by Craig Allen
Locals were indeed appearing to the south, and not just there. In a circle about a hundred meters from the hopper, thousands of creatures had gathered. Some were bulbous creatures, while others were skinny, such as the mantis-like behemoth riders, but larger in size. At their feet scurried the spider-beetles, which meant at least a handful of the creatures present had agreed to act as incubators. Humans, specifically Colonel Deveau, had learned about that arrangement the hard way.
Sonja pointed east. “We got toads.”
Cody zoomed in. Toads emerged from between the other creatures, hopping forward on their strong back legs then landing on their shorter front ones. Red hair covered their backs, too. The toads’ eyes had a glassy, lifeless appearance to them, but those were only secondary senses. The bands of metal stretched across their heads could detect magnetism even over the horizon.
Again, every toad had its fifth arm on the underside in a submissive posture as it observed the marines and civilians around the hopper. The marines shouted, ushering the civilians into the hopper. The civilians obeyed without question as they nearly fell over each other to get aboard. The marines remained outside. The arming indicator went red on their coil rifles as they flipped off the safeties.
The marines gritted their teeth as they surrounded the hopper, pointing their rifles in all directions. Marines were tough to scare, but the most violent creatures on the planet had them surrounded. Fear was perfectly acceptable.
“Where the hell’d they come from without us seeing?” Bodin asked. “And why are they just sitting there?”
“It’s like they’re waiting,” Sonja said. “But for what?”
“They’re up to something.” Bodin threw a switch, and his weapon’s green safety light turned red. It could fire tiny rounds at hypersonic velocities, penetrating armor and making short work of unarmed creatures. “If they got coilguns, we’re fucked.”
Cody didn’t detect any sort of technology via his suit’s systems, nor did the skeeters, but at that distance, the electromagnetic sensors might not have picked up the magnets in coil weaponry. The planet had a strong magnetic core that sometimes interfered with EM sensors, even close up.
Cody struggled for a second to remember the team leader of the civilian scientists, whom he had met only the day before. “Dr. Roheim, can you tell if they are carrying anything advanced?”
The doctor peered out from inside the hopper. “Uh, yes. A moment please.”
Dr. Roheim stepped down the ramp but didn’t touch the ground. He fumbled with the gravimetric and electromagnetic scanner in one hand while stroking his graying beard with the other. Designed to pick up signals from beneath the ground, it would easily pick out any technology above ground.
After a moment, he spoke. “Uh, no. I mean negative.” He spun in place with his handheld scanner. “The only active power source is the hopper.”
“So it should be easy to mow them down if it comes to it,” Bodin said.
“That’s not going to happen.” Sonja started back toward the hopper. “We’re leaving. Let’s get on board and—”
“Contact.” Private Hugo was pointing wildly. “A group of toads are approaching from the east.”
The reeds parted as a group of five toads approached them, hopping at a decent clip. A typical toad could outpace a human. The high gravity of their home world didn’t affect them like it did humans, who needed help from mechanical actuators in their suits to keep from getting worn out while planetside. The toads hopped up to two meters in the air as they approached, though Cody had seen them hop much higher.
“Marines, stand by,” Sonja said. “Do not fire unless attacked.”
The toads slowed their approach, their central arms still folded on their undersides. Two of them stopped about fifty meters out, flipping over so their central arms were on top—an aggressive posture. They carried sling-spears common among their kind. They couldn’t do any real damage to them, not against their armored envirosuits and half-can armor. Up close, though, they could easily rend a human limb from limb.
The remaining three toads approached more slowly, lumbering along with their lower arms still tucked under them. Around them, the reeds had retreated to over thirty meters.
“Looks like Reggie,” Bodin said.
Reggie was the name for the toad in front of Cody. He had no idea who’d given the creature the name, but he suspected the reason was because a harmless-sounding name made a horrible creature seem less horrible. Cody wasn’t sure he agreed. Reggie’s head, like all toads, had a jaw that could easily snap a human in half.
Reggie was slightly larger than a typical toad and had peculiar spots on his underside that could have been natural or stained by some unknown substance as a sort of mark of leadership. Humans had met with Reggie once before, and Cody wasn’t looking forward to another such meeting.
“Set up your translator, Cody,” Sonja said.
Cody unpocketed the device, which was basically a handheld viewer on a tripod that had been folded into a tiny square. He set it on the ground, and it opened at once into a flat viewing screen larger than Cody’s head. The tripod extended, lifting the viewer until it was about two meters in height, or eye level with a toad. A holographic display shimmered into existence, showing the English alphabet.
Two toads remained twenty meters back, their spear-slings strapped to their backs. Reggie continued forward, stopping next to the viewer. He regarded the letters for a moment. Most toads, at least the ones who had any real power over others, understood English. Toads understood most concepts very readily, learning at an astonishing rate. That was how they had picked up technology so easily and why it had to stay out of their hands.
Reggie lifted a claw and tapped out a message.
You have come we do not know why your presence has disturbed food patterns and made our lives harder.
When dealing with the toads, showing weakness would anger them, but showing strength to a creature large enough to squash him wasn’t easy.
“We had no other choice but to land on your hunting grounds,” Cody said. “The treaty was violated.”
We would not violate the treaty as we know the consequences and will not take such risks thus we carry the weapons of our forbearers as you can see.
Of course they would deny it. Cody didn’t blame them. The consequences Reggie had mentioned referred to how Admiral Rodriguez had dropped nukes on the planet two months prior, targeting specific locations that contained technology. That had rattled the toads badly, so much so Cody found it difficult to believe they would violate the treaty. However, the gravimetric reading they were seeing was real.
“If we find nothing, we will leave,” Cody said. “If we find something, you will hear from us.”
We do not violate treaty so you must go and we will resume search for food.
Reggie’s central claw reached out, making Sonja raise her weapon. He ignored her as he dropped a flat scrap of leather at Cody’s feet. Whatever creature that leather had come from, it was unquestionably a sentient one. No other kind of creature lived on Kali.
Before Cody could say anything more, Reggie hopped away, making both Sonja and Bodin heft their weapons. The remaining toads joined Reggie as he bounded off to the south out of sight.
“What the hell was that about?” Sonja lowered her rifle. “They’ve never met us here before.”
Cody knelt and picked up the piece of leather. “I think this is why.”
The “leather” was nothing of the sort. From the color and the texture, it was the leaf of a dish tree. Considering the rough edges and the size, about fifteen centimeters across, it had to have been ripped away.
Bodin examined the leaf. “What, they leave you a calling card or something?”
“Or something.” Cody flipped the leaf over then raised an eyebrow. “Oh my.”
He held up the scrap of leaf for the others to see. Words had been scratched deeply into the leaf: You should go.
“They want us to leave
.” Sonja snorted. “I don’t doubt that.”
“They’re just trying to scare us,” Bodin said. “Ignore it.”
“If they wanted to scare us, they would have done it in person.” Cody touched the viewer, which then folded up. He tucked it away along with the leaf scrap. “Why didn’t Reggie enter this into the viewer?”
Sonja started to speak, but Bodin cut her off. “Shit.” He pointed at the trees. “Bats are getting airborne.”
Ten black shapes emerged from the trees like dark blankets in the wind. Each bat creature resembled a giant single wing, flapping as they gained altitude and circled the dish trees. From end to end, each measured at least three meters. So far, though, they were keeping their distance, but that wouldn’t last.
“You guys heard me,” Sonja said. “Everyone board the hopper. Now!”
Most of the scientists were already aboard, ushered in by the marines, who had taken up stations around the hopper.
Cody’s hand slid toward his coil pistol. He hated fighting, but if those bat creatures approached, they were all going to be fighting for their lives.
Chapter Two
Admiral Rodriguez rubbed his brow and stifled a yawn. The two months since humans had parked in high orbit around that dreadful planet had been boring, which was a mixed blessing. Part of him wanted something interesting to happen, but the experienced side of him understood that “interesting” usually meant “deadly.”
“Admiral.” The lieutenant at sensors was puzzling over his console. “I’m seeing something strange on the surface, sir.”
“Care to define strange, Lieutenant?” Rodriguez sipped at his coffee, which had gone cold.
“I’m reading unusual tectonic activity.” The lieutenant swiped at his controls, placing what he was seeing onto the main viewing globe. “Sir, it’s possible an earthquake is imminent at the team’s location.”
The three-meter viewing globe in the center of the bridge displayed a real-time view of the hopper, though it was zoomed out too far to make out individual team members. The section of the main continent where the hopper had set down was highlighted in red, forming a circle that covered an area just below the hopper.
“Pretty localized for an earthquake.” Rodriguez set his coffee down on his command desk. “Contact the hopper. Have them evac the area at—”
The red area on the viewing globe flashed several times. A black circle appeared on top of the hopper. Or under it, perhaps—Rodriguez couldn’t tell. Whatever had happened, the hopper was no longer visible.
“Report,” Rodriguez said in his best command voice. “What the hell’s happening down there?”
~~~
The ground shifted, as if the land had changed into a mountainside all at once. Cody’s envirosuit hardened as he impacted the ground, then the internal cushions reverted to liquid form once more a second later. He struggled to hang on to something, anything, as he slid toward the hopper.
Seconds later, he was level again. He lay there for a second, afraid the ground would turn somersaults once more. Finally, he rose, getting to his feet easily with the aid of the actuators in the joints of his envirosuit. The ground had leveled out once more, with no sign that anything had happened.
Sonja started to put an arm around Cody’s waist. “Babe?”
“I’m fine. Bodin?”
“I’m good.” Bodin checked his coilgun. “But where’s our ride?”
The hopper wasn’t where she should’ve been, nor was she anywhere else. In the vehicle’s place were red reeds, waving back and forth as if in a breeze, but Cody’s readouts indicated the air was still. Also, that wasn’t the only thing missing.
As far as Cody could see, they were the only humans around. Dr. Roheim, the civilians, the other marines… they had all vanished. Even the aliens that had surrounded the hopper had disappeared, except for the reeds less than five meters away.
“Did the hopper get swallowed up by that earthquake?” Bodin asked.
“That wasn’t an earthquake,” Cody said. “It was too short and specific. The ground just gave way and then returned.”
Sonja unslung her G-1 Gauss gun, affectionately called a Gus Ace by marines. “Rudder, do you copy?”
Rudder was the call sign of the hopper’s pilot.
“Rudder?”
Only static answered Sonja.
“Shit,” she said. “What now?”
Cody froze as a figure rose among the reeds, the top of its helmet emerging from between the meter-high stalks. His heart started beating again when he recognized the private.
Private Hugo held up his hands. “Where is everybody?”
Bodin waved at Hugo. “Hugo, get your ass over here and out of the weeds.”
Hugo pushed aside the weeds and took a step toward them. A reed wrapped around his wrist. “Gunny, where in the report does it say the ground can just suddenly drop out—”
Hugo dropped below the top of the reeds. He let out a grunt as his hands stretched forward past the edge of the reeds.
“God damn it.” Bodin reached for Hugo. “You’re awful clumsy for a marine.”
Hugo’s hand disappeared into the reeds, and he let out a shout as he slid across the ground away from them, the reeds parting for him as he passed. Then he appeared suddenly, reaching out blindly, his eyes wide open. “Christ, something’s got—”
He vanished beneath the reeds, which twitched for several seconds then settled down and swayed in a wind that wasn’t there.
“Hugo?” Sonja tapped the side of her helmet. “Private Hugo, report.”
No one responded. The nearby reeds shuddered as they leaned toward them. Cody could try to shoot them with his pistol, but they were so numerous he couldn’t possibly get them all.
A high-pitched whine shot through the comm system for a second, then someone spoke. “Foxtrot Six, this is Washington. What is your status?”
“Fucked up is our status,” Bodin said.
Cody didn’t know if what Bodin had said had gone over the radio, but he couldn’t agree more.
“Washington, be advised.” Sonja swung her G-1 toward the reeds, who were unmoved by the weapon. “We have lost our hopper and all personnel aboard save three. Whereabouts unknown. Requesting immediate dustoff.”
A pause followed, as if someone was deciding what to do, but it was more likely due to distance. The Washington was probably a few million kilometers away, and the speed of light was only so fast.
The voice of the Washington’s comms officer returned. “Copy that, Foxtrot Six. Banshee Five One inbound. ETA five minutes.”
“Tango yankee, Washington.” Another whine sounded as Sonja switched off her long-distance transmitter. “I want to find higher ground.”
“We can handle the locals,” Bodin said.
Cody drew his coil pistol. Normally, the military didn’t like civilians carrying weapons, but given the nature of the planet, they had made an exception, at least after he’d had a month of training. He’d gotten pretty good with the thing but not as good as the marines.
“I don’t believe the locals made the hopper vanish, at least not without us noticing.” Cody hoped that was true. If not, they had woefully misjudged the Kali natives. “And where did our people go? And why didn’t we go with them?”
The reeds had clustered around them, growing to about two meters in height until he could see only about half a meter in front of him. Some reeds prodded at Cody’s feet.
Bodin had a knife in hand. “Time to mow the lawn.”
“No. There’s too many.” Sonja said it even as she readied her G-1. “We need an escape plan.”
Cody flipped through the options on his envirosuit even as the reeds wrapped around his legs and began to tug, hard enough he wasn’t sure he could get away. Finally, he found the right command. In a second, the magnetics on his boots went active.
He could have sworn he heard a shriek as the reeds retreated into the ground. For creatures that sensed magnetism the way humans heard
sound, those boots were like a scream in one’s ear. For about twenty meters all around, the reeds vanished. Even the dish trees quivered in the distance as the magnetic boots screamed at anything sensitive to magnetic waves.
“Damn good thinking, Egg.” Bodin’s magnetic boots lit up the electromagnetic sensors on Cody’s suit. “We just wait for evac here?”
“Not if the ground’s going to just give way on us.” Sonja’s boots went online, too. “I’d rather have a more defensible position.”
“I found something.” Cody pulled up the map on his HUD and highlighted an area then shared it with Sonja and Bodin. “Those rocks to the west have a notch where we can wedge in.”
“Might work,” said Bodin. “They’re a hundred meters off, though. It’s a long shot.”
“It’s all we got.” Sonja switched off the safety on the G-1, and the indicator glowed red. “Let’s double-time it.”
The reeds retreated from them, creating a path between them and the outcropping of rocks ahead. Cody pumped his legs as hard as he could. He’d been working out with the marines, just so he could keep up with them. The actuators in the envirosuit made it easier, compensating for the higher gravity of the planet. His muscles ached, but he pushed on as the red reeds retreated around him.
Cody nearly tripped over a rock then nearly tripped over it again. A piece of raw ore had clung to his magnetized boot. Midstep, he switched off his boots until the ore was behind him, then he kicked on the magnetics again.
Finally, they reached the large outcropping of rock. Cody increased his suit’s actuators to maximum and jumped upward three meters to the edge, where Sonja waited for him. Bodin ran up behind him. On the ground, the reeds surrounded the rock.
