Second Wave -- 30
Chapter 30
I was awakened by a buzzing sound that rapidly approached. I opened my eyes just in time to flinch as some kind of medium-sized flying creature sailed just over my nose. It was supported by what looked like four wings, although they were blurred from the speed at which they were beating. I rolled over and jumped to my feet in alarm. We were in the middle of a whole swarm of the things. They were circling around the rock thumb, both above and slightly below our location. Kasm sent me a rather amused thought, “The flyers won't hurt you. They are fruit eaters and are just returning from their nightly feeding.”
The flying creatures apparently nested underneath the edge of the thumb-shaped rock on a series of ledges that lined the overhang. They took turns diving under the rock, and gradually, the whole flock disappeared as they found space on the ledges to land.
With this start, our day began. Erin had been lying fairly close to me, with Frank on her other side. Whistle was huddled in a little ball near a rocky outcrop that provided him with a little shelter. They had all woken to see the aerial circus, and now they clustered around me as we shared some of our provisions. I asked Kasm if he wanted any of our food, but he disdainfully turned his head to the side.
“It doesn't smell good to me. I'll catch something after we get on our way.” He somehow managed to send an implication that our provisions couldn't possibly be edible.
I responded, “Our food is balanced to provide us with all the nourishment that we need, but I agree, it doesn't have a very good taste, even for us.”
“You must have a stronger stomach than me, then. If I tried to eat that stuff, the way it smells, it would make me sick,” he admitted.
The morning went much as had the prior morning. We clambered down off our perch and began trekking through the grassland and thorn bushes. The sun rose rapidly into a clear sky. It was hot, and the same hot wind was blowing, causing the grasses to bend down in waves as the gusts passed. The wind was loud and gusty, making me a little jumpy since it made it harder for me to hear. Nevertheless, I realized that both Kasm and, to a lesser extent, Whistle had more acute hearing than humans, so I kept giving them quick glances to assure myself that they weren't alerting to any threat that I couldn't perceive.
At a certain point, Kasm slipped quickly away into the grass, seeming to disappear as his camouflage blended in more thoroughly as he moved away. A little while later, there was a commotion behind some shrubs about a quarter of a mile away. A dust cloud arose and was quickly blown away by the wind. He came back about fifteen minutes later with an air of satisfaction for having gotten his morning meal. I never did find out what it was that he'd killed.
As the sun rose higher, it heated up. Along about noon, we crested a low hill and saw a jungle in the near distance. Kasm sent, “That is the location of the invaders' fort. We'll have to travel through the trees for some distance to reach it. There are hostile creatures that live in the branches, so warn the others to stay away from the higher trees and especially away from those that have hanging tangles. The creatures live in the tangles, and they can eject noxious fluids to splash on the unwary traveler.”
“Poison?” I asked.
“Not for me. I don't know about you. But, the fluids smell awful and won't wash off for days,” was the not-too-reassuring response.
We continued and eventually reached the border between the veldt and the outlying reaches of the jungle. The jungle's edge was heavy with brush and lower growth interspersed among the short trees. We had to force our way through this, although Kasm seemed to have an easier time of it than we two-legged creatures. He managed to find spaces to move through, simply pushing the dense brush out of the way with his muscular shoulders. We were more careful, remembering the lesson imparted by the poison thorns.
After passing through the jungle's boundary, the going became easier and we threaded our way through the taller trees. The branches were heavy and the shade was so dense that the undergrowth was much thinner here. Even so, it posed a bit of a problem until our cat-like guide began pacing down an animal trail. This was considerably easier for us to follow, although it wound around, back and forth between the trees in a kind of crazy fashion as if the creature or creatures that created it were unsure about where they were going.
After following this winding way for about an hour, Kasm paused and looked over his shoulder at me. Ahead, the trail passed near a massive tree that was nearly obscured by long hanging tendrils of some kind or other. They were matted together and I could see animals that were nearly the size of Whistle clambering over the surface and popping in and out of holes in the mat.
Just as I saw the creatures, they apparently saw us since they set up a clamorous alarm consisting of shrieks and loud, obnoxious grunts emitted through a bulbous proboscis. Each of the grunting ones held an arm behind itself and scraped it repeatedly across its back. When each creature had gathered enough of the sticky mess that it had excreted onto its back, it would hurl the whole handful in our direction.
A few of the missiles landed nearby. Fortunately, we were at the extreme edge of their effective throwing distance. From the stench that emitted from the near misses, we were easily persuaded not to approach any further. We backed up along the trail and forced our way through the thinner underbrush in a wide detour around the tree. A few of the creatures showed that they weren't restricted in their range to just their home tree. They followed us at a distance, jumping from branch to branch with admirable agility.
As they got a little closer, they noticed Whistle for the first time. They set up a series of barking noises, and more came streaming through the branches from the home tree. They all had their eyes fixed upon him and as the newer arrivals saw him, they began to make hostile barking noises also. I tried but couldn't sense anything of their motivations, but it was obvious that they didn't like his looks at all.
The whole group came closer, barking and grunting as they wiped their backs. I looked in Kasm's direction for instructions, but he'd disappeared. This was, I decided, more than enough from these obnoxious beasts. Moreover, it looked as if they were all preparing to hurl stink bombs at once and I didn't want to think of the effect it would have on us. The odor from the near misses had been tremendously awful. A direct hit would be unimaginable.
I pulled out my anti-matter pistol and caught a glimpse of both Erin and Frank pulling theirs. We all fired at once, sweeping the disintegrating beam of anti-particles across beasts and trees alike, trying to wipe the whole mass of them off the planet. It mostly worked. A few stink bombs landed close to us, one almost splattering Frank's feet. The remaining creatures were so dismayed by the sudden disappearance of the branches and their fellows that they fell back some distance. There, they set up a more alarmed type of barking, and I could see hundreds more of them popping out of the matted tree in the distance and jumping through the branches in our direction.
I pushed my pistol back into its holster and unslung my rifle. A long burst of anti-matter caused most of the matted tree to crackle and disappear. This was too much for the survivors. They let out a series of horrified shrieks at the destruction of their home and presumably the rest of their tribe and fled back towards the now greatly reduced tree. Only the far side of the tree remained. The matted area had been largely dissolved on the nearest side and I could see chambers and structures now exposed to the daylight.
As the creatures swarmed back onto the tree, it gave out a large cracking noise as the top half broke off and toppled over onto the remains of the matted structure. This caused the outraged beasts to shriek even louder.
Kasm suddenly poked his head out from under a large bush to my left and sent, “This way, and hurry. The stink-beasts will come looking for vengeance if we wait here too long.”
We followed after him as fast as we could and finally could hear the shrieking no longer. I hoped the things wouldn't think to follow after us and was reassured when Kasm let me know that they wouldn't follow if they couldn't see us.
Kasm found another animal trail that went generally in the direction that we wanted and we resumed our meandering progress. I couldn't see the sun due to the thick overgrowth, but sometime in the later afternoon, we came out into a large clearing and saw the remains of the Pugs' fort.
The clearing was starting to fill in with bushes and tall, thin plants that were normally shaded from the sun. It looked like the open area would be completely impassible in another year or so. We followed a trail through the bushes and eventually ended up next to the outside wall of the compound. The bushes grew up against it, but we were able to work around the edge and so came at last to the main gates. They were open, one hanging on by a single hinge and leaning at an acute angle.
Inside, the area had been paved with some kind of hard-surfaced material that looked like rock-melt. It was cracked, and plants had gained a toehold in the surface. We spread out, carefully investigating the area.
There was the remains of a shuttle-craft here. I explored it anxiously, but from the first, it was apparent that it would never fly again. There was just too much wrong with it. Part of it had been severely damaged by an explosion that had blown through the hull and destroyed the engines.
Kasm was following along with me and I asked him, “Did your people do this?”
“Yes, we managed to steal one of the small bomblets the aliens were using against us and turned it against them,” was his response. “They didn't consider the possibility that we would be smart enough to set a trap for them.”
“What kind of bomblet was it?” The only small bombs I was aware of were the anti-matter ones that were like our hand grenades in size, and they were far too powerful to have caused this relatively minor damage. If one of them had been used, there would be little left of the entire compound.
It turned out that the Pugs had been using some kind of anti-personnel bombs that scattered small explosive devices throughout the area where they were dropped. These would lie inert until disturbed by a living creature. The resulting explosion was large enough to destroy the victim and any others nearby. Kasm's people had managed to get one of these explosives placed under the edge of the shuttle's open port so that it went off when the Pugs boarded and started to close the port door. The result was devastating to the Pugs. The shuttle was effectively destroyed and the remaining Pugs had been forced to escape by using the transporter to the orbital station.
They'd set the transporter to automatically turn itself off after they went through in order to keep Kasm's kind from following them to the station. Kasm said that some of his tribe had tried to activate it again but had not been able to figure out the power supply.
As we were discussing this, Frank came out of an open door in a nearby structure and called for us to come. He'd found the transporter. Whistle and Erin came jogging around a corner and beat us to the entrance where Frank was standing. Together, we went to see if this would be our way off of the surface.