Galactic Calendar 259872/ 2000 [ Sol Year 4387/ Day 155 of 365. Sol standard year]

  Days after of Crash landing/ 4

  Uninhabited Island / Clearing of Escape Capsule # 405/ Unknown Structure/ Water Chamber

  Galactic Standard Time / After 1400

  Zevortro

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  Zevortro looked around, trying to see anything that might be coming at him in the water, all alone. Jessie had left using some Power ability and gone to get the others. After the Paralyzer Beast, he accepted the existence of the Power. But still, the fact that someone could get it off this world was beyond anything he thought possible. He was sure that the way to unlock it was biologically possible, it made sense. But he was sure that there was a Ruin somewhere on the island that was releasing something into the air. But Jessie’s abilities proved that there was something off-planet that allowed it.

  A sound above him caused him to react, lunging to the right. He hit the ground and his hand hit the water as he looked up. He saw Jessie, Terra, and Bryke land, and a grin formed on his face. “What kept you? Hard time picking up the others?”

  “We had to make sure the something couldn’t track us. It just kept a bit of effort,” Jessie said with a chuckle.

  “And we were lucky! We got on boats that Terra made moments before that thing attacked where we were!” Bryke said, shuddering as he looked back towards the open water.

  “Yeah, if it wasn’t for Jessie getting us, it would have gotten us. I still can’t believe that it followed us!” Terra said, shuddering a bit as she looked around. “So any ideas on how to get out of here?”

  “None. I could go scouting, but we’d never find each other again if I got lost. And that’s not even counting the fliers up there,” Jessie muttered as he looked up at the sky.

  As Zevortro got up, he felt a frown forming. There was something here, something that his hindbrain was picking at.

  “What you mean, fliers? When did anyone say anything about flying monsters now?” Bryke asked, his voice shakily as he looked around.

  As his friend started to get nervous, Zevortro only looked down at the water. He went over everything that he had just heard in his head. And slowly the more he did that, the more that he felt something was wrong.

  “Yeah, we heard this thing pass by overhead on wings. It sounded loud and deadly. Always a wonderful combination that brings joy,” Jessie said with a sigh. As Bryke looked up, Jessie shook his head. “Don’t worry. We just heard the one and it's at least a good hundred feet away from us. Nothing we can do about it.”

  “Maybe I can make an ice bridge that way? If we’re lucky, we could run across it before the current breaks it. Maybe more boats or icebergs that go to the walls?” Terra asked.

  As the others planned, Zevortro kept his eyes on the water. Finally, after a few moments of thought, he figured out what was bothering him.

  “It might work, but do we just pick a direction at random? We have no idea where the door is, or if it's underwater. But these islands, what are they for?” Bryke asked as he looked around.

  “Zevortro doesn’t think this is the ceiling. He mentioned something back aboard the Spirit, something about an experiment with gravity. Something corporate was trying,” Jessie said as he shrugged. “I stayed below the passenger areas on the ship. And I tried to ignore the rumors. You tow ever hear about it?”

  “Wait. Why are you confused the creature found you?” Zevortro asked as he interrupted them, a frown forming on his face.

  Terra and Jessie shot each other a look and then Bryke spoke. “Because we thought we escaped clean bro. But then it destroyed one of the other boats and then this guy made it to us.”

  As reasonable as the explanation was, something about it still bothered Zevortro. As he looked down at the water and went over everything, something still bothered him about all this. Just when he was about to forget about it, what it had been was suddenly as clear as day.

  Stolen novel; please report.

  “But why’d you guys keep the lights on?” Zevortro asked, feeling nothing but confusion. As he looked at the others, he saw their confusion. “Your lights on your shoulders? Why’d you keep them on when you got on the boats?”

  “We didn’t. We turned them off before we even got in them,” Terra said.

  Her face was confused, and Zevortro thought that she was starting to wonder what he meant. He had to say that he was starting to feel the same as she was. But with each word, his fear grew and there was something here that he just couldn’t see yet. Whatever it was, he was slowly starting to feel like something was hunting them all. Jessie meanwhile, had looked at Terra in shock at what she had said.

  “That’s what you all did? You didn’t turn them off after you got into that boat?” Jessie asked, shock in his voice.

  “Then how’d the beast find you all?” Zevortro asked, the horror growing in his stomach as he was starting to catch up with his hindbrain.

  In the silence of the question, the other three looked at him in shock. Terra and Bryke looked at each other, and Zevortro saw the shock and horror in their eyes.

  “Then did the thing find us because of the ice moving? Did it feel the vibrations in the water?” Bryke asked, his voice held shock and a bit of fear.

  Zevortro felt the answer vibrate within him, and then he looked down at his hands slowly. If that was true, then that meant!

  “Vibrations in the water? Like when I hit the water with my hand!?” Zevortro asked, shock and horror as he held up his wet hand.”

  As soon as he said that, the others zeroed in on his hand. They looked at it for a solid few seconds before they all looked away.

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  Jessie

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  It was all he could do to keep from cursing under his breath as he scanned the water. The single fact that he had missed bothered him more than he liked to admit. He had been right before, he had lost his edge. Anytime in the past before he came aboard the Spirit, he would have noticed how the thing hunted! But he hadn’t and it was probably coming for them!

  He looked around, the light on his shoulders shining on the water. He saw that there were only two sets of lights and looked at Terra and Bryke. “Lights on, now!”

  Terra only nodded ass she and Bryke turned their lights on.

  “This is crazy! I mean, you saw part of it with me, right Terra? It had to have eyes if it was so big!” Bryke said bitterly, an edge of panic in his voice

  “Yeah, but keep calm. That’s the one thing that we have over this thing, we can think. So stay calm,” Terra said reassuringly.

  Jessie looked around, his mind spinning. He had no idea how this had been here, but he guessed it was long enough for life to evolve. Terra and Bryke must have been tracked by something that was near the bottom of the food chain. When things fall into the water, something must come to clean it up. This thing must be it. But just because it ate corpses, didn’t mean that it was something small. And he had a bad feeling that they were about to learn that the hard way.

  “We need to go, now!” Bryke said, a note of anger in his voice. “And who cares where? We just need to choose a direction and go now!”

  Jessie almost offered to carry them all away now. He hadn’t even the energy that he used for his ‘dashes’ decreased. Unless holding his Power back had caused his reserves to grow larger, the cause was something else. And he wanted to know what it was, this changed everything he could do.

  But then they heard the sound of a splash to their left. Jessie whipped around to see what looked like a tentacle crush a small iceboat before it went under. The tentacle had been as wide as he was, and the tip was as far from the water as he was tall. For a second, all he could do was stare at the ripples before he reacted. “Everyone, grab me now with both hands! Then stay silent!”

  As soon as he felt three pairs of hands on his body, he activated his ‘Dash’ ability. Within a second, they were in the air and then they were away. Behind them, Jessie could hear the sounds of something crashing on the island. Most people would stop, but it only made him ‘dash’ away again.

  Once they were twice as far as where he had found Terra and Bryke, he quickly found the ‘island’ they must have come from. Ending a ‘Dash’ above it, they all dropped a foot to the island, staying well away from the water.

  “Ohhhh man. That was something. And we can all agree it hunts by vibrations in the water, right?” Zevortro said as he fell to his hands and knees.

  Terra only chuckled as she watched him. “Yeah, I think so. So now what? We hide here?”

  Bryke meanwhile got back to his feet and looked around, anger in his eyes. “NO! We have to get back to the clearing or take this thing down!”

  “We don’t know how to get out of here, I could scout around, try and find something,” Jessie began.

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  Terra

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  Terra looked at Jessie and thought about that suggestion. As a Bounty Hunter, Jessie had some of the most impressive nanite augments here. The way they enhanced his abilities and his ‘Dashing’ skill would let him scout around fast. Once he found a bigger ‘island’ or a piece of ‘land’ they could figure out how to go up. With everything that was happening, the smartest thing would be to get away from the water.

  She was about to agree with Jessie when from above they heard the sounds of wings flapping. Jessie didn’t even stop, he just pointed his pistol up and fired three blasts.

  A moment later something crashed into the island to their left, and then there was a splash to their far right.

  Terra looked down at the corpse before her. It was a strange-looking creature, it seemed like a hybrid of insect and bird. It had long black-colored feathered wings, four of them each five foot long. It had a long body shaped like a serpent but instead of skin, it had chitin. The head had four bulbuls multifaceted eyes set in a cross around a narrow beak with a sharp end.

  Jessie had shot the beast through the first right wing and the bottom eye. There was a strange mix of a screech from where the splash had come from.

  “It’s another one of them. I just heard two of them,” Jessie explained as he looked around, glaring into the darkness. Finally, he stopped as his shoulder light rested on another of the creatures. This one, they couldn’t see where Jessie had hit but the water around it was turning purple.

  As they watched, the creature was able to get its top two wings out of the water. As it beat them and slowly got back into the air, Terra braced herself. The idea that they would soon have to fight off a flyer was bad, but it would be even worse if it escaped. They had no idea how many of these things there were, or how they acted. For all they knew, these things would get their flock and then they would come and attack them again.

  “Get ready for war!” Zevortro said as he raised his weapon. But before he could fire, Jessie had pushed his weapon down.

  As everyone looked at him, Jessie only shook his head mournfully. “I wanted to kill it like this one. But now it had to do that. Nothing for it.”

  “What do you mean?” Terra asked, fear in her voice. She had heard the sorrow in his voice, and she was scared. What about not killing something that was bothering him? Then she realized what he meant, and felt her heart turn to ice.