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 / 1630
Paige looked around and sighed as she leaned against the stone wall. Something about this beach made the track have meaning. She couldn’t explain it, but she had a strange feeling that they had reached the halfway point a while back. All they needed to do was keep safe as they ran along the sand until they could reach the land bridge. She felt that everything was going to be okay now.
“So, we move out at daybreak or before?” Al asked from her right.
“Heard about the scavengers they heard? The remains that were gone? I say wait until the sun’s up!” Sara said forcefully.
“I’m voting that. But then who will come with us? I mean the smart thing will be for these people to move in first, if we can live in the Yard-ship. They are closer,” Paige said with an absent ton.
She closed her eyes and let the other sense of her free. The thing that helped her, the thing that made her be hunted. Sometimes, she hated and loved her powers. She let her sense cast a wide ‘net’, trying to take in the emotions of the others. She felt Burt’s jot behind him as he was telling a tale. The wonder his words made in the passengers were glowing to her, the awe and wonder of the children was a joy to feel.
“Yeah, and Chief Duncan would understand. But we need to build a craft to carry the Clearing camp back to the Yard ship first! We can’t do anything else!” Al said with a scowl as he looked towards the forest. “I don’t trust Jones not to betray everyone there!”
“So you believe that he was a coward too!?” Sara asked.
Paige just shuddered and shook her head. “That man, he’s not right. The way he feels when he’s around other people. It’s like he thinks he’s in enemy territory or has done something! And that was on the Spirit!”
Al and Sara looked at her and then they groaned. Al even face-palmed himself before groaning. “Great! And here I was hoping that I thought that bastard was just scum! I mean the way that punk carried himself like he was better than everyone? I mean I always thought there was something wrong with him!”
“There’s no evidence he let the others die. But I feel he let the others die!” Sara said with a scowl.
Paige nodded at the others, glad they believed her. She had always thought that she would be feared if people knew she could ‘hear’ emotions. But that thought was nothing but dust from a comet, they weren’t treating her differently. It was as if all the fears she had were just mirages.
“But if he did it once, he could do it again. So we’ve agreed that he’s a danger…….” Paige went still as something hit her. Her breath started to come in short gasps as she tried to control herself.
“Do what….. Pagie!” Sara cried as she looked up and saw Paige panting.
“You okay!?” Al asked as he shot up from the wall.
Paige didn’t react, all she did was fall to the ground as she finally put her other sense away. Still shaking, she looked at her friends. “I just felt something, something sentient. It was so hungry. It was like the only thing that mattered was feeding itself!”
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Looking at the waves, Locke tried to be positive. He had found his oldest friend, and they had a way to keep everyone safe! But that meant that he would stay here while his friend left. Once again his friend would leave, taking the beast’s share of the danger. Part of him wanted to argue, but he knew the cold truth. The needs of the many were greater than the feelings of the one. He might understand that, but he didn’t agree.
“Who could have thought we’d be here? I mean I never thought I’d ever leave the planet!” Jinn said with a grin.
“Yeah, back then we always thought we would stay home. That we were being raised for something worthy,” Locke said bitterly.
“Remember what happened when he broke the control on the teachers? How some of them died and some of them fought the others? I thought you all died in it. Have you heard from the others at all?” Jinn asked.
Locke just shook his head, hearing the hope in his friend’s voice. Hope that he knew he had to destroy.
“No, I haven’t. But they're strong. I mean if you lived, then they have to be alive right?” Locke asked with a smirk.
“Oh yeah. I bet they’re doing what they always talked about! Wonder if their quirks cost them their jobs?” Jinn asked, laughing.
Locke joined in, remembering the times they had with their friends.
“Maybe! Hey, remember that prank she pulled on the other squad? How the teachers were all trying to find out who did it? How she………. Jinn?” Locke asked as Jinn stayed silent. Slowly, he turned and looked at Jinn who was staring into the distance. “You okay man?”
“Locke?” Jinn asked suddenly, his voice full of a tight tension.
“Yeah, Jinn?” Locke asked, his playfulness forgotten in an instant.
“Does this beach have rocks that are revealed at low tide?” Jinn asked, his voice tense.
Locke blinked before he looked towards the waves. He felt his heart clench as he saw what Jinn had. There in the distance was a line of ten rocks pointing out the water.
“No….. you don’t think…..” Locke said as he looked at the rocks and then he saw them moving against the current. “Oh stars! Everyone off the beach!”
Without wasting another moment, Locke stomped down at the sand. He activated the ability he had gained, his mind sending out how to modify the command. This time a stone wall ten feet tall and twenty wide twenty feet away from them slammed up through the waves. As Locke looked at the wall, he hoped it would give them the time they needed.
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He turned and saw twenty of the passengers running from around the beach. They were all carrying some of the seaweed that they had discovered was edible. With the supplies they had not as much as they expected, they had taken to gathering what they could. He was almost tempted to tell them to drop it, but he couldn’t before Jinn called something out.
“AURA BOLT!” Jinn cried.
Locke turned and saw Jinn with his hands raised, pointing at something. He turned and stared in horror at what he saw. The creature had a body three feet tall and ten feet long with a foot-tall hump, the stones they had seen. Its body was mostly purple chitin until it reached its tail and became grey skin. The tail was half a foot long and had wide flippers along the sides. Its body had four spider-like legs, each one a savage-looking spear. Before the front pair were two limbs that ended in long pincers. Its head had four eye stalks above a mandible-covered face.
The blue bolt that Jinn fired hit its face, and the body fell backward. For a few moments, there was silence. Then a scream came from behind the walls and then four more of the creatures flew over.
Locke looked at them and reacted. “Earth Shot!”
Four spears of rock shot out from under the waves. Each tracked and impaled one of the creatures before they could land back in the water.
“What are they!? Have you seen anything like them before!?” Jinn asked with a scowl as he fell into a combat stance
“No, and they're too quiet to be the scavengers! We gotta get some weapons….. wooooh!” Locke bellowed before he dodged a blast of water.
He looked up and paled at what he saw.
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Jinn looked at the wall and felt his senses tense. There was a humanoid creature standing there. It had a body at least five feet tall and covered in red scales. Its head was part of its body sitting on its shoulders and no neck. It had four limbs, two of them holding a spear and another holding a net. The third was pointing at them, and glowing blue. It had two eyes, both pure black. They were above a maw of needle-sharp teeth. But what bothered him the most was that this creature was wearing clothing. It had on a pair of red shorts that looked like it was made of red leather and chitin chest armor.
“What is that!?” Locke asked with shock in his voice.
“Trouble,” Jinn said with a scowl. He locked eyes with the being, and he saw nothing in its gaze but a hunger that would eat the world. For a moment he wondered if he should try and talk to it, but then more of the chitin things jumped onto the wall, ten in total.
As the biped raised its spear, Jinn reacted.
“Well, time to go!” Jinn said as he grabbed Locke and moved some of the burning power to his feet. With a single ‘step’ he and Locke were ten feet in the air. Looking at the biped as it tried to find them, Jinn stepped again, this time moving to above the capsule. With a single thought, he ‘stepped’ to a foot above the sand.
“What the stars!?” Xordig cried as Jinn and Locke landed. “What is it!?”
Before they could say anything, they heard screams of fear.
“Trouble! Get your weapons!” Jinn barked. He looked at Locke and nodded. “Give the wall facing that thing a place for us to hide and fire at it!”
“On it!” Locke said with a grin.
“Come on Jinn, the weapons are over here!” Xordig said and ran into the capsule.
Inside, Burt was about to tell another story but he stopped when Xordig ran in. The bear like being grabbed three rifles as the people stared.
Tomkin poked his head out and scowled. “What’s happening out there!?”
“Attack from the sea! We’re going to hold them off until the gathers can get inside!” Jinn said with a scowl.
Tomkin only looked at him before he nodded. “Go! Get everyone into the capsule! And stay alive!”
“So what have we got?” Burt asked as he got up, pulling out his own weapon.
Jinn looked at him, then he looked at the passengers behind him.
With a hard look in his eyes, he just nodded. “Nothing we can’t handle.”
Burt seemed to catch on and nodded, following them out the door. Locke turned and closed the door, prompting Burt to sigh.
“Sorry. So what are we facing out here?” Burt asked with a somber look.
Jinn just sighed and shook his head. “Some kind of red-scaled fish man with needle teeth and his hunting crabs.”
“Needle Teeth!? One of those things?! And it was just one!?” Burt said, a look of horror on his face.
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The hunter felt so eager for the carnage! It was worth it to move ahead of the horde! There were some of the tasty two-walkers on the boundary! It thought that all it would find here were going to be some of the scaled ones, but no! Instead there were the pink-skinned ones. Those were always good food. But as the hunter directed its hunters, some strikes of light hit them.
It looked around and tried to find the attacker. But then it threw itself toward the beach moments before something passed over its head. As it hit the water, it scowled. The far strikes, the humans sometimes had them! They were cheaters to use them, and not use the life around them. The horde had captured one once, but it never worked after that. With so many, the chances that they would have one that stayed active were strong. It never understood why they stopped, the horde ate the ones that Powered them after all!
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As she aimed and fired her rifle, Racha cursed herself. Why had she expected the ocean to be free of foes? They had fought that thing in the river, did she think it was from a lake!? She was usually better than this, what had happened!? They’ve fought monsters and foes from all around them, why didn’t she look at the river as a possible ambush point!?
But she had better things to think of now. The crab-like things were shooting out of the water as the four-armed Fishman was firing water blasts from its hand. So far, the blasts were just pushing people against the ground, but the crab things kept coming!
“Have you seen anything like that before since you all crashed here!?”
“NO!” Xordig cursed as he looked at the crab things, firing again when one of them neared one of the gatherers. “The things that attacked us were different!”
“Great! So this thing is what? A hermit?” Racha asked as she fired at another of the creatures. She almost fired again when blasts started to rain from the stone walls. She looked towards it and saw five points of fire, and then she cursed.
“Or from out there! We might have to take the whole capsule to the Yard-Ship!” Xordig called out as he fired at the ocean.
As she fired at one of the crab things on the beach, Racha felt that her friend might be right. There seemed to be no end of these things, and this was just one of bipeds. If more of them were coming with just as many, they were in trouble. “Xordig, time to move! Get to Burt, maybe he’ll know what these things are! I’ll help defend at the front. And don’t argue with me, this needs range!”
“Got it!” Xordig called.
Racha just nodded and started to run, firing as she went. After a few feet, she put her rifle onto her back and pulled out her pistol. With each step, she fired another shot. Within moments, she had taken out half of the twenty crab things.
As she made it halfway to the walls, she heard a screech of what sounded like rage and anger. The fish biped was up, and it pointed both of its upper arms at her and with a roar fired two blasts of water at her.
She dove forward and rolled into a ball, moving five feet until she got back up. With a scowl, she kept firing as she ran in a loop towards the wall. The only good thing was that the biped kept firing at her, ignoring the others. And she saw that they had all made it behind cover, with luck they could handle this lone thinking foe.
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“One of those things!? How!? They would have attacked me once I landed here if they had a village nearby! This place would have been nothing but desert by now!” Burt said, horror in his voice.
Jinn listened to Burt behind him as he led the way to the stairs that Locke had made.
“So I’m thinking these things are bad news?” Locke asked with false cheer. “And they never travel alone? So there’s not a chance this is a lone traveler?”
“No,” Burt said with anger and fear in his voice. “If they do, I’ve never heard of it. These things eat everything, Sentient or otherwise. Meat or plants, they only care its organic. It’s not unheard of to find islands stripped clean and ships to be lost to them. Most cities are always behind a wall to keep them out. Some islands even make walls blocking all beaches.”
Jinn looked out over the walls and smirked. Racha was trading fire with the biped, and the few crabs left had retreated. He looked back at the others and grinned. “Well, this one isn’t so bad.”
“Because it’s not one of their War Power users!” Burt said, fear in his voice.
“War Powers?” Locke asked, a savage tone to his voice.
“Yeah. Those who trained to use the Power just for war. This one must have something that can control those crab-things. That and the fact its alone is the only reason we’re alive. We have to get the others ready to run!” Burt said, fear in his voice.
Jinn looked at the creature in the waves, and how it kept ducking down under them. “The walls, they weren’t just to hide behind. The makers wanted to give themselves warning to run away from the water.”
Burt blinked, and then looked out, his mouth dropping open. “By the seas! You might be right! But they have people who can break down the walls Locke raises! To stay here is to invite death!”
“Hey!” Xordig’s voice came from behind them, causing Jinn to stop for a second. He turned and saw Xordig running towards them. “So, you know these things, Burt? How bad are they?”
Jinn only looked towards the direction the Yard-Ship was, trying to think. The horde that this one might be from must-have trackers. And maybe Powers that would let them operate longer away from the water.
“Burt, take Xordig and go tell Chief Tomkin what’s going on! I’ll back Racha up! Locke, go out back! Make a stone walkway into the forest!” Jinn barked as he aimed at the biped.
“What do you mean move!? It’s almost night!” Xordig barked.
Burt just nodded, turning he ran towards Xordig and grabbed his right arm. “It’s a long, terrible story that I only want to tell once! But it might be the best of a terrible situation!”
Locke stayed where he was, looking at Jinn for a few seconds. “You think the Horde will have trackers? That’s why you want me to make a stone walkway?”
Jinn only nodded, aiming at the biped and firing. The biped dropped down, stopping firing at Racha. Jinn watched her run to the stone walls, and he just nodded. “Makes sense if you think about it. There has to be reason that the walls would be made if the enemy can bring them down.”
“Oh, I see. Make the enemy work for everything they take. Yeah, I’ll make the path!” Locke said as Racha and Al ran up the stairs.
Jinn turned and fired another bolt at the Biped. He knew they were running against the clock now. Could they leave before the Horde made it here? That was the question that they had to ask themselves if they wanted to survive the night.