Talon Squad sat on the floor around a low table with Chreep. Made of the same vegetable stalks as the gangway outside the tower, Vanbrook was surprised at how sturdy it was. He turned to look at the flooded stairwell on the side of the room opposite the doorway.

“That will take you down the tower to the lakebed, where we keep our homes,” said Chreep, noticing the glance.

“Did you build all this in the past few months?” asked Vanbrook.

“Yes, yes indeed,” answered Chreep. “We realized quickly that not all ‘sapients’ breathe both air and water as we do, so we built this tower to provide a place for conversations. It is strange to build above the water, but we are quite happy with how it turned out.

“It’s beautiful,” said Reclan, running her hands along the mosaic pebble floor. “How did you do it?”

“Just like any other building,” said Chreep. “Lakestones and spit.”

Reclan pulled her hand away from the floor.

“Sorry,” said Chreep. “‘Spit’ is not quite right. It’s a gluey substance the Shairet can excrete from a gland within the mouth. I understand that this, also, is not the norm.”

“No, that’s a first for me,” said Vanbrook. “But the tower is beautiful.”

Chreep nodded. “Thank you, Vanbrook. However, I am afraid I did not ask you here to admire our craftsmanship. The Shairet ask for your help with a harvest.”

“A harvest of what?” asked Raivyn, cocking her head.

“Krikifruits,” said Chreep.

“Why do you need our help to harvest these… krikifruits?” asked Raivyn.

“Because of the–let me think–yes, spider apes,” said Chreep, elated to have found the right words. “I believe you would call them spider apes in your language.”

“Um- what?” asked Reclan.

“Spider apes,” said Chreep a third time.

“Yes, that’s what we thought you said. How do they relate to the fruits?” asked Vanbrook.

“They live in the trees that the fruits grow in,” said Chreep.

“That doesn’t answer the question: why do you need our help?” asked Raivyn again.

“It has been some time since we were able to reap a harvest,” said Chreep, his voice heavy. “And it shows. The fruit’s juices help our children to grow strong. Without them, they become sickly. But our orchard, the only source of the fruit within a thousand miles, was infested with spider apes, and we have, to our shame, not cleared them out. Some tried. They were killed.”

"We can travel that in a day," offered Raivyn. "Can we take you to these other orchards?"

Chreep shook his head. "No, those belong to another tribe. All orchards are claimed by tribes, and taking from others means war. The least bloody option is to retake our own orchard."

“Why didn’t you ask anyone else?” asked Raivyn.

“We have seen you fight, Talon Squad!” answered Chreep. “And fought beside you.”

Raivyn recalled the scuffle with the PIC’s Xanthous Brotherhood.

“So you have,” said Raivyn.

“The Council was hesitant to ask for help in this matter at all,” said Chreep. “The truth is they were hesitant to ask even you, but they gave in. Our young ones’ limbs are shriveled. We must do this.”

“Alright,” said Raivyn. “We’ll have to ask our Admiral. For now, why don’t you tell us a little more about these spider apes?”

***

The Gladius had come out of its jump and approached the source of the Glory’s distress beacon. Krum-Bahk looked out of the viewport from where he sat behind Grepk in the cockpit.

“I’ve never seen anything like it,” said Huluna in awe.

The remains of the Glory were little more than some bits of scrap metal and a misshapen ball that was once the fuselage of the ship. It was torn inside out, as if a giant had reached in through the nose, grabbed the rear thrusters from the inside, and pulled them out. Perhaps that was exactly what happened.

“Do we search for survivors?” asked Krum-Bahk.

Grepk sighed. “I can’t imagine there are any, but, yeah, we’d better. Suit up.”

Shortly thereafter Grepk, Krum-Bahk, and Keshri were floating through the aether in their suits, sifting through the wreckage.

“Shouldn’t we be worried that thing might come back?” asked Keshri.

“Probably,” said Grepk. “But it seems unlikely. It doesn’t seem like it stays in one place. Think of how far it is from where it attacked the Wingspan. It’s not that far via jump, but as far as we can tell, it’s just… swimming around in the aether.”

Unauthorized duplication: this narrative has been taken without consent. Report sightings.

Krum-Bahk shuddered.

A few more moments searching proved to the Marines that there were no survivors. They headed back to the Gladius and began the last leg of their jump to Gateway.

***

After discussing the matter with Jasken, Talon Squad loaded up their ATUC and met the Shairet back at the tower. The Admiral was happy to hear they had an ‘in’ with the locals and was happy to clear them for the mission.

Chreep stood ready to go with two crossbowmen.

"This is Chrip and Cheerp," said Chreep. "My brother and sister."

"You, uh, weren't kidding about the name thing earlier, huh?" asked Vanbrook.

"They are coming with us," said Chreep, not responding to Vanbrook's remark. "It is a day's hike, we must start now."

"Hop on," said Raivyn. "We'll be there within an hour."

It took some convincing, but the skittish Shairets eventually agreed to climb onto the hovercraft and they were off, with Vanbrook, Reclan, D'Jarric, and Hrake crammed in the cargo bed to make room for their guests.

Chreep sat by Raivyn up front and directed her through the forested path that led from the lake to the top of a nearby hill where the orchard grew.

"Stop here," said Chreep. "We can move on foot from here to sneak up on the apes.”

Pulling the ATUC onto the side of the path, Raivyn and the others piled out and followed Chreep up the road. The wild forest gave way to slightly more organized chaos, and tall, rubbery trees with twisted, leafy branches began to dominate the landscape. Vanbrook looked up into the branches and noted that they were weighed down by large, red globes.

“These are the krikifruits?” he asked in a whisper.

“Yes, yes they are,” answered Chreep. “The apes will be in the branches. We must move cautiously; stay to the outside of the orchard and keep your eyes pointed to the sky.”

The group fanned out, weapons trained on the canopy.

“That’s far enough,” said Chreep. “Wait for them to come to us.”

They stood for a tense hour, watching the trees but seeing no movement.

One of the crossbowers chittered and tweeted excitedly. Chreep responded in a chiding tone. The crossbower waved him off and walked further into the grove.

“The fool thinks the spider apes have abandoned the orchard,” he whispered hoarsely. “They are only biding their- ”

A hissing scream sounded from above and a gorilla-like form fell from the branches, a thread of some kind attached to its back. It was jet black and covered in coarse, coal-colored hair, its four limbs ending in clawed hands. The spider-like red eyes and glistening fangs were trained on the foolish Shairet who dared to walk into its territory. The spider ape slammed into the crossbowman before he knew what happened. Using its arms to grab its prey and its double-jointed legs to pull itself back up the web it had descended on, it was there and gone before anyone could react. A sickening crunch was the only sound that came from the place where predator and prey had disappeared.

The group fell back and instinctively huddled together. Raivyn put her hands to her temples and sought out the enemy. She had not known what to look for before, and the jumbled mess of animal minds had made searching for the spider apes an impossible task. The ambush had been brief, but Raivyn followed the psychic signature of the attacker back to its source and then looked for similar creatures.

“There’s nine of them,” said Raivyn. “They’re more territorial than hungry. I doubt I can calm them down, but I might be able to confuse them, maybe even get them to fight one another.”

Reaching out with her mind, Raivyn tried to muddle spider apes’ minds. Hissing and howling emanated from the tree tops, which began to thrash violently. A crumpled form fell from the branches and struck the ground. Another form fell, this one landing on its feet and roaring at the hunting party.

Getting a better look this time, Vanbrook noted that the beast was about five feet tall, barrel-chested and had a toothy maw hidden behind its spider-like fangs. A hail of gunfire erupted and a crossbow bolt buried itself in the ape’s forehead. It crumpled by its dead comrade’s broken form.

Two more spider apes crashed out of the branches, wrestling on the ground. Vanbrook moved to fire on them but saw another monster leap from the branches above, straight towards the group. He swung his revolver up and fired. The beast bowled him over, but the fangs and claws no longer had the strength of life in them.

As Vanbrook rose, he saw that deft crossbow bolts had finished off the two that had been fighting each other.

“That’s five down,” noted Doc.

The final four spider apes crashed to the ground together. Three were the same approximate size as the others, but the last one was closer to eight feet tall. It stomped after the others, grabbing one by the leg and smashing it into one of the fruit trees, nearly breaking the smaller ape in two. Gunfire quickly downed the other two.

Raivyn shouted and slammed a concentrated T-bolt into the giant spider ape’s forehead. It stumbled forward a few paces and then crashed to the ground, landing only a few feet from the party.

Vanbrook turned to Raivyn, his eyebrow arched. “What did you do to those poor things?”

“Something horrible,” said Chreep angrily. “I should have said before I brought you: do not do such things! The spider apes may be beasts, but they deserve better.”

“Excuse me!?” demanded Raivyn. “You asked for our help. We did so to the best of our ability. If you don’t like how we operate, don’t ask for our help again!”

Chreep fidgeted, feeling chastened. “This discussion is for another time. At least our children will have what they need. Come, we must gather what fruit we can now, as well as Chrip’s body.”

The mood remained somber and awkward as Chrip's remains were disentangled from the branches and a crate of ruby red krikifruits were gathered. The drive back was uncomfortably quiet, and Chrip's remains were carried into the tower and down the steps into the lake.

The fruits, on the other hand, were received gratefully by council and quickly distributed to the younger members of the village.

Once the work was done, Chreep walked back over to Talon Squad.

"We will have that conversation now, Raivyn. Though the council has requested you meet with them in the village proper, if possible."

Raivyn nodded. “I have clothes that will allow that.”

“And I’ll be coming along,” growled Vanbrook.

“Vanbrook, that’s not necessary,” protested Raivyn.

“No way Jasken will sign off on you going by yourself,” said Vanbrook firmly.

Raivyn rolled her eyes. “Fine.”

***

Crush had shut down for a while, sitting cross-legged on the ground and resting her circuits, allowing herself to recharge in the radiation-heavy atmosphere of the world she’d settled on. Her head snapped up and her dulled eyes brightened back to life. She stood up, nearly running to find Yrinla.

The tree priestess was humming quietly to herself as she worked on Crush’s star tree.

“Yrinla,” said Crush, grabbing the elderly Astralbian by the arm.

“What’s the matter, Admiral Crush?” asked Yrinla, confused by the sudden interruption.

“The world you're looking for,” said Crush, pacing. “Do you know what path the ancient tree priests took from it to get to Astralbia Prime?”

“No,” said Yrinla. She paused and thought. “There are theories, and one does point to the Cluster, generally, but not definitively.

“Cross reference it with theoretical trajectories for the asteroid that brought core crystals to Aerat,” urged Crush.

Yrinla cocked her head, looking intently at the Robot’s face. “Why?”

Crush held her head in her hands as she spoke. “I had - I think I had a dream.”