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

by Bret Brown

  Seeing that unwavering glare from P-T, Dr. Larry stays cautious in his actions.

  "Well, whether you like me or not, we need to get you back to see about getting you fixed up. I have a lot of plans for you when we get back to Fiortega. I hope you won't mind.", says Dr. Larry.

  "You're not seriously considering, that, are you?", asks Leliana. "He dangerously unstable to bring back home. He's better off just going away forever."

  "I know that his presence bothers you, but he holds the key to mankind's future. Think of the potential if we unlock his secrets.", says Dr. Larry excitedly. "He's injured badly so he shouldn't pose any danger to us. Especially, since I haven't reactivated his nanites.... I promise you he won't hurt anyone else."

  P-T looks around for any weapon, but nothing is close enough. With a last-ditch effort, he tries something radical, even for him. Under the blanket covering his body, P-T grabs his own middle finger of his left hand and breaks the bone; snapping it to provide the most jagged edge. With a hard tug, he rips the broken appendage off of his hand; looking as calm and angry as can be while the doctor and Leliana are distracted with their conversation.

  "I don't like it, but it's not my call. I'll get some bandages for his wounds.", says Leliana.

  "Can you look at this?", P-T asks Dr. Larry.

  P-T changes the look on his face from searing anger to overwhelming concern. Luring the doctor closer, as he motions to the newly formed blood stain on the blanket.

  Unsuspecting, Dr. Larry leans in closer to get a better look of this new wound as he lifts the blanket. Once he is close enough, P-T grabs him behind the head with his bloody hand and jams the jagged bone of his broken finger into the eye of Dr. Larry.

  Dr. Larry screams and tries to peel off from P-T's vice-like grip while holding his eye. Blood and eye matter stream down his face and hands. The finger sticking out only a little between his hands as it penetrated deep into the eye socket. As the old man tries to move away he slips and falls to the floor; flailing and wailing in pain.

  Leliana turns to look and watches in horror, "What are you doing?! ARE YOU FUCKING CRAZY?!", she shrieks as she flees away from the horrific scene.

  Still not very mobile, P-T crawls to Dr. Larry and grabs him by the foot. He easily pulls the small, old man to him until his head is within arm's reach again.

  Dr. Larry tries to scramble away; clawing away on the steel floor until his fingernails rip off. Doing his best to defend himself, Dr. Larry kicks his feet back trying to hit P-T.

  "HELP! HELP! Please don't kill me. I can... I am the only one that can fix you. Leliana, please help me!", cries out the doctor. His futile screams for help fall on deaf ears of P-T as Leliana has gone into hiding.

  P-T grabs the back of Dr. Larry's head with his good hand. His large hands effortlessly palms the back of the Dr.'s head. His fingers dig deep into the flesh without penetrating the skin. The doctor cries out, "Nooo!" and with a short wind up, P-T drives Dr. Larry's face in to the hard steel floor. The impact shoves the finger into the skull cavity of Dr. Larry; killing him. His face is savagely mangled with a broken nose flattened and all of his front teeth broken out.

  In a show of rage and anger, P-T smashes Dr. Larry's face into the steel floor a dozen more times. Each impact more gruesome than the last as more bones break and brains leak out of the orifices. P-T finally stops once the skull and face become a limp, mushy mess held together only by the skin. Finished with his vengeance, P-T spits on the corpse.

  Catching his breath, P-T sits back on his heels; kneeling next to the fresh corpse. As he sits back resting, still bleeding out, an old feeling that he hasn't felt in a while comes over him. His entire body starts to tingle like an appendage that has fallen asleep. He reaches in his side pocket for a S.L.A.G. bar and eats it up. Savoring the bland taste that he has become accustomed to, P-T licks his fingers clean; not caring about the blood and gore on his hands.

  As the moment of redemption passes, he looks around for Leliana who is nowhere to be seen. P-T stands, holding his wound in his abdomen as it's still very much an open wound; leaking blood.

  With a smirk, he calls out to Leliana, "You should come out and see the look on this asshole's face."

  From a distant hiding spot, Leliana calls out to P-T, "You are sick... sadistic... son of a bitch. Are you completely out of your mind? You're fucking unbelievable. He saved you, and you kill him? I've never seen or heard of anyone being a cold-blooded killer like you. You're fucking despicable!"

  Leliana keeps her distance; using the drop ship as cover to hide her position as she watches P-T's every move very carefully. Leaning up against the cold, hard steel of the drop ship, she has an epiphany as she becomes more aware of her surroundings.

  "And this ship?", she calls out from the dark. "This is what you do isn't it? This is just like the one you had when you captured my escape pod, isn't it? So, you... you hijack troop ships, massacre the crew.... and do what... sell the ship's cargo? How could you be so callous?"

  "You don't have to hide.", he says loudly; replying to Leliana. "I'm taking my ship and I'm leaving. You can do whatever the fuck you want with the transport. It's yours."

  Keeping her distance and moving from shadow to shadow she yells back, "What makes you think I can trust you? Even in the slightest bit. You're a walking, barely talking, harbinger of death and destruction. You have no morals, no code and obviously no fucking remorse. We should have left you dead."

  P-T answers quietly to himself with a breathy, "Yeah. You shoulda."

  P-T starts walking slowly to the Phantom, still quite some distance away. The walk takes several minutes for him, especially for all the injuries he suffered.

  As he gets closer to the Phantom, the nanites are finishing their return from their dormant stage that Dr. Larry put them prior to the mission. As they reactivate, they begin to heal P-T slowly. His body fat around his waist melts away, while his wounds disappear. After he gets inside the Phantom, he closes up the rear ramp and heads to the cockpit.

  Once inside the cockpit he gets all systems operational. He grabs the navigational computer console and carefully looks at the chart. On the chart, he locates Montago 4 and sets it as the destination on the navigation. P-T eases the Phantom up, out of the hangar and initiates hyperspace travel; disappearing into the blackened abyss.