Blaster fire erupted in the middle of the night. Piercing screeches followed, not more than a mile away from the colony. The blaster fire was relentless, a suppressive wave meant to keep an enemy at bay. Two men screamed, then three. Screams of agony triggered another volley of blaster fire. Sulture looked in panic at Katrina as she held Joey who was sleeping in her arms. The screeches echoed across the valley until a blanket of eerie quiet descended on the colony.
A man howled through the darkness. “HELP! HELP! MY DAUGHTER!”
“That scream came from only a few tents away!” Sulture whispered as he scrambled out of the cot. He threw on a set of clothes while Katrina begged him with her eyes to stay.
“Stay with Joey. I’ll go help.” Sulture whispered. Katrina nodded, and clutched Joey tight.
Sulture ran out of the hut, and locked the doors behind him. He followed the crowd which had already gathered around the sobbing man who was on his knees.
It was Adar Toub.
Toub was disheveled, in his pajamas and looked hysterically around him. “Why is nobody helping? My daughter! They took my daughter!” He screamed.
As he wept, the military wheeled in. Griffin stepped out from the roader and lead his men through the crowd.
“Who took your daughter sir?” Griffin asked, almost sounding annoyed.
“It was some kind of alien!” Toub screamed.
Murph and Sulture looked at each other. A murmur spread through the crowd, everyone wondering of what the military was battling tonight.
“Rest assured everyone we had some local wildlife trying to breach the perimeter, but nothing got through.” Griffin said, trying to calm the crowd.
“Bullshit! An alien took my daughter! It went that way!” Toub pointed to the East, whereas Griffin and his men came from the West. The murmurs grew louder.
Griffin seemed baffled for a moment, then Sulture stepped in. “The alien, what did it look like?” He asked.
Griffin turned and stared daggers at Sulture, who ignored the glare.
“Its head was shaped like a shovel. Two arms and one leg. It ripped the lock right off my door, came in, threw me at the wall and ran off with my daughter!”
“I heard something rip off the lock!” A voice from the crowd shouted.
“I heard the little girl screaming!” Another voice from the crowd.
“Please Griffin, save my daughter! What are you waiting for?” Toub implored.
“We cannot leave this camp. Colony protocol states that the military must not cross the perimeter at night.”
“Please! Please! My little girl!” Toub begged as he crawled up to Griffin.
“Stay back!” a soldier erupted, knocking Toub to the ground with the butt of his rifle. Toub covered his head, while blood flowed from his wound.
“Easy soldier,” Griffin said. “We will look for your daughter tomorrow morning. We cannot leave at night.” Griffin turned away.
“Aren’t you supposed to protect us? What about my daughter? With a small search party, you may be able to find her!” Toub pleaded while on the ground.
Now Griffin was irritated. “Arrest this man!” He shouted.
Sulture was outraged. “For what? The man just wants to find his little girl!”
“Insubordination. Care to join him?” Griffin said as he puffed himself up. His soldiers were tense - they’d lost men but were doing their best to keep straight faces. Sulture backed down, the adrenaline for a fight surging in his veins. Fear overcame him and a growing resentment of Griffin settled in.
“That’s what I thought,” Griffin snarled.
Sulture clenched his fists. He wanted to strike Griffin down and put him in his place.
No. He couldn’t do that to Katrina and Joey. There were counting on him staying free to support them.
Murph put his hand on Sulture’s shoulder. “We’ll help him. Not now, but we’ll help. We’ll find a way to save that little girl.” Murph’s confidence calmed him down. He was right. This was a time to be patient and develop a rational plan to save Toub’s daughter.
“All right, disperse!” Griffin yelled. The crowd went back to their tents, while Toub was dragged off by soldiers.
“Can you track?” Murph asked Sulture as they walked back to their tents.
“No. You?”
“Yeah. Let’s see what we can find without the crowd. I’ll be back in five minutes.”
Sulture went back into his tent. Joey was sleeping soundly and Katrina held him close.
“Is everything alright?” Katrina asked.
“An alien kidnapped Erica, Toub’s daughter. Murph and I are going to see if we can track it.”
“An alien?!” Katrina gasped. She squeezed Joey closer.
Sulture knew he slipped up. There was no point in hiding the truth from Katrina. “Yes. Barricade the door and don’t let anyone in except me.”
“Adam, can’t the military handle this? You’ve never dealt with aliens.” Katrina said as she struggled to keep her tears at bay.
Sulture went up to his wife and cupped her face in his hands. “I want to help. Toub begged for someone to help him and I could only imagine how I would’ve reacted if Joey was taken.”
“Okay,” Katrina said. “Be careful.”
“I will.” Sulture held Katrina close, gave her a deep kiss and then walked outside. Murph was waiting with a pair of flashlights. Sulture locked the door, hoping Katrina would stay safe.
The two men started at Toub’s hut, where the kidnapping took place. Beneath the flashlights, Murph noticed three-toed footprints left behind despite the trampled grass from the crowd. Murph followed the tracks out of the encampment, into longer grass. The soil was moist…but the footprints were at least three metres apart each time.
“Our alien friends are leapers,” Murph said. “Just like you hypothesized. Good work Adam.”
“Yeah, they’d have to be with only one hind leg. Where’d you learn to track?” Sulture asked.
“I’m a country doctor. Comes with the title,” Murph replied.
The two men approached the perimeter fence, the lights shined down on the wet grass, and the low hum indicated the fence was active.
“Bastard jumped right over,” Murph said as he pointed at the final set of prints pressed deep into the dirt.
The fence was split into three electrical line segments. While it appeared one could crawl underneath or in between the segments, the electrical current would catch anything that tried to go through.
The light from the flashlights caught the attention of two guards, who came running up to Sulture and Murph.
“Colony police. What are you two doing near the perimeter this late past curfew?” A red-haired policemen asked.
“No sense in lying to them.” Murph whispered. “We’re out here tracking the kidnapped little girl.”
“The military his handling this matter. Go back to your quarters.” The blond-haired man ordered.
“Griffin said colony protocol dictates that the military cannot leave the perimeter after dark.” Sulture said in a hollow voice while he gave an icy glare.
The two soldiers shared a confused look.
“So there is no protocol about soldiers going past the perimeter after dark?!” Sulture accused, unable to contain his outrage.
“Look sir, we lost several guys tonight. Griffin didn’t want to risk any more of us,” The red-haired soldier replied.
Murph stepped in. “Seems like you two would love to get a little revenge against these aliens. Why not see where they’re hiding?”
“Yes, we can learn their behavior in their natural environment,” Sulture said. “We can observe them and use what we find against them.”
The two soldiers looked at each other and were almost convinced.
“What do you think O’Malley?” The blond soldier asked.
“I think Griffin would lock us up for disobeying orders Erikson. He has a reputation,” O’Malley replied.
“A reputation f
or what? Being a dictator?” Sulture snapped.
“A hot head,” O’Malley replied. “There’s a reason why he’s a Sergeant in control of a colony. He was demoted and is pissed about it. He gets…overzealous with colonial locals, and locks up anyone who doesn’t do things his way.”
“We’ve already seen that happen,” Sulture hissed.
“As we said, we’ve already lost several men tonight,” Erikson said.
“How many did you lose?” Murph asked.
“Ten,” He replied in a defeated voice.
“That information is for military personnel only!” O’Malley hissed through gritted teeth.
“0.01 percent in one night isn’t a massacre,” Murph said. “However, I can see that you two are smart, resourceful men. If you help us, we’ll help you. Doesn’t colonial protocol contain a militia clause where you can draft civilians if necessary?” He asked.
“We never hope to use a colonial draft, but yes it exists,” Erikson confessed.
“Then tell Griffin you drafted us and we can try to find that little girl. Tell Griffin you saw one of the aliens on the edge of the perimeter here carrying the girl and you needed to pursue. You also happened across two men on their way back to camp and desperately needed their help.” Murph was going for broke. Sulture was impressed by his silver tongue.
The two soldiers looked at each other. “It would be nice to get a few of the bastards…” Erikson said.
“And it’s not breaking protocol if we were in imminent danger…” O’Malley added. “Fine. We’ll open the fence. But if we need to pull back, we do so. No questions, no arguments,” He said.
“Done,” Sulture replied, and offered his hand for a handshake. “I’m Dr. Adam Sulture.”
Erikson shook Sulture’s hand. “Fred Erikson.”
Murph shook O’Malley’s hand. “Murph McGinnis.”
“Another Irishman? Tom O’Malley,” He chuckled.
“Can we go now?” Sulture asked.
Erikson tapped on a small remote located on his chest plate. A quiet beep signaled that the fence was down.
“We have 15 seconds,” Erikson said.
Sulture sprinted past the perimeter fence, while the others followed behind. Murph saw where the alien had landed, but the footprints had ceased. The alien got into the trees.
All four of the men stood dumbfounded. Erikson and O’Malley drew their pistols and offered one to Sulture and Murph.
“Ever use one of these?” Erikson whispered. Sulture took the handgun, cocked it and nodded his head.
Murph took a gun from O’Malley, but seemed shaky handling the weapon.
O’Malley signaled everyone into a huddle. “Okay, we all know what these freaks sound like. They’ll leap from tree to tree and will attack in a dive bomb against you. They will rip your limbs off without hesitation. Shoot to kill because they’re hostile.”
Sulture hoped to understand the habits of these creatures so that he could get a sense of their motives.
The four men marched in silence, O’Malley and Erikson in the lead while Sulture and Murph brought up the rear. A light mist snaked along the ground, and the jungle was pitch black. The lights from the colony were long gone, and the forest came alive with noise. Erikson stopped, and pointed out a robe on the ground. They stopped for inspection and discovered blood was on the inside of the small, pink robe.
“Sons-a bitches” Erikson whispered. Sulture used his flashlight to look around the area, trying to spot something, anything. Another 30 metres ahead was a child’s slipper.
“Guys! Up ahead,” Sulture whispered.
The four men moved forward to check it out. There was blood on the ground next to the slipper. An ominous grip tightened around all of the men’s stomachs.
Sulture noticed something else less than ten metres ahead. It was some kind of device standing on three legs. Atop of the tripod was a container and gears made of wood. There were stones inside for grinding and what looked like the remains of a native fruit pod. Looking in the trees, Sulture saw that there were several simple machines along trees using gears, pulleys, and ropes - an intricate machine system made with nothing but wood, stones and vines! This native species was indeed sapient!
Just ahead of him, Sulture noticed movement. It was a little pod wriggling on the side of a tree. When he shined his light on the pod, it appeared to be a transparent, gray color. Wriggling inside was an alien just like what he had dissected earlier in its infancy. The infant recoiled as he flashed his light on its eye inside the pod. As he shined his light along the trees, Sulture saw more pods...thousands more all attached to trees deeper within the jungle.
Sulture gasped, and was at a loss for words.
The other four looked towards his flashlight and stared in awe at the thousands of pods all over the jungle.
“Drip.” Murph heard the noise first.
“Drip.” Murph flashed his light to the left. The others turned to him.
“What is it Murph?” Erikson asked.
“I hear something…dripping.”
“Well with this mist and humidity in the air that shouldn’t be a surprise,” O’Malley replied.
“No, it’s something else…” Murph said as he ran off.
A few metres away Murph saw a crimson puddle at the base of a tree. He looked up the tree and vomited. The other men rushed over.
The three men stared in disbelief, mouths agape and recoiled in horror from the tree.
Erica’s body was pinned through the chest ten metres high on the massive tree, blood dripping which formed the crimson puddle Murph discovered. Her skin on her chest was gone, the muscles on her arms and legs were torn out and thrown in all directions. The surrounding trees clutched to the gore that had landed on them, greedy for the foreign flesh.
“This…this…” O’Malley stumbled.
“It’s a ward,” Sulture said. “The aliens are telling us we’re not welcome here.”
Murph noticed movement out of the corner of his eye. It was an alien climbing down, a piece of human flesh in its maw. The alien saw him, dropped the flesh and prepared to pounce. He froze but couldn’t stop shaking.
“Murph shoot it!” O’Malley ordered.
The alien opened its mouth and unleashed a piercing screech. It felt as though nails were being driven into the eardrums of the men, which stunned them and caused a splitting headache. Murph stumbled back, hands on his ears right as the alien prepared to pounce.
Sulture pushed past the pain, and raised his pistol at the creature. The alien didn’t notice him. The other three men tried to recover from the sonic blast.
The alien leaped at Murph, but Sulture shot it right through the head in mid leap. The blaster bolt ripped through the creature’s skull as it slammed into Murph, who was shaken out of his stupor as he hit the ground. Two lidless, black eyes stared at him, which scared him back to his feet. The commotion caused the trees to come to life, a voracious rattling on all sides. The branches echoed with low level screeching and clicking.
“They’re communicating with each other…they may even be coordinating an attack!” Sulture said as he looked around the trees. “We need to get out of here…NOW!”
O’Malley, Erikson and Sulture grabbed Murph and sprinted back for the colony. The rustling in the trees became a thunderclap as the aliens darted from limb to limb overhead. The men were losing the race. An alien dropped to the ground in front, but Erikson shot it. The men kept moving as sweat poured down their faces. Their limbs were heavy and it was impossible to catch their breath with the air being as thick as clay.
Sulture felt his lungs burn as they raced through the jungle. Aliens leaped from the trees in erratic patterns, attempting to capture the intruders, but the men fired back.
After having sprinted for ten exhaustive minutes, the men made it back to the perimeter fence. Erikson keyed in the access code, and the fence went down just in time for them to cross. O’Malley dropped Murph and reactivated the fence while the other
s kept moving. He turned around and one of the aliens landed right in front of him. Others got rebuffed or fried by the electrical field. O'Malley didn’t waste time. He drew his pistol and shot the alien, which wounded the beast, and he left it in the field to die.
Sulture felt waves of guilt wash over him for his desire to re-enter the jungle and conduct more research on the aliens. He knew a biologist’s job was to study life, not destroy it. However, he knew better than to let his scientific curiosity get in the way of O’Malley and Erikson’s trigger fingers.
Two more leapers cleared the fence and landed in front of Sulture and Erikson. They prowled towards the men, itching to strike. A third alien landed. However this alien attacked the one on the right. The intruder snapped the creature’s neck and tore off an arm. The second alien attacked the intruder, each wrestling the other to the death. Erikson and O’Malley took advantage and shot both aliens.
“Take that you miserable Tritops,” Erikson grunted.
Everyone gasped for air, desperate to catch their breath through the humidity.
“Guys, will you help bring these to the lab?” Sulture asked. “I need to run some tests.”
“Yeah? What kind of tests?” O’Malley replied.
“Well for one, why did the third one here attack the others?”
“Who cares? It stopped those two bastards from mauling us,” Erikson said.
“Something’s not right. Those…Tritops were coordinating an attack in there. This one here didn’t just go rogue,” Sulture said as he pointed at the intruder. “Tritops. Catchy name. Mind if I steal it Erikson?”
“Go for it.”
The jungle erupted in screeches as the men watched the trees rustle and listen to branches snap. More screeches pierced the night.
“What’s going on in there?” O’Malley asked.
“The Tritops coordinate attacks like pack animals. When one intrudes on the territory of another, they will attack him on sight,” Sulture explained.
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