by Ross Buzzell
“Does anyone else see that?”
Konner allows his sight to travel from the beautiful plant to something sitting next to it. The creature is no taller than the piece of greenery it sits next to. Its skin is splotchy brown with almost no hair on it. The creature sniffs the air and rises to its spindly legs that look as if they would snap under any significant weight. Slowly it drops its arms revealing the same build but at the end of the arms are three fingers with razor sharp claws. Konner gradually reaches for his weapon as the rest of the team raises theirs. The creature turns to face the team revealing a hideous form. Its skin sags loosely around its body save for around the arms and legs. Its eyes are glassed over and as black as the depths of space. Sharp quills protrude from the brow line in an agonizing appearance with a mouth full of spiked razor sharp teeth that protrude from its saliva ridden gums. A cold chill runs down Konner’s spine as the creature just stands there, staring at them, Konner calls out quietly to his team.
“That is a Malanara. Acquire target and keep an eye out. This is probably a trap.”
The four team members raise their guns and take aim at the creature whose every breath seems like a burden to take. The tension begins to mount as Konner and his team awaits an inevitable attack. Not knowing if the creature sees them or if it only assumes their location. It just stands there and stares. After what feels like an eternity its blackened eyes widen beyond what appears to be anatomically possible. Its jaw seems to unhinge releasing a blood curdling scream as it charges Konner and his team. The team opens fire and kills the beast before it makes it half way to the OWS and silence falls on the forest. Not knowing what to make of it, everyone looks at each other in minor confusion. Then soft rustling breaks the silence. Soon more rustling, the sound builds until the wave, of what is now clearly the trap being sprung, fills the forest.
“MOVE OUT!”
Konner yells, in an instant everyone slings their weapons over their shoulders and sprints to the plant before them. Konner activates his weapon in the form of a small dagger. Sliding up to the plant, his team makes a circle around him and begins to fire into the forest as hundreds of the little monsters begin to swarm the clearing. In one swift gesture, Konner cuts the sweet smelling flower from the plant itself and holds it up to Bara who has a containment device for the plant. She places the flower into a cylindrical container and attaches it to her waist. A loud rumble echoes over the sounds of the deafening screams of the Malanara; Konner looks up to see a boulder flying through the air at him and his team. Leaping into action, Konner throws his hands out creating a barrier that stops the boulder causing it to shatter on impact and rain down atop the monsters that are closing in.
“Single file, I’ll cut us a path!”
Konner turns the small blade into a long straight blade as his team falls into line behind him. They are trying to keep the ever growing tide of beasts at bay through a barrage of solar fire and beginning to fail. As the Malanara close in, Konner begins to sprint into the woods, the OWS following suit. He swings his blade at the creatures carving a path through them, and the black ooze that is their blood. Konner hears a loud scream and turns to see Disa’ani on the ground with one of the beasts on top of him, its teeth sunk into his arm. Konner turns his blade into a bow and fires a blue energy arrow directly into the Malanara’s skull, killing it immediately. Disa is helped up as Konner gets back to his team. He looks around and realizes exactly how outnumbered they are. An idea pops into Konner’s mind. He quickly presses a few glyphs on his bracer and opening his hand he forms a shield around his team protecting them. Bara gives Konner a look of concern.
“Konner what are you doing?”
“Disa has been bitten! Get him to the ship; we are almost there. I will buy you some time!”
Without another word Konner turns and runs into the forest. He could hear his team screaming for him to come back, even over the roar of the Malanara and the sizzling of their flesh against his shield. After a few moments, all Konner hears is the ocean of monsters fast approaching him. Konner glances over his shoulder to see his team in the distance, no longer being attacked as he had successfully drawn them off. Looking back forward Konner notices sunlight peeking through the trees. He glances skyward to see some of the pillars of the forest have been hewn down violently and it has been recent. Figuring whatever caused that would be larger and more of a threat, Konner figured he could use it to draw the Malanara off of him. The terrane begins to grow rockier as the radius of the tree damage increases. The sound of the impending doom behind him suddenly stops; Konner turns around to see what he would assume is the entire force of the Malanara standing on the edge of what is now a massive clearing. Slowly they begin to back off and flee into the woods. A smile forms on Konner’s face. As he takes a few steps back, he slips on something wet which causes him to fall to the ground. His vision settles on a being with greyish skin, a strong brow, no hair and two nasty looking tusks protruding from its lower jaw. From the clothes that it was wearing, which were shredded to ribbons along with the one wearing them, Konner could tell he was some sort of pilot.
Konner turns around to see a ship about twice the size of the combat ship he rode in on, crashed and destroyed beyond repair into the base of the mountain on which he now stood. As the shock wears off, Konner notices that the ground is littered with the bodies of the same species, men and women. Both looked rather similar, only one was slightly larger than the other. Konner approaches the ship. It was of a design he had never seen before. Slowly Konner holds his bracer up. A blue light flashes over the wreckage and the deceased beings around him.
“Species is not found in Boronian data base, through the shared knowledge of our allies indicating that they are not from this side of the galaxy. Two sets of alien DNA are scattered through the ship yet only one species is present, all of whom are deceased.”
Konner places his hand against his throat as he activates the communication link that has been routed through Disa’anis spears.
“Report, have you gotten to extraction.”
Bara’s voice comes over the radio with a sound of relief.
“Thank the Creator you are safe. Yes we are in the ship now and Disa is stable. Where are you?”
“I am not sure but I just came across a ship that was taken down by the dead zone. The Malanara have backed off my location. See how close I am to the edge of the dead zone.”
The radio goes silent for a bit as Konner begins to approach the ship pensively. His bracer doing continuous scans as his fingers are wrapped tightly around his weapon prepared for anything. He enters the dark ship and begins to walk through the ruined corridors. Cables hang from the ceiling sparking as they sway back and forth indicating the crash did not happen very long ago. Konner looks around in adoration of the elegant design of the ship; it was easily superior to his own. The radio crackles back to life.
“It looks like you are pinned between the mountain and the Malanara. There is no way you can safely get out from your current location… that being said, Ja seems to think that she can lower a cable to you from above the dead zone. Since you are close enough to the edge, it has a significantly lower ceiling.”
Konner slowly approaches a monitor that is flickering. He places his hand on it and it automatically begins to download the information into Konner’s bracer. He hesitates a minute but then stops himself from removing his hand as he sees the words ‘Sol 3’ flash across the screen. Konner places his hand on his throat and calls out to his team once more.
“Then that is what we will do, I have come across a downed ship. There are a bunch of dead bodies all over the place but no sign as to what did it to them. So be careful. I am downloading their data base then I will meet you outside.”
As the download reaches 100% Konner’s bracer pings.
“This species has extensive knowledge of Sol 3, using algorithm to translate through Sol 3 languages… Translation complete. This is a Trigzell ship, a technologically hyper advanced species m
ade possible through direct communication mind to mind. They are masters of what is known as the ‘God Particle’ harnessing its considerable energy to power their technology. Records show there was a stow away on board, something alien they picked up on an asteroid while mining. Records show that it got out midflight. The crashhappened not long after.”
A soft roar catches Konner’s attention. It echoes throughout the ship from outside. Konner kneels down, opens up the front of the console and pulls a yellow glowing power source from the console causing it to go black. Clipping the power source to his belt through magnetic attraction; Konner forms a shield before him and a spear with a tip peeking just past the shield in case of an attack. The roaring gets louder but it sounds different, as if in pain. Konner looks out to see something white moving in the bushes with red smeared all over its white canvas.
Quickly the shield goes down and the spear retracts back into the hilt as Konner runs toward the beast. Moving the fauna out of the way, Konner sees a beautiful white dragon laying before him roaring in agony. Konner slowly scans the dragon and notices one of its wings is snapped backward, the other is missing entirely and there are deep gashes all over its hide-like flesh. Gently Konner moves to the dragons head. The beautiful beast flinches in fear for a brief moment until Konner makes eye contact with its golden cat-like hues. Gently Konner holds its snout and caresses behind its scaled ear. She moves her body. It takes everything she has but she reveals a nest beneath her with half a dozen eggs inside and all but one are ripped open. The beast struggles but gently takes the last intact egg into her mouth and places it into Konner’s arms. Having experienced these magnificent beasts, Konner’s heart feels as if it is being ripped from his chest as this mother dragon slowly entrusts her most precious gift to him, the one thing that she willingly took the abuse for before collapsing to the ground and dying.
Konner’s eyes mist up a bit at the sight of this magnificent creature’s sacrifice. He shakes from the heart break as the thought sinks in on him that she would not have lasted long in that condition meaning whatever caused it was still around. Konner moves back to the clearing, precious cargo in hand, and calls back out on the comms.
“Guys, I’m not alone down here. There is something else that came on the ship. The data has no idea what it is, but it just killed a white dragon like it was nothing.”
Ja’sanfur’s voice comes back in response.
“Konner be careful. White dragons are one the most powerful creatures that we’ve come across. If it killed one of those, it may be better to try your luck with the Malanara.”
Almost before Ja could finish her sentence a stench begins to fill the air, something rancid; Konner had never smelled its equal before. If he had to put a name on it, he would say it is the smell of death itself. The sound of loud, guttural breathing causes Konner to slowly, pensively turn around to see the source of all this carnage, the reason the Malanara would not enter the clearing; directly across from the prince stands a beast that is twice Konner’s height on its hind legs. Its skin is armored with thick, grey scales that have scorch marks from both dragon fire and weapons fire and not a single scratch on its skin. The beast’s massive feet have three tick toes with a razor sharp claw on each, the middle being the longest. It is extremely muscular form is supported by a powerful tail that is just as armored, and arms that look like they could rip the wings off a dragon without the aid of the matching claw set at the tip of each of the four fingers. The monster glairs at Konner with crimson eyes from behind a brooding, armor plated brow. Its horns hook downwards and forward clearly to make something like a charge a lethal attack. Every inch of its muscular scaled body permeates rage and hate with the blood of its victims spattered all over its feet, hands, tail and skull. Its lips curl upward allowing for a deep snarl that sends ice into Konner’s veins, revealing sharp, jagged teeth from which there would be no escape.
Konner stands, frozen, trying to decide what to do as the tense stare-off continues. The beast twitches forward slightly and in a knee jerk reaction, Konner flings an energy spear at the monsters head. The spear shatters on impact doing no damage at all. The beast then charges at Konner with a speed that something that size should not have. In the blink of an eye it is on top of Konner who rolls out of the way barely dodging its attack. Konner throws a few more energy spears at different parts of the body, all of which shatter showing that it has no true weak points. Now it turns into an evasion game. It strikes at the Warrior Prince; he dodges and probes the beast for weaknesses. Using every ounce of his speed and strength, Konner is hardly able to keep a step ahead of it and the reason was not because of his precious cargo.
“GET IN HERE NOW I NEED BACKUP!”
Konner yells into his mic as he begins to feel himself slow from exhaustion. The loud hum of Ja’sanfur’s fighter begins to fill the air as she comes in from a distance. Konner puts up a shield as the beast leaps at Konner. The monster hits the shield but does not bounce off or deflect. Konner’s vision scans his protective barrier and to his horror there are fourteen holes in his shield, one for each claw. Reinforcing the shield with all the power he can muster just to buy enough time for the ship to arrive, the unknown beast slashes through it, shattering the energy barrier like it was nothing. With a powerful spin, the monster slams its tail into Konner so hard he feels ribs break before his feet even leave the ground. Protecting the egg, Konner flies into the Trigzell ship so hard it dents the alien alloy. Falling to the ground, Konner attempts to get his bearings as even the Titan did not hit him that hard when he was a child. Just as he gets his footing, he staggers a bit only for a fiery pain to shoot through his entire body, emanating from his spine. Konner’s bracer begins to beep frantically and releases a massive blast of energy out in all directions.
“Spinal injury detected. Reinforcing spine to prevent paralysis.”
Konner attempts to breath but the agonizing pain of the attack causes him to only be able to take short breaths. Using all of his concentration, he attempts to move but is hardly able to. Reaching out he grasps the miraculously undamaged egg. A wave of terror washes over Konner as he feels the hot breath of this unknown beast on the back of his neck. He sees claws reach around him. Almost teasingly it grasps him and turns him over. The blades on its fingers are so sharp they cut into the Energynium armor like a hot knife through butter. Konner lets out a howl in pain as the blades slice open his shoulder. He looks up defiantly at the beast that seems to relish the attack. It reaches back to deliver the killing blow as the loud scream of a rocket passes just over Konner’s face and into that of the beast. The blast causes the beast to stagger back as Ja’Sanfur opens up every weapon in the arsenal of her fighter, specifically designed for armor penetration, into the monster that would have certainly killed her student. A rope drops from the ship and Bara’Helor descends the rope. She sprints to Konner, wrapping the end of the rope around his waist. Konner grabs the egg and holds it close to his chest. As he watches, in what appears to be slow motion the ship above him unleashes its full might into this alien creature. Konner hears his bracer ping for Bara.
“Spinal injury present, generating stabilizers.”
Hard light constructs form around Konner, holding him in place as he focuses on Bara’Helor’s concerned face. He feels a gentle jerk as the rope begins to be pulled up toward the ship just as the fighter runs out of munitions. There is silence for a few moments with only the muffled sounds of concern from Bara filling the air. As the shock begins to ware off and everything seems to go back to normal, Konner hears Ja’sanfur’s voice over the comms.
“No, how did that thing survive!”
A deafening roar fills the air. Konner tries to look but is unable to. The sound of the beast leaping pulls Konner’s line of sight up as Jil screams frantically.
“INCOMING, PULL UP PULL UP!”
“I can’t! I do Konner dies!”
Ja’Sanfur screams over Jil’Thorin.
“Hold steady, I got this!”
/> Disa’ani contributes; Konner sees all four of his spears fly from the ship, each in a different direction followed by four rapid fires, wet piercing noises, a painful whimper and the sound of a massive being slamming into the ground. All four spears come back into Konner’s view as the ship gets larger. The last thing Konner sees is being pulled into the ship as Disa’ani re-sheaths his blades, a bandage wrapped around his right forearm.
Out of the blackness, Konner hears a soft beep every few seconds, a sound that is all too familiar. Gradually he blinks himself away to see the OWS, all of whom are in their civilian clothing and his father and mother standing in the room with worried looks on their faces. The first person Konner’s eyes land on is Disa’ani who stands in the doorway picking at his bandage.
“Did we get back in time Disa?”