By William S. Frisbee

The muscled behometh leaned against the tree and Sergeant Kincaid listened to the tree groan and then shatter. The behomoth bellowed like the dumb brute it was as its scratching post collapsed.

From where he was at Kincaid couldn't tell if the beast was a carnivore or herbiovore. He didn't like being above the ocean surface because it was just too dangerous, even for a squad of Marines in full battle dress with the most lethal weapons known to man. The Sergeant shuddered as he watched the behomoth lumber off into the jungle in search of another tree. But it wasn't the big behomoths they had to watch out for Kincaid knew it was the smaller more evolved creatures.

"Jatha getting ready to do an assault on the planet and here I am looking for some dumb scientists," Private First Class Tate complained.

"Shut up," Corporal Lawson said.

Who in their right mind would want to study this hell, Kincaid was thinking as he checked his squad to make sure they were all facing away from the center.

The planet Shiva had harboured life for over a billion years with no sentient species and a gravity of one point three. To most offworlders the gravity became crushing and painful but Kincaid had been born here, deep beneath the ocean surface where the native life was far less dangerous.

Humans had lived on Shiva for close to three hundred years farming the oceans but rarely if ever exploring its land masses. The creatures above tended to be big, cunning and very dangerous. A beaksaur, one of the most common predators, could bite a typical grav car in two. Its beak was as hard as the hardest human ceramics and its temper nastier.

The conical trees towered up into the sky and green and black vegitation cluttered the landscape. The sun of Shiva shone much brighter than Sol and that was another reason Kincaid hated the surface, too much bright light and it was way too hot. Thank goodness for the suit's enviroment control.

"Move out," Kincaid said over his radio and the squad slid out of the vegitation where it had been hiding on gravity sleds.

"That was one big mutha," Lance Corporal Henderson said.

"Makes you wonder how it can feed itself," Private First Class Tate said. "Those scientists have got to be dead. No one could survive up here long."

"Secure the talk," Sergeant Kincaid said not likeing the negative attitude. "If you can talk you aren't paying enough attention to your surroundings."

Both Marines aknowledged Kincaid's command and returned their attention to their sensors.

"Manmade object at thirty degrees Sergeant," Corporal Webb said. "About eighty meters."

"Okay," Kincaid said hoping this wasn't another false call. "Take your team and investigate."

"Aye Sergeant," Webb said and his team formed a wedge and disappeared into the foliage.

"Corporal Lawson," Kincaid said on a hunch. "Take your fireteam up on that crest and see if you pick up anything."

"Aye Sergeant," Lawson said and lead his team up the crest.

Kincaid watched them go. If he lost one of his people because of some dunder headed scientist he was going to raise hell. The surface was no place for humans, why couldn't the scientists understand that? Millions of years of evolution had turned the ecology into a veritable death trap. It was only a miracle that kept the underwater world safe enough for humans.

Scanning the jungle with a series of scanners wasn't much good. Some of the predators had as much camoflauge as his Marines. Their skin absorbed electromagnetic radiation like a sponge absorbed water and some of the predators were almost completely invisible. The plants didn't help either and emmited, absorbed or reflected everything from radio waves to ultraviolet rays in an attempt to confuse predators. It did better confusing human sensors though.

"Sergeant?" Webb said.

"Go ahead."

"Negative on human artifact, Sergeant. It appears to be some skeleton."

"Aknowledged," Kincaid said with a sigh. There was too much of that. The creatures of Shiva could, in some cases, build metal into their claws or teeth and their natural weapons were ceramic hard. Either way they sometimes showed up on a density sensor as human made. "Come on back."

"Sergeant?" Lawson said.

"Go ahead," Kincaid said preparing himself for some good news that would turn out bad.

"I found them," Lawson said. "Or their cruiser at least."

"Aknowledged," Kincaid said wondering what condition the grav cruiser was in. "We are enroute to your position."

"Roger," Lawson replied. "I'm seeing a pack of rippers frolic in the wreckage. Watch out."

"Thanks for the warning," Kincaid said. Rippers were packhunters very common on all the continents and their claws could rip through Marine heavy armor in seconds.

As the grav sled slid uphill about a meter above the ground Kincaid waited for rippers to come leaping out of the foliage at any second. His sled turret, a small but lethal neutron blaster followed his eyes around the jungle. Wherever he looked was where it was pointing. All he had to do was push the button telling it to fire and for back up he had his regular frequency assault rifle and pistol.

"Sergeant?" Webb said cautiously.

Go ahead," Kincaid said and then screaming and weapon fire erupted from behind him in Webb's direction.

"Full speed!" Kincaid said and Corporal Hammond and her fire team sped after the Sergeant.

Like avenging angels the Marines shot through the vegitation. A ripper loomed up in front of him and Kincaid vaporized it with a well aimed blast.

He saw one ripper leaping with four of its six legs pointed like spears at a Marine. Kincaid shot that one down and a weight slammed into him from the side knocking him from his sled and pinning him to the ground. Pain erupted in his ribs and a sharp intake of breath kept him from moaning. For a second he thought he was dead but the ripper just lay still after knocking him from his sled and Kincaid saw the gaping hole in its head where somebody had shot it.

In pain Kincaid rolled to his feet and unslung his frequency assault rifle but the battle was over.

"You okay Sergeant?" Lance Corporal Cliff asked worry in his voice

"Yea," Kincaid grunted. "Team leaders, casualty report?"

"First team no casualties," Lawson reported.

"Second team no casualties," Hammond said after telling her people to form a wedge.

"Third team, Henderson looks pretty bad. He's probably going to need an evac.

"Okay. Go ahead and call in an evac Webb," Kincaid said trying to ignore the pain in his side where he had smashed into a tree.

"Sorry I didn't get it sooner," Cliff said.

"I'm alive, it is not," Sergeant Kincaid said gruffly. "That's all I care about."

Cliff nodded and Kincaid turned his attention to the medivac.

"They said about an hour," Webb said.

"An hour!"

"Said they were real busy because other teams had run into trouble and Henderson's wound isn't life threatening. Also the Jatha have entered orbit."

"Okay. Hammond, take your team and do a sweep of the immediate area. Take out any rippers that are lurking."

"Aye Sergeant," Hammond replied.

"Lawson," Kincaid said.

"Yes Sergeant?"

"Start dropping Rippers. I don't like 'em anymore. Besides if we're going to search the wreckage we can't be playing hide and seek with 'em."

"Aye Sergeant," Lawson said.

Kincaid watched Hammond and her people rise up above the jungle almost to the canopy and start circling. It was a shame, Kincaid thought. They couldn't fly above the jungle out of harms way, they actually had to go down into it to see past the canopy that was like a solid blanket from above. But then if they could see past the canopy then sattelites could have informed the rescue teams where the cruiser had wrecked. The Jatha would also have fun with target practice.

"Looks clear," Hammond said several minutes later.

"Okay. Go give Lawson some help around the wreckage. "Webb go ahead and strap Henderson to his sled, sedate him and put his sled on puppy mode."

"Aye Sergeant," Webb said.

When Henderson was taken care of Sergeant Kincaid lead Corporal Webb and his fireteam back to help the other teams.

Upon arrival they found Lawson had just finished off the last of the rippers and was getting ready to advance. There was no mistaking the wreckage though since the Survey class cruiser was not small. Only minor portions had been broken off, and most of it was intact. The first half of the cruiser was buried in the ground where it looked like the it had forced some kind of cave to collapse. At least one of the local behomoths had tried to break it open but with minimal success. The bodies of six legged rippers littered the landscape but Kincaid didn't see any human bodies or remains, which didn't mean much.

With one fireteam on the crest watching over Lawson's fireteam and one fireteam guarding the overwatch Sergeant Kincaid followed Lawson down. Kincaid called in the cruiser's location as they approached it but Command was busy with other matters. Apparently the Jatha were getting ready to land. The cruiser seemed silent and dead and Kincaid wondered how anyone could have survived in there. The ship was twisted and mangled, panels were missing revealing living quarters and small workrooms.

Kincaid paused before entering it. There were more than a few nasty smaller animals that could be lurking inside, Kincaid debated sending someone else in first but knew he wouldn't. He was the type that lead from the front.

Sighing Kincaid entered the lightless corridor leaving his grav sled outside. Blood covered the wall of the first corridor and Kincaid was pretty sure that whoever had spilled it was in the belly of something else. It was red blood too which meant it wasn't a Shiva native which usually had deep purple blood.

"Hello?" Kincaid said his suit amplifying his voice. The halls remained silent and Kincaid boosted his hearing.

"Sergeant?" Webb said.

"Go ahead," Kincaid replied.

"Got several somethings moving around at the forest edge," Webb said.

"Can you get an ID lock?" Sergeant Kincaid asked.

"Negative," Webb said. "They seem to be rippers but they are absorbing light. We picked 'em up on IR."

"What are they doing?" Kincaid asked, with the darkness beckoning him forward and an unknown threat behind him Kincaid was starting to worry.

"Just lurking," Webb said. "Want me to shoot one down and have a look see?"

"Negative," Kincaid said. "Notify me if they do something other than watch."

"Aye Sergeant," Webb said.

Kincaid glared at the dark interior demanding it give up its secrets.

The darkness ignored him and with his rifle sweeping the area Kincaid slipped further into it. His helmet's thermal imager allowed him to see in the darkness but details were nonexistant.

He passed the first room, someone's quarters which were empty. The next door was locked though and Kincaid's hopes rose. However, after prying it open, the Marines found a human skeleton being knawed on by scrogs, which looked like baby rippers and must have found their way in through the ventilation system. The scrogs payed him no attention since he didn't emit any chemical trace they would identify as food.

Sergeant Kincaid's hopes of finding survivors fell. If scrogs had found this survivors then they had probably found others.

Numbly Sergeant Kincaid reported his findings to the Lieutenant at command who digested his report without comment. "Continue search. We're a little busy her," the Lieutenant said and signed off.

"Bogies are on the move," Webb said.

"What are they doing?" Kincaid said motioning Hammond and her team to continue the search while he went outside.

"They appear to be deploying at the edge of the tree line but one is advancing out of the tree line. I'm reading about fifteen of them."

"Aknowledged," Kincaid said as he peered out of the darkness.

"Oh shit," Webb said. "Got a beakasaur on approach."

Kincaid didn't like that. At least they had warning though. Kincaid heard it before he saw it, and then it was there, a massive shadow that strolled into the clearing not far from the cruiser. The beakasaur started toward the wreckage and then stopped, it's nostrils flaring. It rose up off two armor plated legs, looking like an alien centaur and sniffed some more. Kincaid watched the muscles rippling underneath the armored plates as its massive claws tore into the ground.

A bloodcurdling roar shattered the normal jungle sounds as it dropped to the ground with a crash.

"Bogie's on the run," Webb said hoping the beakasaur would chase it and leave them alone.

"Okay," Kincaid said and then watched the beakasaur shoot off toward something outside Kincaids field of view. The beakasaur moved too smoothly Kincaid thought, for the first time realizing how dangerous it was.

Kincaid heard several thwanging noises and the beakasaur roared. Leaning out Kincaid saw several metal spikes sticking out of the beakasaur's chest and one piercing its beak. The Sergeant stared at the behomoth in disbelief.

"Watch out for the bogies," Kincaid said. "They shoot very powerful spikes."

His team leaders aknowledged him.

More spikes slammed into the beakasaur and Kincaid shuddered as they pierced the rock hard armor plates and sunk into muscled flesh; again the beakasaur screamed in pain and hatred. Leaning out of the hatch Kincaid glanced toward the bogies and saw they had not abandoned position as they continued to fire spikes at the beakasaur.

He magnified his view of the bogies and stared in amazement. They had six limbs like most of the native animals of Shiva but they only walked on four. Every bogie that Kincaid could see was in the process of firing or reloading a crossbow. Animals did not use crossbows.

For more information please contact me at warcat@usmc.net