“Why is it my job to tell you that this is a fuckin’ bad idea? You are stupid, the plan is stupid, this whole planet is stupid and leaving Rucasur with you was stupid…” Patience cursed loudly but suddenly stopped when realization hit her, “Damn, that’s right: I’m stupid, too! Why am I even here?”

“Because you longed for an adventure?” Robin asked hesitantly.

“Maybe it was the thrill of the forbidden? I’ve met many criminals that were led astray when they were young because of… Ouch!” Landom winced when Patience nudged him with her elbow.

“Just shut up and make sure we don’t crash again!” She growled and leaned back in the Melody’s backseat.

Despite their bad situation, the hostile environment and the continuously growing tension on his mind, Robin felt happiness and elation for a short but valuable moment. They have been through so much the last weeks and months and now the fear of being stranded on this godforsaken planet is creeping closer like a shadow in the twilight, but they all keep standing strong. They stuck together nonetheless and weren’t losing themselves in despair.

“I have found a good crew… awesome people… great friends…” He muttered, “I better make sure to bring them home safely!”

After relaxing his taxed mind, Robin put all his focus back on the track ahead. Well, there wasn’t much of a track to be honest, not even a clear line of sight. Right now, he piloted the Melody II through the midst of the storm that knocked out the Hubble’s shields earlier and had Patience and Landom sitting in the back, sharing the co-pilot’s seat. Visibility was low, a mix of rain and fog obstructed his vision and Robin was sure that even without Guard removing “useless parts” of his brain, everything would still be colored gray.

They still were about 50 kilometers away from the SOS-location and Robin had to depend on the directions ROMAS was sending to his Interface to not get lost. The storm easily blocked the little ship’s navigational systems and even put the repulsor under much stress.

Carefully Robin pulled back the right joystick to raise Melody’s nose and gain some height. He had no idea which altitude they had reached, but every now and then he saw treetops poking through the fog below them. After he had stabilized the ship again and made sure that the flight-corridor in front of them was free of trees, mountains or whatever this planet might put in their way, Robin used his mutation and checked on the plasma repulsor.

“Don’t you die on me now of all times, buddy!” He mumbled when he saw the module glowing in a brighter blue than ever before.

Accompanied by a loud crack, a lightning strike snaked down to the ground a hundred meters to their right. For a few seconds its bright light gave view to a seemingly endless forest below them before everything was swallowed by the murky gray once more.

“B… b… burn in p… plasma!” Robin cursed when his passive sense registered the energy spike so close by and send nasty itches through his nervous system, “I fucking hate this planet. The next one we visit will have cozy fields, calm lakes and oceans with beautiful beaches!”

“I’ll remind you of that!” He heard Patience shouting from the back and a small grin returned to his face.

“Just 30 minutes to go…”

***

“We should land over there.” Landom said, “+13°, 40 meters. Do you see the fallen tree? There should be enough space to go down, right?”

Robin quickly found the place and checked the surroundings. The SOS was probably a bait to lure them into a trap so directly going there was a no-go. They planned to park the ship about two kilometers away from the marker; even here, at the outer rim of the storm, that should be far enough to avoid detection by the enemy. They will have to cover the rest of the way by foot.

However, they had too little information, not only on the enemy but also on the environmental conditions. As far as they knew there could be a completely different fauna on this side of Terulos – and even if it was the same, stumbling into the hunting ground of another Alpha Stalker was a scenario to be avoided.

“Seems clear and calm down there… however, in this storm everything that doesn’t flap in the winds like crazy looks calm.” Robin said and finished the last slow circle with the Melody before he pushed her nose down to initiate the landing.

Huge trees blocked most of the ground, their thick foliage spanned endlessly like a green blanket covering the world below. Only here and there a small hole popped up, like an entrance to another world. Carefully, Robin headed for one of these clearings and dove down. Moments later, big trunks surrounded them, half hidden by all-encompassing fog. However, different from his earlier trips to the forest, here it was spacious. The trees stood dozens of meters away from each other and nearly no bushes or shrubs could be found on the ground.

“Wow! It looks like someone with a big vacuum cleaner passed by and sucked up everything that wasn’t a fuckin’ 100-meter-tree…” Patience marveled, and Robin heard Landom agreeing, “It really feels like someone cleaned this place up. Creepy!”

* Possible general explanations

* The treetops are darkening the ground too much

* Bad soil quality

* Bad air quality

* Overpopulation of herbivores

* Too little information about local environment

* Too little information about biological topics

“Are you complaining about being too uneducated?” Robin gasped when he saw ROMAS’ cheap excuses, “Damn, time to put you back in one piece so we can have a real discussion about your attitude!”

When the Melody finally touched the ground, Robin, Landom and Patience were flabbergasted by the enormous size of the trees.

“The Melody is like a little toy between these monstrosities. Just how big are these trunks…” Robin wondered.

* Circumference: between 40 and 55 meters

“Duh…”

***

After getting off the ship, the three of them stood on the rocky earth in their armored suits.

“At least we would notice if something tried to sneak up on us.” Patience muttered.

“Well, yes…” Landom slowly said, clearly lost in thought.

Stolen content warning: this tale belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences elsewhere.

“What is it?” Robin asked when he noticed that the man was disturbed by something.

“This is like a huge, wide-open world. Vision only blocked by the occasional tree-trunk here and there and some little green islands and small hills.”

“Yes…? The small green islands like these – “ Robin said and pointed at the few bushes behind him, “They should pop up where light manages to pass through holes in the leaves above us.”

“I know. But didn’t we come here expecting an ambush or trap at the location of the SOS?” Landom said and rubbed his chin, “This must be the worst possible place you could find for a trap…”

“Now that you mention it… He isn’t wrong, Rob. This feels fishy!” Patience agreed and took a defensive stance.

Robin looked around vigilantly. Walzor was right, this wasn’t the place to go if you wanted to ambush someone.

“Keep your guard up. We move out.” He said and took the lead, “The target location is about 2,5 km away from here and the scenery may still change.”

While they passed the huge trees, Robin closely observed his surroundings. Small pebbles littered the ground, bushes were rarely seen and dropped twigs and leaves were completely absent.

“What are those?” He asked when he spotted a cluster of dark spots on the ground some distance away. Coming closer he found five perfectly round holes, each about 30cm wide.

Patience kneeled down to inspect the holes and shrugged.

“They lead deeper into the earth, no end to be seen. Should be man-made as perfectly carved as they are.”

“Hard to believe.” Landom contradicted, “Out here in the middle of nowhere?”

“Maybe it’s part of the trap?” Patience said and stood up.

“Too obvious…” Landom mused.

“Whatever they are, we won’t find out right now. Let’s keep moving.” Robin interjected and headed away from the holes towards a small hill he had spotted in the distance.

“If we’re lucky, we can see the SOS location from atop that hill. That may help assert the situation, okay?”

Patience and Landom followed him but after they had taken only a few steps, Landom suddenly swirled around and yanked up his right hand.

“Ouch!” Patience yelped and took a staggering step forward, “Burn in plasma, something hit my shoulder.”

“Careful!” Landom said and showed them his open hand. A thin, 15cm long spike was stuck in his palm, cleanly pierced through his armored glove.

“Damn! Where did that come from?” Robin said and hurried to his friends while he carefully eyed their surroundings. He also threw a glance at Patience’s shoulder and found a similar needle stuck there. However, that one had penetrated much deeper and probably only stopped after hitting the bone.

“Something came out of the holes and shot the spike. I managed to catch it… more or less… due to my hardened skin. How is your shoulder?” Landom explained without taking his eyes off the holes.

“Just a scratch!” Patience scoffed in an attempt to downplay her anger about not even noticing the attack. With her left hand she reached for the spike and, without any hesitation, ripped it out of her shoulder. Some blood dripped down the long needle, but it didn’t look too bad.

“It takes more than this to bring me to my knees!” She growled while she rolled her shoulder to test if it was affected.

“Good. Hopefully there wasn’t any poison on it…” Robin said and looked at Landom, “What now?”

To his side Patience froze up like a statue.

“Poison? Fuck, what?” Frantically she touched her shoulder as if she could find any toxic substance by feeling for it.

“You would have probably noticed it by now if there had been anything on the spike.” Landom said.

“Maybe I do? Don’t you agree that it’s getting colder or is it just me feeling it?”

“Patience, calm down!” Robin said and padded her back, “It’s not getting cold and nobody has poisoned you.”

“Whatever has attacked us won’t come back.” Landom said, ignoring their bickering.

“How do you know?” Robin asked.

“I think it was a local creature. It hunts unaware prey in its territory, killing it by shooting the spikes. Now that the ambush failed, it won’t attack again anytime soon.”

“A creature shot this? The spike managed to penetrate our armor. Even most ballistic weapons aren’t capable of that.”

“I stayed more alert when we turned to leave and saw something small move in the corner of my eye. Also, think back to the Stalkers. If a hunter can’t penetrate their hide, it would have gone extinct long ago.”

“I hate this planet!” Patience complained.

“You seem confident…” Robin addressed Landom again.

“Just this much. We don’t know the local fauna, nor am I an expert on such things.” The man shook his head and returned his march to the hill, “Stay vigilant, there may be more holes on the way.”

After Robin got confirmation from ROMAS that Landom’s theory was highly probable, he followed the man. After a few meters he turned around and groaned.

“Patience! Stop scratching yourself and come on. You aren’t poisoned!”

“But it’s itching everywhere!” She whined.

“I thought it was getting cold?” Robin sighed.

“Yeah… but now it’s itching!”

“Try to stay alive until we are back on the Hubble. I’ll make Timothy give you a complete check-up, okay?”

“What? You… little shit!”

“Just don’t fall asleep!”

“Fuck you!”

***

They needed quite some time to finally reach the small hill. Twice they had to take a detour around holes in the ground because they wanted to avoid any more encounters with whatever lived in the earth.

Even though they stayed silent the whole time, Landom once again reminded them to keep quiet when they ascended the slope.

There hung an eerie silence in the air. Only the muffled platter of rain hitting leaves could be heard. The trees completely blocked it with their thick canopy of foliage above them and not for the first time Robin wondered where all the water went. The storm was still ongoing and while it was less strong here, there should still be heavy rain. However, his eyes could make out little of what happened so far above them since the fog was getting more dense for some time.

“Just what is wrong with this place?” He thought, “The change in scenery we hoped for also didn’t happen. Why is the enemy luring us here where everything is visible from miles away?”

With careful steps he followed Landom the last meters to the hilltop while looking around in alert.

“Everything is visible?” He suddenly realized and looked up.

“The fog!” Robin yelped in shock to warn the others, “We can’t see what is happening above us!”

“What do you… -” Landom began but stopped dead in his tracks, staring blankly ahead.

Quickly, Robin closed up and also looked down into the forest in front of them.

“Holy plasma, burn me alive… what is that?”

“What are you guys stammering?” Patience grumbled and came to Robin’s side, scratching her right knee.

“Uh… That’s not what we expected!”