Wednesday, June 18, 2014

Here to There part 8


Something moved in the mottled shadows of the underbrush.  Lunk froze and tensed his finger on the trigger.  One heartbeat. Two. On the count of three a chilling shriek to the left caused him to snap his head in that direction to try and spot the source.  He didn't know what hit him, just that it was big, hairy, and pissed off.  He cursed at himself for falling for the distraction that gave it the opening to strike as much as the pain from the blows it rained down on his head and body.

Private Timball watched the thing erupt from the treeline and hit the massive soldier and drive him to the ground.  He raised his rifle and began taking aim at the beast.  As he did so, he noticed another one come rushing out into the open.  It wore a strange harness and held something sharp in one of it's hands.  "Sergeant!" he cried while starting to move and turn his weapon on the newcomer.  "We've got company. Hostiles are Native creatures.  They appear to be tool users.  Requesting backup right now."

The sergeant was already sprinting towards Lunk and Timball.  More of the creatures were coming out of the trees now.  Timball was starting to fire on them in short meaured bursts like he'd been taught.  The creatures were shrieking and calling back and forth to each other as they moved to circle around him as Lunk continued to struggle with his assailant.   "Straugh, ! Jacobs!" she called into her communicator.  "Contact at the treeline.  Lunk is down.  Get over here!"

With a another long stride she arrived, and brought her rifle up to fire. One of them jumped at Timball and it's weapon smashed his shoulder and glanced off his body armor.  He screamed in pain just the same.  Just as she was about to start laying down covering fire a rifle blast exploded the dirt at her feet. Her whole body poised to fire whirled and sought it's source.  Blaster fire meant something more dangerous then wild animals with sticks and stones.

A large bulky shape moved out of the trees then.  It was a human in a suit of fully powered combat armor.  The local atmosphere and a year of living in the jungle had taken the sheen off it's once glowing shell, but it was still going to be a real pain to crack that she thought in a panic.  A deep gruff voice called out from what she assumed was a member of the survey team, "This one!  Kill this one.  She is the chief."  Two of the bigger creatures moved away from the assault on Timball and Lunk and began moving her way.

Anna cursed and fired at the heavily armored threat.  Her shot hit the mark, but it was deflected by the power suit.  She didn't have time to aim for a weak point as the two creatures closed in from behind while the Surveyor advanced firing his blaster rifle indiscriminately.  Luckily he's not a great shot in that bulky suit, thought Anna. She found herself now actively fighting to stay alive.

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