“They’re everywhere!” She gasped.
Tarn gave her a sharp look, then motioned her forward. He led her for another quarter hour, circling at one point to avoid coming too close to one of the drones, then stopped when he reached the wreckage of another screamer.
Elsa gasped, her hand flying to her mouth. It was torn up worse than hers had been. The damage wasn’t from the landing, it had signs of being ripped and battered. Dried blood stained the side and ground, leading towards the mound. She hurried around it, looking for some sign of who’s screamer it had been. Had her armor been working she could have identified the transponder on it. Lacking that, she could only release the cargo pack on the back and look through the equipment contained therein.
Whoever it had been hadn’t even had a chance to defend themselves. As disheartened as Elsa was about the loss of one of her team, she couldn’t deny the grim satisfaction having a new rifle and more supplies gave her.
Chapter 15
Elsa turned to look at Tarn and saw the smirk on his face. She smiled sweetly at him, then hefted her rifle to her shoulder. “Let’s see who this Kira chick found,” she said to him.
He nodded and turned to study the movement in the weeds. She noticed the lines around his eyes tighten, then he swore. “They know we’re here, not sure if they’ve found us yet, but they’re searching.”
“How do you know that?” Elsa hissed. She saw the movement through the grasses around them. It was more pronounced now, with the drones moving faster. Her gut twisting told her that Tarn was right.
“Move fast and quiet,” He muttered, then he turned and was off, crouching as he moved so that his head was barely above the weeds.
Elsa followed, keeping her rifle ready. She was focused on watching the grasses for signs of the hostile animals and nearly ran into Tarn when he stopped in front of her abruptly. She looked past him and saw another ditch carved into the ground by a different screamer pod. “Back up slowly!” Tarn hissed.
She turned to follow his gaze and saw the tail end of one of the chitin covered animals. She felt her eyes widen as she took in the slender but still dangerous tail and the four multi-jointed legs that looked like a cross between a spider and a lizard. She backed up slowly, carefully picking up her feet one at a time and retracing her steps. She stopped abruptly when she heard a soft rustling noise made by something large moving through the grasses behind her.
Elsa turned and dropped to her knee in a single smooth motion. The scene before her made her hesitate, she was staring at the four eyed head of one of the drones less than six feet from her. The vicious mandibles were stretched wide and its inner mouth opened to reveal rows of sharp teeth. They both fired at the same time, hers a blast of supercharged ions that caused the short and bristly hair on the side of its head to melt and burn. The brunt of the energized burst struck the armored body of the beast.
The stream of spittle from the creature splattered against her abdomen and hip, on the side that the screecher hadn’t destroyed. She could smell a caustic odor from it, but thought no more of it as she adjusted her one armed aim and yanked the trigger again. Its mandibles waved wildly and it tilted its head to the sky, then its legs gave out and it collapsed to the ground. One of its eyes exploded and viscous juices ran out of it.
Elsa heard some grunting and a scuffling sound behind her. She turned and saw Tarn standing on the top of the other drone. He pulled his spear free of the creatures head and looked about briefly to find her.
“Time to go!” He told her, no longer speaking quietly. She nodded and jogged over to him.
“Lead the way, I’ll cover us!” She said.
He took off at a run, angling straight away from the mound toward the ridge. One of the drones intercepted them but Elsa hit it in one of its shoulders, causing it to dip low and crash into the ground. Tarn speared the beast before it could pick itself up, then wrenched his sharpened stick free and kicked it hard enough in the head to snap one of the mandibles off as he ran past it.
Else clutched her rifle between her broken arm and her side so she could toss both of the grenades behind her as they ran. She set them with a time delay to grant them some cover and felt both blasts, even though they were well beyond the area of affect by the time they detonated. Whether they’d hurt their pursuers or not she couldn’t tell, but at worst they’d slow them down or confuse them.
Tarn didn’t slow until the grasses had grown shorter and small scrub trees began to grew. The ground rose, forming the beginning of the foothills. He turned to look back, panting hard for a few moments. He recovered faster than Elsa thought possible. She was still wheezing a little from the fight and flight across the plain. She glanced down at her armor and saw that it was darkening where the spit had struck her. Without thinking, she reached down to wipe some of it off. It felt sticky and viscous at first, then a burning sensation erupted in her hand.
“Oh shit,” Elsa muttered, staring at her hand.
Tarn glanced at her, then did a double take. “That was pretty fucking stupid,” He commented.
“Hurts like hell too,” Elsa forced out through clenched teeth. The sensation was amplifying, her hand felt like it was one fire now. Any other feeling was gone. Her fingers were locked, contorted in agony that overrode every desire she had to move it. The pain moved quickly, climbing into her wrist and forearm. The pain overwhelmed her and made thoughts of moving her hand impossible even though the fingers now hung limp.
“Don’t know if this is gonna kill you or not,” Tarn said, shaking his head. “But I ain’t touching you with that shit on your armor.”
“Take. It. Off!”
Tarn muttered something as he stalked towards her. He reached for the releases on her armor and activated them with a familiarity that she would have found alarming if only she could have cared. He stopped, grabbing her rifle and wrenching her broken arm harsh enough that she almost noticed it through the pain that was climbing up her other arm.
She watched as Tarn fired multiple blasts from her rifle, but by the time she was able to turn and see the result of his sharp shooting her vision was becoming blurry. She thought she counted the bodies of three or perhaps four more of the drones. Tarn tucked the gun between his knees and worked the releases on her armor. It fell free, unbalancing her just enough to make her fall.
Tarn stared down at her for a moment, then took the gun in his right hand. He shook his head and muttered something else. She assumed he was muttering because nothing he said seemed to make sense anymore. He bent down and scooped her up in one arm, then hoisted her over his shoulder like a sack of grain.
Elsa stared at the sweat on his muscled back until it began to grow dark. She didn’t think the sun was setting this early, but under any other circumstances spending time this close to Tarn at night could be quite an experience. She realized the burning sensation had faded. It was just a background warmth that permeated her entire body. It soothed and relaxed her, making her feel that everything would be okay.
“If I wake up with a sore ass you’re in a lot of trouble!” Elsa muttered. It sounded funny to her, at least. She didn’t have the energy left to follow it with a giggle. She hoped he knew she was just kidding. Well sort of. He wouldn’t do that to her, would he?
“Hang on,” Tarn said, “There’s more coming. I can’t lead ‘em back to Treetown so this might get a little rough.”
Elsa thought she heard him but she really didn’t care. He could take her anywhere and she’d be fine with it. His strong body felt so reassuring and she knew he would take care of her. She tried to moan out a response but she wasn’t sure it made any sense. Her eyes closed a moment later and even the nearly ten foot drop off of a small cliff a moment later failed to rouse her.
###
Part 5: Squatter’s Rights
Chapter 1
“Gunny!”
Kira ignored the interruption to the meeting as the FIST Marine walked up. “What will they try next?” Kira addressed the quest
ion to the assembled survivors.
“What happened?” Gunnery Sergeant Elsadora Quinn whispered after she’d moved to stand beside Jess Robinson. The Marine medic was the only other surviving woman from the FIST drop. Three men had survived, a corporal and two PFCs.
“Your boys found out that Vitalis don’t take kindly to visitors,” Tarn spoke up, his voice carrying from the other side of the campfire.
“There’s only five of us that made it?”
“Yeah, but that ain’t it,” Corporal Gresham Sampson said. “We missed the deadline so they launched the planned strike.”
“I slept through a ground pounding?” Elsa asked.
Kira was losing control of the meeting. She spoke loudly to draw their attention to her. “The atmosphere diffused the Marine energy weapons. Only two of the missiles made it to the ground and one of them failed to detonate. One shuttle crashed into the ocean and another onto the plain. Two landed safely but the spitters tore the Marines apart. The TCS air support either suffered failures that caused them to crash or they ran into the biggest flock of flyers we’ve seen yet.”
“The entire assault force?”
“We think a few of the aerospace fighters made it back,” Jess said softly.
“Radio, have you gotten in touch with the Desperado yet?”
Corporal Sampson, nickname Radio, shook his head. “Haven’t been able to get my gear to power up. Power pack blew in it and fused the wiring.”
“Four shuttles?” Elsa mused out loud. “That’s eighty fucking Marines! The Desperado only has a handful left.”
“That answers my question,” Kira said. “They’ll either head back or wait for reinforcements. Was there any other ships set to follow the Desperado out here?”
“They wouldn’t just leave us here!” Jess snapped.
Elsa nodded. “We don’t leave our fallen. Never have and we never will.”
“They got no choice.” Those words came from a man who’d been sitting quietly on a log and watching the exchange. “Before we had to abandon the research station we were learning what was happening to us. Vitalis doesn’t like alien life.”
“What are you talking about?” Elsa snapped. “Were you one of the researchers?”
He nodded. “Jeremy Sinclair. We—“
Kira waved him silent. “Vitalis either kills you or, if you’re strong enough, it makes you a part of it. You think you can recover in two days from a broken arm and all the beatings Tarn said you went through?”
Elsa gasped and stared at her arm. It had been broken and splinted the last time she was awake. Tarn had found her after she’d gotten the snot beat out of her by a pack of baby screechers. An adult screecher was a meat eating monster twenty feet tall that walked on two legs, the babies had only been about five feet tall but no less hungry or mean spirited for it.
“Two days?”
“Yeah, you stuck your hand in that spitter goo, remember?” Tarn asked with a grin.
Elsa’s cheeks turned red.
“It’s some kind of neurotoxin,” Jess explained in a soft voice. “Paralyzed you at first, then you passed out.”
“Thanks for that,” Tarn added. “We was wondering what it’d do to a human. Now we know.”
Elsa scowled at the large man. Kira smirked, glad to see she might have something in common with the woman after all. Other than surviving impossible odds on a hostile alien planet, it was always good to find people who were annoyed by Tarn.
“This is all well and good, but let’s get back to basics. We got five more people and not enough places for ‘em. It’s not right that people are giving up their beds to let other people sleep there.”
Tarn started to raise his hand but was stopped by the most recent speaker, the former captain of the Rented Mule, Jonathon Sharp. “Tarn, that’s not an invitation.”
A few chuckles from around the fire gave the new Marines all the clues they needed to know what they needed to about the muscular man.
“Captain, we need to be ready for whatever the Terran Coalition wants to do with us!”
“Aye, but that’s in weeks, months, or years. Right now we got to be afraid of what happens if we don’t get back safe in Treetown before the prowlers come looking for breakfast.”
Elsa looked at the others, her eyebrows scrunched. It was then that she really noticed how everyone looked. They’d all blended in, being dressed more or less the same, allowing her to dismiss the uniformity. Virtually all of them were wearing animal hides, with some such as Jeremy having more modern clothing that was worse for wear. Some of the other men and women wore less—a lot less. Kira had on a short and loose fitting leather skirt and a matching vest that was laced in front with only a couple of ties. It was a daring outfit for even the least morally restricted of Terran worlds. Here it seemed conservative.
Elsa glanced down at herself; she’d put on the moccasins, skirt, and halter top style shirt laid next to the hammock she’d woken up in. Her stomach was exposed below the shirt before her skirt began.
Kira noted Elsa’s sudden interest in her clothing. “Get used to it,” Kira added, “Your armor’s been left to rot and this is all we’ve got for clothes here.”
“They’ll come for us,” Elsa muttered.
“Don’t matter if they do,” Jeremy said bitterly. “This place already got into you, there’s no leaving. You’ll die in a matter of days if you do. If you can survive here we suspect you’ll live a lot longer than you would anywhere else, but the thing is you can’t ever live anywhere else.”
Else stared at her arm and then looked around, her eyes settling on Tarn, the man who’d rescued her and brought her to the other survivors. “So this is it, we’re trapped here?”
Captain Sharp, the leader of the small community of humans, spoke up. “Let’s douse this fire and get back up for the night. Prowlers and worse’ll be out soon.”
“What’s a prowler?” Elsa asked.
“They look like a big cat, except they’ve got six legs and mostly hunt at night. Mostly.” Tarn said. “They come around Treetown looking for scraps. Don’t matter if its garbage or someone stranded on the ground, it’s all fair game to them.”
“Welcome to Vitalis.” Sharp added.
Chapter 2
“We need to make contact,” Elsa insisted at the follow up meeting that had sprung up in Treetown. They were sitting or standing on the primitive decking that had been built around one of the massive trees.
“Maybe we can light a signal fire they can see in space? Send some smoke signals?” Tarn suggested.
“Nobody likes him much,” Kira said for Elsa’s benefit.
“Hey, you just remembered who saved your ass,” Tarn countered. “Scrawny girl like Kira wouldn’t stand a chance against them screechers.”
“Is that right?” Kira asked with her eyes leveled at his.
He shrugged. “You should’a seen them. Four of ‘em and they were near full grown!”
Elsa rolled her eyes. Kira smirked.
“Ladies?” Sharp said, drawing attention.
“Hey!”
“Tarn, stuff it. We’re looking for solutions here, not criticism”
“We got more to talk about,” another man walked across a bridge and joined the group. A beautiful woman wearing only a long skirt followed him. “If the Terran Coalition is willing to talk to us, they need to know that this planet is independent!”
“Some buoy floating in space isn’t going to convince them of that,” Sharp said. He turned to Elsa for introductions. “This here is Klous and Sasha. It’s his fault we’re all stranded here.”
Klous scowled at the accusation and chose not to deal with it. “The buoy helps,” he insisted. “What we’ve really got going for us is the natives. My son and the other children that have been born.”
“Tarn mentioned something about that while he guided me back here,” Elsa said. “He said you’ve got a lawyer amongst the survivors?”
“Like Terran sharks, it takes a lot
to kill them,” Sharp admitted. The last Terran shark had died over a hundred years ago.
“All the other Terran worlds were claimed by the Coalition before they were settled. We found Vitalis.”
“I found it,” Kira interrupted. “And I landed the Mule here.”
“You wouldn’t have found it without us,” Klous pointed out.
“You shot my ship!” Sharp spat out.
Klous shrugged, drawing a scowl from the former captain.
“There’s only a handful of us and a whole lot of Marines they can send to change the way of things here,” Elsa pointed out.
“You realized you’re one of us?” Kira asked.
Elsa jerked. “I…I don’t know. If what you say is true I don’t have a choice.”
“I could use your help, if you’re half as good as Tarn claims,” Kira offered.
“Why wouldn’t I be?”
“You can’t just be taking the best talent!” Tarn protested.
“It’s me and Fiona, you’ve got everyone else on your defense force.”
“Wait a minute, defense force?” Elsa asked. She turned to Kira for her follow up question. “What do you do?”
“This place is full of things that want to kill you and eat you, or eat you then kill you. Tarn keeps Treetown safe. We don’t usually have problems with each other, there’s not enough of us. But when tempers flare his people sort things out. He used to be fat, lazy, and a few other things but since we got here Tarn’s been an asset,” Sharp said. Tarn grinned up until the last of Jonathon’s words, then he scowled and refused to look at anyone.
“And you?”
“I do the hunting and the scouting. Nobody’s allowed to go anywhere on this planet by themselves outside of Treetown. Nobody except me and Fiona. You join me and I’ll show you how to survive here.”
“I did all right on my own,” Elsa pointed out.
Kira nodded. “With your FIST armor and weapons, yes. Think you can do the same with a sharp stick or a bow and arrow?”
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