Castaway Planet

Galactic Calendar 259872/ 2000 [ Sol Year 4387/ Day 153 of 365. Sol standard year]

Days after of Crash landing/ 1

Uninhabited Island / Clearing of Fruit-Pod trees near Escape Capsule # 405

Galactic Standard Time / 0928

Rodolphe glared ahead as he helped carry the injured deckhand through the forest. After Jones had left them behind, for a second Roldophe thought they were dead. But then the lizard scorpions had reacted when the fire started. When they moved away, Rodolphe used that chance to get lead them all away. But it left him and the only other healthy deckhand carrying their wounded comrade together. As they moved, Rodolphe could feel that something was hunting them, and that bothered him a lot. Carrying someone wounded, that was just asking for something to attack them!

At least…… he almost stumbled before he sent a command to one set of his nanites in his ears activating them. Their echolocation function was just perfect to watch for anything.

They needed to get somewhere they could defend themselves, but where? The cave nearby was the only thing that made sense, but

“Keep moving, we have to make space between us and those things! We need to move!” Rodolphe said bitterly as he looked ahead,

“How?! Where are we going? What are we going to do?!” The healthy deckhand asked. He had short blond hair, red eyes and was dressed in the normal deckhand jumpsuit. He was looking around, wondering if anything was hunting them.

“Just keep your eyes ahead Zane! Bryce, can you hear me!?” Rodolphe asked the injured deckhand they carried.

Bryce had short purple hair and blue eyes. His jumpsuit was injured in his right arm, and he was breathing as his eyes were glossy. He had fallen to the ground when one of the creatures attacked his left arm. Even after a few minutes, all he could do was moan in pain, not reacting to anything he heard.

Rodolphe thought about how Bryce was one of the loudest workers on the ship. Whenever Rodolphe had a shift at one of the ship’s amusement parks, he hoped that Bryce wasn’t there ‘clowning around’. But he would have given anything to hear his friend laughing right now!

For a moment, he felt a spark of shame, if the plan had worked Bryce might have been killed! But he had to admit, that he had started to get second thoughts as he lived aboard the ship. He knew that he shouldn’t think that way, all those years that he had lived under them, the friends he lost! The cause was justice, and he had sacrificed so much for it, he couldn’t have second thoughts now!

But he needed to stay alive, and the best way was for everyone to live! The more people still moving, the more people fighting. The more people fighting, the more chances for them to save his life if something happened to them now, it might be him next! And as his parents said, where there was life there is hope.

“So where are you leading us!?” Zane asked with a near hysteric edge to his voice.

“LET ME THINK!” Rodolphe barked and Zane went quiet behind him. This was just like Zane, a rebel with no sense of discipline. Back on the ship, Zane was always butting heads with Duncan and the other officers. The scuttlebug was that sooner or later Duncan or someone would throw him out an airlock with a suit. But he was a good fighter and some disciple. So then he hadn't been expecting to carry someone knocked out after an attack or something. “There’s a cave near here! We can go there and think about how to get back to the clearing! And if that doesn’t work maybe we can go backwards back to the capsule!”

“Backwards? What are you even talking about…… oh? Oh! Yeah, that works. I guess it could work,” Zane said with a shocked tone.

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As the scent of strange meat hit its nostrils, the creature looked up. So far it had expected the newcomer to be released soon, and the time was bothering it. It would have gone into a deep slumber, but this scent……. It smelled so much like the smaller ones who had torn off one of its horns. To get revenge was something, and they were always so tasty and full of strength. But then it smelled some of its favorite prey, a small enough number that it could get them all in one attack.

If it left its new den, then it would be out when the new one was released, but then the new one might not come after all. If it ate these ones, it would probably be able to sleep for a week at least, maybe more. And then it would see what changes had happened to the territory. If the newcomer ate one of the powerful ones, things would change. And it might be good for it, but it was feeling a little bit hungry, so maybe it would be a good choice.

As it got out of its den, it looked up at the sky for a few moments before it charged out, hoping to find its prey before the new one was released.

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As he led the way, Rodolphe kept his eyes focused and his ears open. So far, they hadn’t been found by anything, but he was sure that something was following them. It wasn’t something that he could explain, but something was bothering him. Those strange lizard-scorpion things hadn’t been seen, and there was something about the trees around them.

Thinking about them, what they were wasn’t something that seemed right. They had attacked close, and the stinger they had was fast and terrible. What could they have eaten that they needed such organic tools? Maybe the tails killed the flying worms, and they flicked them off when they killed them?

But then there were the wolf thing and the spider from the river. Both were things that weren’t normal in an environment like this, at least according to what he knew. But this place was like nothing he had ever seen before. And for some reason, he had a feeling that something about that thought was true beyond what he knew.

“Hey, Rodolphe? I think I’ve been seeing something,” Zane said with a hint of worry in his voice.

Rodolphe looked over his left shoulder and saw that Zane was looking to their right. Twisting his head around fast, he saw a branch on one of the trees moving upwards. It was as if someone or something had brushed it aside or taken off from it. He looked around, trying to get his bearings. If it was something that could fly and it was tracking them. Then this thing thought it could kill them. Then that meant lots of trouble for two people trying to carry a wounded man between them.

Rodolphe almost said to put Bryce down when he noticed something on one of the trees. He had seen that sight once before, only then it was backwards. They were almost there, and once there they could make a stand, hold off anything that might attack them and then plan what to do.

“Just keep moving, we can’t wait! So go faster!” Rodolphe said with a hard edge as he sped up.

Without a word, Zane did as he was told, and Rodolphe was happy that Zane wasn’t as bad as he thought he was.

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Zane looked ahead, wondering how he had gotten into this. But it had been great, the perfect job. Sign on with the Spirit, then try and smuggle the book to the cousins to see if it worked. And then report about how good the ship was for carrying their cargo. And he had been volunteered for this by his grandfather, and you didn’t say no to Grandfather.

But did the old man have to go the extra mile?! And did the Power user have to craft the ‘Mask’ so well? His persona of a rebel punk runaway was starting to rub him the wrong way. But the only ways to get rid of it were out of his reach, one to have someone say the counter phase while Empowered. And then there was the very much impossible, for him to gain the Power!

But still, everything had been perfect, his destination was the next planet. His actions to get thrown off the ship had almost borne fruit, everything was perfect! Then somehow they had lost the ship, got into an escape capsule and now this. If he ever broke through the ‘Mask’, then the first thing he would do was find Jones and strangle him!

“We made it,” Rodolphe said with relief and Zane looked up and saw that ahead of them was a small hill.

“That’s it?” He asked with a note of shock in his voice, all the ‘Mask’ would allow his anger to go to his voice.

“Don’t worry, there’s a cave on the other side. We can get in there and just fire away at anything that comes at us,” Rodolphe said with a note of relief in his voice.

Zane looked around, trying to find anything that might be a sign that they were about to be attacked. He wanted to calm down, but that strange feeling he got before the battle started up again, and then he went still. He looked towards the forest and paled at what he saw. “Rod, Rod…… we’ve got trouble!”

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Rodolphe had gone still as his nanites sent him data, he looked towards the forest and saw five of the lizard scorpions coming towards them. This was what he was scared of, he knew they showed a wounded posture but he didn’t expect some of those things to hunt them!

“What happened?” Bryce’s mumbled words caused Rodolphe to feel a bit better about their chances. With him up he could at least watch their backs, this had to improve their chances to live through this!

“Bad things man, get ready. Zan help me put him down, get him to that cave! It’s just behind the…………” Rodolphe trailed off as he stared in shock. The lizard scorpions had all gone still before turning and running away. He almost dropped Bryce when his nanites heard the sound of something heavy walking on stone.

“Run, just run Zane! Bryce don’t move, just hold on!” Rodolphe exclaimed. Zane didn’t even ask, just helping carry Bryce as the two of them ran past the hill. In moments the three of them were hidden behind a tree. Rodolphe swallowed and looked around it, hoping he wouldn’t see what he knew he would.

Moments later a large creature came around the hill. It was at least ten feet tall, five feet wide, and ten feet long. It had white fur, and it had a tail that ended in a bone ball with two sickle-like horns pointing away from the body. It carried itself on six legs that ended in bird-like talons. It had a centaur upper body that looked like it was part cat. Its mouth had two saber-like fangs and four red tentacles below its chin. Its hands ended in half-foot-long claws that glinted in the sunlight. It had three eyes with the third in the middle of its forehead.

For a moment it looked around before turning towards where the lizard scorpion had gone. Without a look back, went after them, leaving the clearing behind it.

“What happened? The last thing I remember…… AAAGGGGHHH!” Bryce suddenly cried out as he grabbed his right arm where it had been savaged by the lizard scorpion. His hand came away bloody and he looked at it in shock.

Rodolphe looked at Zane, nodded and together they slowly put him down on the forest floor. Moving away from him Zane reached into his pockets and brought out a few band-aids.

“Let me take a look at it man, we had to move so we left it alone,” Zane said apologetically and Bryce nodded and winced.

“Got it man…… say. Where’s Jones? My fist has an appointment with his face for not getting away from that thing,” Bryce said with anger in his voice.

With how out of place it was, Rodolphe suspected the heat of his wound was causing this. But how to answer him, that was the trouble before him now.

Zane only laughed bitterly and shook his head. “Scum left us to die! When we get back to the capsule I’m gonna beat him black and blue!”

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Bryce only looked at Rodolphe before turning his head away. He just absorbs that, and then he felt such anger, so much that his vision went red for a few moments. For a few moments just sat there before he felt a strange cold sensation spreading from his injured arm. He looked at it and saw Zane putting a nano-bandage on it.

“So what’s the verdict doc?” Bryce asked with a worried tone in his voice.

Zane looked up and shook his head. “I did the best I could with what we have. Nothing in there, not fangs or anything. Can’t tell if it had poison or anything in its mouthparts. Just keep walking, if you start to say anything let us know.”

“Got I doc, so what’s the plan R?” Bryce asked and Rudolphe shook his head.

“We’re walking backwards from the path the team did earlier today. We should get back to the clearing in about half an hour if we’re lucky,” Rodolphe explained with a sigh.

Bryce looked at him as Zane moved away from him. He looked down and flexed his arm, feeling his muscle move. He had to admit, that he didn’t think that the lizard scorpions weren’t venomous, he didn’t feel it. He wondered how he should handle this, how long he should act like his arm bothered him. He had kept his eyes on Zane when he was working on it, and maybe the right sounds when Zane probed it.

This was nothing, it had barely even stung him, nothing like the times back at the labs. All he had to do was favor it for a few days and ask to handle something light. He had hoped that he would be able to use the ship to escape to the outer regions, and then find a place to just sleep away time. If they were right about him, then he could just outlive them, and then he could try and make a life for himself.

He blinked and looked up, seeing Rodolphe and Zane look at him and he laughed a little. “Sorry guys, I was just lost in thought, you know how it is.”

“Yeah, I do. But come on, we’ve got to move now! We need to get back, that thing might find them!” Rodolphe said as he turned.

Bryce nodded and looked around, pulling out his pistol. Zane and Rodolphe both raised their rifles to a ready position as they all moved off, Bryce at the rear.

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Farther back the creature hid and watched as the new one left, tracking the stingers. For some reason, it had left the big, small ones alone. When that pack of stingers appeared, it thought they would kill the strange meat first, but they had run away. But that had caused the newcomer to chase after them, something that was good for it. Its attack might have killed it, but then there were the watchers. It knew that the creators might have something watching the newcomer for the next few days.

But the big, small ones had walked away without fighting the newcomer. Strange, they had always gone for the kill like everything here. It could still hunt down the big, small ones or go back to sleep, but the newcomer was something different. It thought it would be a better hunter, but then it passed by the life liquid without a thought. It didn’t like that, that showed the hands of the creators in this, and it didn’t like that one beat.

It still remembered the time before, how the creators had killed one of the oldest strongest of this place. It had happed without a thought, and it was fast, and they had carried it away. It had seen others with its abilities, and it had saved its power for that reason.

But before it moved away, it stopped. It sucked in the air, and then it looked towards the scent. It saw the life liquid of the wounded strange meat. Well, this changed everything! With the power in that meat, then it could become a stronger one, maybe even take what it had wanted for so long!

With that decision, its path was set. It slowly moved down out of the trees it had hidden in, and moved after the deckhands, ready to kill.

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Rodolphe slowly looked around, something had changed. He could feel something in the air, something was wrong. This was bad, he couldn’t tell why he thought that, but he knew it was very bad. As he looked around, his eyes found their way back towards the hill and the creature, but this was more than that, something lesser.

He looked at Zane and Bryce, his eyes going over their weapons before he went to his rifle. So far, they had been able to chase off those lizard things, but something was making him worried... This was almost as bad as the… he went still for a single second before he kept moving. That might work, but it might not. But if he was right, it was the best idea that he had with what he had to work with.

It had a large chance of not working, it had a few moving parts but if it worked, then they might live.

“Anything wrong Rodolphe?” Zane asked and he looked over his shoulder at the others and swallowed.

“Yeah, I……. just thinking about what to do to stay alive,” Rodolphe said as he shook his head. He was overreacting, he must have been. That big thing would have found anything that was back there, and it had gone after whatever he had sensed. But just to make sure, he’ll lead them towards the river anyway, and if he was right he’ll try and do that plan he made. If he was wrong, he’ll just keep them away from the river, say what was there after they were away. Yeah, that’s the best thing he could do now.

“Anything wrong man?” Bryce asked and Rodolphe just laughed a little.

“Just some nerves man, nothing to worry about at all,” Rodolphe said as he led the way towards the river, never noticing that Zane and Bryce were both as worried as he was.

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Observations of test subject, currently it is following lone Template 10049towards sample group.

Observers near sample group show templates preparing defensive actions, combat near one hundred percent.

Trio of template 10049 observed moving towards river den of Combat Template DSS; subtype dwarf within facility area…… reason are unknown.

Observations of trio requested, possibility of data gathered leading towards goal of experiment possible.

……… request denied, save scans of trio. Send all observers to follow test subject, prepare for direct actions.

Following orders.