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 1810
Jones looked at the shield as the darkness slowly grew. For the last five minutes, he had been staring at the shield growing more and more angry. They should have done something, they should have destroyed that monstrosity! “Why are we just standing here?”
“Guess the boss wants to see if that thing is alone,” A voice from one of the deckhands next to him muttered.
Jones blinked and then he looked at the shield, his eyes locking on the vine thing. He let his eyes move along the vine and saw it disappear into the darkness. And then he winced as yes, this might be worse than he thought. His mind went over the Prophecy, trying to remember anything that might have meaning here. The idea that something that was a plant could move was hard to swallow, but he saw the vine move. But as he looked down the tree, his scowl grew. The vine disappeared behind the tree, but there were no other vines anywhere from what he could see. It had to be alone, so why were they still looking for nothing that was there?
Next to him, he heard the others muttering to that effect, here and there others were raising other points. So what if it was a plant? All they needed to do was destroy it. And what about the pod trees there? Should they just let that vine destroy them? Could it destroy them?
Jones watched as Terra looked up at the shield, and then his gaze went to the station for this part of the shield. He saw no one there, and he was starting to wonder if he should open a hole. If the vine came through it, so what? There were enough people here that their firepower could destroy it in moments. Why were they just cowering from a plant of all things?
Jones almost said something but he decided not to at the last minute. He knew how Duncan saw him, and if he had spoken about Jones the others wouldn’t follow him. He had to wait, and hope that someone else would step up.
As he watched, one of the other deckhands moved towards Terra, a scowl on his face.
“Ma’am, shouldn’t we just destroy that thing now? We know what’s draining the shield so we should fix this problem!” The deckhand said and Terra looked at him
From where he was, Jones could see emotions flash over Terra’s face. There was more here than Jones could see, or Terra was jumping at shadows. Both of those things were possible, but what didn’t Jones see? As he looked along the branches beyond the shield, he had a strange feeling slowly starting to form. He felt that he was seeing something that didn’t make sense, but what was it?
He looked around the trees, trying to find it. But no matter where he looked, nothing seemed out of place. But the more he gazed around, the more he felt that something was off. And if he was being honest, that feeling was slowly making him more worried.
“We should, but there’s a lot we don’t know. So let’s be safe! Watch it for an hour at least!” Terra’s loud voice caused Jones to look up.
Not finding her where he expected, he looked around in a circle and found her. Terra was with, Zevortro and the deckhand that had been talking to her by the shield console. With a sinking feeling he moved over, and as he did he saw others do the same. Once he was closer he could see the deckhand at the station. The being was a male human with greasy-looking brown hair and green eyes. He scowled at her and his eyes were hard, a sneer on his face.
“We can kill that thing and this will be done right now! There’s no reason to drag it out!” The deckhand said, a slight note of anger in his voice.
“Terras’s in charge and she made the call. So just follow orders and this will be done soon, Greg!” Zevortro ordered.
Greg, the deckhand, snorted and looked at Terra with anger. “As if that old fossil is thinking straight putting her in charge! The only ones back home who hold power are those who were born to it! A peasant like her?!”
Jones scowled as well as he realized what was happening. This Greg punk was from one of the words that still had Nobility. And from the way he was talking, he was one of them. Jones had spoken to people from those worlds, and they were always a pain. And all he could do now was hope that the idiot didn’t make a mistake. After all, if the shield was down…….Jones whipped around and pointed his light at the shield. It didn’t go up, but down. That was what was bothering him. And if he was right!
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“Greg, back way now and nothing happens,” Terra said slowly.
Greg snarled at her, a sneer on his face. “MY NAME IS GREGORY!”
Gregory slammed his fish down, and the console started to spark before the whole of the shield shut off.
For a moment, it was all Jones could do to just stare. Then moments later ten of the vines with mouths on them shot through the empty space. Some of the deckhands screamed in fear, one in pain when two of the vines suddenly latched onto them.
“NO! FALL BACK!” Zevortro bellowed. The rest of the deckhands ran, but one of them stayed to help the one that had been bitten.
Jones ran, but at two deckhands. He pulled his trusty vibration knife and charged. The only thing that Jones could think of, was that this would help him. If he could save those two, they might trust him. And that was all he needed from them. Their trust so he could lead them to the proper Path!
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“Gregory, I’m going to kill you!” Zevortro snarled as he looked at the chaos as the deckhands ran away from the vines.
Before Gregory could even say anything, three blasts flew over their heads. The laser blasts hit the three vines attached to the one deckhand before Jones could even reach them. As the deckhand fell, Zevortro whipped his head around. Standing there firing a rifle in his hands was Jessie with another one on his back. With each step he took closer to the console, Jessie kept firing. As he passed by he handed Zevortro his rifle, moving forward and drawing his other rifle.
Zevortro shot a glare at Gregory before he started to fire at the vines.
“How did this happen?” Jessie growled as he fired.
As Zevortro joined his blasts to Jessie’s, he scowled harder. “A wannabe idiot who claims to be a Noble.”
“A Noble? Well. I want to say I’m surprised, but I’m not. This is normal for them,” Jessie said with a growl.
“So, never trust Gregory to be smart from now on then?” Zevortro asked Jessie as he aimed and fired at one of the vines
After all, they had both destroyed at least six of them, there was a savage roar from the foliage.
Zevortro felt his blood leave his face as he looked at the darkness, trying to understand what he just heard. He had seen and heard a lot of monsters in movies, but this sounded more savage than the worst on the screen. And it was close to them, and he could hear the sound of trees being pushed down.
“Get the shield, get the shield up!” Jessie roared as he kept firing into the darkness.
Zevortro looked behind him and saw Terra hard at work, and he swallowed and moved after Jessie. Within a second, he had aimed into the darkness and fired alongside his friend.
As Jessie looked at him, Zevortro only shrugged.
“They’ve got it, and I was always more for action than thinking. My place is here!” Zevortro said with force.
Jessie only chuckled and shook his head. “Welcome to hell!”
A moment later, something bashed into the pod trees before them. The trees went flying through the air over the heads of the deckhands, and then they all heard a savage roar.
Standing before them was a strange creature, unlike anything Zevortro had ever seen before. It was a large grey stout creature with green rashes on its skin. It had four limbs that ended in half-circle paws with stubby claws. Its head was wide and it had two pure black eyes that seemed to suck in all light. On its back were ten vines, six of them damaged. It opened its mouth, revealing white spiky teeth. As they stood there, the beast roared again and more vines shot into the clearing.
As they fired, more shots joined them. Risking a glance over his shoulder, Zevortro saw the other deckhands had joined them. With a smirk, Zevortro looked around. “People, let’s show this thing what we can do! Everyone, basic shots, fire at the beast. Advanced, fire at the vines!”
The answering roar caused Zevortro to grin, they had a chance here! All they had to do was hold it off!
As the vines trying to get in were shot, Zevortro kept firing at the beast. But even with all the fire they were throwing at the monster, it kept coming. “We can’t hold it off!”
“Wait!” Jessie said with a grin. “We don’t need to! Terra, how fast can you get the shield up for a minute only?”
“Just that long, now! Why?!” Terra called out.
Zevortro looked at Jessie, confused. Why did that matter? Then he blinked as he suddenly understood what Jessie meant, and an evil smirk formed on his face. “It’s going to be close!”
“Yeah. Get ready!” Jessie said as he took a step back.
Zevortro moved with him, and together they led the creature closer to its death. Zevortro looked at the rest of the shield, and mentally counted down. With each step the monster took, their victory was that much closer.
“Ready!! Ready! Now!” Jessie yelled out.
The beast took another step and then the shield flashed to life. The beast stood there before its head fell to the ground. The beast's body stayed upright for a moment, and then it too fell.
“MOVE THE HEAD!” Jessie roared as he ran forward.
Zevortro blinked, then he understood. “FOLLOW JESSIE!”
As he ran, others followed him. Within moments they all reached Jessie as he grabbed part of the head. He looked up as Zevortro appeared across from him.
“As one, lift!” Jessie roared.
Zevortro grunted as he moved the head up.
“Walk! As close to the crater as you can!” Jessie roared.
It was heavy, more heavy than it looked. But in thirty seconds, they had moved the head a good ten feet. Behind them, the shield fell again, and there were cries as laser blasters fired. They moved another five feet before Jessie roared again.
“Down and fire!” Jessie roared.
Zevortro dropped the head and turned, seeing three vines snacking out of the body of the Vine Beast. Without even stopping, he raised his rifle and fired at one of them.
Jessie ran forward, his rifle suddenly gaining an energy bayonet. He jumped over a vine and reached the body. With one movement, he sliced down. For a moment, nothing happened, and then the body split apart, black blood gushing forth.
As one, everyone roared and cheered. Zevortro laughed loud and heartily as he looked at the dead creature and Jessie.
Jessie was still moving, looking around and then he speared his rifle down. He looked up and scowled at everyone. “The vines! Shot the vines!”
Zevortro looked down and for a second his heart stopped. He watched the closest vine trying to burrow into the earth and he fired. As the vine burned, more shots were fired.
“Great everyone! Now we can’t rest yet! I’ll activate the lights! I need everyone with a bit of basic engineering skills to help me! And someone hold Greg! I think the Chief will want to talk to him!” Terra roared.
As he heard Greg curse, Zevortro chuckled a little. He looked at Jessie who was looking out at the forest, and for a moment, he wondered why.