covered in sweaty blue gunk i made my way through the canopy, the flora and fauna here was quite dangerous, flowers that looked beautiful would often hide the most awful dangers imaginable. there was a purple flower a lot like an earth gardenia but about twelve times the size, as you approached it the leaves started to peel back and reveal a crocodile shaped tendril that extended itself barring razor sharp teeth, the whole movement happened so fast you would literally see a blur of motion, there was no time to move away. my first officer had lost an arm, consequently died, and my colleague mr. smithers had been decapitated by these leaving his wife hysterical and covered in his blood. it took more than a slap to bring her out from her screaming state. however a few hours later she was burnt alive by a flame throwing tree that she stumbled to close to. yeah this planet was a bitch.
we were down to three crew and myself now, heading west towards the minor base hoping to find some weapons and some supplies, food and water. we reckoned we were four hours away, and would make it before dusk, which would be reassuring because dusk was when the bats came out. only these were not bats but savage and vicious pterodactyl like creatures, we had seen them from the safety of first base but never close up, and we all knew that we would not make it through the night.
we had two lasers and a magnetic repulsion unit. the mru just provoked the wildlife further, it seemed to have little effect as a deterrent. one laser had about 5% charge, the other was empty after two crew had used it as a means of escape, cowards.
the three of us were survivors, we made a pact to keep going until we found the base. but as dusk fell one of the men seemed to vanished, no signs of struggle and no noise, as if he had been swallowed whole by the jungle.
so the old man and myself tied a short rope to one another, we watched each others back as we marched through the darkness.
the old man and i had a long history, it was filled with episodes like this, we had been in tight spots many times, but we were lucky, we didn't care about fear, we lived only to live. we had seen all the worlds in the quadrant, from the expansive ocean worlds of section 7, the pleasure domes on anteries 5, we had fought in several wars and skirmishes and survived two space craft crash landings, yeah we were gonna make it.
we were one hour away, the thick gluggy residual liquid that oozed from the plant life was slowing us down, it had covered us completely, our boots were sticking to the ground, the heat was diabolical, it burnt our skin and the cooling systems in our suits packed up ages ago, slowing us down considerably, i'd taken most of mine off for a short while but that left me prone to the awful wasp like bugs that attacked in massive swarms. i'd quickly put mine back on, fortunately i'd escaped the sting but several of my crew were pierced and died an agonising death.
through the canopy we could see the red flashing light atop minor base, sanctuary, our step quickened. we stood before the tall pyramid structure, the entry panel had been overgrown with vines, i grabbed a handful to clear it and my hands started to burn. the old man was wearing his gloves and pulled the vine away, revealling the flat luminous panel.
i punched in the codes. i could see the fear in the old mans eyes. we were greeted by a blast of cold air as the panel slid open. we jumped inside.