“You!” The Karnayer filling the screen roared in rage. “You are the one that imprisoned my brother Remus!?”
“Wow, small universe, huh?” Riot shook her head with a sigh. “What are the odds of that? We imprisoned your brother, and we crashed your party with the Grovothe. It’s just not your year is it, Sunshine?”
“I will rend your bones. I will extract my vengeance upon you in ways you can’t imagine, Warrant Officer Riot from Earth,” the Karnayer screamed, showing off all his yellowed teeth. “Remember my name well, you stupid human. Alveric from the house of Karn will—”
“Hold on, hold on just a second Alveric,” Riot said, raising a finger to the screen.
“Three seconds until the enemy reaches the bridge,” Evonne said, using the nanites in Riot’s ear. “Two, one.”
The metal bridge doors slid open. A pair of Karnayer soldiers ran inside, their weapon up and ready to fire. They never got the chance.
BOOM! BOOM!
Rizzo’s weapon went off. Two blasts caught the soldier, one in the chest, the other in the helmet. The Karnayer went down in a heap.
At the same time, Riot brought her war hammer down in a wide arc. The tooth end pointed toward the soldier’s head crushed through the top of the helmet worn by the second Karnayer. The soldier wobbled, then fell to the floor. Riot placed a boot on the fallen soldier’s back and wrenched her weapon free. Blue blood spattered her war hammer and the ground around her.
“Okay, Alveric.” Riot turned giving her full attention to the screen in front of her. “You were saying?”
Alveric was so angry, he was shaking. Spittle ran down the left side of the corner of his lips. “I will come for you. I will come with the might of the house of Karn. Mark my words, human, your days are numbered!”
“Bring more soldiers with you next time,” Riot said, hefting her war hammer in both hands. She tossed the heavy end of the weapon up and down. “We’ll be waiting.”
With that, the screen in front of her clicked off.
Rizzo placed his weapon beside his chair and signed with his hands. He was pissed. I thought he was going to shoot steam out of his ears.
“What did we miss?” Ketrick entered the bridge with Wang and Vet in his wake. He stared down at the two dead Karnayer soldiers. “We missed everything by the looks of it.”
Vet and Wang ran to their consoles, still dressed in full black-and-red battle armor.
“The Valkyrie is in a bad place.” Vet scrolled through a list of flashing icons on his holographic screen. “We’ll need to set down somewhere soon for repairs.”
“Grovothe transmission coming through,” Doctor Miller said.
“Put them on screen,” Riot ordered. She dropped her war hammer and resumed her seat in the captain’s chair.
A moment later, the large screen in front of Riot came alive once more. This time, Admiral Tricon’s face appeared. Past the heavy beard he looked like he was about to smile. “Well done, Warrant Officer Riot, to you and your team. I have to say, that was some impressive flying.”
“Our pilot is the best money can’t buy, Admiral,” Riot answered. “We’ll need to set down somewhere for repairs.”
“Of course,” the Admiral said, looking down to check some dials on his own controlboard. “You are invited to board the Dreadnaught. We can use our tractor beam to pull you in, if you’d like. You can repair your ship in our hangar. You’ll have our full assistance, of course. Is everything all right there?”
“Yeah everything’s—” Riot looked over her left shoulder to see Ketrick taking the two dead Karnayers off the bridge. He had one slung over his shoulder, and the other he dragged by the back of its uniform collar.
Ketrick seemed oblivious to the scene he was making and carried on with his work.
“We’re fine.” Riot tuned back to the admiral. “We’d appreciate the help in.”
“Stand by,” Admiral Tricon said before his screen went black.
“What’s the plan?” Wang asked from his seat on Riot’s left.
“We go and make some new friends and get our answers.” Riot drummed her fingers on the armrest of her captain’s chair. “The Karnayer destroyer we just sent packing was captained by Remus’s brother.”
“Remus?” Ketrick asked, reentering the bridge. “The Karnayer who attacked my home world?”
“One and the same,” Riot said. Her mind was working on overdrive to find the connection. “I don’t believe in coincidences. What are we missing here?”
The bridge sat quiet.
As the Valkyrie drifted in space, the Dreadnaught pulled up alongside. A blue cone of light covered their vessel, a tractor beam pulling them in toward the ship.
“What aren’t the Grovothe telling us?” Doctor Miller mused, adjusting her glasses.
“I don’t know, but until we find out, stay ready,” Riot warned. “Our visit might be shorter than we think.”
Slowly, the Valkyrie moved in space, crossing the distance between the two ships until it reached the massive, wide-open bay doors to the Dreadnaught ship. As soon as they entered the bay, they passed through a protective dull blue force field that kept the cold of space in check.
Riot stood along with the others to get a better look at the Dreadnaught’s hangar bay. Dozens of ships, ranging from cruisers like their own, to smaller single-manned fighters sat in rows. Grovothe soldiers scurried across the bay in every direction, preparing for their landing.
A closer look at the Grovothe ships told Riot there were many docking now that had been damaged in the fight with the Karnayers. The smaller fighters with wings slanting down from the main single-manned cockpit were also landing in the hangar bay in various states of damage. A larger Grovothe cruiser with a saucer-like head and three thrusters extending from the back, lay smoking in the hangar bay’s far-right corner.
“Shall I patch in the Grovothe hangar bay?” Evonne asked through the ship’s communication channel. “They are requesting a connection now.”
“Yes,” Riot answered.
“This is Grovothe hangar command,” a gruff female voice spoke into the ship. “We’ll be setting you in a free landing space. Touchdown should be within ten seconds. Admiral Tricon is on his way to welcome you now. Thanks for the assist with the Karnayer destroyer. We could have taken them ourselves, but it was nice not having to.”
“Understood, and you’re welcome?” Riot asked more than stated. She turned to her crew. “Let’s meet them at the cargo bay.”
Riot took the lead, listening to the shuffle of her crew’s boots as they followed behind her.
They’re a proud race, Riot thought. Let’s hope that pride doesn’t get in the way of making allies and agreeing on the enemy we so obviously share.
“And let’s take it easy on the dwarf jokes,” Doctor Miller said, looking over to a whispering Vet and Wang. “These are our allies. Let’s not get off on the wrong foot.”
“I didn’t say anything,” Vet coughed into his hand.
Riot ignored her men’s laughter, climbing the steps down to the cargo hold in the rear of her ship. A Karnayer Scarab stuck in through the wall. Three metal prods had pierced the Valkyrie, then bent outward, allowing the enemy soldiers access to the inside of the cargo bay.
Unlucky for those soldiers, Vikta had made the cargo bay her home. The white dragon was already on her feet as the crew entered the hold. The eviscerated bodies of the Karnayer carpeted the hold, blue blood painting the floors, the walls, and even the ceiling. A dozen scorch marks on the wall of the cargo hold told a story all their own. The Karnayer soldiers had not anticipated that a dragon might be aboard, and evidently had fired in panic, when teeth and claws greeted them.
Vikta swished her long, white tail back and forth when she saw Ketrick enter the room. The horse-sized dragon galloped toward them.
Despite her understanding the dragon wouldn’t hurt her, Riot still shied away. There was just something unnatural about welcoming hundreds of pounds of scales a
nd teeth into your arms. Ketrick, on the other hand, didn’t seem to have an issue with this.
“Ahhh…” the Trilord said, catching Vikta around the neck and rubbing the underside of her jaw. “There she is. Who’s the best fire serpent in the galaxy? You are. Yes, you are.”
Before anyone could comment on the comical scene happening in the cargo bay, a slight shudder ran up the Valkyrie’s frame. They touched down in the Dreadnaught’s hangar.
Slowly the cargo bay’s rear door began to lower. This was it. The Grovothe waited.
57
The cargo door gently lowered to the floor, revealing a line of uniformed Grovothe. The tallest of their order couldn’t have been more than five feet in height. This put them a full head shorter than Riot, and her five-foot-eight-inch frame was nothing to brag about.
The aliens wore dark grey uniforms with dull silver buttons. A mix of male and female Grovothe waited for them on the hangar bay floor. Every male Grovothe had a long, well-groomed beard, some in braids, some grown out, while others wore a combination of the two. Some were bald, and others sported Mohawks, their long hair pulled back behind their heads.
The females were just as stout as the males. Their hair was better kept, most in braids pulled back into ponytails. One red-headed female soldier stepped forward. Her hands were behind her back. Her face was stern, but her voice was not unkind.
“Welcome to the Dreadnaught. My name is Major Rippa Gunna,” Rippa said, extending an arm and waving them down. “The admiral is on his way, but he wanted to make sure you were greeted as allies when you arrived.”
Riot walked down the cargo bay’s ramp, doing her best to smile and put everyone at ease.
“I’m Warrant Officer Riot,” Riot said, motioning to her crew behind her. “This is my crew, Doctor Wang, Corporals Vet and Rizzo, Doctor Miller, and Ketrick.”
Riot reached Rippa and extended a hand.
The short Grovothe woman looked at the hand, and then back at Riot with a raised eyebrow.
“Okay, I guess that’s not a thing here,” Riot said, retracting her hand.
“Why do you travel with such a primitive species?” Rippa nodded toward Ketrick. “The Trilords don’t have the technology to travel off their own world, let alone be commissioned as soldiers to fight against the Karnayers.”
“Why don’t you speak to my face, child?” Ketrick said, moving forward to stand next to Riot. “You do a lot of talking for someone so small.”
Rippa’s face reddened.
Before she could open her mouth to respond, Vikta poked her head out of the cargo bay.
“Ahhh!” one of the other Grovothe screamed. Those who carried weapons lifted them in panic.
“Whoa, whoa, whoa!” Riot said, putting herself between Vikta and the Grovothe. “We’re all friends here. Vikta’s a gentle dragon once you get to know her.”
“Holster your weapons,” a gruff voice commanded from around the side of the Valkyrie. “Do it now.”
Admiral Tricon rounded the corner with a contingent of Grovothe soldiers carrying weapons on their shoulders. He approached Riot and, standing next to Rippa, nodded with a smirk.
“I can’t wait to hear how you came to have a space serpent traveling aboard your ship,” the admiral said with a relaxed tone in his voice. “But in the meantime, we have more pressing matters to discuss.”
His sparkling eyes traveled over Riot’s crew, pausing for a moment on Ketrick and Vikta before moving on. He took in the state of the ship, as well as the two Karnayer Scarabs still sticking out of its hull. Their airtight holds on the much larger Valkyrie like tiny leeches on a larger animal.
“We can do this however you’d like,” he said. “I can have my engineers start on repairs to your ship now. We can do it ourselves, or you can have some of your men stay and help. We can begin after you rest or, if you prefer, a different arrangement.”
Admiral Tricon’s willingness to be so accommodating with Riot and her crew took her off guard. This was a man used to giving orders. The fact that he was being so understanding was a relief, and it worried her at the same time. What was it that he wanted from them?
“That’s very kind of you,” Riot said, looking back to Vet and Rizzo. If things did go bad, they would need to leave in a hurry. Plus, she didn’t trust the Grovothe enough yet to let them go poking around in her ship, unsupervised. “Vet, Rizzo, have Evonne link our comms. You two will stay back and help the Grovothe engineers with the repairs.”
“Roger that,” Vet said as if he understood exactly why they were staying back.
Rizzo gave a sharp nod.
“And then there is the matter of your space serpent.” Admiral Tricon looked with hard eyes at Vikta. “My engineers will be able to work a lot faster if they aren’t in fear of being eaten.”
Riot understood. She looked over to Ketrick, then motioned to the large hangar doors that led out into the darkness of space. “Do you think Vikta can stretch her wings for a while? I’m sure if she chooses to rest on top of the Dreadnaught, the Admiral can tell his men not to target the dragon.”
Ketrick looked over to Vikta as the two communicated in a way Riot still didn’t understand.
“She says to help alleviate the stress level she senses in the air, she’ll agree to go.” Ketrick turned back to Riot and Rippa. He gave the former a quick wink and the latter a rib. “Try not to get blown away.”
“Why you—”
Whatever expletive Rippa was going to use was lost as Vikta leapt into the air. In one quick motion, she exited the open cargo bay and maneuvered into the Grovothe hangar. Amid the yells of the Grovothe, Vikta grew in size. Once no larger than a Shetland pony, the dragon’s wings elongated and her body grew until she was nearly as large as the Valkyrie itself.
“All units stand down,” Admiral Tricon spoke into a square button located on the left side of his uniform. “Do not fire. I repeat, do not fire.”
With a rush of wings, Vikta was gone out the force field separating the hangar from the cold of space.
The white noise of workers in the hangar gradually picked back up. The show was over, and it was back to business as usual. The shouts, roars of engines, and sounds of heavy tools being used made Riot think of the Bulwark’s hanger bay.
“If you’d follow me,” Admiral Tricon said, motioning to Riot to join him. “We have much to discuss. I imagine you have a list of questions of your own.”
“I do,” Riot said, following the admiral through the hangar. Ketrick, Wang, and Doctor Miller followed, as well as Rippa and the rest of the Grovothe officers and soldiers.
The group made their way through the long hangar, up a lift, and down a wide hall. While they were walking, Riot noticed a few gawks and mouths drop as they passed. She got the sense that they weren’t necessarily looking at her, but at Ketrick.
“Is there something wrong with bringing a Trilord on board your ship?” Riot asked the admiral as she tried to match her usual long strides to the much shorter Grovothes. “Am I missing something here?”
The admiral looked up at Riot with a hard stare. Riot had seen that look before. She had seen it in General Armon’s eye when he was deciding exactly how much she needed to know while on a need-to-know assignment.
“We do our best to monitor and understand as many species as we can on alien planets. The more we know, the better off we’ll be. The Trilords are a race we’ve monitored closely. Their size and brutality make them a concern if they ever reached a point where they were able to travel off-world.”
“I get that. They’re a tough species, and like all of us, can be rash at times,” Riot said, thinking back to her run-in with the Brute faction of Trilords on Hoydren. “But the Trilords are just like us; some good, some bad, and others fifty shades of crazy. You can’t label an entire species on the acts of a few.”
“Well, that’s something I’ll have to take your word for.” Admiral Tricon stopped in front of a room with a pair of steel doors. The doors slid open as
soon as the admiral moved to enter.
Inside the room was a small, grey, circular table. Around the table, a much larger circle of chairs were placed in perfect distance to one another. The admiral took a seat, with Rippa on his right and the other uniformed Grovothe on his left. The guards who accompanied the admiral stood sentry by the door.
“Please, sit,” Admiral Tricon said, motioning to four empty chairs by the door. “I prefer to talk openly. I’m an old war dog, so I’m not used to politics or word games. Tell me what it is you want. If I can be of assistance, I will let you know.”
I like him already, Riot thought. Too soon to trust him, but so far so good. Maybe we can work with these Grovothe after all.
“We can start with what the heck we ran into when we arrived at our rendezvous point,” Riot said, nodding over to Wang, who was still dressed in his black-and-red armor. “I had to have half my crew gear up for battle as soon as we arrived.”
“The Karnayers have been one of our enemies for a very long time,” Admiral Tricon answered. “We’re orbiting a planet now the Karnayers have taken a special interest in. We had no way of knowing a Karnayer destroyer would intercept us when we arrived, but maybe we should have. We’ve had suspicion they’ve been militarizing the planet’s populace, but no real proof until recently.”
“How recently?” Doctor Miller leaned forward, speaking for the first time.
“I take your meaning,” the admiral said. He pursed his lips. “And you’re right. When we found out what the Karnayer were up to, we decided to take you up on your offer to meet.”
“Before that, you didn’t want to?” Riot asked just to be sure. She felt like she already knew the answer, but they had come this far to get the whole truth. No stone left unturned. “You didn’t think we were worth the trouble.”
“We knew the Syndicate had advanced your species hundreds of years by giving you the tech you use today. We weren’t sure if you were ready and/or capable of becoming a strong ally in the war against the Karnayers. Even after seeing what you did on Hoydren,” the Admiral answered. “New information encouraged us to reach out. The Grovothe Empire is vast, but even we are spread too thin. Keeping peace throughout the known universe has depleted our resources.”
War Wolves: Boxset 1-3 Page 25
