by Bryan Nyaude
“Go cover, Dalla,” Rick jogged towards the ship’s panel ladders, aiming to go up.
“Yeah, sure,” I nodded and turned around.
I tramped around the ship and halted a few feet from her. I stood in front of her, with my gun in my hands, proceeding to kneel down on my left knee. I unrestricted the safety lock, while extending my gun in front of me. My breathing lowered as I anticipated the worst possible scenario playing out. The blue grass a mile in front of us looked really suspicious, like there was something inside of it. We were being surrounded by an unknown enemy. By my guess, I think it was a terror beast. The movements were too swift and fast to be anything else. Promptly, I released my scan drones from my armor and sent them towards the impending hot zone. From this height, I couldn’t see anything; I needed to find high ground and make my stand there. I looked around for a close place offering my needs—and found a small compartment, on top of the ship, with a great view of my surrounding.
“I’m going up there,” I informed Dalla as I began to climb the hull.
As soon as I got to the top, I placed my equipment down and lay on the ground, inaudibly. The reading I was getting from my drones was off the charts, compared to what I was expecting. Not only was there something in those grassy terrains, but actually, it was just more than a few dozen. Oh no, this was more trouble than we could handle. I watched Dalla work on the engines, while curling down, waiting until I was sure. Honestly, I hoped my scanners were deceiving me; however, I was wrong.
“We got serious trouble,” I said, pointing my rifle towards the grassy plain—fully alert.
We couldn’t possibly take on terror beasts, not with this kind of ammunition.
“Over there too?” Rick growled, sounding really frustrated with my words. “Dalla, you might want to hurry up with that engine problem, because we are not going to last more than ten minutes, at this rate.”
“Just hold them off as long as possible,” she responded in a shaky voice. “It takes time to reset the flux capacitor on this type of engine.”
Judging by their conversation, I could tell that we were in a life or death situation. I felt my stomach swirl with anxiety and my finger pressing hard on the trigger.
“Wait, Den,” Rick yelled to me from the com link line. “Conserve your ammunition and go into the ship. Switch with your AI and man the weapon system; I will cover you and Dalla.”
That could work. The ship’s weapon system offered four times the firing power, which was what we needed. I got up and picked up all my equipment quickly, before heading inside. Without hesitating, I rushed towards the ship’s cockpit and typed in a few instructions into the main system.
“What are you doing?” my AI asked me with a cold tone. “I told you already that you should leave all the ship’s main controls to me.”
“Desperate times,” I said and returned to my task.
I rerouted my AI as fast as I could and linked it off the weapon system as I took over. The ship’s defensive grid came online as the shields activated, maximizing the railing spring coils to full power. I felt the ship vibrate as I redirected the position of the ship’s orbital guns to the right and vertically down, towards the hot zone.
“Are you guys seeing this?” Rick spoke, linking the video surveillance from his com link with ours. “These terror beasts are much smaller than the ones we have seen on earth. I think these are infant terror beasts, if that is even possibly.”
He might be right. I zoomed in on them and faintly saw smaller figures leaping through the pasture. With the sun shining this bright, it was hard to tell to pinpoint exactly what they were and even hit them. Their numbers kept increasing with every passing minute, as the sensory scanners displayed more dots all around the ship. Suddenly, I heard the sound of the gun fire. Rick had fired his gun first. I noticed the small dots on my scanner start to move even faster towards us than before—this was it. I latched hard onto the triggers, firing the orbital guns all around, in a 180 degree motion, hoping to hit something. The dots on the scanners didn’t dwindle at all, but they were slowing down and backing out a little. Even with this amount of firing power, the odds were still bad. I growled out loud in frustration while still firing at the creatures. Was there something we could do to shift the odds in our favor?
Wait, the pellets, we still had those. If one of those could cause that much destruction, I would imagine more of them could destroy anything. No, Dalla would figure out that it was us who caused that strange explosion, and I would hate to know what she would do to us. So the pellets were definitely out of the question.
“Dalla, please hurry up,” Rick screamed out as he kept firing. “I’m running out of ammunition, I can’t keep this up forever, you know?”
“I’m trying,” Dalla replied quickly, at the top of her voice. “Maybe you should try resetting a flux capacitor while someone is yelling at you, and you will see how hard it is.”
“Well, if someone like you can do it, I think a monkey could, too,” Rick responded, sounding really ticked.
“Oh really, Rick, why don’t you come down here and say it to my face,” Dalla growled back.
This wasn’t what I hoped was going to happen and this was certainly not the best time for a sibling fight. The creatures were drawing closer and maneuvering so fast I couldn’t track them, let alone shoot them. To make things even more stressing, the shells were almost gone. I had fired more than half, barely hitting any of the small creatures.
“Maybe, I will and then I can shove one of the little guys down your throat.”
“I would like to see you try.”
Quickly, I shut down my com link line and began to concentrate my fire. I switched the output of the gun to rapid fire in short dispersal, like a shotgun, and began firing at the slow pace. I felt annoyed; nothing we did could stop them from advancing.
“All done,” Dalla commented, somehow using the com link line which I thought had been disconnected. “Help, I can’t move—I’m surrounded.”
Just great, she gave us good and bad news at the same time. I wanted to rush out and help her, but I couldn’t. The orbital guns were the only things keeping the creatures at bay. If I left this station, then no one was going to man the weapon system. The shields were barely holding off the small creatures that had gone through the outer defenses. I observed them attempt to get inside the ship. It was only a matter of minutes, maybe seconds.
“Switch me in,” my AI spoke in a cold tone. “Look, you are the only one who still has enough ammunition to go help Dalla and I can cover you, if you switch me into the weapons grid.”
I hated talking to my AI like it was just another person; although, it was right. I pondered for a while, thinking of the most logical situation to go about this matter. Dalla was surrounded and I was the only one who could help her. I took the best option and gave my AI full access of the whole ship. I realized, I would regret it later, but now was not the time. I got off the chair and took my equipment, sprinting out to Dalla. Moving quickly, I jolted so fast, out of the ship, that I found myself looking at a warzone without realizing it. There were tiny creatures, hitting on the shields, violently plotting to get in.
“Whatever you do, don’t let the shields down,” I ordered my AI in a rough tone, while looking at my guns one last time.
I felt scared, nevertheless courageous. A life hung in the balance and my actions, at that moment, would impact the future drastically. I moved away from the hatch, sealing it shut behind me. Suddenly, I noticed that one of the shields had fallen and a few of those creatures had penetrated the shields near Dalla. More were still trying to breach inside, as they outnumbered us heavily.
“I’m coming, Dalla, hang tight,” I said through the com link and turned on the electric stunner system to maximum power.
I felt a jolt of power, followed by a timed power usage clock on my visor. I had about 3 minutes to use it at full power. Feeling somewhat confident, I dashed towards her without fear, firing carelessly into th
e horde of creatures. I had never fully tested the modifications on a large crowd—but I trusted Ali and Dr. Berge. One of the small terror beasts jumped at me with its jaws open. It was so small, I could swash it with my feet, and yet so powerful, it could easily knock me down. With my body in motion, I twisted down, contemplating the speed of my momentum while shooting it with my gun. A few shots were barely able to penetrate its small skin, which was rather impressive considering how tiny they were. A few other small terror beasts jumped onto me, scratching my armor with their claws. I felt them one second and then swoosh. They looked stunned or dead for some reason. My mouth opened, in a stutter, but no words came out. Could it be? A rather disappointing find, but nonetheless important. It seemed the smaller versions of the terror beasts were intolerable to electricity. I bent down for a second, despite the dire situation, just to be sure. Yep, they looked pretty lifeless to me. Had I found the terror beasts’ one and only weakness? It was possible, although it was still just a speculation. Dalla grunted out loud, fighting off the large numbers of creatures all over her. It distracted me from my discovery, causing me to get up after her. I turned my gaze up in front, while dashing fast through the swarm. I saw Dalla hold them off with her gun; however, she was almost out of ammunition. A chunk of her armor had been torn off, and I could see part of her right hand showing from it. Sensing the situation, I began to fire a few rounds at the terror beasts munching at her oxygen tank. The small creatures fell, but they weren’t harmed at all by my bullets. I got close to Dalla and side winded my body opposite to her—placing my back against hers, as we fought off the creatures, back to back.
“Boy am I glad to see you,” she commented from the com link. “For a moment, I really thought I was goner. One of my oxygen tanks was damaged, and I only have enough oxygen for a few more minutes.”
“I have an idea,” I whispered to her with a nudge, giving her my extra clip of proton bullets. “Cover me for a few minutes, I need to do something fast.”
“Okay,” she said, reloading the magazine into her gun. “I don’t know what you are about to do, but this better be worth it.”
“Trust me, I think it will work.”
I fired a few more rounds at the small terror beasts, close to me, before ducking down to unveil my plan. Dalla fired her gun back and forth quickly, buying me a few seconds, which was more than enough. Quickly, I shut down my armor defense grids and rerouted all the power I had to my EMP system circuits. There was a slight interval delay followed by tiny clicks. I heard my backup power come online as the main power had been redirected to my electric weapon system. The suit jolted and vibrated in response to the power surging through it. I had a ten seconds to power up, which I needed for it to disperse out of me. Any longer than that and I would risk blowing up everything, including myself and Dalla.
“Get down, Dalla,” I yelled, quickly pushing her hard towards the ground.
In that moment, I released an electric pulse wave through my shoulder pores, in a 360 degree axis. I felt the massive power leave my suit with such a powerful force that it was almost hard to move. In the next couple of seconds, I saw nothing but blinding light—everything seemed like one giant haze. But was it over?
I heard the ship’s main shields suddenly turn off as the engines roared. Once the blinding light had faded, I opened my eyes slowly, glancing back at the ship, and then back at the small creatures coming towards us. Something was wrong and I had a feeling it was my AI. Just what was that stupid machine up to this time? This wasn’t part of the program I had told it to do. I helped Dalla back to her feet, both of us backing away with our guns blazing bullets. The ship was almost two meters above the ground and rising. A mixture of frustration and fear reached me, causing me to panic.
“What’s going on, Den?” Rick asked me from the other end, somewhere above the ship.
“I don’t know,” I replied, just as stunned as he was. “Dalla, duck now, I am going to fire another pulse wave!”
She heeded my warning, with a nod, and quickly stooped down on her left knee, and she covered her face with both hands briefly. The moment I realized she was out of the way, I fired my electric pulse burst, for the second time, on a grander scale, hoping to destroy the creatures within a 30 meter radius around us. My scanners shrieked out loud, alerting me that I had drained more than half the power of my battery pack. I closed my eyes the second time again from the blinding furious light, while keeping alert for the ship. I felt Dalla’s figure brush past me—she was moving towards the ship, hastily.
“So I was right,” after it was clear again, I saw a pile of stunned lifeless creatures on the ground. Their bodies simmering with smoke and nail almost turned to ash. I stepped on one of them, just to make sure it wasn’t fooling me. There was no motion; I detected no signs of life from it at all. “I didn’t know you could do that,” Dalla said in amazement.
“Save the admiration for later,” I replied back, looking at the cargo ship ascending slowly above us: “We are not out of the woods yet.”
Another horde of the small creatures appeared out of the forest, swarming towards us; numbering in the hundreds, at least by my speculation. They glided through the ground, effortlessly, approaching us with precise speed. Just when I thought things couldn’t get any worse, we suddenly heard a menacing loud roar. It was a much larger terror beast, judging by the sound. My back withered out, causing me to spiral down. I had used too much energy without realizing it. Everything seemed to go awry for me at that time. I struggled up to my feet, while holding onto my gun tightly. I needed to keep it together, but that alone was hard to do. Looking around, it was then I truly realized what this territory was. Apparently, this was the terror beasts’ nesting area and we had invaded it. That explained why they kept attacking us relentlessly, attempting to force us out. Freaky vibrations rattled from the ground, getting stronger with each second. The terrain was becoming more dangerous for us, meaning it was time to leave. It was only a matter of time before we were surrounded and possibly killed.
“Can you fly?” I asked Dalla quickly without hesitation. “My suit doesn’t have enough juice anymore to fly up.”
She paused, for a second, checking her suit’s system and then replied, “I have enough power to fly for a short distance.”
Good, all we needed was just enough lift to get us close to the ship’s hull. The ship was about 15 meters up above us, lifting up even further. Rick was aboard it; however, not inside to stop the ship from going any further.
“Take my hand,” I extended my left arm towards her. “Try to fly towards the ship and I will cover you.”
She nodded through her helmet and grabbed my hand, preparing her system for lift off. With my other free hand, I fended off the small terror beasts, using my assault rifle. My gaze turned east and caught sight of at least four gigantic terror beasts. I felt nothing radiating from their eyes. The creatures stood firmly on top of a hill, looking down, directly towards us. One of them galloped towards us, with its jaws wide open. In a slight second, Dalla yanked me as she lifted up into the air. By the time one of the large terror beasts was within range, we were more than five meters in the air. It jumped up for a few seconds, but only caught wind. I gazed down and felt its eyes upon us with sheer anger. Dalla was slowing down, for some reason; she was losing leverage as we were descending little by little. Luckily, we were close to the ship, allowing us to latch onto the outer hull, just before her flight system gave out.
From this distance, the ground was starting to look like a dotted blur. It was filled with a massive number of small and large terror beasts. I was for sure terror beasts budded off each other, but now, I wasn’t. These recent new developments led me to believe they could also produce off springs, too. Dalla moved past me, climbing up the hull of the ship. She was heading up towards the latch door. Instinctively, I joined her, moving calmly as not to fall. The cargo ship whistled, moving west, towards our current objective. I saw the terror beasts follow us from the ground; h
owever, unable to keep up with the speed of the ship.
“We dodged a bullet, didn’t we?” Dalla laughed as she opened the emergency hatch to get in.
“I didn’t think so,” I answered, following behind. “It’s way too soon to relax just yet.”
These creatures weren’t just going to give up and let us leave. If I was right, they were going to follow us anywhere on this planet to exact revenge. I mean, the look on their face said it all—perhaps there was more to these creatures than we already knew. In fact, nothing on this planet was what it seemed.
I entered the ship, last, and closed the emergency hatchet behind me. Dalla grazed away from me into another compartment, without saying a word. I left her, charting my way into the cockpit of the ship, very angry. That AI had tried to leave us behind, and I wasn’t going to let it slide, not even one bit.
“I’m glad to see you guys,” Rick surprised me, coming from another exit. He had taken off his head gear, looking completely wasted. He leaned against the wall, dropping his gun in a huge sigh, with his head tilted up.
I ignored him for a bit as I went straight to the monitor, “why did you disobey my direct order? I specifically told you not to lower the shields at any costs.”
“I followed the logical choice, based on my design and decided that moving the ship was in everyone’s best interest.”
No, that wasn’t logic at all; something was up and I wanted to know what. Because robots lacked emotions, it was the reason why we had stopped using them to fight the terror beasts. Plus, they were also expensive to manufacture and maintain. To make it worse, they left an even greater amount of destruction than the terror beasts.