"Land there." The deck of the Starflight shuttle hummed under Bei's boots as he pointed over Commander Keyes's shoulder. The LCD bands, displayed like windows in the cockpit, relayed the snow-covered mountains and the torrent of mud and debris from the spring thaw cutting down the jagged slopes. White capped rivers snaked through the towering trees and lush plains. Ignoring the raw vistas, he tapped the screen near the ship in the meadow. The tall grass and purple flowers beat the ground of Terra Dos from the turbulence created by the ship's exhaust.
"Aye, Admiral." Commander Keyes gripped the yoke, easing it down then turning it slightly. "The ground is soupy but it'll support our weight."
Despite the inertial dampeners, Bei swayed with the motion as the shuttle swung into position. His knees bent a little as the ship touched ground, compensating for the abrupt contact.
Sitting at the helm next to Keyes, Doc frowned at screen in front of him. "Still detecting no chemical or biological weapons' residue. Radiation readings are well within normal tolerances."
"Life signs?" Bei walked the two steps to the weapons locker by the double doors to the crew compartment and twisted the latch. The vacuum seal released with a sigh, and the locker's door swung open.
Doc unsnapped his safety harness, swiveled the chair around and pushed out of the seat. "No humanoids, but plenty of game."
"They'll be close." Bei dismissed the neat row of energy rifles in the cabinet. With his WA capabilities offline, the weapons wouldn't fire. Smiling grimly, he selected the low tech projectile rifle and added seven-one hundred round clips to his uniform pockets. Although one bullet would be enough to kill Bastard, Bei planned to cut the man in pieces if he'd harmed Nell.
A soft grating noise echoed around the cockpit and the Starflight rocked. Boots pounded the metal deck beyond the doors.
Commander Keyes's tan finger gathered her long black curls at her nape, and she turned to face him. "Doors open. Strike Force One is approaching Bastard's shuttle."
Bei grunted. As the highest ranking officer in the fleet, he was forbidden to take point. He hated the restriction, hated risking his men on a personal mission. But Keyes had laid down the ground rules as soon as they'd gotten underway. Hell, the woman had even locked him out of the ship's system. To stop himself from strangling the good intentions out of her, he removed one of the packs from the compartment under the weapon's locker and shrugged it onto his shoulders, securing the harness with a snap. "Open the door, Commander."
Commander Keyes's brown eyes narrowed for a moment before her gaze scuttled to Doc.
Doc cleared his throat and tugged on his collar. "Admiral, perhaps I could finish my tests before you go after Nell. There's something wrong with the vegetation."
Strike Force One's 'all clear' sounded across the com.
"Keyes," Bei growled. They'd had their damn protocol, now he wanted to hunt. He checked to make sure a round sat in the chamber before aiming it at the tan-skinned Commander. "Open the door."
Blue light pulsed through the fiber optic cable at her neck and the double doors eased open.
Chief Rome leaned against the shuttle's open back end, cradling a projectile rifle. "Protocol dictates you wait another-"
"One more word, Chief, and your protocol will be shoved someplace no one made enhancements for." Bei stormed down the narrow aisle of the empty crew compartment and into the breaking dawn. He eyed the tree line beyond the meadow before switching to infrared sensors. Instead of finding the residual footprints, the whole field glowed the same red color. He would have to track his enemy the hard way. Bei clomped down the ramp.
"Sun's just coming up and the ground's too cold for an IR trace." Chief Rome sauntered to his side. "To add to the challenge, this grass is more resilient that that on Earth. Only bent or broken blades are near Bastard's ship."
While the green uniformed strike force fanned out from Bastard's ship, a shadow raced across the meadow. Bei glanced up the see a dense flock of screeching birds soaring overhead. He zoomed in on them, noted their large, feathered wingspan and their furry rat-like bodies.
"Damn." Chief craned his neck to watch them pass. "I hope they taste better than they look."
Bei loped across the clearing to the other shuttle. The ramp hadn't been deployed but something had snapped a few blades of grass. He set his hand on the green pieces. Was this where Nell had jumped, or had she fallen. He felt? He felt nothing.
"You shouldn't worry. Nell is smart. She knows we're coming for her."
"What makes you think I'm worried?" Bei dropped the blades and eyed the terrain. A soft furrow appeared in the meadow. Could that be a path leading to the tree line?
"She's your woman and?" Chief Rome flicked Bei's pack. "You're wearing the pilot's bag. I don't think there'll be much need for parachuting, but the three days of rations might come in handy."
Bei considered leaving the pack but decided against it. Three days rations would be enough to find Nell. Anything else was just overkill. Not that there wouldn't be killing?
Doc raced up behind them. His pack bobbed up and down his back as he stared at the wafer-thin computer screen in his hand. "There's lots of ash under the vegetation. We might be able to use the trace or the higher blades to track Bastard and Nell."
Standing at the top of the ramp, Commander Keyes cupped her hands around her mouth and shouted, "Admiral, I've assigned Washington and Portland to go over Bastard's shuttle, but I'd like permission to begin moving our people dirt side."
The sound carried and was amplified by the com button on his collar. Bei adjusted the volume. Isolated from the WA didn't make him deaf. Although ET's defensive array no longer posed a threat, he needed to get his people down here. "Give the all clear for the life pods to pilot down, then get the fleet's evacuation orders from Penig. We'll set up camp here. This looks like good, flat farmland."
"Here?" Doc dropped the computer and the screen changed to an opaque white. "This is swampland, Admiral, full of vermin and disease. We'd have better success about twelve kilometers due West."
Bei smiled at the public correction of a superior officer. Hell, he was a soldier, not a farmer. "Send the Commander the new appropriate co-ordinates then tell me your idea to locate our target."
"Aye, Admiral." Doc blushed and scooped up his screen. Balancing it on one hand, he slowly poked the tiny keyboard.
Bei surveyed the sunrise, turning his thoughts inward as he amplified his audio sensors. The silence at ten o'clock caught his attention. The only reason animals on Earth fell quite was because of an intrusion. His gaze swept the field again. That part in the grass did head that way. He double-checked his rifle and walked toward the silence.
Chief Rome fell into step beside him, swatting at a swarm of small insects buzzing over the yellow and purple flowers. "I can't see why food won't grow here. Everything else does."
A swishing of the grass alerted Bei to another presence. He turned to see Doc fall in next to him.
Doc shoved the screen under Bei's nose. Numbers glowed next to the fifty meter high trees. "The trees are the same age."
Bei glanced at the information before focusing in on the bough of a pinion like tree ahead of him. A few of the smaller branches looked broken and bent.
Doc stabbed the screen. The forest disappeared to be replaced by numbers and chemical symbols. "They sterilized the planet, no doubt to stop the spread of infection."
Bei recognized the rare elements present after an intense conflagration.
"That would explain the mass exodus of ET's ships. No one wants to be at ground zero during a fire and chemical sterilization. Guess they figured if enough of them left together, one or two might get through." Chief Rome jumped a few paces ahead and examined the branches of the tree. "Definitely this way, maybe eight hours ago."
"Almost nine hours." Bei pointed to the footprints currently being trampled under the Chief's big feet. Why hadn't Bastard forced Nell to leave as soon as they landed ten hours ago?
"She's walking." Doc pointe
d to the smaller prints as they made their way deeper into the forest. "But might have needed a few extra hours to recover from the sedative I gave her."
Bei nodded despite his doubts. Anger and fear welled up inside him. Nine hours wasn't an insurmountable start, especially when their quarry made no effort to hide their tracks. He picked up the pace.
Chief Rome fell in behind him, with Doc on their six. "How come there's so much wildlife if ET swept house?"
"They probably brought an ark." A green beam of light shot from Doc's position and swept the spongy ground. "Judging from the detritus, these trees produce edible nuts and their sap could be distilled into a disinfectant."
Bei heard a rustling to his right. He aimed as a feathered creature poked its head above the blanket of needles. The creature's black nose twitched and his eyes glowed yellow in the dim light. After cocking his head, it ducked under the groundcover and darted forward.
"Butt ugly creatures." Rome grunted.
"We should look for the ark once everyone gets down." Doc's tapping intruded in the silence of the forest. "Domesticated grain and foodstuffs will help supplement our supplies, in case our native plants don't grow."
"Tell Commander Keyes to order the life pods to make a sweep of the planet before landing. Their sensors should be able to find any ark." Bei focused on a broken limb at one o'clock. A black bead sat on the rough brown bark. Sap or blood? Reaching the branch, he set his finger on the liquid and felt his NDA suck it up for analysis.
"Find something?" Chief Rome's finger settled over the trigger of his rifle.
Bei's sensor returned the answer. His synthetic skin seemed to shrink "Blood."
"Nell's?" Doc pointed to a larger smear darkening the green needles.
"Yes." Bei started to jog. He had to find her. And then? And then Bastard would be rest in pieces.