Serpents and Vipers

by Donald Nicklas

  Slone wasn’t the only being in the cave watching the action. When the hovercraft crashed on the beach, Sly barked and hissed some orders. The heavily armored male serpents sprang from the entrance of the cave and plunged into the city. On the monitors, Slone could see them racing across the open part of the city and heading to a waiting hovercraft that took off and headed to the beach. Two more hovercraft fell into the jungle before the lead group made it to the first ring of gun towers. As soon as the pursuit was in range, the towers opened fire and suddenly the air was filled with a swarm of metal projectiles. Slone was not sure what the pursuers expected, but they could not turn fast enough to avoid the inevitable. The first barrage dropped multiple pursuing hovercrafts into the jungle. Slone could not believe they were stupid enough to run right into the field of fire of the towers. He could only think they were so filled with rage or they were unfamiliar with defense. The rest turned back after ten percent of their number fell from the sky. The craft that were pursued landed in the large plaza of the city and in a few other places. A large number of serpents came out of the craft and, when Slone looked around, he realized Sly had left the cave and was on her way to the plaza. Lorenzo had also noticed Sly’s departure after the action outside and signaled the Slones and Tavia to come with him. He ordered Centurion Marshal to stay behind with the wounded Raul Ortega. Lorenzo and the group left the cavern and entered the large plaza where they could see that both the newcomers and the residents were in a highly agitated state. It was obvious that something monumental was happening. The humans were extremely curious as to the reason for the agitation, but did not want to disturb Sly with questions. To a human, the serpent face never changed, but Tavia was not the usual human when it came to serpents. As Sly continued speaking with the newcomers, she turned to Christopher and said, “Sly has a very concerned expression on her face. Something really bad must have happened.”

  Everyone in the human group was a leader and knew enough to stay out of the way until Sly came and told them what was happening. The sound of so many serpents talking all at once was deafening. Finally, after what felt like a lifetime, but was only about 15 minutes, Sly broke from the group and came over to the humans. As she faced them, her lips began to quiver, “Sss. The Valley Clan brings grave news. Those who just joined us and those who were here before are all that is left of the Clan and the Hill Clan no longer exists except for the few thousand among us. The Mountain Clan has also destroyed all of the Hill Clan and Valley Clan hatcheries”

  Lorenzo looked very troubled. “What is happening here?”

  “Sss. I do not know. This has never happened to the clans before. The Mountain Clan wants to destroy all of the other clans and have the planet for themselves. We are all at risk here; we must change our plans. We must abandon our home world.”

  “Do you have enough ships and can you negotiate with the Mountain Clan for a peaceful departure?”

  “Sss. We do not have the ships. We need Romani help. I do not believe they will willingly let us leave.”

  “How many are you?”

  They could see Sly tallying numbers in her head. Before she could give an answer, there was a commotion at the edge of the plaza. Serpents broke out of the jungle followed by the armored, male serpents Sly had sent into the jungle to help the fugitives. The armed serpents were backing out of the jungle as they kept up a fire with their railguns, but the humans could not see at what they were shooting. It was obvious that there were less than left to engage the enemy. Lorenzo activated his communicator and called Centurion Marshal out of the cave. Raul also came along, holding his sword in his good hand. The Humans all had their swords out now and awaited the inevitable arrival of the enemy.

  Sly raced to the center of the plaza and climbed up to the platform from which she had previously addressed her clan. She activated the sound system and began to issue orders and point to certain areas of the plaza. More armored male serpents began to arrive from the cave and form around the platform as Sly ordered her troops into loose formations. The humans had little idea of what they were seeing and had no idea how the serpents fought, but as military men and women, they were able to recognize military dispositions when they saw them.

  The Consul Lorenzo was now in command of all human ground operations by virtue of his position, however, they were not on earth and his force consisted of himself and five others on a planet ruled by reptiles. It was an unenviable position, but you can’t always pick where to make your stand. “We will stay together and deal with whatever comes our way,” Lorenzo said to his companions. As he was talking, he noticed Tavia in what appeared to be conversation with the ever-present hatchling. “Tavia.”

  Tavia snapped to attention, “Yes, Consul.”

  “Are you able to communicate with the hatchling?”

  “I have been trying to and have had some success. I was trying to find out what was happening, so we had a better idea of what to expect.”

  “And was she able to tell you anything?”

  “Consul, if I understand her correctly, there is a large group of Mountain Clan serpents in the surrounding jungle and there is a suspicion they will attack us.”

  Lorenzo and the others gave that some thought. “We will stand and fight, but we have to know how to tell the enemy from our friends. Tavia, can the hatchling tell us how we can identify members of the Mountain Clan?”

  Tavia did the best she could, but things were escalating quickly in the plaza. Serpent cities lacked streets, since the reptiles felt more at home just plunging through the undergrowth of the jungle. Since the houses were part of the jungle, there was no way to bottle up and enemy. The enemy just tends suddenly to rush into the open. Lorenzo now knew that they should have spent more time learning in depth about their allies, instead of just accepting their gift of invisible ships. He had the sinking feeling that the Romani dealt badly with the serpents. He could not understand why the reptilian race had put up with it. He saw how Tavia kept working with the hatchling. She had been the one to go out of her way to become a friend to Sly. If they are able to survive this, he planned to make Tavia a teacher of human-serpent relations. As he was mulling this over, the enemy suddenly burst out of the jungle. They also had armored males with railguns firing into the crowd in the plaza. Guards suddenly surrounded Sly in a protective circle as Sly’s serpents charged the enemy and leapt high in the air to land on the enemy masses pouring out of the jungle.

  Tavia finally finished talking with the Hatchling, whom she had decided to name Hatch, for want of a different name. She turned to Lorenzo, “Consul, Hatch says the Mountain Clan members have a collar of dark scales at the base of the neck.”

  Lorenzo looked at the attacking force, but they were too far from the front line to be able to see such detail. What the Romani could see was the Sea Clan slowly retreating towards the cave entrance. The retreat was orderly, yet it was a retreat nonetheless. As the retreat continued, the rear ranks began to fall back to the place the humans were standing. Some tried to signal them to move back to the cave. Lorenzo commanded the six humans to form two rows of three with shields up and swords at the ready. Their guns were useless against the natural armor of the serpents, but Tavia had proved quite effectively that a sharp sword would do the trick. In the front row were Centurion Marshal and the Slones. In the second row was the Consul and Tavia at the ends of the row and the one handed Raul in the center, where he would not need a shield. In his remaining hand was his short sword. In this formation, they started backing up in the direction of the cave entrance. As they worked their way back, large numbers of unarmored and unarmed serpents passed them, heading to the cavern. Sly was still in the front line but standing behind a solid wall of armored male serpents firing their railguns at the enemy.

  “Move towards Sly and guard her rear,” Lorenzo said to the Romani, and the humans changed direction and moved forward until they were near Sly’s position. Suddenly, Sly went down with a wound to the leg and the enemy surged against the
wall formed by the guards. The Romani sprinted to Sly’s position and Raul helped her to her feet with the assistance of Hatch. Sly moved slowly to the rear, leaning on Hatch and Raul. The remaining Romani acted as a rear guard along with the male serpents. There was a withering fire laid down by both sides, and many serpents fell in the plaza, never to rise again. Suddenly, three unarmored serpents sprang over the heads of the defenders and made a beeline for the Romani guarding Sly. Two of them ran with full force against the shields of the Romani. The Centurion and the Slones had seen the move and braced themselves. The Romani used their close order tactics and concentrated on the enemy to their right or left and ignored the one in front, leaving that one to the legionary on their right. If there was none on their right, then they turned slightly to the right keeping their shield in front of them. This kept the shield wall intact and exposed the left side of the enemy to the legionary on that side. As a result, once the initial impact against the shields was stopped, they quickly dispatched the serpents by stabbing their flanks.

  The third enemy serpent went straight for Tavia, Raul and the wounded Sly. The hatchling was also with them, always at Tavia’s side. Christopher shouted a warning to Tavia who turned just in time to bring here shield up to protect Sly. The enemy hit the shield with such force, that Sly and Raul fell over as the charging serpent pushed past Tavia’s shield, which she could not anchor fast enough. Tavia was also pushed to the side and stumble, but did not fall. The enemy tried to claw at Sly, but Raul had fallen on top of her, face up, and swung his sword as hard as he could at the clawed hand. The serpent let out a yelp as several digits flew off the end of the right hand, but there were still enough claws left to maul Raul’s good arm. The serpent then kicked Raul out of the way and turned her attention to Sly. Sly had regained her feet, favoring the wounded leg, but taking the best defensive stand she could. Tavia was also on her feet along with the hatchling. As the enemy sprung for Sly, Sly lashed out with tail and hands, while at the same time sidestepping. The enemy passed by her but managed to maul Sly’s left arm. The Hatchling bolted forward and clamped her jaws hard on the right ankle of the enemy serpent, tripping her. As she went down, Tavia ran forward and plunged her sword into the side of the serpent, pulled it out and plunged it in again. As the enemy was bleeding out, the hatchling let go of the ankle and clamped her teeth on the neck, dispatching the Mountain serpent.

  The humans helped Sly to her feet and quickly moved her into the cave as the armored serpents laid down cover fire in a rear guard action. Shortly after Sly entered the cave with the Romani, the rear guard came in and the cave entrance was sealed with blast doors. Now only mountain serpents were left in the city. Sly barked some orders and all eyes went to the screens showing the mountain serpents checking the houses for Sea Clan members. As they watched, the guns on the automated towers turned towards the city and opened fire. Since these railguns were meant to take down ships, they fired a much heavier projectile. As the rail shot began to rain down on the Mountain Clan forces, they were cut down where they stood. The shot hit with such kinetic force that it dismembered the serpents and not even the heavy armor the males wore could save them. Those who survived ran into the jungle and soon the ships they came in rose from the jungle. Until they were clear of the treetops, they were still moving slowly and the railguns shot down several more before they sped out of range. Sly sent her armored troops out of the cavern to take care of any Mountain Clan who survived the shoot downs. It was apparent to the Romani that there would be no prisoners taken in this war. After about an hour, the remaining male serpents returned from their mission and the mountain was sealed. The wounds on Sly and the Romani were treated, as were all of the other wounded. The serpents healed fast but the humans did not. They were exhausted and weak from loss of blood and stamina. In addition, they had not eaten for a while. They took what they had left of the rations from their packs and ate them. The serpents did not stock human food, so they would have to get used to their next meal being alive.

  As the humans sat near a console and ate, they watched the room and the monitors. It was clear from the outside monitors that the external part of the city was given over to the dead. The plaza and other open areas were littered with serpent bodies and body parts. The gun towers had done massive damage to the serpents hit by their shots. The ground and the identifiable structures were also damaged by the gunfire. Alaya could only feel sadness for the disaster that was befalling the world of their allies. This was supposed to be a joyous time when the humans were finally invited to the serpent home world. Now it was becoming clear that the intent of the invitation was to do damage to the Romani government. Alaya realized that is why they invited both Consuls to attend an election that would never take place. She wished the Romani had an idea why the Mountain Clan turned against the other clans. Alaya voiced her concerns to the others and Lorenzo and Slone agreed. They had no way of knowing there was a trap, and they fell right into it, along with Sly, the last vestige of legitimate government among the serpents. The humans looked over at Sly, who was held up by a crutch of some kind. She was in deep discussion with what appeared to be her advisors. By the time, the humans were finished with their meal, Sly hobbled over to them. The medics had removed the slug from her leg and sewed up the slashes on her arm. Except for the crutch, she looked none the worse for wear. Slone thought ‘does nothing affect these serpents?’

  Sly came over to the Romani and began to speak, “Sss. Romani friends. I am very troubled that you are in this danger.”

  Lorenzo responded for the group, “None of this is your fault Sly. You are as much of a victim here as are your clan and we. What can we do to help? As our allies, we are bound to your fate as you are bound to ours when our ships are at risk.”

  “Sss. I thank you, my friends, but situation much worse. Mountain Clan wants our hatchery. We must move it off the planet to a safe place. Will the Romani help us move it? It is too late for serpents on Nova Romae to help. We are lost here, so we must look to our future.”

  This was indeed grave news. Sly was convinced that all was lost here, and she never voices that kind of pessimism. “I am certain the Senate would send ships to remove your hatchery and as many serpents as we can fit. How many are you and how big is the hatchery?”

  Sly signaled them to follow and the Romani rose and followed Sly through the maze of tunnels in the mountain. Soon they came to a widening of the passage and then entered a massive cavern, much larger than the one at the entrance. It was also very warm in the cave and Slone realized that the mountain was actually a volcano. Covering the floor of the cavern were hundreds of thousands of eggs, each one about the size of a human newborn. As they watched, one of the eggs hatched and a new Sea Clan serpent was born. Slone could not help but feel sorrow for the world into which this innocent serpent child was born. Alaya was the first to speak after entering the hatchery, “Sly, do the eggs need any special handling while in transport? I assume they will have to stay warm.”

  “Sss. Yes, Alaya, they will have to be kept warm and rotated. The hatchery workers will do that in transport. Do the Romani have the ships for this?”

  This time the Consul responded, “We have freighters that have heated holds for animal transport. We can use them. For this many eggs we will need close to 50 of them, unless you have more hatcheries like this?”

  “Sss. No this is the only Sea Clan hatchery on the home world. Because Sea Clan is mostly in space, we have a hatchery on Nova Romae. The Mountain Clan cannot destroy us.”

  The Romani started at this revelation. None had a clue that there was a serpent hatchery on Nova Romae, though it made sense when they considered it. After the first arrival of serpents among the Romani 300 years ago, very few have come from serpent space, yet there are always enough to make the thousands of Romani warships and scout ships invisible. Everyone assumed they must be reproducing, but no one every ventured to the jungle continent given them on Nova Romae to see what was going on. When it came to the
serpents, the Romani had blinders on.

  “We will have to get back to Nova Romae and inform the senate as soon as possible. Are we still able to leave tonight?” Lorenzo asked.

  “Sss. Yes. The attack changed nothing other than our final goal”

  Slone then turned to Sly, “How safe is your mountain here?”

  Sly’s lips quivered and then she said, “Volcano quiet. Eruption would be dangerous. Clans cannot take down a mountain. We are safe here.”

  Slone said, “Good. Consul, I think some of us should stay here as a liaison for the arriving ships when you return. We can also best assess the situation from the ground so you don’t fly into any more surprises, since we will have to use shuttles. I think you, Tavia, and Hatch should go as planned and take Raul with you. Alaya, Centurion Marshal and I will remain behind and determine what is needed to transport the eggs to the ships.”

  “I see you are now giving orders to a Consul of the Republic, my friend,” Lorenzo said this with a smile. “You are very astute. I agree. If we are not back in three months time, then try to make a run for it with as many eggs as you can carry in the ships they have. Sly, we will be ready to go as soon as you give us the word.”

  “Sss. Come with me,” Sly said and before any could acknowledge, she slipped rapidly into the tunnel systems and it was all the humans could do to keep up with her. Despite 300 years of contact, the serpents still forgot that humans are not as fast as they are. Sly brought them back into the control room at the blast doors and then lead them over to what looked like a solid rock face. She whistled a lyrical tune and the rock face parted to reveal metal doors that then opened to reveal a large elevator. Sly entered and the humans followed. Once inside the elevator, Sly again gave a series of whistles that caused the doors to close and the elevator moved up rapidly. Slone could imagine them moving higher and higher inside the volcano. After several minutes, the elevator stopped and the doors opened on to a large, hangar containing hundreds of the ship types that attacked them when they arrived at the planet. As far as the eyes could see, there were ships with serpents maintaining them or repairing them.