Space Odyssey: Spectre-Chapter 76: Hammock

Jace spent a few minutes climbing up the tree he landed in to retrieve the parachute. Then he fashioned most of it into a hammock while he had the time he should set this up as his base of operations. Anyone that was determined able to survive an orbital drop should be capable enough for at least an hour. So he might as well spend this time preparing.

After setting up his hammock he fashioned a slingshot out of some of the rope and a portion of the orbital drop suit he took apart. The suit for the most part no longer had any use. The suit itself was an extremely durable fabric he would save for later. While the helmet he had an idea for, but that would have to wait until nightfall.

He tied the sheath for the knife to the back of his waist using some of the rope from the parachute. While he had the slingshot and other stuff shoved in his backpack. As he looked up he saw the first of the High Altitude parachutes opening, he still had some time to make another tool he figured he might need.

As he quietly moved through the forest he looked for the appropriate branches and sticks that would be useful. While he was looking he noticed the vines were extremely durable. If he braided them he could make a rope which would make scaling up and down the mountain easier.

Jace contemplated this for a moment before he suddenly ducked and drew his knife. The tree with the several vines suddenly had a new cut mark through it, a chunk of the bark disappearing as it was pulled off. While the vines were cut as well with the lower half falling to the ground.

Jace looked at the creature that attacked him. It stood at five feet and looked like a praying mantis with its scyther-like hands. But its body was scaled with its three sets of legs looking like lizard feet. The creature's head was a triangle shape but the pointed ends were replaced with flat edges with it pointed downward. The three sets of eyes were black beads located on either side of the split that went down the center of its face.

"By the ancestors, you are really ugly." Jace whistled as the creature made a clicking noise before it suddenly backed up and its body disappeared. "Invisibility, great." He focused on his hearing, listening and hearing the soft noise of the creature moving.

Jace adjusted his stance and moved the knife in between his hands as he prepared himself. The creature was slowly moving to his left side, adjusting its angle to attack. Then it clicked and leaped forward, its long arm extending its reach.

Jace lowered himself, lessening the scythe arm pass over him while he raised his knife and cut it between the joints. The scythe arm flew through the air and embedded itself in a tree while the creature shrilled in pain. Quickly stepping back and looking at its right arm where there was a stump. It bled a pinkish purple ooze that almost looked more like slime.

It looked at its bleeding stump for a moment then at Jace before walking back some more and turning invisible again. Or attempting to as its bleeding stump would not turn invisible. So it disabled the invisibility and looked at Jace again, this time it looked furious.

The creature slumped for a moment and then pulled itself up onto its hindmost legs. Now it stood at twice the height with four additional arms. Its face split open as a pink fleshy tongue whipped out with several pointed teeth appeared along the edges clicking along its face shell. It moved forward and leaned forward as its left arm cut through the tree he was standing near. But Jace had jumped above its attack this time.

Jace threw his knife as he ran towards the scythe arm that was detached and stuck in a tree. His knife missed and embedded itself in a tree as the creature leaned to the side. It could quickly move its own body thanks to its multiple lower limbs which were keeping its balance lower to the ground.

Jace pulled the scythe arm out of the tree as he ran past. Then he slid along the ground as the scythe passed over him. Once again slicing down a tree as it is cut through like nothing.

Jace dashed toward the creature pushing off the ground with extra force to get him farther. But as he moved forward something felt off, he felt slower than usual. An arm from the creature's lower body reached out to hit him but he just sidestepped it as he drove the scythe arm into the creature's body.

It shrieked loudly as it tried to swat at Jace with its other lower arms. But Jace took a firm hold of the scythe arm he embedded into its body and ran around it. Dodging and sidestepping the attempts to subdue him.

A moment later it was cut in half as its pinkish-purple blood was spilling all over the rocky ground. The creature is now moaning in pain. Its lower arms now grabbed at the ground to pull itself up while it used its remaining scythe arm and stub to try and lift its upper body up.

Jace took its moment of disorientation to run up its body dragging the scythe arm along cutting a deep gash into the creature's back that immediately began bleeding. He continued trying to move until he sliced off the creature's head then its body shook for a moment before it went still.

He thought back to the fight and frowned. He felt slower and noticed it as well as it was more difficult to dodge the creature. Instead of completely missing him a few of the punches had grazed him. Nothing was injured but it was still strange.

He waved his arms and stretched his legs. Then he hopped a few times and then blinked in surprise as he did not go nearly as high as he thought he would.

Jace did not notice at first because all of his stats were so high but the gravity was higher on this planet. If he would have to guess, and he did, it was roughly two point five times the standard gravity that was used as the basis for all gravity tech in the Vexical Empire.

Seems they are intentionally forcing the candidates of Tartarus Project to increase their stats. This probably would not be the only time they have a training mission where there is a forced increase in stats.

Jace moved around the body of this cross between a mantis and lizard. After retrieving his knife that he threw. He gathered the scythe arms and the paws of the lizard feet. The scythe arms he could make into makeshift swords or spears. But if the lizard hands were still adhesive he could use them for climbing up steep faces of rock.

Then he looked around and cut off a large chunk of meaty section from the body. He would have to eat something eventually. It was not like he was given rations in his training pack.

Having collected an abundance of gear he walked back to the tree that had his hammock in it. He easily climbed up despite the increased gravity and fashioned it all into a bundle using the remains of the orbital drop suit and then left it on his hammock as he climbed back down.

Jace moved through the trees again this time collecting long bundles of vines and various types of branches as he moved. They would all be useful later. When he decided to take a break he pulled out the data tablet he was provided and checked the map.

He first noticed that the low altitude parachutes were now coming down, he glanced up and confirmed that the Wing of Pegasus was much lower as a few parachutes opened. The next thing he noticed was that the majority of people were grouping up together in various parts of the island. There were only a few like himself that were clearly farther away from others.

Technically he was surrounded on all sides by people, but because of the sheer faces of the mountain it was probably almost impossible and not worth it for them to climb up here. With a set up like this there should not be any issues unless a group is attacked by a pack of creatures.

It was nearing night as he decided he had enough and started making his way back to his hammock. Using his enhanced senses to avoid interacting with the various creatures that were roaming on the top of this mountain.

From what he could tell there were four types of large predatory creatures that he had heard and even more smaller creatures. The first was the creature he had encountered earlier, they are mainly near the edges on all except one side. Then there was a creature that growled, it stayed near the center area where Jace had landed and then set up his hammock. The next one was a chittering multi-legged creature that was situated near the side of the mountain where those mantis-lizards avoided. The last one was a growling creature he had seen, it looked to have bones on its external skeleton as it walked on two legs and used basic tools and stood at roughly seven feet tall.

The most particular thing about the last one was the mask-like bone face as it had two horns growing out of the top of the masks. He would say it was a semi intelligent species but it acted like a gorilla or other primate from historical records.