Chapter 38
Isaac and Barkley along with a few escorts get ready to depart the settlement at day break where most of the more dangerous threats of the desert retreat deep under the sands.
"Suns gonna rise soon and it already getting warm."
"Huh these guys are pretty cute." [The lizard-like mounts softly croak as he pets its head]
"Do that long enough and it'll nuzzle up on you like a cat."
"Too late I think it likes me."
They depart out into the arid wasteland, the frost on the sand melts as the sun rises and the water quickly dries as the temperatures rise.
"Damn half hour after sunrise already 108 degrees."
"Yeah at least the wyverns dig in underground and sleep till dusk, we just gotta worry about sand storms, sinkholes, dry quicksand and be mindful of our water."
"Quicksand?"
"Yeah, we learned that danger early when we crashed here, we had a girl that was playing with friends they about three years back wandered too far into the wastes and the poor thing stepped into a pit swallowed her up so fast she barely had time to scream for help."
"My god."
"It was a harsh reminder, its easy to forget the dangers when you set up a home and get comfortable in a dangerous place."
"No kidding."
Barkley spots a cluster of mushrooms near them growing in the shade of rock formations, he dismounts and approaches it and starts gathering some.
"Hold a moment."
"What are those for?" [Isaac asks]
"These mushrooms are what we use to make antivenom, we crush them and mix them with the venom we take after cutting out the poison sacs."
"Ah… how big can these wyverns get?"
"They can reach a good 12 feet in length and 5 feet in height, though we've heard from the more remote villages that they've been sightings of wyverns that are huge as big or bigger than a bus."
"Holy shit."
"Our biologist says that these large ones might be alphas, that if they live and survive long enough they can grow to gargantuan sizes."
[Sips some water]
"However, he also thinks that the normal size ones are only adolescent and that the alphas are the adults."
"If those are adults then there could be a lot more you haven't seen yet."
"I'm not looking forward to it."
The group travels onward till the sun starts to fall.
"We're almost there but dusk is coming there's a cave shelter that's used by travelers we can use for the night."
After finding the shelter they set camp and move small boulders to block the entrance.
"These rocks will keep the wyverns out they tend to avoid caves with small openings for some reason." [As he starts a fire]
"Clusterphobic?"
"Maybe not sure… something wrong with your RIG?"
"Um… yes and no, my RIG was damaged in the crash along with something inside it… an alien AI."
"Alien AI you encounter interesting things, don't you so how bad is the damage?"
"He has data corruption he can barely talk most of his vocal output is unintelligible and he has to use text boxes to communicate."
"How can he be fixed?"
"He needs a sample of his original code but the object that has is unfortunately back in the Milky Way, so he's conserving power until I can fix him."
"Well when we get your friends, we'll find a way to contact your ship… we should get some rest." [Slips into his sleeping bag]
In space on the Stark ship the admiral looks down on the desert planet from the bridge.
"Admiral we have connected to a comm buoy, you may contact home base when you're ready."
"Thank you."
He enters the communication chamber three holograms of people manifest, one women and two men in uniform.
"Admiral Varclasi its good to hear from you." [The man to his left greeted]
"Likewise, General."
"You have something to report?"
"I do though I'll be frank it'll be a lot to take in."
"What do you mean?"
"We encountered three factions of foreigners on the outskirts of our galaxy, all of which from the Milky Way one of them specifically Earth."
"Earth… as in EarthGov?" [The women with a slightly raised voice]
"Yes, we contacted them and spoke in person, I questioned them on why they have come to Andromeda and claim to be looking for an artifact they believe was hidden here long ago… a marker."
"A marker you mean the thing discovered by Michael Altman?"
"Correct"
"I see and the other two?"
"One appears to be a group of independent pioneers, we assume they left the Milky Way to retreat from EarthGov if what we were all told and made to believe growing up by our ancestors is true it makes sense why "they" came."
"So, these pioneers are not threat?" [The man to his right asked]
"No but that brings me to the other hostile malefactors besides EarthGov, the unitologists have according to the EarthGov captain have become very powerful and gone out of control they seem to be lead by a group of beings named the Brethren Moons."
"Moons… sorry I don't understand." [Said the women]
"This may be difficult to understand so please bear with me, these Brethren Moons are enormous planet to moon sized intelligent entities as they describe it I'm sending you images they gave to us of them."
"My god… how many are there?"
"They did not say but only that the war began months ago and they're losing the battle."
"They asked if we can help?"
"They did."
"People here especially members of the parliament are not going to like the fact that EarthGov is still around, this will make things difficult."
"Not to mention many have not forgotten what they did to our ancestors." [The woman stated]
"In a way they created us albeit inadvertently." [Varcalsi stated]
"That is irrelevant… admiral even if we want to we can't help them, if parliament votes against lending them aid and the king will have the final word if he accepts their judgment and says no we can do nothing."
"I suspected as much I didn't promise them anything only that I would take this to you so that you can bring this matter to the Stark parliament."
"We will farewell Admiral." [Holos fade out]
The next day came and Isaac and the group resume their trip, half way to the settlement Barkly notices suspicious puffs of air blowing out of the sand near them and the mounts abruptly stop and act as if frightened.
"Somethings wrong here."
"They sense something?"
"Yeah and there shouldn't be any wyverns out during the day."
"Could it be something else?"
"Possibly but…"
The are t their right explodes and out jumps a wyvern larger then Barkly has ever seen.
"Holy hell!" [Barkly shouted]
"Son of a… that's an alpha wyvern." [Another of their party states]
The great wyvern hisses as it slowly approaches them drooling with hunger.
"Shit we have no choice we have to fight it otherwise we lead to the settlement!" [Draws two machetes]
Large frills on the sides of the alpha wyvern's head expand and rattle as it lets out a loud screech. It then jumps into the air then glides at high speed darting to them.
"Look out!"
"Here leap onto it and go for the upper neck behind the frills!" [Tosses Isaac a blade]
Barkly's mount boosts him as he jumps on its leg imbedding the machetes deep in its hide, the wyvern screeches in pain and anger then attempts to knock him off as it flails about. Isaac jumps onto its using the karabite Asha gave him to grip and climb on it while the other in their group shot their arrows at its head. Barkly makes it on top of its back then starts stabbing while Isaac reaches its neck and jabs both blades into its neck, the wyvern knocks Barkly off then grabs Isaac and tosses him off but manages to make a large cut on its neck. Wounded he tries to leave but not before Barkly cuts deep into is right leg severing the tendons disabling its right leg, crippled it howls while its frills rattle quickly.
"Oh shit, its calling for help."
Near them common wyverns burrow up out of the sand and speed to the alpha's call. The small group is quickly overrun but a rain of arrows from over the ridges around them kills them and many hunters start throwing bombes that makes a blue mist at the fleeing alpha wyvern. The alpha begins to slow as the mist takes effect and puts it to sleep, the hunters cautiously approach it as it still slightly awake waiting to put a muzzle-like harness on its head.
"Who are these people?"
"Dune hunters, they wonder the wastes preferring to be more nomadic and reclusive then the rest of us they also work with the villages that have the larger wyverns I told you about."
The alpha wyvern's beastly diamond shaped eyes dilate, and its eye lids shut finally succumbs to the sleeping haze and the hunter quickly fasten the muzzle to keep it pacified.
"You guys okay?" [The hunter asked]
"Yes, thanks for the assistance." [Thanked Barkly]
"No problem, hope you mind if we take this beauty off your hands."
"No not at all but damn that beast is largest I've seen."
"Be lucky you guys live near the areas we frequent there're a lot more alphas there."
"How do you guys survive with them all?"
"Well since there's a lot of alphas they tend to fight and kill each other over fertile females and territory so they tend to leave us alone every so often we'll get a few that turn their gaze on us if they're starving luckily when they do they just steal food rather then pick and drag some lone guy off."
"What will you do with it?"
"We'll take it back to our village, study it a little not so common to get one alone and alive our biologists will have a field day… well we should get going nice meeting you."
"You too."
"You're not from around, here are you?"
"No Milky Way."
"Ah then those guys at the village over there must your friends."
"They're okay?"
"Yeah some of them were banged up a little from the crash but they're fine."
"Thank god."
The group leaves hauling off the alpha wyvern with them and Isaac's group makes the final trek over the dunes to the village.
"Surprisingly not the worst journey I've taken between villages."
"I'll bet frankly I'd rather fight an alpha then a pack them… its invigorating to bring down something big."