I still haven't decided what I'm going to do this month, and also, I decided to put all my other fiction projects on hold while I turned my Nintendo fan fic/ parody demo into a novel that I'm actually on track to finish. To have something for this week, I decided to post a chapter that's about two-thirds of the way through what I have so far, featuring an old creature idea based on the creepiest effects demo reel ever. Yes, this is what I used to write; yes, this is a Super Mario/ Metroid crossover; and no, I have never owned or used a gun.
“All right,” Meliboia of the Myrmidons said. “We do this by the numbers.” In the viewport ahead, a planet loomed. It was ugly. It was brown. It was the most dangerous planet in the Star Union.
“I’m ready,” King Ajax said.
“So am I,” said Nopalina, his senior Maiden.
“I’m sorry," said Maiden Persephone, "if it’s all
the same, I’d rather stay up here and read."
Meliboia briefed them in the main cabin. She wore only her Cingulum mesh suit, scandalous on every world they had visited. For Ajax, it drew his gaze no longer than her long olive legs and pearl and platinum hair. She dragged her footlocker into the middle of the space. She opened it and pointed out the weapons. “These are the variants of the 6mm MFCASK caseless small-arms family,” she said. She took out the two largest weapons. One had a bipod and a very sophisticated electronic sight. The other had a circular drum and a hard point for a tripod mount. “These are configured for Tactical Suppression and Area Defense. The first one is my primary weapon, 50 round topside mag standard. There’s room for spares on the side.” She held up a transparent magazine clipped to the stock. It was loaded with 10 triangular caseless cartridges. “The other takes standard clips or a 200-round drum. Pray we don’t need it.”
She unlimbered a third weapon with an extending stock. “This is the Multi-Role Carbine, they’ll take a 50 clip but you’re better off with 30,” she said. “It’s what you use when things are getting hot but you’re still keeping cool.” She attached a grenade launcher with a 5-round magazine. “And this is the 3cm Direct/ Indirect Fire Grenade Launcher, in case you have to explain something.” She gave Ajax the weapon. When Nopalina pressed to hold one herself, Mel gave her a smaller case that held a nearly identical weapon. “This has a shorter barrel. It should be easier to carry, but it can be harder to handle.”
Finally, she drew not one but two pistols. “These are Close Assault Tactical, for if something gets up close and personal,” she said. She waved the more compact of the two. “This is semi auto, 10 rounds; use this if you ask politely.” She attached a stock and an extended clip to the other. “This is selective fire, 20 rounds, in case you have to tell them twice.” She gave the smaller pistol to Nopalina, and kept the other for herself after Ajax declined it.
“They are fine weapons,
my Lady,” Ajax said. Mel leaned over for a kiss.
“Excuse me,” Persephone
said. “What do the letters stand for?”
“Easy,” Nopalina said.
She attached a spare single-shot grenade launcher to her weapon. “Mother
Fo-‘Cking Ar-Se Kicker.”
The bridge module of the Amphion descended to the planet. Mel aimed for a long, narrow ridge. “We can follow the ridge to our objective,” she said. “Stay away from the sand. It’s where the borer worms are. Mostly.”
They touched down between
two distinct sections of the ridge. Mel emerged in her Lorica. She carried the
Area Defense Weapon and a tripod. “There,” she said. “Think you can handle
this?”
Persephone followed
behind in a basic environmental suit. She tried sighting the weapon. She pulled
the trigger once. She did not flinch at the short burst of fire. “I guess so,”
she said. She took a book out of her bag. It was on raising Tatzelwurms. “Have
fun.”
Mel led the way in full armor. She wore a full breastplate, a heavy Hoplite helmet, and what looked like a pair of wings on her back, in fact a pair of radiator fins. She carried her rifle slung over her back. Her carbine hung under one arm. On the belt that supported her greaves, she had holstered the machine pistol and a grenade launcher fitted with its own trigger and grip. Ajax and Nopalina followed in light armor. Once, a toothed proboscis at least 10 Cubits long erupted from the sand. It whipped back and forth, tasting the air. Mel raised her rifle warily, but did not fire. After a minute, the proboscis withdrew. “It smelled them,” she said.
As they approached the end of the ridge, she waved for another halt. She connected a small screen to her scope, allowing the others to see what it showed. Ahead were numerous stands of large cacti with asymmetrical bulbous pads and even uglier black fruit, each as extensive as a small orchard. “This is our objective,” she said. “The fruit is the only known source for several highly dense, very reactive compounds. For some races, it can cure cancer. For others, it gets them really stoned. For a few, it just gets their Mushroom fruiting. This is the only planet where the plant grows. They farm it…”
Nopalina took out a bag.
“I collect prickly pear back home,” she said. “This should be no problem.” She
patted the pistol at her own hip.
“We will cover you,” Ajax said. He raised his carbine. Mel took aim at what looked like a cave a hundred meters away. “Run.”
The first of them came out as soon as Nopalina moved. Its kind were called Kophon, meaning Deaf-Mute. It flopped down, giving Ajax a good look as it thrashed. It would have been two Cubits tall upright, but it was clearly adapted to run on all fours. A second pair of arms were folded against its visible rib cage. Its skin was purple, its blood was orange, its viscera black. Already two more had emerged, then five, then ten, and then he pointed and shouted as twenty burst out of a burrow in the opposite direction, at only half the distance.
Nopalina reached the cactus colony and began picking fruit. By then, Mel had brought down 5 of the Kophon with single shots. Ajax joined in as a group of 4 came close enough to hurl their own projectiles. A perfectly spherical rock bounced off his visor. He fired instinctively, felling the creature that threw it with a three-shot burst to the head. The scope gave him his first good look at their faces. They had large eyes with reddish-brown irises. In place of a mouth, they had an array of mouthparts. That was the source of their name, as they had neither a jaw to form speech nor a counterpart to the delicate bones that were the organs of hearing. What looked like tufted ears in fact detected scent like the feelers of a moth. He took down another with two bursts. He then fired a grenade, set to burst over the heads of the others. That sent them scurrying back.
Nopalina opened fire with her pistol. Ajax looked to see three of the Kophon among the cacti. She felled one. The others tried to cut her off as she retreated through the chaotic garden. She still took time to pick three more fruit for her half-full bag. One of the creatures stepped directly into her path. Rather than draw the holstered pistol, she brought her carbine to bear. She fired the launcher instead of the gun. It discharged a needle canister almost point blank into the creature’s face. Ajax overheard her on a channel she obviously had not remembered was open: “Not now, Kiv… Yes, I am with her…”
A steady hail of projectiles pounded their armor. Most were mere rocks, but there were also seedpods that burned or burst in clouds of smoke. Mel was staggered by Ajax tried to cover Nopalina while Mel continued to pick off the main force of the Kophon. A dozen of them were circling the cactus colony. The Maiden brought down three with five bursts, emptying her clip. He took down two more and fired his last grenade. By then, Mel was firing bursts herself. At a quick glance, the King estimated that she had brought down at least 20, if not 30. She slammed a spare clip into her weapon. The cartridges transferred from the clip to the main feed with a clacking sound like billiard balls. “Something isn’t right,” she said. Then she resumed firing.
“We are leaving!” Ajax called to Nopalina. He winced as a rock struck his helmet. She shrugged and started running back. “Leave the bag!” She shook her head furiously. Mel traded her rifle for the pistol as a group that threatened to cut them off. Two more Kophon went down. She risked a fully automatic burst without the stock that doubled as a holster, felling one more before the others scattered. She drew her grenade launcher and fired down a newly opened burrow that the group had emerged from. Nopalina scrambled up the ridge. Ajax hauled her up. Mel fixed the stock to her pistol and loaded a 20-round clip, just in time to fire a burst into the face of a lunging Kophon. They hurried along the ridge, with well over a hundred of the Kophon behind them.
The proboscis of the borer erupted from the sand as they retreated. A needle canister from Nopalina’s weapon shredded its hide without serious damage. Ajax grabbed the rifle from between Mel’s wings and emptied a clip. The rounds from the harder-hitting weapon drilled through and through. The creature withdrew. As they approached, Persephone set down her book and readied her weapon. Mel dived and pulled Ajax with her as the first volley went over their heads. “Sorry,” Persephone called out.
As they ran for the ramp, an especially large Kophon sprang out from beneath the ship. It reared up on hind legs, 3 Cubits high, directly in Mel’s path. Each arm bore slashing blades. Its mouthparts spread, revealing a gaping maw lined with teeth. Mel drew her sword and assumed a fighting stance, just before Persephone blew it in half. Mel could barely see through the orange gore that spattered her armor, but she made no attempt to clear her visor. She grabbed the Area Defense weapon, tripod and all, and raced up the ramp. Persephone gasped as Ajax threw her over his shoulder.
“We have to go go go!”
Mel called out. She backed up to a wall mount that linked to her Lorica. The armor
split open, allowing her to climb out. She scrambled into the cockpit proper,
clad only in her Cingulum and inner mail. Ajax ran to her side, himself down to
an undershirt and trousers. A push of a button started the firing sequence. As
it counted down, they looked up… and saw a Kophon with a vastly enlarged skull
standing on the canopy. Mel pushed another button, and the hum of the engine
died.
“Well, they let us keep
the fruit,” Persephone said as they rose to reunite with the main hull of the
Amphion.
“The fruit’s no good,”
Mel said. “It’s the wrong strain, and not ripe. The big one was probably trying
to tell us that. I should have figured that out. The compounds will be
unstable.”
“I still don’t
understand,” Ajax said. “They let tourists come and shoot them to collect the
fruit?”
“I told you, they’re a hive mind species,” Mel said. “The ones we saw were drones at the end of their lifespan. If we hadn’t put them down, they would have been turned into cactus fertilizer.”
Ajax shook his head. “Do
people do this knowing the truth?”
“The tour guides have kept the real rubes in the dark,” Mel said. “They usually empty their guns in the air and run away as soon as they see one Kophon, never mind a hundred. I heard of one guy who got left behind when one of the marks hotwired his ship. The ones who pay enough for a real fight are usually in the know. It’s not risk-free. About 2% of professional hunts end in one or more human casualties.”
They cleaned the Lorica over a grate in the lavatory floor, using a detachable showerhead set for maximum pressure. When that failed to clean off the heaviest residue, Mel used a flame unit at the lowest setting. Ajax considered the fruit. “Does this really have value?” he asked sadly.
“Enough to make a profit on a successful hunt,” Mel said. She had finished cleaning the suit and started applying a powdered cleanser to a trail of gore on the floor of the bridge module. “They figured out how to synthesize the active compounds years ago. It’s difficult enough that only the pharmaceutical concerns can really afford it. Of course, they only market their products for approved, regulated medical purposes. Gray-area applications are only sustainable with a supply of the fruit. Now that I think about it, we could get something for this after all…”
Ajax clasped her hand.
She looked up in surprise. “My Lady,” he said, “I still do not know if you
would choose to be my Queen. But whatever comes, promise me this… Never
go back there again.”
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