The Legend of Ivan (3 page)

Perspiration poured down Cobb's body, quite normal with the usual heat and humidity. It appeared neither Ivan nor Grey, even heavily laden, were sweating at all.

Shouting over the winding down helicopter, Ivan noted Cobb's stare. "Olga is very beautiful, yes? Would you like to hold her?"

Ivan made as if to drop the weapon onto Cobb, at which the drunk shuffled backwards. "N-no. That's okay."

Bellowing a laugh, Ivan said, "I kid, I kid, friend. It is as well, as I am a jealous man. My Olga may be loud and unruly, but her kiss will always knock a man from his feet." Ivan lovingly patted the cannon and hoisted it over his shoulder. He turned to his companion. "Mister Grey, are we prepared to move out?"

The quiet comrade gave a nod and started walking towards the exit of the base camp.

"Wait, wait!" Cobb yelled, moving to catch up. "We need to talk about safety precautions and... and company policies on bag limits!"

Ivan shook his head. "I'm sorry, my friend, but we are on a strict deadline for this job. Can you inform us on the way?"

Cobb, confused, didn't feel like arguing with the huge man carrying the cannon. He trudged along beside the pair, mumbling through the various required pieces of information. The legal junk never meant much to him.

The company owned the planet and was technically subject to Galactic Central Government law, but enforcement was limited. Even so, having the proper warnings and policy was a good way to cover themselves in case of a surprise inspection, a lawsuit, or something else.

Grey remained quiet while they traveled through the dense jungle. He moved in front, hacking away at the overgrowth with a long knife. Cobb provided the occasional bit of direction, consulting a device when necessary to get proper bearings.

Ivan plodded along, singing loudly in a language Cobb didn't recognize. Every so often, he'd spot a small creature: a six-legged color-changer clinging to a tree, a snake hanging out of the branches, or some tiny animal scurrying through the underbrush. He'd develop a broad grin and point it out, as though each was an amazing discovery.

"So why are you fellas out here, then?" Cobb asked, shirt clinging from sweat. Taking a swig of water, he wished he hadn't exhausted his whiskey bottle.

"To hunt, my friend!" Ivan said. "I'd think that would be obvious, no?"

Cobb sputtered, "Well, ya, I know-"

Ivan laughed and slapped the guide on the back, nearly knocking the man sprawling. "Yes, yes, I'm merely poking fun. We are working for a client who wishes to have an impressive trophy on his mantle."

Paling, Cobb responded, "You don't think that Max is a little much for that?"

"My employer says to me, 'Ivan! You bring me the biggest creature in all the lands!' I find out about this place, and
your
employer was kind enough to tell me about this Max fellow. So I take Olga and this Mister Grey along to bring down the beast."

Checking their position, Cobb noted they were nearing the ridge, inside Max's territory. "Okay, we're gonna want to keep quiet now."

They progressed, thick underbrush pressing in on all sides. The ground started an upward incline, and they continued along. A noise, faint at first, rose as they moved: a deep rumble like boulders rolling down a mountainside. As they approached, the underbrush spread, leaving a wide path of trampled greenery.

"Goodness!" Ivan said in a whisper, noting a muddy track in the ground. Three toed, the footprint was quite deep and near the length of a man across. "The beast does not tread lightly, I see!"

Swallowing hard, Cobb didn't reply. He'd never seen Max until then, but the stories were terrifying. His body shook with fear, and he prayed these men were half as impressive as they appeared. More of the huge tracks became evident, and what Cobb realized was the stinking breath of the massive beast rattled in and out.

Up ahead, sunlight bathed a clearing of trampled, thick mud nestled up against a jutting shelf of rock. The enormous creature with its thick, leathery hide lay in an obvious sprawl within the nest.

Max, the titan who had killed hundreds, appeared to be sleeping. His massive head rested upon the ground, and his long tail laid straight out behind him.

"Motherinheaven..." Cobb breathed out, noticing the thick smell of rotting flesh spewing out of a nearby, half-eaten carcass. Smaller scavengers swarmed over the dead creature, ripping out their own share of the kill. Whatever the corpse had been was near impossible to discern considering its state. The little creatures glanced at the hunting party before returning to their meal.

"No, no, no!" Ivan shouted, startling the smaller animals swarming over the corpse. "This is not right, I say! The monster should be given a fighting chance, no?" Cupping his hands over his mouth, to Cobb's horror, he bellowed, "Max: scaly devilous beast! You may call me
IVAN!
I have come to bring you to your end!"

Shooting his companion a surprised glare, Grey turned back in time to see the creature's eye pop open. With a haste born of any hunting beast, Max scrambled to his feet and roared at the intruders.

The monster stood fifty feet long, standing on two legs with tiny forelimbs in front. The travelers gawked, marveling at his size and stature. Even Grey was stunned, only a dozen feet in front of the massive beast. Scaly hide rippled over thick muscle, and impossibly long teeth jutted down on either side of his jaws. Max crouched, clawed forelimbs twitching, while his hind legs tensed. A long tail swayed back and forth behind him.

Max appeared ready to pounce.

"I'll never know if ol' Max had any brains up in that bigass skull o' his," Cobb would say to many a traveler years later, "but I swear on my ma's Godrested soul that the sumbitch was sizin' us up. Never been so sceerd in my life."

A few moments of silence dripped by.

Max lunged forward, impossibly fast, and Grey squeezed the trigger. A burst of flechette needles peppered the face of the monster, tiny pinpricks of blood dotting and dripping from the wound. Unfazed, Max continued his charge.

Grey tried to duck as the creature twisted its neck and opened massive jaws. In an instant, the smallish man was hoisted into the air, caught within Max's mouth. Grey's eyes widened behind the clear visor of his helmet, but he gave no cry of fear or pain.

Wretched cracking noises filled the nest, and Cobb gawked in terror as Max worked his powerful jaws up and down. Brain-dead from fear and years of alcoholism, it took Cobb a few moments to realize that the sounds were not the snap and crunch of flesh and bones but of the hard ballistic armor.

Grey made no sound as his body was mashed inside the dense armor. While none of Max's arm-length teeth pierced the protective gear, the compression was enough to crack and break ribs. Max continued to ignore the man who issued the challenge and woke him up.

The captive in Max's jaws regained enough composure to yank an energy pistol from his belt and squeeze the trigger. A flash of weak light spewed out of Max's mouth, and the beast roared in surprise and anger. Max snapped his head upward, and Grey tumbled out of the creature's mouth, falling with a heavy thud onto the ground. Facedown, the hunter didn't move. Recovering, with a trail of smoke billowing out of his mouth, Max glared downward and made as if to snatch Grey again.

"Come, my monstrous friend!" Ivan shouted, taking aim. "Olga would like to give you a kiss!"

Cobb dropped to the ground as a deafening explosion sounded, thinking that the cannon Ivan carried had exploded. Covering his head, he feared the shrapnel from it would tear him to pieces or wound him enough for Max to finish him off once Grey was safely down his gullet.

"I thought it were the end fer me," he'd shake his head, "but goddamned if I didn't look up and see that Ivan fella with a bigass grin."

Looking over at Max, Cobb noted the beast's almost surprised expression accompanied by a gaping red hole in his chest. Max lurched back and forth, unsteady.

The wound gushed blood, spilling down the thick hide, and wheezing sounds escaped the creature's throat. After a moment, Max fell, narrowly missing the fallen form of Grey. After twitching a few times, the beast lay still.

With a cry of triumph, Ivan raised the cannon over his head. "A worthy foe!"

Cobb whimpered on the ground, passing a terrified glance at the fallen Grey, who still didn't move.

A heavy hand fell upon him, hauling Cobb to a standing position. Ivan grinned down at him. "My Olga always aims for the heart, but let us see to our friend before we signal for the pickup, yes?"

Cobb nodded, struck silent. He and Ivan moved towards their comrade, who stirred weakly.

"Mister Grey! It is good that you are not dead!" Ivan said, gently prodding the downed man.

Grunting in pain, Grey rolled over. "Cut it out, you oaf," he rasped, his open mouth revealing blood-rimmed teeth from internal bleeding. "My ribs are broken."

"Much more than that, I suspect," Ivan grinned, "but we will ensure you live long enough to get paid. Your role in diversion was quite helpful, after all."

Grey scowled and didn't respond. His head laid back, and he glared skyward as though insulted to be reduced to such.

"Contacting the extraction would be good, yes?" Ivan asked Cobb, who stared dumbly back. "Yes?" he repeated after a moment without response.

Still unable to process much, Cobb nodded and got on the radio. He called in the biggest extraction vessel they had available. One of the perks of the rare success was that management helped drag the critters back. Once there, the person had to handle taking the kill off world, including any planetary customs issues that might come up from hauling in a large, dead alien creature.

Stuffing the radio back into his pocket, Cobb said, "The transport'll be on it's way soon."

"Good, good." Ivan nodded as he walked over to his kill. He stooped down, staring into the lifeless carcass of the enormous beast. "Almost too easy," he murmured. Max's eye remained open and vacant, easily as big as the large man's head. With a savage kick, Ivan dislodged one of Max's smaller fangs, still the length of his hand. He picked it up and placed it in his pack.

"Olga would like me to keep a souvenir, as our large friend here will be gracing the hall of my employer." Ivan swept a gesture at the large beast, and Cobb merely nodded. He checked his watch, wishing he had something to drink to pass the time before the transport arrived. He contemplated hiking back to the secondary base, but he decided it violated policy too much. Cobb sat down next to a tree.

Ivan continued to pick over the fallen creature, noting its wicked claws and tapping against its hide. Examining the entry wound, he patted the cannon lovingly and said something Cobb didn't catch.

Watching, Cobb noticed Ivan cock his head. The large hunter set down his weapon and climbed over the mountainous body, moving towards the interior of the muddy nest. Stooping down, Ivan scraped aside and dug into the mud.

"Find somethin'?" Cobb called out.

Standing, Ivan nodded. "Indeed I have." He hefted a large spherical object, as big as his own torso. Cobb stared dumbly, his brain identifying it after a few sluggish moments.

Something moved nearby: a rustle in the underbrush. A jolt of fear and adrenaline coursed into Cobb, and he jumped to his feet. "Didja hear that?" he hissed.

Ivan held up a hand, setting down the egg. Hopping back over to where Olga lay, he knelt and placed a hand on the weapon.

Another soft rustle occurred, this time on the opposite side of the nest.

Cobb shot a look over at Grey, whose eyes darted back and forth. "The rifle," he said to Cobb, "bring it here, now!"

Shaking with fear, Cobb shuffled over to the dropped flechette rifle. It was covered in mud, but he brought it back to the fallen Grey, who painfully leaned up on an elbow. He took the weapon in one arm and scanned the underbrush.

"Something comes," Ivan said.

Bipedal lizard-creatures burst out of the jungle on all sides, a deafening cacophony of screeching noises accompanying their charge.

Cobb's life flashed before his eyes when he saw what appeared to be smaller, man-sized versions of Max, or Maxine. They ran on two legs but were brandishing longer forelimbs tipped with vicious claws. Their own scaly hides shimmered in the mid-day sun.

Grey didn't hesitate. With the soft
fupp!
of the flechette rifle, one creature's head burst against the cloud of razor-sharp needles. Cobb screamed as Grey continued firing, cursing under his breath. Several more fell.

Glancing over, Cobb's jaw dropped to see Ivan engaged in melee combat with the vicious creatures. The large man swung the cannon in wide arcs, smashing the heavy weapon into the heads and bodies of the beasts. A wild grin stood out on his face as he worked his way towards his comrades, the cannon whipping back and forth and keeping the creatures at bay.

Grey's face contorted in a snarl as he fired upon the monsters that continued to spill from the jungle. Cobb cowered between the two men as they defended the weak position. After running dry on ammo, Grey cast aside the rifle and yanked two energy pistols from holsters. Weak flashes, nowhere near the full potential of the deadly light, blinded and burned a couple of the creatures.

Something hit Cobb in the back. He was knocked sprawling to the ground with something heavy on top of him, and sharp daggers pierced into his back. The wind squeezed out of his lungs, and he tried to scream.

Ivan whirled around, hurling the cannon into the midsection of the beast. Cobb, though disoriented, heard an audible crack as the creature's bones shattered under the impact, and the iron behemoth dragged it to the ground. Cobb watched it weakly struggling, intense pain obvious in its eyes.