Species C543 System
4 Years 2 months 23 days Before C1764 FTL Jump
“Ma’am.”
[Sil] tried to turn away from the noise and tried to remain in the blissful realm of unconsciousness.
“Ma’am!”
[Sil] forced her eyes open and let out a low groan of pain. [Fred] was next to her on the ground, her face inches from [Sil]’s.
“[Fred]! What, where?” grumbled [Sil] disoriented.
The sky above was an alien red, the star the planet was orbiting only hidden behind a ridge of tall mountains. The light from mid-morning filtering through the unpolluted and clean atmosphere.
“We made it to the surface of the Class C planet. As I feared, I passed out during atmospheric entry and you were apparently able to pull me clear of the escape pod before passing out. Which is impressive considering you have not gone through zero-g recovery training.”
[Sil] groaned and propping her elbows on the ground tried to sit up, her head was still spinning.
“My father had me go through it as a child. In case of this exact scenario. Well, that was for kidnapping but the same thing.”
[Fred] chuckled and slowly pushed herself up as well, “Somehow I don’t imagine it was anything close to the same training I had.”
[Sil] collapsed back onto the ground, “no. It wasn’t.”
On her hands and knees around [Fred] carefully looked around the crash site. They were in a small clearing in the middle of a valley by the looks of it. A small stream was running through the opposite end of the clearing and the pod was almost in the dead center. Not even trying to get up the bodyguard crawled towards the pod.
“I had to shut the hatch, it was on fire,” muttered [Sil] from the ground.
[Fred] paused and glanced back, “Did you grab the beacon?”
“No.”
[Fred] muttered several things under her breath, “I might need your help to get this open. Can you stand?”
Rolling over and moving her hands to the sides [Sil] slowly placed them on the alien dirt and feeling the gravel beneath her hands tried to focus and push herself up.
The headache from zero-g was still present, but fighting it the Empress slowly managed to get up on her feet. The readouts had said gravity on the class C world was less than standard, but with already a few days of zero-g her body had adapted. The violent reintroduction was no pleasant in any sense.
[Sil]’s skin flushed a light pink as the blood drained away from her head and a dull roar echoed in her ears. Ignoring it and throwing her arms out to keep herself steady [Sil] remained still waiting for the sensations to die down.
[Fred] was likewise slowly getting to her feet, one hand on her side clutching at her wound another on the side of the escape pod using it to help her stand. [Sil] could see a fresh patch of dark blood on what remained of the bandages, “[Fred], you’re bleeding again.”
“I’m fine. The stimulants are keeping me from passing out again,” she glanced at her side, “the wound will need to be rebandaged and sealed again now that we are in gravity. Patching wounds in zero-g is always ill advised, you bloat and organs shift without gravity.”
[Fred] took her hand away from her side and put it on the hatch, “In any case the medical kit is in the pod.”
Slowly ambling over to the Pod [Sil] helped lever the hatch up. The pod was resting at a near [45 degree] angle so they were not lifting it entirely up and away. Either one could have under normal circumstances opened it while the pod was vertical with some effort. As it was injured and recovering from space it took both several agonizing seconds to open the metal hatch.
[Sil] coughed and stepped back as a cloud of thick acrid smelling smoke curled out of the Pod. The fire was thankfully gone, but it appeared to have burned most of the interior. [Fred] unconcerned with the smoke and smell of burning electronics bodily dove into the smoke and disappeared from view.
“[Fred]!”
Still coughing and trying to hold her breath [Sil] stepped back to the hatch, several small objects came hurtling out of the remaining smoke and [Sil] stepped to the side barely avoiding getting hit and stumbling back to the ground when her foot connecting with a small rock.
Coughing the medical kit in her hand [Fred] climbed out of the pod and collapsed onto the ground with a low moan.
“Kit, and Beacon,” gasped [Fred] indicating the object in her hand and one of the small things she had thrown out.
Sil picked the small handheld beacon up as she once again got to her feet. The thing was a small metal cylinder built to endure anything but direct heavy weapons fire.
“[Fred] if the tachyon beacon isn’t repeating any signals in this system this thing is useless!” growled [Sil] as she flipped the small metal tube over in her hand and cracked the seal activating it. The beacon would continue to transmit for a [year] at least. Longer if it was placed in sunlight where it could absorb radiation.
“Well, I’m hoping the saboteurs only disabled that for a few days. Otherwise, yes it’s useless.”
Shaking her head the Empress grabbed the medical kit and digging through what remained pulled out the last of the healing gauze.
“No more complaining about using medical materials on you, I need you here to help me live, and I survived the landing with only a few bumps. Got it?”
[Fred] grimaced but quickly nodded.
“Good. Now this is going to hurt,” said [Sil] as she put her hand on the now saturated healing gauze. It had to be removed before the fresh patch could be put in place. There was nothing to be done about the smaller puncture on the bodyguards back at the moment.
“I’ve had worse.”
“Have you?”
[Fred] smiled and wiggled her right leg, “I shattered every bone in this leg when I was [twelve].”
“Do I want to ask how?”
“Training. Most of us go through it, Reece I know managed to nearly tear his right arm off when he was eight. The boy has always been an eager AH!”
[Sil] ripped the gauze away and tried to ignore the sticking and wet sound that accompanied its removal. The wound thankfully didn’t look to be infected, but the restorative properties of the medicine in the gauze were having minimal little effect on the puncture.
“How’s it look?” asked [Fred] as she propped herself up against the side of the pod and looked at the wound.
[Sil] was silent, waiting for her to make the assessment.
The bodyguard slowly prodded at it, causing another wet squelch. [Sil] turned her head to the side and retched, just barely keeping her last emergency ration in her stomach.
“Not as bad as it could have been. There is some torn muscle though,” muttered [Fred].
Keeping her eyes carefully up and away from the wound [Sil] turned back to her bodyguard, “What can I do for that?”
“Nothing for it in that kit. If we aren’t rescued in the next day or so it will heal wrong, and someone will have to go back in and cut the muscle so it can heal correctly. Or clone me a completely new rib cage or something.”
[Fred] moved her hand away from the wound her own face almost pink at the thought.
“That’ll be fun,” deadpanned [Sil].
[Fred] smiled, “I expect it will be.”
Taking a deep breath and trying not to gag [Sil] pulled out the sealant and quickly applied it to the wound. [Fred] let out a low his but remained still, using up the last of the package [Sil] dropped it to the ground and carefully slapped the gauze over the wound.
“You’re all good for now.”
[Fred] shifted into a more comfortable sitting position and leaned up against the pod.
[Sil] sat down next to her and looked at the rising star in the sky. It was just about to crest over the mountains.
“Well we made it to a planet. Considering we could have jumped into an escape pod in deep space, this is lucky, right?” asked [Sil].
[Fred] said nothing.
[Sil] sighed agreeing with her. Picking up the beacon the Empress checked that the device was working and attempting to transmit. Slowly she tossed it from hand to hand, the small blue glow on its side hypnotically going from side to side.
For several [minutes] the two women said nothing and simply looked at everything around them. The pod had been a constant electronic hum audible in the background. Now the background noise was that of the alien forest.
The trees were nothing remarkably alien, solid trunks of wood with slowly winding branches. A few odd leaf colorings at different spots, that was lighter than what [Sil] was accustomed to on the home world. The plants were tuned to the specific wavelengths of light that fell on the planet capturing as much of the energy as they could.
Vines, grasses, and other weeds of different types were spread about, again not very alien. The path of life was similar enough on most Seed worlds, still it was going to be difficult to determine what was edible and what was not. Looking at it all [Sil] was sure the rations were going to be something she would miss to eat if she had to live off the land.
“We’re going to need to sleep in the pod tonight, and keep watches. The categorizing biological sampling focuses on the class C’s and anything that is visibly significant from orbit. I am willing to bet there are predatory animals that would be more than willing to try and eat us,” said [Fred] her voice low.
[Sil] slowly nodded, before after a moment letting out a small chuckle.
[Fred] turned a quizzical look on the Empress, who only started to laugh even harder, “Share the joke, seems like a good one.”
“A few [days] ago I was worried about interstellar politics and the management of the Empire. Now I am having to worry about being eaten, it’s a dichotomy.”
[Fred] chuckled as well.
“At least protecting you from animals is simple enough, they can’t try and hijack an orbital defense platform to assassinate you. One blast in the rump and whatever it is will run away for an easier meal,” said [Fred]. She pulled her sidearm out and held it up emphasizing her point.
[Sil] furrowed her brow, “why that example?”
“That was the last assassination plot against you I had to deal with before we left the home world.”
[Sil] blinked, “How many do you typically deal with?”
“Against you specifically? That numbers gone up since you became Empress. About a thousand a [week] total. Ten of which are serious, and maybe one a [month] I have to deal with and disrupt myself,” She frowned, “this is one that I apparently missed.”
[Sil] turned away from her letting the bodyguard brood at her failure for several minutes.
Standing up the Empress walked around the small clearing, her head beginning to clear and only the fatigue in her muscles. Experimentally she hopped in the air, and landing back on her feet nearly fell over again.
“Seems like the gravity on Olyn almost, a little lighter than normal but not that noticeable.”
“Olyn?”
[Sil] shrugged, “First planet I could think of with a little less gravity than the home world.”
“Your mind goes straight to Olyn?”
[Sil] said nothing in response, [Fred] closed her eyes and pushing back against the pod slowly tried to stand again.
“You need to rest!” [Sil] rushed over and grabbed [Fred]’s arm holding her up.
“We need to start collecting kindling for a fire. Water as well, we have enough rations to last for a month and if weather does become an issue we can sleep in the escape pod.”
[Sil] winced, “My complaining about the accommodations at the last planet we visited is going to be something to envy from this point on then?”
[Fred] reluctantly nodded, “Yes, we’re going to be sleeping on metal or dirt for the near future.”
“Renf!”
[Fred] smiled slightly, “We have the rations and shelter Empress. We are far better off in terms of survival essential than I was through many of the scenarios I went through during training.”
[Sil] muttered another half dozen curses under her breath.
“You stay here. I’ll look for plants to burn.”
“I would prefer you did not leave my sight,” [Fred] hesitated for another moment, “I am sorry that I am proving to be more of a hindrance than a help.”
“I’d be in a far worse situation if you were not here [Fred] don’t worry about it.”
The bodyguard nodded, and closing her eyes for a moment tried to relax. Which was when she heard the branch crack. Eye’s flying open [Fred] held her hand up, the Empress’s eyes widened but seeing the alarm in her bodyguards posture she said nothing instead quickly stooped down next to her and swept her eyes over the woods.
“What?” whispered [Sil].
“Something, lots of somethings are approaching us.”
[Fred] tilted her head listening, “They are on two legs. Considering how well things have been going, it is most likely the class C.”
“Renf.” Cursed [Sil] again keeping her voice low, “How many?”
“A lot.”
[Fred] was silent for a moment as she tried in vain to count, “more than I will be able to fend off with my injuries if they attack, which I find likely given their classification. Empress, I want you to hide in the escape pod.”
[Sil] bristled, “I am not going to hide from some C’s!”
“Empress…” [Fred] trailed off as a figure emerged from the woods.
[Sil] winced, she could practically smell the creatures from across the clearing. They were hideously blue, and what parts of their bodies that were not covered in the ill fitted and dirty leather and linen clothing was instead covered in matted and disgusting looking hair. The hair on the subjects for the database had apparently been cleaned, the class C’s looked as if they had never been anywhere even near a bath.
“[Fred]…” [Sil] trailed off as a large creature broke through the line of the trees six legged and reminiscent of the old lizard like Hallo on the home world it was a beast of burden. Sitting on it’s back looking like a blue hairball was the cleanest and fattest of the class C’s. The class C leered down from atop the pack animal.
[Sil] shivered under its gaze.
“I’m going to try and scare them off,” muttered the bodyguard.
“Just kill them.”
“If they all attack at once, I won’t be fast enough to kill them all. We have only the one sidearm, I would prefer to scare them off.”
“Back!” [Fred] raised her weapon, the class C’s scrambled back. Several ducked behind the tree’s. the largest one atop the mount shouted something in a guttural language.
[Fred] tensed, “Empress as soon as I move I want you to get into the pod and seal it.”
“[Fred] they are class C!”
“That does not mean they are not a threat Empress!”
As one the class C’s nearest to them drew crudely made swords, behind them the other class C produced bows and took aim.
Again, the large blue class C shouted something.
[Fred] moved the gun towards his head, and the bulbous creature flinched. Which only raised more questions in the bodyguard’s mind, how did they know what she held was a weapon?
One man to the left let out a guttural roar and stepped forwards to begin a charge. Before he could manage a second step [Fred] had realigned her stance and fired. Even as the bolt of energy arced through the air the experienced bodyguard adjusted and fired again at the man standing next to him.
In a flurry of motion [Fred] managed to put another three shots downrange before the class C responded.
With a roar the hundred or so of the class C charged forwards ignoring their fallen brethren.
The hand weapon [Fred] was using could have defeated an entire army, in the same fashion that a single blade could. If each enemy stood still and allowed her to get clear shots, but coming from nearly every direction and having to wait the quarter second for the capacitor inside the gun to recharge she was limited.
The bowman not following the men with the swords let loose their own salvo, reacting only as [Fred] fired her weapon for the sixth time.
The men were not experienced fighters, but they had been part of the hunting party. Even a horrible bowman could hit a stationary target at the distances with ease. [Fred] grunted in pain as several of the arrows hit her chest and her clothing absorbed the impact. The cloth was interwoven with fibers designed to stop knives and small slashing attacks, against modern weapons it would disperse some of the plasma and at least allow her to live if somehow an idiot with a low powered hand gun took a shot at her when she was not in full armor.
Against the far more ancient weapons the clothing managed to disperse the kinetic energy of each attack and distribute it over her frame. Had she not been nursing injuries and already fighting to remain standing she could have absorbed the hits and continued firing.
One lucky arrow glanced off the side off the side of the bodyguard’s brow, the piece of metal that served to replace part of her missing skull and not even considered armor deflecting it away.
Blood flowing over her right eye [Fred] spared one last glance at her Empress.
[Sil] was standing at the entrance to the Pod, a look that [Fred] knew all to well on her face. The frozen face of someone in shock.
“Empress!”
Unable to clearly see out of her right eye [Fred] continue to fire. Four more men collapsed to the ground, an arrow embedded itself in [Fred]’s neck and the bodyguard let out a low gurgle. She continued to fire her weapon until the sword cleaved through her neck.
[Sil] stunned watched as the large class C flicked his sword and [Fred]’s blood hit the ground in front of her.
The murderer lifted his sword and grunted something.
“[Fred]!”
Ignoring the brutal class C’s, the Empress collapsed to her knees and shuffled forwards towards her friend and protector.
A better dressed class C with a large pouch that moved like something was alive in it stepped through the crowd of larger creatures. With expert ease it stooped down, and put a length of rope over [Sil]’s wrists.
[Sil] jerked away, “Don’t touch me!”
The class C’s hand snapped out hitting her between the eyes. Stunned for a moment by the time [Sil] regained her sense the rope was tied around her wrists.
The class C stood, and began to walk away from [Fred]. [Sil] dug her knees into the dirt, but the brute didn’t seem to mind and simply dragged her away.
The Empress of the Empire, conquerors of a thousand class C’s and B’s had been caught by Species C543.
Ruck, Willinkree
Year 3042 Day 35
“Back away from her!” shouted Duke Frin.
The other men around Piral who were all eyeing the sky egg and the dead woman backed away as the Duke bustled towards them.
“You have her Tamer?” asked the Duke barely glancing at the woman as he moved towards the corpse.
“I have her Duke!” said Piral even as the red woman continued to try and pull herself free from the rope, which was only tightening the knots over her wrist.
The Duke grunted as he fell to his knee’s ignoring the oddly colored blood on the ground he grabbed at the strange three fingered corpses hand and pulled the star thrower free. Holding it aloft the Duke let out a whoop.
The red woman let out a strangled cry and for a moment Piral was concerned she was going to dislocate a shoulder.
“Hah!”
Duke Frin held the star thrower, it took him a moment his hand moving over the thing to summon a blast of starlight which shot into the air and soared up into the heavens.
“It works!”
Grunting again the Duke ignored all the men around him offering help and he stood. Gesturing with the star thrower a wide grin on his face Duke Frin stomped over to Piral.
Grabbing holding the star thrower in one hand he raised his other towards the red woman, who let out a terrifying screech and snapped her teeth at Duke Frin.
Piral carefully tugged at her ropes keeping her in place.
The Duke laughed, “She is spirited! She is your responsibility as we travel.”
Piral bowed, “Yes Duke.”
“Teach her proper words as well. If the legends are to be believed they can learn, supposing the star women are as intelligent as the star men.”
Piral bowed his head, “I will endeavor to do so Duke Frin, I cannot make a guarantee though.”
The Duke pointed the star thrower at Piral who merely raised his eyebrows.
“You can’t?”
Piral looked at the point of the star thrower, “I have no idea if she can even learn, and I will not make false promises to you. Have I ever said an untruth?”
The Duke slowly lowered the star thrower “You have not Tamer. You have not. I do expect some progress though, I do not wish to present her to the King without some words.”
“I will be able to give you an assessment of her ability to learn by the time we return to your Estate.”
The Duke frowned, “Yes. We cannot tarry however, as loyal as you might be Tamer. The men will talk, and the King will know I have a prize. She must be presentable to him.”
Duke Frin held the star thrower up and shot another star into the heavens.
“This is not as powerful as the King’s, is it?”
Piral looked at the Duke for a moment and shook his head, “No Duke, it is not.”
The man sighed and muttered a string of curses under his breath.
Leaving him to his cursing Piral turned to the red woman and looked her up and down with an apprising eye. Practiced at examining the slaves that passed through the Duke’s realm the Tamer quickly determined that the red woman from the stars had led a soft life, softer than perhaps even the Duke’s own daughters. Perhaps even more so than the King’s daughters.
She had no imperfections, she had none of the stretching or sagging of skin from improper food or sun exposure. She had no scarring, the current wounds from her fall to the ground in the star peg looked like they would heal without too much permanent damage.
Amazingly, the hairlessness of her skin did not look to be like it was from shaving. The legends of the others from the sky had said they had no hair, but Piral had never believed the tales.
The red woman’s skin had no pinpricks from re-growing hair, no errant nicks from a blade. Privately Piral thought that not even the King’s own daughters were as cleanly shaved. Truly the red woman was from the stars.
Piral tugged at the ropes bringing her closer, the woman chattered again in her incomprehensible tongue and dug her heels into the dirt. Piral calmly wrapped the lead around his hand and stepped towards her, continuing to examine her.
The red woman was crying now, terror in her eyes. Piral ignored it, he had seen the look far too often to be affected. He did not like to deal with people, preferring to work with his animals they were far easier to train.
The woman slammed her hands into Piral’s chest and barred her teeth beginning to scream again. With practiced ease born from placing the bits in the jaws of the younger beasts of burden and the improperly trained mounts in the Duke’s stable when he had first arrived Piral patiently waited until the red woman paused to suck in a breath and quickly shoved a piece of leather and cloth into her mouth.
Her eyes widened and behind the gag she continued to yell.
“Trouble Tamer?” asked the Duke watching.
“She is being difficult, if I remember the legends correctly all of the star people are.”
Duke Frin noncommittedly grunted, “I suppose so. I’ll have to go through my library and look up the older ones. I can’t remember any about star women.”
Piral considered that for a moment wracking his own memories, “She might be the first.”
Duke Frin looked forlornly looked at the corpse of the other red woman, “Shame we had to kill this one. I’m amazed it was able to stand with the wounds it already had though.”
“To fall from the stars, they must be more resilient.”
Duke Frin patted hide of his steed that had been led back over to him, “Perhaps. She looks soft though.”
Piral nodded in agreement and held the rope up, “She is, Green Flyer here is almost as strong as she is.”
Upon hearing its name the small creature poked out from it’s pouch and looked around letting out a low chittering. Palming a small morsel of food from another pocket Piral quickly gave it to the creature.
Green Flyer took it and retreated into the pouch again.
“The real difficulty will be getting the star egg back to my estate,” muttered the Duke, “Will my Mount be able to drag it Tamer?”
Piral considered, and casually ran his eyes over the Duke’s bulbous frame.
“He could I think, if the star egg is hallowed like the other ones. I would suggest you walk Duke, your mount is not young.”
“Why did you harness an older one?” asked the Duke annoyed.
“You requested an easy ride Duke, I can hardly control the offspring yet. They are still being broken in and trained. This one here,” Piral patted the creature’s snout and the animal leaned into the hand, “Is your best trained mount. It is not his fault he is old.”
The Duke muttered several things under his breath.
“We shall set up camp here you are responsible for managing the red woman, I will oversee the collection of the star egg. Who knows what else it might hold!” said the Duke as he held up the star thrower.
“As you command Duke. I obey.”