by L H Whitlock
Lily took careful steps until she cleared the rubble, then crouched low to re-activate her RAB. She sent Alberta a message that the first three rally points were no good and they would meet at the forth in thirty minutes, then she used the device to scan the room. Everything looked clear for now.
Following the map on her RAB, she moved quickly along the uneven ground, her boots sloshing in the mud and bolts of pain shooting up her leg with every step. A layer of dirt covered her sticky skin and her lungs burned as she sucked in the muggy air.
Stopping to catch her breath, she wiped away beads of sweat on her forehead, but only succeeded in smearing mud over her face. Water leaked through a rip in her worn boots making her toes numb. As much as she hated the muddy caves, memories of the city etched into emerald boulders miles below her feet made her smile. She visited them many times to interview several highly acclaimed healers and grew very close to Sara. It was refreshing to have a talented healer who actually managed to stay alive. Sara was putting on a brave face, pushing through the fact that her native planet was about to be harvested, for the sake of the team. Lily’s heart ached for her friend.
Rounding a corner, Lily found Gloria kneeling by a murky puddle of water splashing water over her mud-caked body and scrubbing at her arms and face.
“Gloria,” Lily whispered.
The linguist splashed water on her face, oblivious to her surroundings.
“Hey!” Lily said slightly louder as she stepped up behind the golden-haired woman.
When Gloria didn’t respond, Lily lost her composure. “Gloria!”
The golden-haired woman jumped, landing awkwardly on her butt. Her purple eyes brightened when she saw Lily.
“El! I’m so happy to see you. I fell from the top and was stuck under a huge pile of rocks, I couldn’t get out, I couldn’t breathe, then I was worried one of those awful goons would find me and ugh, I didn’t know what to do and now I am so dirty and there’s mud in my hair and I look horrible. Not that you look horrible, you look good in mud. I look like I fell into Yulkon droppings and I smell horrible…”
Lily stared at the taller, curvier woman as she rambled and desperately tried to scratch the dirt from under her once perfectly manicured nails. Lily self-consciously ran her hands through her mud-crusted hair and looked down at her torn, mud-plastered outfit. No doubt Gloria had reached her emotional limit and was scared to death. Unfortunately for Gloria, warriors didn’t commonly have ‘panic’ attacks and comforting was not Lily’s specialty. Where is Sara when you need her?
“Do not wash the mud off, its good camo. We only fell about fifty feet, it’s not like it’s a big deal.” She kneeled next to Gloria and rubbed her back while restarting her RAB. “I need you to pull yourself together, everything is going to be fine...we will find Sara and Brock at the rally point. Then we will get the hell out of here, but I need you to get up and start moving. We don’t have all fucking day.”
Gloria looked at her with large purple eyes and nodded.
“If for some reason we lose each other just follow the map,” Lily said, punching in the rally location on Gloria’s RAB.
Following Lily’s lead, Gloria pulled her E-Gun from its holster and followed Lily down the tunnel. Gloria locked her arms, her E-Gun pointing straight ahead, determined to shoot anything that moved.
Lily couldn’t help but glance back every few moments to make sure the taller girl wasn’t about to shoot her. “Dammit, Gloria, you are making me nervous, can you please point your gun down? If you shoot me I swear I will kill you!”
Adjusting her gun, Gloria murmured a quick apology, then followed with clumsy steps.
She’s going to get me killed, Lily thought with a roll of her eyes. Her wristband flashed, alerting her of an approaching heat source. She looked down at the device; the screen showed two glowing dots about to round the corner ahead.
Waving her hand, Lily motioned for Gloria to follow her and they both tucked into a groove in the wall. Lily smeared mud over her arms, covering the last bit of clean skin she had left.
Gloria, after a moment of hesitation, followed her lead and spread mud through her once silky golden hair.
“Come on let’s hurry up and find them,” a pale native whined.
“I hate this planet. I don’t understand why Ulrick wants this damn girl anyway,” his comrade replied.
“You and me both. But, if we don’t complete this mission neither of us is going to get vacation,” said the taller blue-haired man.
“Ulrick will be very pleased if we find her, I bet we get a huge award.”
“Hell yes! He’ll be so happy he’ll personally reward us!”
“Hah! Let’s hurry and get to the rendezvous.”
Lily waited silently for the men to pass. The men’s dark blue hair and matching eyes signified that they were Alvernonian natives. Anger rose in Lily. Damn traitors, joining with Golan for empty promises. The first time she had seen this it had shocked her, now it seemed to be the norm.
As they passed, Lily jumped out, slamming her body into the two men, sending them, and herself, to the muddy ground. Somehow Lily landed on top. She yanked the small dagger from her boot and jabbed it into the base of the taller man’s neck. He instantly went limp.
The other man grabbed Lily by her foot. Lily grunted and twisted to kick him in the face with her free leg. A loud crack came from his nose, the man cried out and grabbed his face. Lily pulled her dagger from the first man’s neck, sliced his comrade’s throat, and then shoved the blade back into her boot.
Gloria slipped out of her hiding place and watched wide-eyed as Lily patted the men down, taking their comm devices, E-Guns and RAB’s, and shoving them into her cargo pockets. After taking a brief moment to close the men’s eyes, Lily grabbed her E-Gun and headed down the long tunnel, motioning for Gloria to follow.
5
Brock paced across the muddy, gray cavern. His pace quickened as he thought about the mission. When the ground collapsed the team had been separated. Brock was close to the fourth rally point, so it had not taken him long to get there. Now he was starting to get worried. What’s taking the girls so long?
Sara arrived shortly after him and was sitting on the ground leaning against the wall. Her fingers twisted together in her lap and she constantly re-adjusted her position. Several times Brock tried to speak with her, but she gave only small, one worded replies and he eventually left her alone. Sara probably wanted space, not only had the mission gone wrong, but her home world was being destroyed and there was nothing they could do about it, that alone was enough to make anyone a little anti-social.
Damn! How did this happen? Where the fuck was the Council and who the hell knew their team would be there?
Grunting, he kicked a rock. It shattered against the wall, scattering pebbles across the ground. Sara glanced at him, her eyes narrowing. Brock grumbled and continued pacing, his arms swaying stiffly at his side. He didn’t know how this had happened, nor how Golan knew they would be there, but he did know a few things. One, he was going to kill a son of a bitch, he didn’t know who that son of a bitch was, but he was going to kill him. And two, his motherfucking cyborg arm hurt.
He tried again to transform his arm into either the humanoid limb or his machine gun, but all it did was create a horrible grinding noise and pinch his nerves. Pain shot up his shoulder where the metal plates attached to his body. Useless piece of shit, I can barely move the damn thing.
“Fuck!” Brock bellowed, striking a boulder with his foot.
Sara shook her head and continued scrolling through her RAB.
They were running out of time, the women only had five minutes to get to the rally point. Where the hell is she? She better not let Gloria get her killed. Images of the women being captured consumed his imagination, making his stomach roll. Lily’s a tough chick, he reassured himself. I’m sure she’ll walk through that tunnel any minute now, gun ablaze, and ready to kick some serious K’lor ass.
Rocks ski
dded over the ground accompanied by yelling that echoed in the large, empty cavern. Brock spun toward the sound just as Lily and Gloria emerged through one of the many tunnels. Relief washed over him. He brushed a hand through his hair as the knots in his stomach dissipated.
6
“What the hell took ya so long?” Brock yelled.
Lily raced across the cavern. “Sorry to keep you waiting handsome, but we have to go.” Pressing a finger to her RAB, she activated the communicator. “Alberta, we are here. We will blast a hole so you can drop the flexi-stairs.” After receiving a ‘ya boss’ from Alberta, she turned to Gloria. “Gloria, put up a shield.”
Brock activated a grenade and hurled it into the air; it lodged into one of the grooves on the ceiling. Gloria lifted her muddy hands over her head, a drop of water ran down her dirt covered arms; clearing away a jagged path. A dim sparkle glowed in her hands as she summoned her energy. The ball of light rose over the team’s head, hit a barrier, then splashed out, slowly cascading to the ground until the team was surrounded in an iridescent dome. Gloria gave a brief nod once the shield was at full power.
The grenade blinked twice then erupted in a fiery blast. Chunks of clay, rock and mud rained down onto the shield, slid off the rounded top, and piled on the ground. Through the newly formed hole, Alberta’s Hele-ship hovered, a long train of flexi-stairs dangling from its open door.
Gloria staggered, dropped her hands, and sunk to the ground. The shield around them melted away in scattered patches. The cavern filled with the thumping of the heli-shuttle’s blades and wind blew violently, spiraling dirt into a thick sand storm.
Lily ran to Gloria and helped her to her feet. “You all right?”
“Just tired,” Gloria mumbled, her words barely audible in the forceful wind.
Brock gripped the ladder with his good arm and motioned for Sara to climb up. She gripped onto the swaying steps, her blue hair whipping around her head as she quickly climbed toward the ship.
Lily grabbed Gloria’s arm and pulled her over to the ladder. The linguist gripped onto the flexi-stairs as she struggled to get her footing, then made her way up with clumsy steps. Once Gloria was safely in the ship, she pulled out her E-Gun and watched the tunnels.
“El, let’s go, we’re the last ones!” Brock’s deep voice boomed over the thumping of the heli-shuttle’s blades.
Lily was about to climb to safety when a group of blue-haired natives spilled from the connecting tunnels, firing their weapons. One bullet hit the flexi-stairs slicing through the bottom half of the ropes. Lily summoned her bio-energy and filtered it through the E-Gun, it heated in her hands as the weapon collected her energy and laced the bullets with explosive power. She shot at the group; the bullets detonated on impact, throwing the natives into the air.
The fallen Alvernonians made way for a new round of attacks. Another group of natives and K’lors ran into the open cavern, fanning out to surround Brock and Lily.
Lily jumped and kicked a K’lor in the chest. He wobbled and fell to the ground. She fired a round of bullets into the oncoming men. Then, she rushed a second group as they entered into the tunnel, striking a tall, pale-skinned native across the face with the butt of her gun.
Brock crouched next to the ladder, drew his pistol, and shot down a swarm of blue-haired natives.
“Stop messin around! Let’s go!” Brock yelled at Lily.
Lily shot at the natives and quickly back-tracked to the flexi-stairs. The ship was already ascending. Bullets from the heli-shuttle pelted the army of natives, holding them at bay while Brock and Lily attempted to escape.
The flexi-stairs dangled in the air, slowly rising. Brock leaped and grabbed onto the intact portion of the ladder. His legs swung beneath him and his jammed mechanical arm dangled at his side.
Lily took a running leap and grasped onto Brock’s shin. Her legs whipped beneath her as she struggled to hold onto Brock with one hand and pull a tube grenade from her belt. Pressing the top of the tube she activated the device and hurled it to the ground. She gripped Brock tightly, hugging his leg and closed her eyes in expectation. The explosion jolted the ladder and sent a cloud of black smoke billowing into the air. Lily reached up and grabbed onto Brock’s belt, steadying herself against the violent motion.
The heli-shuttle continued to rise as they traveled through the sky of the rocky planet. The surface rumbled and collapsed into the caves, distorting the serene, flat landscape with massive sink holes. Fire erupted from gorges, filling the air with clouds of ash. The eerie, golden glow of the Harvest shone like a sunset in the horizon. It would have been beautiful, but Lily knew the truth. With each pulse the life force of the planet was being collected. The thin, yellow line extruding from the planet signaled the location of a general and the weapon that makes the Harvest possible; the Generator.
“El, you gunna pull yourself up or just dangle there? My pants are coming off!” Brock said, his voice strained with exertion.
Lily pulled her gaze away from the Harvest and hoisted herself up to Brock’s shoulder. She winced and yelled a barely audible “sorry” as she added pressure to the damaged metal joint.
Lily climbed up the ladder; Sara leaned out of the opened door and helped pull Lily to safety. Alberta looked over her shoulder as Lily struggled to catch her breath on the floor. “Ladders crank not working, manual,” Alberta informed.
Lily, Gloria, and Sara grabbed onto the ladder and slowly pulled it into the ship. Once Brock was safely inside the girls fell back, their breath coming out in heavy huffs.
“We need to put you on a diet,” Sara teased.
“Haha, maybe ya need to hit the gym! Then you could have these.” Brock demonstrated by flexing his humanoid arm and landing a sloppy wet kiss on the bulging bicep. A dull tattoo of a vintage tank was stretched over the dark skin. Brock had a thing for antique weaponry. Lily couldn’t help but chuckle as she remembered when he got the tattoo.
It was during his thirteenth Reldorna, a holiday made up by the Renegade to honor the anniversary of the Harvest of your home world; the day you became a refugee. First, he chugged a pint of rabid juice then, he went off to a tattoo parlor on a level two planet. He yelled at her to hold his hand while he cried like a little girl as the tattoo artist tried to work on him.
“Oh geez. You’re going to scare the children,” Lily teased. Sara and Gloria rolled their eyes.
“Strap in. We leave atmosphere.” Alberta’s thick accent came through the heli-shuttle’s comm. Brock secured himself next to Lily, idly flicked a clump of dirt off her shoulder, and stared out the window.
Lily turned away from the window, she didn’t have the strength to watch the planet suffer any longer. The mission replayed over and over in her head. How had the natives known the location of their rally point? It was clear someone had told them.
7
Ulrick roared, anger blinding him in a red haze. “I told you to find her!” He growled at the trio of Alvernonian men. His fists clenched but he barely noticed the throbbing in his hands from the exertion. Metallic walls blended with gray floors. Large windows were covered in thick floor-length pewter curtains.
“I should never have given such an important task to idiots like you,” he growled. The Alvernonians trembled before him, covered in dirt and the blood of their fallen comrades. Pathetic.
The pale-skinned man’s eyes widened with terror. “M...M…Master U...Ulrick! We are t…t…terribly sorry. She was much stronger than we thought. We…we tried, but she got on the ship.”
Ulrick grabbed the blue-haired man by the throat, effortlessly lifting him so he was face to face with him. The Alvernonian’s arms flailed desperately as he tried to escape. His face turned ashen and his breath came out in struggled wheezes. Ulrick snapped his neck and dropped him to the floor. The lifeless-man’s comrades backed up against the wall.
“How did she get away? You should have grabbed her before she got on that shuttle.” Ulrick crossed his arms over his chest, his jaw c
lenched tight nearly to the point of pain.
“P…Please give us a second chance,” the smaller of the two remaining cave-dwellers stammered.
Ulrick was silent for a moment. He should kill both these men. He would do it slowly, enjoying every moment while the pathetic Alvernonian pleaded for his life. Ulrick’s gaze flickered to the holographic form in the center of the room and found that he didn’t want to commit such an act in front of Lily, even if it was just a picture.
“Get out of my sight,” he growled. “If you lose her again I will kill you both.” The men hesitated for a brief moment then ran out the door. Ulrick moved to the seating area in the center of the room and sat down heavily. Resting his elbows on his knees, he stared at the life-sized holograph in front of him.
She stood about five feet tall, barely making it to the center of his chest. White-blonde hair flowed past her shoulders, reaching the center of her back. Her light skin created a beautiful contrast with the chocolate-brown Hilian markings. He had been told her name was Lily, like the rare moon flowers from his home world, Hilia.
He knew she was his mate the instant he saw her and his Kenslieg, his Hilian markings, flared to life, something that he never imagined would happen. A spiral of heat had engulfed his entire body, dormant desires sprung to life with raging force. With his heightened sight he had seen her markings responding to him, calling to him. Rational thoughts left him, and all he could see was the tiny blonde warrior.
She was his match. He had searched for her for over one hundred and fifty planetary cycles before finally giving up. He thought he would be without a match, a punishment for making a deal with Golan and harvesting planets. The small woman captured him so easily, she nearly drove him mad with desire.
He licked his lips in anticipation, he had been so close. Then Brock, that piece of scrap metal, blew up the ground and she fell from his reach. Anger resurfaced, pulling a growl from his chest. That bastard could have killed her! But his mate was too strong, too skilled.
