by Troy Snyder
As the falling object drew close to the ground wings seemed to appear out of the side. The metallic forms seemed to slow its decent rapidly, but it hit the ground with a loud crash. The sound instantly stopped from the impact and smoke began to rise from it. With a quick order, the smallest of the group sent the others forward to investigate the wreckage. The semi-circle of small armored soldiers closed in on the downed object.
One soldier, more daring than the rest, or foolhardier, got too close. The door of the vehicle was sent flying off with a kick from whatever was inside, it slammed hard into the soldier sending him flying and hitting the ground with an explosive grunt. The door on the other side seemed to open more calmly. Two figures stepped out and walked toward the front of the object. It was only then the leader of the armored soldiers knew they were Craxi spies, but somehow, different.
One of the figures was much larger than the other, like a Craxi, but did not match the normal spy like build of a slim figure. The other one matched the smaller build, but was too short to make it a Craxi, the confusion racking the leaders brain was evident as both parties stood there in silence.
“Who are you, Craxi spies?” The leader of the short armored people questioned with an accusatory tone. The voice was odd, Alexander thought, but thought it might just be the helmet they were wearing.
The leader of the group continued to shout at them. Alexander’s torc analyzed the language and connected to his mind, just in time for him to hear the leaders next words.
“Why are you women of the Craxi here? Did you come to fight?” The leader asked, seeming more irritated than before.
Alexander turned toward Raixo. “Women, what does she mean women?” Alexander questioned in his language, catching the leader of the aliens off guard, a human tongue.
“Well, you see Alexander, most of the spies on our planet are women, and their build is much more suited for the task. Therefore, these are women’s uniforms.” Raixo replied to Alexander.
Alexander raised his hands up in an exasperated gesture. “So, this whole time I’ve been running around in women’s clothing?”
“Well, yes. Would it make you feel better if I said tiny men also wear it as well?”
“No, no it does not.”
“I thought you said my people were here. These are Broushin.”
“How was I supposed to know? They just told me Alien. Are you saying more than one race came here?”
In the middle of their arguing the leader of the armored men surrounding them had their torc analyze the language. “Are you ladies done arguing?” The leader spoke.
“Listen you short thing, I’m trying to talk to my friend here. I don’t have time to deal with a kid.”
Raixo’s roar of laughter struck everyone by surprise. The tall one, who was thought to be a large female, let out a deep man’s laugh. “Go back home Dvergar, like my friend said, we have no time for your kind.”
“Dwarves?” Alexander asked.
The leader stepped up and removed their helmet, revealing a small feminine face. Her hair was pitch black and cut short to form around he roundish face, her skin was pale making her hair seem ever darker. Her eyes were the deep brown, so much so it was almost black, but the anger in them was obvious. She threw her helmet to the ground in rage and pointed straight at Alexander.
“Do not call us that you cross dressing Craxi fool!” She screamed.
“Cross dressing, maybe, but Craxi, no.” Alexander replied while letting his mask fall.
The leader was taken aback, a human was behind the mask, she had never seen such a thing, but she had no time to think, she had long standing orders to capture or kill all Craxi spies.
Regaining her composure, she retrieved her helmet and eyed the two. The human looked odd in the stealth outfit of the Craxi. His dark hair was cut close to his head and the signs of a beard were beginning to show. He stared at her with hard eyes, eyes that bore a heavy burden. For a moment she was caught off guard as those dark eyes stared back at her but shook her head and reminded herself of her duty.
“I ask you two to surrender peacefully.” She raised her hand and the others surrounding Raixo and Alexander formed their weapons and let their suits melt away. Retaining them and managing a strong weapon was an enormous energy drain.
“I was about to ask you the same thing. I wouldn’t want to hurt a female, especially a child.” Alexander said with a smirk.
The leaders face grew dark. “I am not some child!” She yelled at him. “We have you surrounded. Surrender now and accept a quick death.”
“It looks like we have the advantage don’t we, Raixo?”
Raixo let his armor fall completely and finished forming a huge double headed axe the size of one of their enemies. On their flight here Raixo had explained that his people, the combatants, wore two braces. One was meant to be a shield, and the other a weapon, although they could make almost any construct out of the metallic braces, they chose to fight with shield and weapon. The suits they currently wore were made of a lighter metallic material; therefore, although he could create his weapon of choice, it was not nearly as strong as the one his combat brace could create.
The bearded green giant gave a snarl. “We have them surrounded from the inside!”
The leather jerkin he wore seemed to tighten around him as he flexed his muscles, ready for combat. Next to him, although Alexander was not as experienced in hand to hand combat, he let his armor fall as well. Alexander’s weapon of choice was a small knife he learned to fight with in training. He also attempted to growl at the enemy as Raixo had, but with much less effect.
“I will ask you one more time, remove you braces and surrender.” She would kill the Craxi, of course, but the human warranted study. Not only was he with a Craxi, but apparently was able to use energy, unlike most humans as she had been told.
As she finished her words a noise broke through the still. Another plane was coming. Perfect timing, Alexander thought. All the people in the clearing stopped to watch as the plane flew overhead. Four small figures were seen jumping out of the back of the back and leader of the dwarves knew she had to act and gave the order for her troops to close in.
One approached Alexander, but as he did a cracking sound struck everyone’s ears. The man was sent flying several feet backwards, his armor cracked severely, out of the fight, but alive. Alexander formed the metal over his right eye and zoomed in looking at the sky. Antonio had fired a .50 caliber sniper rifle midair, now after the shot he was spinning rapidly in circle from the recoil. Idiot, but helpful, Alexander laughed inwardly.
Antonio was spinning out of control, he had failed to remember the recoil of firing such a weapon. Concentrating once more on the brace he formed wings to regain a steady downward fall. With stability regained, he let the wings fall away. He used the brace to form a liquid metallic blob on his shoulder and replaced the butt of the gun. He fired in quick succession taking out several more enemies. Once the ammo ran dry he discarded the gun and pulled the cord for his parachute. It would not open.
The female leader replaced her helmet and the suit lit up in blue lines just like the other soldiers. She removed the two swords on her back, seeming to detach rather than be drawn, and aimed for Alexander. She charged straight at him assaulting him with what seemed like an endless flurry of blows. It was all Alexander could do just to block them and avoid being sliced; he knew he was in way over his head.
He heard Raixo’s roars of rage, near him. It seemed he fought purely on rage, a berserker. He was fighting off several of the enemies at once while Alexander was having trouble with just one. It was only when a gigantic metallic ball struck the grounding right on top of one her men that she got distracted from her target. Alexander took his chance, he formed the metal onto his fist and planted his feet, striking straight into the head of the female leader. She hit the ground, out cold.
The ball that had struck the enemy began to open up. Antonio stepped out and took a look around. Spotting Ale
xander he strode over to him. He looked toward the broken truck and the smoke rising from in the trees where Alexander’s plane had crashed. Nodding Antonio made his decision, “I think my entrance was much better.” He said.
“We’ll argue over this later,” Alexander said pointing to where Raixo had just blocked an enemy strike with a Dwarf’s midsection. He had abandoned his weapon and was using an enemy as a weapon instead.
Alexander ran over to Raixo, he leapt into the air, his suit lending him enough strength and punched Raixo right in the jaw. The green bearded giant stared at him in rage for a moment before regaining control of himself.
“Let’s not kill them if we plan on allying with them.” He ordered the giant in a tone that brooked no argument. “Put the Dwarf down now. We’ll let the others surrender and tie them up.”
Alexander looked to the Dwarves still standing, he had spoken in Dwarfish to ensure they understood him. They all nodded and threw down their weapons one at a time. With their leader down, they had lost the will to fight.
Raixo and Alexander just finished tying up the enemies when Trent, Harrison, and James came running toward them.
“Did we miss it?” Trent asked.
“You did,” Alexander said. He was finishing tying up the enemy leader.
“What about Antonio, we didn’t see him use his parachute; he was in some sort of ball.”
“He’s fine, but I…” Alexander was saying but cut himself off as he saw Antonio approaching. “Where were you?”
Antonio stopped right next to the giant Raixo. “I had something to do. Hey Raixo,” He said getting the giants attention. “Pull my finger,” He said holding out his finger for the big alien.
“Why? Is this another form of humans shaking hands?” He asked.
Alexander and the others stared confused as well, they had no idea Antonio was feeling well enough to joke around, especially in their current situation.
“Just do it,” Antonio said.
Raixo, with his giant hand pulled Antonio’s finger. As he did, the hand behind Antonio’s back pressed the button he had been concealing, sending the enemy ship on the far right lighting up into a giant explosion. Everyone but Antonio jumped for cover as the ship went up into flames.
Antonio turned and watched the flames lick up the side of the destroyed vessel. “Thought it’d be bigger,” He sighed.
“What the hell was that, Toni?” Alexander yelled at him.
“Pretty sure it was c-4, not sure what happened to the…” Another explosion went through the ship sending wreckage flying. “Ah, there go the grenades.”
“Why did you do that?”
“Won’t follow us now, besides, that ship still looks pretty intact, kind of. Probably salvageable,” He said and Alexander had to admit he was right.
The explosion stirred the leader of the Dwarves. Alexander had knelt once more after the explosion to check the ties on her before setting off. As she regained her awareness she saw what was happening and with a quick movement she slammed her head into Alexander’s nose. He fell back with a scream of shock and pain, but luckily, she did not get enough force behind it to do any serious damage.
“What was that for, you short demon?” Alexander demanded.
“Untie me now you worthless creature! I’ll kill you for this!” The leader was screaming and continued to rant in muffled words as Alexander took a piece of cloth and tied it over her mouth.
“There that’ll save you guys from her for at least a little while.” He said to the other Dwarves and was glad when he received some smiles in return.
The glare she gave Alexander stalled him in his tracks. He really hoped to never see her again, she would not forgive him and he knew it. Standing up he gestured for the rest of the Demon Boys to follow along with Raixo and all of them headed toward the still intact ship.
The ship, as Raixo explained to everyone, was a Broushin, or Dwarf, transport vessel, which meant that there was no larger ship orbiting in space. He added that these two ships were most likely sent on a stealth mission to discover what had happened with the prison. The prison was Dwarf-made and supposedly with as much energy that was put into it, it was meant it be inescapable. One thing the Broushin prided above all was the things they built, if it failed they wanted, no needed, to know why.
The ship’s each housed a crew of ten, which now comfortably seated all six men on board. The cockpit, however, only had two seats, which Trent and Raixo took over.
“So, can you fly this thing or not?” Alexander asked to both Raixo and Trent.
“Alex, there isn’t a vehicle in the universe I can’t work my magic on.” Trent said haughtily.
“Good get us into orbit.”
“Wait, you mean space, right?”
“Yes, I mean space.”
“Oh great, first I get my ass nearly killed from an Alien. Now I’m going to fly this stolen alien ship into more aliens.” Trent continued to mumble rants as Alexander walked away.
Before he could exit the cockpit, Harrison stopped him. “What do you mean into orbit?” He asked.
“We’re going to go talk to the leader of Raixo’s people. We’re going to stop this senseless war before it escalates.” Alexander attempted to walk away once more but Harrison grabbed his arm stopping him. Both Raixo and Trent looked back at the scene unfolding.
“Those were not out orders. We should incapacitate the alien and return this ship to command.” Harrison removed his hand, but quickly drew a pistol and aimed right at Alexander’s heart. “I’m sorry, but I have no choice, if you don’t follow orders I’m taking over command.”
Alexander fixed him with a calm gaze. Both James and Antonio were staring inside the cockpit now and the both seemed ready to strike. “Hear that men? Harrison is taking over command.”
James, the second most recent Demon Boy, spoke before the others, and Alexander was surprised with the trusting words. “Sorry Harrison. I may not have been with these guys long, but I know they’re good people. If they’re trying to stop a war we cannot possibly win, I’m in. If we return with this ship, not only will the one in orbit retaliate, it will destroy us before we even have a chance to figure out how all this works. I’m with them on this one.”
Harrison was distracted long enough for Alexander to creep the metallic liquid from his brace over the gun. As soon as Antonio saw what was happening and moved in grabbing Harrison into a headlock.
Before losing consciousness, Harrison managed to rasp out a few foreboding and revealing words. “Frank will kill you for this…”
Outside the cockpit Antonio was waiting for Alexander as James dragged Harrison to dump his unconscious body outside the ship. Alexander walked by and Antonio followed him, neither said a word, but both knew they needed to talk in private. The continued down the hall past several control type rooms, they had not been able to understand the ships systems fully, and at the end of the hall they found a circular room with nothing in it. Both of them entered and the floor began to rise to the next level of the ship taking them by surprise.
On the second floor directly across the elevator was another, to the third floor, but they walked toward the right instead. They found this floor held several bedrooms, bathrooms, and a large kitchen. They chose one of the rooms and entered in silence. Antonio leaned against the wall while Alexander sat on the bed and rested his elbows on his knees and his face cupped in his hands.
“So, what did you want to talk about?” Alexander asked with a sigh and looking up.
“Why did you leave us?” Antonio said, never one to dance around what was on his mind.
“I was trying to let you rest up.”
“You were running away.”
“Don’t give me that. I was trying to finish this so you guys didn’t have to get involved.”
“You are running from Nate’s death. You blame yourself. Don’t push us away, we’re here to help.”
Alexander couldn’t stop himself. He rose from the bed and got inches
from Antonio’s face. “Don’t you dare say that to me! You are running away from Brittany’s death! You push us away and do these crazy things in an attempt to get yourself killed! I’m trying to fix what I caused, that’s all.”
“Oh, and vengeance has nothing to do with it?” Antonio showed more emotion than he had in a long time as if all the pent-up frustration was being released.
“What if it does? That’s none of your business. None of you should even be here. This is my problem.”
“Nate was not just your friend,” Antonio yelled back catching Alexander off guard. “I have lost enough; I don’t intend to lose you too. Trent and you are the only family I have left.” The emotion in Antonio’s voice was enough to calm Alexander’s anger. He sat back down staring at his feet.
“You’re right, I could have asked for help, but I awoke that monster. I’m to blame for what happened to Nate.”
“No, that thing is. With the rage you feel right now the only thing confronting that monster will do is end in your death.”
“Does it matter as long as I get him?”
“I’m not losing another brother, so yes, it matters. Let it go, don’t blame yourself for what happened.”
“What about you? You still blame yourself for Brittany. You haven’t even seen her parents since the funeral. They’re worried about you.”
“You went to see them?” Antonio asked incredulous.
“We were in Florida and I needed a car. Phil let me use his, though he’s going to be mad after he finds out what happened to it.”
“What did they say?”
“They want to see you, they miss you, and they don’t blame you.”
Antonio stared at his hands again as if there was blood on them. “Why? It is my fault.”
“You and I both know it wasn’t.” Alexander said standing up. He walked over to Antonio and poked his chest, right where his necklace hung beneath his shirt. “Those rings your carry are a heavy burden of guilt you place on yourself. No one could have seen the ice under the snow. It was what it was, an accident.”
