by Francis, Ron
“Ha ha, Lieutenant, so how close?” he replied, pretending to be hurt by the comment.
“Not bad, only two klicks,” Josiah seemed pleased.
“Here’s the plan, Endeavor will make planet fall at the initial location, and the shuttle can take the retrieval team in from there. Kimi and Suzy will stay on Endeavor with me, while Josiah takes the rest of you to the objective.”
He really wanted to go on this one, but Collin had not been on any of the missions yet and he was itching for some action. In fact, the most action Lieutenant Torrensede had seen was the brawl they were in at the bar last night. Jesse decided to let Collin have the fun this time, and he would stay in with Suzy. Kimi was staying to pilot the ship in case Endeavor was needed.
Collin landed Endeavor perfectly in the small clearing, happy he was going on the mission. Josiah’s team was just about to depart for the landing bay when he called over to Suzy; “Hey, do you mind if we bring Shadow with us on this one? We could use her guarding the shuttle.”
“No problem; she could use the exercise,” Suzy replied as she motioned Shadow to go with Josiah.
As they departed, Jesse hoped that this one would be adventurous enough to satisfy his crew, yet also relatively danger-free.
______
As Josiah stepped out of the shuttle to join his team, he was immediately struck by the oppressive heat and humidity. He looked around and noticed thick green leaves growing in sprouts standing nearly eight feet tall. The sprouts were dwarfed by tall redwood trees with white leaves. The trees were so tightly packed together in some places that he couldn’t tell if there were one or more trees growing out of the same place. The white leaves gave the jungle an almost wintery feel, which seemed betrayed by the heat. As the team started moving towards the treasure zone, they noticed they were being stalked by a pack of large somethings.
“Everyone, stay alert,” Josiah began. “We don’t know if these creatures are friendly or not.” He had his blaster at the ready.
Cassie commented back, “They also may just be curious because they may have never seen humans before so hold fire unless they attack.”
The creatures seemed to have the body structure of a large chimpanzee, but also rough reptilian scales and slits for pupils. They were powerfully built and agile. The reptapes, as Josiah called them, were swinging through the trees around them, but so far had not tried to engage them. He was hoping they were friendly, because they looked like they could do a lot of damage if they put their mind to it.
“Someone should get some vid of these; Kimi will want to see them.” Josiah said, loud enough for everyone to hear. Collin put on his visor and began recording through the HUD.
Josiah’s team made it the entire two kilometers without incident. Kora noticed that all of the reptapes, as they were being called, were dropping into a large hole in the ground. Unfortunately, it was the same hole that they needed to go down. “Could be a coincidence,” she observed.
“They could be trying to lead us to the next clue,” Collin hoped out loud.
“Or,” Josiah had to say what everyone else was thinking. “They could be leading us into an ambush. But we have to go down, so look alive, and keep one hand on your blasters.”
They looked up and noticed that there was a tree limb hanging over the hole where they had to descend. The limb was small compared to some of the others they had seen, but still almost five feet wide. Josiah decided it would easily be enough to hold their weight, and they all shot their grappling guns into the limb. They slowly began making the descent into darkness. When they reached the bottom, Collin checked his grappling gun and noticed they had only descended about ten meters. Collin looked around, but could not see any of the animals they had called reptapes. There were two tunnels, but Josiah did not want to split the group up, so he motioned for them to stay together as they went down the wider tunnel to the left of the opening.
______
Captain Topanar was tired of all the walking. He was sure the clues Kora had given him led here to Tuleah. His techs had already begun trying to reproduce the artifacts from the holographic images that she had also provided. He really wanted to find the next clue before Endeavor arrived. Right now, this was a race that Endeavor’s crew was winning, and he wanted to change that. He had arrived on his own personal frigate, the Interrogator, and had to land almost fifty kilometers away from where they were supposed to be. Speeders had gotten them within fourteen kilometers, but that still left quite a walk. He had thought about taking his shuttle to within eight kilometers, but he didn’t want to risk it after Kora told him what Colonel Marcos had done to the pirate’s shuttle. He only had one shuttle, and he did not want to risk losing it. Consequently, it would be a long walk. He was assured that the men he hired to start a fight with Endeavor’s crew would get them at least a two day head start. He wasn’t worried about Endeavor, but he didn’t want to run into Garrinoras' men, so he compelled his men to clear the brush faster. He thought briefly that it might go even faster if he were to help, but he decided he wasn’t in that much of a hurry.
______
Jesse heard another ship land, and by the sound of it, a pretty large one. He immediately tried to comm Josiah, but the signal wasn’t getting through. They must be underground already, he thought. He grabbed his visor and went to the viewport. The ship was landing almost fifty kilometers from the treasure zone. The ship didn’t look like any of the pirate ships they had gone up against, or the bigger ship Janus had been orbiting Kaldor in.
“SAMMI, what kind of ship is that?” He asked, hoping SAMMI would have enough information from Kaldor City’s repository about the Kalephi galaxy to have an answer.
“That ship is an older model Kaldorian Frigate, Colonel Marcos. It is legally registered under the name Joldas Topanar.”
“Topanar,” he repeated suspiciously. “How did he even find this place? I thought only we and Garrinoras had this level of information on the treasure.”
“It is unclear how Captain Topanar has come to be at this location, Colonel Marcos.” SAMMI replied.
“SAMMI, track crew movements over the past week, and report anything suspicious to me and me alone, please.” Jesse asked, not liking the feeling he had in his gut.
Kimi shot him a questioning look, and as she was about to ask, Jesse answered. “I think one of our newer crew members may be working with Captain Topanar.”
“How certain are you of this?” She replied, trying to cycle through her mind anything that might stand out as suspicious.
“At this point, it’s just a feeling. Not even fifty percent sure, but I may as well have SAMMI start working on it while I try to work it out in my mind.” He continued, “SAMMI, has anyone made any transmissions or sent any encrypted messages from the ship since we took aboard new crew members?”
“Negative, Colonel Marcos. My communications jamming software is always engaged inside the ship so that no one may communicate without your approval and my knowledge. There were, however, two encrypted signals to leave the area while we were on the planet Crunaris during the time of your last mission. I could not trace the source of either, but I was able to decrypt one of the messages.”
“Excellent work, SAMMI. What did it say?” He was hopeful to gain a clue as to what might be happening.
SAMMI answered, “The decrypted message was text only; it contained one word."
"Ginderbar.”
“Oh, that’s not good,” Kimi mused as she was shaking her head. The thought that any of these people she was starting to become friends with betraying them made her quite angry.
“That still doesn’t necessarily mean it was one of us, Kimi.” He began, as if reading her mind. “All of us knew we were going to Ginderbar, someone could have had spy tech on us and overheard it. We need to keep fleshing this out, but we need to make sure none of our newer crew members know we may be on to something. SAMMI, that goes for you, too. Cassie, Wennagal, Kora and Reece are not privy to this information.
”
“I understand, Colonel Marcos.”
"Jesse," Kimi began a little unsure. "Kora was alone for several hours while we were on Ginderbar. Do you think?"
"I'm not sure, Kimi, Reece also had some time alone when he went to find her," he admitted. "But I don't want to think it was either of them. Now, let’s get out there, Topanar is bound to have more men than our team can handle. Suzy, I need you stay in the ship, keep the hatch closed and the cloak on. We're leaving Commando and the warriorbots with you, just in case. Are you ready, Kimi?” As she conveyed her readiness to him, he turned and took off. "I hope you don’t mind a ten K run in the heat.”
______
“We’ve been searching down here for hours,” Wennagal called to no one in particular. He was clearly frustrated at the meandering pace this portion of the treasure hunt was taking.
“We haven’t seen any more of the reptapes, either,” Collin muttered. “Maybe they took the treasure somewhere else?”
Cassie laughed, “I don’t think the reptapes, or whatever they are actually called, care one way or another about a treasure, Collin.”
“Don’t be so sure; stranger things have happened,” he grinned.
“Maybe we just took the wrong tunnel,” Reece observed.
Josiah agreed with him, “Okay, let’s double time it back to where the tunnels split off.” Josiah took off at a run that he was sure no one would appreciate in the heat. As they came back to the place where they had first entered the underground tunnels, they noticed for the first time in a while one of the creatures they had been calling reptapes. Cassie had finally figured out reptapes was a combination of reptile and ape. Collin felt this was a sign they were on the right track. His belief was rewarded a half a kilometer later when the tunnel opened up into a large amphitheater filled with dozens of the reptapes. They were hanging from the walls and squawking a very unpleasant sound. The artifact was positioned next to the map fragment, which was affixed to a rock of some sort. Each stood atop its own podium about chest-high. The animals seemed to be paying the podiums no mind, but they didn’t seem to like strangers in their sanctum. Every time one of the members of the team took a step, they would continue to get riled up and more squawking would occur. Finally, Kora took one step too far, and the ground began to give way. She screamed as Wennagal reached out and grabbed hold of her just in time as she began to fall into the darkness, pulling her back to safety. Now, there was a twenty-five meter chasm between them and their prize.
"Thank you, Wen, I thought I was going to fall, good reflexes by the way." Kora tried to make light of the situation but everyone could see she was scared.
"It was nothing you would not have done for me, Kora," came the humble reply.
“You see,” Collin was saying. “The reptapes were trying to warn us not to come any closer. They are on our side.”
“You may be right,” Josiah agreed. “But I wouldn’t be willing to test that theory just yet. My main concern is how we’re going to get to the objective at this point. Maybe we can fire the grappling guns into the far wall, wedge them into the rocks over here, and climb out.”
“That’s a long way, Josiah,” Reece observed.
“I don’t see what else we can do……..”
As Josiah and Reece were talking, Wennagal pulled out a gun of some sort, looked at Collin and nodded as he pulled out a similar weapon. They both made their way to the edge of the stable ground and took aim.
“Whoa, whoa, whoa,” Josiah threw his arms out in front of them. “What are you doing?”
“Exotic weapons, Josiah,” Wennagal replied with a smile, “Collin and I have weapons that will save us much time and energy.”
Josiah then asked the obvious question, “What do they do?”
Colin smiled, “They shoot out a tight net on a string. It’s meant to capture people or animals without hurting them, but in this case, we will just be capturing artifacts and map fragments.”
“Let’s do it.” Josiah decided, and then Collin and Wennagal fired their nets, each hitting their mark. As the nets were being drawn quickly back to the guns, the whole amphitheater began to shake. Rocks began falling from the ceiling and all of the reptapes quickly made for the exit. Josiah’s team didn’t wait around to see what they were afraid of as they began to retreat down the tunnel as fast as they could. Collin and Wennagal each had their prize secure in their packs and gave a glance back as they were running. All they saw was a wall of water.
“We’ve set off a trap of some kind,” Collin yelled. “We’re gonna have to move a lot faster, or we’re in trouble.”
They made it back to the bottom of the hole and fired their grappling guns into the limb. No one even attempted to take the time to clip their guns to their belts as they just pressed the recoil button at best possible speed. They began to rise while a wall of water simultaneously came crashing through, and Josiah could only hope they had all held on. As the team rose up out of the watery hole, Cassie lost her grip on her grappling gun and screamed as she fell into the torrent.
“Cassie!” Josiah yelled as he clipped the gun to the front of his backpack while it was still moving and reversed direction. He dove down into the torrent as well, hoping she had gotten hung up near the entrance. As he tried to swim against the current in the murky waters, he noticed Cassie had gotten hung up on some rocks almost ten meters from the opening. He let the current take him quickly to her and saw her struggling to free her leg. She had a terrified look on her face that told Josiah she didn't think she was going to make it out alive. He began to work on freeing her leg as the strength of the current had subsided considerably. He had finally freed her leg when he noticed her eyes close and her body go limp. He had little time to get her out of the water. He only hoped the rest of the crew would be available to help him as his strength was fading fast.
The rest of the team made it to the edge of the hole and pulled each other up onto dry ground, they noticed the reptapes all swinging in the trees near them. They were still squawking and carrying on, and Wennagal cringed slightly, as he didn’t like what he observed. “They are upset with us for destroying their gathering place.”
“No,” Collin replied. “They’re trying to warn us of something, everyone take cover.”
They heard someone or something coming through the jungle directly towards them. A moment later into the clearing stepped Captain Topanar and two dozen heavily armed men. They began to make their way towards the hole that was now completely filled with water and stopped. They all watched with awe as Josiah’s hand found purchase on the ground and he pulled Cassyanna out of the water onto dry land and he began performing CPR.
“Someone, help me,” he called out before he had even checked his surroundings. Just then, Cassie began coughing the water out of her lungs as Josiah smiled.
His smile didn’t last long as he heard a long, slow clap followed by the words, “My hero.”
He looked up to see Captain Topanar standing at the edge of the clearing, several armed men leveling their blasters at him. He was wearing his battle suit, as was Cassie, but it was unlikely they could outrun Topanar’s soldier’s or fight them off after what they had just been through. At least the others got away with the prize, Josiah thought as he said, “Captain Topanar, how nice to see you again.”
“Take them,” Topanar yelled with steel in his voice.
Without warning, Jesse and Kimi came swinging out of the trees, grappling guns in hand. Jesse swung right into the first two soldiers and Kimi hit the third. Jesse flipped in the air, came down in a crouch with his blaster in one hand and Helga in the other. He opened fire, dropping two more. Kimi ran to Josiah and covered him as he helped Cassie away from the action. As they made their way away from Topanar’s men, the rest of the team began opening fire from their positions of cover.
“You’re out of your jurisdiction, Topanar,” Jesse laughed.
Captain Topanar began to laugh as he motioned his men to cease fire.
> “Continue withdrawal,” Jesse called out to his team as Topanar continued to laugh.
“I expected better from someone who has given Garrinoras such fits. You’ve overplayed your hand, rookie. You and your friends are going nowhere. I have this whole area surrounded. I have more than fifty men out there. Now I’ve got your whole team, and you will lead me to your ship so I can collect the rest of your treasure clues, or you will die.” Topanar was basking in his perceived victory.
Jesse just smiled as his team continued to slowly withdraw from battle, covering Josiah as he helped Cassie. “When was the last time you heard from any of your perimeter teams, Topanar?” He asked, continuing to smile. “We beat you here by a couple hours, Kimi and I took out your teams as you sent them. For the record, it was gonna take a lot more than a few four-man teams spread out over a couple kilometers to take out my crew.” With that, he fired, dropping another soldier.
“Kill them all,” Captain Topanar yelled as he opened fire once again. He still had Colonel Marcos outnumbered and he meant to press that advantage.
Jesse yelled to his team, “Rapid withdrawal. Kimi, Reece and I will cover the exit.”
Josiah and Kora each put one of Cassie’s arms around their shoulder as they began to run with her. Wennagal took point and Collin brought up the rear. They only needed to make it to the shuttle two klicks away.
Jesse was taking heavy fire, and he didn’t know how much longer his battle suit would hold. He was out in the open and hadn’t been able to make it back to cover, but he, Kimi and Reece were dropping Topanar’s men pretty quickly. Topanar was standing behind his men, shouting instructions. He was calling in reinforcements as Jesse, Kimi and Reece were slowly backing away, hoping to make it into the deep cover of the jungle. Topanar still had about ten men left, and there was no chance they were going to make it out of there if the reinforcements made it there in time. Topanar’s men were coming more slowly and carefully, wondering how Jesse and Kimi were still standing with all the hits they had taken.