Systems In Chaos: Dissention

Chapter 2

Chapter 2

Teran ‘Tec’ Artosis tensed his jaw as he looked down at his feet as a small branch snapped with a loud crack under the weight of his boot. He was trying to be quiet, just not very well it seemed. He wouldn’t be able to hunt very well if he kept this up, but he was so tired and the very limited five o’ clock morning light wasn’t helping very much either. He was also too tired to use his senses or his biofeed.

The last few nights for him had been restless. The Hadi had started to systematically sweep sections of the forest. Not near his camp, at least not yet. But, soon they would be found, it was just a matter of time. Though Teran wasn’t sure where else they could relocate to. They had already been forced to move camp three times in the past two months. It had been wrecking his brain as of late.

The men were also hungry. Every time they had been forced to shift their camp, they wasted and lost supplies. That was why Teran was now wandering the forest at five o’ clock in the morning, and he had already been out in the woods for almost an hour, to try and find something to cheer everyone up with.

Looking back up from the broken twig down at his feet he took in his surroundings. Tall pine trees and large oak trees filled the forest and barely left enough room for a hover car to get through, should one have to. This forest was very dense, which was why it made a good base camp. It was in the middle of spring at present and the forest trees were lush and extravagant. Their tall trunks reached high into the sky and their broad and plentiful tree tops left little space for light to creep in from above. Thick as the canopy was light from the sky did manage to find its way down to the forest floor.

In this morning light Teran viewed the wood through a thin blue haze. The mist early in the day was thick and gave the entire place a sense of foreboding and death. It made the forest look deathly cold, and very creepy. The long and stretched shadows created by the sunrise's light coming in from the south west just added to the atmosphere of this place. But Teran didn’t worry about such things, and the fog, at this hour, was starting to fade down to a thin, barely visible, layer. In a couple more hours there would be no mist at all and would stay that way until the next night.

Movement out from the corner of his eye brought Teran back into reality. Pulling his gaze away from his surrounding scenery he focused on the moving creature. He crept forward, slowly and quietly, making sure he didn't step on any weak branches or twigs this time. As he peered through some of the large ferns and shrubs that littered the forest floor he saw his prey. Something that looked akin to a large pig; the boar-like creature, was nuzzling at some bright, fresh, green grass.

 Finally, Teran thought I have found a reasonably sized animal.

Mustering up his control over his body’s biofeed he thrust his hand out towards the pig. Teran felt a slight ripple flow through the air and could just see a near invisible current move in the space between them. He could sense it getting closer and closer to the boar. He waited for the wave of invisible power to hit his target, it only took half a second but the anticipation made it feel as if over a dozen had passed. Teran heard the pig squeal as it was hit by his Biofeed Push. The pig shot up into the air and was sent flying backwards. In this dense forest there was only one outcome for an uncontrollable, flying pig. The boar hurtled into a large pine tree. One of its tusks penetrated the bark of the tree and drove deep into its trunk, however the force behind the pig was too great and its tusk was torn from its face.

Teran now moved quickly, eager to not only succeed in killing the pig but to put it out of its pain also. He hastily made his way through the bushes, pushing the long thorned leaves of ferns out of his way as he did. A sharp pain made its way from his arm to his brain. Teran winced at it and looked down to see a large thorn sicking in his arm. It was large enough to not only have itself firmly lodged into his flesh, cutting him up his forearm as he’d moved, but to be long enough to still be sticking out of his brown cloak. It was more like a large spike than a thorn. He shook his head, damn alien plant life.