It was the most boring flight of my life, during which many of us built theories about what happened to us, why our ship was thrown out of subspace, and the like. This way we could somehow quench the boredom of a week of flying in the Trebuchet.
We got so carried away by the conversations that we even began to take an interest in each other’s lives and tell jokes, and even the BMP pilot joined us, adding his own couple of jokes to our conversations, but overall the flight remained very, very boring. There was nothing except the noise of the engines and curious phrases voiced by one of us.
The boredom suddenly disappeared when, in addition to the noise of the propellers, the calm voice of the pilot sounded in our headphones, who finally said something unexpected:
“Attention everyone. We are approaching the cargo shuttle crash site, prepare to disembark in five minutes."
"Finally."
Another voice sounded muffled in the headphones, and this time the man who was sitting opposite me and almost jumped up in surprise, adjusting his rifle, but quickly remembered that he was fastened to the seat.
“I thought this flight would last forever.”
"Truly."
Someone else said it. Meanwhile, I, also preparing to disembark, asked the pilot a question:
“What is the situation on the surface?”
After the question was asked, data appeared in my glasses: a map of the area, temperature, flight speed, our current location, air pressure, atmospheric composition and even the fuel supply in the infantry fighting vehicle.
“We are currently flying over a forested mountainous area, the weather is cloudy, the temperature is sixteen degrees Celsius, the wind speed is three meters per second, the wind direction is from north to south, no anomalies or signs of intelligent life have been detected.”
"Accepted."
I answered, studying the topography of the area with my glasses.
Judging by what I see, the first cargo shuttle was very unlucky and crashed head-on into the surface of the planet. There were points of unnatural origin visible on the map, which told me that these were the wreckage of the shuttle after the impact, from which practically nothing remained.
Shrapnel, tanks, fittings and other debris were scattered all over the hilly slope and even I had difficulty determining the exact location of the impact of the cargo shuttle, and even if I could determine this, it is unlikely that we would be able to find a STCNC machine here.
«Devil! If he is not here, then we will have to fly to the next cargo shuttle and it is not a fact that the second shuttle also did not crash to pieces.»
“Leo, our screws are acting up.”
The pilot told me in the headphones. This is what I feared more than anything in the world. The aircraft was not subject to maintenance for a whole week and remained in flight for a long time. There was not a single engineer among us who could deal with the malfunction that had arisen. There is only one thing left to hope for.
"Dock with the Planet"
I gave the order to the pilot.
“Otherwise we will be no worse than a meteorite.”
“I know, sir, I’m already starting.”
The pilot answered and began the landing maneuver.
We felt how the BMP began to gradually lose altitude and soon we all felt the impact on the ground with our asses. We were shaken a little from side to side, but on the whole we all survived, feeling the shaking from the vehicle moving along the slope and heard its tracks humming, and after some time the BMP turned, standing at an angle.
"Damn it."
The pilot swore.
“The scanner died. Camera too. I can't see a damn thing"
«Devil!»
I was already cursing to myself.
«First the screws, now the scanner. Argh~! How annoying this is! A bunch of problems can’t fall on our asses all at once! Damn it!»
Swallowing my displeasure, I gave the order to the entire platoon inside the car:
"We turn off the engine and disembark.”
After these words, the pilot turned off the engine and opened the two side doors of the BMP, after which we all unfastened from the seats and began to get out. I almost went blind when the bright daylight hit my eyes.
The white cloudy sky, the whistle of the wind, the cold air and, of course, the wooded mountainous area - that’s all that surrounded us. The fighters, having divided into two groups, left the car without any incident and peering into the distance, it was just a precaution, military instincts, so to speak.
"Purely. No hostile life forms were detected."
The scout said, lowering the muzzle of his rifle.
One of the fighters, instead of leaving the infantry fighting vehicle, began to tinker with the combat spacesuit in order to activate it in case of finding a machine control system. Everyone else, including me, immediately began to search the area for signs of a shuttle crash, although everyone already understood, judging by the wreckage, that it had fallen right here.
Everywhere on the rocky and earthy slopes covered with mosses and bushes lay some kind of garbage, all sorts of electronics, pieces of burnt plating, boxes and even the bones of shuttle pilots, who were apparently devoured by the local inhabitants of the planet.
The fabrics of their uniforms were scattered in all directions and bloody, and on the ground there were clear traces of some five-pointed paws. Seeing all this, I could only sigh sadly. No one deserves such an unenviable death, no one.
"Dying in the ass of the galaxy... what a shitty fate."
I said and put a breathing mask on my face.
The air here was too thin and the temperature was low enough to make us shiver. Our current police equipment was not designed for such conditions and yet we must complete our mission and return to «Persia» to repair the long-distance communications system.
«I hope John hasn't kicked the bucket yet, otherwise I'll kick Boris and Uwon's ass for not keeping an eye on this idiot.»
“What kind of... electromagnetic disturbances.”
The scout suddenly said, tapping the device in his hands with his fingers.
“Something is jamming the scanner... and that something is underground.”
Sudden interference in our glasses and white noise in our headphones told us that this area was subject to some kind of anomalous electromagnetic influence of a nature that was not yet clear to us. This created much more problems than just a cargo shuttle crashing to pieces.
On the slope there was one very deep cave, judging by the preliminary scan, but now this cannot be confirmed for sure. If there is something under the surface, then this cave may lead to where we can find the source of electromagnetic disturbances, but before that we had to search the area and find what we needed to find.
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“Search everything around and drag everything you see to the Trebuchet.”
I ordered and also began to explore the area together with the entire platoon.
Meanwhile, the temperature continued to drop, the sky darkened, and the next hours did not bring us any results. Having examined all sorts of wreckage of the shuttle, we found out that there was never any STCNC machine on it, and all the electronics burned out and were no longer suitable for use, but were just useless garbage.
Returning to the BMP around which there was already a whole pile of garbage lying around, I asked the pilot whether the vehicle could still be suitable for use, but in response I received the following:
"No, sir."
The guy said, rummaging through the insides of the car.
“The entire flight system died. He won't fly anymore. IFV now doesn’t even start up due to some disturbances..”
«Not good. Damn no good.»
I shook my head. I was still hoping that we could find a STCNC machine on the second shuttle, but for this we need an infantry fighting vehicle to get to it within three days. If we move on foot, then, firstly, we will spend an extra couple of weeks traveling, and secondly, we will freeze to death.
These electromagnetic disturbances come from underground. If we manage to eliminate them, then there is a possibility that the infantry fighting vehicle will be able to at least launch, and if we cannot take off, then we will at least reach the second shuttle along the slopes of these hills.
“Guys, give it all up."
I began to give new orders when everything around was almost completely dark.
“First, let’s get rid of the source of electromagnetic disturbances so that our dragonfly can at least crawl to the second shuttle. Is everyone clear?"
"Yes, sir!"
“Great attitude, guys.”
I grinned.
"All over me."
The glasses and headphones were now inoperative, and we turned off all devices, but prepared our flashlights on the muzzles of our assault rifles. From now on, we could rely only on our natural hearing and vision, which was very ineffective, especially on this planet.
The cave itself, to which we were heading, was a gorge whose surface seemed to be covered with rubble, which is why when walking on the ground it seemed as if you were walking on very loose and uneven soil. Inside the cave, of course, it was dark and much colder than outside, which is why we began to shiver a little from the cold and at the same time peered into the stone walls in search of anything that resembled the source of electromagnetic disturbances.
The bioscan did not work, so we could not accurately determine whether there were any dangerous life forms inside the cave, which is why we were very, very careful, taking slow steps along the gray stone. The platoon moved forward, gradually descending deeper and deeper. We moved in a line one after another further and further, making our way into narrow damp passages.
Unfortunately, preliminary scanning could not show how deep this cave was, but at least we knew for sure that there was no soft rock, because of which we could suddenly fall into hidden holes, well, at least something good.
We moved for an hour and when we had walked what seemed to us to be several hundred meters, we emerged in the middle of a vast space.
"Wow."
Someone from our platoon was surprised by the echo.
We suddenly had no time to look for dangers or causes of electromagnetic disturbances, we admired the large area that was illuminated by some kind of golden tree above our heads.
It looked very strange. It grew on the ceiling from top to bottom, and its roots passed through the gray stone, sparkling and shimmering with a bright yellow glow, as if golden blood was flowing through them. The trunk of the tree was thin, twisted and greenish, but the leaves were some kind of blue crystals, and at the same time, everything we saw illuminated the cave with a white cold glow, giving us an unusually pleasant feeling of warmth.
I have never seen anything like this in my life and most likely what we saw was the source of our current problems.
"Stop."
I said and the whole platoon stopped when I saw a huge sleeping creature ahead.
Having peered in time at the place under the overturned tree, I saw some kind of black snake that was curled into a ball and it was two meters high. From afar, at first it was not clear, and I thought that it was just part of the cave, but I was wrong.
The cave around the serpent was strewn with bones and some objects, some artifacts that we had never seen on this planet before. It looks like this creature devoured a bunch of intelligent inhabitants of this planet and left behind a bunch of trophies in the form of some kind of metal plates, spears, axes, sticks and other things.
Although personally, I still need to figure out why certain objects exist that I saw around this creature, if, of course, I can survive now.
"Quiet."
I said in a whisper and began to give orders with gestures.
We began to surround the giant black snake, turning off our flashlights and holding our guns in its direction, ready to open fire on it at any moment. I’m not sure that even at such a distance it was safe for us to be, and nevertheless we thought that we could kill this creature if we shot it with our armor-piercing shells, the main thing during this shooting was not to get caught by friendly fire.
But now there was another more important question, namely the source of electromagnetic disturbances, which was this inverted tree. And even when we entered this cavity, our flashlights began to blink, and then began to turn off completely one after another. As if this tree was a source of energy unknown to us, conflicting with electricity.
In addition to everything in this area, we began to feel uneasy; for example, I began to feel dizzy, my stomach hurt, and even with a breathing mask, the air I swallowed became chilly and icy, causing my throat to become inflamed.
«We must destroy all this.»
I decided and began to give an order to the sapper with a gesture, after which he nodded in response, accepting the order.
Having given silent orders, the platoon began to leave the cave and we thought that we would do this without any problems, when one of the soldiers, by pure chance, touched a stone with his foot and made a very loud sound.
My heart sank at that moment and a second time when, for a brief moment, the entire area glowed a bloody color. I sharply shifted my gaze to the upside-down tree, but it continued to emit an icy glow as if nothing had happened, and then we heard the sounds of movement behind us.
«Not this!»
Lowering my head down from the tree, I saw how a giant black snake began to raise its long muzzle. Red eyes exuding anger and, even worse, hunger. At that moment, we were all frightened and immobilized, rather not from fear, but from the hope that the creature would simply look around, twist its muzzle and continue its sleep, but we all hoped for it in vain.
It seemed impossible to me, but we heard from this snake not a hiss, but a growl, and then we saw paws with sharp claws stretching out from under the black ball, scratching the gray stone into sparks. A giant long creature stuck out a thin forked tongue, seeing us as prey, and exposed its huge fangs in the light of the cold radiance.
This was the first inhabitant of the planet that I saw, and despite understanding xenobiology and the differences in interplanetary life, I was still horrified by what I saw. A creepy, huge, nasty and strange creature that lived in an equally strange place. It frightened me madly and it seemed confident that it was stronger than our firearms.
When we realized that the creature was seeing us, we did not hesitate and immediately pointed the muzzles of our assault rifles towards the monster and immediately opened fire. Flashes from shots and the noise of fire quickly filled the cave, but for some reason the hits from armor-piercing shells did not have the desired effect.
The hit points on the scales flashed with a blue flash, and the giant snake slowly continued to stretch out and head towards us, without receiving any damage from our fire.
«WHAT IS YOUR FLESH MADE OF, BITCH?!»
I panicked, not releasing the trigger and holding the recoil of the shots with my shoulder.
«MADE OF KAINGREN ALLOY SOMETHING?! ARE YOU KIDDING A BITCH?!»
We immediately realized that the fire on him was useless, and therefore I quickly gave an order to the entire platoon, or rather not even an order, but a panicked cry:
"LET'S RUN!"
I shouted to the entire platoon, and we all immediately ran towards the exit from where and entered this area.
Five fighters were among the first to run through the passage, but the next moment it immediately collapsed in front of us and everything around was covered in dust after a stunning thunder that almost deafened us. The giant snake swung its tail and hit the walls, after which everything around shook. We could barely stand on our feet, and our entire field of vision was quickly hidden by a gray dusty curtain.
Then I heard painful screams and the sounds of cracking bones. It was not difficult to guess who they could belong to. Another swing of the tail, another thunder and five more fighters fly and crash at full speed into the wall and fall lifelessly down like limp dolls.
The other fighters, meanwhile, continued to shoot in desperation, but this time in panic and at random, in the hope of somehow injuring the terrible creature. One such stray bullet whistled past me, and I ducked down in fear. I almost came under friendly fire.
«What the hell is going on?!»
I panicked, not knowing what to do now.
I couldn’t even see this monster and could only wait for all this dust to clear away, but even when this happens I don’t know what to do next. The only exit has been blocked, and the giant snake is suffering all the damage it receives from us. The situation was critical and absolutely hopeless.
And just when everything seemed quiet around me, and the dust had finally settled, I felt heat behind me. It was the breath of this monster. Again, with even greater fear and horror on my face, I turn around and see in front of me the gigantic open mouth of this black snake.
«I'm... I'm dead.»
This thought flashed through my head.
It’s unlikely that I’ll even have time to come to terms with this thought. Time seemed to slow down around me. My heart was pounding, my whole body was shaking. It seemed God gave me moments to think.
«Is it really... I’m really done for?»
I asked myself or maybe God, and to my surprise I received a clear answer that someone voiced in my mind and this answer scared me crazy.
~ You are a pathetic little man.
I didn’t even have time to scream before my body was torn into pieces.