I don’t know what kind of animals can be found on this planet, large or small, but alas, as a simple soldier, I don’t know how harsh this planet is. While we were still in space on the cruiser, they did not tell us anything about the planet where we were supposed to settle for a while, apparently due to the fact that no unexpected incidents were expected.
Moreover, during all the time we were wandering through this jungle, we could not find any signs of the existence of even insects, and the harsh downpour continued to water our heads and drown the jungle. We kept in touch with the rest of the platoon, wrapped in camouflage raincoats, essentially turning into living bushes, and due to the brown, swampy water below, we still got wet and dirty in the mud.
“I can not see anything.”
Esko said displeasedly while examining the dense thickets through the scope of a sniper rifle.
“What about a thermal imager?”
Forn asked next to the sniper.
“You're an idiot?”
Esko grumbled.
“How to look here with a thermal imager? There are these trees and bushes everywhere.”
“Half a day passed, and we still haven’t found anything.”
Will said, crouching behind me.
“You need to climb to a hill and examine the jungle from above.”
“Won’t the wind blow away?”
Itami asked.
“There was no wind yesterday either.”
I answered, holding the bioscanner in my hands, seeing absolutely nothing on the screen.
“Could there be interference here?”
Suddenly, someone snatched the scanner from my hands and examined it.
“Hey!”
“They may well.” I heard a woman’s voice.
“What are you doing here?” I asked Sigrun, a black engineer girl, with dissatisfaction in my voice.
Alsisian examined the device, not forgetting to answer me.
“I'm bored.”
She said and returned the bioscanner back to my hands.
“You're right, something is interfering with the scan. Apparently somewhere nearby there is a source of electromagnetic pulses and this is not from «Persia».”
“How do these impulses interfere with bioscans?”
Will asked, seemingly not surprised by the new addition to our platoon.
“This... this takes a long time to explain.”
Answered Sigrun.
“Many factors influence the bioscanner. First of all, it catches the smallest radiation from carbon-based life forms, and only then, during processing, it separates the data from simple life forms from complex ones. The bioscanner works quite well, but does not show anything on the screen, not even microorganisms. Something is blocking all signals nearby.”
“What is blocking?”
I asked, putting the bioscanner under my raincoat.
“I can’t say for sure, but something is clearly strange.”
Sigrun was also wearing a camouflage raincoat, but unlike us, she was unarmed. I still don’t understand how she was able to slip past us and not get caught in our eyes or was it only me who couldn’t notice her? It didn’t matter now, and yet we don’t need her here.
“Get back to the shuttle.”
I ordered the engineer, and she responded by rolling her eyes and pointing to the north.
“There is one tall tree there. I saw it on the map. You can climb in and look around from there.”
Said Sigrun throwing a hood over her head.
“Well, I'm off, have a good hunt.”
“Don't trip.”
Will added with a grin, seeing how the girl disappeared into the jungle, and then Will turned to everyone else.
“Did she say north?”
“Yes.”
I confirmed.
“Let's go there, maybe we'll find someone.”
“The main thing is not Zempzen.”
Said another fighter named Ashwani, picking up his rifle.
“Are you afraid of them?”
Itami asked with a grin as he made his way through the bushes.
“Why aren’t they afraid? They are everywhere. They can even be here and give nightmares to all living things here.”
“Well, if there was a Zempzen hive here, we would have noticed it immediately.”
I said and we then headed north.
Meanwhile, the weather didn’t want to improve in any way, but we didn’t have time to wait for the sun’s rays to appear overhead. Fortunately, this toxic water falling from the sky is still amenable to at least some filtration, and we can drink it safely.
After a few minutes of walking through the jungle, I heard a voice in my earpiece from a member of our platoon:
“Sir, I think we have the ninth.”
I stopped between the thickets and asked:
"Ninth?”
"Yes. Anzhey cleared his throat. He’s not feeling well at all.”
«Oh shit. The last thing I needed was for one of my guys to catch an alien infection, especially right after the start of the hunt.»
"Crap. Return to the shuttle and we will continue the hunt.”
“Understood, sir, end of connection.”
“The second group is eliminated due to the second ninth.”
I told my soldiers.
“Ninth? Who is this anyway?”
Asked Ashwani.
He was a new recruit not only in our platoon, but in the army as a whole. He is not yet accustomed to the speech of the Republic Army soldiers and he still has a lot to learn. Everyone except him served in the army for more than ten years and can already be said to have created a separate language for themselves.
“These are people who dropped out due to illness.”
Itami explained, stepping over huge roots and stepping into muddy puddles.
“Who are the eighths?”
Asked Ashwani brushing away a large thorny bush.
“These are those wounded in battle.”
Esko has already answered.
“And the seventh ones are dead?”
"Yes."
Itami answered and we all fell silent.
It was hard to think about anything else when suddenly you remember that so many people died because of the shuttle crash. It seemed that our death was inevitable due to this series of failures, but thanks to Lieutenant John, we still have hope of surviving on this planet and returning home to our worlds. The main thing for us is to work together and together in order to return to our native harbor to our family and friends.
«My little sister is already grown up.»
I remembered my family.
«I promised to return to Earth after ten years of service, but now shit has fallen on my head.»
“Do you want a joke?”
Asked Will.
“Shut up.”
We all answered in unison.
“But I’ll tell you anyway.”
“You will be left without rations.”
I threatened.
“Understood.”
Will understood and fell silent.
An hour later, we reached a tall, lonely tree in the middle of a flooded clearing and noticed in its trunk a human-sized hole from which an orange glow could be seen. We all immediately realized that there was someone here and clearly intelligent. I assumed that someone had lit a fire inside the tree trunk and gave the order to his soldiers:
“Get ready.”
I ordered the soldiers, and we all prepared our weapons, ready to shoot at a potential enemy at any moment.
Esko hid behind the bushes, aiming towards the opening in the tree trunk. Will and Itami stood on either side of the entrance to this slot, and Ashwani and I walked forward and entered the tree trunk. Forn was behind us and was in the rearguard following on our heels. Coming out of the dirty rainy puddles and stepping as quietly as possible into the narrow but high opening, I saw something that I had never seen and gave the order:
“Lights out.”
I saw a glowing orange flashing stone on some kind of stand made of roots, looking as if a thousand wooden palms were holding something sacred, pressing it with sharp fingers.
The stone was uneven and did not make any sounds. Its radiance was somehow strangely mesmerizing. I wanted to touch it, but before that, taking out the mineral scanner, I realized that it itself was emitting a lot of light, and not just red-hot, as I had initially thought.
The mineral scanner showed a lot of strange data. Unknown material, many electromagnetic pulses, several magnetic fields and even gravitational distortion, although I could not confirm this visually. This thing was emitting a huge amount of energy, rather than absorbing it from somewhere. It is not normal. Whatever it is, it's very strange.
At that moment, Ashwani walked around me and came closer to the glowing stone. At first he looked at this light as if hypnotized, and then suddenly he grabbed the stone with one right hand, and the next moment Ashwani loudly screamed:
“aaaaaah~!!!!"
First his hand, and then his entire body, was enveloped in a bright light. Some strange electric sound filled the space inside the tree trunk, and then there was a flash and Ashwani disappeared without a trace, and that glowing stone remained in the same place where it was.
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I was shocked by what happened. The next moment, Ashwani's rifle fell to the ground and accidentally fired into the barrel, leaving a small burnt hole in the tree. Other fighters reacted to the sound of the shot.
"What's happening?!"
Will shouted while I was in shock and backing away in horror.
"Shit!"
I swore.
“Ashwani! Damn it!”
“What's happened?”
Itami ran inside the trunk.
“Where is Ashwani?”
“Don't go near this stone!”
I ordered with a shout, pointing to the glowing stone.
“He touched it and disappeared.”
“What?”
Esko was surprised, speaking into the earphone.
“Who is Ashwani?”
I adjusted the earphone:
“This is no time for jokes!”
“I'm serious.”
Esko calmly answered over the communication.
“Esko, what are you talking about?”
Forn asked after also witnessing Ashwani's disappearance.
“He was with us all the time.”
"What the fuck is going on here?"
Will swore.
"How could he disappear?"
None of us understood what was happening. A fighter disappeared without a trace and I didn’t want to risk the disappearance of the others. Horror arose inside me, my heart beat like crazy. I tried my best to calm myself down and put my thoughts in order.
"Let's go back."
I ordered, trying to keep a serious expression on my face.
"Forn, mark this on the map as an anomalous object."
"Yes, sir."
Forn answered and took out a tablet and did what I ordered him.
We got out and gathered together under some branch away from a tall tree and after that Will suddenly attacked Esko, pressing him to the tree trunk.
"Hey!"
I tried to separate Will and Esko.
“Ashwani disappeared, and you, bitch, are trying to joke?!”
Will was angry.
"Who is he?!"
Esko shouted back with complete confusion on his face.
"What just happened? What are you talking about some Ashwani? What are you even talking about?"
“It’s worth asking you what you’re talking about!”
Will shouted with a face ready to beat his own friend for inappropriate words.
"Enough!"
I shouted imperiously and everyone fell silent, and then I turned my face to the sniper, asking him one specific question.
"Esko, whose rifle is this?"
I showed him the Ashwani rifle that I had managed to pick up. Esko took the rifle in his hands and looked at it strangely, and then asked me:
"Did you find it inside the tree?"
"What are you talking about?"
I was surprised.
“You went in there with Forn, and then came out with this rifle.”
"Ashwani has disappeared, this is his rifle."
Esko's face suddenly became shocked.
"I don't understand."
"Me too, to be honest."
I answered, taking Ashwani’s rifle from Esko.
«Esko is not the kind of person who knows how to joke and also not the kind of person who would try to joke in an inappropriate situation. After Ashwani disappeared, he was seemingly erased from Esko's memory. What's going on here? We need to contact the lieutenant.»
I reached for my earpiece and called the shuttle, after which I spoke directly to the lieutenant.
"Sir, can you hear me?"
"I hear...~shhhh~ ...interference...~shhhh~ ...what... ~shhhh~ ...say..."
"Itami, climb higher with the station."
Itami nodded his head and began to deftly climb the tree with the communication station behind him, amplifying the signal, after which the interference in the earpiece began to disappear.
“How can you hear now?”
"Better."
Answered the lieutenant.
"What's the matter?"
"An incident has occurred. Sergeant Ashwani is missing."
For some reason the lieutenant fell silent at that moment. It seemed to me that the interference had intensified and drowned out the entire signal, so I asked again:
"Lieutenant?"
"I'm on the line. Wait. Who is Ashwani?"
I heard the lieutenant’s curious voice in the earphone.
“He’s not listed in the database at all.”
"A?"
I was surprised.
“I... will give you the report face to face. How did you understand?”
"Accepted. End of connection." The lieutenant answered and turned off the connection.
Meanwhile, I turned to face my guys, who, obviously judging by their faces, did not understand what had happened.
"I don't know what happened, but we better leave before we're all gone."
"Holy shit... we'll leave without Ashwani... damn it!"
Will was angry and was the first to go south towards the shuttle.
"Let's go."
I gave the order to the others.
Soon we returned as a platoon to the shuttle, where I immediately reported to the lieutenant what had happened.
"So that's what happened."
The lieutenant said when he heard my story.
"This is weird."
A senior medic stood next to the lieutenant and shook his head with dissatisfaction, clearly not really believing what he heard, and not surprisingly. It’s hard to believe in the disappearance of a soldier who doesn’t exist for you, who for some reason is not in the database, in a strange glowing stone, and in the fact that everyone has forgotten Ashvani except us.
"Are you trying to say that some non-existent person disappeared right before your eyes?"
Fred, the chief medical officer, spoke with skepticism.
“Are you aware that this is unscientific nonsense? You should have proof of all this.”
"Ashwani was there!"
Will spoke angrily behind me.
I covered the path between him and the lieutenant with my hand so that he wouldn’t do anything stupid.
"The four of us couldn't just make it up!"
"Yet Esko doesn't even know him."
Fred said and switched his gaze to the sniper holding Ashwani's rifle in his hands.
"Here."
Esko handed the Ashwani rifle to Lieutenant John, who took it in his hands and began to inspect the weapon.
"This is Ashwani's rifle. I saw Boris go into the hole in the tree trunk with Forn, and came out with this rifle. I don't know what happened, but it seems we have all really forgotten this Ashwani, whoever he was."
“Hmm~...”
The lieutenant looked at the markings on the rifle that read «RAFM-AAR-Ashwani» and said.
"This rifle is not listed in our regiment."
“Nevertheless, it couldn’t have fallen out of thin air.”
Itami said now crossing his arms over his chest.
"I have a guess, but I need to find out something."
We all looked at Itami, and the lieutenant asked the sergeant:
"What exactly?"
Itami did not wait and asked:
"How many people did we have on board the shuttle and how many of them survived?"
The lieutenant did not hesitate to answer.
"499 people and 60 of them survived."
"Why not 500?"
Itami asked.
The lieutenant was about to answer something, but suddenly he became thoughtful, and Itami, in turn, continued to develop the thought:
“During the evacuation, we couldn’t forget one soldier on the cruiser?”
The lieutenant shook his head in response and said out loud:
"It can not be…"
At that moment we all realized the true scale of this incident. Evacuation on the cruiser was carried out in the order that the shuttles were filled. There could only be one shuttle with an incomplete crew, and it definitely wasn’t our shuttle. Ashwani simply disappeared for everyone else, and not only from memory, but also from the database and, in general, from reality as such.
«This is madness! Ashwani was simply erased from reality!»
I realized, gradually falling into depression from the realization of this.
Itami was not silent and continued to talk, telling everyone about his crazy theory:
“It seems that after Ashwani touched that glowing stone outside a certain radius, everyone forgot about it. Esko was the furthest away, and we Boris, me, Will and Forn were right next to that tree almost right next to each other, and apparently that’s why we still remember him.”
"Really... that sounds like unscientific nonsense."
The lieutenant agreed with the medic and himself wrote down in the list of tasks on his tablet: «investigate an anomalous object.»
"Another problem on our head."
"This is not the first problem."
The medic said indifferently.
"About the second group of platoon C1-2-2D4."
"What's wrong with them?"
I asked, a little surprised, since I sent them back to the shuttle because they were sick.
"They were all exposed to an unknown infection. I quarantined them in a free compartment. They showed symptoms such as fever, weakness, large green round spots on the skin. The infection does not seem to be contagious, but just in case, stay away from them and wear breathing masks when visiting them. I still need to find out the cause of the disease and find a way to develop a vaccine. It is unlikely that human immunity will cope with the infection."
"Understood."
I answered.
Then the guys from my platoon and I stepped aside to talk about the current situation.
“There are also diseases...”
Forn said sadly, taking out and attaching his breathing mask to his face.
"I'll go check on the ninths."
"Fine."
I answered and Forn left, and I turned to the rest of the guys.
"Tomorrow we will continue our mission. Let's go west this time."
All my fighters nodded, and at the same time I thought.
«Almost three quarters of my platoon were out after the crash. My platoon is no longer combat-ready and can do little under the current circumstances. Many guys were wounded and sick, and one was completely erased, as if from the universe itself at the very root! Calm down, Boris, you are a commander, you should not show weakness. Stay strong!»
"Sir?"
Asked Will, losing all his optimism in front of me.
"What?"
"What are the orders?"
I became thoughtful, realizing that I had not let them go.
"At ease. Rest."
Will and I answered, Itami and Esko left.
In the meantime, I decided not to indulge in gloomy thoughts and decided to leave, when suddenly another officer of my rank entered the “command” compartment, which used to be the service compartment for shuttle pilots. Junior Lieutenant Uwon, seeing me, came up to me before he went and talked with Lieutenant John and while I had not yet left.
"Wait, Boris, how's the hunt going?"
Uwon asked me, too pleased with himself.
“No way at all. A fighter disappeared, and the second group contracted a local disease, and this despite the medications taken before the hunt.”
“It’s a pity, but my guys almost got lost. They were so scared when the map started to go out from the tablets that they ran as fast as they could to the shuttle. Fortunately, no one got lost. If the map had disappeared then, we would have also gotten lost in this jungle. Boris "There's something wrong here."
"I know."
I answered seriously.
"It's been wrong here from the beginning."
“Yeah. First we fell out of subspace, flew through the atmosphere of a protoplanet. Then there was some kind of accident on the cruiser, then something in the sky damaged our shuttle, and we fell behind the others. Failures follow us, Boris.”
"They're just faster."
I said with a grin and we both laughed.
Uwon is a good man, a Republican to the core. Always confident, loyal to the ruling party and has a large family on Earth. Surprisingly, he is actually quite an optimistic person and always knew how to relieve tension with a joke.
“It’s okay, Boris, we got out of the Moon and we’ll get out of this planet somehow. No matter what obstacles we have, we are people and when we work together we are stronger than anyone. So... I started talking to you. Well, I’m off.”
"Well, good luck."
I said goodbye to Uwon.
He went to the lieutenant and stood at attention and began his report, and I returned to the living quarters and sat down in one empty seat. I could still hear that annoying rain pouring down on everything outside. The local weather was too abnormal.
On the map, of course, it was clear that this jungle was surrounded by mountains and steppes from the north, but according to preliminary data collected in orbit, there were few rivers at all. There shouldn't have been a river basin here.
I’m not a geographer, but at first I thought that these abnormal rains were the result of the crash of our cruiser on the other side of the planet, but I threw out this option, since the weather could hardly change so immediately and quickly. We have yet to feel the consequences of the disaster.
In general, if you look at the map of the continent on which we found ourselves, it was clear that it was full of a variety of biomes. Mountains, deserts, plains, forests, steppes, jungles, savannas and much more. There was only no Arctic ice, mainly because the continent was located on the equator.
«This planet would be an ideal colony for some interstellar civilization. High suitability index, Earth-like atmosphere and gravity. There are three small moons, but this planet is not occupied by anyone. Is it really just because she’s anomalous?»
At this time, the blind fighter continued to mutter to everyone about some Soda.
"The light of Soda will envelop us... the light of Sod will protect us... plunge into the flame of Sod, ye righteous..."
"Should I shut him up?"
"Are you really sick?"
The two fighters who were resting nearby did not know what to do with the crazy blind fighter. I, in turn, sat down next to the blind guy and decided to ask him purely out of curiosity.
"Listen, tell us about Sod?"
"Junior Lieutenant, I don't think you should pay attention to him." said one of the fighters sitting next to him and added with a grin. "We'll write «Sod» on his face with a marker."
"How funny."
I snapped sternly and the soldiers laughed and shut up.
The blind fighter, lying on his back at this time, decided to tell everything.
"Savior, Sod, our God, our hope, our salvation... Sod... believe in Sod, otherwise he...."
"Hah~! Otherwise what?"
One of the fighters laughed at the blind man’s delirium, and the blind man finished gloomily.
"He will punish..."
“Please remind me in what year the Elarasian Dominion and its fanatical order fell?”
Asked the medic Fred, examining the wounded, and I, knowing the answer, of course answered.
"In 2997, during the second year of the Pantorian Invasion of the Human Sector."
"What happened then?"
The medic asked, examining the suddenly silent blind soldier with his medical scanner.
"The Pantorans brought the «Worldbreaker» into the system and simply destroyed an entire planet with three billion inhabitants."
"And knowing this, tell me. Did their Goddess Elarasia save them?"
The medic asked seriously, scanning the blind man’s body, and I answered gloomily.
"No."
Even though the blind man fell silent after the medic arrived, his face was very stern. After several seconds of silence, he barely audibly said to everyone:
"You'll regret this."
At this time, outside in the rain, the Trebuchet infantry fighting vehicle was being prepared to be sent to the crash site of a nearby cargo shuttle. The vehicle was twenty meters long, moved on tracks and had a turret with two cannons. One fired large-caliber projectiles, and the other SDP (Super-Dense Plasma). The IFV had doors on six sides, and the vehicle also had adjustable wings, under which were placed four accelerators for lifting into the air and adjustable helicopter propellers.
This infantry fighting vehicle was intended to introduce mountain warfare and to bypass high-altitude and river areas, but, like any equipment, it was very dependent on fuel and therefore was not suitable for waging a long war, but was intended for rapid short-term operations.
In general, we were lucky that in our shuttle there was a Trebuchet-type infantry fighting vehicle, and not some kind of amphibian for crossing rivers, otherwise Lieutenant John’s plan would not have made sense at all. Several engineers attached several additional fuel tanks removed from other vehicles to the IFV body.
According to the plan, these vehicles will take off on helicopter rotors, cross the jungle and end up in the east in the mountains where they will continue their journey by land. At that moment, the landing compartment opened and the ramp descended, after which the optimistic voice of Junior Lieutenant Leo was heard in the shuttle's speakers.
"Don't be bored, guys, the journey will be long. Pack your toothpicks and march to the «Trebuchet». The pilot is already launching the beauty, so don't stand still and pick it up."
Not knowing what to do today, I decided to watch the C1-2-2D1 platoon leave us. Thunder rumbled, and the clouds in the sky remained just as black. Twenty people exited the shuttle in police gear, carrying rifles, backpacks containing rations and other supplies, and then climbed into the IFV through the side and rear doors. In parallel with this, the car spread its wings with two helicopter propellers.
"Boris, thanks for the rations."
Leo said as he got into the IFV.
“You can tell me in a month what the local animals taste like.”
"Necessarily."
I answered and the door of the infantry fighting vehicle closed.
When all the soldiers of platoon C1-2-2D1 climbed inside the vehicle, the straightened two helicopter propellers began to spin, after which the infantry fighting vehicle began to take off little by little, filling the area with the whistling noise of the propellers, and then the infantry fighting vehicle gradually flew to the southeast. At this time I returned to the shuttle and listened in headphones to the communication between us and platoon C1-2-2D1.
"It barely flies, 20 kilometers per hour. If this continues, we will fall. If...~shhhh~... then...~shhhh~... we'll fall...~shhhh~... That's it...~shhhh~"
The connection was lost, and meanwhile the car disappeared far behind the trees amid flashes of distant lightning. At that moment, the lieutenant came and began to look, standing on the ramp in the downpour, and at the trail of fallen trees left by the shuttle. His face at that moment was extremely gloomy.
"Boris, what should I do?"
This question from the lieutenant addressed to me shook me to the core.