Oath of the Survivor

Before the creature could attack, a loud explosion rang out.  Blasts of fire and ice accented by thick spears of earth all struck the creature, smashing into the thick carapace.  Kyle felt a thick arm wrap around him, and he was lifted off the ground and thrown over Duroc’s shoulder. 

“You can’t fight that thing alone!”  Duroc squealed angrily. 

“What were you thinking?”

The porcine alien was surprisingly quick for its size, making a mad dash for the shuttle. 

“I tried, Duroc.  For some reason my body wouldn’t let me run away.”

A chittering sound reminiscent of thunder ripped through the air, and Kyle had a perfect view from his position to watch the massive creature come crashing towards the ground and rush towards them.  If the series of attacks had damaged it in any way, he couldn’t tell.  The massive pincers next to its mouth were closing in on them, and Kyle knew they wouldn’t make it to the shuttle in time. 

“Duroc, I’m going to use my shield.  Be ready!”

Without waiting for a response, he activated STORM SHELTER just in time to intercept the head of the centipede.  It crashed into the barrier with the force of a freight train.  Cracks appeared all across the framework of the shield, but it held.  Even more, it completely arrested the forward movement of the colossal beast. 

“Deactivate it!” Duroc squealed, higher pitched than ever.  Kyle didn’t think, he just obeyed.  As soon as the barrier dropped, Duroc spun.  He still had his massive tower shield on his left arm, and Kyle felt the mana drawing into it.  Finishing his rotation, he thrust the shield forward.  All the mana that had been drawn into it was released in a blast of force, striking the stunned creature and knocking it backwards.

Without missing a beat, Duroc turned back to the shuttle and continued running.  Angry chittering had started again behind them, and the shuttle barely had time to get off the ground after they made it aboard.  The massive centipede barreled directly below the rising shuttle, barely missing it as they ascended.  Its antennae pointed skyward as it stood in place, then it disappeared back into the forest.  There was silence on the shuttle, until somebody finally spoke.

“What was that thing?”

 Eyes fell on Kyle, clearly waiting for an explanation.  Fortunately, C.H.A.D.D. was ready to come to the rescue.

[IT WAS A VERY, VERY LARGE BUG.]

Once the chuckles died down, Kyle finally spoke.

“It’s a centipede, and it was D Grade.  We’re lucky we got out when we did.  Me more than anybody.”  Kyle turned to where Duroc was absently snacking on a pancake he’d gotten from somewhere. 

“I owe you one.” 

Duroc took another large bite before responding, little bits of pancake spattering as he spoke.

“You helped our guys out before.  Figured it’d be nice to return the favor.  If you mean it though I’ll take your dinner.” 

He seemed to be ready to leave it there, before he said one more thing. 

“It’s really weird that you didn’t run though.  What did you mean you couldn’t?”

Kyle sighed.  A lot of curious looks were thrown his way, including the captain whose name he couldn’t remember.  He didn’t want to talk about the red essences, but at this point he’d have to tell them something.  It was widely known that he was only a little slower than Skippy when he used HASTE.  Excuses wouldn’t fly here. 

“Some of these mutated bugs and I have absorbed some… unique energies.  It comes with benefits, but also drives us into conflict with each other.  This was the strongest one I’ve faced, and the compulsion to fight was more than I’d experienced so far.” 

He could feel the eyes on him as he finished his statement, until finally the captain spoke. 

“Well, it’s a good thing most of the extraction here is completed.  We have a few other teams nearby, I’m going to pass along the message that we’re done here.  We’ll go to a couple of the sites that are behind to get them ready to leave.  It’s a shame to leave some treasures behind, but we don’t have the manpower to fight against D Grade beasts.”

A voice popped up from the crew, which Kyle recognized as the woman he’d spoken to before. 

“What if there are others out there?”

The captain responded.

“It’s highly unlikely that this planet could support multiple D Grade life forms, it’s been a low-energy frontier world since shortly after its awakening.  Scouting teams have identified three other regions with resources that should be as valuable as those here – we’ll simply invest more time there and leave this monster to its business.  It’ll die along with the planet eventually.”

Kyle’s heart sank as he listened to the captain.  Three other areas, with the rainforest making four.  He knew it was no coincidence.  The four monstrous D Grades were each ruling over a domain with the richest natural treasures, which was only to be expected as the four most powerful creatures on the planet. 

After seeing the centipede’s power, he had no doubt about it.  If he, Duroc, and Skippy worked together they might have a chance, but individually the creature Kyle decided to call the Endless was beyond them. 

Kyle wasn’t sure whether to tell them his suspicions or not.  Unfortunately, C.H.A.D.D. had no compunctions with it.

[DR. MAYHEW, THERE IS A DISTINCT POSSIBILITY THAT THE OTHER D GRADE ORGANISMS YOU SPOKE ABOUT COULD ALSO BE PRESENT IN THOSE AREAS.  I ADVISE ADEQUATE PREPARATION BEFORE JOINING ANY EXPEDITIONS TO THE AFOREMENTIONED REGIONS.]

All eyes once again on him and the drone, the captain spoke. 

“What do you mean, ‘other D Grade organisms?’”

[DR. MAYHEW EXPERIENCED A VISION WHICH INCLUDED FOUR D GRADES, INCLUDING THE CENTIPEDE WE JUST ENCOUNTERED.  USING THAT AS EVIDENCE, IT’S LIKELY THE OTHER THREE EXIST AS WELL.]

“I think that’s plenty, C.H.A.D.D.” 

Kyle could feel a headache coming on as the room digested the information.  That is, until Skippy spoke up.

“This is wonderful news!  And I thought this trip was going to be boring!” 

That started a lot of chattering and speculation, with Skippy and Duroc being ushered to the secluded portion of the shuttle by a couple of the people who they’d boarded with.   The captain walked up to him, anger clear on his face. 

“Why wasn’t this information shared with us before?”

Kyle met his eyes.  “Because I had no way of knowing if it was credible or not.”

“You could have gotten our people killed.”

“And if you didn’t agree to help, everybody left on my planet would be killed.”

“We wouldn’t have abandoned the survivors.”

“I’ve seen too much corruption from people in power to believe that.”

The captain snorted, then got uncomfortably close. 

“If you’re ever on one of my vessels again, I’m going to see to it that nobody pulls a stunt like Duroc did.  You cause your own trouble, you can get out of it.  Now get out of my way.  We’re about to make our next stop.”

With that, Kyle found a seat, sitting quietly as they found their next location.  They were near a riverbed, just upstream from a waterfall that cascaded over some cliffs.  Another mining shuttle collected stones and other ores, more specialists in red shirts puttering about.  The captain got out and spoke to a person in similar garb, and Kyle stepped outside to wait.  As he did, he felt the humid air on his skin, much more significantly than before.  With a frown, he looked up at the sky.  On the horizon he could just make out a wall of dark clouds, moving quickly.  He heard a low roar, which was gaining volume.

The members of the other expedition team seemed to notice it as well, and people were scrambling to get out of the area.  Many made it, but before the crew could get the shuttle airborne a wall of water came crashing into it.  The banks of the river were washed away, as was the shuttle.  Water swept it downstream, racing towards the waterfall as Kyle watched

~~~

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