by T. L Smith
This was the information Sharmila wanted to hear. It was time to go hunting. We suited up and started arming ourselves. As much as I hoped she’d been killed in Sharmila’s attack, we’d touched and she left a mark on me. If she’d died, I’d have felt that much evil leave this universe. So the idea of confronting her again made my stomach flip over, and back, repeatedly.
I held down the urge to puke as I led my team to our shuttle. There we were met by the second half of our team, soldiers who would provide us with ground cover. Or in this case, underground.
Gardner provided a heavy escort, so our shuttle met no resistance landing in the capital city. As the landing gear stabilized I uncurled my fingers from clutching the edge of my jump seat. When I tried to put my helmet on, my hands shook so badly I had trouble sealing all the latches. I suddenly felt like a rookie.
The officer next to me sensed my growing frustration and leaned close. “Let me, Primary.” He flipped the last two latches and tested the seal.
The reading above my visor confirmed I was oxygenated and not leaking. It would suck to encounter the same nightmare as a prior life. But I was good to go. “Thank you...” I looked from his face to his chest. “Major Bowen.” He was the squad commander. He’d lead this mission. The rest of the team was ready, waiting on me.
I gave them the nod to disembark.
Under the wing of my shuttle, the ground team leader met us. “Primary, the area is secure. The slave population must know we’re the good guys. They’ve been lighting out of here on their own and there’s been no significant resistance. The surrounding buildings are already evacuated and we’ve cordoned off the area. Snipers are on the roofs covering us.”
“Thank you, Captain.” I looked around at the buildings dusted by the rubble of the tower we’d destroyed. After what I’d witnessed within, I could thoroughly understand the slaves running for cover, hoping we were the good guys. They probably didn’t care, as long as we were destroying their tormentors, and weren’t worse than them. Though that would be impossible for any species.
I turned to my team. “Let’s do this.”
Major Bowen motioned his men forward and I was swept up into their midst, guarded from all sides as we moved into the tunnel. Our helmets automatically compensated for sudden darkness. The major sent a scouting party ahead, two men who would check the route and drop markers to guide our way.
Already out of my element, I had no problem conceding to Everett’s skill. Covert operations were his forte. I stumbled slightly in the transition and a hand grabbed my elbow, the soldier almost immediately released me as he felt Everett’s presence.
With his influence guiding me, my body crouched into stealth mode. I knew what I was supposed to do. No, Everett knew. I receded further, down to where Sharmila waited, preparing for battle. My task now seemed simple enough. Stay out of everyone’s way.
It was bizarre how quickly Everett adapted to my body, instead of his huge hulking frame. He seemed to not notice, moving with a catlike grace. Every muscle tensed, but not stressed, simply prepared for whatever might come.
In my head it was even more bizarre. Once enemies, he and Sharmila shared my sensory functions. He made sure our immediate area was safe, while Sharmila searched for the spark of Punitraq minds. She kept my barriers closed, knowing their queen would be looking for me.
Our team moved down the tunnels, towards the deeper chambers. Probably bunkers dug out when they built the ancient towers, never knowing when or if the Elders would return. This would be where their queen fled as soon as Sharmila bombarded her throne. She’d stay there, protected, letting her army defend her. I wondered if she knew that she was losing the war.
I didn’t cling to hope in her naivety. She’d reach out and find us coming for her, so the longer the better. My special team of soldiers were already studying Sharmila’s every thought. They latched onto her abilities, finding undiscovered paths in their own heads. She let them, making the occupation of my mind and body all the stranger.
For the first half-hour of descent, we picked our way through hazardous fallen debris. Some areas looked ready to collapse with any unexpected tremor. We eased past the hazardous areas and soon found clear passages. We moved slowly, investigating every nook and cranny for traps. Though our way became easier I felt more agitated, a mood verging on terrified, but I knew my fears came from what Sharmila sensed.
My voice rose to the surface. “There are Punitraq ahead and they’re frightened.” Everett focused my eyes into the darkness to see what she saw. “Trapped animals kill.”
“Understood, Primary!” The major made a hand signal to his brothers, a warning to tighten up their blocks. “Remember we’re here to learn from you, but also to be drawn from, if you need our strength.”
I shivered at his offer. The Punitraq took a gift and turned it grotesque by feeding off innocents. I couldn’t think of accepting his offer. I feared it.
“Ma’am, we’re not them. We don’t need the life force of others to survive.” He leaned close. “Trust Col. Everett. Trust us.”
“It’s not you I don’t trust.” I took a deep breath and tried to be realistic. Once they learned what they needed from Sharmila, they would take over. It required being completely accessible to them, to each other. I had to resist putting up barriers. I had to step back, giving her the lead again.
She refocused my thoughts back into the darkness, into the fear radiating from the depths of this hole. “They might look like me, but a touch can kill. Don’t let them near you. Shoot to kill!” I spoke to all the EH, not just the… “Slayers!?! That’s what you’re calling yourselves?”
The major gave me a shrug.
These special men were about to face the most vicious enemy. If this was the designation they chose, I was in no place to disapprove.
“The Punitraq in these deep bunkers wouldn’t be of the level who attacked the fleet. They’d be far more lethal, and if we could sense them, they know we were here too.” We proceeded through this ill-fitting cloak of darkness, knowing both sides could see each other, driving the tensions higher.
After a few more complicated turns, the walls felt far older. There were doors, ancient as I touched them. Sharmila sought through the thick metal for inhabitants, but all we felt was the coldness of age. No, our enemy lay in wait beyond, deeper.
Finally we entered corridors where the atmosphere had been disturbed. The floors showed movement and my skin crawled with energy. Everett moved us forward to join our recon guys, feeling our way more slowly now.
When my hand met heavy bunker doors, I didn’t need Sharmila to tell me Punitraq cloistered beyond. Fear and anger had been imprinted into the walls around me. In thousands of years, no one dared to rise against them, against her, until now. Who dared to now?
Sharmila pulled my hand back to my chest. “The queen is alive. And angry.”
CHAPTER FORTY-EIGHT
Slayers moved up around me as Sharmila delved beyond the scarred ancient metal. Weak minds were easy to find and she glided through them quickly, lightly, gathering images of the space beyond these doors. At the same time, Everett drew an outline of the developing bunker. Between the two of them, they pinpointed pockets of Punitraq dug in to defend their lair. We’d have to take the bunker section by section, before we could reach their queen.
With the plan laid out, I retreated up the tunnel with the rest of the Slayers. Our recon pair set ordinance around the heavy door. At Everett’s urging, I ducked my head and body down tight. This deep in unmoving atmosphere, the blast vibrated the walls, undulating over us.
As it passed, Everett took control and we rushed the breached doors. I burrowed deeper to not distract him, or my team. We ducked through the rippled metal plating, diving for cover under the protective weapons fire of our lead soldiers.
For the first time since entering the tunnels we found lighting, dim emergency lamps. We only had a second to confirm the layout and find shelter as more percussion grenades rolle
d out over the bunker. We had the first two pockets eliminated in only a few seconds. It seemed this was a weapon they had no concept of. Too simple. Too primitive.
I couldn’t help but flash back to our first days in the Collective, humans feeling inferior to all the species around them. The Punitraq certainly never expected juvenile delinquents to crash their private party.
It was a momentary thought as Everett pushed me up behind my team, examining bodies for survivors. I found a Punitraq alive, jumping back when I felt the rising hunger, in desperate need for a living energy to regenerate. Everett turned my rifle to the Punitraq’s head and pulled the trigger. The gore made me nauseous, but added to the confusion around us.
For the Punitraq, the sudden deaths of their brothers and sisters was unexpected, violent and so finite. Something they’d forgotten in their arrogance. We were teaching them that they could die too. “Though not as torturously as their victims.” Sharmila reminded me.
She pushed us on and the Punitraq’s terror intensified as they found themselves trapped between us and the soul-crushing anger of their queen. Their fear encouraged us and we moved steadily deeper into the bunker, until finally we hunkered down only steps away from another set of large barricaded doors.
Everett couldn’t resist a look at the doors, but as he popped his head over the stone wall, a flash grazed along my helmet. “Son of a…” He ducked down before the next shot got more than a little helmet skin.
“What the hell do you think you’re doing? This is MY face here, damn it! You’re supposed to protect me, not get my fucking head blown off.”
“Okay… I know!”
Whether my outburst was me, Sharmila, or both of us, I had to slow my breathing and stop shaking. “You’re not here to fight babe, our job is to get Sharmila to the queen. Got it?”
My head nodded and I saw a look of amusement from the soldier next to me. Clearly my scolding went out to anyone near enough to hear. My cheeks felt a rush of warmth, one of us blushed. I knew Everett wasn’t accustomed to being publically bitched out.
More cautious now, he kept my head down, letting Sharmila focus on our enemy as our soldiers finished clearing our side of the bunker, leaving the Punitraq ensconced inside the inner chamber. They’d had time to regroup, but still didn’t know their targets enough to reach out to us. But I could sense their lethal current, driven by hate, by their queen. I looked to the Slayers and they knew it was time. Time to learn how we’d killed the Punitraq in their warships.
I pulled the Slayers back to a defendable cavern and gathered them around me, ordering their companions to completely shut down their hosts’ receptors. I needed to protect them from the forces we were about to antagonize, then destroy. I inhaled and closed my eyes, returning to the depths of my core, taking Everett with me.
Sharmila exhaled, in total control now. She saw the ten men, silent as they studied her. They knew she wasn’t the woman they’d escorted here, or Col. Everett. She stared back at them, baring their souls through all their blocks, finding them capable of the task. She reached out her hand. One-by-one, hand-by-hand, they created a solid mental bond.
When she had the men bound to her, she turned our attention to the doors blocking our entry. The doors blocked physical entry, but we were Slayers.
Sharmila carefully gathered chaotic airy strands of energy, my energy. I had always focused on my abilities, but not the energy of my soul. Then she reached out and gathered the energy of the Slayers. Sharmila wove them together, until no longer separate strands, but a web strong enough to support her demands. A web to share and distribute their collective powers.
The Slayers grasped her process and she let them weave their abilities on their own, with each other. It seemed to come easy for them, but they’d always been more familiar with their abilities, whereas I’d avoided them.
Sharmila admired their quickness to learn too. Satisfied with their understanding, she gently reached out to collect strands from each man, interweaving them back into her web, without diminishing their own. Each strand joined made the next stronger, but were easily untangled if any member needed to withdraw.
The web stabilized into a cloud, not too unlike what the Elders utilized when they reveal themselves. She showed them the form we’d used, a boa, a creature that worked well terrifying the Punitraq we turned it on. The men projected their own image, a mystical ghost creature that morphed into a version of my ghoulish monster, ready to destroy.
Sharmila tested their creature and their ability to hold its form. Finally feeling their confidence in place, she turned their focus to the doors. The impenetrable metal was no barrier to their phantom creature.
She guided them through solid doors to lurk in shadows and cast their influence like a net, over the oblivious enemy. Their targets were completely fixated upon the arrival of physical beings, unprepared for the combination of EH and Elder warfare. She found a target petrified by the losses they suffered.
His powers refused to coalesce. She singled him out for the Slayers, then reached out to truly touch his soul, to let his poison flow back to them. She needed the Slayers to understand the differences between the Elders and Punitraq.
This creature hungered for a victim’s soul, to strengthen himself in this battle. Fear made his hunger even more dangerous. He would kill anything, anyone, who crossed his path. His hunger was torture.
As strong as the Slayers were, this brush against the true sickness of the Punitraq shook them. Sharmila didn’t comfort them. It was necessary they fear these creatures. It would keep them hardened when they had to fight this war without her.
Feeling they’d learned their first lesson, she pushed their constructed image out into full view. It was soft at first appearance, but as it took on more form, it started to grow and change. Almost immediately the Punitraq realized their haven had been invaded, but they didn’t understand the creature before them. Their hunger surged.
They fell upon our image like a pack of animals, confused to find it not corporal. Sharmila plucked at the strings of our enemy’s energy like a musical instrument. Plucking victims from the pack.
She had to restrain herself from killing too quickly, so the team could learn. She wrapped the Slayers’ energy around three Punitraq and then had them start the transformation. The ghostly apparition grew larger, elongating, wrapping itself around their prey. At first almost unnoticeably, but then starting to squeeze.
The Slayers fully sensed the imagery, sensing the purpose and effect. She had the Elder companions block their hosts’ brains from feeling any blowback of emotions, blocking attempts of the Punitraq to latch onto the Slayer’s energy. She focused them on the task, hardening the skin of the deadly being, and squeezed.
In the coils of our trap, the Punitraq’s energy burned and for a millisecond she knew this was what the Punitraq sought. Crushing the energy of souls had the effect of intensifying our energy, friction more intense than the inert mass of the object.
Their souls exploded and washed over us, but it didn’t make us stronger. The sensation revolted her and the Slayers. She hardened our senses against the poison oozing from flailing bodies, not wanting it absorbed into my soul.
In disgust, the Slayers pulled their energy tighter, understanding so much more than any human or companion could ever have told them. More than they ever wanted to know. They understood what she did, why she did it, and mostly, how to finish the gruesome task.
Sharmila slumped against the wall as we returned to the real world. The effort had taken more out of her than she thought it would, but she’d succeeded. She looked up into the eyes of the men around her, and for the first time in millennia, she felt her own tears.
They knew and understood. There was no sport in these killings, as it was for the Punitraq. Death nourished them, but it was killing her, and today would likely be the end of her. Sharmila pulled herself up again. “If today is my last, then I will die taking her with me.”
“And we will be beside
you!” The major stiffened his shoulders, looking around the group, studying the faces. “We need to get back in there. Is there anyone who thinks they can’t do this? Be honest.” His eyes settled on one of the men.
The man slipped out of the circle. He’d been shaking since our return. “I can’t, it took all I had to hang on in there. I won’t jeopardize my brothers, but I’ll protect you on this side.”
The major nodded acceptance. “Very well!” He looked each of the remaining men in the eyes and into their souls, pairing them up. “Offense, defense, cover each other, then switch. If you start to lose it, retreat and refocus.” He looked at me. At Sharmila. “What do you need?”
“When you have the room adequately disoriented, we’ll blow the doors, but I need one of their people urged into making a run for their queen, so I don’t have to spend time searching her out. I can save our energy for confronting her physically.”
“I’ll take that on myself. My partner and I will track you and cover your back until you’re in.” Maj. Bowen searched his men again, gauging their reactions. “Stick to alternating attacks. It will keep them from locking in on any one of us, and will keep us from burning out. Again, retreat and regroup as needed.”
Sharmila nodded, turning to the man who’d fallen out of the circle. “If you sense anything irregular with your brothers, touch him and his partner. Force them to break contact.” She let my eyes move around to the rest of the group. “If you’re tapped out, leave. That’s an order.”
“Yes, Primary!” They said it in unison as she also backed out of the circle, joining the officer who would protect them. The Slayers started the process of regaining entry while Sharmila whispered instructions to make the transition easier. In only seconds she knew the men had transformed into their ghostly forms and were ready to attack.
We watched as their consciousness’s drifted out of our cavern and through the last barrier. Once inside, they changed into images of fierce animals, and even a few of the aliens they found intimidating. Each team split off in pursuit of the nearest Punitraq.
