Adventures of a Greenie (Vol 1)
All rights reserved Vanessa Ravencroft
Chapter 5: Trouble
Paul felt the fine stinging sensation of the suit’s Auto Doc administering drugs and injecting tissue and medical repair Nanites into his back. He tasted blood in his mouth and opened his eyes. He lay sprawled on the vegetation covered ground of Green Hell. He saw the wrecked skimmer not far away, a smoking and twisted wreck. Then he saw something he had never wanted to see up close, hundreds of Dragon Ants crawling over the faceplate of his helmet. The suit must have automatically sealed itself and that was why he was still able to open his eyes. Would the suit hold long enough for help to arrive?
His next thought was about Martha, “Suit can you connect me to Martha Masters?”
“Martha Masters is trying to call you, Sir. I will connect.”
He heard the voice of his wife, “Thank heaven the Auto Doc was able to stabilize you.” Her voice, for the first time in years, reflected real emotions and he knew she still cared for him, on a level other than just being a good researcher and assistant.
He cleared his throat and said, “What happened? Are you alright?”
He could not move his head for some reason and still watched the Ants with their scary mandibles trying to bite through the transparent metal of the now rigid helmet.
She said, “I am stuck to my waist in a mud bog and a Burrow Digger is trying to chew my leg off. As long as I have suit energy I think I will be all right. You have a broken back and the Auto Doc immobilized most of your muscles so you don’t move and kill yourself doing it. Mortimer is alright too, he is nursing broken legs and a few bruises.”
The voice of Dr. Evans came on, angry and annoyed, “It was your foolishness that got us in this mess. We will all die here! I can see the ants are already making progress on your suit and I am stuck to a Trappers Palm with Buzz Saws swarming all over me.”
Martha did not sound too confident as she said, “I called for help, but there are no Marines in town at the moment. They are alerted and will come back, but it will take a while.”
Paul watched as a small stream of ant acid begun to eat into the transparent metal of his folding helmet. There were hundreds of them and eventually they would get through. In all this he somehow remembered his own words to Roy, when he called the marines ‘dumb brutes’.
He wondered what he should say to his wife before they died. He was afraid of dying, but it was the drugs that kept him pain free and immobilized that made him somewhat lethargic.
Paul heard Martha say, “I don’t believe it...”
Before he could even ask her, he heard a new deep voice, “Not to worry, I’ll have you out of here in no time!”
Paul could see a man wearing a much lighter combat suit without a helmet, he was tall and dark skinned and with him were two tremendous looking war machines. Roy’s father of course recognized Charles the robot as one of them, so the other must have been Henry, the other Cerberus on this world.
Charles bathed Paul in a bright ultraviolet light, that scanned all over his suited body and then the robot picked him up, despite the six ton armor suit and said with his warm voice, “Master Paul, one has destroyed the ants that infested your suit. One will fly you to the city for medical attention. Henry will assist Mistress Martha and the third person.”
The man who Roy called Uncle Sam grinned and said, “I came as fast as I could when I heard about the accident.
“There is nothing faster on this planet than a Cerberus doing a ballistic jump. So don’t worry, we’ll be in space only for a few seconds, and you’ll be at the hospital in no time.”
Martha watched as the impulse jets in the robot’s legs glowed sun bright and air, heated to a million degrees by hot energy plasma, burned, charred, and blasted the ground.
Charles disappeared into the sky like a rocket with her husband in his arms, his aggressive Transdim Battle shields punching a hole through the foliage of the trees and everything else that might have been in the way. She could hear the loud boom as Charles broke the sound barrier a heartbeat later.
Martha was pulled out of the muck by the other robot with one of its arms, while another arm grew long razor claws out of its hands and cut the burrow digger away from her with machine speed and precision. Military hardware she despised, an old soldier she thought of as mindless, lesser beings that now rescued her and her husband.
Roy
Hovering only four meters above the water surface, facing the rocks, the front hatch opened and Ranger Solomon climbed out and stood on the bow of the tank, his fists stemmed into his sides and looking over them with unveiled disbelief and amazement on his face, “I don’t believe what I see with my own eyes!”
His hand darted to his service weapon as he saw the big spider rearing up behind his son and he screamed, “Son, duck there is a Moolax behind you! I have to shoot!”
Bob spread his arms, “If you want to shoot my Wobbler you have to shoot through me, Dad!”
The Ranger slowly lowered his gun and after a long moment he said, “It is true, I didn’t really believe it but it is true! I knew you guys went outside, but ... but you are out here completely without armor suits! And now I see you play with ... with life forms no one has ever survived seeing close up!”
“Armor suits are stupid and for Off-Worlders!” said Norm, repeating the words all kids used a lot when talking among themselves. Then he pointed with his chin towards the lake and said, “Zisch’s Mom is watching over us better than a Platoon of Marines could!”
The ranger noticed the big snake slowly coming closer, clearly alerted, and ready to strike, “Good Lord!” He shook visibly and knew even his powerful side-arm would do him no good if the snake had tried to kill him. It would have been too late to try to get back inside the tank. If the snake spat fire, or used her thorns, he would be dead long before he managed to get inside. He finally found words, “The snake is protecting you?”
Norm looked very proud and his voice was confident, “Yes Sir, Mr. Ranger. We are in no danger.”
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