Castaway Planet

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

Days after of Crash landing/ 2

Uninhabited Island / Clearing of Escape Capsule # 405

Galactic Standard Time / After 1320

He ran through the forest, the little things following him. Ever since those fools had stopped the sacrifice, he had been on the run. The others must be dead by now, and he alone was still alive. And that only meant that he was right, that he was the one with the true vision! As he ran, he felt the fire within him slowly start to cool down, and that was something he had fears about.

If the Flame as he called it was the source of his powers, then that meant it was dying! And the little things were still after him, even worse than the first things! He just when he had escaped his hunters, and then the new ones killed his final follower. It was all the fault of that fool Roy! How dare he speak against his vision. And how dare the others try to stop him, and instead they caused the forest to kill them all!

As he moved over a tree root, he heard a screech behind him. Fear came over him as he realized that things were getting closer. Without a thought, he fired a pistol over his shoulder and hit the trees, missing his targets. But when he tried to fire again, his weapon just clicked.

With a curse, the man ran faster as the screeches behind grew louder. He knew that he was going to die, but he wouldn’t make it easy for them! With a savage look in his eyes, he tried to find anything he could use as a weapon. Nothing, no fallen branches or large stones, there was nothing!

Ahead of him, he thought he saw a break in the trees, and he prayed for a miracle. He ran out of the tree line and blinked. He had come out into a large field, and across from him were more trees. But beyond those trees was a large energy dome shield. At the sight, he felt a spark of hope that gave him strength to run faster. That shield meant that he might have a place of rest. A place where people might have survived this mad place. And that meant that there might be other lost lambs that needed his guidance!

With his renewed strength, he kept running, eyes locked on the shield. Even with the screams behind him, he kept moving. He had found his purpose on this world, and he would not let it end. If those fools had dared to speak against him were still alive, then his new faithful would kill them!

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As Duncan watched the flying creatures take flight, he had a bad feeling. Something about what those things did made him have a feeling he had seen something like it before. And that bothered him, as he had rarely seen things he remembered that weren’t bad for him. Even through his blanked memory treatments, the feelings he had earned stayed. And that meant that whatever was behind this, it was bad for them all. But the more he thought, the more it seemed to be important. Suddenly he went still and looked at it, his eyes widening as he remembered where he had seen something like that!

“Terra! Get some people and prepare to move! It might be nothing or it might be something coming at us! If it breaks the shield I want you to turn it to ashes!” Duncan barked.

“Wait! What if it's other survivors!?” Jessie asked and Duncan went still.

He looked at Jessie and then shuddered. The kid was right, and if that was true they needed to let them in. But if something attacked from the other side of the clearing while the shield was down? They would be overwhelmed, they had to protect themselves!“But what else can we do? Is it even possible to bring down part of the shield? Keep it up at the other sides?”

Terra only nodded and looked at the nearest control station. “Sure! Give me a minute and I’ll be able to open a small tear in it!”

“I’ll take point! Trust me I’ve got the experience!” Jessie said as he looked at Duncan.

Duncan looked at Jessie and for a moment he thought he was looking at a black ops operator. There was just something about him, something that struck a chord within Duncan. “Fine! But we will talk about this, here me?”

Jessie only nodded, and Duncan sighed.

He turned towards the capsule and bellowed. “ALL PASSENGERS BACK DOWN NOW! DECKHANDS, EVERY CREW UP HERE GET ARMS AND RALLY TO ME! HAVE THE OTHERS DOWN BELOW. PREPARE TO DEFEND THE CRATER! AND TEN GO WITH JESSIE! PREPARE FOR COMBAT!”

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Jones looked at Duncan as he gave his commands and turned to Kenny. “Get back inside, tell Sir Bradford I sent you! Tell him that something is happening now!”

“Yes, your holiness!” Kenny said as he ran towards the crater.

Jones moved towards a place to the left, one of many stations the deckhand had set up in a triangle. Each one had rifles from the capsule, enough for each of the deckhands. The idea was that it would be easier to get than going back down if something happened. But they had never even thought that this might be the reason!

As the deckhands all grabbed a rifle, Jessie ran over.

“Listen up!” Jessie said as he looked around. “We’ve got something coming towards us! We don’t know what it is so it could be other survivors! The ten who go with me will move towards the side the contact is coming from! If it’s a survivor we’ll go through a hole in the shield and save them! Otherwise, we’re guards! Do you all understand!?”

“SIR, YES SIR!” All the deckhands bellowed, and Jones joined in.

“Good! I need ten souls to go with me! Any volunteers?” Jessie said with a grin.

Jones stepped forward, and ten others did as well.

Jessie only grinned and laughed. Jones felt a strange sense of anger burst from him. He couldn’t understand why, but something about that laugh bothered him so much

Jessie only looked over the deckhands and pointed at one of them at the far end of the line. “You go and help Terra lad, everyone else, with me!”

As they ran towards the shield, Jones promised himself that he wouldn’t die for any of these non-believers. That he would use this to show them the proper path.

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Bradford only sighed as he looked up. So far he hadn’t been able to think of anything that might help him. He had tried to contact the few Operatives he had on the ship, but he couldn’t. Not even Operative Brute. Then he tried to think just what it meant, and what Brute had meant. This ability he now had, was it possible that Brute had gained something like it? Was that one of the reasons he had been able to connect to him? So then the others didn’t have the ability yet. But what had given him his power?

“Another question about this place. And it’s barely been a week! I shudder to even think about what kind of chaos the next month will bring!” Bradford muttered to himself.

Yes, Bradford had accepted that they would be here a long time. It wasn’t that hard to figure out, and really, he expected Duncan to have done so by now. This uncharted world was unlike anything that the Federation knew about. And that meant that something had happened to the ship. And unlike many of those fools, he had been a senator. That meant that he had seen the hidden files of the Federation. And one of them was about Ruins. And a few ones that were only recorded in offline files, the best way to stop hackers.

“But should I tell them about it? It would probably mean I’ll be in jail for the next hundred years or so, but a small price to pay. I could write that novel I was always thinking about, and dedicated it to all the people who died here. That would help my political capital so much,” Bradford mussed as he tried and failed to make a choice.

Bradford heard a commotion from the doorway and looked up, seeing the people who had volunteered coming back. For a moment he thought nothing had happened but then he saw deckhands grabbing weapons and moving out the door.

“What’s happening?!” He demanded.

“Duncan ordered everyone down, and said something about battle!” A passenger said before running off.

Bradford looked at the airlock and tried to think. Another battle on this strange and deadly planet. And sooner or later without a better place, they would be overwhelmed. He hoped that the team Duncan sent out would be able to find that resource! And then maybe he would have a safe place that would let him learn how to use his new abilities.

“Sir Bradford!” A voice called out and one of the passengers who had volunteered appeared before him.

Bradford blinked as he looked at the man before him, not recognizing him. He was about to ask the man what he wanted when the man leaned forward.

“Sir, I’m Kenny. His holiness Sir Jones sent me to tell you what was happening,” KKenny said softly.

Bradford’s eyes widened in horror. There was another of those idiots here!? He had hoped that he would only have to deal with one of them! But there was another, and he had been at Bradford’s party! And even worse, Jones told him about Bradford’s past! And now he had another fool to deal with!

“Well, that’s something. And of course, the shield will stay up of course,” Bradford said hopefully.

“Most of it sure,” Kenny said absently.

Bradford went still and looked at Kenny in shock. That wasn’t what he expected to hear. “Most of it!?”

“Well, this model can be brought down in part. But only if there’s more than one emitter,” Kenny explained and looked at Bradford.

“Like here…..” Bradford trailed off. He looked up, thinking. This changed things, it opened so many opportunities for him. If he found……. The solar panels! They kept bringing in so much energy, they wouldn’t lose the shield at all! The only way would be sabotage and Duncan would track down Bradford if he even sneezed at the pawn who did it. With the closed area of the capsule, there would be a low suspect list. And that just wasn’t the thing for Bradford to do if he wanted to take power.

He looked around, seeing all the passengers in the main chamber, and let his mind plan this out. With a small smile on his face, he turned to Kenny. “Kenny my boy, I want you to start helping me right now! We need to get everyone into the other rooms here! If something happens, we need to protect the others for as long as possible!”

“Yes! As the book said, the Land will test us! I’ll make sure that we pass sir!” Kenny said softly and moved away.

Bradford watched him go, a frown on his face.

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Jessie only stared in shock at the creatures coming towards the runner. The creatures were hunched over humanoid dogs running on all fours of their limbs! Each one had a single eye over their fang-filled muzzles. Their grey fur was long and it went off their bodies a good inch. But it was the line of spikes over their spines that gave him the most pause. There was something about them that made him want his blade. He took a breath as he fed the flame, and called up his abilities. He had been paralyzed by that creature without his abilities active, never again!

He turned and looked at Terra and smirked. “Drop the shield, raise it as soon as we’re through in case this is a faint!”

Terra looked at him for a moment before she nodded.

Jessie sighed and smirked. It looked like all those years away from each other didn’t kill the skills he taught her for a year.

He turned and looked at the ten people coming with him. “Everyone, stay by the shield. Once the man is down, we all fire at those things. Once that happens we bring him in and then we find out what happened to him. I don’t want any heroes, the only good hero is a dead one! Do you get me!?”

“YES SIR!” The nine of them bellowed. He looked at Jones, the only one silent, and saw a look of anger in his eyes, and that bothered Jessie. Jones was either a coward, a traitor, or someone lucky to be alive. But the more he looked into Jones, the more he didn’t fit into the picture his file showed.

“GOOD! Just stay calm, follow my orders and we’ll live through this!”

“LOOK!” One of the nine called out suddenly, pointing beyond Jessie.

Jessie turned and his heart stopped at what he saw. ”Get the shield down!”

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As the man ran through the forest the screams behind him grew louder, coming ever closer to him. The man just kept running for the shield as he wondered just what he was heading towards. But the cries from behind told him that whatever it was, it had to be better than what he had been. As he came out into a clearing, he finally saw the energy shield. Behind it, he saw people in deckhand uniforms moving around, and some of them looking at him.

He kept running, hoping against all hope that they would help him. As the creatures behind him screamed again, they sounded so much closer. He looked over his shoulder and finally saw the creatures.

They were humanoid dogs running on all fours! They had longer arms and their bodies were upright. Each one had a single eye over their fang-filled muzzles. Their grey fur was long and it went off their bodies a good inch. But it was the line of spikes over their spines that seemed to spark that gave the man speed. And to his horror, there were fifteen of the creatures chasing him towards the shield!

An energy bolt flew by the man’s head and he turned back, seeing the shield had a hole. From it eleven deckhands ran out, firing at the creatures.

“Move! Get in!” The lead deckhand yelled and the man grinned.

He ran towards the deckhands as the creatures screeched in pain.

“Thank you!” The man cried as he ran past the deckhands still firing.

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Jessie kept firing at the strange canine creatures. Something about how they kept trying to get at the man who ran past them. Even under fire, they kept moving after their target. He couldn’t understand, most creatures backed down when facing significant threats! But the creatures on this island threw nature into the black hole! He had to hope that sooner or later, things would retreat. They had to realize that they were just

“What are these things?!” Jones asked in horror.

Jessie looked at him and saw him firing, a strange look in the man’s eye. For a moment he thought to answer, only for another deckhand to first.

“Monsters! So keep firing!” The deckhand said with a wild laugh.

Jessie felt his focus snap back into place and nodded. He forced his eyes forward and took a deep breath. He saw the

As one moved closer Jessie kept calm, aimed, and waited for the shot. When he had it, he fired and killed one of the creatures by shooting through its right eye. As soon as it fell, the canines all stopped. There was a howl from the forest farther back. Some of the creatures moved towards the dead one, but killing another one caused them to back off.

With a growl from some of them, the canine all dashed into the forest. As the last one was lost from sight, the deckhands all started to cry out in joy. They had won, they had all lived! By making a wall, they had thrown back the beasts and saved a survivor!

“That’s enough!” Jessie barked.

Instantly, the others all stopped screaming and looked at him.

“We all survived, and in a battle with the unknown! But we can’t rest out here. I want four of you to grab those bodies and move them inside the shield! We need to know what we fought! And I want the rest of you all to join me from a wall! We can’t let those things get by us!” Jessie barked and the others all nodded. Well, nine of them moved to follow his orders, Jones just stared at one of the dead creatures.

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Jones only looked at the dead canine-like creature and felt a surge of anger. To think that even here, the devils with the shape of the first servant would be found! This was truly the Land of Deliverance after all, and the true prophecy would come true! But to think that the others all thought that the truth was a lie, truly he was blessed to see the truth!

Yes, it all made sense! That was why he had been sent away! Those fools who led the others must have the sense that they were preaching false teachings! They had to have known that their libraries weren’t all there was, they must have sent him and the others out to find it. And to think that he was the one who was blessed by creation to find the truth. Truly Creation worked in strange ways, and he was truly blessed.

“Hey, you alright man?” Another of the deckhands asked and Jones blinked, looking up.

“Yeah, that just….. that was something wasn’t it?” Jones asked.

“Yeah….. come on, we need to bring those things inside the shield!” The deckhand said and pointed at the dead bodies.

Jones felt a surge of revulsion at the idea of touching those demons. But there had to be a reason behind this order.

As the leader followed the ideas of the Federation, why was easy to figure out. The leader of this mission must want to dissect the demons and find out how to kill them. That was something Jones would love to know, and for that, his feelings weren’t important. To gain an edge on those things, that was good. For if the prophecy was right about anything, soon a horde of these things would come, led by the greater ones. And when that happened, to stand with knowledge might be the only way to live.