by Amelia Esla
It happened all very fast. Helen detected a hint of intelligence in the thought patterns of the Bolters. Not true sentient thought, but more like the mind of a smart dog and one of the minds out there was focused on them. The large Bolter flailed with his remaining tentacles waving an intricate pattern in the air. It was a signal, a signal to all the others and every Bolter reacted!
They all unleashed their electrical discharges at the slowly closing flier. This sudden onslaught, overwhelmed the shields and the electromagnetic energies were strong enough to disable the on board computronic, even the combined lightning bolts of the beasts did not kill the scientists inside but it send the flier with screaming, uncontrolled engines towards the planet’s surface.
A trained pilot perhaps would have been able to divert the disaster, by cutting power to the thrusters and increase the lift energies to the Arti Grav, but Mortimer was neither a trained pilot nor a person who reacted well to crisis situations.
Mortimer simply screamed on the top of his lungs and then the armored Science institute flier crashed through the canopy of the Jungle trees, cutting through a Tantalus Oak, and moments later impacted with the ground.
Chapter 3
The house he called home was a dome shaped Ultronit sphere; made out of the same material they made battle ship armor out of. The house had two levels and once had been a forward research outpost on Green Hell and served as his families’ home ever since he was born. Roy switched on the outside visual sensor and waited for the Institute Floater that would take his parents away. The visual sensor was on a sturdy telescopic mast and inside a strong protective housing and could be steered and directed to look into any direction. On his view screen he saw the dense jungle around the house. There, a Pandora Swan attacking a flock of Gladiator Eagles. The silvery Pandora Swan attacked the much larger eagles with his razor sharp lower wings and cut one of the Eagles in mid-flight to pieces, while it evaded the barrage of arrow feathers the Eagles shot at it. The swan punctured a second with its long needle sharp beak. It was a spectacular display of raw nature. It did not matter what his parents thought, he was a Greenie!
He was very proud of this fact and he knew everything there was to know about his home planet. Green Hell was the second planet in the Maxwell System. A luscious green garden world that looked inviting like any other garden world when seen from space.
Long time ago, it had first been discovered by the old Saresii and they called it Mrtgtha in their language and it meant Murder-all. The Saresii never bothered to come back, thousands of years later the Sarans rediscovered the world and lost several exploration teams and called this world Imthe-Seth which meant Death World.
Then after Terra ascended and the Union was formed a Union explorer ship came this way and another attempt was made to explore this world. Garden world with a breathable Nitrogen Oxygen atmosphere were rare and valuable to any expanding society. Again the Planet proved deadly to those who landed on it, no one of the survey teams returned alive.
Unlike the Saresii or the Sarans however Terrans were much more stubborn and could not leave it at that. It was even suggested at one point to P Bomb the world from orbit and then Terra form it, but instead of doing that it was decided to research what it was that made this world so dangerous.
Instead of scientists and explorers they send Ultra Marines next and they managed after losing some men to clear an island of its vegetation and sterilize it of anything alive and establish a permanent base. Scientists returned and with them came technicians and service personnel, then their families and finally shop keepers and small businesses and the small island base grew first into a town and then a small city called Ant Hill. The Planet became known as Green Hell
Jungles covered sixty percent of the surface. Instead of real oceans the planet had an almost uncountable number of large and small lakes, vast swamps and slimy bogs. There were a few rugged mountain ranges and cool less overgrown poles.
What made Green Hell different from any other planet was its vast abundance of life forms. Every single living thing on this planet was a killer and had an array of body weapons deadlier than anything ever encountered. The strongest organic acid ever discovered was produced by the Dragon Ants of Green Hell; the deadliest organic poison ever encountered came from a flowering bush. Some clouds were actually living gas bags that attacked with aimed lightning bolts of pure energy.
There were tiny microscopic mites aggressive as battle nanites; insects able to fly as fast rifle bullets with inch long stingers as hard as steel. Everything alive on Green Hell was lethally dangerous. Even the local moss and grass was lethal.
He saw one of the heavily armored, yellow painted floaters of the Institute descent and dock at the air lock clamps on the north side of the house.
A few moments later, with his parents aboard it soared back into the sky.
Roy smiled and locked his door. Then he opened his closet and put his micro mesh jacket over his bio-barrier suit. The Bio-barrier suit everyone on Green Hell was wearing was a one piece garment that hermetically connected with his heavy all-terrain boots. The suit was to protect the wearer from the tiny Buzz-saw Micros and similar mite like mini life forms that feasted on any organic matter with tiny rotating mouths full of teeth. Real Greenies however, like most of the larger life forms on Green Hell had developed their own defenses against those tiny pests, Buzz-Saws never really bothered him and he knew how to evade their drop shaped cocoon like nests hanging between the branches of Plague trees. All you had to do was use the a few drops of Plaque tree sap and the Buzzers thought you were a Plaque tree then girded a belt around his hip with an attached holster, in it his Thompson E-Blaster. On his left he carried a Vibro-machete and also attached to the belt was his K-Bar combat chuckled while thinking about what his parents would think if they knew he had those things.
Green Hell had a natural gravitation of 2. 6 gees above standard and all Off-worlders carried a personal Gravi-Adjuster. A device that reduced the graviton influence on the body mass to standard level; until his sixth birthday he didn’t have one as he was born here and adjusted to the natural gravitation. Uncle Sam told him that carrying one increasing the gravitation would make the body stronger and every single move was an exercise. So he did carry one and he dialed it up every year a little more and now didn’t even feel the constant 4.5 gee the device created. He switched it off and left it behind. Then he crawled under his bed and snickered even more, imagining the shock his parents would get as he touched a hidden contact
Part of the wall slid open and he crawled in a secret air lock. His mother would probably faint if she knew it existed. Maria his friend who was a wizard with tools had cut the Ultronit and installed this small air lock some years ago, allowing him to leave the house unnoticed.
The inner door sealed and moments later the outer door opened. He slid over the smooth curved metal to get momentum then pulled his feet under him and pushed himself with one fluid motion of the wall. His now unrestricted muscles catapulted him almost 12 meters across the vegetation free area around the house. Charles maintained that area by burning everything that grew inside that area with his blasters and he had to do that every other day.
Roy grabbed the branch of a Tantalus Oak, with two only two fingers of each hand, avoiding the 5 inch long thorns; Thorns that were hard enough to pierce steel and drooled with a deadly nerve poison that paralyzed a human sized being in mere seconds.
He swung himself over to a Trappers Palm, oriented himself for a mere heartbeat crouching on a branch, just above the sticky substance that covered the trees trunk and its branches below. The Trapper Palm glue instantly bonded with anything that came into contact with the sticky goo on a molecular level and then tiny creatures akin to the Buzz-Saws would come and disassemble and devour whatever had been caught in the glue.
Roy filled his lungs deep with the warm almost hot steamy jungle air. He loved the musky, moist odor. The Jungle was full of smells and scents, some pleasant, some swee
t and fragrant, yet others putrid and foul. Yet every smell signaled a different plant or animal and knowing the smells was part of being able to stay alive out here. For most of the things he had no names, and he was fairly certain his parents hadn’t seen or cataloged a fraction of what he knew and seen.
Out here he felt alive and right as rain, there was no doubt, no hesitation. He was one with the Jungle and somehow he felt as if he was one with the planet. He used all of his senses to the extreme. He listened to all the noises and sounds, he felt and touched. Some of the deadly trees and lethal plants had parts that could be eaten. The flower butts of the Nightmare cactus were delicious and had a nutty fresh taste. All you had to do know was where to touch and not to be showered with tiny needles. A beautiful orchid like plant as big as a man, he had no name for it, had liquid nectar inside the funnel shaped leaves that tasted like a mixture of honey and orange juice, to get it without getting killed took some skill that was all.
Out here he could feast on a hundred things, without being poisoned, killed or paralyzed.
This was his true home and he knew how to act and behave. He didn’t need an eight ton energy shielded Armor suit to stomp through the jungle only to sink into a mud bog and be cracked like and egg after the energy ran out. He was a Greenie.
There was a sense, a feeling of being certain without any doubt. This sense told him what to do, that alerted to imminent danger and told him on an instinctive level what to do and how to behave.
This sense, this knowledge he absorbed somehow by an unexplainable osmosis directly from the planet. Everything here was a deadly killer, but that didn’t mean everything was constantly killing. It was more like a careful delicate balance and life and death kept itself in balance out here, just like anywhere else. Waltzing through all of this in an Armor suit disturbed that balance and directed everything on that intruder to kill it, to neutralize it so the balance was restored. All this he just knew, he didn’t know how and it was not book knowledge or the knowledge cramped in his mind by Cerebral uploads in school, it was a knowledge that could not really be put in words or expressed in writing. It was different.
For most of his way he remained in the upper level of the jungle, far above the actual ground. The dense foliage provided a much safer route and he could pass over mud bogs, water holes and the burrows of Kill Diggers.
He estimated he had covered two or three kilometers from the house and was now deep in untouched jungle, when he heard the tromping sounds of a Stomper breaking through the thickets. Roy crouched on a thick branch and waited until he could see this magnificent eight legged beast with sixteen barbed tentacles on its front end that could plug anything eatable out of trees and a tough crystalline armor protecting it from most of the plants and attack modes of smaller creatures.
Roy put his hands before his mouth and mimicked the mating call of a Water-snake Bull and laughed silently as he watched the Stomper turn in panic and disappear back from where it came. Of course it was still five months till the Water snake mating season begun, but the Stomper didn’t know that.
Greenies were split in the opinion what was the most dangerous life form on Green Hell. One side believed the Water Snakes were the undisputed kings of this world and had no real natural enemies.
Water Snakes spend most of their live in the huge fresh water lakes and only during mating season bulls would be driven out of the lakes by the strongest one and seek other water bodies for their home, slithering many miles through the jungles and fighting with other snakes over a water hole or lake. Then they would mate with a female and produce one or maybe two little snakes.
Water snakes reached tremendous size. Roy had seen bulls of over 45 meters and perhaps eight or nine meters thick. Water snakes had a scaled skin that was almost impervious to any attack; they could spit a Gelatin-like material and ignite it with a static discharge in their mouth. The stuff burned even in water. In addition to that Water snakes could spread their scales and eject small poisonous darts with the force of a high powered rifle. The darts made of the same diamond hard substance as their scales. Those darts were poison tipped and even a slight scratch could kill a fully grown Stomper
Roy once observed a Water snake shooting Arrow wasps out of the air just for fun, demonstrating its accuracy. Roy believed Water Snakes were at least as those Terran Dolphins he had to learn about in School.
Other Greenies he knew were convinced Dragon Ants were the undisputed kings of the jungles.
Among the many ant like species living on Green Hell, the biggest and most dangerous were the Dragon Ants. These little monsters grew up to 2 inches and their ant hills swarmed with millions of them. Biologically they had not much in common with Terran Ants of course, the Green Hell version had eight legs and had both an endo- and an exoskeleton to support their bodies in this higher gravitation. Their mandibles made of a biological carbon compound that was almost as hard as diamond and truly razor sharp.
The acid produced by these ants was strong enough to eat through any known material except Compacted Ultronit. The ants mixed two components of that corrosive liquid by spraying it out of two holes in their bodies, to prevent of being dissolved by their own acid.
When an ant colony was on the march to new grounds, nothing was spared or safe from their attacks and a battle between a Water snake or a Stomper caught by an ant colony was a horrible and fascinating spectacle.
One of the few places that was ant free on this world was an island almost in the center of the largest lake. It was there Union Marines established the first permanent base; over the years it grew into into the city Ant Hill, the only city on this world.
True Greenies were fiercely proud of their world and everyone had a favorite “monster”. Water Snakes and Dragon Ants were the clear favorites and there was the Snake Fans and the Ant Lovers and the discussion just what lifeform was the most dangerous on Green Hell was a common subject for endless discussions and friendly banter.
Roy had not made up his mind and was of the opinion that there were many life forms on this planet yet to be discovered.
While he was musing about ants and snakes he ducked fast to avoid the net of a Moolax-Spinner, huge brown arachnoid beasts able to electrify their almost invisible nets with deadly voltage. The filaments of the net were only a few molecules thick and could cut through almost anything. He didn’t even realize he had pulled and shot his blaster a few seconds later to kill a Vamp-Fly that came to close to be avoided until he had the weapon back in its holster.
Roy didn’t shoot or kill for sport or fun, only when it was necessary. Everything on Green Hell had an arsenal of natural weapons, poisons and acids to their disposal. That did not mean that every life form was trying to constantly kill everything else. It was more of a careful co existence. Roy’s blaster was his stinger and he used it only if necessary.
Three years ago, sponsored by a popular extreme sports magazine and a sports outfitter sixteen extreme sport athletes of the so called Top Toughs answered the challenge of a loudmouth GalNet host.
That host, a Takkian named Akrun Nokhar challenged Green Hell’s reputation of being the deadliest worlds in the known Universe. He offered 5 million credits to anyone running from Ma Swenson’s boat house to research-outpost seven. RO-7 was only ten kilometers from Ma Swenson’s. There were twelve such outposts around the western hemisphere of the planet, the house Roy called his home was one of those and officially designated RO-9.
Despite warnings and the objection of the Ranger Service, Nokhar managed to get a federal court order allowing him to proceed. Two Pertharians, eight Saturnians, nine Takkians, two Stellaris, three X101, even a Nul and a dozen others participated.
It was a terrible disaster and loss of life. One of the Saturnians made it a whole kilometer but fell prey to a Burrow Digger.
One of the X101s had to find out that Dragon Ant acid was strong enough to eat his tough metal skin in seconds. Only a Pertharian survived but severely wounded when the Ranger found him
.
Akrun Nokhar could not be held responsible, he was one of the Takkians participating in the race; his crystalline outer shell was later found and identified to be his.
Of course it was all the news GalNet wide for several weeks and no one questioned the dangers of Green Hell from that point on.
Sometimes Roy wished he could have participated, so he could have shown these arrogant Off-Worlders that Green Hell was as beautiful a world as any other, but then his parents would have found out that he really was outside almost every day and grounded him forever. They never knew that it was him however who found the Takkian’s shell a few days later and told the Ranger where it was.
While the Galaxy had mostly forgotten about this event, it had cemented Green Hells reputation and prevented any further foolishness...
At Gillian’s Pub, which was a local tavern at Ground level Plaza of Ant Hill, they still talked about that Extreme Sport challenge of course. While not openly admitting it, because the loss of live was not supposed to be a source of satisfaction; Greenies were glad it actually ended that way. It would keep Off-Worlders away. The non scientist community of Green Hell, those who called themselves Greenies, didn’t care all to much for Off-Worlders, who always knew everything better than the locals and then died a few hours later.
Gillian’s Pub was owned by Melissa’s grandfather and Roy and his friends often went there after school to get a bag of fish and chips that were so delicious.
Only a few Greenies, mostly the Shop keepers and the two Hotel owners wished that Green Hell would grow and see more visitors and tourists.
He had reached a spot halfway between the house and the Shore rocks where he was going to meet his friends. This area had lots of Strangle veins and Buzz Saw nests and it was better to be on the ground.
He carefully avoided a Mortar Toad that hopped across his intended path so it would not shower him with hundreds of little flesh eating toads catapulted from pockets in its back.