'Firefly meets Battlestar Galactica'.
A merchant's daughter is captured and sold into slavery.
A genetically modified survivor of an alien attack scours the galaxy for her taken brother before he is 'disassembled'.
An alien scientist u...
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The trees pulsed above her, syncing to the throbbing ache in her temples. Hunger shot threads of pain through her. On the thin side at the best of times, two weeks without adequate nourishment leached away her body fat, and began to eat away at her muscles. Her skin clung to her bones, stretched like dry parchment.
Daphne stared at the distant sky through her wavering vision, laying on a patch of moss, arms flat at her sides. She wasn't going to make it out of the forest.
Her food ran out after four days no matter how carefully she rationed it. After that, she monitored her water closely, keeping her filtration canteen filled. She ate what she could find or catch; small game, fish, even insects. Plants were dangerous. Too many poisonous species mimicked safe ones. Their primary food source on the forest ground floor was carrion, their poison's killed quickly, and she would be dead before recognizing the difference. At least animals wore their poison in flashy colors and prominent stingers.
The animals left her alone; anything that flew veered from her fiery hair like it was real flame. This was to her advantage. Since entering the forest, she saw no one, no travelers, no transports, or merchant caravans along the poorly kept route. Forced to traverse the woods on foot, she belatedly realized how vast it was, how isolated Jamestown truly was.
The last human settlement of New Earth 6.
Bloody, wretched, feckwits, the whole lot of them.
They believed they were so superior for their Purist traditions, their disdain of tech, isolated from the corrupting influence of the other territories. Fools! Their human purity hadn't saved them. They fought starvation, and would nearly freeze to death every winter because their tech was so outdated, surviving the odds only to be picked off by Barlok and Nisseri raiding parties. The other territories would not help them; they did not even know Jamestown suffered. They wouldn't know of this attack either, though it was greater than any before. Probably just the beginning, the Nisseri knew Jamestown was an easy target.
She knew how her people operated, they would dig out the survivors, deny any foreigners entrance while they rebuilt, including merchants with vital supplies, all for the sake of their purist code. Now her brother was gone, likely long disassembled in a flesh shop, while she slowly starved to death in the wilderness. Walking stoked her rage rather than ease it. Daphne was certain her anger kept her going far longer than her body would have on its own. It sure wasn't fueled by the tree bark she chewed on this morning.
That afternoon, she took a rest; fell over really, her legs too wobbly to carry her further. Now she was too weak to stand, could do nothing but lie there, simmering over her stupidity. How could she have underestimated the size of the forest? If she hadn't been in such a rush to leave Jamestown, she could have prepared herself better. Here she was waiting to be picked off by scavengers before the plants absorbed her. She was surprised none of the larger animals tried to come after her yet. Come to think of it, she never saw any larger animals since entering the forest.
