Chapter 10: Dragon's Eye Part 1

It had been at least another thirty minutes of travel. It was in the darkest of times. If it weren’t for the shuttle’s sensors, it would have been possible to miss the location completely. There was almost little to no light in the area. Instead, the shuttlecraft’s lights glowed brightly. The pilot could see only the distant lights of what could have been considered campfires or self-generated illumination sources. It was few and far between.

At night, Dragon’s Eye was pretty much a land of pure darkness, with only the distant starlight giving any hope of illumination. Even Orsa, Oshun’s largest moon, failed to reflect the light onto the surface properly.

Ioren knew this was the best time to do this. Typically, most of the drop-offs for convicts were during the day. There would at least be a greater chance of getting through any laid ambushes for her at night. The only catch was what the criminals truly had. If they had better equipment, then it was possible that they could see her. The lights of the shuttle were also giving themselves away in the lingering darkness. It was clear that probably half the huge island would see the incoming vessel.

“We are about twenty seconds from touch down,” the pilot called out in the shuttle. Delu, Ioren, and the two other police officers stood ready. They all mentally prepared for the descent and whatever may lay in wait.

“I hope you find him,” Delu told Ioren. “He is an asshole, but I think he is a good asshole ... especially if you are going to try to find him.”

In the darkness, the shuttle’s vectoring thrusters were firing. The cylindrical craft had come to a complete stop apart from its lowering descent. The landing pad supposedly had lights, but the bulbs and electronics had been stripped bare. It was nothing more than a pavement slab on flatland with small plants and sand.

The pilot was keeping a careful look on his controls and gauges. The shuttle was just about to reach touchdown when the main hatch began to open. The ventral automated turret was monitoring the surrounding countryside looking for any hostile threats. Meanwhile, Delu and another police officer got at the edge of the opening and had their guns aimed outside.

“It’s clear,” Delu said. “You are free to go, Ioren.”

The Itrean wasn’t going to hesitate. Unlike the humans, she had little to fear with the pitch darkness. Past the shuttle was an extreme danger to them, but for Ioren, she didn’t have to worry about the lack of light. She was ready to go. She stepped up to the hatch edge and looked out.

Ioren tried to see as much as she could from the exit. She couldn’t see much except for hollowed-out shell buildings that weren’t far from the landing pad. She didn’t see any viable threats that were close. She took a deep breath and leaped out of the shuttle hatch.

She touched down on the pavement of the landing pad. Her digitigrade legs served as natural springs as her tail kept at a perfect balance. Clear from the shuttle’s interior illumination, her reptilian eyes began to adjust quickly. The darkness became a black and white landscape. Her immediate attention was towards the building structures. The flatlands proved to be hard to hide, but the buildings were a good place to be ambushed. There was a dirt road that led further east. Another road led up north, but it was in complete disarray as the alien-like grass was eating up the path. This was what probably led to the significant swampland areas to avoid.

Ioren turned momentarily to look at the shuttle. She could see Delu giving a small two-finger salute before the hatchway started to close. Immediately, the shuttle engines were reactivating as the Itrean started to dart away from the landing pad. Her talon-like feet propelled her away before she could see the vessel gain altitude. Away from the confines of the shuttle interior, the Itrean could feel more and more of the urgency to move. The noise that the shuttle generated was loud enough that anybody in the vicinity could clearly hear it.

So far, so good. The Itrean couldn’t see anything threatening. She was going to proceed down the path east. She had a good couple of kilometers that she needed to run to reach the abandoned water station facility. As she gained ground from the shuttle, she could see the shuttle’s rear engines activate as it began to fly overhead, turn around and then head away. She knew that she was now alone.

Ioren lowered her profile as she moved. Her ears were attuned to gathering anything that might be dangerous. Her eyes were still glued towards the building structures. They were rectangular and didn’t seem to have any rooftops to them. The grass had its way of growing over the long walls unless they were adequately tended to. Consisting of at least five blades on each stalk, the Oshunian grass was reclaiming the human artificial environment.

She turned her head to see the remains of a human corpse face-first in the dirt away from the path. Its long decaying body was covered with insects that were properly cleaning it up. She wasn’t going to spend too much time evaluating it. She could only see what looked like a rustic blade jutting from the spine.

“Hey ... I thought I heard something...” A male voice far from Ioren called out. It caused the Itrean’s reptilian eyes to focus on the incomplete building.

“That was a shuttle drop-off, you idiot,” a female voice replied to it. “Surprised to hear it now.”

“Damn ... caught us when we were asleep. Think we should check it out?”

“Yeah ... check the pad area, but don’t head too far from here. Remember that this is our checkpoint. We barely survived against that giant man that took a shot at us when we attacked him.”

Ioren had gained enough ground from the landing pad when she focused on what looked like a man and woman wearing essential constructed clothing and what appeared to be crude, uncomfortable armor. In their hands were rifles. Much as the pilot had stated to her earlier, the alien woman could see the signs that they were crudely manufactured rolling block rifles. The single-shot guns had a wood and metal construction to them. The Itrean’s adrenaline began to kick in. She considered unholstering her pistol, but they were clearly heading to the landing pad.

“My optical lens piece isn’t working right,” the man said. “I can barely see in this darkness.”

“You need to tune it better,” the woman said. “My works well.”

Ioren lowered her profile, bending her back to that of a running raptor. Her tail even pressed outward to keep her balance. The woman was looking in her direction.

“What the fuck?” the woman said.

“What is it?” the man replied.

“I think I see something heading eastward.”

“Ah ... you think our new piece of meat has already made a run for it?”

The Itrean continued to step up her pace. She knew she had been spotted and moved at an unprecedented speed.

“Wow ... maybe I was wrong. Might be just an animal. Can’t tell too much at the range it is making. It is getting too...”

It was the last thing that Ioren could hear from them. She gained enough ground that she had escaped from them. The choice of time was pivotal, and she was fully aware of it. She decided to slow down her pace a little bit and conserve her strength. She knew that she only had a couple of days of rations in her small pack. Plus, the pain resided from her recovery. Her increased breathing put some strain on her lungs.

She had a perfect view of nighttime. While everything appeared in black and white for her, she could see the tremendous vast distances. There weren’t many so-called trees along her path. Instead, she could see the great hilltop that led to the center of the island. There were also other buildings along the traveling path.

As she continued to push forward in her light trot, she could see the swamps to the north. Among some of the native creatures that lived on and near the wetlands were the boshel. They were slightly smaller than the alligators of former Earth. They were soft scaled, walked on thin legs, and had an elongated fin-like tail. Supposedly, there were other species like them on the different continental islands, but it was the first time she ever saw them. It appeared they seemed spooked by her running as they quickly began moving away from her towards the refuge of the nearby swamp water. It was a sign that they were regularly hunted either by humans or the much more giant Johan serpents that ate them, possibly both.

Most of Ioren’s attention was focused on the elongated trees. She listened for any form of human communication, but she couldn’t hear anything unusual. The background noise was like that of frogs and insect-like creatures that were chirping away. The smell was pungent and somewhat foul but not enough to overwhelm her senses. The trees consisted of two intertwining stalks with large leaves. These enormous leaves were little more than bulbous fruit that grew in the stems and branches.

It was here that Ioren pulled out her tilon. It was now or never. She pulled the two metal strips apart and activated the projection screen. Her claw-like finger was inching toward a tracking program application. She initiated the beacon, and a topographical layout of Dragon’s Eye appeared. Wherever she was aimed at, the map was pointing to the direction she was heading to. It was searching for Stone’s tablet-like device, assuming that he was still alive or in the hands of somebody else.

For now, there was nothing. The program was busy as ever. A lingering fear resided in her. Activating this beacon was not just something that not Stone could track, but everybody in the surrounding area. She had noted that the two figures earlier had some sort of monocle optical device that hung near one of their eyes. It gave a slight glow of blue to them. These sorts of gadgets probably helped illuminate their eyesight a little bit in the pending darkness. If prisoners had managed to fabricate these devices, then it could mean that they might have the ability to track her tilon as well.

Regardless, the two figures that she saw earlier were a promising sight to behold. Even with these eyepieces, the prisoners still had antiquated technology. They were little more than street robbers and thugs armed with poor firepower. Even her pistol could make short work of them if she were pressed to it. Regardless, she had to be careful, and she was aware of it. She kept the tracking beacon activated. The Itrean was searching.

On the map was a series of buildings that were along the road. This was one of the few unfinished structures before it would start to hit the heart of the southern section of the island. The Western side of Dragon’s Eye supposedly had even less activity than most of the entire place had when compared to the east, south, or northeast. For now, all she could do was continue her walk. The sense of longing in finding Stone remained with her.

Ioren walked for almost an hour with little interruption. It seemed promising, but she knew that could quickly change at any moment. She was leaving the confines of the forest-like area as the dirt road was reaching a wide-open plain field of grass and dirt. By now, the roads were starting to head higher and higher in altitude. She was getting somewhat closer to the great hilltop of Dragon’s Eye but still far from ever reaching the central locale. At times, the tiniest of noises would cause her scaly hand to grab the handgrip of her gun in preparation for the worse.

She could see the outlines of at least three buildings on the left side of the road. One of them was only a shell without a roof to it. The other one had a series of pipes that lead in and out of it. The last building had the thick Oshun grass threatening to consume it. This had to be the location of the water pumping station on the western side of the map. With the little population on this side of the island, it was most likely abandoned.

Regardless, the location still could hold some dangers to it. There were plenty of hiding spots with the buildings, and they were the most notable things present in the surrounding area. Anybody could be using it, and her ears were attuned to tracking anything.

A slight beeping sound erupted from her tilon. She looked at the map layout, and something gave off a pinging sound coming from the buildings’ direction. The red dot suddenly turned yellow and began to indicate in her own language that something was tracking her signal.

She would let it go on for less than a few seconds before she decided to shut down the program. Ioren knew that it could be anybody that was tracking her. Her tilon couldn’t figure out if it were Stone or somebody else. She wasn’t going to let any possible intruder get the jump on her. If anything, if the marine was tracking her, she knew that he had augmented vision and could clearly see her on the road.

Ioren took a deep breath. She truly hoped that Stone was alive. He had to be. He was a defiant and robust individual when compared to the other humans. She had to think like him. Nighttime was the best time to travel around, especially if he had the advantage to see in the dark. He wouldn’t be asleep at a time like this if he were getting any at all.

She unholstered her pistol and held it with both her hands. Zuri’s gun was cumbersome to carry. While it was technically higher-powered than her pistol, the grips felt rough to hang onto. She did her best and was still able to wield it, though.