Perspective

by Myles Anderson

  “Weird,” he said quietly, backing away.

  “Probably something with the ambient radiation in this area,” Grecko said.

  “Enough with the science lesson. We’re here to collect people, not rocks,” Green said.

  About an hour later, as the team made its way across a barren field, a high pitched whine rang through Pete’s helmet.

  “Agh! What was that?” he asked, putting his hand to the side of his helmet, instinctive attempting to cover his ears.

  “Broadband, high frequency signal burst,” Jones said quickly.

  “Do you have an origin?” Green asked.

  “No, sir, too much interference from local mountain ranges and radiation. Orbiter One, this is Seeker. Do you read?” she said.

  “This is Orbiter One,” the Two-Edge in orbit responded.

  “Were you able to pinpoint that signal burst?”

  “Negative. But we’ve triangulated an approximate position. Sector 4, grid 9,” the voice on the other end responded.

  “Everyone in the Rhino now!” Green shouted.

  “Hold on, baby, I’m on my way,” Pete whispered to himself as he climbed aboard after Griswald. He watched underbrush, hills and valleys blur by as the Rhino raced across the planet’s terrain.

  Minutes later, the Rhino slowed to a halt as Jones eased off of the accelerator. The main viewer showed the base of a low running mountain range before them, its coarse brown rock jutting abruptly out of the sandy, moist ground.

  “I’m reading a series of connecting caverns within the mountain range, sir,” Jones reported.

  “There’s also a high concentration of the crystalline material we saw at the wreckage site,” Grecko said.

  “Griswald and Hower, check it out,” Green ordered.

  Before the outer door of the Rhino had finished closing behind them, Pete had already crossed the distance between the Rhino and the mountain range, Griswald close behind him. Grecko guided them, as the two made their way to a slow rise at the mountain’s base.

  “This seems like the long way around,” Pete said over the comm in his helmet.

  “Considering the overall terrain, this route is the most open and will give the sensors in your suits the most range, so quit complaining,” Grecko said.

  Pete and Griswald began climbing cautiously, taking advantage of any natural cover their surroundings provided. The slope stopped at the bottom of a low out-cropping ridge. At the lowest point, Pete lifted his head to see over its top and let out a long, low whistle.

  “What is it?” Griswald asked.

  “Take a look for yourself,” Pete said, sliding aside for Griswald.

  The mouth of the nearest cavern was about 200 feet away. The ground between them and the entrance was covered entirely with green crystals, but instead of individual growths, before them laid a single massive sheet climbing partially up the mountainside.

  “What the…?” Griswald said with quiet surprise.

  “Grecko, what do you make of it?” Green asked, looking at the sight on a monitor in the Rhino.

  “Looks like the mass is about 100 yards wide by three yards deep. The latticed structures I’m reading indicate that it’s comprised of thousands of the smaller types we saw on the Two-Edge,” Grecko answered.

  “Is it growing like the others were?” Ramirez asked.

  “No, these seem to be dormant,” Grecko said.

  “Do we proceed, sir? ” Pete asked.

  “Hold,” Green answered. “Grecko, are you sure they’re dormant?” he asked, turning to look at him.

  “Yes, sir.”

  “Hower, Griswald, proceed with caution.”

  “Yes, sir,” they both said.

  Pete took the lead, stepping carefully on to the shimmering green surface.

  “This is creepy,” he said as he scanned the area warily.

  “Don’t tell me a few crystals have got you spooked,” Griswald joked.

  “No. I just have the feeling that we’re being watched,” Pete answered as he unconsciously tightened the grip on his gun.

  “By a bunch of green stones? I doubt it,” Griswald said, trying to be dismissive even as trepidation crept into his own voice.

  “Maybe, you’re right,” Pete answered distractedly as he walked, still looking around cautiously as he tightened his grip on his weapon.

  As they reached the cavern entrance, they noticed the crystal around it was charred and melted.

  “By the pattern and burn marks, I’d say the damage was done by a CPA assault rifle. The blast pattern indicates that the rounds were fired from inside the cavern,” Jones said coolly as she read over the information she received from their suits.

  “I think I can manage to squeeze in,” Pete said, starting for the cave.

  “No, you’re not,” Green said.

  “But, sir, Jones just said that the weapons fire was from inside the cave. Our people could be in there,” Pete replied, his voice rising with anxiety.

  “I let you on this assignment against my better judgment, Hower. I don’t like working with emotional people, but Sgt. Tyrus vouched for you. Don’t make me regret my decision,” Green said firmly.

  “Sorry, sir,” Pete replied.

  “I know you’re worried about your girlfriend, but we don’t even know what our people were fighting against. I’ve no intention of sending any of my people in blind,” Green stated.

  “Sir, if they brought back a piece of the charred crystal, we might be able to find out something from it,” Jones said.

  “You heard her, gentlemen,” Green said.

  “If the lady wants a jewel, then it’s a jewel she’ll have,” Griswald said as he strained to pry loose a piece with his hands.

  “This stuff is tough,” he said. He was about to make another try when he saw it.

  “Holy…Sir, are you getting this?!” Griswald shouted, backing away as he grabbed his rifle.

  “What is it?” Pete asked, walking over. His chest tightened as a pair of eyes frozen in pain looked back at him through a foot of the green crystal.

  The soldier entombed before them seemed distorted, almost surreal, trapped in the thick layer of rock. They could see his flexed finger still on the trigger of his rifle, his mouth trapped in a distorted, twisted scream. His body was awry and contorted from the shafts of crystal growing through him. Brown patches spread from the body, the color of the escaping blood trapped within the rock appearing cloudy and strange through the jade crystal. The look on his face told them he’d been alive right up to the end. Buried next to him was the missing hover sled from the crashed Two-Edge, its hull twisted over itself and punctured by the crystal.

  “What the…who is that?” Green asked.

  “Lt. Dan Wilson. He was attached to the team originally sent here,” Grecko said solemnly, reading his code indicator through Pete’s helmet camera. Behind them Jones flinched in revulsion as she switched the image off of her screen.

  “Griswald, Hower, get him out of there,” Green ordered, his voice low and tense as his throat tightened just a little.

  “Yes, sir,” they responded firmly, adjusting the lasers on the underside of their rifles.

  Small sparks and molten rock flew into the air as the thin scarlet beams cut into the crystal. Almost instantly, everything around them began to shake violently the ground beneath their feet rumbling like thunder.

  “What’s going on up there?” Grecko shouted as previously dark displays on his control board sprang to life. A kaleidoscope of colors washed across Green’s dark, weather-hardened skin as he watched the displays flash wildly.

  “I don’t know! Everything just started moving,” Pete yelled, trying to talk over the noise.

  “Fall back now!” Green ordered.

  Pete and Griswald raced back towards the trail, the servos in their suits tripling their strides as they ran.

  “Look out!” Griswald screamed.

  Pete turned just in time to see a segment of crystal flying at his h
ead like an emerald throwing-star. Griswald tackled him just before it struck, sliding them across the vibrating ground.

  “Hower, Griswald, report!” yelled Green.

  “Sir, the crystal started to move,” Pete said. “Pieces of it are starting to fly at us… AHHHHHHH!” he said as he words broke off into a caterwaul.

  A sharp, burning pain shot through Pete’s leg. Looking down, he saw a piece of crystal protruding through the suit and into his calf.

  “Hower’s hit!” Griswald shouted as he helped a screaming Pete to his feet.

  “Sir, picking up massive amounts of movement up there. It looks like the whole mountain is after them,” Grecko said, trying to make sense of the read-outs before him.

  “Jones, Grecko, polarize the hull plating and prime the cannons! Ramirez with me!” Green ordered as he raced out of the Rhino.

  Pete ran as best as he could on his injured leg as Griswald supported him with one arm and kept his gun leveled ahead of them with the other. His suit had automatically sealed the breach left by the crystal at the same time embedding a piece of it in his leg, which blistered with pain. Looking to his left, he saw another piece of crystal coming at them and fired at it, the titanium round shattering it into a tiny shower of shards upon impact. The familiar bluish vapor trail traced the paths of bullets from the barrel after the charged particle accelerator pumped out another three hyper velocity rounds.

  “Hit the deck!” Pete heard in his helmet. Reflexively, he and Griswald dove to the ground as Green and Ramirez came over the ridge firing. Pete heard the sprinkling of burnt shards bounce off the back of his suit as crystals were destroyed in mid-air.

  “Let’s go, ladies!” Green barked helping Pete up.

  Rounding the last bend, Pete could just make out the Rhino, its top and port cannons deployed and pointing in their direction.

  As Green half carried Pete, Griswald and Ramirez laid down covering fire, jade fragments raining down all around them.

  “Fire!” Grecko shouted as he saw them clear the last bend that had been blocking the Rhino’s firing solution. On the monitor, he watched as the four men outside fired multiple rounds into the ever-growing swarm of flying green crystals that chased after them.

  Jones slammed her fist down on the flashing red button in front of her. The cabin rocked lightly as the cannons discharged.

  The sky above Pete turned crimson red as explosions from the first volley of the Rhino tore into the gathering crystals. The firmament that had been filled with crystals was now clear, save for the haze of smoking embers floating to the ground.

  “We’re coming in,” Green said to Jones.

  “Yes, sir,” Jones replied as she opened one of the side doors from her console.

  Green sat Pete on a bench and turned back to the door to cover Ramirez and Griswald as they backed their way to the vehicle, the vapor trail from their weapons forming a small, light-blue cloud around them as they fired at the crystals that had begun encroaching again.

  “Get on board, now!,” Green howled as the Rhino continued to lay down suppression fire.

  “You don’t have to tell me twice!” Ramirez yelled back.

  They dove in on their backs still firing at the crystals behind them as Green slammed the switch, closing the door. They all looked at the sealed entrance as the sound of crystals slamming into the Rhino’s hull rang through the cabin.

  “Get us the hell out of here!” Green yelled to Jones over the intercom.

  The Rhino backed away, its cannons still firing. The sound of shards bouncing off the hull echoed inside the cabin as the guns shot down the attacking crystals. As the Rhino cleared the rock base, Jones turned the controls, whipping the vehicle around on a hard 180, and pushed the accelerator to the floor. Pete slid across the bench, slamming his shoulder into the wall while the others were jolted backwards as the Rhino’s treads dug into the ground, kicking up a dirt cloud. Within moments, they were three miles away from the mountain range.

  ***********************************************************

  “Scanners read clear,” Grecko said as he scanned over the instruments fixedly, checking for signs of pursuing crystals.

  “Good,” Green said as he stood up behind Jones’ chair looking at the forward monitor. “Park us just behind that dune,” he said, pointing to the left side of the screen at a sandbank covered by a thick growth of the black shrubs they’d seen before.

  “What the hell was that?!” Griswald yelled as the Rhino settled to a halt.

  “Settle down,” Green said over his shoulder with a reproaching tone. “Jones, how are we looking?”

  “The Rhino sustained minimal damage. We’re air tight and weapons are at 97 percent,” she replied.

  “And the crystals?” Green asked turning towards Grecko.

  “The crystals stopped chasing us after about three-fourths of a mile. Images from the Two-Edge in orbit show that their concentration around the cavern’s entrance has increased by thirty percent, completely blocking it off,” he said, looking over his control board.

  “Grecko, what were those things?” Ramirez asked.

  “Initial scans showed they were just crystals. They seemed to have some sort of magnetic properties, but nothing that explains what just happened,” he answered in a confused tone as he continued to check the readings the sensors had taken earlier.

  “Is that it? They kill Wilson and nearly get us, and you’re telling me they’re just bunch of pretty refrigerator magnets? ” Griswald said in disbelief.

  “I’m telling you what the instruments are telling me,” Grecko snapped back defensively.

  “Griswald, shut up,” Green ordered, “Grecko, Jones, any idea on what set them off?”

  “They were dormant until Hower and Griswald started cutting. After that, it looks like the two of them were tagged with a low-level magnetic field that attracted the crystals. If I had something to examine, I might be able to tell you more,” Grecko said.

  “I think I can help you with that,” Pete said as he limped from the second section of the Rhino.

  Looking down they saw a small shard of green crystal protruding from Pete’s leg. The suit had closed the puncture point around it but not before matted stains of blood-soaked dirt had gathered around it.

  “Ramirez, help him to the back and get him out of that suit,” Green said nodding towards Pete.

  “Yes, sir,” Ramirez answered as he helped Pete limp through the door.

  As the door closed behind them, Green turned to the others. “Alright people, let’s figure out what’s going on around here,” he said.

  In the last compartment of the Rhino, Ramirez eased Pete down into a chair before he stepped to the side and unfastened his suit. Not wanting to seem like a complete invalid, Pete unfastened the seals on his chest plate armor and then removed his helmet hearing the familiar low hiss of his suit depressurizing as he threw it to the floor. A brief shiver race down his spine as his sweat-covered head and under-suit met the chill air around him.

  As Ramirez helped remove his leg coverings, the smell of sweat mingled with blood drifted into Pete’s nose. The tangy scent only helping to make the throbbing pain in his leg worse as a fresh flow of blood began to seep from the wound now that the pressure from the suit had been removed.

  Pete sucked air in sharply through his teeth, a fresh wave of pain running through his leg as Ramirez pulled off the punctured leg unit.

  “Sorry,” Ramirez said apologetically without looking up. “Grecko is the field medic. Afraid I don’t have his delicate touch.”

  “I never would have guessed,” Pete said sarcastically, the color in his knuckles returning as he eased his grip on the bed.

  After tossing the punctured armor in a bio-hazard bag, Ramirez propped Pete up on a bench and injected his injured leg with a local anesthetic.

  “How’s that?” Ramirez asked.

  “Feels a little warm, but the pain is going away,” Pete said.

  “Good. N
ow hold still while I put this bandage on to stop the bleeding,” Ramirez said as he wrapped the self-tightening wrap around Pete’s leg.

  They both looked up as the door hissed opened and Green stepped through.

  “Seems you’ve gotten yourself a little scratch there,” Green said as he walked up to Pete, placing a leathered hand on his shoulder.