Bite Me

[Cassie Granger 0]

<<Jumped the gun. This log takes place after the game on the 19th.>>

 

“Bite Me”

 

He was big. He was bad. And he was a monkey. Kind of.

 

Now, it’s generally accepted that monkeys have tails and apes don’t, and that’s true - for the most part. But judging from the characteristics on this guy, he could have been a little bit of both.

 

Both monkeys and apes are primates, both are mammals, and both are found in jungle areas (other places as well, but this recon was in a jungle). But apes are omnivores while monkeys are mostly veggie-vores (herbivores to you picky scientists). Apes’ arms are longer than their legs and they walk upright; monkeys are the same length or shorter and they walk on all fours. One lives longer than the other, but that’s not exactly something you take into account when you’re in the line of fire and trying to ID the thing that’s coming at you. Apes are more active on the ground; monkeys are more active in whatever passes for trees on your planet. Apes make tools; monkeys don’t.

 

This guy? His arms were about the same length of a human’s. It was just as agile in the trees as on the ground, and he seemed to be more interested in the weapons than the Marines.

 

Cass ran the stats through what was left of her brain (after anesthesia, antibiotics, antivirals, steroids, and whatever else medical decided to slip into her body) to prep for her debrief that would happen in… oh… she figured about 30.

 

Baboon. That’s what he reminded her of. Except for the short arms and the nub of a tail and the lack of a prominent red rump. He was big as a baboon and twice as nasty, with long, sharp incisors. Cass figured the one that vampired her neck weighed in at around 35 kilo, bare minimum. Rutting male, overpowering stench, almost like it was part of his defense. Or part of his attraction?

 

Long exhale, mental shudder.

 

Anyway, if the blood loss hadn’t knocked her out, the smell damn sure would’ve. Like the cesspools on Lescaria IV, but stronger and more musty. Yeah, she’d been there, and she’d been in ‘em, but definitely not on purpose. Gave the team a good laugh when she lost her footing, but then they had to live with her and the stench for the next week.

 

Payback, ooorah!

 

But back to the monkey.

 

It was tall, strong, fast, and agile, swung down from the tree and was on her in seconds. No time to prepare and no way to defend.

 

So why didn’t he finish the job? She chewed on that for a while.

 

Initial recommendation for this planet RE colonization: post a warning beacon and forget colonization until further investigation can establish a safe zone and figure out if these guys are sentient.

 

“Hey. Montana.” Cassie’s raw bark toward Delta’s PFC Danny Souter sounded more like a croak. “You had overwatch at my 3. Have any warning?”

 

“Few seconds, Cap,” he replied as he ripped off the only piece of sleeve the critter left behind in prep for a broad-spectrum antibiotic hypo, “that’s it. Came up on us like…” he snapped his fingers and made a whooshing sound, then shook his head. “Damnedest thing I’ve ever seen. Didn’t even show on the tracker.”

 

“Right. Anything important for the initial report?”

 

“No, ma’am. How you doin’ anyway?” The wadded remnant clanked a three-pointer in the recycler.

 

“I’ll live, so don’t plan on getting out of anything just because Lt. Sylvanis has the platoon, ‘cause after she’s finished kickin’ your azz, I’ll have a go. Get it?”

 

“Got it,” he smirked with a two-fingered salute.

 

"Where's Gravy?"

 

"Here, Cap." Kal's face came into view.

 

Cass moved her head a bit too far and cringed. "Where'd they get you, Gunny?"

 

"Didn't."

 

"He's too sour," Souter quipped, ducking to avoid Kal's good natured swat.

 

“Why you figure that?”

 

“What, Cap? That I’m too sour or…” his smirk disappeared at her look, “...right. No idea. It was almost like it singled me out, but it gave me the once-over, poked my rifle, and moved on. Damnedest thing.”

 

Cass eyed him a moment. “Male or female?”

 

“Couldn’t tell.”

 

Cass nodded, finished up her notes and shipped ‘em off to Captain Ja’Lale. Only then did she recline the biobed and let the anesthetic kick in with one nagging question in mind: Why didn’t he finish the job?

Edited January 21, 2014 by Cassie Granger