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Chapter 6

Imacha carried Kendra in his arm, cradled like a small doll to his chest in order to reduce the jostling she would feel from his running. The small human gripped what she could of his attire and gritted her teeth. With each jarring step of the tordenchi's big paws, she felt her head shake and her bones rattle. As if sensing her intense discomfort at the situation, Imacha spoke to her without taking his eyes off his surroundings.

"Please pardon my lack of familiarity in the proper manner in which to carry a human, but I never took the tests needed to become a Guardian. The desire to hold and 'cuddle' a barely two meter tall being that was fully sapient and delicate as a dry leaf never held any interest to me," he said between heavy breaths.

Kendra did not respond. She was still trying to cope with losing two of her crewmates in one day's time; both of them slain by these horrid alien things, whatever they were. She was sure Adam had the same thoughts, though he still did not know about Neji yet. His mech ran ten meters to the side of Imacha. His rifle was slung across his back and Hakurr's carbine was carried in his hands. They had no time to bury him. They could not afford to be slowed down by carrying him back. It was all they could do to drag Adam away from the ralai's body and convince him to run with them, escape back to the ship. It took Imacha lying to Adam, telling him that Neji was going to need his help and protection. Kendra had no idea how he was going to take it when he discovered both she and Imacha had been lying to him for hours.

Her mech was also left behind with Hakurr. It was worthless without a functional gyroscope, a ten meter tall hunk of scrap that could not stand up or keep any semblance of balance. She was so used to being in it, able to work side by side with the giant races of the UTO on even footing, that it felt alien that she was without it. She normally looked down at Imacha through the sensors mounted in the mech's head so often that it was jarring to her to realize how big he still was compared to her. Kendra looked up at him and gripped his armored chest plate tighter. Her life was literally in his hands now.

"We're about two hours out from the ship," said Adam. "I can keep this pace up the whole way, but you look like you're gonna pass out Imacha. We have to stop. I can't protect us if anything comes to attack us while carrying both you and Kendra."

The tordenchi slowed to a halt and leaned heavily against a tree. The swamp was spread out before them; a low mist clung to the ground. It stank of rotting vegetation, something Kendra never smelled while she was in the mech. She tugged on some of the cloth that poked out of the side of the chest plate to get Imacha's attention.

"He's right. No protesting. Take ten and then we continue."

He nodded without speaking, a look of relief across his face. Adam's mech stomped past, scanning the area around them with all the sensors he had available to him. He was determined to let nothing happen to his friends. He lost one to this world, he would not lose another.

"Did you... did you see it come out of Hakurr?" Kendra called over to Adam. The mech shook its head in the negative.

"I wasn't looking. I really don't give two shits what they look like. I just want to kill one."

Kendra looked up at Imacha. He shook his head 'no' as well. He was slowly getting his wind back as he spoke. "I did not notice anything off hand, though I must admit my attention was distracted by other circumstances. Obviously. I believe you are worried about the possibility of it having gotten out of Hakurr and onto or inside Adam's mech, yes?"

Kendra lowered her head and nodded.

Imacha sighed and looked down at her. "Lieutenant, despite all that happens you never cease to put the safety of the rest of us before you. Adam is right in calling you mother at times. That aside, the probability of it getting inside Adam's mech approaches zero. He should be quite safe in it. The creature most likely hid inside Hakurr's body until we fled a minute or so later, then made good its escape."

"Do you think they are helpless outside of something to inhabit?" she asked Imacha.

"Do you feel helpless compared to me outside of your mech?"

Kendra just stared at the size of Imacha's hand alone compared to her and nodded. "Ask a stupid question..."

"Get a stupid answer. I like that Terran phrase," he said. "These things seem to be parasites as we understand them. I postulate that they may spend a majority of their time inhabiting other larger creatures for both safety and ease of navigation through the vastness of worlds. Perhaps we were victims of terrible misfortune to show up at this world at the precise time they came here to harvest new hosts for themselves."

"You mean taking those big beasts and using them like... riding animals?"

"More like biological mechs, if you take my meaning. The first one we encountered seemed quite familiar with the creature it inhabited."

Before they could continue speaking Adam came over to the two of them quickly. "We have to go. Now."

Imacha pushed himself up with a groan and held Kendra tight. Adam motioned for him to start running and stayed to the rear of the tordenchi.

"Wait, he's still too tired Adam. He needs to rest," Kendra said.

"They're coming," was his response.

Silence fell over the trio, only the splashing sounds of Imacha and the mech's feet in mud and water and the grinding of actuators were heard by them at first. After a few minutes all of them heard a keening wail in the distance. It was the sound one of those quadrupedal monsters made. The wail was joined by the sound of other wails. Kendra looked towards Adam.

"How many!" she shouted at him.

"Six."

"Oh shit. Can we outrun them?"

Imacha nodded. "Yes, Adam's mech can match their speed, but more importantly out endure them. That is why he needs to take you and run with you Lieutenant. I'm too tired and I can't run at the speed needed. They will catch me no matter what I do."

"No!" shouted Kendra. "No, you are not handing me over to Adam and sacrificing yourself out here to those Goddamn things!" She shook some of Imacha's cloth and then pounded on his forearm with her fists. "That's an order! It's my order and you have to listen to me dammit!"

Imacha smiled down at Kendra. He so rarely smiled, but now he found the will to do so. It made no sense to her. Why was the usually aloof tordenchi willing to open up to her here of all places? She felt like she was going mad.

"I'm sorry Kendra. I'm going to have to disobey that order. It has been a pleasure and an honor to call you friend. I have had so few that... ooof!!" The tordenchi was shoved, staggered forward a few steps, and just barely kept his balance as he skidded to a halt in the mud on his paws. He looked back to see Adam's mech with its arm outstretched. He had pushed him.

"For Christ's sake, would you shut the hell up and keep running?" shouted Adam through the speakers of his mech. As they looked at him, the chest plate of the mech opened up with the usual whirring metallic sounds. They saw Adam leaning back heavily in his reflex harness. The young man looked almost alien to Kendra, as if he had aged twenty years since she last saw him out of the mech. His eyes were red, his hair matted and messy. Stains from when he had vomited inside his mech were down the front of his uniform. Dried blood ran down the corner of his mouth. The man shouted at the top of his lungs, "None of my friends are dying anymore! Now get the hell going! Hakurr told me to live his life for him, and this is exactly what he would do in this situation! I have to stay back... I have to die here... so you can keep living. He was a Guardian. He was my Guardian... and my friend. So get back to the ship and get off this nightmare world." The chest plate began to close once more, but before it shut and his face was out of sight Kendra heard Adam say, "Tell Neji I loved her."

The mech turned around and began to tromp off in the direction of the wailing beasts. She noticed Hakurr's necklace and crucifix was wrapped about the mech's right wrist. Adam still held the carbine in his left hand, then unslung his rifle and held it in his right hand. Without another word he left them behind.

Imacha stood there and watched him go. In a minute the mist had swallowed up the mech and blocked it from their sight. All they heard were its thudding foot falls, then that too faded away in the distance.

"She knew, I'm sure she did," whispered Kendra.

Imacha summoned up the will to sprint once again. His paws splashed down over and over in the muddy water. Kendra heard him muttering to himself, under his breath, but just loud enough that she could make it out. "Have to run... not in vain... lied to him... owe him... have to run..." The tordenchi kept repeating it over and over, almost keeping pace with the words. He hopped and scrambled over massive roots of a tree, then ducked under a web of vines. The giant sank to his knees in a deep patch of water, but pressed on and pulled himself free.

A crack echoed through the swamp, the sound of the energy carbine going off. A shrieking cry came a moment later from far off. Imacha still ran.

Another series of loud cracks were heard, both the rifle and energy carbine. Bestial cries echoed about. Some cut short abruptly. The air was filled with the almost ethereal sounds of the battle somewhere in the distance. The tordenchi never stopped running.

For almost a minute the shooting continued, but soon the shots grew longer between hearing them, then they stopped all together. All they heard were Imacha's paws splashing down.

The next sound was almost alien to Kendra. It was a high pitched siren from far off. She swore she recalled hearing that once, way back when she was in training to use the mech. Her eyes closed when she remembered it. A moment later the roar of an explosion ripped through the swamp. Adam had rigged the mech's power supply to detonate.

"I hope you sent all those things right to hell," she said softly.

The tordenchi continued to run, never looking back, and never stopping. He was too scared to look back, fearful that the moment he did one of those creatures would come lunging out of the mist at him. He was terrified that Adam's sacrifice would amount to nothing. Time became a blur to both him and Kendra as they moved through the swamp. The tordenchi's legs ached so bad he could not recall feeling pain quite this awful before. His feet went numb from the constant exposure to the cold swamp water. Even the arm he cradled to his chest to keep Kendra safe hurt. It was filled with pins and needles, cramped up from being held in the same position too long. Every step felt like he could take no more, but each time he said a line of his mantra and pushed himself that extra step. Just one more and the ship would be there. Just one more.

The final step came. Imacha moved past a massive tree and saw the Capher. Tears of joy ran down his face and Kendra let out a cry.

"Hurry! We have to get inside, don't stop yet!" she yelled. She called the ship's computer of the comm again and remotely opened the cargo bay doors. Imacha staggered forward, dragged himself half way up the ramp then collapsed on the spot. He turned his body just enough that he landed on the side that he was not holding Kendra against, narrowly preventing her from being crushed. His head thumped down on the metal loudly, but he was too exhausted to care about the pain, or even to yell. The tordenchi's numb arm flopped to the side, leaving Kendra sitting up on his chest.

Her eyes flew to the bay entrance. A few hasty commands later and the ramp rose up. Imacha slid down the ramp. Kendra clinging to him, as it reached too high of an angle. The tordenchi stopped when he was on the level deck of the cargo bay. Kendra saw no sign of anything scurrying inside the ship while the ramp shut, then heaved a sigh of relief. She fell back and sprawled atop Imacha. The woman laughed and cried at the same time. So many emotions that she had to bottle up, just to keep herself together enough to survive and get here, exploded out of her in a torrent. All the horrible images she had seen. They were burned into her memory now. This place was going to be a part of her forever and she hated it. Hated it more than anything she had ever imagined she could. The rynar had killed her entire family in their invasion, and she hated what happened here so much more.

She knew why too. What happened on this world made no sense to her. Even the rynar had a reason behind their invasion. She read about it. They wanted mankind's secrets of nuclear weapon technology. It was war and she understood war. These things, whatever they were, just wanted to hurt her. Kill her. Kill everything they encountered. It was as if life had no value to those things in the swamp. She could understand the rynar. She understood most all of the species represented in the UTO. They made sense. They could be related to and empathized with. They even looked familiar to her, like animals she knew so well on earth. But the creatures on RT-4522 were... alien. At least so alien in mindset and outlook that she could not imagine what ran through whatever passed as their minds.

Kendra continued to sob and tried her hardest to pull herself together. She had to make her way over to the emergency case where the maintenance mech was kept here in the cargo bay. She would be able to use that to pilot the ship and get herself and Imacha off the planet. The human pushed and tugged at the huge tordenchi to no avail. He clearly had passed out, pushed so far beyond what his body could handle that he had to 'shut down'. She needed to get into the mech, just to get ahold of a medical scanner to make sure he was not damaged in some more serious manner.

She ran her hands through her black hair. It felt slick and dirty. Kendra imagined that she might not look much better than Adam did before he... She stopped that train of thought, took a few deep breaths and calmed herself. Kendra pushed herself to the edge of Imacha's torso then slid down the side and landed on her feet. She stumbled and took a few minutes to get used to walking again. Sitting inside a mech for over half a day tended to make one's legs get sore and weak. The woman rubbed her thighs, stretched, and turned to go to the case that held the mech.

Kendra walked around Imacha's arm and saw the case in the distance. She took her first few steps, passing by the tordenchi's head when she heard a low, wet, sound. It reminded her of the sound a mop might make when being dragged along a smooth floor. The sound made her skin crawl and fear rose up in her instantly. Her mind raced and she though, The one on the ship that killed Neji. It's still here. Kendra turned her head to look in the direction of the sound and saw the alien.

The thing slithered past the top of Imacha's head along the deck, leaving a slight trail of slime behind it. The closest analogy her mind made for the alien was some form of annelid. It was about three meters long with six one meter long tendrils, three on either side of its body and all of them towards the top half of the creature's length. The tendrils ended with slightly larger pads, similar to a squid, and it used them as well as its entire body to push itself along. The body was about thirty centimeters thick and the tentacles half that. The front of the alien had a bulbous mass that tapered forward into a tube shaped mouth ringed with hook like teeth. Kendra recalled fishing long ago with blood worms as bait that had similar mouths. The 'head' of the creature sported four long oval eyes that were radially spread around the mass. The eyes were glossy white, while the rest of the creature was a translucent off yellow the color of soured milk. She could just make out some of its interior organs and veins through the glistening slime covered skin.

Kendra was almost stunned to see that it had some manner of belts and gear strapped along its thin body, most of the gear resting on the side of it facing upwards off the deck, its back for lack of a better term. The worm appeared to notice her immediately and stopped moving forward. Its head raised straight up into the air, which allowed all four of its eyes to see in all directions at once. When it focused on her, the top half of its body began to rise up off the deck, the lower two tendrils pushing it upright and eventually acting like braces or legs for it. It four other tendrils now seemed to act as arms for it. The head tilted forward so the mouth was pointed in Kendra's direction. She saw hints of some kind of spike sliding in and out of the mouth. Upright in this manner, the worm was about two meters tall.

She saw its four upper tentacles gingerly trace over some of the items it had along its body. It did not even have to turn its head to see behind it due to the odd eye structure and it easily started to pluck pieces of equipment off the belts. That snapped Kendra out of her horrified stupor. She yanked her pistol out of her thigh holster and pointed it at the creature. It seemed to Kendra that it looked her and her weapon over then paid her no attention as it held up three items in its tendrils. The tentacles manipulated the pieces with amazing agility, and rapidly assembled them as she watched. It raised the roughly human hand sized device to the top of its bulbous head then tapped it. Four hooks extended from the bottom and it shoved them into its own flesh, clamping it onto its own body. She heard a sickening wet hissing escape it, perhaps a sign of pain. Two tendrils pulled thin wires down from the clamped on tool and attached them to another device it held in a tentacle. It was a yutri. The creature had a human sized yutri in its possession, but one that was clearly modified.

"Wha... what are you?" she asked, her hands trembling. She tried to calm herself desperately. The pistol in her hands shook so much she was not sure she could even fire it. Fear was consuming her.

The thing's head tilted side to side, rose upright, then back down to face her. A few soft hisses and wet sounds came from it. Lights flashed on the altered yutri and two tendrils tapped at it. The common computer voice many older model yutris used spoke.

"Not... you."

Kendra almost jumped when it answered her. She swallowed hard and her voice wavered as she asked, "Wh-why did you do this? Why did you kill all these people? Good people."

It worked the controls and appeared to wait for a translation before the yutri answered.

"Not... us."

She slowly shook her head. "No no no. You killed them, you killed my friends because they weren't like you?!" she cried out.

"Yes."

"Why?!" she screamed at it. She could not bring herself to accept that answer; that her friends died because they were who and what they were and no other reason but that.

"Not... us."

Her arms dropped down, the pistol aimed at the floor. "Why hasn't anyone ever seen you before? Where did... where did you monsters come from?" she sobbed.

It worked the yutri and a holographic display appeared. It flickered a lot, the device not working too well. She was able to make it out well enough though. It was the local galaxy. She saw one of its tendrils trace along the outer edge of the galaxy. It seemed to look down at the hologram, then at her.

"Out... there."

She stared at the space it pointed out. They came from almost the opposite side of the galaxy from earth. They were as far removed from all races as they possibly could be, but due to the UTO constantly pushing out to explore new regions of deeper space, they finally encountered them. Before she spoke again it used the yutri to communicate.

"Leave... us... alone. Or... us... will... go... in... there."

The tentacle tip pushed deeper into the hologram, towards UTO space.

"Tell... them... out... there... is... us. Out... there... is... end."

It shut the yutri down and stowed it away. The worm began to remove the other device it used when Kendra raised her pistol and shot it. She fired at it from a distance of no more than four meters. Shot after shot ripped into its narrow body. It barely made any noise other than wet hissing sounds. Holes tore through it. Two of its tentacles were blown off its body. Part of the head mass burst like a melon. Oil-like fluid splashed everywhere. The creature collapsed to the deck, still twitching and writhing despite its body being a ruin of rubbery flesh and gore. Kendra ejected the magazine from her pistol, reloaded it with her last mag and emptied that into it as well, blowing more chunks off the creature with every shot. She continued pulling the trigger over and over after it was out of bullets. Parts of the creature still spasmed and squirmed, much like how some worms could continue moving even when cut in half. Slowly, they began to go still.

Kendra dropped the pistol to the deck with an echoing clang. She fell to her knees, a ringing in her ears from all the shooting. She simply stared down at its remains, all emotion drained out of her.

"That's for you Neji," she said.

She did not even flinch when two big fingers lightly pressed against her side. Imacha gently ran them along her arm and back, petting her and trying his best to console her. All the shooting startled him to consciousness and let him see the results of Kendra's encounter with the worm. He leaned his big head closer and smiled at Kendra.

"How about I help you get to the spare mech and we get off this planet?" he asked her.

Kendra nodded. She reached over and held his fingers to her, hugging them tight. The tordenchi let her hold on as long as she wanted to.

* * *

The Capher hurtled through space towards UTO controlled worlds. In the captain's quarters Kendra Forrest sat in the dark. Only star light filtered into the room and the light from her computer monitor before her. A cup filled with incredibly strong liquor was at her side. She stared at the screen, trying to find the words to put it in. Trying to find a way to impress upon the powers that be just what she and Imacha saw and survived, without them spinning it as the two of them having gone stark raving mad. She slowly ran her finger along the scar on her cheek. There was no way she could let this get shuffled away in a secret file by the government or the military. The entire UTO had to know about this. Neji, Hakurr, and Adam deserved to have this message spread.

Dateline: 25.3.1421

CommTo: Administrator Eshkin, Dyfunn Center of Rescue and Retrieval Operations

Priority: Alpha

Subject: This is the report on the mission to retrieve the crew of the Lothia, supposedly having crash landed on planet RT-4522. This is compiled from information provided by the only two survivors of the RRV Capher; Lieutenant Kendra Forrest and Imacha Tachai. The remainder of the crew; pilot Neji Nihova, soldier Hakurr Itan, and rescue worker Adam Sheng were all killed on planet. What must be said before all other details is that no ship should be permitted to fly to RT-5422, or any areas of space past the current UTO Rim. That entire expanse must be set as restricted at all costs. There is something out there and it wants to be left alone.