Verron_Birth of a Nation

by Douglas Varnell

  Chase and Tala had Lucy relay the message to King Verron and those who had visited the ship before with no success in determining its origin. After departing the abandoned ship, the crew did some more practice landings and assaults on two different asteroids and one heavy- gravity desert planet with 4.2 g gravity. If not for the exoskeleton built into the body armor, few would have been able to move. The Marines were actually working well as a unit. Tala and Chase took turns leading 12 man squads against each other as they did mock battles on unfamiliar soil. They had been gone for four days when they finally entered the orbit of Molnar. While circling the brown planet a few times they continued to get readings on numerous life forms but never saw a city or road or any other sign of inhabitation. They also saw no water anywhere. The planet had a surface temperature on the shady-side of 120 degrees F and over 200 degrees on the sunny side. As they entered the thin atmosphere, it was determined that it was a life supporting atmosphere, but composed of mostly hydrogen; the oxygen levels were closer to what you would find at 10,000 feet on Earth. It would barely sustain human life. According to the readings on their life-form sensors, it obviously would support something. After orbiting the planet a few more times and sending out probes to gather data, they settled on an area that had consistently high life-form readings. It was located along a high sandy ridge at the base of a larger mountain range. The soilless rock formations were about 5 to 10,000 feet high and looked like sharp spikes sticking from the sandy desert. Tala and Chase had Captain Dumas take control of the ship and hover on stealth mode 20,000 feet above. If there was civilized life in this area, they didn’t want it to look like a Marine invasion. The two of them put on their body-armor and had the Marines on standby in theirs then teleported themselves to the surface.

  The two Guard members immediately noticed that the ground was so dry that it crunched under their feet as they walked. The deep sand made walking difficult, but the body armor would make it less tiring, even for the unenhanced. They walked toward the large mound where the readings were getting stronger, but still saw no sign of life or any form of civilization. Picking up readings in the direction of the jagged looking mountains, they continued their search. Tala had just paused to face Chase saying, “The life-form readings are really strong right here. But there is no …” She suddenly disappeared into a whirlpool of swirling sand and was instantly buried beneath. Chase began digging immediately but there was nothing below but more sand. He was about to command the Marines to land and assist him in his digging, when he paused a moment to turn on his tracking device built into the body armor used in combat so you always know exactly where your fellow combatants are. Tala was not directly below where she went down, but a good twenty feet away and moving slowly in a southeasterly direction. He knew she was still alive, but where was she going? Did something have her or had she fallen into quicksand and somehow landed in a cave; now looking for a way out. He contacted the Captain, and told him, “I want you to reduce altitude to 10,000 feet and follow just above me. Tala has somehow ended up underground and I am following her transponder to the southeast. Be ready to send in your people if I call for help. You are my eyes in the sky for anything that doesn’t look right.”

  Tala felt like she was falling forever and was glad she was in her protective armor. She knew as she fell and the sand began to bury her alive that going up was out of the question, not with tons of sand pushing her deeper into the ground. She tried not to panic, but her trust in Chase and the Marines getting her out was a bit iffy at this time. With a sudden jolt she came to a halt on what felt like solid rock. As the last of the sand flowed out around her, she activated her night-vision and was facing at least 20 armed and angry men. At least she thought they were angry and men might not be a proper term either. As her feet felt solid ground, she began to stand, and quickly realized that even with her 5 foot stature she was at least a foot taller than the tallest of these creatures. They were a bit hard to describe, but giant moles would be a good starting point. They were covered in short gray fur, had tiny little squinty eyes and big powerful looking clawed hands. What really got Tala’s attention were the spears and knives they carried and the body armor that appeared to be made from dried bones and some crustacean shells. These mole-like people had her completely surrounded and were getting closer with their little spears and knives. She knew they couldn’t hurt her in the body armor and she had no desire to hurt them; she just wanted them to lead her to a way out. Tala realized she must be a scary sight in her dull gray Verron Steel suit. She was just about to speak when she heard, more than felt, a clank of stone against steel where one of the brave little guys had tried to poke her with its spear. The others backed a little farther away when they realized that their weapons simply bounced off this strange creature. Tala turned off the tint of her face shield so they could see her speak and get a look at her face then said, “My name is Tala. I don’t want to hurt you; I just want to find my way out of this cave.” Pandemonium broke out among the little mole things. She knew they had to have a language, or there wouldn’t have been so much arguing and discussion among them. About a dozen of them decided to try and attack the thing that spoke a strange language together to see if they had more effect. Tala gently waved her arm and telekinetically pushed them back into a pile. Too afraid to move, the short furry creatures remained in that position. Looking in awe at this monster, but to her surprise, they didn’t run away.

  Tala looked at her atmosphere analyzer and determined she could breathe the air in the tunnel, at least for a while; there was at least enough for the men to have several low glowing torches. She activated the automated helmet retraction switch and before the squinty little eyes, the black shell disappeared to reveal a face of freckled tan skin, blue eyes, flame red hair and a big bright smile of amusement. The formerly fierce warriors scrabbled to their feet, lined up in five rows of four and began to bow to her, chanting “Molna, Molna, Molna …” she wasn’t thrilled about being bowed to, but it was better than trying to poke her with a spear. She began to walk toward the spear and bone clad little warriors and they parted to let her pass and began to follow her through the low ceilinged cave. She could just barely stand erect; no one taller could possibly fit. Quickly, amidst constant chatter, two of the creatures ran ahead of Tala and began to lead the way carrying two torches with not much more than a glow; both constantly shouting with their squeaky little voices, “Molna, Molna, Molna …” The others behind joined in and the sound was almost deafening in the narrow tunnel.

  They had traveled what seemed like an hour when the two leading the Molna parade began to scream aloud … it was like a warning signal and all of them raced ahead of Tala in a panic. It was dark up ahead, so Tala activated her headgear once again and switched to IR Imaging. The panic stricken warriors were facing an oncoming set of long fangs. The large mouth filled half the tunnel and had glowing yellow eyes. She was not about to let the people who worship her get hurt, so she drew her Light Sabre and pushed her way past the 20 spear bearing protectors. As the creature closed the distance quickly, Tala could see that it was some kind of snake, a big snake, but still just a snake and soon to be her favorite kind of snake; a dead snake. As she stepped ahead of the group, the snake picked-up its speed, seeing an easy meal only feet ahead. Just as it widened its mouth to chomp down on his next meal, Tala took a quick swing from left to right across the snakes jaw. Everything in front of its huge yellow eyes fell to the cave floor, but while it was still falling, she chopped the rest of the head into a dozen large pieces. The poison from the things poison glands hit the floor and walls like sulfuric acid, sizzling and smoking on impact. Then it was over. Her little protectors looked on in amazement, then immediately started cutting up the 30 foot long snake and toting as much as they could carry; once again they joyfully proceeded to their destination with chants of “Molna, Molna, Molna …”

  Chase was still receiving a strong signal from Tala’s transponder. He had tried to communicate with her bu
t for some reason the thick ground beneath would not allow a signal for communication, but the transponder operated on a different frequency and had a separate reactor to push the signal that could be picked up from a few light years away. So far he had walked at least five miles, still maintaining a pretty consistent southeasterly direction. He felt a slight rumble and saw the sand ahead of him shift a little and at first thought it was simply the wind. Knowing he couldn’t feel a breeze in his body armor, he looked at his sensor array and saw that it was now 215 degrees and the wind was dead calm. The rumble again, closer this time, and as quick as a flash, up out of the deep sand rose a creature like none Chase had ever seen. It had to be a good 20 feet tall and probably 30 feet wide. Standing on ten legs and wielding two mammoth sized pincher claws, it began to approach Chase at a speed he would never have imagined something so big could obtain. Its trajectory was at an angle and then he realized that the thing was trying to circle him for a better angle of attack with a whip like tail covered in spikes three feet long. Avoid the claws; you face the slashing tail. Avoid the tail and you’re caught in 10 foot pinchers. Chase drew his Light Sabre and headed toward the closest claw. Sensing a quick meal, the giant crab with a tail spiked like a Gigantspinosaurus, reached directly at Chase with his left claw. Chase quickly side stepped the open claw and in one quick motion, it was lying on the ground. He did a lightning quick spin and severed the second claw just as it was swinging his way. The enraged beast snapped at Chase with a huge beaked mouth in the center of its body, but was out of reach. Chase ran at jump speed down the side opposite the spikes on the tail and quickly shortened five legs. The beast was now clawless and only able to use one side of its legs. It would not give up. It obviously felt no pain and began to swing the spiked tail wildly. Chase removed the other five legs and stood back far enough that the tail was of no threat. It was obviously still alive. He decided that he wouldn’t leave it to die slowly. Opening his com channel, he kept it brief, “Target practice.” The reply from above was, “Sure, now that it can’t move. My worst gunner could hit it blindfolded. Get out of the way. I wouldn’t want one of these multicolored commandoes up here to mistake you for the target.”

  Chase checked his tracking device and quickly took off in the direction of Tala’s transponder. He was a few hundred yards away when the low yield photon torpedo hit. He looked back to see nothing but a big hole in the sand. He didn’t slow down until he was directly above where her transponder was located. He suddenly had an idea. He called Lucy and asked, “Hey, can one of your drones pick-up life-form signatures if their underground?” Her reply came back, “How far underground?” Chase immediately had a drone hover overhead and activated the sensors. On his screen, about 40 feet below him, he got a signature of twenty small life-forms and one strong signal that had to be Tala. He also had a thermal source in front of them that was at least 30 feet long. He hoped Tala saw it coming.

  They seemed to be going deeper underground as they travelled through the caves and tunnels. She could tell there were some of both. They walked through a huge cavern that had a narrow path through the middle and was filled with mushrooms as far as the eye could see. They proceeded to a bit larger tunnel on the other side of the mushroom field. From openings in the walls of the tunnel crawled the biggest centipedes Tala had ever seen. They were at least a foot long and as big around as a baseball bat. Her escorts were grabbing as many as they could and stuffing them into the tote bags they carried. Many just ate theirs as they walked. The crunch of the thick shelled skin and the squeal of the live centipedes were disgusting. One of the little warriors offered Tala the biggest of the bunch. He looked hurt when she refused. As they continued on, Tala swore she heard the sound of running water. After about two more turns they were walking along a narrow trail about 50 feet above a fast flowing underground river. As the water plummeted over a 100 foot water fall, it formed the largest underground lake Tala had ever seen. She had been to the Lost Sea on a field trip once and this appeared to be at least four times that size. After navigating around the large lake, they proceeded through a series of tunnels that made their way up to cliffs overlooking the lake. When they finally exited the maze of tunnels they were standing in an underground cavern at least ten stories high and four football fields long, and about half that wide. Tala stood and looked on in astonishment. It was an underground city. There were thousands of these furry creatures everywhere; mothers carrying children, small children running around playing chase and practicing with spears and knives. There was a group of them making weapons from dried bones of some large animal, while others prepared meals using mushrooms, grub-worms, and centipedes. The cooks and children grew excited when the men revealed the meat from the dead snake. Others quickly grabbed bags and cutting tools as they raced off to retrieve the rest of the meat. But what really got Tala’s attention was a statue in the center of the cavern of a white woman with bright red hair, carrying what looked like a carving of a Light Sabre. Tala determined that she probably had been one of the Xhondarian explorers who came here over ten thousand years before. It seems no one had been here before or since. This was a statue of Molna.

  Chase was getting hungry. He double checked his environmental monitor and decided it would be alright to lower his headgear long enough to eat one of those nasty nutrition bars. He almost gagged on the first bite, but began feeling better soon after finishing the thing. He quickly closed his head gear, realizing he could not breathe the super-heated air. He had been following Tala’s transponder for almost fifteen miles now. The going was a bit slower as he snaked his way through the spiked mountains. The transponder was weaker here and they were obviously too deep underground for the life-form sensors to pick-up anything. As he was passing through a narrow ravine, Chase was enjoying the first shade he had experienced all day. In the shadows above he thought he saw movement. When he looked a second time he witnessed a giant spider lowering itself on a rope-sized strand of web. The spider was big enough to easily eat a cow. It was then that he noticed the bones along the ravine walls. He saw no human bones, but evidently there was other life on this planet besides these spiders, the former crab creature and whatever Tala was with. As he was focused on the spider before him, he caught movement above and to his left and above and to his right. At least a dozen of these things were crawling down the ravine walls in his direction. He spoke into his com, “Captain, can you see what I see; look at the monitor of my video.” Coming back quickly with a response, Chase heard, “What the hell is that?” Chase corrected him, “No, what the hell are those. Get a little closer and you will see a dozen more. Now might be a good time to put your best gunner on and save me some work. I’ve got the one in front of me, but the dozen or so coming down the walls will just make me waste too much time. I don’t want to lose Tala.” Without another word, a laser drone suddenly hovered between the two solid rock walls of the ravine. With deadly accuracy, it began to fire 5mm Laser rounds in five round bursts into the descending spiders. The spiders were big, but they were not very durable. Within minutes all twelve were gone. Chase was tired of wasting time so he hurled a huge fireball at the one blocking his path, instantly incinerating it. From above he heard, “What kind of weapon was that? I’ve gotta get me one of them.” Chase chuckled, but made no comment.

  From one of the caves used as their homes, carved into the walls of the cavern, appeared a mole-man that was larger than the others. He was dressed in a bright red gown and wore what appeared to be a gold medallion around his neck. As he got closer, Tala recognized it as an Xhondarian 100 cronz gold coin. There was a picture of Mahala on the side she could see. She thought, “How long has that man been around?” In a very bad accent and a very broken sentence structure she made out the Xhondarian words for, “Queen comes. Molna lives.” Suddenly the entire village bowed down and began chanting “Molna, Molna, Molna …” One of the ladies in a white robe came and placed a robe identical to the one on the statue on Tala’s shoulders and gave her a crown for her
head. At close inspection, Tala could see that it was rough work, but it looked like gold. Another mole-lady in white offered Tala a tray of delicacies to eat. She didn’t want to offend them, and decided to try the mushrooms. They were delicious. Hopefully they wouldn’t notice her never touching the grubs or centipedes. One of the leaders of the group that found Tala on the cave floor was telling the story to the entire village in their native tongue. Tala was amused by his enthusiasm when he obviously was describing her killing the snake, as the crowd ooo’d and aaah’d to his theatrics. Tala was given a chair, she guessed it was supposed to be a throne, to sit in while the village danced and celebrated the return of their queen. Tala couldn’t access Lucy from this far underground and decided to try and communicate with the Chief or Priest or whatever the man was who spoke a few words of Xhondarian. She indicated for him to approach her and told him in a broken Xhondarian, while pointing to her, “I am Tala. Not Molna. I am from Verron.” Before she could say anything else he stopped the chanting and declared as he pointed to Tala, “Tala, Tala, Tala …” The crowd, not wanting to upset their Queen, began chanting “Tala, Tala, Tala …” She lowered her head in frustration and half chuckled and half cried as she shook her head, and lowly spoke, mostly to herself, but still in Xhondarian, “I just came here to help; to protect and serve, not to be a queen.” Evidently the Chief/Priest understood the Xhondarian word for help, and began to shout, “Tala help! Tala help!…” Tala was getting frustrated and once again mumbled, “I sure wish Yadvega was here.” The priest turned to her in amazement and asked, “You know Yadvega?” Tala was speechless. She knew Yadvega had been in a lot of places, but had no idea she had been here. Then it dawned on her that if Yadvega was here before, she may have tried to teach them a dialect that was simpler to use, she spoke to the Chief in Cronari, “Yadvega lives on Verron and is my teacher. We are friends and I am here to help your people. My brother is still up there…” She pointed toward the surface, “looking for me. He wants to help too.” The Chief looked at her a moment and ran off towards one of the cave openings, he returned carrying a book. It was a book on the Cronari language. She flipped it open and it was signed Yadvega Xhondar. The Chief spoke again saying, “Very old. Is language of Yadvega. My Chief teach, his chief teach, his chief teach …” Evidently, Tala was beginning to understand, this book and language had been passed from chief to chief ever since the last human visitor was here. It was considered sacred and not for everyone to know. In the book was a picture of Molna; bright red hair, blue eyes and all. She had evidently written the book given to them by Yadvega. Tala noticed that Molna was wearing a Light Sabre; she had been one of the original Elders.