Vitalis Omnibus

by Jason Halstead

  The others emerged from their hiding spots and converged on the deployed pod. They studied it without touching it until Elsa arrived. Even Ben and Barry allowed the Gunnery Sergeant to be the first to approach it. She knelt down carefully beside it, the heat from the sand not bothering her in the least. The initial waves of heat that radiated off the pod were already gone. She touched it quickly, then nodded to confirm that the shielding had transferred the heat generated by the entry away.

  She pressed unmarked scanners on the side of the pod, letting her biometrics be read. After an expectant moment nothing happened. Elsa frowned, then proceeded to enter a code into those same pressure sensitive panels. That caused the solid metal canopy to jettison away from the pod and the foam dissolving mist to spray. This time when Elsa caught a whiff of it she turned away gagging. It had never smelled that bad before.

  Instead of a Marine in First Insertion Special Tactics armor the pod was loaded with several boxes. “Here’s the supplies,” she gestured into the pod. She staggered back to her feet and turned to see Captain Sharp studying her instead of the supplies. She offered him a smile before she remembered what her mission was. “Captain Sharp! I’m sorry Sir, but I just remembered. Fiona wanted me to report back and ready Treetown for evacuation!”

  “Evacuation?”

  “The new spitters split up. Kira went after one and me and Fiona went after the other. We tracked it and saw its foot prints growing at an incredible rate. By now, if it’s still alive, it’s probably as big as any of the human kids in Treetown.”

  “If it’s still alive? What happened?”

  “I don’t know. Fiona sent me back when it was almost dark. We were minutes from losing the trail and we knew if we waited the night out we’d never find it again. She was going to try to stop it from getting back to their mound by waiting for it.”

  “Waiting for it? If it’s running from her, how’s she going to stop it by waiting for it?”

  “She was going to head for the passes between us and the plains. She knew the land, it doesn’t. She should make it their first.”

  “There’s a lot of ways over that ridge,” Tarn pointed out.

  Elsa nodded. “That’s why it was my job to get the rest of us somewhere safe. If it makes it back we figured we had two days before they were on us. We’re on day number one right now. We’ve got to evacuate to safer ground!”

  “What?” Klous had been barely paying attention as he examined the supplies. “We can’t evacuate! Not now that we’re so close to making something of ourselves!”

  “We fall back somewhere safe and start over,” Elsa argued. “Maybe we can figure out what we need there. Figure out something better than stone age tech so we can deal with the spitters properly.”

  Klous scowled. He turned to look at Ling, getting a shrug in return. “We’ve built our homes in trees! The spitters don’t climb. We’ve got ditches and other traps to keep predators at bay.”

  Elsa’s cheeks twitched with the effort clenching her teeth caused. She looked at Sharp, her eyes wide with the desire to strangle the former pirate. Sharp frowned, stroking the short beard he’d grown since he’d been on Vitalis. “Get that gear squared away, we need to get back to Treetown. We’ll have a town meeting. I hate to leave but everything I heard about them spitters says there’s a lot of them and they may be the nastiest thing this planet’s got to offer.”

  “No,” Elsa said with a smile. “Not the nastiest thing on the planet, those two are busy right now though.”

  Tarn chuckled. “I’d say we got another one right next to us.”

  Elsa flashed him a smile. “Thanks, but if you want dangerous you should see my cooking.”

  “All right, get this shit ready, we’ve got to move!”

  Elsa made her way to the back of the screamer and opened the cargo bay on it. She grinned. “More loot. Ooh, they even left a spare suit of FIST armor and an X109.”

  “You sure that’s a good idea?” Tarn asked.

  Elsa shrugged. “Not for me, but we’ll take it. If we need to fight one of my boys can suit up and give ‘em hell.”

  “Why not you?”

  Elsa glanced down at herself. She was still nude and nobody, not even Tarn was making a big deal of it. She’d forgotten about it already. “Turns out I guess I like being a nudist. I move a lot better and quieter like this, at least. Maybe not as good as Kira but I’ll never get there if I don’t try.”

  “Hussy,” Jess coughed into her hand. Elsa gaped at her and saw her eyes twinkling. The others laughed until Sharp yelled for everyone to get moving. They had a rough hike ahead of them, the sun was rising and so was the humidity.

  Chapter 7

  Kira jogged along the trail left by the hybrid spitter. Her eyes picked out each track with such ease that they practically glowed against the gloom of the jungle. She noted the movement in the shadows of the trees, but paid it little mind. The animals were only beginning to rouse and even when they began their hunts most would leave her alone.

  Kira had become one with Vitalis long ago. She’d immersed herself in the planet every chance she got, taking it into her physically and spiritually. The wildlife knew her as one of their own. A hunter that was to be feared and respected. Only the hungriest or the stupidest of predators would try her, and even those would fail.

  The spitters were another matter. They were part of Vitalis, as much as the trees around her, but they were also different. They changed rapidly. They evolved, taking something from each host and seeking to improve themselves. She’d seen minor variations in the spitters she’d killed, but nothing like that one she stalked now. Even her rapid pace failed to gain on it as night settled on her.

  Fiona and Elsa had been fearful of the night. To Kira it was just another opportunity to experience Vitalis. Her life before Vitalis had given her the gift of enhanced vision that allowed her to see in near darkness. With the improvements Vitalis had given her, all but the darkest of shadows were little worse than a cloudy day. She was able to recognize that the jungle was thinning. She knew the landmarks, it was a region rarely visited by the scouts from Treetown.

  She slowed, her tanned muscles slick with sweat but her breathing coming easily. She stepped out, the jungle trees suddenly thick with undergrowth. Two more steps and she stopped on the edge of a rocky overhand. Below lay the region they’d dubbed the pits. A collapse of some subterranean region offered bowls in the jungle floor, some of them were connected via tunnels and others lay open to the sky forming canyons.

  The tracks she followed disappeared at the edge. She studied them, noting the size. It had grown as she’d followed it, something only the almost magical life of Vitalis would make possible. She placed her foot beside the marks in the tough grass to compare their feet and frowned. It was nearly as big as hers already. As he peered over the edge she saw a rock ledge a few feet down that her adversary must have used.

  She felt a faint tremble in the ground and heard the sound of movement through the underbrush at the jungle’s edge. Kira turned, eyes narrowed. A shape lunged out of the darkness at her. She twisted and bent backwards with a flexibility of a professional gymnast, her spear already on its way to the feathered dinosaurs throat. The creature slammed into her legs, sending her flying even as she grabbed the feathery down on its arms. It was one of the jungles greatest threats, a chickasaurus. This one was young, only a few feet taller than she was. It looked like a two legged tyrannosaurus rex save for a beaked mouth, avian eyes, and iridescent feathers covering it from head to tail. They both fell through the open air.

  A hissing shriek issued from the two legged creature’s beak moments before it crashed into the upper rim of one of the pits. Kira had shifted to ride on top of it, allowing the chickasaurus to cushion the fall for her. She rolled away from it, falling into the bowl with as much grace as the situation allowed. When she came to rest at the bottom she felt her bow had broken and lay on the ground beside her. Her spear was also broken, the point transfixin
g the beasts neck and the shaft missing.

  Kira rolled to her feet, ignoring the aches in her body. She crouched, looking into the darkness of a tunnel. From deeper within the passage she saw a faint shimmer. Of greater importance than the mysterious glow was the creature that lunged out of the cave at her. She saw the hard shell on its back and the multiple legs that allowed it to scuttle towards her. More important were the multiple tentacles that surrounded its mouth.

  Elsa sprang to the side, hoping this new creature wouldn’t be able to turn quickly. In three years she’d never seen a lobster-like animal. Vitalis remained a great and unexplored world. She’d allowed herself to spend too much time protecting the survivors and not enough time exploring the world. Vitalis had given her so much, yet she knew it had much more to give her if only she would accept the challenges the world offered.

  The land-born lobster turned faster than she’d expected, but not fast enough. She scooted past it, barely dodging one of the tentacles that reached for her. She could smell the chemicals on the appendage. They stung her nose and promised pain. She slipped into the dark passage the creature had come from. With no weapons her only hope was to find something to use against it. The tentacles had a range and mobility that made trying to kill it with her hands a suicidal task.

  She ran down the passage, the glow growing as she approached it. She found bones and other proof of the lobster’s lair, but it was beyond those that she stopped and stared in amazement. Massive crystals, some as thick as her thigh and as tall as she was, emerged from a passage on her right. They radiated a faint greenish light near the base that shifted to a soft pink near the tip.

  Her pursuer scrambled over a rib cage, reminding her of the immediate peril. Kira saw a smaller crystal laying on the ground near her. It was a dull gray, displaying none of the light emanating from the other crystals. She snatched it up and turned.

  As soon as she grabbed the crystal and moved it she felt it come alive in her hand. It hummed, sending a vibration through her arm and lighting up as the others were. Even with the obtuse angles of the crystal’s edges their sharpness cut into her skin. She nearly dropped it in surprise. She shifted her grip, holding the crystal by the flatter facets. Blood dripped from the shallow cuts, threatening her tenuous grip on the crystal. She ran towards the lobster, scooping up a long bone off the ground as she closed with it.

  Tentacles lashed out at her. She swept them high with the leg bone before slashing with the crystal. All four tentacles were severed, leaving only bloody stumps behind. The lobster squealed and reversed course, trying to escape.

  Kira swung the bone, knocking two more tentacles out of the way. She pounced on it, driving one foot into its shell and pinning it to the floor. The crystal came next, slamming point first into the head of the air breathing crustacean. It shuddered and collapsed, its head pierced through by the impromptu weapon. Kira jerked it free, marveling at how not only had it cut through the shell of the animal but it had even pierced into the ground beneath it.

  Kira stepped away from it and held up the crystal. Blood ran down its length, most of it her enemies but some her own. “Thank you, Mother,” she whispered. She closed her eyes for a brief moment then felt a wrongness in the air to her right.

  Kira jumped into the disturbance she sensed. Her shoulder slammed into something hard yet yielding. It fell away from her even as she bounced away. Something whistled through the air just over her shoulder fast enough to create noise with its passage.

  Kira held the crystal before her, both of her feet and her other hand on the floor. She gathered her legs beneath her to prepare and leap in any direction. Opposite her the nightmare apparition climbed to its feet. Wings or a shell tucked into its back as it gained its own feet. It turned to face her and left her momentarily stunned.

  The new monster walked on two legs and possessed arms much like her own. Three claw tipped fingers and one opposable clawed thumb were at the end of each arm. Its feet were similar, save for the lack of an opposable toe. In many other ways it resembled a human, including the oval shaped head and placement of eyes, nose, and mouth. A set of mandibles over the mouth ended the similarity. The creatures chest was armored with a shell, though below it she saw that not only did it resemble a mammalian male, but it also seemed quite excited at the prospect of killing her.

  “You’re big for a newborn,” she muttered. The spitter hybrid hadn’t been running from her, it had lured her into a trap. It stood slightly taller than she did, perhaps six feet. “Smart too, but not smart enough to know better than to mess with me.”

  It roared at her, the sound disturbingly human in spite of the lack of words. The tone and pitch changed, almost as though it was trying to form words. Rather than attack her it reached down to its member and grabbed onto it. Her eyes widened as she saw the tip glistening.

  “Not a chance, beetle-boy,” she growled. She threw her bone at it, drawing its arms up to block. She leapt after the bone, her crystal leading the charge.

  Chapter 8

  By the time the group had returned to Treetown Elsa felt fine, aside from a gnawing hunger. Even the stiffness in her side was gone. She picked at the stitches, tugging when Jess wasn’t looking at her.

  “Gather everyone up!” Sharp ordered. He headed for the communal fire pit, gesturing for Elsa to follow him.

  Klous watched them as they moved away, the muscles of his jaw twitching. He hurried to catch up to Ling and whispered a few words in his ear. Ling glanced at him and nodded before continuing to carry the equipment from the screamer to the ropes used to lift large loads into Treetown. Klous watched his engineer go for a moment before he turned and followed Sharp and Elsa.

  “How long until everyone’s gathered?” Elsa asked as Klous approached.

  “Half an hour, maybe less,” Jonathon said. She frowned. “Why?”

  “I want to see these defenses Klous talked about.”

  “Tarn can show them to you,” Klous walked up and offered. “I don’t think he’d mind.”

  Captain Sharp’s eyes tracked Klous with the intensity of a hawk. “Go and find him, but make it quick.”

  Elsa nodded. “Yes Sir, be right back.”

  “Oh, and Elsa?”

  “Sir?”

  “Good job out there. I’m glad you made it.”

  Elsa felt her training slip as a grin stretched her lips. She was off in a flash, jogging lightly both to test her body and to find Tarn. She found him hauling up a rope with one of the larger cases from the supply drop tied to it.

  “Tarn, get down here, I need a guide!”

  He turned to Barry and handed him the rope. “Think you can handle this, Meat?”

  Barry blushed. He’d been considered the biggest and strongest Marine in Elsa’s unit but next to the muscular Tarn he felt like a teenager showing up for his first workout at the gym. He nodded and pulled on the rope, yanking it up harder and faster than necessary to prove a point.

  Tarn slid down another rope and thudded into the ground beside her. “Where we going?”

  “I need you to show me the defenses you’ve put up. You’ve seen the spitters, you know what we might be up against. There’s nobody’s opinion I trust more on whether we can handle them or not.”

  Tarn grunted and turned to lead her away. Elsa noticed the rise of his lip at her praise. She also remembered when he’d called her beautiful when she lay in his arms at the beach. It was almost too easy, wrapping him around her finger. Kira hadn’t said as much, but Elsa suspected the woman wouldn’t hesitate to have her use him if she could. The question was, were Kira’s motives pure?

  “Tarn, what can you tell me about Kira?” She’d heard about Kira from Fiona, but Fiona practically worshipped the ground Kira walked on. Kira kept waffling back and forth about sex casually, even hinting at possible relations with her, then saying something else that refuted the implication. She wondered if Fiona’s loyalty was based on more than just respect. It would go a long ways to explaining the prob
lems she claimed she had with Jeremy.

  Tarn sighed. “Ain’t much to tell. She’s a badass. Captain Sharp took her on because we needed a navigator and she must have impressed him. She acted like it was her first time on a ship though, real girly and flighty at first. Then the weird shit started happening. Not the pirates attacking, I mean weird shit with her. It was like she turned into someone else.”

  “She said she was someone else. Emily Bradford?”

  “Yeah, that’s the name. She killed a bunch of pirates when they tried to board us, then she ended up being able to fly the Rented Mule like it had wings. Ain’t no doubt about it, we’re alive today because of her.”

  “You don’t sound happy about that,” Elsa watched him carefully for his reaction to her question.

  “I’m happy enough being alive. This place gave me back a lot of what I thought I’d lost,” he answered. “Just kinda frustrated that I didn’t do more, you know? I don’t like owing people, and Kira’s got this way about her that always reminds you that you owe her.”

  “I get that,” Elsa said, thinking about how Kira acted. She never said or did anything directly, but there was just something about her strong and confident nature that made Elsa feel like if Kira wasn’t around, Elsa wouldn’t be either. She shifted back to Tarn. “What about you, what did you think you’d lost?”

  Tarn frowned. “I’m an ex-Marine,” he said, as though that explained it.

  “No such thing,” Elsa chided. “Once a Marine, always a Marine. It gets in your blood and there’s no getting it out. Kind of like Vitalis, I guess.”

  Tarn snorted. “Mistakes were made. I was young and full of myself. Code of conduct didn’t matter. Spent some time in Cerberus, then I was dishonorably discharged. I was convinced the Corp turned on me and it wasn’t until I got here and we all learned we had to take care of each other that I realized I’d turned on the Corp first.”