2953-08-20 – Tales from the Service: Alone on Lux Paradiso
The Navy raid on the Incarnation outpost of Lux Paradiso has met with rather tepid response on the datasphere, largely because the results of the raid seem to be minimal. Still, this represents the first Seventh Fleet attack on a world in Incarnation home space, and that should tell our readers something about the progress of the war on this front.
In the lead up to this raid, at least one special Naval Intelligence operation was conducted to survey the defenses and targets of opportunity. Intelligence has seen fit to reveal something about one of these operations, a solitary infiltration across the open terrain which ran into a few unforeseen complications. Obviously, the name of the operative is not his actual name, and some other details have probably been altered to preserve his identity.
Jorgen Goddard slowly reached over his shoulder for the laser rifle slung there as a huge slug wormed its way down the bole of one of the nearby trees toward him. Perhaps “slug” and “trees” weren’t the right words, but Jorgen wasn’t a xenobiologist, so that didn’t bother him too much.
Wary of the possibility that the creature didn’t need to reach him to hurt him – he'd seen the hunting method of the cone snail on his native Earth too many times to believe that – he brought the rifle to bear just as its body reached the spongy tangle of thready roots that passed for a forest floor on Lux Paradiso. He lined it up on a spot midway between the two stubby feelers protruding from the slug’s head, but held his ground – if the thing was a predator, even a primitive one, it would see his retreat as certainty of edibility.
With a flatulent sound, the slug lowered its head toward the root-mat below its body and belched forth a rasping, conical appendage which might have been a proboscis. This sliced through the roots like a plasma torch through poly-sheeting, and the creature’s head followed it down. Within seconds, it was already disappearing below ground.
Jorgen breathed a sigh of relief and lowered his rifle. Little was known about the ecology of this world, because it had never been surveyed or studied, at least by Confederated explorers. Lux Paradiso was at the edge of Incarnation home space, though for obvious reasons it was not one of their more populous colonies. The fast-growing jungle which covered much of its single continent reminded him quite a bit of the notorious Camp Cactus, which Jorgen had visited only once, as an invited observer of a Confederated Marine training exercise. The ecology would simply overwhelm any attempt at large scale agriculture.
That didn’t completely stop Nate from using the place, though. Lux Paradiso sported a small civilian population mostly living in the hills far inland, supporting the supply needs of a sizable orbital infrastructure including at least two full scale military service docks. It was an unforgiving world, but as a super-habitable ecology located in a strategically located, mineral-rich a star system, neither Nate nor Seventh Fleet could simply ignore it.
As Jorgen worked his way through dense undergrowth reminiscent of Earthly sponges and lichens grown large, his signal detector chirped. He threw himself flat, trusting the growths to hide him, just as a pair of small aircraft whistled overhead. They were going too fast to be looking for him or anything else on the ground, but Incarnation sensors were notoriously good; it paid to be careful.
Jorgen had spent nearly a month in a tiny one-man spacecraft working his way into the system and then a week clambering through alien jungle because of rumors Naval Intelligence had gathered. If they proved true, there was more to the colony on Lux Paradiso than a mere food-mass plantation for the orbital infrastructure.
Jorgen was of course briefed on the use of grown components in Incarnation spacecraft, of course; most probably, a few specialty components were being grown up there too, to save cargo space on haulers, but there was almost certainly not enough arable land up in the hills for more than that.
Getting close without raising the alarm was worth taking time. Nate probably knew that their enemies had located the Lux Paradiso colony, given the orbital security Jorgen had seen on the way in. Doubtless the ground-side perimeter was stout as well, with multiple layers of defense.
As he lay there waiting on the off chance the flyers circled back, Jorgen felt the tangled roots below his body shift, as if a wave had passed through them. He frowned, uncomprehending, and got up as far as his hands and knees to look around. Sure enough, a line of narrow waves was just bobbing the fronds of a nearby stand of plants. Nothing else moved.
Jorgen stood up to watch the wave pattern disappear into the trees, but to his surprise he saw it curving around just beyond the underbrush and looping back on itself. He didn’t comprehend this at first, and stood still for a moment too long.
When the realization hit him, he dove toward the bole of a mushroom-shaped tree, but it was too late. The ground at his feet erupted, and he stumbled into the fleshy maw of a giant slug-like creature.