I was told this would be a good one, not like last time when I was sent on a wild goose chase after some kids pretending to be hackers. This time would be my big break, I was sure of it. I may even go up the ladder a few ranks, if you catch my drift.
As I sat down in my private briefing room, I activated the tablet. A robotic voice escaped from the small rectangle running through my mission.
I was so excited that I hardly listened to what the Data Tablet said, the only things I heard were, “Scout potential planet,” “tropical jungle,” and “big rewards,”.
I’d be prepping to leave for the remainder of the day and flying out in the morning. What a great day to be me!
***
“Wake up, Sergeant. We have arrived.” The Ship’s Computer told me coldly as I recovered from a massive headache. I knew cryosleep would suck, but I didn’t think it’d be the worst hangover of my life.
I stretched, my back popped multiple times before I opened my mouth to speak. “RAIF. How long was I in there?”
Responsive Artificial Intelligence “Firestorm”, or RAIF for short responded, “35 years, Sergeant. Congratulations on completing the flight, sir.”
Ha! I laughed to myself in excitement at my arrival. I got up and walked over to the button to open the hatch before my better judgement got a hold of me.
“Right. Is the air breathable, RAIF?”
“As you were instructed during the briefing, the air is safe for human use, sir. Oxygen level, 21.3%, under classification, ‘Slightly Rich’” The know-it-all AI relayed.
To be honest, I didn’t remember much from briefing, only that this was supposedly a tropical jungle, and I’d be rewarded greatly for scouting it.
I hit the red, “Open” button on the wall. The ship creaked slightly as the door folded downward, revealing the planet’s surface...
A sprawling desert appeared before me, dunes and dunes of nothing but sand and a few boulders jutting out.
“Haha! Funny one, RAIF! Now please turn off the illusion.”
“You know I am not capable of humor, sir, there is no illusion.”
I stopped for a second, gazing out into the endless world of sand in front of me. I would have questioned RAIF further, but he had never lied straight to my face in the past. There was no illusion, no tropical forest waited for me, this sand was the only thing I’d be seeing this whole scouting trip.
I walked over to the communications tower in the ship, “Get me my coordinator, RAIF.” I said with a hidden rage to my ship’s computer.
“Right away, sir.” RAIF dialed the coordinator on Earth and she picked up almost immediately.
“Congratulations on waking up, sir! What can I help you with?” The coordinator said gleefully. She must have been bored out of her mind waiting for her job to start.
“What is this?” I said aggressively.
“What do you mean, sir?” She said with genuine curiosity.
“This planet is a desert! There’s no tropical forest like I was promised!”
“Tropical forest? Didn’t you listen to the briefing? It said the planet was arid, dry, and had no tropic-,” she paused midsentence, leaving me on a cliffhanger, “Oh... I believe there’s been a misunderstanding on your part, sir. You must’ve misheard ‘no tropical forests’ during the briefing.”
Now I was stunned and angry. This time the anger was directed not only to my superiors, but to myself as well. If only I’d been listening tentatively during briefing.
I should’ve known that those buffoons in High Command don’t know how to toss me a bone every now and then.
The long silence was interrupted by my coordinator, “Well, now that you understand, you’d better hop to it, sir. The planet won’t scout itself,” she paused, “respectfully, of course, sir.” she added.
“RAIF, disconnect.”
RAIF disconnected the call and opened up the scanning kit.
I walked over and picked up the handheld scanner before heading toward the door.
“RAIF, while I’m gone, do a planet-wide scan and look for any life-forms. Alert me on my communicator if you find anything.” I spoke to the lifeless being in my walls.
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Right then, let’s get moving.
***
After walking over 15 kilometers, I hadn’t found any flora or fauna. RAIF hadn’t notified me of anything on his end either though, so I just had to keep walking.
I kicked the sand as I stepped, making the excuse that I was checking for anything underneath the sand while I threw my little tantrum. I couldn’t believe High Command stuck me with another sucky job like this, but after I finished I’d have a lot more freedom over my assignments from all the promotions I’d get.
As I was scanning a boulder I saw something move in the corner of my eye. Luckily, it didn’t escape my sightline before I spotted it. A long lizard type creature, covered in red and yellow scales. I could tell from its size that it was no threat to me, so I followed it to its destination.
The creature settled itself on a large boulder not far from where I was stalking it. It seemed to linger for a while before diving down and disappearing into the sand dune below.
I walked over to the place where the creature had been and looked at the surface of it. It was lined with mushrooms, both dull and vibrant ones, tempting someone to pick them up.
Of course this time the one tempted was me as my stomach rumbled. I hadn’t eaten in over 35 years and it was a long distance back to the ship.
Before popping a mushroom in my mouth I scanned both types. The dull shrooms came back with moderate amounts of cyanide and dopamine, along with a large concentration of sugar. I decided against eating that type for obvious reasons.
The vibrant mushrooms, however poisonous they looked, came back as being a great source of protein, and contained quite a few carbohydrates and other nutrition I didn't care about. The scan didn’t come back with even trace amounts of anything poisonous, they seemed to be a real superfood.
I leaned down and carefully picked around ten of the vibrant mushrooms off of the rock. It was good timing as RAIF sent a notification to my communications device. He’d found medium-sized life-forms on the planet. Humanoid life-forms, in fact.
The humanoids weren’t all too far from the ship according to the scan, they might’ve become a nuisance so I decided to hurry back to the ship while munching on some mushrooms.
I wasn’t at all worried that they would do any damage to the ship. After all, no humanoid nor land animal could travel fast enough to beat me there.
When I had neared the ship, I started to feel a bit dizzy and lightheaded, I attributed this to dehydration and continued walking until my leg muscles started to feel stiff and slow.
Now I was sure that those mushrooms had indeed been poisoned, by what I didn’t know.
I fell face-first into a dune, about a half-kilometer away from the ship. In the distance I heard what sounded like a crude engine. The noise got a bit louder before something terrible happened.
The ship’s war alarm activated, blaring loudly into the not-so-deserted desert.
Multiple vehicles arrived on scene, flinging some of their passengers into the ship before the door could close.
RAIF couldn’t operate the weapons systems without authorization from the ship’s acting captain, so it was only a matter of time before the “Firestorm” would be torn apart by the locals.
I could do nothing but watch as this whole ordeal continued, my legs wouldn't respond to my commands at all, instead electing to ignore me and force me to the ground.
I attempted to grab my communications device to send authorization to use deadly force to RAIF, but that’s when I realized that my whole body had gone numb.
I figured I was within distance for RAIF to hear me if I called-out loud, but when I tried to speak my voice cracked and wouldn’t let out a sound. It was completely hopeless. I’d be forced to watch as my only ride home was torn to shreds by these thugs.
I took another look at their machinery, they looked to be all-terrain vehicles with large sentry-guns mounted on them. It reminded me of a really old movie that I had seen when I was young.
The thugs tore panels of metal off of my ship, the “Firestorm”. They broke the controls to the main door and it was left sitting mostly-open as thugs invaded the interior.
I couldn’t tell what kind of damage they were doing inside of the Firestorm, but I just hoped to God that they wouldn’t find my standard issue weaponry. That stuff in the hands of these indigenous folks wouldn’t end well at all.
A massive boom of sound made all of the thugs fall to the ground for a moment before they started beating out the speaker systems. RAIF was thinking with his head now.
After the thugs had disabled the sounds, they seemed paranoid about something. They quickly packed up without finishing the strip-down process and sped away toward the direction they had come from.
Soon after, I regained some function of my limbs and began to limp toward the Firestorm. By the time I arrived, I still felt numb throughout my body, but at least it was somewhat responsive now.
I climbed into the interior and saw the carnage inside. Wires were ripped from the walls and consoles were completely destroyed.
The main power core had been torn to pieces, leaving me stranded here on this forsaken planet. But there was one hope.
I walked around searching through my mind, trying to remember where the emergency power system on F-1R5XC model ships was, as this was the model of the Firestorm. Eventually, I located it.
The switch was hidden under some debris, but I was somehow able to move it and get to the switch. Flipping it on, the lights inside the room flickered, their red hue indicated that emergency power was active.
“RAIF,” I hoarsely called out, trying for a yell I got only a whisper, “send,” *cough*, “send the distress signal.” I somehow managed to croak out that command, and luckily, RAIF heard it well.
“I have already activated the signal, sir. However, your body seems to be in distress. Shall I use the remaining power to attempt to heal your ailment?”
Mulling over this in my head for a short while I decided that I would need RAIF to charge my weapon if I wanted to live. Reluctantly I said, “No, RAIF, I’ll be alright,” I lied, “use the rest of the power to charge my rifle and open the compartment. After that you can rest, you’ve earned it.” I let out the last line with a cough, the whole course of my speech being hoarse and small.
RAIF charged the rifle and opened the compartment.
I walked over and went to grab the rifle when I felt a stabbing pain in my chest before feeling came back to my whole body. I blacked out for a couple seconds and got up from the floor. Something abnormal was afoot.
Long hair tickled my neck and fell down over my shoulders and back. My chest looked swollen and ached painfully. Overall, as I stood up I felt a lot shorter and smaller. My clothes were longer and I didn’t quite fit in them anymore. My pants were nearly falling off and my shirt now draped over both my upper and lower half, reaching to the lower part of my thighs, just above the kneecaps.
One more thing seemed to be missing. As I felt for it, there was no longer a bump, but instead the area was flat. At that moment I realized... SOMETHING TURNED ME FEMALE...
Thanks for reading the first chapter of "Little Red Bandit Slayer"! This is my first work and I will be releasing chapters as consistently as possible (the first 8 1/2 are going up ASAP since they exist elsewhere). Excited to go on this journey with you, reader!