by Z D Dean
“So, what are you going to do with the couple of hours’ downtime we have?” She asked.
“I’m going to keep studying Zade’s biology. His body has taken to the nanite modifications better than any species I have ever seen.”
“Ha, speaking of Zade, you should have seen his face when he realized his long hike was because of his smart mouth.”
“Oh yea, I meant to tell you. Zade and I were talking about that little incident just before he went down for his last nanite treatment. Just as he went to sleep, he was trying to argue a point. So I decided to take a look at the data. I pulled up the message and there seemed to be some kind of translation error, it wasn’t an insult at all, I think it was a compliment.” Jorloss said just before heading back to the medical bay.
As Jorloss headed out of the galley, Samix pulled up the statement she remembered Zade saying. Sure enough, with the corrected translation, it was a compliment albeit a compliment wrapped in dark dirty trooper humor. Samix silently contemplated what she had done. She had sent this human, the one who saved both her and Jorloss from certain death out on a romp through the jungles of a dangerous planet, to the med bay. Samix could only sit and think about the best way to resolve this issue. She was the top graduate from the Academe and the only candidate to make it into the exploration branch. Based on her stellar performance during shipside training she was hand selected as one of three captains to command the Unity’s experimental ships, and she had let a perceived slight cloud her judgement.
She vowed then never to let personal issues ever play into her decision making again. The exploration corps, the crew and she deserved better.
∆∆∆
Zade led the group to the edge of the clearing, constantly checking the observers’ feeds as he went. The six observers would maintain a five-hundred-meter perimeter around the landing party which meant that they would be moving as the group did. With one final check, Zade unsheathed the machete and began clearing an entrance into the jungle. He hoped that once the group got passed the edge of the clearing the underbrush would thin, allowing quicker movement to the objective. To his dismay, the underbrush was as thick in the depths of the jungle as it was on the edge.
The progress was slow as Zade had to clear a path for the team. Axis lacked both the physical capabilities and mental toughness to perform any duration of manual labor. After only fifteen feet or so Axis had decided to let Zade do the work, sheathed his implement and climbed on top of one of the pack mules to ride the rest of the way. Luckily, as the team crept through the jungle, Zade didn’t notice anything on the perimeter feeds. What did worry Zade was that the tremors seemed to be getting stronger or closer, he couldn’t tell which.
“Axis, could you take a break from your leisurely ride through the woods, and pay attention to the tremors? It feels like they’re getting stronger.”
“Excuse me, I’m a scientist and unlike you, I never grew a fondness for mindless labor. I have to say though, you did a great job on these new SSILF, I can’t feel a thing up here.”
“I appreciate the assist, you eyeless alien midget.”
It took another two hours before Zade’s interface indicated that they had reached the site. The jungle loosened slightly, at the sight, because the bedrock was too close to the surface to allow any deep-rooted plants to grow. Just to the north of the site, running northwest to southeast was a cliff that towered two-hundred feet above the landing team. By the time the team reached the site, the sun was low on the horizon. Zade knew that by the time the team started making their way back to the ship it would be dark. Running a quick program on his interface, Zade had luminous green waypoints evenly distributed along the length of the path the team had just cut through the jungle. It was a secondary safety measure, Zade would be able to see the path in the pitch black that would cover the planet’s surface when night fell, but the indicators would act as a double check.
Axis jumped off the pack mule and ordered the maintenance SSILF to begin unloading the geological equipment. As Axis got to work, Zade repositioned the observers. The cliff would provide an amazing over watch position so Zade ordered one of the SSILF observers onto it. The cliff also limited the avenues of approach to the site so Zade consolidated the remaining observers on the sides of the objective that was open to the jungle. Zade set all of the observers to scan their sectors and alert him of any movement or lifeforms in their field of view. After patrolling the area and monitoring the observers’ sectors to ensure they interlocked Zade propped himself against a rock outcropping and dozed off.
The tremors had grown strong enough to knock Zade onto his side and wake him. Night had completely fallen, and the worksite was blanketed in the inky blackness that only arises on a moonless night. Standing Zade looked around, seeing Axis seemingly oblivious to the strange worsening conditions on the planet. Zade checked all of the observer feeds, but nothing was out there.
“Are you guys alright out there? It looks like the earthquakes are moving along fault lines towards your position.” Samix asked over Zade’s interface.
“Since when do earthquakes move?” Zade responded
“It’s a new phenomenon, we’ve never seen it before this planet.”
An unease settled in the pit of Zade’s stomach. He had never done any work in geology, but he did know the basic principles surrounding earthquakes, the main one being that earthquakes are stationary. Years of combat had honed Zade’s body’s ability to warn him when something wasn’t quite right. Right now, his body was telling him that something was very wrong.
“How many of these new moving earthquakes are closing on our position?”
“There are three, one from the north, one from the west, and one from our position.”
“Alright, I’ve got a really bad feeling about this. We will keep you in the loop.”
“Huh, bad feeling. I didn’t realize you had that much planetary exploration experience.” Samix replied knowing that humans had never set foot off their own home world. It was a nastier response than Samix had planned, and she couldn’t really figure out why she felt she had an ax to grind with Zade.
“Funny, but I do have experience getting blown up by things I can’t see. Just send me the feed with the earthquake locations.” Zade shot back before he cut communications with the ship.
Zade knew that something was very wrong about this planet, but he couldn’t pinpoint what it was. The tremors coming from the north and west looked like they were going to hit their location at the same time, with the one coming from the ship hitting shortly after. As the first two tremors hit the perimeter, there was a disturbance on three of the observer feeds, then they went dark. Rerunning the, now dead, feeds Zade could see rocks and debris flying up from the ground just as the feeds died. Zade finally connected the dots, the vibrations weren’t being caused by earthquakes, there was something moving underground causing the tremors. The geological testing must have attracted them, which is why Zade and the ship didn’t notice significant movement until Axis started his testing.
As Zade put it together, the last thing hit both his and Axis’ position. Zade began running towards Axis who was now unable to stand due to the movement of the planet under foot. As Zade grabbed Axis and began pulling him away from his equipment, the ground began to give way. Tossing Axis behind the safety of a large boulder, Zade turned to see a large mole like creature emerge from the worksite swallowing the three SSILF in the process. The mammoth rodent breached through the rocky ground with ease. It had the body of a standard subterranean mammal but it’s back was covered in protective plating. Zade could see that between the plates, large rocks had gotten wedged making the creature almost invulnerable when standing on all fours.
Zade ordered the remaining three SSILF to his position and instructed them to begin firing on the giant mole. Hundreds of rounds from the railguns failed to penetrate the hard, protective shell of the monster. The ineffective fire did however draw the creature’s attention to the SSILF, whom
it destroyed with one snap of its massive jaws. Zade used the temporary distraction to spur Axis into action.
“We should probably be getting back to the ship now. Here is our route.” Zade said as he transferred the waypoint data to Axis.
“What the hell do I do with this. I can’t outrun that thing; my legs are tiny.” Axis frantically replied
“Just follow the markers and run like hell. Call up the ship once you get back into the thicker jungle, make sure you can get on the ship as soon as you get to it.” Zade said as he began circling away from Axis.
With that Axis took off at a dead sprint leaving Zade to deal with the mole monster. Zade circled the monster just out of its reach, taking the occasional pot shot to keep its attention. Zade, in that moment, realized how good of an idea the vision augmentations were. Without them Zade wouldn’t have stood a chance; one trip, fall or misstep would have meant certain death. As he circled Zade had to stay out of reach of the creature’s large digging claws. Zade continued firing, using the targeting reticle in his interface to aim for any soft spots on the animal.
As Zade ran his first power source dry he knew he had to do something to even the odds. The first few rounds out of the second power source were aimed at the animal’s exposed feet. The shots, although not exceptionally effective, did seem to slow the animal down significantly. As his desperation grew Zade desperately tried to formulate some plan that would best this animal. Realizing that most subterranean animals were extremely sensitive to light, Zade slowly pulled one of the signal flares out of his cargo pocket. Taking aim as the animal rounded on him, Zade shot the flare directly into the giant animal’s head. As he had hoped, after the flare impacted the creature reared back, exposing its soft underbelly. With no time to lose, Zade took aim with his railgun, flipped its selector switch from safe to auto, and drained his second to last power source into the animal. All one hundred ninety-six rounds from the expended power source connected, in a tight group, between the creature’s front legs. The rounds sprayed viscera everywhere and left a neat basketball sized hole in the underside of the animal. It was dead before it hit the ground.
Quickly switching to his railgun’s last power source, Zade heard the unmistakable sound of the, now dead, animal’s two companions surfacing for some action. The two creatures approached slowly apprehensively measuring up the tiny creature that had dispatched their comrade. They were on a path that would trap Zade against the cliff face if they continued unchecked. Zade felt his cargo pocket and was disappointed to find he only had one flare left. Grabbing it he edged closer to the tree line, waiting for the nearest creature to get within effective range. As the animal closest to the jungle closed with Zade he fired the flare and terminated it in the same manner as the first. Now out of ammo and running out of luck, Zade tossed the now empty railgun and drew his sidearm.
Why didn’t I make grenades instead of putting these stupid ivory grips on this thing?
Out of options, Zade made a break for the jungle. Hoping that if he could close the two hundred yards and make it into the jungle he would have better chances. The last mole was hot on him, unbelievably fast for a creature its size. Halfway to the trees Zade realized that he wasn’t going to make it. As he turned to make his last stand, Samix and the XES01 came screaming overhead low and fast. Startled by the sudden appearance of the ship the mole froze, its defense instincts kicking in. Zade took the brief reprieve to get a glimpse of the ship and to his surprise he saw a rope dangling just out of reach. Holstering his sidearm Zade took a couple steps, jumped and grabbed it. Realizing that its prey was getting away, the mole sprang into action and sprinted towards Zade. It lunged but was too late, the ship had already cleared the treetops and was moving back towards the landing zone.
Still in flight Zade hauled himself up the rope and onto the loading ramp. At the top he was greeted by Jorloss and a visibly rattled Axis. As he got to his feet, Zade cut the rope loose and closed the ramp door. The post combat crash was starting to kick in and Zade was thoroughly exhausted. Zade walked over to one of the storage crates in the bay, as he did Samix came running in to see how her crew had fared. Jorloss was the first to speak.
“Are you hurt?”
“No, I’m fine. You ok?” Zade replied looking from Jorloss to Axis.
“I’m OK. I started running thinking you were right behind me. When I turned around to look, and you weren’t there, I knew what you had done, and that I had to make it to the ship. Thank you, not many people would have done that for a Settler.” Axis said.
“No problem, I’m glad you made it back. Sorry you lost the data you were gathering.” Zade started but was interrupted by Samix.
“Thank you for getting Axis back. I don’t think I could have handled losing another crewmember.”
“Like I was saying, I’m glad he made it back to the ship. You guys are on an important mission, and it’s become my job to ensure everyone gets home safe. Well almost everyone.” Zade said, the last part hushed and mostly to himself.
Samix must have heard because the smile she wore at the rescue of her landing team, turned into a look of great sadness. As the crew stood in uneasy silence Axis could no longer control himself. The small alien had become extremely talkative and excitable since the mission and had to tell Zade about what he had accomplished. Zade wasn’t quite sure if Axis’ story was meant as a boast or an attempt to gain the approval of his crewmates. Axis reassured Zade that the data was not a loss, explaining that at a young age the Settlers had a large storage device implanted in their skulls. This allowed them to store all instrument readouts and large sums of data in their heads. It was a measure to prevent terraforming procedures from falling into the wrong hands. Axis had been storing all the data he found at the site in his head, and as soon as he boarded the ship it was uploaded to the data drone.
After assuring Zade that the mission wasn’t a loss, Axis began explaining the events that transpired after the two had separated. After realizing that Zade was buying him time Axis contacted Samix directly to update her on the situation. Knowing that Zade would need help, Axis boarded the ship and had Samix fly it to the test site. Axis further explained that after monitoring the conversation between Zade and Samix about roping into the objective, he knew that he could hang another rope from the loading ramp, and Zade would be able to escape using it. Zade thanked the Settler for the rescue. It was a gesture that caused Axis to swell with pride.
“You’re thanking me, but without your actions there wouldn’t have been a rescue for me to orchestrate. You are one of the only people in the Unity who would have risked his own life to help a Settler. You saved my life twice on this mission, and my people will hear about what you did. We will name new planets after you.”
Sometime during Axis’ story both Jorloss and Samix had returned to their respective work areas, leaving only the two members of the landing party in the cargo bay. Zade smiled at the thought of having a planet named after him and stood. Inviting Axis to join him for a meal, Zade explained that he was famished. Not only was Zade hungry but during the rescue Zade tore a couple of muscles in his left shoulder when he grabbed the rope Axis had provided for egress. The nanites warned him of damage as soon as it had happened, but only after Zade was safely aboard the ship did the nanites output a full damage report with corresponding resources required for repair.
The two men, still filthy from their escapade, sat down to a large meal in the galley. During the meal the men chatted. Zade used the conversation to learn more about Axis, understanding that he must know as much as possible about his new situation to be able to survive in the Unity. As the men ate Zade learned that the Settler faction of the Unity was called the T.A.R.C.C., Terraforming and Resource Collection Conglomerate. The T.A.R.C.C. was the largest and most financially influential faction in the Unity.
During the Settlers formative years much of the Unity’s citizenry despised the Settlers because of their looks, reasoning that no species as strange as the Settlers c
ould be equal to the sentient species that already made up the Unity. With the ensuing peace created by the formation of the Unity, many of the member species began to outgrow their home worlds and were forced to find other planets to populate. After many failed terraforming attempts, the species began to look towards the Settlers for their services. As the Settlers amassed great wealth from the terraforming service’s they provided they were begrudgingly admitted into the Unity as a full member species. As the T.A.R.C.C.’s wealth and corresponding influence grew, their reputation deteriorated. Currently the Settlers were viewed as a necessary evil accepted but despised by the other members of the Unity.
Because of the hostile social and political environment in which the Settlers became accustomed, the species was forced to become almost reclusive in nature, looking inward for solutions to any problems that the species faced. Internally the Settlers were structured into tribes and had a rigid class system. The tribes were based on the condition of the first colonies. The most powerful tribes, of which Axis was part of, developed on planets which were terraforming successes, while the less powerful tribes were forced to relocate to successfully terraformed planets, after their home world’s terraforming failed. The classes in this society were based on the generations separated from the initial Settlers who left their home world to settle the asteroids. The oldest members of the species, thus closest to the original Settlers held the highest class, and were known colloquially as the ancients, while the youngest held the lowest class and was known as the children. Outsiders and the Settlers who left the T.A.R.C.C. were known as wanderers and made up the lowest tribe and class possible.
Axis explained that a yearlong ceremony was held during the year following the death of the final Settler in a generation. The first half of the year was spent remembering the accomplishments of the generation that had passed. The second half was spent ensuring that all of the lost generation’s knowledge was passed to the generation which would rise to prominence in the tribes. Order was maintained by a strict set of laws developed and enforced by the ancients. The laws guaranteed the survival of the species, and many infractions elicited a punishment of death or exile, which ensured that no defective Settler could attain the class of ancient.
