Renegades (The Slingers Trilogy, Book 3)

Chapter 13

The foliage of the jungle ahead of them was as thick as a brick wall, and even Dante's swords and Elicia's daggers proved to do little work against the various flora. The Resistance soldiers had their weapons raised, looking around for any sign of trouble. Even though Andress had been in many hostile environments during her time in the GDF, she was still uneasy about this entire planet. Even though there had been no proof of other civilizations like humanity in the new galaxy that the human race had conquered, that didn't mean that there weren't any examples of alien life to be found. Thousands of new species had been found when several planets had been terraformed and colonized. Humans tended to stay away from these "inhabited" worlds, but now, they were quite literally in the thick of one of the most uncharted territories in the galaxy. Whatever was out there in the jungle, Andress was sure they had enough firepower to deal with it. At least, she was fairly sure. After a while of walking, and no sign of anything that the Piece could be pointing to, Dante suddenly froze stock still. Andress and Elicia noticed, and stopped with him, suddenly alert and looking at him. "What's wrong?" Elicia said. Dante looked at the both of them with a dead serious look, and slowly raised a finger to his lips. Andress looked around at everyone else and whispered loudly. "Hold position!" Everyone stopped. "Don't move..." The soldiers and crew scanned the trees around, looking for anything. Then, Andress thought she could faintly hear the sound of cracking foliage over to her right. As she turned in that direction, something large and brown leapt out of the trees with a crash and a roar, jumping right over her head. A large beast that was about the same size as a shuttle, with large quill-like brown fur, 6 legs, and a large, reptilian snout with several teeth landed on one of the soldiers, tearing him to shreds. Andress's eyes widened as she recognized the creature. It was a Skraarback. And she knew that they were in trouble.

As the Skraarback slaughtered the soldier which it had landed on, his screams rang through the trees, then were abruptly cut off as the creature roared, savouring it's meal. Andress stared at the large beast, and broke the silence between the crew and the soldiers. "OPEN FIRE!" She yelled, and aimed her rifle directly at the creature, unloading every round she could into it's hide. As she glanced to her left, he saw Bunker raise his chaingun and join in as well. Soon, every single Resistance soldier began to unload their rifles onto the large beast, with Nolun, and Trace joining in as well. Elicia rushed forward to engage the Skraarback, Dante held her back, shaking his head. "It's too risky. Wait for an opening!" His deep voice rose even above the gunfire. Elicia nodded her head, and pulled her daggers out in an attack position, waiting for the right moment. The beast didn't seem to be actively trying to avoid the bullets, and Andress could see why. It's hide appeared to be rippling, knocking every bullet that hit it back with ease. It had a tough skin, one that couldn't be pierced by ordinary bullets. Even the armour-piercing rounds that Bunker had in his chaingun didn't seem to be doing much. This was why the Skraarback was considered to be one of the deadliest predators in the galaxy. After a few moments, it roared at the group of soldiers ahead of it, tired of the firing that they were doing. It charged forwards, knocking several of them back. One of the Resistance soldiers hit a tree with a loud crack, and one other was trampled under one of the beast's six legs. As the crew of the Renegade watched in horror, they kept laying down suppressing fire, hoping to at least draw it away from the soldiers. Then, Dante nodded to Elicia, and the both of them rushed forwards, blades extended, leaping into the air, above the creature. They stabbed down with all of their weapons, and managed to break the creature's tough skin. It's roar was loud, and it thrashed in the air, trying to shake off the two things on it's back. It charged right into the remaining crew, looking to crush all of them. "Scatter!" Andress shouted, and the crew did just that, breaking off into several different paths. 

Nolun dove out of the way of the Skraarback quickly, his reflexes helping him out greatly. He rolled as he hit the ground, and looked back at the area where everyone had once been. He saw Elicia and Dante still hanging on the back of the large creature. Nolun had to admit, Dante never failed to amaze him. But then, he saw the beast rear up on it's hind legs, the sudden shift making Elicia lose her grip on one of the daggers. He saw Dante try to grab her and keep her place, but then the Skraarback leaped forwards again, throwing Elicia over it's head and right in front of it, her daggers still sticking out of it's back. It moved forwards and aimed one large clawed foot at her body, until it felt two sharp pains near it's eye. The beast turned to see Nolun, with his repeater extended, aiming right at it's head, firing off a couple of rounds. "Hey! Over here, you overgrown fleabag!" He shot at it a few times again to make sure it got the message, and it roared, signalling it most definitely had. Nolun quickly stuffed the Piece back into his bag and started to run in the other direction, away from where the beast had originally attacked. Dante pulled his swords out, and grabbed Elicia's daggers as well, then skillfully slid off the creature's back as it ran after Nolun. The Skraarback kept running after Nolun, crashing through almost every single obstacle that was in it's way to get to him. Nolun was running as fast as he could, knowing that he hadn't quite thought this through as well as he should have. Then, spotting a vine, he had an idea. He moved towards one of them, then leaped into the air, his forward momentum swinging the green creeper forwards, arcing him upwards. He saw a tree branch ahead of him, and let go of the vine, and reached out desperately for the branch. He gripped it with both of his hands. Pulling himself up quickly, he heard the crashing sound of the Skraarback coming closer. He began to climb as fast as he could, trying to get as high as possible. As the beast came to the tree, it clawed up the trunk, and began to slam it's head into the large tree. With each slam, the entire trunk shuddered, and soon, Nolun began to feel himself slightly leaning backwards. Then, a loud cracking noise echoed from beneath him, and the tree began to fall backwards. Nolun held onto the trunk with all of his strength, then felt a large jolt as the tree hit the ground. Looking beneath him, he was shocked to see not ground, but a long drop down into a small reservoir at the bottom of a waterfall. He heard the roars of the creature, louder than before, and turned around to see it charging towards him, it's weight already bending the tree in half. Nolun took a deep breath and jumped off, seconds before the jaws of the Skraarback snapped closed around the area where he had been. Nolun felt the feeling of falling deep in his chest, then hit the icy cold water, blacking out.