Never Surrender

by Michael Anderle

There was a pause before the General came back over the line, “Understood, Marilyn. Please interrupt what I am doing if you sense something out of the ordinary. I won’t jiggle your shoulder while you do this. Reynolds out.”

  CHAPTER NINE

  R’Chkoklet, Planet Yoll

  John walked down the street, waiting for the first shots to ring out.

  So far, his stroll towards the building had been eerily quiet.

  As the Queen’s Representative, and one of her bodyguards, he needed to project a quiet calmness as he headed towards their building. That part wasn’t so hard. After fighting as a normal human against Nosferatu, this was a walk-in-the-park.

  Against aliens.

  John chuckled, at least he would make the Marines proud. Go out, meet new aliens, and kill them.

  These guys really were going to let him walk right into the building. What were they expecting, him to stop and chat?

  —

  “I’m telling you, he is going to stop to talk with us!” Tol-bek hissed at his brother, Gry-bek.

  Gry-bek stared back while pointing out the door towards the human, “Does he look like he is stopping?”

  “Not at the moment, but you have to be seen as trying to communicate. At that time, we will wait until he starts his speech, then we will shoot him dead.” Tol-bek ground out, “We will be remembered for our bravery as the revolution goes forward fertilized by the ashes of our bodies!”

  “So,” Gry-bek replied, his voice quiet, “You are suggesting our lives are worth shit?”

  —

  John looked up at the HUD in his helmet and turned on the advanced tactical EI

  John? His tactical EI spoke in his ear.

  Yes?

  There are presently four Yollins on the other side of the front door arguing about when it is best to attack you, now or when you stop to talk to them.

  Do you have that on tape?

  Tape? his EI asked.

  John rolled his eyes. Recorded?

  Yes.

  Good, because it is going to suck to be them.

  —

  “And I am TELLING you,” Tol-bek started to get wound up. His next words were cut off when his head shattered, shrapnel from the door and the walls exploding around the four in the front entryway.

  Gry-bek barely had time to register his brother’s death before his body was peppered with over twenty slivers coming from a high-velocity Jean Dukes pistol. His face, if someone could have taken a picture at the micro-second before his own skull exploded, would have been one of surprise.

  He really hadn’t expected the human to walk right in.

  One of the two other Yollins died in the first attack by John Grimes, personal protector of the Empress of the Etheric Empire.

  The last Yollin, his leg mangled and bleeding from multiple holes in his chest, laid on the ground in the back of the entrance. He had dragged himself away from the front door, now a shattered piece of glass and metal that barely hung on one hinge.

  Yollin doors, designed to be used by upper and lower caste Yollins were easily large enough for the red-suited human to step through, his boots crunching on the glass.

  Are there any more combatants on this level?

  Negative.

  John walked over to the last living Yollin and stared down at him.

  “Mercy?” he grunted, blood leaking out of his mouth and over his mandibles.

  “You are provided mercy when you first give mercy.” John lifted his pistol and shot him in the head. “When you plan to kill first? Don’t expect mercy from an Empress’s Bitch,” John told the dead body. He looked around the entryway, the white marble rock was pockmarked from his high-velocity rounds

  John stepped towards the stairway, heading toward the second floor.

  —

  "This is Pehl-eck, reporting from R’Chkoklet. As we zoom in on the massive amount of destruction the Etheric Empire’s representative has caused, you can see he didn’t come here to negotiate. Apparently, shooting at the Yollin Leader, who had come here earlier to negotiate, was the fatal flaw in their plans.”

  There was a loud shattering of glass as the cameraman was focused on the front door. He zoomed out enough to see a Yollin rolling around on the street in front of the building, obviously in pain. Almost immediately, the red armored human leaned out of the second story window, his arm and pistol in view and casually shot the Yollin.

  The Yollin’s exploding head was now a matter of public record.

  The human disappeared back into the building.

  It was a moment or two before the reporter could compose herself.

  “Oh my Ancestors,” she breathed out, “what have those idiots unleashed?”

  —

  John stuck his head back into the building.

  Update?

  Two more on this floor, both armed with hand weapons.

  Pistols?

  No, an ax and some type of sword.

  John holstered his pistol and walked towards the two who were lying in wait, ready to ambush him as he turned a corner.

  The first swung his ax too fast. His partner’s ability to try and stab John at the same time was also a failure. Not that John cared. He allowed both attacks to come at him freely.

  Record the trauma from both attacks, and any damage to the suit if any should happen.

  Understood, his EI responded.

  Both Yollins stared at the alien in front of them in disbelief when both attacks failed. Hitting him was similar to trying to cut the rock walls and resulted in about the same amount of damage.

  The one with the ax recovered first, pulling his weapon back for a second try.

  “Oh, no you don’t, motherfucker,” John spoke, “It’s my turn.” His punch caved in the Yollin’s chest. With that massive blow, the alien’s own hard exoskeleton cracked inward, simultaneously crushing his chest, one of the pieces piercing his heart. The second never saw John’s backhand that caved in his face cracking one of his mandibles, killing him instantly.

  Both bodies dropped to the floor.

  —

  Pehl-eck’s reporting on the latest update from the building was interrupted by more glass breaking. This time, the video man barely caught the body flying from the fourth-floor window. The human looked out and down before retreating back into the building.

  Pehl-eck’s comment, which later was the video news snippet shared in five solar systems was, “I guess if you throw your enemy from the fourth floor of a building, you don’t need to waste ammunition with a confirmation shot to the head.”

  —

  “Well,” John commented as he pulled his head back in the building, “that was effective.”

  Any more combatants on this level? John subvocalized.

  No.

  “Ok, that makes twelve down, seven more assholes behind floor number five.”

  —

  Pehl-eck was providing more color commentary after she had made the decision to move closer to the building. The videographer jerked his camera to the side, and she turned around, “It looks like,” she told those watching her feed, “those inside have a few reinforcements coming in.” Moments later, an armored Yollin strode into the building, walking casually.

  Like the human had.

  Pehl-eck turned back to the camera. “And they have their own armored support.”

  —

  John.

  John pulled his clips and replaced them. They were still two-thirds full, but no reason not to be prepared.

  We have five additional combatants coming up from below, one in Yollin Armor.

  “Oh?” John looked at the feed from the cameras he had been leaving behind him. “Huh, old armor, maybe two generations older than the stuff Kiel had. Decent, but the mobility on that shit must suck.”

  John took off, jumping down the stairs to get to the floor below. No time like the present to test out Jean’s groups new armor.

  God, he wished he had a metal bat right now.

  �
�

  Drk-vaen reveled in the power he felt. The armor he took from his parents’ home was invigorating. There was nothing that could stop him, certainly not this human. He towered over his four friends who had been watching, with joy, as the lower caste members had been shot for daring to think they would be able to step up, their revolution dying in front of them.

  Then the human had arrived. When he shot the counter-revolutionary in the head. He and his friends howled in anger.

  It wasn’t fair!

  They all decided to head to the building and offer their support. Then Rhu’glik asked Drk-vaen if his parents still had the armor from when his dad was in the military.

  Oh, yeah! It hadn’t taken Drk-vaen any time to run over to their compound, his family was gone, either to work or out of town on business. This allowed him easy access to the powered armor. It turned on and went through the activation sequences smoothly.

  Then, the five were on their way.

  Drk-vaen walked by his comrades, taking the lead as he moved up the stairs, flinching when he placed a metal foot down too hard on a stair and cracked the marble. He sure hoped his parents didn’t have to pay for that.

  Moving through the second floor, he turned in the armor a little too hard and hit a wall, halfway embedding himself, before extracting himself and walking to the stairs that led to level three. Behind him, his four friends cautiously followed. They had seen the two deaths out in the street, and their idea of a fun time was rapidly being challenged by the harsh reality of the dead staring at them.

  —

  “Are you fucking kidding me?” John asked no one in particular. He was viewing the video feed from the floors beneath and watched as the person in the armor ran into the wall.

  “This is a kid.” He muttered as the cameras showed the four other Yollin youths slowly follow their compatriot.

  —

  Drk-vaen turned the corner on the third floor and looked around. A sudden, loud “PING” startled him and he jerked around.

  The human was waiting for him.

  “You know,” the human spoke through speakers from his helmet, “You have two options here. Well, three but I don’t really expect you to turn around.”

  Drk-vaen wished that was an option at the moment. The human obviously saw his armored suit and wasn’t running in fear. That was what he would do, if he was in the same place as the human.

  “You can either die, or you are going to suffer severe pain. You are sticking your nose in the Empress’ business. Your actions won’t go without a lesson, trust me.”

  “The Empress is false!” Drk-vaen blustered, his bravado lost on the human since Drk-vaen hadn’t turned on his own speakers.

  Dammit.

  Once the speakers were turned on, he tried again, “The Empress is false!” he croaked out.

  “No,” the human told him, “the Empress is real enough. What is false is the religious beliefs about superiority and your caste system.” The alien moved to Drk-vaen’s left. “I’m here to bring the Queen’s justice…Well, shit. I guess the Empress’ Justice. Old names die hard.”

  “I’ll not stand here and accept you berating our world’s system of…” Drk-vaen ranted.

  The alien interrupted, “Oh, you are right.” The alien agreed as he ran forward and grabbed Drk-vaen who wasn’t able to track the fast alien under the armored Yollin arms, “You won’t be standing here,” John said as he used the strength he had, plus the extra the armor provided and heaved the Yollin towards the windows.

  —

  This time, Pehl-eck wasn’t talking, just watching the building when the armored Yollin shattered two windows on his way out from the third floor. The crunch as the armored figure landed on the street reverberated off of the buildings. Sand and dust billowing up from the landing.

  This time, the human walked to the now open window opening, stopped a moment then hopped off.

  From a three-story window.

  She wasn’t sure, but she would swear the human floated the last few feet to the ground.

  She would have to go back and look at the video.

  —

  John walked over to the young idiot who was trying to move back and forth, probably trying to figure out how to get all of his limbs working inside the suit.

  “Lesson number one,” John spoke through his speakers, “you have to practice in suits of armor. It isn’t like putting on a new pair of pants and a shirt. You knew enough to walk around, but you don’t have a damned clue how to fight in this stuff.”

  Drk-vaen’s four friends came rushing out of the building, then skidded to a stop when they realized the alien was talking with their friend.

  “Second lesson,” John kept up his conversation, aware of the Yollin’s friends behind him, “never let your friends tell you what to do. In this case, they could literally get you killed. Just because you had the armor, doesn’t make you impervious to stupidity.”

  John leaned over, as Drk-vaen turned his helmet in his direction, “Third and final lesson.” John reached down and grabbed a small unit at the base of Drk-vaen’s neck and shoulder, he ripped it off, metal screeching in anguish and sparks flying.

  John stood up and tossed the small metal box onto Drk-vaen’s chest, “These old units have a design flaw and are easy to overcome. Always know the limitations of your armor.” He turned and walked back into the building, Drk-vaen’s friends all giving him a wide berth.

  Drk-vaen watched in horror as all of his systems locked up, then his whole suit powered down.

  Twenty years later, on another planet, Drk-vaen would use that bit of wisdom to overcome a Kurtherian adversary for his people, and ultimately, for the Etheric Empress.

  Unfortunately for his future adversary, he couldn’t provide a second chance in the heat of battle.

  Executive Pod - Outside Merideth Reynolds

  The EI spoke to the Italy’s, “You have multiple electronic devices stored about your body. There is a lock box in the front of the Pod. You will be able to take this lock box with you out of the Pod. Keep it with you at all times. There is a shield to confirm your valuables are inside.”

  Ixtelina asked the same question on Ixgalan’s mind, “Why?”

  “These electronics are not known to the Etheric Empire. Therefore, they are not going to be used in our presence without a review of their capabilities. I’m sure Ixtalis, with your core commercial interest in data acquisition, can understand our caution?”

  Well, that blew it. These Humans certainly knew more about her people than she did about the Humans at this time.

  “And if we do not wish to give them up?” Ixtelina inquired.

  “That is certainly an option,” the EI responded, “We will return you to your ship and allow you to leave.”