Cardinal's Cross part 5

Half an hour later they were nearing the cloud wall that marked the edge of the ash zone. After each fire storm that would strike the planet a hurricane would form around the area due to the low pressure zone caused by the fire’s intensity. The wind in the inner wall was strong enough to rip up trees and dig yards deep into the soil. Each of the buggies were going to have a hard time making their way through. Marrone had already shrunk the tires to barely three feet across and hardened calcium spikes were excreted by the semi-organic skin. The hooked claws dug into the ground to allow for amazing traction.

With one last look towards Jessley he closed the hardtop and switched to internal air supply. They had both conserved their tanks by opened their cockpits earlier, while the others had kept their closed. Once they made it into the air wall it would be difficult to open the air filters without them being clogged by bebris. Big Tony’s mech sunk spikes into the with each step to anchor itself. It was a difficult way to travel, but unfortunately it was the only option. The landscape of the planet changed on a yearly basis. The climate was so unstable that entire oceans would dry up and be reformed in as little as ten years, though there weren’t many oceans. Most of the water on the planet was on a constant run through of either raining or going back up to rain again. That’s why the church had never set up a permanent anchor to the planet for their station, and even the mission had to be founded on a specially made foundation that could be converted to a floating metropolis in less than a week.

Even Icarus pods couldn’t deal with the intense electromagnetic interference that came with the lower clouds that covered the entire planet. Not even the poles were safe due to the planet’s axis being horizontal to the solar system’s orbital plain. The only places without them were the eyes of the storms, like the one they were just trying to exit. It was a damned annoying planet, though luckily once they were able to conquer the forces of nature conquering the forces of the Cephalic would be a whole lot easier.

They had entered into the cloud wall already, and they could feel the buffeting of the debris. Small rocks ricocheted off the buggy, but the buggy’s armor was rated to survive an orbital drop strike. It was slow going, the landscape was extremely chaotic with the deep crevices torn into from high speed wind. Each of the buggy’s produced a blip on Marrone’s radar screen. He set the buggy’s internal navigation system to follow Jessley’s car. He knew that she would never fall asleep on the job, and would probably be his safest bet on not falling into a pit. Even though they had chosen the storm closet to the monetary it was going to take a good two hours before they would be in sight of the Cephalic settlement.

He leaned back his chair in the cramped cockpit and attempted to go to sleep. The rough bouncing of the buggy traversing the landscape was better than any cradle’s rock. It felt like being back in combat. It felt like being home.

“Sir, sir wake up. The force lead is on the com.” His shoulder was being nudged from behind. A mousy female face was looking at him from the seat behind him. She was probably the smallest among them, and he suspected she had grown up on a planet with low gravity. That generally contributed to stunted growth.

“Hmmm? Oh thank you Shilk.” He sat up and put and turned on the com link. He had turned it off for his nap.

“The mission is half a hour minutes away. We will be entering the Cephalic in approximately five minutes.” This was probably thing he had been looking forward to the most since coming to the planet. It was everybody in the entire allied planets wanted to do. Get a glimpse at the first non-human sentient life. Sure everyone saw the propaganda posters of priests with glowing halos handing them crucifixes and bountiful items, but nothing compared to a first hand view of it.

He opened the buggy to the elements. Above them was a blanket of clouds, for as far as the eye could see there was nothing buy thick dark cloud cover. Every so often a solitary beam of sunlight would extend down toward the surface. Despite that it was unpleasantly hot, and unbearably humid. Only a minute after opening the top he felt as if his shirt was soaked. The quasi darkness was extremely annoying, and from the report it seemed that this was as bright as it gets on the surface.

They were already in the burn zone around the monastery. It was the first line of defense if a fire storm threatened the structures. They had mulched and removed all possible organic and burnable material in a twenty mile radius around the monastery. If a fire storm did come, they would be spared from the worst of the ash. Marrone breathed in deeply through his nostrils. The air was clean, far cleaner than on any industrialized planet in Interstellar Congress Space. The oxygen content was going to something to get used to, it was so high that he was already getting slightly light headed.

In the distance he could see the first structures of the Cephalic. They were in neat rows and constructed of organomesh. It was a simply substance made from mixing organic material with a kind of nano technology. It was a self heating and cooling system that could be added onto my simply packing on more material and telling the nano bots to build.

In the distance you could see the movement of different beings walking between the buildings. The Cephalic were moving about their daily activities, and as they moved closer their figures slowly grew into clarity.

Author's Note

well, here we go.

Reviews

[Aggie Skeleton]

OMG, the font DID change.

[trish420]

I agree, the use of the term "buggy" gives it just another point of interest. More an more typs however, and several missing and/or changed words however, e.x. "They had mulched and removed all possible organic and burnable material in a miles around the monastery" It looks like you were either going to go with a specific NUMBER of miles or else the generic "in a mile" but never really committed either way. I noticed a few instances like this but nothing a good once over won't show you. The story's what's important though and it is GOOD :-)

[Huggy Bear]

great chapter:)

[Senseless whatever]

Here we go is right. Very eager to see where this goes. I like the taste of contrast here. The term 'buggy' just gives me one visual while I know based on your descriptions and the overall tone and setting of the story I need to have another. It's great.