Hello again! This time I'm posting my first Felaryan piece. For the record, it
is outdated and does not meet my current standards of quality. I plan to rewrite the series soon, but at the moment I'm a bit busy with school work to write anything.
As a note, which may not come up in this chapter, I am aware now that bullets do indeed hurt giants. This is rather confused on DA, and I decided it was best to go with what was in my eyes the least dangerous path and make them do jack s%$@.
Please leave criticism for me
It may not be as good as I currently write, but I can still learn from it. Without further ado,
Felaryan Knights: CH 1"Commander, left wing stabilizers are out! We're gonna crash!"
Commander Lara Shie pulled herself from the bridge deck, using her command chair as leverage. Whatever just happened, it shook the Grand Haven enough to send the Knight to the floor. She shook her head to clear it and immediately took charge again.
"What's the situation Captain?" Captain Andrew "Volt Rail" Gunner turned his head away from the forward view port to look at her.
"A trans-dimensional Gateway opened in front of us while in route to Arcis, and we've transitioned from Proto-space. Left wing stabilizer was jarred loose by the speed change and is un-responsive." Lara slammed her fist into her chair.
"Kross! We can't steer! Wait, stabilizers? We only need those when-"
"Correct ma'am. We are in-atmosphere of an unidentified planet."
"What's the ETA of impact?"
"Four minutes."
"Alright I want everything we can pull out loaded onto the Dropships, equip the extra Rover and JAVALEN tanks with drop-shock thrusters and supply every Marine with Momentum-breaker heel packs. If we can fit any on the ships after the Navy personnel, do so. Use cargo space on artillery to store extra weapons and ammo, along with tier two ration supplies. All ships will carry the remaining food, water and equipment." Gunner acknowledged his orders.
"What about you ma'am?"
"I'll going in with the paratroopers, and I hereby relinquish command of all ships to you. In case we lose comms we'll meet up at the crash site. Good luck Captain." Gunner saluted as she turned to head for the nearest airlock.
"Yes ma'am, thank you ma'am!" Lara didn't know what he did next, as the bridge doors closed behind her. Obviously he completed his instructions quickly, because by the time she got to the airlock a company of thirty soldiers were waiting for her.
"Commander, we're prepped and ready to drop. Awaiting your order."
"Right. Give me five seconds." Lara began quickly attaching a wire frame exoskeleton to her armor from a nearby locker. When the last piece of the strength boosting machine was locked in place she donned her mask and grabbed her pack before moving to the now open door.
"We got two minutes till impact. The engineers are rushed, so the fusion core may not deactivate properly. If there's one thing I've learned over the years, it's that you do NOT want to be in the air when a Crystosis generator goes critical less than five miles away from you. You get to the ground as fast as you can, and don't use the momentum breakers till you are three yards from the surface. Now let's go!"
All thirty soldiers raised their fists in the air and cheered. Their battle cry did not quite as they charged after their commander, who ran through the airlock, grabbed a rail rifle from the weapons rack and leaped gracefully into the open air. Wind wiped her jet black hair and sun gleamed off the silver chain mail of her armor as she dove through the empty air, arms spread wide and weapons slung across her back. Looking to her right she saw the stream of marines pouring out of every airlock, land vehicles racing out of hangers into open air with every atmosphere enabled star fighter flying over them, and Dropships sliding out of their chutes in the ship's bottom. Every vehicle, save the hover tanks, activated their landing thrusters and began to slow themselves enough for a safe landing. The Knight returned her gaze to the planet's surface, confident that Gunner could command her artillery while they were still in the air- the man was a tactical genius in the skies- and received a shock. Everywhere she looked from her two mile high vantage point there were trees. A massive jungle, covering almost the entire planet, sprawled out before her.
"Kross, this better not be Iyre. I've had enough of this place during the invasion…" Putting aside her grumblings, Lara focused on the two major problems before her: finding a safe place to land her troops, and praying that the Haven's core would hold out. There simply wasn't enough time to get to the ground before the crashing ship did. If they were in the air when a Crysto-Atomic explosion went off- Lara shuddered, unable to complete the thought.
As her mental clock approached the end of the Grand Haven's flight, she took one last look at her vessel. The tips of its lower wings began to skim the tree tops before it disappeared beyond a hill. Seconds later a deafening boom resounded across the land, sending birds flying into the air for miles around. Though sad from the destruction of her beloved Star Castor, Lara's relief that the core held out flooded through her and drowned out every other emotion. Now not worried about reaching the ground quickly she angled herself in a sloping dive that would take her closer to the impact zone. The small 3D map in the visor of her mask showed that the soldiers followed her example. She took the opportunity of her last minute in the air to gather information on the land. As for landmarks, directly to her left there was a massive settlement, which seemed to be heavily fortified. After that was a very, very large tree that could prove useful as a navigational reference. She was going to land in a stretch of forest, about three miles in from the edge, which was bordering a river. Sensors told her that background radiation was normal and quite safe, technology was at varying levels and isolated in spots miles apart from each other, while inversely life readings were off the charts and everywhere. Air temperature was seventy-eight degrees Fahrenheit, Air humidity was… useless information at the moment, so she skipped it. There were four thousand soldiers aboard the Grand Haven, but she could only sense two thousand forty. This did not concern her; she could tell by sight there were many more beyond her range. By the time she finished processing all the info their distance to the ground had been considerably cut, leaving the company close to the trees, then closer, then uncomfortably close.
"Touchdown in ten seconds, warm up momentum breakers!" Lara flipped herself around so her feet were pointing towards the forest floor, and with her mask's sensors chose a thinner area of leaves to land in before cannon balling straight through the foliage. She broke through the tree's crown, crashed through thin branches and countless leaves, then looked…
down. Way down. The trees of this forest were massive, way bigger than any tree should ever be. Each one was as tall- no, bigger than the largest tree on Giantica. The realization struck her like a fist: she was in uncharted territory. Outside the Bi-Solar System.
She was lost.
"Crap, I don't have time to think about this." Pushing the thought from her mind she focused on safely landing on the alien world. When she was twenty feet from the ground a high pitched whine came from the sole of her right foot. When she was five feet from the ground it peaked, and her foot exploded.
The six powerful Blast Thrusters embedded in its sole completely canceled out her momentum, leaving her hanging in the air for a split second. While there she could hear the over-sized, ankle-mounted Blast Thrusters they called momentum breakers activate for all the soldiers immediately behind her, saving them from splattering against the ground at terminal velocity. Then, gravity took over and she fell the last few feet to the forest floor.
She wasn't on the ground even a second before something tried to eat her.
****
Four minutes earlier
Felaryan Forest
Emyla was hungry. Her last meal had already moved on in her digestive system, leaving her stomach empty and growling.
"Stupid humans. They think just because I'm their size I can't eat them. Ha!" Like most Dridders, she typically sucked the blood of her victims, making delicious humans her prime targets. Deciding to do something about her hunger, she thrust her left hand into a nearby bush, so fast it was nothing more than a blur. Withdrawing the appendage, she brought it up to her eyes to examine her snack: a Tomthumb, almost three inches tall.
"Hmmm, not as filling as a human, but you'll do!" Ignoring the screaming protests of the surprised Tinie, Emyla brought him up over her mouth, dangling him over the dark void of her gullet. Before she could drop him however, a ground shakingly loud roar tore through the air and assaulted her ear drums. She tossed her would-be snack away and covered her ears to dampen the pain. Soon enough the noise subsided as whatever caused it passed over and away from her. Curious, she began climbing the nearest tree, her snack forgotten. When she breached the top leaves her gaze was drawn to one of those human Iron-Birds that they always had around them, with black smoke billowing out of its left wing, and it was getting further from her and closer to the ground by the second. After taking a few seconds to observe it she looked up to find something wonderful.
"A feast!" she called out in excitement. "There must be hundreds, no thousands of them! They're all falling into my territory… oh this is going to be fun!" Giddy at the prospect of food, she began hopping from branch to branch, heading in the direction of the falling meals. With her knowledge of the terrain it took her only a minute to reach the spot they would land. Hiding halfway up behind one of the trees, she waited to ambush the leading human. With her special Felarya sense she could "see" her prey crash through the upper branches and fall way, way down. When the morsel was about as far from the ground as Emyla's young dryad friend was tall a strange noise started to pick up in her ears. It was annoying, like a dog whistle was to a dog, but nothing painful. When her soon-to-be victim was high enough that she could stand on the Dridder's last victim's shoulders, Emyla whipped around the trees trunk and dropped in a collision course to the armored woman below her. While in the air the knight-like leader's foot exploded downward in six blindingly bright, white streams of fire. Foot seemingly undamaged, her increasingly strange prey hung in the air for a split second as thousands of other explosions rang around the trees. Soon it finished its fall and finally touched down to the ground.
And then Emyla was upon her.
She had it all planed out perfectly. Falling at the angle she was, she would slam straight into her prey's back, using her outstretched hand to smash its head into the ground, and bind it with her webs while it was stunned. She smiled, saliva dripping in her mouth at the thought of catching ten, maybe even fifteen and bring them home to her tree, where she could feast on them in safety. Her body only inches from her appetizer, Emyla was seconds away from beginning a large meal by a giant's standards.
It was in that second that everything went horribly wrong.
With speeds even faster than when Emyla caught the Tombthumb mere minutes before, the human turned to its right to face the Dridder, arm held high at a ninety degree angle with her hand facing outward. That hand closed over Emyla's and used strength literally inhuman to squeeze, with a force so great the bones in her arm shattered from the pressure in her hand. It continued its motion, coming around to a full 360 before smashing the battered spider girl into a tree. The last thing Emyla heard before passing out were the words of her prey-turned-predator muttering to herself the words:
"Crap, now I'll never get rid of my alias."
****
Military log, Entry One, Date 6-15-4391 NC
by Commander Lara "Myth Slayer" Shie
Acting Officer of S.S. Grand Haven (Crash Landed)
Things are crazy here, whereever 'here' is. We don't know any specifics yet, but it seems like someone, or something, opened a Trans-Dimensional Gateway portal in front of us while we were traveling through Proto-space. The transition from Faster-than Light to MACH Thirteen shook us hard, knocked most of us to the deck and disabled the flight stabilizer. We crashed on this planet, but that's the strangest thing. We were light hours away from any Planetary Shadow, but we were inside the atmosphere the second we came through. And besides that there is no known world with trees this large and life this… weird. Moments after touching down I was by the strangest creature I have ever seen. Half human, half spider, the monster attempted to ambush and presumably devour me. It was surprisingly strong for such a thin woman, but was still easy to defeat. Unfortunately, spider girl is now alongside giant and dragon on the list of things I've beaten, securing my title of "Myth Slayer" Shie.
On the tactical situation, three thousand twenty-four of the four thousand soldiers survived the crash and are accounted for. There are most likely many more safe on board ships under Gunner's care, but I have yet to secure communication with him. We have four confirmed dead and six wounded from branch collision and momentum breaker malfunctions. All three hundred units of heavy artillery survived the landing, though seventeen are inoperable from easy to fix yet debilitating damages. Only two need to be fixed immediately, a Hover tank with a cross-coiled gravity diffuser and a Rover tank with a broken tread. All others can be towed by working vehicles while being operated on. The infantry paratroopers and I will rendezvous with them during the repair time, and then we shall move on to the Grand Haven impact site where we will decide our long term plan there.
End Log Entry
Subject: Felaryan Knights 
Mon Oct 24, 2011 10:09 pm
