by Ashley West
"They just want to keep people safe," Anise said from the kitchen. She was stirring a big pot of chili, and it smelled amazing. It was still hot out, since it was summer time, but the chili would go a long way with the people in the building.
He snorted. "Safe, right. Because basically leaving us to fend for ourselves against the monsters from space makes me feel so secure."
"They haven't left us."
"As good as! Hiding is not a solution. It's not sustainable."
"Will you two give it a rest?" Kirstie replied from the couch. She was lying on her back with a cool cloth over her eyes, a hell of a headache making her irritable. If allowed, the two of them would keep arguing like she wasn't even there.
It was funny how much had changed and how much had not. Her brother was still the star of the show here, even though she had been one of the ones to come up with the idea for turning the building into a shelter in the first place. People were always eager to talk to Keith about things, to make requests of him that he then passed on to Kirsten or Anise, when they could have just spoken to Kirsten in the first place.
She didn't know what it was about her that made her fade so easily into the background, but she hated it.
Whenever Anise and Keith got into an argument, which was all the time since they were constantly butting heads, she always ended up being looked over and ignored until they had settled whatever it was. With her headache, she didn't have the time to deal with that at all.
"Why are you so crabby?" Keith asked.
Kirsten removed the cloth from her eyes and heaved a sigh. "I'm not crabby."
She knew that there were more important things to deal with right now than her ego. The world was going to crap around them, and they were in constant danger of being killed by creatures that no one could even describe well still. Her...feelings of inadequacy or whatever they were could wait. Or never be brought up. One or the other.
She got up and crossed to the window that looked out over the front of the building, just in time to see a group of people coming up, looking harried and terrified.
"Incoming," she said, watching them as they huddled out front, looking like they wanted to be anywhere but outside.
"How many?" Keith asked.
Kirstie did a quick count. "Six. Two children."
"On it." He put his tools down and went to get his gun. She'd never seen him use a weapon before now, but there was need for it in these days. Not that anyone had ever successfully killed one of the creatures with a gun, but a few shots to the chest usually made them stagger back long enough that you could get away and hide somewhere.
It was one of those 'better safe than sorry' kinds of deals.
The rest of the evening went by in a flurry of getting people settled and introduced to the rest of the community, as well as a group dinner in the room that had been the lobby of the building. A large table had been dragged in, and when people felt up to it, they had community meals, big pots of soup or chili or pot roast dished out while they all sat down to talk and generally be grateful that they were still alive.
The new people introduced themselves as the Marsh family from upstate, who had driven down here on their way to another state to try and reach more of their family, but the road had been closed and an attack had been launched on the traffic that day, so they'd gotten out of their van and walked until they reached people. Someone had told them about this place, and so they'd come.
There were indeed six of them, two children who couldn't have been older than nine or ten, two teenagers who were probably only a few years younger than Kirstie, and their parents, a tired looking man and woman in their fifties with lined faces and fear in their eyes.
They were welcomed into the fold, given supplies and a place to sleep, and while they still looked wary, they seemed to be working on fitting in.
Times of stress and chaos could break people down, but they were also good at pulling people together, as this went to prove.
It seemed like this was going to be a quiet night, which was always a good thing, at least until they heard something outside that sounded like arguing in strangely accented English.
"Maybe they're all dead."
"They're not all dead."
"How do you know? It's not like they're good at defending themselves, right? Maybe The Grey wiped them out already."
"You just saw some humans yesterday, Sanaal. There have to be more."
"And they ran screaming like the Void was at their heels. Not a good start."
"We just have to find someone to talk to us. It's fine."
"You always say that, Kratos."
"And it's always fine."
"Except for when it isn't."
"Look, we'll just try here, okay? If we can't find anyone to talk to, then we'll move on. Simple as that."
Kirstie and Keith exchanged looks, unsure of what they should do. The word 'humans' had stood out in their loud conversation, which seemed to mean that these people were the opposite of human.
Keith reached for his gun.
"I guess I'll go see what's going on," he said.
Kirstie got up from her chair and followed him to the door.
The doors of the building were made from glass, and were transparent, which wasn't ideal for safety, but worked when you wanted to see who was outside before they could sneak up on you.
There were four of them in all. One seemed to be female and the other three were male, and none of them looked human.
For one thing, two of the males were huge. At least seven feet tall, broad and muscular. They were also armed. The other male was just as tall, if not taller, but he was rail thin and spindly looking, something spidery about him that made Kirstie cringe to see him.
The female was the shortest in the group, but built on compact lines, muscular and lean. Her head was bare of hair, and her eyes looked sharp even from this distance.
As they approached, one of the males pressed his face right up to the glass, clearly trying to peer in.
Keith took the safety off the gun and stepped up closer.
"Hey, it's a human," the male said, his breath fogging up the glass.
"What do you want?" Keith asked, keeping his voice steady. None of the other aliens had ever spoken to them before, at least not that they knew of. They just made that horrible screeching sound and then opened fire. But none of them had been as big as these aliens either, and so maybe that meant they hadn't come to hurt them.
Maybe it meant they had come to help. After all, that's what had finally saved them from the clutches of the Alva. It hadn't had anything to do with the military or the government, but help from another planet.
Maybe they were finally saved.
"Keith," Kirstie breathed. "Let them in."
"Not until they tell us what they're doing here. What they want," he said firmly.
The female rolled her eyes, but the large, muscular male grinned. "We're here to help you."
Chapter Six: What Saviors Look Like
Earth was hardly the garden of pleasures he’d been expecting. Maybe that had something to do with the fact that back to back alien attacks could tear any place down, or maybe the planet had just never been that exciting to begin with. If the latter was the case, then Kratos really wanted to know why people kept coming to the planet and trying to either rule or destroy it. What was the point? There wasn’t anything there other than humans and old tech, so what was the motive?
He said as much to Combo when they arrived, but, true to form, Combo had just looked at him with those black eyes and then looked away, stroking his face with those spindly fingers in consideration. There was no answer forthcoming, which Kratos was just going to take to mean Combo didn’t know either.
They’d looked into the attack from the Alva, reading all the reports about what had happened and how the Randoran and a human woman were credited with being the ones who had saved the day.
Kratos wanted to meet the human who had managed to charm a Randora
n Champion and help put down an Alva invasion because that was just impressive. He didn’t know much about humans all things considered. They weren’t interesting, really, and they seemed a little on the helpless side, which boded well for them getting paid here, but didn't really make Kratos want to explore more than the opportunity for work.
They arrived clearly well after The Grey. The planet as a whole wasn't in bad shape (at least not because of anything The Grey had done), but as they followed the trail deeper, they began to see the signs of the destruction. Buildings were crumbling in places, huge ditches had been gouged into the ground, and Combo made a thoughtful noise when he saw that.
"What?" Kratos asked. He'd taken to being in the cockpit with him because it was the best place to see as they flew just above the cloud cover, not wanting to incite more panic.
"Those cannons the survivors mentioned," Combo replied.
Kratos didn't need him to explain. He swore under his breath, and they kept moving.
Vehicles were abandoned on the sides of roads, and there were rare sightings of people, usually darting in and out of buildings and then making their way back to wherever they were hiding. Kratos didn't blame them. Combo was picking up The Grey fleet on his sensors, and they stayed as far away from them as they could, not wanting to tip them off that they had company just yet.
If no one wanted to pay them, then they would be on their way and the humans could deal with it on their own. They'd figure it out, probably. Eventually.
"Who are we even supposed to talk to?" Milara asked. This wasn't one of their standard jobs, and they'd had to spend a good day going back and forth trying to decide what price to put on something like this. Things that were dangerous always cost more, of course, but they did have to be reasonable. Kratos didn't think trying to extort people who had just suffered an attack was the best idea, and if they kept it low enough that people had a hope of affording it, then so much the better.
But Milara had a point. They'd have to find someone with some kind of authority to talk to about this. Or at the very least, a larger group of people than just two humans darting into a shop to load up on supplies before running back out.
"Let's follow them," Kratos suggested. "They have to be going somewhere with all that food."
It was a sound idea, and they tracked the two of them back to a large building. It didn't really look like it was all that populated but they all decided to start their search there for lack of a better idea.
The humans had set up something of a resistance. Kratos had to admit he was impressed. They didn't have good weapons, definitely not anything that would be strong enough to take on The Grey, but that they were prepared at all, was more than he would have expected from them. There was food and people were being looked after, and even Milara was impressed with the way they had come together.
Of course, she was less impressed with the humans pointing their guns at them, but Kratos supposed he understood. No one knew what The Grey looked like, and for all these humans knew, the four of them were working for the enemy. It was only because they'd said they had come to help that they were allowed in at all.
The person who seemed to be in charge here was a tall human man with messy brown hair and blue eyes. He held his gun like he knew how to use it but wasn't entirely comfortable with the prospect of it, but he seemed determined to protect the people here.
He especially seemed determined to protect the young human woman who was with him. Now she was interesting, at least to Kratos, because she was lovely. Curly dark hair and bright green eyes that stared at them out of a heart shaped face. She was soft spoken, and kept leaning up to whisper things in the man's ear as they walked along.
Apparently they were going back to some kind of office to conduct business, and they had to move through the main floor of this facility they were in. Everywhere there was staring, people looking at them with wide eyes, pulling small children back before they could get too close. Whenever someone looked at Combo they gasped, catching sight of those all black eyes that caused even the hardiest of warriors to pause.
It wasn't surprising. Kratos tried to smile at some of them, but it didn't go over well, and Milara elbowed him in the side. "Stop messing around," she hissed, and he sighed. All business, was Milara.
The office they were shown into was barely big enough to fit all of them, and Kratos pressed himself against the wall, arms folded over his chest. He kept seeing the woman darting glances at him, and he grinned at her when he caught her eye, amused. She’d probably never seen a human man who looked like this before.
The blush that stained her cheeks was lovely, and after a bit she kept her eyes trained on the floor. The man was seated behind the desk that took up most of the floor space in the room, and the woman stood behind him, like she was the muscle, even though the man was the one with the gun. Kratos had to wonder if she even knew how to use a weapon. It didn’t look like it. She seemed like she’d fade into the background if she was quiet for long enough, but there was a spark of...something in her that was interesting.
“Now,” said the man. “You said you can help us?”
“What’s your hurry, human?” Kratos asked. “Introductions first, maybe?”
He gave Kratos an arch look. “We are under attack here,” he said. “So you can understand our urgency. But fine, you have a point. My name is Keith, and this is my sister Kirsten. We’re...in charge here, for lack of a better phrase, I guess. We keep things running, at least.”
“A pleasure,” Combo said smoothly. He was so often the one people negotiated with, both because he had the best manners and because he was unnerving enough that he could usually get what he wanted. Already he had draped his thin frame into the seat opposite the desk and had his fingers steepled together, regarding the human siblings over the tips of them with those odd eyes. “I am Combo,” he continued. “And these are my associates: Milara, Sanaal, and Kratos.” He nodded to each of them in turn. “We represent a group called The Kilan, and we specialize in…”
“Handling problems,” Kratos spoke up. “To put it simply.”
“Yes,” Combo agreed in his low, smooth voice. “And it does seem like you have a problem.”
Kirsten had looked back up and was looking at each of them, eyes narrowed. Kratos wondered if she didn’t trust them, if she was expecting some kind of trick.
“What tipped you off?” Keith asked dryly. Kratos liked him almost immediately. “We don’t even know what we’re up against, so you’re going to have to explain to me how four of you can defeat...whatever this is.”
“We have a pretty good idea of what it is,” Kratos said.
“And there are more of us. Even though you’d be a fool to assume that we’re lacking when it’s just the four of us,” Milara put in.
The humans looked somewhat overwhelmed, and Kratos took pity on them. And himself, too, because knowing Combo, they’d be dancing around this for the next several minutes. “Here’s how it works,” he said. “You’ve got a problem, we have a bunch of solutions. You put your trust, and your money, in our hands, and we’ll take care of it for you. Everybody wins.”
“You’re mercenaries.”
Five pairs of eyes snapped to the little woman. Kratos smiled, impressed. “Got it in one, Kirsten,” he said, giving her the full force of his gaze. She didn’t blush this time, and he wondered if something about his profession had struck a nerve.
“So you want us to pay you to save our lives.”
It wasn’t a question, and there was steel in Keith’s voice when he said it. The tension in the room ratcheted up a notch.
“Basically, yes,” Kratos replied. Combo didn’t seem inclined to say anything, and both Milara and Sanaal seemed poised for a fight. Sanaal was just uncomfortable with the whole situation, and Milara didn’t like the negotiation phase of getting jobs. And none of them had ever done this with humans. “We’d give you very good rates,” Kratos continued. “We understand you’re in distress here.”
The two humans exchanged glances, and then Keith turned to look back at them, eyes hard. “You understand that we’re in distress,” he parroted back. “You obviously don’t. Homes and families have been destroyed. People here have friends and loved ones that they haven’t seen in weeks. They don’t know if they’re alive or taken or rotting somewhere. All of a sudden the skies just opened up and people started dying. We’re running this place with the resources we have and what we can scavenge, and we’re trying to feed over a hundred people three meals a day. And people keep coming. Soon, we’ll have to drop to two meals a day. And then one. Just to keep things running around here so we don’t have to turn people away. Every day, we live in fear of these things finding us and killing us all.”
None of The Kilan seemed to know what to say to that. “...which is why you need us,” Kratos ventured slowly. It made perfect sense to him, and he didn’t understand why Keith wasn’t making the connection.
The man slammed his hands on the desk, and both Sanaal and Milara reached for their weapons, even though they had left them on board the ship. Walking into a place like this armed would have been a terrible idea.
It was starting to look like maybe coming at all hadn't been the best plan because Kratos could see how this was going to go already, and it seemed like it was going to end with them not getting any money at all.
"We can't afford you," Keith said, and it was impressive how calm he kept his voice. "We're struggling to survive, and we don't exactly have a 'Hire Alien Mercenaries' fund stashed away somewhere. We didn't expect to have to pay for the privilege of our lives."
No one said anything in the wake of that, until Combo stood up a moment later, getting smoothly to his feet. "Then we will take our leave," he said. "We wish you luck with The Grey."
He nodded to the rest of them and they all turned to leave.
It wasn't the first time they had left a meeting like this empty handed, and Kratos knew it wouldn't be the last time. Sometimes people couldn't pay and they kept moving. It was rare that it was a situation like this, though, where the people would probably die otherwise, and Kratos had a small attack of conscience as they walked out towards the main part of the building to head back to their ship. They didn't have a plan beyond this, and he knew they weren't leaving just yet. Combo would want to investigate this planet just as he'd checked out all the others, and maybe there was another pocket of humans that would be able to pay.
