Space Shift Stories: McGuffin 45

She Got Skills

Both of them rolled down the steep. Celestine coughs, barely recovering reaches out for her gun that was knocked off. The man walks towards her and grabbed her hair, she pulled one of his legs to cause him to fall out of balance. Celestine went on top of the man and repeatedly punching him. The man pulled her hair and switched up their position. Now the man chokes the life out of Celestine. On her right she saw the gun, she grabbed it but the man squeezed her hand and tries to put in on her head. She struggles to keep him from fully choking her and making sure the gun isn't pointing at her head. The man clearly overpowers her, the man added more of his body weight on Celestine to force her to exhale.

She bashed his cubital letting his grip on her neck loosen. Celestine wasted no time to hold the gun with both hands and positioning it on the man's head, he was shocked, she saw it but didn't hesitate. She pulled the trigger killing him.

She pushed the body aside and went near the steep. It was a good place to hide because where she is not visible above, she held a tight grip on her gun. From a distance she can hear two men shout, calling for their friend probably.

The two man look over the steep. One of them ignored it while the other one took a closer look. He found their friend lying dead on the ground.

As the men proceeds downward, Celestine moved to face them directly and shot four consecutive shots, two bodies dropped dead. Celestine walked in slowly trying to regain her lost tracks. She walked the patches of grass and floor of dried leaves, not noticing one of it was a concealed trap door. Her body weight knocked down the trap door and she fell on a muddy ground.

The place she fell in wasn't just a random dig of the planet's animal but it was a tunnel made by the natives. The tunnel stretches out far from her left, with evenly spaced torches along the wall. She walked closer to the walls and she could see cave paintings, looking at the other walls she saw more paintings that depicts the story and way of life of these people.

"Facinating" Celestine said to herself.

She deduced that these people were once advanced species, but due to pollution created by their technological advancement were forced underground. Few of the animals died out, whilst others adapted. With no food and sufficient materials, the people were drawn back to the stone age. All of them were divided into different groups, the hunting group which she killed were the best men that travels to the surface for food.

As she walked deeper to the tunnel she looks for ways to reach the surface. But Celestine was deep below the surface that somehow she receives a signal. She scans to see if there were any open channels.

"Celestine if- can- he- me. We- still- posit-" She hears my voice over the clatter.

"Rover are you there? Hello?" She tried to reach us.

In the ship I heard Celestine's voice. I called out for Luther.

"What is it Rover?" He asked.

"I got her on the line" Luther can hear Celestine's voice but it was very noisy.

"The radio is too weak, if she can contact us that means her holowatch is functional."

"Meaning?"

"I'll tap in her communicator via her holowatch. But I can be the only one who can talk to her"

I was disheartened but I know that she must come back. "It's okay, just tell her to send smoke signal and we'll pick her up."

"Okay" Luther stood still and closed his eyes.

Meanwhile in the tunnel Celestine was about to lose hope when she hear Luther through her communicator clearly.

"Celestine, I have tapped into your communicator. Where are you?"

"Luther thank heavens your there. I am underground... I think I am where the natives live" She told him.

"Can you recalibrate your holowatch to this frequency so that I can pinpoint your location?" He asked her as she overrides her holowatch to display a number.

"Got it" She said as she finished recalibrating her holowatch.

Luther saw a her coordinates which was close to the item.

"I got your location aswell as the Item. You are approximately 500 meters north of it"

"Mission takes top priority. Track me incase I need extraction" She ended the trasmission.

Celestine moved forward about 250 meters when she heard a loud chanting in unison. She sticked closer to the walls and saw a seperate room. All the natives dancing and celebrating in what seems to be a church room. She saw Item 1 on the altar. She creeps behind on the inside as the natives finish dancing and bows down to worships the item, whom they've considered as a god.

She knows that if she takes the item now there is a possibility that they will kill her where she stands. She rolled near the altar and ducked behind it. She looks for a possible distraction, until she saw her wrist.

"Luther, I'll be radio silent. Get the Swift airborne and ready for extraction"

Celestine activated her holowatch and projected Item 3 and placed it behind the actual one. She looked over to see if everyone is bowing down, as soon as she saw no head were upwards she snatched Item 1 and escaped. But the holowatch wasn't securely place on the alter so it fell down and landed on the floor activating the torch, spotlighting her.

The natives looked at her, looked at the altar, back to her. They saw that Item 3 was not on the altar but on her hands, her face became worried. An elder shouted something in her language that made everyone shout as well, Celestine took it as a signal to run like hell.

Celestine runs as fast as she could be holding the item in her arms. The natives followed, she ran knocking down a few torches trying to stop them from chasing. As she ran forward she could see a stairwell from a far. Celestine sprinted towards the stairs.

Meanwhile on the ship, Luther told me to get the ship airborne. He shared a coordinate where I should fly by. I prepared the ship and flew it near where the coordinates was, which was in the middle of the jungle.

"Where is she?" I asked Luther.

"Hold on I'm looking for a signal" He replied while looking for any signal made by Celestine.

Back on inside the tunnel, Celestine reached the end of the stairs and saw a wooden door. She shot it about four times and ran into it breaking her out of the tunnel. She saw the ship from afar, she looked and saw the natives were still chasing her. She ran away and shouting at the top of her voice at the same time yet she can't be heard. She remembered she had a flare so she took it and light it up but because the forrest was dense nobody saw it.

Celestine reached around her pocket to see if there is something she can use to signal them until she felt a battery pack on her pocket, she tied it with the flare and ran towards the ship. With the natives close by, she made sure she was near the visible areas of the ship. She threw the battery pack and shoot it creating a giant explosion big enough that we noticed.

"There" Luther pointed out to the explosion. I flew it down and I saw Celestine being chased.

Luther prepared a rappel gun and shot it near Celestine. She saw the cable and secured herself, Luther pulled her in. Celestine was panting, and whezing trying to catch her breath.

"Got it" She said showing us Item 3. We smiled on the fact that we all made it out, I flew off higher and Luther punched in a coordinates of another planet to go get Item 4.