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 Escape Capsule # 405

Galactic Standard Time / 1050

Jinn ran towards the beast, one hand holding his sword and the other one of his pistols. As he ran he fired at the beast, and it looked at him as it tanked his shots. The others were all moving around the clearing, trying to say apart so it couldn’t freeze them. Sara grabbed the downed deckhand and pulled him into the trees, trying to help him. Al was sprinting to the crater, trying to figure out the best way to do his job.

As the beast tried to turn towards the crater, Jinn reacted. Calling on his aura, Jinn dashed at the beast, slashing both its back legs as he passed under it.

It screeched in pain and tried to follow Jinn with its eye. It took a deep breath as it looked at him, only for the fire from the others to hit its body, causing it more pain.

Jinn looked at the beast’s reaction to his attacks and grinned at what he saw. So far it was reacting like he hoped. But he couldn’t help the shudder that he was only just keeping from experience. Everything he knew, every instinct was telling him to either run or kill it fast.

He felt the power he was using to charge his aura reach its maximum and called upon it as he charged at the creature. As it formed he thought he felt something new, something seemed to slot into place but he couldn’t see just what it was.

<>------------------------------------------------<>------------------------------------------------<>

Al dashed to the crater and made it behind the capsule. “Okay, you made it here. Now all you have to do is find a way to get everyone down without any help at all. No problem……. Big problem.”

“HEY!”

Al looked down and saw Paige climbing up and noticed the three paralyzed bodies of deckhands next to her.

Al felt a rush of relief as a grin formed on his face as he slid down the wall. Once he reached the bottom, he rushed over to her and looked over the bodies. “You’re getting them all out of danger, aren’t you?”

“Yes,” Paige said and looked up towards the screams and Al smirked at her.

“Don’t worry, Jinn’s there and he’s got a new trick to make the odds swing in his favor!” Al said with a smirk. On the way back they experimented with them. They didn’t where the abilities came from, but they helped him. Jinn was now able to max out his strength, speed, and durability. Add that to his skills, the ‘aura’ for lack of a better term made him positively lethal.

Paige looked at him with a confused look. Al was about to explain when a cough from the left caused him to look.

“Good, he’ll tell me later. Now go help move those idiots from the front, let’em fall!” Duncan barked from the doorway as he glared at him.

“Got it Chief! Now let’s get a rope, we can pull them down so we can be safe too!” Al explained and as Paige nodded Duncan could only watch and grin.

<>------------------------------------------------<>------------------------------------------------<>

Sara had pushed the paralyzed deckhand against a tree and got out her medkit. Without a word, she went to work, but after a few moments, she paled in horror. Nothing, no matter what she did or used, she couldn’t figure out what to do.

“What did that thing do!? His vitals…… he’s not dead but I can’t…….. it’s like he’s been slowed down! How can I heal him!?” Sara asked as she looked at her scanner.

She tried to keep calm, but no matter what she thought to keep her spirits up this was impossible. Nothing she had ever learned about healing had prepared her for this. She hadn't even heard whispers about anything like the readings she was getting!

“Keep calm girl, keep calm. This isn’t like what happened, you can save him. You’ve learned and studied everything you could. You can save him!” She said with a hard edge to her voice. She studied healing for years before things happened that made her take the post aboard the ship. She would not let anything that this planet threw at them keep her from saving a life!

She had to do something; she wouldn’t let anyone die on her watch! As she tried and failed to find anything that she could do, she wouldn’t give up. A roar from near the capsule caused her to jerk, her attention to weaver from him. She turned towards the fighting, missing the sparks of light gathering around her hands.

<>------------------------------------------------<>------------------------------------------------<>

The creature looked at the small meat things as they fired their stingers at it. As it felt them hit its shell, it looked around for anything its limited mind could see to take them down. It had to let go of its shell to roar, and that let the small things sting it, so it needed to not do that. A shot of pain from its left back leg told it the little one with the claw was still hitting it. It threw its tentacles around, but the clawer stayed out of reach.

As one of them hit something and wrapped around it waited for more pain but instead nothing. It dragged it into the gaze of its last eye and saw a four-legged creature with a tail with a claw on its back. It brought the dead thing to its mouth and took a bite, and then another as a warmth spread through its body as it changed.

<>------------------------------------------------<>------------------------------------------------<>

Jinn smiled as he willed the aura away as he landed away to the far right of the clearing.

“NO, NOT THAT!” Racha cried out in terror. Jinn looked back towards the creature, watching as the creature’s body start to convulse. Jinn could only stare in shock as the creature’s front shoulders exploded in white blood and flesh. From the wounds came two large pincers on two three-foot long three elbowed segmented black chitin-covered limbs. As he watched chitin covered the creature’s limbs, and the creature’s lost eye grew back.

As it looked at him with both eyes, something told Jinn to move, and without a thought, he called back the aura. A second after his aura formed the stinger tail glowed. Jinn had started to move the split second before something shot at where he had been. As he saw the ground burst from the impact, he saw a small needle made of chitin.

Jinn stared at it as its stinger tail turned around and started to try and track him. As it did that, the others fired at it, only for its shield to protect it. As he watched, the tail started to glow as it pointed towards him at the same time as a shot was blocked. He dashed away with his aura up just moments before another needle hit the ground.

As he felt himself burn away whatever was powering his abilities he frowned. He needed to kill this thing before he burned out, but how? The shield blocked all…….! He went still for a second before he moved again, only dodging the needle by a half second. This time he moved to the side, watching as it fired letting the nanobots in his eyes record everything.

As he landed he sent a command to prepare a replay and dropped down into the crater. His landing caused Al, Paige, and Duncan to look at him.

<>------------------------------------------------<>------------------------------------------------<>

“JINN!?” Al asked in shock as Jinn just looked ahead without even seeing him.

“How the blackhole did you do that without breaking your legs?!” Duncan demanded but Jinn stayed silent.

“Did it get you!? No, it didn’t roar. Are you ignoring us?!” Paige demanded and Duncan just looked on.

Al was about to say something when he saw Jinn’s eyes were extremely active. For a moment Al wondered why it was familiar, in a way that…… Al went still as he looked at Jinn more closely. He saw the signs that he thought he would find, signs that told him Jinn was looking at a replay sent to his visual nerves. Something that had to have been sent by nanobots. Specifically, a nanobot strain that last he knew was restricted to military personnel.

"I was right. It can be bypassed! Al, I need the heaviest work gloves we’ve got!” Jinn said with a grin.

“Catch!” Duncan called out and threw a pair to Jinn who caught them. Jinn nodded and the aura appeared around him and he jumped out of the crater.

<>------------------------------------------------<>------------------------------------------------<>

All Racha could do was keep firing. Her shots hit the creature's shield as it looked around for Jinn. It ignored them as it grabbed another lizard scorpion it brought toward its mouth. She getting very worried about what it was doing, a horrible feeling growing within her. She had seen two creatures mutate already and she didn’t want to know if mutations stacked. As it bought the corpse to its mouth Jinn was suddenly there. He slashed through the pincer just behind the corpse, cutting it away from the main body.

He landed and the creature roared in pain and grabbed the corpse with its feeder tentacles and ate it. As it finished the corpse, the severed limb started to convulse. A split second later new darker chitin burst out of the wound, healing what Jinn had maimed.

Racha just kept firing at the creature, she wouldn’t let it kill them. The fact that it had just healed and mutated wasn’t something she would let bring her down. It could become a monster the size of the Spirit of Adventure itself and she would still find a way to kill it!

As she ran, firing at the creature, she spared a glance toward the crater. She smiled as she saw that the last of the paralyzed deckhands were gone. Al must have gotten everyone to safety, so the only thing left to do was keep fighting until the creature was dead.

Suddenly the creature screeched louder in pain and started to thrash and move around. Its head turned towards her she saw something in one of its eyes, something small and black.

<>------------------------------------------------<>------------------------------------------------<>

The creature roared in pain as it lost its right eye. Something had gotten through its protection, but how?! Its blocker should have kept all the attacks from the little things, what had they done!?

It looked at the battle, almost taking a step backwards in fear. But before that it felt something else, a strange burning sensation was going out from its face. As it looked around, trying to see the field in front of it, trying to find the strong thing that had wounded it. Finally, it found it and took a step back in fear. It had found the little one, and truly saw it. There was something behind it, something that wasn't really there. It was terrible and strong all at once, …… it was something that could kill it. As it looked at the thing before it, it saw it pick something up, its eyes locked on its sole remaining one.

The creature grew mad. That thing behind the little stinger wasn’t important, it was just there. It only had to kill that little thing and then it could kill and eat the others! With a roar, it charged at the one it thought had wounded it, both of its new pincers snapped as it charged.

<>------------------------------------------------<>------------------------------------------------<>

Sara looked towards the fight, her mind on what might happen after combat. If the death of the creature didn’t release the other, then she didn’t want to think what they’d do. For a moment she imagined if the big insect Jinn maimed found the capsule with him gone. Without him there, they would need numbers to hold the line. And for that to happen, she needed to find a way to help them!

As she tried to think of anything at all to try, suddenly she started to feel a warmth spread through her arms. Looking down, she saw her arms starting to glow. As she looked at the glow, she heard something whisper in her mind……. Remedy.

Sara looked around, not seeing anything around her. As she tried to figure out where the voice had come from, she started to worry. What was this, something like what had happened to Jinn? What was it about this planet that caused this? Were their abilities like the creature's? and if they were, could they trust them? She looked at her patient and she took a deep breath. “Okay, let’s try it [Remedy]!”

A soft glow came from her hands and went over the person before her. As soon as she had done that for a few moments, the man started to stir as he fought back to consciousness.

Sara looked at him and then saw something in the corner of her left eye, words. Aether Template/ Medic. As she looked at it it faded away but she knew something was different about her, something within her. She was so absorbed in trying to find out what it was, that she didn’t notice the man had fully woken up. He blinked and with effort sat before he put a hand on her shoulder. She blinked and looked at the man’s face as tears came from his eyes.

“Thank you, I saw and heard everything, thank you!” The man breathed out and looked at Sara with a smile.

A roar caused them both to look towards the battle and the man swallowed. “Later, later. We gotta get you to the capsule!”

<>------------------------------------------------<>------------------------------------------------<>

Jinn called up his aura and dashed away from the charge of the creature at the last second. As the creature hit passed by him it tried to grab him but he dodged it. It roared, turning around, looking for him. As Jinn watched it seemed to be preparing itself, was it going to try and charge again? Whatever it was doing, its stinger tail moved down as it turned its head to glare at him.

Jinn grinned and looked at the creature as he held the last stinger. All he had to do was find a shot and throw its weapon back at it. His hunch was right, the creature’s shield or wall didn’t block its own bio-mater. That was how it kept the shield up and still fired the stinger at him. There was a chance that the shield was only one way, but he had gambled and won!

The creature looked at him with a glare and he called up his aura and dashed through the air away from the creature. But the creature snapped its head and roared at where he would be in an instant! As Jinn tried to change his angle, he went right through the roar and felt his muscles lock up. His body kept moving until he crashed into a tree and landed before Sara.

“JINN!” Sara exclaimed and she ran to him.

Jinn wanted to tell her to run, try to get anyone she could to the other capsules and survive, but he couldn’t move. The roar of the creature told him it was covering them and in moments it would kill them all. But then the creature stumbled as something hit its face.

Jinn watched as something else flew over his head. He realized that they had been laser bolts. And he saw that the first one had destroyed the last remaining eye of the creature. Walking into his line of sight was the last person he expected to see. It was the deckhand who had been paralyzed! His arrival clued him in that something had changed, they had a chance!

“Hold on, [Remedy]!” Sara exclaimed and Jinn felt warmth spread through him. He blinked and realized he could blink as he felt his muscles relax.

“How?” He crocked out and Sara grinned at him.

“Guess I’m just lucky!” Sara said with a mad giggle.

<>------------------------------------------------<>------------------------------------------------<>

Racha saw the creature thrash about in pain and she grinned. She watched as it took a step backwards and sprayed its feeding tentacles out. She was shocked, she thought it was over for them when the creature moved after Jinn. With its last eye on the other side of its face from her, there was no way for her to stop it from eating him. But then somehow it had just reared back and lost its last eye.

Racha didn’t think, she just shot at it. A few bolts hit its hide before it brought its shield back up, moments later it roared and turned to the right. It dashed to the far side of the clearing and broke through a tree, running into the forest.

She was about to run after it when she saw Jinn walk out of the forest, with Sara and the former paralyzed deckhand. “What happened?!”

“The same thing that happened to Jinn I think!” Sara called out and Racha looked at the two of them in wonder.

She had no idea just how they had devolved their powers so fast. She stood there in shock, nothing made sense to her. She wondered just what it was that made them so different from those who had tried to gain those abilities. Or was it not the person, but the location? Was planet the key, was that the great secret the Ancients held? That they needed to gain their abilities in specific locations?

<>------------------------------------------------<>------------------------------------------------<>

In the blackness that its vision had become, the creature just ran. After it had tracked down the scent of food after its birth, it hadn’t known it would be maimed. After it lost both its eyes, it knew that it had to run, something just told it that to survive the cycle it had to leave.

After the battle had turned against it after it lost its power to hold its shield up to freeze the small slasher, it thought it had won. That one was the only one of them that had hurt it, with it eaten, the creature would have taken its strength. But another of the little ones had destroyed its last eye and it was condemned to this darkness. It hadn’t even been able to eat the little stinger, that was what made it angry the most.

It didn’t know how, but it knew that it was going towards something that would let it heal. And once it was healed, it would return and hunt down that small one that stung it. It would eat if it was the last thing it did.

<>------------------------------------------------<>------------------------------------------------<>

Report on Test Template, failed to kill anything, Ether Scream worked on initial moments of combat but once the tactic was known to group of Template 10049 fighting against it, tactic proved ineffective. Note; Aether Shield failed due to Evolutionary Consummation.

Elaborate. Test Template augmentations were calculated to allow high chance of victory without Evolutionary Consummation. Victory chance percentage should have passed ninety percent. Reasons?

Evolutionary Consummation of dead Template / PQL40, allowed mutation of clamp manipulators and tail-stinger, tail-stinger had range capabilities. Evolution altered Aether Shield to allow passage of own bio-mater. Template that killed Combat Template HSB used missile-stingers to destroy vision organ on one side of Test Template and before it paralyzed said Template, Test Template lost other vision organ during recharge.

Direct Impulse Influence let Local Mind direct it away with feelings of healing, sending Test Template to area to await orders, Send Harvester Construct to bring Test Template back for recycling or send it to other Evolutionary Consummation Templates?

………No. For now direct it to easy biomass to repair itself. Report on Status of Sample Group with Paralyzed Templates.

Template 10049 within group awoken as Healer. Calculations show all of paralyzed Templates will be repaired soon.

………..Send three Observer Constructs to watch actions of Sample Group; Split Observers if required.

Complying.

Status of Template Group 99850 within Facilities?

Unknown, possibility within Damaged Section