The Colony Ship Vanguard: The entire eight book series in one bundle

by John Thornton

  “That thing’s mouth is huge!” Paul exclaimed. “Those teeth are gigantic! It spreads its mouth almost one hundred and eighty degrees wide.”

  “Paul, look in water,” Brinley said. “There has been a slaughter.”

  Indeed, near where the hippos were exiting the water, there were floating bodies and bloody parts of dead hippos. The bodies were hard to see as they were dark color which blended into the blackness of the water.

  “Yes, there has been a great battle here,” the Longinus said. “Sibat, I have never seen such a fight. One or two bulls may kill each other, true. However, here I count seven dead adults, at least.”

  “Yes, Oda, pardon me, I mean Longinus, indeed something terrible has happened here. See how irritated the remaining bull is? His harem is agitated more than I have ever seen. And the bull is injured.”

  “There is something on the other side of that group of animals, behind those trees,” Gretchen pointed. There was an odd fuzzy shimmer off the side of the habitat reflecting some kind of purplish glow, but the trees mostly obscured what was behind them.

  “Olu juol braa,” the bull hippo cried and wheezed out as it plunged back into the water. It was attacking something that was just beneath the surface. The long teeth of the bull struck down and its jaws closed on something with crushing and stabbing force.

  “Now we will see the rampaging rogue hippo,” Sibat said as he watched the water.

  “I am not sure a hippo did this,” the Longinus said.

  The bull hippo opened its mouth again but was forced up onto its back legs. The thing it had bitten pushed up out of the water. The black liquids running down its spherical sides revealing something of a glowing purplish blue color. The thing rising up was blurry and hard to focus on. For a moment there were two large chunks missing from the front of the sphere, but they sealed over quickly.

  The bull hippo roared another challenge and opened its mouth and attacked with its mighty jaws. Its teeth sank into the thing in the water again. This time a part of the purplish thing was torn loose, and that chunk faded in color and sank into the water. Yet the hippo was thrown back again, and the sphere’s wound sealed over.

  “Is that the rogue?” Brinley asked. “It does not look natural.”

  “It is not like…” the Longinus began.

  A long whip like something came jutting up from the side of the purple sphere. It beat down upon the big hippo and the lash tore its flesh open. The bull roared in pain, but struck again with its teeth and clamped down on the appendage. The purple sphere’s appendage pulled back, but was split by the hippo’s sharp teeth. The split then melted back together as the extremity was retracted.

  The bull hippo grudgingly backed up, as it was beaten again by another whip from the other side. The animal roared in pain.

  “There are two!” Gretchen called and pointed to the trees on the other side of the herd.

  A second purplish blue sphere stepped out from behind the trees. It was taller than the hippos, and had four legs, of a sort, which it walked on, and two arms, if you could call them that, which jutted out from it.

  “Eh eh uool!” and “moeg ujj bruu!” roared two of the other hippos as they were looking where Gretchen was pointing. They were not quite as large as the bull. They jogged forward placing themselves between the purple glowing sphere and their calves. That purplish blue sphere was also sort of blurry, but it too lashed an arm out and swiped at one of the approaching cow hippos. The swipe cut the side of the hippo’s face, and blood tricked out. Yet the cow continued its defense. Both cow hippos opened wide their mouths and jabbed at the sphere with their sharp teeth. They used their weight in attacking the sphere.

  The purple sphere changed its arm to a thicker extremity and beat down brutally on the side of the cow’s head, again wounding it. This time the wound was more serious. The second cow attacked and bit savagely down on the arm of the purple sphere. The end was truncated, with the severed end falling to the grass. That broken off part faded in color, while the stump sealed over. The sphere seemed otherwise unaffected. In a strange and fluid manner the sphere shifted and another appendage jutted out and struck a hammering blow at the legs of one hippo cow. The legs were both shattered and the cow fell with an angry, mournful cry to the ground. The young calf hippos retreated back against the wall of the habitat while their mothers defended them.

  The battle raged between the hippos and the two bizarre bluish-purple glowing spheres.

  The bull hippo was forced backward by the sphere as it came up out of the water. The bull tried to lay its weight on the thing and bit down again, but now the sphere had its arms up and was beating into the sides of the hippo. The hippo bellowed in terrible pain as it stumbled backward. The blows were falling hard and heavy upon it, even as it struck back with its sharp teeth and powerful jaws tearing loose chunks of the purple sphere. Each chunk was replaced nearly as fast as it was ripped loose.

  “We cannot let these monsters kill those animals!” the Longinus screamed in rage. “We attack now!”

  She and Sibat charged forward with their spears in attack position.

  Brinley got up and ran after them.

  “Brinley? What are you doing?” Paul asked. “Come back here!”

  “Paul, we must help them!” Gretchen said and pulled out the pistol Willie had made. She too sprinted forward.

  “They are just animals!” Paul complained. But upon seeing his friends racing into battle, he got up and joined them.

  When Sibat reached the sphere which was coming out of the water, it was walking on its four legs and had beaten the bull hippo down nearly onto the ground. The hippo valiantly fought back to destroy the enemy. It bit into, and ripped loose a part of the sphere’s ambulation leg. The sphere toppled over from the shear muscular strength of the hippo’s counter strike.

  That was when Sibat struck. He raced quickly forward and drove his spear into the purple mass and ripped it upward. “Hurrah!” he cried in triumph.

  The purple sphere’s surface parted briefly under the super sharp spearhead, but the spear struck something very hard and shook in Sibat’s hands. The sphere rolled to the side, dragging the spear and Sibat with it. He tried to pull the spear loose. When it did come out, there was no blood, no flesh, and no remains of anything. The spearhead was clean. The wound it had made was sealing itself over as the blade slipped loose.

  The hippo rose up and pressed the attack. It pushed it huge mouth down onto the side of the sphere and bit in with its long teeth. It was a blow which would have broken any animal in half. The sphere only bulged slightly under the force and weight of the bull hippo’s best attack.

  Sibat danced back and made a lunge with the spear at a different part of the purple mass. New appendages sprouted out of the sphere and came together in a compression grip on each side of the hippo’s fat body. The hippo screamed out in pain and when it did so, it pulled its teeth from the sphere. Those wounds also sealed over nearly immediately.

  The Longinus then struck with her spear and inflicted a deep cutting blow to one of the extremities which was crushing the bull hippo. The end of the extremity was lopped off, and the pressure subsided. The sliced off tentacle faded and shriveled as it fell. The hippo however had been mortally injured with multiple broken bones and internal bleeding. It gasped and gagged trying to breathe. It opened wide its mouth, but no roar or grunts came out, just a choking cough for air. The animal tried to stagger backward, but was too weak.

  The uncut extremity smashed down on the center of the hippo’s back and the proud bull fell off its feet. More blows pounded down on it as it lay feebly trying to crawl or move away.

  Sibat and the Longinus, working as a coordinated hunting team, rammed their spears into the purplish enemy. There was no face, no eyes, no ears, or even a head. So they jabbed at its center. Both spears struck their target and sank into the sphere, but to no effect.

  “A spear through the heart will kill anything,” Sibat screamed as he pulled
loose his spear and plunged it in deeply again. It went in past the spearhead, but then again struck an immovable something.

  Piff. Piff.

  Gretchen fired the pistol into the sphere. This time the impact site was torn inward and an exit wound was blasted out the other side. Fluids of a lighter bluish color sprayed from the exit wound.

  A long whip-like purple cord shot out from the sphere and swung at Gretchen, She ducked it, barely, and Brinley slashed at the whip with her spear. The spear was knocked from her hands and flew off into the grass.

  Piff. Piff

  Gretchen fired again, and this time two more holes appeared and there were additional exit wounds in the sphere. Some fluid was still pouring from the first puncture wound. This damage did not seal over completely.

  “No dishonorable weapons!” the Longinus commanded and struck with her spear. Again the damage from the spear was inconsequential.

  The second sphere had just finished beating to death both the hippo cows and was closing on the young calves. It ambulated on its four legs and used the two arms as weapons and as hands to grasp the young hippos. Despite the best defensive efforts of those brave mother animals, and actual chunks of the purplish substance being torn out, the sphere now showed no signs of any injuries or damage. The calves turned and tried to run back toward the water of the lake, but were being caught by the rapid movements of the sphere.

  Brinley saw what had happened to the mother hippos and she sprinted past the hunters who were engaging the leaking sphere, and headed toward the one that was beginning to whip and slash at the calves.

  “Tiffany! Tiffany! What are these things?” Paul yelled into his communication link. “Are these animals or machines?” He ran up toward where Gretchen was trying to line up a shot at the sphere, but Sibat and the Longinus were still attacking it viciously and ineffectively with their spears. It was batting at them with its extremities, but was leaking the light blue liquids from the wounds inflicted by Gretchen’s pistol.

  “Paul, I am analyzing the readings. There are unidentified elements present. This is astounding, so I cannot tell you what you are encountering. I have no reference for many of the readings,” Tiffany answered.

  Blam, blam, blam!

  Brinley fired her hand gun at the sphere which was attacking the claves. Two of the calves had already been whipped into bloody messes and the others were in a panic trying to flee. The bullets struck into the purplish sphere and there was a slight pucker in the fuzzy and blurry surface around the sphere when they impacted. The impact of the bullets was nothing like the projectiles from the pistol wielded by Gretchen.

  The sphere turned swiftly and spun one of its extremities at Brinley. The end lashed Brinley’s hand and knocked the gun from it as well as knocked her to the ground. Her nimbleness allowed her to dodge the worst of the blow.

  “No!” Paul yelled and threw the spear with all his might. It punctured the edge of the sphere’s limb, but then dropped away.

  “Get out of the way!” Gretchen yelled. Her eyes were darting back and forth between the two enemies. Paul was in the line of fire for the second sphere and the hunters were between Gretchen and the leaking sphere.

  Piff. Piff.

  Gretchen fired again, this time missing the sphere which was both walking and rolling as it wrestled with Sibat and the Longinus. The hunters were agile and quick enough to avoid the flailing extremities, but were not able to cause any damage to the enemy despite their many strikes with the spears.

  A shrill high pitched whine filled the area and was louder than the shrieks of the wounded calves, or the frantic calls of the hunters. Brinley had drawn out the organic disruptor weapon.

  From her position lying on the ground she fired the weapon. An energy blast erupted from the small weapon. It struck directly into the middle of the sphere. There was a furious shaking effect on sphere. It shifted colors from purple to white in about a half meter sized area. Then there was a gush of liquids that ruptured out from the area that was now gone. The legs and extremities of the sphere pulled back into itself, as the materials sought to cover over the hole. It rolled in a wobbly but quick manner toward the lake.

  Everyone looked in surprise at the damage done to the sphere by the use of the organic disruptor. The other sphere moved faster than previously and grabbed hold of Sibat who was closest to it. He had only momentarily taken his eyes from the battle to see what the organic disruptor had done. It was a fatal error. Like a rope wrapping around a post, the extremity wound itself around him. It twisted him and pinned his arms to his sides and the spear was lost.

  “Arugeeee!” Sibat screamed as the extremity tightened around him.

  The Longinus tried to slash at the extremity, but it stretched directly upward and was out of her reach as it lifted Sibat overhead. The Longinus pivoted and plunged her spear as deeply and as aggressively as she could into the enemy. It spun Sibat around and with immense force dashed him head first to the ground killing him.

  Blam, blam, blam, blam.

  Paul had his handgun out and fired at the sphere. He thought he hit it, but could see no effect.

  Piff.

  Gretchen fired the pistol, but her hand was struck at the same time by the other extremity which reached out and whipped down on her. Her shot went into the ground.

  There was another high pitched whine which came from Brinley’s weapon. But the injured sphere dropped into the lake. Nearly immediately two white globes came hurling out of the water. The organic disruptor discharged and crossed paths with the first white globe. It burst into a fusillade of projectiles which struck into Brinley and knocked her backward.

  The second white globe smashed directly into the Longinus and carried her up and off the ground. When it exploded, her body became mush which rained down on Gretchen and Paul. Gretchen took the brunt of the hits as one of Oda the Longinus’ sheared off legs struck her a hard blow and she went down.

  The leaking sphere pulled in its protrusions and rolled directly toward where Brinley had fallen.

  Blam, blam, blam.

  Paul fired his handgun into the sphere as he stepped between Brinley and his enemy.

  The sphere rolled right up to Paul and he continued to fire.

  Blam, blam, blam, blam.

  The sphere rolled right past Paul, and up to Brinley and then over her.

  “NO!” Paul screamed and continued to shoot.

  Blam, blam.

  Brinley’s body was pulled into a lump on the leaking sphere. Paul could see her struggling against the purplish mass, but she was inside of it.

  “No!” Paul screamed but lifted the aim of his gun as the sphere rotated and kept Brinley’s body on the side facing Paul. It sprouted four legs again and shot out a tentacle of purple. It snatched up the organic disruptor weapon at the end of that fuzzy purple tentacle and the weapon was drawn inside of it as well.

  “No! No! BRINLEY!” Paul hollered in anguish.

  Paul could see Brinley pounding on the skin of the enemy seeking to escape from being inside it.

  Piff. Piff. Piff.

  Gretchen had recovered the pistol and was firing down into the lake at the other damaged sphere. It split down its middle, ripping along the seams already made by the previous shots from her pistol. Something, a glowing blue color with many floundering arms slipped from inside the sphere and escaped into the water. There was a brief image of a dome with a hard ball on its top, but then whatever had been inside the sphere was gone under the black water.

  Gretchen turned her attention to the leaking sphere that was bearing down on her. She was prepared to fire, but it swiveled and thrust Brinley out a bit like a shield. Brinley was in the line of fire for both Paul and Gretchen.

  Gretchen barely restrained herself from shooting, but she could see the terror in Brinley’s eyes through the shimmering purplish blue membrane which entrapped her. The sphere rolled into the black waters of the lake and was gone.

  “NO!” Paul wailed. “NO, no, no, no!
”

  He put his head down as he dropped to his knees. “Brinley! Not Brinley too!”

  He fell, landing face first into the messy grass. He landed right next to the Longinus’ gold medallion. It was lying in front of him. He grabbed it with his hand and wept. “Why?”

  Gretchen rushed to the edge of the lake, seeking a target for her pistol, but the waters were already growing calm. There was nothing that could be seen. She turned and surveyed the battlefield. She saw, dead hippos and hippo parts, dead people and human remains, and Paul lying face down on the ground. In the distance were three terrified hippo calves that bolted away from the lake and its reek of death.

  8 Prisoners

  Larissa awoke and leaped to her feet. She was in a dimly lit place with odd walls. She felt for her pistol, but her holster was empty. The air was foul, both smelling and even tasting noxious. The humidity was oppressive. Her breathing was stifled in the clammy and tight chamber.