by Abel, Regine
“The Coalition will gladly open discussions with the Kryptid Queen, but you will not harm the hybrids or their mothers,” I said in a tone that brooked no argument.
I may not be well-versed in diplomacy, there was no way in hell we’d sacrifice them to Lexot’s obvious political ploy. By proving Khutu’s betrayal, he would ingratiate himself to the Queen and maybe even take Khutu’s place as their military leader and main consort to Aitxa.
“They are a threat and a stain on our people that must be wiped out,” Lexot snapped, the grating sound of his voice setting my teeth on edge.
Although his mastery of the Universal language was stellar, Kryptid voices buzzed like crossed wires with a bright clicking sound reminiscent of the steady drip of a leaking faucet. Listening to him for extended periods would drive anyone bonkers.
“They are no threat to your people,” I countered, lifting my chin defiantly. “You want to be rid of them? Good, just step aside. They are leaving your Empire as we speak,” I said, feeling somewhat uneasy for spilling a secret that wasn’t mine to divulge, but hoping to mollify him.
“They will not flee the Queen’s justice,” Lexot snarled. “If you will not assist in exterminating these vermin, step aside. I wish you no harm, but we will kill you if you interfere in Kryptid affairs.”
“This guy will not negotiate,” Tyonna telepathically said to me. “He wants trophies to bring back to his Queen.”
“So I see,” I replied, anger and worry bubbling within me.
“They are powering their weapons,” Tyonna said.
“Violet, prepare to take down their shields,” I ordered.
“They’re out of range. But I could send out drones with payload,” Violet replied.
“Do what you must, but only after they’ve fired.”
“Being abducted or being born, these are not crimes. Neither the females nor their hybrids wished to be there,” I tried to reason with him. “Those women are our sisters, Soulcatchers kidnapped by General Khutu and put through three decades of abuse. We are here to take them home. Nothing, and no one will stand in our way. You want proof for your Queen, then we’ll gladly send you recordings once the females and their children are safe in Coalition space. Attack any of them, and we will retaliate with maximum force.”
“Then it is war!” Lexot snapped, baring his needle teeth at me.
The glimmer of greed in his eyes when I spoke about our Soulcatcher sisters made me think he either believed such a haul would further increase his status with the Queen, or he was beginning to contemplate the possibility of keeping them for himself and usurping Khutu’s plans.
Not that any of it mattered.
“Then it is war,” I replied with an icy tone. “No one harms our people.”
Lexot barked some orders in Kryptid while turning his back to us. Halfway through it, the image on the screen went dark as he ended the communication.
“They’re firing at the hybrids,” Tyonna said. “Our men that are already nearby are jumping in. The others are done with the Soldiers and on their way.”
“Violet, you can go all out on the Kryptids, but avoid destroying their ships,” I said, taking a seat at my battle station. “Take out their shields and their weapons but try not to kill them. The Coalition will have our heads for fucking up an opportunity at a truce.”
“Acknowledged,” Violet replied.
“Relaying to the fleet,” Yumi said.
I loved how my Vanguard sisters were always on the ball. We weren’t all friends, but most of us got along. And above all, whatever our personal differences, when it came to protecting our people and our men, we came together as one badass unit: well-trained, professional, and fearless.
I grabbed my sticks, one in each hand while the aiming visor attached to the seat descended before my right eye. Trying to avoid destroying the Kryptid vessels proved quite challenging. Their pilots were clearly not the novice Soldiers that had originally escorted the breeding ships. With the number of hybrid ships and our men’s chasers whizzing by left, right, and center, it required a great deal of precision to avoid friendly fire. But Violet, with nearly supernatural accuracy, was sniping their weapons systems without breaking a sweat.
“What the fuck are they doing?” I reflected out loud, as the Kryptid ships suddenly all converged towards the liveship transporting our sisters.
“Oh, my God,” Linette said. “They’re committing suicide!”
The Kryptids were crashing their ships directly against the hull of the liveship, pummeling the same three spots. Some of them would fire torpedoes at close range before destroying themselves against that weakened spot. The liveship’s shield collapsed in mere moments.
And then everything turned to chaos.
“Take out the Kryptids and protect the escape pods!” I shouted as they began to shoot out of the liveship.
In desperation to protect our sisters, some of our men rammed their own chasers into Kryptid vessels to make them deviate or to destroy them. A few of the chasers didn’t survive the impact, and we began registering our first casualties. Tyonna’s eyes temporarily turning black, including the whites, confirmed she’d just portaled the soul of a fallen Xian Warrior into his new Shell to spare him the rebirth sickness a Soulcatcher would have caused by directly sending his soul into his new body.
When the hybrid ships began to do the same, my heart sank. Although they also possessed Shells and the ability to be reborn, as far as I knew, hybrids didn’t have any Soulcatchers. In the mayhem of the battle, many of them were fighting quite far from their battleships, which I suspected contained their Incubators. How far was too far for their souls to find their way to a new body on its own?
Blinking to chase Bane’s face lurking again in my mind’s eye, I tried to refocus on taking down more Kryptid vessels. Startled shouts resonated around the bridge when our ship was suddenly rocked by a violent tremor, nearly knocking me out of my seat.
“What the fuck?” I asked while Linette cursed under her breath and began evasive maneuvers.
“Five Kryptid ships have turned on us,” Tyonna said. “They’re also targeting our other battlecruisers.”
“The bastards are pulling that suicide bullshit on us, too,” Linette said.
The sliver of worry—if not panic—in her voice freaked me out. Linette was a decorated US Air Force pilot who had seen her fair share of hairy missions without blinking.
“Violet, take them out!” I exclaimed, turning my weapons on them as well.
This was a clever move. With six battleships and the liveship, our Warriors and the hybrids would have to spread themselves thin to defend all of us. We’d brought four Shells for each of the Warriors. So, even with the handful that had blown themselves up to stop the Kryptids, they were back in the battle within minutes of rebirth in a new chaser. But if Lexot successfully took out the Warriors’ means of rebirth, it would turn the tide in his favor.
We’d underestimated their numbers. The large ships of their fleet were actually staying out of harm’s way while endlessly regurgitating swarms of small fighter ships. What the small vessels lacked in individual fire power, combined they packed a punch. And those suicide crashes had alarms going off all over the ship. There were too many, and they were too fast for us to blow up more than a handful here and there.
“They’ve damaged our propulsion system, and navigation is dying on me,” Linette said, her voice filled with tension. “I’m going to have to make a crash-landing on that moon over there.”
I didn’t need to read her mind to know she wasn’t sure we’d make it.
“Yumi, get the escape pods ready,” I said, cursing inwardly at the slippery bugs that kept whizzing past my target.
“Chaos, we have to land on Doixet Moon,” I telepathically said to him. “We may have to abandon ship beforehand. If so, be on the lookout for our escape pods.”
“Keep our girls safe,” Chaos said. “And don’t you dare get yourself killed. We’ll come get you as
soon as we can.”
“Don’t get your butt killed either,” I said, my heart filling with affection for him, sensing his deep concern for us. “If you do, remember I’ll likely be too far out of range to catch you.”
And that worried me. Even with the Portals, Shields, and other Soulcatchers to rescue him if I was unable to perform my duty, the other women were also under heavy fire.
Another violent tremor rocked the ship, and this time threw me onto the floor, preventing me from understanding Chaos’s response. But there was no more time for chitchat. I disconnected from his mind and demanded a ship-wide diagnostic.
“We have a hull breach in Sector B,” Tyonna said.
“Containment field is up,” Linette replied. “But if I can’t shake those four fighters on our starboard flank, we’re not going to make it to Doixet.”
The bastards had figured out what angle to safely stick to. It wasn’t quite a blind spot, but targeting enemies there proved quite difficult. Those fighters weren’t suicide crashing into us, content to pummel our navigation systems with focused fired.
“Can we handle an EMP blast?” I asked Tyonna.
She hesitated for a moment. “The hull can handle it, but I’m not sure if Linette can.”
“Do it,” Linette said. “And everyone, get ready to run for the escape pods.”
“EMP charging,” Violet said.
I addressed a silent prayer to whatever force lurked out there. I couldn’t even see how the battle was turning with the others as more Kryptid fighters rushed our way. The damn bugs had sniffed a wounded animal and wanted to feast on easy prey.
“Everyone, brace yourselves,” Violet said, a few moments later. “Firing EMP.”
A bright flash blinded us. The ship shuddered, its lights dimming for a second as if drained of energy by the electro-magnetic pulse. Thankfully, it kept its already far too frayed integrity. The fighters chasing us looked like drunken insects, the EMP having probably fried their navigation systems. Violet and I didn’t blink, blowing them to smithereens.
We weren’t out of the woods yet, but that gave us enough of a reprieve to reach Doixet’s orbit. But even as we began our descent into its atmosphere, more Kryptid fighters were upon us. Our one glimmer of hope: two hybrid ships heading our way in hot pursuit of the bugs.
“Strap in! It’s going to be rough,” Linette shouted as we pierced through the clouds of the yellow moon.
Although thin, our scanners indicated that its air was safely breathable for us. But extended exposure to its scorching midday sun would inflict severe, blistering burns.
Linette selected a fairly flat stretch of the rocky land ahead to make our emergency landing. A lucky shot to our starboard bow sent us teetering on the verge of a barrel roll. I had no idea how the heck she managed to straighten our battleship again, but our pilot was a fucking superstar. We crashed hard onto the open plain with a thundering rumble and the metallic whine of the ship’s hull and bones. My teeth rattled in my head, and the safety belt dug into my skin to keep me from flying through the room.
“Everyone okay?” I shouted. Despite looking a little stunned and shaken, my Vanguard sisters all responded with an affirmative. “Violet, keep shooting those bastards. The rest of you, armor up and weapon up.”
They swiftly unstrapped and bolted out of the bridge.
“Chaos, we’ve landed and are under heavy attack,” I mind-spoke to him.
“Rage and Wrath are on their way,” Chaos replied, the pain in his voice frightening me. “We’re about to lose the Firestar, and I’m not sure we can save our girls. The bugs are targeting the escape pods. But the hybrids are helping us. Hang in there, Timbits. I’m not losing you.”
That he’d use the pet name I’d earned due to my old obsession with doughnut holes filled with custard or strawberry jelly, said a lot about Chaos’s current state of mind. He took it as a personal failure any woman we lost. We weren’t just teammates, but his baby sisters. He’d never recovered from his first human Soulcatcher being abducted, and that further enhanced his sensitivity to any of us coming to harm, especially under his watch. A sentiment I understood all too well.
“You won’t. Take care of our girls, then come fetch us. We’ll be here.”
Chapter 4
Tabitha
From our stranded position, we fired away at the fighters, aided by the two hybrid ships. To my utter relief, the number of our attackers started to dwindle, and no new ships joined the fray. With our battleship out of commission, General Lexot had apparently deemed it pointless to throw more troops at us. Linette coming back all geared up and ready to man one of the battle stations helped further.
But that relief was short-lived.
Just when things were finally starting to look up, the shit hit the fan again. A number of the Kryptid torpedoes that had been missing us, kept striking the plateau around our vessel, weakening the ground. Large cracks began to appear on the rocky surface, like giant veins spreading their tendrils in every direction.
“Fuck me,” Linette said. “BRACE!”
She didn’t have to say it twice.
Large sections of the plateau collapsed with a thunderous clamor and huge eruptions of dust. The nose of the ship pitched forward, giving us a terrifying view into the bottomless maws of a chasm with jagged stone edges and stalagmites. I couldn’t tell whose voices had screamed in terror—or if mine had even been one of them. Just when I thought the ship would tumble into the pit of our doom, it violently jerked to a stop while more of the terrain collapsed around the edges.
Frozen by fear, my brain took a second to register what had happened. Then I saw Linette, fingers flying over the navigation console, anchoring us to the terrain with the ship’s grappling hooks normally used for docking.
“Lin, you’re a fucking genius!” I exclaimed, freeing myself of my safety belt.
“It won’t last. We need to get the fuck out, yesterday!”
“Everyone, haul ass!” I shouted while we stampeded towards the back of the ship.
There would be no way to exit through the normal doors which were either partially covered by the rocks or hanging over the chasm of what appeared to be a massive underground cavern. But assuming the ship didn’t slip in, getting down to safe grounds wouldn’t be easy with the elevated rear of the craft. I took the weapons that Yumi handed over to me and shoved them in my belt, relieved to see Tyonna had brought some for Violet. Our progress to the hangar doors at the rear of the ship were slowed down with us essentially having to climb a slightly steeper than forty-five degree incline because of the precarious angle our vessel dangled in.
At least, we couldn’t hear any more explosions around us. I could only hope this meant the hybrids had wiped out the bugs.
“Tabitha, go to the starboard maintenance shaft on the roof. We’ll pick you up there.”
I yelped, nearly jumping out of my skin at the sound of Bane’s voice in my head.
“Are you okay?” Linette asked, staring worriedly at me without slowing the pace.
I nodded at her absentmindedly, while pressing my palm to my chest as if to hold my heart in. “We are almost at the shuttle bay. Can you get us there?”
“Negative. There are rock formations blocking the hangar doors.”
“Fuck!” I cussed out loud, drawing a confused look from the girls. “Change of plan. We’re going to the roof,” I said, turning on my heels.
“On our way. It will take a couple of minutes, assuming we don’t run into any obstacles from the damage,” I said, arms and legs pumping as we raced to the maintenance shaft.
“Hurry. The terrain won’t hold long.”
With these words, he disconnected from my mind. But the depth of his concern for us possibly not making it had taken me aback. Heck, I couldn’t even believe he had personally come to rescue us.
“Tabi?” Yumi asked, naturally wondering what the fuck was going on.
“The hybrids are picking us up,” I said as sole explanat
ion, saving my breath for the ladder climb ahead.
I entered the spherical maintenance shaft in the lead, Linette bringing up the rear. Normally, I would go last, but not knowing what awaited us ahead, I wanted to make sure my girls were covered. Halfway through the twenty-meter climb, the ship lurched again, and I lost my grip on one of the rungs, catching myself at the last minute.
“Everyone okay?” I shouted, looking over my shoulder at the other women below me.
“Yes! Keep going,” Linette yelled from the rear.
“Tabitha…”
“Almost there, Bane. We’re seconds away,” I said, my arms burning from the effort.
Finally reaching the top, I unlocked the hatch. The door was all but torn out of my hands when Bane ripped it open from outside. I’d never felt happier seeing someone than when my gaze landed on his beautifully alien face. His air of relief did funny things to me. Behind him, five of his brothers were hovering in place in the air.
“You sure took your sweet time,” Bane said in a grumpy voice that had goosebumps erupting all over me.
He extended a hand towards me. As soon as I took it, he literally yanked me out of the shaft and straight into his embrace. I collided with his hard body, my arms instinctively wrapping around his neck. I yelped and tightened my hold as he began to flap his translucent, insect wings and flew away from the battered hull of our ship.
Dread—the only one of his brothers I sort of ‘knew’ from the battle on Janaur—dashed for the shaft and hauled Yumi out before taking flight with her. One by one, the other hybrids rescued my Vanguard sisters.
“You can wrap your legs around me,” Bane said. “It will be easier for you than trying to keep your legs aligned with mine.”
Swallowing hard, I complied, the intimacy of the position messing with my head and making my girly bits stand to attention. The discreet, yet smug smile playing on his lips broadcast clearly his delight at seeing me squirm.
Turning my face away to hide my embarrassment, I looked at the wreckage. My jaw dropped. Seeing the state of the ship from this viewpoint, it was a miracle it hadn’t fallen in, but also that it hadn’t exploded on impact. Without the hybrids, I doubted we would have made it out.
