Living Planet

MOTE Prompt Response

Brian stared around at a landscape that felt very familiar and very alien at the same time. Green grass covering the rolling hills stretching out in front of him wasn’t actually grass. It was more some kind of sentient seaweed type plant. After losing one drone to something that snapped up an improbable ten feet into the air, he’d recalled the other two drones and retreated quickly to a rocky outcropping.

He wasn’t optimistic about the trees either. He swore one of them was closer to his little island of rocks than before. Weirdly, or perhaps not considering what he’d just seen, there were no signs of animals, birds, insects… nothing.

Hopefully, the lab shuttle would return quickly and pick him up. He was starting to get a really bad feeling about this whole expedition. He prayed his perch on the rocks would be enough to keep him safe from whatever this planet harbored.

“Research One, Research Two. Bri, man, you there?” Ellis’ voice crackled over the comms.

“Research Two, Research One. Yeah, I’m here, El. And I’d really like to get out of here now. This is all just… wrong. Really, really wrong,” Brian replied, his eyes never leaving the scene in front of him. Yep. That tree was closer. Shit. He glanced behind. There appeared to be a path through the green. It was bordered by what looked to be about three feet of sand on either side and it led to another rock outcropping, but this one was bigger and appeared to have enough room for the shuttle to land. He eyed the green… whatever it was. The sand was stopping it, but could it reach across?

He faced front again. The tree was only about a hundred feet away.

“Bri? You still there? What’s going on? We’re on our way to you. ETA five minutes.” Ellis sounded worried and Brian wondered what they’d been dealing with.

“Yeah, I’m still here. I’m making a run for a large rock outcropping about a hundred yards from my current position. I’ll ping you once I’m there. If you don’t get a ping from me, flamethrowers would be advised. Research One out.”

Brian tucked the comms device into a side pocket, snugged down the straps on the pack carrying the drones, and put his survival knife in his right hand.

“On your mark… get set… go!” he muttered to himself. He took off, sprinting down the path, careful to stay in the center. He’d gone about ten feet when one of the green stalks lashed out in front of him. He whipped up his right hand with the knife and sliced at it. A high-pitched scream echoed across the sea of vines? tentacles? whatever, as the green whip-like frond snapped back. Well, that answered a few questions. He kept running.

A loud rumbling buzz filled the air, and a wind suddenly blew at his back. Something told him not to look back, and he poured on as much speed as he could manage.

Halfway there.

Another green strand whipped out and Brian slashed without looking. Another scream told him his blow had struck. The rumbling buzz grew louder, and the wind was so strong it actually helped him, pushing at his back.

He saw the shuttle coming in from the north, directly in front of him and he redoubled his efforts, breath coming in gasps. A stitch developed in his side, but he ignored it.

The rumbling buzz and the wind at his back grew louder and stronger. With a terrible gasp of wind and dust, a hurricane of hornets touched down behind him, and the rumbling roar of a trillion buzzing individuals nearly deafened him. Every one of those gazillion hornets was angry, with stingers ready. That was the truly frightening part. Brian could actually see the stingers.

Head down, arms pumping, lungs struggling, Brian raced for the marginal safety of the rocks ahead.

The shuttle touched down and the ramp started to open.

The whirlwind of hornets followed him. Brian’s foot hit rock and he stumbled, almost losing his footing. Panic kept him upright, arms flailing. He felt rather than saw someone racing down the shuttle ramp.

Hands grabbed him and yanked him up the ramp which was already starting to close. Brian tumbled into the shuttle and prayed the ramp closed in time. He heard the hiss of the door seal a mere second before a million thumps told him the hornets had hit the shuttle en masse.

“Get us out of here!” Ellis screamed, hauling Brian down the short corridor.

“On it!” Gage’s voice called from the pilot’s chair.

Brian felt a stronger than normal push from the engines as the shuttle lifted off the rocks.

“Goosed it a little to give the little buggers some flames to distract them,” Gage grinned.

Brian collapsed onto the bench seats that ringed the small passenger area of the shuttle. Ellis sat down next to him.

“You okay? Did any of them get you?”

Brian peeled up his sleeves and only found a welt where one of the plant things had tried to grab him. “No, I think I’m good. But we gotta get off this planet. The whole thing is out to get us!”

“Working on it! Please get your shipsuits on before we leave atmo,” Gage called.

Brian and Ellis stared at each other, slowly coming down from the adrenaline high. “I really need a drink,” Brian said finally, reaching for his shipsuit where it sat crumpled on the bench.

Ellis laughed. “No kidding. Okay, we’re scratching this planet off our list of places to go, and we’re setting warning beacons for anyone else who happens by.”

“Yeah, I don’t want to become plant food quite yet. I still have some years in me,” Brian said with a grin.

******

This week’s challenge came from TA Leederman: With a terrible gasp of wind and dust, the hurricane of hornets touched down, and with them came the rumbling roar of a trillion buzzing individuals… every one of them angry, stingers a-ready. If you’re looking for a momentary distraction from that annoying task, check out everyone’s responses over on More Odds Than Ends.