Savage World

by Jennifer Slusher

  Despite surviving the destruction of Earth, swimming at the bottom of a bottle, Tom had sobered enough to realise being a squad commander required a whole different set of skills. He wasn't just their Major. For some, he was the unofficial patriarch of their fucked-up family. While his own dad was no prize, he'd served with many good officers who knew how to straddle the line between commander and mentor with success.

  “The corporal is still good,” Maya replied, checking her pack so she could claim ignorance of her CO's subtle question. Of course, he would know about her relationship with Colin. Anyone would be hard pressed not to, considering they'd lived in each other's faces for the last six months. She just wasn't ready to answer questions about whether she was fine. In Maya's eyes, she didn't have a choice. She had a body and injured needing her. Shouldering her pack, she turned to face him, the epitome of a British stiff upper lip. “If you'll excuse me, sir, Sergeant Jackson is triaging for me. I need to see the injured.”

  “Off with you then,” he respected her choice to say nothing which meant the hurt was bone deep. “Oy Lance Jack?”

  “Sir?” She stopped on her way past him, fingers tight on the strap of her pack.

  “Good job.”

  In the face of her loss, he admired her ability to focus on the job and even if it was too awkward to say out loud, he hoped the simple compliment did the trick instead.

  Two small words, but Maya had needed to hear them. The corner of her mouth flickered, a ghost of the mischievous, outgoing personality. “Thank you, sir.” She nodded once before heading out of the Med Station to get on with things. There was no choice, no option for her or the other expedition members.

  XII

  Reconnaissance

  From the inside, the Firefly seemed to have withstood the worst of the assault. From the outside, the three Sharks assessing the damage were having trouble believing they were all still alive.

  Rain beat against them, soaking their uniforms as they braced each other against the wind, gawking at the battered ship in a mixture of fascination and horror. Occasionally, one would glance at the other two to make sure this wasn't a fucked-up dream. Considering the thrashed ship was their only source of solid shelter at this moment, their anxiety was understandable.

  The Firefly had settled on its belly, up against a group of young trees now mostly devastated. Its gun-metal grey hull was covered from stern to bow with massive dents, some so severe the metal had creased or been ripped open altogether. A six-foot gash laid her port side open, exposing the interior insulation and shielding, while mud caked around the long tear and in the portals and vents all around the ship.

  The Sharks stood in deep furrows of thick, dark mud created by the ship, in front and behind them, beginning from the top of the hill they descended. The hillside was shredded, with destroyed and crushed trees, plants crushed to pulp and exposed rocks that still tumbled down past them every so often.

  “Fuck.”

  Jag threw a sidelong glance at Ozzy who was wiping water out of his eyes with his forearm. “No kidding,” he agreed, trying to ignore the wind that howled like a banshee around the downed carrier. “How far are we from the landing site?”

  Shiny unhooked her tab and studied the device. She swiped water off the screen before answering. “According to this, we're eight hundred meters away from the nearest transponder.”

  “I can believe it,” Jag followed the hill's incline from their position to the top and estimated its length made that number entirely feasible.

  Ozzy trudged around the end of the ship and froze, his curses at the mud sucking his boots going quiet. “Fuck me, we were lucky.”

  “What do you mean?” Jag exchanged a glance with Shiny before joining him.

  “Oh my God!” Shiny gasped, her stomach bottoming out as she joined Ozzy where he stood on the muddy edge of a cliff and the massive gorge the drone sweeps had found. She aimed her slate at it and tapped the screen. “Dear God, that thing is over three thousand feet deep,” she said, just above a whisper.

  Beside her, Ozzy swallowed audibly, and Jag swore in Hebrew. A boulder-filled, white-water river was at the bottom, swirling high and fast in the rain. If the ship hadn't ground to a stop and had covered another six meters, they would have gone over and there would have been no survivors.

  “Look.” Jag touched Shiny's arm and then Ozzy's, pulling their attention from the Death River of Doom to the massive felled tree that spanned the gorge. As big around as the Firefly, it was an ancient sentinel that made Jag feel very small. Lichens and moss covered the dull, lifeless bark, while mud caked around the ragged base, solidifying its metamorphosis into a makeshift bridge.

  Their eyes followed the tree trunk to the other side, where the jungle seemed wild and alive. Thick, ropey vines spiralled out of more massive trees, each of them bearing a thick canopy of leaves and branches. Waist-high underbrush covered the ground between the trees and, even in the rain, they could make out insects and small avians and even frog-like creatures jumping in the muddy puddles created by the rain.

  “Report.”

  All three jumped slightly and Jag quickly answered the Gunny's demand as he led the way back from the edge. “We're stopped at the edge of a hill just before a three-thousand-foot drop. It looks stable for now but recommend we evac everyone to safer ground once we've conducted our sweep, Gunny. There's a big tree bridging the drop with more jungle. Permission to make a sweep.”

  “Negative,” Derick's voice returned. “Hold position. We're joining you.”

  Jag's shoulders sagged, disappointed because he wanted to see what was on the other side of the bridge.

  “Yes, Gunny.” He shrugged at Ozzy and Shiny when a nearby rustle of underbrush made all three Sharks go for their guns. Watching the plants shimmy slightly, no one said a word as they readied their blast rifles. There was another shake, spraying raindrops off the leaves.

  “Shiny?” Jag hissed, missing Ren and Mayday suddenly.

  Studying her tab, Shiny shook her head, “It's a lifeform…”

  “Well, yeah, but good or bad?” Ozzy wanted clarification, his eyes not leaving the shuddering underbrush. “Like the kind that just thrashed our ship?”

  “I was get…”

  “Look,” Jag whispered, silencing them both.

  A snout poked out of the dull green leaves, sniffing at the air before the rest of it came forward, trundling out of the bush. No more than two feet tall, the quadruped was covered in soft spines resembling hair. Jag was reminded of a wombat, except this thing had floppy ears like a rabbit and small, almond shape eyes. It shuffled towards them, still sniffing, head turning side to side to study them.

  Ozzy stiffened in reaction, hands tightening on his rifle.

  “Hold your fire, Oz!” Jag hissed at his fellow Shark, not wanting to spook the creature. “It doesn't know what we are.”

  “The small, cute things are always the deadliest!” Ozzy retorted under his breath, half-frozen as he tried to track the creature's progress.

  “You watch too many movies!”

  “You don't wa…”

  “Oy! Frick and Frack, shut it!” Shiny ordered, her voice just as hissed and quiet as theirs. She didn't move much, just shot them both a hairy eye they'd best not ignore. Carefully turning back, Shiny watched as the creature shuffled towards her first, the blunt snout snuffling at her boot. Curious but cautious, the creature chuffed at her pants leg before looking up with grey eyes and barked.

  Naf!

  “Oh, that's a weird bark,” Shiny grinned and glanced at her comrades. “It's kind of cute though.”

  “You can't keep it,” Ozzy rolled his eyes. What was it with women and cute, fuzzy things? “It could be…”

  Ignoring him, Shiny bent down slowly and stretched her hand out, offering her fingertips for the creature to smell. When it didn't move away, she gently rubbed her fingers across the top of its head. Its floppy ears stood up straight and the spines along its back changed colour fro
m its dull green, to a bright amber.

  “Oh wow, it's like a chameleon!” Shiny exclaimed, her voice sounding almost girlish.

  Naf! Naf!

  Jag looked up from the creature to see three more emerge from the undergrowth. One was almost the same size as the first while the other two were much smaller, with shorter ears. Cubs? Jag decided and was glad Ren and Mayday weren't here. No doubt, both women would have adopted the things by now. When Shiny cooed over the approaching babies, Jag smiled faintly to himself. It would seem their tough as nails comtech was no better.

  “Whatever you do, Shiny, don't feed it,” Ozzy told her with a frown.

  “Too late.” Shiny held up a ration bar she'd quietly removed from her pack. Tearing open the foil, she tore off a bit and offered it up. “Ignore him, he's a city boy,” she teased gently as the creature sniffed at the food suspiciously. Cautiously, the small beast opened a mouth full of teeth and nibbled the bite out of her fingers. Shiny removed the wrapper from the bar entirely and laid it on the ground. “There you go.” The creature promptly snatched the whole bar and trundled back to its family.

  “They're hungry,” Jag observed, watching the two small cubs fall ravenously on the ration bar first. He was digging a bar out of his own pack when pieces of an unwrapped bar landed on the ground near the first one. When he looked up, Ozzy was stuffing an empty wrapper into a pocket.

  “What?”

  “Nothing,” Jag grinned, stowing the bar he'd been about to offer and turned his gaze back to the creatures and the occasional 'Naf!' At least some lifeforms on this planet were friendly, he thought with a sigh.

  * * *

  The discovery of apparently friendly creatures did nothing to lessen the blow of Olivia's death.

  The scientists who worked with her daily, who knew her personally and shared friendships spanning years, were devastated. After all the wounds suffered since Earth's destruction, this one seemed the unkindest cut of all. While the Sharks did not share the same connection to her as the squints in their charge, they knew the doctor from reputation. She was a celebrated planetologist who embodied the pioneering spirit.

  Derick saw to Olivia's body, sealing her away in a body bag until such time when she could be properly buried. He'd only known the woman a short time, but her death affected him because it affected his brother. Of the three of them, Luke always had a welcoming smile and a contagious, ready-to-fire laugh. That was one of his first memories of the happy baby Luke had been. Securing Olivia for now, Derick made a quick trip to the Med Station to check on Ren and then headed outside, to join Tom and Jules.

  “You think she could still fly, Captain?”

  Jules propped her hands on her hips, studying the ship. “I could lift off but we're talking atmo only and short trips. She's not space worthy,” she said, shaking her head as one hand indicated the long gash in the Firefly's side. “And that's only if we're able to get the stabilizers and thrusters back online.”

  “We got a lot of smart squints here,” Tom gestured to the group being led out of the damaged ship by Sarge and the rest of his Sharks. “We could seal the breaches, scavenge the inside of the ship for bits.”

  “We'd need a laser welder,” Jules told him by way of answering. “And if we can't neg-press the inside…”

  “Neg-press?” Derick ventured, glancing at Tom.

  “Negatively pressurize the interior so we don't implode when we hit space.” Jules looked up at Tom. “Don't get me wrong, the ship could possibly be repaired, but we'd need the equipment and the people. The Squ…scientists are mostly from the biological sciences. Aside from Luke, there's not one engineer among them. I told the Fleet we'd check in, in 24 hours because of the ionisation in the atmosphere. If we don't, they'll know something's up.”

  “Twenty-four hours when?” Derick prompted, glancing at the matte grey combat watch he wore on one wrist.

  Jules frowned and pulled her tab out of a cargo pocket. “That was… Wow. That was six hours ago. That gives us another eighteen before they realize something's wrong. Assuming the Olympia Sharks are ready to go, and they can launch immediately, that's another hour and a half. Almost a day before we get support. We need to get comms up,” she said.

  Glancing at her, Tom was about to say something when an idea popped into his head. Looking towards the disembarking squints, he spied the man he was looking for, helping the librarian-cute squint off the ramp. “Oy Luke, get over here!”

  When the younger Rickman joined them, Tom noticed he'd lost his usual cocky swagger. Olivia's death must have hit him hard as well, but the kid was made of strong stuff, just like his brother. He made a mental note to have a chat with Luke when he could, just as he had with Maya.

  “Yeah what's up? Can I help? Although,” Luke let out a low whistle as he surveyed the gash in the hull. “If you want me to fix this, I think you're overestimating my abilities.”

  “No, no,” Tom shook his head and crossed his arms over his broad chest. “Those transponders we use to establish a perimeter, can you rig them up to boost a transmission to reach the fleet?”

  Jules snapped her gaze to Tom. Colour her impressed. Even if execution wasn't possible, the idea had merit.

  Tom caught the look and winked. “Not just a pretty face, Captain.”

  “Or a bald one,” Jules retorted with a soft chuckle and smiled at Luke. “Can you do it, Mr Rickman?”

  Luke exchanged a sarcastic glance with his brother at the two officers getting their flirt on before setting his mind to the question asked of him.

  “Yeah, it's doable. We'd have to wait until the storm passes completely. All that electricity in the air might harm the signal more than anything else. If we can get enough of them, I say let's give it a try and just call me Luke.”

  “Or Baby Brother,” Derick grinned, not flinching away from the punch Luke landed on his shoulder. “We're going to have to go back up there and get those transponders.”

  “You think you can take a squad and go get them?” Tom framed the order in a suggestion, a habit he'd formed since Derick and he started serving together.

  “No problem,” the Gunny said confidently. “Just give me ten minutes to unpack my party dress.”

  “He loves silk underwear too,” Luke nodded at Jules, making her smile. “I can look at the communications array while he's doing that, make sure it didn't sustain any serious damage. You want me to make that my priority instead of the support systems?” It was the exact thing he needed to get his mind off Olivia.

  “Yes, thank you.” Jules was sincerely grateful for his help. They hadn't needed an engineer for this mission, so Luke's presence was an unexpected bonus. Considering their present circumstances, Jules suspected it could now mean the difference between life and death.

  A massive cracking noise rent the air as something wooden gave way and the Firefly shuddered before settling with a heavy boom that reverberated through their boots. Squints and Sharks scrambled away from the ship as it shifted and finally came to rest with another ear-piercing crack.

  “Jesus Christ!” Tom stared at the craft. “I thought that bloody thing was going to go! Sarge!” he bellowed at Jazz and indicated a clear spot about thirty feet away. Should something else give and they started to lose the Firefly, at least no one would be in its way. “Rally everyone over there!”

  “Yessir!” Jazz hollered back. Not missing a beat, he started issuing orders for the Sharks and the squints to muster in the indicated spot.

  “We can't stay here,” Tom stated the obvious.

  “No kidding,” Derick ran a hand over his shortly cropped hair.

  “Yeah, with the weight of the ship, all that rain we just got…” Luke dug his boot into the soft earth beneath him and drove the tip in, testing the soil compaction. He stared back up the hill, where small stones were tumbling loose. “If we get some heat, the earth might harden enough to hold the hopper in place…”

  Jules glanced at the sky and then her slate. “Sun down is in
four hours. I don't think we can count on that.”

  “And if it rains again, we'll be right and properly buggered,” Tom finished off, following Luke's gaze up the destroyed hill.

  “That's about the size of it,” Luke shrugged.

  If there was a landslide, not even that enormous tree bridge was going to keep the ship from tumbling into the chasm.

  “We can't stay here,” Tom said finally, noting Jules shaking her head in agreement. Good, one less argument. “Right, then. Gunny, get moving on those transponders.”

  “I'm already gone,” Derick nodded to Luke before heading off towards Jazz and the others.

  “Check out the communications array before he gets back,” Tom told Luke. “You feel so much as a twinge from the ship, you're out of, there right?”

  “Trust me, I'll be running out shit scared and that will be fast.”

  “Good. Anything happens to you; the big bloke will never let me forget it.” And that was if Derick let Tom live.

  “What do you have in mind?” Jules asked, narrowed eyes studying the Shark Major. He had a plan and she was pretty certain it involved going for a hike.

  “I'm going to take a scouting party and see what's over that bridge,” Tom gestured to the jungle on the other side of the chasm. “Our maps say there are mountains in that direction, we might find caves or someplace better to shelter for the night.”

  “In there?” Jules stared at the dense woods that reminded her of a Middle Earth setting. Or a Godzilla flick.

  “We can't stay out here in the open, Jules. This planet is full of beasties and I'd rather be undercover when night comes.”

  Remembering it was his call while they were planet side, Jules was grateful he tried to include her on the decision-making process, unlike too many others she'd crossed paths with. “Fine. I'm coming with you.”

  Tom's eyebrows ratcheted skyward and he shook his head. “Negative. Not a good idea and the squints…”

  “Have your sergeant to keep an eye on them,” Jules met his gaze with her dark one, as if daring him to deny her.