by J E Loddon
“We used a fair bit getting you off of the planet,” Max replied, looking at Liberty as she said it. “Two guns got left behind. Not much.”
“There’s a supply in the belly of the ship,” the pilot informed us. “Take what you need. That’s what it’s there for.”
We all made our way back to the main room, whilst the pilot cautiously began his approach to the planet where the message had come from. When Liberty started to explain what the situation was, it looked like Lise was going to lose it for a moment. Once she realised she wasn’t being asked to go down to the planet, though, she started to look a bit calmer. We all worked together to get the ammo from the hold, and load it into the rifles. It was tricky in zero gravity, and there was no way for us to test if the rifles were all still working. We loaded them down into the drop pod as quickly as we could.
“At least we won’t have to wait long for the transport to extract us,” Casper pointed out. “I’m guessing the plan is to find whoever’s down there as quickly as possible, and convince them it’s time to leave?”
“Not exactly,” Liberty replied. “The transport is going to carry on back home, drop Hamley off so he can get proper treatment.”
“All the way back home?!” Casper asked indignantly. “Then how are we gonna get off the planet?”
“He’s gonna come back, Casper,” Liberty told him. “The relief shuttle is flying around somewhere, and It’ll take us time to find the Division operative anyway.”
“Hopefully not that long,” Casper argued. “Can’t the pilot just wait for us?”
“Hamley’s dead if he doesn’t get help soon,” Liberty reminded him. “We won’t be any worse off than we were before these guys rescued us on the last planet.” Casper shook his head in exasperation. He looked almost petulant. I wondered if the unaffected way he’d carried himself when I’d first met him had been a facade, or if the stress of the last few weeks had just broken him.
We waited in the main seating area for the pilot to tell us that it was time. It wasn’t comfortable in the drop pod chairs, and we didn’t see the point in spending our last few minutes in safety uncomfortable. I felt physically and emotionally drained. I couldn’t believe, after all that had happened, that we were going on a rescue mission. We were lucky to be alive, and we were heading straight back into danger again. It wasn’t like the other squad being left behind on the transport were any better off, though. They’d lost one, and had a second clinging to life. I wondered if we’d ever even see them again. The Anastasia was a huge ship, and I had to assume that soldiers were lost all the time. We were surrounded by thousands of strangers, in the same position as us, but that we’d never speak to. All with their own lives going on on board the ship, and their own tragedies that we’d never even hear about. I thought about the book that the dead recruit had been writing. I’d already forgotten what his name was.
After less than ten minutes, we got the green light from the pilot to board the drop pod. We’d eaten protein bars whilst we waited, and I was starting to regret that now. Not that I wasn’t hungry, but I wasn’t looking forward to another rough landing. I wasn’t sure my body was up to it. The only good part about it all was that I couldn’t feel my legs or shoulders aching anymore. The stress had made them all but numb. We clambered into the pod through the top hatch, and got strapped in. We had plenty of ammo, which was good. We only had one explosive left, though. The supplies in the belly hadn’t included grenades. As Weapons Expert, the sole explosive would be in my possession. I couldn’t decide if that was frightening or reassuring. It had already been a high pressure day, and it was most probably just going to get worse.
We were released, as per usual, into the upper atmosphere, and the pod began its descent. It was then that I remembered the firefight earlier. The transport was well armoured, and the small rounds that were used in ground combat wouldn’t have much impact on its armour. The pod, though, was another thing entirely. It was built in such a way as to, mostly, survive an impact on landing. It wasn’t designed to withstand gunfire, and had no armour of any kind. I started to look around frantically, searching for bullet holes. If it wasn’t pressurised, would I already know about it? As we descended, I didn’t notice any changes in the atmosphere within the pod. Having been weightless for so long, though, the gravity of the planet began to exert its pull, and it was difficult to tell what was normal.
The planet we were heading for had breathable oxygen, and even some greenery and water. Under any other circumstances, it sounded like it might even be pleasant. That did mean, of course, that we didn’t require oxygen masks. We’d all lost our shades at some point too, along the way. We had nothing to put on, and just had to hold on tight and brace for impact. It seemed to take an age. To the point, in fact, that I loosened my grip, and began to lose concentration. Surprisingly, then, when the landing came, (and it came hard), it didn’t feel even half as bad as the last one. It still came as a shock, of course, and I made a mental note to ensure I was always holding on tight in future. As soon as we landed, though, it didn’t take a moment to gather my wits about me, and I released my harness, rushing towards the gun rack. I threw them over my arm, and got ready to pass them out. Whatever was on the other side of that hatch, it probably wasn’t good. I was determined to be ready for it.
CHAPTER TWENTY
We didn’t have any fancy plan this time. No pre-selected tricks. We were ready to leave the pod within less than two minutes, which was a vast improvement over our last two landings. As soon as we had all our gear together, we opened the hatch, and marched out. As we stepped out into the bright, glaring sunshine, I tried not to let it distract me. As it turned out, it wasn’t the light that would catch my eye. As my eyes darted around the landscape, looking for an enemy threat, I was awestruck. It was… beautiful.
Bright and luscious green grass lay ahead us. There were bushes covered in flowers on both sides. The pod had crashed into a huge bush covered in pink, yellow, and orange blooms. Spread out in front of us were the broken heads, petals scattered everywhere, crumpled and broken where the pod had slid over them. There was no sign of an enemy presence, but we couldn’t see much from where we were. We were surrounded by the bushes, with just a tunnel the width of the pod in front of us, leaving a view only of green grass, and a mountain off in the distance.
We flattened ourselves to the walls of the bushes, and made our way quickly but cautiously up the tunnel of destruction our pod had made. As we reached the end, our view widened, and we could appreciate the full majesty of the area. The bushes continued off into the distance on our right and left as far as our eyes could see. The mountain was several miles in front of us. We were on a carpet of green grass, a wide open expanse in front of us. Then, off to my right, I saw it. The most amazing sight I’d ever seen. Tress. Hundreds and hundreds of trees. As tall as any building we’d had back home, with huge branches growing between each other. It was a whole forest.
“Let’s go,” Liberty ordered. “Into the forest.”
“We don’t know what’s living in there,” Casper pointed out.
“We don’t know what’s living out here either,” Liberty replied. “At least in the forest we’ll have cover and a fighting chance.”
I just stood there, continuing to marvel at the massive forest in front of me. I’d seen grass. There had been patches of dry, yellow grasses here and there back home. I’d even seen flowers. I’d been in buildings that had them in vases. There were parts of my planet where that sort of thing could grow, and people who could afford it had flowers sent to them. I’d never seen a tree, though. It wasn’t quite so easy to get a tree delivered.
“Milo!” Liberty shouted at me. “Move!” The sound startled me, and I gripped my rifle tight, looking for hostiles. I didn’t seen any, and gave Liberty a quizzical look.
“It’s clear right now,” she said, “But it might not stay that way for long. Get into the trees.”
“Come on Milo,” Tasia sang out, “You can
get a closer look!” She chuckled, running off ahead of me. I loosened my grip on my rifle, and followed the others towards the tree line. We got there without any issues, and made our way in a straight line away from the drop pod. We weren’t running, but we were walking at a brisk pace.
“I’m not going to be able to scan anything from within here,” Milo pointed out, as we moved deeper into the forest. He was carrying a large scanner which we’d taken from the other team’s equipment, having abandoned ours on the last planet.
“I’m not worried about scanning right now,” Liberty replied. “I want to get us much distance between us and the pod as possible first.” Casper shrugged, and continued on. The trees became denser, and the forest grew darker as a result. “Do we have the torches?” she asked me. I had them in a bag slung over my shoulder. On the first mission, Casper had brought them in the metal storage box, but it was too unwieldy to carry, with the small handle meaning it had to be carried by hand. We may have made numerous mistakes over our first couple of missions, but for the most part, we were doing our best to learn from them. We all attached torches to our rifles, and walked deeper into the forest. After a while, Liberty stopped.
“OK,” she said, “we need to find our way out now.” We looked around. Srrounded by trees, it was completely impossible to see anything further away than five to ten meters. The only reason we still knew where the drop pod was was because we’d travelled in a straight line. We had no idea which direction to go in.
“We could go back,” Casper suggested.
“No way,” Liberty replied. “If anyone noticed the pod, going back there now would be suicide.”
“Great. So what do we do?” I asked. Liberty furrowed her brow.
“You’d better start scanning, Casper,” she said. “If we use comms, we risk being traced.” He held his hands out to his sides.
“There’s no way I’m gonna be able to pick up anything in here!” he said. “This forest is far too dense.”
“You might get a faint signal,” she suggested. “All we need is a vague idea which way the distress signal is coming from.”
Casper got going with the scanner, mumbling the whole time. It was clear he thought travelling into the forest so far was a bad choice. I was inclined to agree with him. The trees were beautiful, but in the dark gloom, where no grass could grow, it wasn’t anywhere near so nice as it had been outside the forest. It was creepy, and someone, or something, could jump out at any moment without warning.
“Maybe we should go back to the pod,” I suggested to Liberty. She just held a hand up to shush me. I shrugged, and sat down on the forest floor. It was cold and damp. Casper continued to scan for a good five minutes, possibly even ten. Eventually, he stood up and stared at Liberty.
“Nothing,” he announced.
“Are you sure?” she asked him.
“Of course I’m sure,” he retorted. “Here, you wanna take a shot?” he asked her, pointing at the scanner. She ignored this, and looked around, lips pursed. I wasn’t sure what she thought she was going to see that would change our situation. Then, she looked up, a small smile appearing on her face. She looked at Casper. He looked back, looked up with a frown, and realisation dawned on him.
“Oh no,” he said. “No no no. I am not climbing up a tree. Certainly not with that thing.” He looked at the scanner, then back up at the treetops. They looked to be about fifteen meters high. “Nope,” he reiterated. “Not happening. Do you have any idea how heavy that thing is?” Liberty looked at me, then Tasia. She turned to regard Antonia.
“Yeah, send Antonia up,” Casper said. “She managed to haul you up that tree in the arena, remember?” he taunted. “She should have no trouble getting the scanner up that tree if she can lift you!” He was grinning now. Antonia looked back at Liberty, and shook her head. “Oh, no?” Casper asked, enjoying the moment. “You don’t think you can get it up there? Maybe you guys were cheating, after all…” Liberty looked around for more options, then sighed.
“Casper, get the scanner up the tree, and see what you can find for us. Antonia, you help him,” she ordered. They both stared at her, and seemed about to protest. Liberty returned Casper’s gaze evenly. His expression changed, and he pulled the strap of the scanner back over his shoulder, and looked around at the trees. Liberty turned her gaze on Antonia, who paused for barely moments, then followed Casper. He found a tree that he liked, and motioned for Antonia to start climbing it. What happened next was a comedy of errors.
Antonia reached the lowest branches, and used them as an anchor. She reached down towards Casper, who lifted the scanning rig up towards her. They might as well have been a mile apart. Casper then put the strap of the rig back over his shoulder, and tried to climb up. He was able to shimmy up a certain distance, but the weight of the rig was making it awkward for him. It wasn’t that big, half the size of my torso, but was a lot heavier than it looked. The surface of the tree was very smooth, with nothing really to get hold of. Liberty looked across at me, and I knew exactly what she was thinking. If I stood underneath him and held my arms up, he could use my hands as a platform to push him up further. I was doubtful this would even give him enough height to reach Antonia, but more than that, I was aware of how ridiculous we’d look when it inevitable ended badly.
I looked back at Liberty, fully intending to protest, but then I remembered what Antonia had said back on the transport. I needed to start following orders. No matter how silly those orders might be. I held my hand up before she could even speak, and walked over to the tree, lifting my arms up. Casper tried to kick up off of my hands, but I was at full stretch, meaning I couldn’t provide any extra push, and the strength of his kick just succeeded in pushing my hands down further. Casper slid back down. Antonia tried climbing up with the rig. She was a good climber, but even she struggled with the weight of the scanner jiggling about, disrupting her balance.
“Just climb up a smaller tree, where the branches are lower,” Liberty suggested with exasperation.
“We won’t be high enough then,” Casper replied, “wait, I have an idea.” He went fishing about the forest floor around about us, picking up pieces of vine. He started tying them together to make a long string of them. After a couple of minutes, he’d put together one long vine, made up of numerous pieces of varying lengths and thicknesses. Liberty rolled her eyes, and turned her back on the whole thing, sighing impatiently.
Antonia climbed back up, with the string. Once she’d anchored herself on the lower branches again, she dropped one end of the vines down. Casper tied them to the rig, then started to climb up whilst Antonia pulled it up.
“Wait!” Tasia shouted out after just a few seconds, and she ran towards the tree. We all looked at her, bewildered.
“What is it?” Casper called down.
“Lower the scanner,” Tasia called up.
“Why?!” Casper asked. At the same instant, the scanner rig suddenly dropped down, into the waiting arms of Tasia.
“Oh,” Casper said.
“I don’t think this is a very safe system,” Tasia pointed out. Casper climbed back down. “Find a smaller tree with lower branches, that’s next to a taller tree, which is next to an even taller tree. Progress your way across them.”
“And hurry up,” Liberty said impatiently. “Someone’s life is at stake, and you’re swinging around the forest like simians.”
“What’s a simian?” I asked. Liberty just rolled her eyes at me.
Casper and Antonia did what Tasia suggested, and it then didn’t take them too long to get towards the top of a pretty large tree. Casper started scanning, whilst the rest I stood staring up at them, reigniting my neck ache. Liberty paced up and down like a wild animal, huffing an puffing. She was getting very agitated. Tasia looked concerned as well. We were there to help someone, and we couldn’t even sort ourselves out. Eventually, Casper and Antonia made their way back down.
“You’d better have something for me, Casper,” Liberty warned.
“Thank the stars,” Liberty said. “Let’s get going, full speed. If we can pick up that signal, then the enemy probably can as well.”
We set off at a good run in the direction Casper had indicated. By this point, though, we’d all been going for many hours with no sleep, and the run wasn’t as fast as it would have been first thing that morning. The density of the trees in the forest also didn’t help, and I could feel Liberty’s frustration, even though I could only see the back of her head. After a while, probably around twenty minutes, the trees started to thin out a bit, the light around us increasing. We gradually slowed as the trees thinned out further, and it became obvious we were coming to the edge of the forest. We reached a long, grassy hill, which stretched out in both directions. We needed to go over the hill to continue on our path, but without knowing what was on the other side, we had to be cautious. We followed the hill along for a minute to the North, but it began to tail away from the direction we needed to head in.
