by Mel Todd
~I guess we'll need to work on our radio etiquette then. Cass, what exactly did they have you doing?~
That was enough of a prompt and Cass started to bubble about everything, creating a warm stream of conversation that McKenna could enjoy and let the others interject as she just tried to not think about what was to come.
She had almost dozed off, a half-eaten bar in her hand, when the vehicle came to a jarring stop. It didn't feel like a smooth stop that a driver would have made if they reached their destination.
The window between the cab and the back slid open and words were shouted at them. "We have incoming. Two shuttles coming down and another following. Time to rock and roll people." It dawned on her that was Geoff's voice even as she grabbed her rifle and double checked the ammo and safety.
She jumped out of the back of the truck, and rolled across the pavement to the shelter of bushes on the side of the road as she assessed where they were. Cass, still in human form, clambered out and went under the truck. JD must have told her to do that. Toni, looking like a demi-god with her snarling white fangs against the coal black fur, used the truck for cover as McKenna focused on the shuttles.
~Why are they~ McKenna broke off the thought and talked through the coms they all had. "Why are they focusing on us?"
Silence met that question until Rarz replied. "The odds are the concentration of shifters here, or maybe they have discovered my presence. I do not know everything about their technology. It is possible they have realized a Drakyn is on this planet. They would do anything to kill me. They are quite unreasonable about our existence."
McKenna glanced over to where Rarz had appeared from one of the transport vehicles following them. He stood in the open, watching the shuttles come down.
"Rarz, get down, idiot. They'll shoot you." Miguel barked out over the headsets.
"They have no weapons on the shuttles. Only devices they need to assemble and what they use when they attack."
He made a strange figure, standing there in human form, watching the approaching shuttles with no expression on his face.
~He looks like a blasted movie poster. Idiot.~ Toni's thought was scathing and Rarz turned to look at her, a funny look on his face.
~I apologize if I seem melodramatic. They have always already been on the ground when I have made it to their invasion points. I can see the attraction in their lines, but it seems odd to me to fly under the power of a machine.~
Even as he finished that thought, the shuttles landed and the silver doors began to flow into the ramp specification.
Rarz moved, so fast even McKenna had to blink as he appeared behind the truck they had come.
"Fire as needed. Remember those shuttles can leave without a pilot, so don't get in them." Zhen's voice snapped out over the coms and McKenna winced. The same reaction from the others filtered into the mindspace. She ordered her bots to lower her hearing sensitivity a bit.
After that she focused on the ship about thirty yards from her, its hatch facing her as the back wall melted and started to reform into a ramp.
The moment the opening was large enough, five figures dove through it, hitting the ground in a controlled roll. McKenna had to admire their smooth skill. They almost moved in unison, but instead she focused on sighting in on the first creature.
One of the large lizard-like beings with the smooth leathery skin rose up from a crouch. Its tail seemed less strange now, but it came across as more dinosaur and less dragon after Rarz. The M240B was a bit heavier than her AR-15 and even after the practice there was a difference between targets and firing at sentient beings.
Her focus narrowed down to the skull of the being and she squeezed the trigger gently. She'd braced correctly, so the kick of the weapon didn't faze her, but the shriek of pain and annoyance as a bright line of blue- red blood welled along the side of the creature's skull told her she had missed. It turned and fired. She had to roll to not be hit by the beam of the weapon.
"Fuck, their range has increased. He just hit where I was at over thirty yards. Be aware guys." She snapped out over the coms and in the mindspace. Before at a distance of twenty-five yards, the energy would dissipate, at worst leaving you with a bad burn. From the smoking ground where she had just been, it would have cut right through her.
The spurt of adrenaline narrowed her focus and even as the creature tracked her movement, she pulled the trigger and saw the head explode.
Once there would have been sorrow or maybe a sense of relief, now she didn't feel anything but weariness and a desire to have this all be over. She heard others yelling, and the sharp retort of weapons fire around her, but all the lights in her mind were bright, and that was all that mattered at this point.
Crawling out a bit to get a better view, she scanned the area. One of the advantages of warrior form was the pattern of your fur let you blend with your surroundings, and the Kaylid didn't usually wear too much armor. She'd been so focused on the lizard she'd lost track of the others and it took her a moment to find one.
Almost a moment too long.
Chapter 17 - New Toys
Europe, China, the Middle East, Britain, Brazil, and Mexico have all seen a huge upswing in shuttles descending to capture shifters. While the resistance in the US is well organized, other countries are not faring as well and the world lives in a state of fear never seen before. Even the cold war didn't shut down schools and churches. Wariness and avoiding public places has become the norm. Will Earth recover from this attack? ~ TNN Invasion News
[ROLL!] Wefor screamed in her mind, and McKenna just moved, not even asking which direction, though there was only one way to head. She whipped her body over and over, holding the rifle tight to her. Heat seared the fur on her arm and leg, and she landed in a prone position aiming in the direction the bolt had come from. She had a sense of fur and movement, and she fired, knowing none of her people would be shooting at her, and not with that weapon.
McKenna fired a quick burst of three shots at the figure behind the edge of a second shuttle she hadn't been actively focused on.
Her bullets slammed into the chest of the being firing at her and it crumpled into a splash of dark limbs on the asphalt.
The surrounding sounds died, and all she could hear was her own rapid breathing. Too aware of their hearing capabilities, she stuck to Speech.
~Everyone okay? Anyone hurt?~
~Mom?~ Jessi's voice followed on top of hers, and McKenna wondered how much she had gotten of the sudden violent firefight.
~Yes?~ Toni sounded calm but McKenna looked around for more danger. She'd never forgive herself if anything happened to any of them.
~Is everything okay? Your lights turned a weird color.~ McKenna could sense, more than hear, Jamie, Charley, and Nam listening very carefully.
~We’re fine, Jess. Just a bit busy at the moment. I love you very much, but right now don't bug us. It might distract us at the wrong moment.~
~Okay, Mom.~ There was a wave that hit the mindspace and McKenna was glad she was lying down. She saw Toni stagger at the edge of the truck. It was love, worry, stress, need, and trust from all four kids at once. McKenna didn't know if she wanted to cry or laugh. She swallowed and continued to look for any other invaders.
Two more lay crumbled on the sidewalk, and Miguel stood up from a planter he'd been crouched behind.
"Sound off!"
McKenna struggled to remember her code. "Alpha 2A, here." The proper radio etiquette had also been drilled into her head, so she knew at least she had responded correctly.
They all sounded off. A pall settled as one Bravo person and a Charlie didn't respond. McKenna rose and walked around the truck, looking at the three shuttles. She counted thirteen bodies.
"I see thirteen dead, five came out of the shuttle I was watching. Are we missing two?" She kept her voice low and wished she could crank up her hearing sensitivity without having the coms blast her out. Turning slowly, she panned the area, trying to listen and think.
"On
ly four came out of the one near me," said a voice she didn't recognize, but a wash of a recognition from Cass told her it was probably a Charlie team member.
"There were five on this one far to the right," JD offered and McKenna did her weird mental grid check to make sure they weren't talking about the same shuttle. They weren't.
"We're missing one." Her voice dropped even lower as she said that, and she pivoted in a slow circle.
~Wefor can they raise the sensitivity on my left ear but not my right?~ She asked as she fought to see or find this last threat.
[Of course, would you not think they could?]
McKenna sighed and tried to tell them to increase only her left ear not her right. A moment later sound increased and she listened, feeling slightly lopsided at the difference in sound. She closed her eyes and concentrated. Even as she did, she could hear others talking, whispering in the distance, yet they were as clear as if they were next to her.
If this keeps up for too long, we need to get a way to do this via the Speech, because even with coms I can hear them clearly.
~Get everyone to shush, we're making too much noise.~ She said it in the general mindspace and heard the sounds fall away slowly, though people still moved and breathed and they all seemed impossibility loud.
She kept pivoting even as everyone went silent, but she couldn't tell. The sounds of an Elentrin Kaylid versus a human Kaylid weren't obviously different.
What else? Think!
Her eyes widened and she had the nanobots pull her ear back to normal and she inhaled, sorting through the scents. Her friends whispered across her mind, comforting and familiar. Even the men she'd been training with for the last few hours came in as friend. But a strange scent drifted across the breeze, somehow stale, with weird smells she couldn't place.
~JD?~ She kept the connection as tight as she could, still not sure how Rarz had stepped into their mindspace.
~Yes?~ He came back almost instantly on that same tight connection.
~Where're you located? In reference to me?~ The three convoy vehicles had stopped in the road when the shuttles landed in the intersection. She gazed out at the four-lane road, with two lanes in each direction, the last truck had stopped at an angle, blocking the road. The shuttles formed a half arc, one of them partially on the sidewalk, with their ramps all facing the halted convoy trucks.
She had ended up next to a line of bushes, on the side of the road that had a commercial for sale sign on it.
~Behind the second truck, passenger side.~
She turned and focused and there she could make him out. He would have the breeze directly hitting him where he was.
~Use your nose. Crank it up. Can you smell that strange smell? I think it’s part ozone, part things I've never smelled before. Can you locate it?~
She felt his concentration via the link and didn't say anything, giving him the space to focus. Their noses had been useful, but with all the invasions and everything else, she'd fallen back into the habit of only relying on eyes and ears.
~Got it. Yes, that’s a weird smell. Best I can figure, it's laying under the ramp closer to Perc than either of us.~ He put this into the mindspace and she could feel Perc follow what they said.
~I see him. Going.~
Before McKenna could say anything, the spotted form of Perc dashed out from where he'd been and tore towards the shuttle JD had mentioned.
Before with everyone shooting, she hadn't had time to get scared or even think about anything else other than trying to not die right at that moment. Now? Her heart raced and she felt her breath catch in her throat as she watched him run towards an enemy that had proven themselves all too willing to kill.
Movement from the shadows and a bolt of visible light exploded lighting up the darkness, streaking towards Perc.
He dove, but not fast enough and the scent of burnt fur and flesh assaulted her nostrils.
The image of Caroline's corpse flashing in mind again. They'd had a few die in the days of fighting, but none of her people or the soldiers they worked with. Bullets didn't create scorched flesh.
Before she could even cry out mentally, a rapid staccato of bullets chattered out of where Perc had fallen. A few created a resounding ting as they hit metal, but the majority of them made a wet thud. She heard a short cry, then silence.
~Are you okay?~
"What the hell was that, Alexander?" Miguel all but shouted into the coms and McKenna flinched, telling the bots to lower her hearing ability in the right ear another few decibels.
"Getting the last of the attackers. And damn that hurts." His voice sounded tight and McKenna moved towards him, seeing Cass out of the corner of her eye headed that way also. Perc stood and she saw a bright red gash, with at least an inch of flesh missing, between his neck and shoulder.
"You realize if that had been even half an inch closer to your neck, or you were a bit less overly muscled, you'd be dying right now." Cass's voice had a sharpness to it that McKenna totally understood. She wanted to rage at him. but that would be counterproductive. And she refused to address her own terror at the idea of losing him.
"Yeah." He glanced down to look at where she pulled the wound open and checked that it was mostly clean. The nice thing about their weapon was it burned through, not leaving much in the wounds. "I've already got the bots working on it. I'll need some calories, and maybe one shift and it should be good enough."
Miguel came storming up to them, his brows furrowed and cheeks flushed to almost red, impressive on his olive yellow skin.
"What in the hell did you think you were doing? That kind of stupid heroics gets people killed!" He didn't shout, not quite, but his tone cut and McKenna didn't know whether to jump in and protect Perc, or let Miguel chew him out like she so badly wanted to.
The idiot, he could have gotten killed.
The thought made her throat tighten and her chest seize with pain. Perc glanced at Miguel, the blood leaking sluggishly from his wound. That meant the bots had already gotten to work or it would be bleeding a lot more. That helped relieve some of the fear that still raced through her system.
"I was thinking that I knew where he was, had a chance of moving faster than he could, and that I was the most disposable as you've gotten the basic schematics of the ship. Besides, we can't afford to be delayed here anymore than what we've already been." Perc glanced at the hole in his shoulder. "Besides, I can heal, your people can't."
Miguel glared at him, but Perc didn't flinch until something in Miguel gave and he sagged a bit. "Fine. Everyone back in the vehicles, we need to step on it. If they know Rarz is here, we need to get you on those ships ASAP." He turned and looked like he was about to start shouting orders as most of the people had gathered around, watching the show.
"I was thinking," Toni said slowly, looking at the dead body lying on the ground.
Everyone paused and looked at her. She'd been so quiet of late that any words meant you stopped and listened.
"Everyone talks about how bad it is to fire a gun in an airplane. I can't help but think that firing one in a spaceship isn't any more intelligent. But those," she nodded at the gun laying on the ground, "we know we can use. If what Charley told us was correct, they can be set to stun, not kill. Besides, aren't we supposed to be rescuing these people? Not killing them because they’ve been enslaved?"
Miguel moved over to look at the gun, and then his eyes scanned to the rest of the fallen aliens and the weapons lying next to them. "It isn't a bad idea. But can you configure them so anyone can use them? We'd still take our weapons with us but using these first would be much quieter and give us less dead bodies. You sure you can modify them to not kill?" He directed the question to Toni, but McKenna took the lead.
~Charley? Can you tell us how to modify the weapons to stun only? Maybe even disable the ability to kill?~ McKenna asked even as Miguel looked at her waiting.
A few heartbeats of time before he responded, almost as if he had to find the information in his mind.
~Yes. Though it will take you a bit on each one. But I can show you how to alter them.~
She looked at Miguel. "The answer is yes, we can modify them."
He looked at her, with narrowed eyes, then at the weapons. "Do it. Everyone collect the weapons and anything on the bodies that looks like it might be associated with the weapons." He moved his attention back to her. "Update them, make my people and yours watch, so we all know how to do it. And I'll want to test fire one first to make sure we aren't killing people."
McKenna felt her heart stutter at that thought, who would they possibly test it on.
"Got it."
"Then get going people, we need to get this show on the road, the clock is ticking down faster than we can afford." Everyone jumped to it, and in five minutes McKenna found herself back in the troop transport with people watching her and looking at the pile of weapons on the floor.
With a jerk, the vehicle started to move and McKenna braced herself near the cab to be able to work.
~Okay, Charley, now what?~
~It would be easier if I could see what you are seeing.~ He muttered in her head and she felt a weird pressure like a bubble in her mind. Something slipped into place and her brain felt funny for a split second. ~Oh that's helpful. Jess, you were right, I can do it with Kenna.~
~Told you.~ The smugness from the little girl came through just fine and McKenna had to fight back a smirk.
~So you can see what I'm seeing?~ It felt odd, but at the same time didn't feel like anything at all. At some point she'd have to follow up on it, but now she didn't have time.
One more thing to ignore until I can't anymore.
This avoidance of hers was starting to cause issues, but she didn't know how to deal with all the things that kept coming up, so she pushed everything she could to the background until she had to deal with it. Lately though that was biting her in the ass, not that she knew what difference it would have made in the long run.
~Yes. Now pick up the one nearest to you, and turn it over.~ Charley walked her through it slowly, where the settings were, and how to swap out the energy packs. People asked questions as they rode and slowly, the others in the back with her started making the same updates to the weapons they had picked up. There were multiple people working changing the settings. It was slow, delicate work, though the tools most of the soldiers had with them helped. A quiet camaraderie spread through the back as the truck roared to their destination.
