The Vixen War Bride

by Thomas Doscher

  “Maybe it’s just the wind,” Ramirez whispered to them.

  The sound came at them again, closer than before. The Va’Shen near them started to back away fearfully, muttering amongst themselves.

  “On what planet does the wind sound like that?!” Burgers hissed at his friend.

  “Hopefully, this one!” Ramirez shot back.

  “Shut up!” Ben hissed at them. He looked at Alacea, who was backing away from the wash-out, fear written plainly on her face. He looked up as Jenkins and Burton joined them from down the line. The rest of the Rangers were spread over almost a half-mile of villagers. He quickly briefed them.

  “Trouble up there,” he said quietly. “Get online.”

  The soldiers spread out in a rough line across the gap, their rifles up. Patricia had pulled her handgun from its holster but looked unsure as to what she was supposed to do with it.

  Ben considered the options. A quarter of the villagers were already past the cut, meaning that going back up from where they had come wasn’t possible. Splitting the group wasn’t an option he was willing to consider.

  “Kim,” he whispered. Not hearing an acknowledgement, he turned and snapped his fingers in front of the lieutenant’s nose. She snapped out of whatever tunnel vision she had been trapped in and looked at him. “You and Alacea start the line moving again. Quietly but as fast as possible. Get these people down the path. We’ll stay here in case whatever it is comes looking for dinner.”

  He waited for Patricia’s nod before slowly turning back. With any luck, they could get the villagers past the cut and the whatever-it-was wouldn’t even noti…

  Before he could complete the thought, that very whatever-it-was appeared from around the corner fifty meters down the canyon. Ben wasn’t sure how to describe it. It was covered in white, scaly plates that looked like they came from the back of a stegosaurus. Its front limbs were longer than its hind legs, making it look like it was squatting like an African gorilla. Easily twenty feet tall, it glared over a long, wide beak of a snout at them with ruby-red eyes. It took a step toward them, the sound of its armor plates rubbing together making a sickening crunching sound, like tank tracks rolling over gravel. Stepping further into the canyon revealed a long, whip-like tail.

  The villagers behind them cried out in panic, unsure of which way to run with the mass of bodies in front and behind them and cornered against the river.

  “Get ‘em moving!” Ben ordered Patricia. “Get them moving now!”

  “What in the…” Ramirez began, but was cut off by the creature, who roared at them. It raised its head at the sky, and its throat undulated as if it was trying to cough up a furball.

  To their shock, the creature spat something into the sky, a literal ball of purple phlegm that arced through the air and landed about twenty meters from them. Ben, through his peripheral vision, only barely noticed that all of the Va’Shen were diving to the ground as the slimy purple ball rolled toward them, pieces of sharp white gravel sticking to it and collecting like a child’s snowball.

  Alacea cried, grabbing his arm.

  The ball of rocks began to smoke, and a purple glow appeared through the cracks between the pieces of debris.

  Ben turned his head and saw the holes in the canyon wall they discovered on the way up, the ones that looked like bullet holes, and he finally realized what had made them.

  “DOWN!” he yelled. “EVERYONE DOWN!” He grabbed Alacea and pushed her to the ground with the weight of his body. Ramirez, Jenkins, Burgers and Patricia dived for the deck. Burton was a second too slow. The canyon echoed with an unnatural thunderclap, and Ben felt rather than heard, the razor sharp rocks zipping over his head, expelled from the exploding ball of snot like a claymore mine.

  Burton screamed as he fell to the ground, holding his right leg. Ben saw two bloody patches on the medic’s thigh. He jumped to his feet, leaving the stunned fox priestess on the ground, and raised his weapon.

  “DROP HIM!” he shouted and opened fire. His carbine barked, the bark becoming a roar as the other three Rangers with him added to his fire.

  Alacea covered her ears with her hands and cried out in pain, the sound of the gunfire like icepicks jabbing into her brain. Faintly in her own head she could hear herself screaming as the sounds tore through her ears, making her wonder if she’d ever be able to hear again. The other villagers were doing the same, paralyzed by the sounds of battle.

  Two more Rangers, running toward the sound of the gunfire appeared and opened fire on the creature. The monster looked down at itself, at where the six-point-eight millimeter full metal jacket rounds were impacting its chest and bouncing off, as if dully fascinated by these strange creatures. It looked back up at them, and Ben would swear he could see it smile.

  Ben stopped firing and slowly lowered his rifle. This wasn’t good.

  “Baird! Smoke!” he shouted at Burgers.

  Burgers stopped firing and opened the chamber on the forty millimeter grenade launcher strapped under the barrel of his M-31. Loading a smoke grenade into it, he pulled the breach closed, aimed and fired down the canyon. A dull boom echoed against the canyon walls followed by the hiss of smoke as it came pouring from the grenade landing at the monster’s feet. Another spoke grenade landed nearby, adding to the white haze engulfing it.

  “Cease fire! Cease fire!” Ben shouted. The Rangers stopped shooting as the creature looked down at the grenade and swiped at it with a meaty clawed hand. Its head whipped about in confusion as the white smoke engulfed it, removing it from their sight.

  “We’re in trouble, Boss,” Ramirez declared.

  “If I get you closer, you think you can put an armor piercing round through that thing’s head?” Ben asked him quickly.

  “Hell yeah, Sir!” Ramirez told him confidently, already ejecting the magazine from his rifle and pulling another one from his vest.

  “All right,” Ben told the soldiers quickly. He gave a quick look and found Burton still conscious, helping Jenkins put a tourniquet and a bandage on his wounded leg. He turned back to the others. “On my go. Ramirez you go high up on the ridge. I’ll go low and get its attention. The rest of you get these people down the path and don’t stop till you get to the trucks!”

  “Sir,” Patricia began, but Ben cut her off.

  “Get these people out of here, LT!” he ordered.

  She gave him a quick, determined nod. “Yes, Sir!”

  “All right! MOVE!” he ordered.

  Ramirez rushed to the dirt cliff to the right of the cut and scrabbled up it as fast as he could while Ben started down the canyon, his rifle up in a ready posture.

  Alacea saw this and started after him.

  Her shout was cut off as Patricia grabbed her by both arms.

  the Va’Shen woman demanded.

  Patricia was panicked and her mind racing, so her translation skills weren’t up to their usual mediocrity. Even so, she tried her best, waving her arm in Ben’s direction.

 

  Burgers had placed himself just inside the canyon, a physical barrier between the villagers and the smoke that hid the still roaring monster. He waved his arm in a wide arc and pointed down the hill, yelling at the villagers to get moving.

  Patricia joined him, yelling in Va’Shen.

  Alacea finally got with the program and started directing her people to move as quickly as they could past the mouth of the canyon, her own thoughts pounding at the inside of her head trying to get her attention.

  What are they doing?!

  Villagers cried out and covered their ears as the sounds of rifle fire came from down the canyon. The yarl roared in reply but did not appear from the smoke.

  As more soldiers and SeaBees appeared, Burgers would ba
rk orders at them. Some were told to stay with the villagers. Those with heavier weapons took positions on either side of the canyon, their rifles pointed toward the smoke, but not firing lest they hit their captain.

  Alacea told her people as she waved them past her.

  The absurdity of that last statement made the words sound funny in her mouth. She dismissed it. They could have run off and left the Va’Shen as bait for the yarl if they wished. The priestess didn’t know why they would try to protect them now.

  Gods and Great Ones, she prayed. I do not understand, but please let no one die until I do!

  Ben stifled the urge to cough as he crept quietly into the bank of white smoke. He didn’t know how long Ramirez would need to find a good spot, but he was sure it wouldn’t take long. He just had to make sure the creature didn’t see him first.

  He stuck to the right wall, using it as guideline through the smoke. He couldn’t see or hear anything, but he knew it wouldn’t take much to get turned around in here. He pointed his rifle at the smoke and let off a burst on full auto, more to keep the creature’s attention than anything else. He heard a roar from nearby and swallowed.

  What the hell are you doing? he asked himself. You are so frigg’n stupid!

  He hated this. He hated every part of this. Ben Gibson was supposed to be sitting on his couch in his kick-ass apartment overlooking Persephone’s main square. He was supposed to go to work, shoot some guns, write letters of reprimand for soldiers who got too drunk the night before, and then go home and hang out with his best friend. Instead, he was here, on a planet full of people he hated and who hated him, people who had blown up that kick-ass apartment, killed that best friend in the world and forced those drunk soldiers to break their minds and bodies in a three-year war none of them wanted.

  Screw this! Screw this so much!

  He turned to his left and peered through the milky white smoke. The only sound he could hear was the hiss of the smoke grenade as it started to run dry and the Va’Shen crying out back on the trail as they hurried past.

  “Here boy,” he sang as if calling a dog. “Who’s a good boy? You’re a good boy! Yes, you are!”

  The Ranger paused and pointed his gun into the air. He fired twice, the rifle’s report echoing against the canyon walls.

  He waited. Nothing.

  What the hell? he complained to himself. How does a monster the size of a tank hide?

  Keeping his rifle in the ready position, he crept further into the canyon.

  He froze as a low whistle warbled at him from high to his right. Turning slowly to his left, he scanned the now-dispersing smoke. Pulling a flash-bang grenade from his vest, he pulled the pin. Hopefully the sound and light would stun it and make it reveal itself.

  “Fetch, you asshole,” Ben muttered. “Flash-bang out!” he cried while tossing the cylinder. He quickly turned away and closed his eyes. He heard the grenade bounce off something and then explode. The creature roared. It sounded close.

  Really close.

  Ben opened his eyes and turned again.

  Holy crap, it was right there!

  The thing glared down at him as the wind carried the last of the white smoke away, a casual growl rumbling past the phlegm in its throat as if to say it was wondering how long it would take before Ben saw it.

  “Who’s a good boy?” Ben asked quietly, trying not to move suddenly on the off-chance its vision was movement based. Didn’t he see an old movie like that once? The dinosaur couldn’t see him if he didn’t move? It wasn’t a dinosaur, but it was every bit as terrifying.

  The creature blew stinking hot air in his face from its nostrils.

  “Okay, Ramirez,” Ben called out, trying to remain calm. “Any time now…”

  On top of the cliff directly above the Ranger captain, Ramirez, lying in a prone firing position, looked at the creature’s forehead through his scope. At this range, he could practically spit on it.

  “All right, buddy,” Ramirez whispered, his finger slowly tightening on the trigger. “Let’s see you spit this back up.”

  Squeeze…squeeze…squeeze…BREAK!

  The rifle kicked against his shoulder as the .338 Lapua round sprang from the rifle with enough force to punch through the engine block of a five-ton truck. The tungsten-tipped anti-materiel rounds were designed to smash through armor plate and any machinery or people hiding behind that armor plate. And Ramirez had put that round right between the creature’s blood red eyes.

  The monster roared and reared up on its hind legs, screaming at the sky in anguished rage.

  “YEAH!” Ben screamed, pumping his fist in the air. Somehow, over the creature’s roar, he heard the sound of something metallic hitting the ground near his feet. He looked down and saw a piece of metal outlined against the white gravel next to his left foot.

  A .338 Lapua round… at least… what was left of it.

  He looked back up as the monster looked back down at him, none the worse for wear from his up close and personal experience with Ramirez’s sniper rifle.

  Ramirez’s eyes went wide at the sight. “Oh, balls!”

  It glared down at Ben as if blaming him personally for whatever strange bug had bit its face.

  Okay, Ben, now what? he asked himself. Thinking quickly, he let go of his rifle, letting it hang from the single-point sling around his shoulder and pulled a fragmentation grenade from the front of his tactical vest.

  New plan, he answered. When this thing comes down to eat me, I’m gonna shove this frag down its throat and see how much armor it has on the inside!

  That is a horrible plan! he shot back.

  The creature lowered its head toward him and opened its massive, fang-filled beak. Ben grasped the pin of the grenade with his other hand, mentally rehearsing his next ten seconds.

  Pull, shove, bang, he chanted in his head.

  He prepared to jerk the pin, but suddenly, he heard the familiar sharp hum of a hardlight rifle. The monster roared again, but this time it was different. It gave off a high-pitched scream and thrashed, rearing up on its hind legs again before falling over onto its right side. It shook and convulsed before a final putrid blast of hot breath escaped its nostrils and then it lay still, a small puff of smoke rising from its back.

  Ben looked at the dead creature dumbstruck. He eyes were finally drawn away from it by movement in the trees and bushes on the ridge atop the far side of the canyon.

  Bao Sen’s red hair and ears burst from a purple bush, two other huntresses, one on either side of her, popped from the foliage to join her.

  The Va’Shen woman raised her hardlight rifle over her head and shouted.

 

  the other two repeated in unison.

  Ben nearly jumped out of his boots when he heard something sliding down the cave wall next to him. Turning, he saw Ramirez land next to him. The NCO whistled appreciatively at the sight of the dead animal.

  “Damn,” Ben whispered to himself. He was alive. He didn’t know how, but he was alive. Realizing he was still holding the grenade, he quickly replaced it in its pouch.

  Bao Sen and her huntresses nimbly descended the canyon’s far wall and strode up to the animal. The lead huntress checked the burnt wound on the creature’s back and nodded in satisfaction.

  Alzoria commented next to her.

  The two turned their heads and watched as Ramirez approached the animal and looked at the wound. Reaching out, he touched the much smaller armor plates that surrounded the hole and found them pliable. He nodded as it all fell into place.

  He turned to Bao Sen. “Weak spot,” he said. He raised his hands and made a motion of one finger punching through the fingers of his other hand.

  Bao Sen’s tail flicked back and forth, satisfied by the pachu’s remark as far as she understood it. only place where they are weak enough to penetrate, even with a hardlight rifle.>

  Alzoria added, her nose snootily in the air.

  Ramirez was too busy looking over the creature to pretend to understand the young huntress’s criticism.

  “Can you eat it?” he asked. At their questioning look, he put his fingers to his mouth. “Eat,” he said and pointed at the creature.

  Bao Sen’s ears twitched happily. She repeated the motion he had made to confirm his question.

  “Captain!”

  “Captain Gibson!”

  Ben looked down the canyon and saw Burgers, Patricia, Jenkins and Alacea making their way toward them, their weapons up and at the ready. He raised his hand.

  “Over here!” he called. “We’re clear!”

  They came forward and looked at the yarl in amazement.

  Alzoria’s tail whipped around behind her. she announced quickly, as if to forestall the Dark Ones from taking credit.

  Alacea gushed.

  Ben shook himself out of the state of shock he was in and turned to his troops. “Everyone okay?”

  “Yeah, we’re fine,” Patricia told him. “Most of the villagers are already past.”

  “Okay, we need to get out of here before this thing’s mom comes looking for us,” Ben said. Patricia translated the command for the Va’Shen, and Bao Sen stepped forward.

  she said.

  Ben waited for Patricia to translate.

  “She said it’s safe now,” she said. “There won’t be any more.”

  “And she’s sure about that?”

  Patricia turned to Bao Sen and repeated the question for her. The Va’Shen woman seemed mildly insulted that her expertise would be questioned.

  she told them.