Rougneck

Rob opened his mouth and then screamed when he heard the sounds of banging. The layered armor on his walker groaned and cracked. Metal shrieked as it was scraped and tortured. "Get them off! Someone help, they're chewing my walker up!"

Any replied were lost in the clamor or Rob's walker grinding as his left leg seized at the knee. The walker twisted and pitched over, crashing to the ground on its arm and shoulder and then rolling onto it's back. Rob was flung back from his command pod and his head jerked back painfully when his harness caught him.

He grunted and shook his head, causing his walker's head to pivot. He picked his head up and stared out the hardened windows. He blinked a few times before he made sense of what he was seeing. "Oh shit..."

The top of the spires had burst open and monsters were spewing out of them. A stream of them leapt into the air, spread their reddish brown wings, and launched into the air. So far there were dozens, maybe a hundred, and they showed no sign of slowing as they flew towards the walkers.

Another one of the monsters crawled up and stared through his cockpit windows at him. Rob screamed. The alien spread his mandibles and lunged forward. The powerful pincers closed and shook the cockpit. One of them slid across the window, gouging and cracking the heavy duty material. The transparency clouded from the micro-fractures along the gouge.

Rob screamed. He didn't shout for help or make any demands or pleas, he just screamed. The monster tilted it's head, antenna coming off its head twitching. The mandibles opened and crunched down again on the mighty walker's face. The tip of a mandible grated along the armored window, bending and buckling it and then piercing.

The creature jerked its head to the side, tearing the cockpit window free, complete with the struts that reinforced it and served as roll bars.

Rob stared up, his raw throat forgotten while the creature thrashed to try and free it's mandibles from the ruined window. The sound of his walker creaking and rocking was almost lost in the low pitched roar in the background. Was it a storm or the wind or... buzzing? Really, really loud buzzing? From hundreds of wings?

And what was that smell? Musky, like Alders had said, but different. Spicy too... cinnamon?

The sky had darkened. Not completely though, there were still some passing glimpses of blue between the brown and red flying monsters that raced over the valley. Over the valley and towards...

"The Roughneck!" Rob gasped.

The window clattered off the side of the walker's head, torn free at last. The horse sized bug on top of him turned back and looked down into the open face at Rob again. Rob's mouth opened to scream when a flash of virulent purple struck it in the side of the head. The creature jerked back and away, falling off the chest and face of the walker while some horrid liquid goop rained down on Rob.

Rob could only stare as the green blood splattered him and his exposed cockpit. He jerked, stunned by the viscous liquid that coated him. It wasn't hot or cold, it was just... thick.

"Walden! Get that walker up and get-- fuck! Oh no you're not going to eat me you ugly assho--"

Rob shook in his harness as the mech-ops sergeant howled in agony.

"Fuck. Fuck. Fuck. Fuck. Fuck!" Rob chanted as he jerked out of his stupor and realized he needed to get up. His windshield was gone so he had no HUD, but he still had the display below it. He had a map even if he couldn't target. The walker was still responding to him too, the head moved when he moved his. "I can do this," Rob whispered.

He bent at the waist and put his hands back, finding the ground with one of the walker's hands and pushing against it. He tilted up on his left side. His left arm, for some reason, wasn't responding very well. Had the fall broken something? Killed some connections or jammed the joints?

"Fuck it, I've trained for this," Rob said and stretched his right leg out and back to flip himself over. He could get up with two legs and one arm, he'd done it plenty of times.

The walker's right leg shrieked and shudder to a halt. He kept pushing but all he heard was metal grinding against metal. A louder clang shook the walker. Rob scowled and pushed with his hand, trying to lift the walker up and over. A shadow fell across him while he stared at his green slime covered display. He looked up and saw another one of the mandible faced creatures. It stared at him, head tilted down, and then clacked its mandibles together.

Rob could only stare at it. A thousand thoughts raced through his mind. He could shake the walker's head to dislodge it. He could lift his right arm up and drop back to the ground. He could--

Rob barely made a noise as the monster's head jammed into the open cockpit and it's mandibles clamped together. Compared to the layered armor of the walker, Rob's body didn't resist them at all.

* * * *

Synthia looked up from the magnetic weapon she'd set up on some custom made sawhorses outside the Roughneck. There was no net recoil when fired, but it would jump all over the place if it wasn't secured. Then again, clamping it to four lightweight metal stands was hardly secure. A weapon like this was originally designed to be fired from a starship or a large vehicle. The version she was working on was for a walker.

She was still trying to work on her proof of concept though. She hadn't got around to figuring out how to mount it to a walker. It would throw off the balance with a counterweight.... Unless she could shoulder mount two of them. No, not shoulders, trying to make a secure mounting bracket would be hell. Upper arm mounted, maybe? A walker's upper arm was about three meters long. The barrel would extend beyond the elbow some, but that should still work.

She shook her head and took a step as she lost her balance. Synthia frowned and rechecked the magnetic launcher again and scowled. "I just fixed the elevation, what the hell?"

She looked walked back to the front and knelt down. With one hand on the ground with her knees she reached up with her right hand and twisted the guide that would raise the weapon up so it was pointing at the tree forty three meters away. She'd even painted a bright yellow X on it so she had something to target. The Captain Miriskova was happy to let her play during downtime, as long as that playing turned out good tech that the company could use and would hand out bonuses for.

Synthia's eyes narrowed when she looked at the reading on the dial. She leaned back and looked down range and then felt her hand buzz. She jerked it up and looked down. The ground was still buzzing. "What the--"

The buzz turned into a punch. Synthia grunted from the impact of the ground bucking up and knocking her onto her back. She rolled away halfway over and jerked her head up to look around. The crash of her experimental weapon right beside her sent her scrambling away from it.

"What the hell's going on? Earthquakes?"

The ground bucked again, but not as violently. The sound of metal twisting and buckling that followed, however, was loud enough to leave her ears ringing. She clapped her hands over them and twisted to look at the Roughneck. The starship was moving... but not the right way.

Before her eyes the ground around the ship seemed to ripple and flex like it was fluid. The ship shifted and slid, sinking into the ground slowly and then a little faster. Without any warning the stern of the ship dropped, tilting the nose up off the ground for a moment and then whatever had held it up in the middle gave way and the nose crashed back down.

The Roughneck hit hard. Metal plates burst open and exploded out from the ship from the pressure alone. Synthia yelped and jumped over her battered weapon to use it for cover. She heard a few pings of debris striking her shield over the ringing in her ears, along with a few screams. Mostly it was metal twisting and tearing. Metal that wasn't designed to be twisted or punctured.

Then, as fast as the apocalypse had started, it was over. Synthia stayed huddled next to the magnetic launcher for several seconds before she risked opening her eyes. The ringing had faded, but it left behind an unnatural silence that seemed so heavy she could feel it like a wet blanket.

Synthia sniffed. The air smelled of freshly turned dirt and metal and... and something else. A spicy smell. It reminded her of something she'd had as a child. Her mom used to make dough balls she called cinnamon rolls. Synthia had looked them up and they were nothing like real cinnamon rolls, but they'd had some synthetic spice on them. That's what she smelled now. Cinnamon. Or whatever knock-off scent she'd had as a kid was.

Synthia took a deep breath, drawing in the scent, and then picked her head up. She couldn't hide forever. She should see if anyone was hurt... or maybe she should see if anyone was still okay. The entire starship had dropped forty meters and it had taken a couple of falls to get there. The top of it was barely still visible. She was only a few dozen meters away from the ship and.... "Holy shit," Synthia breathed as she saw the forklift she'd used to carry the weapon out and set it up. It had been tipped over.

She looked at the ship again and was about to stand when she saw the ground bulge near the ship and then burst open. A brownish-red object started to emerge, complete with two thin tendrils that quivered in the air. A moment later it disappeared, retreating back into the ground.

Synthia bit her lip to keep from panting. Or crying. Or... she didn't know. What had she just seen? Was it an alien species? Something new the universe hadn't discovered yet? Had it buried the Roughneck, or did it just come to investigate. Was it looking for food? Would it eat her? Were there more?

Synthia whimpered and bit her lip harder. She had to get away! She looked around and saw her tools lying scattered around where she'd dropped them on the ground earlier. She scooted over and gathered them back into their pouch before letting it click back on the magnetic fastener on her belt. She patted herself down and found she had everything she needed, including the mandatory sidearm required for off-ship excursions on terrestrial worlds.

She almost chuckled. She'd argued she would be right next to the ship, why would she possibly need a gun? The bay chief had insisted and threatened to call the captain if she didn't gear up. Now, maybe, it would be important. Although--

The ground rumbled under her and the Roughneck shuddered. It didn't sink, exactly, but it did definitely moved. Almost like it trembled. Synthia hugged her arms to herself and shivered. The ground around the ship was definitely moving. Not a lot, but as she stared she saw dirt bouncing and dancing with whatever was happening under the surface. She put her hand on the ground and jerked it back. She could feel it vibrating.

"Nope," she whispered and shook her head. A distant hum made her lift her eyes. She turned her head, searching for what horror was next. "This isn't happening. I'm not... oh my god!"

Clouds were coming toward her. Strange clouds... dark clouds, filmy and reaching out almost like fingers that were trying to grasp her from the sky. And they were coming against the wind, not with it.

"They can fly?" she whimpered. She staggered to her feet and backed away from the ship. She changed course as she backed away, trying to move at an angle from both the monsters in the ground and whatever was in the air. She kept going, slipping between trees at the edge of the alien forest and then plunging deeper into it until she tripped over a root and crashed into a bush full of dark blue flowers.

Pollen puffed up around her. Synthia gasped and then clamped her hands over her mouth. What if it was poisonous? Had she just inhaled it? Did she feel funny all of a sudden? She was hot and sweaty. Nauseas too. Oh shit, she was poisoned! She scrambled out of the bush and staggered away, running all out until she had to risk taking a breath a few dozen steps later. She gasped and panted, swaying back and forth until she finally fell to her knees.

She threw up. There was nothing blue or purple about it, just leftover breakfast and noxious smelling bile. Synthia held herself there, on her hands and knees and spitting between breaths to try and get the taste out of her mouth. She groaned and wiped her mouth on the back of her arm then spat again before sitting back on her legs and gasping.

She breathed deep and hard until the world stopped spinning around her. Then she noticed the stink of her vomit and the silence of the forest. She stood up carefully and was about to leave when she looked at the pile of sick on the forest floor. It was sinking into the loam but that wasn't good enough. What if those creatures could smell her? Maybe they could track her, like old fashioned dogs back on Earth? She scowled and found a file in her tool kit. She dug it into the ground beside her mess and dug out a hollow that went under it until it fell in.

"Holy shit," Synthia breathed. "That's how they did it! They dug out a hole under the ship!"

She stared at the mess a moment longer and then snapped out of her thoughts and pushed the dug up dirt on top of the contents of her belly and stomped it flat. She cleaned off her file and put it back in her pouch before looking around again. The ground was inclined, slightly, and she knew she'd come up hill to get away from the ship. Then again, the walkers had gone uphill too, but off the stern of the ship. She didn't know if that was east or west though.

She looked up but only saw the blue-green leaves of the trees. It was almost dark in the forest, she realized. Hardly any weeds, just big trees with bare lower limbs. That bush had been near the edge of the forest, where there were more weeds and... flowers? Grasses? Vegetation. Whatever. It sucked.

She missed her tiny room on the ship she shared with Janice. Sure, they weren't great friends or anything-- hell, they didn't even have much to talk about. Janice was crazy over one of the maintenance guys on the ship. She either talked about him or about her job in the ship's galley. Boring. Then again, Janice's eyes glazed over when Synthia discussed voltage and temperatures need to phase plasma into a propellant for the big cannons.

Synthia sighed. Were they really all dead? They couldn't be... could they? There were ninety seven people on the Roughneck, between crew and would-be colonists. Every one of them working for the company. The ship hadn't dropped that fast, had it? Some of them might be all right?

"I should probably go check... whatever those things were, they wouldn't stick around. I mean, I don't think they would. They can't get inside... The ship crashed but I didn't see any breaches. Maybe they need help? Or maybe... yeah, maybe the walkers will come back. We can send out a distress signal from the ship or a walker. It'll take some time, but somebody will come. It might take a while but so what? A few hours, maybe weeks? Somebody will come. They have to!"

Synthia nodded. She took a deep breath, squared her broad shoulders, and turned to face downhill. She nodded again to reassure herself and started walking.

* * * *

Plasma pistol in hand, Synthia noticed the increasing scrub in her way. The trees were closer together and starting to look thinner, not to mention the way ahead seemed brighter. She had to be almost back to the edge of the forest. She'd been walking for over a couple of hours, picking her way carefully and watching for any indigenous life.

She hadn't paid any attention to how long she'd run to get away. Ten minutes? Twenty? An hour? Probably at least half an hour, but she didn't think her body could handle that much exercise. She worked out regularly -- she had to have a get away when Janice invited Tannon over. But working out and running for her life on an oxygen rich alien planet--

Oxygen rich! Was that it? Maybe that's why she'd been able to run so far? Even now she wasn't as tired as she thought she should be. Or maybe that was the blue pollen she'd stumbled into. She might be poisoned and this could be her body providing a last ditch effort to make her feel like she was a genetically enhanced athlete before it burned itself out and she collapsed.

Synthia leaned up against a tree and sighed. No, she wasn't an athlete. She also didn't think she was poisoned. Maybe it would be better if she was. Then she wouldn't have to worry about what was waiting for her at the ship. What those digging and flying creatures were. There had to be so many of them... The little bit she'd seen of the digger meant they weren't big enough to do that to the Roughneck unless there were a lot of them. Dozens? Hundreds? More? And the flyers... There were probably thousands of them.

Synthia's eyes widened. "Oh my god," she breathed. She winced and looked around, terrified she'd been heard by... something. The forest didn't move. There was a gentle breeze rustling the leaves and the upper branches, but she barely felt it.

Convinced that nothing was going to try and eat her in the next few minutes she relaxed. Her thoughts went back to what she'd seen and how many of them there were. They had to be some kind of insect-like species. Enormous, but still... to work together like that and so quickly? That had to be it! She'd grown up on a New Horizons colony on Pamala III and they had a type of native insect there that she'd been fascinated with.

They were similar to ants on earth, little guys that numbered in the thousands for each nest. A queen ruled over them all and told them what to do and, when she'd dug up a nest once and killed the queen, they'd gone into a frenzy. Their organization fell apart and none of them seemed to know what to do other than scrambling to protect the eggs. Almost two days later they began to recover and started reassembling their hive. Synthia waited until it was almost finished before she tore into it again and discovered a new queen had taken the place of the old one.

The insects on Pamala III could fly too... or at least some of them could. Just like she'd seen yesterday. It made sense... insects weren't restricted to only a handful of worlds. They developed on their own, following whatever evolutionary process made the most sense for them. That usually meant six legs on worlds that supported life. On worlds that didn't... well, there were no bugs there. Not unless they were microscopic critters that were able to endure harsh environments.

But these insects... these bugs... they were huge! Sure, she'd been a ways away, but the part of the head that she'd seen pop up through the ground looked like it might be bigger around than she was! The little ones she'd grown up with were harmless... to humans. To similar or smaller creatures or things, they were devastating. On this world humans would be the smaller prey.

Synthia shuddered. If they could do what she'd seen them do-- and she'd seen them do it-- then they were clearly the top of the food chain on the planet. That meant... well, it meant she was well and truly fucked. The people trapped on the Roughneck? Maybe they were the lucky ones, they were most likely already dead. She still had the luck of being alive on an alien world where anything she ate or drank could kill her, not to mention the bugs. And she was alone. Alone with only basic survival training and most of that geared toward the colony she'd grown up on.

The breeze kicked up enough she could hear the wind blowing harder. It was almost whistling for a moment and then it dropped away. Synthia glanced up and searched the tree tops for a moment before she lowered her gaze to the lighter edge of the forest ahead.

She nodded. "Okay, I need to check... but just check," she whispered to herself.