Lost Origins: SS Ranked Awakening

5:30 pm

It had been a couple hours since they left the clearing, and while they had seen several good camping spots, they decided to push deeper into the forest.

They hadn't managed to travel a long distance before the few rays of light that shone through the trees completely vanished.

"Alright, let's find somewhere to stay. We can't go forward anymore, it's already dark!"

Jake said looking around to see if he could find a good spot.

"HERE!"

Kieran who had moved away from the group a little called out to them.

He stood at a spot that had a cluster of tall trees with intertwined roots. Strangely, some moss and grass covered the roots. At the side, the mosses could be seen growing out of the roots, cracking the hard bark.

This occurrence was due to the mutations, rather the vegetation of the planet. At times like this, Kieran and the other recruits were reminded that although the planet was habitable; they weren't actually in earth.

Staying in the camp had shielded them from the differences, but now, it was in plain sight for them to see.

The moss and grasses on the roots made the bottom of the trees look like a bowl, so they could sleep comfortably on them.

Although they were well prepared compared to others, they didn't think to bring tents. Kieran was used to sleeping on the hard floor, so to him sleeping on the forest floor wasn't as bad as it sounded.

Ruby and Jake also didn't seem to mind sleeping on the floor but they had al made sure to carry some sleeping bags with them.

Setting the sleeping bags at an optimal distance from each other, Kieran and Jake moved out to get some dry sticks from the surroundings. They were in a fresh forest so it was rather hard to find some dry sticks to start a fire.

They couldn't just cut the branches of the trees and use them to start a fire. Those ones still had moisture in them, trying to start a fire with sticks like that would only end up with them wasting their time and resources.

Luckily, they managed to find some dry sticks and twigs that had fallen not quite far from their location. Gathering that and some dried leaves, they planned to start a small fire later in the night lest they wanted to freeze in the night.

The memory of the planet's extreme weather changes was still fresh in their minds. They might have been holed up in the mountain for almost four months, but they never forgot this detail about the planet they were on.

Night quickly approached and they set up the fire and tucked themselves in their thick sleeping bags praying silently that it would be able to protect them from the cold of the night.

Laying on his back, Kieran stared at the two moons of the planet wandering in the world of his thoughts.

'The first stage is about to end soon. It's been four months since they died, I wonder how long it'll take before I can actually do something.'

'I wonder what's inside the box though.'

He still hadn't managed to open it up. The fact that it was made by his dad and it had his name on it made him think that he would open it. He didn't think his old man would make it that hard just to give him something, but this line of thinking had been thoroughly destroyed by all his attempts that had ended up in failure so far.

He just did what he did to matters that were currently beyond him, he abandoned it and left it for later, he still believed that he would manage to open it in the coming days.

One thing that puzzled him though was the craftsmanship on the box, it looked like it was carved out a single block of metal with no gaps. His dad was just an outcast who did part time jobs that barely managed to keep his family afloat. How could someone like him get his hands on something like that, his name had even been engraved into the box.

There was no way his dad could have done that after he got the box if even he failed to scratch it with military grade weapons.

'I might just decide to blow it up next time, I wonder if it'll survive'

Kieran thought letting out a chuckle at his own thoughts.

The voices of Jake and Ruby was no longer heard, so he assumed they had fallen asleep with out bothering to look at them.

The silence was accompanied with the sound of the leaves rustling in the wind and the crackling of the fire which managed to silence his thoughts. For the first time since he stepped foot onto this planet, Kieran felt at peace.

The sense of urgency that had been eating at him had vanished for a moment, his mind was silent and his heart calm.

Tucking himself deeper into the thick sleeping bag, Kieran closed his eyes peacefully.

…..

"That went well."

"Yeah…"

Rumble..!!

The sound of Jake and Ruby conversing along with the rumbling of his stomach awoke him from his slumber. He had truly fallen asleep without a care in world.

Kieran had always slept with an eye open, another one of the habits he had gained from the slums, but sleeping fully wasn't a bad thing too. He vision felt sharper, his head clearer and his body more energetic despite the pangs of hunger that hit him the moment he woke up. They did eat anything before they went to sleep last night.

"It sounds like a monster."

Ruby said, teasing him and a smile tugged the corner of his lips before he stood up and made his way to his backpack he had placed at the side of one of the huge roots.

"Huh? Did you see that? He …..smiled"

Ruby asked Jake pointing to Kieran's back. Although she had never seen him smile before, she had also taken note of his recently edgy behavior and she was starting to get worried, but it seemed that wasn't needed.

Jake just silently observed while tearing into a piece of meat that looked like a turkey leg, at times like this, his image as a brute was reestablished.

Once they were done with their breakfast, they packed up and proceeded with the mission, starting with scouting their surroundings for the devices.

Their watches hadn't beeped yet which meant they weren't in range of what they were looking for.

The trackers, jammer, and other equipment the camp had placed in this region were built with advanced camouflage technology, so it was impossible for them to spot them with their bare eyes.

After searching the whole 400 meters radius around their location and finding nothing, they continued their journey towards the center of the region.

They made two more stops on their journey to search the area but still got nothing. Kieran was starting to get skeptical, how effective were the devices for them to be placed too far from each other. On their next stop, Ruby managed to detect one with her watch; it was a very small device the size of a fist that looked like a camera with some speaker holes at the bottom.

In the surrounding, it was truly impossible to spot; they would have completely missed it if not for the beeping of the watch, increasing in intensity the closer they were to the device.

Jake had also managed to find one at his end, leaving Kieran as the only one who hadn't gotten any.

Hearing the reports of Ruby and Jake through the com that he had attached to his uniform. Heading forward, Kieran quickly came to a stop; looking around as if trying to locate something. If not for his watch that wasn't beeping, one would have thought that he came across a device.

Rumble!!!!

With his enhanced senses, he could vaguely hear a rumbling sound along with the slight vibration of the ground and the tree he had his hand upon.

Making a quick series of eliminations, narrowing down the things that could cause such an occurrence in a place like this, his face darkened noticeably, none of them were pleasant at all!

RUMBLE!!!! VIBRATE!!!

Hearing the sound become louder, Kieran quickly turned heels and began running in the direction he was coming from while speaking into his com.

"Jump on the tallest tree beside you and make it's very tall, NOW!"

He said, his attention vanishing from that immediately.

He wasn't in the right situation to tell them why, it was up to them to trust him.

He was currently running, trying to find a tree with a good height. The trees in the area he was running from weren't as tall as he needed.

RUMBLE!!!

The sound was now loud enough for him to hear it clearly, like it was just at his back. Quickly jumping unto a tree, he climbed rapidly to one of the branches near the top.

Getting there, he could now look down, hoping the source of the sound wasn't he thought it was.