at the cave mouth, trying to keep calm. He had a bad feeling that this was going to be bad. But then he didn’t trust Callahin as far as Al could throw the Spirit of Adventure itself without help! Even before he and Jinn had their ‘talk’ there was something wrong with Callahin. If it was something that was because of what the man had experienced or something deeper, it was worrying. The more that Al saw about this planet, the more questions were raised.
This tale has been unlawfully obtained from Royal Road. If you discover it on Amazon, kindly report it.
But Callahin? That man was the true threat here.
“So, you hear anything about the Ancients back aboard the ship?” Sk’p asked as he looked at the cave mouth.
Al took a moment to look at Sk’p before he sighed. “No. I was one of the lower deckhands. My job was to work on the ship’s internals. But a treaty with them? That would make a lot of my people happy. The chance to learn more about their tech?”
He had heard stories about people in other sects killing themselves trying to find that out. The number of his people that would get down on their knees to pray for this to happen? He couldn’t count that high!
“Well, bother. I do hope that the Federation isn’t the one blamed for this. Those beings care about their own to a degree most other societies just don’t. I mean they would send ships to kill those two kill one of them!” Sk’p said with a shudder.
Al had to nod. He had heard the stories and he had seen the files. He even had come across a file that said about the War with them. It theorized the war started because an Ancient cruise ship was destroyed by pirates. And from what he knew, the Ambassadors were nobles! If the death of a Noble was the trigger for that War, what would the death of one the Federation said was safe do?
As much as Al wanted to focus on the now, he just couldn’t. The questions he had asked himself almost made him start to spiral. He only stopped when he felt a hand on his shoulder.
He looked up to see it was Jinn’s, and he was looking at Al with worry.
“You okay Al? Jinn did call out to us,” Sk’p asked.
“Yeah, sorry lost in thought. What’d you find?” Al asked.
Jinn only shook his head, a look of such anger and horror in his eyes that Al almost didn’t want to know.
“The bugs are fighting these parrot-phoenix-vulture things. And I think they carry eggs that hatch when the birds die! Carry as in within their bodies. Bodies that explode when they die by the way,” Jinn said bluntly.
Al looked at him and his eyes shrank as he heard Sk’p start to curse. But Al just stared at Jinn before saying one sentence. “And anything about the bugs?”
“Big ones like we thought,” Jinn admitted and he shook his head. “And I saw them sending over forty of those things against the birds, and there were only five birds! The newborn birds? They were eating the carcass and growing as I watched them!”
Al took that in and nodded, his eyes locked on the cave mouth. Looking beyond the opening, he saw that the bugs used organic building materials. He could bet that something in there could feel if anything walked on it. That was enough to want to leave and have Locke close this off when the others got here! “We don’t need to go on, do we? Because now that I look at that cave, I’m sure they have a trap to detect us there.”
“I want to get back to the others and just leave too. But I couldn’t make that choice alone. With all we found, stay or go?” Jinn asked.
Al nodded at Jinn and was about to open his mouth when he saw Sk’p go still. For a moment he wondered what was wrong with the man, and then he remembered why they were here. He whipped around, looking into the cave as he readied his weapon. “What do you hear!?”
Jinn aimed at the cave with his rifle and only then did Sk’p speak.
“Something big, at least maybe six legs at a time. Maybe six of them, maybe fewer. But the steps are heavy. Be ready, for anything,” Sk’p said with a hard edge to his voice.
Al looked at the cave and then judged the distance that anything could travel from it. If they could make it down the ramp, they could fall back to the ship. But then if whatever was coming could track scents, that was bad. And if it led more of them after the group, what could happen? They might meet their end here, in these rock paths. And who knows what would happen to every other castaways from the Spirit? They could be out there, fighting for their lives right this moment!
As Al tried to think of what to do, he started to feel something. He took a deep breath, and then let it all out. Throwing all his emotions away he let his mind speed up and activated all the sensor nanites he had. It only took him a second to notice the pounding. Whatever was coming, it was large and heavy, a bad combination for any foe. “It’s coming!”
Before Jinn or Sk’p could say anything, it had made it to the opening. Stepping out of the cave was something that was a nightmare. It was a large insect that looked like a large brown spider. It was over ten feet tall and wide, with over six large legs. The head had seven eyes, six in a circle around a large central eye. The insect had a muzzle with an open maw of needle teeth. As he watched, the spider raised a stinger with a hollow opening in its tail. The tail was a large spear with a viscous liquid that dripped out of the opening.
Al looked at it and then he remembered a study he had seen once. And he realized what he was looking at. “Down the ramp. Just go down the ramp now!”
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Below, Jess looked up at where the others had gone. Part of her wanted to have gone with the others, but part of her wanted to ignore this. They had already faced three horrors, just what more would another one do? And was this truly the best thing to do? That was something that she wasn’t sure of, but she could see the logic for this.
“I don’t like this. I’ve chased off enough beasts wanting a new home. Where did these bugs come from?” Callahin muttered from the way farther into the rock maze.
She glared at him and then shook her head. No matter what her thoughts about him were, there was no reason to be angry at him. He must be suffering from the results of isolation and the horrors he’s experienced here. Who knows how long he was here alone? They had no idea how long the moon cycle was, and that was going to be a problem. They were already racing the next attack of the pirates, just how long did they have?
“So, how long was the last pirate attack?” Jess asked aloud.
Callahin looked at her and then closed his mouth for a moment before he smiled. And that was why
But then she heard the sounds of blaster fire, and then the sounds of people running. They all looked up and saw Sk’p and Al coming towards them.
Al looked at them and bellowed out one word. “RUN!”
With a word, Callahin cried out in fear. “You heard them! Follow me!”
As the others turned to follow the running Callahin, Racha barked out something.
“Where’s Jinn?!” Racha cried out as her hands flew to her pistol.
“Here! There’s another two of those things coming towards us! They fire an acid or a poison g glob, maybe both. So move!” Jinn barked as he reached ground level.
“Stars! Running retreat! The ones at the front, drop back until the last one goes by! Move!” Racha barked.
Jess then heard the sounds of heavy feet walking and she didn’t want to see what was making the noise.
As she ran, she kept her eyes locked on Callahin as he led the way. This was another reason that she was worried, who knows what someone who was broken would do really. All in all, the only way to handle battle was to know how the person next to you would react in combat. That was the big rule that all combat teams followed.
But Callahin! He was all over and she was sure that he was hiding something big! She looked up as she saw Racha and Jinn move to the sides. So Racha was doing the first fall back then? About what she expected from a Service operative.
“Keep moving! We’re going down the tunnel to the far left!” Callahin called out ahead.
Jess ran into a space like the ‘clearing’ where Jinn had caught up to them before, she saw three tunnels on the other side. Callahin was by the middle tunnel pointing down it, and looking at them with anger and fear on his face.
Jess only looked at him for a moment, but then she understood everything and her fear spiked. There was only one reason for Callahin to have done as he did, and that was the worst outcome. Without a word, she nodded and looked at the others. “Keep moving through the left tunnel!”
The others saw where Callahin was, and that was enough for them to follow what Jess was saying. Without a word, they ran through the central tunnel. She looked at Callahin, a strange look in her eyes as she reached into her backpack. She found what she was looking for, nodding at Callahin. “GO!”
Jess didn’t wait for a reply, she only turned and ran back to Racha and Jinn. Moments later she found them, and with one luck she took in the scene. Racha and Jinn were firing at a giant brown spider-thing with only six legs and a broken tail. Behind it was another thing like it with a normal tail. To her horror, she saw the second one raise its tail to point at Jinn and Racha
She knew exactly what she had to do now. “FRAG OUT! GET OVER HERE!”
With all her strength, she threw what she had pulled out of her backpack, a grenade. She looked at it, double-checking that this model released smoke and a shockwave for three feet around it.
Once Jinn saw what passed from Jess, he grabbed Racha and ran towards Jess. Jess had turned as soon as she threw the grenade running back to the ‘clearing’.
“What are you doing here?!” Racha barked moments before they heard an explosion behind them and a screech of pain. There was also a loud splat, and they all looked back. The first spider-thing had been killed, and the second one had shot the first with a glob of green slime. They all looked on as the slime started to eat away at the corpse of the spider-thing.
“Run now,” Jess whispered in horror. Without waiting for them, she turned and ran away down the corridor. As soon as they reached the ‘clearing’, Racha moved toward the tunnel on the left and Jess grabbed her arm. “NO! Not the central tunnel, the left one!”
Racha looked back at her, and her eyes widened in horror.
Jinn looked back at the corpse and scowled. “Move girls! The corpse is almost gone! I’ve got the back, go!”
Without a word, they ran into the central tunnel, knowing that Jinn would be right behind them. All they needed to do was keep moving until they made it to the ship, then they could rest and plan. That was the only thing that they could do here.