Castaway Planet

Galactic Calendar 259872/ 2000 [ Sol Year 4387/ Day 153 of 365. Sol standard year]

Days after of Crash landing/ 1

Uninhabited Island / Clearing of Escape Capsule # 405

Galactic Standard Time / 0700

As she watched the three explorers leave, Racha watched with mixed feelings. She had to wonder if she should have gone with them, she had the skills. She was a good shot, and somehow when they had escaped the Spirit she had lost the VIP she was meant to guard. She hoped that they had made it out alright, at least for the sake of peace. If they died, then their grandfather would go to war. But that was only if someone could convince him that the Federation was responsible. And she was even more worried about something she discovered last night.

She had spent a few hours talking with the others in the pod, and they all had the same problem. None of them knew why they had left the Spirit, none knew what happened from five hours before they landed. Even her nano recorders were blank and that was kinda scary to know. Everyone said they were completely tamper-proof, but here she was, finding out that was a lie.

And with the number of death threats against the Ancient Ambassador, this mission had to be quiet. And not to count the trouble the ship's passengers might cause. Her boss and the Admirals had wanted to keep the number of people who the Ancient was low. Last she had heard, only the captain was supposed to know.

She prided herself on being ready for anything. But she had to admit, something like that couldn't be planned for!

She heard a scoff from behind her and turned. She found herself looking at one of the passengers. The bald man who had opened the doors seemed to be looking around at the people gathering around him. She just knew he was going to make trouble for the crew, and she had an idea why!

“…… and we’re to stay in this stinking chamber why?! Oh, they say that the bugs out there might attack us, but how bad would that be?! Listen to old Bradford Golrick folks, this is just an old warmonger’s way to keep us contained!” Bradford barked and Racha glared at him.

“Just like his profile,” Racha murmured under his breath. When the trip was planned, they had checked over who was going to be on the ship. And was one of the worst problem cases the Service found. Bradford Golrick, age one hundred and ten years; head of the Golrick Conglomerate. The company that made star drive, one of the most important industries in the modern economy. They also had mines in asteroids and there were rumors they did in-house weapons research. He knew the last was true, and they were one of the black market's best weapon sellers.

Bradford was also a former member of his homeworld's government's parliament. And he had been his sector’s representative to the Federation’s Congress for three terms of three years. The Service's psych profile of him said he needed to have total control over every aspect of his life. If that was the truth, then this must be next to murder for him to deal with.

And the only thing worse was how his personal history intertwined with the last war against the Ancients. Bradford was born the third son of his family, he had taken over when most of his brothers died or disappeared. The disappearances had all happened before or after the war. With how the company was a strategic resource, they could have been a target by the Ancients. But given how the Ancient's strategy and the location of Bradford’s system, that possibility was low. Most people thought he had used them as a smokescreen to take over his family's company. And what caused him to be on their radar? The single fact is that even after the war ended, there was still a bounty on captured Ancients. The location where the captives were to be brought? Near Bradford’s world.

As she thought about those facts, she looked at Bradford as he droned on.

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“…… yes my friends, make no mistake this is nothing but a military dictatorship and I for one won’t stand for it!” Bradford finished as the other passengers all started to talk to each other.

“He’s right! We can’t let them keep us in this tin can!” A man wearing a red suit called out.

“But what can we do? They have all the weapons!” A woman wearing a blue mermaid dress exclaimed.

Bradford watched as the idiots ate it up. With a little luck, in a while, he would have control over the group. And then he could send out searchers to find the rest of his people, to tighten his control. To think that he would be in a better position to kill his target. He almost prayed in thanks to his planet’s belief in a guardian spirit. But then only idiots believed in those things! But then only idiots believed in those things!

Rasha looked a bit more concerned, she knew how mad a mob could be. If those two and Bradford whipped them up, then there would be bloodshed before too long.

Racha knew something had to be done. She had a mind to talk to them herself. but then she heard the door next to her open and Duncan walked out on his crutches and nodded at her.

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Duncan knew a lot more than the girl expected. The captain had briefed him and the section heads on who they were. But only he and the second officer about who one of the Ancients they were carrying was. All in all, he knew the War against them was a lot more complicated than a lot of people knew, even the Service. He would let the girl keep her beliefs for now, but if he needed her skills he would let the lie die.

“Now what’s this then? Duncan asked as he looked over the passengers. Trying to make himself look like he didn’t already know what they had been talking about. Sometimes, not letting others know what he did was better, it let him catch them easier.

“What is happening is that the survivors of your mistakes are demanding that we be let out into the sun! There is food out there, just waiting for us to go pick it!” Bradford said and Duncan stared back at him for a few moments.

Duncan looked at them and sighed before shaking his head as he replied in a flat tone of voice. “And flying worms, can't forget that. And the worms each have stingers full of poison! Not too bad, but it would knock anyone out. Giving them time to kill you and eat your corpse, maybe use the remains to lay their eggs in.”

“What?” Bradford asked as the group stared at Duncan in horror. He had spent time gathering all these people, and they just started to talk to themselves. Some people looked at him in disgust as they realized what he had been doing.

“I can understand your feelings!” Duncan as he looked around at the passengers as the other deckhands all listened in. “But please, work with us until we can get rescued! Right now I’ve sent two deckhands with a cadet as a leader to climb the mountain in the distance! From there we’ll know what’s around us so we can make a plan to stay alive!”

At the looks of most of the passengers gave the portal to the outside, Duncan knew that he had to give one more little push. Making an effort to sigh, he looked around and smiled bitterly. “But I will let you all stay at the bottom of the crater we made. Once I’ve sent out a screening force to protect you all. And only half can go outside at a time!”

Bradford looked around and hid his feelings as he saw that the mood was all in favor of this. He had to backtrack, if he wanted to one day have power then he had to say the right things now for tomorrow's gain.

“That is perfect sir! I just……. We’re stuck in here in cramped conditions, and there is space outside for us to move about and still be safe, right? I couldn’t let my fellow passengers down, so I had no choice but to speak up!” Bradford said as the other civilians all looked at him and most nodded, most grinning. Bradford looked back at Duncan as the old man just stood there, waiting for him to react.

He knew that Duncan knew that he had been working on getting the crowd to riot. All he had needed was a few more minutes, just a few more minutes. Once they did, he would be able to rule here. But all he did was nod at Duncan who nodded back as the passengers all cheered.

“I knew that he would listen to reason!”

A commotion by the door showed the fruit pickers back, all without anything. Duncan frowned and went over to them, and a moment later followed them outside.

“I knew that he would listen to reason!” One man said with a grin and a laugh in his voice.

A commotion by the door showed the fruit pickers back, all without anything. Duncan frowned and went over to them, and a moment later followed them outside.

“WHAT?!” Duncan shouts from outside. A few moments later caused everyone to look toward him. Duncan poked his head back in and looked around. “Nothing wrong folks, just need to get something put to rights. You will all be able to go out into the sun soon, an hour or two at worst. Miss Racha in here now!”

As a female deckhand walked into the chamber, Bradford frowned. From his search on who was working on the ship, she was just a deckhand that had command potential. What had happened to have the old fool call for her?

As a female deckhand walked into the chamber, Bradford frowned. From his search on the crew of the ship, she was just a deckhand that had command potential. What had happened to have the old fool call for her?

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Racha wondered why Duncan wanted to talk to her, and she had to admit part of her felt her cover was blown. As she walked into the room, she closed the door behind her. Turning around she saw Duncan sitting on a chair before a wall screen showing a map of the clearing above them. She waited a few moments more and was about to speak up when Duncan beat her to it.

“All the fruit from yesterday we left on the trees? The people I sent to get them reported the trees are bare,” Duncan said bluntly and Racha blinked.

“What!? But they said there were at least twenty of them still up there!” Racha said fiercely and Duncan nodded with a smirk. Racha blinked and then looked away. “At least that’s what I heard them say.”

“I expect that you would find out. What with who you are,” Duncan said and Racha looked at him in shock before covering her eyes.

“The captain told you?” Racha asked as Duncan chuckled a little.

She knew something was going to go wrong on this op, she just knew it! They should have gone in totally cloaked but orders were to tell the captain so they did. She wondered for a moment

“Me and the section chiefs. It was her ship after all,” Duncan said and Racha looked at him, looking right in his eyes and asked one question.

“And what did you feel about it? You were in the war,” Racha asked and Duncan turned and spat at a trash can before turning back to her with a glare.

“The only one I blame was the bastard who started the war with his raid! And I was press-ganged from my world anyway! But that doesn’t matter, I want you to go out and try and find a new grove of those trees!” Duncan said fiercely and Racha looked at him and he waved her off.

“I’ll sell it as you being my first choice since the others left. But don’t go alone and go from the side the trees were. We might have gotten lucky. There is a chance that those trees were just the result of something eating the seeds and ‘passing’ them after. But it could be from the wind. And the creatures...... Take two others with you,” Duncan said and Racha nodded, but before anything else could be said a screech came from outside. Duncan looked up. “And I’ll add two more guards up there.”

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Half an hour later Racha climbed out of the crater with five people behind her. Two peeled off and the other two followed her. Each of them wore armor like Jinn’s party and each had a riffle over their shoulder, and Racha also had a single pistol.

The first was a deckhand named Rodolphe. He had short black hair above black eyes and the beginning of a mustache. The man seemed to have been trying to join the Security division, so he was a clear choice. Of all those in the capsule, only Jinn was a better close combatant and shot.

A woman named Paige, with short blond hair and blue eyes, followed behind them. Like Sara, she was a good medic, and they might need her if they got into trouble.

Racha didn’t fully trust them, but they were the fastest of those who remained. And that was what was important right now, speed before strength. It had already been a day, and the creatures they encountered so far told her this had many dangers that could kill. And any world with a high enough tech level would have already had emergency crews at the capsule by now.

They needed all the cards they could find to survive alone, and a local source of food was a good one.

“So…… any ideas what that roaring was?” Paige asked and Rodolphe laughed.

“What do you think it was? It had to be one of those fools killing something. Showing this world that those who think can kick ass!” Rodolphe said with a grin and a laugh.

Racha looked at Rodolphe. Paige started to look worried. She didn’t know what was wrong with Rodolphe, he was treating this like a walk in the park. The fool was probably trying to get Paige worried so she would stay close to the macho man. “Stay calm Paige. Whatever caused them, it wasn’t human at least. And that was pain, whatever the others did to cause it, we have to think that they are still alive. At most we are going to go out for an hour then we head back. That’s it, nothing more.”

Paige looked at her and nodded as Racha stepped up she shot a look at Rodolphe who held up his hands.

“You two, keep your heads and we will survive. Follow me,” Racha said before she turned and walked into the forest.

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Rodolphe looked at Racha as she led the way, outside he was calm but inside he was mad as hell. This was supposed to be a simple job. All he had to do was get a few small robots into the ship’s internal air vents, just like the others. They would map out the ship, and cut into the ship’s systems to spy. And once the signal was sent, the rest of his people would attack. Then the robots would sabotage the defensive systems, letting them in.

Then if everything worked right, the others would insert all over and hit the ship all at once. That would plus the sabotage would cut off all sections from each other. He and the others would then attack any defensive line that the Security forces would set up from behind. And after they grabbed their targets, they would have scuttled the ship. It would have killed everyone aboard sure, but their goal demanded it. And then any evidence would have shown that it was caused by a system error in the generators.

Then with the information they would extract from their target, well then....... Then their goal would be that much closer, everything they had done would have been worth it. And that would mean all the sacrifices his family and people had made over all those long years were all worth it.

But now he was stuck on some unknown plant! And his target wasn’t in the group he was in! He didn’t know if they were even alive, and if they were captured so what? What would that do on this planet besides getting the rest of the survivors to distrust him? No, the best thing to do was stay alive, as the great ones said, ‘Where there’s life there is hope’.

As he walked over to a branch, unaware of Paige had stared at him as he moved.

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Paige looked at Rodolphe with a worried look in her eyes. Her abilities reared their heads again, and she felt that jolt of rage and hatred when Racha gave orders. She didn’t know what caused it, not really. All she could tell was something was bothering him. She hoped that maybe it was something about their situation, not something else.

She sometimes felt her abilities were more trouble than they were worth. She had lost her home, her world, and barely stayed free. The people who had hunted her, she still thought were special ops. Thankfully she had gotten off-world in time. She had bounced from world to world until she had gotten onto the Spirit. With what she knew about its course, she would have been able to join any number of colonizer missions.

But what happened, this planet she was marooned with the others, it wasn’t the plan exactly. She planned to join a colony group, on the first wave hopefully. That would let her find a place to hide away from them. Not the most daring plan but she promised her mother she would live, and that was the best she could do. With how a colony's founding was, all she had to do was be in one of the first two waves. If she could do that, then she would be able to disappear into the wilderness if she did it right.

But here she was, stuck on a world with no way out, in the middle of a forest with strange lifeforms all around. Instead of being smart and staying in the armor of the capsule, she was sent out to find food! For some reason, she just knew a lot of the other deckhands like her had secrets they were hiding. And something told her, that before they were safe they all might come into the light.

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Deep within the forest, a great creature suddenly looked up as it smelled something. Something it had never smelled before. Like the others of its kind who were blessed with the gift its creator gave it. It had used its gift to gain the strength of others it killed. Its senses had let it track down and claim their powers for itself. But then, this scent! Never had it ever smelled something so powerful and new. It spat out a bone of the corpse it had been eating. Getting to its feet, it stretched before it moved out of its den. It stopped and looked towards places it knew the little scavengers watched from. It could hear the sounds of them moving around, they were fun to play with before killing them.

It had let them live and watch it so it could watch them and learn, but that was then, this was now. All it had to do was find the sources of that smell, and then it could claim the strength it senses within. It didn’t know how but it sensed that gaining this power would let it hunt better. How it didn’t know but it knew that beyond anything else before in its life, that one thing was true. So it would hunt this thing down, and devour it.