“The scion mech’s trying to break past our shield and hack into our lines,” Vingo said, almost with a resignation of the inevitable. “We need to find cover and wait for things to quieten down.”
“Let’s get the hell away from here,” Denver said.
“The mech might detect our movement. Wait for a moment.”
The troops halted fifty meters short and continued firing. One held a bulky piece of equipment on their shoulder, broke cover, and fired. A blue bolt shot along the ground and exploded against the mech’s side. Smoke drifted into the air. A double-barreled gun on the mech’s side rose on a circular arm and fired. Light blue bolts sliced through the air like tracer rounds and ripped out large chunks of ground around the tredeyans. They scrambled for cover behind rocks.
A scion fighter appeared over the horizon and headed for the position. Its engines screamed as it descended and approached at low level. Three spherical pods dropped from its underside into the valley and it roared over the group’s heads.
The pods burst in the air before they hit the ground, throwing out a cloud of glowing red vapor that spread in all directions, shrouding the valley’s surface.
When it cleared thirty seconds later, half of the troops were down, large sections of their suits degraded by the orb’s load. A beam of light shot from the front of the mech and searched the ground for targets. It advanced, rotating in the air and firing bolts, meeting little resistance as it neared the first bodies of its opponents.
“I want to be as far away from that thing as possible,” Charlie said.
Denver edged away from the ridge. He raised an arm, and his gauntlet clanked against Layla’s shoulder plate. She smiled through the visor at him, appreciating the gesture. She wondered if he shook with fear inside his suit as much as she did.
“This way,” Vingo said. “I’ll take you to a temple in the forest.”
THE GROUP CUT right and descended into a dark ravine. The suit auto-corrected when Layla thought she’d lose her balance. The visor’s night vision enhanced further, giving their surroundings a green tinge, creating a sharp edge around the fauna and rocks that littered the slopes.
Layla resisted the temptation to grab the trunk of one of the squat trees or the thick stems of the oversized pink ferns as they cut their way toward the sound of flowing water. Her confidence grew when she realized the sure-footedness of the suit in adverse terrain.
A shallow stream ran along the bottom, gushing over smooth rocks. Vingo splashed through the middle of it, crunching over the pebbled bed, away from the sound of gunfire.
The sparse steep hills on either side of the stream dropped until dense undergrowth covered either side. The forest ahead appeared to be an impassable dark mess of trees, vines and plants.
“How’s your leg, son?” Charlie said.
“I’ll live. The suit helps,” Denver said, although Layla could hear the strain in his voice. “Are there any wild clusps living in the forest?”
“Yes,” Vingo said, “but it’s unlikely they’ll attack four of us with weapons.”
Charlie just grunted and kept his rifle held high.
As Layla closed on the edge of the canopy, her visor switched to infragreen vision, giving her a clear view through the forest. Small rodent-like creatures with long snouts huddled around a group of spiny yellow plants. When Vingo waded toward them, they scattered deeper into the undergrowth.
“These helmets are amazing,” she said, viewing other small creatures shuffling around the forest floor.
Denver paused and scanned the immediate area. “I need to take one of these back to Earth.”
“You don’t have a wireless reactor or filters,” Vingo said in a matter-of-fact kind of way. “They also require regular maintenance from skilled engineers.”
Nobody replied. Layla knew it wasn’t the time to discuss cultural differences.
The stream thinned to a crack in the ground as Vingo cut to his right. He thrashed through ten meters of clustered spade-shaped leaves with his rifle. Charlie followed, sweeping them out of the way. They snapped back against Layla’s suit and visor, but the power in her arms and legs allowed easy passage.
On the other side, a winding beaten path cut through the forest. Vingo trudged along it, sweeping his rifle from left to right.
“Over there,” Charlie said, jabbing his weapon to his left.
Denver spun and aimed. A clusp tracked them twenty meters away in the forest. It stopped. Its two muscly tentacles writhed on its back.
“Ignore it,” Vingo said. “One followed us when we entered the forest.”
“Why didn’t you say anything?” Layla said.
“It wasn’t important; it would be a needless fight. They’re not dull-witted creatures. It’s probably just tracking us, making sure we don’t threaten its young.”
She thought it was, especially after seeing what the creature could do once close. The creepy rumbling noise it made sent a shiver down her spine.
“We should kill it now so it doesn’t pose a threat later,” Denver said.
“Save your ammunition for when you need it,” Vingo said.
Denver sighed through the comms system. Layla surveyed other parts of the undergrowth in case other beasts were circling.
Charlie kept his aim on the clusp and moved off. Layla knew he wouldn’t pause if the thing got within striking distance. She couldn’t take her eyes off it either. It continued to shadow them but never got any closer, like a hyena stalking wildebeest, waiting for a weak one to detach from the herd.
The track split in two directions. Vingo headed left. The unrecognizable luminous green data at the bottom of the visor kept changing.
“What are the visor measurements?” Layla said.
“The one in the corner measures your filter life,” Vingo said. “You only need to worry when it gets down to one unit.”
“I’m at four bars,” Charlie said. “Are you sure it’ll last two days?”
“Yes. The one next to it measures calibration. Each section of the circle is a part of your suit. Let me know if one turns red.”
“What about the symbols?” Denver said.
“Our coordinates on the planet. It means nothing to you, but I can teach you back at the village.”
“Why not teach us now?” Layla asked.
“We haven’t got time,” Vingo said and gazed up.
A lone scion fighter, with its distinctive blue rear engine, powered over the track, rustling the canopy leaves on either side of them. Small insects dropped out of the trees and scurried back up the trunks.
Vingo led them into a fifty-meter-wide clearing.
Layla’s visor switched back to the regular night vision. A round stone building with a domed roof sat in the middle. If it had been painted in stripes, it would’ve looked like a prehistoric circus tent. “What is it?” she asked.
“This is the temple of Tangus,” Vingo said. “She is our god of creation.”
“How many do you worship?”
“Thirty, and there’s a temple dedicated to each around the planet.”
A crack of light seeped from the middle of two solid wooden doors. Vingo paused and peered through his sights.
Charlie aimed at the door. “I take it you know the owner?”
“I heard a croatoan priest moved in, but I don’t know them personally. We stopped going to the temples after the croatoans came. We didn’t agree with their views on existence.”