It has now been over 2 weeks ever since they had been stranded on the planet and ever since then they made some progress in making the cave a temporary home. They used wood and other materials to make separate rooms, including a shower room. Abel holds up the container they were using to fill and dump water on themselves over the shower wall.
"Yo, can somebody fill this up for me?" Abel asks, waving it over the wall.
"Sorry bro busy right now" Mohan says as he works on getting their communications line back online.
"Ya I'm a bit busy at the moment too" Hibiki responds as he continues working on new field guide entries. Elena doesn't respond as she's sleeping in today.
"Fine I'll do it, I don't know why you need 5 things of water to wash yourself" Luh grumbles as she snatches the container and heads over to a creek they had found for clean water. "And of course it has to be dry" she mutters looking down at the completely dry creek. She then heads back to the base. "Abel, the creek is basically empty." Luh says as she tosses the container over the shower wall.
"How the hell would it be dry?! I swear it was flowing as usual last night" Abel says as he comes out of the shower wearing some clothes.
"Well maybe cause you use 50 buckets per shower" Luh says sarcastically.
"Very funny, now cmon lets go check it out" Abel says as he grabs his gun and machete.
"Yo! Mind if I can tag along, if the creeks all dried up then there's probably some new species I can document" Hibiki says while walking over to Abel.
"Sure, more hands mean I can get back to my shower quicker" Abel says as he leaves the cave, with Hibiki and Luh in tow.
Once they arrive at the creek, Abel and Luh head to where the creek and river meet to see how the creek could've dried up. While Hibiki on the other hand, heads down into the now dried up creek to document the species of aquatic aliens that were living in the creek. Hibiki documents a variety of species, most of them being fish-like and having 4 moveable fins, which is unlike earth fish while only having 2 moveable fins. As he continues down the creek he is hit by a putrid smell, almost as if something is rotting but the small was so much more pungent.
"What the hell is that smell?" Hibiki says covering his nose and mouth as his eyes tear up from the smell. Regardless of the terrible smell, Hibiki treks on further as he does he finds the source of the smell. "What the . . . " Hibiki says, his voice trailing off as he stands there, eyes widened by what he saw in front of him. It was a small mound of flesh, around a foot tall. It was made up of some of the smaller aliens he had documented. He gets closer and all of the eyes from the corpses on this flesh mound turn to look at him. "How the hell?!" Hibiki says, taking a small step back from the amalgamation of flesh and eyes. Suddenly, a small splinter-like object shoots out from it and it gets stuck in Hibiki's clothes. Hibki takes a step back from it and pulls the projectile out. "It's almost like a bee stinger, probably venomous. The fact that it could shoot something out means that whatever it is, it's alive" Hibiki mutters to himself as he puts the stinger into a storage capsule. As he does, he hears the rush of water and immediately begins to scramble out of the empty creek but slips on the wet mud and gets swept away by this rush of water. Hibiki tries to grab onto the side of the creek to pull himself up and just barely manages to do so. "Holy shit" he says laying down on her back and panting to catch his breath. Abel and Luh rush back to see Hibiki laying there.
"Holy shit are you ok bro?!" Abel says as he lends a hand to help Hibiki up.
"Ya im good but you could've given me a heads up" Hibiki says grabbing his hand and pulling himself up.
"Ya our bad, so did you find any new species?" Luh asks him.
"Ya and i found something really weird, let me show you" Hibki says as he goes to take out the sample before his eyes widen before turning to look in the river. "Damnit, the sample must've gotten swept away".
"Damn that sucks man" Abel says, patting his back before filling up the container with the water from the creek. As he fills it up a large eel like creature with a horn pops out of the water and starts splashing around looking at the group curiously with its 4 eyes. "What the hell is that dumb looking thing" Abel says splashing water at it in an attempt to scare it off.
"Hey I think it's pretty cute," Luh says, tossing a small piece of meat at it, which it eats.
"Well, it might attack us or something" Abel says before throwing a rock at it, which it dodges before splashing Abel with water.
"Abel, careful it kinda resembles that big electric alien-" Hibiki warns him but Abel doesn't listen and the alien gives him a light and playful zap using its horn.
"AH WHAT THE FUCK?! OW" Abel yells, which scares off the creature. Luh in the background is laughing her ass off while Hibiki holds back a laugh himself. After this, the 3 of them head back to the cave but Hibiki couldn't get his mind off the flesh mound thing. "What the hell was that thing, it was clearly alive" Hibiki mutters under his breath as he begins to sketch a field note entry for it. It was pretty quiet in the cave as the group each did their own thing when suddenly Mohan broke said silence.
"YO GUYS, I GOT THE COMS BACK UP AND RUNNING, COME QUICK!" Mohan says and motions everybody over with hand gestures. Everyone rushes over as a voice comes over the device. "This is the crew of the Apollo 15, do you read?" Mohan says over the com system.
"Yes this NASA HQ, what is your status?" The radio responds. Cheers erupt from the rest of the crew before Mohan clears his throat and responds to NASA HQ.
"We are currently in forests of the planet, we are about 10 kilometers from the landing site." Mohan responds promptly.
"We see, we sent an extraction unit to the planet 4 days ago. The extraction unit's trajectory will be towards the base of the mountains" NASA HQ responds, with a small visual showing on the screen of the device.
"Alright we will be right there to meet the extraction unit, when will they arrive?" Mohan asked.
"We will be there in approximately 3 days at 1200 hours. We hope to see you then" NASA HQ responds before cutting communications. After they cut communications, everybody starts getting ready to travel to the location that NASA marked for them.
"Man, I can't wait to take a nice hot shower once I get back home," Abel says, stretching as they begin their walk.
"Same, we smell terrible bro" Mohan says, handing the device to Luh so she could lead them.
"Ya, it's gonna be nice to finally go home but I hope I can document a couple new species while I'm here" Hibiki says, staying at the back of the group as they begin the journey to the base of the mountains.
"I'll be a hero once I get back home though my mom is gonna be a pain in the ass since I've been missing for half a month" Luh says chuckling.
"Atleast you'll get some stroganoff afterwards" Mohan says chuckling.
"Fair point, chicken stroganoff is heavenly" Luh says
"I want to have some Pelmeni when I get home" Elena adds
"Pelmeni? The hell is that, I'm looking forward to some juicy steak" Abel replies.
"It's like dumplings, I like mine with sour cream. Steak sounds nice though" Elena explains.
"Sounds pretty good, maybe we should get some once we finally get outta this place" Hibiki says before adding on. "I can't wait to have some Takoyaki once I'm back Tokyo"
"Psh, as if I'm going to Russia of all places, I'd rather not freeze to death-" Abel starts before Elena smacks the back of his head. "Ow, that was uncalled for" Abel says, rubbing the back of his head.
"Mohan, what're you gonna eat once you get back?" Hibiki asks him.
"I'll give you 30 bucks its Nihari with butter naan" Abel says
"And you're damn right! Nihari blasts your greasy ass burgers straight outta the water" Mohan replies.
"Ya right! We'll see about that ya curry muncher!" Abel says, grinning.
"Bet, I'll destroy your sorry ass!" Mohan says, also grinning.
"I'm putting all my money on Mohan" Luh and Hibiki say at the same time.
"Same here, my dad while drinking vodka could cook better than abel" Elena adds on.
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"Jeez, thanks for the support you guys" Abel grumbles sarcastically.
"Well, we should probably get a move on, we have to cover 195 km in only four days" Luh says as the group picks up the pace.
The group walked for a couple more hours, stopping at around 2am or 0200 hours in a nearby cave to rest. They are now 135 km from the extraction point and have about 3 more days till the team arrives at the extraction point. Everybody fell asleep but Elena stayed awake to keep watch. While keeping guard her eyes drift over to Hibiki's field guide and looks around before sneaking over to the book. She opens it and makes some drawings for some of the observations like she did with Abel. She then flips all the way to the end of the field guide and sees a drawing of what seems like a blob of flesh with eyes along with some notes versus the usual statistics in Hibiki's field guide notes.
"What the hell? . . ." Elena mumbles as she reads over the page. She then quickly puts down the field guide where she found it and goes back on guard, not wanting to confront Hibiki on the outlandish nature of the alien he described.
Next morning the group gets up and continues their journey to the base of the mountains, at 17:00 hours they had walked 35km and exited the jungle. They had entered a completely new biome now being 100 km north of where they were originally. This biome was the grassland biome, it had many rolling hills and trees scattered sparsely around the biome. This along with the view of the giant mountain in the background and a large stream running through part of the biome led to a beautiful scene in front of them.
"Whoa this place is beautiful! This gotta be one of the biggest mountains I've seen!" Luh says taking a few pictures of the entire landscape.
"Ya ya whatever, I just want to rest. My legs are done" Abel grumbles.
"Same here, we should eat something too" Mohan says as Hibiki nods in agreement.
"We can go rest by the stream, C'mon let's go" Elena says as she leads the way down to the stream.
As the group makes it down to the creek, they see a large and armored alien sipping water from the stream but what was most noticeable was the smell. Hibiki recognized it immediately, his stomach churning with uneasiness. Elena saw Hibiki's reaction and this along with what she read last night, she also started to feel just as uneasy.
"Hey uh guys can we go? I'd rather not stay here with that creature" Hibiki says motioning to the armored alien.
"It's probably just some herbivore, calm down bro" Abel says chuckling as he takes out some food from his backpack.
"Well ya but just trust me on this man-" Hibiki starts before being cut off by Luh.
"Hibiki, I don't wanna walk for a bit, let's just chill for a bit" She says as she lies down on the soft grass.
"Fine" Hibiki responds before grabbing some water.
Elena stays quiet and also grabs some food and water. "Man it smells terrible here, can't we just move" Elena grumbles in an irritated tone.
"Well you're not wrong, it does smell terrible here" Mohan says with a small nod.
"Nah you must love it, bet it smells like home for you here-" Abel says grinning before Mohan punches him in the shoulder.
"This is nothing. If you guys went to a new deli, y'all would pass out in seconds" Mohan says chuckling.
While Mohan and Abel rough around as usual, Hibiki was looking at the water and noticed a purplish-red bump coming out of the water. Then something shot from it and into the eye of the armored alien. The alien bucked, drawing the attention of the rest of the group before the creature's eyes went milky white.
Luh, immediately recognizing the milky white eyes, assumed the creature would be aggressive like the other one from over 2 weeks ago. "Run!" Luh yells out as everyone scrambles to their feet and dashes for the treeline.
The creature immediately begins giving chase, crushing through any obstacles in the it's path. Everyone dives into the treeline and hides from the alien as it looks around for them. As the creature crashes through the trees, everyone stays silent. Suddenly, a small Rostrata Pascentis(The small aliens Mohan cooked in chapter 3) pops up from a bush, which the larger alien immediately snatches up before walking away.
"Jesus christ what the hell was big dudes problem" Abel mumbles to the others as they all come out of their hiding spots.
"I don't know but that's enough resting for now. Let's get the hell out of here" Luh says as they begin walking again.
The group then goes back to walking until stopping to rest at around 24:00 hours, now being 70 km away from the extraction point. They set up a fire and everyone goes to bed except for Abel, since it was his turn to keep watch. As he keeps watch, he feels the odd feeling that he is being watched. He at first tries to ignore the feeling but it persists.
"Ah what the hell" Abel mutters before turning around, his rifle raised. He looks around in the darkness, a few trees litter the environment in front of him but he doesn't see anything else. "This planet must be making me go skitzo or something" Abel says before turning back around but as he does he notices something out of the corner of his eye. It resembled a human but its proportions were off. "What in the uncanny valley? .. " Able mutters before gripping his rifle and staring at the creature. The creature stares back before starting to walk closer before breaking into a full on sprint. Abel immediately starts shooting, hitting the creature in its shoulder and scaring it away. "What on earth . . " Abel says, covered in a cold sweat and his heart beating a hundred miles an hour. The rest of the night goes without incident but what happened replayed over and over in Abel's head.
At 0500 hours, the group woke up and then began walking at 0600 hours. For the first few hours they were walking there was no accident but Abel especially was on edge while walking through this wooded area.
"Hey bro you good man?" Mohan asks Abel while the rest of the group walks on ahead of them.
"Ya im good man" Abel responds, looking out into the woods.
"Bro, don't pull that shit. You look like you've seen a skinwalker or some shit" Mohan responds.
"Fine, I'm just nervous about the whole alien thing yesterday" Abel says.
"Can't blame you, that thing went berserk out of the blue" Mohan responds with a small chuckle.
Abel opens his mouth to agree with Mohan when he suddenly sees a face peeking behind a tree in the woods around 30 meters away but before he could say anything the creature ducks behind the tree again.
"Dude you ok?" Mohan asks, shaking Abel a little.
"Oh uh ya I'm all good man, I was just lost in thought" Abel responds.
"Alright, whatever ya say dude" Mohan says before deciding to give Abel some space.
They walk for a couple more hours until reaching the extraction point 1100 hours, making them about an hour early.
"Finally we're here, my legs feel like jelly" Luh groans before flopping onto the grass.
"Ya, now we just have to wait for the extraction team" Hibiki says before lying down on the grass too.
"Ya and I can finally have some Nihari" Mohan says with a small chuckle while both Elena and Abel keep watch, Abel especially was on edge as he looked from tree to tree. At 1130 hours, Abel notices a familiar face in the trees.
"Guys get up," Abel says, gripping his rifle.
"What do you see something?" Hibiki asks as he and the others get up.
Abel nods before motioning to where he saw the face and when everyone turns to look, there were now at least 5 of those aliens.
"Holy shit" Luh says looking at the aliens.
"This looks like something straight out of the Mandela catalog" Mohan says with a nervous chuckle.
As the groups stare at each other, more aliens begin popping up which begin to holler and screech at each other. Everybody tenses up at this, now standing back to back with each other as the aliens surround them. The aliens' hollering continues until they all begin charging towards the group, Abel and Elena immediately begin shooting at the aliens while Mohan, Abel and Luh use machetes to fight off the aliens.
"What the hell are these things?! They're using fucking weapons" Mohan says before dodging a swing from an alien's primitive club.
While Hibiki fights off another alien, a rock suddenly zips by his head and he notices some aliens staying back and hurling rocks at the group. "Abel! Elena! Get those ones!" Hibiki yells pointing to the aliens at the back.
Elena and Abel nod as they begin shooting down the aliens at the back, effectively killing them. The group continue defending themselves from the attackers when Abel and Elena run out of ammo, having to switch to machetes like the rest of the group. As Hibiki fights off one of the aliens, another tries to jump up behind him but Mohan quickly intervenes, getting his hand bit in the process. The alien knocks the machete out of Mohan's hand and begins pounding on his head before being tackled by Abel. While Abel fought that alien, the rest of the group began getting overwhelmed as another approached Mohan.
"Shit shit shit, this can't be how I die" Mohan says as he begins trying to crawl away and the alien continues to walk to him before it stops as a deep rumble vibrates through his entire body, making all the aliens on the field to stop and begin running away. As they run, a giant Armato Rege(The large predator they encountered in chapter 1) bursts from the treeline and chases after the aliens, chopping down on a few before turning its attention to the group.
"Oh shit" Abel says, exhausted and out of breath.
"Pelo amor de deus" Luh mumbles, just as exhausted.
As it approaches them, with almost a curious look in its eyes, bullets rain from the sky hitting it. It then runs off in confusion as the group looks up.
"THANK GOD IT'S HERE!" Mohan says, offering a weak high five with his good hand.
"ABOUT DAMN TIME, HOLY SHIT!" Abel says giving the high five.
"glória deus!" Luh yells happily.
Hibiki and Elena give a tired smile as the ship descends. But their happiness was extremely short-lived as two, most likely a breeding pair, of Spinsosa L. Venators(The flying alien that attacked their ship in chapter 1) attack the extraction ship. The ship's crew shot back at the attacking aliens but their ship was torn apart and crashed down, exploding on impact.
"NO FUCK NO!" Mohan yells banging his good hand on the ground.
Before the group could process what happened and move on forward, the ape-like aliens returned. They start making some hollering noises at each other before rushing in at the group, screeching and hollering loudly. As the group gets ready to fight once more, they hear a whooshing noise as they see a red blur pass by and cut the aliens to pieces.
"What the hell? . . ." Elena mumbles looking at the bodies.
The surviving aliens meanwhile begin freaking out and retreating back into the trees.
Once all the aliens retreat, the blur stops moving revealing a . . . Human? She was quite short, around 5'1 and had short hair. She wore ragged and dirty clothing but most noticeably, there was a sword coming out of her hand and a red light coming from her right eye.
"WHOA, MORE HUMANS! HOLY SHIT! WHOOOO! YOU GUYS MUST BE MY RESCUE CREW RIGHT!?" The girl yells happily, jumping up a bit. The group stares at her in confusion but before they could say anything, she interjects again. "Oh ya you guys must be freaked out by my aura" She says as the eye stops glowing and the sword retracts back into her arm, with her arm sewing itself back together.
"Aura? What the fuck do you mean-" Mohan starts before being cut off.
"Minus 1000 aura" She says before continuing. "Anyways, where's yall ship! Man, I can't wait to get back home! It's been like. . . wait what year is it?"
"Well we're not your rescue team, we got stranded here and the year is 2080" Hibiki starts before the girl interrupts him.
"WAIT WHAT!? HOLY SHIT I'VE STUCK HERE FOR 10 YEARS NOW! OOHH MY GOD! AND YOU GUYS AREN'T EVEN A FUCKING RESCUE TEAM" She yells in frustration before punching a tree, causing a dent in it.
"Wait, you've been here for 10 years?" Luh says in a confused tone.
"YA, I MEAN I WAS PART OF THE FIRST VOYAGE HERE! YOU KNOW THE BIGGEST MISSION IN ALL OF THE YEARS OF CIVILIZATION! COME ON! I MEAN, YOU MUST KNOW MY NAME! MOTHERFUCKING MIKU!" She yells again.
"Miku? I have never heard that name before and no one told us about a previous trip to this place . . ." Elena says.
"Wait, they didn't tell you guys? . . ." Miku starts before trailing off.
"THEN WHAT THE HELL IS GOING ON HERE?!" Abel yells out.