by Marcus Sloss
“You may, and Snarltooth. We have more but I will need to study your planet before further trade. Even if we don’t find something we can work out a deal. No sense in you dying in the snow when we have extra food,” I said and he snorted with a grunt.
“That statement would normally make me think you are weak, yet… Thank you.”
The human driver hopped out of the TP63 and Snarltooth stepped in. His large frame barely fit with the seat struggling to rotate. A moment later my tank was off for the Xgate trailing blood as the bodies leaked their life juice.
“Ballsy,” Mitchell said and I laughed.
“Get the analyzer on that planet,” I said and Mitchell bellowed at Sergeant Mills. “See Ralph, smart man has others go into the frigid wasteland. And of course there is a tracker on the tank. So, what do I do with you and -”
“We jevians. Since you’re a powerful and wise leader you break our contracts and send us home,” Ralph said with a bow.
A kerbian went to smack him. My arm shot out and my cybernetic fist latched onto a thick forearm.
We locked eyes as his arm fought my power. I squeezed until there was a snap, a loud crack, and then screaming of pain when the wrist hung limp.
The lexium must have triggered something because the others expected an ensuing reaction. They immediately gave us space for an intense scrum.
A roaring challenge was belched from his dual split bottom jaw. The eyes raged with animalistic desire for blood. He positioned his body and lunged arms forward in a predictable manner.
My instant cross hook shattered the face so hard the side of his head bounced off his shoulder. I heard the neck break before the kerbian crashed into the deck. The body tumbled to rest motionless in a sudden finality. That was the power of having a cybernetic arm.
“Bind that one,” I ordered.
Everly sauntered over to my side, her purr at the violence spurred an arousal in me. “You should bind them all, my king.”
“They are weak and pathetic,” I said, spitting on the corpse that twitched suddenly. “Ralph, go see what they want for these prisoners. Tell them my ramoths are hungry, but I am willing to trade for servants.”
Ralph glanced around confused.
“You want to trade warriors for servants? No one does that. The Koovorin council would even trade us for servants. And not arguing, should I run?” Ralph said in a confused and frightened tone.
Everly rolled her eyes at Ralph with disdain. There was a twinkle of dominance shining through. “What do they use for servants?”
“The Koovorin council reals many cities with tens of thousands of species. I do not think you are grasping what they are,” Ralph said with his large eye seeing both of us staring at thim with stern expressions. “Regardless, the species used for servitude are a very varied group and the options are many. I would spend a lot of time and the translator will struggle since your version of Earthlings have not named them yet. There –”
“Okay, please explain a bit more than,” I asked while not enjoying his tone. Even if the information was vital this being was my prisoner.
“This faction of kerbians are effective raiders. This was a mistake on their part. They normally shift across their planets to find easy targets,” Ralph said, glancing around to see if he could find another Xgate on the horizon. “They have numerous cities that holds millions so a loss resulting in a decent trade may placate their warlords or council. Think of them as a large collective that has established a series of massive bases far away from the majority of the Xgate on their planet. In this mighty picture I am a lowly soldier, which should make for an interesting day for me. Is there a servant species you would like in exchange I can always ask. That would make more sense if you were selective.”
I pinged his chest a list of our species. “Similar to this works. I will have you escorted to the portal. I doubt they’re not scouting the image. Oh, and I need to claim you, correct?”
“It will matter little, they can claim me back when I return. Ah, I see you have not conquered the conquered before. You claim me and then my translator pings a location until the golden gate. Keep me alive until then and you inherit my contract. Which is why you should always be hesitant to ever accept a contract in the first place. Wise conquering leaders who capture contracted beings tend to wait until the end of the season to steal. There is no rebuttal challenge then,” Ralph said in a dry tone.
I nodded in understanding. “Oh look, he is breathing. My mind is rationalizing if he will be brain dead for a while. I bet he thinks he is important to lash out,” I said, pointing to the kerbian my punch had killed and lexium had revived. “That is neat to see. Distracted, back to the point. I want five servants for one warrior. Three for your kind. Unless you would prefer hard labor in the mines for six months.”
“You would give us a reduced contract for simple labor?” Ralph asked. I opened my mouth, then shut it. Everly chuckled at my slip. “We would take that, sorry for questioning your most gracious offer.”
I glare sternly at Ralph. “Hard labor, you work without complaint, keep your head down, and then you go home to family. Get me a good deal for these fourteen, now fifteen kerbians and I may be more lenient. Everly, have our guest escorted to the portal.”
“Come, Ralph, you get to have a crixxi drive your gray butt to the Xgate,” Everly said with her voice fading.
I left the guard to do guarding things and went back to the tower tube for the AC1 command deck.
A quick lifting force later and I was greeted by three guards giving my approach space. Willow sat in my recliner like a queen with her back straight and large supple breasts perked forward. She smiled at my return, as did Longoria and Sammie. Douglas was still in his drone feed while relaxing in his bean bag.
“Excellent victory, King Eric,” Longoria said and Willow pulled a canteen out to toast in agreement. “What of the prisoners?”
“Trying to exchange them for servants, but Ralph made me question who is on the other side of that portal. Who knows what we will get, if anything. That boar creature is desperate for food. He literally asked for dead bodies, while gross it is something I can have an ounce of compassion for. Starving is the worst,” I said with a grumble. “I made a deal with the dynamic duo also. Hopefully, they have an ingenious plan for our future. It sure sounded like they were up to something good.”
I walked over to Willow for a quick smooch and received a devious look when I tried to honk her boob and failed. Damn acrium were cock blockers, I would get her later.
The back wall called to me with its flicking images and plentiful information to absorb. My eyes drifted over the dead. A long exhale was the most I could do for them. Their bodies were on the way to the graveyard outside Mansion. Good men, women, and crixxi; every one of them. My hand glided over the faces of the dead ingraining their loss into my memory.
Further down the back wall was a hundred different camera views from the drones were active. My eyes caught the scout returning from planting the recon device on that ice ball. Poor Mills was shivering endlessly. Good fire would cure that up. A moment after Mills sped off for Mansion, Snarltooth returned our equipment with a frozen sled deck soaked in blood.
My eyes shifted to monitor Xgate 201’s four screens. A dozen tree beings were scouring a set of homes. Anything metal and not bolted down was being gleefully stolen. I should probably go down there and stop them. I might need that metal later. The problem was they were a minor nuisance at most. Maybe…
I called Jevon who answered promptly and said, “This is five go.”
“There are little tree guys in northern Denver. I want AH2 to fly over and say that is our property, further transgressions will be met with hostility. No point in gunning them down yet. And give me an eyeball recon of the other planets. I see two are water, one is a thick jungle, and the other is not too far from what Earth looks like in Texas.”
“Okay, I have Nilvia enroute now, will report soon. I see the prisoner was picked
up by a tracked truck of sorts,” Jevon said and I searched for the video of Xgate 232 eastern side.
Ralph was hogtied and dumped into a flatbed. The tracks peeled off kicking loose dirt as it accelerated off the screen. Hmm… I wondered if I would ever see him again.
A population in the millions. Now that would be something hard to defeat. Every a million .308 rounds into a divine ape would hurt, a lot. Hopefully, they had something I wanted. If not I was going to be giving more meat to Snarltooth.
CHAPTER 15
“How dare you? You’re nuts!” Perci said with a furious shout. “We haven’t even built more than an outer wall and a moat of our castle. This is supposed to be my home. We have fought for this land, bleed for it, and busted our asses to get to this point.”
Perci was an angry ball of hellion, her puffy cheeks were a deep crimson. Her fists hit the table in the Aspen conference room with an echoing bang. Perci grunted in displeasure while inhaling a few deep breaths to calm.
We ended up here after a full day of quiet time around Xgate 201 and 232. The army had stayed in the field, terse and prepared. Our forces shifted to a half posture when the sluggeros informed me they were ready to brief us on how they recommended Bastion Community should proceed.
I had a feeling this was going to be a rough meeting. Sally and Willis did not sleep last night. They were huddled in here planning without letting anyone join them. If everything was good to go in Mansion and Aspen, then improving Bastion would have not taken this much preparation.
I cleared my throat while Perci was huffing, unable to garner her attention I cleared it again. She softened when our eyes met. I ran a loving hand down her cheek to remove her single frustration tear.
“Let me have everyone’s attention,” I said, shifting my eyes across the seated personnel at the table.
The core leadership was here minus Jevon, Torrez, Eddy, and Slister. They were out in the field watching the Xgates; waiting for any sign of Ralph or another invading army was impending.
Inside the room was Perci, Willow, Nancy, and Everly closest to my end of the table. The sluggeros held the other end with Longoria, Sammie, Gary, Braxton, Clive, Razzar, Daphne, Setaria, Nilvia, Harvard, Norm, Ulanda, Bonnet, Sarah, Felix, and Maria. The room had paused after Perci’s tirade.
“Good, you two will not use insults to get your points across. I don’t care if you feel, know, or suspect we are less intelligent. The point remains that we’re in this together. Name-calling will get us nowhere,” I said giving both Willis and Sally stern looks. The two yellow slugs gave zero care at their berating. My knuckles planted on the table before staring down Perci. “I love you, my queen. Have some decorum. If you need some air, get some. If not. Sit, back straight, and wait for the briefing to be over to vent.”
Perci clenched her jaw, holding in her retort. A slight bob of her head was all I needed in confirmation. A gesture from me ceded the floor to Sally and I returned to my chair.
“As I was saying. Aspen needs to be abandoned. There is no way to defend the area from the air. At all. The moment you get a three in the morning breach that secures a foothold, this little city is done. Can it be secured eventually? Maybe but so many resources would be diverted to a lost cause,” Sally said and Willis slurped to a back wall to proceed with the speech.
“Aspen has aerial entry points from every section of these mountains. You seem to think your little walls will keep the enemy out, they will not. Just because you have not faced an advanced foe yet does not mean you will not one day. This is why Lilith recommended us. She left a message saying your branch of humanity is important. So let me show you something about these areas,” Willis said pointing to the holographic three dimensional rendering of Aspen. The table shifted the angle so we could see the vulnerable points he was indicating. The map was generated with proper coloring and everything. This table must have cost a fortune before the fall or the siblings upgraded it. “The highlighted paths are avenues that a gravity tank can overcome with a simple lift to get past the cliff. Which means you would need guarded tower points in all these locations. That goes for the winter also, and were talking a thousand foot walls everywhere you have a ground entryway.”
I held up a hand to ask the obvious question. “Aspen is hard to defend, which means you found weak holes and I get it. A lot of them, but won’t this be shored up easily with turrets, towers, and a thousand feet seems excessive?”
Sally sputtered her lips in frustration. Willis went to say some wiseass comment and both Sally and I warned him not to.
“Eric, this is a lost cause. We scanned Denver, great job looting by the way. Very minimal objects left behind. With what is left in Denver you would barely start to encase this area. It gets worse than having easy avenues of attack. Let me give you an example.
“The gribin, the dagger-wielding puffy-faced cat people that are only a few feet tall, well; the data sticks we plunked inside their planet provide a lot of knowledge. We know more than the basic atmospherics, it told us where their home is. The gribin are nestled a full day away in a cavern system loaded with defenses and traps that protect a city of millions.
“I see that hunger in your eyes, Eric, now your mind is calculating flight times, and ways to trigger traps. Stop. How far is Aspen from Xgate 232?”
Willow leaned forward to indicate she had the floor. “Four minutes by goliath on the ground, seven slow pace by air, three fast.”
I winced and Perci ran frustrated hands through her hair.
“How many rooftops are secured?” Willis asked.
Ulanda leaned forward. A crack at the door revealed Jevon entering with Linda Growlen and General Ryan. They stood against the wall trying to be ignored.
“We have no rooftops secured besides a few turret mounts on top of our gate checkpoints,” Ulanda said. She huffed, “And they are twenty-year-old machine guns that require a gunner.”
I winced again, knowing what was coming next. I headed it off. “That is more than Mansion has. I would lose a lot of families moving from these mountains.”
“Well, don’t jump to conclusions just yet, but I am proud, ouch sister that hurt,” Willis said as Sally swatted his skin with a long instructor stick.
“I am going to go for the kill now and give you the best of both worlds. You have been set up. Abandoning Aspen completely is a bad idea. The underway is set. Those do not come up. The structures are sound, and the mountains filled with minerals. We propose two castles, just not the kind you think of. Interior castles, inside the mountain here.” Sally indicated a place on the map near the western Aspen gate. “We drill down, create a personal underway and a mining team in conjunction with a fairy team builds our castle. With the excess labor, our plans, and the new machine we can start today. Do not underestimate these machines. In a week we can have hundreds, and if we double up to focus on one, probably thousands living inside this area.”
The murmuring, muttering, and grumbling echoed in the conference room. I slapped a palm against the table cracking the wood. Nancy shrieked from the sudden excessive violence. I may have hit too hard. Eh…
“Same with Mansion. We move over to where you stored your goods in the cave. Down we go. Layering our traps while building our outpost. Make no mistake Aspen and Mansion will not be mega cities. Ever. They will be mining production sites that facilitate trading and military operations out of their respective outposts. I would not recommend more than a few thousand souls in either of these locations at a time because if they are sacked you can always start over or at least quickly retreat since there is limited personnel,” Willis said, giving the floor to sally. The male went over to a water jug and daintily sipped.
“A big shock, but it gets worse for some of you. Better for others. Let me start with something you can understand. We sent a data scout out to where the attackers came from. Planet Tropical Lightning, human names I swear, and yes, I understand English,” Sally said, shaking her thick neck as if trying to whip away the horrible m
emes of the twenty-first century. “Your Gtower information was the oddest thing ever to consume. Planet Tropical Lightning has military outposts. To get to the big city you have to travel a long way and defeat a whole lot of automated and reinforced defenses. Once there expect overlapping defenses and a swarm of citizens all trained to fight. But that is not all. Koor, the Koovorin capital, wait for this. Fifty times larger underground than above.”
I let out a long whistle. Then it clicked.
“You want to build a city in the sky, yes!” I said excitedly.
The faces around the table lit up. There was a sudden tension in the air that vanished. In its place was hope, almost wonderment. My joy for living in the sky was shattered when Sally opened her green lips and closed them. By the second time of the repeat action, I realized she was hesitating.
“If not the sky then where?” I blurted and gasps echoed. I figured out where we were going before the others. My desire to groan and slouch was held in check. “Please continue.”
“What my sister is alluding at, is that we found somewhere fantastic. There are rivers, lakes, and room to expand so vast we too can have our very own megacity. We can move in this week. By this time tomorrow, with our excess in labor, we can have the beginning of a grand city. By seven days from now we will have something extravagant that will make Aspen look rudimentary. Those who want to fight can do so by going to the outposts and those wanting a safe life to raise their children in will have that,” Willis said.
There were a few smirking ladies at this last line. They wanted a safe baby place. Heck, I did too.
Jevon snuck out of the meeting when our Gpads gave an alert. I hadn’t even gotten a chance to glance at it when Willis continued.
“A representative from the Koovorin Council is here to inspect the prisoners. They wish to official declare a truce and close hostilities at this time. I will pause if you need to adjust,” Willis said to me directly.
“Growlen, Ryan, go be our diplomats. And this is your lifeline to our society, keep things cordial until I arrive,” I said to the two at the side of the room.
