Galactic Calendar 259872/ 2000 [ Sol Year 4387/ Day 154 of 365. Sol standard year]
Days after of Crash landing/ 3
Uninhabited Island /Beach near crashed escape Capsule 20045
Galactic Standard Time / 1730
Burt looked around as the group ran. After they found the scavenger, Burt killed it with one shot. He currently had it on his back, the corpse wrapped in a bag to keep the blood from leaving a trail. He had justified it as the others coming would wake it and it would wake other creatures from its cries. Privately, it was because these were good eating, and very tasty for their size.
“So what kind of thing was that near in that other realm?” Sk’p called out as he followed behind Burt.
“A kind of insect creature. Ten feet tall, and it loved to make traps. Fought one by a trade route once. The head of the security had thrown a bomb at the trap, it attacked us from the other side of the path. We killed it and got a bonus for it!” Burt said as he remembered that time.
He started to look at the other side of the path as he spoke, wondering if this time was like then. The only reason that he had survived was he had been behind the transport that had been attacked. And his position when the attack was just so much luck
A rustling in the bushes ahead caused him to stop and hold up a hand. The others moved into a diamond formation. After a few moments, a small rodent-like creature only a foot long and tall came onto the path. It had green fur with spots of brown all over. It had six three-taloned feet and its tail was long and thin. Its face had four eyes above a small face with two cute fangs pointing down.
“Awww. It looks so cute! We are not eating the cutie!” Jess said with a scowl.
“Why not?” Sk’p asked. “The cute ones taste the best!”
“We already got the scavenger. We don’t have time to hunt down another one!” Xordig said with a scowl.
Burt didn’t hear them, he just looked down at the creature in horror. He knew these creatures, and he knew what they looked like fully grown. And to his terror, he knew how they hunted. “Oh by the waters! If you all want to live, then obey. Don’t ask questions, just do as I say. Now backup, everyone just back up!”
Jess, Sk’p, and Xordig didn’t even ask, they just moved.
“What is it!?” Xordig asked with a small voice.
“That thing? It changes a lot when it's fully grown. One of the worst predators in the Jungle Realms. And some of them are said to have Powers. But I’ve never seen anything like that,” Burt said softly as he looked around. “But I’ve heard too many stories from too many places to doubt them.”
“So the big predator around here? One of those Alphas you were talking about?” Xordig asked with a strange note in his voice.
“Yeah, probably. Why do you…..no. Just no!” Burt said with a slight note of panic in his voice. “These things are ambush predators! It’s probably already stalking us already!”
“Then we have to kill it then. We can’t let it attack the passengers,” Jess said, her voice resolute.
“It’s probably moved on. That’s what we want! You have no reference to how bad an idea this is! Trust me!” Burt said as his eyes looked all around. He was cursing ever coming to talk to these people. They thought because their people handled things out there, they could kill anything.
“How bad is it when it’s fully grown? Could we still kill it?” Sk’p asked with a note of shock and hope in his voice.
Before Burt could say anything, there was a low growling from the left. As one, the group turned and stared.
Standing with one foot out of the forest nearest to Jess was a large creature. It was over five feet tall and three thick with six limbs and a long whip-like tail. Its fur was a dirt brown with patches of green all over its body. It had four eyes solid black eyes above a long snout and two-foot-long fangs that went down from its muzzle.
“Forget I asked,” Sk’p said dryly.
“Don’t make a move. Just wait. It might not attack,” Burt said with a note of hope in his voice.
The fanged creature looked at them then it roared so loud that it almost caused Burt to blackout.
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The hunter looked through its new beast and scowled. There were now two food things fighting back. They had to run out of Power very soon! They just had to! There wasn’t any other thing that would make sense. He wasn’t able to keep firing his water blasts with how many creatures he was controlling. So then how could the food things keep moving about?
Suddenly he heard the sound of something hitting the water above. That caused him to turn one of his hunting crabs towards it. His own eyes widened as he saw what was coming down at him.
He bowed as the beings floated before him. The group had two of his kind, four armed warriors each one holding spears in their upper hands. Their lower hands had crab claw gauntlets. As he looked at them in their red masks shaped like squid bodies, he felt his heart freeze in anger. They had on loincloths of a polished red, and their feet had braces on.
“Why are you here before us lowly one?” The middle one growled. This one had only two arms that crossed over his chest. A chest that was covered by blue shell armor that covered his whole body. On his back was a trident, there was a crown of green coral on his head. On his right hand was a black coral gauntlet with ten round circle spaces, two of them had red coral discs inserted. This was one of the leader’s direct heirs, the highest ones under that being.
“I was sent ahead mighty one. There are some of the pink two-legers here, some of them even with Power!” The hunter said as he kept his face away from the Heir’s sight.
“And the Beasts the Leader gave you to wield haven’t killed them yet? Truly the ones like you need my kind to direct you all,” The Heir said dismissively. “The Leader is behind me, he wants this place to allow a new horde to form! The currents are coming, and now you tell me that there are many of the scaled ones coming. We need nothing to show that we are here before that! Have they seen you? No, of course, they did!” The Heir said with a scowl.
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The Hunter stayed silent, trying to keep calm. The way the ‘higher’ caste treated his and the Maker caste always made him mad. The only way that this was even acceptable for the rest of his ‘caste’ was because of the helmets. Each one was able to control a being, making them slaves to the will of those who held the control gauntlet. If he moved to attack this one, then the two slaves would kill him. Most of his caste didn’t know the truth, not until it was too late. He had trained himself in some of the Maker’s caste skills and discovered the truth. It was his greatest wish to one day free his people.
“Low one, what is that big thing?” The Heir asked with a scowl.
The Hunter would have to swim carefully here. The ones who gained the Powers he had were killed as traitors, and he needed to live. The Heir couldn’t know he had controlled the Lobster thing, the Hunter had to be crafty here. But then most of the Heir caste were stupid if the other castes gave their responses in a certain way. “That thing great one? Merely one of the local predators here. I was able to use my beasts to wake it and lead it to the surface. Once the food things up there started to attack it, it rampaged at them. This one only wanted to use the power granted by our Leader.”
“At least you have some sense!” The Heir spat.
The Hunter only kept still, trying to keep it under control. If it was lucky, one of these things would die. If any of the slaves were free, they could all free the others.
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Jinn dashed around the scorpion monster in the air, firing down at the creature. So far, he had been able to keep it from moving. He had created a good plan, fire then dash up at an angle. He then fell then fired and repeated the process. But he knew that while his shots were staggering the creature, he wasn’t truly doing any damage. He had to trust that the others could escape soon.
As he fell again, he cursed that they didn’t have any way to communicate over distances. If they had that kind of gear then they would have been so much better. But then the escape capsule didn’t have anything like that, which was surprising. With all the gear and other things, they didn’t have personal coms.
But then blasts came from the wall at the lobster, and he reacted. A dash beyond the wall then another one straight down brought into the yard made by the walls. Looking around, he saw that almost everyone had left. The only person still there was Racha standing on the wall. He saw her keep firing and with a dash, he was next to her. Looking out, he saw the lobster digging down into the sand slowly. To his shock it was moving towards them, slowly pushing aside the sand to keep moving.
“Well, that’s new,” Jinn said flatly.
“Yeah. So time to move then?” Racha asked with a slight nervous edge to her voice.
“For you, not me. I’ve got to keep fighting here,” Jinn said with a scowl.
“What!? What do you mean!?” Racha asked.
“That thing still has another eyestalk. I need to destroy that and then we can escape into the forest. Go! I’ll be right behind you!” Jinn barked as he looked at the sand moving along the surface. He aimed at it and then took a deep breath. “Try another Aether Bolt!”
As a bolt covered in blue shot out and hit where he thought the head was, the lobster roared in pain.
“You are one of the most idiotic people I’ve ever met! But you’re right! Keep fighting until you have to escape. But stay alive! We’ll deal with the horde if we have to!” Racha said firmly.
Jinn nodded and looked at her. “That’s the plan. Not a minute more than the bare necessity!”
“Right…… there’s the horde,” Racha said dumbly.
Jinn felt his heart clench at her words. He turned and saw ten of the biped fish things on the wall in the ocean now. He could see some of them only had two arms, and the rest had four arms. From the way they all pointed weapons at the wall, he knew that the first one was just normal. With a hard feeling, he looked at Racha and nodded. “Time for you to fly. Tell Locke to pull the bridge back when you go over it. Make a dome around the group once you find the others. Wait there for me and ride out the blast wave. But don’t do anything that will let them think we’re in the forest. How do I set off the bomb?”
“You don’t! Get inside and then close it. You escape out through the hatch at the back. It’s set up so once they break open the door, that will set it off!” Racha explained and Jinn nodded. “So let’s go….. wait! You’re staying here!? Why!?”
“Someone’s got to be the rear guard. Go!” Jinn said as he put his pistol away. He brought out his rifle from his back and aimed down the sights. He looked back at the ocean and aimed his weapon at one of the bipeds with only two arms. Something about them was telling him that the best thing he could do was kill these ones as soon as possible.
“Stay alive!” Racha said before she ran towards the back.
Jinn looked at the wall as more and more of the fish biped all climbed over the wall. “I’ll try.”
Aiming at one of the two armed bipeds, he fired one shot between its eyes.
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Above them, the Hunter and Heir heard a splash. The body of one of the Lesser Heirs fell, bleeding blood from his head. For a moment the Hunter let this cause him pleasure, but then he scowled as he saw that the dead didn’t have a gauntlet.
More splashes heralded more Heirs dropped into the water. Then came the Leader himself from above as the rest of the ones up there followed him. The only thing that made this stand out was he had two gauntlets with all the openings filled in. Only two of the Hunter’s kind moved near the Leader, and each of the other Heirs with them all only had at most two.
“You, Filth! What is attacking us!?” The Leader demanded as he pointed at the Hunter. “Have the Scaled ones made a base here!?”
The Hunter swallowed as he looked back down. He had to be more elusive than he had ever been before.
“This unworthy one told me that he was stopped by Power-wielding pink legs!” The first Heir said.
The Leader looked at the surface and pointed his hands. “TO WAR! The one who gets me the first of their meet gains a new War Servant!”
It was all the Hunter could do to not glare at the Leader. The only ones who could gain the ‘loyalty’ of a War Servant were those who could use Power. His Caste could only learn to use the Power after becoming a War Servant. Which meant that the prize would only go to the Heir caste after all he did here.
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Jinn watched as two armed biped fish ran onto the beach. There had to be at least ten of them. Behind them, came around thirty of the four armed ones. Putting his rifle on his back and making sure that it was secure, he pulled out his pistol and started to fire. Some of the shots went over their heads, and other shots hit the limbs and even a head, killing some of the two limbed ones.
With a scowl, he kept missing more shots as things got closer. As soon as one of the two armed ones got close enough, he ran down the stairs towards the escape capsule. He ran into it and closed the door behind him, setting the trap in motion. Running through the halls, he dashed ahead three feet at a time until he reached the exit, stopping for a moment. He knew that the trap was set, that nothing he did now could do anything to stop what was to come. The blast wave alone would probably flatten most of the trees around here. Releasing a last breath, he let go of all his anger at the plan. “Sorry, this couldn’t be honorable combat. Too many civilians here for that. May you know peace at least.”
Opening it, he closed it behind him and then dashed to the as far as he could up. Then he dashed down just above one of the forest’s trees. Dropping the last half foot, he jumped down and then started to move towards where the others were.
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The Hunter commanded his new Lobster monster to dig deep and hide. He might have need of it, but for now, all he could do was wait. The group with the Leader had already attacked the Food Things nest, and he wondered if he could have some of them. With the Leader here, he would want to eat all the choice bits.
He saw the Leader, standing there with only one of his slave soldiers. The others had been sent against the Nest. He didn’t know what he expected, but the Hunter was seeing the Leader directing the Soldiers with his will alone. The idea that the process was really a version of his Tamer power didn’t sit right with the Hunter.
He had hated this one for years, and now to find his powers were the same as his own. His mind went over what the taming of your own kind could do to you. The very idea was so wrong he didn’t even know a word wrong enough for it.
The Leader chuckled and laughed before he looked at the Hunter. “Well lesser one, it’s almost done. All that’s left is the last efforts of the defenders of this strange iron thing. But the only way in is too small for your kind. My own will eat well tonight! I’ll have them bring out their spoils so you can have something before you go.”
“Go mighty one?” The Hunter asked, feeling a little worried.
“Oh yes! You need to go and find the Scaled ones! I’ve sent out groups and solos all day! You’ll just go along the cost that way!” The Leader said as he pointed towards the nearest hill.
But then, before the Hunter could say anything there was a loud sound and a wave of force! The Hunter was still in the waters and that threw him backwards a mere three feet. The Leader flew longer, but the two slave soldiers had covered him with their own bodies. They hit the wall and then they fell into the water.
The Hunter looked at the Leader as he pulled himself free, hating that he lived. Then he saw the Leader look around before swimming towards the surface. The Hunter swam over to the slave soldiers and found them both dead. He started to feel a spark of an emotion that he almost didn’t recognize. He couldn’t believe his luck. If he was right, then this was it, this was what he had been waiting for all these years!
Not to be left behind, the Hunter followed after him. As soon as the Hunter breached the water, he looked towards the shore. Seeing the burning flames where the nest had been, he saw burning bodies all over the beach. The Leader swarm towards the beach and the Hunter followed. As the Hunter moved, he sensed that his hunting crabs and his lobster were still alive.
The Leader cried out, but nothing answered. As the Leader made it to one of the dead, he looked down at the body of the Heir who had found the Hunter first. “What is this!?”
The Hunter looked at him and chuckled lightly. “A chance.”
“What are you talking about you worthless fool!? A chance for what!?” The Leader bellowed as he turned and saw the Hunter standing there alone. “And where are my War Servants!?”
“Dead. Like you’ll be soon!” The Hunter called out as behind the Leader, the Hunter’s lobster monster pulled itself free of the sands.