“The bastard is from Earth.”

“Speaking their tongue is not the same as being from there,” Iylene said from the front of the group. They took over Roys’ duty of cutting through the vegetation.

We found ourselves out of the jungle-like area and into a field. Nothing like the vampire fern, but a flora initially thought to be of the same family until Zavir’s scanner said otherwise. The flora came up to our waists with moving leaf-like structures that released venom if it cut you. Above, the two suns danced on either side of us. Night on The Planet lasted a little over five hours, which may explain why the flora took over. More sunlight, more energy. The days were longer, too, at twenty-eight hours.

“Yeah, I’m not convinced. I met plenty of girls who used earth speak that weren’t from there. Mostly learned it for their wealthy patrons.” Arana swatted at a type of insect that lived in the fields. They dipped down to irritate the ferns and feasted off their venom.

“So the alternative is that our captain was a fuck boy for wealthy earth patrons?” I laughed at the thought.

Then again, he certainly knew what to say in the caves. If he could do that easily enough, and with that marvelous bone structure, he would have been popular.

“The alternative is that our captain takes his job seriously and probably learned the language either from interacting with corporate, those assholes are mostly earthers, or he simply knows a few languages,” Ryker replied.

“I’m not buying it. I knew he pissed me off and now I know why. I sensed it.”

Iylene was the only one who didn’t laugh. Lilea was the only one I punched since she was closest. Her head retracted slightly in shock.

“If he’s an earther, he would be of a much higher rank than captain, don’t you think?” Lilea suggested. “Most of them are part of The Company or corporate. They’d have to be in order to survive on earth.”

“Right. They pay for their healthcare and housing.” Zavir gagged. “Barbaric!”

“Most places run by humans are like that,” Iylene said.

“As I said, barbaric, the species as a whole.” Zavir shifted his attention between me, Ryker, and Arana. “No offense.”

“None taken,” we said in unison. Zavir’s thoughts weren’t exactly uncommon ones from alien and human alike.

Everyone knew the stories speaking of a time prior to human colonization. That the universe thrived under the rule of the Intergalactic Court, untainted by human hands. Planets like Zavir’s were renowned, a place thriving without the crushing fist of capitalism. Lilea, too, came from a peaceful race who prioritized nature and health. Earth wasn’t like that. It led to their space exploration and the deterioration of their planet.

Earthers didn’t venture into space for good reason. They had no other choice and they sought resources, which were abundant. Little by little, their ways bled into the universe. As earthers settled on more and more planets, as they built and grew and spread like a virus, parts of the universe became as infected as they were. They saw what more offered, turned their nose at the destruction, and accepted the luxuries laid at their feet, built upon the corpses of souls they would never meet.

But not all of them. Far from any of us were systems entirely free of places like The Company banding together under one flag known as The Alliance. Still part of the Intergalactic Court, The Alliance was what remained of what the court used to be.

Tales said The Alliance cared, that they were more than a well oiled machine built to steal and coerce. None of us were likely to ever see their worlds, to ever have an opportunity to go there, but it was a pleasant thought. Maybe, a millennia from now, when we were all returned to stardust, earthers and their ways would be nothing more than a bad memory.

“Earth speak is an uncommon tongue and more complicated than need be, as most human creations are. How he knows it, I am curious to learn, but I do not find it of that much importance,” said Iylene. 

Iylene cleared our path with vicious efficiency, leaving carnage in their wake. The insects followed us in droves, practically a cloud at our back feasting upon the venomous remains.

“Yeah, why are you so curious about it?” Arana hopped around to face me while walking backward.

“Because it’s something to be curious about. He was talking to someone in the middle of the night. Who was it? What were they talking about? Maybe he’s up to something, speaking an uncommon tongue, so even if he was caught we wouldn’t know any better.” I waved my fingers through the air in a mystical manner. “We may be in the middle of a conspiracy.”

Arana laughed. “You are the one making that conspiracy.”

“Or I discovered it.”

“You think far too highly of yourself.”

“I’d argue the world thinks too lowly of me.”

Iylene called for a break, stashing the laser blade to take out their water canteen. We sat among the ruckus, swatting at the bugs. I may have killed a few with the laser blade, but to be fair, they were eating venom off those plants. I didn’t know if those buggers could transfer it to me or not. And I didn’t like bugs.

“Do you think he’d tell us what earth was like?” Arana asked, grunting when my elbow dug into her side.

“Didn’t you disagree with me about him being from earth?” I snickered when she swatted a bug at me.

“I’m saying, if he is from earth, then he… well, he’s been there. The cradle of humankind that most humans have never seen. Come on, that’s fucking insane, if,” she pointed the handle of her blade at me in warning, “if he is really from there. Mighty big if.”

“I’m not that interested.” Ryker sneezed and wiped his disgusting runny nose on his arm. “Fuck, anyone one got allergy meds? I’m out.”

“How can’t you be interested?” Arana challenged. “It’s practically just a story to us. We’re so far fucking out and way too fucking poor to ever go there.”

“I’m not poor.” Ryker accepted the allergy med from Zavir.

“You are now. Mommy’s cut you off, remember?” I snickered when he tried kicking me. He was too far away and managed to knock dead flora on my boots.

“They’re giving me tough love. In a year or two, don’t be surprised if I’m pulled out of this dump, and when I am, I won’t ever go to that shithole. I’ve heard enough about it to know it isn’t worth visiting. It’s a wasteland, that’s why humankind left.”

“And yet many are still there,” I said while putting my visor back on. There were too many bugs and I was done drinking.

“They are there for the appeal, Lucky, the shit you are giving them right now. Earth, this mystical place to all us humans—”

“I find it a fascinating place,” Iylene chimed in.

“Now you do, after we colonized half the fucking galaxies, changed the course of the entire universe. It’s considered the heart of everything when we know it’s the inevitable destruction. We destroyed earth. We’ll destroy all worlds eventually.” Ryker tossed the last of his rations in his mouth, speaking with his cheeks full. “Ask the captain about it if ya want, but don’t be surprised when he says it’s shit. That’s probably the reason he left, too.”

Pretty sure his leaving had to do with those scars on his arms.

A mighty rumble had the group leaping but that didn’t stop Lilea from being thrown. The attack came as a blur, a dark shape that whacked Lilea and came between us. Lilea shrieked, disappearing among the ferns leagues away. Iylene rolled, narrowly avoiding being crushed by the gargantuan weight of a bug. A really huge fucking bug.

Maybe my dreams to be on a real planet were foolish because I was coming to really hate this shithole.

“Flames!” Zavir called and brought out the flamethrower.

The bug reared up, revealing its full form high above the field. Fern-like stems protruded from its shell to camouflage into the surroundings. It was the same green as the flora, standing on four back legs and having two large pincers at the abdomen and two more around its salivating mouth. Using those large pincers, the bug slammed the ground causing another quake. The insects once following us dispersed in frantic clouds.

Our flames roared high as we formed a U shape to corral the creature away. Lilea was somewhere in the field, hopefully not dead. Roys would want us to drag the carcass back and that’d be exhausting. Those shells weighed a ton and I wasn’t about to risk myself for sentimentality.

“The fuck is that thing?!” Arana shrieked.

“There’s nothing about it in the catalogue,” Zavir replied while using his scanner, or at least trying to. The fire didn’t exactly help.

“We have a problem!” Lilea called, so she was alive. The top of her shell was cracked over her left shoulder, seen through the break in her exoskin, and she limped toward us while waving her flamethrower behind her. “Back there!”

The bug had friends. Lots of them. And they were flying right toward us. The one attacking us revealed its wings, six of them fluttering at such a speed that it whipped up the soil around us. If not for our visors, we’d be blinded by the soil, maybe more permanently from the venom that the plants were oozing in droves. Our flames ripped through the field, sending up a plume of smoke and leaving the soil coated in ooze.

“What are you doing?” Ryker barked when I dropped my flamethrower and stepped back.

“Calling the rover. The autopilot should follow the path we made. If we leave now, we might make it to cover. Let’s go,” I replied.

“Lilea can’t run. Once we drop these flames, she’s dead,” Iylene called.

A dozen of those bugs descended behind the first. Hitting the ground at once with all their pincers nearly sent us to our knees. Lilea dropped, disappearing below the ferns.

“Stay here then. It’s your life.” I looked at Arana, who cast our group a cursory glance, then dropped her flamethrower. Ryker followed, then Zavir.

Iylene made a strangled crying sound while they maneuvered toward Lilea. Lilea wobbled toward us with those bugs landing in droves, shrieking and pounding the soil. Our flamethrowers wouldn’t last against an army of those things. The flames, too, roared higher, taking over the field too fast for us to ever hope to control it, reaping utter destruction. Just like Ryker said.

Our exoskins could protect us from the smoke and flames for a while, but inevitably, they would give out. Those bugs, too, could beat through them, as we saw with Lilea. Iylene got their arm around her. The bugs scattered. Dozens upon dozens, too many to count, wandering through the field, rolling and slamming their pincers.

I came skidding to a stop. The bugs were acting strange. Were they… putting out the fire?

“Less staring, more running,” Arana called. I obeyed because it was stupid to stop, to hesitate, to have patience in a world that would bleed us dry if we dared to care about anyone other than ourselves.

Iylene pointed their flamethrower behind them. Lilea tried the same, causing the first bug to charge. The creature shrieked and swiped, digging into the soil. The other bugs weren’t coming toward us. They rolled through the field and ripped up the remains, chewing voraciously on the ferns.

I made it to the canopy with Arana and Ryker. Zavir lingered, muttering to himself, then waving his arms. “Stop firing, Iylene!”

Iylene may have had an apathetic expression but their eyes were full of rage.

“Seriously, stop!” He pointed toward the other bugs.

Arana and Ryker paused to investigate. I kept moving, glancing over my shoulder to find Lilea and Iylene lowered their flamethrowers. The bug at their back hissed and shrieked, digging up the ground to put out the fire before licking up the venom. That got me to stop. They were putting out the fires and eating the remains, like all those bugs following us. We had cut up supper for them, and practically rang a dinner bell.

Lilea and Iylene made it to Zavir, neither of them looking away from the field long. I had seen enough and kept moving, the others at my back, and we didn’t stop until the smoking field was a mere speck at our backs. We made it beneath the canopy where Lilea fell. I leaned against a stalk before dropping, too.

“Okay,” Arana wheezed, laying fully on her back. “What the hell just happened?”

“We were attacked by alien bugs,” Ryker replied on his knees. “I need a smoke.”

“They were eating the flora. The venom, we were leaving trails of it behind us,” I explained, recalling the insects disturbing the dirt. “They caught the scent and came rushing over for a big meal. Caused us to torch the place, which pissed them off, but they got what they came for regardless.”

“I’ll make a note of it in the catalogue.” Zavir took to the commlink, just like Iylene was. Probably messaging Roys to tell him what happened.

I suspected I would be receiving quite an earful when we returned to the habitat.