His eyes locked with the red orb staring at him. The noise of the jungle and rain faded away as he aimed his gun forward. After what felt like an eternity, the creature began to move. Like their previous encounter, it was completely silent. Like watching a hologram melt away into the dark.

The 3D scanner kept the feline highlighted on his visor as it performed a lap around the clearing. Its movements were smooth, not disturbing the surrounding flora too much, even with its sheer bulk. Sometimes he could see its scales as it passed from one bush to the other. Scars crossed some of them, some thin and long, others perfectly circular. The most prominent one, and the one that identified the beast, was its burnt right eye.

Isaah always followed it with his gun. His arms felt stiff as a board as he tried his best to keep the pistol centered. Pain flared up on top of his head, making him close his eyes for a moment. When he reopened them, the creature was nowhere to be seen.

“sh-”

He desperately tried to locate it again, whipping his head back and forth. When he managed to see it again, it was crouching on the ground. Its ears were flat to its head and its whole body tensed. A nictating membrane covered its eye, giving the illusion of a pure white orb glaring at him.

A nugget of information popped into his brain at that moment. Something from his academy days. He remembered himself sitting down in class, watching intently at his professor. He was a jovial old man, barely taller than him.

“Feline type animals are excellent hunters. Some species have perfected the art of ambushing their prey with terrifying efficiency. From the humble house cat to the giant Nyctinia, you can see a ‘pattern’ in their hunting behavior. When they are crouching…they’re ready to pounce.”

The beast in front of him exemplified that perfectly. Body tensed like an arrow ready to shoot. Claws digging into the earth and ready to tear him apart. He could even hear a deep rumble coming from it.

“It’s going to kill me…”

As panic escalated, his eyes clouded over. His heart pounded so hard it felt like it might burst out of his chest. Feeling as if he had just dipped into a frozen lake, his extremities felt cold. His mind churned as visions of the monster mangling him, eviscerating his whole body with one powerful swipe and eating his innards like pasta.

Time slowed to a crawl, and the world gained unprecedented clarity at that moment. His last conversation with Clarice played inside his head once more.

“Everything’s going to be okay.”

A crack of thunder and a flash of light briefly illuminated the world. The beast began to leap towards him, intent on killing him in less than a second. The beast slowly lifted off the ground, and Isaah’s body froze. Yet, his finger squeezed the trigger on his pistol. His hand flung back from the sudden recoil, almost making him shoot another bullet.

His aim was true. The projectile hit the monster in its injured eye, making the creature wince in pain. Its body catapulted through the air but missed him by just centimeters. However, the monster quickly latched onto the capsule with its claws, cutting short his celebration.

Time resumed its normal speed as Isaah shot three more times at the creature, who only slightly recoiled as the projectiles failed to penetrate its scales. It took a second to reorient itself and roar at the top of its lungs.

The notification alerted him that, if he was out of the suit, at best, it would have ruptured his eardrums. He used the slight distraction to discharge his gun one more time, making the beast stop abruptly. It shook its head from the disorientation and swiped at him.

For a couple of seconds, the world turned black. Isaah felt floating in the middle of the void, feeling the embrace of nothingness around him. Then came the hard ground. He bounced several times as he rolled. For a moment, he didn’t feel anything wrong, just numbness on the side of right arm and part of his chest. His sleeve from his upper arm all the way down was completely missing.

“That’s weird. Where is my hand?”

When the pain arrived, his whole body convulsed. Blood dripped from his right sleeve as his mind fought to process what had happened. Metallic liquid pooled in his throat, and when he coughed, he stained the inside of his helmet red. Isaah tried to scream, but he could only hack and wheeze.

The tale has been illicitly lifted; should you spot it on Amazon, report the violation.

His mind cleared after the messages passed by. He could feel pressure being applied on top of his new stump, stopping the blood flow. Syringes pierced his skin as they injected a concoction of medicines and drugs designed to keep him alive and clear-headed, short term. Since his visor was still covered in blood, the AI ejected it from the suit, giving him a clear view of the jungle.

The feline was still around, slowly circling him. Its eye assessed his prone form, likely debating if he was still a threat or not. Sadly, his gun, along with the rest of his right arm, was nowhere to be seen.

Running away would only make things worse. He couldn’t run away anymore, or he would die a horrific death. Still, there were not a lot of options available. His capsule wouldn’t scare it away, no friendly face would come to his rescue, and the world wouldn’t bend in his favor. He was not in a story or a game. He was staring death in the face.

His hand patted his body, looking for anything he could use. Until he grabbed his multi-tool. His eye widened as an idea popped into his head. With practiced precision, he upholstered it and flicked it on.

“Voice…command.” He coughed again, spitting even more blood. “…pickaxe…”

A thin plasteel cable unfurled from the bottom half of the multi-tool. When the number ’10’ appeared on the screen, he pulled the bottom trigger. The wire started to emanate a lot of heat as its color changed from silver to red.

The ‘pickaxe mode’ was no more than a small monicker for this function. The cable was supposed to loop around any tree or rock and back into the multi-tool. Then, the technician would either saw through it like a vibroblade or melt through it like a plasma charge. It was not very energy efficient, but if one didn’t have a specialized tool, it would do the job.

The feline tensed when it saw the pool of cable lying on the ground. It growled and crouched once more, preparing to pounce and end Isaah’s life.

Despite the chemicals keeping his mind clear and his body numb. Even with nobody else to save him. Even with the burden of honoring his crewmates, he couldn’t help but feel fear gripping his heart. No matter what he had done until now, he had only succeeded in angering the monster. A jet of concentrated fire could only fry its eye and not permanently vaporize its head. Doubts sprouted like weeds, dragging his confidence down with each passing second. His grip on his multi-tool wavered for a moment.

“You think you got what we need here aboard Moonstrider, eh?!”

Jackson’s voice floated inside his head for a moment. He found it a bit funny that one of his last memories would be about their obnoxious and eccentric captain. He seemed like a mountain. A peak he could never equal. Someone so different from the way he always lived.

“Well, come on, boy! The stars are not going to conquer themselves!”

But they still accepted him. Taught him. Protected him.

“For them.”

As his hand windmilled, preparing to strike with the super-heated wire, the armored feline tensed. Time stilled once more as the cable’s heat evaporated each droplet it collided with. With a final wave downwards, it sailed forward just as the monster catapulted towards him.

He had tried to kill the thing in one hit, but even without looking, he knew he was off center. When the wire collided with the creature’s right arm, it coiled around it in a tight grip. The sheer heat melted through the scales and seared its skin almost instantaneously.

It yelped as it sailed past him. Isaah almost lost grip on his tool as the animal crashed on the floor. It looked at him with desperation in its eyes and tried to yank itself free. As it struggled, it dragged him along, tightening the wire’s grip on its flesh. Before long, the scales gave in, and the cable pierced through its skin and reached the bone.

The painful cries intensified in volume as the creature thrashed around. As it did so, it pried away Isaah’s multi-tool and whipped it through the air. Several seconds later, it grabbed the wire itself with its claws and pulled even harder. Shortly after, the tool managed to cut through its bone, leaving the panting beast unarmed.

It took a moment to compose itself and stand up on its remaining three legs. It glared back at Isaah one last time and limped away into the undergrowth. Its smoking arm was forgotten on the ground next to the destroyed multi-tool.

Isaah tried to celebrate, but the effect of the chemicals was ebbing away. Pain was slowly making itself known, and he didn’t want to face it in the open. After a moment of hesitation, he grabbed the creature’s arm. Even if it was completely useless, at least he wanted a trophy out of the scuffle. It was an irrational decision that probably came because of the drugs pumping through his system, but he didn’t care. He entered the pod, tumbling around as his vision grew fuzzier.

The AI helpfully reminded him. After letting the severed arm fall to the floor, he shakily grabbed his medical tool. With a strained gulp, he prepared himself. The next hour wasn’t going to be pretty.