We launched and landed on the planet’s surface in a clearing in the forest, depending on the trees to shield the ship from easy view by the planet’s occupants. It was possible they’d seen us entering the planet’s atmosphere. We’d find out sooner or later if they were curious enough to investigate. Much like back on Earth, I’d rather we never crossed paths. Discovery in itself was not maligned in my mind, but encountering other sentient species had a track record of being violent. The only reason I hadn’t picked an entirely different continent was that time was short and we’d located all the necessary conditions in this region rather than the other uncharted land masses.
Bishop sent out a probe. It scanned the immediate area for life forms and detected none, so we hit the release clamp for the landing gear. I had a laser pistol for protection and Grant was carrying a positively massive rifle. Everyone but the survey team was armed, but not enough to slow us down during the trek towards the clearing where we wanted to set up camp. It was three kilometers away, so not that bad a trek all things considered.
The planet orbited a sun not dissimilar to the one back in our solar system, so sunshine was the first thing I noticed walking down the ramp. The trees were interesting; their trunks were white with flaky grey bark and the leaves were dark green, almost black. The vegetation on the ground bore similarities to moss, being very dense and growing in thick clusters. The loam underneath us was a rusty color, not unlike the kind of soil we’d seen in the ravine near the native population.
I ran point. Grant and Bishop flanked me, followed by our land survey team, and two soldiers from my unit brought up the rear: Andrea and Thomas respectively. We fanned out to double check the perimeter, found it clear, and then waited for our folks to collect soil, vegetation, and any other relevant samples.
Once they’d finished collecting samples, we started towards our destination. The trees were lightly dispersed, so there was decent visibility for the terrain up ahead. We left the wooded area after a half mile and entered into a field with knee-high plants reminiscent of wheat, but instead of being a brown-gold hue, they were tipped with tiny bright blue flowers. We paused long enough to let them collect another set of samples, then continued.
Just before we crested the hill, Bishop halted. “Captain, I’m reading life forms on the other side.”
“Roger that. What have we got?” I stepped up to his side to look at the tablet that had a live feed coming from the surveillance probe he’d sent out ahead of our route to check it. There was a small herd of what looked like mammals that appeared to be grazing about twenty yards left of us. They had trunks that they used to bring the plants up to their mouths. Their fur was tan with white stripes and they were built like beasts of burden with thick chests and round bodies. The four of them had antlers and long, floppy ears like elephants.
I turned to the group and said, “Weylan, you’re up.”
“Yes, Captain.” Our biologist, Weylan Yorkshire, trotted over. He was young, just out of his twenties, with dirty blond hair and glasses, his frame rather sleight. He came up to Bishop’s right side and observed the creatures, muttering a few things under his breath as he watched.
“Based on what looks like a pack structure and their dense bodies, I would put these creatures on the same footing as elephants. They’re clearly not built to run from predators, so they probably defend themselves with those antlers if attacked. Wild elephants usually don’t become aggressive with the exception of two instances: mothers protecting their calves or bull elephants during mating season. The four of them look to be adults, so my advice would be to go a little further down to keep a wide berth. They may have poor eyesight like elephants do too.”
“Got it. Thank you.” I turned to the group again. “Everyone, let’s stay quiet until we pass by our neighbors. Make sure the flash is off if you feel the need to photograph these animals. We don’t want to spook them and cause an accident.”
“Yes, Captain,” they chorused. I met eyes with Grant. He gave me a subtle nod to confirm he’d be on high alert. I trusted Weylan completely, but I also knew to expect the unexpected.
The group walked another twenty yards to the right and then we proceeded down the hill as quietly as possible. The animals didn’t seem to notice us, much to my relief.
But by the time we reached the bottom of the hill, something was amiss.
The biggest of the four stood at the height of a moose. I spotted familiar genitalia, so I inferred it was male and possibly the pack leader. Just as we reached the bottom of the hill, he tossed his head and let out a grunt that sounded like he’d been annoyed by something. I touched my HUD and zoomed in on him. He pawed the dirt, tossing up clods with his hooves, and angled his massive body in our direction. I couldn’t figure out why—we hadn’t made a sound and we were pretty far off from his herd—but then I spotted a reflection shining directly into his right eye.
Before I could determine where it was coming from, the creature charged us.
“Run!” I shouted, drawing my pistol. “Bishop, lead the group to safety. Andrea and Thomas, keep everyone together. Grant, with me.”
“Yes, Captain!” The group broke into a sprint in the opposite direction of the charging beast.
“I don’t wanna kill it,” I told my partner. “Try shooting at the ground in front of it on three.”
“Roger that.” Grant planted his feet and aimed the rifle, his gaze steady.
“One…two…three!” We both opened fire. My shot kicked up a bunch of dirt roughly three paces from the beast. Grant’s much larger shot was about two paces from the beast’s front legs. It let out a bellow and stumbled a little when it heard the blasts and saw the divots we’d made in the ground in front of it.
“Come on, come on,” I muttered under my breath, stepping back to put more distance between us. “We’re not trying to hurt your family, big guy. Just go.”
The beast pawed the ground again and broke into a gallop, his antlers lowered in attack position.
“Shit!” I lined up my sights. “Try to glance a shot off his side.”
“Got it.” We both fired. My shot missed, but Grant’s was right on the money.
And to my utter dismay, the laser bounced off its thick hide as if it had been hit with a harmless laser pointer instead.
“Sonova—” I jerked my head at the hill. “Get to higher ground!”
Grant and I turned and hauled ass back up the hill with the beast on our heels. My prediction had been right—all that weight was difficult for the creature to carry at a steep incline, so it stumbled and had to dig its hooves into the soil to find purchase.
Grant got to the top first on account of his longer legs and he caught my arm, pulling me up onto the crest of the hill by his side. He tugged a flashbang from his belt and brandished it. “Captain?”
I winced. It wasn’t a nice thing to do, but we had to make tracks and keep our group safe. “Yeah, go for it.”
Grant pulled the pin and tossed it towards the beast. He and I then jumped down and skidded to the bottom of the other side of the hill just as it went off. I flattened myself to the ground and covered my head, shutting my eyes as I heard the animal shriek. Poor thing.
We climbed up and checked to see the creature had run off back towards its herd, too distraught from the flashbang to worry about us. I slumped onto my belly and sighed. “God, that was close.”
“Too close,” Grant agreed, flopping beside me on his back. He then cocked his head slightly and narrowed his eyes. “Where the hell did that come from anyway? We weren’t anywhere near them.”
“Oh, you’re gonna love it,” I said. “I think we have a saboteur in our midst.”
Grant frowned. “No shit?”
“Just before it charged, I saw something suspicious. Or I thought I did, anyway. It’s just a theory, but I think our superiors sent Suzanne to get me out of the way. I’ve heard from several of her colleagues that she’s a chronic backstabber.”
“But why?” he demanded. “They have the authority to fire you, technically speaking. If they want you out of the way, why do this instead?”
I smiled wryly. “They know my men respect me and wouldn’t cooperate with their demands if I’m still above ground.”
“Well, that’s just stupid. None of us respect you; we just fear you.”
I smacked him in the arm, which made him chuckle. “Hardy-har. Thanks for the sympathy, pretty boy.”
He stood up and offered a hand. “You’re welcome, Cap’n.”
I took his hand and let him pull me to my feet. I adjusted my HUD to pick up the trail of our survey party. Bishop had done a good job leading them away from the danger; they were about a half-mile away from us.
“How do you wanna play it when we catch up to them?” Grant asked.
“Play dumb for now. I need more evidence before I decide to j’accuse.”
“You speak French?” He made an aroused noise and I kicked his ankle, stifling laughter as we started down the other side of the hill again. I opened the communication channel. “Bishop, Andrea, and Thomas, do you read me?”
“Got you, Captain,” Bishop answered. “You guys okay?”
“Yeah, we’ve deterred our big friend and we’re headed your way. Everyone okay?”
“Well…”
“What?”
“We, uh, we can’t find Suzanne.”
I traded a suspicious look with Grant. “What do you mean you can’t find her?”
“No one can recall seeing her after we ran through the trees to the other side of the clearing. We were hoping you’d see her while bringing up the rear.”
“Alright, stay put. We’ll search the area. If we don’t see anything, we’ll break off into a search party. She can’t have gotten far.”
“Yes, captain.”
I closed the channel. Grant and I met eyes again. “Pinky, are you pondering what I’m—”
“Ah-ah,” he said, wagging a finger. “Copyright infringement.”
I snorted softly. “Does it count if we’re on another planet?”
“I dunno; they’re pretty strict about this stuff.” He then gave me a serious look. “But yeah, Brain, I’m pondering what you’re pondering. No way this is coincidence.”
“Ayup. Let’s see if command can get me a trace on her suit.” I opened the channel to communicate with our ground transport. We’d left our pilots behind to mind it in case things broke bad. “Captain Conroy here. I need a location trace for one of our people who wandered off.”
“Yes, Captain, which person?”
“Suzanne Robertson. They said she got separated when they were going into the forest.”
“One moment, please.” I heard some typing. “I’m forwarding her coordinates to you.”
“Send them to Grant as well. Has she triggered her distress signal?”
“Doesn’t look like it.”
“Hurm. Alright, thank you.” My helmet beeped as the information downloaded into it. It gave me the exact coordinates via distance to target instead of latitude and longitude like we’d use on Earth. After all, different planet, different latitude and longitude.
And what I found only made me more suspicious.
“She is way off the beaten path,” Grant said. “What the hell is she doing?”
“Sewing seeds of discord,” I growled. “Look at the direction she’s headed.”
Grant frowned. “You’ve got to be kidding me. We’re fifty kilometers from the natives; there’s no damn way she can make that by herself.”
“Oh, I don’t think that’s even the goal,” I spat as we continued forward past the field and back into the woods. “If she just so happens to bump into them along the way, now there’s justification for conflict. That’s why they sent her; to instigate. She can of course use an excuse saying she got separated from the others. She can sabotage her own communication system and say she got lost. After all, how are we gonna prove what happened?”
“This is ridiculous,” Grant fumed. “If we get to her before something else does, we’re gonna have words.”
“Let’s just hope we catch up to her before she starts a war.”

To be continued in the Spacefunk anthology! Out now wherever books are sold in hardcover, paperback, and ebook!