Castaway Planet

Galactic Calendar 259872/ 2000 [ Sol Year 4387/ Day 154 of 365. Sol standard year]

Days after of Crash landing/ 3

Uninhabited Island /Beach near crashed escape Capsule 20045

Galactic Standard Time / 1645

Jinn fired at the ocean, smirking as he saw the biped fall back under the water. So far, he had been able to keep the creature and its minions from moving towards them. The gathers were all covered from anything that could breach the ‘fort’. Looking over the space between the walls, he saw Jess amongst them. She had to be trying to keep him calm, a job he wouldn’t want. And something he wouldn’t be able to feel good about lying to these people.

“What are those things?” Racha demanded from behind him.

Jinn turned and saw her with Al, Sara, and Paige, all of them looking at him with worry.

“Burt says that’s just a scout. And that they eat sentient meat. So there’s that. Plus they can supposedly break through the walls,” Jinn as he turned back to the ocean. He saw one of the crab things making a dash along the beach towards the river as they fought the monster. Without a second, he fired and killed it. “And I’m starting to think it can see through those things.”

“What!?” Al asked in shock.

“Roy can. With that thing, he tamed. Makes sense,” Racha said robotically. “We can’t just let it get an advantage on us. Al, Sara go cover the left side! Jinn, I’ll take Paige and cover the right. You keep that thing’s head down!”

“Got it! We just need to hold on until the survivors can escape into the forest!” Jinn said with a smirk.

He shouldn’t be so happy, but this was what he was made for. He looked at the ocean, and when he saw the shadow under it move he fired. The blast shot through the water, and the shadow retreated.

Jinn looked at the beach, trying to find anything. He had been right about the biped seeing through the crab-things eyes, so they had to kill the crabs. If the biped couldn’t see them, then they could escape. With Locke making a bridge…….. “Oh. Paige!”

“Jinn?! What is it?” Paige called back.

“Go tell Locke to make a bridge, not a pathway! He’ll know, remind him about that last mission!” Jinn called out. He clenched his teeth as he tried to keep from cursing himself as an idiot! This monster’s actions would only make sense if it was here as a scout! And that meant that it had the skills to get information! That meant that he would have to be smarter to find out all its tricks. If they could track the group into the forest, then the survivors here would all die! He couldn’t wouldn’t let that happen!

“Come on,” Jinn muttered as he looked at the ocean waves. He swept his gaze over the water, trying to find his target. “Just move your head a little, and I’ll give you a nice dream.”

<>------------------------------------------------<>------------------------------------------------<>

Behind the escape capsule, Locke looked at the forest and smiled. He had wanted to go there with the scouting parties, but his skills had kept him close. Chief Tomkin had yelled at him about how he had gone after Jinn’s group. But then his loyalty would always be with those that he had grown up with. And the Boss always had a near-perfect plan to handle any problem they came across!

Locke took a deep breath as he looked out at the forest a good hundred feet away. Once they could get to the grass, then they were gone. All they needed to do was make sure there was no….

Locke went still as he looked down, seeing the footprints. Suddenly he knew that the plan wouldn’t work as he thought it would. If he brought up a pathway, the footprints would be destroyed. If that happened, then one of the horde would probably notice. To make sure that they could get away clean, then he had to do something else.

“Locke!” A female voice from behind caused him to turn around. He saw one of the girls who had come with Jinn running towards him.

“WAIT! Let me guess, Jinn figured it out too?” Locke asked with a smirk.

“Figured it out? Jinn said something about a bridge and a mission?” She said.

Locke laughed a little. “Yeah, that sounds like him. That’s the boss!”

“Boss?” The girl asked confusion in her voice.

“We grew up in the same compound. And he was right. We’ll need a bridge. But how to anchor it….. there!” Locke said as he smirked, looking at the back wall.

He took a deep breath and centered himself. “Earth Control!”

With a single phase and his own will, he grinned as the wall started to sink into the ground. All he needed to do was get this ready until Tomkin came with the others. “You know, this might have been considered a Great Wonder. Feels a bit wrong that I’ll have to destroy it after we’re done!”

<>------------------------------------------------<>------------------------------------------------<>

“A Horde!? That eats everything that’s organic!?” Tomkin bellowed in shock and fear.

Burt and Xordig hah both come to him, and the news is anything but good. Part of him couldn’t believe it, the other parts did.

“Is there no chance that the walls could hold them back at all?” Tomkin stared at Burt as he shook his head.

“They’ve broken through places with a lot more in-depth defenses than this. The only chance we have is to run now!” Burt said with a hard glare on his face.

All Tomkin could do was hold his head, wondering what to do. The smart thing would be to leave, but could they make it to safety? Where was a safe place?

Tomkin sighed and looked down. He wasn’t a leader, he was just the ship’s mechanic! He only let them promote him because they tried to get him to take over for the Old Man when he left! He even wanted him to do it! But this wasn’t the time to argue or moan, this was the time for action. “Okay, I get it. Do we have leave? But go where? Where can we hide?”

Xordig only chuckled and shook his head. Tomkin was about to say something as he scowled but Xordig just spoke first.

“We don’t need to worry about where to hide with Locke around. But we should all move in the direction of the Yard-Ship,” Xordig said softly.

Tomkin only looked at him, before what he just heard made sense. He felt his mouth widen as he smiled.

“I forgot about that! Good! Get everyone ready to move! I don’t want to let anyone stay behind!” Tomkin barked.

<>------------------------------------------------<>------------------------------------------------<>

Sk’p looked out the open doorway and cursed that he wasn’t out there. For one of his training, letting others fight was always wrong. But then as a commanding officer of one of his home’s defense squadrons, that was to be expected. He cursed that his bosses wanted him to finally take a vacation. He still thought they had another reason for it, but what? There had to be a cause for them to want him aboard the Spirit!

He sighed and looked at the little ones of his race. Sal’go was near them, trying to keep everyone calm and not rioting. Something was happening out there, and the few people who had gathered food were still out there. That told him that they were there to keep the others calm. To keep them from making more problems for the others, and that was enough to worry him. They had dealt with the things that attacked them, so this had to be worse. And the only way that they could be worse was something he didn’t want to even think about. But then if he was right, then he had to stay here.

A sound caused him to look up as Xordig, Chief Tomkin and the native Burt came out of Tomkin’s office. From the way that Tomkin was walking, there was nothing good about what he needed to tell them all.

“Attention!” Xordig barked and everyone in the chamber looked at him. “The Chief has something that you all need to know!”

“Thank you. Folks I can’t lie, we’re in deep trouble here. From the sea comes the first of what I’ve been told is almost probably a horde of walking devourers. They’ll come and eat anything organic, anything at all. I don’t need to tell you what that means for all of us,” Tomkin said softly as he looked around.

Sk’p felt his heart freeze. Around them, the others all starred at Tomkin, and they were moments from a riot if Sk’p saw things right.

“However! We have a plan to save everyone! But we need to leave!”

“Where will we go?!” A voice from the back called out. And that was the spark, everyone seemed to be talking all at once.

“LISTEN TO THE CHIEF!” Xordig yelled, cutting through the noise.

“Thank you. The mission the newcomers are here on? That’s to claim what might be a crashed ship!” Tomkin called out, If it’s still in good order it’ll be able to keep all of us alive! And it might have enough systems in working order that we’ll be able to find the rest of the Spirit!” Tomkin called out.

Sk’p felt his heart beat a bit. The only thing that could help them do all that would be a factory ship. But those were always some of the most protected assists to a modern plant’s fleet. How could one of them be crashed here? Would word about them have been sent out?

The answer hit him in a moment, and then that made his eyes widen in shock. The only answers were either the ship was that old, or it was from a fleet that wouldn’t tell others about it. That meant pirates, and those Yard-Ships were the source of their stations. The chance that if it was still active they could use it was good. The kind of technology that those things could make, they could live well. They would just need to secure a food source and they could survive until they found a way to contact home.

“Now please, move slowly and carefully! We won’t be coming back so grab everything that you can!” Tomkin called out as he looked around.

As Sk’p saw the others all moving around, the adults grabbed what they could. He saw that newbie, Roy, and his strange new animal friend gathering up the stray children. He moved closer and listened in.

“Now don’t you all worry. The people in charge are strong and smart! They’ll know how to get us out of here safely! Right Red?” Roy asked with a grin as he looked at the red chitin-covered quadruped at his side.

Red buzzed and nodded, shaking its end.

Sk’p looked at the little creature. It had been a joy for the children once Roy came in. The little creature had captured the hearts of the children and it seemed to be a plant eater. So far

“But this sounds so scary Mr. Roy. How can you know that we’ll be okay?” One of the human children asked.

“Because everyone here is so brave little one. Everyone who can will do everything they can to keep you alive. That’s just what it means to be an adult sometimes,” Roy said with a grin.

Sk’p kept quiet, but that remark stung him. He had kept quiet a lot about his job, but then his commander had mentioned it. How the civilians loved to hear ‘war stories’, and that if Sk’p didn’t want that to stay quiet. The last few days had tested his resolve to keep it, and he wondered if he should say who he was. He wasn’t someone most people knew about, he stuck to the shadows. But he had training, and that might help a lot more than staying quiet would.

But then he looked at the kids, and then he felt his resolve firm itself. He had been following the objective that his leader had given him before he left on vacation. When he probably should have done the opposite. He was done hiding away. He looked towards Tomkin and nodded, walking towards him. It was time to stop hiding, it was time to fight again.

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Burt sighed and shook his head. He hadn’t expected anything like this. To finding the fabled Iron Island and now to a horde of those things? When he woke up that day he escaped through that Gateway, he had been feeling a bit wrong. But after everything, he thinks he did okay. He found new people who had just ended up on this world. They had told him something about his people's heritage. And now he was helping a group of them to evacuate before those monsters attacked. He might now have done much while traveling, but he thinks he honored his people.

“How far do you think those things will chase us if they do?” Xordig asked.

Burt blinked and looked up. “What? Oh. I’ve heard that they usually leave things about three miles or so away alive. Sometimes more or less, but this is all second hand really. They say you either live or die when these hordes come. Sorry that I can’t be more help.”

“I’m guessing that these are an old fear of yours then? Or your culture?” Tomkin asked.

Burt just shuddered and nodded. “Yeah. You’ve got a holiday about telling scary stories? Well, these things are one of them. Spent years looking at the seas with more fear once I heard the stories for the first time. And it didn’t help that an island was found dead and consumed soon after. The trader looked like he saw it firsthand.”

“So all in all, bad then?” Xordig asked.

Burt wanted to lie, but he couldn’t. Whenever one of the things was seen, whole islands would evacuate. He didn’t want to kill their hope for survival, but they had to know just how bad this was for them. Something in his face must have told them that there was else because Xordig palled as Sal’go came over to them.

Sal’go looked over the others and then right at Chief Tomkin. “Chief the supplies are ready to move. We’ve got all the pieces of tech we could find packed and I’ve already got people ready to move them. But they’re asking where we’re going to go. So got a plan for that?”

“No, the plan is to just move. A mile in then a good walk for the next twenty minutes. After that have Locke make a shelter for us underground,” Tomkin explained.

Burt saw Sal’go’s face go white and his lower arms go limp. Burt just caught Sal’go’s eyes wide before he chuckled.

“Hiding from them might be the best plan there is. We could do more, maybe send in a scouting team while the rest follows behind with Locke? He could make a fort if we’re attacked. The rest of the group should survive,” Burt said with a shrug.

“I’ll want Jess to go with you. Xordig, you’ll go too. We’ll need one more….. and I need you here Sal’go,” Tomkin said as he looked around the group before he eyed Xordig. “And we both know why I want you to go, and why Miss Racha will stay here too.”

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Xordig blinked and then looked at Burt and Sal’go. What Tomkin said had many meanings, but there was only one that he believed. Somehow, the Chief knew who Tomkin and Racha were. He had his cover blown a few times, and this was one for the record books. He didn’t know what to feel, surprise or worry.

Tomkin was senior enough that he knew about the special passengers. But the fact that Racha and he were part of their guard was something else altogether. The skills their team was taught were all to keep people from finding out who they were. To have their cover blown, was a mark of shame in the Service. But he couldn’t even think of how Tomkin figured it out!

Before Xordig could say anything, they heard Sk’p’s voice.

“Sir, I’d like to volunteer to help in any way you need me,” Sk’p said from behind them.

They looked at him, not understanding what he was talking about.

“Well, that’s good. We all need to work together to survive. Just move when we tell you to and I think we’ll all be able to live through this. just don’t…….” Tomkin began but Sk’p interrupted him.

“I mean to fight,” Sk’p said looking at them, a hard look in the being's eyes.

Xordig looked at Sal’go as the being crossed his lower arms and clenched his upper fists. His crewmate had been talking about Sk’p for a while. The being was just someone that Sal’go couldn’t understand, and what Sal’go couldn’t understand, he didn’t trust.

“Look! You can say that all you like,” Sal’go said with a growl. “But if you think that just some civilian level hunting or shooting would let you…..”

“I’m not a civilian,” Sk’p interrupted Sal’go.

Xordig blinked and then looked at Sk’p with a hard eye. After a few moments, a personal dossier appeared by Xordig’s Augmented Reality view. As he read it, he blinked. “Wait…. You’re a Planetary Defense pilot?! From a Swarm-Killer!?”

As Sk’p blinked, Xordig looked at him as Sal’go stepped back. Swarm-Killers were Sk’ps planet’s greatest ships. They were amongst the most honored posting a Defense pilot could ask for, and each one was a veteran warrior. What was someone like that doing here?

“Yeah… how’d you know?” Sk’p asked as he looked at Xordig.

Xordig didn’t say anything, just locked eyes with Tomkin.

“Pilot?” Burt asked and Sal’go looked at him dazed.

“He flies smaller ships that launch from a bigger one. They can project power a long way, inter-system on most models. And all pilots have to be able to fight behind enemy lines,” Sal’go said with a shocked voice.

Xordig did feel for his friend, but this was good. If he, Sk’p, Jess and Burt were the scouts, then they might do this. The four of them with the right weapons should be able to handle anything this planet would throw at them!