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 / 1120

Jinn looked around the clearing as he leaned against the tree and tried to muster up any reaction. The creature that his group had met in battle when they returned to the clearing, still bothered him. The way it had abilities were like his new ones, made him worried. His nanobots started to send him weird readings on the march back, and he still didn’t know what that meant.

Back on his world, he would have let someone know about them and gotten a medical opinion about them, but here……. He would have to admit to having what he now knew were military-grade nanotech, and just how he had them might be a crime. He had cut all ties with his world and those who raised him, but he still looked over his shoulder. Sometimes he wondered if he would ever truly stop, if he would ever feel safe.

Sometimes he was worried that he hadn’t been able to do what he had hoped he had, that they were tracking him down. He still hoped that he succeeded, he never heard any signs that their plan worked. But sometimes, in the dark when he couldn’t sleep, he worried.

He looked at Al as he looked over one of the corpses of the lizard things, trying to figure out something. Jinn found Al a good source of news, and he had a weight on him that was like Jinn’s. And he was braver than he thought and a good friend by his side was priceless. Jinn smirked and took a step to go help his friend when Racha grabbed his shoulder.

"The old man wants to talk to you, he wants a report," Racha said and turned away. Jinn looked at Al who waved at him before he walked after her.

Racha looked over her should and tried to bring up what she was thinking and decided to just say it. “You never said why you’re back early. Find something you had to report?”

“Yeah, Bugs. Big bugs with organic guns and a bigger one that almost killed me,” Jinn admitted and Racha looked at him with a shocked look in her eyes. He just nodded and continued talking. “And the worst thing, it was that aura thing that let me drive it off. How was it back here?”

“The old man sent me leading a group to find more fruit after we discovered the trees were bare. Found them but ran into a giant spider and a six-legged wolf first,” Racha said softly, as she shuddered. Jinn whistled as Al followed after her, he saw Jones being treated and frowned as he did a head count, coming up short. “We’re missing people, what happened?”

“Jones!” Racha barked as he looked at the man. At Jinn’s look, she sighed and continued. “He went out leading a team to harvest from the trees my team found. We saw smoke that’s died down? Well, we saw smoke before he returned, leading those lizard things like a lure!”

“Ahhh. Hey, isn’t he a member of that supremacy cult?” Jinn asked as his fingers clenched and unclenched.

Racha nodded as they went down the crater wall, her mind going the same places he was.

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

Duncan sighed as he sat in the office and looked at the door. Already the passengers were up in arms about how he was ‘restricting’ them. After the double attack, he had put the number of people allowed outside down, and that idiot was making trouble about it.

He looked up as the door opened and Jinn and Racha walked in.

Duncan kept silent for a while and looked at Jinn, tenting his hands.

“We’re on an island, connect to another island. On that island is a crashed factory ship in the mountain,” Jinn said bluntly.

Racha and Duncan looked at Jinn shocked beyond words.

“A factory ship!? What class?!” Racha demanded.

Jinn looked at her and Duncan thought that maybe he was thinking about how to answer that question.

“It looks like an Anchorage class yard-ship. Now most modern ones are for colony construction, but it might be a pirate model,” Jinn said and Racha winced.

“Fuck, then it could be anything from a drug lab to a slave ship,” Racha muttered and Jinn looked at her with a hard glare.

“Or a pirate shipyard, we’d have a factory that could only make ships and no materials to make a drive,” Jinn said absently before he and Racha both blinked. As one they turned to look at each other for a moment, then both of them lunged for the opposite far wall.

Duncan just looked at Jinn, seeing his reaction was enough for him to understand who Jinn was. Whatever Jinn was running from, he had been on the other side of the law, probably a second generation. If he was active or just trained, he had experience. And command training added to that, and it painted a bad picture.

“How do you know that!?” Both Racha and Jinn both asked as they stared at each other.

“She’s Special Services,” Duncan said bluntly as Jinn looked at Racha in shock while Racha glared at him as he continued to talk. “She was here protecting an Ancient. Yeah, we had some of them on board. They piggybacked on a drone and watched the shows in their rooms.”

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Jinn blinked and looked at Racha who glared at him and her hand moved towards her pistol. Special Services were the Federation’s covert ops branch, they hunted pirates, rebels, and people like he had been. Jinn looked at her in shock, his hand moving to his blade as Duncan just sighed.

Duncan just looked at Racha and Jinn was wondering if he would chastise her when he spoke. “And Jinn was on the other side of the law line. And you showed it by knowing what Anchorages are used for nowadays boyo.”

Jinn winced and nodded, looking away as old shame resurfaced. “It wasn’t that cut and dry.”

Duncan just sighed and shook his head, a small sad smile on his face. “It never is lad, it never is. But since you said you left because of your morals…….. Let it sleep for now. So we’re on an island?”

“We saw a few more capsules with us chief,” Jinn said and Duncan nodded at him. Jinn kept silent, trying and failing to think of better words to say his plan, but he couldn’t. “My idea was to take a bigger party to it, try to take control, use it to survive here. We could make contact with the other capsules and then head to the Yard-ship.”

“More people would be a good thing,” Racha admitted and Duncan shook his head.

“If they’ve survived,” Duncan spoke aloud the same thoughts Jinn had been struggling with and he nodded.

“Yeah, we found these giant humanoid bugs out there. Most of them were our sized bipeds, another one was even bigger. We need better defenses,” Jinn said and Racha nodded.

“I was part of an assault on one once. The defense grid is perfect for wildlife if it's set up right,” Racha said and Jinn winced and looked away. “But who will go then?” Racha

Duncan just looked back at her until her eyes widened in shock.

“You and Jinn’s team. If the other capsules send volunteers, good. But try and make it back in one piece,” Duncan said bluntly and hid a smirk at the expressions on Racha’s and Jinn’s faces.

It was the best choice they could make really. And with Sara along they would be okay if they ran into another thing that could paralyze them. Add Jinn’s new abilities made him the perfect fighter to bring along. That plus experience would probably get them into the ship without issue. All in all, Racha only saw one addiction that might improve their chances.

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

Outside Sara panted as she healed the last of the paralyzed deckhands. She breathed heavily as she saw something in the corner of her eyes. Aether storage near suboptimum levels. Show value at bottom of right eye?

Sara blinked and thought about what she had learned about nano-control and sent a command to show. She stared at what appeared in total shock.

Aether 1000/ 40

Sara blinked and looked at the floating letters and numbers. She could feel the strength within her, but to see it in a numerical amount? She didn’t know what this meant but it was something she hadn’t expected. As she stood there the last woman she had healed blinked as she got up and hugged her.

“Thank you so much!” The woman said and Sara just patted her and nodded.

The woman pulled back and grinned at Sara. She pushed back her red hair with her right hand, a grin in her bright black eyes.

“No problem, really,” Sara said and the woman laughed.

“Well you need anything, you just call Terra and I’ll come running!” Terra said and Sara nodded as she grinned back.

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

Jones shook as he stared at the sky. To think he was so wrong, to have made such a mistake. Lives had been lost to learn, and as the teachings he followed showed, that was where true wisdom came from.

He would have to make a petition for those three to be sainted, that was what they deserved. To be remembered for all of time, was the greatest reward he could give. But he would need to find a way to gain strength, ‘a voice without power is the voice of a fool’ after all. Then that showed him the problem then, how would he gain that power?

The idea of finding a young beast to train was made and thrown away in a split second, he didn’t have the tools or the time. Perhaps he could try and see if there were other believers among the passengers? More minds were better than one as the Order’s teaching said, and they might see something that he couldn’t. As he was trying and failing to figure out the right thing to do, he leaned back and closed his eyes. But then he felt a shadow cover him, he thought

“Having a nice sleep?” A dark and cold voice asked, and Jones felt his heart stop. He slowly opened his eyes and blinked when he saw Duncan’s face glaring down at him.

Jones got to his feet and saluted Duncan, swallowing in fear. “Sorry sir, I was just resting to give my body time to recover sir.”

“I want a report boy,” Duncan growled and Jones nodded as he tried to collect his thoughts.

Jones swallowed and licked his lips before he started talking. “Sir, I……. I couldn’t stop him. When Rodolphe saw a child version of those things he just killed it. That caused the parents to attack and kill the others. I barely got away and well……..”

Duncan just looked down at him and Jones felt as if he was back in his youth, being chastised by his teacher for a mistake on his part. After a few minutes, Duncan nodded and glared at him with a level look.

“Since you’re the only survivor, I’ll have to accept that. But consider yourself confined to the clearing. You will guard this place until I say go, do you understand me, boy?” Duncan asked with a frigid tone and Jones nodded.

Duncan looked down at him for another moment before he turned and walked away, a scowl on his face.

Jones just looked at him as he walked away, releasing a sigh after a few moments. He wasn’t as strong as Jones's old teacher, that man always knew when Jones was lying. He forced his face to keep his grin off his face. The fact that he had been able to get one by Duncan was all he needed to know his path was the right one.

As he looked around he grinned. He might have misjudged this planet when he had first set foot on the ground that first night. He had thought this place was a virgin world, ready to be shown its proper place. But instead, this was a world that others had ruined. That was the only thing that made sense about how the creatures reacted to the presence of their betters. It was for him and his people, it was their true calling to make this planet bend its knee to the masters who had come.

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

Paige looked around the capsule crash room at the passengers who mulled around. Some of them had been worried about the battle above and wanted to close the door. She and Duncan had shut that down fast, but the worry was still there. And some of them had seen the condition of the guard force when they were paralyzed. To say they were scared was like saying water was wet.

She looked at Bradford as he spoke to the crowd, a woman in a black dress next to him. She had seen a few of his speeches from his council days once in school, and to her, they were the same. How only he could lead them to their destinies, how he could save them. Fear-mongering seemed to be his preferred tactic in his old speeches. And right now the old bastard was doing everything to fan the flames.

“…….. And we must prepare better defenses, my friends! I know the way will be hard, but I doubt we won’t rise to the occasion! These capsules, why my company makes them! The tools should let us make a wall to defend ourselves with! It will be hard and we might all have to do the work, but it can be done!” Bradford said with a grin as he looked around at the other passengers and they cheered.

“Full of himself, isn’t he?”

Paige nodded and looked at the passengers absently, not registering who asked the question. “Yeah. Bet you anything that he won’t be one of the workers. Probably say something about how he has experience directing construction or something.”

A grunt next to her caused her to smile a bit. “Not the best passenger, but then she always said to treat even the worst of them like royalty. It was a thing about standards I think.”

“Who said….. Wait…. Who are?” Paige asked as she realized she was talking to someone. She turned her head slowly and saw Duncan standing there with a somber smile on his face. She felt her blood rush from her face as she paled and went to attention. She was about to say something when Duncan raised a hand and smiled at her.

“The captain. Now stay here and let me handle this,” Duncan said softly and Paige whipped her head to look at Bradford and swallowed.

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Duncan kept from chuckling as he walked towards Bradford and mentally went over what he was going to say.

“I see you all felt the need for another talk amongst yourself!” He called out, letting his voice project.

Bradford stopped talking and looked at him somberly as the passengers all turned to him.

“Yes, we do! The attack up there has made our position here obvious! And don’t insult us by denying it, we all heard the roars and saw the condition of your people!” Bradford said and Duncan shook his head.

“Wasn’t going to. Folks I’m going to be pulling my people as you call them back! Besides one group I will be making defending you is our number one priority!”Duncan said and smiled at them.

His speech was met with cheers from his listeners, and he bowed a bit. He reared back and saw Bradford frown and look around at the passengers.

“It is good to do that? After all, it was when a team was sent to get fruit that we were attacked not long after! As long as the first team is out there sir, I must advise that sending another out is a bad idea!” Bradford said forcefully as the other passengers all blinked.

Duncan raised an eyebrow as he listened to the mutterings of the people around them, not saying a thing.

“……he’s not wrong,”

“I mean, they might have spooked something with that roar we heard,”

“Then there’s the attack just now, I think I heard some of them say that a survivor was chased by a pack…….”

Duncan looked around at the passengers, keeping an eye on Bradford as he puffed up in pleasure. This just showed him that Bradford hadn’t kept track of who had been sent out before. And that was interesting, very interesting. But then there was only one way to stop this attack in its tracks. “Oh don’t worry. That party returned already, saved the day really. And they found out that we’re on an island.”

“WE’RE WHAT!?”Bradford demanded, and the other passengers all started to talk at once. Duncan locked eyes with Bradford and he saw fear in Bradford. To some extent, he understood it. So far they had been attacked by the creatures of the land, the sea had to have even greater horrors.

“Yes, an island. But we are not alone! There is a possible resource we can use to survive out there! And there are other capsules out there, each one having gone through their own struggles over the last day! The party will make contact with them, and together we will live!” at Duncan’s words the passengers all cheered even louder.

Duncan didn’t pay attention, he just watched Bradford’s reaction. The man was slime, Duncan had thought that since he first saw one of the man’s political speeches. When they were all briefed on the treats the VIPS might have, Bradford was near the top. The bastard had been part of the ‘Pro-War’ camp when he was a senator and a suspected war profiteer. The rumors said that he had killed his own family to take over the company. But then the same rumor mongers said that Duncan drank the blood and tears of those he drove to suicide. And the problem with that, is that he never drove anyone to suicide, so he didn’t put much stock in them.

Right now as he locked eyes with Bradford, he believed the rumor. And he knew that Bradford was trying to take command, but all Duncan had to do was block him. A problem, but the views that man had meant that Duncan couldn’t rest, he had to keep fighting him. But on the subject of the Ancient VIP, he could only hope that they were still alive wherever they were.