Chapter 2
“Margo Red”
A Concubine Explorer-class research station was a self-shifting facility of polymers and glass within a superstructure of titanium alloy. Its general appearance was that of three upright cylinders covered in windows with a tall spire suspended between them. A thousand of these research stations were scattered across planet Telluria. One of them was alone in the jungle of Region 69. The perimeter of the station was cleared of forest and surrounded by a fence and towers. Concubine Scouts patrolled the jungle while hundreds of Concubine Sentinels guarded the grounds within the perimeter.
Concubine Priestess Tessa Purple the Dedicated was looking out one of the windows that surrounded the small, round chamber that was the command-and-control room for her research station and its battalion. She stared out at the expanse of lush green canopy below. One of her Girls in Blue reported, “No unusual readings on any scans. All Scouts report their sectors clear.”
“Good.”
Amelia Red the Vigilant, the battalion’s senior Sentinel and head of security implored, “Ma’am, I still think we should recall the survey team and secure the station.”
“Why?” the Priestess challenged. “There has been no hostile activity outside of Region One. We’re too far away and strategically insignificant for anyone to bother with us. I doubt the hostiles even know we’re here.”
“Ma’am, there are too many unknown variables to come to such conclusions.”
“You are the Sentinel of a research battalion,” Tessa reminded. “Your duty is to protect, not stifle, our research. Do your duty.”
“Yes, ma’am.”
Bethinny Blue the Sensible, senior Keeper and Tessa’s executive officer, piped, “Ma’am, I agree with Amelia. Too many horrible things are happening for us not to secure our personnel.”
Tessa glared at her officers through the black goggles of her uniform. She glimpsed her sisters blinking behind their own black goggles. Tessa reminded them, “Our research, not our safety, is our priority. Am I understood?”
“Yes, ma’am,” the two subordinates responded in unison.
Tessa smiled, assuring, “I doubt anything shall assail our little outpost in the middle of nowhere.” She told Amelia Red, “Remain vigilant.”
“Yes, ma’am.”
Thermal imaging and bio-scanning were at optimum in the dark of night. The goggles worn by Virgin Soldiers provided colorless yet effective night vision. Contrary to what was typical, it was best to infiltrate a Concubine facility in the light of day.
Morning: Concubine Scouts patrolled the jungle. None of them noticed the things that crawled, climbed and slithered stalking them. A Scout was addressed, “Leesa Green, report.”
The Girl in Green touched the side of her goggles-communicator, responding in the same voice, “Situation normal.”
“Acknowledged.”
Leesa Green resumed her patrol… when snatched by tentacles and pulled up into a tree! The other Scouts reported “situation normal” only to be snatched themselves!
Concubine Sentinels stood at their posts, watched from guard towers or from behind the barriers of stormgun emplacements. None of them noticed the amorphous things creeping onto the grounds… until snatched over the mouth by shapeless “hands.” The women feebly struggled. They winced when bitten in the neck… and swooned until going limp.
The strange intruders were now rosy and bloated from gorging on human blood. Their shapeless bodies digested the warm, salty, invigorating fluid, making them stronger and restless. The things then crawled and slithered as they converged on the research station itself.
Concubine Sentinels guarded the corridors and chambers within the station… until snatched by tentacles and bitten in the neck! The women struggled helplessly. They felt cold, sick… and dizzy as their own pulse pumped blood into the mouths of their assailants. A group of Keepers returning to their quarters happened upon such a scene!
Margo Red the Adroit was a Concubine Sentinel: a Girl in Red. She guarded the door at the base of the tower elevator… when she heard screaming, thumping, grunts and groans! A Girl in Blue appeared from around a corner but was snatched back by what looked like a tentacle! Margo wanted to rush to the Keeper’s aid but she hesitated, remembering to guard the door behind her. The Sentinel touched the side of her goggles-communicator, hailing, “Alert! Alert! Margo Red reporting, over!”
A voice like her own responded, “Report, Margo Red.”
“An unknown intruder is within the base of the tower! I glimpsed a tentacle as it snatched a Keeper.”
“Hold your position, Margo Red.”
“Acknowledged!” Margo desperately wanted to save her sisters… but she would do her duty.
In the command-and-control room: Tessa Purple the Dedicated was leaning over the shoulder of a sitting Girl in Blue. The Keeper hailed, “Amelia Red, report. Amelia Red, respond, over.”
Tessa concluded, “Our head of security is either dead or captured. Rescind her clearance and cut off her communicator.”
“Yes, ma’am.”
“Connect me with Margo Red.”
“Yes, ma’am.”
Margo remained poised to shoot whatever came around that corner… but it never came. The voice of a sister hailed, “Margo Red, this is Tessa Purple. Are you still alive?”
The Sentinel responded, “Yes, ma’am.”
“Margo Red, our station is being overrun. Our esteemed botanist Sally Blue the Erudite is trapped in her laboratory. Meet up with your sisters on Level 2, Section 3. You are to assist them in bringing Sally Blue to the command-and-control room. Do you understand?”
“Yes, ma’am.”
“Proceed, Margo Red.”
“Yes, ma’am.”
The Keeper with Priestess Tessa reminded, “Ma’am, Margo Red is the only one guarding the elevator door to this chamber.”
“Seal the door.”
“Ma’am, we already have thirteen Sentinels on their way to secure Sally Blue.”
“Yes, I know. As a mystical physicist, I assure you: thirteen is an unlucky number. Our chances are better if we send one more to join them.”
Margo Red was ascending a winding stairwell… when startled by the zipping report of plasma weapons! She abandoned caution to hurry her pace. Coming into a corridor, she found thirteen Girls in Red standing over a sprawled mass of tentacles. “It’s dead,” one of the thirteen told Margo. Gory, smoldering wounds covered the center of the shapeless thing’s mass. Zelma Red the Precise, the one who spoke to Margo, noted, “Though amorphous in form, we now know polymorphs do have internal organs and a nervous system.” Margo nodded.
Zelma waved for everyone to follow her. As the fourteen Sentinels made their way onward, Zelma blurted, “The enemy is vulnerable if it loses the element of surprise. Stay vigilant.”
Coming to a door, Zelma touched the side of her goggles-communicator and hailed, “Sally Blue, respond please.”
A voice like her own responded, “Did you kill it?”
“This is Zelma Red. My orders are to escort you to command-and-control. Open the door.”
“Did you kill it?”
“There is no ‘it’ outside this door. We did terminate a hostile lurking in a nearby corridor, however.”
The metal door slid open. A Girl in Blue was alone in the laboratory. The Girls in Red stepped inside and the door slid closed behind them. The Sentinels watched as the Keeper filled a black satchel. Sally told her sisters, “The specimens. Tessa wants me to bring the specimens. I would’ve anyway. They were painstakingly difficult to find.”
“Please hurry.”
“Yes, of course.” Sally Blue slung the satchel over her shoulder. “Let’s go.”
The door slid open. Zelma Red commanded, “Margo, take point.” Margo nodded and obeyed the command.
Only two hundred ninety-four of the 13th Research Battalion’s one thousand women remained accounted for. The missing hundreds were presumed dead.
&n
bsp; Tessa Purple and Bethinny Blue were staring at a holographic floor plan of the station. Indicators highlighted known positions of surviving personnel. Bethinny noted, “Our Sentinels are holding their own in engineering. We should be able to shift to Region One within the hour.”
Tessa asked, “Why would we do that?”
“Our sisters in Region One could storm the station and rid it of this infestation.”
Tessa reminded, “Region One is a raging battleground. Our sisters there are too beleaguered to bother with such a thing.”
“Not necessarily. Aren’t they winning the battle?”
Tessa glared at Bethinny, making her flinch. The Priestess informed the Keeper, “I already considered your plan and suggested it to Expeditionary Command. They don’t want us bringing more polymorphs into their fray.”
“We’re abandoned?”
A Girl in Blue reported, “Our sisters barricaded in the commissary are being overrun! They are requesting immediate assistance!”
Tessa continued to glare at Bethinny when responding, “We have no one to send to their aid.”
“Ma’am?”
“We are at a loss to help them.”
“Acknowledged.”
Margo led the way down the winding stairwell. Screaming and shooting suddenly erupted behind her! Sally Blue was pulled and pushed towards Margo. Zelma commanded, “Get her to command-and-control!” A tentacle suddenly whipped around Zelma and plucked her out of sight! Margo pulled Sally Blue into the lead and implored, “Hurry!”
Sally ran down the steps. Margo readied to shoot… but the monster did not follow. All became deathly silent… until a cold, disturbingly familiar yet inhuman voice rasped from above, “My siblings drink you dry and leave your bodies useless husks. I do not so waste you. Your sisters I have snatched are joining my army. Come up. Come to me… and you shall be conscripted.” Margo backed down the steps, minicarbine held at the ready. The malevolent voice… giggled. Margo turned and ran!
Sally Blue was at the elevator door, clutching her satchel though it hung from her shoulder by its strap. Margo backed towards her, hailing via goggles-communicator, “Margo Red reporting, over.”
“Report, Margo Red.”
“Sally Blue is with me at the elevator door. We are awaiting admittance.”
“One moment.” A long, tense moment followed. The response finally came, “We are experiencing technical difficulties, Margo Red. Please stand by.” The unsettling voice giggled from the depths of the stairwell.
Margo mentioned, “Retrieval was attacked and I am the sole surviving Sentinel. The hostile is still near and may attack. Please reinforce our position immediately.”
“Margo Red, please stand by.”
Up in the command-and-control room: A sitting Keeper reported to Bethinny Blue, “An enervation enchantment is barring us from opening the door.”
“Are you sure it’s a spell?”
“Yes, ma’am: there’s a mystical signature emanating from the control mechanism.”
Bethinny told Priestess Tessa, “Our intruders can cast spells.”
Tessa Purple the Dedicated was a mystical physicist. She viewed what was displayed on the sitting Keeper’s monitor. The Priestess deduced, “Not all of our intruders are feral. We have a powerful witch to deal with.”
Tessa Purple commanded, “Margo Red, you are to protect Sally Blue and her specimens at all costs. You have no other priority. Do you clearly understand?”
The Sentinel touched the side of her goggles-communicator to respond, “Yes, ma’am.”
“Take her to the gymnasium and await reinforcements. Obey the instructions of Isabel Red when she arrives.”
“Acknowledged.” Margo Red gestured for Sally Blue to follow.
The Keeper wondered, “Where are we going?”
“Follow me and remain silent.” Margo rolled her eyes behind the black goggles fixed to her uniform: A Girl in Red followed orders without question but the Girls in Blue were always curious.
The Sentinel led the Keeper up the winding steps of Section 3. Margo peeked into the corridors of Level 3 before waving for the Keeper to follow her onward. Sally wondered, “Why are we heading for the gymnasium?” Margo turned around to gesture for the Keeper to remain silent. The Girl in Blue silently mouthed, “Sorry.”
The gymnasium was empty of people. Towels and equipment were strewn about as if the rooms were evacuated suddenly. Margo stopped. She touched her communicator, reporting, “This is Margo Red.”
“Report, Margo Red.”
“My charge has been delivered to the designated location and without incident.”
“Acknowledged. Hold your position.”
“Acknowledged.” The Sentinel assumed an erect posture and secured her hold on both grips of her weapon… and just stood there.
“What are we doing?” Sally wondered.
“Holding our position.”
“May I sit down?” Margo shrugged. Sally made herself comfortable on the bench of an exercise machine. The Girl in Blue stared up at the silent, motionless Girl in Red. The Keeper eventually asked, “May we talk?”
The Sentinel cautioned, “Silence would be more expedient.”
“The silence is driving me crazy!” Sally calmed herself before explaining, “I’m scared. I need to talk so I won’t go crazy.”
“Talk if you need to but don’t raise your voice.”
“Okay.” Sally patted the satchel in her lap. She asked the Sentinel, “Do you know what this is?” The Girl in Red shook her head. “You don’t even care, do you?” the Sentinel again shook her head. The Keeper snickered, “You may die protecting it so maybe you should know what it is.”
“That isn’t necessary.”
Sally huffed. She fumed, “Do you Sentinels really not care about anything? Our missions are more important than just shooting things, you know!” Margo gestured for Sally to speak softer. The Keeper cringed in repentance before resuming, “Our template was an athlete but she was also a scientist. We remember her interest in alien life-forms. We remember her studying to be an exobiologist. I know you’d find these specimens fascinating.”
“I don’t need to know what you have.”
“My sister, I want you to know. You deserve to know.”
The Sentinel glared at the Keeper. Even with two pairs of black goggles between them, Sally was cowed by the intensity. The Sentinel insisted, “You shall not divulge your information.” The cringing Keeper nodded and complied.
A squad of Sentinels were on their way to the gymnasium… when caught in a sudden storm of plasma bolts! The women dropped en masse, peppered with smoldering wounds. A voice giggled, “Well done, my dear Zelma! I was wise to choose you.”
Thirteen undead bodies stood over the sprawled bodies of their victims. Unlike the breathless corpses, the breathing zombies had their goggles and elastic hoods pulled back. The living dead things had soulless, solid black eyes and their complexions were dark, sickly yellow. The voice commanded them, “To the gymnasium, now. Kill the Sentinel. Bring the Keeper and her satchel to me.”
The living dead body of Zelma Red the Precise rasped, “Yes, milady.”
Margo’s skin crawled from on inner chill. She whispered to Sally Blue, “Into the storage closet and close the door.”
“What’s wrong?”
“Now!” The Keeper hurriedly complied.
Margo took cover behind an exercise machine. She readied her minicarbine. Sentinels came into the gymnasium, but their goggles and hoods were pulled back, they had solid black eyes and their skin was deathly sallow. “Margo!” one of them rasped. A glowing whitish blue plasma bolt zipped at Margo’s peeking face! A volley more smacked and burned into the machine, rattling it.
Margo returned fire, her bolts punching into the attackers as they rushed her. Whatever these “women” were, they winced, groaned and bled as humans do.
Zelma gestured for her troops to flank Margo. The target blasted several of them as they t
ried! Margo darted to new cover, downing two more zombies as she did so.
Only Zelma and three others remained. The squad leader gestured for the others to take cover. Zelma’s undead mind hailed, “Milady, Margo Red is besting us. Only four of us remain.”
The zombie shivered as she felt the cold of her mistress snarling, “My siblings are true warriors. Await them. You shall provide your bodies for their attack.”
“Yes, milady.”
Priestess Tessa was staring out a window at the jungle below when Bethinny addressed her, “Security in engineering reports that some of the polymorphs besieging them are withdrawing.”
“Why?”
“We don’t know. Maybe the enemy is pulling out.”
Tessa snickered, “My sister, your optimism impairs your reasoning. Sound a general alert that the enemy is on the prowl.”
“Yes, ma’am.”
“Has Isabel Red and her squad secured Sally Blue?”
“One moment.” Bethinny hailed, “Isabel Red, report. Isabel Red, respond please.” Tessa gulped.
A dozen shapeless things crawled and slithered to the gymnasium. The voice of the mistress commanded, “Attack!” Zelma and the other three zombie Sentinels led the charge, blazing away. Margo blasted them. The swarm of shapeless things converged on the lone defender! Tentacles whipped at the Sentinel, knocked over machines or hurled equipment at her. Margo ducked, darted, rolled and weaved, taking desperate potshots all the while. Eventually… the clamor became stillness. Margo rose and looked about. Zombies and tentacles were strewn about, all of them with smoking wounds. The Sentinel touched the side of her goggles-communicator, reporting, “This is Margo Red, over.”
“Report, Margo Red.”
“Reinforcements have not arrived. I was attacked by what may have once been Sentinels. I was also assailed by a squad of polymorphs. I am holding my position and await instructions.”
A long pause was followed by Priestess Tessa wondering, “Margo Red, how are you still alive?”
“By terminating my assailants, ma’am.”
“Understood. Margo Red, hold your position.”
“Yes, ma’am.”
In the command-and-control room: Bethinny informed Tessa, “All besieged positions report that the enemy is withdrawing.”
The Priestess snapped, “They are not withdrawing! They’re converging on the gymnasium.”
“Why? That wouldn’t make any sense.”
Tessa explained, “Taking our facility is a secondary objective. They want the specimens.”
“Why? What are they?”
The Priestess ignored her subordinate. Tessa announced for all personnel to hear, “Margo Red and Sally Blue, as you were! All other personnel, security or otherwise, abandon your duties! Seek and destroy all intruders immediately! Your lives are forfeit! Kill the intruders post haste!”
Virgin Soldiers were fanatically loyal and obedient. The command of a Priestess was the voice of the Unheard Whisper itself. Sentinels, Keepers, Scouts and Jockeys all stormed into the corridors and assailed the enemy on sight. Plasma bolts and improvised weapons met flailing tentacles in a grueling savagery of sheer attrition.
Tessa was startled upon hearing an eerily familiar yet inhuman voice whisper into her mind, “You send them to their deaths yet do not tell them why? We know your secret: You captured the seedlings of plant fairies. Yes, one of them is indeed carnivorous. We shall make terrible use of her.” The voice’s cackling giggle made Tessa’s skin crawl.
A thing wearing the skimpy green uniform of a Concubine Scout crawled into the gymnasium. The goggles and elastic hood were pulled back, revealing the bald head and black, soulless eyes. Unlike the sickly yellow of the zombies, this entity had a healthy, human complexion. Its head, arms and torso were human but it walked on a cluster of amorphous tentacles. It grinned at the sight of Margo.
The Sentinel blasted the monster… but the wounds mended as quickly as they were made. “Margo Red,” the sneering thing rasped. It came closer, absorbing more plasma bolts and healing all the while. “Mindless weakling, you shall perish and never know why.” The monster stopped.
Margo cycled fresh charges into the breech of her minicarbine… but held her fire. Her mind raced as she pondered what to do next.
The monster rasped, “You shall never know what you died for. You shall die knowing who slew you. I was once Jane Green the Resourceful. Like you, I was mortal and only human. I am born anew and am immortal and inhuman. I am Janex the Crafty, sister of monsters and a captain in the army that shall devour the galaxy.”
Tentacles lashed out! Margo dove aside and zipped bolts into the monster! The hideous thing cackled maniacally… until a bolt punched and burned into its face. Janex wailed and thrashed blindly! The Sentinel kept shooting, aiming for the head. Brains burst out in a steaming spray of red and gray! The monster slumped onto its cluster of tentacles… and went limp. Margo cycled fresh charges. She then took careful aim… and blasted the monster’s head into gory chunks.
Margo Red the Adroit kicked the lifeless, grotesque form of what was once her sister Jane Green the Resourceful. The thing did not twitch nor did its wounds heal. The “immortal” and inhuman monster Janex the Crafty was indeed dead.
The Yississ War Page 2
