The Yississ War

by Shawn O'Toole

  Chapter 6

  “Refuge”

  Drusilla and the Army of Four returned to Region One without incident. Upon their return, the Concubine General received more reports of contact being lost with outposts. Adam told her, “You’re forces are too spread out.”

  The Virgin Soldier explained, “We are exploring ways to return the Great Seen Unseen to his Temple.”

  “Seriously? Win the war first and worry about that later.”

  The Concubine snapped, “We are dealing with trouble you caused!”

  “Sorry.”

  Drusilla turned away and sniffled. When she regained her composure, she turned back around and explained, “We need reinforcements if we are to win this war. The spirit of my master must return to Golgoth that we may grow another Harvest of my sisters.”

  Adam was not thrilled with the idea of the Great Shadow returning… but he knew better than to discuss such a sensitive topic with the “Seen Unseen’s” loyal and obedient Concubines.

  Adam arranged a meeting between Drusilla and the Oracle. The venerable plant fairy said unto the cloaked and hooded woman, “My people cannot hide from the uncanny gaze of Yississ and her monsters. May we take refuge in the woods of what you call Region One?”

  General Drusilla mentioned, “We estimate your race to number ten million individuals. How many of you are coming?”

  “Most of us. The other races of Telluria shall not be coming.” Drusilla hesitated. The Oracle added, “My race is gentle. We shall not be a threat to you… unless captured by Yississ and made into monsters.”

  The Concubine general decided, “We shall facilitate the immediate evacuation of your people. You shall be provided with secure grounds for your habitation.”

  “Thank you.”

  The Virgin Army was busy conducting the worldwide evacuation of millions of refugees… when the army of Yississ launched a worldwide offensive! Fierce battles ensued as the monsters fought to snatch as many of the fleeing plant fairies as possible. The Army of Four joined the fray against the attackers, their prowess inspiring Tellurians and Concubines alike. Still, four in a fight of millions is simply not enough to turn the tide.

  Burning aircraft fell from the sky and legged vehicles collapsed in flames. Throngs of Concubine Sentinels winced and dropped. Cyborgs and zombies were blasted by bombs, plasma cannons and caseless rockets and sprayed with plasma bolts. Hours became days and days grew into weeks as vast numbers of mortal women pressed into the relentless fury of hideous monsters.

  Adam eventually returned to the Temple of the Great Seen Unseen. A month of fierce fighting left him unwashed and weary. Druislla greeted him, reporting, “The last of the refugees are now safe here in Region One.”

  The man uttered listlessly, “Mission accomplished.”

  “I thought the good news would please you.”

  The man regretted, “We couldn’t save everybody.”

  “Adam, it is unreasonable to presume that you could.”

  “I tried.”

  “Yes, I know. Come. I shall bathe you and feed you.”

  “I don’t want a bath.”

  “Adam, I shall massage you as I bathe you. I assure that you shall feel better for it.”

  The man grinned, “Yeah, I need a bath.”

  “Come.”

  Drusilla brought Adam to her private quarters: a quaint room with no doors except for a glass, sliding door to a balcony. The only furniture was a bed tucked in an alcove and a low table. The floor was carpeted but the walls and ceiling were white marble. The bathtub, toilet and sink were together in an alcove. The tub was already filled with steaming water. “Disrobe,” the woman urged the man.

  Adam was surprised by a sudden bout of modesty. “Don’t get scared,” he warned as he started getting undressed.

  Drusilla touched the broach of her cloak, hailing, “Vanessa Blue, come to my quarters now.”

  A voice like Drusilla’s answered, “Yes, ma’am.”

  Adam grinned, “Two of you?”

  “No, Adam. Vanessa shall clean your clothes while I clean you.” Drusilla unfastened her cloak, warning Adam, “Don’t get scared.” She removed the cloak, revealing her bald head and white-within-white eyes.

  “Scared? You’re beautiful.”

  The woman’s pupils dilated but she did not smile. She mentioned, “I am bald and my irises are faded. My template was a brunette.”

  “Yeah, you’d look good as a brunette.” The woman cringed. Adam added, “You look good now.” The woman actually smiled.

  Drusilla slipped out of her purple, elastic body shirt: revealing her smooth, firm, shapely nudity. Adam grinned. Drusilla cautioned, “I am sworn to chastity, thus, I must please you with utmost discretion.”

  “Please me?”

  “Yes.” The woman gestured at the tub saying, “Into the water, please.”

  “Okay,” Adam complied. “Drusilla, are you really doing something you want to do?”

  The bald, naked clone climbed in behind the man. She answered his question, “As a kept woman of the Great Seen Unseen I am devoted to a will beyond my own. As a Virgin Soldier I am dutiful whether to live or to die. As Drusilla, I am doing what I want to do. Please forgive my unease.”

  “Hey, I’m nervous too.”

  “You are?”

  “Yeah.”

  The woman began to scrub and caress the man. He cooed. “You’ve got a nice touch.”

  “My sisters and I clean each other… as a practical ritual of communion.”

  Adam basked in his state of calm, sensual intensity. Drusilla whispered into his ear, “I want you to sleep in my bed tonight.”

  “With you?”

  “Yes.”

  “Whoa! Are you sure about that?”

  “I am.”

  “What about your vow of chastity?” A hand reached into Adam’s lap and “pleased” him greatly! He shivered and cooed.

  Drusilla assured, “The chaste are mindful of their pleasures.”

  “Oh, yeah!”

  The Yississ War had been raging for six months. Of the thirty-six million Virgin Soldiers who had come to Telluria, eighteen million were either dead or undead. Thousands of plant fairies were missing.

  Brendaxa the Insidious bowed before Yississ. “Rise, my child,” the demon told the monster. “Tell me the good news.”

  Brendaxa rasped, “Milady, I have grown your army to three-point-nine million soldiers. Ten thousand of your troops are made from plant fairies and shall serve as Head Eaters.”

  “Head Eaters? My insidious child, what have you done?”

  “Milady, your polymorphs made from plant fairies do not drink blood. They feed from the soil for their sustenance. They devour heads to feed their necromantic abilities.”

  “Fascinating! Brendaxa, my dear, you please me greatly!”

  “Milady, we have befriended a mad wizard of the plant fairies. He assists us in channeling the power of Region Zero. His knowledge of his own blood helps us as we develop a new soldier.”

  Yississ remarked, “Every invasion is the beneficiary of traitors.”

  “Yes, milady. We believe a hybrid of polymorph and plant fairy would differ from a plant fairy turned into a polymorph. Our experiments are yielding interesting results.”

  “Wonderful. Brendaxa, my insidious child, your wisdom is my greatest weapon.”

  “Milady, I am but one of many who serve you.”

  Yississ cackled.

  Concubine Scouts were out in the forests across Telluria scouting… when maws dropped from above, snapped their heads off and swallowed the severed things whole! The headless bodies dropped where they stood.

  Squads of Sentinels patrolled the forests… when maws dropped from above and bit their heads off! The same happened to Keepers who were out taking samples or tending to devices. Finding the headless corpses of missing sisters was proving very demoralizing.

  Lieutenant General Yazmin reported to General Drusilla, “The enemy is employing
a new monster: one that decapitates its victims.”

  “Why?”

  “We don’t know. We never find the heads of the victims.”

  “Psychological warfare?”

  “Perhaps. This new horror doesn’t help our morale.”

  “How many victims?”

  “Nearly forty thousand today alone. The attacks are occurring across the planet.”

  Lieutenant General Olga reported, “We’ve lost contact with everyone in Regions 14, 15, 29, 30, 86, and 88.”

  “Today?!” Drusilla was aghast.

  “Yes.”

  General Drusilla stared at the large, holographic globe of Telluria. She realized aloud, “We’re losing. There won’t be any of us left by the end of the year.”

  Yazmin hoped, “Central Command will surely send reinforcements now that our situation is so dire.”

  Drusilla shook her head. She told her sisters, “Our enemies know we can no longer replenish our numbers. Rival powers are besieging our worlds.”

  “What do we do?”

  General Drusilla gazed upon the globe of Telluria as she thought for a long, hard moment. She concluded, “We must survive this war if we are to return our master to his Temple. We must win this war if we are to survive.” She decided, “Bring everything and everyone we have to Region One.”

  Olga reminded, “We’ve detected our master’s presence in the mantle of this planet. We need control of the vortices if we are to make contact with him.”

  Drusilla snickered. She bluntly stated, “We’re squandering sisters and resources on a desperate pipedream.”

  “We must revive our master!”

  “Yes, we must. Bring everything and everyone to Region One.”

  Olga sighed… but conceded, “Yes, ma’am.”

  The eyes of Yississ were always watching and her ears were always listening. “Their scattered outposts provide us with an easy and abundant source of conscripts and equipment,” Brendaxa the Insidious explained. “Milady, we must impede their retreat to Region One.”

  “Yes,” the demon agreed. “Too many mortal women surround the plant fairies as it is. We shall not allow more to Region One.”

  Portals opened all across Telluria. Flying or stomping monsters made from the fusing of machines and women were followed by hundreds of thousands of shapeless predators and millions of expendable zombies. They stormed every outpost on Telluria, slaughtering every Virgin Soldier that resisted and snatching those who cringed and screamed.

  Portals opened as the Virgin Army launched a desperate counter-offensive. Entomopters and bipedal battle tanks were followed by waves of the Girls in Red. The Girls in Green crept about, sniping and ambushing… unless pounced by the lurking Head Eaters.

  The Army of Four was aboard a beetle-type entomopter. Even over the loud humming of the aircraft, they could hear the rumbling and booming of intense combat. Adam shouted, for his troops to hear, “This is a rescue mission! We stay together! We fight our way to the building! We bring the Priestess with us alive and well to the extraction point! All other personnel are expendable! We leave them behind if need be!”

  “Even us?” Conjure doubted.

  “No!” Adam did not like the idea of leaving women to their fate… but Drusilla insisted that rescuing the Priestess Muriel the Enlightened was too important. She would not tell him her reasons but… he trusted her. For better or for worse, he trusted her.

  Outposts were being overrun. Dampening fields prevented portals from being opened in the immediate vicinity. Continuous wave bolts fired from flying or bipedal cyborgs blasted fleeing entomopters out of the sky.

  Drusilla and her lieutenants monitored and directed the many simultaneous battles. Yazmin reported, “The Army of Four has secured Muriel the Enlightened. They managed to rescue her associates as well.”

  “Good.”

  Olga piped, “We’re losing more than we’re saving.”

  “Yes, the Army of Four cannot be everywhere at once.”

  The demon Yississ watched as her army mauled the finite multitude of mortal women. “So many,” she gleamed, “yet so few.” Her tall, naked, rotting form with six breasts sat on the floor with legs folded. Her eyes were closed yet they could see everything.

  The gaze of Yississ peered into the swirling flow of life and death itself. She beheld the many faint lights and smiled as they swiftly went out. Her army was fighting. Her empire was beginning on Telluria.

  “Adam,” the demon feared and hated him. Why? How? How could this mortal weakling be the death of her living death?

  “Drusilla,” Yississ noticed. She watched as the man ran his fingers through the long, dark locks of the bald clone. He gazed into the brown eyes of the white eyes of the Concubine. “Alas, he yearns for a woman of the Living Darkness. She is his weakness.” The demon grinned.

  The battles raged for days that grew into weeks that grew into months. Millions of women were lost trying to save hundreds of thousands. Mere tens of thousands were actually rescued. The monsters eventually withdrew but they had not been routed. What remained of the Virgin Army on Telluria fled to Region One and secured their position.

  Drusilla shared her bed with Adam. As they lay together, she told him, “Thirty six million of us invaded this planet.”

  Adam reminded, “Now you’re defending it.”

  “No. Only six million of us remain to defend it. The others are dead or turned against us. Ironic that we shall perish defending a world we came to conquer.”

  The man insisted, “We haven’t lost yet.”

  “Adam, do our millions of dead mean nothing to you?”

  “Yeah.”

  The Concubine scoffed, “Really? Not so long ago you were killing as many of us as you could!”

  “You were trying to kill me.”

  Drusilla huffed and rolled her white-within-white eyes. She accused, “We are nothing but expendable clones to you.”

  “Uh, I risked my life saving women you advised me to sacrifice.”

  “You are a fool!”

  Adam shrugged, realizing that he was “in the wrong” regardless of any argument.

  Drusilla challenged, “Are you certain you are in bed with ‘Drusilla’ right now? You can never tell us apart unless I wear my cloak.”

  “It’s you.”

  “How do you know?”

  “Because you’re the only one of the whole lot of you whoever gives me this much grief.”

  “I trouble you?”

  “You’re worth the trouble.”

  Drusilla turned away from Adam. When he caressed her shoulder, she pulled it away. Adam sighed. He conceded, “Good night,” and went to sleep.

  Adam awoke… alone in bed. As he sat up, he noticed Drusilla standing out on the balcony. She was already in her skimpy uniform and wearing her white, hooded cloak. The man put on his trousers and joined the woman out on the balcony. “Nice view,” he commented.

  The woman nodded her hooded head. She bemoaned, “I lost my master. I forsook his Beloved Child. I am the end of my sisters.”

  “Not you. You’re just a little girl in a big world. Just do the best you can and hope for the best.”

  The woman snickered, “You are a fool.” The man nodded.

  Adam and Drusilla stared out across the verdant canopy below and the bright blue sky above and beyond. The Virgin Soldier wondered, “How familiar is the King of Telluria with the galaxy beyond his realm?”

  “I know Earth is out there somewhere. I know this is Telluria and you come from the planet Golgoth.”

  The Concubine of the Great Seen Unseen claimed, “We, the Many of One, are a Galactic Power. Our individuals are no match for the horrors of the galaxy. Our many are easily slaughtered. Only as an endless many are we the great power we have become.”

  Adam insisted, “We’re not going to talk about big pictures right now. Let’s keep things personal for the moment.”

  “Adam, these things are more important than our personal issues.�
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  “No they’re not.”

  “Adam, you are a king. You have responsibilities beyond yourself. I am a general…”

  “Blah, blah, blah! Out here on this balcony we’re just a man and a woman.”

  “Adam, we must consider…”

  “Blah, blah, blah! You’re a clone, not a robot. Stop being a robot.”

  “Adam…, we must be devoted to our responsibilities.” The man shrugged. The woman insisted, “The greater needs outweigh the lesser.”

  “Boring!”

  “Adam! You are insufferable!”

  “I’m human. Try it: it’s fun.”

  Drusilla clenched her hands into fists and fumed. She threw back her hood, exposing her bald head and hoary eyes. “This is what I am!” she sobbed. “Pester another for your pleasure! We’re all the same to you!”

  “Seriously? Why would I want another when you’re the only one?”

  Drusilla was taken aback. Her keen, analytical mind tried to make sense of the insufferable man’s gibberish. Her demeanor calmed as she busied herself pondering. Adam told her, “Yeah, you and your sisters all look alike. You all sound alike… until I get to hear what you actually say. I always know it’s you when it’s you. You’re the real Drusilla!” The woman smiled. The man opened his arms inviting her to embrace. She hesitated… but did so. They stood together hugging and swaying for the longest while.

  After six months of a brutal war of attrition only six million Virgin Soldiers remained alive on Telluria.

  Brendaxa the Insidious reported to the demon Yississ, “Our offensive proved costly. Now that the Concubines are no longer scattered, it proves difficult to snatch them. Milady, we must be cautious for now that I may replenish our ranks.”

  Yississ cackled. “No,” she decided. “We shall be fierce and relentless. Sacrifice what we have to slaughter what remains of the Virgin Soldiers. Your siblings shall swarm the gathered plant fairies and conscript them into our service. Our army shall grow and strengthen into an army greater and more terrible than ever before.”

  Brendaxa grinned, “Milady, your wisdom is beyond mine. I see the logic of your strategy! Yes, I shall spend our lives for the greater glory.”

  Portals opened east of Region One. Thousands of cyborgs and a million zombie foot soldiers were followed by tens of thousands of shapeless monsters. The arriving forces tore into the defending line of Virgin Soldiers and pressed into its growing gap. The Concubines converged their numbers on the attackers and fought desperately to push them back. Swarms of dragonfly-type bombers pummeled the monstrous ground forces while themselves being swarmed by flying cyborgs or burned out of the sky by pulse weapons and continuous wave bolts. The Army of Four joined the fight and slew many but could do little to stay the relentless advance of the enemy.

  The rumbling, zapping, humming and booming of incessant combat sounded all around Adam… yet he was too weary to care. He plopped down under a tree and helped himself to gulps from his flask. Flora the carnivorous plant fairy squatted next to him. The man asked the naked fairy, “Having fun?”

  “Yes, Adam.”

  “Really?” Flora nodded. Adam mentioned, “You’ve been eating a lot of zombies.”

  “Yes,” she acknowledged. “The women are dead but their bodies are alive and tasty. Yes, they lack the spice of a living woman’s feelings but are succulent nonetheless.”

  Adam wanted to forget when Flora tried to eat him! He dropped the conversation.

  The battle of Region One raged! The stomping cyborgs and throngs of zombies pressed onward, slaughtering even as they were slaughtered. Blood Drinkers, Head Eaters and what were once Concubine Scouts skulked about, snatching and killing with raids and ambush.

  The Concubines were mass-produced clones of a human female. Though skillful, efficient and equipped with advanced technology, they were only human. Though they matched the prowess of the zombies made from them, they were outmatched by the cyborgs and polymorphs. The living women outnumbered the horrors, however, and used sheer numbers to desperate advantage.

  The battle of Region One ended with the eventual destruction of the attacking cyborgs and zombies. The surviving polymorphs slithered and scattered away. Yississ grinned.