Commander Lataro woke up after a fitful sleep on the hard, cool rock. He had taken a chance of sleeping, but he knew he had to rest and he actually was thankful that the rock was cool, for the early morning sun had already warmed up the air and the nearby swamp caused the air to be humid and stagnant. Hot and humid. Gross! He thought unzipping his jumpsuit and folding it down so that the top hung over at his side. With little to no exertion, Lataro had all ready began to sweat. The planet offered nothing but ugliness, bugs, and humidity. Lataro hated all of it. His stomach growled. Another thing he hated, being hungry.
"Well Jon, I guess you had better find you something to eat," he said nonchalantly to himself. Suddenly he heard movement coming from the dense thicket off the beaten trail he had followed inland. He grabbed his phaser rifle and ducked behind the rock. Poised and ready, he said or did nothing but looked in the direction of the movement. Sweat began dripping in to eye causing a slight stinging irritation. Then from the thicket came two bipedal, creatures standing about six feet tall. They were green covered in a gelatinous substance that seem to pulsate. They were grotesque. Each of them were armed with a something that looked like a rifle, both at the ready.
"The ship landed about 200 krentons that way," one of them said pointing in the direction where the shuttled had crashed. Lataro figured they were some type of search party looking for survivors of the crash, but his instinct said they were not benevolent.
"Then that is where we will go. If there are survivors, S'tei wants them back at the compound. Set your weapons on stun," the other said. They both looked down at their rifles and pressed a few buttons and the tips glowed green instead of red as it once was. They moved however as they did something came from just ahead of them. On the ground ahead of them, a small slithering creature came from the thicket and noticed the two searchers immediately. It hissed loudly and arched itself like a cobra. The small puny legs it used to move now were in the air. "Kanook. Stand completely still," the searcher in the rear said. "Its bite is deadly and it shoots..."
"Please. They are harmless," Kanook interrupted, but just as he said that the reptile shot a glowing yellow venom from its mouth and landed in his eyes. He began screaming in agony. "Help me, Marsung. Help me! It burns!" The eyes of Kanook began to smoke, blackish gel began pouring through Kanook's fingers as his hands covered them. It was almost as if he was trying to keep his eyes in their sockets, but the solid orbs were now nothing more than oozing gel. Kanook screamed more but suddenly stopped and fell to the ground. Marsung did nothing but aimed his rifle at the small creature and squeezed the trigger. A pulsating green light shot out from the rifle and the creature was no more than a pile of dust. Marsung walked beside Kanook, and kicked him over. "I told you. Foolish young one."
Marsung began walking towards the crash site. As he was out of site, Lataro came out of hiding and approached cautiously the carcass. Kanook was dead, and, immediately, Lataro noticed that his body began to desolidify. It melted into the ground leaving nothing but a slight indention in the soil where he had lay.
"I now really hate this!" Lataro said softly. He wasn't sure what Marsung was doing nor his intent, so he quickly followed the trail Marsung made to get more information. Quietly he bounded from tree to tree, being weary of other small venomous creatures. Finally Lataro came to the point where he had crashed, but Marsung had vanished. Footprints, if you could call them footprints, seemed to continue into the water. Amphibious? Lataro thought. He turned around and began heading back to the rocks when he heard the lapping of water: reemergence. Lataro ducked into the thicket.
From the water, Marsung walked out. But now he wasn't alone. He had over his shoulder the body of Lt. Garza. Garza was just as dead as Lataro had left him, water now drained from his mouth, ears, and from his soaked uniform. No respect for the dead, Lataro thought. Lataro was angered. He couldn't believe it, nor could he understand the importance of taking Garza. Marsung walked passed Lataro's location seemingly unaware of his presence. As he went a few more feet Lataro jumped out.
"Hold it right there, Marsung," Lataro said sarcastically saying his name.
"I was wondering when you were going to show yourself," he said in a gushy, wet voice.
"What are you doing with my dead comrade?" Marsung slowly turned around. "No. I don't think so. Face front. What the hell are you doing with Garza?"
Smugly Marsung said, "You don't gather information from your enemies?"
"Not from a corpse. What kind of information can you gain from a dead man?"
"Weaknesses. Strengths. Lobial probes can determine anything."
"Lobial probes?" Lataro said puzzled.
"Look, it is easier for me to talk to someone when I am looking at them." Suddenly Lataro saw the back of Marsung head be sucked in and instantly the grotesque face appeared to the rear. As a matter of fact the entire body was reversed even though it didn't actually turn around. "That is better. Ugh. You are an ugly race."
"Insults will not get you anywhere. Drop the weapon!"
Marsung complied.
"You are not going anywhere with my friend."
"On the contrary, now that I have you, I don't need this one any more." With tremendous strength, Marsung shrugged his "shoulder", and Garza went flying into the thicket. Instantly the vegetation seem to come alive, and Lataro heard ripping and tearing. "You see the Crosecsious Latis is a meat-eater as is just about anything in the
Kereisu Domain. You are surrounded by different species of predators that would love to have you for their morning meal."
Lataro looked around and saw different things around. Creatures of many sizes through the vegetation. Why didn't I see this before?" he thought. Fear began to well up inside Lataro. "You see, you are better off coming with me. We may treat you kindly," Marsung said smirking.
Lataro covertly adjusted the phaser rifle to fire wide blasts and quickly looked around. He saw something moving in his peripheral vision. He spun quickly and fired. The creature he thought he saw was not there, nor were any of the others. Lataro returned his weapon to aim at Marsung. He was gone. Lataro shook his head and looked around. Nothing was there that seemed to pose a threat. He did see the remains of Garza now nothing more than shred of uniform covered in blood. Lataro moved quickly.
Telepaths! Great! I have got to get to safer ground, he thought as he ran inland.
Little Jonny Lataro ran through the cool night. Something had banged the escape pod's outer hull. He wasn't sure what but he needed to see what it was. He had been examining the hull and noticed large dents in it. He had created a makeshift door that protected him during the day from the heat and suns' rays, but attack on the hull was getting unbearable. When he reached a large boulder, he stopped and looked back to see what was doing the banging at the hull of the pod. He sat there and watched.
Jonny's stomach had felt better since he discovered a food source. He had been living off of the "hares", as he called them, and getting liquids from small pools of what seem to be water. After his first devouring of the hare, he had been experiencing small pains in his stomach, nothing that he couldn't handle. He contributed it to the fact that he ate it raw and ever since then he has cooked the hares. They proved to be good eating.
Suddenly, Jonny noticed a large creature that resembled a coyote coming towards the pod. It wasn't as small though. It was the size of a Great Dane, and that scared him. But Jonny knew that he couldn't go to far from the pod for a search team will look for him and start there. That was one thing that he had learned from his father. But as of now he couldn't go back, not until he took care of that thing.
Bang! The creature head butted the pod. Bang! Again. It seemed to be trying to get into the pod, but for what? For Jonny? He didn't know, but it relentlessly tried to get into the pod. Finally, it stopped and began sniffing the air. A scent! Jonny saw that this creature was sniffing away in the direction of where he was and started to walk in his direction. Frantically, Jonny looked for something that he could use to fend off an attack, but all he felt was rocks. But as he looked around he saw, just on the other side of the rock, a large stick, straight enough to use as a spear or lance. He climbed off the boulder and picked it up. It seems strong enough, he thought as the creature was now about 10 feet from him and getting closer.
Jonny felt around and found his little pocket knife, only about four inches long, but seemed to be better than nothing. He quickly tied the knife to the end of the stick with a shoelace and secured in place. The creature was close and slowly, stealthily approached Jonny. Just as he came within a five feet, Jonny noticed that the eyes of the creature resembled that of a puma. It was ready to attack. Jonny remembered something from his science class, one of the few classes that he actually attended. Animal vulnerable spots are usually their face and in particular the nose. Going ahead and executing a pre-emptive strike, Jonny struck the "pyuote", a name he coined for it, in the nose. The knife edge penetrated the pyuote's nose, and blood gushed from the wound. It yelped back, but didn't run.
Jonny began feeling confident and began poking his makeshift weapon at the pyuote. The pyuote just swung it small claws at it trying to knock it away. Jonny tried to poke it one more time but as he retracted it swung it around his head and struck the pyuote in the head. This knocked the pyuote to the side and down. The knife edge cut the side of the pyuote's face more blood began to ooze from the wound. This angered the pyuote, and it growled a loud reverberating sound that startled little Lataro.
"Okay. Get! Get!" Jonny yelled poking at the pyuote. It didn't budge but move back some. Then suddenly it pounced. Jonny was caught off guard, and he slipped placing the spear lodge upright on the ground. An earth shattering scream was belted out as the pyuote inadvertently impaled itself on the spear. It slid down dying with every inch as Jonny let go of the spear, now lodged in between the first and second ribs. Jonny got up and was proud of his accomplishment. He fended off an attack, but wondered just how many more were there going to be.
The suns were coming up and the heat began to rise instantly, so he ran back into the pod and shut his door.