Castaway Planet

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

Days after of Crash landing/ 2

Uninhabited Island / River Below Falls

Galactic Standard Time / 1130

The group had been moving along the river for an hour, nothing attacking them. After a while, Jinn moved ahead to lead the way. Racha had sped up to walk next to him while Al and Paige had moved to the back as rearguards. This left Sara in the middle, a perfect position. She could react to help anyone of them who got injured. But their silent travel had another surprising result for her. It let Sara look into her memories of what she had seen, trying to figure out just what this planet was.

So far, they hadn’t seen much along the river. Just a few of the flying worms, but the ones they had seen were all a red color and had been on the other side of the river. Unlike the others of their kind, these seemed to be content to ignore the group as they passed by. Sara had watched them drink from the river before flying away towards the forest in the distance. She had all kinds of ideas about why they were different, but no hard data. She had seen reports about how coloration in insects was due to what they ate. But with some insects, their genetics dealt with colors. And still, others were affected by their internal chemicals.

She gazed at the river, noticing it was flowing out towards what they hoped was an ocean. So far, she hoped that she missed a sign it wasn't.

She looked around at the trees, wondering about the life chain around here, what the things she had seen stood in it. The creature that attacked the clearing had to have been a lone predator, but what about the insectoids?

She looks around, a smile on her face as she sent a command to a specific set of nanites within her. Once they were active, they started to record everything she saw. She should have activated them when they saw that plant creature, but she hadn’t even remembered them.

A splash caused her to turn around. She saw ripples in the water Above it three of the flying worms flew away, flying straight for the other side.

“Did anyone see what that was?!” Sara asked excitedly and Paige nodded, staring at the water in horror.

“Eel, big enough to eat three of them in one bite,” Paige said absently, and Sara looked at the river in shock and fear.

Jinn only looked at the river and shook his head in disgust. “At least it’s a crab or has claws… it didn’t have claws right?”

“I didn’t see any, but it was fast. I didn’t have the chance to check them out under a microscope,” Paige said as she moved away from the river, Al doing the same thing.

“Back on my birth world, we’ve got these river eels,” Racha says as she looks at the river like it was going to attack them. “What made them the most dangerous? They were able to survive out of the water for about ten minutes if nothing attacks them.”

“So, we have to sleep away from the river tonight?” Al asked with a note of horror in his voice.

Jinn nodded as he looked at the river like it would attack them. “No, we sleep in the trees. Any place at ground level is asking to be attacked.”

“Okay… we should walk along the trees. It might be safer than being so close to the water,” Paige said and Racha scowled as she looked into the forest.

“Maybe, and we need to find a place to stop for lunch. Maybe somewhere we can get the lay of the land,” Racha said and Jinn nodded and looked around.

Sara kept her eyes on the river. She hoped that she would see something that might help her understand this planet. She couldn’t understand anything, but this planet was so far belong anything that she had ever seen. So far, she had seen more biological higher-tier species than any normal planet had.

Sara never noticed something was watching from the other side of the river. A single eyestalk looked at them before it slowly went back under and it followed after the group of people.

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From the forest above across from where the river spider slept, a group of five creatures were running through the shadows. The figure jumped from tree to tree, one led the way as the others followed. None of them paid attention to the other creatures, the creatures running away from them.

The group moved through the shadows of the forest, staying away from the light that came through the leaves. After a few moments, the group made it to a place where they could look out over the river. Looking around, they saw that the tree bridge was gone and, two of them started to growl.

The leader just glared back at them, and the two started to whimper. The leader turned to the other two when they snickered, and they all backed down. It growled and gestured towards the river, and three of the creatures ran back into the forest.

The leader raised its head and growled again, looking around at the river. It sniffed the air and then it found a large tree with a hole at the bottom along the ground. It was set up to let the air come by it, a perfect place to let the breeze carry the scents to anything that might come near. Taking deep sniffs, the creature walked around the den. It started to move along the river, followed by the sole-reaming creature.

As the two of them moved downriver, an eyestalk breached the surface. It watched them before the sound of a tree cracking echoed over the river. As the eyestalk shot back under the water, the sound of a tree crashing to the ground echoed across the water.

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The two creatures ran along the shadows of the forest, the leader kept sniffing the air. they heard the roar of the falls, and they moved deeper into the forest, keeping to the shadows. When they reached a cliff face covered by bushes, the two creatures moved from a shadow to the bushes. Keeping out of sight as they moved down the cliff. As they reached the bottom, they moved towards the falls, keeping to the darkness.

The leader went into the cave when the sun was covered by a cloud, and the second stayed in the shadows.

After a few minutes, a roar echoed off from the cave, and the second creature started to move downriver.

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Paige followed along behind the group, looking around with her eyes as she sensed a small spark of hunger and rage from the river. As she moved along with the groups, she hoped that the spark wouldn’t even attack them. She wanted to warn them, but Racha was talking to Jinn and Paige didn’t know if she could trust the others. She sensed even if it was hungry, there wasn’t much sense of anger, more like a spark of an inquisitive nature.

“ So, we need to find someplace we can set up a chokepoint, that’s the only way we’ll be able to sleep safely. The plan might be shot to hell. I don’t know if we’ll run into other escape capsules on this route,” Racha said, and Jinn nodded and looked up at the sky.

“Makes sense, but I don’t know what I’d expect to find out here. After the last clearing, we were lucky to even make it this far. I want to say we’d have a good chance, but I don’t know…, “ Jinn said and trailed off into a sigh.

Paige felt what he meant, that they had expected a hard time to make it to the Anchorage ship, but that plant-animal was beyond anything they thought might happen. And with what she sensed, she knew that this would get worse before it got better.

“…… I agree. If we can’t find that, we’ll set up a rotational guard. It’s the best thing we could do,” Racha admitted and looked around, trying to get a lay of the land before she sighed and shook her head.

“Problem?” Jinn asked with a note of cheer in his voice as Paige moved towards them.

“Never thought I’d long for the days we had an eye in the sky,” Racha admitted, and Jinn nodded with a grimace.

“Yeah, I know what you mean,” Jinn sighed, and Paige felt a spark of longing from him that almost caused her to stumble in shock.

She knew that he was Racha’s commander, but was he so used to having an aerial eye to watch over their missions? She was about to think about how to get their attention when Al cried out. Looking towards him, she saw that he was looking into the forest up ahead. And when he looked back with a grin, she sensed a spark of hope from him.

However, his face fell as his emotions took a turn for the worse.

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“What is it, Al?” Jinn asked as he ran towards him, pulling out his pistol as Al gestured towards the forest.

Jinn blinked in surprise as he saw the remains of packaged food all in a pile by a tree. He saw a few marks that something used this as a fire pit and within it a mass of semi-metallic wrappers. It caused him to wonder what this was, and who or what used it last.

He signaled Racha to watch the river.

Jinn walked around the small clearing covered by leaves from thin branches. Here and there were a few marks that showed him that a battle had happened here. Whatever had been killed was carried away, dragged by ropes of some kind.

He looked towards the food wrappers and slowly tried to figure out how many there were. After a few moments he frowned and gazed towards the others.

He looked up, closing his mouth as he saw Al and Sara looking around. Paige meanwhile just watched him with an unreadable expression. For a moment he felt something in her gaze, something he couldn't identify. There was just something about the way she was looking at him. It was full of judgment and uncertainty that went through him.

When Racha insisted they bring her with him, he didn’t know what to expect. To have two Service operators watching him, someone who had grown up where he had was concerning.

“So, what’d you find out?” Paige asked and Jinn swallowed silently and looked around the clearing.

“Somehow, three Choco Bars were eaten here. How, who, or what brought them here, I can’t even try and guess. But whatever ate them was killed. The corpse was taken away that way, and it was dragged by ropes,” Jinn said as he gestured to the ground, showing the few marks that he had found.

Racha moved away from the river by walking backwards, she spoke up and he could hear the edge to her voice. “Guys? I don’t want anyone to get nervous but I just saw a big wake moving from the center of the river towards us. I think it’s time to leave the water!”

Jinn stared at her, a thousand thoughts going through his head. He had been briefed about the creatures Racha and her team had fought yesterday, and he hoped this wasn't like them. But if whatever made the wake could come onto land, there was nowhere they could fight it from hiding.

All his instants told him that the only smart thing to do was deny battle, but that had downsides. The shoreline was the fastest way to their target, and going through the forest would just waste time. They had the supplies, but unknown threats were as bad as known ones, but there might not be a choice. But was there a way out?

Jinn looked around, his eyes finding a trail leading deeper into the forest, and took a breath.

“This way people, time to go! Me and Racha will cover our backs, move!” Jinn barked as he aimed his pistol at the river, moving to join Racha.

“Nice of you to join me,” Racha said sarcastically, and Jinn nodded and shook his head as he watched the river.

“Can’t let you have all the fun!” Jinn said with a hard edge to his voice.

He looked out at the water and tried to keep calm. Waiting for an ambush that you knew was coming was even more nerve-wracking than waiting for a battle to start. And when you thought you knew where the attack was coming from, that was when it hit you from behind. As soon as that thought went through his head, he turned around. He gazed around the clearing until he noticed a bush to his right towards the falls. He locked his eyes on it as the leaves rustled, the lone bush to do so, and almost moved towards it before he stopped.

Racha kept her eyes on the river as the others ran, Jinn aiming where she looked. She felt a rush of thankfulness as he stayed, but the others were without him to lead the way. She didn’t expect to be able to depend on him; she had a low opinion of criminals after all. She had grilled Chief Duncan about Jinn, and the old man had stayed silent. Al he said was that Jinn was born and escaped from something he didn’t want to talk about.

She had looked over the few files she had on the crew and was shocked by how small the files were. She had found ten red flags among the passengers alone, and she was shocked at how they got by her superiors! She could only hope that none of them had anything to do with how they had crashed here.

“I expected you to have gone with them,” Racha said to Jinn causing him to laugh. She kept her eyes on the river and felt a bit of relief as Jinn leaned over to her.

“Nah. ‘Always watch the back and hold the line, never retreat with a threat at your back'. I lived those words for too long not to follow them. If there’s a threat, it must see us and knows we can hurt it. That's the only reason it wouldn’t attack,” Jinn muttered and Racha felt her pulse quicken.

Something about what he just said bothered her, but she couldn’t figure out what. That was the problem with her memory sometimes. She’s fought against so many monsters and madmen. Sometimes when people said something her brain just misfiles it. It was a problem and the docs always harping on her to take better care of herself. But what can one do when they've seen and done what she has?

Suddenly she went still as she realized what had been bothering her, and she felt a spark of fear. “It can know we can hurt it, that’s what you said right?! How could it know our weapons could hurt it, let alone are weapons!?”

Jinn looked at her in shock, his eyes widened as he realized she was right.

The facts were looking right at them, and Racha didn’t like the answers her question generated.

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“Come on Paige, come on!” Sara called out as she grabbed Paige’s arm and pulled her after her and Al.

As she ran, Paige looked all around her, keeping her other senses ready to detect anything out there. So far there was nothing

“What do think she saw?!” Al asked with horror in his voice.

Paige understood what he meant, the vine beast and the river spider. They were just two of the horrors this island had thrown at them. And then there was what had attacked the clearing the escape capsule landed in.

“I don’t know. I mean… Paige saw a river eel, it could have been a larger one, so that’s not too bad. I mean eels don’t have arms,” Sara said as she looked ahead, not noticing Paige paled in horror.

Paige felt her thoughts suddenly come together, everything made sense. She just blinked as knowledge suddenly fit together like a puzzle. The shape it made caused her to become horrified as she saw what it was. She almost stumbled as she ran but she kept going and let her revelation leave her lips.

“But whatever it ate might have,” Paige said with terror in her voice.

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Paige kept moving but Sara stopped. Still holding onto her arm, Sara pulled Paige to a stop.

Al kept running, but when he only heard his feet he stopped and looked back, seeing Sara glare at Paige.

“We need to move Sara, don’t stop!” Al exclaimed but Sara only had eyes for Paige who looked at her like Sara was pointing a cannon at her.

“What do you mean, it ate!?” Sara demanded and Al went still, wondering what she meant.

Paige just looked at her and swallowed before looking away. “Didn’t you know? The creatures Racha and I found yesterday? When one of them at the eye of the river spider, the wolf’s eye mutated.”

Sara went still, thousands of terrible thoughts crystalizing in her head. She couldn’t believe that was even possible, but it made sense. Something on this planet must have caused some of the creatures here to evolve. And evolution allowed for genetic hybridization when organisms ate each other. It made sense, it explained everything! That was how the insectoid were… were …

Sara went still as she realized just where her thoughts were going.

“Sara, you okay?” Al asked as he came back towards them.

“No. Oh, stars and novas! That’s why those things are hunting us, to gain our greatest strength!” Sara exclaimed loudly as she held her head, panting heavily.

“What strength?” Paige asked causing Sara to look at her, locking their eyes as she swallowed.

“Our ability to think, to reason, to remember. They must know they’ll gain something by eating us! That explains everything, even the insectoid!” Sara breathed out, her eyes wide and her body shaking.

“Wait… what about the insectoid? What did they gain?” Al asked and Sara looked at him.

“They gained a humanoid form!” Sara whispered in horror, causing Al and Sara to look at her in shock.

Before they could do anything, a screech from behind them caused them to turn and stare in horror at what they saw.