FSE

Furry search engine

formerly SoFurry search engine

Chapter 1

The quarters in the ship was illuminated only by a single computer screen and the myriad twinkling stars of space that could be seen through the room's wide window. Aside from the constant hum of the ship's engine that permeated the entire craft, a rhythmic drumming sound filled the chamber, fingers being tapped on the arm rest of a chair over and over. The human who stared at the screen had her dark skinned face bathed in the soft glow of the screen. Her brow was furrowed and a slight scowl crossed her mouth. Something about the task set before her bothered her. She did not like going into an unknown place. She did not like to unnecessarily risk the lives of the people she worked with or who were under her command. This order for her and her crew was all of the above. Kendra slid a finger up to her cheek and ran it over the scar on her left side. It was a habit, more a subconscious act than anything else, but for those who knew her well enough it meant she was at least annoyed. She read the message again for the tenth time, sent to her by central command.

_ Dateline: _22.3.1421 UTO standard

_ CommTo: _Lt Kendra Forrest, acting commander of rescue and retrieval vessel the Capher

_ Priority: _Alpha; divert course and cease all prior activity and mission

_ Subject: _Distress signal received from planet RT-4522, surveyed once seven standard years prior to current date. Planet is currently uninhabited with limited data on ecosystem available. Data packet from distress signal confirms ship the Lothia, first logged as missing 1.2 light years from planet's location. High probability Lothia made emergency landing on planet. Distress signal ceased transmission shortly after planet location was ascertained; assumed malfunction. Proceed immediately to coordinates of RT-4522 and locate crew. Determine if ship can be salvaged, retrieve crew. Data package included contains navigation coordinates to RT-4522 and profiles on full crew of the Lothia.

Transmission end.

The strumming of her fingers continued to fill Kendra's room. Her eyes danced over the Lothia's crew data. They were experienced; much more so than her current crew. Ten bodies served aboard that ship, with a collected two standard centuries of working knowledge in planetary survey and exploration. The Lothia and her crew had been stalking the fringes of explored UTO space for the past eleven years without a single incident; then this. Her finger continued to rub along her scar and her frown only furrowed more as she read it over again. She and her crew were not explorers. They were an emergency rescue vessel, commonly dispatched to help with space station disasters or ships left stranded in space after debris impacts or other similar misfortunes. Going to unsettled fringe worlds was normally left to other exploratory vessels. However, UTO stellar laws said they had to go. They were the closest ship to the transmission thanks to their last job helping on a mining collapse in a deep outer falashi colony.

"Damn it," she muttered to herself, breaking the relative silence of the room. She didn't know why, but she could not shake an odd sense of dread that had crept into her.

The speakers in her room blared to life, the chime letting her know that she was being called on. No rest for the weary.

"Yes," she said softly.

"Kendra, we're only two hours out from planet fall. Meal is ready. Stop brooding in your room and join us. You know it's bad luck to not have something to eat before a job. You have to have something," said a male voice. It was Adam, the other human crewmember on board with her.

Kendra sighed. "Fine, fine, I'll be right there."

"Thanks 'mom'. See you in a bit."

"Call me mom again and you can spend the next year cleaning all the giant alien toilets instead of them cleaning their own. Out." Kendra closed the communication as she heard Adam start to laugh. Mom. She was the oldest member of the crew, forty-four terran years and counting. She actually was old enough to be Adam's mother and that thought often annoyed her. He was only kidding, she knew he respected her deeply, as did all her crew, but sometimes it wasn't comforting to be reminded of how she was getting old. Time moved too fast, even out in space where it all seemed so timeless.

The woman pulled herself out of her seat, shrugged into her jacket, and walked over to the door to her chamber. It slid open with a soft hiss for her when she waved her hand over the panel to the side of it. Kendra strode out and to the platform right before her quarters. Her mech was berthed there, facing the room at chest height. The entire front chest plate was open, the ramp extended and awaiting her entrance. She felt a moment of pride looking at her mech. It was a technological marvel of science. Even if mankind was not its inventor, it was still wondrous to Kendra. Sometimes it amazed her that she would be in a situation like this. Twenty years ago she was a veterinarian in a small town in upstate New Hampshire on earth. Now, she was a certified mech pilot, had advanced training in full medical science and xeno-medicine, and was captain of a ship and crew. Not bad for a poor girl who just wanted to make sick animals better.

Kendra climbed into her mech, strapped herself in, and powered it up. The mech came to life, its engine whirring up to power. The hatch closed as the gyroscopic balancers activated. Screens flickered into view all around her letting her see as if through her own eyes. Though she was enclosed in a massive box of metal and plastics and other materials, she could see everything. Her feet slid into the housings for them and she inserted her hands into the reflex gauntlets. One by one she checked the systems, exactly as she was taught, until the mech was fully online and ready to move. The first lurching step of the machine was always the best to Kendra. Even now, after over seven years of piloting them, she loved that first step. Her mech used an older reflex control system, not as advanced as the military grade neural interface. It made piloting the mech feel more like one was wearing a massive powered armor, rather than it seeming to be a full extension of her own body. Thus she felt every jostling, quaking step her mech took. Kendra would not have it any other way.

Her mech moved along, the metallic feet of the machine clanging down on the deck with each step. She walked through the corridors of the Capher, corridors designed to hold alien life that stoop upwards of twenty-five meters tall. Her mech was fifteen and a quarter meters tall, giving her plenty of room to navigate. The gears and actuators made plenty of noise as she walked, though most of it was baffled inside her cockpit. She glanced over at the display that told her how the myomar muscles were working, a series of electroactive polymer cables all throughout the mech that acted similar to organic musculature. It was all in the green and that satisfied her. She had a mech that suffered catastrophic myomar failure once and it was most unpleasant.

After a few more turns in the corridors Kendra's mech strode into the central recreation room of the ship. She and her crew tended to call it the lounge. There she saw the others settled at the big round table near the kitchen. Adam's mech stood at one side, the chest ramp open and latched onto the specific spot for it on the table. The human sat at a human size table atop the gigantic table the aliens ate at. Kendra would be joining him there shortly. He, like all the rest of the crew, wore a grey and blue jumpsuit with patches on the shoulder identifying his membership of the Capher's crew. To Adam's left was Hakurr Itan. He was a ralai, a pretty big one at that, standing just over twenty meters tall. Hakurr looked like a massive humanoid tiger with musculature that matched some professional body builders that Kendra had seen pictures of back on earth. He was the ship's engineer, with a background in the military, and two years' experience in rescue procedures. Next to Hakurr was Neji Nihova, a viliti, though to Kendra she was a giant white rabbit with black eyes. She had a very feminine figure which often distracted Hakurr, even Adam, and stood a little over sixteen meters tall when standing. She served as the ship's pilot and navigator and performed her tasks well. The final crew member was Imacha Tachai, a nine and three-quarters meter tall tordenchi, which meant he was a mouse as far as Kendra was concerned. Also a certified rescue worker, the mouse frequently coordinated their efforts in such matters. She knew he was brilliant, with abiding interests in planetology and xenology among other subjects. She also knew he was fussy and often amusingly difficult to get along with, but she put up with his eccentricities as he was too good to replace.

All at the table greeted her and Kendra's mech raised its hand in a wave to them. Her mech moved to the side of Adam's mech. She chuckled to herself and shook her head slowly as she saw the Chinese symbol for 'man' painted on the shoulder plates of the mech. That was new, yet more decorations added to his already 'festive' mech. Kendra shifted the mech into the needed position, then opened her cockpit and lowered the chest ramp. It clamped down on the table berth point and locked into place. Kendra shut down her mech, walked down the ramp, and over to Adam. Adam Sheng was Chinese, dark hair and eyes, and quite proud of his Asian heritage. She took a seat at the human size table and looked over the food. Kendra glanced up at Neji and nodded.

"Not bad. You're getting better at it. This actually looks like a pancake now, not a rock-shaped lump like last time," she said. Adam almost spit his food out as he laughed.

Neji basked in the praise, ignoring Adam, and said, "Thanks! I've been trying to get used to more human foods. I like quite a lot of them." She leaned her head a little closer and said in an almost conspiratorial tone, "Even if Hakurr don't like them, I think pancakes are the bong."

Now the food came out of Adam's mouth as he laughed even more. "Oh God! Don't Neji, just stop. You're mauling the English language more and more with every passing day! Ha ha!"

Kendra shoved Adam and favored the huge rabbit with a slight smile. "You meant the bomb, not the bong, trust me. Honestly Neji, you don't have to try to use terran slang around us to make us feel more comfortable. It's okay. Adam and I are completely adjusted to being around all of you. We've been working together for almost two years. If we aren't settled in by now, we'll never be."

The huge viliti grinned, her long ears perking up. "Thanks Kendra." She stuck her tongue out at Adam once then went back to eating. Between mouthfuls she mumbled, "I just want to get better at your English. If Adam can learn to speak Ralai, I can learn English like a native too."

Hakurr glanced to the side and shrugged. "I don't mind pancakes, but they aren't meat. Just don't taste as good." His voice was a deep rumble that almost made the small table Kendra sat at vibrate.

The tordenchi just rolled his eyes at all the banter. He lowered his head and did his best to ignore everyone, placing his full attention upon reading the yutri he had before him. He looked over any and all data available on the planet they were about to reach and committed it to memory as best he could. Though he knew most of his crewmates were intelligent, some of them very much so, he was by far the smartest on board and commonly felt it was his responsibility to make sure no foolish errors were made.

"So Kendra," said Adam, "Did Center send us any more information about this last second save we have to pull off? We've never had to pull folks off a wreck on a cherry planet before. Is it dangerous down there?"

Kendra's finger slid up to her cheek and rubbed the scar for a moment. From the corner of her eye she saw Imacha closely staring at her. The human lowered her hand before speaking and said, "No. Nothing. We have all we're going to get. I want this to go as fast and smooth as possible. Scan the planet, locate the crashed ship, swoop down, pick the crew up, and get off. No wasting time or sight-seeing."

Adam nodded, along with Hakurr and Neji. Both of them had no problem doing exactly what was asked of them, though the viliti's ears drooped a little. She did so enjoy seeing new worlds and had never been on an uncolonized planet before.

"Something disturbs you Lieutenant." The tordenchi spoke in his higher pitched voice, the words tumbling out of his mouth very fast. It took Kendra a while to get used to how fast the alien spoke when she first met him and another few months to get over her surprise at how good he was at reading her feelings. He was also the only member who refused to call everyone on a first name, more casual basis. To him, everything was business.

Kendra looked up at Imacha, the tordenchi's attention apparently half divided between her and his yutri. "No, not really. I just..." she began before he cut her off.

"Lie."

The other three halted in the middle of whatever they were doing to look between Imacha and Kendra. Adam let out a low whistle. Kendra frowned at the tordenchi.

"That was out of order Imacha. I'm not really bothered by..."

"Lie again."

Kendra felt anger rise up in her and was about to raise her voice, but she got control of her emotions before she said something she might regret. She wasn't used to any of them speaking to her in that manner, but if anyone was to do it, it would have to have been Imacha. The woman put down her fork and knife, rubbed her palms together, and was about to speak when Imacha cut her off once more.

"If you do not want to speak openly with us about your feelings on the matter, that is your prerogative. However, I feel I have merited enough respect over the time we have shared for you to not send a blatant falsehood in my direction. You have never done so before; please do not make this the beginning of a new habit." Imacha never looked up from his pad as he spoke.

Kendra sighed and nodded. "I apologize Imacha. Sorry."

The momentary tension in the room faded and the other three started breathing again. All of them knew that Kendra, though she was usually a very calm and collected woman, could explode into a fiery temper when poked just the wrong way.

Kendra continued, "You're right. Something is bothering me. This whole thing. Going to an unexplored planet. Looking for a needle in a haystack. The sudden termination of the distress signal. It just has me on edge. I can't shake the feeling that I'm bringing you all into something dangerous."

Hakurr spoke up. "Hey, don't worry. We have weapons. We can take care of ourselves. Adam, you, and I all have prior military training. You two have mechs. We're gonna be perfectly safe. Even if there is dangerous animal life o­­n the planet, we can deal with it."

Adam nodded. "Yeah, come on cap. I've read dozens of files on some of the wild alien fauna out there and all of them can be dealt with by a good old slug thrower or flamer. We're going to be fine."

The tordenchi looked up from his yutri and stared at the human. "Your statement, Mister Sheng, is based off a hopeful supposition that has no actual facts backing it. The following are examples of facts. Fact; the planet is unexplored. Fact; there is no extant data on any native flora or fauna. Fact; the pilot of the Lothia was rated at a 9.2, superior to Pilot Nihova. Unless the ship suffered utterly catastrophic damage, it is highly unlikely the forced landing would have resulted in the death of the crew or extreme damage to it. Fact; even if the ship did break apart and all the crew died, there is no mechanical explanation how the distress signal could be activated for two days then suddenly cut off on its own. They have their own internal power supply separate from the rest of the ship with a duration of three months continuous signaling. They are constructed to withstand almost all forms of damage, designed to survive even the destruction of the vessel itself. The likelihood of something being amiss on the planet is, in my personal assessment, high."

"You do know this is crazy talk, right?" said Neji. "I mean, come on. They crashed and we have to go get them. The worst we might find planet side is, umm, maybe some Rynar. An expeditionary team at best. If that is the case, we flee and report their presence back to Center who handles the matter from then on. This ship is fast enough to outrun most anything the Rynar can throw at us. Stop worrying Kendra and stop trying to get all the rest of us worked into a bad fur day Imacha."

Adam chuckled. "All right, that one was better Neji. Bad fur day. Thumbs up." He gave her a thumbs up and the viliti returned it to Adam, a big grin on her face.

Imacha stood up and shut off his yutri. He looked over at Hakurr, then Adam, and last at Neji. "I hope for all our sakes that you are correct. Lieutenant, I will be making final preparations for planet fall. If I may be excused, my appetite seems to have left me."

Kendra nodded and the tordenchi walked out of the room, his toe claws clicking on the floor as he moved. When he was gone, the other three broke out into good natured banter once more, all of them laughing a little about their crew mate's grim demeanor. Kendra's hand slipped up to her cheek once more and she slid her finger across the scar slowly. She stared down at her plate of food and tried her best to push aside her feelings of worry and doubt.

She failed.

Chapter 2

The Capher flew low over the planet's terrain. The lush landscape rushed past in a blur of muted blues, browns, greys, and greens. Neji's fingers danced over the control panel, making minute changes to the ship's scanner sweep pattern while she guided its course via the control stick in her other hand. RT-4522 proved to be an impressive challenge to the viliti as its atmosphere was thick with cloud cover, forcing her to fly low to the ground. Sheets of rain spattered across the cockpit panes reducing visibility to almost negligible levels for her purposes, thus forcing her to rely solely upon her instruments. The terrain below was swampland, seemingly endless kilometers of it, covered with towering trees and other similar flora. Every few moments her eyes darted to the scanner sub-screens on her HUD.

"Do you think you could put both hands on the sticks Neji?" asked Kendra after she felt some turbulence cause the Capher to rock slightly. Her mech sat in the co-pilot's seat next to Neji. Normally this was considered a clumsy position for a mech to assume, but Kendra had grown accustomed to it as she was the only other member of the crew rated high enough to fly the Capher.

Neji never took her eyes off the screens, only her right ear flicked towards Kendra as a show that she heard her. "I fly better with one hand," she said in her usual chipper tone.

"I swear to God you're like my uncle when he was alive. Asshole drove everywhere with one hand on the wheel. Wrapped his Toyota around a tree twice and I have no idea how he survived either time," grumbled Kendra.

"What's a Toyota?" asked Neji. "Oh oh, focus on zone sixteen upper sweep please. I think we have a satisfactory spot to land there."

"Zone sixteen upper, check. I'll tell you about the Toyota after you land us in one piece." Kendra focused on her own cockpit screens inside her mech; everything displayed on the ship's screens were currently mirrored there for her ease. Her mech's left hand was folded down and a series of interface plugs extended from the wrist. They were jacked into the Capher's sensor computer suite allowing Kendra to use her own hands rather than her mech to manipulate the system. She preferred it this way, a more hands on approach. Her mech, a rescue and repair specialized model, was designed with the capacity to interface with the vast majority of UTO technology for purposes of diagnostics and overriding controls. It also had a significant suite of medical scanners and associated equipment in it, but they were of no use in this situation.

Kendra worked the computer as Neji had taught her. Over the years working together, the crew of the Capher had spent a vast amount of time cross training each other whenever they could. In an emergency, there was at least one other member of the crew rated as competent enough to perform the basic duties of the member specialized in their specific task. Kendra knew how to use the sensors, navigate, and fly to a basic degree. Like a hidden treasure that finally revealed itself, Kendra saw what Neji assumed to be there. The pilot's intuition was uncanny that way. A patch of ground stable and solid enough to support the weight of the Capher and allow a landing was revealed, exactly as she predicted.

"Right as usual," said Kendra.

A broad grin spread across the viliti's face, though she still did not take her eyes off the screens. "Naturally. I told you, I was nervous when I took the pilot's assessment test. I don't test well. I took it on my own with a few friends three days later, performed the exact same tasks demanded. I scored a 9.8 on it, not the 9.0 from the class test. Instructors rattle me, breathing down my fluffy neck and all. Makes my ears shiver. The real crime of it, Imacha refuses to believe me, the little tukriri biter."

"Just focus on landing us in one piece please? I can hear the lamentation of the Neji later, for the hundredth time." Kendra was happy Neji could not see her in her cockpit as she smiled and did her best not to laugh. She knew that tukriri was a delicacy made from the coagulated milk of a herd animal raised by the tordenchi on their home world. Basically, it was a cheese.

Neji expertly flew the ship to the designated spot and slowly descended. The massive and bulky ship extended its landing gear and touched down with a rumbling thud that echoed through the entire craft. Kendra had her mech retract the interface plugs, returned the hand to its normal position, and then placed it on Neji's shoulder. She gave her a light squeeze.

"Top job pilot. Hold the fort here while I go get the others. Also, upload full topographic maps to all our yutris of the path we need to take to get to the Lothia," said Kendra as her mech stood up and proceeded to head out of the cockpit.

"Rupert that captain," said Neji.

"Roger. It's Roger," Kendra called back to her with an exasperated sigh following.

She moved through the ship corridors and headed to the main cargo area. In the cockpit of her mech she checked her own yutri to make sure the data was there, which it was. It was a large scale world, one massive enough that the giant aliens would consider it 'normal' size. To Kendra it was simply staggering in its vastness. They had to land over one hundred kilometers away from the crash site. She never imagined a swamp could be so immense but according to their preliminary sensor sweeps almost seventy percent of the planet's non-hydrosphere surface was wetland of this nature; hot, humid, and muddy. Unfortunately that meant that they could not easily land the Capher close to the Lothia's wreckage for fear of it sinking into the swamp, which would be disastrous. At least the atmosphere was breathable. She hoped Imacha would have good news for her on any abnormalities detected.

The sealed door hissed open and Kendra tromped into the cargo bay. It was, as usual, a cluttered mess of a place filled with all manner of gear to assist them in their duties. EVA pods, vacuum survival bubbles, load lifters, hundreds of different kinds of tool sets, pressure suits, firefighting gear, and more filled the bay. As she walked past one of the EVA pods her mech's hand ran across the surface. Through her reflex and control gauntlet Kendra felt the slight pulses which let her know she made contact with a hard, metallic surface. It took a long while for her to get used to 'feeling' inside her mech, but by now she wore it like a second skin.

Kendra rounded a particularly large stack of crates, deep sea gear was in them she believed, and saw the other three members of her crew suited up and making final checks of their equipment. Hakurr fixed a grey rainproof cloak over Adam's mech. The clasps latched it onto the mech's chest, making sure no wind could simply blow it off. The massive ralai pulled the hood up over the head of the mech, concealing most of the metallic plates and faux visor that gave it a humanoid appearance. A moment later two lights snapped on, shining out from under the rubbery material. The beams of light crossed the tordenchi's face and Imacha waved his arms at the bright light. He squinted and turned his head away as Hakurr and Adam laughed.

"Must you both be so infantile?" groused Imacha. The short tordenchi was dressed in a similar grey rainproof cloak. Under it was light body armor bearing the blue and grey colors of the rescue corps. His thick belt sported a large amount of scanning equipment, tool kits, and sundry items, including a pistol holstered on his left. The bulge under the cloak showed he had a modest sized backpack hooked onto the armor, filled with emergency survival gear and whatever else would be needed to help the crew of the Lothia.

"Hey Kendra," called out Adam. His mech reached down and scooped up a long rifle into its left hand. "Ready to go for a walk? We're all suited up and set here."

Hakurr thumped his big gloved fist onto the shoulder of Adam's mech, then the two of them bumped fists. Adam had taught the ralai that on day one when they met. They hit it off immediately and had been close friends ever since. Even though Hakurr failed guardian training, Kendra considered the massive tiger-like alien to be the guardian of all of them. The ralai wore a full heavy armored suit, plating thick enough on it to match that found on military grade human mechs. He had his own backpack on, filled with tools and welding equipment. A heavy repeater pistol, two massive combat knives, and a canister carbine with a bandoleer of spare erestel cartridges completed his load out. Kendra frowned at that.

"A walk, yes. Are we planning to fight a war at the end of this walk?" she asked, her mech nodding at Hakurr.

"One can never be too careful," rumbled the ralai.

Adam's mech snapped an arm out with impressive speed and lightly punched Hakurr on his huge bicep, the metal fist making an echoing clanging sound from the impact. The ralai barely moved. "He's a bit spooked from doom-mouse here," said the human, a snarky tone to his voice.

Hakurr frowned at Adam. "I am not. I'm... concerned about everyone's safety, and you're an ass." He swung a fist out at Adam's mech, which Adam parried smoothly, pushed the arm down, and swung a back fist up at Hakurr's face. The blow stopped barely a meter from striking. The ralai stared at the metal fist and broke out into a deep rumbling chuckle. This time Adam let him push his mech back. Both of them laughed again. Despite the ralai's huge advantage in strength and reach, he could never seem to get the better of his friend in their sparring matches. The alien soldier desperately wanted to learn Adam's combat techniques, but they never had enough free time for the human to begin teaching him wu shu kung fu.

"Boys," Kendra said slowly. "Can we focus on the mission? You two can beat the hell out of each other later. Right now we have to see if anyone is alive here to save. The wreckage we scanned when we passed over it wasn't very promising. Unfortunately the biosphere on this ball of mud is so dense we weren't able to get conclusive readings on our targets."

"Nor did we detect any signs of power coming from the ship. Its remains are strewn across a five point five kilometer stretch of ground," said Imacha. He raised his yutri, which was now firmly attached to a bracer on his forearm. A holographic display appeared and showed the path they had to take, which led all the way up to the ship's crash site. Imacha pointed at the hologram with a finger and a pinpoint of light flashed into view. "From here to here." He traced his finger along to a second point where light sprang up. He then traced his finger in a circle connecting the dots with its widest diameter points. The inside of the circle lit up next. "This is our primary search point. We look for survivors here first; at the ship and all along the debris field. With any good fortune, we will find all of them. They are highly experienced explorers and survivalists. They know enough that to leave the ship is to risk missing a rescue team's arrival. They will be there, dead or alive."

Kendra frowned at Imacha. "Alive preferably thank you. Hakurr, help attach the medical pack for me please, then a weather proofer." She turned her mech's back to the ralai, who did as he was told. After a few minutes all was hooked onto her mech. Kendra checked all the clamps, nodded to the ralai, and headed towards the main cargo door. She pointed to her left at Imacha. "Before we open this door, anything nasty in the atmospheric composition we need to know about?"

"Barring unknown lethal airborne pathogens, the planet's atmosphere is ninety-eight percent compatible with your Terran home world. It is perfectly safe to breathe aside from some high concentrations of methane and trace gasses in the swamps due to large amounts of biological decomposition," said Imacha in his rapid fire delivery.

"You mean we have to breathe fart out there? Screw that, I'm staying in my mech the entire time," complained Adam.

Hakurr roared with laughter while Kendra opened up the cargo hatch. The thick door lowered to the ground and landed with a heavy thud and a splash. The rain fell in a steady sheet outside and made a constant hissing sound. With no hesitation Kendra strode down the ramp. Her mech's foot contacted the ground with a muddy splash and left a deep imprint in it. She glanced down to look at it. Another alien world. Kendra stood on yet another world that was not earth. This was number thirty six. For a brief moment her mind raced with memories of home. Her family was long gone now, all killed in the Rynar invasion. How proud her mother would have been of her if she only lived to see what she had become. She overcame so much in her youth. A mixed 'racial' marriage, her mother African American and her father Caucasian; her father's constant losing battle with alcoholism and the inevitable abuse that came with it; growing up poor in a small community. She was the first in her family to ever go to college. The first to ever leave earth. The first to walk among the stars. Kendra suddenly realized her hand was up at her cheek, finger on her scar. Her mech performed the same action as she did, its metallic finger sliding across the side of its head. She quickly lowered her hand and strode forward, leaving deep craters in the ground behind her. The sounds of her crewmates followed after her.

The four of them stepped out from the cover of their ship's underside and the rain hammered them all. Were it not for the weather proofers they wore both the tordenchi and the ralai would be soaked to the bone. Adam noticed Hakurr's nose crinkled up quickly. The scent must be pretty strong to bother him as his friend tended to ignore most things others would find intolerable. The tordenchi yanked up the long collar of his suit worn under the armor. It came up like a bandit mask and covered the lower half of his brown fuzzy face, and more importantly, his nose. Imacha shook his head side to side looking abjectly miserable already. A moment later the comms inside both mechs, and worn on the ears of Hakurr and Imacha, buzzed into life. Neji's voice came through to them, loud and clear, though Adam and Kendra saw the viliti's head and shoulders on their sub-screens in addition to hearing her.

"Home to Wanderers, come in, do you hear me?" Neji was still in the cockpit and reclined back in the pilot's seat looking quite relaxed.

Adam responded immediately with, "A vision of beauty is on my screen, lucky day! I hear you loud and clear gorgeous." Neji could see Adam on her end and the inside of the rabbit's ears flushed a little deeper pink. Over the comms like this, size and scale was gone and she saw him up close in full detail.

"Don't make me walk over there and club you to death with your own mech's arm," said Kendra. "We're on the job now. Follow protocol. Try to remember we're on an alien world with almost no data about its hazards." Kendra sighed.

"Sorry Kendra," muttered Adam. He saw Neji smirk and shrug then wave her fingers at him as she cut off visual communication to his mech. At least he could still hear her.

"Ahem, Home to Wanderers, come in. Sound off," said Neji.

"Wanderer One, check," said Kendra.

"Wanderer Two, check," chirped Imacha.

"Wanderer Three, check," said Adam in a subdued voice.

"Wanderer Four, check," rumbled Hakurr.

"Home reads you all clearly. Your data transponders are working perfectly. I have full vital sign and location confirmation for all of you at this moment. Keep me apprised of your progress in fifteen minute cycles and if anything unexpected happens," said Neji, all business for the moment. She then asked, "Permission to speak freely Wanderer One?"

"Granted," said Kendra.

"When do I get to go out and wander?" she suddenly whined, her voice sounding cutely pathetic. "I always have to babysit the ship. It gets lonely in here. We're on an alien world, almost utterly unexplored and pristine. I want to see it."

Kendra sighed. "You know we need you there in case of an emergency situation, as normal Neji. This mission is no different than the rest. I tell you what though, before we leave, if there is time, you can at least come out of the ship for a little walk. Maybe even collect some souvenirs from the planet."

Imacha cast a quick withering glare towards Kendra. She knew exactly what it was for and hastily added on to her words to Neji. "As long as Imacha first confirms that they won't introduce us to any contamination or alien pathogens. Sound good?"

"All right. Better than nothing I suppose. It gets kinda lonely in here all by myself. Make sure you all keep in regular contact with me as per protocol," sighed the viliti.

"Understood. You have my permission to carry on private comm with Casanova here if you want to, as long as it doesn't hamper your efficiency."

"Casanova?" asked Neji.

"She means me," chuckled Adam. "Don't mind the boss. She's just jealous of what we have Neji."

Hakurr rumbled, "You don't have anything, except delusions of grandeur."

Some laughter broke out across all the comms, even Adam's. He had a wonderful sense of humor and was quick to laugh at jokes, even at his own expense. Kendra figured that it was that, his open personality, and his utter ease around the giant aliens that made Adam attractive to Neji. She knew that ever since the two of them spent that day together when they all had down time planet side half a year ago, they had become a lot closer than prior to it. She believed they spent a few hours in one of those VR simulations which allowed them to appear the same size to each other. Kendra had never done so yet, nor was she really interested in it. It seemed the encounter spurred some feelings between the two, something Kendra had not seen happen before, though she had read about a few instances of it springing up over the years since human contact and integration in the UTO. It was, in her mind, proof that some things could transcend any barrier. She did not mind their flirtations, as long as it did not interfere with their performance. The moment it did she would regretfully have to ask them to stop it, or replace one or both of them. It wasn't something she was looking forward to at all.

"Last note all from Home," said Neji. "You forgot to close the cargo hatch when you left. Protocol my little Wanderers. It's a dangerous environment so no leaving the front door open and unlocked. Shame on you all."

"Sorry Neji, that's my fault," said Adam. "I was last off the ship. I got too used to the last three missions we were on where we left the bay door open all the time. Won't happen again, I promise."

"All right, apology accepted now, but if it happens again... punishment. Grrr."

Hakurr and Adam laughed and Neji joined in on it.

"Home out," said Neji as she switched the comm line to closed.

The four figures continued their trek towards the crash site in the far distance.

Chapter 3

Imacha was the shortest among the giant aliens, short even for his own species. Thus Hakurr and the two humans in their mechs had to slow down to his pace in the trek towards the crash site. Even so, the 'small' tordenchi walked at over eighteen kilometers per hour, slowed slightly by the muddy terrain. The four Wanderers made good progress through the swamp and the rain had diminished in intensity after the first three hours of travel. It was still completely overcast, the sky a mix of grey and muted green clouds, which cast a somber atmosphere over both the tordenchi and Kendra.

Hakurr and Adam however, seemed to be undeterred by most anything, inclement weather included. They chatted up their own storm as they walked. Adam had his translator currently shut down so he could clearly hear the native words of his ralai friend as he spoke. They were a combination of bass rumbling growls, snarls, and chirps that formed into streams of alien words and sentences. Adam slowly asked Hakurr to repeat himself again and the huge alien did so. Kendra nodded her head in appreciation of Adam's talent as he responded to Hakurr with a different string of growling sounds. She heard Hakurr let out a pleased rumbling sound and his tail flicked behind him quickly, also a display of happiness.

"Correct!" she heard Hakurr exclaim. "You're getting better."

Adam switched the translator back on and said, "Still got a long way to go. It's hard as hell to break down your language into phenomes I can properly decipher and assemble into the appropriate words. Plus, it's not easy to replicate some of the sounds your species can create with my vocal cords. I'm still stuck on the emm-phurrr and mahrr-mhur'maa uses for past tense. Next to impossible to pronounce, but I'm not gonna give up. When I visit your home world buddy, I promise I'm going to speak like a native. No translator needed, just the speakers in my mech."

"Nothing would please me more my friend," said Hakurr. The two tapped their fists together, one atop the other. Hakurr then tried speaking in broken sounding Chinese, "Woooh... yeh... buu-nehng..." He shook his head and growled as he stopped, the ralai frowning. "Gah, your language is far harder than mine," he snarled, letting his translator do the work.

Adam smiled. "Don't worry; you'll get the hang of it. You'll be speaking my language when you come to China with me. The locals will be stunned to see a tiger speaking Chinese!"

Hakurr grumbled, "I'm not a tiger."

Kendra was always very pleased to have Adam on the crew, not just for his skills as a rescue worker and ex-scout in the military. He was also a polyglot. The young man spoke six Terran languages, had a good grasp of the lupari tongue, and was now learning ralai. He was a gifted linguist, a rare thing on earth, now even more impressive out here in the much larger galactic society. She clearly recalled the utter shock on the face of a lupari manager that was trying to give them all a hard time when they had to enter his factory. He was so stunned to hear a human speak his native language that he fell apart under Adam's questioning. It was one of Kendra's favorite moments since she had begun working with all of them.

The four of them passed into an area of denser tree growth, the massive plants looming over one hundred fifty meters tall. Thick vines twisted up their grey bark and drooping thin leaves hung low on the sagging branches. Unfortunately the canopy above them was not thick enough to provide any real shelter from the rain. Imacha chittered to himself in annoyance as he tried to clear off the screen of his yutri for the thousandth time. He tapped at some of the buttons to bring up raised holographic readings. The tordenchi frowned as he did so. Drops passed through the hologram, which caused it to flicker and be disrupted for a moment or two. He raised his other hand up to try and shield the device from the drops of rain. His eyes went wide as he saw the readings presented to him.

"Everyone! Something is coming from that direction!" shouted the tordenchi, his arm extended and pointing.

Words died on Hakurr's and Adam's tongues as all heads turned and looked towards a pair of massive trees with a virtual web of vines stretched between them. Before Hakurr could unsling his canister carbine, a massive bestial form crashed through the vines and hurled itself into the ralai. Hakurr let out a grunt as he was flung back from the impact a good body length then fell to the muddy ground with a splash of mud and brown water. The carbine flew from his half grip and landed twenty meters away.

Adam fumbled to get his rifle ready while Imacha scrambled for cover behind a far tree, pulling his pistol as he moved. Kendra stood there, momentarily in shock at the creature she beheld. It reminded her of a great cat but with a head that resembled a moray eel, and a long whip-like tail behind it. Its body was smooth and slick looking, a glossy grey in color. The creature's forward facing eyes were sunk deep into its skull and they peered out at all present, dull black. Its mouth was a wide gash filled with rows of huge teeth and fangs, some as long as her mech's hand. The quadruped easily stood twenty meters at the shoulder and approximately thirty five meters long, full of lanky muscle and sinew. It released a screeching wail that finally snapped Kendra back to her senses.

Adam raised and fired off a quick round from his rifle at it taking no time to aim. The round ripped across the beast's side, a grazing wound. Before he could fire again the creature lunged toward the mech far faster than even its lean form suggested it could move. With a swipe of its clawed forepaw Adam's rifle was smashed from his grip and he was shoved backwards against a towering tree. The mech slammed against it with a groaning of metal and grinding sound of actuators. The creature opened its mouth so wide is looked as if it could easily engulf the mech's entire head. It snapped its jaws at him, but they narrowly fell short of clamping down as Adam shoved the mech's forearm against the creature's throat and pushed the head back just enough to miss. Its rear legs scrabbled on the ground, pressing its bulk forward against Adam and kept him pinned to the tree.

Kendra's pistol was out and she fired off two rounds at the horrid beast. They sank into its wide side, blue blood spurting from the wounds. Its hide and body were dense and its bones strong and thick. Neither shot seemed to do much to slow the creature down. It turned its head just enough so one of its dead black eyes saw Kendra. The whip tail cracked at her mech, wrapped around the raised arm that held her pistol, and violently yanked sideways. Kendra felt the mech lose its balance, the gyroscopes unable to compensate for so fast and uncontrolled a motion. She also heard the awful sound of something in her mech's shoulder snap and grind. Sparks flew from the mech as it toppled over to the ground, landing on its side with a huge splash. Inside the mech Kendra let out a stream of swears as she tried to stabilize and stop the reflex harness from spinning her around.

The creature turned its full attention back to Adam's mech. He slammed the mech's free fist at the monster's side twice, three times, but it seemed to ignore the pain of the blows. It pushed its head closer and closer, its strength overcoming the mech, the jaws wide open to bite down once more.

"Help!" he cried out. "Someone shoot this damn thing!"

Right before the creature's jaws clamped hold of the mech's head a tremendous roar sounded and Hakurr landed across the beast's back, his legs straddling its narrow body, and his arms wrapped about as much of it as he could reach. It turned its head just enough to see the massive ralai, rage filling Hakurr's eyes. His paws sank into the cold mud as he pulled back with all his might. Claws dug into the monster's side to keep his grip tight as Hakurr lifted the entire creature off the ground and away from his friend.

"Run!" he snarled at Adam as he twisted his body and slammed the squirming monster onto the ground with a loud thudding splash. Hakurr followed it down to the ground, still straddling it. The creature's legs shoved and pushed at the ground, trying to get the leverage it needed to get back up but the ralai's great strength was enough to keep it down for the moment. It turned its head to bite at him, but the metal stud covered knuckles of Hakurr's gauntlet slammed into its mouth. Teeth shattered and flew from its maw and the beast shrieked as it spit up blue blood. Its tail lashed out next and went to wrap around Hakurr's neck but a loud shot was fired from Kendra's pistol. She had switched it to her other hand after she fell and watched with satisfaction as her shot blew off the top eight meters of the monster's tail. More blood spurted from the wound, all across the back of the weather proofer Hakurr wore.

The ralai and the monster wrestled on the ground a few more moments. It managed to rake its lower clawed paws at one of Hakurr's legs and gouged at the armor plate across his shin, then down and into the mesh cloth beneath it. That tore and a splash of red blood was seen by Kendra, running down the ralai's leg. She cursed herself and God and anyone else who was listening for being unwilling to take the shot at it. They moved so much now, thrashing about, that she feared she might shoot her friend. Her worries increased when she saw Hakurr roll onto his back, the monster atop him, however he maneuvered it so its back was to his chest. The creature's legs waved and clawed ineffectively at the air. It released keening wails as Hakurr gripped its maw, fingers pushed past the ruins of its teeth to grip both the top and bottom of it jaws. He let out another roar as he pulled with all his might, forcing the jaws open wider and wider until a gruesome snap and crack sound was heard. The beast let out a piteous whine and blood began to pour from its mouth, the lower jaw dangling like a puppet with its string cut. With another swift wrenching pull, the ralai snapped the creature's thick neck. Its body went limp and Hakurr shoved it off himself, where it landed at his side with a thud.

"Holy... shit," said Adam as he stared wide eyed at his friend. He still leaned back against the tree. He was so transfixed while he watched the ralai and monster fight that he had not thought to leave his spot.

Hakurr panted heavily and tilted his head back to stare at his friend partly upside down while lying on the ground. "Thought I told you to run," he grumbled.

Adam finally moved over to Hakurr and lowered a mech hand down to him. They clasped hands and Adam helped pull him up. "Sorry. Too busy watching you mess up Godzilla, or whatever the hell that was. Oh crap, you're bleeding."

Hakurr glanced down at his wound and nodded. "Yeah," is all he said about the injury.

Kendra slowly got up, her mech whirring in protest. Imacha scrambled over to her to help keep the machine steady. "Thanks. You all right?" she asked him. She tried to move her right arm, but the actuator in it protested badly and more sparks flew from the joint. It barely rose up twenty degrees from her side where it now dangled limply.

"I am unharmed Lieutenant. Thank you. I can help fix that, the damage should not be too severe," said Imacha, gesturing over to the shoulder of her mech.

"Good. First let me check out Hakurr so he doesn't bleed out or anything. That looked nasty."

Adam waved Kendra off, his mech already pulling out a medkit. "Don't worry, I got him. It doesn't look too bad. I know enough to patch this up. You get your arm fixed." Adam then frowned inside his mech. "Hey, Imacha. Thanks a lot for all the help there you know. You could have fired a..."

Hakurr put a hand on the front of the mech's head, as if he were covering up a person's mouth. Though it could not stop the sound from coming from the mech if Adam chose to keep speaking, he stopped anyhow, understanding that his friend wanted him to shut up.

"Don't. He did nothing wrong. We all have our paths to walk. His is one of peace. He's not a killer. I'm here to take those sins on myself so all of you don't have to," rumbled the ralai.

Adam patted his big friend's shoulder. "So, still think he's looking out for you?" he asked with a chuckle as he knelt down to fix up Hakurr's wound.

The ralai dug a finger into his collar and fished out a long silver necklace. A crucifix dangled on the end of it. It was a Christian cross. He raised it up to his mouth and placed a kiss on it, then smiled down at Adam. "Always."

Kendra sat down on the muddy ground so Imacha could begin the repairs on her mech. As he did so the comm flashed on and Neji's face appeared before Kendra. The human woman knew she must look a mess at the moment. Tossed around her cockpit like that in the harness, her short black hair was all over the place right now.

"Home calling Wanderer One, checkup time," Neji said in a sing-song voice. "All good by you? Any problems? I noticed elevated heart rates for all of you for a minute or so."

Kendra glanced over at the injured Hakurr then at the dead beast nearby. She smirked at Neji and said, "Nah, we're all good here. Just admiring some of the local wildlife close up. Pretty breathtaking to be honest."

"Ah, see?! I never get to see anything good in here." The viliti pouted cutely and her big white ears drooped.

"Trust me, you wouldn't have liked it. Hey, you've been going past the normal duration of a shift. Go on and get some rest for four hours. I'll yell if we need you. Don't want you half asleep if we really need the help."

"Thanks. No need to tell me twice. I'm shrubbed."

Kendra's head sank down. "Bushed. It's bushed Neji. Do you screw these up on purpose just to stress me more or what?"

"What? Me? Kendra, I'm hurt. Next thing you're going to be calling me a tail tugger. Hmmph." Neji winked at her and smiled. "Say hi to the others for me. Home out."

The screen went blank and Kendra sighed. One big happy slightly insane family, she thought to herself and smiled as she watched Adam patch up Hakurr.

* * *

Neji stepped out of the cockpit, yawning and stretching. She went up on the tips of her big fluffy toes and arched her back sharply until her spine made little popping sounds. She dropped back down flat on her paws, a silly grin on her face. The viliti plodded along through the ship. When she entered her room she stripped down, showered off, and then slipped into a vastly oversized shirt for sleeping, one she had laid claim to from Hakurr over a year ago because she found it comfortable. Light blue patterns were dyed into her fur down the lengths of her arms and legs, none of it visible when her uniform was on. She smiled at that, thinking of maybe showing them to Adam when they had time off together next.

They got to spend time in that lovely VR setting, seeing the sights of her home world together, able to look each other eye to eye. She found it fascinating. However, there was something else she wanted to try with him; something that could only happen in the VR. The viliti nibbled on the first joint of her pointer finger as she thought about what that could lead to. She didn't want to move too fast, that might scare him away. However, if she took too long he might meet a human. She would rather take the risk and find out sooner than later. Neji never was one to want to wait things out. Though she had her whole life ahead of her, she wanted to live every moment of it as if it was her last.

She climbed onto her bed and stretched out on the thin padding. Her hand fumbled about for the cover and she slid it over her midriff.

"Lights off," she murmured.

The room was immediately plunged into darkness. All she heard was the hum of the Capher's engine, left idling at all times when they were on a mission. To Neji it was a soothing sound and helped her drift off into a dream filled slumber.

Her eyes snapped open. She felt her heart racing; her breath came in short pants as if she had just awakened from a nightmare. Neji's gaze fell on the chronometer that sat upon the night table beside her bed. She had been asleep for two hours. Something was wrong. She could feel it. The viliti tossed her covers aside and sat up in the dark.

"Lights," she said. A moment later they turned on and she squinted as her eyes adjusted to them. Her skin felt like it was crawling, various muscles in her body twitched and spasmed. A sickening feeling crept over her as she went to stand up. Her legs refused to work and she toppled to the floor, barely bringing her hands up to prevent her head from slamming on the deck. She winced in pain as a sharp jolt of it ran through her skull. It was the worst head ache she had ever felt in her life.

"What in the name of Urshii?" she groaned.

Neji slowly pulled herself to her paws, her movements jerky and uncoordinated. Terror replaced her confusion as she moved. Her eyes were wide with fright. She took a lurching step forward, then a second. Her body moved as if she had forgotten how to walk and was desperately trying to find its balance. Her arm shot out and her palm went flat against the near wall to brace herself as she moved. She took another lurching step.

"What's happening to me?!" she shrieked. The viliti thought as hard as she could to stop moving, yet she still did.

Neji lurched forward to where her uniform and standard gear hung on wall mounted hangers. Her hand fumbled across her clothes, knocking them down.

"S-stop... please stop," she whimpered.

Her hand ran across the second peg and yanked her belt off it, then dropped it to the ground. Various gear clattered about and the screen on her yutri cracked as it hit the floor. The viliti's hand ran across the third peg. It slid down the second belt that hung there and to the holster of her pistol. Neji felt her terror rise to a crescendo. Tears flowed from her eyes.

"Who's doing this to me!?" she shrieked. Her voice cracked as she cried out, then she broke down in sobs.

Her hand pulled the pistol out from the holster, fingers sliding along its grip as if they were getting used to its feel and how best to hold it.

"Don't do this... please don't do this... please..."

The first finger found its way to the trigger and rested upon it gently. Her hand rose up slowly as it held the gun.

"This can't be ha-happening. C-can't be real. H-how..."

The gun moved up to the side of her head. The barrel pressed against her temple. Neji's eyes closed. She felt a sudden rush of clarity in that last moment.

"We left the door open," she said softly.

The sound of a single shot fired from a pistol echoed throughout the Capher over and over.

Chapter 4

Kendra had her mech roll its shoulder, testing the repairs Imacha had made to it. All systems appeared to be working and diagnostics showed green as well. The little tordenchi did a wonderful job in the field, considering the poor conditions and what the four of them just went through. Her mech nodded to Imacha and she patted his shoulder as she walked past him. Imacha stuffed the last of his gear back into his pack then hooked it onto the back of his light armor. He clipped the tool set on his belt and looked up at Kendra's mech. Unlike everyone else she knew, who had a tendency to stare at the head of a mech when they spoke to it, Imacha always stared at the chest at the exact spot where the pilot would be sitting inside of it. Sometimes it made her feel like the tordenchi could see through the plating directly at her in her reflex harness.

"Good work," she said to Imacha.

"I know," was his curt reply. Some humans found his species egotistical or rude but Kendra knew better. Like most tordenchi, his attitude was very direct. If he said something, he meant it. If he could not have fixed her mech, he would have told her as much and made no excuses for it. Since he could do the job, he saw no shame in taking full credit for anything done. It was not hubris or pride; it was simply fact for him.

"We need to pick up the pace for lost time. We have been delayed thirty two minutes. Every minute lost could have repercussions on the well-being of any who survived the crash of the Lothia. There is no further time to tarry," said Imacha, his words tumbled out at full speed. Without waiting for the others he began to head off in the direction of the crash site once again.

"Who died and made you King Jerry?" asked Adam. His mech turned to Kendra and made a shrugging motion.

Imacha did not look back as he said, "No one, but we have a job to do. Also, I take no offense at your poor inference of associating me with one of your Terran cartoons. In approximately ninety-five percent of the episodes with those animated characters, the tordenchi equivalent outsmarted and defeated the significantly larger ralai equivalent. He was a potentially fitting role model for any young tordenchi child to aspire to be like."

Adam threw his hands up in exasperation and groaned. "You can't even insult him. He's like the Brain, minus his insane side-kick."

"Move it Adam. Imacha's right. We have to make up for lost time. Let's go people," said Kendra.

The four of them began their march once more, leaving behind the creature's corpse. As they traveled, the group exercised significantly increased caution. Hakurr has his carbine in his hands and at the ready, as did Adam and his rifle. Even Kendra kept her pistol out, while Imacha constantly checked his yutri for signs of biological organisms approaching. For nearly four hours they walked, making up for the lost time at a good pace. Hakurr, despite his injury, did not slow them down one bit. The rain had lessened further until it only came down as a thin mist at this time. Unfortunately the sky was growing darker. The planet's night phase was closing in on them.

Just as the mechs switched on their head lamps and Hakurr activated the shoulder light on his armor they came upon the first signs of debris from the Lothia. The tree tops here were torn off and branches were strewn all about. A hunk of metal, part of its hull, jutted out of the ground ahead, half sunk into the muddy terrain. The four of them walked over to it, Imacha scurrying around the hunk of metal and peering at it from all angles possible.

"Signs of scorching and deforming." He ran one of his scanners across it. "Significant stress fractures all through the sample. High probability it was flung from the Lothia during an explosion. Moderate levels of erestel radiation detected on it. This came from somewhere directly exposed to the ship's engine." Imacha looked over at the other three. "The Lothia's engine may have been severely damaged, either in planet fall or from some other source, resulting in a potentially catastrophic explosion. It would help explain the size of the debris field we detected."

Imacha continued onwards, his pace quickened even further. Adam saw Kendra's face on his sub-screen. She was almost smiling. The woman used a closed comm to speak with Adam privately.

"That's why we needed him with us. You do realize that with his credentials and level of education and intellect he could have gone into pretty well any damn engineering field he wanted to, gotten stupid rich by building the better screw driver or car or whatever. Instead he followed his mother's wish for him to do what his father did and died doing. Rescue work," she said.

"Yeah yeah," said Adam. He raised his hands defensively. "I get it. He's the brains of our team, always was, always will be. He's still a pain in the butt nine times out of ten. Why can't he just loosen up a little, huh?"

"You haven't dealt with many tordenchi Adam. He is pretty loose. The fact he doesn't insult all of us to our faces every single day means he's quite forgiving of whatever shortcomings we have in his eyes. Just leave him alone and let him do his work. Copy that?"

"Copy that. Roger. Check. Whatever. I still prefer Neji and Hakurr," he muttered.

Kendra closed the private comm with him and focused on the tordenchi. Sometimes there was no getting through to Adam without bludgeoning reason into him. He was brash, strong headed, and full of the endless energy of youth. She used to be that way. She missed it. Maybe after this jaunt she would treat herself to the vacation she had been promising herself for the last five years and reclaim some of that feeling again. Kendra leaned back in her harness a little more and relaxed; a smile on her face from that thought.

The team was soon deep in the midst of the Lothia's debris field and sifting through all the masses of twisted hull fragments, parts, and pieces of the ship. Fallen trees were everywhere and impact craters from larger chunks of the ship dotted the swamp. The ground here was very soft, the mechs and giant aliens alike often sank ankle deep in the mud. Imacha continued scanning everything he came upon. He frequently asked the others to move plates aside to look for signs of the survivors. As they went, Hakurr set down long burning flares to mark that they searched these spots. They would last for ten hours easily and could keep burning even in light rain. The mist had no chance of putting them out. Thanks to the flares, more and more of the crash site was illuminated in flickering blue light. Long shadows were cast by all of them, the trees, and chunks of ship. The search went on for a few more hours before Imacha pointed out that the main mass of the ship lay just ahead.

"They have to be there," said Imacha. "We must assume that they have encountered whatever those creatures are that Hakurr killed and would hold up in the most defensible place they could."

Hakurr and Imacha continued forward side by side. Adam walked at Kendra's side, still looking about for any sign of said monsters. It was then that it dawned on him.

"Hey Kendra, Neji hasn't called in yet. Should we give her a yell?" he asked, a little concern crept into his voice.

Kendra's mech shook its head slightly. "She looked tired when I last spoke to her. Give her another few hours. We're fine here right now."

Adam's mech raised one arm up and rubbed at the rear of its head, a common act Adam performed. It looked amusingly foolish to Kendra to see a mech do so. "I'd feel better if we called her. This planet, it's not like anywhere else we've been. I guess I'm just worried about her is all."

"I understand Adam. All right, I'll give her a..."

Kendra was cut off when she heard Imacha yell, "Here it is! The Lothia is here." The tordenchi stood a distance ahead of them, light shining from his little shoulder lamp and his arms waving over his head. Hakurr faced the ship however and his light traced across the massive ruins of the craft. It was a significantly bigger ship than the Capher, about double and a little more in mass and dimensions, though close to half of it was shorn off and scattered all about from the explosions that ripped through it. As the ralai's lights traced over it, Kendra felt a shiver run up and down her spine. She had seen hundreds of wrecks by now in her life, even derelict starships that had been gutted by explosions or inner hull fires. For some reason this one looked ominous to her. Perhaps it was how the ship leaned on one side and the side that jutted up into the air looked like it had been blown wide open. The torn hull stuck up like triangular clawed fingers trying to rake at the air. Cables dangled from some of the spires.

Hakurr dropped a pair of flares which bathed the area in blue light. That did nothing to alleviate the feeling Kendra still felt. She and Adam walked over and peered up at the wreck.

"Let's walk the perimeter and see what we see," she said.

The others nodded and walked together. They closely searched for signs of survivors. It was Adam who noticed them first. He waved his companions over to a specific spot where he was crouched down.

"Got prints here. These were partially blocked by this big panel of the ship, so the rain hasn't washed them away." He lowered his mech hand and tapped a few spots on the ground. "Falashai. Male. Probably about a week old. The general humidity here still kept the mud moist but not so wet as to ruin the traces of it." The mech arm swept out and pointed. "They go off in that direction, probably around the ship's hull."

"There was only one male falashai aboard. Medical officer Chishann," said Imacha.

"Lead on Adam. Cross your fingers and toes boys, and we might just find our crew," said Kendra.

Adam moved ahead and Hakurr stepped up at his side, constantly scanning the area around them. Due to the massive wreck of the ship there were no trees close by to hide any of the monstrous beasts they fought were one to attack them. All of them were torn apart by the ship when it slammed into the ground and skidded to a halt. The group made their way around to what would have been the underside of the ship if it was properly upright. The damage to the ship was horrendous. They could see it clearly now at this angle. Long lines of seared and shorn hull were visible. All of them stood there and stared up at it.

"Kendra, am I seeing this correctly?" asked Adam.

Hakurr tossed a few more blue flares about, casting the ghost light again.

"The ship's been... shot up," she said slowly.

"Those aren't scoring lines made by Rynar weapons," rumbled Hakurr. "Those are something entirely different."

"They're too thin. Too precise," said Imacha. "Some even crisscross each other. They look like welding beams from high grade plasma torches. The kind used to cut ship hulls during construction. Most ship based energy weapons blow wide holes in their targets or rip the hull apart then let structural integrity degradation and decompression do the real damage. These cut the ship exactly where needed, like a surgeon's scalpel. The ship was dissected."

"New Rynar weapon?" asked Adam.

"Not likely, from what I know of their technology," began the tordenchi. "They use pretty much the same weaponry as the UTO. A significant amount of their weapon designs were adapted from UTO schemata that was obtained by them via early espionage. I'm not calling them technologically inferior, but what few original weapons they field are nothing to be impressed by. This however, is something entirely different. A whole new level of energy weapon engineering."

"Are you saying this is possibly some kind of advanced UTO weapon used against them?" asked Kendra.

"No. Not UTO. At least nothing I have ever heard of or can hypothesize the fabrication of currently."

All of them remained silent for a few moments and let the tordenchi's words sink in. Kendra broke the silence first and said, "That's not what we're here for. We have people to find, so let's go find them. Adam, keep moving."

"Yes ma'am," he said softly.

The quartet tore themselves away from the spectacle before them, but not before Kendra chose to download images of the data into her personal yutri that she wore on her arm. They continued to follow Adam around the looming ship's perimeter. After another half hour of looking and searching they came upon what were clearly the remains of a camp. Items and salvaged gear was all about, much of it scattered and damaged. Some tarps had been set up for shelter. The camp was before a gaping hole that led into the ship. Adam looked over the camp site for prints and signs of survivors while Kendra and Imacha checked over the gear. Hakurr stood by one of the tarps, keeping guard. His eyes never left the distant tree line or stopped searching for more of those monsters. Even when water dripped onto his head or bits of mud fallen from the tarp slid down his neck inside of his armor, he refused to allow himself to be taken by surprise again.

"Lots of tracks. All over the place. Six. Seven different sets of them. They seem to go in and out of the ship's remains constantly," said Adam. His mech was crouched down on the ground, the head lights illuminating it clearly for him. "Nothing recent. At least a week old at earliest."

"That pretty much coincides with the time stamp of the distress signal received by Center," said Kendra. Imacha, who stood at her side, nodded his head in agreement. The tordenchi looked over a yutri. "Anything useful on that?"

"Unfortunately no. The yutri is damaged. Any data on it is likely irrecoverable." Imacha tossed it to the side where it landed on the muddy ground with a splat.

"Then we go inside next. Adam, come with us. Hakurr, you stand guard out here. Call us the second you think something is out of the ordinary. Is that clear?" she asked him.

Without looking back at Kendra, the massive ralai nodded in affirmation. He raised one big hand and rubbed the back of his neck a few times, brushing away the water and mud on his fur. His three companions moved in unison, stepping into the dark recesses of the ship. Only their head lamps and the shoulder light on Imacha let them see clearly.

The feet of the mechs made constant clanging sounds as they contacted the floor of the ship. What they actually walked on was one wall of the craft, as it was pretty much laying on its side, a third of the Lothia submerged in the muddy ground and swamp. They took great care as they clambered over all manner of debris and hanging wires and pipes and sheets of inner hull. Water dripped from everywhere. The ship was so riddled with holes from all the damage it suffered that it could not possibly have kept out the rain. Imacha gingerly hopped over piles of broken items. He spotted a sign on the wall/floor that he walked on. It read 'Infirmary'. The tordenchi motioned for the two humans to follow him.

"If they were going to set up any place for constant access in this wreck, it would be the medical area. I saw no sign of them having taken medical supplies outside, so they must have left it in here," said Imacha.

The two mechs nodded their agreement and followed the nimble giant. After a few more minutes of climbing Imacha stopped and covered his mouth and nose. He made a gagging sound and looked back at the others. "Can you smell that?" he said, his voice muffled.

"No, I've had the filters working nonstop since we left the ship. I wasn't in the mood to smell swamp gas," quipped Adam.

"Me either," said Kendra.

"It's the scent of a decomposing body. This way..." The tordenchi continued to move. Both Adam and Kendra knew the scent he spoke of. They had both seen and dealt with more than their fair share of corpses during the years working in rescue and both agreed that the scent was one of the worst things about corpses. It lingered with you forever, a terrible lasting memory of the dead. However, nothing they had seen before prepared them for what they walked in on now.

The trio had to climb into the medical room. As they panned their lights around they were greeted by many bodies. On a quick count they saw nine bodies present, all of them of various giant alien species from the UTO. Kendra recognized some of the faces on the corpses from the data package sent to her. Every last one of them was dead. Eight of them were pinned to the walls or floor with straps, or hung on hooks, or impaled on thin spans of pipe or metal shards. Most had been vivisected; the look of sheer agony or terror was frozen on almost all their faces. The bodies were stripped naked and their torsos opened up with ruthless and horrid efficiency. Organs were neatly laid out along the floor either at the paws of the corpse or at its side. Kendra's training in medicine let her recognize far too much of what she saw in the room. Eyes were removed and carefully cut apart for study. Rib cages were spread to see the inner workings of the bodies. Flesh was peeled back over arms and legs and faces to see the exposed musculature. One body was even placed face down, its back sliced open to expose the spine all the way up to the base of the skull.

Kendra covered her mouth and gagged. She barely fought back the desire to vomit inside her mech. Her head spun for a few moments and she tried to pull herself back to her senses. She saw Adam's mech leaning over. She heard him coughing through his comm. He must have done what she narrowly avoided. Imacha had his back turned to the horrid spectacle. The tordenchi looked haggard and leaned against a wall, his eyes squeezed shut. Kendra forced herself to move over to the last body present in the room. It was the falashai, the ship's medical officer. Unlike all the rest, his body was almost unblemished, lying upon its back. Blood was dried all over his torso and on the floor surrounding him, as he appeared to have slit his own throat. The scalpel was still clutched in his hand. His eyes were wide open, staring lifelessly up at the ceiling.

Kendra forced herself to move her mech's hand over to the body of the medic and pull the scalpel from his hand. She stared at the instrument in mute silence for a few minutes. The only sound in the room was the panting of Imacha and coughing from Adam. The human woman tossed the scalpel aside with all her mech's strength. The metal sounded like thunder as it clattered about in the room, the blade tip snapping off in the process. That shocked Imacha enough to watch as Kendra's mech grabbed up the body of the medic like a doll. Her voice rose up and she let out a scream, somewhere between hopeless anguish and sheer rage. She looked like she was about to smash the body into the wall when the tordenchi noticed something.

"Wait! Wait!" he cried, waving his arms. "Let me look at it first!"

"Why?!" she cried. "Why do you want to see this monster?! Look what he did to them! Look what he did!"

"Please, I need to see it. Just for a minute. Calm down Kendra. This isn't you. You are not rage. You are compassion. You are our calm in the middle of the storm. You are my friend. This anger is not you." Imacha walked up to her and held his arms out towards her. "Please."

Kendra stared at the tordenchi, her eyes wide. She swallowed back the bile and rage and her arms went limp in the mech. Her mech dropped the body to the ground before Imacha.

"Thank you Kendra. Thank you."

The human woman's mech slumped against the angled wall near her and slid down part way to the ground until it could no longer bend its legs any further. Kendra fought hard to not break down in tears. They were all dead. Dead and gone. One of them went insane and killed them all, then killed himself. One was missing but he could have died in any number of ways. All of them were dead. She failed her mission. She couldn't save anyone. Kendra stared out into space, her mind reeling with thoughts, until she heard Imacha speak.

"Kendra, Adam. The two of you need to look at this."

Adam's mech moved over and crouched down by the tordenchi. He seemed to have recovered most of his senses by now. Kendra did not close in. She chose to magnify the scene and brought up a sub-screen to closely look at what Imacha was pointing out. He had rolled the body over until its back was exposed. A knife was in Imacha's hand and he shaved away a little bit of fur at the back of the medic's neck, by the base of the skull. Kendra saw it now. There was an incision of some kind in the neck. She could see it clearly with the fur shaved, but it was almost invisible with all the fur there. Almost, but not to the keen eyes of the tordenchi. Imacha used the knife to push the incision open. It did not appear to be made with a knife of any kind, it was too ragged.

"What the hell is that?" asked Adam.

"Kendra, can you please use the medical scanners in your mech to see what you can detect around this wound?" asked Imacha.

Kendra canceled the sub-screen and moved over to the others and the corpse. She did as she was asked and slid the sample plate over the area, scooping up dead flesh, dried blood, and whatever else was present at the wound site. The plate retracted into the scanner and it began analyzing the decomposing flesh of the falashai. "What is it that we're looking for here?" she asked Imacha.

He did not look at her, as his gaze was fixed on the body. "I'm not exactly sure, but I noticed the exact same thin slice on the back of the neck of the thing Hakurr killed several hours ago. I spotted it as I walked past its corpse and thought nothing of it back then. It could have been a mere random injury from any one of a thousand sources. However, the same injury in the same place on an entirely different being? I am not a believer in coincidence Lieutenant."

As her diagnostic scanner worked on the data it collected she watched the tordenchi pull out a slim pen. He poked at the incision then slid the pen inside the wound. Almost half the pen went into the hole. Imacha wiggled it a little then pulled it back out. He glanced at Kendra. "This is more your area of expertise doctor. I am an engineer and rescue protocol expert. You are a trained medic, and more importantly I believe, were once a veterinarian on your home world."

Adam stared back and forth between the two. "Would one of you tell me what the hell is going on here? This doc did a Jack the Ripper on all these poor people and you two are playing poke the corpse? We have to get out of here and report this!"

Before Kendra could speak to Adam, the results of the scan came up on her screen. She stared in disbelief for a few moments then said, "There are traces of an extremely potent anesthetic toxin there as well as cellular remains of something that the medical scanner has no records of at all. An unknown biological life form..." She paused for a few moments to collect her thoughts, her mind racing now as the pieces of data she had swirled around in her head.

"Please continue Lieutenant."

"An unknown biological lifeform that uses an anesthetic poison on its victim so it cannot feel the incision made to its target." She glanced at the hole, then the pen in Imacha's hand. "It then burrows undetected into the incision it creates at the base of the skull and... and... does what?"

Imacha said, "In your Terran literature there is a fictional character I greatly admired upon the very first reading of the book some ten years ago. He molded my way of thinking ever after. He said 'When you have eliminated the impossible, whatever remains, however improbable, must be the truth.' Thus..." Imacha waved his hand about the room at the gruesome sight.

"It did this."

Chapter 5

"You're telling me some kind of bug crawled into that doctor's neck, drove him nuts, and made him kill all of these people; made that monster try to kill us?" cried Adam incredulously. "That's insane."

"Is it? Look at how the beast behaved when it attacked us. On the surface it seemed normal for a simple animalistic predator, but notice what it did," said Imacha. "It knocked down Hakurr first, disarming him. Then it disarmed you next before trying to bite your mech. As soon as the Lieutenant shot it, it used its tail to try and disarm a third person before returning to attack you. A low intellect animal does not think of removing a gun from a person's hands before trying to kill it. Seeing as how we were more than likely the first beings to ever carry firearms that this creature has encountered on this world, it is exceedingly unlikely that whatever mind it possessed would have the ability to piece together that it should disarm us of them before continuing its assault."

Adam tried to respond to the tordenchi's line of reasoning but his retort died in his throat as he thought about it. "So whatever the hell was inside the beast and the doctor drove them insane and..."

"No, not insane. The beast was acting rationally, far beyond its intellectual capacity. I'm saying that whatever entered their bodies took control of them. The medic here was a benevolent individual according to his psychological profile. He had fifteen years of experience dedicated to saving lives and healing the sick and injured. To suffer a ship crash that caused a total psychotic break resulting in him cutting apart his companions of ten years is so unlikely as to be a discarded train of thought."

"So this bug got in his head and made him commit murder? Nothing can do that! That's... that's mind control you're talking about. I read about that. Your UTO scientists long ago determined that psychic powers and stuff was nothing more than a myth," said Adam. "That's impossible."

Kendra looked towards Adam's mech and said, "Not entirely. There are forms of animal and plant life on earth that can do things similar to this using purely biological mind control."

"Make someone chop up almost a dozen people?!" he cried.

"Not so dramatic an act as that, but there are ones that can cause creatures to literally commit suicide. There is a kind of fungus that infests the minds of ants and forces the host to find a specific spot ripe for the fungus to spread properly then it makes the ant wait in that spot until it dies and the fungus spreads from the corpse. Another is a wasp that lays an egg into a specific species of spider. The egg hatches and the larva inside the host somehow makes the spider spin an unusual form of web. It waits in the web until it dies, the larva feeding on the spider's remains."

"Where the hell did you learn all this?" he asked Kendra.

"College. Back on earth. I had to take a class on parasitology in order to be a vet."

Imacha grinned. "I figured your studies as an animal doctor and medic in general would be beneficial to you. I do admit that my knowledge of species capable of usurping control of a host is extremely limited. I never imagined one of advanced intellect was capable of this."

"So why did it cut everyone up?"

Kendra said, "It was... God forgive me... it was studying them. This, all this, is like some deranged form of autopsy. It was learning about the various races' anatomies. Respiratory system. Central nervous system. Musculature. Eyes." She paused and took a deep breath to calm herself. She had felt her heart racing far too fast, fear pounding at her. "If this is all what it appears to be, it means we've just run into a never before encountered advanced race."

"How does this fit in with the ship being shot down?" asked Adam, still not quite believing all he was hearing.

Kendra said "My guess is that these things, whatever they are, shot the ship down and went to investigate the wreckage only to discover the crew still alive. They either infected the poor medic here with some kind of intelligent biological weapon..."

"Or the unknown species is the infecting lifeform itself," said Imacha, finishing off Kendra's train of thought. "If so, they are distinct from thirteen of the fourteen UTO races in three ways. One, they have access to even more advanced energy projection weaponry than is found in the UTO. Two, they appear to be a parasitic form of life than can usurp control of a host, an unprecedented ability among all known species. Three, they are most likely about the same size as you humans are, which means your race is no longer alone in the galaxy as being so diminutive."

"Cold comfort at best," said Kendra, a look of utter disgust on her face. "We need to get off this planet immediately. We have to call this in to Center, let the higher ups in the government and military know all about it."

She took a moment to place all the data and images she had collected of the charnel house of a room into her personal yutri, then began to climb down and out of the infirmary. "Let's go, move it! I'm calling Home and telling Neji to come pick us up."

As her mech moved through the wreck of the Lothia, Adam and Imacha following close behind her, Kendra opened a comm to the Capher, keeping the dialogue internal to her mech. "Home, this is Wanderer One, come back." She waited a moment before calling again.

"Neji, come back, do you copy me?" Her eyes looked over the sub-screen. Neji's face did not appear. The comm port was open and there were no signs of interference or jamming from the readings she saw. "Neji? Please answer me." Kendra's voice began to waver and her mech started to slow down the pace at which it moved through the ship. She felt a new form of fear creep into the pit of her stomach.

"Please Neji, if you can hear me you have to respond. We need immediate evac." Only silence answered her from the other side of the comm call. Her fear grew greater. She chose to directly access the Capher's computer remotely. "Capher data core interface requested via comm. This is Lieutenant Kendra Forrest, acting captain of the ship, authority code Z-22883-Beethoven." She waited for a moment then heard the synthesized voice of the ship's computer respond.

"Authorization code accepted. What is your request?" it asked. It was merely an advanced computer with a vocal interface unit, nothing as grand as a full AI. The Capher was a good ship, but not that good.

"Request access to interior crew status. Give me an update on vital signs of crewmember Neji Nihova." She waited a few seconds for the response. Her heart slammed inside her chest. Kendra was unable to take a breath as the moments passed. The computer's response finally came.

"Negative life sign readings from crewmember Neji Nihova at current time."

Kendra felt her world begin to unravel about her. She shook her head and gritted her teeth so hard her head ached. It had to be wrong. There had to be an error. "Access interior cameras. Focus on last location of positive life sign readings of crewmember Nihova," she whispered. The computer did as she asked. Kendra did not even realize she had stopped moving through the ship. Her mech remained motionless and she did not even register Adam or Imacha calling to her.

A sub-screen appeared before Kendra, the interior of Neji's room. There, sprawled on the floor, was Neji. She was on her front, a pool of blood spread about her head and some of her body. A few meters from one of her hands was her pistol. Kendra saw the wound, the hole in the viliti's head. She had shot herself; committed suicide. Tears streamed down Kendra's face and she bit her lower lip so hard she drew blood. Neji would never take her own life. Kendra knew she loved life more than any being she had ever met.

"Enhance image location three point two two by four point one seven. Twenty times magnification." Her voice was hoarse, raw with emotion. The image closed in on the back of Neji's neck. Viliti had moderately short fur so the injury there was visible. The same incision was present that she saw on the medic. There was barely any blood and a thin trail of some manner of glistening liquid or slime ran down the side of her neck away from the wound. One of them had gotten aboard the ship. It must have come aboard while the cargo ramp was still down. Kendra's eyes immediately shot over to Adam's mech. He left the cargo bay ramp down. He forgot to close it. She knew how Adam felt about the viliti. How close they had grown. She made a decision.

"Kendra? Come on! Wake the hell up. What's wrong?" Adam called out to her, worry creeping into his voice.

"Nothing, sorry. I sent the message out to Neji. I filled her in on the situation. She's going to wait for us there until we get return to the ship. I want total comm silence for now. We have no way of knowing if these things can patch into our lines or not, so I will be the only one sending to Home until we get back. Is that clear?" asked Kendra. She looked to Adam first.

Adam said, "Why can't she just come here to..."

Kendra cut him off. "I don't want our ship anywhere near this location. We have to assume the entire crash site is completely compromised and hostile. We make our way back to the ship, same as we came here. Is that clear?"

The mech nodded. "Yeah. Clear."

Kendra looked at Imacha. He had a neutral expression on his face but she saw how his tail moved. He was agitated. His eyes flicked over to Adam's mech for a moment then back to Kendra's mech. "Clear Lieutenant, and for the record, I believe you have made the correct choice in this delicate matter." The tordenchi began to head out of the ship once more, climbing his way over debris and twisted metal.

A few minutes later and the trio were almost at the hole in the underbelly of the Lothia. Kendra was out in front and saw that the rain had finally stopped. She saw Hakurr's massive form just a few dozen meters from the entrance. Everything was bathed in shades of blue and black due to the flares that burned on the ground. As her mech came forward, heavy feet clanging on the metal of the Lothia, Hakurr turned to face her. Seeing him standing there made Kendra feel better, helped take her mind off Neji. She was barely hanging on from the loss of such a close friend. She needed all her remaining ones to get her through this.

Hakurr's head rose up. Kendra met his gaze and saw the look in his eyes. His face was not wet. Those were tears running down it.

"Please... run," whimpered the ralai. She watched as Hakurr jerked up his carbine and aimed it at her mech. Kendra was momentarily stunned, just long enough to be hit when it discharged. The weapon made a sharp cracking sound as the energy blast was fired. It seared into the midsection of the mech, only a few meters shy of striking her cockpit, and blew through its light armored plating with ease. Kendra cried out as her mech toppled over, the entire gyroscope system in it destroyed by the blast. Adam and Imacha stared in temporary shock as Hakurr shot their commander and friend. The tordenchi recovered and dove for cover.

"One of them is in Hakurr!" he shouted as he hid behind a metal plate and pulled his pistol.

Adam barely avoided the second blast from Hakurr's weapon as the ralai fired at him. Energy washed over some of the metal and melted parts of it to slag. Bits of it dropped onto Adam's mech and hissed as they burned at his shoulder plates. The human kept his footing and charged at the ralai before he could fire again. His mech slammed into the midsection of Hakurr and shoved him back, both of them skidding along the muddy ground. The ralai was too sturdy and strong to topple over that easily.

"Hakurr, snap out of it! PLEASE!" Adam cried. His mind balked at this. He was being forced to fight his friend for real. Not a fun sparring moment like they shared so many times in the past.

The ralai's body jerked to the side, an uncoordinated motion which made it look like he was unsure of quite how to get away from Adam. He attempted to point the gun down and shoot the mech. Adam swung his hand up and to the side, knocking the ralai's aim off completely. A follow up strike disarmed him of the carbine. The weapon slid off to the side in the mud.

Adam backed up a few paces from his friend, his mech's arms held wide. "Hakurr, please, for the love of God, you have to fight whatever the hell is in you! I can't do this!"

"Yes... you can..." he growled. His body lurched forward. "You... have to... free me." Hakurr clumsily swung out a fist at Adam. His mech moved and swiftly parried the blow. A second punch came and he stopped that one as well, though it was more coordinated than the first one.

"Free you, right! How do I free you Hakurr? Tell me!" Adam side stepped another attack, then parried the ralai. More strength was behind these blows. It was learning how to use the body better. It was getting more and more used to it with each motion and move it made.

"Hurts... so bad... my head," groaned the ralai. His eyes blearily focused on Adam's mech. Hakurr felt and saw himself swing at his friend. The force of his blow, even when parried, shoved the mech aside. He heard the loud clanging of his strike. He knew that whatever was in him was trying to kill Adam, the closest friend he ever had. The thing in his head made him slam down at Adam over and over. One hit managed to connect and the chest plate of the smaller mech was deformed from the blow. Adam stumbled back, reeling from the hit. Hakurr realized that his friend was afraid to attack him. He wasn't hitting back. The ralai knew immediately what had to be done. It was the only path to take.

"You... have to... kill me," growled Hakurr. He kicked out at Adam, the mech narrowly dodging the attack. His paw slammed against a thin metal strut holding up a tarp to give shelter from the rain. The metal bent then snapped from the sheer force of his attack. The tarp fluttered to the ground silently.

"No!" shouted Adam. "There has to be another way. I can't kill you!"

Hakurr saw Imacha trying to help get the chest plate of Kendra's ruined mech open. The little tordenchi looked terrified. He saw the pained look on his friend's face; the turmoil, the anguish, the fear. "You have... to do it... for everyone. Have to... get back to... Neji." He swung again at the mech. Adam stopped parrying now and kept moving back to avoid the attacks. He was letting himself get backed against the Lothia's hull. "She needs... you Adam. She... loves... you."

Adam began to cry inside his mech. He felt the hull contact the back of his armor. He narrowly ducked to avoid Hakurr's next punch. "I need you too," he whispered inside the mech.

"Live... this life... for me... and remember... me."

Adam let out a cry of anguish as his mech struck out. He ducked under Hakurr's attack, slid in close, and slammed the mech's fist up and into the arm pit of the mighty ralai. The blow was perfectly placed and dislocated Hakurr's shoulder. Hakurr felt pain explode through him but refused to cry out. He would not scream. He would not hurt his friend that way, nor give the devil inside him the satisfaction of hearing his pain.

Adam pressed forward, raining blow after blow on the ralai, each one taking a terrible toll. The thing inside made Hakurr's body stagger back, try to put up a defense, but it was unused to fighting in such a way. It had never seen something attack like Adam before. The host body was powerful and durable, but not as fast and fluid as it was used to. It had too few appendages. It was clumsy and heavy. The host was damaged horribly as Adam smashed the elbow of the mech into the center of the armor over Hakurr's chest, denting it in and cracking the solar plexus of the ralai. The thing inside felt control of the host slipping away. The body was dying. It had suffered too much damage.

Hakurr dropped to his knees before Adam. Blood streamed down the side of his face and he wheezed with each breath. He felt it. The thing inside him was losing control, unable to hold on any more. A smile spread across the ralai's damaged face, one of his eyes swollen shut. The good eye looked up at Adam.

"I feel... better," he growled.

Adam moved over to Hakurr and dropped to his knees as well. He draped his arms around his friend's neck and clutched him tight. Through his sobs Adam said, "You're gonna be all right. Kendra can patch you up. It's okay. I didn't... you're not dead yet."

"Yes, I am. Only thing keeping me... alive now... is it, but it's letting go." Hakurr managed to bring up his good arm and placed his big hand on the mech's shoulder. "I... want you to keep my cross. You need to... use it to... find God. I took your religion... to understand what kind of God... could make so wonderful a race... as humans. Now I go to meet him... and will have... my... answer..." Hakurr's head and body slowly slumped forward and rested against Adam's mech. The ralai's head gently slid down until it was on the mech's shoulder. Hakurr let out a long, slow sigh then went still.

Adam cried inside his mech, his sobs coming out through the speaker. The clouds above began to part and a starry night sky was slowly revealed, their light shining down upon the mech and the ralai. Kendra climbed out of her mech, Imacha having worked the chest plate open to free her. She stood there atop the mech and stared at Adam and Hakurr, also crying for yet another friend lost. Her family was dying. This world and the horrid things in it were killing them. She looked up to Imacha, tears flowing down her cheeks.

"How can I tell him?" she asked the tordenchi in a whisper. She knew he had already realized that Neji was dead.

"I am not sure," the tordenchi whispered back. "All I know is not now. We have to get back to the ship first and we need him to be focused. After losing Hakurr, he will be. If he knew Neji was gone too, it would be too much and he would be lost."

"He's going to hate me..." she began.

Imacha cut her off. "I will take that responsibility for the lie. Let him hate me. However, that is not what is important. What is paramount is that we must get back to the ship. We have to call Center and let them know what is here. What we have seen and encountered. If we cannot, then all those who have died will have died for nothing. The UTO must be warned of the presence of these aliens as I shudder to think of what would happen if they delve deeper into our more inhabited space."

"Oh God," she said under her breath, thinking of the implications of that scenario.

Imacha nodded slowly. "Though I do not believe in a creator deity of any kind I would have to concur that we would very well need a God to see us through the darkness that would follow that."

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.