The First Contact War Chapter 33
The Jungle Moved
"There's something out there waiting for us. And it ain't no man.".
2623 5th January Earth Standard Calendar, Lt Luke Sparrow, The Republic Star Destroyer Tranquillity
Luke was sitting in the recreational area of the YT-1300 freighter, The Shadow, as he cleaned his weapons. It had become a portable FOB. Stocked with rations, medical supplies and various assortments of weapons with ammunition. Shutters had been installed on any glass panels, meaning the cockpit and turret windows to give added protection. The Freighter had also experienced many armour and systems upgrades to make it even more valuable for the missions he and by extent the 242 would have to undertake. He and a dozen other Orionians had been sent to work as liaisons between Jedi Knight Rena Shan's 317th Legion of the Grand Army of the Republic and the twelve Orionian fleets and thirty Orionian divisions.
Christmas had come and gone uneventfully bar scrambling around attempting to find a suitable present for Hex, Tracinya and few other squad mates. He had found a pricy yet effective flamethrower module for Tracinya's left wrist. Hex had gotten some emerald green kyber crystal earrings that had made her let out an uncharacteristically girly squeal which had left him laughing seeing as she tried to make herself seem like one of the guys. In return he'd gotten some pathfinder combat boots from Hex which were far superior to the combat boots he had been issued and not to mention more comfy. Tracinya had gotten him an ornately designed knife, a beautiful yet practical present. The blade shared a resemblance to the Ghurkha Kukri knife and had a sharper edge to it. He had tested it out on some training dummies and the dummies had been cut cleanly with little resistance.
Luke had only spoken briefly to the 317th's General Rena Shan. Aside from her being green in some areas… he wasn't shore what to think of her. She was nice, though sometimes could come off as arrogant and a bit prudish. She cared for her men and saw the clones as people, but previous combat records showed that got in the way when she became hesitant to make any move that would encounter heavy loses, even if they were necessary or unavoidable. She wasn't a bad person or leader per say, but she left somethings to be desired in terms of tactics. She didn't exactly fit into any mental boxes he liked to put things in to keep everything simple. She was an anomaly. Jedi he met were either like Skywalker and Kenobi who were brilliant generals, or like Pong Krell who cared nothing for what they considered beneath them, i.e. forceless barbarians from beyond civilised space and clones and lastly Jedi with inept military leadership but were alright people which somehow redeemed them as Generals much to his bafflement. He had decided to place her in new mental box labelled as anomalies. He noted that her appearance was somewhat Slavic and Asian, yet she spoke with a somewhat posh British accent.
The Clones of the 317th were just like the rest of their brothers, fun and charming to be around and stood by each other. At this point he expected nothing less of them. Many Orionians liked them despite the controversy of using a Clone army to fight a war.
As Luke began to reassemble his rifle his wrist comm went off.
"Lieutenant Sparrow here."
"Lieutenant Sparrow. General Shan requests your presence on the Bridge." The voice of Captain Korun said.
"Understood Captain. I'm on my way." Luke walked out of the Shadow and made his way past the AT-TE walkers and LAAT gunships that found their home in the rear left section of the Star Destroyer's hanger. At the back of the hanger there was an elevator which he got in that took him up to a walkway which he followed down the many well light silvery corridors on that level until he reached another elevator that would take him to the bridge. A difference between Republic and other galactic starships compared to Orionian ships was that Orionian ships still had stairs in them that took you from one level to another.
When the elevator doors opened he walked onto the bridge. He immediately stood out. No less because he dwarfed everyone by nearly two feet but also by the fact he was dressed in his Multicam BDU compared to the clones who were dressed in either their armour or officer uniform. Just behind the bridge was the command room where Captain Korun and General Shan were, standing around the holo-table. Rena was dressed in her usual dark brown cloak that left only her brown boots and head exposed.
"General, Captain, Lieutenant Sparrow reporting as requested." Luke said saluting.
"At ease," Rena said, "As you can see here, the red planets are the ones that are currently under attack by your military." Two dozen red planets appeared courtesy of the holo-table.
"Separatist forces have scrambled to confront the attacks and are currently committed to defending the Eastern Front. We're currently sneaking round their left flank, stopping at unpopulated and unexplored worlds."
"Weren't we supposed to meet up with the 36th, 37th, 40th, 48th fleets?" Luke asked.
"We were, but a solar storm meant we've had to divert our course and re-route ourselves around it. Our hyperspace drives aren't as fortunate as your Slipspace drives." Captain Korun explained.
"That's very well and all, but I fail to see why you needed to talk to me if that's all you wanted to talk about sirs." Luke responded.
"We'll be dropping out of hyperspace shortly above an unknown world to give the Hyperdrive some maintenance, its been acting up again. While the fleet waits in orbit, Captain Korun, you, Bantha Battalion and I will go planet side." Rena explained.
"Am I allowed to ask why or is it classified?" inquired Luke, concerned over how far behind schedule that could put them and as a result the attack on Raxus.
"While I cannot say, there is no need to worry. The maintenance will take two cycles and that is as long as we will remain on world. Once the Hyperdrive has been repaired or cleared of any faults, we will be underway once more.," Rena replied before continuing, "I am asking you to come along as you have more combat experience than any of us here and know more about fighting in jungles than we do, making you experienced person currently with the fleet."
"I have no problem with being boots on the ground, ship was feeling a cramped anyway."
2623 6th January Earth Standard Calendar, Lt Luke Sparrow, Unknown Jungle planet
"Captain, leave two dozen men here to guard the gunships, the rest will come with us." Rena said to Captain Korun. Luke was still in his Multicam BDU but now had his combat vest, upper arm and thigh armour on. His helmet's vizor HUD was telling him it was currently sitting twenty-eight degrees Celsius. The humidity in the air was evident from the way his clothes clung to his body and the heavy feeling to the air around him. He wiped so sweat of his face due to the swelteringly hot sun beaming down into the clearing. Jungle worlds and jungles in general were unpleasant places, beautiful for sure nut the climate was not worth it.
The clearing they were in now contained five gunships, two of which would be scouting the planet from the air. That left three in the clearing and a total of one hundred a fifty people planet-side the LAAT gunship's crews not included. Rena's reasoning behind the large number of people was that as the planet was unknown they could find anything down below. Luke would have still preferred a smaller group but had decided against arguing. Looking off to the treeline he couldn't see through the dense vegetation of various shades of greens, purples and other brightly coloured alien fauna. He could hear the noises of the alien jungle wildlife. Some were reminiscent of birds found in the jungles in the Orion Arm.
"So then General, where are we heading to?" Luke asked Rena, curious as to why she had felt it necessary to go boots down onto an unknown world.
"Do not worry Lieutenant, I know the way. Captain Korun, are we ready to move out?" Rena replied.
"Ready general." Korun replied.
"Very well, follow me." She ordered."
"Bantha Battalion let's move!" Korun yelled at the assembled clones. Luke noted that their armour had a sandstone cream highlight to it in the same fashion many clone legions did. Orionian troops didn't get the same level of customization for their armour or gear beyond emblems. Luke walked after Rena and Captain Korun as they entered the jungle. Unlike Rena, Luke and the clones were constantly monitoring the surrounding forest for hostile movement, either from the indigenous wildlife or extra-terrestrial like clankers. The large party kept a tight formation as they began to trek through the jungle or otherwise they'd lose each other in the very dense greenery of the jungle. Luke had taken a position where he was in twenty meters from Rena who was leading them through the jungle but was among the clones whom followed after. The heat had not improved any since they'd entered in fact it had only become more humid. They had been walking for nearly two hours before Luke noticed Captain Korun raise a finger to his helmets headset before speaking ton the General who stopped. Luke and the clones by instinct set up a circular perimeter around area as the two talked and used their comms once more. Luke raised his rifle and scanned the jungle though he doubted there was much need for him too. The jungle seemed devoid of any big animals or other people but that didn't mean there weren't any.
"Lieutenant Sparrow." Rena called as Luke got up and walked over to the two, pushing some shrubs out the way as approached.
"Yes ma'am?" Luke asked.
"We lost contact with two of the gunships that were scouting the area around us from the sky. Take Echo Five with you and head to their last reported position and see if you can find out what's happened." Rena instructed.
"Echo Five, front and centre!" Korun soke over the comms. Thirty seconds later five clones stood in front of them three.
"Echo Five reporting." Spoke one of the clones with a sandstone coloured stipe going down his helmet.
"You will be assisting the Lieutenant in finding out where two of our gunships have gone. Remember he's part of our ally's military so you will be representing the 317th Legion, I expect mothering except your best. Now out gunships vanished twenty miles South West of here, we don't know how so be prepared for anything."
"Understood Sir, okay then Echo, let's get moving." Luke said before motioning for Echo Five to follow.
They were an hour into what Luke estimated to be a nine to ten-hour trek. The clone squad he was with appeared to be quite green and were going out of their way to seem professional and elite it hurt. He noted that his HUD's waypoint put the missing gunships location still a couple of clicks away.
"You boys can stop trying to impress me. Just do a good and I'll be impressed. I might even give some tips." Luke spoke aloud. He had been deliberating whether or not to speak up for a while now but he felt he had too.
"I told you guys we were trying to hard." One spoke.
"Shut up Zuc." The Sargent retorted.
"We were trying pretty hard Draft."
"Shut up Dex. And not a word from either. You two" Sergeant Draft said.
"Dutch and Mac often make smartass comments." Zuc whispered to Luke
"Its fine, you were under orders." Luke joked.
"So.. uhh… are you going to teach us how to be, you know. Awesome clanker kicking badass like you." Zuc asked.
"ha, ha. Well I can teach you some things but nothing to secret. Okay." Luke swore Zuc had a childlike grin on his face beneath that helmet and that his squad were rolling their eyes.
"Right then, class is in session. I shall train you in the ways of Force, not to be confused with the Force. And you all shall be my Padawans. We'll start with some observational skills."
They had moving in the general direction of the NAV marker Luke had placed for nineteen miles. About half a mile ago the jungle had become straggly silent. No sounds. Bar the rustle of the leaves and the wind. It was unnerving. He shook it off, not wanting to worry himself too much. He had been teaching what he found out to be fresh clones about how to observe their environment, better team worker skills, more efficient ways to clear out rooms and such. They had picked it all up like a sponge in water. Luke found himself having fun with them. The squad moved silently, none of them having anything to say, the clones anticipation was building as it was their first significant mission entrusted mainly to just them. After a few more minutes, a curious sight was unfolded in front of them. In front of them, were about 20 cat-sized creatures.
He couldn't describe them in any way other than that they resembled a cross between a bird and a rat. They had brown fur all over their body, with a beak-like mouth and razor-sharp teeth. Their arms and legs ended with small claws.
"Scavengers. Not a danger for us." Luke said.
"Look…" Draft said. luke saw that Draft was looking upwards as he followed his gaze.
Above them there were four… things hanging from some sort of a rope. He should have immediately known what was hanging there, but it was completely covered by the scavenger creatures. It was obvious though that whatever it was, it had once been alive. He saw one of the creatures tear off a part of the flesh and swallow it as its claws were dug into what ever the thing was.
Luke drew his handgun and released a shot into the air. The creatures squealed, a high-pitched shriek, and scattered all around, disappearing in the undergrowth around them. Just as the last of them disappeared from sight, luke heard a startled gasp emanate from one of the clones. He looked up and understood why.
Above them, hanging upside down from a rope of sorts, four, half eaten human corpses. But there was something even more disturbing about the sight; some of the bodies had no skin, and all of them were headless.
"What...the fuck…" He heard Zuc whisper. Mac mumbled something about him not feeling well.
Luke inspected the bodies. They were fresh ones, at least no older than a couple of hours.
Questions rose in his head, leading only to more and more questions.
"Who the fuck would skin someone?! Its not Sepi's as far as I know… they've never even tried to pull shit like this before." Draft said with disgust creeping into his voice, expressing Luke's exact thoughts.
What the fuck was going on here? First, the jungle went dead quite, and now… these bodies hanging upside down from a tree. He looked at the ropes that were tied to the feet of the bodies. The ropes had been tied to the high branches of a huge tree but… that looked like an awfully difficult job to do. The one or "ones" who did it must've climbed up the tree, while carrying the bodies. From there, they must have hung the corpses from the highest branch. But the fact that the branches were 25 feet above the ground and extremely slender… well whoever they were, they were very dedicated to whatever reason they had done this for.
"Bodies must belong to the pilots." Dutch declared.
"I have a feeling we'll soon be finding out who's bodies these belong too..." Luke said, "Come on, the gunships shouldn't be far from here."
"No need, I think I found them." Dex spoke in a voice that was somewhere between stunned and horrified.
"Really, I don't see… any… smoke…?" Zuc said before he saw what Dex had found and the others turned to see. The two gunships hadn't crashed like they had expected through either malfunction or being attacked which they now had expected. Instead they were sitting, motionless in the sky. It was if they were hovering in the air which they could very well do under their own power. But what scared Luke was not only the fact that the engines weren't on, but that every single part and every single piece of the two gunships ha been disassembled and was all hovering in the air. It was as if he was looking at a life sized model Airfix Kit of two LAAT gunships laid out piece by piece before assembly.
"What the fuck happened here?" Luke asked to no one in particular. He was equally stunned and terrified, more so than when he'd been tortured on Mandalor. Not even Varad had this kind of power. The only thing or being he could think of that could even manage to do something like this was a Jedi or Sith. Either way he used his helmets camera to take snap shots of the pilots and state of the gunships as evidence to show the general in the inevitable derief.
"Whatever did this also killed the pilots. And it's out there somewhere." Luke said.
"Krif, it could come after us next." Mac said his DC-15 rifle pointing at the jungle, he swung it around pointing at different places, trying to find what had committed the two acts they had found.
"Shit we need to report and warn the General. General Shan come in. This is Lieutenant Sparrow, I repeat General Shan come in." Luke said into his comm but all he got was static, likely from some kind of interference.
"I've just got static. One of you try." Luke said. Draft immediately went to his wrist comm.
"General come in, general come in. Krif. Just like you sir, nothing but static." Draft said sadly.
"What do we do, we have no comms and no way to contact either the fleet, landing zone or General Shan?" asked Dutch.
"Simple, we trek back to the LZ, every half hour we attempt to radio General Shan, the fleet or the LZ. Planetary rotation means we got three more hours of daylight, but as we're in the jungle we have only an hour before it gets dark for us. We have around thirty clicks of ground to cover so we'll be travelling through the dark. I don't want to stop encase whatever thing that did this finds us." Luke decided.
"What about the pilots?" Zuc asked, hesitant to leave his brothers in such a state.
"Its not ideal and I'd rather not, but I do not want to risk my life, yours or any of our lives while we're cutting them down and burying them. On the Brightside, we know where they are so we can always come back for them." Luke explained grimly but honestly, "Come on we've got ground to cover and we don't want to be found by anything except friendlies."
Anxiety, a lot of fucking anxiety; that's what Luke was feeling right now. At this point in his military career he was considered a veteran, especially since he'd been fighting from the beginning. Currently in his early twenties, fighting hard and living rough, but now he felt himself slowly losing his edge, as if the tip of a knife were to become dull. With the death and destruction he had witnessed and partaken in, he needed to take a break and detox it all from his system. Or at least take week long break from combat or transferring to a new combat zone. Some of his best friends had died right in front of him during battle, a few of them in his arms occasionally, their blood always soaking his BDU's. Injured beyond memory, both emotionally and physically, it was surprising just how much he was still able to take now that he thought of it.
He'd always felt a slight fear before battle, knowing that every time he dropped into battle could possibly be the last time he ever did. Fear, when soldiers who had been standing right next to him got egged by plasma bolts, falling to the ground screaming in agony and rage, refusing to go down without a fight. He definitely felt fear a lot of times, but he'd never felt anything like this. During the Galactic Civil War, and the following Insurgency as many called it, he had always known what he was fighting.
The Orioian military had spent years of learning how the Insurrectionists fought and developing counter-measures against them, a hidden enemy, the fight had always been hard but at least there had been ways to fight back against the enemy. Here though... here there was nothing to shoot at, nobody to fucking return fire to.
They all knew something was here in the jungles with them, but they didn't know where or what it was.
He knew one thing for sure though; it was definitely not friendly and it was most definitely not of Separatist origin. In any recent war he could think of, no one had ever conspired such grotesque displays. Sure, people had been treated like vermin, but they never hanged the dead; usually they'd just leave the bodies on the battlefield until they rotted or until the planet was in ruins.
They also never took heads for trophies, as the Luke and the clones had guessed after inspecting the bodies. The heads had been ripped clean off along with a portion of the spinal cord, as if it had been a normal and effortless action to perform. Dex had suggested that perhaps it was a local alien race that was intelligent enough to hang bodies and skin people, but that theory was quickly ruled out.
The planet was uninhabited and uncharted, and the tranquilities' scanners had been unable to detect any signs of sentient life on the planet. Whoever was out there in the jungle with them, didn't seem too keen on making allies. Despite slowing down to attempt radio contact with any friendly forces they could they had simply been met by more static. It was now dark, and the clones had been forced to activate their helmets night vision mode while Luke had activated his visors own night vision. Luke had forbidden them turning on their helmets and rifles torches as it would give away their position which he was not about to take any chances on. The jungle was still ominously quite, and the dark didn't help matters. The human imagination, cloned or not, ran wild in the dark. Especially in places were there was low visibility and the earlier sights of floating disassembled gunships and skinned clones were not helping put their minds at ease. The shadows seemed to jump out at them. Vegetation sometimes appeared humanoid. The slightest rustle of a bush or leaves made some of them jump ever so slightly. They were tenser than a spring. Whenever anyone spoke in sounded like a yell in contrast to the lack of noise from the jungle.
They were coming to a crest in the ridgeline they were walking along. Luke took a knee and motioned for them all to stop. The clones immediately gathered around him in a circle. Their backs facing each other. Luke motioned for Draft to come over next to him. As Draft crouched next to Luke who pointed off to the distance through the thick foliage.
"Six hundred meters West, in the clearing, at the bottom of the hill." He whispered. Draft took out some binoculars which were kept on his belt. Putting them up to his helmets visor Draft could see what Luke had spotted. The Silhouettes of huts made from wood and leaves from surrounding trees in the centre of a semi-clearing. Enough trees to hide the village from detection but enough space for a small village of what could be anywhere from fifty to a hundred people.
"Looks like a village of some kind." Draft commented.
"Indeed it does. Might be home to some force sensitive natives." Luke speculated.
"Should we investigate?" Asked draft.
"No, we've covered half the distance and you guys are clearly tired. We'll dig in here for an hour or two, then continue." Luke explained, the clone squad looked a little relieved by the way their shoulders sagged a little at hearing that. As the clones settled in, hiding in between the large sturdy roots of the tall trees that put the red woods on Earth to shame. He sat down at the base of one of these trees behind a root. He was just settling down after five minutes when he felt as though something was looking at him. He peered out over the top of the root out into the jungle. Just off to the east of the village. He peered through the may greens of the night vision but couldn't make out anything. Out of the corner of his eye he noticed Dutch doing the same. Luke also noticed that he had gotten his M60-AR at the ready. Looking back out into the jungle he spotted nothing out of the ordinary or creepy looking. However, down by a small river than ran past the village, he could have sworn he saw the jungle, or something move. And when he said it moved he meant it, a humanoid figure of some kind had moved with a slight white colour to it.
"Did you see that!" Dutch asked in a panicked whisper.
"Yeah, we're no longer as alone as we thought." Luke said as he raised his rifle and aimed it off into the Jungle. Dutch was shaking the others awake as they'd all began to doze off.
"What's happening?" asked Dex as he grabbed his DC-15 carbine.
"Somethings out there. Me and Dutch don't know what, but we saw something move. We're assuming it's what killed the pilots, we spotted it down by the river. Can't give an exact size but its camouflaged, can't tell how well. Either we stumbled upon it or its been following us." Luke explained scanning the jungle for what he saw a moment ago but had now vanished. The clones by this point were up and alert, the sense of urgency released adrenaline which helped.
Luke continued to peer into the jungle. The air felt heavy and almost sweet. The silence hummed loudly. Luke spotted pair of yellowy-orange glowing eyes staring back at him to his left about two hundred meters away. He turned his head to focus on them but when he did the glowing eyes vanished. He spotted them again in a new location and swivelled his eyes and rifle towards them but when his focus was on the eyes they would disappear back into the jungle. From the startled reaction of the clones around him, they too were experiencing what he was seeing. They were panicked. Everyone was holding their breath with their rifles at the high ready. Luke expected some kind of ambush or attack. After ten minutes or so the eyes stopped appearing but the sense of danger remained. Somehow, everything got darker, as if the moon itself had stopped shinning down upon them. The only things Luke could hear was the breathing of the clones and himself as well as the blood rushing through his veins. For another ten minutes Luke performed the Stop Look Listen Smell procedure he had been trained to. Nothing. Not even all the bugs that one would expect to be out and about eating them were present. The air and land were silent.
"Do we stay or do we go." Asked Draft, the fear creeping into his whisper.
"We've got a good defensive position here. We stay dug in until day break, then we leg it back to the LZ." Luke said quietly and calmly in contrast to the urgency he felt.
"There over by the river!" Mac whispered in a urgent tone. Immediately they all turned to look at where Mac had pointed out. Down walking toward the river a figure of human shape could be seen through the night vision. It seemed to move unnaturally. It seemed to pass through any and all obstacles in it's path as though they were made of air. He saw it melt through trees and hover over plants as it continued its path. It appeared t had the same bone white to it that the humanoid from earlier had, but Luke could make out what appeared to by unskinned muscle and sinew on it. He judged it to be seven to eight feet in height. Through their night vision the things eyes had the same yellowy-orange glow to them. Luke scoped up at it and saw it was looking directly at them. It was pitch black and they were behind lots of thick and dense flora. There was no way that thing could have seen them without some kind of night vision optics.
Suddenly it stopped. He picked up one of his limbs and held it in the air, almost like he was waving at them. Then the arm melted back into it's form, like it wasn't an arm at all, but some kind of extendable proboscis that was meant to look like an arm from a distance. Luke was about to ask the guys if they could see it too, when it suddenly disappeared. Lights then started flashing in the village, circular in form that flashed a brilliant bright white light out into the darkness that hurt to look at through the night vision. None of them were going to get a wink of sleep that night.
2623 7th January Earth Standard Calendar, Lt Luke Sparrow, Unknown Jungle planet
When dawn broke after thirteen hours of sleeplessness and fear and started to penetrate the canopy of the jungle the small unit moved. They had decided to investigate the village before the continued back to the LZ to get some clues as to what was out there. As they slowly and cautiously approached the village they passed through where they had seen some of the lights from the night before. The stench of death and decay reached his nose. Luke and the others soon saw why. Five… bodies, he was hesitant to use the word bodies, laid around the surrounding trees with far more blood possible for just five people. Blood had be sprayed over the trees, ground, plants, everywhere possible there was some amount of blood near a piece of flesh belonging to its previous owner. The bodies if they could be called that had been rendered beyond recognition and were in dozens of pieces. Luke could feel his stomach churn and one of the clones, Zuc, took of his helmet and emptied his stomach contents.
"What happened here?" Asked Dex, not trying to hide his discomfort or fear. Luke pressed on after adding to his photographic evidence. The clones quickly hurried after him, not wanting to be left alone. The village itself was comprised of a large central hut surrounded by many smaller huts and one larger hut to the North, likely belonging to the chief of the village. They only fund more of the same in all the huts. Parts of corpses, some with skin, some without, blood everywhere and no survivors in sight or evidence of an attacker. It just repeated hut after hut with no one spared, not even children or babies. Luke continued to add to the ever-growing collection of morbid photos he was collecting for his report despite the ever increasing feeling of sickness in his stomach. His adrenaline levels and heart rate were through the roof. His fight or flight instincts kicking in screaming at him to get out of dodge and get the fuck odd the planet. Further investigation found some bodies skinned and hung from the trees like the four clone pilots. By the time they had swept the village they had been there a hour and only the large communal hut in the centre and the chiefs hut were left.
Luke and the clones stacked up by the large wooden door on the South facing side of the hut. He could see the intricate tribal carvings on the door, door frame and wooden wall of native spirits and demons and he was inclined to believe one of those things was responsible. Dutch kicked the door down his right leg then immediately took cover to the side as Luke and the remainder of Echo five passed into the hut. They found no threat inside but only more wonderment and fear. In the centre of the dark room were benches and a fire pit. Above the fire pit was a dozen humans. Unlike the ones they had found so far they were still dead but they had not been torn limb from limb in a bloody mess. Instead they were in a spherical shape made entirely from their levitating corpses. Luke picked up one of the spears from the masks, trophies and weapons that were mounted on the huts wall. Slinging his rifle and holding the spear he poked one of the bodies that was levitating. It moved on the direction he poked it before it swung back as if on a string back into its original place in the rotating sphere. Luke took several shots of the awe inspiring seen. He could not deny he wasn't impressed despite his terror at what he was seeing.
"We are in way over our heads." Mac said gazing upon the spectacle.
"You think whatever that thing was last night did this?" Asked Zuc fearfully, he wasn't dealing with this all thing very well but Luke didn't blame him. Never before was he so proud to say he could sometimes exhibit sociopathic tendencies that allowed him a certain level of detachment from everything.
"Whatever it was. It chosen them, not us. We should be thankful for that small mercy." Luke commented. He did not want to fight whatever did this, not with out a dozen divisions, tanks, artillery, air support, any support vehicles possible and a full-scale orbital bombardment from two fleets.
"We are going to clear the chiefs hut then we are hoofing it back to the LZ and we aren't stopping until we get there." Luke clarified, and the others seemed to agree with him, wanting to get out of there ASAP. They left the hut Luke leaving the spear behind them a quickly made their way to the hut belonging to the village chief. AS they came to stack up on the door Mac fell over and screamed. They turned to see what had spooked him so. Out of the wall an arm was sticking out through, however this arm no skin. While muscle and sinews could be seen they were an oily black-reddish combination that was covered in a insect like plates covered it some sort of exoskeleton. Were the wooden structure had punctured the arm an oily black substance leaked out of the arm like an ooze for its blood. Various curses were muttered upon seeing it by all of them. The arm withdrew back inside the hut. Luke pulled a grenade off his chest rig, pulled the pin and threw it through the opening the mystry arm had made in the hut.
"Get down now!" Luke yelled as he dragged Dex with him away from the hut and behind a tree as Zuc, Mac, Dutch and Draft scrambled to find cover of their own. The explosion rocked the quite jungle and village. The left side of the hut was gone. Either as debris that now covered the surrounding ground or collapsed into the main structure. Splinters rained down on the surrounding areas in the shape of wooden spikes in many lengths that would have hurt to be hit by.
Poking his head out from behind the tree he could see no sigh of what the arm had belonged too among the destruction. He carefully advanced upon the hut, assault rifle raised and ready. As he came up to collapsed side of the hit he could see a hand made out of the same stuff as the arm reaching out of the wood that was on top of the thing below.
"Move the debris here." Luke said to Echo Five who set about slowly and cautiously moving the debris off of the thing underneath attached to the hand. Luke's rifle never moved off where the hand was. The Dex, Zuc and Dutch lifted the last board off the creature while Luke, Mac and Draft kept their weapons trained on the soon to be visible creature in case it was still kicking. When the last board had been removed Luke didn't know what he was looking at. It was humanoid for sure, probably once human as well. It had little skin on it but what was there had been seared off and was now dangling off. The arms looked like they belonged to a praying mantis in the way they had formed. Where the grenade blast had caught the creature, it revealed a exoskeleton like form underneath that seemed like it belonged to a spider or cockroach. The head had part of the skin torn off revealing the exoskeleton cranial structure that appeared to be a single white plate that covered the head from the nose up that never went below where the ears would have been to just past the top of the creature's head. The plate also had small indentations or holes on the front of it. It's mouth was beak like, it had no lips that were distinguishable, it just seemed to meld together into four protrusions that spouted from the top of the mouth and five from the bottom that slotted together when closed. It looked like an eldritch abomination brought to reality. Luke made sure to document it.
"I want you guys to cover me. I'm going to dissect it real quick." Luke said, while he was no scientist it may clue him in to any weakness the creatures had.
"Just be quick, between yesterdays findings, that thing from last night and now this creature and village I want to be out of here as soon as possible." Draft said.
"I've got a bad feeling about this." Mac spoke aloud.
"Shut it Mac." Dex snapped back. Luke took out the knife Tracinya had gotten him. He began to peel back the skin and then the plates underneath. Ooze and goo leaking from the intrusions he made. Everything he took out he placed to the side. He took as many photos as he could as he did so. He could hand of off to the intelligence department to make sense of. Once he had finished he wiped of the ooze that now coated the knife. The clones now gazed upon the dissected corpse in morbid curiosity. Beneath the exoskeleton of the creature he found the bones and organs reminiscent of a humans though if the organs were necessary to the creatures life he had no idea.
"What the hell is that thing. Its not anything recognized in the galaxy." Commented Zuc.
"I don't know. I've visually documented what's happened on my helmet camera so I can hadn this over to someone to study. Though I fear if I take back any samples it will eventually be used to make biological weapons. So we'll leave the body here." Luke said standing up.
"Come on, this place is giving me the creeps, lets move out." Luke said before they quickly exited the village and headed toward the LZ quickly as they possibly could. They were not going to hang around in case anything was after them. As they left they were unaware of a being in the trees watching them with a low deep growl that was now following them.
25031 Galactic Standard Calendar, Jedi Knight Rena Shan, Unknown Jungle world
Rena walked under an extended branch and she let the Force guide her towards her destination. The moment the fleet had arrived in orbit she had felt it through the force. Something on this planet was calling out to her, it was the same planet as the one she had seen in her vision. She was sure of it. She trusted the force to guide her to the temple and protect it or what it contained from the dark presence that was either on or to come to this world. She found the planet to have a remarkable connection to the force, it was in the plants, the animals, in the very air itself. The force permeated the very essence of the planet and it was amazing to experience the connection. Though the calm and ancient she could sense an underlying tension, as though the jungle itself was on edge.
To make matters worse, two gunships and their crews had gone missing and the search team hadn't reported back yet. Captain Korun had said that it was probably just interference of some kind and that they wold head back to the landing zone if they had lost contact. The troops back at the landing zone had been told to keep an eye out for the search team and report back the second they appeared.
The felt the Force grow steadily stronger around her as it had been doing since leaving the gunships, she was getting closer to the temple.
"Gener… han… come…n, neral… Shan… is… Lieuten… rrow… ome in…" Her wrist comm went off as the broken voice of Lieutenant Sparrow came through after the better part of a day of no communications. It seemed Korun was right when he said there was interference.
"Lieutenant Sparrow, I hear you. What is your status." Rena asked.
"We fou.. gunships… pilo… KIA… gunships… assembled…. Village... creature… Inhabitants killed… not alone… heading back… LZ…" The static was proving annoying. It was clear to her that the missing gunships had been found and their crew were dead, why he had said the gunships were assembled confused her. From the rest of the garbled transmission the search party had found a village and an animal of some kind and that those that inhabited the village were now dead. The Not alone part probably referred to the village and what killed the villagers. As Korun also had said they would head back to the landing zone.
"Captain there's a clearing up ahead isn't there?" Rena asked.
"Yes General, the orbital scans indicated as much." Korun answered.
"Lieutenant, continue back to the landing zone." Rena ordered.
"Underst… Genreal…"
"Lieutenant Marr, the search team is heading back to your location. Once they arrive you are to move to a new landing zone at a clearing nearer our location where you will remain until we leave tomorrow." Rena ordered the clone left in charge of the Landing zone. She needed to know what the Lieutenant had found without the report being all scrambled by poor comm communications.
2623 7th January Earth Standard Calendar, Lt Luke Sparrow, Unknown Jungle world
Luke sat on the floor on the Gunship's troop compartment with his legs dangling out of the gunship. They and the other two remaining gunships skimmed the canopy of the jungle. The land was amazingly flat with the only differentiation in topography came in the various heights of the trees and the few hills that popped up.
They had managed to make it to the LZ without any incidents and the closer that they had gotten the less the interference became a problem. That didn't make his and Echo Five's sense of danger any less. They wanted to be off this rock before they encountered that creature again. Looking out the gunship he saw the clearing they would be touching down in as the three gunships made their orbit around it. He could see the clones setting up a small encampment and some perimeter guards patrolling the tree line. A few trenches had been dug in the clearing in an L shape as it provided the most line of fire and protection. Though he wasn't sure if small arms could harm what attacked the village.
As the gunships touched down he pushed off the floor and landed on his feet on the clearing's grass floor. The clones followed shortly after once the gunship had stopped moving. Luke immediately made a beeline to where General Shan was, they needed to get off this planet. That thing they had encountered had spooked him, he kept glancing into the forest trying to see if it had followed them. He found General Shan meditating under a small tree near the centre of the clearing a couple meters away from where the gunships touched down. He stood a few metres away from her deliberating whether to interrupt her meditation.
"I can sense your presences, or rather, lack off Lieutenant," Fucking Jedi magic. It seemed like he didn't need to wait for her to finish meditating, "Do you have a report on the missing gunships."
"Yes General. Echo Five and I made our way to the location where the gunships went missing. We found them and their pilots. All the pilots were dead. They had been hung from the trees by their feet and completely skinned alive," He saw her face contort in horror at the fate of the pilots, "the gunships themselves weren't shot down or crash landed." Luke explained.
"What do you mean?" Asked Rena.
"Well, the gunships were suspended in the air regardless of what made contact with them. They had also had been completely taken a part piece by piece like a toy model." As he told her he showed her the pictures his helmet came he had taken on his tac-pad. She scrolled though them taking in every detail.
"What do you think did this?" She asked concernedly.
"Let explain what else happened first," She nodded, "We lost comms about that point and as such decided to head back to the LZ. We were understandably on edge after all that, so we moved quickly and around dusk came upon a ridge where we spent the night. From the ridge we discovered a village. During the night something, what we believed what also attacked the gunships, hit the village. There were no survivors, the villagers were all found the same way as the pilots, except for this one creature," he brought up the images of the cockroach-spider like creature they found on the Tac-pad for Shan to see, "we don't know if it's indigenous or the thing we found was responsible."
"And what was this creature you think did this." Rena asked curiously.
"Taller than me, no skin or flesh. Just bone with some sinew and muscle. Likely connected to the Force in some way. If the abomination we found in the village is a product of this creature we can assume it can either create these things or turn people into them. And it skins its victims, sometimes even removing the head. It is certainly a supernatural being. We didn't stick around to see if it came back and if it followed us. We therefore don't know if small arms can harm it or not. I would recommend we get off world as soon as possible." Luke would admit to the fact that he had been spooked by this thing, he was prideful, just not that prideful.
"Thank you for your assessment and I respect your expertise, but we will be remaining on world. We are close to our destination, so we shall be staying." Rena said dismissively.
"With all due respect General, I must insist that we get off world. This thing can dismantle gunships in mid-flight. You, a Jedi, might be able to fight that, but me, the clones. We are unlikely to be able to harm it." Luke said. For once he wasn't keen on seeing if he could fight and win an engagement, especially with this creature.
"As I said earlier, we will be staying. Your dismissed Lieutenant." Rena spoke ignoring Luke's point. Not about to push the issue, he decided to let the Jedi reap what she sew. He decided to go find Echo Five and plan for how they would survive an encounter with the creature.
Luke sat in the trench, the rain drizzling down his face. When it rains in the jungle, it pours down relentlessly with no sign of mercy. The tiny, cramped trench shared by Luke and Echo Five already had a little pond forming at the bottom. There had been no sign of the supernatural being they had encountered a day earlier but Luke wasn't one to take unnecessary chances. He had spent the entire night awake, scanning the jungle in the downpour, the members of Echo Five had taken usual watch rotations. His clothes were soaked through as was all his gear. He involuntarily shivered from the rain induced cold.
It was approaching three AM standard time, Mac had taken over watch from Dex. The two stood in silence, the rain making the only sounds they could hear.
"Movement, one hundred yards, three o'clock." Mac spoke quietly. Luke turned in the direction Mac had pointed out. The green tinted jungle revealed nothing to him through his night vision goggles, he couldn't spot what Mac had seen.
"What did you see?"
"Not sure, but I have a sinking feeling it might be that thing we encountered."
"Get the others up, it's better to be safe than sorry." Mac left his position in the trench to shake Dex awake to help him get the others up. Luke continued to watch the jungle through the night vision. He could see if anything was moving around. There was a lot of plants that would make it impossible to spot someone determined to remain unseen if they so desired. He raised his gun to point at a branch in a tree that looked sturdy enough to hold some weight but had moved as if something was standing on it. He couldn't make out anything on the branch though which was around twenty-five metres from his location. By now Mac and Dex had been able to wake the others up and all had taken their positions in the trench.
"What are we dealing with?" Asked Draft, taking a position next to Luke.
"Mac said he saw something move in the jungle, we have a hunch it's that thing from earlier. I thought it best that we were prepared in case it was rather than be caught with out pants down." Luke said, not looking away from the jungle edge.
"And what if it is." Draft inquired.
"Engage if it proves hostile or given direct orders from above." Luke clarified. He kept his gun trained on the jungle. The cool rain continued to fall, the small layer of water in the bottom of their trench rising and increasing the gloopy mud that sucked your foot in and would be a struggle to get out of. The cold rainwater sucked the warmth from his body and his attire resulting in more shivers from him.
"General I have movement." The comm fizzled to life. Luke and Echo Five immediately tensed and waited with baited breath.
"What is it trooper?" General Shan could be heard asking.
"A number of humanoid figures have appeared and are walking towards our position. We can't make out any of their features." The voice of the clone could be heard.
"Engage only I-" Rena began.
"General we've got similar contacts on our side!"
"Same here!"
"General there here as well, we're being surrounded."
Luke looked around to the other positions and could see what the clones had spotted. Even with his night vision he struggled to make out any details of the silhouetted figures. Turning around he could see where his vision wasn't obstructed by the General's tent or the gunships. The unidentified attackers had surrounded their position, but none had yet to appear in front of them. That meant they were either hiding in the undergrowth or leaving the stretch of jungle deliberately free of their presence to offer and escape route that would likely lead to a trap.
"Get ready, we made need to make a quick escape." Luke told the others.
"My orders stand, engage only if they prove hostile." Rena informed.
"And what constitutes as 'hostile' in this case General." Asked Luke to clarify for everyone.
"If you are attacked by them." She answered as though he should have already known.
"That's not what I was asking and she knows that." Luke said aloud to no-one in particular.
Luke heard a shot ring out from the opposite side of the clearing. An unearthly loud piercing shriek emanated from the side where the shot came from and was echoed by the other silhouettes. The silhouettes began to sprint towards their positions. The clones began to fire at the attackers, most if the shots missing in their panic. Those that did hit seemed to do nothing but enrage the undeterred attackers. Luke and Echo Five added their own fire power to the mix, despite the illuminating qualities of the plasma and blaster bolts it was difficult to make out any more details of the attackers, even with the night vision they appeared as a solid block of colour.
The creatures faster than any man could and soon they were among the clone positions. Unlike Orionian troops, clones that weren't in the Special Forces were not issued with combat knives, let alone bayonets. As a result when they engaged in hand to hand they had a disadvantage when it wasn't droids. Luke could hear, rather than see the results. Luke could heart their screams as what he assumed the creatures mouths or claws that rendered the armour. He did his best to tune out their screams of pain and death throes, the panicked commands of General Shan, the desperate voice of Captain Korun. Luke fired at one of the creatures attacking the clones in a nearby position. The shot struck the creature's head, it let out a screech and toppled over. Casting a quick glance at the direction his position was facing into the jungle he couldn't see any creatures that way.
"All forces withdraw to the gunships!" Rena's voice came through the comm above all the other noise. Based on the situation alone Luke knew that many clones that hadn't been killed would still be unable to board the gunships without being killed by the creatures. Those that did get aboard would then have to survive the creatures swarming the gunships. Already he could see troopers breaking from their positions and quickly hurrying toward the nearest gunship.
"Central Peel now!" Luke yelled to echo five, "cover in twos. Me and Zuc will cover first, then Draft and Dex, then Mac and Dutch will cover us by the gunship." Luke and Zuc continued to fire at the creatures while the other four began to run toward the nearest gunship. Luke waited ten seconds before he tapped Zuc's shoulder and they turned a clambered out their tiny trench toward the gunship. Draft and Dex had already crouched down and were laying suppressing fire and up ahead Dutch and Mac could be seen nearing the gunship. Luke brought up the rear behind Zuc as they passed Draft and Dex. He could see Dutch starting to lay down covering fire by the gunships bay doors with Mac not far behind. He could see General Shan with her lightsabre out, unable to do anything unless the creatures came near her. He could also see Korun helping a limping clone toward the gunships supported by three other clones all of whom were covering him. He could see some blaster fire strafing harmlessly into the air from clones who had been thrown to the ground and being torn into.
Luke had crouched down next to Dutch and added his own suppressing fire for the retreating clones. Luke could hear one of the gunships powerful engines revving, it was likely about to take off. Thye continued to fire at the attacking creatures, some going down, and staying down but most just kept coming. One of the gunships had begun to take off, either from being full or being under threat of the creatures. Luke let off a two round burst into one creature before swivelling to a new target. Through the scope he almost missed it, emerging through the trees, his eyes just making it out through the scope as he transitioned from target to target. It was the same creature that had attacked the village. He was able to see it more clearly now. A humanoid skeleton with the bones, muscle and sinew were all on display, there was not a trace of skin, its head had nothing but the skeletal bones. He judged it to be seven foot or higher. As it approached it pushed trees, bushes or anything in its path out of its way. It was about to enter the clearing when it raised its arms. It began to become covered in an armour that looked like solid blocks of meat that linked together to form a protective shell, on its back and head, bones began to protrude as spikes of different lengths. It raised its hand toward the gunship that had started to climb to the safety of the sky. Luke took his eyes off it to turn to the gunship. It seemed to just freeze in the air, unbale to move. Then the outer nuts and bolts came out, followed by the armoured panels until the surface layer of the gunship had been completely removed and hovered around it. Then the gunship began to be further disassembled, the outer layers, electronics, nuts, bolts and all slowly became a separate piece rom the rest as the gunship began to resemble the two gunships Luke and Echo Five had found. The clones he could see were clutching their helmets and rolling on the floor of the gunship, all were screaming. The unluckier or perhaps lucky ones fell off the gunship and plummeted toward the ground. For Luke that ruled out using the gunships present for escape, if the creature could do that to three gunships it could do it for the other two. He saw its gaze move to the other gunships as it raised both of its pointy hands toward them.
"Away from the gunships now!" Luke yelled as he moved to get at least ten metres away. The clones around and in the gunship nearest him obeyed.
"Lieutenant, why are the men near gunship 1-4 running away?" Rena asked, she soon got here answer. Both gunships started to be disassembled. Luke and the clones around and in gunship 1-4 were fine dur to not being near the gunship when it was being taken apart. Those in gunship 1-5 and those right next to it suffered the same fate as those on gunship 1-3.
"General, there's a gap in the enemy line to the west, we should escape while we can and call for evac somewhere else." Luke said as the clones nearest to him regrouped at his position, their backs facing the gap in the enemy lines. Luke could see Rena, Korun and their few surviving clones. They were taking the brunt of the attack and were close to being overwhelmed.
"General you need to fall back now!" Luke yelled into the comm. Luke continued to lay down covering fire. The blaster fire seemed to be ineffective unless very concentrated, plasma on the other hand seemed to do the most damage, even if it took a few hits to put them down. The creature rom the night before with the godlike powers began to advance on the Generals position. Luke fired upon with Echo Five, their shots seemed to miss. It wasn't that they were able to hit it, they should have been. It was that any shot that would have it seemed to bend around the creature, like it hit some shield. The shot would then roll over the creature and then continue on. Small arms had no effect on it. It just kept on advancing undeterred by the sustained fire.
"General fall back! We'll cover you!" Luke yelled into the comms once more. Luke couldn't tell if her comm was working or she was just to absorbed in the fight. He noticed some of the clones led by Korun attempting to disengage and make it to his position, however they were being held up y the fact that the Jedi was not following them. Korun seemed to snap her from her battle induced stupor by shaking her shoulder a nearly losing the arm to her lightsabre. He pointed to where Luke and the others were shooting from. As Rena, Korun and the half dozen other clone survivers with them made to Luke the creatures seemed to ease off.
"There's another clearing about four miles west from here, we'll head there. Lieutenant, you take point," Korun said, "Alright men, let's go!" Luke lead the surviving thirty troopers as they later counted. Thirty-three survivors, hunted by a creature they could not kill and its minions it controlled that seem to feel no pain. The creature that was able to control the jungle and possibly reality around it. A Jungle God. That settled it for Luke, he was going to ask for a raise, or a bonus or some form of compensation. Even if he wouldn't get anything he was still going to ask. But first, he had to survive and escape. He would be damned if he allowed himself to die on a backwards ass planet, he was going to survive, and kill anything that got in his way. Even a God.
A/N: This Story is now currently two years old, I never though when I started writing it that I would have kept writing for as long as I have, nor had such a positive reaction from the readers. Thank you for the continued support and reading of the Story and to everyone who has favorited and followed this story.