By Kat Heckenbach
The ship’s hatch opened with a hydraulic hiss. My team stood behind me as the door lowered to create a ramp. I walked about halfway down and stopped. The grassy meadow we’d chosen for landing spread around us. A dense forest circled the meadow in every direction.
“I’ve got the xallenite,” Myra said from inside. She grunted as she hefted the case. She stepped up to my side, hauling the strap over her shoulder. I didn’t dare suggest letting Paxton carry the cargo, though he towered over both of us and outweighed even me by a good fifty pounds.
I glanced back. Paxton came toward us, ducking through the doorway. “The city is due north.” He jumped off the side of the ramp, landing with a grace uncommon for someone his size.
“Of course it is,” Myra said.
She and I followed Paxton around the ship. The meadow stretched even farther this direction—we’d landed near its south end.
We trudged along in silence, our heavy footsteps softened by the thick grass. Now and then something scuttled unseen by our feet. Myra began to shuffle to avoid stepping on whatever it was. Paxton stomped along, unconcerned.
“You sure we’re going to make it in time, Captain?” Myra asked, her voice breathy from exertion. Amazingly, she was not only keeping up with us, she’d moved ahead by a few paces.
“I asked you not to call me that.” Sure, I was their leader for this mission, but I was no captain, and I didn’t appreciate the reminder. After the way I’d blown the Kansha job, just hearing the word made my jaw clench.
Myra didn’t respond.
Paxton lengthened his stride and punched her playfully in her muscular shoulder. “You bet we’ll make it.”
After a good ten minutes of walking, we made it to the edge of the forest. The trees stood like skyscrapers, immensely tall and unnaturally straight. The underbrush was low but thick and spiny. I sighed. Our knee-high boots would protect us, but trekking through this would be like wading through thorny mud.
Inside the forest, the quiet deepened. The shadows beneath the trees seemed to swallow the noise of our boots in the underbrush. The light from the two suns streaked in through ragged patches in the canopy, but where the sunlight was blocked it felt like midnight.
Paxton navigated for another half hour, and the trees began to thin. I’d have been relieved, but the now-exposed ground showed signs of habitation—by something very large and predatory. Claw marks grooved the rocky soil, and piles of scat stood at least twelve inches in diameter.
Something crunched to our left, like the breaking of a huge branch. Myra dropped the case with a thump, and all three of us unsnapped our weapons from our belts. Another crunch followed, and then a howling roar.
More crunching and thudding moved toward us at an alarming speed. The ground trembled beneath our feet.
A massive creature burst from between the trees—tiger-like, but the size of an elephant. I glimpsed matted fur and dripping fangs and curved claws—
Our weapons fired.
The creature tumbled forward and slammed to a stop only a few feet in front of us.
My pulse pounded in my ears. I snapped my weapon back on my belt and gazed at the mound of enormous tangled limbs wedged between two massive trees. The corpse blocked our only path through the impenetrably dense forest.
“Guess we climb over,” Paxton said.
“Of course we do.” Myra grunted, pulling the case’s strap over her shoulder again.
Paxton kicked the beast to make sure it was dead, then started the climb over the three-meter high mass.
That beast was not the last of its kind we encountered, nor the largest. When we finally reached the edge of the trees, the power bars on our weapons were down to slivers. Ahead, the ground sloped upward, rocky and jagged.
I glanced back at Myra, looked pointedly at the case, and tilted my head toward Paxton. She glared and shook her head. Of course. How dare I even think of suggesting she give the case to him. Stubborn woman. But that’s also one of the main reasons I chose her.
We fell into line and trekked upward. Halfway up the slope, we sat to rest, our legs shaking from the exertion. Paxton pulled out his canteen. Something whipped past and embedded in the ground at our feet.
A spear.
Myra hissed. “Of course.”
A ragged band of twenty humanoids surrounded us. I sized them up—leather straps, mismatched armor, spiked hair, bulging muscles, spears pointed in our direction. Even if our weapons had been at full charge, we couldn’t have shot them all before being skewered.
They moved in.
Fear and determination overtook us, and in a matter of minutes we had them disarmed, using their own spears against them. Adrenaline coursed through us, but we all huffed and bent forward to catch our breath.
We dropped the spears, took long draughts from our canteens, and continued the climb. Several more small bands ambushed us, but we quickly dispatched them, leaving the spears behind.
We reached the top of the incline, all three of us staggering from exhaustion, and the city spread out before us.
I took a few deep breaths. Myra adjusted the case strap. Paxton retied his boots. Then we approached the city gates.
“We request entry,” I said to the guard.
He gaped at us, taking in our rough condition. “You came through the forest?”
“Yes, due south. There’s a field—”
He broke into laughter. I glared at him. He calmed down, then jerked his head to his left. I followed his gaze.
A large, smooth plateau spread out alongside the city wall. As I watched, a small ship descended and landed yards from a wide gate.
“Of course,” Myra muttered. She turned to Paxton and dumped the case at his feet. “Here, you can handle this the rest of the way.”
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Ah… nothing to make you wish you’d picked a closer parking spot like an ambush or two. XD
Yep! You’d think after watching so many sci-fi movies and shows people would learn to not land so far away…
an interesting journey…
Thanks.
I kept expecting it to be a videogame since many of those force the newbies through all these kinds of obstacles. It was a fun read!
Thanks! That’s an interesting take I wouldn’t have thought of.