Extinction: The Will of the Protectors

by Jay Korza

  “I understand now. They ask up front to make sure they are allowed to be together, then they can take however long they want to in order to make the final lifelong decision to become partners.”

  “Yes.” Father lifted his hand and took a bite out of the heart he held. Seth had not seen the gift pass from Fang to Father. “But I would wager my best hunting bow that these two will become life partners. I can smell their bond already—it is strong.”

  “I’m glad my nose isn’t as good as yours is.” Seth smiled.

  “If you knew all that you were missing out on in the universe, especially the smell of love, you would weep at your dulled senses and curse your God for making you this way.”

  Seth knew that if this were one of his college classes about cultural awareness, he would be failing miserably right now.

  “I believe you, Father.” Seth cleared his throat. “I made just a few changes to Surgeon’s plan but my team is ready to move out.”

  “Good. Let us go hunt together.”

  Father let out a few barks and a howl before he took off at a run into the forest. Seth’s team moved out at a slower pace as per the plan and their human inability to keep up with the Shirkas. Fang stayed with Seth’s team to act as a long-range communication device with the other Shirkas. To Seth’s surprise, Huj’pa’ul was also with his team, left behind by the other Shirkas.

  “Niece.” Seth wasn’t sure how she would react to being separated from Fang but there was no need to have two Shirkas on a single flank. “I want you on our right flank, slightly to the rear. I need your keen senses back there in case anything tries to sneak up on us.”

  “I will obey, human.”

  “You can call me Sir or Captain.”

  “Yes, Captain.”

  Seth’s team moved at a light jog. “The plan is pretty simple, guys. The faster-moving Shirkas will get ahead of the warrior patrol. They will engage the enemy and get the warriors to stop. We will come up from the rear and box them in.”

  Joker was a natural runner and loved doing it. He had a euphoric look as he moved through the beautifully lush forest. “What’s our immediate action drill for warriors with shields?”

  “I spoke with First Son about that on our way out to meet the warrior hunters. He is going to pass along our plan to his pack.” Seth took a sip of water from his drinking tube before he continued. “The Shirkas are not using firearms; they are going to be using hand-to-hand combat exclusively. That means they will be up close and personal with their targets, which in turn means we really need to be careful with our weapons fire and we can’t use grenades or explosives of any kind.”

  “That’s very limiting for us,” Ratchet added.

  “It is.” Seth agreed. “But we are on their turf and we have to play by their rules. So, getting back to tactics, if there are only a few warriors with shields, the Shirkas will go after those guys considering shields don’t protect against raging claws. We will then focus our fire on the unshielded warriors.”

  “And if they all have shields?” Ratchet asked.

  “Affix bayonets, men!” Seth laughed.

  “Great.” Joker’s euphoria left him at that point.

  After almost an hour of jogging, Seth’s team could hear the sounds of a distant gunfight. It was a one-sided gunfight with the only weapons to be heard being the distinctive sounding plasma rifles the warriors carried.

  Seth saw Fang crash through the forest fifty meters ahead and then stop and turn to look at Seth. At almost the same time, Seth saw Huj’pa’ul racing ahead on his right flank. When she got to Fang, he clothes-lined her in the chest and dropped her to the ground.

  Huj’pa’ul had had the wind knocked out of her but she managed to stand and take a swipe at him. “What are you doing? The cubs are in danger!”

  Fang growled her down into a vaguely submissive posture. By that time, Seth had come to a stop near the two Shirkas. “What’s going on, you two?”

  Huj’pa’ul turned to Seth. “The warriors have found several packs of Shirka cubs and they are exterminating them.” Her ears twitched back and forth. “My pack is joining in the fight. We need to help them now!”

  Fang looked to Seth. “The captain is our pack leader right now and we cannot make these decisions on our own. We failed him once and we will not do it again.” Fang nodded to Seth and looked for orders.

  “You two go, join the fight. We’ll follow as fast as we can but we won’t be able to keep up; don’t wait on us, get there as fast as you can.”

  “Yes, Captain,” Huj’pa’ul said over her shoulder, as she was already at a full sprint by the time she spoke. Fang was beside her, taking his new girlfriend on their second date of the mission.

  “Let’s go, men.” Seth started out at a fast jog. He figured the engagement was at least a mile away and his team was running in full gear through mountainous terrain; he didn’t want anyone to be gassed by the time they reached their target.

  “From what I remember of our briefing material,” Reaper huffed, “the Shirka cubs are smaller than an average human but a feral version of the adults.”

  Surgeon had served with a lot of Shirkas over the years and had more experience with them than anyone on the team. “True, but remember that they aren’t like human children; they are born with genetic memories and information. They are feral but also very intelligent. These cubs are less than six months old but they would be at an overall level of say a twelve-year-old human.”

  “How do you know they are less than six months old?” Ratchet was passing Surgeon on the run.

  “Shirka parents come back to the birthing planet and pick their cubs up usually no more than five months after their final birthing stage.” Surgeon huffed a little bit.

  Seth had Joker next to him and was a little bit jealous that Joker looked like he was on a casual jog around the block. Seth jumped in the conversation. “It is possible the cubs will see us as an additional threat but not likely. First Son told me, now that we have adult Shirka scents on our bodies, they will probably identify us as friendlies or at the very least, not someone to attack until provoked.

  “First Son said if the cubs saw us fighting the warriors, they might come to our aid. Their hunting drive is overpowering to them at this stage of their development and they would probably want to join in to help the adult Shirkas.”

  “All good things to know. It sounds like we are almost on top of the fight now.” Surgeon had pulled up alongside Seth. He still huffed but made an obvious gesture to show he was not too old for this kind of stuff.

  Within a few minutes, Seth’s team crested a hill. Along the slope he saw three dead Shirka cubs. Their bodies were burnt through with plasma rounds; one had a chunk of flesh missing that Seth guessed was caused by a warrior taking a bite out of the cub.

  As they reached the top of the hill, Seth’s team slowed to a tactical walk and did a quick survey of the battle already in progress.

  There were only two dead warriors that Seth could see and that worried him. This battle had been going on for the better part of twenty minutes and there were only two dead warriors to show for it. Luckily, he didn’t see any dead adult Shirkas mixed in with the bodies. He felt bad for the cubs that had been killed, but in the end he would need the adults to complete his mission on the planet.

  There were seven warriors still alive, two of which had personal shields. The warriors were spread out in a half-moon formation; all of them looked away from Seth’s team. The two on opposite ends were periodically checking their team’s rear, but not often enough to be of any use as rear security.

  All of the warriors were armed with plasma rifles and a few had sidearms that Seth had not seen before. He assumed they were a handheld version of the plasma rifle; he made a mental note to grab one for the research guys back home. Each warrior also had at least one bladed weapon; some had two. The weapons ranged in size from large knives to swords.

  Seth did not see any of the Shirkas but neither did the warrior
s. The warriors searched the tree lines and randomly fired their weapons into the forest. Seth surmised his Shirka counterparts came in hard, took out two warriors, and in the ensuing mayhem evacuated the Shirka cubs to safety.

  The Shirkas were very devout in their beliefs surrounding their cubs, chief among them that the cubs had to be able to hunt and defend for themselves. Seth wondered why the Shirka commandos would betray that belief and rescue the cubs from the warriors. It was only because the Warriors were not of this world that the Shirka government allowed the two commando teams to intercede at all.

  Seth’s team had automatically spread themselves out into an offensive firing line. Seth’s visor received target indicators as his team picked out and designated the warriors they would target first. Seth saw that one warrior had four target designators while another only had one.

  Seth subvocalized, “Smoke.”

  “I’m on it, sir.” Smoke already moved to change his target to the warrior with only one other operator on him.

  “Copy.” Seth picked out his own target and put a marker on it.

  The forest was too quiet. Seth knew, or maybe just felt, the Shirka team was out there, waiting for him to make the first move. All of the animals in the area must have also known that this was not the time to go about their daily business or make any noise of their own, because not a single one made a sound.

  “Alright, people,” Seth subvocalized over the team push, “I think the Shirkas are waiting for us to make the first move. When we do, we’re going to draw all of the enemy fire on us, allowing the other team to come back in to the fight while the warriors are busy with us.

  “We need to drop most, if not all, of the non-shielded warriors on our first volley. Get ready for the team countdown.”

  Seth received green “Go” lights in his visor from each of his men, indicating that they were ready for his plan. He then activated the team timer and everyone’s commlink started a computerized countdown from five seconds.

  The commlink, which was the size of three poker chips stacked on top of each other, was molecularly attached to the operator’s skull just behind the ear on their mastoid process. The commlink sent vibrations directly into the user’s skull and the ear translated the vibrations into sounds. The commlink worked in reverse for sending spoken words from the soldier.

  As the countdown hit the number three, Seth heard a scream from someone on his team. He could tell by the sound that someone had just been injured, and for one of his men to scream out loud at a time like this, it had to be bad.

  Seth was about to take roll call to find out who had a problem but the scream alerted the warriors to Seth’s team’s presence and plasma fire rained down on their position.

  “Fire at will!” Seth put over the team push.

  The computerized countdown reached “one” but everyone was already firing. Two warriors went down instantly and several more were wounded. Blue blood painted the forest with a new color that hadn’t before been seen on this world.

  Seth looked at his visor’s sitrep and saw that none of his men had been killed in the initial volley between the two forces. He still had eleven green status indicators, so who ever had screamed was still alive.

  “Who yelled?” Seth tried to see which of his men were within his own visual range. None of them seemed injured. “Who’s injured? Do you need help? Sound off, damn it.”

  “Something bit me.” Smoke’s voice was shaky, even over the computer filtered sound of the commlink. “I…can’t…breathe…well.”

  “Reaper!” Seth called out to his team medic.

  “Already on it, Captain.” Reaper left his position on the firing line and went for Smoke. “I’ll give a status update as soon as I know what’s going on.”

  “Copy.” Seth continued to fire on the enemy position.

  “They have a good position of cover.” Surgeon had crawled to the outer edge of their firing line.

  In the battle history of human past, a fighting unit’s ranking non-commissioned officer would usually stay close with the unit’s ranking officer in order to discuss and pass along battle strategies to the troops. In the Coalition, team communications equipment worked so well, the non-comm did his best to distance himself from the commanding officer so they would have two points of view of the ongoing battle.

  “They’re not advancing on us, and their shielded operators are staying behind cover.” Seth shot at and missed a warrior head that quickly ducked back behind cover. “The shielded warriors we encountered before tended to be a lot more bold and used cover less.”

  “It might be because they already lost two warriors to the Shirkas before we arrived.” Joker was somewhere close to Seth’s left side. “The shielded guys know their shields won’t protect them from the Shirkas.”

  “That’s a good point.” Seth mulled things over, trying to use the information to create a working strategy. “But, the warriors don’t care about death. They are engineered without fear, so they aren’t hiding because they are scared to die at the hands of a Shirka. And we know that they tend to—or at least used to—just run right into combat and let the chips fall where they may.”

  Surgeon performed a magazine exchange and pocketed his empty one. “Maybe they know they have a finite amount of warriors left. The cloning planet isn’t online anymore so they are being more careful with their tactics. Not out of fear, but because for the first time in their multi-thousand year history, they are running out of soldiers.”

  Reaper broke into the conversation. “Smoke is dead. Something wrapped around his leg and bit him. I don’t know what the hell it was. The closest thing I can describe it as is a snake with spikes along its body. I found it still wrapped around his leg and pumping venom into him through the spikes. I killed it but I was too late.”

  Seth’s heart sank, but he knew he couldn’t linger on the thought for more than a second, at least not right now. “Copy that, Reaper. We need you back on the line.”

  “Yes, sir. I’ll fill in where Smoke was at; it’s a little light on this side now.”

  Seth saw dozens of dark shapes run through the tree branches behind the warrior line. At first he thought they were the Shirka team but then he saw that they were way too small for that to be true. The second image he thought of was of monkeys jumping through a jungle canopy back on Earth. He figured it wasn’t too far of a stretch to think this planet would have some of its own monkey-like creatures.

  Just then, at least twenty of the shadow figures flew from the tree branches and landed on or around the warriors. The juvenile Shirka cubs had not been rescued; they had been recalled to form a more cohesive fighting unit under the direction of the adults. The miniature feral Shirkas tore at the warriors even as several of them were cut down with plasma fire.

  The adult Shirkas bounded out of the forest, using the cubs’ distraction to hit the rear of the warriors’ line. Seth could now smell the acrid odor of burnt fur and flesh coming from the newest engagement. Blood from both sides covered the ground. Seth needed to reposition his team if his guns were going to be useful in this fight.

  “The fight is taking place behind the warriors’ cover. We need to adjust our firing line if we are going to be of any use to the Shirkas.” Seth already moved forward and waved to the men on his left.

  “I’ll take the four shooters on my side and we’ll move to flank.” Surgeon used his visor to designate who he wanted to come with him. The five operators left the line, disengaged from the shooting offensive, and began their movement to the enemy’s left flank.

  As Seth’s detachment moved to a better firing position, he was able to see the combat between the warriors and Shirkas more fully. To describe the event in his after-action report would later prove to be almost impossible to do. Seth couldn’t get an accurate sense of who engaged whom with the furry miniature attackers jumping all over everything and everyone.

  “We are not going to be useful with our guns.” Seth slung his weapon and pulled out hi
s fighting knife. “We can’t shoot around all that fur. We need to get in there and go hand-to-hand.”

  Seth heard weapons being slung and knives being pulled from their sheaths.

  The first warrior Seth engaged had his back to Seth and tried to fight off five cubs that clung to him. The cubs weren’t producing anything in the way of life-threatening injuries to the warriors, but they caused the warriors to have to switch from their plasma rifles to hand-to-hand or edged weapons.

  Seth got behind the behemoth and sunk his blade deep into the warrior’s back. The Coalition was still studying the warriors’ anatomy but initial research indicated that the most common lethal striking points among the known Coalition species would also be debilitating or lethal to the warriors.

  The strike may have been lethal, but the warrior wasn’t yet aware of that fact. When Seth’s blade entered the warrior, he turned and hit Seth square in the head with a back-fist. Had the warrior not had two cubs hanging from his arm, the blow probably would have killed Seth; as it was, it knocked him back a meter and made his world spin.

  The warrior saw Seth was still alive and moved towards him to finish him off. Two cubs came from somewhere else in the fight and crouched between Seth and the warrior. The cubs growled and barked at the warrior to protect Seth’s struggling form.

  Seth could barely see through his blurred vision but he knew the cubs had come to protect him. One of them launched at the warrior and was easily batted away by the warrior’s lower right arm. The second cub used that moment to get past the warrior’s defenses and scrabble up his body and sink his teeth into the warrior’s throat.

  The cub shook his head and tore at the warrior’s throat. Blue blood soaked the cub’s fur until a chunk of blue flesh came away from the warrior’s neck and the cub fell away with the flesh still in his mouth. The warrior tried to step towards Seth but his body finally realized that he had already been killed and he fell to the ground. Cubs swarmed the corpse; they tore at it and ensured it wasn’t going to get back up.