Nature of the Beast

One-Shot Series: First Star I See Tonight

Part 12: En Viblo

*Let's get more of a view on Zodiac's job, shall we? Don't worry – it's not as boring as you might think. Think Mass Effect 2 and 3 (and Andromeda)'s planet exploration, but with Cybertronians involved. ;) This'll be a longer chapter and a glimpse at the future of this series. Less politics, more adventure and science, but interaction between characters remains.


"Move, move!"

The creatures – quadruped behemoths armed with claws, spinal thorns, and wide clacking mandibles, and two sets of four slit eyes that burned in anger and hunger – charged through the caverns after them, growling and shrieking in a horrid song. Six of the creatures, bipedal, sentience yet to be determined, but they might as well have been organic Predacons with how heavily weaponized they were. And fast, far faster than she'd thought for a creature this size. And the new femme had been stupid enough to poke them, wake them. One of them tackled Rampart, prepared to clamp its mandibles over his neck. The mini-bot decided against it, slamming his mace into one mandible, cracking it at the half-way curve. The creature screamed, slamming one of its six claw-tipped toes into the ground dangerously near his helm as it backed off. Rampart scrambled to his trods and ran, the remaining five quadrupeds stampeded after him and the rest of the group.

She, dust-covered, battered, frightened, demanded where the exit was. Epsilon grunted agreement. They needed an exit. Now. The uneven terrain of the tunnels was hampering their movement speed.

Rampart took a sharp turn into another tunnel instead wasting time answering. The walls all around glimmered with terbium ore and glowing micro-organisms – the latter of which their new xeno-biologist, Allele, had gathered before this mess. At least they had something to take away for investigation...if they got out to deliver it. These things were determined to run them down. The why of it was irrelevant to her.

"Follow Chess!" she hollered. "Go!"

The geologist skidded to a halt. Crouching, she placed her hands on the ground, feeling the tunnels trembling under the combined charge. She channeled power into her legs, forcibly suppressed the springs coiled within, and launched herself, twisting mid-air, to slam her trod into one of the creature's heads. The hit landed, but when she tried to launch herself off the creature it snapped a maw filled with plate-like teeth over her leg. She cried out as she felt her armor warp and bend at the pressure. Allele would have fun with that contradiction she thought in a spurt of dark humor. A great hammer then crashed down over its armored, horned head, earning another cry that harbored a whimper in the background as electricity surged through its body. She fell, Sirocco grabbing her before she could hit ground in both arms and took off, his field biting at her in reprimand. From above, a fine dust rained down. Roaring, the creatures drew nearer. A creature lunged, clamping its mandibles into Sirocco's legs. He stumbled, fell. She tumbled out of his arms. Rampart swung again. Epsilon bashed another.

There wasn't supposed to be anything alive on this planet – nothing this advanced. Now that "absent life" was going to run them into the ground, maybe consume them or Primus knew what else to them.

And all because the slagged rookie had decided to poke the funny looking rock with a scalpel.


Captain's Log:
Time: 1425 Hours (home time)

Date: Cycle 42 of 4 Lunar Cycle, Multi-Target Mission
Location: PSR J0314-18.2 (*needs better name)

Pulsar itself is a low-mass x-ray binary (LMXB) spinning at a rate of once every klik (0.21 Terran "seconds") coupled with a class M companion that is displaying unusually powerful flares. Most likely undergoing a period of high activity in its magnetic cycle before it settles down again. High concentrations of oxides (typical) and traces of yttrium in the M's spectra.

It appears that "pulsar planets" are not as rare as once thought, however they are not as common place as main sequence planetary systems. How they form varies from system to system depending on how the star collapsed into its current remnant state. In this case, the planets (described below) do not match the spectra of the pulsar's M class companion, indicating they were most likely pulled in from outside the system rather than forming after the initial supernova that created the pulsar - said explosion would have destroyed any former satellites. Where exactly will take further investigation into nearby stellar systems.

Satellites:

PSR J0314-18.2a: Gas giant. 54% hydrogen, 30% helium, 12% methane, 4% neon, trace amounts of other gases (phosphorus, boron, fluorine)
*Beams from pulsar agitate the neon in the atmosphere to generate stunning auroras.

PSR J0314-18.2b: Large rocky planet 1.5x size of Earth. Potential former atmosphere stripped by beam. Abnormal amounts of gaseous elements in its spectra, so possibly once the core of a gas giant. Icy nitrogen polar caps. Probably a drifter pulled in from outer freeze belt early on, then pulsar stripped atmosphere, leaving the core behind.

PSR J0314-18.2c: Rocky planet 3x size of Earth. Scanners detected large quantities of metals (strontium, zinc, copper, tungsten) beneath the surface from a safe distance. Icy surface comp. hints at captured rogue. In close to pulsar and in beam's radius; no atmosphere; have not explored further yet. No signs of life. Weirdest part is that is seems to generate its own heat, while conversely being tidally locked. Makes no sense. Weirder, tidal locking happens in resident satellites, not captures. Usually anyway. Could be a fluke in the grand scheme.
*Mining spot?


Completed for the time being, she put the datapad aside for future updates. Keeping discovery logs wasn't the most exciting part of the job, but it had to be done. Knowledge was still knowledge even if it was boring as the Pit. At least this wasn't a tedious system to log about. Pulsar systems were the fun ones. Fun – and pretty slagging dangerous if you didn't know what you were doing. No rookie crews were allowed near these monsters, and no ships without at least Tier 3 shielding arrays either – and that was just the bare minimum requirement. Pulsar beams were nasty things all around. Not even Tier 5 shields could last for much longer than a half joor when directly exposed to a pulsar's death ray. Her crew could get away with a Tier 4 shielding array only due its survey class and high experience.

Her hand went to the piano of controls to lightly tap a single holo-key, her lips forming into a teasing smile.

"How's the Lady doin', botch-baby? She good?"

Combustor chuckled in his usual raucous manner, "Runnin' smoother than a Venn's arse!"

"So long as we stay out of the beam radius we're a-okay," Jumpstart added in his usual chipper, casual manner. "Get in its line of sight, and things get hairy."

The Avioid nodded. That was an understatement. According to Freefall, the rate at which the pulsar was spinning hinted it was one of the younger generation, equating to dangerously powerful beams. They wouldn't be able to stay in its line of fire for more than ten breems at most. But getting the scans for the dark side of the satellite was the easy part – exactly why Rainshadow, Wayfinder, and Shatterveil were getting that done first, busy with that task at that very moment. They would need to be in that line of fire for a least a few breems to get geologic scans of the third satellite's pulsar-facing side at some point. Her ship's equipment wasn't strong enough to pierce clean through the planet to the other side.

"Keep me and Dodger posted on shield status, guys. We can't play peek-a-boo with the pulsar forever."

"Will do!"

"Aye!"

Hitting the key again, she ended the call and resumed her analysis of the pulsar. "The deadliest lighthouses in the cosmos," Corona called them. Fitting for an object that could sterilize entire worlds in a breem – captured worlds anyway. If a star was a reactor, a supernova was a reactor meltdown on synth-en and the ensuing fallout all in one. No resident satellites could survive that. Distance was the only thing that could save you.

"No fan of stepping into the spotlight, are you, cap'n?" Jackdaw observed passively.

She was about as eager to get in the pulsar's firing lane, she said, as she was to perform for a crowd. And at least the crowd wasn't actively trying to murder you.

He shuttered his optics once in the slow, ponderous way that foretold of deep thought, "Is there no way to extrapolate based on data from this side?"

Couldn't make a map when half the data was missing, she answered dryly. Besides, planetary geography could vary wildly from hemisphere to hemisphere. If it spun normally like a good little planet they could pull this off through camping, but thanks to the planet being tidally locked they had no other option open. Either they went bright side to finish the geological survey or they left with only half of a pulsar planet mapped. Bolties never settled for halfway on anything, especially not when it came to their jobs.

Jackdaw smiled wryly at her. Fair enough, he admitted. Halfway meant half pay.

"Captain? Scans are complete," came Rainshadow's voice over the speakers.

"And?"

"We've found something...strange," her geologist clarified.

"Strange?" she repeated. "Like what?"

"Below the glare of whirling white,

within a world of frost and stone,

there twist and turn old shafts and pipes

like patchwork roots by hist'ry sown."

"What she said," Rainshadow concluded.

It took only a moment for her processor to translate the Translvoid's poetry. "You guys found tunnels?"

"Any chance they're natural phenomena?" wondered Jackdaw. "Lava tubes? Liquid erosion?"

"Not these," insisted the geologist tersely, "This isn't any kind of natural geology I'm familiar with."

"Send the scans to BJ and have her get them to Allele," she ordered. "Let's see what our new xeno-biologist makes of 'em."

Wayfinder assured her the scans – and Freefall – were already on their way.

She opened another channel to their newest member, "Allele? You get the scans?"

"Yes, ma'am. They just arrived. And I can say without in-depth analysis that these are not naturally formed tunnels. They're roughly ten klicks below the surface and stretch for hundreds of klicks. Tunnels connect to caverns of varying scale. Though they have a natural appearance, the way they converge on the caverns like nerve bundles connecting to a main sensory relay that is artificial. That is design. Something living made these."

"What made them do you think?"

"That is hard to say, ma'am, without first-hand analysis. A burrowing creature of some kind. Large. I'm most reminded of Frazholn and the networks created by blast-beetles. No technological assistance was used to create them."

The Avioid stepped back from the controls to think. Burrowing creatures. Large ones. The planet's surface was sterile from exposure, and the tidal locking further denied life a chance. Tidal locking also meant the planet was most likely a natural satellite – yet it couldn't be because its composition didn't match the system, and no planet within light years of a supernova could survive. Nothing could be alive on this planet. But these tunnels were deep below the surface, almost ten klicks according to Allele, and as they were finding out, planets made pretty good shields. Somehow, too, the planet was generating heat despite not rotating. This planet had to be a capture of some kind.

"Mojave? Any explanation for the heat signature from the planet?"

"Not at the moment, captain," Rainshadow admitted. "I would say volcanic activity, but the tidal locking prevents that. No rotation, no active core, no volcanism. Radioactive decay is my best guess. Must be large deposits all over the planet's interior considering the strength of the signature."

"Allele?" Jackdaw asked. "Any chance whatever made those tunnels is still alive?"

"No. The original supernova, the pulsar beams, the tidal locking if anything survived, it would be hardy microorganisms using the stone as a fuel source, not the large burrowers."

"Then it would be safe to investigate?"

"I hesitate to say 'safe', lieutenant Jackdaw, considering where we are, but if you are wondering whether we risk disturbing anything no, I don't think so."

Jackdaw gave her a curious glance, grinning. She nodded.

"Any entrances to the tunnels on the surface?" she asked.

"Yes, ma'am. Sending coordinates now."

"Stop calling me 'ma'am', Allele. I don't give a ton of effort into the chain of command."

"But –"

"Call me Zodiac. If you feel that's too personal, just address me as captain or zell. 'Kay?"

"Yes ma captain."

"The Lady's shields are shored up and stable, ya wee zer'benyeil'va," Combustor grunted, a smile obvious in his words. "She's ready to dive inte the Pit whenever yoo are."

Holding back her retort (and her laughter) she activated the ship-wide address system and spoke into it –

"Thor, Mojave, Simba, Allele, Chess – get your gear and head to the hold. We'll drop you off at a tunnel entrance in the northern hemisphere on our way to the bright side. Once we're done with scans we'll come pick you up. Snickety, make sure they each have distress beacons so we can find them easy. Riddler, Fuzzy, you'll pull double duty – make sure the comm's stay in working order while we're in the beam's firing lane so we don't lose the ground team if they hit problems, and work on the scans with Waves. We'll try and make this as quick and efficient as possible."

– and then deactivated it, emitting a soft sigh from her facial vent. Her lieutenant nodded approval. One quick, upward swipe of her hand made the holo-display appear. Her optics, bright and inquisitive, examined the map of the dark side and the two dozen red dots that marked entrances to the underground. She chose one. A moment later, she turned to address her helmsmech:

"Lee," she said. "Head for these coordinates, please."

The Lontroid mech chittered, clicked, and squeaked that "she never needed to ask" and that "it would be his pleasure" before directing the Bolt towards her first target in a silky flight that rivaled her own prowess at the controls. He had learned from the best, she supposed, smiling to herself at the prideful thought.


Above, the black sky strobed in violent rapid fire flashes, quicker than a speed-gifted on Red, and the plumed thrusters of the Tieyeian Bolt were receding towards it in a hurry. Soon enough it popped over the horizon. Gone.

Chronometer was ticking.

Snorting through her abdominal vents to ward off the anxious clench in her spark, she took point, hefting her hammer over one pauldron. The entrance the captain had chosen was embedded into the base of a crater wall, ice encrusting the crater like a bad case of cosmic rust. Part of the crater wall above had collapsed over it. Her hammer quickly dealt with the obstruction, and she entered first.

"Careful," Rainshadow urged. "We don't know how stable these tunnels are."

The tunnels hadn't looked impressive on the scans, but in person – the tunnels were bigger than she'd expected. Could easily fit an Insecticon warrior (and her for that matter) with room to spare. The deeper they went, the wider the tunnels became, allowing the former single line formation to spread out to one crew member on each side of her. Her hand tightened around the hammer's pole. Just how big had the burrowing creatures been? Thank the Primes they weren't around any more. She wasn't sure if she could combat creatures this size – because there was no way a single creature had made this many expansive tunnels. Her best population estimate: dozens. Maybe hundreds. What could kill a species like this? She kept going. They were dead though. No need for concern. But her grip on her weapon tightened nonetheless.

They followed her down, down, down into the dark. The air began to feel thicker. Other branching tunnels fed into theirs, but she kept her heading. No distractions. The holo-display on her wrist, equipped with the scans taken by the ship, indicated there was a large cavern up ahead, at around the eight klick mark. Behind her, Sirocco's trods came to an eventual standstill. She heard him take in air in a careful, curious, ponderous way, holding the air for a moment before releasing it again. The rust hound at his heel struts copied him. The rest of the group paused alongside him. She turned to face the Vizanthan, arcing one thick brow ridge in a silent question. The only noise that answered her was a low frequency whirring hum that always happened when the mech's processor was fully occupied in analysis, and the sound of his air cycling. By the half breem mark the sound had faded. His pale periwinkle optics shuttered once. He took in one final cycle of air.

"What?" their newest member wondered, poking him with one of her clasp-like hands. "What is it?"

"There are atmospheric gases within these tunnels," Sirocco said. "Nitrogen. Methane. Carbon Dioxide. Traces of sulfur compounds."

Allele released one of her spherical, insect-winged bio-drones. It affirmed Sirocco's analysis.

"All of them capable of being used as an energy source for anaerobic microorganisms," she murmured. "But we're only at the four klick mark; we're still too near the surface. Atmospheric temperatures at this depth are too low to permit organic life, regardless of the gases."

Then they would keep moving, Epsilon grunted. Go deeper.

The air became thicker still as they kept traveling downward. She rounded a long curve in the tunnel, where she thought she saw a faint fiery glow – and had the grace to stop mid-step and gawk at what lay beyond it. She had to admit – she'd been expecting something, but not this much something. Allele bumped into her from behind.

"What? What's –?"

The gasping squeal of happiness that escaped her, in her honest opinion, was more suiting of a sparkling than an adult femme. The Insectoid femme raced out into the cavern, shimmering in pale yellow-orange hues, twirling around like a drunken Vosian sky dancer.

"It's incredible!" she gasped. She giggled, "Look at them all! Eee! They're beautiful!"

Rampart guided the remaining scientists out into the cavern. Paint him impressed, he confessed.

HETI barked and ran out into the middle in her usual drunk Hindian manner, but Sirocco didn't follow the rust hound. Soon enough, HETI was wandering around the cavernous space, happy to sniff at everything.

Pulling out a tube and a scraper from her subspace, Allele scuttled over the west wall and gingerly removed a section of the glowing mat, the touch resulting in a surreal ripple effect that cascaded around the cavern. Unable to help herself, the white-splotched pink femme poked at the organic mat to earn another shimmering ripple, and another elated giggle. She scuttled back over to them, tube in hand, and held it up for Rainshadow to see. The Hopper geologist took it gingerly in one slender, worn hand, holding it up to her right optic.

"I was expecting a few patches of microorganisms at best," she commented in veiled shock, "not an entire cavern coated in the stuff."

"I know, right?!" squealed the Insectoid. She got a hold of herself. Barely. "They – the bacterial mat I mean – must be using the minerals in the stone and the trapped gases for energy, ma'am. The increased heat must be a catalyst for the process. Perfect breeding ground."

Rainshadow handed the tube back and hopped off into the cavern. Every once in a while she paused to rapidly pound one large, elongated pede into the ground. Rampart followed Rainshadow's example. Reverting to his driller form, he trundled over to a boulder near the eastern edge where a vein of ore glittered under the glow of the mat. It took only a moment to extract the sample he wanted, and then he moved on to assist the Hopper geologist. Allele began her marathon to the farthest end of the cavern. Sirocco, never one to rush, casually strode out into the cavern, clearly no real destination in mind, but she smiled a little in her own idle wanderings around the cavern that he was veering towards wherever Rainshadow was. Subtle, like any Vizanthan. Rainshadow, ever observant, noticed, but didn't let on, focusing instead on her excavating.

Her grip on her hammer loosened.

*Officer Epsilon!* Allele hailed over the common frequency. *There's another tunnel over here! Bacterial growth has dropped off remarkably. I'm going to look into it.*

She told her to be careful – and made her way towards the provided coordinates. Just in case.

HETI bounded by in her drunken Hindian run. The others soon joined the hound. They must've gotten what they'd needed from the chamber she guessed. Or maybe they were about as willing to leave the Tyrexian alone as she was. Together they entered the adjoining tunnel, only small splotches of the bacteria growing. Allele hadn't been exaggerating. She was no scientist, but wondered at the difference.

Hemming, Rampart used his mace to chip away at the stone on the tunnel walls, then handed the ships to Rainshadow. Her analysis revealed no change in mineral composition, and Sirocco found no difference in atmospheric composition.

"So why the difference?" she grunted.

Rainshadow hopped ahead, "Allele would know," she said. "Allele!"

The geologist hopped faster. On hitting another tunnel, she called again "Allele!" and kept it up, following her scent down the tunnel and into another. And another. And another.

She gripped her hammer tighter. Where was the biologist?

And why didn't anyone think to bring an electro-pulse scanner?!

They went down yet another tunnel, emerging into a convergence point for six other tunnels. Rainshadow paused briefly before taking one of them that sloped down at a gentle ten degree angle. Eventually it spilled out into a smaller chamber. Allele's bright pink-splotched white form stood out in the dim glow of the scattered bacterial mats. She was leaning over a large, peculiar rock formation that, if her optics were right, was emitting a weak heat signature, and it wasn't just that one. There were a couple around that one also producing heat. Her grip around her hammer became a vice one.

She was no scientist, but she was fairly sure those weren't stones.


It wasn't a stone. She knew it wasn't. Stones didn't make body heat. Stones didn't breathe. But she poked it anyway.

Definitely body heat. Definitely breathing – slow breathing. Her tactile net picked up a distinct pulse of a circulatory organ beneath the stone, incredibly sedated. Hibernation, a variety of it anyway. Had to be. Most likely why it hadn't woken in an instant at her touch, and most likely wouldn't. Something this large required a lot of energy to survive, and hibernation, like stasis, was great at energy conservation. She had to wonder what their source of energy was down here. Could the bacterial mat sustain them?

A sample would tell more. They would not wake in an instant.

Pulling out a scalpel, she carefully poked it into the "stone" to gather the necessary biopsy.

The stone shifted.

Eyes, two sets stacked atop each other, glowing and hued the same as the bacterial mats, snapped open. The "stone" rose up to stand. She jumped back, shrieking more out of surprise than fear. Apparently they would wake up quickly. Interesting. Their plated hides were thick, but obviously remarkably receptive to stimuli. The other "stones" awoke at the sound. Quadrupeds. Six of them total. Big. Armored. Jagged, long-reaching mandibles. Protective dorsal spines. Spines on their tails. Each of them bellowed and snorted. Two dragged their heavy, wide, flexible front feet over the stone, the four thick claws on each digging into it.

Epsilon readied her hammer.

"No!" she insisted insisted in a quiet hiss. "This is a threat display, Epsilon! They're territorial, not outwardly aggressive. Not yet. If we turn and leave, nice and slow –"

Upset that her master was being threatened in any way, HETI leapt towards the quadruped nearest her master to bay and growl as loud as she could. Sirocco tried to call her back without success. HETI snapped her maw in a threat of her own. In answer, the creature swung its head to the side to bash its mandibles into the hound like a club, sending the hound flying into the wall to crumple to the floor. A pained whine escaped.

Threat display seemed to have given way to hostility. Unfortunate. She'd been hoping to get some candid behavioral analyses and biological readings done. They weren't aggressive towards them, though, so maybe –

Epsilon swung her hammer in a rapid arc at the creature in retaliation. It gave a shrieking, burbling noise as the heavy, electrically-charged head met its mark.

"Rampart!" the bruiser femme barked.

She swung the sparking hammer in a wide horizontal arc at the encroaching creatures. They backed away for a brief, crucial moment, allowing her fellow officer to dart in and grab the rust hound. Just in time for the creatures' aggressiveness to boil over. In unison, the six quadrupeds charged. Epsilon swung at them again in the same threatening arc. Again, they hesitated. But not as long as they had the first time. Their bodies, suspected, were now fully functioning again. Their hibernation stupor was over.

"Move, move!" Epsilon thundered.

Epsilon reverted to vehicle form to let each of them race past into tunnel they'd come from. Curiously, she noted as she darted by her, the quadrupeds seemed far more hesitant to attack her vehicular form than they were to attack her biped form. That interesting observation she stored away for her analysis. If only she'd gotten that biopsy, she whined within as she scuttled along, she could write up a full report on the quadrupeds. Only once she and the others were safely past her and into the tunnel did she wheel around, swap forms, grab Sirocco by the hand, and thunder after them. And so did the aggressive quadrupeds, snorting and bellowing, not at all slowed by the uneven terrain. She noted that, too. And the thick claws on each foot, and how they'd dug through the stone in beautiful efficiency.

One lunged forward to snap at Rainshadow's tail. The geologist sped up her hopping.

Those mandibles – those broke the "power build" they bore. Too thin. Too long-reaching. They were for grabbing, not tunneling. Grabbing what? They were the first to step trod onto this supposedly dead world, and there was nothing else large enough to grab that would warrant their existence. At least, nothing they had found.


"Follow Chess!" Rainshadow hollered. "Go!"

He could see through her. The geologist skidded to a halt. Crouching, she placed her hands on the ground, feeling the tunnels trembling under the combined charge. He could almost feel her channel power into her legs, forcibly suppress the springs coiled within, and feel the kinetic energy unleashed when she launched herself, twisting mid-air, to slam her trod into one of the creature's heads. The hit landed, but when she tried to launch herself off the creature it snapped a maw filled with plate-like teeth over the offending limb. She cried out as her armor warped and bent under the pressure. Allele would have fun with that contradiction he thought in a spurt of dark humor. A great hammer then crashed down over its armored, horned head, earning another cry that harbored a whimper in the background as electricity surged through its body. She fell. He grabbed her before she could hit ground in both arms and took off, his field biting at her in reprimand. That had been ~brave~ ~foolish~

~Time~ had been ~purchased~ her field sparked back.

From above, a fine dust rained down.

Roaring, the creatures drew nearer. A creature lunged, clamping its mandibles into his legs. He stumbled, fell. Rainshadow tumbled out of his arms, his sight tumbling with her.

Rampart swung again. Epsilon bashed another.

There wasn't supposed to be anything alive on this planet – nothing this advanced. The atmospheric gases trapped here, he had assumed, were not bountiful enough to support such large creatures. Allele, no doubt, would explain how this was so, should they manage to escape. But he was beginning to doubt if they would. The creatures were swift for their size, far more suited for the uneven terrain than they were. Already they had proven they could overtake them.

"Epsilon! The tunnels!" shouted Rainshadow, her spring-loaded trods beating back the creature that loomed over her.

Thank the Primes the officer understood her words. The former law officer came to a grinding halt. As the creatures focused in on her, her hammer swung not at them but at the wall nearest her. The tunnel heaved and groaned under the attack, another storm of dust and fine debris raining down.

She swung again.

And again.

And again.

The creatures roared and backed away when a stone from above struck the ground before them. Rainshadow scrambled free as more began to fall. Epsilon kept hammering.

Rampart's optics widened, "EPHI MOVE!"

In a great roar of stone, the ceiling above surrendered at last. Epsilon, at the last possible klik, hurled herself away from the collapse. When the dust settled, the tunnel behind them was congested with rubble and stones of all sizes. Behind it, the creatures snorts and grunts were easily heard.

"That bought us some time," Rainshadow winced through her warped leg. "Let's go!"

She began to hop away. She did not make it far before the pain from her leg forced her down. Allele scuttled over to help her up. The Hopper femme glowered at her for a moment before accepting her blade-clasp hand in bad grace. Rather than rely on the biologist who she clearly blamed for this sour excursion, she limped over to him. Gingerly, so as to agitate her injured leg, he lifted her up. He tensed when he felt the ground tremble, heard the rubble shift. It seemed the creatures were not easily deterred, he murmured. Already they were attempting to remove the debris.

"Then let's not stick around and wait for them to break through," Epsilon grunted. "Cap'n's probably wondering where we are by now."

'Panicked would be more accurate...'

Nodding, Rampart broke into a quick trot to take the lead once more. Up and onward he led them, through all the tunnels their eager di'jasd had scuttled down. Fleet of trod and impulsive. He did not wonder why Rainshadow held her in disdain. That combination was one of trouble, something she had proven. Up and onward. He could feel gravitational pressure decline. Up and onward. Through the optics of the femme in his arms he saw the great cavern of organic, glowing yellow-orange life. Beautiful then, beautiful now. Allele, enraptured as much as she had been at first-sight, deployed her whirring, insect-winged drone as she kept scuttling to capture its organic beauty permanently in holo-still form. It flew back to her without her needing to pause. And so they left the cavern of light for the tunnel that had first led them into its embrace, and back into the dark. Soon after, the concentration of gases steadily thinned after that threshold until it petered away in a pitiful manner to leave nothing.

Privately, he contacted Allele. Would the creatures follow them? Could they?

The femme said it was highly unlikely. Deprived of the necessary gasses required for respiration, the organs associated with that biological process would fail. A creature didn't need to be sentient to have self-preservation hard-wired into its brain.

His pace relaxed. Epsilon noticed, as did the femme in his arms.

The mini-bot officer led them on. At last, the exit was visible, as was the strobing light of the pulsar and the faint winking of the stars beyond. Out into the cold he stepped, out into the faint, twinkling choir. To hear their song again – it brought relief in a way escaping the tunnels and the creatures alone had not. He released a gust of hot air from his vents. In his arms, Rainshadow did the same. He moved his sightless optics. She understood the message and swept her helm around so he could see. He did not sight the ship. Epsilon thus activated her distress beacon in tandem with her fellow officer, prompting the others to do the same. He followed their example. Then, Rainshadow's helm abruptly stopped. Through her, he saw a great sleek form racing towards them on the horizon, thrusters igniting the dark sky with their cyan light. It called out to them in a mighty, booming voice.

His lip-plates curled up at the edges.

Hefting her hammer over her backstrut, Epsilon smiled fondly, "Now there's a sight for sore optics,"

The ship, roaring like the beast it was, soon engulfed the sky above them.

[What ho down there!] jested Jackdaw in one of his horrid falsetto accents. [I say, I thought you'd forgotten how to use those little beepers of yours! We've been scouring the place for ages!]

"Just get us a 'bridge, wise-aft," grunted Epsilon. "Mojave needs medical attention. HETI, too."


When the blind Vizanthan had brought Rainshadow into her medbay, gently held in his arms, she'd been unable to contain her gasp of shock on sighting her warped leg. Served her right for assuming the only "medical attention" needed was a forced clearing of the Hopper geologist's air vents. Rampart coming in on his heel struts with HETI nearly made her processor short circuit. The rust hound had a nasty dent in her side but otherwise appeared fine.

"Over here, over here," she snipped. "HETI can wait, I'm sure."

The Vizanthan mech laid her gently on the medical berth, then backed away to let her get a closer look.

She clicked to herself as she examined the limb. Warped and bent on the anterior and posterior, like her leg had been caught by one of Kaon's infamous metal presses. No leaks though, not on the outside. Inside, she suspected, would be another tale. Thrice her scanner ran up and down the limb. She winced at what it revealed. The powerful piston-powered spring within the limb that permitted her unique means of locomotion was now crushed into an unnatural twist, some of the coils snapped altogether. The piston itself was also warped. It was no wonder she had been unable to walk. The pain would have been excruciating.

Her helm jerked up to peer at the Hopper on the table, "What did this?"

Rainshadow was saved answering. The new femme scuttled forward. Her drone deployed to display a holographic image of a bizarre creature. Large, powerfully built. Protective, potentially offense-capable thorns ran up and down its spine. Its tail was similarly weaponized. Large, wide-reaching mandibles clacked once as the lunged forward. Then the image zeroed in on the mouth. Inside were teeth not unlike those found in terrestrial herbivores. Thick, wide, flat-topped, meant for grinding. Certainly matched the damage Rainshadow's leg had suffered. Creature had an incredible amount of bite force – strong enough to warp metal, inside and out.

"You were bitten by that monstrosity?" she gawked.

Growling, the Hopper geologist's gaze shifted to the nearby xeno-biologist, "Blame her," she deadpanned.

Allele's helm fell. Her mumbled apology was, at any rate, sincere.

*Why don't you get your data on that...thing to the captain?* she suggested privately.

Agreeing, Allele scuttled out of the medbay. Rainshadow's previously heated field cooled.

"Can you fix it?" the geologist wondered.

"The piston will be the easy fix," she said, "but the spring I will need to replace entirely. Damage is too severe for repair to be practical. Lucky for you that I have spares."

She squired once, "Can you do it now?"

"Let me have a look at the hound first, then I can start. Sirocco," she prompted.


Captain's Log
Time: 1629 Hours (home time)
Date: Cycle 42 of 4 Lunar Cycle, Multi-Target System

I need to amend my former assumption. PSR J0314-18.2c did contain life in the form of two new species:

1.) Saxum aculeus (stone thorn)

Species is strange mix of predatory and non-predatory features. Thick hide. Mandibles. Plated teeth. Claws clearly used for digging. As the only other discovered life form is a bacterial mat, a kind of lichen to be accurate, Allele has the idea the predatory features are vestigial, or are perhaps used for other, non-predatory purposes now that they're alone. Due to the insane amount of the lichen in a main cavern, and the drop off in connecting tunnels, she's got the incredible idea that Saxum aculeus might be cultivating it farming it. Future investigations required to prove it.
*Suggested Common Name: Thraxuvan

a.) Species is aggressive only when provoked.

2.) Hytonanil ignatus (living flame)

Species is a bio-luminescent lichenous growth with a powerful yellow-orange glow. Survives off the stone and the trapped atmospheric gases. Thanks to the enormous colony in a main cavern my ground team explored, assumed most if not all other main caverns below the surface of PSR J0314-18.2 (frack we need a better name) contain colonies of similar size. Growth in the tunnels connecting to the main cavern dropped off remarkably. Why of it needs investigating, since the mineral and gas composition is not different enough to account for the drop-off in growth.


She put the datapad down once more to turn to face her newest recruit.

"Allele, I'm glad you managed to get this sample," she said, "but please try to, y'know, not poke anything potentially alive and dangerous next time. We clear on that, Hokey Pokey?"

The Tyrexian Insectoid bowed her helm, "Yes, ma'am. I'm sorry, ma'am."

Her expression softened, "And for the last time, quit addressing me as ma'am. I don't give a rat's ass about chain of command. Avius folhis says nothing about it."


Author's Note: Phew. This was fun to write! :D