by Marcus Sloss
I smirked at her silly name changing. I sent the report to the command channel and Aspen. I contemplated giving them less information but this had everything, including the cryptic message about not speaking out loud regarding the alliance. Whatever that was. I was honest when I told Perci I felt we did great. Any mission everyone came home from was fantastic in my book. I knew some would pout because we didn’t get epic loot. There was a whole city to still sort through. We could go back next Xgate rotation.
I flicked the irritating thought away and returned to my happy place. I dug into the task file to see what needed attention. I found a geology folder.
I opened this up because I had not realized Perci had found a rock guy or girl. Of course, it was a crixxi. Excellent. Razzar was able to compile the list of minerals in our valley fairly quickly. Based on the report, he was done in minutes. Oh, Perci left a note.
“Gave him the data from the survey teams. Completed in an hour. Here are his recommendations. Hired on the spot.” - Persephone
Gold, silver, tungsten, zinc, lead, granite, and something I did not understand. That was all on scan one. Okay. Fair point. Nothing super desirable, but it would be in our backyard. I especially liked the idea of six-hundred-foot walls with earth in between them. Something so tall even the tallest alien assholes couldn’t jump it. That castle in the eastern portal was a few hundred feet tall. The task would be massive, but worth the effort. It was not like the population had after-school soccer or a movie to watch on Gflix.
The other scan results mentioned some gems, but more of the same. Hmm. I opened up a second report he sent. Damn. I let out a whistle. My Gpad rang before I could process this insane breakdown of how Razzar wanted to accomplish our mining.
“Hey, my love,” I said to Perci.
“You spoil me. Please don’t stop.” Perci had her chin in her palms with her elbows on the table. She must have put the camera ball in front of her. “I was serious.”
“Oh, great job hiring Razzar,” I replied with a dashing smile. She frowned. Aw. “Your hair is looking amazing. I missed you.”
“Better. I tease. I just missed you too. I do not like being the stay-at-home wife, but I digress. This is where I am best suited. For example, Razzar. Did you review his findings?”
“Yeah, nothing fantastic jumped off the charts. All this is—”
“The zinc is not. Zinc is actually expensive. We need to make a decision. Machines or servant labor,” Perci said with a wince. “God, that sounds awful.”
Dedric shot a glance over his shoulder at me with a hint of scorn.
“Is that what this file is? I just opened it and was trying to break down all the details. Oh.”
“‘Oh’ is right. We save on the first year if we go with servants. After that, the machines pay for themselves.”
I set my camera to fly a few feet away. “Perci, I am all for helping females in servitude, who are prisoner, and slave contracts that become free. I am also one hundred percent in favor of taking a woman who would be raped, beaten, and forced to do horrific things and give her a great job like a daycare helper or a drone operator. Hell, there are a thousand jobs that the community can stomach besides hard labor in the mines. We are not running a slave camp. Freedom camp, sure. The whole thing can be debated endlessly, and I get squeamish inside thinking about it.”
“Eric, you are not making sense. Let me start by saying I agree. We should buy the machines. We will last more than a year. What difference does the job make if they are treated well? Not like a dwarf-type creature—I am sure there is one—will be better treated anywhere else than by us. If we go onto the jungle planet and raid crixxi for their vine fruit, why would we not increase our population?” Perci said with a shrug. She had a point. My morality compass was spinning like crazy. “I am sure Daphne would love to increase our tribe’s strength. Might even bag her a male so she stops craving your cock. My point is to think about the tavers. They are reliant on us. They are not officially in a contract but might as well be. We provide a stable home, they work. There are no issues. This is not Earth 2032. This is Cyber Vikingism. You’re a Cyber Viking. Put on your big boy pants and grow a pair. If people leave, fuck them. They can go cry in the snowflake convention in… Oh, that’s right. The liberal states and countries are all gone.”
“Damn, Perci, I feel emasculated. I have not been punishing you enough in bed. I will fix that. As for the community, why do you think I did the whole king, duke, earl thing?”
“Because we are Vikings now.”
“Yup,” I said, and held a hand out stopping her. “I get it. If we can improve our odds of survival, we should embrace the survival contracts. To avoid using the system will give our enemies a strength and us a weakness.”
“Thank you; that was all I was trying to say. I don’t care if someone doesn’t like what the aliens have converted our society into. That is the aliens’ fault. We are merely adapting.”
I pulled up the video of the Crixonia gate. It was not on fire. Hmm…
“Okay, I will be home in about forty-five minutes. We are going to unload this stuff. The divine-apes hate the lurrol. I wonder if the Xgate meandering has finally outpaced their destruction.”
“You took all the drone operators besides Douglas. He does a loop of the area around the Xgate. Three rotations now, it has been a green forest. You going to take the fight to the lurrol?”
I snickered. “No, I want the crixxi to stay. Especially if they are good at watching kids, mining, building, and helpful with Harvard. Shit. I may force Daphne to toss her stones out and put a litter in her.”
Perci gulped with widening eyes. “Cuck me.”
“I will fuck you babe, tonight.”
“No, you dense tool,” Perci said while shifting from her seat to walk away from wherever she was. Her camera returned to her arm. I watched her tits bounce as she walked. “I need new bras but have been too busy. This virum has done wonders for my figure. When I spank my ass in the mirror, it ripples. And my hips have been popping when I get up. I think it is part of adjusting. I was a bit of a boxy body type before.”
“Perfect,” I replied. “I was thinking to go mineral mining, fruit picking, and maybe bag a scout or two of crixxi from another tribe.”
“Yes, yes. Smart. I approve. Eric,” Perci said, doing a spin. “I want you to cuck me. As in, slap a collar on my neck that chokes me. Then fuck different women and force me to watch without pleasure. Always been a fantasy, but we have been so inclusive and attentive to each other's needs. Well… this is a desire of mine.”
“Ah, talk to the others.”
She stomped her feet.
“I was dripping earlier. You’re losing me, hubby. Toss a babe over your shoulder and be the Viking king.”
“Oh… got it. Still no. I am the alpha. I am the master. You will take orders from me and—”
“Okay, that will do it. Taking a shower before you swap to something sweet and mushy again. Thinking of you, the heiress of darkness out,” Perci said and closed the connection.
“What the fuck just happened?” I muttered to myself.
Dedric cleared his throat.
“Come have a seat, my friend. You can put the drone feeds on the dash,” Dedric said, and I did not disagree. Dedric was always a rock of reason. “This stays between us. Stacy likes for me to call her a heathen. She thrives on it. The church-going, choir-singing, never-cursing woman of the cloth asks for the oddest thing imaginable. I think… I know… we all release a little of our inner demons when we fornicate.”
“Sure, but that conversation was about more than sex.”
“Son, I am black. A forty-seven-year-old man from Chicago. I grew up in the ghetto. I escaped by joining the service. My faith in the Lord never wavered. Ever. I missed the salvation. Some people cried after the aliens came because they were not saved. I know I did. I thought a certain God would come down and whisk me away to salvation,” Dedric said while waving a finger in anger as he drove.
The man scoffed, then huffed in agitation. “Then I think about it. I have my family. Hell, I saved so many because they had faith in me. Because I had faith in you. You would burn inside a church, Eric Yang. Except you won’t. Religion has a whole new meaning. Life has a whole new meaning, and Perci is correct: we are in an age where raiding means life or death for many species. However, I am not saying embrace Vikingism with your entire being. If Perci is the heiress of darkness on your left shoulder, let me be the angel of righteousness on your right shoulder.”
I watched the trees zoom by. I recognized the random pattern nature created. Sure enough, the front of the convoy turned right.
“I appreciate it,” I said earnestly.
“Well, you need balance. Look, some common sense prevails here. Saving people already enslaved by the system is something even a man of God can get behind. Going into Crixonia to kill men so you can steal women and children to toil in the mines is something else. Granted, if you are mining, you get attacked, and you conquer a tribe…”
“I think I get it. We can still have a shred of humanity about the situation. You really would not care if a frog lady did your laundry?” I was a bit surprised.
“Depends. Is there family waiting for her or do we have her family with us?” Dedric said, leading into the next morality fork in the road. “If she has a family waiting for her I would feel bad. How can we verify that? Our resources are not infinite. If we free people, great—as long as the community does not struggle.”
“I hear you. I have a feeling those team leaders picking up help will be looking for what you’re describing. Cases where we will not feel horrible. Dedric, I got to admit something, though. The way it was explained to me, is if this stronghold gets raided… a nightmare scenario where Mansion falls”—I said this and Dedric performed the sign of the cross—“and we do our time in some mines somewhere… When they release our contract, we’ll come back to Xgate 232 and a broken home. I don’t know about you, but that brings a whole other problem.”
“You mean, if you let someone go, are you just condemning them to a slow death because they are on their own?”
“None of our lieutenants from Saudi Arabia made it here. If they are captured, converted, and then returned… They put that same faith we used in each other and speed for here… They have hope… And, and we may still be here. But we might not be. Think about a freed Denver resident. Where does a single man go in Denver with roaming aliens, rabid dogs, and buildings ready to crumble everywhere?” I said with a determined grunt. “I agree stripping a crixxi village to gain servants is bad. And I will probably not do it. However, if we did and then released them onto a lurrol-infested planet fifteen years later…”
“I guess we need to ask your Goldie. Maybe there is a probability of survival that the being that talks in our head can give us. That is the least we can do, is verify. Also, I know you,” Dedric said, giving me a stare. “You are going to go to Crixonia. You will collect fruit, you will mine the river, kill the lurrol, and hope to fight some crixxi to capture. It is who you are. You were fantastic at keeping us alive because pillaging is in your nature. You want to experience the thrill of victory with a system you have not engaged with yet.”
“Sounds like a fun time. I can hardly wait. But don’t speed up, this road is shit right now.”
Dedric keyed up the mic for the convoy and said, “Cap wants to go raiding, pick up the pace. Quick offload, then back out to Xgate 232!”
CHAPTER 14
Daphne sat in the passenger bucket seat watching a movie about mobsters. The Gtower stored billions of hours of movies and she picked the ones with violence, singing, and booze.
“Daphne, turn it down or get a headset. Oh, thanks, Torrez,” I said while Torrez reached into an overhead bin. A headset was handed down to the woman and I chuckled, realizing we did not have a headset built for a crixxi. “Uh, so Daphne, you have two sets of ears. How does that work?”
“I am clearly busy. Delightfully, the outfits from this world make my inner crixxi purr. Too bad the chances of us getting a portal to this world are slim. These”—Daphne pointed to her top owl-like ears—“pick up distant noises. The ears I am covering to not bother you are for close hearing.”
“Thanks,” I replied. “And, Daphne, that is in this world. We humans change quickly.”
“I would have answered for you,” Elifer said from beside Mitchell.
I decided to take the recon team with me. We were bringing motorbikes only with RV3 and Slister’s quick-reaction force. The booth was a mix of humans and crixxi. Torrez, Willow, Mitchell, and me. Elifer, Razzar, Destiny, and Daphne were our crixxi. Mitchell cleared his throat for attention.
“Daphne, we’re five minutes out. Gather around,” Mitchell said. Daphne sauntered over to sit in my lap. I gave an oof that caused Willow to giggle. Since we had limited space, I chose not to fight her at the moment. “The plan is simple: we bike into Crixonia. Peterson. Where is Peterson?”
The sound of a toilet flushing was heard through the thin walls. Peterson exited the tiny bathroom.
“I pee before missions. I fucking hate having to pee when I can’t,” Peterson said, joining us.
“Peterson will stay with the gate lockdown team. Slister has Javier holding the button on Crixonia. Mills will be pushing the button on our side. We will find your drones helpful but our locals will guide us. We are playing this mission as it goes, so be ready to adapt. The primary goal is to locate the lurrol and see what they are up to. If we encounter raging fires, we back off. The Xgate has been clear of lurrol for over an hour now, which means they either went deeper into the forest or home,” Mitchell said, pointing at the portal. The vibrant, tall jungle showed no flames or rolling rock giants. “If we find the lurrol, quick assessment. Then we adjust. Our dirt bikes cannot carry much, but if we find a nice haul of fruit or minerals we can make a couple of quick trips. We brought the ATV with the trailer but it will not be on our initial entrance. No sense in having one member slower than the rest.”
Elifer swished her tail up for attention. “What are our plans if we encounter other crixxi? The tribes around us forced us into isolation,” Elifer said. She seethed with anger. “I am still upset our homes were destroyed. By the lurrol, but before that, by the Hevina tribe.”
My hand reached around Daphne to point at Elifer. “We are not here to war with another tribe. We need information and minerals. Minerals are small, which means easy to carry. Razzar assured me this river is not sifted through often because of its proximity to the Xgate.”
“In my defense, going to the river does not mean immediate loot. These detectors will help, then we use the sifting pans,” Razzar said with a gruff voice while holding up one of the detectors we bought from the grand market. The device was the size of an old cellphone. “I agree with the new chief. Our old grudges are not as relevant as our success going forward. We are not fielding an army. We are but eight going into the jungle. While we may have upgraded gear, skilled warriors, and powerful weapons, I agree that we should proceed with caution.”
Huh, I had not expected the burly male crixxi to be the rational one. There was an inner itching in my soul for some sweet revenge, though. Going to another planet would provide all sorts of what-if and maybe scenarios. There was little reason to ponder on them all.
“Nearing the Xgate,” Dedric said loudly over his shoulder.
I activated my power plant. My weapons hummed to life. A series of flaring teal lights triggered as the team readied. Every person was wearing a power plant shield for this mission. The RV was too crowded for me to peer at Xgate 232 in person so I watched it from the view screen.
“Full rotational scan complete. Nothing but jungle, Mission Panther a go,” Slister said over the radio.
A dirt bike skidded to a halt outside the western jungle portal. A man—must be Mills—ran until he shimmered into the portal. I watched Mills try to land flat-footed. He stumbled with a quick recovery. A few lunges allowed him t
o smash the gate button. Slister hit our side and Xgate 232 disabled the other portals before sliding to the ground.
My timer illuminated with fifty minutes ticking down. RV3 sped to the gate. Slister had a team already offloading dirt bikes for us from a trailer, and the moment the wheels stopped turning, we were out the back and front RV doors. I ran for a dirt bike. I caught Peterson on foot running for the gate with a drone case. Slister held a bike for me, already activated. I hopped on, straddled the frame, and was gone. The acceleration was minimal.
I shimmered through the gate. It was such an odd feeling. Not only seeing nothing but teal, but to go from the wide open rolling fields of the Rockies to the dense, lush jungle was boggling. The trees on Crixonia were hundreds of feet tall, and within a mere second I felt tiny and enclosed, so very trapped by the dense vegetation.
I watched the drone Peterson released climbing rapidly to break the canopy. She was going to find the fires for us from the air.
I waited patiently for the others to converge on me. Since I had double power plants, I was on point for this mission. Mitchell was on shot-calling in the middle. I think Willow was starting to understand that flexibility was important in combat. Our command structure was unique, our situation dictated we had to be flexible, and I trusted Mitchell.
“Got the fires,” Peterson said. “Head north until you see a river. Follow the west bank. I will keep in touch. Trying to find the lurrol; they have cleansed a lot of jungle. The smoke is making it hard to see near the actual fires.”
I sped forward, instantly getting hung on a vine. Stupid jungle. I leveled Big Sploosha and belched a path clearing round forward. Better. I trailed the wake of the orb as vines, shrubs, and small bushes were incinerated.
“That is not our normal way of getting through the forest floor. We normally use the trees for a reason,” Destiny said into my earpiece.
“Cut the side chatter,” Mitchell said in a scolding tone.
The path may have been clear but the terrain was certainly not smooth. I glanced at the speedometer. Seventeen. No shit. The roots, shrub nubs, and rocks were making it nearly impossible to go any faster. I did my best firing paths of incinerated destruction every time my recharge was ready. The nitrogen was rich here. I was getting bursts of jungle-melting orbs.
