Thrum

I turned back for a moment as we rode away from the floating blight. The blue white glowing and billowing  forms pulsed slowly as the sun descended in the orange red sky. We would never again see the blight as a sanctuary.

We rode as fast as our track sleds would carry us. We entered the burnt forest, what was once a deep green and cool sanctuary of life, was long ago scorched and charred by the solar storms. Every ten years, our sun sends out a belch of burning plasma that sears the planet. It was the first weapon that the invaders used against us. It destroyed all the great cities of man, all his great works. These things were before my time but I’ve seen the pictures.

Our only sanctuary is underground. Our city was built in an spent salt mine. It had been converted to a science facility full of seed banks and data storage. So when the first solar storm destroyed the world above, great minds were preserved below. They slowly rebuilt, developed the Blades to defend against the Skree, and repopulated.

But we’ve grown too large for our salt mine. The hope was to get a new colony in place before the next storm. They have not been successful. Our mission to report on the progress of the colony will be a troublesome report.

The charred and twisted trunks of the ancient forest give some protection from the Skree. As fast as they are, they don’t seem to be able to maneuver well. We opened our throttles all the way and traveled single file, launching over hills and stumps.

We scanned the terrain diligently for anything out of place. A Thrum disguises itself, sometimes as a large rock, sometimes as a stream of water but often as a tree. If we’re lucky, the Thrum will get it’s disguise wrong.

We weren’t lucky. From all around, the sound of a great drum sounded. The sound grew greater and greater in a rolling tone that could be felt in the chest and head. Rapidly, it grew louder than any other sound.

Up ahead, one of the burnt trees split opened and peeled it’s outer husk away. Inside, glowing purple and pink, thin unimaginably strong filaments poured out. We turned to scatter away from it.

“Blades! Blades!” I tried to call out, but I couldn’t even hear myself screaming the command. I fired off my first blade at the filaments. The chemical laser swept over them, burning through some.

Dreseco, overwhelmed by the rolling drumming collapsed off his sled. The filaments immediately found him and started dragging him in, peeling first away his armor and then his flesh.

I watched the horror unfold in seconds. I fired my second Blade and struck the armor still in the clutches of the filaments. The shape charge detonated and damaged the filaments and prevented Dreseco’s body being desecrated any more by destroying it in the blast.

I have never seen a Thrum thrash around so violently. I couldn’t be sure but I think that I deprived it of it’s prize. The filaments thrashed out in all directions.

The sled suddenly grew lighter, as I looked back, I saw Feneshi being lifted away from the back of my sled and torn apart.

I cried out his name and almost turned back. I wanted to avenge him, to do something but no, there is nothing that a man can do to a Thrum.

We sped a way, regrouped and continued on. There was no time for tears.

Skree

Eachigo died without honor. The Skree penetrated his back and then leapt to Gamelo. The Skree move faster than any man can react to. Our blades flashed over Gamelo’s head in a vain attempt at intercepting it by chance. It was to no avail, the Skree pierced his chest, killing Gamelo and detonating the shaped charge in his armor. Two dead for one Skree. If Eachigo hadn’t turned to run, his shaped charge would have killed the Skree and Gamelo would have lived.

I called to my squire. “Boy! More blades!” Feneshi, my squire was a good lad. He pulled the blade cores from his belt and snapped them into their holders. “More juice too.” I reminded him, as if I needed to.

“Yes sir.” He replied and quickly ejected the power core from my back and put in a new one.

Then we heard another one coming. “Stand back Feneshi!” I cried as I pushed him down. My first blade blazed but the blight that hung in the air was getting in the way.  The other knights fired their first blades off. By fortune, one of the beams sliced into the approaching Skree, cutting it in half.

“We have to get out of this blight forest! They never used to chase us into the blight!” I called out. “Drop anything we won’t need, leave the spent blades and cores. Maybe we can retrieve them later but I fear there is a Thrum here.”

The men’s faces turned white at the suggestion. “Surely sir, not in the blight. How will we travel?”

“It’s only been a matter of time before they learned about us coming here. It will make bringing back the new colony even harder, even more will die on the trip. The floating blight slowly kills off anything that comes near to it, so I for one have never been comfortable coming here. If the Skree and the Thrum don’t kill us, the blight surely will.” I shook my head. “You’ve left the extra supplies? Good, lets move out. We’ll travel through the burnt forest. It will give us some protection. Keep your ears sharp”

Zecho took my shoulders “Bachui, I’ve followed you for five years and I trust your judgement, but the Thrum love the burnt forest. Wouldn’t it be better to travel through the plains where the Thrum don’t have anywhere to hide? Yes there will be Skree, but we have a chance of defending against them. With a Thrum, a hundred men would not be enough and we are now six.”

I put my hands on his shoulders in return, looking him in the eyes. “I understand your fear Zecho but we will have to move slowly through the plains so we can hear the Skree coming. We may be able to out run a Thrum. There’s a better chance that at least some of us will make it back to the city and report to Lord Hishi while there is still enough time to act. If we take too long, then we have failed our mission. It has to be the forest.” I surveyed the faces of the knights and the squires. It was an unpopular choice and I feared that they would not follow but a look of determination slowly came over their faces as they nodded to indicate their support.

“To the forest then” Zecho said with a face of stone.