John stepped into the room and stepped up next to the table, looking down at the map that had been projected.
It took a moment, enough time for Bethany Anne to look up to see if he was studying the map or what. She saw him point to the table, so she looked back down.
“What about staying here and seeing if anyone passes in the night?”
Bethany Anne considered the valley and shrugged. “I don’t think it would be any better than waiting.”
“No,” John reached up and scratched his chin, where a beard was starting to grow in, “but if we got lucky, we could have some fun.”
Bethany Anne’s eyes flashed red. “I like fun.”
—
“Stupid stupid stupid,” Cor’rida commented as she humped her weapon and loaned armor through the forest, a branch popping back to hit her square in the face. “Dammit!” she called. “Remember there are others behind you.”
Cor’rida had been in her assigned location working to create a viable government oversight office for a total of two days when her life had changed. She, like many others, went from important to so much dead weight in the estimation of the military. She was given a rifle, a suit of armor that almost fit, and a sum total of one short afternoon of practice with both.
Jum, the troop ahead of her, chuckled. “This is what we do every time a command comes down from either military or you political zeenoobs. Just, now you get to do it with us.”
“What happened to pick-up by vehicles?” she asked, stepping over a large rock.
“Flights are shut down; we don’t have the resources. That damned Baba Yaga destroyed our ships on-planet. They hit four air command locations simultaneously. I understand it was pretty damned bad for the Leath stationed there, but even worse for the ships. Nothing was left.”
“One Etherian did this?” she asked, grabbing the branch from Jum before he let it go, which saved her a smack in the face.
“Nah, there had to be at least four or they couldn’t have hit them at the same time,” he answered, waving his hand around his face to shoo off some sort of insect. “Reports are, more than one location had two combatants, so probably about eight.”
“We have over forty-four with us right now!” she grumped. “We can’t take them out with how many of you guys? Are you all useless?” she asked, just as a rather large branch caught her in the face, sending her slamming backwards into the muck. “YOU GROMBULD!” she screamed. She rolled over on the ground and stood up, reaching for her lip. She pulled it out; it was bleeding. “Jum!” she yelled, and ducked under the branch, storming forward. She saw a body lying in the grass ahead. “Get off the ground!” she hissed, and went over to him. “It’s not like you can hide from me!”
Her voice dropped when she realized Jum was missing a large chunk of his head and bleeding from multiple locations in his chest.
She started to hyperventilate, and turned around. Behind her was an alien with floating white hair and a weapon pointed at her.
Cor’rida put up her hands. “Hold! I’m not military!” she cried, only to fall into the dirt a second later, blood dripping from her lips.
The black-faced, white-eyed alien walked over to her. “I’m aware you aren’t military, but all Leath on this planet have been condemned by the military’s actions. The Kurtherians you call gods will pay for what you did to my people. If I have to track them for the rest of my long-assed life, I will find them and put them in a grave.”
She turned around, holstering her pistol. “Perhaps your ancestors should have chosen different gods.” She finished her speech to a Leath whose open eyes stared into the planet’s atmosphere, her dead ears unable to hear anything the Witch had said.
CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE
QBBS Asteroid R2D2, R&D
“I’m thinking I should grab a large wrench and beat the box William is working on with it.” Tina put her head down on the work table in front of her as Marcus, five feet farther down the long rock table, looked at her.
“Um,” he pulled his glasses off and used them to point at her, “that might be a catastrophically bad idea.”
Tina turned her head to look at him, then reached up and moved her dark hair so she could see better. “We go boom? I’m kinda ok with that at the moment. This is so damned frustrating.”
Marcus inhaled. “Yes… Yes, it is.” He scratched his cheek. “Isn’t that your personal project?”
“Yes,” came a muffled reply from under her hair.
“How long have you been working on it?”
“Half my life,” she told him.
Marcus chuckled, “Tina, we haven’t been on this asteroid that long.”
“Time is relative,” she answered, reaching up to move her hair again. “Space, time, existence, gravity, energy. I bet I could stumble on a way to time-travel with all this math.” She lifted her head off the table.
“Why isn’t R2 helping you with it?” Marcus pulled his chair next to hers. She saw his eyes moving across the equations on her tablet. He reached forward and advanced the digital page to the next, and kept reading.
“Are you doing the math in your head?” she asked, curious if it was Marcus or one of the EI’s or TOM or ADAM.
“Some of it,” Marcus answered, his voice soft, his focus elsewhere as he tapped her tablet to change the page again. “Why didn’t you ask for help with this?” he asked while his eyes scanned her work.
Tina’s eyes narrowed. She probably knew Marcus better than anyone who wasn’t presently on this asteroid, and his scientific curiosity was totally focused on her math in front of him. “What are you seeing?”
Marcus didn’t answer. He just flipped another page, reading as his lips moved silently, and flipped again. After a couple of minutes he reached the end of her notes and thoughts. He looked at her for a moment, his brain still partially in some other mental location, and leaned back from the table, chewing on the earpiece of his glasses. He finally answered her question.
“Genius,” he told her. Then he looked up. “R2, please call Bobcat and William. Tell them we are holding an immediate mandatory meeting.”
Merrek System, Outer Space
“We will bring the auxiliaries to this location.” Prime Commander Mehnib of the Leath Navy designated an area in 3D space. “From here we should be able to block the Etherians long enough to pull Prime Quarter Leader Conclek and anyone else left on the planet out.”
“Casualties?” Commander Unt’er asked from his destroyer.
“Hopefully minimal,” Commander Mehnib replied. “We can’t just leave them there when we have a decent shot at retrieving them.”
“Sir?” a voice called from outside the discussion tank. It took a second for Commander Mehnib to realize he was the target. He turned to look through the haze the holo caused in his vision. “Yes?”
“We are tracking two new Etherian ships, sir.”
“Type?” Commander Mehnib asked. They maintained full awareness of the Etheric Empire’s shipbuilding capacity, and they shouldn’t have been able to field any new ships.
“They are ArchAngel-class superdreadnoughts, sir.” The operator glanced at his screen, then back at the Prime Commander. “New designations, sir. We haven’t tracked these before.”
Commander Mehnib swore under his breath as his jaws grated together. The Etherians had been able to build ships somewhere they didn’t know about.
They had just changed the spacescape. Commander Mehnib stepped out of the holo and walked toward Communications. “Get me a private line to Prime Quarter Leader Conclek.”
Planet Merrek
Conclek listened to the voice on the other end of the comm and kept his face relaxed with an effort. “I understand, Prime Commander Mehnib. Don’t worry, we will take care of this annoyance and finish our original task. We took out dozens, so I’m sure we can take out a handful of Etherians, no matter how scary they believe they are.” Conclek nodded. “Yes, of course. We will be here.”
Prime Quarter Leader
Conclek closed the comm and snorted, thinking back to what the Ixtali spy had told him when he was on Leath. “You should get your affairs in order,” the spy had said before exiting the meeting room.
Perhaps he would die, and perhaps he would not. So far this Baba Yaga had gone through three of his outposts, destroying each in turn. He had commanded the fourth to join him here at headquarters. This location had been dug into the ground, and the security doors were closed.
—
“Reminds me of China,” the black-faced, white-haired woman remarked. Her harsh voice suited her visage as the seven Etherians looked at the last concentration of Leath on the planet.
“It’s going to be a bit tough. Lots of places to get shot to hell,” John commented. “We need to blow the door and get some spies into the place to give us some idea of what we’re looking at. We don’t even know how many levels deep this sumbitch dives.”
“Well, we have some idea,” ADAM said through the speakers to everyone. “I’ve dropped some explosives and measured the shock waves. My best calculation is we are looking at a minimum of five hundred levels on the low side, upper limit two thousand. We know four hundred troops just arrived from the last location.”
“Shame we didn’t catch them in time,” Peter stated. “I’d have loved to get another piece of those assholes.”
Bethany Anne’s eyes narrowed. “And so you shall, my little Pricolici.” Her eyes started to glow red. “So you shall.”
The men turned to look at Peter. His eyes flashed yellow, and he had a predatory grin on his face.
“Send the first puck, ADAM,” Bethany Anne instructed.
Inside the base, those on the first and second floors covered their ears when the first BANG resounded.
“Knock, knock,” Baba Yaga whispered. “The Witch is here.”
Several pucks and a significant amount of time later the banging stopped, and those in the base wondered what the Etheric enemies were up to.
“You boys stay up here and pound away to make sure no one leaves. Watch all the spy drones to the best of your ability.” She looked at the map the spies had drawn, the infestation of the micro-sized drones having completed as much as the team needed to see. Baba Yaga turned to Peter. “Are you ready to finish this for your people?”
The seven-foot-tall Pricolici looked down at the woman with the white eyes who stared back at him and nodded. “Yesssss.”
The guys watched as Bethany Anne and Peter disappeared into the Etheric.
“Well, shit.” Stephen looked at the other guys. “There goes our fun. Anyone want to play poker?”
Darryl looked at Stephen with a smirk on his face. “Play poker with a mind reading vampire?”
Stephen put a hand to his heart. “You wound me, sir.”
“Not as much as you would wound my pocketbook,” Darryl replied.
“I’m in,” Scott said, stepping around the two arguing guys and walking over to where the cards were stashed.
“Hey!” Darryl called to Scott. “I didn’t say I wouldn’t play.”
Behind Darryl, Stephen winked at Scott, who shook his head and smiled.
Etheric Realm
Beside Bethany Anne, Peter was almost a statue as she sought the location of the main command center, chuckling evilly to herself the whole time.
Her method was to peek out of the Etheric, try to figure out where they were compared to the map in her head, and then pull Peter to another location and peek again.
It was their seventh time they had looked and Peter finally had to ask. “Whyyy arre youu laughinng?”
“Because,” she answered in her gravelly voice, “I’m thinking what is going to happen when I find the command center.”
“Whhat?”
Bethany Anne poked her head out one more time, but it stayed there a second longer than normal before she stood up, her eyes flaming red and her voice guttural. “You have ten seconds to get your pound of flesh before I arrive.”
Peter looked down and smiled, his teeth showing, “Morre thann enouughh timme to explainnn myy annoyyyance.”
—
Prime Quarter Leader Conclek watched the video take. They had tried fifteen different ways to shoot down the spaceship that was attacking them, but none of them had worked.
It was obviously a far more advanced ship than it seemed—which was not much more than a jumped-up merchant ship. Larger than normal, maybe, but its weapons were frustrating his defenses. He was pretty sure the Etherians were waiting until dark before they attacked. He had sent two detachments of troops to protect their energy generators and keep the lights on.
As well as making sure the appropriate teams had low-light gear.
They had set up locations to trap the enemy and blow the rooms on top of the attackers. They had pre-set multiple ways to block them in as well.
He and his people would take care of this Witch of the Empress and he would personally piss on those bodies, and he would be damned if he wouldn’t send that video to the newsgroups as well. He wouldn’t back down from a fight.
No way, no how.
The room, about thirty feet by twenty feet, was shared with his team’s other eight commanders. Conclek had turned to look at a video intake when the roar shook them out of their inner thoughts.
Conclek was reaching for a pistol at his side, when a massive hand gripped his throat and lifted his massive armored body off the floor, shaking him. “YOUUU!” it screamed at him.
Conclek wasn’t sure what the monster had said, but it knew who he was. His hand had just freed the pistol from its holster when the monster reached down, grabbed his pistol, and yanked it out of his hand. He was twisted in the air, and Conclek felt two slugs penetrate the back of his armor.
He tried to yell, but he was struggling with breathing just then. Next thing he knew, he had flown over a bank of video screens and crashed into someone behind him.
—
Bethany Anne pushed Peter into the command room and started counting to herself as she pulled in energy. “One Mississippi.” She pushed a button on her holster and her Etheric Sword hilt popped up. “Two Mississippi.” She grabbed the hilt and fed energy into the blade, causing it to light up. “Three Mississippi… WHOTHEFUCKAMIKIDDING? Ten Mississippi, here Baba Yaga comes!”
She stepped into the utter chaos of the command room.
“Wow,” was the first thing she said as she dodged the Leath Peter casually threw behind him. Bethany Anne slit the flying Leath open right through the chest armor as he flew past. “Pay attention to your surroundings!” she called.
Peter picked up a heavy desk and slammed it into a Leath who was trying to get to the command center’s exit.
Baba Yaga made a face. “I don’t think he’s going to make it.”
“Nonne wiilll maakke itt!” Peter growled. He heard Bethany Anne’s sword slashing in the background as he caught up with the commander. “Come back herrrre,” he snarled, and slapped a weapon out of the commander’s hand. Peter had no clue where he had gotten it from. “Iit’s nottt niccce tooo shoottt meee.” he told the commander conversationally as he grabbed his armored arm and raised it, then slammed it down on a desk. He did it once, twice, and on the third time it broke the desk.
“Dammmnn,” he remarked. “Theey maakke goood arrrmor.”
Three impacts caused rocks to shower the room, and Peter knew it was now just the two of them alive with this asshole.
Baba Yaga had finished those who had still been alive.
Peter picked up the commander by his armor’s neck and the Leath smashed a fist into his ribs, cracking two. “Bassstard!” Peter threw him across the room to land on a desk, and the commander slid across it and slammed into the wall beyond.
—
Conclek knew for certain he was going to die, but at least he had hurt the monster. That punch had to have done some damage, he thought, as he heard the crunch on the alien’s skeleton. He had rolled up and was steadying himself when a new face popped over the
desk that had cushioned his fall somewhat.
It wasn’t the monster, but rather it was a dark face. An evil face, he thought. He swallowed, transfixed, as it grinned; he could see the mouth full of pointed teeth. The thing casually swung a flaming red energy sword and sliced the desk in half, shoving the pieces aside.
She spoke a language he understood, at least well enough. “Let me introduce you to the Empress’ Prime Guardian,” she said as the monster joined her in looking down at him. “You are responsible for failing to teach your people to properly respect their enemies, and therefore you have sentenced all on the planet to death.”
Conclek glared at her, not willing to speak to the apparition.
“Keep him here,” she said as she turned her sword off and locked it back on her leg. She walked toward the computers and video monitors. “ADAM, what can we figure out about this technology?”
She flipped a couple of switches. “Nope.” She flipped a couple more, noticing a second steel door starting to close. “Still not the right choice, ADAM.” Her eyes turned to another console, and she walked over and punched a couple of buttons. “Good enough,” she commented and then hit one more.
This time Conclek was surprised to hear her speak in his language. “This is Baba Yaga, the Etheric Empress’ Witch. Pay attention as we kill your commander…” She walked away from the communications station.
ADAM, pass on to the guys that they are to move away, since we are going to puck the fuck out of this location.
>>No going from room to room for fun?”
Hell, no. This is a death trap for both sides. I think we will have to be content with killing this asshole and making this a gravesite.
>>They are informed, and are preparing for your return.<<
Bethany Anne thought about that for a moment. Preparing?
>>Cleaning up, is more like it.<<
She shook her head and then nodded when she heard the sounds from outside. First came aggravated snarls, then banging as those outside worked to get inside the command center.
She walked back to Peter and the commander. “Peter?”
Might Makes Right Page 23
