Post by Fitz Kreiner on Nov 10, 2008 11:35:25 GMT
Sergeant Thaer disembarked from the travel pod, closely followed by Private Boortz, who’d accompanied him on the journey from the mother ship. Stopping, he took a look around the lush vegetation. It wasn’t long before he was attracted by a shout coming from a figure stood in the doorway to the landing craft. Turning, Thaer rolled his eyes. It was Professor Mori. He’d forgotten the Professor was with this party. The two didn’t exactly get along well.
“What the bloody hell is going on here, hmm?” He shouted, storming out of the landing craft towards Thaer. “Why has all transport been delayed? Do you pompous military asses not know that we’re doing important research here?”
“Please stand down, Professor.” Thaer said loudly, his thick German accent carrying the authority with which he spoke. “There has been a murder at the Landing Craft containing Doctor Sauer’s party. All transport to the mother ship is suspended until the murderer is found.”
“But how can that affect us?” Mori shouted at the Sergeant. “We are in a separate valley to Sauer’s party. It’s tragic yes, but we have to go on.”
Thaer narrowed his eyes and raised an eyebrow, cocking his head to look at the Professor. “That does not sound the attitude of someone who is surprised about the events. It has not been made public.”
“Do you think we do not communicate to each other, Sergeant?” Mori snapped, his face contorting in anger. “I do not like your tone.”
“I would appreciate it if you were to return to the craft, Professor, we will need to question you about your whereabouts to eliminate you from our enquiries.” Thaer said. To his relief the Professor turned on his heel and stormed back to the landing craft. Rolling his eyes, Thaer turned back to the three troopers who had accompanied him; Naja Boortz, Ru Doritz and Gino Lucetti.
“Ok then; I want you to start to get statements from the crew of the Lander and the survey team. Then we can start to collate our reports.”
The three privates saluted before turning and making their way to the Landing Craft. When they had gone, Thaer turned to look at the surrounding jungle. The Lander was in a small clearing near a hillside. Thaer remembered from the transport pod that just to the other side of the hills was another Landing Craft, this one containing Doctor Sauer’s party. Commander Olbrich had quietly spoken to him about the possibility of the murderer being from one of the other of these two crafts as the only person registered as being aboard the second Lander at the time of the murder was Corporal Neruda, who claimed to be asleep ill at the time.
One thing was troubling him slightly, the appearance of the four strangers that were reported. It would be a lot easier if it were one of them that were responsible for the murder, although the evidence already pointed to their innocence. That meant the murderer was one of their party. Thaer closed his eyes and took a deep breath, taking in the Amaranth air. He sincerely hoped that things would be quickly resolved. He was not a detective.
A scream from the jungle to his left brought him crashing out of his reverie. He spun around looking for the source of the noise. The tops of the taller trees were swaying violently, as though something heavy was moving fast through them. Turning, Thaer saw the bushes and undergrowth bustling violently. There was a second scream; a two toned scream than made his blood run cold. There must be one of the jungle creatures chasing another.
It took him several seconds to recognise the shadows running from the undergrowth as human. It was two members of the student team, screaming and running scared. One of them was bleeding, heavily. Within very few seconds, Thaer had drawn his pistol from its holster and was running down the low incline towards the two scared students.
“What the hell happened?” he yelled, skidding to a halt as the two students hurriedly ran across the clearing.
“There’s something out there!” One of them screamed; the one who wasn’t bleeding.
“What sort of something?” Thaer asked, looking closely at the wound on the others shoulder. It was a large ragged tear across the shoulder. Their shirt was crimson with blood. They must be in tremendous pain.
“Them.” The young man managed pointing with his good arm.
Thaer turned cautiously, wondering what he was going to see. It took him several seconds to spot the three shapes perched in the upper branches watching them. Without taking his eyes off them, Thaer spoke:
“Get inside the Lander quickly and quietly. I’ll stay here and keep an eye on these things.” Thaer paused. “And send the others of my troop out and get in touch with Olbrich.”
Thaer didn’t take his eyes off the three shapes, instead, slowly backed towards the Lander. He could hear the two students make their way to the craft. As he backed away one of the green shapes dropped from the branches of the tree and pulled itself up to its full height and let off a two toned bellow, giving Thaer his first proper look at the creatures.
The creature stood about eight feet tall and was green in colour. It had a beaked mouth filled with long, sharp, pointed teeth, behind that, two large yellow and red eyes glared at Thaer. It had two powerful and thick hind legs and a long whipping tail that curiously resembled a thick and flexible creeper. There seemed to be a membrane that was furled up under the forearms of the creature, and its neck seemed to be covered in something that bizarrely looked like a mix between feathers and leaves.
The creature bellowed again, thick strands of saliva dripped from its jaws. Thaer staggered back, his eyes wide. He’d never seen anything like it. The think looked like it was half animal, half plant. It took a step towards him, its powerful hind legs propelling it forwards surprisingly swiftly. Thaer looked into the creatures eyes. There was no question about its intent. Raising his gun and fired three shots at the creature. It bellowed in pain and took another lunge forwards to him, its beaky mouth wide, sharp teeth almost gleaming in the sun, its deep purple tongue flailing as it roared at him.
His jaw set and his mouth downturned in a scowl, Thaer emptied the clip into the creature’s mouth, bright green blood and brain matter exploded out the back of its head before in crumpled down onto the ground, dead.
Thaer lowered his gun, wisps of smoke still coming from the barrel, the sound of the shots still echoing round the valley. He suddenly remembered the two other creatures and looked back up into the tree tops. The two creatures were still crouched there; immobile and watching him.
“Sergeant, what happened?”
Thaer spun round and saw Private Naja Boortz running towards him, pistol in her hand. Her eyes were fixed firmly on the dead creature just behind him.
“That creature happened.” Thaer said, indicating the dead creature with his boot before turning back to look up into the trees, where the other two creatures were.
Squinting, he paused; they had disappeared. He hadn’t heard them, they must have moved into cover when Boortz appeared. Turning, Thaer saw that two students had appeared outside the door to the Lander, one of the two who’d ran from the jungle and another he assumed had already been there.
“It sure is one ugly sonova.” Boortz said, kicking the corpse gently.
“You may want to get back inside.” Thaer shouted up to the Lander before turning back to Boortz. He opened his mouth to speak and that was when it happened.
A green shape launched itself out of the jungle towards Boortz, with a blood chilling two toned wail. Thaer saw a long green tail trailing behind it, and what looked like wings joining the forearms to the trunk of the torso. The creature landed heavily on Boortz’s back, knocking her from her feet and to the ground with a yell of surprise. The long clawed feet dug into her back, piercing and tearing the flesh.
Thaer brought his gun up and squeezed the trigger automatically, taking several shots before he realised that the clip was spent. Hurriedly, he fumbled about his belt for another, whilst his eyes were fixed firmly on the struggling mass of Boortz and the creature. Boortz was now screaming, a wordless scream, as the creatures claws ripped through her clothing and flesh. Blood dripped from the creatures claws as it raised its head and bellowed its chilling two toned scream. With a swift movement it ducked its head and long neck down, opening its beaklike jaws. Boortz looked round and up at the attacker in time to see its strong jaws clamp about her head, sharp teeth puncturing her flesh numerous times. With a twist of its neck, Boortz stopped screaming, and the creature brought its head up, shards of flesh clung to its teeth.
Thaer looked down at Boortz, her neck was twisted and broken and there were large jagged tears in her face where the creature’s teeth had taken the flesh. The creature fixed its eyes on Thaer for several long seconds before it bent its head down and took a crushing bite of Boortz head. There was the sickening sound of shattering and crushing bone and the soft squelch of brain matter, as the creature brought its head up again, blood, grey brain matter and shards of skull bone falling from its jaw as it swallowed the bite it had taken.
Slamming the new clip into place, Thaer raised his gun to fire at the creature when another shriek echoed round the valley and a second green blur shot out of the jungle to his right as the second creature leapt towards him. Sidestepping, Thaer brought his gun round, but he wasn’t quick enough; the creature knocked him from his feet and sent him stumbling. Standing beside its fellow, the creature reared to its full height, spread its wing-like forearms and bellowed.
Thaer scrambled to his feet, ducking as shots rang out. Chancing a look behind him, Doritz, Lucetti and the two crewmembers of the Lander were stood by the doorway to craft, firing at the two creatures. Quickly, Thaer rushed over to them, ducking under their covering fire.
“What happened?” Doritz shouted over the sound of the gunfire.
“Those creatures came out of nowhere. They’ve killed Boortz and one of them attacked one of the students.” Thaer shouted back, before indicating to the troops to withdraw into the craft.
“We saw him, looks nasty.” Doritz shouted back. “I’ve bandaged him up as best as I could.”
Thaer looked back towards the two creatures. One of them had been wounded, but not seriously. As he watched, the trees and undergrowth started to move and more of the creatures appeared; four, six, ten, fifteen.
“We’re outnumbered here. Get back inside quickly!” He yelled.
There was a scream from the co pilot as another of the creatures appeared from round the front of the craft, grabbing the man by the neck its large talons, digging into his skin, dragging the man towards its open mouth. As Thaer watched, the creature bit down on the man’s shoulder, ripping his arm off at the joint. Blood spurted from the wound, splashing over the main screen of the Lander. Thaer made an on the spot decision; he couldn’t save the man’s life and with a squeeze of the trigger, shot him dead, saving him the pain of being ripped apart. With a final look at the creatures, he dived into the craft and slammed the door behind him.
The sound of the locking mechanism to the transport pods reverberated through the Landing Craft. Olbrich completed keying in his authorisation code into the panel and, turning on his heel, headed back towards the living area of the Lander. Doctor Le Druier and the stranger calling himself the Doctor were now making their way back to the mother ship with the blood sample from the girl.
Olbrich paused at the door to the living section and glanced over to where the three members of the student team were sat. They were white faced and looked deeply concerned. He had to admit, he couldn’t blame them. It was now fifteen minutes since Thaer’s party had reported that they were under attack from alien creatures and no word had been heard since. As a precaution, Olbrich had sent the two troopers who had accompanied himself and Doctor Le Druier to the surface. He had ordered that Neruda remain here in case he needed her. Le Druier had checked her out before she left, and the Corporal was in full health.
Rubbing his stubbly chin, Olbrich opened the door and stepped into the living area. The young girl was sat, looking extremely pale, next to Doctor Sauer, who was carefully treating her hand as the Doctor had instructed him. Another girl was sat next to the blonde girl, holding her hand and talking to her in a quiet and calming voice, clearly concerned. She didn’t look up when Olbrich opened the door so he didn’t get a look at her face. The other of the Doctor’s companions, however, Olbrich, couldn’t have missed. He was stood by the door to the sleeping compartments, hands in his pocket. He was wearing one of the crew shirts, open over a t-shirt, sleeves rolled up to his elbows. He looked both uncomfortable and concerned at not being able to do anything to help the girl.
Olbrich was opening his mouth to speak when suddenly the young man shot a look up and the words failed on Olbrich’s tongue. The young man fixed his with a piercing stare, his bright blue eyes almost boring into Olbrich’s skull.
“You could have let her go up, you know.” He said. “She needs medical attention, and you’re refusing it her?”
“Tom!”
The young man was silenced from the scorning tone from the dark girl.
“I would if I could, but I cannot allow it.” Olbrich said. “Maybe when you become Commander of a mission that is this far from Earth you will be able to cope with the decisions of command.”
“Oh, it’s tough at the top, isn’t it?” The young man muttered. “I commanded a full station of security before.”
Olbrich narrowed his eyes. The young man was in his mid twenties. He was either exaggerating greatly or lying. Either way, Olbrich didn’t let it worry him.
“I’m Commander Olbrich.” He said as way of introduction. “And you are?”
“Tom Rowan.” The man replied, smiling now and offering Olbrich his hand. “Sorry about that, we’re just all concerned about Tifa.”
“That’s understandable.” Olbrich said turning to face the girl. “We all say things in the heat of the moment. And you?”
“Jess.” The girl said looking up, giving Olbrich his first proper look at her. He almost immediately felt a pang of jealousy to the Doctor and Rowan, travelling with two such attractive young women.
“Doctor Smith never mentioned, how do you come to be so far out?” Olbrich said, keeping his eyes fixed firmly on Rowan as he spoke. Interestingly, a look of confusion fluttered over the man’s face at the name before he looked up again.
“We just landed out here. We’d been travelling a while. Didn’t realise that there were others out here.”
Olbrich thoughtfully sucked on his teeth. He wasn’t sure he trusted the young man, he seemed shifty and his reaction to Doctor Smiths name and the reason for being so far out seemed wrong. He was about to try another line, see if he could catch the young man out when the door was flung open and Neruda burst in.
“Sorry sir.” She apologised, snapping to attention. “I’ve discovered something amiss with the computer logs.”
Olbrich turned round to face her, his eyebrow arched, wordlessly inviting her to continue.
“It seems as though someone has accessed them and deleted several files, including most of the shift logs that Mendez would have made before he was killed.”
“Is there any way to retrieve them?” Olbrich asked.
Neruda sadly shook her head. “Not that I know of.”
“Ah, excuse me.”
Olbrich turned round to see Rowan stepping forwards, raising his hand.
“I happen to be quite handy with computers. You don’t mind if I take a look?” He smiled at Olbrich, patting the Commander on the shoulder as he walked past, not waiting for an answer.
“Now hold on just a moment-” Olbrich started, stepping after Tom.
Spinning round and walking backwards, Tom pointed at Olbrich with both hands. “You’re trying to solve a murder and the info you need could be in the system somewhere, which I can get for you.” He paused and raised a quizzical eyebrow, “Unless you don’t want to solve this?”
“You think you can retrieve the deleted data?” Olbrich asked.
“Can’t hurt to have a go.” Tom smiled.
Olbrich glanced at Neruda and raised his eyebrows. “I don’t know sir.” She replied. “I’m not a tech, it might be possible.”
“Alright.” Olbrich nodded. “Have a look.”
Tom nodded and clicked his fingers as he spun on the spot and disappeared into the cockpit. Neruda looked up at Olbrich before following. Olbrich sighed and glanced over towards the three students. They were sat; slack jawed, looking on at the strange event that had just transpired. The sound of Olbrich’s communicator thankfully drew him away. Stepping outside the Lander, he activated it and Private Ghuld’s tinny voice came through.
“Commander, we’re overlooking the second Lander now. No sight of these alien creatures though. What do you want us to do?”
“Circle in and see if there are any casualties and give assistance if needed. Report back to me when you reach them.” Olbrich said, and shut off the communicator, slipping it back into the pouch on his belt.
Sighing, Olbrich leaned heavily against the warm metal of the Landers hull and looked out into the jungle. Somewhere out there were some rather hostile creatures, which had only appeared in the last day. Creatures that had attacked one of the Landers and presumably been responsible for Mendez’s body going missing. Remembering this, Olbrich kept his eyes open and scoured the jungle edge. He didn’t want to be taken by surprise.
He didn’t know how long he stood staring into the jungle, but he was brought out of his reverie when Neruda stepped out of the Lander and almost jumped back in surprise at seeing him.
“Ah sir.” She started.
“How is he faring?” Olbrich asked.
“Good.” Neruda said, fishing a pack of cigarettes from her pocket and placing one between her lips. “In an odd way. He’s acting as if those systems are child’s play to him.”
Olbrich paused and blinked before turning to face Neruda. “Those systems were brand new. Freshly installed before we set off weren’t they?”
Neruda nodded, blowing out some blue-grey smoke. “He mentioned something about it being an old system and remembering using something like it years ago.”
“The mystery surrounding them deepens.” Olbrich said absently. “I thought we were the first expedition to use this new style.”
“We are.” Neruda confirmed. “Which is why I’m a little lost with it still. Every day you learn something new. He took to it like a duck to water.”
“Hmm, I think it’s time I had another chat with him.” Olbrich said walking into the Lander. He paused almost immediately he entered; the young man, Rowan was talking to one of the students.
“Look, I need this data pad.” He said, grasping the slim pad.
“I don’t care if you need it,” Dufeyal almost growled, trying the snatch it back. “It contains everything we’ve surveyed about the Rectus Pilosus.”
“Then survey it again later. This is rather more important than a-” Tom paused, as though trying to search for the right word. “...Than whatever that is. This is a murder enquiry, and I’m sure that the Commander there would be very interested to know that you’re standing in its way for a rectus something.”
Dufeyal faltered and shot a look towards the door, where Olbrich was stood, watching them, his arms folded. Resigning himself, he stood back his head bowed.
“That’s it mate. We can always redo all that stuff after this thing is over.” Bradman said, placing a friendly hand on Dufeyal’s shoulder.
“Thanks!” Tom winked, before spinning and disappearing back into the cockpit.
Olbrich watched as Dufeyal slumped down onto a bench and rested his head on his hands. After several seconds, he followed Tom into the cockpit. Upon entering the cockpit, Olbrick found the young man had pulled open one of the panel coverings and had attached the data pad to one of the wires he had removed. He was holding another, thicker one, between his teeth and was tapping furiously at another panel.
“Any progress?” Olbrich asked looking at the mess the cockpit was now in.
“Well, whoever tried to erase the computer log was clever, but didn’t really know what they were doing.” Tom replied, not looking up or even removing the wiring from his mouth. “Fortunately for you, I’m cleverer.” Plugging the wire he held between his teeth into an overhead monitor, he turned and winked at Olbirch.
Olbrich looked at Tom carefully. “Are you sure you know what you’re doing?”
“Sure.” Tom replied. “Whoever tried to erase your computer memory only accessed the neuroplasmic data core. And fortunately, this doesn’t have later than a mark three mercury filament linkages to a serve memory bank. Whoever attempted this sabotage obviously didn’t know that.”
Olbrich blinked. He had absolutely no idea what the young man was on about. He could have just made all that techno-babble up for all he knew, and quite probably had to make himself sound clever.
“However, if I get this right, I should be able to access the last files that were worked on about the time your pilot was killed.” Tom paused and turned to Olbrich. “Oh, hang on. Do you have his duty number at all, just to make the search a tad easier?”
“Oh, yes.” Olbrich fumbled for his personal pad about his belt and flipped it open, accessing the information. “Gamma oblique three three.” He said, looking up and seeing Tom again busying himself in the instrument panel.
“You know, it’s odd.” He was saying. “It’s almost as though someone had accessed this before, inside the panel I mean, it shouldn’t have come away as easy as it did.”
“We have been having bouts of sabotage for a while.” Olbrich said. “Are you suggesting that this was overlooked by my team?”
“Not necessarily.” Tom replied, turning to look at Olbrich before tapping some instructions into the data pad. “Whoever did this hid their tracks very well.” Pausing, Tom leaned over and flicked a few switches causing the data pads screen to light up. “Ah!” He grinned. “Shouldn’t be long now.” He added leaning over to make some more adjustments inside the panel, before looking up, his face suddenly deadly serious. “Oh dear!”
“What is it?” Olbrich asked, leaning forwards, trying to see into open control panel.
“I think you’d better get everyone out of here and as far away as possible.” Tom replied, gripping hold of the lower covering to the panel and tugging it until it came away in his hands.
“What is it?” Olbrich repeated, louder and sterner.
“A bomb.” Tom said flatly, turning and looking up at the Commanders slack jawed response. “Well, I say a bomb; it’s a rewiring resulting in an exponentially increasing feedback loop into the engines. It seems it was activated by trying to retrieve the deleted information. Sorry.”
Olbrich stared at Tom for what seemed like years before his brain clicked into gear and he managed to make sense of what the young man was saying. “You mean, somebody deliberately set this up?”
“Yup.” Tom replied grimly. “Someone who obviously wanted what was in this data kept very secret, and they were willing to destroy this craft to do it. And I’d be less than surprised if that was the reason for your pilot’s death.”
“Mendez had discovered something and someone killed him because of it?”
“Exactly.” Tom replied, before diving under the console. After several seconds his head poked out. “Are you still here? I told you to get everyone the hell away from here.” He shouted.
“Then lead by example.” Olbrich snapped, causing Tom to furiously pull himself from under the control panel and stand up, his face close to that of Olbrich’s.
“I’m doing this for you there’s nothing keeping me here but I’m staying to get this information for you because there is a murderer out there.” He said staring irately into the Commanders eyes. “Get these people out of here and I’ll try and stop this feedback loop. As I was indirectly responsible for its starting, it’s the least I can do.”
Olbrich stared at those piercing blue eyes for several seconds. There was something about them, something that chilled his blood. Reluctantly he nodded and turned to leave. Taking one glance back over his shoulder, he saw that Tom was once again emerging himself into the workings of the cockpit.
Jess was confused. Commander Olbrich had burst into the living area; his face flushed red, and ordered everyone out of the Landing Craft. Hers and Doctor Sauer’s protests about Tifa’s condition had fallen onto deaf ears, as the Commander repeated his order for them to leave. They had half carried Tifa some way into the jungle with the help of the two students that had met her and Tom initially before she realised that the young Time Lord was nowhere to be seen. Turning round, she couldn’t see him anywhere. Was she the only one who had noticed he wasn’t there? She felt a wave of panic flood over her for a moment which was broken when Sauer spoke.
“Would you please tell us what is happening?” He said, shouting up to Olbrich from where he was crouched next to the exhausted Tifa.
“The young man, Rowan, was trying to access the computer core when he accidentally triggered some sabotage he thinks the saboteur left in the system.” Olbrich replied.
The wave of panic was back. “What sabotage?” Jess asked, her voice faltering slightly.
“Something called a feedback loop.” Olbrich said, causing Neruda and Sauer to look up, concerned looks on their faces. “Linked to the engines or something, like a bomb.”
Jess felt the wave of panic sweep over her as the last word sank in, her eyes widening. “Where is he?” She demanded, her legs already feeling weak, as if preparing for the worst.
“He’s trying to stop the loop from overloading the engines.” Olbrich said.
“He’s still there?” Sauer exclaimed getting to his feet.
The panic was back. Jess felt as though a surge of fire shot from her heart, down each of her limbs and left her tingling. Adrenaline seemed to be flooding her system. “You just left him?” Jess knew she said the words, but not how loud.
“He insisted we get to safety.” Olbrich protested.
Jess glared at the officer for a couple of seconds before turning to make back to the Landing Craft.
“No wait-” Sauer began, putting his hand on her shoulder.
The rest of his words were cut off by a deafening explosion as a huge fireball erupted in the clearing where the Lander was situated. Jess could feel the heat from the explosion as large bits of debris showered the jungle about them, staring in shock at the way she was about to go, a large plume of flame and smoke rising into the air.
“What the bloody hell is going on here, hmm?” He shouted, storming out of the landing craft towards Thaer. “Why has all transport been delayed? Do you pompous military asses not know that we’re doing important research here?”
“Please stand down, Professor.” Thaer said loudly, his thick German accent carrying the authority with which he spoke. “There has been a murder at the Landing Craft containing Doctor Sauer’s party. All transport to the mother ship is suspended until the murderer is found.”
“But how can that affect us?” Mori shouted at the Sergeant. “We are in a separate valley to Sauer’s party. It’s tragic yes, but we have to go on.”
Thaer narrowed his eyes and raised an eyebrow, cocking his head to look at the Professor. “That does not sound the attitude of someone who is surprised about the events. It has not been made public.”
“Do you think we do not communicate to each other, Sergeant?” Mori snapped, his face contorting in anger. “I do not like your tone.”
“I would appreciate it if you were to return to the craft, Professor, we will need to question you about your whereabouts to eliminate you from our enquiries.” Thaer said. To his relief the Professor turned on his heel and stormed back to the landing craft. Rolling his eyes, Thaer turned back to the three troopers who had accompanied him; Naja Boortz, Ru Doritz and Gino Lucetti.
“Ok then; I want you to start to get statements from the crew of the Lander and the survey team. Then we can start to collate our reports.”
The three privates saluted before turning and making their way to the Landing Craft. When they had gone, Thaer turned to look at the surrounding jungle. The Lander was in a small clearing near a hillside. Thaer remembered from the transport pod that just to the other side of the hills was another Landing Craft, this one containing Doctor Sauer’s party. Commander Olbrich had quietly spoken to him about the possibility of the murderer being from one of the other of these two crafts as the only person registered as being aboard the second Lander at the time of the murder was Corporal Neruda, who claimed to be asleep ill at the time.
One thing was troubling him slightly, the appearance of the four strangers that were reported. It would be a lot easier if it were one of them that were responsible for the murder, although the evidence already pointed to their innocence. That meant the murderer was one of their party. Thaer closed his eyes and took a deep breath, taking in the Amaranth air. He sincerely hoped that things would be quickly resolved. He was not a detective.
A scream from the jungle to his left brought him crashing out of his reverie. He spun around looking for the source of the noise. The tops of the taller trees were swaying violently, as though something heavy was moving fast through them. Turning, Thaer saw the bushes and undergrowth bustling violently. There was a second scream; a two toned scream than made his blood run cold. There must be one of the jungle creatures chasing another.
It took him several seconds to recognise the shadows running from the undergrowth as human. It was two members of the student team, screaming and running scared. One of them was bleeding, heavily. Within very few seconds, Thaer had drawn his pistol from its holster and was running down the low incline towards the two scared students.
“What the hell happened?” he yelled, skidding to a halt as the two students hurriedly ran across the clearing.
“There’s something out there!” One of them screamed; the one who wasn’t bleeding.
“What sort of something?” Thaer asked, looking closely at the wound on the others shoulder. It was a large ragged tear across the shoulder. Their shirt was crimson with blood. They must be in tremendous pain.
“Them.” The young man managed pointing with his good arm.
Thaer turned cautiously, wondering what he was going to see. It took him several seconds to spot the three shapes perched in the upper branches watching them. Without taking his eyes off them, Thaer spoke:
“Get inside the Lander quickly and quietly. I’ll stay here and keep an eye on these things.” Thaer paused. “And send the others of my troop out and get in touch with Olbrich.”
Thaer didn’t take his eyes off the three shapes, instead, slowly backed towards the Lander. He could hear the two students make their way to the craft. As he backed away one of the green shapes dropped from the branches of the tree and pulled itself up to its full height and let off a two toned bellow, giving Thaer his first proper look at the creatures.
The creature stood about eight feet tall and was green in colour. It had a beaked mouth filled with long, sharp, pointed teeth, behind that, two large yellow and red eyes glared at Thaer. It had two powerful and thick hind legs and a long whipping tail that curiously resembled a thick and flexible creeper. There seemed to be a membrane that was furled up under the forearms of the creature, and its neck seemed to be covered in something that bizarrely looked like a mix between feathers and leaves.
The creature bellowed again, thick strands of saliva dripped from its jaws. Thaer staggered back, his eyes wide. He’d never seen anything like it. The think looked like it was half animal, half plant. It took a step towards him, its powerful hind legs propelling it forwards surprisingly swiftly. Thaer looked into the creatures eyes. There was no question about its intent. Raising his gun and fired three shots at the creature. It bellowed in pain and took another lunge forwards to him, its beaky mouth wide, sharp teeth almost gleaming in the sun, its deep purple tongue flailing as it roared at him.
His jaw set and his mouth downturned in a scowl, Thaer emptied the clip into the creature’s mouth, bright green blood and brain matter exploded out the back of its head before in crumpled down onto the ground, dead.
Thaer lowered his gun, wisps of smoke still coming from the barrel, the sound of the shots still echoing round the valley. He suddenly remembered the two other creatures and looked back up into the tree tops. The two creatures were still crouched there; immobile and watching him.
“Sergeant, what happened?”
Thaer spun round and saw Private Naja Boortz running towards him, pistol in her hand. Her eyes were fixed firmly on the dead creature just behind him.
“That creature happened.” Thaer said, indicating the dead creature with his boot before turning back to look up into the trees, where the other two creatures were.
Squinting, he paused; they had disappeared. He hadn’t heard them, they must have moved into cover when Boortz appeared. Turning, Thaer saw that two students had appeared outside the door to the Lander, one of the two who’d ran from the jungle and another he assumed had already been there.
“It sure is one ugly sonova.” Boortz said, kicking the corpse gently.
“You may want to get back inside.” Thaer shouted up to the Lander before turning back to Boortz. He opened his mouth to speak and that was when it happened.
A green shape launched itself out of the jungle towards Boortz, with a blood chilling two toned wail. Thaer saw a long green tail trailing behind it, and what looked like wings joining the forearms to the trunk of the torso. The creature landed heavily on Boortz’s back, knocking her from her feet and to the ground with a yell of surprise. The long clawed feet dug into her back, piercing and tearing the flesh.
Thaer brought his gun up and squeezed the trigger automatically, taking several shots before he realised that the clip was spent. Hurriedly, he fumbled about his belt for another, whilst his eyes were fixed firmly on the struggling mass of Boortz and the creature. Boortz was now screaming, a wordless scream, as the creatures claws ripped through her clothing and flesh. Blood dripped from the creatures claws as it raised its head and bellowed its chilling two toned scream. With a swift movement it ducked its head and long neck down, opening its beaklike jaws. Boortz looked round and up at the attacker in time to see its strong jaws clamp about her head, sharp teeth puncturing her flesh numerous times. With a twist of its neck, Boortz stopped screaming, and the creature brought its head up, shards of flesh clung to its teeth.
Thaer looked down at Boortz, her neck was twisted and broken and there were large jagged tears in her face where the creature’s teeth had taken the flesh. The creature fixed its eyes on Thaer for several long seconds before it bent its head down and took a crushing bite of Boortz head. There was the sickening sound of shattering and crushing bone and the soft squelch of brain matter, as the creature brought its head up again, blood, grey brain matter and shards of skull bone falling from its jaw as it swallowed the bite it had taken.
Slamming the new clip into place, Thaer raised his gun to fire at the creature when another shriek echoed round the valley and a second green blur shot out of the jungle to his right as the second creature leapt towards him. Sidestepping, Thaer brought his gun round, but he wasn’t quick enough; the creature knocked him from his feet and sent him stumbling. Standing beside its fellow, the creature reared to its full height, spread its wing-like forearms and bellowed.
Thaer scrambled to his feet, ducking as shots rang out. Chancing a look behind him, Doritz, Lucetti and the two crewmembers of the Lander were stood by the doorway to craft, firing at the two creatures. Quickly, Thaer rushed over to them, ducking under their covering fire.
“What happened?” Doritz shouted over the sound of the gunfire.
“Those creatures came out of nowhere. They’ve killed Boortz and one of them attacked one of the students.” Thaer shouted back, before indicating to the troops to withdraw into the craft.
“We saw him, looks nasty.” Doritz shouted back. “I’ve bandaged him up as best as I could.”
Thaer looked back towards the two creatures. One of them had been wounded, but not seriously. As he watched, the trees and undergrowth started to move and more of the creatures appeared; four, six, ten, fifteen.
“We’re outnumbered here. Get back inside quickly!” He yelled.
There was a scream from the co pilot as another of the creatures appeared from round the front of the craft, grabbing the man by the neck its large talons, digging into his skin, dragging the man towards its open mouth. As Thaer watched, the creature bit down on the man’s shoulder, ripping his arm off at the joint. Blood spurted from the wound, splashing over the main screen of the Lander. Thaer made an on the spot decision; he couldn’t save the man’s life and with a squeeze of the trigger, shot him dead, saving him the pain of being ripped apart. With a final look at the creatures, he dived into the craft and slammed the door behind him.
*
The sound of the locking mechanism to the transport pods reverberated through the Landing Craft. Olbrich completed keying in his authorisation code into the panel and, turning on his heel, headed back towards the living area of the Lander. Doctor Le Druier and the stranger calling himself the Doctor were now making their way back to the mother ship with the blood sample from the girl.
Olbrich paused at the door to the living section and glanced over to where the three members of the student team were sat. They were white faced and looked deeply concerned. He had to admit, he couldn’t blame them. It was now fifteen minutes since Thaer’s party had reported that they were under attack from alien creatures and no word had been heard since. As a precaution, Olbrich had sent the two troopers who had accompanied himself and Doctor Le Druier to the surface. He had ordered that Neruda remain here in case he needed her. Le Druier had checked her out before she left, and the Corporal was in full health.
Rubbing his stubbly chin, Olbrich opened the door and stepped into the living area. The young girl was sat, looking extremely pale, next to Doctor Sauer, who was carefully treating her hand as the Doctor had instructed him. Another girl was sat next to the blonde girl, holding her hand and talking to her in a quiet and calming voice, clearly concerned. She didn’t look up when Olbrich opened the door so he didn’t get a look at her face. The other of the Doctor’s companions, however, Olbrich, couldn’t have missed. He was stood by the door to the sleeping compartments, hands in his pocket. He was wearing one of the crew shirts, open over a t-shirt, sleeves rolled up to his elbows. He looked both uncomfortable and concerned at not being able to do anything to help the girl.
Olbrich was opening his mouth to speak when suddenly the young man shot a look up and the words failed on Olbrich’s tongue. The young man fixed his with a piercing stare, his bright blue eyes almost boring into Olbrich’s skull.
“You could have let her go up, you know.” He said. “She needs medical attention, and you’re refusing it her?”
“Tom!”
The young man was silenced from the scorning tone from the dark girl.
“I would if I could, but I cannot allow it.” Olbrich said. “Maybe when you become Commander of a mission that is this far from Earth you will be able to cope with the decisions of command.”
“Oh, it’s tough at the top, isn’t it?” The young man muttered. “I commanded a full station of security before.”
Olbrich narrowed his eyes. The young man was in his mid twenties. He was either exaggerating greatly or lying. Either way, Olbrich didn’t let it worry him.
“I’m Commander Olbrich.” He said as way of introduction. “And you are?”
“Tom Rowan.” The man replied, smiling now and offering Olbrich his hand. “Sorry about that, we’re just all concerned about Tifa.”
“That’s understandable.” Olbrich said turning to face the girl. “We all say things in the heat of the moment. And you?”
“Jess.” The girl said looking up, giving Olbrich his first proper look at her. He almost immediately felt a pang of jealousy to the Doctor and Rowan, travelling with two such attractive young women.
“Doctor Smith never mentioned, how do you come to be so far out?” Olbrich said, keeping his eyes fixed firmly on Rowan as he spoke. Interestingly, a look of confusion fluttered over the man’s face at the name before he looked up again.
“We just landed out here. We’d been travelling a while. Didn’t realise that there were others out here.”
Olbrich thoughtfully sucked on his teeth. He wasn’t sure he trusted the young man, he seemed shifty and his reaction to Doctor Smiths name and the reason for being so far out seemed wrong. He was about to try another line, see if he could catch the young man out when the door was flung open and Neruda burst in.
“Sorry sir.” She apologised, snapping to attention. “I’ve discovered something amiss with the computer logs.”
Olbrich turned round to face her, his eyebrow arched, wordlessly inviting her to continue.
“It seems as though someone has accessed them and deleted several files, including most of the shift logs that Mendez would have made before he was killed.”
“Is there any way to retrieve them?” Olbrich asked.
Neruda sadly shook her head. “Not that I know of.”
“Ah, excuse me.”
Olbrich turned round to see Rowan stepping forwards, raising his hand.
“I happen to be quite handy with computers. You don’t mind if I take a look?” He smiled at Olbrich, patting the Commander on the shoulder as he walked past, not waiting for an answer.
“Now hold on just a moment-” Olbrich started, stepping after Tom.
Spinning round and walking backwards, Tom pointed at Olbrich with both hands. “You’re trying to solve a murder and the info you need could be in the system somewhere, which I can get for you.” He paused and raised a quizzical eyebrow, “Unless you don’t want to solve this?”
“You think you can retrieve the deleted data?” Olbrich asked.
“Can’t hurt to have a go.” Tom smiled.
Olbrich glanced at Neruda and raised his eyebrows. “I don’t know sir.” She replied. “I’m not a tech, it might be possible.”
“Alright.” Olbrich nodded. “Have a look.”
Tom nodded and clicked his fingers as he spun on the spot and disappeared into the cockpit. Neruda looked up at Olbrich before following. Olbrich sighed and glanced over towards the three students. They were sat; slack jawed, looking on at the strange event that had just transpired. The sound of Olbrich’s communicator thankfully drew him away. Stepping outside the Lander, he activated it and Private Ghuld’s tinny voice came through.
“Commander, we’re overlooking the second Lander now. No sight of these alien creatures though. What do you want us to do?”
“Circle in and see if there are any casualties and give assistance if needed. Report back to me when you reach them.” Olbrich said, and shut off the communicator, slipping it back into the pouch on his belt.
Sighing, Olbrich leaned heavily against the warm metal of the Landers hull and looked out into the jungle. Somewhere out there were some rather hostile creatures, which had only appeared in the last day. Creatures that had attacked one of the Landers and presumably been responsible for Mendez’s body going missing. Remembering this, Olbrich kept his eyes open and scoured the jungle edge. He didn’t want to be taken by surprise.
He didn’t know how long he stood staring into the jungle, but he was brought out of his reverie when Neruda stepped out of the Lander and almost jumped back in surprise at seeing him.
“Ah sir.” She started.
“How is he faring?” Olbrich asked.
“Good.” Neruda said, fishing a pack of cigarettes from her pocket and placing one between her lips. “In an odd way. He’s acting as if those systems are child’s play to him.”
Olbrich paused and blinked before turning to face Neruda. “Those systems were brand new. Freshly installed before we set off weren’t they?”
Neruda nodded, blowing out some blue-grey smoke. “He mentioned something about it being an old system and remembering using something like it years ago.”
“The mystery surrounding them deepens.” Olbrich said absently. “I thought we were the first expedition to use this new style.”
“We are.” Neruda confirmed. “Which is why I’m a little lost with it still. Every day you learn something new. He took to it like a duck to water.”
“Hmm, I think it’s time I had another chat with him.” Olbrich said walking into the Lander. He paused almost immediately he entered; the young man, Rowan was talking to one of the students.
“Look, I need this data pad.” He said, grasping the slim pad.
“I don’t care if you need it,” Dufeyal almost growled, trying the snatch it back. “It contains everything we’ve surveyed about the Rectus Pilosus.”
“Then survey it again later. This is rather more important than a-” Tom paused, as though trying to search for the right word. “...Than whatever that is. This is a murder enquiry, and I’m sure that the Commander there would be very interested to know that you’re standing in its way for a rectus something.”
Dufeyal faltered and shot a look towards the door, where Olbrich was stood, watching them, his arms folded. Resigning himself, he stood back his head bowed.
“That’s it mate. We can always redo all that stuff after this thing is over.” Bradman said, placing a friendly hand on Dufeyal’s shoulder.
“Thanks!” Tom winked, before spinning and disappearing back into the cockpit.
Olbrich watched as Dufeyal slumped down onto a bench and rested his head on his hands. After several seconds, he followed Tom into the cockpit. Upon entering the cockpit, Olbrick found the young man had pulled open one of the panel coverings and had attached the data pad to one of the wires he had removed. He was holding another, thicker one, between his teeth and was tapping furiously at another panel.
“Any progress?” Olbrich asked looking at the mess the cockpit was now in.
“Well, whoever tried to erase the computer log was clever, but didn’t really know what they were doing.” Tom replied, not looking up or even removing the wiring from his mouth. “Fortunately for you, I’m cleverer.” Plugging the wire he held between his teeth into an overhead monitor, he turned and winked at Olbirch.
Olbrich looked at Tom carefully. “Are you sure you know what you’re doing?”
“Sure.” Tom replied. “Whoever tried to erase your computer memory only accessed the neuroplasmic data core. And fortunately, this doesn’t have later than a mark three mercury filament linkages to a serve memory bank. Whoever attempted this sabotage obviously didn’t know that.”
Olbrich blinked. He had absolutely no idea what the young man was on about. He could have just made all that techno-babble up for all he knew, and quite probably had to make himself sound clever.
“However, if I get this right, I should be able to access the last files that were worked on about the time your pilot was killed.” Tom paused and turned to Olbrich. “Oh, hang on. Do you have his duty number at all, just to make the search a tad easier?”
“Oh, yes.” Olbrich fumbled for his personal pad about his belt and flipped it open, accessing the information. “Gamma oblique three three.” He said, looking up and seeing Tom again busying himself in the instrument panel.
“You know, it’s odd.” He was saying. “It’s almost as though someone had accessed this before, inside the panel I mean, it shouldn’t have come away as easy as it did.”
“We have been having bouts of sabotage for a while.” Olbrich said. “Are you suggesting that this was overlooked by my team?”
“Not necessarily.” Tom replied, turning to look at Olbrich before tapping some instructions into the data pad. “Whoever did this hid their tracks very well.” Pausing, Tom leaned over and flicked a few switches causing the data pads screen to light up. “Ah!” He grinned. “Shouldn’t be long now.” He added leaning over to make some more adjustments inside the panel, before looking up, his face suddenly deadly serious. “Oh dear!”
“What is it?” Olbrich asked, leaning forwards, trying to see into open control panel.
“I think you’d better get everyone out of here and as far away as possible.” Tom replied, gripping hold of the lower covering to the panel and tugging it until it came away in his hands.
“What is it?” Olbrich repeated, louder and sterner.
“A bomb.” Tom said flatly, turning and looking up at the Commanders slack jawed response. “Well, I say a bomb; it’s a rewiring resulting in an exponentially increasing feedback loop into the engines. It seems it was activated by trying to retrieve the deleted information. Sorry.”
Olbrich stared at Tom for what seemed like years before his brain clicked into gear and he managed to make sense of what the young man was saying. “You mean, somebody deliberately set this up?”
“Yup.” Tom replied grimly. “Someone who obviously wanted what was in this data kept very secret, and they were willing to destroy this craft to do it. And I’d be less than surprised if that was the reason for your pilot’s death.”
“Mendez had discovered something and someone killed him because of it?”
“Exactly.” Tom replied, before diving under the console. After several seconds his head poked out. “Are you still here? I told you to get everyone the hell away from here.” He shouted.
“Then lead by example.” Olbrich snapped, causing Tom to furiously pull himself from under the control panel and stand up, his face close to that of Olbrich’s.
“I’m doing this for you there’s nothing keeping me here but I’m staying to get this information for you because there is a murderer out there.” He said staring irately into the Commanders eyes. “Get these people out of here and I’ll try and stop this feedback loop. As I was indirectly responsible for its starting, it’s the least I can do.”
Olbrich stared at those piercing blue eyes for several seconds. There was something about them, something that chilled his blood. Reluctantly he nodded and turned to leave. Taking one glance back over his shoulder, he saw that Tom was once again emerging himself into the workings of the cockpit.
*
Jess was confused. Commander Olbrich had burst into the living area; his face flushed red, and ordered everyone out of the Landing Craft. Hers and Doctor Sauer’s protests about Tifa’s condition had fallen onto deaf ears, as the Commander repeated his order for them to leave. They had half carried Tifa some way into the jungle with the help of the two students that had met her and Tom initially before she realised that the young Time Lord was nowhere to be seen. Turning round, she couldn’t see him anywhere. Was she the only one who had noticed he wasn’t there? She felt a wave of panic flood over her for a moment which was broken when Sauer spoke.
“Would you please tell us what is happening?” He said, shouting up to Olbrich from where he was crouched next to the exhausted Tifa.
“The young man, Rowan, was trying to access the computer core when he accidentally triggered some sabotage he thinks the saboteur left in the system.” Olbrich replied.
The wave of panic was back. “What sabotage?” Jess asked, her voice faltering slightly.
“Something called a feedback loop.” Olbrich said, causing Neruda and Sauer to look up, concerned looks on their faces. “Linked to the engines or something, like a bomb.”
Jess felt the wave of panic sweep over her as the last word sank in, her eyes widening. “Where is he?” She demanded, her legs already feeling weak, as if preparing for the worst.
“He’s trying to stop the loop from overloading the engines.” Olbrich said.
“He’s still there?” Sauer exclaimed getting to his feet.
The panic was back. Jess felt as though a surge of fire shot from her heart, down each of her limbs and left her tingling. Adrenaline seemed to be flooding her system. “You just left him?” Jess knew she said the words, but not how loud.
“He insisted we get to safety.” Olbrich protested.
Jess glared at the officer for a couple of seconds before turning to make back to the Landing Craft.
“No wait-” Sauer began, putting his hand on her shoulder.
The rest of his words were cut off by a deafening explosion as a huge fireball erupted in the clearing where the Lander was situated. Jess could feel the heat from the explosion as large bits of debris showered the jungle about them, staring in shock at the way she was about to go, a large plume of flame and smoke rising into the air.
;D
