The Planet 8.1

8.

8.1 I thought I was alone

I slammed the doorway shut before taking my breath. It was taxing doing the ruin despite my constructs which at that moment was running low on power. We were like droids; the components needed their recharging. I had then slumped on the flooring before I took in the dusts that there. It was still there but they remained inert. The room temperature was cool but it was not freezing like in the cold room. I reached for the webbing pack for the pencil explosives.

There was none.

I was without my rifle and explosives. I have my sidearm but I knew it was ineffective there. I saw the webbing pack of the others, and they contained the pencil explosives. I moved my right arm for it and saw the dusts moved. So it was not inert after all.  

A prisoner of war will not stop at escaping; as a mercenary we never stop fighting.

I rolled my body towards the webbing of gears, and reached out with my right arm for it. I managed to touch it but it was held back by the dusts. It was the dusts; plural in form for it looked like a human being with its four limbs and an extremely darker version for an oblong shaped head. The head was larger than the upper body and have larger than large sockets for it eyes. No, I was not quoting from any ancient reads. The alien have its assumed version of a right leg on the webbing. It was unmovable then.

Damned!

“Don’t…do not… I … can explain.” The dusty form with the oblong head voiced out. It was mechanical in its reproduction. It was a bloody bad replication on it. “I …will not…”

I confessed my trust levels with new acquaintances were way below the need to trust. I did not have to force myself to do the acceptable; kill or be killed. It was a simple analogy for us trained to hold the weapons. I had my PH 450 Model sidearm out and leveled it at the dusty form. I fired twice at the head.

Blitz.

Blitz.

I forgot to tell you that when we shot those energy projectiles, upon impact they released a zany smell. Well, it was repulsive to the organic senses, but for those of us who were construct in that anatomy. It was more like some burnt combustion materials. Heck! I failed my chemistry lessons. Whatever it was, I disliked the smell very much. Stuck me in the cesspool and I will survive it but not in a closed room with that smell. I wished I have my breathing apparatus but it 

was not in my pack.

I had blown half its face into dust, literally spoken but the dusty frame still stood there. It have a concave shadow on its left side of the face. I was to take my third shot when the dusty form; I will give it a name like Dusty for namesake.  It reformed its head.  They have a poor idea of what our anatomy dimensions or they liked it larger.

I guess size does matters.

“You do not trust…us.” Dusty was persistent. “But you must trust us.”

Trust does not prevail in me as a mercenary. The time I entrusted my life to someone, I ended up in an ambush.

“How could I? You just killed Peggy.” I shouted back in anger. That anger translated into my next pull on the trigger on the PH450. I fired off three more shots before I stopped. Dusty took it point blank; the dusty form lost part of the left shoulder to its chest level. I will assume if it had a heart like all of us; anatomy referred, we would have died but not Dusty.

“Please don’t do that.” Dusty have rebuild his misplaced part. I doubt he placed a heart there but his plea hit mine. I lowered my sidearm. It was also then I lowered my guard. I nodded to Dusty. Well, I had given up. What I have could not kill it so I might as well hear it all.

“I am here to protect you.” Dusty vocals have improved.

“No, you killed my friend. Did you know Peggy?” I was upset. “She may be a pain in the arse but I loved her.”

I guess my true confession will not matter much for Peggy was dead and I assumed dusty alien does not tell tales. I may be wrong then.

“We did not kill Peggy. They did.” Dusty replied. I lowered my head. I may have confessed to a multiple disorder personality. Wait, Dusty was assumed dusts but were incidentally were some alien beings of minute particles size. G

“No, we did not. We can prove it. It reached out to me with its version of the right hand. It grabbed my fingers and then I felt the interface through my fingertips sensors. It was feeding me some data on their contents.

“Read the analysis. We are different.” I heard Dusty. The report came through.

It read as Element L 391-1. It was not the same. There were a new variant.

L 391-1. I wished I had taken my time seriously in those Chemistry classes instead of making plasma bombs.