Solar Knight: Star Dust -book 2-

chapter 40: shipment gone awry

Shipment traveling is usually a mixed bag. You have times when you go the whole way without a hiccup or problem and then you have times when you get invaded by bandits, space monsters, and natural phenomenon that is destructive. This trip however, was eerily uneventful. I felt it in me bones that something was wrong and we were about to find out.

Our first destination was Chuzen, and it was rocky on the way there. On the way there, was a surprise meteor storm that banged our shields up a bit. One hit my ship so hard, I spilled my hot brew all over myself. Though I was scorched head to toe, I was more upset that I had to make my drink again...... After the damned storm! See, our shields are high grade and meant to survive a war zone, because we had to fly through one for a delivery. So a little meteor storm wasn't gonna hurt us, just shake us to death.

Once we arrived, we seen a pod float by with a very angry chu inside. We all questioned it amongst ourselves, but collectively shrugged it off. We then landed and started to unload the goods.

"Thank you so much! Pardon the pod that probably bumped one of your vessels! " their leader said.

"Ayyyeee aaaaah, what was with the pod? It had one of your own in it, right?" I asked as I got him to sign the papers.

"Well, that was ratton. We banished her for doing something so awful, we dare not speak of it!" He said with utmost sincerity.

"Something so awful that it calls for banishment..... Tis a shame some people would stoop so low to get banished. I can only imagine what they've done! " I said, looking over the papers, making sure they were signed properly.

"You don't want to... It's truly horrible! I won't be able to sleep for weeks!" He said, shivering a bit.

"Hmmm... Well I'm just a delivery man, not a gossiper. Thank you for your buisness! " I said, shaking his hand.

"No problem! Your healing water is a wonder! Many sick chu have a lot to thank you for! " he said.

"Ahhhh it's nothing. Mind if we rest here for a while? It's been a long trip." I asked.

"Certainly! We'll have you and your men reserved the finest rooms in our hotels and inns! " he said happily.

After telling the men to rest for the night, I myself went to my room, cleaned up, and slept on the bed. Their beds are small because their race is genetically short. Their tallest chu only reaches five foot two. However, their beds are cozy and warm, due to their tech relying on heat from either steam or coal mined from their planet or from close ranged asteroids.

Once we woke up the next morning, we ate fine chu dining and headed to space. Our next destination was planet Inari! However..... We didn't expect what we found.....

Inari is usually a bustling planet full of life and technology, what we came across was a tragedy. Mangled corpses of vule scattered the landscape as we landed. We exited and wandered the ruins for survivors. Some of the vules that were alive had gone feral and tried to kill us. Sadly, they got ahold a few of our men and tore them apart before we could kill the ferals in time.

Red, prickly, matted fur are the signs of a vulepkin gone feral. It's like rabies, but on a colossal scale. Just one can rip out a steel door as if it were paper. Let's just say, the vule corpses were unrecognizable, with no age restriction either. It was a horrible sight.

Needless to say, we put our fallen comrades in body bags, got back onto our ships and booked it out of there before we lost any more men. Surely the chu we seen in the pod didn't do this...... Did she?