Stranded on a Tiny Planet

Not so far away...

Despite the assumption made by the mercenaries, the planet was not uninhabited. Situated within the center of the vast forest, fed by freshwater springs, existed an alien city called Anashee. In this city lived a flying race of humanoids known as the Ansheetans. The Ansheetans were only slightly technologically advanced, focusing most of their technology toward harvesting the resources of their planet and modest plasma and energy weaponry.

A uniqueness the Ansheetans endowed was flight due to their ability to manipulate the gravity around their bodies. Of course, flight wasn’t an inherent ability for every Ansheeta and had to be practiced in order to attain any sort of control. Most could only fly a short distance and achieve a minimal height. Only a select few of their kind were exceptional in their flying ability and they became the Elite Flight Patrol or EFP. They were highly regarded amongst their fellow Asheetan since they were responsible for the protection of their people and also the locating of new resources.

One such EFP scout was a lavender-skinned female named Anu. With a shock of silvery white plumage atop her head and back of her neck, that resembled hair, she was a striking specimen. Large, bright blue, almond shaped eyes, barely a nose to speak of, and delicate thin lips completed her visage. Like most all members of her species she was slightly built with wispy delicate limbs and long pointed antennae-like ears that followed the curve of her head.

Anu was a positive individual, always hoping for the best even in the face of adversity. She was also hopelessly curious and bold with a sharp intelligence. If not for her anxiety wrecking her flying ability, she would be a model EFP member. However, because of her anxiety, Anu wasn’t the best of the EFP. Granted she was talented enough to join...but just barely. Her control of her gravitational field was spotty, especially when she got stressed. When she was in tune with it, she was one of the best fliers in her squad, but her inconsistency continually threw her to the bottom of her class. As such she was relegated to that of a scout rather than a combatant.

Today, Anu flew amid the forest, checking on certain areas that were designated to her patrol; looking for anything amiss. Though there weren’t many notable threats inhabiting their wooded kingdom, there were the vicious bandits that inhabited the outlying edges of their lands.

The bandits were not of Anashee, but from other parts of their planet. They were known as the Rogashay or Rog Bandits. They were physically much taller and stronger than the more frailly built Ansheetans, but they could not fly. Instead they mastered and rode the great Sand Dragons which were three times their size and carnivorous.

Long ago, they had tried to invade Anashee and take control of their lands, but the attempt was thwarted thanks to the more advanced Anashee forces. They never attempted another invasion, but anyone traveling beyond the forest and along the outskirts risked everything to do so. However, the Rog Bandits hadn’t been reported or seen for many patrols. Anu had never seen a Rog Bandit in real life; only in texts and illustrations of the history of their people, but she didn’t hope to see one on her patrols.

Typically, everything was the same. Her last stop before heading back was the Hitel pond near the edge of the wasteland. However, when she arrived, she was stunned. Throwing her hands out in front of her she halted abruptly in midair. The pond was dry. Holding her hands at her sides she gradually descended into the rocky center of the hole that was once Hitel pond. There were a few shallow puddles left between the rocks but that was all. She pointed her hands down and shot up higher...a bit faster than she wanted.

She halted shakily and mentally coached herself, “Easy Anu. Easy. Calm. You fly terribly when you’re stressed.”

Slowly, Anu turned to see around the pond. Next to it was a large impression and then strange markings in the ground. Carefully she flew down to inspect the impressions when something touched her slender back. She screamed and haphazardly wheeled around.

“You let your guard down, Anu.” a familiar male voice gently laughed behind her.

Anu narrowed her blue almond shaped eyes and shouted at her mate, “Traynar! Don’t do that to me!”

Traynar was Anu’s mate and subsequently her patrol partner. He had the typical pale green skin of his gender with darker iridescent plumage stretching down from his head to the middle of his back; much the same color as an Earth rooster. Unlike Anu, Traynar was more pessimistic and often needed Anu to point out the positives in life. To almost everyone who met him he was somber and took his job as an EFP combatant very seriously. As such he was also every bit a protector; wanting to keep others from harm. Especially Anu. Anu was the only one who brought out a lighter more playful side of him.

His darker eyes sparkled with brief mischief, “Didn’t see anything my way so I came to meet up with you for the fly back.”

Anu ruffled the scaly plumage along her head and pointed, “What do think happened here?”

Traynar looked down at the empty pond and lifted his plumage with interest, “What the...?”

Together they descended next to the empty pond and in the depression next to it.

“What happened to the water?” Traynar puzzled, kneeling down to touch ground. "And look at this...the mud is compressed."

Their investigation was cut short when they heard crying and wailing nearby in the trees.

The pair looked at each other and then flew toward the cries. In moments they found three Ansheeta, two males and one female, holding onto one another. They almost didn’t notice Anu and Traynar approach they were in such a panic.

“What happened here?” Traynar asked gently but abruptly.

The trio jerked with surprise but then began talking very quickly.

“Oh, Suro’ka! It took her!” the female lamented to the Ansheetan deity.

“It was enormous! A monster!”

“A giant monster! It took her!”

Anu held up her hands to calm them, “Easy! Easy. Slow down. Tell us what happened slowly. What are you talking about?”

The female’s head crest lifted and then lowered expressively but she said shakily, “We-we came to the pond for our youngest’s Emergence.”

Anu and Traynar became very interested at the mention of an Emergence. The Emergence was essentially the birth of a new Ansheetan. After coupling with her mate, a female Ansheeta would expel a single, small egg from her chest opening. The egg would be stored in a dry, warm brooding pod until it grew and developed into a much larger chrysalis. Before the chrysalis could develop a very hard, protective outer shell, sensors and education probes would be inserted and attached. These wires and nodes would not only monitor the growing being's vitals and sustain it through maturity, but it would transmit vital information such as language, history, and culture directly into the brain. This ensured it would be ready to assimilate into the Ansheetan society from the moment of Emergence.

Then after two planetary cycles, when the outer shell began to shimmer, the caretakers would transport the chrysalis to the nearest body of water. There it would be immersed to initiate the Emergence of a fully grown Ansheetan.

The female continued, “It...it came from the Wasteland. We felt it before we saw it. It-it was gigantic! Taller than the trees!”

“What? What was?” Traynar asked.

The older male spoke up, “We don’t know, but we hid when we heard it crashing through the trees. It was the biggest thing I’ve ever seen! Strange pale brown skin, dark hair all over its head and face. Everything was shaking with its steps! Then it drank the entire pond dry and took our chrysalis! I tried to follow it...but I couldn’t keep up with it. My-my flying ability is poor.” he sobbed, “I...I tried to get her back. I tried...”

Traynar’s dark eyes moved slowly, trying to process the story he just heard. Anu slowly flew upward to gain a better vantage. She squinted at the strange shaped hole and the compressed mud. Then her eyes widened. It was a footprint. In fact, there were several cratering the ground, along with what looked like two deep depressions made by a pair of enormous knees.

“But...that’s impossible! Nothing on this planet is that big.”

She flew down to the print, landed at the heel end, and began taking long measuring steps. Finally, she came to the measurement of twenty-eight steps long. Her brain whirled trying to imagine the size of such a creature.

Traynar landed next to her and said with seriousness “We need to report this.”

Anu looked to the distraught family, “Shouldn’t we find this giant thing and their chrysalis first?”

“Find it! Are you crazy? We’ll be lucky if it doesn’t find us first!” he hissed.

Anu stared at the impossibly big prints and then back at Traynar, “You go report what we’ve found so far. I’m going to follow these prints...find out what we’re dealing with.”

He took her shoulders protectively, “No! I can’t let you do something that insane!”

“Then come with me.” Anu insisted, hovering off the ground.

“Please! Please find our young one. Please save her!” The family nearby implored.

Traynar opened his mouth to protest, and then grunted as he addressed the family, “We will find your chrysalis. Go to Anashee and report this to the Council. When we find this creature, we’ll return.”

The trio nodded as Traynar and Anu flew up above the trees. The creature’s path wasn’t hard to discern. Trees were bent, broken, and flattened for miles; the monstrous prints among them. It would’ve been almost impossible for a non-flying civilian to follow.

Anu pointed, “I think it headed for Bent Peak.”

Traynar nodded with agreement and they flew as fast as they were able toward the towering rock formation.

Later...

It was nearly dark when the two Ansheetans arrived at Bent Peak; a massive rock formation that reached high above their forest and crooked over just at the top, giving it its name. There were rich mineral deposits there, but not much else besides being a notable landmark. As the terrain turned from the forest to the rocky land that surrounded the formation, Anu and Traynar lost the footprints.

“Now what?” Traynar asked.

Anu slowly descended and landed on the rocks near the base of the formation. Traynar landed next to her. No sooner had they landed when they heard a massive crashing noise. They jumped and immediately ducked down.

“What was that?!” Traynar whispered intensely.

Another thunderous crash echoed across the landscape. It sounded like a rock banging on something metal. The pair covered their ears as two more bangs cracked. Then, everything went quiet. Anu paused a moment then slowly flew upward, staring in the direction the sound had come. As she rose higher, she suddenly caught sight of movement just behind one of the outcropping rocks. She quietly and slowly flew closer.

Merco sighed with relief as the inhibitor on his cybernetic wrist gave way under the rock he’d found to free himself. The cuff sparked and fell open, its yellow light flickering out. A familiar twinge of pain surged at his elbow, signaling the reconnection of the synapses. He groaned slightly and then slowly rotated his shoulder. Then he bent his elbow and flexed his fingers. His prosthetic seemed to work fine.

He groaned and leaned back against the rock wall as a wave of nausea and pain swept over him.

That can’t be good.

His hand gingerly went up to his head wound again. The bandana he’d fashioned as a bandage was soaked with blood. He was certain he at least sustained a concussion but now he was thinking his skull might be cracked open. He didn’t get to fret long as the nausea succumbed to drowsiness. Merco could barely keep his eyes open. Injured, hungry, and weak he fought his fatigue but knew it was a battle he would likely lose.

Anu gasped and quickly landed in a very tall tree just in front and to the left of the gigantic creature they’d been searching for. Her eyes were wide with fear and amazement at the sight of it.

It was sitting down with its back resting against a rock wall. Even sitting down, it was absolutely tremendous in size. Its skin was a dull, neutral brown color and it was clothed in rugged looking attire: black boots, durable looking dark pants, a grey shirt without sleeves, a dark blue jacket about its waist, and a strange black glove on its left arm that ran all the way up past his elbow. Its face was covered with short, peppered hair that framed its mouth, chin, and underneath its protruding nose. The hair also covered the top of its head. Its face and parts of its body also had discoloration around it, different from the brownish color of its skin. Wounds perhaps? There definitely appeared to be a wound on the giant’s head as its strange red blood was leaking out into a strip of cloth it had fashioned into a bandage.

It made a deep growl in his chest as if in pain, its head lolling to the side. After a few moments it let loose a deep gushing sigh, leaned back against the rock wall, and closed its eyes to fall asleep. Anu watched for several minutes until Traynar landed next to her in the tree.

“By Suro’ka...” Traynar swore to the Ansheetan deity when he beheld the gigantic creature, “What is it?”

Anu shook her head and whispered, “I don’t know. Do you see the chrysalis?”

Traynar craned his neck a bit and frowned, “No...but we’re not close enough to tell.”

“You-you don’t think it ate it do you?” Anu swallowed nervously.

Her mate looked at her with a grim look but shrugged, “I hope not...but I’m not getting any closer or that might happen to us.”

Anu shivered, feeling her heart beating harder just imagining such a horrible fate. Questions assaulted her fearful mind about this tremendous creature:

What was it? Where did it come from? Was it dangerous? Why was it here?

Dismissing these questions she shook her head and turned to her mate, “Go back to Anashee and tell the Council what we’ve seen. I’m going to keep watch on it...make sure it doesn’t head to Anashee after it wakes up.”

Traynar widened his eyes and whispered back, “Oh? And exactly how are you going to stop it if it does head for Anashee?”

“I don’t know. The important thing is we now know where it is. Now we just have to warn everyone and make sure it doesn’t find Anashee. Go!”

Traynar still looked unsure and very against her plan but knew his obstinate mate wouldn’t take ‘no’ for an answer. So, he tenderly touched his forehead to hers in a gesture of parting and then quietly flew off. Anu sighed and began her watch.