Faded Ribbons

In a dispute over territory, the land fights back.

 

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The Hornet's Nest

The Greasi deep-space fusion Unit 19 arrrived at XP-3 and thought it would be a planet for them to establish a colony. The engine's superstructure seemed to break into from the drive unit as the Greasi Advanced Nation approached the planet's gravity well. This command section would stay with the engine. The individual sections of the Greasi ship landed and began exploring the planet. They disemebarked and range away from their shp sections trying to reach members of the other sections, speedily cataloging the abounding indigenous life during farther ranging patrols into the planet's interior. That had been quarter of a solar ago.

Now the Greasi's medicine men were studying the cases of a rapidly debilitating fungus that suddenly began occurring after a low pressure system set up after the Greasi's quarter solar on the planet's surface. The fungus usually came off easily during the Greasi's hygenic practice of scraping themselves with their ever-present tryn. Then, the afflicted Greasi began noticing that when they scraped the fungus off, chunks of their flesh would come away with the fungus, leaving small holes that wouldn't stop bleeding. When this bleeding was stopped, the victims agonizingly experienced contractions of random muscle groups that would lock their appendages in to impossible contorsions before they dehydrated and died. This along with the fact they lost nearly every reconnassaince team they sent out, was the final straw.

 

The appearance of the privateer only hastened the Greasi's decision to cut their loses before the fungus infected all of them and were hurrying back to their ship sections. During the cycles that they had been on the planet, the Greasi had lost twenty-eight percent casualities among their Expeditionary commands and another fifteen per cent of the support forces that were with the landed Sections. The support group added another two percent during the orderly withdrawal from the surface of the suddenly inimical planet. They were glad for the Driaxiian intervention, it was an addittional impetus to reach their ship sections.

The Driax privateer was also looking for planets similar those sought by the Greasi Advanced Nation, ones to exploit, preferably without sentients in residence. The Crown paid well for new resources and issued letters of marque that allowed the captaincies of the deep space pirate ships to share anything it claimed for the Crown. They didn't care if a civilization didn't have space travel or means to protect themselves, the Driax code of ethics mandated that they be subjugated or killed. The privateers acted accordingly. The multi-tenacled Driaxi preferred killing because it would augment the usual shipboard rations.

 

There were stories circulating by the few survivors about Driax attack patterns who say that only rare, unforseen events foiled the, aggressive, technologically advanced privateers.The Greasi were lucky. This was just a smaller privateer that had probably just gone through a change of command and was piloted by an inexperienced captain. He dropped from hyper-space and immediately began to dissemble the ship into attack groups and certainly wasn't expecting a technologically similar race. When the privateer's crew detected the presense of another prize for their Crown, their captain's haste and inexperience cost them their lives.

The Driaxian privateer immediately went to general quarters when they detected the proximity of the Greasi hyper-drive, whose command sectionn immediately began firing every weapon it had. Proceeding with their normal attack operations, the Driaxii attack force tried to shrug off it's losses and continued to hunt for the almost defenseless Greasi ship sections on the ground. With the Greasi sentry/commando teams controlling the captured gun platforms, the component ring that formed Driaxian hyperlight pulse engine was being mercilessly reduced it's component molecules. Some of the Driaxian assault boats even managed to land and discharge the troops they were carrying before being burned from existance by the equally vicious Greasi Sentry group manning the orbiting cannon platforms. These gyrated wildly as the gunners shot at the remaining privateer sections.

It was now a battle for existence between the two alien races. Back and forth across a full sixteenth chord of the planet the Greasi fought the massive number number of Driaxi suddenly stranded on the plane'ts surface as the last Driaxiian ship component was destroyed, blazing brightly in Xp-3's orange tinted atmosphere.

As the conflagaration followed the retreating Greasi, the deadly terapods, slythings and the other inhabitants of the planet dealing with the Greasi cannon fire were biting anything within in their striking range. The poisonous predators became even more aggressive as the heat from the forest fires aroused their breeding cycle, and their territories were over run by rivals who traveled far to hunt the alien invaders. Even the retreating Greasi, with their planet-side experience, were losing more than their normal casualties to the maddened beasts. A swamp dragon rose from the near boiling waters of it's home to kill some Greasi sappers and their intended targets in the back and forth fighting through the suddenly hostile native life. A beam from space fried the 30 meter long lizard and a nearby nest of terapods scrambled on to the carcass and began feasting on the warm meat. The Greasi a ship master looked at his panel and beamed. The last of his ship's sections had risen from the planet's surface. He was now happy that his ship would again travel through space.

 

After deep-space fusion engine No. 19 was reassembled to forrm the Greasi Advanced Nation. The Greasi positioned their ship so the exhaust nozzle was pointing at the planet. The ship master was terrorized at the ferocity of the planet's surface and considered sterilizing the planet as they left. The ship master had decided to be compassionate on the survivors below as he broadcast to the remaining Driax.

"We offer asylum to any of our Driax foemen laying down their weapons. You will sign a contract assuring your safety when we bring you on board."

 

On the ground, the Driax were reduced exponentially. When the Board fighter ran down the presence of native life would beyond that section of planet's ability to sustain the rapidly breeding carnivores. The surviving pilots would soon be out-numbered by tens of the predators.

 

"We will land and carry only personal weapons to protect ourselves from the animals." This transmission was interrupted by a garbled but understandable voice.

 

"We are not animals, creatures. it is good you cease attacking us. Why did you assume to touch us and inflame us, you who make such interesting scat? Your weapons are of little consequence." The quarantined Greasi fungus victims reported the growth becoming more mobile, increasing the possibility of a pandemic, while the Driax on the ground experienced more extraordinarily vicious attacks by the native life. A wave of energy rippled throught the combatants.

The voice continued condesendingly. "We are tired of your taste, so we will let you leave." The Greasi ship section responsible for locating energy signatures could only say for certain that the signal originated on the planet.

 

The shp master of the Greasi Advanced Nation stated he would immediately remove the wreckage the intense fighting left.

"It is something to make haste at." XP-3 said.

After the Driax on the planet's surface disabled their weapons, the 'predators' ceased attacking and disappeared into the brush. The Greasi two huge logistical sections, paused in the flight and began maneuvering to return to XP-3. These sections where equipped with a powerful gravity field and could use the many gantries and cranes as Waldos'. After the sections landed, the cases of fungus among the combatants were reported to have begun shrinking and finally disappearing, as well. Some of those surviving the fungus were left with missing body parts, but all the wounds left by the fungus were healed over with new skin. The Greasi collected the debris from the recent battle along with the haughty but beaten Driax survivors.

 

When the Greasi ship was finally reassembled in orbit, preparing for a deep space launch, the Advanced Nation's ship master watched from space as the blackened scars of recent conflict begin blending into the planet's greenery. A rescued pilot represented himself as the Driaxis' leader to the Greasi ship master.

"I can speak only gratitude from my race for the boon you have granted us, fellow being."

The ship master stated flatly. "We will decide when we part company whether we can tolerate one another. There are many more stars with many more planets in this galaxy, sir.

XP-3's voice hung in the quiet air of the Greasi stateroom. "Farewell. There are many who are not as friendly as I."

 

 

 

The Morem Empire

Faded Ribbons

Author's Note

Does this story hold your interest?