Life on Mark II

First Attack

Chapter 6

Commander Kamal

The first week was a huge bore for everyone, but none found it was more monotonous as Commander Kamal. He wanted to get to the part where they rolled up their sleeves and got digging. Right now they were observing and writing. Each day they went a little bit farther and saw a little bit more. By the end of the week the group had observed 15 miles from the shuttle going west. After a day of rest, the groups got back together but this time they were each carrying large backpacks that contained equipment for taking samples, measurements, temperatures, and for observing the molecular structure of materials. 

On the eighth day of their settling, the groups packed all of their measuring and sampling equipment and got ready to go. They headed off in the now familiar direction ready to get down into the planet. All day they put sand and water into jars, captured and tagged animals to observe, and took samples of just about everything from the water to plants to the sand.

By the time night rolled around it was quite a challenge to get the students back to the home base. Some of the alumni had to be pulled away from their tests, literally, and dragged back to the encampment. 

The discouraged atmosphere quickly turned into an exhausted bunch of scientists. They knew that they would need to rest for their minds to be in full function and tip top shape.So they all were asleep and dreaming by sunset. 

an hour before sunrise the whole group was woken up by a loud roar that rattled their teeth in their gums. It was followed by a *THUMP THUMP THUMP* that shook the ground. Another roar and more thumping even closer indicated that something was coming for them. Even with the lights of the stars and the moons in the north and south of the sky they could only see the bare outline of something dark and huge coming at them at full speed. It looked like an evil cross of a bear and an ostrich that was put on steroids. It was at least 5 meters tall. A beak dominated most of it's facial features.It's long neck was spottily covered in crimson fur. The beast charged at them full speed with destructive intent.

The 5,250 students didn't panic or run around in a hectic display of loss of self control. They immediately started an orderly evacuation to a nearby cave they had been preparing as an emergency bunker. It was complete with a mobile rock door that sealed out attacks and bombardments. It was utterly neanderthal to the students but they suggested they could upgrade later. One person was missing though. A boy in Commander Kamal's group. 

Jackson Praxxy was getting out of his sleeping bag when the earth shaking footfalls of the beast had caught his groggy mind by surprise. He had fallen backwards and knocked himself out on a metal support column in the shelter. 

As the other commanders were leading their groups into the bunker Kamal looked back to see Jackson's booted feet lying halfway out of the door. Running as fast as he could he got to the shelter. He was in great athletic shape. There had been an athletic boot camp during the time of preparation. This had proven to be a good move on the planners' part. He reached Jackson in a matter of seconds. 

The beast was closing in fast but as the commander slung the unconscious boy over his shoulder he widened the distance between them by going past what he was sure was the possible human physical limits. He reached the bunker just as the door was closing. behind him he heard the crash of the animal running into the wall of impenetrable rock. It kicked and headbutted the wall, shaking the cave. The inhabitants waited patiently for the creature to go away. After a while it appeared to have gotten bored with the group. They heard it's footsteps fading away. 

When all was once again silent, the rock wall slid back to reveal an emerging dawn. The first unprovoked attack on the group was a major benchmark in their settlement. It awoke them to the reality that they weren't on vacation, but were going to colonize a new world and make it better than life on Mark I. They were the last hope for humanity's survival. They wouldn't fail.