Castaway Planet

Galactic Calendar 259872/ 2000 [ Sol Year 4387/ Day 154 of 365. Sol standard year]

Days after of Crash landing/ 2

Uninhabited Island / Underground tunnel/ Circle Cavern

Galactic Standard Time / 1515

Jinn looked at the spawn as it tried to get at him. So far he had been leading the spawn away from the tunnel, and he had to keep at it. The last thing he wanted was for the others to be ambushed by this thing. And when he had spared a glance at the insect bear it was trying to to make a bridge. He had to hope that the others could deal with it while he dealt with the spawn. It wasn’t the best, but then this was a low worse than the lizard apes.

He had enough experience that he knew they had to kill the larger beast, but this was a lot harder than it sounded. The insect bear was a possible world-ender, a swarm bringer. The old stories he heard spacers tell told him enough. It had to die, but its electricity-throwing powers made that a lot harder. So far he had to fight it at range, if he could get close a good slash would end it! But the spawn would be on him in minutes!

As the spawn lunged at him again, this time he jumped at the wall, pushing off it once he hit. As he flew back towards the tunnel he fired his pistol at the spawn. Like the last time, the spawn lunged backwards and closed its mouth. He was starting to wonder what it ‘saw’ when he fired, and how it was seeing anything without eyes. When he landed, he moved backwards, hoping to put some distance between him and the spawn. If this was like last time, soon the spawn would open its mouth and screech, coming after him.

But this time, he looked down at the bottom level. As he thought, the insect bear was still building its bridge. He didn’t know what that said about this thing, but nothing good. To all its abilities and the power to reason, now it could plan long term. So died the last hope it was just a smart proto sentient, but he expected it.

Still, at least this thing needed more ‘meat’ to make another spawn. Still, this thing was a true monster. He hadn’t faced anything like this before, and the only thing he had to go on was spacer rumors. And unfortunately, none of the space legends spoke of one of them being able to reason. If there were things like this put there in the void, they killed anyone who ever came across them. And if he made just one misstep that it could take advantage of, then they would be another legend.

As bad as it made him feel, the best choice was to wait for the others. Once they made it into this place, then it might be possible. If they could cover him while he killed the insect bear, that would work. If the insect bear had to deal with all of them, there was no way they could lose!

As the spawn roared and opened its mouth wide as it charged at him. He yelled and leaped over it again, this time slashing out with his sword and cutting a slice in its back. The spawn kept running and gurgled as it kept running, this time into a wall. Below the insect bear roared and fired another bolt, but after it hit the spawn nothing happened. As Jinn stood there shocked he couldn’t understand just what had happened, but he knew he had killed it.

A bellow from below caused Jinn to jump backwards, his aura carrying him ten feet away. As he was in the air he saw a large bolt of electricity hit where he had been. He looked at the insect bear and saw it looking at him, and it seemed to be gathering another bolt. He aimed his pistol and fired, this time aiming at the thing's face.

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The creature screeched as it felt the stings of the big little one hit it. When its spawn had dropped like the waste of flesh it was! And the sorry spawn creature had to deny its kind master its help, choosing to die instead of being revived! Thankfully the waste of flesh had bought its master enough time to make a bridge.

The creature just had to get across before the big little one could keep it down here. The battle had turned against it, escape was the only option! It had been planning to find a new place to live for a while now, and this was as good a time as any. With a lunge, the creature ran up the ramp. Dashing across the shaky stones, making it across before the big little one could destroy it.

As it ran it felt its seeing sphere finished repairing itself, good. Now all it had to do was get outside and then it could send it up. That might just bring others to try and eat the big little one, but that was fine. Let the foolish ones fight that one, it would come back and eat the remains the victor left. The smartest thing to do was let others do the killing, that was perfect. The smart hunter gets more food than the strong hunter after all. Let others do what you need them to do, that way you’d be stronger.

With a screech the creature fired another blast at the jumping big small one. But like before the creature missed, the big small one dodging again. The creature was passing the passage it had blocked when one of the stones moved. It looked at it and felt its fear shock increase. It had created the blockage on purpose. It had felt that with the trouble it was having dealing with just one of the big small ones, but more!? That was unthinkable, and if they were even half as strong as this one? It was past time for the creature to leave, and it wouldn't eat its spawn.

Roaring, it ran at the big little one, letting the stinging strikes of the thing hit it. As the creature and the big little one came closer to each other, more stings hit its rear. As the big little one jumped over the creature, the creature kept running. When it reached the exit to the surface it looked back, seeing three more of the big little ones come out.

That was more than enough, without a second thought, the creature ran into the upper lands, its only thought on how to get away.

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As Racha looked at the insect bear as it ran away, she kept firing at it until it disappeared. Something was wrong here, something she couldn’t see. She had come out into this place expecting a battle, but instead, she fired at something as it escaped. She had a bad feeling, something was there that she couldn’t see. She hated times like that, it always led to the worst things. As she looked around, she took in the shape of the cavern, taking stock of it.

She had rarely ever seen a place that looked so easy to defend. There were only two, maybe three entrances total, and each one was more than easy to defend. All in all, this place looked like a good place to set up a base camp. They could even hide sleep behind the blockage, put the rocks back into place, and just drop a sensor pod out here. if something came at them they would be woken up, and until then they could sleep semi-safely.

But it was when she saw Jinn just looking after the creature as it ran away, that she knew her bad feeling was right. Just from looking at her, she could tell that Jinn was barely keeping it together. Something had happened out here, something that they couldn’t see.

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Al looked around, trying to find any other threats. Not finding anything, he smiled and looked at Jinn as he walked towards them. “Hey, brother! Seems you were able to handle yourself….. what’s that?”

Jinn was stopped by a strange insect-like creature with no eyes and four limbs. He was looking at a cut in it, a slice that was burned a little.

“This is a spawn of that creature that just left, it was birthed from a fleshy sack,” Jinn’s words caused Al to feel faint.

He had learned about those things back on his world, and they were all terrible. The number of planets that had become wastelands because of them, the times they had been used as weapons! Whenever they appeared, they always caused total ecological destruction! The worst thing was that they……. Al looked at Jinn in shock.

Racha however spoke up before he could, asking a question that had to be asked.

“Flesh egg? That thing was a self-breeder?! How the heck is this place still green!?” Racha asked in horror and Jinn shrugged.

“I think it needs to eat meat to make more, a good thing. If it could repurpose any organic matter, well. I don’t need to tell you how bad something like that can think for itself would do with that kind of reproduction rate,” Jinn said softly as he stood up.

Al felt his pulse quicken and looked at Jinn with total shock and horror in his eyes. “Able to think for itself? Are you sure?!”

“As sure as I can be. It makes sense. I think there are a lot more monsters out there if that thing was hiding here from them……. We need to get to that ship fast!” Jinn said.

Al felt a smirk growing on his face. That was something that he respected about Jinn. The man was never one to stay down. If there was a way around it, he would find it. he never stopped, if something was blocking his way he went around it or over it.

“Great. Super. But Al, how about these rocks?” Paige asked from behind them.

Al turned and reactivated his structure scan nanites, looking at the ceiling. The readings were almost enough to keep him from hearing what Jinn said next.

“You guys handle this. Racha, watch their backs. I’ll go and see where that thing is going. If we’re lucky it's running fast and long,” Jinn said as he activated his aura and dashed to the opening to the forest floor, leaving them behind.

Al chuckled and shook his head, looking at the ceiling. “Well, it’s stable, for now. I could put something together to bring down a lot of the tunnel if I’m reading this right. something to talk about boss lady?”

“Yeah. Paige go get Sara and Roy. I think we’ll make camp here tonight. Al once their through I want you to block off this tunnel. Nothing gets in here!” Racha barked and Paige went back into the tunnel.

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As the creature ran through the bushes, it kept waiting for a proper place to activate its seeing sphere. The fact that it could regrow them had shocked it, but now just didn’t have a use for it. If it shot it upwards, anything might see it. No, the best thing to do was to stay low and try and keep out of anything’s sight. It had to find a place to hide away, it couldn’t stay out in the open like this!

As it ran, it tried to notice anything. Beyond the small flyers and ground burrowers, there was nothing it could see. All it had to do was keep moving and take a den from something it could beat. That was easy, it had regularly gone out and killed anything that dared to make a move on its territory. It had a mental list of places it could hide in, and all it needed to get them to find the closest. And with time, it would attack the big little ones if they dared to take its den.

It might have to leave it behind, but it was perfect! The perfect place to hide in, but if they came back for its power they might outthink it. yes, that was the proper idea now. Its den was lost, the best thing to do was find a new lair. And try and track down the big little ones, the creature wouldn’t let such an insult stand! How dare they hunt it! Didn’t they understand that it was only by the creature’s will that such they were alive. Didn't they know it’s will things that things it didn’t know about could live to grow so strong? It would have to find them and teach them a lesson.

It might let the third strongest ones live, but only if they gave into the creature’s will. Yes, they would be the perfect hunters for it. And in time, from them, it would build a mighty swarm! It would be the strongest, the greatest! From one land to the next, it would rule all! Let anything try and stand against it, they would fall to its horde!

A rustling in the bushes caused the creature to freeze. It slowly looked around, a hunger growing in it. perfect, this would be it, the true start of its horde!

Break

Five lances suddenly shot out of the darkness, piercing the creature’s body. For a second it tried to break free before it sank to the ground. Without a word, the insect bear was pulled into the nearby bushes. Moments later a small ball of energy flew out to where the insect bear had been and cleaned up all signs of its passing. In moments the drag marks from the insect bear and the ropes were gone, it was as if nothing had happened.

Mere moments later, Jinn dashed through the clearing, a scowl on his face. For a few seconds the clearing was quiet, nothing moved. Then Jinn was back, trying to find the insect bear’s tracks. He looked around the trees, not moving into the bushes before he nodded and dashed back to where he had come.

“So that was one of the newbies, right?” A voice called out from across the clearing.

“Yeah, think they’re from the Alliance or the Confederation?” A voice from the other side asked.

“They aren’t warborn, that’s for sure! Think we should make contact?” A female sounding voice asked and then there was a commotion, twenty voices talking at once.

“Quite down, all of you! That’s for the Chief to decide! We’re not the likes of the Mountain clans, show some dignity!” A gruff-sounding voice cried out and the other talkers talkers went silent.

“That out of your system, good! We’re heading home, the Chief will decide what we do! Got that!?” The gruff sounding voice said before several agreements called out. “Good! Hunting party, move out!”

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Roy looked around and tried to keep calm as he and Sara moved towards where the others were. After the last crash was heard, everything went silent. For a few moments, he had almost bolted back the other way. But when Sara walked forward instead, going towards the sounds instead.

“Do you think they're all okay?” Roy asked as he looked around.

Sara looked at Roy over her shoulder. She smiled at him and looked at him for a few moments. “We’ve faced a lot before you found us. If whatever is there isn’t too bad, they’ll run over it. we just need to make sure that nothing comes at us from behind.”

Roy looked over his shoulder, remembering the monsters that had attacked him. How the lizard apes had chased him down, always trying to kill him. And when he had crashed into the tunnel, Jinn had been there to help him. And he had left him alone, but Roy had to protect this baby, he just had to. But something was bothering him, something about how Sara was acting. “So you think they're all okay? Even Jinn beyond those boulders?”

“Yeah, with Racha there they’ll be fine,” Sara said with a lot of confidence in her voice.

Roy swallowed as he tightened his grip on the baby. He didn’t want to admit it but the way Sara was acting was bothering him. The way that woman, Racha, just took over was weird. It was like she had experience beyond security, but he knew her file. She hadn’t even had her first regeneration cycle yet for star's sake!

Ahead of them, something dropped from the ceiling. Roy stepped back as Sara stepped in front of him. Ahead of them on the floor was a small foot-long grey rock, the dust around it

After a few moments when nothing happened, Roy released a breath he had been holding.

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Sara kept her eyes on the rock, something was bothering her. She couldn’t understand just why she was feeling this, it seemed perfectly normal. But maybe it was her upbringing in her home station. The only time that things fell was if the gravity was damaged because something hit the station. She had to admit that maybe it had dropped because of the others.

She didn’t want to say anything to Roy, but she was worried. From the Vine-Beast to the horde of spiders at the old fighter, this planet had thrown monsters at them. If something was working to create all of them, then where were they released? This whole place could be something that led to something much worse.

But then everything she had just thought caught up to her, and she almost blushed. The very thought was insane, but she was a biologist at heart. The very idea that plant and animal DNA could merge was impossible! The very idea, it was something beyond all known science! But then she had heard strange stories about some planets, and if that was the case it fit. But then that meant that the Service kept more things hidden from the public. And who was she kidding, that was more than probable!

“Sara, are we good?” Roy asked and Sara kept her eyes on the rock, nodding after a few moments.

“So let’s move on before something crushes us!” Roy said and walked around Sara.

However before Sara could say anything, something echoed off the walls.

“Sara, Roy? We’re all safe! Racha sent me to get you three!” Paige’s voice caused them both to smile. At least the others were safe, hopefully Jinn was too.