Manha: Warriors Of Ition

by Starr, Maia

  “Then we will stay away from that area. We are not looking for a fight with the Yinta Clan fleet. Keep an eye on it. I want to know his every move. There must be a reason for him going there, and it is better that we know what the enemy is up to.”

  “Yes, Commander Ayre.”

  I left the flight deck and moved to the communication room. I had my researchers scouring the databases searching for human interactions, landing ports, and systems.

  “Give me some news? What have you found? Any sign of this elusive human female? We have been gone from the base for twenty-four hours; I need to set a course.”

  “Commander, we just received a message from allies on Gioro. General Mez did land on that planet the day before and is said to have a human female with him.”

  “Shit! That has to be her! Show me this message!” I looked over the message. It was true.

  “Connect me with leader Evex Ein. Now!”

  “Yes, Commander.”

  A few minutes later I was standing in front of the communication screen. Evex Ein appeared on the other side.

  “What is this urgent news you have for me, Commander?”

  “We have received secret intel. General Mez was in the vicinity of Gioro. Then we received a second report that he did land on the planet and was seen with a human female. I was about to set course for a mission to the Pargo system where we heard there is a population of humans there. But when I heard this…”

  “You were right to wait. The Pargo system can wait. We need to get this human female from General Mez. It is probably a human female from the Earth system. We cannot let the Yinta Clan have access to human females. We cannot let them start a war with Earth. Find out where he is. Find him before he joins the larger fleet. If he is on Gioro or just left, then he is probably with a small fleet of fewer than five ships. I leave it in your hands, Commander. Do it quietly. But get that human. That’s it. General Mez… he is dangerous. He cannot be trusted. We need to get this human female from him. Find him before he takes her to Leader Xeonox. Do it as quietly as you can and do anything it takes to get that human.”

  “Yes. I am on top of it.”

  I turned off the communication and went into action.

  “Set coordinates for Gioro. We need to find General Mez!”

  “Yes, Commander.”

  I walked down the hall. I had to create a plan to rescue this human female, quietly.

  “We have some work to do. We are going to need to do things differently. I need my battle leaders in the battle room now.”

  “Yes, Commander.”

  I made my way to the battle room. I had a rescue to plan, and it wasn’t going to be easy. I would be taking on General Mez to rescue this human female. I would have to do it quietly. This was going to take some skill, and I knew that it was going to take a lot of planning to do that.

  “Reporting for duty, Commander Ayre,” the first of my battalion leaders walked in.

  I started the meeting. It was going to take a lot of planning. “We have a lot of work to do here. We are going to go on a mission that would put us in the path of the Yinta Clan. Not just the Yinta Clan but General Mez himself. I hope you are ready to take this on. We are going to need to do things a different way. We can't go at them directly. We need to do this secretly, without them realizing what we are doing.”

  “Yes, Commander. We can come up with a good plan.”

  “Good. This is the mission: rescue a human female that is inside the ship of General Mez. She is being kept prisoner. We are to rescue her and take her to Earth.”

  They all looked at me with wide eyes. I don't think they were expecting something so crazy. It was a very risky mission. But I liked taking a risk, and I liked danger. I smiled ready to put some plans that would actually work into action. This was what I lived for.

  “Good. I will need you to create a distraction while I sneak aboard the ship alone and get the human female.”

  “But Commander, is that the best course of action? It is too dangerous.”

  “It is the only way.”

  They all looked at me like I was insane. I don't think they were expecting me to be so risky and reckless.

  Chapter Two

  Karina Nolin

  I had been on a mission. I was on the outskirts of the Earth solar system. I had landed in a landing port city on a very large asteroid. It was frequented by all kinds of aliens. I had flown there looking for information. I was on the trail of some missing human females that seemed to just vanish. One of them was named Imuna, and I had known her in grade school, but we were just acquaintances, not friends. Still, I felt it was my duty as an investigator to find out more information. It wasn’t a formal assignment at all. I had simply taken it upon myself.

  Earth was deep in a cold war with the Ition aliens, and everyone suspected that they were abducting human females.

  “And that is all you heard? You've heard nothing else? I need every single detail. Something that might mean nothing to you could mean something to me,” I said to the Vinop alien.

  “That is all that I know. It is only rumors that I have heard on my travels. That the leader of the Ition Alva Clan, Evex Ein, has taken a human female for a wife. We do not know the location of this new base of his but probably somewhere on Ionia. Everything that I've already told you, the human female was small, like you, with brown hair and brown eyes. It is said that she is very strong-willed, but no one knows where she came from. We can all only assume that she came from the Earth system,” he said.

  “I understand. They are evil for taking humans. They need to be stopped. But I need to find them. If you hear of anything else, please send a transmission to the base on Earth system. Now tell me about the source that you got your information from. I plan on backtracking. I want to find them and meet with them and ask them questions. It is the best way to find out more.”

  “Yes, I received my information from a Beeqa on the planet Hoi. I was there trading goods when news spread of the human wife. He is a merchant there that sells recalibrated ship parts and goes by the name of Lienson. You will find him in the ship graveyard market,” he said.

  I quickly jotted down the information. It was a good lead. “Thank you, my friend.”

  I signaled the bartender to give us another round. The bartender came over and filled the clear glasses in front of us with a strong wine. I was going to need it. I was about to break all the rules, and I would need this drink to help me. I had promised my father that I would not go out of the Earth system to collect information and report on a daily basis. But I couldn't help it if the information that I gathered had led me far. If I went back home to Earth, I knew that they would not let me follow this hot lead. They would say it was too dangerous, and I knew that it was.

  But we needed more information, and I was going to follow the clues until I found out. Taking this strong drink would help me to break a direct order from my leader. I put the glass to my lips and shot it back. It tasted of black plum and alcohol. The alien nodded to me and then shot the drink back. He slammed the glass on the table and stood up. With a quick nod of his head, he said goodbye and left. I was going to need to fuel up and chart a course to this new planet. But first I needed to write up a report and send it home, part of my daily reports, but they wouldn't know that they would only receive one.

  I motioned for another drink from the bartender. He poured the dark liquid into my glass, and I slid a coin toward him. I began to write down a quick report of what my encounter had informed me of. When I was done, I finished my drink and went to the communications tower. I paid for a quick communication to be received on Earth with my short daily report. Of course, I mentioned nothing about me leaving the planet and going to another.

  “Your message has been sent. Return in ten hours for confirmation that it has been received and/or responded to,” the communications attendant.

  “It's the Ition army!” someone ran in and yelled.

  “What? Where!” I shouted
but was not answered. They were all speaking amongst each other while I listened.

  “Five ships have entered the airspace just above the village. Send out an alert!”

  Suddenly a blaring alarm sounded over the entire village from the power. Complete chaos broke out. Below I could see everyone running in all directions. The slamming of doors and windows being shot and locked was deafening. On the horizon, I could see the five ships coming toward the village. One was very large and gray with massive wings.

  “Shit!”

  I ran toward the spiral staircase. There was no use in trying to take the elevator down to the ground. There was a herd of people already running down the stairs. We were tripping over each other as everyone was screaming. I held on to the rail and moved as fast as I could. But it wasn't very fast at all considering that everyone was in a panic and slowly moving. I had to get to my ship. I had to fly away from here. I didn't have to leave the planet just yet; I wasn't prepared for that. But I needed to fly away from the village, keeping low and hidden.

  “Move! Move!” I shouted as I got to the bottom of the stairs and ran hard. My ship was all the way on the other side of the village and considering that I did not know this village at all, I couldn't take a different direction. I had to go the way that I came, moving in and out of the alleyways. I was glad for the cover, but one wrong move and I would end up lost. I had to concentrate as I ran. It wasn't easy with people running in every direction.

  “There it is. There's my ship,” I saw it parked in the landing port as I came out of an alley. I ran toward it. But to my right, I heard the distinct sound of blaster guns. Damn it. I looked over and saw Ition soldiers. I froze. Then I started to move again. I couldn't let the shock stop me. I ran for my ship and opened it. I climbed into the cockpit. I flipped on switches, and the ship hummed loudly.

  “Over there! That one!” I heard in the distance, but I didn't know it was referring to me.

  Boom! Boom!

  My ship rocked. It took me a moment to realize that blasts were hitting the front of my ship. Suddenly the humming stopped, and my ship turned off.

  “No!” I shouted as I tried to turn it back on again. I switched on and off everything that I could, but it would not come alive. I realize that the soldiers were coming toward me. I grabbed my blaster gun and draped it over me. I opened up the cockpit and climbed down and started to run. But I was quickly pushed to the ground and felt a heavy weight on top of me.

  “Is that a human?” I heard a voice say.

  “Get off of me, you pig!”

  “It looks like one. It is hard to be sure. What is a human female doing in a ship?”

  “That is an Earth ship,” the other said.

  They flipped me over on my back. I looked up into the face of the Ition. I had never seen them this close before. Their skin was a dark blue color. One had brown hair, and the other one had black, both short hair. They were tall, almost eight feet, but seemed taller since I was on the ground looking up at them. They had their blaster guns in their hands.

  “Bring her to the ship. General Mez is going to want to meet her.”

  “No! Let me go!” I shouted as I was brought to my feet. As soon as I was on my feet, I jabbed my elbow into the gut of the one that held me. I ran for it, but I didn't get far. They were quickly on me again. This time they grabbed both of my arms, one soldier on each side.

  “This one is feisty. Best to keep a tight hold on her.”

  “I would like to do something else to her,” one joked.

  “Touch me like that, and I will cut your dick off,” I sneered.

  They both stopped moving and grew quiet. Then they erupted into laughter and continued to pull me away from the landing port. I realize that they were taking me to the fleet that I saw coming down from the sky earlier. I grew anxious. General Mez was known as a ruthless Ition. He was definitely going to torture me or kill me.

  “What did you find?” I heard a very deep voice say. I looked up and saw a towering Ition in front of me. The sun was behind him making him look ominous. He wore a long black robe down to the knee made of tightly woven cloth. It was hooded, and he had the hood over his head, covering brown hair. He had a long, slender thin nose with thin lips to match, showing his white teeth every time he spoke. His skin was the same blue and his robe cut down in a V down to his belly, showing the skin there. A belt wrapped around his waist carrying blaster guns and a long sword. I knew who he was immediately simply by the way he carried himself, confident and arrogant.

  “General Mez, we found this human female trying to flee in an Earth ship. It is parked over there; we incapacitated it.”

  “A human female, from the Earth. Good,” he took steps toward me. He put two inches between our bodies and leaned over me, putting his face directly in front of mine. His brown eyes looked at me up and down as though examining me.

  “Don't get near me,” I sneered.

  “Yes, definitely from the Earth. Just as spirited and stupid as the last one. Put her on my ship,” he said.

  “The last one?” I said, but he had already moved on. The soldiers were dragging me toward the ramp of a large ship. He must be speaking about one of the missing humans. He had to be. Did he have them? I needed to know more. His words were the first words of hope that I had heard.

  I was taken inside the ship. It was massive. I was pulled down a long hallway until we came to a small room. There was a gurney in the corner. What the hell was this? Were they going to operate on me? The soldier picked me up and I kicked and fought with my fists. It took both of them to lie me down on my back and strap cuffs around my wrists, waist, and ankles. Then just when I thought I was going to be operated on, they moved the gurney, tilting it upright. I was now standing. They walked away and locked the door. I was relieved that they were leaving me, but fearful for what was to come. General Mez terrified me. But I wasn't expecting him to be an attractive creature.

  Half an hour later, I felt the ship move. I knew it meant that we were taking off. I could just see how pissed off my father would be knowing that I had been captured by the Itions. It was exactly what we were trying to avoid. But it didn't matter; there would be no way in hell that I would give up any information. I would give my life to protect the humans of Earth. But maybe this was a good thing because General Mez obviously knew what happened to the other human females.

  A few moments later, the door opened, and he walked in. He was alone. I stiffened.

  “What is your name, human female?”

  “I am not going to tell you. I am not going to tell you anything,” I sneered.

  “Yes, you will. You will tell me everything. You will tell me your name. You will tell me why you were on that asteroid. You will tell me who you are. Maybe not today, but in time. After a long round of torture, most prisoners tell me everything. It is what should have been done to the first human female,” he said.

  I was excited. But I couldn't ask him straight out that I wanted to know where the human females were. He would use it against me. I had to play to his ego.

  “And why didn't you do that to her? Was she too strong for you, General Mez?”

  He stomped over to me and got in my face. I could tell that I had pushed a button.

  “No! She is not stronger than me. I should have killed her. But for now, I have you in front of me.”

  I had to restrain my reaction to his words. It was true! I had received the answer that I wanted, just by tricking this idiot general. He had seen at least one of the human females I was seeking.

  He moved to me and put his large massive blue hand on my chest, right between my breasts. I breathed hard. He was terrifying me, but I was not going to show him my fear. What the hell was he going to do? His hand was massive and heavy.

  “Get your hands off of me.”

  He pressed his hand harder on my chest. “I might as well get to have some fun with my prisoner. I own you.”

  “No, you don’t! Don’t touch me!”

&nbs
p; He looked at me surprised, as though no one had ever talked back to him before. His face turned into a sneer. His hand slid up my body.

  “Don’t! You Ition scum! You disgust me,” I sneered at him.

  His hand kept moving higher until it was over my mouth. I bit down hard.

  “Augh!” he shouted and pulled his hand away.

  He looked at me with an anger; I thought he was going to strike me. Then he laughed.

  “Leader Xeonov is going to want to meet you. A fiery human will be good for his plans for you,” he said.

  “And what plans are those? Why am I here?”

  Then General Mez did something that surprised me. He untied me from the wall. He let me free. I looked at him confused.

  “I am taking you to the communication room to send a message to Leader Xeonov. I want him to see who you are, see the gift that I bring to him.”

  “Like hell you are!” I shouted as I grabbed the hilt of his sword and pulled it out of his belt. I swung at him. He ducked, barely missing the blade. He pulled out a short sword and swung back at me. I blocked it with his sword. I spun toward him bringing the blade down on him. He spun out of the way. He fought back. I was barely holding my own.

  “Enough!” he shouted. He ripped the sword easily from my hand.

  I was breathing very hard.

  “That is very impressive, human female. That was fun. If I had more time, I would continue to fight with you simply to arouse myself. But I do not have time for such games. But don't ever try that again; you will lose... your head.”

  Suddenly the ship violently jolted. It knocked me off my feet.

  “General Mez! Our flanking ship has been hit! We are under attack!” an Ition soldier ran shouted coming in the door.

  “Who is attacking us?” General Mez shouted.

  He ran out the door, and it closed and locked. I immediately went to it and tried to open it. I ran my hands over the walls trying to look for the panel. I banged on the wall, trying to break the panel open. If I could just get the wires, I thought.