Moonhawk

Chapter 29 - Planet Jenaja

It wasn't easy for Moon to let them beam down to the planet's toxic surface. She was still very much unsure and really worried about the possible danger that laid ahead of the trio. Together with Berry and Max, she took care of the bridge while General Racon, captain Hawk and Queen went down to explore the planet. The Nightclaw ship meanwhile waited patiently in the orbit for their return.

A lot of plants suddenly surrounded their bodies, as the fearless trio beamed down. All of them could barely see beyond 5 feet in any direction, the smog from the factories almost blocked their full sight. The air felt sickly, it was harder to breathe for sure but bearable and it was barely possible to endure its condition. Overgrown flowers and plants made a grueling challenge. The actual swamp was ahead of them, a lot of algae floating atop a relatively stagnant body of water waited for them as well, calling them in silence between the melodies from creatures who made this habitat their home, to step on the sensitive growth on the water. Nevertheless, no one was sure if they actually should step on the plants or algae. Not even General Racon was. He took out his scanning device carefully and checked if the water itself was toxic or not.

After he scanned a bit of the water, he then reported: "According to the scan, the water itself from the swamp isn't toxic. However... I don't trust the algae on it and everything else that crawls on or in it. You two, be careful and watch your step."

Acknowledging the possible danger from the swamp the trio had to be careful about... Hawk wasn't sure himself, if he should have listened to Moon. The area which they currently are, gave him a very unnerving vibe but he snapped out of that thought and answered: "Understood, general."

"Wait wait wait... we should actually go over there?! Over the muddy and disgusting swamp?!" It was Queen who interrupted, the pink Nightclaw member wasn't used to facing such dangerous places. Afterwards, she'd rather be up on the ship than facing the dangerous territories of the planets surface. Why did general Racon choose her for the mission anyway?

"Indeed, Queen. After all, we want to find new life forms, to hopefully ally with them. The factories already reveal the mystery that there is. We only have to find them." Not saying a single word more, the strict general was the first who stepped on the water to continue their mission. Queen was totally disgusted from the look of the swamp and the smell of it. She didn't want to go there at all but she had to and followed the experienced general as well.

"Blegh, this is no swamp... it's a jungle!" Of course, the pink member was still disgusted by the swamp while they continued their way deeper down to the mysteries of those places. Every plant they walked across made an attempt to block their path. General Racon had to use a sharp moon sickle to cut the annoying overgrown weeds. Some of the vines had thorns on them, the general thought that those thorns could be poisoned and was even more careful not to let the dangling ends hit him or anyone.

As they walked deeper in the unexplored territories, Hawk could not seem to shake off the feeling that someone was following them between all those overgrown weeds. A fast shadow rushed inside of a bush near him. For a short moment, he believed that he saw a visor from another bean in the heavy brush. In front of the line, the general noticed that the purple captain stopped walking and turned himself around to check on him.

"Did you see something, Hawk?" Racon asked carefully.

"Well, my visor could've been playing a trick on me... but I could swear that I saw something moving in one of those bushes." Once again, the purple one checked and looked at the mentioned bush. No one was there as he checked it again. No shadow, no thing nor object that was moving there.

"Your visor probably just played a trick on you. I see no one there. Let us continue our mission." Hawk wasn't pleased to hear that from Racon however, after he suspiciously looked at the bush for a while, the trio continued their path down the endless overgrown swamp.