Jace woke up in his hammock as he was being poked in the side by the leathery noise of the tiger. He looked at the tiger who was leaning up over the side of his hammock and was making pouting noises.
"I am still alive." Jace chuckled as he leaned back. "But today is day seven of our week-long survival training." Jace leaned over and pulled out his radio from the spot he hid it in near his hammock. He turned it on before he started pulling off his shirt to check his wound.
He unraveled the bandage wrapped around his midsection. Then after looking at his wound that was scabbing over he covered it again. Then he pulled on his shirt before he began moving around his hammock packing up everything around since he would not be coming back up here. As he was getting ready to climb down his radio crackled to life.
"All soldiers on the week-long survival training exercise, the designated landing zone is the top of the mountain near the south side where a large amount of trees have been knocked down. The first pickup will be in an hour, we require all S-rank to be at the designated location for the first pickup."
Jace frowned as he listened before he began climbing down. Hopefully they had medics on the pickup ship. Because as much as he was feeling better he would still like it if a professional took a look at his wound, especially since there were still blue lines going across his skin near his wound.
Jace climbed down from the tree. Noticing the tiger that had begun jumping down going from branch to branch. But it would look up at him every few jumps. Watching him as he climbed down.
It seems the tiger he had taken in has become worried about him because of his tumble yesterday. By the time he was landing at the base of the tree he was breathing heavily with his limbs feeling sore and his hand's feeling tingly.
He looked at the tiger that was waiting patiently with its tail wagging back and forth behind him… her? He actually did not know the gender of this tiger.
As he flinched in pain and began walking toward the former spider's territory he realized that he really had not thought about what he was going to do about the tiger. He had not realized he needed a plan until this moment when he realized the tiger would probably follow him off the planet.
Should he warn the people coming to pick them up? Or should he just treat it as natural and just walk onto the ship without any warning or explanation.
"I suppose they would be okay with me having a pet if I came up with an excuse. Besides, the military still owes me a bunch of money. What do you think? Should I just flex my money to keep you with me?" Jace spoke aloud, turning to the tiger who was keeping pace with him now. Usually it only followed him at a distance. It almost seemed protective in its mannerisms.
The tiger made a soft chuffing noise before rubbing its head against his leg. Then it purred as he rubbed its head.
He was part of the way to the sight when his radio crackled to life. It was the same message as last time except this time it was a thirty minute warning instead of the one hour warning.
A few minutes later he arrived at the place where he fought those blue gel creatures. The blood and their deflated skin was still scattered around the ground but the trees had already started to regrow from the stumps.
There were still plenty of logs spread out all over the place. He would have to reposition them so a transport could land to pick them up. He moved over to the pile of logs and started kicking them to move them. Packing them in between the stumps to make an artificial floor.
Part of the way through his efforts the first people arrived. They all came from the direction of the vine rope he had thrown down.
All of them looked just as tired and exhausted as he felt. They did not even exchange greetings as they started to work. They did glance at the tiger in confusion when they saw it following around Jace.
Then there was a rumble of engines as a ship flew down. At the same time another two people walked over to join the four that had already arrived. They had likely come from the north side of the plateau where the vine rope goes down to the north side of the continent.
They looked a bit worse for wear as they were nursing fresh cuts and bruises. Likely from the mantis-lizards.
As the transport landed he looked them over to assess the others while they did the same to him. But as the rear ramp of the transport lowered they were all staring at the same thing.
While Jace was curious about something else. "So how many mantis-lizard's did you run into?"
The two that came from the north side exchanged a look, "only one. Which one of you has been staying up here?"
"That would be me." Jace answered with a chuckle.
"How have you lived up here with those things? They must be a nightmare."
"Actually," Jace shook his head as Commander Eelson walked down the ramp and he started looking them over. "The only thing up here less dangerous than the mantis-lizards are the wolves that cast illusions."
"Saint Demus," One of them cursed in a way he had not heard before. Which makes considering they were all from different planets. "Then what is the most dangerous thing up here?"
Jace breathed out a breath of air, "that's hard to say."
"Sergeant Steel, is that a tiger?" Commander Eelson asked as he looked at the tiger by Jace's side. Which was looking at the other human's with caution.
"I think it is supposed to be. But I thought you guys would know better since a lot of these creatures are failed genetic experiments." Jace pointed out with a shrug. Jace then remembered something he wanted to know. "By the way, what the Hela are those things?" Jace pointed at the pile of blue blood with the deflated skins.
"Those are…" Commander Eelson frowned as he stepped closer. "Actually those are not on the registry of creatures that are supposed to be planetside and neither is that tiger." He looked around before crouching down near the blood.
"Do not touch the blood." Jace told the commander, "it has an adverse reaction with human biology."
"Understood." Commander Eelson stood up and walked back to the transport. "Shuffle on to the transport, Sergeant Steel bring your tiger."
Jace nodded before walking onto the ship followed by the tigers then the others. "Yes sir, will the medical staff be there when we land?" Jace asked as he moved toward one of the seats and sat down while tossing his bag in front of him. The tiger moved and sat on the ground near his legs.
"Certainly, they actually had some questions for you about what happened on day five. But those of you that have to go to the medical ward will still get the exam to take by the end of the day. We need to assess your understanding of what occurred while you were on the training mission." Commander Eelson told them.
"Hey Sergeant Steel, you never told you what was the most dangerous thing on this mountain." One of the others pointed out.
Jace chuckled before answering, "the night critters."
—----------------------------------
"Do we know what Sergeant Steel encountered?" A well dressed woman asked as she looked over the array of holographic information displayed while Solisa was off to the side.
"They are Suneaters, your people actually have a record of them. It was a smart move to switch the S-rank's pick up time from being the last to being the first. From the images on the transport he has already been poisoned." Solisa told the director.
"Suneaters? They only pop up when a star starts dying. Why were they on the main planet?" The director asked as she pulled up the file on Suneaters. The file format that popped up was ancient and was originally from the Grand Hexarian Empire.
"I am actually more surprised by the tiger he is bringing back with him. Even an AI as old as me have only seen records about this creature. But it is not dangerous once it has already been imprinted on someone. I will explain once Jace is better so I do not have to explain twice." Solisa explained as her form did a twirl.
"Does that mean it is part of the information you consider non-essential for being part of the military?" The director asked.
"Actually I do not. But I do consider it to be too bothersome to explain something I know very little about twice." Solisa declared. "You think the other groups will be able to get out in time?"
"They will be fine. Focus on getting Sergeant Steel patched up. We are about to fill those six in on a highly classified project. I can not have the reason why the project exists, out of commission for the debriefing."