by Frank Carey
CHAPTER EIGHT
They were headed back down the hallway when the lights flashed in an odd pattern. "That's odd," Hamish said. "This area isn't prone to power failures."
"It's not a power failure," Kalana explained. "It's code for Semper Gumby, a term the Space Marines borrowed from the Earth Marine Corps. It means Murph and Trent have left the building."
"Thank the gods," Mersa said.
"Who the hell are you?"
Mersa's gun snapped up first as she took aim at the questioner. "On your knees with your hands in the air!" she said loudly. "I won't repeat myself. Do it now!" Her companions went to stryker mode while Hamish just aimed his pistol at the speaker and made a show of thumbing its power setting to full.
"I'd listen to her. She has a real temper."
Kalana ran a scan and saw the alien brain wave patterns. "He's compromised!"
The man's head snapped up to stare at her while his eyes glowed red. He leapt at them, screaming. Mersa fired, hitting him dead center in his chest. He continued to scream, so Kalana fired a blast pulse at him from her arm-mounted weapon. It was set to full power.
The screaming stopped when his charred body slammed into the corridor wall as alarms and more screaming filled the corridor from both ends.
"I hate screamers," Nana said as she folded her pointed, armored ears against her helmeted head.
"Defensive ring!" Mersa ordered. An elf came around a corner. She shot it, killing it instantly. She scanned it as it fell to the floor. "No brain wave activity!"
More possessed--there was no better way to describe them--beings attacked and died in a hail of energy charges from the Marines’ weapons. The team moved forward between attacks. In minutes, they were in front of a large door. "In here," Mersa said. Kalana nodded to Marcus. He reached over and tore the door open while Nana and Mersa lobbed flash bang grenades into the room. The ordinance exploded. Hopefully anyone inside was temporarily blinded and stunned. While Marcus and Nana remained outside to hold off external threats, the three remaining team members entered the room.
"Put the weapon down and back away!" Kalana yelled as she shifted weapons to a hypervelocity slug thrower. At the center of the room, a lingle stood over Gabe with a large syringe in his hand. He glared at the team with eyes filled with hatred.
"Tregor Skol!" Hamish yelled. "It's me, Hamish! You know me, Tregor. You know I speak the truth. Listen to the captain! She will fricassee your ass if you blink wrong! Back away from the human!"
Tregor made his first mistake. He raised his arm. That was also his last mistake. All three team members opened fire, throwing the lingle into a far wall. His body slid to the floor in an unmoving heap.
"Told you," Hamish said as they ran to Gabe's aid.
Still in Stryker form, Kalana knelt next to Gabe and ran a scanner over him. "His power cells are drained and his bot population is down 90%." She switched to comms. "Nana, sitrep!"
"Captain, they've stopped attacking. Scans show a large number of life signs heading to the back of the building. We're picking up a large ship there."
"Scan the area for booby traps. I think our friends are leaving."
"Working... I've got a nuke near your location. It's on a buildup to detonation."
"Great. I'll..."
"I've got it, ma'am," Mersa said as she handed the captain a large metal flask. "This is pure ethanol. It should help DCI Adon get back on his feet."
"I'm going with you," Hamish said. "Nukes were my specialty when I was in OffSec School.”
"Go! I'll take care of Gabe," Kalana said. "Be careful.
With scanner in hand, the two exited the room through a side entrance. "Nana, Marcus, did you two copy that?"
"Aye, ma'am. Do you want us in there with you?"
"No. Just keep watch on the corridor in case someone tries to crash our party. Stand by."
She checked her scanner before giving Gabe a tap on the cheek. "Hey, Big Guy, wake up."
"Mmph," he said as he opened his eyes. "Hey, Girl Friend, what brings you to this hell hole?"
She carefully removed his restraints, then handed him the flask. "Drink up."
He put the flask to his lips and drank deeply. "I thank you and my bots thank you, at least what's left of them."
She checked his pulse. "What the hell did they do to you?"
"Just the usual: alien possession. Fortunately for me, my higher-than normal epsilon field strength stopped them. Then they removed most of my nanobots and carted them away to I know not where. The bots seem to have a protocol where if too many are removed, the rest go into hiding." He took another quaff of alcohol. "What happened to Tregor?"
She nodded over to where the body lay. He's dead...
"No, I'm not."
She turned just in time to see the large, armored fist before it slammed into her side, throwing her across the room. Stunned, she looked up to see the ugliest, nastiest cyborg she ever saw advancing on her. "Emergency!" she screamed into her comm unit. "I'm under attack..." She fired a high-power laser beam at it from her tail-mounted gun, but the thing's armor absorbed it.
"Tsk, tsk," the thing said as it shot an arm-wide energy beam into the roof, causing the structure to fall to the floor where it blocked the door with tons of debris. "We shouldn't mar this moment with others."
"What are you?" she said as she got to her feet and surveyed the damage. All she could get from her bots was "Try again in a few minutes." She was able to form one weapon, but it wasn't nearly enough against the thing she was facing.
"We are the selka. We have fought the great war for countless centuries. We must cleanse the universe of infestation."
"You are delusional," Kalana yelled as she dodged a blow from the selka's armored fist.
"You will die, and we will use your body to cleanse the great verse of infestation. Be one with the great verse."
She fired her weapon directly at the creature’s head, but the energy pulses were deflected by its armor. It grabbed her and threw her into a wall. It laughed as she slowly got up. "Why do you resist? Death is inevitable for your kind. I just bring it sooner.”
She tried to will her power supplies to detonate, but the damage was too severe. She fell to one knee and prayed to all the gods for a weapon to destroy this thing before she slept the long sleep.
Her prayers were answered.
"Hey, Asshole, leave the lady alone," Gabe said as he landed on the thing's back and drove an adamantine-blade into its skull. He leapt from its back and landed between it and Kalana, then threw a first aid kit to Kalana before firing a salvo of modified hacker-balls at the thing. Upon impact, the balls burrowed into its armor plate before releasing massive electrical charges into its nervous system, disrupting its weapons and defenses as Gabe poured plasma and kinetic energy into it.
The first aid kit landed on Kalana's arm and immediately effected repairs on her system by pumping extra nanobots and concentrated fuel into her bloodstream. As her systems cleared she saw beams of energy lance down from the ceiling, impaling the behemoth in light. She looked up and saw Marcus and Nana circling overhead while firing energy weapons from their wings and tails. The creature tried to fight back, but the gelfs were too fast, too maneuverable. They dodged energy bolts and rail gun projectiles as they pirouetted about the space above Kalana.
In moments, Kalana's bots signaled her repairs complete. She stood up and unloaded every weapon in her inventory at the creature, ripping chunks of armor plating from its body as if it were an orange being peeled. Finally, the creature fell to the ground and breathed its last breath.
The four strykers stood there, breathing hard and wondering how the hell they had survived. The creature on the floor was beyond anything they had ever seen, certainly beyond their designs.
"What the hell happened here?" Mersa said as she and Hamish ran into the room.
"Scan him!" Kalana yelled as she pointed her weapon at Gabe.
Gabe said nothing, at first, then said, "Be gentle, I
bruise easily."
"He's clean," the sergeant reported. She scanned herself and everyone else, then handed the device to Kalana. "We all are."
"How's my weight doing?" Gabe asked as he peered over Kalana's shoulder. "I've been feeling a little puffy lately."
Kalana cuffed him. "Knock it off, or I'll put you back into restraints."
"Ow! Brute!" he said while rubbing his arm where she hit him.
"Wuss..." She stopped when a call came over the comm.
"Stryker Team One, this is Bonehead actual. Do you copy?" It was the major.
"Bonehead actual, this is ST1. We copy, over."
"Sitrep."
"Target has been secured. Sensors indicate a ship, possibly prepping for takeoff from rear of structure. Orders?"
"Slow them down, Captain. ETA five minutes. Bonehead actual out."
"Slow them down?" Marcus asked. "The four of us barely stopped one of them."
Kalana shrugged. "We improvise. Now move out!"
CHAPTER NINE
The building shook as the six team members arrived at a ginormous, steel double-door. "Damn launch bay for something big," Mersa said.
"Everyone, set weapons to heavy stun and shoot anything that moves. Mersa, open the door."
"Aye, Captain," they said in unison. Mersa hurried over to the lock pad and shot it. The doors opened onto a large ship hovering above the bay floor. Flanking it were two behemoths like the one they had just barely killed.
"Didn't we just leave this party?" Gabe asked as he formed blasters in both arms.
"Stop complaining. At least life isn't boring," Kalana yelled as she unleashed her two arm weapons and her tail blaster. Nana and Marcus flew upwards unleashing their blasters while Hamish and Mersa took flanking positions behind large crates before unleashing pulse blasts. Overhead, the massive roof doors opened to reveal the sky.
The sky wasn't empty. Two Degreb space cruisers--one with quriss markings, the other with lingle--hovered over the building, blocking the large ship's departure. Suddenly, Trent appeared next to Hamish with his gun blazing while a Mark IX Minotaur battle suit dropped from the roof to land next to Kalana and lay down fire at the behemoths from its horns, tail, and wrist-mounted mini-guns. In minutes, the giant cyborgs had surrendered as the large ship gently landed and shut down its weapons.
Behind the stryker team, members of the Boneheads streamed into the bay to secure the scene.
"Don't touch anything!" Kalana yelled. "The things in those cyborgs and that ship are deadly!"
The Minotaur walked over and removed a package from a pack on its back. "Captain, this should fix that problem," it said in a familiar voice.
"Murph? My, you look so dashing. Now, what are you talking about?" Kalana asked.
Murph handed her three devices. "These are force field generators tuned to block the passage of the creature's consciousnesses. We just need to attach them to the ship's hull and the cyborgs' bodies, then activate them.”
"Have at it, then."
Murph walked over and placed a device on each cyborg, then the large ship's hull, before remotely activating them. When he finished, he signaled Captain Shenta, leader of the Boneheads, before returning to Kalana's side. "Using the information Trent and I brought back, Ambassador Irithyl was able to broker a truce between the quriss and the lingle. Ma'am, it’s a mess out there. The selka used the Degrebian's nature and culture against them. The ambassador pointed this fact out to the leaders of both sides. He then introduced his wife, General McMurphy."
Kalana watched as the two cyborgs were taken into custody by six marines using Minotaur suits. She shook her head. "I remember the first time I opened up an actual human in the operating room. It was during some stupid skirmish the League got involved with. The patient was a Marine private who had taken a round while protecting a bunch of civilians. Did you know that humans, elves, and dracos all look alike inside? Sure, I had seen simulations, and had assisted in dozens of training operations, but this was the first time it was just me, the operating team, and the patient."
"What did this revelation teach you?" Murph asked.
"The outside doesn't matter, only what's inside counts." She stopped and looked at Murph's container. "What's inside you, Murph?"
"Hope," he replied.
They were interrupted by a call over the comm. "Stryker Team One, this is Bonehead actual, do you copy?"
"Go for ST1," she replied. Overhead, a Martok battle wagon had positioned it itself over the space ship.
"Kalana, this is Williamson. We need you and your team outside, ASAP."
"Roger that, Bonehead actual. We're on our way. ST1 out. Murph, with me."
"Yes, ma'am," the AI replied. He fell in behind her as she made her way over to where Shenta stood.
The Sokuhl captain looked at her. "Nice work, Kalana. I heard you were injured."
"I was, but my bots effected repairs. My team and I have been ordered outside to debrief. Do you have this situation under control?"
He looked up and watched the large ship as it was lifted into the hold of the battle wagon. "We've got this. Mersa has showed us the nuke she disarmed. The woman has the knack."
"Yes, she does." Kalana grabbed her team and headed outside while the rest of the Boneheads secured the launch area. On their way out, they passed teams of Degrebian military as they fanned out through the building. Kalana realized that she was looking forward to seeing the sun once more.
CHAPTER TEN
Kalana stood out on the balcony and watched the people of the DMZ go about their business five stories below. She wondered how many knew how close they had been to oblivion. Her musings were interrupted by a chime. "Come in," she replied.
The door opened and in walked Hamish carrying a bottle of sparkling wine, two glasses, and wearing a smile from ear to ear. "Beware elves bearing gifts," he said. He put the glasses down on the table, then opened the bottle with a pop.
"The tests came out negative?" she asked.
He poured the wine, then handed her a glass. "Yes, they did. The orbital scanning platform can find no trace of selka life signs--except for our guests, of course--anywhere on Degreb or her moon. We used a dozen selka 'volunteers' as controls, and voila, no life signs."
She sipped her wine. "You have excellent taste in wine. Ummm, we need to talk," she said.
"About what, pray tell?"
"You are so lousy at playing coy," she said.
"As are you," he replied. He pointed at her tail tip watching him from over her shoulder.
"Yeah, about that..." she stopped as he reached behind his back and fiddled with something. Suddenly, his tail tip appeared, waved about as if getting kinks out, then settled down to stare at her over his shoulder. "Better. Some of the locals get creeped-out by the tail, so I keep it under my shirt."
She stared at it. "How long has this been going on?"
"Not to get melodramatic, but when I first laid eyes on you in high school."
"You're making this hard..."
"Why? I'm an elf; you're an elf; so, what's the problem?"
"You know what the problem is. First, there's Peter..."
He glanced at her tail still staring at him, then cocked an eyebrow.
"Fine, maybe I've gotten over him since finding out he might have been an alien invader."
Hamish tilted his head while switching eyebrows.
"Look, I've been chosen to lead the expedition to the selka home world, a place they call Norash."
"OK, so you're going on a mission. We both have jobs that involve going on missions."
She looked to heaven for help. "I might not come back. Hell, none of us may come back. It's that kind of mission."
"They want you to colonize Norash? The place sounds depressing..." She slugged him.
"Moron! We could all die there. The mission is to recon, then determine if the selka pose a danger to the League. We are to eliminate that threat at all costs."
"Oh. I think I remember that part
of the briefing. Something about being expendable."
She gave him a look she normally reserved for those with goats growing from their heads. "What briefing?"
"The one they gave to the OffSec agents assigned to this operation. We'll be performing all the covert shit that spies normally do during these kinds of ops. We'll also be training a number of Degrebian hybrids in the fine art of espionage."
"What about Anna?"
"I've explained to her that I need to protect her from the monsters, but that I have to go on a long trip to do that. There were tears, but I think she understands."
"And if you get killed?"
"Degrebians have huge families, whether they're quriss or lingle. I've contacted both sides and they have sworn to protect and love her to their last breath."
"You're going to leave her..."
He took a step back, then walked over to the wall and pounded it with his fist. "Do you think this is easy? Leaving her to go off to fight a war? I watched her parents die when an improvised explosive device went off not far from here. One minute they were holding up a melon destined for dinner, the next they were a cloud of red vapor. I found the bastard that set that bomb, and I promise you, his death took much longer."
She hurried over and put her arms around him. "Shhhh," she said as their tails entwined while they looked into each other's eyes. Slowly, tentatively, they kissed. In the way of countless generations of elves before them, they were now bonded for life.
"Now you did it," he whispered.
"Me? I think we both had something to do with it. Are we going to tell Anna before we leave?"
Hamish whistled. Anna came running in and jumped up into Kalana's arms where she proceeded to give the Marine captain a huge hug. "Yeah, I think we'll tell her."
