The vines came alive. They whipped out trying to grab Mako and RiffRaff, but they already had Jhakaas.
“Back up! Back up!” Mako shouted as he started cutting the vines reaching for him with his machete. The vines were extending from the tree and well as from the ground.
Jhakaas was making a strange choking sound. Mako ran toward him but trying to stay out of reach of the vines.
“Jhakass! Jhakaas!” Mako finally caught sight of him. He was held up spreadeagle with a vine on each limb and facing him toward one of the red flowers.
Jhakaas was shaking and then Mako realized...the idiot was laughing.
“Oh man! This is awesome. I’ve had this dream before.” Jhakaas chuckled again. “Except I have clothes on now.”
Mako looked at Arkana with a scowl. She shrugged.
Jhakaas giggled. “You come here often? I’m into tall, green, and viney. Be gentle.” There were projections coming from the red flower that seemed to be tasting him. There was a fluid on the projections licking him that caused his armor to start to smoke.
“Uh oh.” Jhakaas’ glee came to an end. “Guys? It’s trying to dissolve me with acid.”
Just as he finished speaking, one of the red flowers they were trying to shoot reared back and shot forward releasing a glob of acid that nearly hit RiffRaff.
Mako pulled up his weapon. “Shoot the red flowers and try to hit the vines holding him. Try not to hit Jhakaas, but I won’t hold it against you.”
“It’s so hard to meet nice plants...” Jhakaas muttered.
Mako shot the flower in front of Jhakaas and it closed up defensively. Then he activated his targeting system for precision targeting and shot the vine holding Jhakaas’ right arm. Mako had to keep moving to avoid the acid gobs that kept coming toward him.
Jhakaas didn’t waste any time as his right arm was freed. “Listen, I have to go. It’s not you, it’s me. I’m just not ready for this kind of commitment.” He grabbed his sidearm and shot the vine holding his right leg. The other two vines holding him started drooping as it appeared they were unable to support his weight alone and then they pulled up again leaving Jhakaas to dangle from his left arm and left leg. From that angle he had a hard time targeting the vine on his left leg. Even worse, he saw more vines starting to move in trying to grab his free arm and leg. He’d dropped his machete when he was first picked up and he was using up his ammo in his sidearm keeping the other vines away.
Mako took in the situation. Even if Jhakaas freed himself entirely he was going to drop into the storm of vines at the base of the tree. Still getting him down was the priority. Keep those red flowers from shooting acid was an equal priority.
“Panzer! Boomer!” Mako called the rear guard. “Focus fire on those red flowers up above. There aren’t that many. If we keep them busy, they can’t spit acid at us.” He thought for a moment and pointed, “In fact, Riff position at 12, Boomer at 4, Panzer at 8. You should be able to cover all of the flowers at those angles.” They acknowledged and moved into position. “Arkana, if you have any ideas for disabling these vines, I’m open to ideas.”
“I would suggest an incendiary grenade but that might cause the whole tree to go up. We could form a line on one side and cut our way in by whittling them down a bit at a time?”
Mako didn’t have a better idea, but he also was afraid he would end up with the whole science team pulled into the vines. Still, it was a simulation. “Let’s do it.”
“I’m running low on ammo. Keep them off me for a second!” Jhakaas called out.
Mako started picking off any vines trying to grab Jhakaas. Jhakaas in turn finally shot the vine on his left leg. Then he holstered his side arm and grabbed the vine on his left arm with right hand and yanked. The vine tore in half and seemed to retract in pain pulling Jhakaas upward another 4 meters. He swung toward the tree and launched off using his cybernetic legs. He let go of the vine and somersaulted through the air. He landed outside of the reach of the vines at ground level and rolled.
Jhakaas stood and held his arms up. “The scores are coming in! 9.4! 9.5! 9.2! And a 7.1 from the vegetable! I think she’s still heart broken.” He shook his head in mock pity. “So bitter.”
A huge, red flower lifted from the canopy of trees next to the huge tree in front of them. Vines creaked and it crashed down through the canopy toward Mako and Arkana. They both jumped back and to the side. Smaller vines shot out from the center of the flower searching for its prey. A cloud of vapor expelled from the flower as it pulled back.
“Death tulip!” Jhakaas shouted pulling his rifle now that he had both hands free.
“Watch that cloud!” Mako shouted. He did note that the gigantic flower indeed looked like a tulip.
“Mako?” Harpy spoke up. “That’s the power source.”
Mako kept moving back to move away from the tree and the cloud that was almost assuredly a cloud of acid. The Tulip was big enough that Mako could have stood inside of it and be completely covered. At the base of the flower was a bundle of vines. Instead of a stalk it looked like it was made up of a twist of vines. It was a little eerie to see it moving around. One would expect it to make a noise. Other than the crunching of the branches it broke and the creaking of vines. It was silent. It also had no visible means of detecting where the team stood. Yet, it seemed to know.
Mako looked around the area there were in. “We don’t have a lot of time. We need to head back. Keep your heads on a swivel. We’ve already poked this bear and I don’t want to get attacked by something else before we can deal with it.”
Enjoying this book? Seek out the original to ensure the author gets credit.
Panzer moved back some distance with Arkana and the rest of the science team. Mako, RiffRaff, Jhakaas, and Boomer spread out below the Death Tulip.
“Remember, we are going to simply bug out and come back another day if we can’t do anything to harm it. So, get ready to run.” Everyone nodded and Mako took aim. He pulled the trigger and shot a 3-round pulse into it.
It moved toward Mako who shot into the open maw of the tulip. It seemed to have no significant effect and kept coming at him. Mako dodged to the side and rolled as it passed through where he once stood. It stopped almost immediately. The tulip moved from side to side as it searched for Mako with its feelers out. Jhakaas shot at it, and it immediately moved toward him. Jhakaas moved as well but not before launching a grenade into the maw.
Thump. Boom!
The tulip reeled back almost seeming stunned. It shook like a dog with bits of matter and fluid flying out. The ground smoked where the fluid landed. Riff cocked his rifle loading a grenade and the noise seemed to get its attention. It speared toward him, and he also launched a grenade.
Thump. Boom!
The Tulip seemed to intuit the incoming projectile and ducked down a bit. The grenade bounced off of the outer petals and detonated in the air behind it. The Tulip was still impacted by the shockwave, but it still moved forward and slammed into RiffRaff’s side knocking him toward the vines. Riff fell into the thrashing vines which immediately wrapped him up in a cocoon and yanked him up in the air. The Tulip quickly turned toward the rest of them as if trying to decide on its next target.
Mako wondered how it was ‘seeing’ them. It seemed to respond to noise previously. But it sure seemed like it had more senses than that.
Mako, Jhakaas, and Arkana were to one side and away from the vines. Panzer was on the far side of the tree and started shooting up at the vines holding RiffRaff. As the Tulip turned to look (maybe?) in that direction, Boomer shot a couple pulses into the backside of the Tulip. It immediately swung toward her in an attempt to knock her into the vines as well. She launched herself back flipping in the air while cocking her grenade launcher. It missed her and as it took a moment to look for her, she was able to get an opening and shot her grenade.
Thump. Boom!
The Tulip sagged. Smoke billowed out and liquid poured out from the hole. The ground that was hit by the leaking juice smoked slightly. Mako decided to see if he could finish it off. He cocked his launcher to load a grenade.
The Tulip reacted by turning and launching a gob of acid. At least it tried. Some acid did come out in a spray, along with plant parts and something resembling teeth. It sagged again. It looked up to where it had been perched and before it could move Mako calculated a firing solution and fired his grenade.
Thump. Boom!
The Tulip dropped and didn’t move.
“Ahhh!” Riff yelled as he dropped to the ground when the vines lost their controller. Panzer started to help cut him out of the cocoon.
Jhakaas jumped in to help free Riff. “She was so handsy, eh, Riff?”
Riff nodded his agreement.
A message popped up in everyone’s vision,
Congratulations!
You defeated a Giant AcidVine Devourer (Death Tulip). This is a Tier 3 Advanced Irragenic Beast.
Irragen points awarded!
Since this action was completed by the party, experience points will be divided among the party.
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Quest completed (Hidden) - Defeat an Irragenic Beast.
Irragen points awarded!
Since this action was completed by the party, experience points will be divided among the party.
----------------------------------------
New quest! The Power Within – Retrieve an Irragenic Beast core.
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“It wasn’t terribly intelligent.” Jhakaas noted somberly as he looked down at it. “But it did have great taste in men.”
Mako looked at the tree. All of the vines remained but the flowers wilted and dropped leaving a large but less colorful vine covered tree behind. He walked over to the Tulip that did not wilt away and the vines attached to it to take a closer look.
“Arkana, you guys better get samples while you can.” Mako said as he gazed into the ruined interior of the giant flower. He stopped for a moment to examine the petals of the flower which were very durable. They remained intact after three grenades detonated within.
RiffRaff walked up and whistled as he looked around. “Man, if this is what this world is actually like...it’s freaking weird.”
Mako sighed, “True. It’s far better than we had any right to expect. I mean, trees, grass, blue skies...”
“Giant, killer plants...”
“Nobody’s perfect.”
Arkana walked up a little later. “I think we have everything that’s useful. Although I do wonder how exactly we killed it. Did it have some sort of brain inside there? Or was it just general damage?”
“I think I have that signal figured out.” Harpy said. “It’s a lot weaker after we killed it. I merged signals across several sensors. I think I can create filter if we want to find more of these cores.”
Mako indicated the flower. “Perhaps we should bring this back? It’s supposed to have an ‘irragenic core’ or something in it. Not to mention, these petals survived 3 grenades. I think that’s worth a closer look. Maybe we can sunder this material and create better armor.”
“Well...We could get the shuttle out here and pick it up? I don’t think a drone can pick it up.”
RiffRaff pointed to the stem of the flower made up of twisting vines. "It comes with ropes attached and clearly it’s durable. We could just drag it back. It can’t weigh more than a few hundred pounds. We can haul that easy. It’s not even a kilometer directly back.”
Mako nodded. “Let’s do it.”
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When they reached the colony ship as the sun was setting, Mako received another notification.
Quest completed – Gather 20 plant specimens for the botany department to study (20/20)
Irragen points awarded!
Since this action was completed by the party, experience points will be divided among the party.
Determine the suitability of Argyra for Human colonization. (Completion 6%)
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Quest Completed The Power Within – Retrieve an Irragenic Beast Core
Irragen points awarded!
Since this action was completed by the party, experience points will be divided among the party.
Determine the suitability of Argyra for Human colonization. (Completion 8%)
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Mako noted that the beast core pushed it up 2% on its own. That is the largest single increase he had seen. Apparently, that beast core has some importance. It was also interesting to note that the huge plant was a beast? Maybe it wasn’t a plant? There was so much to figure out.