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 / 1415

Jinn just looked at the crater. After the lizard apes had run past him, he had activated his aura. It was a good thing he did so because moments later the insect bear had fired a large bolt of electricity. The bolt had to have been a foot wide, and he had only just dodged it. The lizard apes hadn't been so lucky, the bolt hitting dead center between them. The explosion and thunder boom had sent a cloud of dust into the air. When it cleared he had seen the crater and parts of the lizard apes had rained down around them.

He had started to jump around the chamber after, trying to keep the insect bear from getting a clear shot at him. Not that it kept it from firing bolts of electricity at him, and he only dodged some of them by millimeters. He had also kept firing, hoping one of his shots would kill it or at least break one of its spikes. But this one was like the larger insectoid, each shot just deflected off its chitin. And to make it worse, the electricity generated by the monster protected its spikes.

“How the nova do I kill this thing?” Jinn snarled in anger as he jumped up to the ledge where the tunnel was. He looked down at the insect bear as it turned around slowly. For all its power it was slow, and maybe something else. He looked at its leg as it turned, seeing that each leg ended in not one spike, but three. The other two shooting out both sides, most likely to steady it.

But then he saw the spikes start to thread electricity again and moved without a thought. He jumped to a ledge behind the monster, hoping to get away from its sight. Moments after he qa airborne, another bolt shot from the spikes. Only this one went straight up before it formed a ball of electricity that pulsed. As while he was in the air he felt a jolt run through him. He looked at the creature and saw that its spikes were sparking again. For some reason, he knew this would be bad for him. He landed on the ledge and dashed forward. Barely a second later the space he had landed on was hit by another massive bolt.

Jinn stopped moving as soon as he was ten feet from the crater, trying to understand how that was possible. He had seen a lot, but this was something else! How could the insect bear have shot that bolt, how did it know it would hit where he had been? The answer, it couldn’t. So it had some way to have known where he had been. That must mean the sphere and the pulse that hit him. Maybe it was kind of echolocation or something more exotic. That was the only explanation that even made partial sense.

So he had to deal with two ways forward now. One, find a way to get rid of the ball. Or two, find a way to kill that monster fast. So far the only good thing about this was that this thing seemed to be alone, no minions. But then there was the possible problem. When he started to use his aura, a set of numbers appeared in the corner of his right vision.

Then the numbers slowly started to go down, and the numbers were very large. If this was a way to tell how much ‘charge he had to use his powers. Everything had a cost, and it seemed that whoever made the nanites that gave him his powers gave him a way to tell it. If he didn’t increase his ‘usage’ he could probably keep his aura up for at least a few hours.

The insect bear roared again, looking up at him as Jinn felt another pulse go through him. He gritted his teeth and moved, dashing back towards the tunnel as he fired down at the monster. As he ran he suddenly felt something, something he had never felt before. The strange feeling, that warmth when he first used his aura was back. With each step, he felt the energy he used, how it flowed, and was used to power his movement. For a split second, he wondered if that meant that he could use more of it. If there was something else he could do beyond the aura and the slash…… that slash, how had he done that!?

For a split second, he almost stumbled. How had he done that? He tried to remember, how the rush of combat had taken him. He couldn’t quite recall, but if he tried to replicate it, he might have something.

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Roy looked down at the bay, rocking her back and forth as she cried. Ever since that thunder boom happened, this one just kept crying. As he tried to calm her down, he kept his eyes open as he followed where the others had gone. He was scared, if there was something in these tunnels sleeping, then that boom would have woken them up.

“Come on little one, please calm down. Uncle Roy will keep you alive, so please help your uncle by not crying!” Roy asked quietly as he looked around, his eyes looking for anything that might kill them. This whole place was so outside his comfort zone, that he was surprised that he was handling it as well as he was.

He had grown up on a space station, he had only spent time in civilized areas of any world. The wild had always scared him, and this was making it worse! Everything that had happened over the last few days only added to his worry, but he had to control it. So far he and this one were living up to all the terrors he had grown up fearing. He just needed to find the others, and then they could go back to their capsule. With the supplies they had to have, they could defend themselves until help came.

He smiled down at the baby as she started to calm down, or she was going to sleep. At least she was doing better, there was that. Now all he had to do was make it to the others, hopefully after they killed the rest of those things. The sound of a stone falling caused him to turn and see a small grey stone roll along the ground to his left. He looked around, not seeing anything moving. He swallowed as he felt the same chill he always felt when he was being spied on in his youth.

Slowly he pressed the baby against his body with one hand as he other went towards his weapon. If more things were looking to eat them, he would make them work for their meal. As he slowly looked around, he didn’t see anything out of place. If there was something here they were hidden, but he saw nothing, nothing at all.

As he slowly calmed down, he looked around one final time. He took a deep breath before he took another step. He had to keep moving forward toward where the others were, and hope that he would find them soon.

The sound of something running caused him to tense, looking around trying to find it. However before he could spiral into darkness, Sara and Paige appeared. He felt the tension he was feeling die away and a spark of hope bloomed within him. If the others had sent these two for him, then maybe they would survive after all.

“Thank goodness, so Jinn killed them all?” Roy asked with a smile that died as Sara looked at Paige.

“We never even found Al and Racha before the boom,” Paige admitted and Roy felt his blood freeze.

“What? Why are you back here then!?” Roy demanded as he looked at them with terror.

Did they find more of those things, did they find something coming at them down there? Had something else killed the others, did they need to go back the other way?

“We figure the boom was going to be a little hard on the little one. Figured that maybe the best we could do was help her out,” Paige explained as she moved the baby and smiled at her.

Roy blinked as he looked at them, for a moment shocked. All he could feel was shame for a moment, but then he felt anger. He was just someone on the pilot track, he couldn't handle personal combat! All they had to do was try to survive until help came, but that idiot officer had created a cult! He had always hated them, and this was just normal for that slime. He was so mad he almost didn’t hear Paige’s next words.

“She’s fine, I think she’s just sleeping. I’ve dealt with babies before, and I think she’ll be fine. I think…..yes I’m sure this little one is from a planet with a lot of thunder,” Paige said before she looked up at Roy.

Roy looked down at the baby, all he could feel was relief. This little one didn’t have her parents with her, and he had taken care of her since they landed. That was part of why the scum officer had chosen her to be sacrificed, and why he had argued against it. But then realized just what Paige said and he looked at her in shock.

“Thunder, that’s what that was?” Roy asked and looked around the tunnel, a frown on his face. “Could that have caused things to fall?”

Roy just looked at the two women. Paige had taken the baby out of his hands as Sara looked around as she held a pistol in both hands.

“Maybe, but only if this place was already going to come down…… let’s move and hope we find a way out soon!” Paige said and the others nodded in agreement.

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Al looked ahead as they made it closer to where they hoped Jinn was. He tried to keep focused on what was happening but his mind kept coming back to this treaty Racha spoke of. He had known that a lot of the heads of his faith were those who threw away everything for logic, but this was too much. He had thought they would at least hold fast to the laws, that was why he had run so that he could escape and survive. His whole plan was to live, continue his research to the end. He would set it up so it would be released after after his death, to give it to the Federation. After everything, what they had found would save lives, they would have mattered.

If she was telling the truth, there was a treaty that outlined what Heretical research was..... If that was true, then everything he had believed was a lie, everything he had done was wrong. His long-term plan might have be unneeded. and if they weren't criminals the Treaty's definition, then what was the point of the attack? He should have gone straight to a Federation station and tell them his story. If the Inquisitor's actions had been illegal, then why had they done so? Were they so sure in their power they could just break all laws of space?

But he kept thinking about his old friends, his classmates. They had all grown up together, and then there was her. She had been his inspiration, the idol he looked to when he was down. He had thought about asking her if they keep working together for future projects. Together he thought that they could have solve so many problems and change lives for the better. Both of them could have built a future together, they might even have grown closer.

But when the Inquisitors attacked, they got separated. He had barely been able to make contact with half the class before he had found that smuggler. For a few moments then, He had hesitated, but then planetary security attacked. To survive he hadn’t had a choice but to leave. He looked up the news, trying to see if there was anything about her, but all he found was empty data.

If the research wasn’t wrong, then why had they been attacked? He didn’t expect that he would have found a new reason to get off this planet, but there it was. So he had a goal now, get back the Federation and find justice for his friends.

“Slow down! If that was Jinn’s doing, we need to get there together!” Racha barked from behind.

Al slowed down and looked at her as she caught up. Racha was a…… problem. His faith and the Special Service had a unique relationship, at least according what he knew. But before he talked with her, he had never heard about that Treaty she mentioned. That was the source of his mind’s wandering. That one piece of data had thrown everything he thought he knew out of context, and it cast long shadows on his past.

“What do you think we’ll find?” Al asked as Racha panted for a minute.

“I don’t know, I would’ve expected at best a storm, but this planet is crazy! With our luck, we’ll find a lightning-throwing monster or something!” Racha exclaimed and Al fought back a snort of laughter at her words.

He had to admit that she was right, this planet was unlike anything he had ever heard of. He knew a few old friends who would have cut off their legs to even study at least one of the things they’ve run into. “You’ve got a point. But still, we’ve gotta move!”

“I know. I just wanted you to slow down, not stop!” Racha barked as she ran on.

Al looked at her and shook his head before following after her.

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Jinn leaped away, dodging another bolt of lightning by inches once again. He had switched tactics, trying to instead take out the lightning ball above. So far he hadn’t been able to do that, but he had a hunch that was going to change. While he had moved around the chamber, jumping to the floor and back to the ledges, he had tried to call upon this strange energy to a small success. He had started to react faster, but from the text in his vision, he had doubled the drain. It was refueling when he released his aura, and using the time between pulses he had kept it high enough.

But that had taught him how to move the energy, something he still felt when his aura was down. If he felt the right things, then this opened up possibilities. If he could use it to augment a shot or slash like before, then he might be able to break the chitin. When he killed the insect bear, they would have a safe place to make camp for the night. They could scout ahead and try and figure out where they had come while in the tunnel.

“JINN!” Al’s cry caused him to pale. As he looked up to see Al and Racha coming out of the tunnel, Jinn felt a spark of fear.

“GET BACK IN THERE! THIS THING CAN fire lightning and uses the ball up there as radar! Jinn bellowed out moments before he felt another pulse. “GO BACK!”

Al reacted first, pulling Racha back into the tunnel. He did so moments before the insect bear roared and shot another bolt of lightning at the tunnel. There was a large explosion at he tunnel mouth, creating a dust cloud. When the dust settled all that that remained rubble that was blocking the passage.

“NO!” Jinn roared with rage and looked right at the sphere. Without a word beyond a scream of rage, he activated his aura. With a thought, he sent three times as much energy to it as he aimed his pistol. He pressed the trigger. Moments later a blast of blue energy shot out, piercing the ball of lightning and destroying it.

Jinn felt drained and panted as he stood there. Instead of the warmth he had expected, now all he felt was a kind of slow ache that was dying down. It was when text formed at the bottom of his vision, then he felt fear.

Aether Cannon learned by blunt force method. Aether Shot and Aether Bolt auto-learned. Due to forced learning, Aura assistance is offline, and auto abilities disabled for 5 minutes.

Jinn tried to call up his aura, even thinking the words Aether Comet did nothing. All he could do was hope he could survive until it came back. He looked at the blocked tunnel as he moved out of the insect bear’s sight, all he could was wait and hope. Wait for his ability to come back, and hope the others were still alive.

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The bear insect blinked as it looked up, trying to find its seeing sphere. The echo it had gotten from it was going, and that was surprising. In all the times it had used that power, the sphere had never died so soon. But as it looked up it couldn’t see anything that gave it any clue what had happened. Something had broken it, that had never happened before. It looked around, trying to find the thing that had done this. such an ability was being wasted on anything but itself. It would be better to kill this creature fast and take it, and then become a ruler.

Once it killed the invaders it would find others to follow it, and wouldn’t those things be blessed to do so? With their might and powers, it could do what the others wouldn’t, stand against their creators! Once the insect bear tracked down where they hid, it would crack their shell and feast. In time the insect bear would leave this land and go out into the wide place. It would rule everything, find its birthplace, and then it would rule all life!

But first, it needed to spawn some pawns. It looked around and saw the pieces of the morsels. While it liked to eat bigger pieces, beggars couldn’t choose. Let this be the last time it hid in this cave, tomorrow it would start its path of conquest.