Renegades (The Slingers Trilogy, Book 3)

Chapter 15

Nolun awoke on the side of the stream, facedown in the mud and reeds of the riverside. He slowly picked himself up, brushing some of the mud and dirt off his jacket. He dragged himself up to the shore and solid ground, and shook some water out of his hair. He tried to remember what had happened before he had ended up here. He thought back to the chase with the Skraarback, and the tree cracking, and the waterfall...the Piece! He quickly looked around for his bag, then found it and unzipped it. Nolun let out a deep sigh of relief when he saw that the cube was still inside. He zipped his bag back up and slung it over his shoulder, standing up. He looked around, trying to get his bearings. He didn't recognize his location, or where he was in accordance to the shuttle landing site. Nolun reached for the comm unit in his ear, only to find that nothing was there. Figures. He thought to himself. He reached inside the bag again and pulled out the flare gun that he was supposed to use to signal Koil and the Vulcans. He aimed the gun up in the air, and pulled the trigger, only to hear a fizzle rather than a poof and a bang. He looked at the gun and saw smoke coming out of it. It had shorted out from being in the water for too long. He quickly drew his repeater, and checked to see if it was working. He calmed down when he saw all the cartridges were operational. He sighed, then sat down on the grass. "Alright then Nolun, let's look at your situation." Nolun said out loud to himself. "You have no way of contacting your team, or anyone for that matter, and are alone and pretty much undefended in one of the harshest environments in the galaxy. What are you gonna do now?" Nolun sat there and pondered this for a few moments, then looked at the glowing beam of light still poking out of the cube.

Koil flew the Swift low over the treeline, scanning for anything that might show where Andress, Trace, or Nolun went, but found nothing. "Sorry guys. I'm not picking anything up on my scanners. Their homing beacons must be malfunctioning." Bunker's worried voice came back over the speakers. "Look again! Maybe the rock formations are causing interference." Koil sighed and turned the Swift around to go for another pass. Then, Koil felt a large shadow pass over the top of the Swift. He frowned to himself. So far as he knew, the rest of the Vulcans were refuelling back at the Dreadnought. A terrible thought entered Koil's mind as he slowly looked up. An enormous shadow blocked out the sun, and dived towards Koil's ship. Something scraped hard across the back of the Swift. Various lights and alarms began to beep and flash in the cockpit as Koil struggled to keep control. Koil looked ahead of him, and got a good look at the thing that had just attacked him. It appeared to be a gigantic bird, with a wingspan that was larger than two Vulcan fighters laid end-to-end. They were light brown and maroon in colour, and looked frayed and battle-scarred. The bird's head was covered with scarlet-red feathers, with an elongated and hooked beak. It had 2 eyes on each side of it's head, and had two huge feet with yellow skin and long talons. The bird screeched and flew towards Koil. Koil quickly pulled up and flew over the bird, trying to evade it. He then saw two rock pillars that were sticking up out of the ground ahead of them. He activated the boosters and flew towards them. The bird followed, screeching and flapping it's monstrous wings to get to Koil. Koil then folded in his wings and flew straight through both the pillars at full speed. The bird, realizing it's mistake, tried to fly backwards to go up, but both it's wings hit the pillars, clipping them. When it hit them, however, one of the pillars collapsed, striking the wing of the Swift. It began to spin out towards the ground, and crashed into the side of the mountain.

Two lights flickered on within the darkness of the cave. Trace had thankfully thought ahead to bring flashlights, and Andress used hers to scan the cave environment around her. It seemed normal enough, with a few rock formations here and there, some stalactites and stalagmites, and a few other piles of dirt like the one they had landed on. Those, however, confused Andress. Why would they be here? They looked too neat and normal to be in a place like this. "Andress! I found a way out! I think..." Trace shouted from over on the other side, and Andress turned away from the piles of dirt to take a look. Trace was shining her light on a small gap in between two walls of the cave, which looked big enough to squeeze through. "Alrighty then. I'll go first." Trace said, and immediately began to move into the entrance. Andress watched her slowly disappear, and waited for what seemed like forever, until she heard her voice come through the tight space. "I made it! Come on!" Andress breathed out, trying to compose herself, and then began to move through the tight space. She found that she had to suck in her body several times to make it through, but she finally emerged on the other side, only to find a beautiful sight awaiting her. The walls and ceiling of the new cavern that they had made it into were covered in a bioluminescent moss, casting everything inside in a neon blue light, so bright they didn't even need their flashlights. "Wow..." Andress said. "Yeah, wow." Trace replied, looking impressed. Andress looked down at the floor, and saw a stream of running water moving through the cavern, and out through a smaller tunnel. "Maybe if we head that way, we can find a way back to the surface." Trace nodded, and they both stepped into the water, slightly shivering at the cold temperature, and followed the path upstream, hopefully finding a place where the water was pouring in. As they ducked down into the small tunnel, they turned on their lights to illuminate everything ahead of them. Thankfully, the lights were waterproof. As they trudged through the relatively deep water, Andress hoped that they would find a way out soon.