The Record of Unusual Creatures
chapter-133

Chapter 133: The First Crash Site

The three of them decided to start their search from the closest point.

The first drop point was within the ancient jungle behind them. You could almost say that the MDT had chosen the best possible starting point for them based on where they landed. They quickly dismantled their campsite and left most of the cumbersome stuff under a rock. Each one of them simply carried the bare necessities like food and drinks for their foray into the alien jungle. Tools were not needed. All three off them could split the earth when needed.

The flora in the planet were gargantuan by Earth’s standards. From the low brushes to the skyscrapping trees, everything was unusually large. Even the smallest of trees needed at least three people to cover its circumference. The trees had no visible branches until about 10 meters off the ground. Only further up the canopy could one actually see any obvious branches snaking about. On them, coils of vines and brambles slithered around in symbiotic co-existance. Such was the way things appeared to be on the planet. Anything that failed to co-exist was eliminated by natural selection.

The concentration of oxygen within the jungle was higher than normal as well. The gigantic trees and shrubs produced much more oxygen than the plants on Earth could. It seemed like their biological make-up had some difference compared to those of Earth. A planet with only 20% landmass yet, it had a higher oxygen density than Earth…

Of course, this was Hao Ren’s own rambling thoughts. He had little to no knowledge about this, and he could do worse than the Husky back at home.

The jungle had no obvious paths or trails and was fraught with uneven landscape as well as a thick bed of leaves on the ground. Hidden within the sea of leaves were unseen pot holes or protruding roots. The journey on land was exhausting for the trio. Hao Ren envied Vivian’s ability to fly at that moment. The vampire would definitely be in her element here. There was ample space between the towering trees, and she would be able to swerve in and out in her bat form with ease.

Along the way, they also ran into local fauna; some weird looking beasts and bird-like creatures. All of them scattered as the trio approached. The beasts were rather agile. They disappeared almost instantaneously into the jungle once they caught sight of the incoming party. There were also slavering carnivores that attempted to stalk the trio and turn them into dinner. However, their efforts were for naught as a single glare from Y’zaks had their courage in flight, and them following suit. The great demon sure knew how to make an impression.

Boom !

A loud boom echoed across the jungle, and the trees shook violently. On Y’zaks hand, was a sphere of concentrated air, which was glowing hot. With it, the great demon carved a path through the obstructing brambles. Y’zaks had powers like this that made the path easier for Hao Ren and Wuyue to navigate. Wuyue could see hot air swirling around Y’zaks as the great demon hurled sphere after sphere to clear a way for them. The scene itself was rather scary for her and she gingerly quipped, “Mr. Super, Violent, Muscle Man, I’m afraid of hot air the most… I get dehydrated by it…”

Having a great demon, who specialized in the lore of fire and a siren, who was well versed with water spells to cooperate as a team was an achievement in itself.

“Be careful with those blasts, we don’t want to light the whole place up!” Hao Ren yelled to Y’zaks from behind. “This place has a high concentration of oxygen, and with this being the only landmass on the planet, we won’t have any place to run if a firestorm breaks out.”

Y’zaks just smiled as he hurled another sphere forward. “No worries about that. My spheres won’t even create as much as a spark. Say…how far more do we need to go?”

“Almost there, almost there.” The MDT chimed as it floated through the air, displaying a holographic map of the jungle. The red marker of their target location was within the map’s perimeter now. “Won’t even take another 10 minutes I reckon.”

“This is the third ’10 minutes’ already… I can’t walk any further…” Wuyue grumbled as she panted. As a siren, her stamina for journeys like this were clearly lacking. She was also concerned about the matter at hand. “…Would the new tenant be all right? It’s still alive right? The cargo pod already landed here for a few days, and it was a crash landing to boot…”

“No problem.” The MDT swirled up and down in a nod. ” I’ve checked the cargo pod’s model, and it’s a New Eden Federation pod. They come equipped with excellent safety and preservation features. Even if the outer shell burnt out, the pod can still sustain life for a month. There’s even a note on the product guidebook that the cargo would be kept in a state of unconscious preservation. I think it means hibernation…”

“You can’t tell what’s the status of the new tenant?” Hao Ren gave the MDT a weird look. ” I thought you’d at least have some insider information…”

“It’s not like you don’t know how Madam Raven works… The fact that she could even remember the delivery company itself is good enough.”

Hao Ren nodded and decided not to dig further. They would find out what’s what after uncovering the cargo pod. Wuyue had a rather incredulous look on her face. “It’s just not sitting right with me… They were transporting a living person but, why are they calling it a cargo?”

Before the MDT could even start explaining the terminologies, Y’zaks booming voice rang out from the front. “I see trails of smoke ahead. I think we found our target!”

The information roused Wuyue, who was about to throw a tantrum into high spirits. As both Hao Ren and Wuyue looked up, they saw faint trails of smoke rising not far away. Thankfully, there were no traces of spreading fire. The three quickened their steps and after a short while, reached the first crashed site.

The impact of the crash and the subsequent explosions had levelled everything around the crash site. A hundred-meter deep crater was created as a result. Surrounding the crash site, was a scene of carnage with fallen trees laying about. Many of them bore burnt marks. Even the crater’s soil was still steaming hot, and in it, lay the the wreckage of whatever that crashed into the ground. It was nothing but twisted metal by then. From the remains, they could make out it’s original oval shape. All around it were debris of unknown metals, which were still burning. The air was choked with ash and burnt residues.

Hao Ren noticed that the area had many evident burnt marks, and it seemed like a fire did break out for a short while. Perhaps it was the forest’s natural resistance against fire (like having water-filled fibres or tree barks that were resistant to fire.) It was their luck that the fire had not spread or else things would have been really firey.

“…This can’t be the cargo pod right?” While Hao Ren had not seen how an interstellar cargo pod looked like, he could tell that whatever crashed into the crater did not seem like it performed a controlled crash-landing. Hence, that triggered his doubts.

“Seems like the thrusters of the cargo craft and it’s control unit.” The MDT floated over the wreckage as it scanned the area with a faint blue light. “Most of the components are fried. Including the black box. Appears to be a futile run.”

Hao Ren looked at the wreckage again and something really major dawned upon him. “Wait a minute… Did Raven 12345 actually plan to get those jokers to drop the cargo pod on Earth?”

“Yep.”

Hao Ren almost jumped up in fury. “The f*ck?! You mean to say that she actually wanted to drop this directly on Earth?”

“Well, no one expected the cargo pod to blow up.” The MDT explained as it dodged Hao Ren’s torrent of saliva. “It’s not like gnomish tech blows up every time… It’ll make successful landings from time to time… And truth be told, if the pod was to make atmospheric entry into Earth, Madam Raven would have been controlling it herself, and not let it crash land like this…”

Hao Ren had his doubts if the goddess would be able to pull it off. He was glad that the pod decided to explode some 800 light years away. If this thing were to land in a human city, it would be on the headlines for months to come!

“…I guess we gotta look at the other sites.” Wuyue sighed while she squatted in exhaustion. “The next one is on the mountain right… Wait…do we actually need to climb it?”

As Hao Ren and Wuyue were about to leave the site, Y’zaks noticed something. “Hold on, I sense something!”