Out of Space

Chapter 15: Giant Wolf

"Hey Big Guy, See anything?" Pvt Mills ask Bartley as they followed the 3 technicians into the forest. "What are hell are they collecting?"

"Samples." Pvt Bartley replied. His eyes constantly scanning left and right at the clearing where they stopped.

"Damn, I know its samples, but for what use?" Pvt Mills grumbled, he slaps away an insect that landed on his neck. Both of the Marines were wearing No. 4 forest camo fatigues, open-faced helmets with their armored chest plates and equipment harness. Except for Bartley, he lugs along a PK-299 heavy machine gun, that is attached to an exoskeleton frame that he wears, with several large pouches containing ammunition for his weapon.

"To study."

"You know what? You are all fun and games, really." Mills gave up trying to chat with Bartley and walked up to 1 of the techs crouching over a plant. "Hey, whatcha doing?"

The technician turns and lifts up a small container with a leaf inside. "Well, we are cataloging the plants to see if they can be eaten or used in some way." He gives the bottle a little shake before placing it carefully into his bag.

"Eh, ok." Mills straighten up, unimpressed. "So this blue-green plants are edible?" He pucks a leaf off a small tree. Most of the leaves of the plant life in Blake's world are bluish in color with a hint of green.

"Well not this," The tech stood up. "Over here," he waves Mills over and kneels down to a tiny growth with blue fern-like leaves. "This here is a kind of tuber or root, in case you jug heads don't know what a tuber is." The rest of the techs laughs as he continues his explanation. "The guys at the lab says it tastes like carrot and potato and carries the same nutrients and vitamins as them. So they called this a carr-ato."

"Oh wow." Mills rolls his eyes while Bartley looks on in interest. "So other than the tuber root carr-ato. Nothing more interesting found?"

"Hahaha, we found plenty in the last week." The tech proudly said. "There a tree sap that tastes like maple syrup but when dried becomes like rubber."

"Also there's this berries that the other team bought in," The rest of the techs chipped in stories. "- that huge monster fish from the sea." "-mushrooms from the -"

Mills listened with half an ear to the excited techs talking about new discoveries on this planet. He waves away the insects buzzing around his face and leans against a tree. He looks around the clearing, pulls out a pack of protein bar and starts chewing on it.

"Mills," Bartley said in his usual tone. "Mills, something is watching us."

"What?" Mills jolt up. "Where?"

"I am not sure." Bartley slowly turns on the spot to face towards the forest. His eyes peer intently trying to find the source of his unease.

"Are you sure?" Mills fingered his weapon's safety. He casually walked towards the techs still in lively discussion. "Guys, I think we should start to pack it up. It's getting late." They are roughly 1 hour on foot away from the base.

"But we are not done here. It's still early!" The techs protested. "We only collected less than half of the samples needed"

"We can do it tomorrow, for now, pack it up, we are heading back," Mills growled at the techs.

Sensing something is wrong, the techs quickly grab their belongings and equipment. Less than a minute, they are all ready to return.

"Quickly now, let's go." Mills lead the way with Bartley covering the rear. The group quick march through the forest, climbing over massive tree roots and in certain areas, dense foliage.

"Mills," Bartley comms. "It's following us. I can hear it."

Shit. Mills cursed. "Base, this dog 2, we might have a situation here." He comms back to base.

"What's the situation?" Base radio back.

"We appear to have something following us. Unable to identify,"

"RTB immediately, a rapid response team will meet up with you along the way for escort, over."

"Roger that!" Mills ended the comms. "Let's go," He pushed the group to travel faster.

They push through the dense foliage and emerges out into a field of grass. The wind causes the grass to sway like waves. "This is not good." Mills said as he scans the surroundings. The closest treeline is about 200m away. "It's too open."

"Big guy, hold the rear. We go by frog leap," He tells the group. "I go first. Once I reach the tree line, I will give a signal then you guys are next. Just run ok? Don't stop till you hit the trees."

Mills look left and right before dashing across the field in less than 40 seconds before he arrives at the edge of the forest. He quickly got into a ready position to cover the rest and waves the techs to start running. The techs seeing his signal, they ran towards him. Once they reached the cover of the trees, Bartley followed suit and sprint across.

Suddenly a huge roar erupted from behind Bartley, causing to pause and turn. A wolf the size of a bus leap out from the foliage and lands several meters behind him. Everyone stood and stared in amazement before yelling for Bartley to run. The giant wolf-like creature, has 2 horns like a buffalo, and grey-blue colored fur coat, making it seemingly bend in with the surrounds. It made a leap towards Bartley who following the encouragement of the group, was running towards the trees.

Mills flicked his safety off his M7A1 and took sight on the creature. The 2x red dot sight mounted on the weapons seems to enlarge the creature furthermore. Once he noticed Bartley out of the line of fire, he triggers his weapon, firing a long burst into it. This time, instead of the C type rounds, he was loaded with AP rounds.

The AP bullets slam directly into the center of the creature, causing it to tumble. Sparks and bluish blood burst out from the impacts. The creature yelped in a very dog-like manner and as it rose up, it shook its body causing specks of blue blood to scatter.

"What the fuck!?" Mills roared! "That's cheating! It's bloody armor piercing rounds! It fucking shrugged it off!" Pissed, Mills continued firing at the creature.

By this time, Bartley made it over to the tree line. He took a deep breath and braced himself as he hoists his PK-299 and fires a stream of bullets at 1,400 rounds per minute. The tracers from the HMG was like a laser, striking the creature, and tearing it to meat chunks.

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