Stranded on a Tiny Planet

Commander Madala was spun through the air when the shock wave slammed into her. She managed to right herself when the deafening sound subsided and continued to echo off the walls and the mountains of Anashee. Screams of panic and shock filled the city. Commander Madala’s head plume lifted high with alert when she stared over at the black barked tree known as the Third Tower. A huge hole was blown clear through it and debris lay everywhere behind it.

She barely had time to process the horrific scene when a loud whirring sound made her look upward. Three large disks were falling toward the city at various points. The Commander recoiled when the disks made a sharp chirping noise and each one shot a beam of green light beneath them onto the city below. At first she wasn’t sure what was happening until the light stopped and she saw hundreds of Ansheetans fall where they stood and drop out of flight to the ground.

She shook her head in horrified disbelief. What just happened? Was everyone caught in those beams dead?

Then the tall, thin mercenary, looming on the mountain above, began to descend toward Anashee.

He was coming.

The city began to boil with panic as those who were not caught in the green beams of light took to the air to get over the wall and out of Anashee. The air became filled with fliers like a bee’s nest that had been destroyed. Those whose flight was not very strong began running for shelter; buildings, the tree towers, or even toward the gates to escape the city.

With an intensity she hadn’t felt in a long time, Commander Madala opened her communication channel to her EFP squadrons, “All EFP! Converge on the invader using formation 11! Do whatever you must to keep him away from Anashee! Fly out!”

From various points she could see the maroon and blue uniforms take to the air; combatants and scouts alike. The mercenary continued his descent and then he stopped. Forming their combat pattern, the EFP flew at him from across the city. But with calm intensity the mercenary’s thin hands went to his waist and suddenly he tossed more disks out over the oncoming fliers.

“BREAK! BREAK FORMATION!” Commander Madala shouted urgently over the channel.

But it was too late. The disks chirped and the green light enveloped most of the formation. There was another flash and anyone caught in the beam crumpled and fell from the sky. Fallen fliers struck the sides and roofs of buildings. The Commander could only stare in horror as most of her force was dropped. Her mind whirled furiously, trying to formulate a strategy. Shock had rendered her mind to muddled soup. But the giant mercenary continued his path toward Anashee, growing larger and more menacing by the second. Soon he came down just above the Cliff Markets and stopped.

...

Cresh kept walking until he came to a drop-off bordering the city. He peered over the edge and discovered that it formed a carved cliff face lined with what looked like shops and walkways. Cresh stopped and gauged the height before he jumped down and landed in an open area paved with colorful stones. He stood up and looked around, noting the buildings were only about as tall as his shoulder at their tallest. Most were only up to his waist. The area was clear and as he glanced around he noticed a couple unconscious aliens laying in the street ahead. He smirked and strode forward to collect his prizes. Both were that mint green color like the first one he’d caught back at the ship. With quick efficiency he retrieved the container from his hip and placed the two inside with the four he’d caught earlier. He held up the clear container to examine his catches like a bug collector. The four he’d caught earlier were awake and seemed horrified by the two new-comers unconscious states.

“Aww. Don’t worry. They’ll come out of it...hopefully.” He assured them with a smirk before returning the container to the clasp on his belt.

Cresh wandered through the little city, running his hand absently over the building roofs as he passed. There were several more aliens on the street ahead of him which he picked through selectively. A couple were dead, their light blue blood staining the stones of the street. He wondered if he could get anything for the dead ones. However, he had limited container space and he figured live specimens would be much more valuable. He could always come back.

As he collected the aliens something suddenly hit the right most lens of his quadruple goggles. Cresh flinched slightly and lifted his head. Automatically, his goggles switched to broad-range motion detection which revealed a single alien flying away from him.

“Oh? So, we have a hero who wants to play do we?” he remarked as he glanced at the bold attacker.

...

The giant white-skinned humanoid landed with a quake in the market square. He stood just as tall and imposingly as Merco, but he seemed to be more closely constructed to an Ansheetan; thinly built, four fingered hands, tall blue hair that resembled a crest. He was wearing a slightly baggy set of dark pants with a tight-fitting dark green shirt and utility belt that crossed his chest in an ‘X’. Several high-tech looking armaments rounded his entire waist belt and studded the ones crossing his chest. He looked armed and ready for anything.

Commander Madala watched with dread as the mercenary began walking almost casually through the streets of Anashee near the market square. He stopped briefly, crouched down, and picked up something. It wasn’t until he stood back up and reached for something shiny on his belt that the female commander realized what he was doing. He was collecting the Ansheetan citizens that lay unresponsive in the city streets.

She didn’t know why he was doing it but she didn’t care. She wouldn’t let him take any of Anashee’s citizens without a fight.

Not to mention there were so many who still were trying to get to the shelters beneath the black bark trees. They needed more time. She couldn’t let this mercenary get close to any of them where the population was densest. There were so many affected there by those strange green beams that she couldn’t let him get to those helpless citizens.

The commander reached around for her energy staff and shifted it to a large double ended blade. With a fast surge of flight, she shot toward the mercenary from his back. Her heart pounded loudly in her head as she psyched herself up for the attack. The closer she flew in the bigger he got until she was right behind him. With a fast arc she flew around him, swung her energy blade, and struck him in one of his eyes. Except, his eyes were shielded with what looked like high-tech lenses. Her strike merely bounced off the metal and glass and gained his attention. Strategically she retreated.

The white-skinned titan looked up and turned his head toward her, speaking in a voice that sounded amused at her attempt to blind him. Though his thin smile was more sinister than his tone. However, he didn’t make a move toward her and simply returned to his task at hand.

She fluffed her plumage with indignation at his apathy. Her attack barely distracted him. She watched from a distance as he pulled a clear tube from his belt and with careful counting placed several of the unconscious Ansheetans he’d collected inside it. He rose up and placed the container back onto his belt before continuing on toward the heavily damaged Third Tower tree.

Foregoing her own safety, Commander Madala flew into his path just out of his reach, swiping her energy staff before her aggressively.

“NO! Stay away!” she shouted at the top of her voice, even though she knew it was futile.

The towering mercenary surprisingly stopped and stared at her with his four lens goggles turning and focusing. A snide smile crossed his face as he tipped his head.

He spoke though she didn’t understand him, “A hero looking to stop me? Now this is interesting.” With nonchalance he ran a hand through his blue Mohawk, “I don’t have time to play with you, little hero. I’ve got money to make, so unless you want to fly into this container and help me do that I suggest you run and hide like the rest.”

Commander Madala didn’t understand a word he spoke though it sounded like the language Merco used before he learned Ansheetan. Unconcerned with her threat, the huge being continued his forward motion toward the Third Tower. Every part of the commander’s body screamed for her to just fly away, but her proud mind wouldn’t allow such cowardice. She tightened her grip on her energy staff as the mercenary bore down on her, eclipsing her in his shadow. Commander Madala flared her head plume wide and the folded it back as she shot up with all the speed she could muster straight at the giant alien’s face. She was much faster than his reaction. With a mighty swing of her bladed staff she scored a strike right at the mercenary’s upper lip. A bright pink splash erupted from the slice she carved and she darted away with haste.

The mercenary flinched, making a loud noise of discomfort as his hand flew up to his face. He touched his wounded mouth and brought his fingers before his goggles to see the blood. His triangular tongue probed up and felt the slice she had left which was bleeding down into the corner of his mouth. His fingers rubbed together pensively before a sneer curled his mouth.

Despite this, Commander Madala placed herself in front of him again defensively; pink blood dripping down the energy blade.

“You will go no further, monster!” she shouted valiantly.

He didn’t understand her but he replied, ”Ok. Guess we’re going to play then, little hero.”

His hand went for the belt across his chest. With delicacy he pulled out a thin tube with metal ends and a blue substance inside. It wasn’t very big at all, probably Madala’s height. He gave her a look that oozed with sinister glee as he pinched the two metal ends, producing a crunching sound. Then he rocked the tube back and forth in his hand, making a loud ticking noise with his mouth; imitating the ticking of a clock. Suddenly, his fingers flicked the tube to his left like one would discard a toothpick. Commander Madala watched it spin through the air down several city blocks away from both of them until she was distracted by the mercenary whom held up his hand and began to drop each finger in a counting manner.

“4...3...2...1...” he mouthed silently.

His last finger dropped. A bright white light flashed.

[BOOM!]

Commander Madala felt herself thrown through the air and finally collide against the side of a building when a massive shock wave and sound slammed into her. A ringing filled her ears and she swooned, unable to orient herself as she spun down to the ground in slow circles. She could feel the solidness of the street beneath her when she finally stopped falling. The commander winced and rolled onto her back, stunned. All she could see was the brightness of the sky above her but nothing definitive. Her crested head lolled to the side when suddenly the sky went dark.

Even through the ringing in her head she could hear the mercenary speaking in a muffled low timbre as his tremendous silhouette filled her vision.

...

Cresh dearly enjoyed getting to use his trinary thermal explosives. So small, so easy to smuggle, and yet so delightfully devastating. The tiny glass tubes, which contained three exothermic compounds, would only go off when the chemicals were mixed by way of crushing the metal ends and shaking it. While the explosions were not the biggest, they were good enough to blow down most doors, kill closely spaced groups, or in this case crater a tiny city block.

While the explosion gave a thump to his chest and ruffled his hair, it sent his tiny opponent flying into the side of a nearby building and spiral down to the ground like leaf. He briefly glanced over to see the destruction his little bomb had caused. A smoking, dusty cloud of debris rose from the crater of the demolished city block. Cresh refocused his attention on the tiny challenger who lay stunned on the ground before him. He approached slowly and stood over her. With unhurried movement he crouched down.

“Oh? Are we done playing now?” he asked mockingly.

The little lavender alien’s blue eyes darted and she haphazardly raised the staff with the green energy blade at him. Unfazed by her weapon, Cresh reached down and effortlessly plucked it from her grasp and held it up for scrutiny. He curiously touched the glowing energy blade and it surprisingly felt like a solid metal blade with a slight electric tickle.

“Hm. Energy mass conversion into a blade...I’m surprised.”

Near his boot the little alien was trying to get up. She hovered off the ground in an almost drunken way and tried to gain some distance but Cresh plucked her out of the air. The lavender-skinned alien protested and kicked, her little voice tittering like an angry bird.

Cresh stood up with her, “Well, well... still have a bit of fight in you yet.”

The sting from his cut upper lip prompted him to give her a reproving squeeze. She squeaked loudly at the mistreatment. Cresh then reached for his container, gave her a smug smirk, and promptly added her into his “collection”. Briefly he observed his catches. His container was growing rather crowded. He clasped it to his belt and moved up the street, turning sideways to squeeze through the narrower paths to collect more of the little creatures.

Absently, he reactivated his communications channel, “You’re missing out, Gurt. Making all the money over here.”

Where the Hell was that bastard?

As Cresh gathered four more aliens in his new container, he noticed a building that was a bit different than the others. Water cascaded down the outer walls decoratively and it had a metal dome that seemed to be made out of pleated metal covering its top. The metal dome seemed out of place on the ornate structure but nevertheless it attracted Cresh’s attention.

He approached the building which came up to his waist at its highest point. An open plaza bordered it. Inquisitively, the white-skinned mercenary ran his hand over the metal dome until he spotted a seam at the bottom. It looked like a metal cover that was designed to protect something beneath it.

But what were they protecting?

There wasn’t a locked door, safe, or building Cresh couldn’t get into if he wanted something and he was just curious enough to want to find out what was so important about this building. Experimentally, he pressed his fingers against the bottom of the pleated metal and tried to muscle it open. It dented a bit against his strength but he couldn’t get a good grip.

Unhurried, he unsheathed a knife from his boot holster. The thin blade ejected from the handle with a loud [Snick!] and then he scraped the tip along the seam. With a forceful jab he slid the knife under the metal shield at ground level and wrenched it upward like a stubborn garage door. The extra leverage made the metal creak loudly and give way. Then, like peeling back the top of a sardine can, Cresh forced the shield to roll open.

As he did this he noticed the four conscious aliens plus the little “hero” were acting rather desperately to his actions; banging on the side of the tube and looking horrified.

“Hmm. Must be something very important in here for you all to react so brashly.” he mused to himself.

Beneath the shield was a green energy dome, sectioned off with metal framework that resembled stained glass. His goggles automatically scanned into the room beneath. Inside he could see many computer stations and from what he could tell they were all synced with several glass and metal pods about the size of avocados.

Intrigued, he flipped the knife in his hand and slammed the hard butt of it down on the dome. It flickered and the metal dented inward. Again, he struck it and this time it broke the connections in the energy barrier when the framework snapped. The green lights flickered with a spark and disappeared. Cresh pulled at the metal framework and forcibly ripped it from its struts in the ground. He chuckled darkly to himself, realizing how easy it was for him to dismantle the building.

With curious intent he reached down into the building for one of the pods. His fingers grasped the device.

[TAP!]

Something small and hard struck the side of his hand giving him a static shock. He flinched slightly, more from surprise than pain. Then he heard a little voice inside the building tittering at him like an angry bird. His goggles focused inside the building and he saw two green-skinned aliens, one in a dark green jumpsuit and one in a lab coat. They were both brandishing metal staffs similar to the one he’d taken from the “hero”. He narrowed his eyes with annoyance and with a curt flick of his fingers he swatted the pair into the wall and out of his way. They hit hard, dropped their weapons, and slumped to the floor.

Cresh ripped the pod from its base and cords and pulled it out of the building. He held up the container and turned it around. Inside he could see a smaller dark teal pod with faint silvery veining.

“Huh. All that excitement for this?” Cresh questioned, absently tapping the container at his hip whilst observing the one in his hand.

The conscious aliens in his container still looked very horrified and were angrily banging on the walls. Cresh touched the side of his goggles, toggling through the menu settings to find his scanner. When it was ready he slowly turned his head in front of the pod to gather info for his scanner. A white grid formed over the metal container first; sizing it, analyzing its make. Then it went inside and scanned the teal colored pod. Much to the mercenary’s surprise it was registering a life-form inside the pod; one shaped just like the aliens he was catching.

"Oh...I see. So, you come from eggs.”

This was something new...and potentially very handy. If it turned out these aliens were worth quite a bit, he could actually hatch them in his own incubator by reverse engineering the pod. Then he’d have a steady supply of them even if he couldn’t make it back to this planet.

He was about to gather up the rest in the building when he noticed something beyond the city wall and out past the fields. There was a silhouette near the rocks that encapsulated this valley. Cresh’s goggles switched to binocular vision and shot out across the expanse. His four eyes widened behind his goggles when he beheld what it was.

“Well son of a bitch...you survived.” He mentioned aloud.