Nearly all the aliens were dressed similar to the one who guided them in. Ann couldn’t discern any biological differences in their bodies thus making it impossible to determine if they were male or female.
As they traversed down the incline to the settlement they began gathering notice. Aliens ceased whatever task they were doing to gape at the new arrivals. Three approached their guide and commenced an animated conversation. The guide gestured back to them then forward at the largest building near the center. The argument continued for several moments before their guide apparently came out victorious and continued leading them to the central building.
Dozens of aliens lined the dirt pathway with wide vertical eyes glued to their progress—the children pointed, some screamed. It dawned on the four that to these villagers, they were the aliens.
A ten foot tall doorway covered by portiere beads marked the entrance to the central building. The guide turned to face them with palms up signaling them to stay. Then it turned and walked through the beads disappearing inside and leaving them alone with a scared and confused mob standing feet away.
For the moment none of the Proximian beings moved in on them which gave Ann relief, though she noted a few carried hand-held weapons. Salena’s nerves nearly reached a breaking point after one of the children tried to rush up to them, but at the last second an adult held it back. The beads parted and the guide returned at last motioning them to come inside. The crowd whispered to each other as they slipped through the beads and entered a hot, shadowy room lit by a small fireplace in the back. In the center, backlit by the crackling fire, sat a lone figure in an elevated chair. Two Proximians sat on the floor, one on either side of the chair, and in front of it, dug into the ground, was a depressed section of the floor a foot lower than the rest where they were instructed to go.
Standing in the lower section facing the tall Proximian in the chair, the group waited to see what would happen next. Ann assumed the lower floor was to make sure whoever sat in the elevated chair always loomed above anyone else who may come to seek its favor. And its effect worked. She felt tiny in the presence of this being and the longer the silence between them all remained, the more intimidated she felt.
The Proximian in the chair arose to tower over them further. It leaned in closer inspecting them one by one then a nearby Proximian handed it what looked like paper, but thicker along with a slender tool. It beckoned them to follow it up from the lower ground to a circular table behind the chair. It placed the paper on the surface and, using the tool, carved into it. When it lifted the paper upright to reveal what it wrote, all four gasped.
DO YOU UNDERSTAND?
“Yes,” Ann said, nerves trembling.
The being nodded and went back to work carving on the paper.
WE CAN NOT SPEAK YOUR LANGUAGE ONLY WRITE.
Ann: “We understand. But how can you understand us?”
I AM KEEPER OF PAST. YOU ARE HUMANS. ANCESTORS SEE AND OBSERVE HUMANS MANY CYCLES AGO. PASS KNOWLEDGE OF YOU AND YOUR WAYS TO CHILDREN FOR THIS DAY.
Salena: “For this day? You knew we were coming?”
ANCESTORS SAW FIVE SHIPS LEAVE PLANET ON WAY HERE. NOW YOU ARE.
Ray: “Only four made it. We thought nobody lived here.”
WE STAY HIDDEN. NOT FROM YOU. FROM RAIDERS.
Salena: “Raiders?”
RAIDERS DANGEROUS. THEY TAKE WHAT THEY WANT. THEY NOT LIKE US. WE KEEP LIFE SIMPLE. THEY EMBRACE OLD WAYS. TECHNOLOGY.
Ann: “They use technology? Where are they?”
NIGHTSIDE. BELOW GROUND. LONG AGO WAR BROUGHT DOWN THE CITIES. WAR OVER TECHNOLOGY. MY ANCESTORS SAID TECHNOLOGY TOO DESTRUCTIVE. WHEN WAR OVER THEY MOVED THEIR MACHINES TO NIGHTSIDE WHERE THEY CAN USE LIGHT AND STAY WARM. BUT THEY WANT TO RETURN. EVERY CYCLE THEY COME CLOSER. TAKE MORE.
Salena: “What do they take?”
FOOD. PEOPLE.
Ann: “Why? If they have technology, why take your people? What do you have that they can’t attain?”
WE OUTNUMBER. THE TRIBES OF THE LAND HAVE GROWN TO MANY. THOSE BELOW MUCH LESS. THEY TAKE FOOD TO FEED THOSE THEY STEAL FROM US.
Ray: “But what’s their endgame? What are they building their numbers for?”
The Proximian Past Keeper wrote down the answer, but Ann already knew what it would say.
TO DEFEAT YOU.
Chapter 23
BRANCHES CUT GASHES into their arms and legs, blood dribbled down their skin as they ran through the jungle—Inizio still a mile away. Five Proximian hunters trailed behind, moving slower than they normally would to keep pace with their human counterparts. They had to warn the camp—an attack was imminent.
While the villagers may not have known of the STS fleet’s arrival due to living below tree canopies and not venturing out beyond their normal hunting grounds, they assured Ann and the other three that the nightsiders already knew the locations of Inizio, and how many they’d be facing. Raider scouts were quiet and effective—likely watching them since their captain took the first steps on the planet’s surface. Communication was scant between the individual tribes of the Proximian Land, but the villagers had recently heard rumors of the raiders preparing a large scale assault, though at the time the villagers weren’t sure who the target was.
Now they knew.
“Look!” Salena shouted. She came to a sudden stop and pointed through a gap in the trees revealing a fiery red trail of a flare rocketing into the sky.
“Oh, God. We’re too late, aren’t we? Come on!” Ann took off in the direction of the flare leaving the rest temporarily behind.
“Should we be running to the danger?” Ray yelled as he picked up the pace behind Ann.
“They need all of us!”
Distant screaming and gunfire somehow urged them to move faster despite the sweat and blood. The haunting noises grew louder the further they ran, but also more sporadic. Then a new sound raised goosebumps on their flesh. An electric whirl somewhere up ahead. Their five escorts raced forward easily passing Ann. One of the escorts turned around to face them and signaled to stop and get down to the ground—hide.
Ann went with Ross, his PL-6 rifle charged and ready, and took cover behind a cluster of ferns. Ray and Salena hid low behind one of the giant tree trunks. Their five escorts unsheathed ragged blades as they crouched low, their tall frames ready to pounce at any possible threat.
The unmistakable sound of an electric motor drew nearer. A flash of light bouncing off dull bronze glimmered from the far end of the jungle for half a second. The electric whirl reverberated off the thousands of plants and trees making it difficult to pinpoint its exact location; only that it was coming closer. Ross laid flat on the ground, his rifle propped on a dirt mound, eyes scanning, searching for another flash of light through the dense foliage. There—a glint of light, the bronze of the vehicle reflecting its position. Ross followed it as it made an arch to the west. He aimed through the scope ready to fire, but Ann placed her hand on his arm. “Wait,” she whispered.
Whoever operated that vehicle, weaving between the trees with ease, didn’t know their party was hiding nearby and Ann wasn’t about to let Ross give away their position. The hovering electric vehicle, now close enough to glimpse for longer periods in between gaps in the trees, veered left and right, looking for stragglers that may have run away from Inizio. It was long and slender running ten to fifteen feet deep, but only two or three feet across and moved at a speed of roughly twenty-five miles per hour. Whoever was piloting possessed great skill not to crash into the side of a tree, Ann thought.
Minutes ticked by—no one in their group dared to speak. To Ray’s disgust a bizarre insect with antennae longer than its six-inch body crawled up his leg. He flicked it off, and to his horror it sprouted wings and flew by his face in protest.
At long last, they heard chatter in the Proximian language coming from the bronze craft and watched as it made a left turn and ventured away from them and Inizio. When they could no longer hear the electric motor they c
autiously stood back up. The Proximian hunters spread out wide scanning the trees. When the hunters confirmed the coast was clear, they continued on to Inizio conscious of the fact that the distant screams and weapons fire ceased entirely while they lay hidden on the ground.
Vigilantly, they set a slower pace for the final half mile. Two hunters stayed in the front, the other three took the rear. Ross’s PL-6 rifle was still charged and ready to fire at a moment’s notice.
Salena remembered the animals that followed them from the treetops earlier that morning, or was it the day before? At this point they’d been awake for so long it was hard to tell. Now, the jungle was eerily quiet—the only sound was the crunching of dried leaves underfoot as they walked.
“Do you guys smell that?” Ann asked.
Ray sniffed the air. “Smoke.”
Caution be damned, they picked up the pace the rest of the way. The smoke grew thicker making them cough, but they kept going. Finally, they reached a clearing where the perimeter enclosing the ecologist camps was located. Earlier that morning it was one of the happiest places in Inizio filled with creatures and those who already loved them. It was gone now. Nothing left but smoking ruin and charred remains.
The electric perimeter was destroyed so they walked past it looking for any survivors, but found none. Camp after camp told the same story: burnt tents, equipment reduced to ash, and hundreds of dead bodies littering the ground, both human and Proximian, though the dead aliens dressed differently than the hunters who escorted them from the village.
“Are they all gone?” Salena asked through tears.
Ann wasn’t sure if she meant their friends being dead or if the raiders had gone back to the nightside. Either way, she felt the answer was yes and nodded.
The sixth camp they reached was Ann’s. Ray helped her sift through the aftermath as she desperately searched for her friends and colleagues, Blaire and Adam, while Ross and the hunters kept an eye out. Salena stayed back, crying and too upset to contribute. Nobody blamed her.
Under the primary lab tent they found Adam’s body. He wasn’t burnt too badly, but he did have a gaping wound on his back, likely from a weapon of some kind. Ann covered him up with a blanket she found from their supply chest that had remained untouched.
There was no sign of Blaire.
Before they could continue searching, the sound of ten descending Z48s drew their gaze overhead. The four humans waved their arms to grab the attention of the pilots while the five hunters found cover to hide behind. One of the Z48s deviated off its flight path and found a place to land next to the lake—a peaceful contrast to the carnage that surrounded it.
Ann, Ray, and Salena approached the Z48 as its engines shut off. The captain of The Christensen, James Morris stepped out from the cargo door looking grim. He was followed by a heavy security detail armed with plasma rifles that fanned out covering the area.
“Captain Morris,” Ann said.
“We came as soon as we could. But it looks like we’re too late. What the hell happened down here?”
Ross interjected. “Before we answer that you need to know there are five friendlies with us. Aliens on our side. They’re out there hiding, and we cannot harm them. That would only make matters worse.”
“You heard him. Do not fire unless fired upon,” Morris said to his security team. “Call up your friendlies.”
Ann yelled in the direction they hid and motioned for them to come out. “It’s okay!”
Diffidently they appeared from behind the tree line. Ann motioned for them to raise their hands in the air and they mimicked her actions appropriately. The security team took measured steps backwards, guns still in their hands, but not raised.
“My God,” Morris said. “They’re primitive. How did they cause all this devastation?”
“Their people chose to live a simpler life. Others on the planet went a different path. It’s the others we have to worry about. They came from an underground city on the nightside of the planet. They’re smart, too. They have access to technology. The villagers,” Ann gestured to the five hunters, “call them raiders. They’ve been building up their numbers after a great war between themselves and the tribes of the land by kidnapping the tribes’ members. Sir, they’ve been assembling an army over hundreds of years in order to defeat us when we finally arrived.”
The captain looked surprised. “Us? They knew we were coming?”
“Their species was watching us a millennium ago. They’ve been waiting on us.”
“Of course they were. So that was them, then? The three ships that came to Earth?”
“Yes and no. It was a different faction.”
“How do you know all this?”
“Hours ago we were found by one of them in the jungle and taken to one of their villages. In the village there is a, well, I’m not sure if it’s a man or woman, but there’s a Proximian who has been deemed a record keeper. It even knew our language, though they can’t speak it.”
“We have a linguist on board. I’ll send for her once we know it’s safe. Why do you think they want to attack us?”
“I’m not sure. Once it told us we were being watched, we left trying to get back and warn them in time. We didn’t make it. We tried calling first, but the forest blocked our signal.”
“Have you found any survivors?”
“None yet, but many are missing. A lot of people are dead here, but not as much as there should be. I think they took some of us hostage.”
“Interesting. Ross, come here. You’re one of our top security officers. What do you think their motives are?”
“Sir, I can’t even guess,” Ross said, walking over to join them. “They have to know we can over power them with the tools at our disposal. Our Z56s can fly out there and lay waste to the caves they crawled out of.”
“Hence the hostages,” Ann said.
“We need to re-secure the area while we determine what’s salvageable,” Morris said.
“What about a rescue plan?” Ann asked.
“In time. We need to regroup and I need to speak with the other three captains.”
“We can’t just leave them! We need to gather everyone who can fight and find the city’s entrance on the nightside,” Ann asserted. She thought of Liam for a brief, painful moment and knew he would lead the campaign if he were there.
“Now is not the time Miss—”
“Ann Caldwell.”
“Miss Caldwell, we need time to gather information. We don’t even know where they live.”
He was right, she knew. They had to gain intel on their adversary if they hoped to extricate their people and win this war they inadvertently found themselves fighting. They didn’t even know how many were missing yet. A body count needed to be conducted. Terrible, but necessary business.
“You’re right. What do you want to do?”
The captain considered. Their next move would be vital if they hoped to continue living on the planet. He was about to speak when the emergency tone beeped from the cockpit of the Z48.
“Captain Morris! Something is wrong up here. We’ve lost control of the ship. I repeat. We’ve lost control of the ship! What are your or—”
The signal cut out.
“What the hell?”
A red blur streaked through the air from the jungle and in an instant the captain collapsed with a fresh, smoldering hole in his heart. Ann instinctively ducked down and scrambled to find a hiding spot, but there was nowhere to go. Another shot, this one missed her head by inches—the heat of whatever was being fired burned her skin as it went by her, hitting the side of the Z48 burning a hole straight through it. She darted for the craft anyway, the only thing nearby large enough to cover her.
Shouting behind her coming from the security team as they discharged their PL-6 rifles at the unseen enemy was joined by the battle cry of the Proximian hunters who ran into the jungle seeking their prey. She slid behind the Z48 as the craft was pelted with fire, fresh holes appeared above her as
she lay flat on the ground.
“Ray!”
Ann heard Salena shouting from somewhere in the chaos. She peeked around the edge trying to find her friends. Four dead already on the ground including the captain. “Salena! Ray!” she yelled.
From behind a crumpled half-burnt tent she found one of them. “Salena, over here!” Her friend frantically looked around until finding her. Ann waved her over, but Salena shook her head. “You have to!”
A shot hit the remains of the tent Salena was using for cover causing a fresh fire to erupt.
“Now!”
Salena put her hands over her head and ran full sprint toward the cover of the Z48. Halfway to Ann, another shot hit the ground near her feet launching her sideways. She was slow to stand back up—too slow.
Ann cursed and took off into the field of battle. As she ran she frantically looked around for Ray, but couldn’t find him. The remaining security team was holding their ground firing away, but she knew their plasma charge would be running out soon. She came to a slide at her friend and tried to help her up, shots narrowly missed them.
“Get up, Salena!”
“I’m trying!” she grunted.
Together they struggled to their feet and ran for it back to the Z48—Salena limping the whole way.
“Where’s Ray?” Salena asked while attempting to catch her breath.
“No idea. Just get down.”
Far away Ann heard the sounds of similar battles taking place where the other Z48s had landed around Inizio. She peered around the corner scanning the scene for Ray and calling out for him. One after the next, the security team ran out of charge in their rifles. She yelled for them to get behind the Z48 with her. They tried to retreat, but they were too far away and each was shot in the back in their attempt.
Proxima Page 25
