Starborn: Origin of the Stars

Robin was skimming through the reports from the information package they got after accepting the mission. Ever since Landom had left to check out the plateau again, he too had a bad feeling. He couldn’t put his finger on it and didn’t know what he was looking for though. He had watched the video from ROMAS short trip into the hole once more but came up with nothing new and the reports all seemed normal as far as he could discern.

However, the nagging feeling didn’t stop and only when Sevastian came to the conference room he used as office for now did Robin manage to switch his focus.

“Hey mate, what brings you here? Any word from Landom?”

“Hi captain! No, we lost contact with them as soon as they were a kilometer away from us. No news is expected for the next hour at least.” Sevastian said and his hands and arms tried to underline the distance the others had gone or something like that. Robin wasn’t exactly an expert in reading flailing arms.

“You don’t have to worry. Your sister can take care of herself just fine and you should know best how well Patience can pack a punch lately…”

“Yeah, right, but that’s not why I’m here. The midget sent me. Seems like we got a message from the UAS.”

“The midget has a name-” Robin began but was interrupted.

“And so do I! Surprisingly it’s neither Hulky, Brute nor Redhead…” The man grumbled.

Robin suppressed a chuckle at his antics and made his way to the bridge.

“You are still angry that you’ve lost the fight, aren’t ya?”

“Not at all! I could easily beat her in the ring any time.” Sevastian scowled but when he saw Robin’s skeptical look he threw his hands in the air and rushed out of the conference room.

“You know what? Fuck you! And now, hurry up your ass!”

“I didn’t think we could receive a message while on Terulos. Didn’t you say that communications are mostly interrupted?” Robin asked.

“Yeah, that concerns direct connections and everything with lots of data. There is a massive package-loss in any transmission. What we got is just a short text message that I had to piece together from the little bits our system caught over the last hour or so.” Happy explained and showed him some logs and protocols on her terminal.

“Okay, thanks for your hard work.” He said and looked at her in expectation, “So, what’s the message?”

“Ah right!” She laughed, “It’s from the Eston-dude and I think we are missing context. But hey, what do I know?”

On the screen the message appeared and Robin had to read it three times before he awkwardly scratched his head.

“Because of major security concerns your mission was canceled. The Hubble and its crew, as well as Keran Bex’s team, are to dock at the next UAS outpost and shall wait for an escort and new orders to arrive. Do not leave the Mereus Cluster. - T.M.E.”

“Well, oops. Looks like these directives should have reached us before we left the System.” He mused.

“Yes, but since we had shut down our comm system as part of the measures we took to escape from the Cetro, it never reached us. When we logged back into the network after arriving in the Goya System, the message was automatically forwarded to its intended recipient.” Niu explained and tilted her head, “Maybe Landom is correct and there is really something fishy going on here with the caved-in plateau and everything.”

“I’m not sure. Right now, we still know too little about the situation. Let’s wait for Landom and the others to return first.”

“At least Keran didn’t just turn around and leave us to our own devices!” Sevastian chimed in after checking some of the notifications of the scanners.

“I’m sure he has gotten the same message and as much as he loves to stick to the rules, I can very well see him not following us to Terulos.” Robin said and shook his head. If Keran wasn’t going to come here, they could head to the monolith as soon as Landom returned and save some time.

“Uhm, no. I think he is already here.” Sevastian said looking confused at his screen.

“Wha-” Robin began but Happy beat it to him and rushed over to the weapon station where the scanning log was opened.

“Show me that. There is no way Keran…” Happy said but her voice trailed off mid sentence, “Fuck! That’s impossible!” She yelped.

“What’s wrong?” Robin asked and opened the log on his own screen.

“We got a ping.” Niu said while she hectically tapped different buttons to filter the long log.

“And that is bad?” Robin asked, as confused as Sevastian.

“Normally no. We were hoping to get a ping from Keran if they were looking for us. However, They shouldn’t have arrived on Terulos yet. It’s too soon…”

“Maybe they were faster than expected?” Sevastian suggested.

“There is only so much margin in their ETA. We know their exact starting point, their ship model and their target location. They should arrive here 12 hours after us. If they decided to head out immediately after we left and didn’t throw a short glimpse at the Red Giant after entering the Goya System, they may be able to do it in 9 hours, 8 if you do believe in wonders. However, it only has been about three hours since we arrived outside of Terulos.” Niu hastily explained and when she looked up and saw that both men still weren’t convinced, she began to pull her hair in distress, “It’s not possible, you hear me? There are technical limitations and stuff called physics, you know?”

“So, if that ping isn’t Keran’s ship that found us. What are we dealing with?” Robin asked when he realized that Happy wasn’t fucking around.

“Well, definitely a ship that pinged in response to our broadcasting…”

“You mean…?”

“Yup, we are not alone on this planet!”

***

Even with her enhanced hearing, Alena didn’t notice the feline-like predator approaching before it completely stepped out in the open. The shrubs luckily didn’t reach all the way up to their location atop the remains of the plateau.

The beast was about two meters long and had a sleek, muscular build. Together with the long tail and four powerful looking paws it definitely was a feline species. The head however resembled more that of a Burlag. Two oversized ears atop of the grim-looking face of a boar that had run into a wall a few times too often. Four long, pointy fangs peaked out of its maw and the eyes showed not fear, not curiosity, but hunger and bloodlust.

Without hesitation Alena took aim with her energy gun. She was not going to let this thing come any closer.

The leathery hide looked sturdy and she knew from the reports that many animals had a higher resistance to energy based attacks so she immediately shot three times in rapid succession. Her quick and decisive move left the beast no time to react and the projectiles all found their target. Alena managed to score two hits on the body and one on the head, sending the creature tumbling down the slope a few meters before it came to a halt, lying lifelessly on the ground.

“Burn in plasma, I didn’t see that one coming!” Patience gasped and hurried to her side, “That must be one of the Flat-Nosed Stalkers, they are on the top of the food chain in this region.”

“...that name is bullshit!”

“Yeah, but it wasn’t me who selected it, okay? So, is it dead?” Patience asked and leaned forward hesitantly.

Alena could only scoff.

“Of course it is dead, you think it would stand up after getting shot in the head?”

As if to prove her wrong out of spite, the beast actually raised its head again and tried to stand up.

“Really?” She complained and fired two more times. For a moment Alena thought it still wasn’t enough when the Stalker opened its wide maw for a silent scream before it finally closed its eyes for the last time.

“Tough beast, can really take a beating…” She said, trying to gloss over her former snarky remark.

“Shit!” Patience cursed, “Give me the communicator, we need Landom to come back immediately!”

“Don’t worry, it’s really dead now.” Alena said but Patience didn’t calm down and rummaged through her pockets.

“These beasts communicate in really high frequencies. If we are unlucky then its silent roar just now was silent only to us and his friends are already on the way!”

“Are you sure?” Alena asked and began to observe their surroundings more focused. One of these things wasn’t a problem, but what if there came more all at once?

“Didn’t you read the reports?”

“I did, but only the basics of everything. I have other things to do than studying the communication methods of some ugly beasts.” Alena tried to defend herself.

“Yeah? Like what? Glaring at people and brooding alone over the hardships of the universe?” Patience asked, not giving in or letting her an easy way out.

Not knowing how to react to such a direct confrontation, Alena just stared at her with a blank face. ‘Luckily’ she ultimately was saved from this awkward situation when the undergrowth a bit down the hill began to shuffle.

Just as Patience had predicted, two more Stalkers came out of the forest and slowly crept up the mountain. They didn’t even try to hide and when Alena fired a shot, the beast actually managed to dodge its head to the side, letting the projectile harmlessly brush by its gray hide.

Alena quickly reloaded her weapon and thought about their best approach. If she had to hit them four times each, she would need another magazine. Ammunition will be a scarce commodity as long as they are here.

She focused her senses and took a deep breath. Her ears registered that Patience was opening a channel with Landom behind her while all around them dozens of different birds were chirping. She saw the cruel and hateful look in the eyes of the beasts and she could smell the mix of fresh flowers, blood and urine carried up by the wind.

“Just a bit closer…” She muttered, waiting for the Stalkers to reach the 50 meters mark. Unfortunately two more beasts hurried out of the forest moments later and quickly closed up to the others. When the four predators fanned out to circle them, Alena knew that they wouldn’t be able to get out of this unscathed.

Seconds later the Stalkers all fell into a mad sprint.

“Fuck! Shoot! Alena, don’t stop shooting!”

Not needing anyone to tell her this, Alena immediately put her trusty rifle to work. Her idea wasn’t to kill them one by one but to wound each of them so she had an easier time reloading her weapon while avoiding their attacks. While in theory this was a solid plan, the beasts gave her a hard reality check. They managed to avoid many shots fired at their critical parts and only got minor wounds. Since Alena had to switch targets rapidly, the Stalkers weren’t slowed by her suppression fire as much as she had hoped.

Patience came closer to her, covering her back. Even if Alena still didn’t see much value in someone with Patience’s skill set, she had to admit that the woman had an excellent sense for fighting. If she could properly use a weapon, this fight wouldn’t be a problem at all. But alas, she didn’t even bring one.

The first Stalker to arrive was one that wanted to attack her back and was caught by Patience. Alena couldn’t see what was going on as she needed to bring down at least one of the beasts first. When she fired her last shot, finally one of the Stalkers stumbled to the ground. A second one was right upon her and Alena could only shout a short warning before she had to roll out of the way of a huge paw that flew towards her face.

Quickly getting back on her feed, she skillfully reloaded her gun and took aim while she was still in the middle of turning around. The beast’s eyes went wide when she managed to land a hit on its neck. It stumbled and Alena immediately used this chance to fire two projectiles directly on its head from not even two meters away. The Stalker crashed to the ground, dead for sure.

Just as Alena wanted to check on Patience who had to deal with two beasts on her own, her senses sent her a warning and she fell back on instinct. A huge maw passed her head within a hair’s breadth, nearly ripping it off. Alena jumped back up and raised her rifle. Before she could take aim however, she had to use the barrel to block a paw aimed for her chest. Even though she managed to stop the attack, the long claws still ripped her suit and entered deep into her flesh.

Suppressing a scream because of the searing pain that was enhanced by her G-Anomaly, Alena jumped back to gain a bit of distance from the beast. The Stalker however didn’t let her catch a breath and immediately pounced at her again. Alena knew she wouldn’t be able to block this and her only option was to evade and let the beast pass. But that would leave Patience with another enemy to handle, a third one that would be able to attack her from a blind spot.

Not seeing a better option, Alena made a split-second decision and dodged to the side. She quickly turned around and readied her rifle. If she was fast enough, maybe she could stop the Stalker from attacking Patience from behind…