Ghasts I

Martin woke up at dawn, the very moment the first sun appeared above the horizon. He slept for about ten hours, but still ended up feeling tired in the morning.

As if sleeping on low quality bed in a makeshift camp was not enough, he also had terrible nightmares, though it was no wonder, given what he went through until now.

Problems were present since the very start of his participation in the project. Way before they left the Earth, during construction phase, two of his crewmates lost their lives.

However, it was only a start, and even more bad events followed, including incidents on Mars, during resupplying, but the most problems struck throughout the flight. Damage to the coating, a number of people sucked into the vacuum, dismembered, blood splatters all around - and there was much more.

Fortunately, as if one could call situation where people died something fortunate, all the friends who were with him on ship's board during evacuation, made it alive to the surface.

Too bad it turned out the flight towards the planet's surface did not mean they could feel safe.

The very moment his group reached the planet, the firing started. They ended up in area filled with local defense systems. Johnson had no idea how these worked, but one thing was for sure - these systems were damn dangerous.

The fight was extremely hard as they quickly lost a large number of MTS, soldiers and other crewmates. In this whole chaos, Martin - alongside with a group of friends and a dozen of other people - took one of functional atmospheric aerial units and somehow managed to flee into a quite safe location.

Calling it "quite safe" was not a mistake - while they manage to flee from the Gaian weapons, they also got exposed to attacks of a local fauna. Shortly after leaving the fight zone, their vehicle got seriously damaged by one of flying creatures, looking a bit like the first feathered dinosaurs. Only due to piloting skills and a lot of luck, the group managed land in one piece.

The landing spot was located on an open plain covered mainly by the local grass, and was by no means a location they could stay at. That is why they continued further, using brawlers. Fortunately, in a matter of time, survivors from others joined them, adding several savages, military brawlers and wasps to the group - the last ones were flying machines of much smaller size than the eagle which was previously damaged and had to be left out. Contrary to eagles, wasps did not require human pilots, though they came with an option to be controlled with PECs, albeit rarely used.

Initial hours were focused on running and finding a safe place. Local "gliders", as they started calling these oversized pseudo-birds, finally left them be after a longer chase - most of them likely got tired, but some managed to catch many people and were feeding on them.

Whenever Martin thought about that now, he felt nauseous. Anyone could expect trouble and angers from this kind of project, but Johnson could never imagine something like this - men and women calling for help to be torn apart, into pieces, by powerful beaks. After such experience, he did not know if he will be ever able to look into the sky the same way as before. The worst thing here was this sense of powerlessness.

Over time, they finally managed to find shelter. At first, Martin was not entirely sure about the place, but quickly changed his mind after the thick walls defended them from the land predator's attack. The building they ended up in had a complex shape made of many cuboid blocks and cylindric columns. Many elements lied around disorderly, suggesting there was some kind of cataclysm or someone deliberately devastated this place years ago.

Johnson appreciated the possibility of establishing the camp in a secure location. Many crewmates felt safe here, but - in the end - they could not change the fact that their current shelter was not built by humans, and was created by local sentient beings instead.

The sole lack of knowledge about the alien technology should make them extremely cautions. However, it seemed that only small part of survivors in his current group felt the same way as Martin did. Majority of people around simply felt relieved and happy they are safe now.

Still, he had no right to judge others, and understood their reasoning in the context of situation they were in. It was onvious everyone needed to rest and forget about unpleasant moments. Many people attempts to distance themselves from bad thoughts - it is a kind of self-defense mechanism. So far, this kind of approach did not cause any dangerous situations, but it did not mean it would not result in problems in a long run.

Taking into account all the events until now, they had to take steps towards securing the group's survival. One of the first decisions was to establish a chain of command. Their group had slightly over two hundred people, so they could not count on everything to work out on its own.

They had some provisions and equipment, but none could be easily replenished. Provisions would be consumed, and equipment wears off over time. It was not possible to satisfy all the most important existing needs without acting, at least until joining remaining survivors and continuing with the original plan, if possible.

Martin was sure his group was not the only one to survive from the whole crew. Two hundreds out of several thousands was definitely way too low percentage, and it had to be noted that remaining pods had more experienced personnel, including soldiers. It was hard to believe such seasoned staff would not manage to survive.

In order to set the leading roles, they mainly went with the voting since each section needed to have its respective representative - one from military, medical, science and colonist groups. Militarymen had it easiest, because they simply went with ranks - there were three officers of the same rank with them, therefore selection went smooth and security chief, Jan Kowalski became the leader. Medical staff put their votes on Kate Warner, doctor who took over the role of overseeing the field hospital established in the camp, and was also assistant to Manuela Gomez, not present with them right now. From science team, Rashid - a good friend of Martin - was selected without the second thought by a huge margin. Lastly, colonists chose a young Frenchman - Hubert Dubois, who - despite his young age - was highly respected.

In case of Rashid, there were some people considering Martin for the role, but Johnson made a straightforward decision to not participate, asking everyone who wanted him to represent them to vote for Rashid instead. African scientist agreed to the idea, but asked Martin to assist him if needed.

- I hope you didn't think I'd take everything on my shoulders just like that - Rashid spoke to Martin after everything was agreed on - We all came here to play a role, right?

- Precisely - Martin nodded - I'm just a mechanic here. I was supposed to stay in the main base once we arrive here and simply repair the machines. I'm not like John.

They looked at each other and their faces immediately became clouded.

- You think he is alright? - Rashid looked into the distance through a small hole in the wall.

- For sure. You know he has both skill and luck. He'll manage.