Deathstalker 07 - Deathstalker Return

"Some of them so big they're off the scale. Plus lots and lots of general activity. If I'm interpreting the roars, howls, and screams correctly, I would venture an educated guess that every living thing in this jungle is currently busy trying to eat, screw, and kill every other living thing. Not necessarily in that order."
    "I feel right at home," said Saturday. "Why aren't we disembarking yet?"
    Brett sniffed. "I think you just answered your own question." He studied the clearing perimeter on the bridge viewscreen and scowled unhappily. "We are definitely not alone here, people; and the natives look extremely restless. Just how nasty is this place, really?"
    "According to all the legends, Shandrakor could win prizes for nasty, along with honorable mentions for vicious, deadly, and downright alarming," said Lewis. "It was bad enough in the old days, when Owen and his people were forced to land here, but the current situation is actually even worse. Brett, try to stop that twitching, it's very off-putting. Some two hundred years ago, King Robert and Queen Constance found themselves in the unenviable position of having to clean up after the war's messes. There were a lot of monsters in the Empire in those days, running wild or locked away in hidden laboratories; the results of genetic tampering and experimentation by Lionstone's scientists, the rogue AIs of Shub, and even the Mater Mundi. Creatures too powerful and too disturbed ever to be integrated into civilization. All kinds of madness had been given shape and form, to be used as weapons, or as research. Terrible things had been birthed in those secret laboratories, and a whole lot of them were still alive when the fighting was finally over. What's the matter now, Brett?"
    "Nothing," Brett said quickly. He locked his hands tightly together to stop them shaking, and did his best to get his breathing back under control. He was remembering his encounter with the Spider Harps, the centuries old uber-espers living their awful lives in their cold stone lair deep under the Parade of the Endless on Logres. He still had nightmares about them.
    "Anyway," said Lewis, "these abominations of science had no place in the calm and civilized Golden Age Robert and Constance were so determined to build. The monsters couldn't be cured, so the Empire rounded them all up, brought them here, and dumped them, leaving them to fend for themselves. Just as Lionstone once abandoned her lepers on Lachrymae Christi. I suppose it was considered more merciful than just killing them all. So, God alone knows what horrors we'll find in the jungles of Shandrakor now, after the Empire's monsters have been interbreeding with the local creatures for two hundred years."
    "Some of those monsters were human once," said Jesamine. "Weren't they?"
    "Yes," said Lewis. "People captured by Shub and experimented on. Unfortunately, the AIs did their work so well that even after they had their epiphany and became Humanity's friends, they couldn't undo
    what they had done. Another reason perhaps why Robert and Constance didn't want them around."
    "Do you suppose any of them are still alive, here?"
    "I hope not," said Lewis. "If they weren't insane when they got here, they must be by now."
    "I want to go home," said Brett.
    "Don't be such a wimp," said Rose. "It's going to be danger and excitement and all the monsters we can kill. Who could ask for more? It's going to be fun, fun, fun."
    Brett looked at her. "You're really not helping, Rose."
    "And this is the place Jenny Psycho was so keen for us to come to," said Jesamine. "Are we sure she's on our side? A whole planet crawling with hideous monsters, quite possibly with grudges they've been nursing for centuries, and we're supposed to go walkabout looking for a castle that's probably just a pile of rubble…Maybe I should sit this one out. Someone ought to stay on board ship, in case of emergencies."
    "If you like…" said Lewis.
    "No, I don't like! Of course I'm going with you! I don't trust you out of my sight, Deathstalker. No telling what trouble you'd get into without me there to watch over you. But I don't have to like it."
    "My sentiments exactly," said Brett.
    "Shut up, Brett," said Jesamine.
    "All right," said Lewis. "Everyone grab whatever weapons you're most comfortable with, and gather at the airlock. Once we're out in the clearing, feel entirely free to shoot anything that moves that isn't us. We have no friends here. Rose, please don't smile like