“What happened? I mean, exactly,” Boomer demanded to know.
“Passenger 2871, “Essa”, made contact with an unknown alien flora. The alien flora released an unidentified number of spores into the air. It is believed that Essa may have inhaled these.”
“Why the brick weren’t you watching her?”
“I was. I simply took a moment to observe the-“
“So you got distracted.”
“…yes…” Boomer was silent.
“If…” his voice broke for a moment, “if my sister dies tonight, I will personally tear you apart. Understand?” N-81 didn’t respond. Boomer was fine with that.
***************
Boomer knelt onto the ground next to his sister, carefully opening the bottle of pills. He handed two of the grass green pills to Con, who dropped them into Essa’s mouth where they dissolved.
“Now we wait… “ Con said, stoking the camp-fire, “Now we wait…”
Con slept against a log that N-81 had drug out of the forest. The fire had dwindled, now just a pile of embers. Boomer was huddled up against the hull of the dead ship. N-81 kept watch, every now and then perking up at a rustle of leaves or a Tree-Crawler dropping to the ground. He hated being the subject of anger. It wasn’t his fault, but yet, it was! If he just hadn’t gotten distracted, Essa would be fine. A rustle in the undergrowth roused him from his thoughts. Something dropped from one of the trees, hitting the ground with a dull thud. N-81 stepped towards the sound, scanning the tree line with his great spotlight eye. Low guttural clicking floated out to his auditory sensors. His light was proving useless against the bioluminescence, which was now dwindling, indicating that the long awaited dawn was close, so he shut it off. A black silhouetted mass darted through the trees. N-81 watched it. Three yellow spots watched him back. More clicking. A hiss. A dark tendril wrapped itself against a tree trunk. The tendril began to tighten its grip. The hiss grew louder. Con was awake now, cautiously stepping towards N-81.
“Nate? You okay?” N-81 pointed to the silhouetted mass. A vicious crack, the tendril tore through the tree trunk, and the tree began to fall towards their camp.
“Holy brick! Move move move!” Con yelled. The rest of the survivors were awake now. N-81 charged into the tree’s path.
He caught the tree, collapsing to his knees from the weight. His hydraulics screamed from the pressure, and his internal cooling fans roared to life to keep his battery from overheating from the amount of energy he was pouring into his hydraulic system. Alarms blared in his head and warnings materialized in his vision. He waited until the other survivors were clear. Then, pouring the last of his energy into his hydraulics, he allowed the tree to fall to his left side. He collapsed to the ground, his power cell nearly drained. Suddenly, the tentacle lashed out of the forest and wrapped itself around his waist. The tentacle yanked him into the forest, bashing him against every tree. A damage report blinked in his vision. His left arm was gone. Another tentacled ripped off his legs. Then a tree trunk raced up to meet him.
N-81’s camera eye flickered to life. He was back in the Droid Bay. Simulated relief flooded his wires. There was another intact engineering model. He quickly dug his way out of the ship found himself on a battlefield. Tentacles drove up from the ground, writhing around. Con was slashing at two with his hatchet. Sweet cowered behind her servants who fought tentacles with smoldering sticks from the fire. Boomer was dragging his sister to safety. A tentacle rose out of the ground and lunged for them. N-81 activated his buzz saw and ran forward. He sliced clean through the tentacle, the severed piece falling to the ground. A shriek resonated through the predawn air and the tentacles retreated. The large mass emerged from the forest. The dark, towering squid-like creature with a shark beak and three yellow eyes hurled hundreds of blackened tendrils at them. Con chopped another one off, and N-81 swung for one, but missed. One of Sweet’s servants threw his smoldering stick at the creature. It hit the creature and bounced off. But not before burning the creature. The creature shrieked in pain and charged the group. They scattered and the creature struck the side of the ship. The hull cracked and green fluid began leaking out. It was shock fluid, N-81 observed, the highly flammable fluid used to reduce the shock of breaking atmosphere on a ship. N-81 quickly devised a plan as the green liquid spilled all over the creature. Snatching up a smoldering stick dropped by a servant, he began walking towards the monster. Then walking became jogging. Then sprinting. He raised the burning stick over his head. The monster’s tentacle suddenly blindsided him, throwing him away. He struck the ground hard, but was undamaged. He leapt to his feet and ran to Con, dodging tentacles.
N-81 pointed to the fluid spilling over the monster. “That’s highly flammable shock fluid!”
N-81 didn’t need to explain. Con understood the plan, and began throwing logs onto the smoldering pile of embers that was once the campfire. He grabbed his hatched and frantically began hitting it with a rock. Tentacles lashed out towards him. N-81 sliced off all but three. The creature began throwing tentacles at him, left and right. Several of these struck N-81, knocking him down.
“It’s done!” Con yelled.
N-81 tried to make for the fire, but a tentacle grabbed his ankle, dragging him back.
“Boomer!” Con yelled, throwing the hatchet. Boomer caught it, ran over to the tentacle that was rapidly pulling N-81 back, and chopped it off. N-81 sprinted over to the fire.
“Get everyone out of here.”
“Don’t think this means I’ve forgotten about Essa…” Con said, his eyes narrowed. N-81 nodded, then turned his attention back to the creature, that was now dragging itself to them. “But…Nate…” N-81 turned back. “Nice job…I mean, this is probably the most human I’ve seen you.” N-81 silently accepted the compliment, then reached into the flames and withdrew a burning log. Con ran away. N-81 turned to face down his adversary. The creature stopped its advance. They stared each other down. N-81 took the first step, running towards the monster, running to danger, to death. The creature threw it’s tentacles at N-81. N-81 jumped into the air, and hung there for a moment, as if time had slowed. He then threw the flaming log as tentacles began to wrap around him. The flaming log hit the creature, igniting the shock fluid. The fluid burst into light. The creature, now on fire, screamed into the night, dropping N-81 and retreating into the forest. The survivors emerged from hiding as the sun began to peek over the horizon.
So, for all of you who are wonder about certain information about certain creatures, or what certain things look like in this book, I will be creating a “No Gravity” companion topic! Here you will find: Concept art Concepting ideas Data files Backgrounds History Etc. The topic will hopefully be up soon, just as soon as I start getting content ready for it!
Thoughts as I read. First of all great job on the new parts Nexo! But wow, I log off for one night and wammy. XD Not that I'm complaining. Aw, the brother I didn't officially know until a few days ago has my back, thank Boomer! Annnd, now Con's broody. Cool battle scene!
And also very cool idea for the companion topic, can't wait!!
So, for all of you who are wonder about certain information about certain creatures, or what certain things look like in this book, I will be creating a “No Gravity” companion topic! Here you will find: Concept art Concepting ideas Data files Backgrounds History Etc. The topic will hopefully be up soon, just as soon as I start getting content ready for it!
Thoughts as I read. First of all great job on the new parts Nexo! But wow, I log off for one night and wammy. XD Not that I'm complaining. Aw, the brother I didn't officially know until a few days ago has my back, thank Boomer! Annnd, now Con's broody. Cool battle scene!
And also very cool idea for the companion topic, can't wait!!
Thanks! I thought they were a little rushed honestly, but good to hear you still enjoyed them!
I told you guys I was working while I was gone! XD Hooray Boomer Yes, Con’s very broody. He’s like that when he doesn’t get his coffee...
Thanks! I wrote it to some epic music!
Thanks again, it should be up within the coming days.
Thoughts as I read. First of all great job on the new parts Nexo! But wow, I log off for one night and wammy. XD Not that I'm complaining. Aw, the brother I didn't officially know until a few days ago has my back, thank Boomer! Annnd, now Con's broody. Cool battle scene!
And also very cool idea for the companion topic, can't wait!!
