Story Game v2.0

"Halvett, Jinnik. You're with me."
"M-me?" Jinnik asked weakly.
"That's what I said." Holst told him bluntly.
"But Doggo won't work in the dead zones."
"Not Doggo. Just you, boy."
And with that said, Holst made one last check of his rifle and marched off, a silent demand for them to step up and follow.
"You heard the man, Jinks." Halvett patted him on the head in a patronizing way as he passed.

The pilot had tried to guide them down out of the dead spot but the descent was too steep and, without the thrusters, gravity just did its thing and left them a little short. The ground impact was a tough one but there was no real, lasting damage, to either the dropship or the crew.
"If you're still here to give it a name then it must have been a 'landing.' It's only a 'crash' when you're dead." The pilot always had a smart line to deliver, always had a grin to flash. It wasn't always appreciated, but on this occasion no-one cared. The guy had done his job and done it well and for that it was worth tolerating his cockiness.
Still, the location wasn't ideal. After debarking the dropship the pilot, along with Krayson, who had navigation experience, set to work pin-pointing their position. This was old-school stuff. All sight-lines, compass and angles. Triangulation, like the methods the old men used to talk about when telling stories of history. And sure enough, they'd ended up about halfway between the mountain and the horizon of the electro-magnetic dead zone. There was only one thing Holst could do... Split the team. Two of the Privates were assigned to stay with the pilot to guard the dropship and the now defunct DO-990 robot. Krayson would command another unit to trek back out of the dead zone to send a transmission back to base. And Holst... he'd press on with the mission.
"Halvett, Jinnik. You're with me."

The sun rose quickly as they moved on, puncturing the low layers of cloud with its advancing light and heat. Too soon had the dawn breeze been baked away. Now the march on to the mountain was accompanied by a more oppressive climate. Halvett wiped away sweat as he filled his canteen from a small waterfall that cascaded over the edge of a substantial rock face before meandering as a stream back to through the trees. He watched a large insect, about the size of his hand, land and settle on the fronds of a nearby plant. It was like a mutant butterfly with five wings, two either side flapped in a familiar way but one more at the back angled up like the tail fin of a plane. The wings and their vibrant colours seemed strangely ephemeral, fading in opacity according to the viewing angle as if sometimes they were not there at all.
"You good, soldier?"
"Sir. Yes, sir!" Halvett answered his commanding officer, his body snapping upright and rigid into an attentive posture. "Just getting refreshed."
"At ease. We're not on parade here."
He relaxed and looked back to the insect but it had long gone. The frond of the plant quivered in its absence. He took a gulp from his canteen then topped it up again from the waterfall. "Thank you for picking me for this mission, Sarg."
"Don't thank me just yet, kid. Who knows what we'll find at the end."
At the end? He'd never really thought of it in those terms before. On hearing the words he glanced upwards and, through a gap in the overhanging foliage, caught sight of the towering mountain, looming ever closer now.
"Of course, Sir. It just means a lot to us to be selected for something like this, doesn't it, Jinks?"
Jinnik didn't respond.
"Jinks?" Halvett looked around. "Where'd he go? Jinks!"
Holst instinctively raised his weapon and scanned the the surrounding area down the sight. There was no sign of Jinnik. "You're supposed to stay in contact."
"He was here a minute ago." Halvett insisted. "JINKS!"
"Not so loud!" Holst ordered. "And don't call him that." The sound of the nickname now seemed like tempting fate. He crept forward, still sighting his weapon, and gestured silently to Halvett: a whirl of a finger then a jabbing point to the right. Forward advance. Split formation. Halvett obeyed and the pair of them led with their weapons to the trees beyond.
Holst suddenly wished that he could have taken Doggo along with them. Everyone thought of Jinnik as the robot's babysitter but maybe it was the other way around. Perhaps it was the robot that had looked after him. But not here. Damn the dead zone. And damn Jinnik too! He suppressed thoughts and fears of what could happen to a soldier out here. He'd lost men before. Images of memories existed inside him. Bodies. Faces. Weeping families. Holst did not look inside. He pushed on. Silently searching. There was something here with them. He could feel it. And all those memories inside him warned of it. He turned back to Halvett and pressed a finger to his lips. Quiet now. This way.
Halvett took a step and put all his weight down on a cross branch. It snapped and snapped loud. Loud enough to startle, loud enough to echo. Loud enough to attract attention from... The two men spun around and aimed their weapons. Halvett saw his own gunsight trembling rhythmically with his heart beat. But there was nothing there to shoot at. Just dappled shadows disguised as all his fears. He took a breath and relaxed, turned to Sergeant Holst who was shaking his head.
"Quietly." The Sergeant implored and Halvett nodded, a little embarrassed. This wasn't like the training. This was different. He nodded again to his commanding officer, eager in his need for affirmation but now Holst was just pointing past his shoulder. Halvett's gaze followed and he saw the gap between two overgrown bushes. Beyond was a crouched figure. Jinnik.
Stalking through the bushes, they found the young soldier hunched over, bending down with arm out-stretched towards a small, furry ape-like creature. It made a soft, keening noise at the man, then a high pitched trill, its head tilted from one side to the other yet its large, curious eyes remained fixed on Jinnik's face. It glanced at his hand, sniffed it and came closer.
"Jinnik!" whispered Holst, trying to keep his voice low yet forceful.
Jinnik turned to look, and with eye contact broken the small ape bounded away, bouncing up into a tree and then swinging off away from view.
"What the hell are you doing with that? It could have been anything. It could have killed us all!"
"It's just one of the furballs." Jinnik seemed nonchalant about the whole incident. "Well, that's what some of the scientists call them. They seem quite friendly enough, especially in small numbers. Although when there's a large group of them they can sometimes-"
"They're wild animals!" Halvett interrupted. "They're ALIENS! How can you know they're friendly?"
"I read all the science reports when I was back on the Omicron. You know, after Doggo and the ball."
Halvett scoffed loudly while Holst merely sighed.
"What were you doing anyway?" The Sergeant interrogated him on the spot. "You were supposed to stay in visual contact. Remember?"
"Yeah, sorry." Jinnik looked a little sheepish. "I just saw these berries growing and picked a few to eat, then the furball came down and-"
"Berries!?" Halvett again butted in. "How do you know they're not poisonous?"
"Well, I read the..." Jinnik shrugged and added quietly, "...science reports."
"Come on." Holst told the pair of them. "We need to move on."

"I thought that tree sap was never gonna wash off!" John Lawrence seemed happy to have his shirt back on after cleaning himself up in the portable shower units behind the main X8 base tent.
"Stop complaining," Elander told him without getting up. "After all that everyone's been through I can believe you're fussing about a bit of natural dirt."
He sighed. "Sorry. So, how is everyone?"
"The guards are fine now. Helena too. But there's no sign of any kind of trauma or bruising so they weren't knocked unconscious. And I can't see how they could have been drugged. I just wish they could remember."
"You think this is all down to that 'Relin' guy?" He had now been filled in on the memo.
"Absolutely! Whoever- Whatever he is."
Sat at the main conference table Elander was surrounded by reproductions of the cave paintings. Lawrence casually picked one up and saw the spiral shape she had drawn on his chest.
"How did you know those creatures would react to this?"
"The spiral and the sphere seemed to be such powerful symbols in terms of their position and repetition. It's like they belong together, or rather they oppose each other in some way. Many ancient cultures depict their surroundings in those terms. Light and dark. Day and night. The sun and the moon. The abstractions of those relationships and the myths they engender seem to transcend all kinds of existence and experience, however alien they may be."
"If these symbols represent some struggle or fight then the wrong symbol could have resulted in a completely different response. How did you know which one to use?"
Elander shrugged. "I er... guessed."
"You guessed!?"


"You hear that?" Jinnik aimed his weapon at the trees behind.
"Hear what?" Halvett just looked onwards, the mountain now filling his angle of vision as well as his attention.
"Probably nothing." Smaller distant sounds seemed to echo more and more in the descending valley that funneled the men down to lower plains that surrounded the solitary peak. It made it difficult to distinguish the origin of noises, their direction, their distance.
"Keep up, boys," Holst urged them on. "Almost there, now."
"Jinks..."
"Yeah?" he turned back to Halvett at the murmur of his nickname.
"What now?" came back the frustrated reply.
"I thought you said-" Jinnik turned around again and raised his weapon. "I thought I heard..."
Halvett laughed. "Are you still pining for your furry friends?"
Jinnik ignored him, he'd had more than enough of this kind of teasing banter. It was getting tiresome.
"Jinnik!" Holst was now by his side. "We should keep moving."
"Yes, sir. I know. It's just that... It's like I can hear whispering around us. I think something's watching us."
"I'm sure there's lots of stuff watching you, son. Even I'm watching you. And I'd like to watch you keeping up!"
"Look! There!" He pointed with his weapon to the left.
Holst swung his gaze around and saw the small ape creature hop down from a tree branch in the distance behind them.
"Well, look at that!" Halvett seemed amused by this. "Your little pet wants to follow you home, Jinks."
Jinnik looked through the scope on his weapon. "No, this is different. It's not one of the furballs. Its skin looks kind of leathery." He saw more of them dropping down from the trees. "This is something very different." In the magnified view he saw the lead ape collapse into a cloud of dust that swirled and throbbed like a tiny storm before it coalesced into a smaller denser form. It became a levitating sphere, shiny in the sun. "Did you see that? Did you see?!"
All three of them watched as the sphere dissolved and expanded and then the cloud poured itself again into the ape-like form. It raised its arm and pointed towards the three soldiers. Through his scope Jinnink saw the ape's face, he saw emotion, intention, ambition. He saw something to be fearful of.
"Run!" Maybe Jinnik said it. Maybe they all did.

Overcome by instinct, Halvett fired at the apes as Jinnik set off past him and then got an urgent pat on the shoulder from Holst. "That means now, soldier!"
"I'm sure I hit one of them!" He shouted out as he tried to catch up. "Didn't see it fall but I'm sure it was wounded. I'm sure it was limping."
"Quit your bragging, sharpshooter. Just keep up."
Holst chased on after Jinnik. It seemed odd to be following him, of all people, but it wasn't as if they had a choice. Fleeing down the narrowing valley was the only option available. One thing about Jinnik did impress him. The kid sure was fast. As the trees closed in on either side it was becoming difficult to see him ahead.
"Keep on going, Jinnik," he encouraged. "And don't look back!"
"Sir! Yes, Sir!" he heard back.
He didn't follow his own advice though. Responsibilities wouldn't let him. He turned to check on his other soldier, but still kept running on. "Halvett!" He couldn't see him through the encroaching tangle of branches. "You there?" He heard another volley of gunfire and shouted. "HALVETT! Keep up! Keep! running!" He wanted to wait but couldn't let Jinnik get too far ahead.
"On my way, sir. I'm there. I'm there."
Thankfully Halvett's voice didn't seem distant so Holst kept on sprinting, flailing an arm to bat away tree limbs that groped in his way. He swatted them left and right, ducked under the larger ones, vaulted over fallen logs, panting now as the sprint started to take its toll, burning his lungs and muscles. Then he stopped a moment. He had to. The track that ran down the centre of the valley, the path that defined their escape, forked in front of him, split by a tall jagged rock that was shadowed with overhanging bushes.
"Jinnik!" He called out. "JINNIK!" louder now.
No response.
Which way did he go? Which way should I go?
He could stand here all day asking himself questions.
"Jinnik!" No response. "Halvett?"
"Coming!" At least that voice was clearer now. Holst made the decision.
"Halvett. Right. Go right." And he set off down the right side path.
About 20 seconds later he heard Halvett behind. "Going right, sir."
Holst was happy at the timing. 20 second split was good. They were gonna make it. Then he heard a whisper. A murmur. It sounded like....
"Jinks..."
He sensed something in his peripheral vision and ducked instinctively. Something swung out of the high bushes to his right. Dark and menacing, it swung back again. He tried to duck again but lost his balance and his sprint turned into a roll. Holst may have been getting older but he still had some agility. Training does that to you, you never really lose it. He went with the roll and used it. Planting his shoulder down and twisting so that he could bounce back up to his feet facing the other way, facing his enemy. He dropped to one knee raised his weapon and aimed at the ape that was stood there. He pulled the trigger and held it, sending round after round into the creature. He roared in satisfaction until he realised that the ape still stood there. All his shots just went straight through, leaving not wounds but just an ephemeral burst of dust that just reformed.
"No," he refused to believe it. "No," he repeated as if conceding defeat. "No!" he cried out in despair.
"No...." he thought he heard the ape murmur back at him.
"Nooooooo!" Holst screamed as he turned away and ran again. Running was all he had and yet, as he burst past more bushes into an opening, even that seemed to be taken away from him. The ground either side fell away leaving only a path which was now a rocky walkway. But up ahead, part of that rock had collapsed, eroded away by the river that flowed below. The gap was surely too big but what else could he do. That ape was still there behind him. Holst ran on, ran as fast as the body would permit, and with every strength and strain and effort that was left... He jumped the gap....
Almost.
His foot nearly reached the ledge but fell agonizingly short. Instead the side of his body impacted hard and he went down. As he fell he clawed at anything within his reach and in his panic managed to grab a tangle of dying root that had grown through the underside of the rock. He looked down and tried to judge the distance, but the only thing he knew was that it was too far. He clung hard to that dying root. But dying roots are not strong. He knew that and felt it too. It slipped. It frayed. And then it snapped.
Holst felt his stomach lurch as freefall pulled him away. He closed his eyes to blind himself to his fall, his death, his failure.
But then his stomach jolted again and freefall was gone. He opened his eyes and saw Jinnik leaning over the edge and gripping his wrist hard.
"Hang on, Sir. I've got you."
"Jinnik," Holst tried to say, but all that came out was laughter and relief. He clambered back up and over the ledge, assisted by the pull of the young soldier. "Where were you, boy?"
"You should have taken the left side, Sarg. I tracked back up the other path when you didn't show."
"Lucky guess?"
"No, Sir. I remembered seeing some of the satellite maps when I read the-"
"The science reports." Holst nodded and chuckled. "I may have underestimated you, boy."
"Where's Halvett, sir? Did he..."
"He's just behind me." And then Holst remembered the ape. He stood and dusted himself down, then called out across the eroded gap. "Halvett!"
And right on cue there he was running towards them. Sergeant Holst smiled at the sight but the expression faded as the ape leapt from the bushes, knocking the soldier down. The creature melted into sparkling dust that flooded past the prone body.
Halvett got back up saw the pulsating pool blocking his way. "Sergeant! What do I do? What do I DO?"
"Just stay calm, soldier. We'll get you over here. We'll get you...'
But in reality, on the other side of the gap, Sergeant Holst had no idea what to do. He could only watch helplessly as the dust spouted up like a fountain and reformed into a sphere in front of Halvett's face. It floated forward and touched the man's forehead. Halvett's body began to atomize, first from his feet, then legs, then torso. Soon all that was left above the whirlpool cloud was the soldier's head still touching the sphere. Blood pushed out of his faded scar and ran down the cheek. The mouth opened and made a noise like none ever heard before by Sergeant Holst.
"Nooo!" He called out, raising his weapon to fire at that thing. He struggled to aim through the tears, not that it would have mattered anyway. He was just shooting at a cloud.
"He's gone, Sergeant." Jinnik put a hand on his commander's shoulder. "He's gone, Sir, but we're not."
"Halvett...." he moaned as the firing stopped.
"Come on, sir. The plains are not far now."

Hawa watched the two tall creatures run off.
She felt like she understood them better now.
"Jinks..." she murmured. It was such a difficult sound to make with her mouth.
"Hal..."
"...vett."
It was much easier to howl. To hoot.
She did that too. Calling to her kind.
And then she waited for the others to join her before the pursuit continued.

"What... the hell.... is that?" Jinnik gazed in awe at the sight before him. He'd seen the the images of the cave paintings, he'd seen the representations- they all had- but seeing it now, seeing it like this, was something else entirely. Embedded in the rock face at the base of the mountain and spanning 20 metres in diameter, it was a triple armed spiral that rotated out through two concentric circles. At first he thought it was a huge, elaborate crystal, maybe even a diamond from the way it reflected an inner light, yet that light seemed motile and alive, it writhed in fringes of coloured interference like caustic boundaries within a liquid's surface. He repeated, "What the hell is..."
"That," Holst put in, "is why we're here. Whatever it is." He glanced back, turning a full circle to scan for the apes. "I just hope it's worth it."
"But what are we supposed to do now? What does it mean?" Jinnik sighed, finally feeling frustration after the torrent of other emotions. "We should have brought one of the scientists."
"I doubt they would have survived this. They're not soldiers like us." Holst finally felt pride towards Jinnik yet couldn't help also thinking of the fallen Halvett.
"Jinks..."
They both turned at the echoing murmur.
The apes were here, out of the valley and into the plains. And they were closing in.
"What do we do, Sir?"
"We do what soldiers do, son. We defend the line."
"But they'll kill us, Sarg. They'll kill us like they did with Halvett!"
Holst ignored him and took aim at the enemy.
"But shooting did nothing to them!"
"We defend the line even if we die!"
Jinnik went back to the spiral. It must mean something. There had to be something he could do. He touched the the centre of the large gleaming jewel. He expected it to feel cold and hard but it felt like nothing. Absolute nothing. His hand just sank inside. There was a stillness to it, an emptiness around his outstretched touch. Jinnik heard his heart beat twice, the time between those beats felt different to normal time. And on the third beat the spiral folded around him. The inner circle extruded away from him through the mountain rock and, looking back over his shoulder he saw the outer circle behind. The three spiral arms still connected them but now they flowed like tentacles of light.
"Sir!" Jinnik shouted. "Sarg!"
Holst was now firing at the ever-nearing apes but just as before the effort was worthless. He heard Jinnik calling him and, still firing, retreated backwards. When he saw the circle of light now in front of him he released the trigger and with a shocked, child-like confusion he looked around at the living strands of light engulfing him. Finally his eyes fell on the young soldier.
"It's a doorway, Sergeant. We can get away."
Jinnik began to walk forward but Holst grabbed his shoulder to stop him.
"The apes WILL kill us, Sir. We have to go in."
Holst nodded but added, "Masks on. We don't know what's in there."

As they moved in, they never reached that inner circle. Its light merely faded, red-shifting until it wasn't there any more. Behind them, the tentacles of dancing light still stretched away to a point horizon, brighter with distance and focus and centre. The apes had not followed them inside. But Holst and Jinnik were no longer looking back.
"What is this place?" Jinnik whispered.
Holst heard the voice in his earpiece, muted with crackling consonants and a sibilant hiss. "Comms are back." He tapped his ear. "There's no dead zone in here."
"Maybe this IS the dead zone. What is this place?" he repeated.
It was like a whole world INSIDE the mountain. But a lifeless one. It was mostly grey and rocky, but with a touch of blue to the regolith that felt soft underfoot. But the scale was baffling. The expanse larger than the mountain that contained it. Jinnik looked up and saw firmament. Subtle strata of faint clouds defining a thin twilight atmosphere all within a space worthy of the name Sky.
"What is this place?" But he could find no answer to his repetition.
"Look. Over there."
"What? Where? Which way?" Jinnik's questions came fast.
Holst pointed to the right with his weapon and then remembered the end of the 'dead' zone. He activated a side-switch on his rifle and the torch beam extended into the distance like a pointing finger.
Within the beam Jinnik saw an oddly-shaped, angular boulder resting awkwardly in the landscape. No, wait- That wasn't a rock. Its lines were too regular. It was a structure of some kind. Once he accepted the thought it seemed obvious. It was something artificial, a construction that over the years had become covered by the regolith that crunched beneath their boots.
They approached cautiously. Circling around it at a distance, tracing their flashlight beams up over its form. In some places the artificial surface poked through the dusty cloak allowing them to see the smooth, unnatural planes and angles. And there at the back, Holst saw a large flat piece that jutted clearly into the air. Holst focused his beam on it and Jinnik did too. It looked as if it was supposed to be flat yet was now twisted and buckled. Clear within his own light, Holst could now see markings on the structure. A language. And he read it. It said....
"United Explorer Ship:
Freedom Of Time."

"This is Dernaq-3." Holst could barely believe his own words.
"It's what?" Jinnik didn't understand.
"We're not inside the mountain. The doorway... It's not a door. It's a portal. This is another world. Another planet. This is Dernaq-3!"
"Dernaq-3? I don't know what that means."
Holst sighed and realised. Jinnik was young. And he didn't have the rank anyway. "Dernaq-3. The details were classified. It was back during the quarantine years after Kantika. You've heard of that one?"
"Of course."
"Well, after that there was a moratorium on manned explorations. But then one of the probes picked something up on Dernaq-3. Because of the mood of the time, the fear that everyone had, it was all hushed up. But one of the old explorer crews found out somehow. They mutinied and took the ship. That ship." He looked again at the 'Freedom Of Time'. "The authorities chased them down. Shot them down. And they all died right here. No-one knew what they were doing here back then but now I get it."
"Get what?" asked the eager Jinnik.
"The crew. They weren't just coming to Dernaq-3. They were coming to the portal." He pointed back at the spiralling light in the distance behind them. "They were coming to the planet."
"But who on that crew would know about THAT planet?"

Yana woke and her head felt fuzzy and vague. She felt like an echo of herself, like she was out of phase until her consciousness finally stopped spinning. Waking up in the containment cell was never a good experience. But wait- She wasn't in the cell any more. She was outside! She felt the warm morning light on her face, felt the breeze moving her hair. She opened her eyes and sat up.
"Wakey, wakey." Said the man stood watching her. He stepped closer, silhouetting himself against the rising sun.
Yana could feel the warm light's absence and began to recall what had happened, fitting the pieces together yet still not understanding the picture they made.
She remembered Professor Relin. Remembered his face, and then the other face. She remembered the man with the glowing hand. This man.
She began to move away from him, scuttling backwards from her seated position.
"I wouldn't do that." the man warned and she soon found out why as her hand slipped at the edge of a ledge that shaped the beginning of a considerable drop.
"Who the hell are you?"
"My name is Corvan." He held out his hand to help her to her feet.
Yana looked at that hand and saw its palm glowing purple.
"Oh," the man laughed, a little sinister but with traces of irony. The glow then faded away and he said, "Take it."
She didn't know if that was an offer, an order or a threat. She did as she was told and he gently pulled her up. Now standing free she released his hand and stepped away.
"Where am I? What do you want with me?"
He nodded towards her and beyond, tilting his head to encourage her to look behind.
Cautiously, she obliged.
She saw the rocky ridge she had felt before. She saw it fall away below to meet the grassy plain which in turn met the base of the mountain. The mountain! Her eyes widened at the sight of it. She felt ... something. A sensation of sorts. Satisfaction. Achievement. Completion. She was here. At the mountain. She saw the glowing spiral set into the steep rockface and there, surrounding it, were hundreds of ape-like creatures. They were all howling and screaming at the spiral jewel. Vocalisations that sometimes sounded like a chant or an incantation. They looked angry at it or disturbed by it.
"What are they doing?"
He moved close behind her, his head now over her shoulder. "I think they may be afraid of what's coming out. Maybe they think it's you."
"You brought me here," she stated what they both knew and then considered the things she didn't know, "Why?"
"Did you not want to be here?"
She looked down at that spiral, she remembered the painting, remembered her writing. She looked hard and thought about what it may mean. The apes howled louder. "If you brought me for this then how are we going to get past them?"
"Oh, we're not going down there. We're going up."

No, I'm not proofreading it again.
If there are any more mistakes they're staying in there!

Naughty, evil Charlotte!
Creating games and then making me finish them.

I should punish you by erm... By making you proofread and correct 5000 words when nearly half of them are spelt wrong!

Don't embarrass me by drawing attention to it.

That's even more evil.

Yay! It allowed me to edit it.

It now (correctly) says "pushed".

Hey, I think I've finally found my calling!
I could teach English as a second language to non-English students and then all my typos can just be "new" words for them to learn!
Sign me up. What's the salary again?

"Pish" actually is a word but it's a bit old fashioned and rarely heard these days, unless you're Scottish where it means something different. In English it's kind of a contemptuous noise a bit stronger than the modern "Pfft!". And while I'm rambling about strange P- words, I am kind of partial to the even more old fashioned and slightly weirder "Pshaw!" Don't think I'll ever manage to fit them into this story though.