by Max Jager
"I suppose you or one of your thugs worked him over pretty good?"
"Actually…No Aeljac, he's doing quite nicely after he and his friends attacked us, unfortunately, he's the only one left. I want to exchange him for some information, plus I'll pass some along to you which may not have reached clear out here."
"Wait one…" Replied Alejac, then the screen went blank. Matt took the time to ask Brand,
"Is that guy related to Agrat?" Brand looked at him and nodded,
"Agrat was his cousin, why?" Matt grimaced,
"I'm surprised you didn't hear, I shot him." Now it was Brand's turn to make a face.
"Get out of sight of the scanner right now, don't let Alejac see you." Moments later, Alejac appeared on the screen again.
"What sort of information are you after bounty hunter?"
"I'm looking for the whereabouts of Malhazar gun ship, I've been contracted to recover the crew and return any that still may be alive."
"And you think we may have them eh?"
"That thought has entered my mind…Well do you?
"I take it there's a reward being offered?" replied Slyr.
"There is, but don't get any bright ideas, the Malhazar's would consider it ransom money and simply attack you. The only contract they will pay on is the one I made with them. Oh, about that information I promised, and this is the honest truth because I was there." Right now, the destruction of Bline-Aichel is being treated as an attack on Ruddorian territory, since it would appear they never officially sold it. Naturally everyone is trying to avoid war and as a result, the Ruddorians were willing to give Z'ha'Dum to you raiders. But as was pointed out, there may still be people living there."
"That doesn't concern us," replied Aeljac, besides any fool knows the place is heavily polluted, why would we want a place like that?"
"Well that's what was pointed out Aeljac," said Brand. "A new proposal was submitted, forcing the Malhazar's to give up Ozius in payment for destroying Bline-Aichel."
"I've never heard of this place," said Alejac, "What is it, another polluted mining planet?"
"All I know is that it was a mining planet, but an arbitration committee has to settle this whole business first," said Brand, "That's basically where we stand at the moment, it's all up to the Malhazars now."
"Well we haven't heard any news of that nature way out here. All of us were…Elsewhere, when those Malhazar "peiga's" destroyed our home. We've since found a new one, and we like it. So Mr. bounty hunter, just stay where you are, and we will come for our friend. Oh, don't be stupid, and try to attack us I'm afraid you will be outgunned."
"Look," said Brand, "I've got no warrants on any of you at the preset time, I'm just trying to do the right thing and return one of your people instead of turning him over to the Ruddorian's. If you say you don't have that ship or it's crew I have to take your word. As soon as we make the transfer, we'll be out of here."
"Just remain where you are," replied Alejac.
While they waited, Matt asked Brand and Rekton,
"Was it just me or did you get the feeling that guy didn't seem all that mad that the Malhazar's destroyed his home and killed all his family and friends?"
"Don't ever judge the Vel'Takz on their outward appearance or indifference to something. They will smile as they stick a knife into you. I've had dealings with Alejac before, and even though he's a Vel'Takz, and a raider, I've always been fair with him. I…"
"Raider ships approaching!" Announced Malvak, ten coming in off our left, eight off the right."
"We'll all stay calm, Matt, go find a nice hiding spot in the engine room. I don't know if Slyr has any information concerning who actually killed his cousin, but let's just not take any chances."
The fleet of raider ships surrounded their ship with one starting to move towards them. Suddenly Slyr's face appeared on the scanner screen.
"Just remain where you are bounty hunter, I'm coming aboard." The raider ship moved up close, then extended a short tube towards their air lock hatch. Brand instructed Doak and Ifwol to bring the injured raider up to the flight deck on a stretcher. Once the extension from the raider ship had connected, and the chamber filled with oxygen the raiders opened the outer hatch and entered.
Alejac Slyr, along with four of his raiders stepped through coming face to face with Brand and Rekton.
Alejac glared at them then bent down to examine Conjac,
"Were you mistreated Vassik?" He asked.
"No, not really, they treated my wounds and fed me. Did you know the Ruddorian's are talking about giving us a new home?" As the raiders lifted Vassik to carry him into the raider ship, Alejac called to him.
"I didn't know until just recently." Then turning to Brand he added.
"Now that you've returned Vassik, there's no more reason for you to remain, we will give you an escort out of this quadrant."
"Not so fast," said Brand. "We've already checked all the other planets in this quadrant, except Keltrin 7 which you say you hold no Malhazar's. I'll take your word on that, however, there is still Tumar-Ju, and I intend to check it out." Alejac laughed,
"That place is nothing but a death world, if by chance those peiga's managed to make it there they are most certainly dead now."
"I intend to be the judge of that," replied Brand. "Have you by any chance visited there recently?"
"No," replied Alejac, "our ships are forbidden to go there."
"Well We intend to check it out," replied Brand. Alejac glared at him, "Even though travel is forbidden to that god-cursed planet we still claim it. However for you I will make an exception only because we can use your ship. I will give you four cycles to locate these Malhazar's. if you're not leaving this quadrant at the end of that time, we will shoot. More likely, it will be a matter of me claiming your ship for my own. Time is ticking away my friend, better get going. And remember, there will be no extensions, if you're not out of there in four cycles…" The raiders quickly departed leaving Brand with a problem.
"Four cycles isn't a lot of time to cover a whole planet," he observed.
"We can only hope they didn't crash in some obscure location," added Aesil,
"There's always the possibility they still had control over their ship, and landed in a hidden area," observed Rekton.
"That thought has occurred to me as well," replied Brand, "However, let's assume for a moment they were able to make a proper landing of their own choosing. First of all , if the ship is repairable they are going to have to find a place offering concealment as well as a location that will allow them to take off again or at the very least a place for another craft to land. I'm seriously hoping that isn't the case because if they've done this we're liable to spend all out time trying to find them."
It took a full cycle to reach Tumar-Ju the ship's long range scanners reaching out at maximum power. Matt was asleep when Rekton announced that they were approaching Tumar-Ju. The planet reminded Matt of a smaller earth, close enough to a sun to provide conditions for life to thrive. It was hard to tell what sort of landforms existed, as there seemed to be a heavy cloud cover dominating the planet.
"It would appear that we have a rather tumultuous planetary environment awaiting us," announced Malvak. The scanner had now picked out the continental outlines with one major one as well as a smaller one on the opposite side of the planet. The scanner also detailed what appeared to be a longitudinal shelf running the whole western side of the major land mass creating a channel between the two.
"I'm going to take a chance," said Brand, "And start our search over the smaller continent. Just a hunch, but if I still had control over my ship that's where I'd head." As they moved into a low orbit over the smaller land mass the scanner was able to reveal more detail as the northwestern part of the continent appeared to be a large archipelago of hundreds of small islands reminding Matt of a jig saw puzzle with the pieces not yet connected. As they dropped through the atmosphere and heavy cloud layer, it quickly became clear they had droppe
d into a very nasty storm.
"Well well, what do we have here?" Wondered Rekton, "This doesn't look good."
Indeed it didn't, the sky was black lightening strikes flashing all around them, and the rain appeared to be quite heavy. Below them was nothing but rain forest for as far as they could see, it was like cruising over the Amazon.
"Looks like we have a river coming up," exclaimed Brand, almost immediately the scanner began to alert them to wreckage.
Turning north and following the river the site of the wreckage began to flash on the screen.
"Taking us down, half speed," announced Brand as Rekton began to enhance the crash site.
"Looks like they came in fast, probably trying to glide," speculated Brand, "but as we know, most spacecraft don't glide worth a damn." Now the scanner was highlighting the path of scattered wreckage, downed trees along the river bank.
"She was really starting to break up," observed Rekton, "Look at that path of wreckage, what a mess! Look there, that object lying in that little inlet appears to be a thruster with part of the nacelle still attached."
"We're still getting a reading, but where did the craft go?" Wondered Brand, "I don't see it." Rekton then pointed to where a smaller stream fed into the main river.
"There! They must have skidded across that small island and driven up into the forest , look at all those downed trees, let's get right over them." As they came down even lower, the river appeared to be moving very quickly and appeared white from the amount of rain hitting it. Now they were hovering right over where the torn up trail of downed trees, and scattered pieces of the gun ship had indicated the ship had ended up.
"Those gun ships are built like dreadnaughts," commented Brand, "I'm willing to bet the hull has maintained integrity and is under that canopy." Rekton began to fiddle with the scanner adjustments trying to get a better picture of what was below them as Brand fought with the ship's controls.
"I'm going to have to land," he growled, we're getting knocked around by the wind and rain."
"I don't see anyplace close enough to…Hold on!" Exclaimed Rekton, "How about there, just on the other side of that stream where they slid across. It means we're going to have to cross that stream but the ground has been swept clean by the gun ship."
""Looks like just enough room to land with a little to spare," replied Brand. "All right, I'm setting down right now here we go!"
As they landed everybody could see the wind whipping the water the sky still black, and indications of lightening behind the clouds.
"Listen up everyone!" Announced Brand.
"This is going to be a full team effort, Ifwol you and Matt grab the medical aid gear, Doak, get the flex cable. Oh, and Matt, I want you to bring that shotgun of yours as well. Jezang, bring that rapid fire…"
"You mean the RPD," exclaimed Matt.
"Yes, that's the one," said Brand, "I want you in front with Aesil." He then spoke to Malvak,
"Did you pick up any indications of animal life? I can't believe a place like this wouldn't have some sort of indigenous animal life running around."
"There appeared to be signs of animal life in the river, however I'm not reading any signs in our general location," replied the AI.
"Well stay sharp, and alert us the moment you pick anything up," said Brand. "Well people, let's get going, Malvak, security level blue but be ready to drop that ramp at a moment's notice." Matt made sure he was loaded up with slugs and ought buck as he fell in towards the rear with Ifwol and Doak. He also thought it curious that Brand would put his wife out on point until he saw the wicked looking weapon she was carrying. She was wearing some sort of back pack with two hoses coming out of it into what looked like a flame thrower,
"She's carrying a "needler" replied Doak, it's Aesil's weapon of choice, that's why Brand put her up front. Those things not only neutralize any threat we might encounter, but can clear a quick path through any sort of heavy growth."
As they filed down the ramp everybody became immediately soaked. Although he wore a Gore-Tex rain coat the wind had whipped the rain down his back and seemingly up from the ground. Even though the temperature was around 21 degrees Celsius the wind was keeping the air temperature cool making him cold and very wet in minutes. Now that they were outside the ship, the crash of thunder also made itself known. Doak then moved forward with the Golian equivalent of rope. As he secured one end to a tree everybody formed a perimeter as he waded across the swollen stream which came up to his waist. Matt watched as Doak moved quickly through the water securing the other end of the flex cable to another tree. Everybody wore a tether cable around their waists which they now hooked to the main cable.
As he entered the water, Matt couldn't have been more miserable. Soaked to the skin, the rain beating at his face and drumming on his helmet he pulled himself along on the cable. Just as he stepped up on the opposite bank Ifwol shouted.
"Matt! Behind you!" He quickly turned to face what looked like some sort of strange eel with legs rising up out of the stream. Falling backwards with his tether cable restraining him Matt fired four shots into the strange creature. The combination of buckshot and slugs literally tore it to pieces. He didn't wait around to examine the creature as he quickly unhooked his tether, and scrambled over to the others. Welcome to Tumar-Ju.
Chapter 81
Titan Stand Chapter 81
As he stumbled over to his friends Matt thought,
"So this place is going to be one of those kind of planets, another Ussen Ommo, only wetter."
"What the Hell was that?" He gasped.
"Looked like some sort of sea slug," said Rekton.
"It was a "Proja," said Jezang, "They will strip you to the bone in an instant. I saw some on Ryless 6 once." He was just about to ask about any other potential threats when suddenly Rekton whirled and fired a quick burst of his AK74 towards the ground off to their right. At first Matt didn't realize what he was shooting at until what looked like a demented looking ladybug about the size of a volley ball popped out, but it was clearly dead.
"Now I have no idea what that was!" Exclaimed Rekton.
"Let's not stick around," replied Brand, "There might be more."
The group quickly move forward following the trail of jagged stumps, and ripped up brush. The gun ship had bladed a wide path through the forest much as a bulldozer would have, however as they cautiously proceeded up the trail Matt noticed that the ground was already covered with new growth. Pointing this out to Brand, he was told.
"Quite common really, even though they no doubt came down here just a few gleem's ago, in three more, this trail will be completely overgrown." Matt kept a very alert eye on the ground in front of them lest any weird bugs came popping out of the ground in front of them. Then suddenly Malvak's voice came over everyone's comm units in their helmets.
"What appears to be four large life forms rapidly moving in on your right, they appear to be animal's of some kind."
No one needed to be told twice as they all went on full alert. Almost immediately Aesil, then Jezang opened up. Aesil's needle gun tearing through the forest like a horizontal swath of angry hornets, while Jezang fired off short bursts from her RPD light machine gun into the dense growth. Their attack brought forth the sound of shrieks and anguished pain. Whatever was dying in there was crashing around as the sound of limbs breaking and small trees cracking could be heard as well.
By now everyone was blasting away into the foliage when suddenly something big and brown broke through the greenery. Matt's first thought was of a man with a bears head. One thing for sure it was ugly as sin and pissed as hell. He pumped his last three rounds into the creature knocking it back but not stopping it. Both Brand, and Rekton dumped full bursts into it practically tearing it's head off. The "man-bear" crashed to the ground in a final groan now thoroughly dead.
"Stay where you are!" Exclaimed Brand, "There might be more." He then checked with Malvak who reported nothing else in their vicinity.
Da fuc
k!" Exclaimed Matt. "What is this place? The land that time forgot or something."
Jezang carefully approached the dead beast cautiously poking it with the muzzle of her RPD. Matt then watched her remove her knife and use it to remove some brain matter from what was left of it's head. She then cut off a tiny piece and place it on her tongue. He thought she was going to eat it but merely stood there as if thinking about something. She then spit out the tissue looking very grim.
"Brand, we've got a problem here…A very big problem."
"As if we didn't already have our share," he replied, "Now what is it?"
"Do you remember about twelve yeans ago the Khufrian's were accused of manipulating genetics?" Brand nodded,
"A lot of heads rolled both literally and figuratively on that one, why?"