8. Chapter 8
Chapter eight
-Bryce-
“ I don’t get why we’re traipsing around this damn jungle,” Rand moaned through the comm. “Why doesn’t Chief just get the drones up? We could find these fuckers in ten minutes flat.”
He moved ahead of me, his suit still stained pink. A whole evening of scrubbing and buffing had done nothing to remove the color.
“Because,” I said, inspecting an empty space inside the trunk of a tree that was big enough to hide a full-grown man. “They might spot them, and we’re supposed to be covert.”
“And they’re not gonna spot us walking around?”
“Well, they might spot you. Why didn’t you wear a new suit?”
“I modded this one myself. I’m not wearing some off-the-shelf spare that someone’s sweated all over,” he said indignantly.
I laughed. I had to agree with him, though. It made a lot more sense to try to locate the settlements from the air, but the orders came from the top and there must be a good reason. It wasn’t my place to question them. And besides, I’d always enjoyed this way more; at least when I wasn’t jumping at shadows.
The life on this planet was fascinating, every step revealing a new flower, a new creature. It was like nowhere I’d ever been before; a lot of the other planets I’d done recon on were either built up, dry, or swampy. But this place was bursting with natural beauty.
“Heads up,” Clyde said.
Ahead of us, a break in the trees showed a glimpse of wide-open land beyond. We re-formed before going on and came out on a ridge overlooking a gentle valley with a gurgling stream. The ground had patches of bare earth with a red tinge, and huge structures sprouting from the sides of the valley. They looked like fungi, but bigger than a tree.
“What are those?” O’Neill asked.
“They look like mushrooms?” I said.
“Biggest damn mushrooms I’ve ever seen,” Clyde said.
We spread out to cover the open ground; Clyde, O’Neill, and Smith to my left, and Rand and Spencer to my right. The things looked hollow; the outer wall was an abstract mesh of huge openings. I moved towards the closest towering growth and inspected its surface. It definitely looked like it had grown rather than been built, the ground around its base raised slightly where it must have erupted through. I knocked it with the end of my blaster and, when there was no reaction, I rubbed my hand along its surface. It felt firm and springy.
I peered inside, waiting for some kind of reaction, heart pounding. When none came, I leaned in further.
“Dude, you’re not going inside that thing, what if it eats you?” Rand said.
“It’s not going to eat me.”
I hope.
A big part of me loved this side of my job. Exploring and finding new things, new experiences. It was a big part of me, even after what had happened, even with my heart racing and my brain shouting to do the opposite. No, not even after what had happened, because of what happened. I didn’t want to lose that part of myself. So yeah, it could have eaten me, but I needed to get that part back.
And that meant going inside the big damn mushroom that hopefully wouldn’t eat me.
I ducked in. Nothing happened. I relaxed and looked around. It was like being inside a cathedral, if you got cathedrals made of mushroom. The towering roof overhead was made up of undulating gills, and the mesh like structure of the walls was perforated like a sponge.
“See?”
“Whatever,” Rand said.
I rubbed my hand up the inside wall and then jerked it back when the surface started to vibrate under my fingers. The vibration rippled outwards in growing circles, until it covered the entire structure, making a deep humming noise that vibrated down to my bones. Thousands of tiny, winged creatures burst from the holes within the walls and took to the air. I ducked back out of the giant, mushroomy structure, in case it really did try to eat me. Proving Rand right would be the worst thing of all. When nothing else happened, I peered back inside. The animals were chirruping and flying in circles around the ceiling in huge formations, shifting and merging before my eyes like a mirage.
“Whoa.”
“What’s going on over there?” Clyde asked through the comm.
“Hey, Clyde, come check this out.”
He appeared beside me a moment later, peering up at the swarming creatures.
“Look at that,” I said in awe.
“Hm. Simple minds find easy pleasure,” he said.
“What? It’s cool.” I laughed. This place had me feeling like a child. This right here, this was why I did this job. The universe was too full of cool shit not to explore.
At that moment, a loud noise boomed through the valley, and the swarm of flying creatures scattered, diving back into their holes. I jumped. The noise was something between a trumpet blast and a bellow that made my ears ring even inside my helmet.
“Shit.”
We ran out, searching for the source of the noise, weapons up. It sounded like it was coming from everywhere all at once. A loud crack made me spin towards the line of trees in time to see a huge animal breaking through. A tree had snapped in half like a twig under its heft. It had a rounded, smooth-plated back, and six stubby legs, like a beetle, or rather, a cross between a beetle and an elephant.
And it was moving fast towards us, bellowing that noise.
“Hostile!” I shouted into the comm as the creature thundered down the side of the valley towards us.
“Huge fucker coming in fast!” Clyde added.
The others weren’t in my immediate view, but judging by their curses, they could see the creature too.
“The fuck?”
“What’s happening?” O’Neill emerged from behind a smaller growth somewhere to my right. He spotted the creature loping towards him and stopped moving. He was directly in its path.
“O’Neill!” I called. “Take cover!”
He didn’t move; faced with two tonnes of muscle and a hard exoskeleton, the kid was frozen. And the creature seemed to have set its sights on him. It barreled towards him before I could even get my weapon trained on it.
“Get out of the way!”
Finally, O’Neill moved, but he was too panicked. With his blaster now hanging slack at his side, he started to back up until he fell over backwards, like every teenager in every vintage horror movie.
I aimed for the beast’s head and opened fire. The blast didn’t seem to hurt it, but it was enough to catch its attention. The monster turned its head, set its beady eyes on me, and swerved.
“Shit.”
It charged towards me, head down, and I opened fire on it again. The blasts pinged off its armored head, doing absolutely zero to slow it down.
“Shit, shit, shit.”
Guess it was time to put this new leg through its paces. I turned and ran as fast as I could in my heavy armored suit, holding my weapon against my chest. My blood thrummed in my ears, cutting off anything that might have come through the comm. I ran full pelt, but it held steady, moving easily to eat up the uneven ground.
I sprinted in a wide arc, leading it away from the rest of the team and back towards the trees. If I got to them, maybe I could lose it. Its body was too broad to move quickly through them. A hasty glance over my shoulder showed the beast hot on my heels and gaining. It looked big and slow, but those six legs could really move when it was at full speed.
I hit the line of trees, plunging into the cool dimness. Half a klick in and I should be able to double back without leading it back with me. I’d have to slow my pace to make sure it didn’t lose track of me too soon—
A great crash sounded behind me as the creature thundered through the line of trees, taking them down with its weight without slowing down.
—or maybe not. Jesus, this monster was unstoppable.
I kept running, jumping over small plants and fallen trees, bursting through clouds of glowing insects. My breath was ragged, all that time off to heal must have dulled my edge.
I swerved back and forth, trying to lose it, but the damn thing wouldn’t leave my tail. I’d managed to distract it from O’Neill, but now I couldn’t shake it. This plan was not going well.
I burst through a patch of dense undergrowth, and suddenly I was sailing through the air. I caught a glimpse of open sky, treetops, and a steep, rocky slope, then my feet jolted against something, and my legs crumpled beneath me. Everything was flipping end-over-end as I was battered in a giant industrial washing machine made of rocks. My helmet smashed against something with a sharp crack, rattling my brain enough to cross my eyes.
I slammed against something hard, and the world stopped trying to batter me. My head spun, and it took me a moment to realize my body had stopped. I had no idea which way was up and how many limbs I had left. When I could finally see straight again, I looked around and saw that I was lying in a deep bed of ferns at the foot of a jagged slope that was more of a cliff face than anything.
Some distance above me, the creature bellowed. It hadn’t followed me down, probably a smart decision. And handy for me, otherwise I’d most definitely be squashed flat. But just in case it was feeling reckless, I lay still, breathing into the crook of my arm to stifle the sound so as not to give away my position. I took deep breaths and tried to calm my racing pulse. Now that the race was over, the adrenaline was starting to make my muscles twitch and ache.
After what felt like ages, there was the trampling of undergrowth above me, and the noises receded until it was silent. I stayed still for a while longer, making sure it was well away before I moved. I struggled to my feet and patted myself down. Nothing seemed to be broken or missing, all three limbs present and mostly correct. I twisted my prosthetic ankle experimentally inside my boot and braced it against the ground. Thankfully, it didn’t seem to be damaged. If anything happened to it while I was out here, it would definitely make my life a hell of a lot harder. Good thing it was made of a plasteel material even harder than my armor, casing intricate workings that I didn’t even try to understand; something about turning the signals from my brain into movements through a neural link.
My visor was a spiderweb of cracks where I’d hit my head. Luckily, the helmet had taken the brunt of it, and although I was rattled like a bag of bones, I didn’t appear to be bleeding anywhere, and I had managed to keep a grip on my blaster. All in all, not bad.
I’d lost the comm connection though. Fiddling with the controls, there was a blast of static in my ear as it burst back into life, Clyde’s frantic voice tuning in mid-sentence. “—unner? Gunner? Come in. Can you hear me? Bryce? Are you ok?”
“I’m here,” I croaked. “I’m fine. Still in one piece. Well, all the pieces I had.”
A whoosh of breath. “Thank fuck for that,” he said. “Where are you?”
I looked around and tried to get my bearings, but the tumble had totally thrown off my sense of direction. On one side was the rocky slope, and on the other, hugging the base of the cliff, a dense jungle. The way I had come down was too steep for me to climb back up.
“I’m not totally sure. I kind of fell off the edge of a cliff. Doesn’t look like I’m getting back that way.”
I didn’t miss the muffled cursing before he replied, “Just stay where you are, we’ll get the drones to locate you and get you lifted back to base.” He sounded more worried than I’d ever heard him before. Stupidly, it made my adrenaline spike again, almost as much as being chased by that massive monster. It was far too similar to the last mission. The shame of being airlifted back to base still stung, even though I was barely conscious for most of it.
“Come on, Clyde, don’t be ridiculous. There’s no need for that.” I tried for an easy laugh, but it came out strained. “I’m not sitting here like a little lost duckling waiting for rescue. We’re not far from base, I’ll just make my way back. By the time you’ve got the drones up, I’ll be back at base.”
“I don’t like it,” Clyde said.
Sometimes it seemed like Clyde had taken my accident almost as hard as me. His confidence in me was shaken whether he’d admit it or not. And no matter how much he reassured me otherwise, I had to prove myself to him, and to myself.
“You worried about me?” I said.
“Of course I am,” Clyde grumbled. “I tell you what, you head back to base solo, but I’m getting the drones up anyway. Just be careful, ok? Don’t do anything dumb.”
“Would I?”
“I’m not answering that.”
I laughed again and it sounded more natural this time.
“And keep your comm open. At the first sign of trouble, I’m airlifting you out of there myself.”
“It’s all good, I got this. See you back at base camp, old man.”
I started along the base of the cliff, searching for a way back up. The cliff face stretched out in either direction, but in the distance, I could just make out where it sloped down into the trees. I set off towards it. It would be an easy job to follow the cliff back to where I fell and then follow the trail of destruction left by the creature. And from there, back to base.
Simple. No worries. It’s all good.
And really, this was quite a pleasant detour. The jungle was less dense under the shelter of the rock face, making it an easy trek. Flowering vines draped across the trees, shafts of sunlight cutting through the leaves overhead and creating shimmering patterns on the ground. Small, luminous dots danced around the beams of light, which, on closer inspection, turned out to be hovering insects with fluffy bodies and at least six wings.
As long as I kept my wits about me, I’d be fine.
“Still alive, Gunner?”
“Still alive.”
“Just making sure.”
“I’ll let you know when I find the trail—”
The hairs on the back of my neck prickled. Something was wrong. I stopped and listened, but everything was quiet. I frowned. Too quiet. Up to this point, there had been a constant background noise of distant animal calls, insects whirring, birds singing, but now there was nothing, and the silence felt oppressive.
I readied my weapon and scanned the trees.
Something was out there.