Forever Defend

by Michael Anderle

M’rin had watched as the video showed a blur, then the sudden arrival of the human. He had pointed to each of the guards and then pointed toward the bridge.

  So much for Captain’s Prerogative when it came to the Ranger and the Tontos. They were here to accomplish a job, and his people were theirs to command.

  He nodded to his guards and directed them toward the seats for visitors to use while on his bridge. A moment later the blast doors to the bridge sealed, leaving the human outside standing between him and the pirates.

  M’rin had spoken with one captain who had watched the Rangers work on his ship for half a year. That conversation had been enough for M’rin to decide not to complain about how they usurped his authority. They were polite, the other captain had told him, until the pirates came.

  “Then,” he continued, “watch and feel sorry.”

  “For the Rangers?” M’rin asked him, taking a sip from his amber drink.

  The other captain had shaken his head, mandibles rubbing together, “Hell, no! Feel sorry for the pirates. They are already dead. They just don’t know it yet.” The captain had picked up his red drink, but stopped before taking a swallow and looked M’rin in the eyes.

  His voice was quiet but firm. “Whatever you do, stay out of their way.” He thought a moment before adding, “And be ready to clean up the mess.”

  Pirate Ship F’zeer

  “I’ve got two Etheric Empire agents running around my ship!” Captain Brell yelled at the captain of the Battleship. “So how about you stop saving your damned precious fuel and get over here a little faster?” Brell looked at the status of his men on the K’leen II. “Not to mention my people are getting cut to pieces over on the Yollin ship!”

  “That might be,” Captain Theoth replied, “because you have very poor discipline on your ship, and now you have no ability to take down the people who have boarded you.”

  —

  “I cannot get through this new door design,” Ryu told Tabitha over their personal communications. “It seems even Achronyx cannot hack a manual lock.”

  “Gott Verdammt Skaine,” Tabitha grumbled back. “I’ve got the same shit here.” Tabitha looked for handles; something, anything that would allow her to get through the shield.

  “Well,” she started feeling about her body before reaching around to her back, “fuck, yeah!” She ripped a small pouch off her back and pulled it around to unzip it.

  —-

  “What is that Ranger doing?” Brell asked no one in particular. “She seems to be active now, where before our blast doors were giving her trouble.” His eyes narrowed as he leaned toward the video displaying the hallway where she was located.

  “This,” he tapped the screen, “can’t be good.”

  —

  “You have activity on your six, Tabitha.”

  Ryu’s voice penetrated her concentration, and she listened a moment before rolling her eyes.

  Dammit to hell! She reached around and yanked off another device. This one was seven inches long, three inches in both width and height, and damned heavy for something so small. She knelt and placed it at a ninety-degree angle to the walls, and activated the device.

  All she saw was a blue light.

  She looked up in time to see a group of Skaine coming around the corner. “Hope this fucker works,” she spat, and then the shooting started.

  CHAPTER FIVE

  City of Bouk, Planet Straiphus, Straiphus System

  R’yhek looked at the male and then the female human, and started a slow walk down toward the other end of the bar. “Be right with you two.” He motioned. “Just sit by Christina, and I’ll get your drinks for you.”

  Nathan could feel Ecaterina staring at him, so he shrugged. “Beats me what he’s doing.” He then slid onto the stool to Christina’s right, between where R’yhek had to pass him before reaching his family. Nathan felt he was a good judge of character, even Yollin character, so he wasn’t worried about the barkeep burning them.

  But he hadn’t lived this long by taking chances.

  Ecaterina wasn’t so casual. “This pistol,” she began in her heaviest accent as she pulled it from a holster on her side, “is a pain in my ass at times.” She laid it down on the bar.

  A Jean Dukes imprint showed on the red wooden handle.

  Christina eyed the gun. “When am I getting my JDs, Mom?” The young woman didn’t bother picking up her mother’s pistol since she couldn’t fire it.

  “You know the rules,” Ecaterina answered. If this was the first time, then it was easily the fiftieth, she had answered this question. “Jean Dukes can only be delivered with the Empress’ direct approval. You have to talk with your Aunt.”

  Christina made a face as R’yhek walked back toward the three humans. He ignored the pistol until he saw the insignia. No one who cared about weapons was ignorant of the famous Jean Dukes.

  In certain quarters, she would be the one they clamored to meet. The Empress would receive respect, but she did not have the same fame. Many people over the years had wondered if Jean Dukes was married.

  When they found out she was mating with one of the Empress’ personal Guards, they were annoyed. When they found out which Guard it actually was, they would often make the sign of protection.

  Even if they didn’t believe in gods.

  Everyone had seen at least one, if not many, of the videos of John Grimes and how he took care of the Empress’ problems.

  Permanently.

  The first video had been shot relatively soon after the Etheric Empire had conquered Yoll. It had gone viral in six nearby systems.

  The second video hadn’t been as professionally filmed, so it wasn’t as well viewed. The third video, in contrast, had been well recorded, and the scenes of the carnage done to those who had decided to rebel in one last spectacular effort had been the final nail in the coffin (many coffins) of the Kolin and Chloret caste rebellion.

  That time, John Grimes had arrived with two more of the Queen’s Bitches, but they hadn’t fought the rebels inside the large stone defensive building. No, the two extra Bitches had simply walked through the crowd and pushed back some of the bystanders.

  They told them they might want to be outside the blast zone for their own protection.

  The death and destruction John Grimes rained down on the building had completely leveled it and taken out the hundred and seventy-two elitists who had been inside.

  “This is your one warning,” the video showed John Grimes yelling to those inside, “before I bomb the shit out of this building and make it your final resting place.”

  Then he counted down slowly from ten. He had been fired on well over fifty times during that countdown, but none of the shots had done any damage. Twice he had destroyed rockets that had been shot toward him, and once he dodged a rocket that screamed in from the side.

  He shot the two rebels who had fired the rockets through the hearts as he spun into the air to dodge the final projectile.

  It had exploded against a building two blocks down the street.

  His countdown had reached three when that occurred. He quickly finished, “Two, one, NONE, you sonsabitches!” Then he put both hands up and pushed down.

  The building had started collapsing from the top, and copious amounts of debris exploded out the windows. Pundits had pointed toward the cause being weapons stationed above the building. Almost immediately, the whole area was engulfed in a sandstorm and the ability to see John Grimes had been lost.

  Minutes later, the crowds watched as the dust and sand slowly settled to the ground and a lone human wearing red armor came out of the cloud.

  The three humans had then entered a Pod that was waiting for them, and it took them back into space.

  The next day the air had cleared. There was nothing left of the building except rubble. However, a picture of a fanged female had been painted on a section of brick, underneath which were the Yollin words, “May this warning help the next generation learn not to become Caste in the
ir thoughts. There are no Kolin, Chloret, Mont, Shuk, or Kiene. Yoll is for Yollins. Everyone deserves a chance to spread their talents toward the stars - The Queen Bitch.”

  The reporters had learned over time that while the Empress showed a different persona, her Queen Bitch side was very undiplomatic.

  R’yhek was looking at a pistol that guaranteed he was speaking with people in the Queen Bitch’s inner circle. He placed a bottle in front of the man, then the woman. “It is the Pepsi drink. Rumor has it you like it.”

  Nathan smiled and twisted the top. The gas expelled, and he sniffed.

  The drink even had the right ingredients.

  “I cannot believe,” Ecaterina commented as she twisted the top off her drink, “that Bethany Anne still allows you to find pockets of this stuff to drink.”

  “She doesn’t do it for me,” Nathan replied as he took a sip of his drink. “Damn, R’yhek.” He winked toward the barkeep. “This is good stuff.” Nathan turned the bottle around, looking for a maker’s mark.

  There wasn’t one.

  “I make it,” R’yhek admitted. “I was waiting for your evaluation before admitting that,” he told Nathan as his mandibles clicked in humor.

  “How is your back?” Ecaterina asked, “Did Christina fix it?”

  R’yhek reached around. “Yes. Yes, she did.” He nodded his head toward the young human. “I would have paid you good money to do that.” He rubbed a mandible. “Of course, I would have first had to believe it could be done before I agreed to pay you.”

  “Easy-peasy.” Christina waved a hand. “I’d have done it for free, with the agreement that if it worked, you would pay me.”

  “And If I lied and didn’t pay?” R’yhek asked her.

  Christina shrugged, “I would have tossed in a video camera to watch you for thirty days, then ADAM would have let me know if you had lied. If you had lied, I would have come back.”

  R’yhek blinked a couple of times before asking, “And done what?”

  “Demanded my payment, on pain.” She answered.

  “On pain of what?” R’yhek asked. When she looked confused, he clarified. “Usually, adults will say ‘on pain of death’ or something similar.”

  “Oh, I would have just kept causing pain until you paid, I guess,” she answered, shrugging. “I haven’t had anyone refuse to pay me long enough to worry about it.”

  R’yhek turned to her father. “Is she bistok shitting me?”

  Nathan snorted. “No, and before you ask, she gets that from her mother.”

  R’yhek had to turn to his other side when the mother in question yelled, “WHAT?” As the lady leaned forward, the girl took her drink and leaned back out of the way of her parents. “You think Christina gets this from me?” She was pointing to herself.

  R’yhek saw him raise an eyebrow, point to her, and nod.

  “That is Bethany Anne, not me!” she argued. R’yhek noticed she called the Empress by her given name, not her title.

  “No, that is you, Mom,” Christina pointed out. “Dad gets you to prove the point every time because you explode in anger and then no one believes you when you try to pin it on Auntie Bethany Anne.”

  “Ooohhhh,” she fumed.

  There’s that name again. R’yhek sighed.

  “I’m Nathan.” The man reached out his hand. “You’ve met Christina, and El Diablo there to my left is my mate, Ecaterina.”

  “I’ll El Diablo the shit out of you next time on the mat, Nathan Lowell!” Ecaterina grabbed her drink and took a large swallow, her eyes pinning Nathan to the mat in her mind. Moments later, she turned toward the bottle in surprise, then pulled it over and looked at it as she smacked her lips in appreciation. “Hey, R’yhek, this is good!”

  R’yhek grabbed Nathan’s hand and shook it. “I’d say I’m glad to meet you, but I have to admit that I’m concerned about having the elite of the Empress’ friends come into my out-of-the-way bar.” He reached up and scratched his neck, then, looking puzzled, leaned to the side to stare between the two females. “And I’m just noticing how I’ve no more customers today. Which is odd.”

  “Not so odd.” Christina shrugged. “I put up a warning sign that this place was under watch for contagious sexual diseases.”

  R’yhek spit out his drink. “You did WHAT?” he asked loudly, staring at the girl.

  “Yeah.” Christina jerked her thumb over her shoulder. “I found the sign on a building three blocks down.”

  R’yhek thought a moment…three blocks down? He rolled his eyes and stared at her again. “From the prostitution house? Purple, with green doors? That location?”

  “Yeah, that’s the one.” She nodded.

  His mandibles twitched in agitation. “I’m not going to live this down, you know,” R’yhek told her, his voice dry.

  “See, that’s the great part.” Nathan leaned forward. “You won’t have to, R’yhek, because I’ve got a job for you.”

  R’yhek turned to see the human smiling. Then he caught the other two out of the corner of his eye and looked at them. They were smiling as well.

  Truly, he thought, fucked.

  Pirate Ship F’zeer

  Her shield popped into place and was soon peppered by slugs and plasma fire. It was holding, but Tabitha had never been a fan of being shot at.

  It was something she never believed she would get used to. “Achronyx.”

  “Yes?”

  “Do you have enough focus to help me with some pucks?”

  “I’m trying to outrace a battleship. Doesn’t use too much processor power, Ranger.”

  Snarky-assed PITA. “Great, because you need to pull my sensor feeds and locate the pirates sending all sorts of dangerous shit my way.” She allowed the tiniest of pauses. “You got them yet?”

  “Yes.”

  “Good, take them out.”

  “With what?” Achronyx started to ask when he caught the incoming details from the puck: its location in space related to Tabitha, the shield’s height, the hallway, bulkhead, walls, pirates.

  A moment later, the puck zipped off toward the pirates in the hallway. Tabitha grimaced when the first body exploded.

  Achronyx might be snarky, but she had to appreciate the efficiency of his puck placement. “You done?” she asked when no more bullets, plasma, or screams came in her direction.

  “Yes.”

  “Good.” She scrambled up. “Now take out the bridge’s blast door without causing decompression!” As she spoke, she threw her body over the shield to protect herself from the back blast. “Or hitting me!” she added as she felt the puck whizz by her.

  —

  The loud bang crumpled the center of the blast door, pushing two sides out and allowing Captain Brell to see light from the outer hallway stream around the door. “Prepare for attackers!” he barked, pulling his sidearm and sliding off his chair.

  Those doors were supposed to be impenetrable.

  —

  “What the hell, Achronyx?” Tabitha asked. The loud concussion from the puck hitting the blast door hurt her eardrums. “For all that noise, you can’t even perform?”

  “You said without causing decompression,” the EI reminded her.

  “Well, yeah,” she agreed. “I just thought Skaine doors would be easy.” She watched the puck wobble back past her, moving slowly enough that she could track it with her eyes. “That puck is looking a little worn out.”

  “It is barely holding together,” Achronyx replied. “This is the last shot for this puck.”

  Tabitha eyed it. “Give me a second before you try anything!” She reached out and switched off the shield, grabbed the small metal box, and headed toward the other end of the hallway, “God, this is gross!” She carefully walked around the remains. She put her helmet on and activated the internal air. “I refuse to smell that.” She caught her reflection on a shiny surface not covered in blood. “We need better-looking helmets.”

  “May I?” Achronyx asked as she stepped around the corn
er.

  “Yes, yes.” She watched the puck as she poked her head around the edge far enough to see what was happening, keeping her hand on her pistol.

  The puck jerked ahead but flew down at the floor some five paces from the door. It ricocheted off the floor, angling up to punch into the door near the upper right-hand corner. The door broke out of its frame and went flying into the bridge. The screams and crunching sounds caused Tabitha to wince. “Wow, you suck at flying pucks,” she commented. “Weren’t you supposed to hit the door, not the floor?”

  “Who says I missed? If you look at the door, the calculation—”

  Tabitha tuned Achronyx out for a moment. In times like this, the EI could make her wish to become a celibate nun.

  Well, perhaps a nun. Damn, nuns were celibate by default, right? She couldn’t remember. Ok, not a nun then.

  The first shots were fired from the bridge, striking the wall on the other side of the hallway.

  “Well, hell,” she muttered and tossed the shield device back down the hallway. “Same shit, different direction.”

  She turned her head towards the bridge area. “ARE YOU COMING OUT WITH YOUR HANDS UP, OR ARE YOU GOING TO MAKE ME COME GET YOU?” she screamed to the bridge.

  “You Ranger Bitch!” a male yelled back. “Skaines don’t surrender!”

  “That’s all bullshit,” Tabitha smiled. “I’ve had you titty-suckers surrender before.” She reached down and reduced the pistol to level three. That ensured she wouldn’t puncture a hole through the ship’s walls out into space. Not that she had used a Skaine ship to test that theory before.

  No, actually she had totally done that and sent the video out to all the known Skaine hangouts. They got so worked up when you destroyed one of their ships. It had truly been a wonderful experience.

  “What’s a titty-sucker?” the captain yelled back. She recognized that he spoke her epithet in his version of human speech. She cross-referenced human to Skaine and called back, “Coh’vichee laile!”

  She had to back around the corner and wait out the hail of shots that thundered out of the bridge.

  Apparently, Skaines hated that term.