The Dogs of War (Ictarian-Kanggun War Book 1)

by Bret Brown

  The beast pursues P-T, but is too big to see clearly where P-T hid. With its large arm, it tries to reach under the drop ship to grab P-T, but the beast's thick, muscular arm cannot reach far enough.

  P-T rolls out from under the ship and starts to look for a new spot to hide; treading lightly with each step to avoid giving up his position.

  Near the drop ship, P-T sees a mechanic's station with some tools in it. He grabs a couple large wrenches to defend himself; as beast is between him and the Phantom.

  The Kanggun walks around the drop ship; listening quietly and sniffing the air to get a fix on P-T's position. P-T throws some smaller tools away from his location to distract the creature. As the tools clang loudly against the metal deck, it causes the Kanggun to raise its head to investigate, but it doesn't move.

  "You think I'm stupid, human.", says the beast. "Your blood is filth, defecating the air. Its stench violates beyond belief."

  P-T looks down at his hand and sees the blood running from it. As he runs from drop ship to drop ship; using them as cover, he tears off the sleeve of his shirt to wrap his hand up. Since the beast has better hunting abilities than anticipated, P-T turns on every mechanical device he comes across to mask his presence. The sounds of hydraulic machinery begin to echo in the giant hangar.

  The beast continues to stalk P-T; attempting to catch P-T out in the open.

  "You're prolonging the inevitable, feeble creature. I'll ensure your death is excruciatingly agonizing for days.", the beast says. "Your entire species' existence is inevitable. Once the Ictarians' are extinct, we shall only keep your pathetic pestilence around for work deemed unsuitable for machinery."

  As the creature makes its prolonged speech, P-T finds a heavy ordinance cart and turns it on. He grabs a strap from the back of the cart and secures the steering wheel. With one of the large wrenches he grabbed, he holds the accelerator down; wedging it under the seat. Setting it in gear, the cart speeds off towards the Kanggun.

  "Mindless creatures like you are like 'kr'tag'. You-."

  Masked by the sounds of machinery, the engine revs high as the cart hits the Kanggun in the back of the human anatomical equivalent of a calf. The beast spins around; calling out in pain. It hits the cart, sending it flying a few feet in the air.

  "Clever pest you are.", says the Kanggun. "My victory in your death shall be all the sweeter."

  Still looking for an opportunity to evade the beast, P-T has covered himself with hydraulic oil to mask his smell, and confuse his tracks. With a mechanic's flat cart, he glides under drop ships; passing through to the other side with the greatest of ease.

  The beast soon catches on to P-T's tactics. In a single leap, it jumps on top of the nearest drop ship to get the high ground (A distance of twenty feet in one bound, a common feat for Kangguns). Although, the hydraulic machinery is covering the sounds that P-T is making, the Kanggun is hot on his trail. His slitted eyes watch for any movement. His flared nostrils, take deep breaths of the air to pinpoint P-T.

  A flash of some movement catches the Kanggun's attention. It quickly springs into action. Jumping from drop ship to drop ship, the creature stops once it sees P-T's feet slide under a ship. Poised steadily, the beast waits patiently for P-T.

  As P-T makes a quick dash, the massive beast tries to stomp on P-T's head once it sees him. The Kanggun barely misses P-T, but hits the mechanics cart he's been using to evade. The stomp launches P-T like a catapult into the underbelly of the drop ship; dazing him. The beast quickly grabs a hold of P-T around the torso. With his three-fingered hand, it tries to squeeze the life out of P-T.

  In defense, P-T tenses all of his muscles in his body to make himself as rigid as possible; avoiding to get crushed. Still well covered from head to toe in hydraulic fluid, P-T actually slips out of the beast's grip, like a wet bar of soap. Once one the ground, he rolls under the drop ship; out of reach of the creature.

  Having to come up with a new strategy, P-T looks for ways to kill or at the least harm the beast. Across the hangar, is an engine removed from a drop ship; sitting on a lift that looks as if it was being repaired.

  P-T sees as external hydraulic lift panel to operate the landing gear of the drop ship between him and the Kanggun. While the beast reaches under the drop ship to grab P-T, he activates the landing gear; causing it to raise and then pushes with all of his might to teeter the ship onto the Kanggun's arm.

  The two remaining landing gears buckle under the stress and weight; causing the ship drops hard onto the Kanggun. It cries out in pain; letting out a monstrous roar that echoes throughout the hangar.

  Making a break for it, P-T makes a dead sprint to the engine that was being worked on before his arrival.

  Just as he makes it to the engine, the Kanggun has pulled out its arm from under the drop ship. The beast looks clearly wounded as its arm dangles limp, and a mahogany ooze spills from open wounds. With its good arm, the beast reaches for one of the landing gears that broke off from the ship. It throws it at P-T with an astounding velocity and accuracy; hitting the engine, destroying it, and sending P-T flying against the wall. Shrapnel rips into P-T's torso as it sprays in all directions from the impact of the two objects; piercing him in the liver.

  Dazed of the injury, P-T sees a drop ship with its cargo lift down within twenty feet. Sustaining a leg broken as well, P-T drags himself to the ship with his only good arm. A trail of smeared blood is left behind P-T, as a mangled piece of composite steel in his abdomen wavers back and forth with each pull.

  Despite the heavy injuries, P-T still moves really fast; pushing through the pain. Something that he has become accustomed to from having the nanites. Knowing the Kanggun will be on his position quickly, he tries to stand and hop towards the ship. However, he can only manage to crawl once he reaches the ramp.

  Just as he crawls up the ramp, the beast's footsteps draw closer to where P-T is lying. With all of his grit, P-T makes one more effort to stand and close the ramp of the drop ship. As the door is nearly closed, the beast reaches in with both hands and tries to pry the lift open.

  The lift's mechanical hydraulics whine with the stress from the resistance. P-T hobbles on one leg to the cockpit. With each step, the piece of shrapnel bounces up and down causing more pain. Left with no choice, P-T decides to pull it out. With a deep breath to mentally prepare himself, he pulls out the piece of steel. It shreds new tissue from the sharp barbs of steel as he pulls it out. P-T winces with pain as his arms are at full extension to remove the object.

  Once the shrapnel is removed, P-T throws it at the head of the Kanggun, who is peaking in while it tries to force the lift open still. The shrapnel bounces off the snout of the beast. In his weaken state, the throw is more for frustration than for injury on the beast.

  As P-T turns to the cockpit, the blood from his wound pulses out tremendous amounts with each heart beat; signifying a major artery has been hit. On the wall, he sees a med kit. He hobbles over to open it up. Inside, he grabs the medi-gel, a large syringe with a clear turquoise colored gel inside, and inserts it into his open wound; spraying the gel. As the gel spreads and foams up, the coolness of the gel feels comforting as it also numbs the area. However, there isn't enough of the foam and it doesn't conceal the wound entirely; resulting with blood still spilling out of his torso, albeit much less and slower.

  The Kanggun continues to struggle with keeping the hydraulic lift from closing completely. Its efforts are not in vain, as the machinery is nearing a critical point in overheating and the lift is starting to open up.

  Running short on time, P-T limps into the cockpit of the drop ship. As the model of ship is similar to the one he hijacked a few months back before meeting Leliana. However, since it was more luck than skill that got that ship started, P-T groggily works the controls to start up this ship. His blood drenched hands leave bloody hand prints all over each of the consoles he touches.

  On one the computer console screen, red flashes and symbols appear warning of a system fail
ure as the lift gate is being pried open. Finally, with some returning luck, P-T gets the engines online. He powers them up to full and ignites the combustion chamber, setting a massive blaze behind the ship.

  The ship lurches forward quickly; causing the Kanggun to lose its grip on the lift and falls to the floor. The intense heat from the engines begin to burn the creature on the floor. Massive blisters, the size of a human head, rise rapidly and explode. A putrid green liquid erupts from the newly formed blisters; evaporating immediately once the liquid comes in contact with the hot flames.

  P-T starts to become woozy from the massive loss of blood from his wounds. Severely weakened, he is unable to readily handle the controls, and crashes the drop ship nose first into the deck of the transport. The crash throws P-T into the viewport of the cockpit, as the ship lays on its side once its tail falls back down to the deck.

  P-T wakes up from the crash a couple moments later. His entire body is beaten and in pain. He moves extremely slow and is very weak to get up. He crawls out of the cockpit and works his way to the lift gate. The crash has jarred loose some of the weapons in its cache. As P-T crawls out, he grabs an EM rifle and takes it with him out of the drop ship.

  P-T exits the ship and sees the severely burned Kanggun forty feet away. Its chest is still rising and falling; showing signs of life. The smell in the hangar is abhorrent from the Kanggun's fluids seeping out and getting scorched by the engines.

  P-T lines up a shot and fires off hundreds of rounds into the creature. The rounds rip right into the beast's tenderized flesh; pulverizing the beast into small junks of Kanggun meat. He holds down the trigger for as long as he is physically able; until he passes out from blood loss.

  Chapter 15

  Inside a large rocky cavern as deep as the eye can see, P-T finds himself in a strangely familiar place. As he looks around, his peripheral sight is blurry, blending the colors into jumbled streaks. With the sight he does have, he can get some definition on what he looks at purposely. Along with him in the cave, are about a dozen units of military men and women spread out; sharing small campfires amongst themselves. They look weary from a long day’s worth of fighting.

  P-T looks directly over his left shoulder and a woman is sitting next to him. Her mouth is moving, but her words cannot be heard. She has her helmet off and her long, blonde hair down resting on her shoulders. Her dirty face covered with soot looks familiar. Her presence feels comforting to P-T. As her facial features come into focus, he realizes it's the woman from the drop ship that helped him on his first mission.

  "Are you alright?", she says as her voice changes from a hollow echo reverberating in the distance, to a delicate tone. Her voice is as comforting on the ears as her beauty is on the eyes.

  P-T shakes his head yes, in response to the woman.

  "My name is Anastasia. What's yours?", she asks.

  P-T pauses for a moment to think about the question and then shakes his head side to side signifying no.

  "You don't have one? Wow, that's a damn shame. So, is it just numbers or something?" She sighs, "I guess it was only a matter of time though. I didn't think I would see the day when things got to that point." She leans in closer to P-T, "If you ask me, that's a load of shit, but who am I to say anything. I'm just a simple soldier fighting for whatever the Ictarians need to protect the human race."

  She moves back to her original position. "So, that was your first taste of combat, huh. You did alright, and by that, I mean you’re still alive in one piece. You still got tons to learn so you don't end up dead."

  P-T shakes his head yes, in acknowledgement.

  Anastasia gives P-T a cockeyed look, "Not much of a talker, are you? That's fine, I s'pose it's better than listening to some old timer's war stories and how things used to be. Even worse, some horny fuck always trying to get in my pants. That is annoying as fuck! Yeah, it's war, and any one of us could die any given moment, but that don't mean I'm gonna fucking bend over and spread my legs for anything that's got a pulse."

  P-T breaks his silence "Why are we at war and who with?"

  "You're kidding, right?", she says giving him a hard look to see if he is playing around with her. "You really don't know? Huh.... all I know is these Kanggun rodent fucks trying to wipe out everything in the known universe and destroy all those who oppose. For the life of me, I can't figure out why the legions of people we fight against fucking help those bastards. It makes no sense to me, but the Ictarians are trying to help. They equip us with weapons and tech. They are good to us I s'pose. Never met one personally though."

  "How long have you been fighting for?", asks P-T; growing more curious and infatuated with Anastasia.

  "I really don't know.", she replies. "This is the fifth planet I've fought on. Once the fighting has stopped and the planet has been reclaimed, we take a nap in the pods and start all over again. Enough talk, it's time to eat. Here... eat this.", she says as she hands him a S.L.A.G. bar. "We call it S.L.A.G. which stands for Shit Literally Activates Gagging when you eat it."

  P-T gives her a very concerned and confused look with regards to her very unappetizing description of the bar. Remaining apprehensive about eating it, he sniffs it and gives the bar a look over.

  "Just eat it. It's not going to kill you or anything. It's just an acquired taste. Some take longer than others to get accustomed to it. Trust me, it holds all the essential nutrients you need to keep fighting without eating a real meal. Good for short term, but you can't live off of them."

  P-T gives the bar a small bite. The taste to him feels bland with no intriguing flavor. As he chews slowly, Anastasia watches him amusingly expecting to see him to have a negative reaction. P-T takes another, larger bite of the bar, and then finishes it quickly.

  Anastasia looks at him with complete surprise. "I've never seen anyone eat that without throwing up the first time."

  "Do you have more?", P-T asks.

  "Here.", says Anastasia handing him another. "Just don't get carried away on those. You'll get fat."

  P-T shakes his head yes as he quickly downs the second S.L.A.G. bar. Suddenly, flashes and sparks ignite against the interior wall of the dark cave. The men and women that were in the cave with P-T have all disappeared; leaving only the campfires behind.

  The overall feeling in the cave changes from comforting to panic. P-T looks to his left and then his right; he is completely alone in the cave. He stands up to look for an exit. At the entrance, a large militant force is ambushing the cave in slow motion. They are firing and yelling as they penetrate the perimeter of the cave, but as they draw closer the sounds they would normally be making, become more distant.

  A bright, white, blinding flash illuminates everything to the point that nothing is visible. A shock, jolts through P-T's body; tensing up his body and leaving him with a weird feeling. He looks to the oncoming force, they too, have now disappeared.

  "Wake up.", says a disembodied voice. P-T turns around to find the voice.

  "Wake up.", it continues like a scream from hundreds of yards away.

  Spinning around to locate the last sound he heard, P-T sees Anastasia's face; inches away from his. Her face is mummified and falling apart; dried and wrinkled skin rips expose her skull and teeth. She's missing her nose and eyes; leaving black cavities in their place.

  "Wake up!", she shouts as the blinding white flash returns with the shock.

  P-T raises up quickly; inhaling a rapid, deep breath through his mouth, as though he's been holding it for a long time. A coarse blanket that was covering his face, drops to his chest and midsection. His eyes make their adjustments and come into focus. Looking around, he sees he's next to the crashed drop ship on the transport. The burnt, mangled Kanggun corpse is barely recognizable from the distance. In his hand, the EM rifle is rapidly clicking as he still has a firm grip on the trigger, but its ammunition is exhausted. P-T discards the rifle; throwing it a few feet away.

  "He's alive!", says a familiar woman's voice. "Try not to move at
all."

  P-T turns his head to the voice. It's Leliana with Dr. Larry. She approaches him with her hands out to ease him back down, like approaching a dangerous animal.

  "We thought you were gone there for a moment.... Honestly, I was actually hoping that you were dead, but Dr. Larry was persistent in trying to save your fat ass." She says disappointed. "You had no pulse and the only synaptic activity from your brain the med scanner picked up was the cellular degradation from no oxygen. Who would have guessed you actually had a brain, even if it is shit?"

  "She definitely brought her sense of humor. Good to see you didn't knock that out of her with her teeth.", says Dr. Larry. "How are you feeling there big fella?"

  P-T lies still, looking at Dr. Larry with a glare of intense hatred for putting him in this position in the first place. Unarmed, P-T tries to figure out how he can exact his revenge on the doctor.

  "I see that you are still holding a grudge for what I did.", says the doctor. "You can't really blame us, can you?"