Castaway Planet

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

Days after of Crash landing/ 1

Uninhabited Island / Forest Near Escape Capsule # 405

Galactic Standard Time / 0805

As the river spider moved closer to the wolf suddenly bolts hit its body, some of them hitting its maimed pincer arm. It screeched and turned towards the cave, where the three deckhands were firing their weapons at it. It took a step towards them, its anger at prey fighting back almost took what reason it had. But then it heard a sound behind it and it tried to turn back around but failed to react in time.

The wolf beast meanwhile had recovered and with a roar charged at the river beast, which lunged to the side to try and dodge. It glared at it and shot out its left pincer which connected with the wolf beast’s front right leg and tore it off. As the wolf beast roared in pain and lost blood, the river beast brought the limb to its mouth. It was eaten within moments, and after it did its head shook as its middle eyestalk regrew.

With a roar the wolf beast jumped forward and spun around, firing three of its back spikes at the river beast. The river beast raised its lower left claw and blocked the volley but one of them pierced the pincer at the base where it closed.

Before the wolf creature could capitalize on that, it dodged to the right as shots hit where it had been. With a growl it looked towards the cave, seeing the three bipeds there. As it watched another volley of bolts was shot at it from them. It dodged to the right away from the river spider and glared at them. For a moment the wolf creature looked right at one of the three bipeds, the source of the scent it had chased here. It took a single step towards them when a screech caused it to turn its head.

As the river spider pulled the spike free with its right pincer and looked at the wound as blood gushed from the hole. It spat a strange black substance at the wound, screeching in pain as it was covered. It turned its and saw what had caused it and felt a greater spark of rage. With a screech that usually stunned its prey, it charged at the wolf creature. The wolf creature only bared its teeth and roared as it met the charge with one of its own.

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“This might work after all!” Rodolphe said with a laugh as he watched the battle.

Paige wanted to think that he was right, but her abilities told her it wasn’t that simple.

“Yeah, but did you see how the other one regrew its eye? We have to kill both of them.So if you see anything that could help that, say something,” Racha said with a glare.

Paige just aimed at the wolf creature, ready to fire. The way it had felt that spark of desire as it looked at her and its actions told her all she needed to know. It wanted to eat her to take her other sense, and that was shocking. She might have been wrong, but she doubted it. It made sense, but that meant that her abilities were …….different from what she thought they were.

The very idea threw into question everything about why she had been hunted in the first place! She knew they wanted her, but if her powers were at least partly biological…….. that opened open so many worse things she could have been hunted for. She shook her head, she refused to even follow that line of thinking. All that mattered now was to keep an eye on the battle and see what she could do to end it favorably for her side.

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Racha kept one eye on the battle and the other on Paige. How she was so sure that the newcomer was there to eat them was something she would need to talk to her about. There were a few ways that Paige could have known, but they all raised questions. If the most unlikely was true, and she hoped it was. hen with luck, Paige could drastically improve their overall chances of survival here.

A roar from outside caused her to look up and see that the wolf had lost its left eye from a jab by the river spider. As the wolf creature reared back in pain, the river spider moved forward with its back raised to the cave. “No, they’re learning to deal with us! It’s putting its body between us and what we can hurt!”

Rodolphe just shook his head as he kept his gaze locked on the battle. “Got any ideas to deal with this?”

Racha looked at the battle and weighed the options available to her. If the wolf lost then they could hide in the cave from the river spider, but if the reverse happened then the wolf might mutate and kill them. it stood to reason that their best chance was to kill the wolf and help the river spider. But if the river spider ate the wolf, it might mutate as well. then if she could get a scenario going where one was wounded enough for them to kill it after the other died or was driving off……..Racha nodded, she knew just what she had to do now.

“One. Paige let me know if the wolf comes at me, R stay here and keep firing at the wolf,” Racha said before she dashed out of the cave, running to the far right as she drew her knife

As soon as she was around thirty feet distance from the battle she fired one shot that hit the center eyestalk of the river spider, destroying it. It reared back in pain, Racha fired at the wolf creature and took off its tail. It howled in pain, it turned and looked at her.

As the wolf creature growled, Racha began to run towards the trees, wondering if hiding or climbing was the better play. As the wolf creature charged at her, the river spider reacted and lashed out with its right pincer. The limb telescoped out, grabbing the wolf creature’s back left leg. The wolf creature tried to turn around and break free, the river spider sent it two left pincers. They grabbed the wolf creature around its neck and body, the wolf creature roared in anger as it was lifted.

As the wolf creature tried to break free the river spider pulled and tore its opponent in half. As it dropped the bloody chunks Racha fired another shot, only for the river spider to block it with its upper left claw.

As Paige joined their fire to Racha’s, she moved closer to the river spider. She straight at the river spider’s remaining eyestalk before firing a single shot at where one of the other eyestalks had been.

The river spider grabbed some of the remains of the wolf creature and looked at them. Racha only fired her gun upwards and the river spider just screeched at them before turning away, lumbering back towards the river.

They all kept their eyes locked on where it had gone, but after a few moments, Paige released a sigh. “It’s gone.”

Racha looked at Paige, a strange feeling going through her. So far her thought was looking to be right, but what did that mean and in contrast to what?

“Good. So we’ll stay away from that river?” Rodolphe asked as he dropped to his knees.

“Agreed!” Racha said as she put her pistol away and stalked toward the remains of the wolf creature.

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Paige had looked at the cave, a frown on her face. She didn’t know what the light source she had seen within the cave, was or if it wasn’t in her mind. She didn’t want to bring it up, but it might have been important. Again she didn’t know if she should bring it up, she had already risked enough. That woman, Racha? She had felt a few sparks of inspiration when Paige had said a few things. She had to protect herself, but she was a medic. But then mob mentality was a thing.

For now, she would say nothing, if something happened and she had to admit her abilities, she would. But they still had to find the fruit trees, if they even existed.

She looked up as she heard the sounds of flesh tearing and saw Racha mutilating the remains.

“What the hell are you doing?!” Rodolphe

“Check what this ate,” Racha said bluntly, and moments later a rush of a brown liquid came from a hole she made in the remains.

Racha looked over them and sighed after a few moments and looked up. “Carnivore. No luck. It could have its den near the trees we want and we’d never know.”

“And after those two things? We should head back, lock down the pod and explore this place in force. Maybe wait until……. Quinn? Kinn? No, Jinn. Jinn’s team is back and then sends out five to explore instead of us three?” Paige asked. She knew from the ship that Jinn was strong and one of the best fighters. If he was here with Racha the two of them might have been able to fight off the creatures together.

Racha looked at Paige and shook her head.

Paige could sense a feeling of exasperation for Racha, and that was confusing her.

“Good idea! We need more people out here! Let’s go back and get them if we need to find the trees before Jinn gets back! What’s wrong with that hu?! Rodolphe asked and Racha sighed before looking at the two of them.

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Racha sighed and looked around at Paige and Rodolphe. The idea wasn’t bad, but it was impossible with what personnel they had. The creatures that had just fought each other, neither acted like the other was the alpha predator around here. That meant that there was something else, something stronger and deadlier out there.

The best thing for them to do was to head back and turtle up, but then there was also problems back there. The beacon might not be working or something was blocking it. And then there were the way that they stuck in the crater. If anything could take the high ground, they would have a tactical advantage. And the way the worm things were in groups of five, she had a strange feeling about that. So far they hadn’t seen anything beyond the wolf that had range combat abilities, but there had to have been more of them out there.

The best thing was for a small group to slip by whatever was out there and get back the knowledge. But how to explain that without playing her entire hand, letting them know who she was? She sighed and shook her head. “We will head back, but we’ll keep looking for the trees. We’ll let the Chief make the call.”

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Rodolphe smiled as he followed after Racha, this was perfect. He had survived and learned that Racha was one heck of a fighter! That was good, any bit of information could be the difference between his survival and his death or capture. She had to be one of the company’s security agents, or from a military family. Someone who grew up fighting would have known how to judge the tactical points of the fight between those two creatures so fast.

“You lead, I’ll check our rear. You see anything get me,” Racha told him as he walked past her. Rodolphe nodded, he didn’t think the spider had given up.Something just told him it would take something more than them to scare it off.

Just thinking about the spider made him think about the wolf, and then how the wolf mutated. He hadn’t ever seen anything like that before, not even in the wastes back home. This place might be even worse than his home, and that was saying something. All he had to do was survive and find the others, then together they could figure out what to do.

He took another step forward and moved a branch out of his way before he was halted by the shock of what he saw.

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As she walked, Paige tried to keep calm and not spiral into oblivion. So far she had barely kept from thinking about why she had been hunted, but it was at the edge of her thoughts. Those ‘people’ had been completely monstrous, and if her abilities were partially biological…….

“Some call back there.”

Paige turned her head and looked at Racha. Paige swallowed and looked away as Racha continued talking.

“So how’d you know they wanted to eat us? The wolf could have scented the river thing and that was its prey,” Racha said and Paige kept her eyes forward.

“I…… ran into something like that back on my world. You run into one sentient eater and you learn to tell when you encounter others,” Paige said keeping her eyes on the trees.

Racha just hummed and Paige felt her disbelief. Paige didn’t know what to do, Racha always seemed very driven back on the ship. She had to know something, but what? Paige didn’t want to think that Racha was one of those who hunted her, but then who was she?

“HEY! WE Found them!” Rodolphe’s excited yell caused Racha and Paige to look toward him. He was looking ahead of him and following his gaze, they saw a tree with pod-like fruits. Rodolphe ran to it and went past it, and moments later they heard him laugh.

“Rodolphe!” Racha snarled under her breath and ran after him, Paige followed right behind her.

They entered a small clearing ten feet with five of the trees full of fruit pods to their left. Rodolphe took one and laughed as he looked around. “Guess we didn’t need to follow the wind after all!”

Paige looked at him, not understanding what he meant before she felt the wind moving away from the trees.

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“Yeah,” Racha muttered as she looked around. She frowned as she saw this place was a perfect circle again, and once again she wondered how that was possible. Nature did not make perfect circles with plants, only thinking minds did. And looking at the exact placement of the fruit trees in comparison to the clearing they came down in, it was an exact if smaller match.

She had seen a lot of strange things during her service but this planet was putting them all to shame! And then there were the creatures they had just seen, and how the wolf mutated so fast. That of all things wasn’t natural, and she couldn’t figure out how it was possible. And both of them were two different orders of life, how had they both evolved here? Were they from other worlds, was this place a planet zoo that had gone dark during one of the old civil wars and been forgotten about?

She shook her head, the lost world trope was just that, something they made up in movies! And the ship had been on a route that had flown hundreds of times! Wherever they were, it had to follow the laws of nature.

“Good, grab a few of those things so we can test them. Once we know they are safe to eat we’ll send a bigger party back to get as many as they can,” Racha said as she looked around before frowning. “No, Paige. You take it.”

Paige nodded, quickly walked over to one of the trees, and picked a pod. Nodding Racha tried to figure out where they were in comprising to the capsule before she nodded.

“We’re a good thirty minutes away, not too bad. But let's try and make it there faster!” Racha said before she started to lead the way out of the clearing at a brisk pace.

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As the river spider returned to where it had been sleeping it finished eating the wolf creature. It felt good as much as it was able, it could already feel itself start to heal. All in all, it had gained much more than it lost from waking up. Perhaps it should stay awake for a while longer, but hide away. If any prey came by, it could just eat them and then return to its slumber after all.

It reached the moving matter it slowed down and looked around, something was wrong. The moving matter was usually more active than this. In all its limited memory, there was nothing that was anything like this. This place should be more active, where was everything? It was almost like…..

It went still and looked around slowly. It tried to find what it hoped it wouldn’t, but when it saw a few things, it realized just why everything was asleep or hiding. It started to run now, moving as fast as it was able to get to the river. As soon as it reached the river it jumped in and went down, moving into the mud so it could sleep hidden away.

It had survived this occurrence three times since it had been trapped in this warm matter, it would survive more.

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Combat Template with Evolutionary Consummation killed by a Combat Template DSS; subtype dwarf with assistance of a group of Template 10049 from Sample 98764; micro group three

Reason for combat?

Template group sent out to forage. Found fruit type S010 and took back sample piece.

Clarification. Reason for Evolutionary Consummation to enter combat,

…………Unknown. Evolutionary Consummation template was at resting site before it suddenly left in hurry.

Data for actions of Evolutionary Consummation template unknown.

Ways to discover reasons?

Cessation of Evolutionary Consummation Template leaves data harvest impossible. Component parts were mostly taken by Combat Template DSS; subtype dwarf.

Most?

Enough of Evolutionary Consummation Template remains to harvest and grow replaces. Send in Construct unit to take samples?

Allowed. Note, send sample to location 098.

Reason?

Political group nearby making moves to find way to Central Command, facilities at location at risk. Evolutionary Consummation Template record as destroyer will allow creation of Template guard unit once samples are fed. Location 098 has ample samples to grow variants and Mind in charge there has track record of defense actions.

……. Complying

Gestation progress of new Test Template?

Final twenty percent remaining until release time.

Notice, alterations only allowed until eighty-three total progress.

Complying.

Accelerate gestation

……Negative. Keep on schedule

Complying.

Request to send Construct to study all new sample groups

Negative. Remain on procedures.

Complying.