Lost
Chapter 4- Stranded
Unknown planet. An hour later...
It was very cold.
The ground and triangle-shaped trees were all blanketed underneath thick layers of frozen water flakes known as snow in most planets, except this one was colored a pale green.
The escape pod had landed in the forest, leaving a small trail of destruction behind it. Its external lights were turned off and there seemed to be no life inside until a powerful kick sent the door flying.
Fury was the first to come out. He warily sniffed the air and looked around, confirming the atmosphere was mostly breathable. Fury let out a loud sneeze; the air was overwhelmed by the smell of dust, ice and carbon dioxide, thankfully not strong enough to render oxygen unusable. Once he was sure there were no threats around he proceeded to carefully drag Blue, Ilk and Lena's unconscious bodies out of the pod.
Fury's attention first centered on Blue. With a few purrs and gentle growls he started nudging at his head, releasing some of his breath into Blue's own nostrils. When he got no reaction, Fury's tongue came into contact with his face.
This made him react. It took a few seconds longer than expected, but it did work.
"Argh, Fury…" Blue groaned as sat up on the snow. Brrr! It was freezing! "You know it doesn't wash off…" He sneezed. Damn, his olfactory glands couldn't take so many scents at once.
"Owowow…" Lena and Ilk awoke next, but the former had taken most of the hits in her attempt to protect Ilk, making it harder for her to lift her body.
"Are you two okay?" Blue asked them, rubbing his head.
It took both irkens a few moments to recall they had been trying to escape before the indokuro interrupted them. They got on their feet and tried to run away, but it didn't take Fury a fraction of a second to subdue them by pressing them against the cold ground with his arms.
"Get off me!" Ilk cried.
"Can't you keep this monster under control?!" Lena snapped, glaring up at Fury in disgust.
Blue sighed as he stood up and walked up to Fury. However, he merely crossed his arms as he glanced down at the Irkens. "What did you expect when you just tried to get away?"
"Excuse me? You and your pals kidnapped us, so sorry if we want to escape from you as soon as possible!"
"Okay, I understand that, but look around you," Blue gestured to their surroundings. "Even if you had escaped, what would you have done next? As you can see we're stranded with no food nor water in an uncharted planet which might as well be uninhabited, and since you Irkens rely too much on technology you won't last more than two hours before you succumb to either frostbite or starvation…. or get eaten by whatever lives here, if there's any fauna.
Fury and I, on the other hand, can hunt and defend ourselves should the latter happen, we can hunt food and we know how to survive without depending on electronic gadgets. In other words, we are your best chance at survival until we're rescued."
Ilk and Lena exchanged glances. They hated to admit it but he was right in a way.
Ilk might know one thing or two about survival, but she wasn't fully prepared to survive on her own with no access to technology of any kind yet. Lena completely lacked any abilities of that kind whatsoever, she was a doctor not an explorer, and her PAK was still infected with that virus kept her from using tools.
"Alright, then…" Lena sighed bitterly. "But we have conditions."
Of course. What else could he expect given the circumstances? "What conditions?"
"First, you keep your monster away from us. Second, you keep your distance away."
Ilk added quickly. "Third, you let us go when we get off this planet!"
Blue rolled his eyes. "Sorry, I cannot fulfill the third condition. You two are still Sobrekt prisoners," He glanced at Fury. "Release them, boy."
Fury was disappointed but nevertheless lifted his hands from the two Irkenettes, who scrambled to get as away from him as possible. Lena hid Ilk behind her as soon as they were back on their feet.
"So what now?" she asked, glaring at Blue.
"Captain said that we'd meet up in the Ibris's crash site," he pointed at the direction of a long smoke column. "Which means we go that way."
"Then what?"
"We'll see if we can fix the ship. If not, we try to fix the long-distance communicator to ask for help."
Ilk and Lena changed a brief glance when Blue turned around and started to walk away followed closely by Fury. Perhaps they could manage to contact the Massive if they did fix their communicator.
"Are you two coming or should I ask Fury to carry you?!"
Both Irkenettes flinched. "No!"
The group made their way through the woods, with Blue at the front, Lena and Ilk in the middle and Fury at the back to keep the irkens from trying to escape again. Blue tried to communicate with his teammates through the communicator in his black gauntlet, but for a reason he couldn't explain he couldn't turn it on, and in the brief seconds he managed to all he received was static.
They took a better look at the place, though. It was mostly a sort of conifer forest with very tall trees in the middle of winter… But something seemed to be wrong with them. There were gray needle-like leaves scattered underneath the pines all around the dusty dry log base. There didn't seem to be a single sound other than the twigs being swayed by the breeze.
Also, there was something about the air... They didn't now how to explain it, but it felt... unclean. Lena noticed Blue, Fury and Ilk had already coughed a few times. She twitched her antenna to take a sniff, but her PAK's basic oxygen-filter was still working, and it wasn't like the could take a sample, right?
But that wasn't the worst thing. The worst part of the whole situation was the low temperature. None of them had warm clothing and the cloud in the atmosphere were so thick no sunlight could go through them.
Blue resorted to rubbing his forearms in an attempt to warm himself up a bit while Ilk and Lena felt some ice had formed in their antenna.
Ilk eventually couldn't bear the uncomfortable silence anymore. "How did we end here anyway?" she asked.
"I'm not sure, but somehow we were taken out of hyper space-ACHOO!" Blue sneezed loudly, then snorted to soothe his itching nostrils a bit. "Damn it…"
"Brought out of… how is that even possible?"
"Like I said, I'm not sure. Not even Masouri knew what was happening and he's the expert when it comes to piloting stuff."
"Masouri?"
"The kryvtor with stripes and goggles, you'll get to know him later."
"Have you tried to contact them?" Lena inquired.
"The communicator doesn't work."
"Did it break?"
Blue sighed. "No. That's the weird thing…" he looked up to make sure they were going in the right direction. The smoke column was still there, but it still looked as faraway as before. At this rate it would be nighttime before they arrived.
"Think this place is inhabited?" Ilk asked Lena.
"If it were we would have already run into somebody." she pointed out.
"Not necessarily," Blue added. "They might be watching us right now and will only show themselves when they think we're no threat."
The group stopped for brief moment when they heard a strange sound similar to a growl coming from… Ilk's belly. Lena's stomach followed soon after and even Blue's joined in.
Just when they thought things couldn't get any worse.
"Do you casually have any food?" Lena asked Blue.
Blue frowned. "Do I look like I have?"
"Since you're 'in charge' I at least expected you to have that covered, since you're supposed to feed us."
Blue groaned and rubbed his temples. He was starting to wish he had gone with Masouri or Foxtrot. The kryvtor gave his indokuro a hand sign. Fury chirped and started sniffing the air for any animal scents (sneezing a few times in the process); he soon disappeared into the woods.
"Where is he going?" Ilk asked, partly relieved the creature was gone.
"He's going to look for a prey to hunt," Blue explained. "He should be back in about twenty minutes, maybe less. It really depends on the amount of prey he can find."
A distant shriek of pain and a triumphant roar later, Fury returned. Like Blue said, he was carrying a medium-sized animal in its jaws. It reminded Ilk of a very furry venison (earth creature she saw in the web once) with three pairs of horns and thicker hooves.
Fury placed it on the ground in front of his master, who promptly picked it up. Blue patted his neck and then sent him off to hunt something for himself.
"You expect us to eat… that?" Lena shivered both from the cold and disgust as she stared at the carcass.
Blue sighed. "Of course not."
Phew.
"I have to skin it first."
Wait, what? Skin? He didn't mean…?
Before she could even protest, Blue had already turned the creature belly up and was lowering his claws towards its… genitals!
Ilk covered her eyes and Lena turned around, both releasing a disgusted groan as the animal's bluish red blood stained the snow. They heard Blue's claws ripping the carcass open, cutting through the meat and skin and into the creature's interior.
Lena couldn't hold it in and ended up throwing up in some nearby bushes. Pretty ironic for a doctor, right? Well, on her defense they didn't teach how to skin patients at the Academy!
Just when they thought the worst was over, they caught a glimpse of Blue eating some pieces of raw, bloody meat from his hands, staining his maw and teeth. He noticed they were looking at him and lifted up one of the animal's organs. "Do you want the heart?"
Ilk joined Lena in the bushes to throw up.
The Ibris's crash-site, a few hours later...
Lena and Ilk were not happy.
Now they were both cold and hungry.
Blue had put the remaining edible parts of the venison-thingy in its furry skin to save it for later after they refused to eat it raw. He said they'd cook it when they met up with the others. Fury caught up a while later, his own maw also stained with blood, making Ilk throw up again when she imagined him doing the same.
On the bright side, they arrived at the crash site before twilight… At least that's what they thought, it was hard to tell when you couldn't even see the sun. The only way to know it was nighttime was when the whole place became darker and darker to the point one couldn't even see their own nose.
Blue was relieved to find Masouri and Echo were already there… until he noted Masouri was hugging the remains of the Ibris and sobbing loudly while Echo stared at him blankly. Oh, great.
"Oh, my beauty…!" Masouri cried out in despair. "My beautiful ship!"
"Knock it off, Masouri, it's just a ship."
"Just a ship? How can you even say that?! I've had this ship since I enrolled at the Pilot Academy!"
"Big deal, you can get another one."
"Say that again, I dare you!"
"Nice to see you too." Blue interrupted as he stepped forward, followed by Ilk, Lena and Fury.
"Blue!" Naturally, Echo was the first to come greeting. Lena noted she didn't hug him or touch him in anyway, however, she merely exchanged some chirp-like sounds and made brief contact with each other's snouts.
"Oh, hi Blue." Masouri said simply before going back to mourning the Ibris.
Blue sighed. "Judging by how Masouri's acting, I guess you already checked the ship, right?"
"It's done for," Echo said, though there was a slim undercurrent of sadness in her voice. "The engine is literally resting in pieces. Even if we do fix the ship's external damage it won't lift off."
"What about your long-distance communicators?" Ilk asked without thinking. She quickly regretted when Echo narrowed her eyes at her.
"I'm not talking to you, in case you didn't notice."
"Not now, Echo," Blue growled softly. "What she said, what about communications?"
"The console is pretty damaged, but we need Foxtrot to check it out. He's the technician, Masouri's only the mechanic."
"Wait, you mean 'Masouri' over there can fix a ship but not a communicator?" Lena asked skeptically.
"Masouri is the piloting and spacecraft expert. Foxtrot is the communication officer," Blue explained. "Technically they have to cooperate to fix the communicator."
"That sucks."
Echo frowned. "Well, if you're so smart, why don't you fix it?"
Blue managed to spot two approaching figures before a fight could start. "That won't be necessary, here they come."
Foxtrot was the first to emerge from the trees, followed by Captain. Both looked like they were literally freezing. Captain had brought an even larger prey, this one more-bison like with white coat and big curved horns.
"Captain, sir!" Blue and Echo saluted and stamped their tails on the ground. Masouri did the same, then went back to weeping.
"Status of the ship?" Captain asked in-between coughing, but then he noticed Masouri's behavior. "Nevermind, that tells me enough. The package?"
"They're right here, Captain," Blue gestured towards Ilk and Lena. "Both safe and sound."
"I'm not a package!" Ilk snapped.
Echo stared at Foxtrot from head to toes. "What happened? No offense, but you look terrible."
"Our capsule fell on a river," Foxtrot muttered with a sneeze. "We had to swim to the edge-ACHOO!"
"Shut up and go see if you can fix the communicator." Captain snapped and pointed to the ship. What did he complain about? He had to carry him to the edge! Besides, Masouri's crying was getting annoying.
Foxtrot dragged his feet on the snow as he walked towards the Ibris's remains, grabbed Masouri by the arm and dragged him inside despite his protests.
"Captain, with all due respect, I don't think you should skin the game in front of…" Blue subtly glanced at the Irkenettes. "They have very weak stomachs."
"Too bad," Captain said simply. "Echo, start a fire. Blue, keep an eye on them so they don't try anything funny."
This time Ilk and Lena turned around before Captain started skinning the bison-beast. Even without looking at it, however, the smell of its blood was overwhelming. Blue fed the rest of the meat from earlier to Fury, who ate it eagerly.
Echo gathered a good bunch of thick dry branches and wood and started a big bonfire. Ah, the heat was so good, particularly for the cold-blooded Sobrekt. Ilk and Lena felt comfortably warm as they held their hands close to the fire, not enough to burn themselves, only enough to receive the heat.
Once again the Sobrekt ate their meat completely raw (though Captain did roast his a tiny beat beforehand), but this time at least they were considerate enough to let both Irkenettes cook their own share of the meat on the fire with long sticks.
"I don't understand how you they can waste a good cut of meat like that…" Echo muttered as she took a bite from the creature's sirloin.
"Just like I don't understand why you eat it raw." Lena snapped back.
"It tastes better," Captain explained, eating the whole heart of the beast. "The more you cook meat, the more it loses both its juice and all the nutrients."
There was a yell of frustration and the sound of a loud bang coming from the Ibris. Seconds later Foxtrot and Masouri came out and approached the bonfire; the latter had finally stopped crying, though he'd still glanced at the ship every now and then.
Ilk noted Masouri was carrying something in his arms; it was a medium-sized compact case of some sorts. It had a cylindrical-shaped glass container, and there was a big, black egg with tiny white speckles inside on top of a pillow. He placed it a few feet away from the fire as a manner of incubation to keep it from getting too cold.
"So how did it go?" Echo asked.
"Good news and bad news," Masouri said, starting to eat some ribs. "The good news is we did manage to fix the communicator."
"And the bad?" Blue asked.
"We cannot communicate with anyone," Foxtrot growled, bristling his crest (Ilk noted only the kryvtor-type of Sobrekt seemed to have those feathers). "We tried to contact Sobr, the Tyrannus, everybody, but the signal doesn't kick in. It's like something's blocking it."
"Perhaps it's the climate," Blue said. "It took twenty full seconds for the pod to go through those clouds."
"That doesn't explain why the normal communicators don't work either," Masouri held up his left arm, tapping on his bracer with his claw. "I think we tried to contact you a dozen times."
"23 times, to be more precise." Foxtrot added quickly.
"Me too." Blue was next.
"Great, so we can't communicate at long or short distances." Captain snapped a leg in half to vent off a bit.
"That's not all," Masouri said. "We had to use the old-fashioned generator to turn the communication panel on. The power core wouldn't work either."
Captain gave a loud growl-sounding groan. "Great, so what you're saying is that we're stranded here with no energy and no way to get help?"
Foxtrot nodded. "Yup."
"Can you at least fix the engine?"
"No," Masouri sniffled. "The crash destroyed it completely. It must be replaced, and it's not like a random ship with a compatible engine is going to fall from the sky, right?"
At that moment, what appeared to be an Irken Ring Cutter dove down from the sky and crash landed a few meters away.
The group stared agape for a few seconds before Masouri whispered. "Or maybe I'm wrong."
Hyperspace. 10 minutes earlier...
"Are we there yet?"
Red didn't even bother to glance at him. He merely sighed. "No, Skoodge, we're not there yet."
"Question, why did Bob come?" Purple motioned to the table drone seating behind him.
"I've had experience with the sobrekt-beast like the others!" was the reply.
"Correct me if I'm wrong, but all you and Skoodge did was to distract it for a few seconds."
"But it gave Tenn enough time to go fetch Ilk!"
"I have to agree with them on that one." Tenn said.
It had been almost half an hour since they entered the hyper space towards the coordinates and Red was already getting impatient. He was already wishing they had brought the Armada, but this was a personal matter. Besides, sharing a ring cutter with Purple was one thing, but sharing it with Purple, four Invaders and a table drone was a bit too much.
Should anything go wrong they had an emergency probe with a recorded message which would automatically take the coordinates of the exact location it was launched from to help the Armada find them.
"If anything, we got enough supplies." Purple said with a doughnut in his mouth.
"So what's the plan?" Bob asked.
"We save Ilk and vaporize whatever stinky lizard stands in our way."
"You mean Ilk and doctor Lena." Red reminded him.
"Oh, right. I had almost forgotten about the doc. I hope she's okay, she's really good at her job," Purple couldn't help but glance at his co-Tallest. "It's curious, though, it's the first time you actually worry about an employee."
"What? She's the first medic we have that is actually tall." Plus it was pleasant to have her around. Argh! There it was, that stupid feeling again!
The ring cutter shook violently out of sudden. The lights went out, startling Stink into jumping unto Tenn's lap.
Larb burst in from the bridge. "My Tallest, we're being brought out of hyperspace!"
Red got off his seat. "What? Why?!"
"I'm not sure, My Tallest, but whatever it is also affected the power core! We have no energy!"
Bob blinked. "Hey, Larb, who's flying the ship?"
Larb rolled his eyes. "Duh! I am!"
….
Oh. That kinda of explained why the ship was falling towards that planet down below.
"Skoodge, send the emergency beacon now!"
"Y-Yes, My Tallest!"
"The rest of you buckle up and save as many snacks as you can! Not in that order, the other way around!"
They fell into the thick cloud layer.
Purple screamed as he clung to as many doughnut bags as possible.
Tenn and Stink screamed as the former forgot completely about pushing the latter off her lap.
Bob and Skoodge screamed as they embraced each other.
Red and Larb screamed as they tried to steer the ship.
"OH, NO! WE'RE GOING TO CRASH AGAINST THE MOUNTAIN!"
Bob managed to take a better look at it. "Actually, it looks more like a bunch of birds!"
Like he said, the Ring Cutter flew through the black avian-beasts unharmed. Seconds later the ship finally passed through the final cloud layer.
"OH, NO! WE'RE GOING TO CRASH ON THE FOREST!"
Even though they were falling at a very high speed Red managed to spot what seemed to be another crashed ship to the right. Could it be the Sobrekt vessel that had taken Ilk and Lena?
There was only one way to find out.
Larb panicked when his leader pushed him aside and started steering the ship rightwards. "M-My Tallest, what are you doing?!"
"Hang on, we're going to have a rough landing!" Red responded quickly.
He braced himself just in time to crash-land.
…
Though Red didn't lose consciousness, he did feel his head and upper body throbbing. Larb was next to him, groaning and whimpering in pain as he rubbed his head. "Purple, are you okay?!"
Purple cried. "The donuts are alright!" And judging by the groans coming from the Invaders (and Bob), he could guess they were still alive and breathing as well.
With a groan of pain, Red managed to get back on his feet-man, the hover belt would be so useful right now, but sadly it wasn't included in the battle armor-and painfully walked over to the visor to have a subtle look around. He was glad to realize they had landed near the other ship.
Like he suspected, it was a Sobrekt vessel. There was a fire a few steps away, and gathered around it were four raptor-like Sobrekts, the crocodilian named Captain (seriously? How many times could you repeatedly run into the same person?), a sobrekt-beast similar to the one sent to the Massive four years ago, and…
"I knew it! There they are!"
This caused Purple to get on his feet. "How many Sobrekt?"
"Five plus an Hybrekt."
"Another one?!" Stink cried in dismay.
The Sobrekt started walking towards the ship, leaving Ilk and Lena behind with the beast. They probably were going to salvage whatever parts of the ring cutter they thought they could use to repair their own ship. "Everyone get ready. They're coming closer."
"Hey, Skoodge, did you send the emergency beacon?" Tenn asked.
Skoodge gulped nervously when all glances were on him. "Y-Yes… I managed to launch it before we entered the mesosphere…"
"In that case, the Armada should arrive soon," Purple grinned, lifting a pair of laser pistols with a snicker. "Let's give those lizards a hard time."
Red nodded and stepped back from the door before any of the Sobrekt could see him, readying his own plasma rifle as did the rest of the Invaders with their own weapons… except for Bob, of course, since he didn't even have the authorization to have a simple gun.
The door opened.
Next chapter: Both parties begrudgingly realize they must work together to survive. Plus, more unexpected arrivals.