by Marcus Sloss
Mitchell was leading the sniper teams, who I gave the authorization to open fire.
The radio crackled. “Firing,” Mitchell said.
The heavily armored rider held his mount in place. The drone audio broadcast three retorts. A blue orb crashed against shielding while three more rounds cracked, then shattered the shielding. A single round smashed into something solid, causing the alien combo to jerk. For a brief moment, you could see through what had to be a mirage. The skeleton salamander transitioned into a gravity vehicle. A hideous tentacle monster was strapped to the hovering vehicle. The head was low to the ground with jutting bottom teeth. The tentacles were high in the air flying about in panic. The creature seemed to be located in a central balancing point that was desperately trying to return to normal. The tentacles adjusted to correct the jerking tilt to allow the vehicle to stabilize. I figured it was apparent this alien was wanting a fight. I also knew they did not like that we shot through their shielding and now knew where to aim. I thought of naming this species squiggles.
“Running,” Mitchell said.
The stunned alien shimmered back into the mirage of the large armored knight. A beam of energy tore out of a turret weapon to land exactly where Mitchell had fired from. Mitchell was clear of the beam. His brother tripped. He would have survived if he had stayed down. He stood as the beam arrived. He never saw it coming. His body was flung in pieces as the energy imploded. Mitchell flew into a tumble from his brother’s gory demise. The man scrambled off the thin forest floor as he raced for his electric bike.
The first alien’s cover continued to flicker as the mirage went in and out. We knew where to aim, I merely had to get more forces to the area to effectively fight these invaders.
“Ceasefire. RTB, RTB!” I shouted into the radio.
“Returning to base,” three of the four radios crackled back.
A few random shots arced into the trees where Mitchell sped away from. The alien slowly returned home.
“Fuck,” I muttered to myself as I watched the short engagement unfold. I looked to see which brother was with him. Paul—I knew it was him because his vitals were flat. Obviously. I marked his death location for future recovery. My four teams of two were coming home a man short. This was only the beginning too.
Whatever technology the upside-down squid creature was using, it was impressive. The initial squibble returned home. It was quickly replaced when another skeleton salamander arrived on Earth. My first thought was that it would race for the spot Paul died. The miraged creature rotated the Xgate to inspect the other portals instead. The forest was instantly passed, even sped by. When the gravity sled rounded to the south end, the alien became ecstatic with its back-and-forth movements. The east gate was peeked at only momentarily before being abandoned. The squibble raced to the north portal with the Xgate still moving.
The north button was pressed. Dozens, then hundreds, of those aliens in disguise came onto Earth. They staged on the rocky terrain with a widening perimeter being set. A bubble shield was placed down as additional troops transitioned onto Earth. The Gtower was counting the aliens as they came out. When the number went over a thousand it started giving approximations in spurts of tens. 1120 was the final number. The gate was released. As a unit, the aliens flowed to the southern portal.
The precise formation became erratic at the sight of the archipelago world. The Xgate was over water at this point. They never locked the gate down. The squiggles splashed into the water world. Their mirages vanished upon contact with the crystal-clear blue ocean. The gravity sleds continued to propel the creatures. They darted in the water with glee. The Xgate quieted when the last one vanished into the deeper blue. Jevon entered the RV in a fluster.
He was about to talk when the busty crixxi burst through the portal. “Need help! Can pay!” she pleaded in panic.
“Mansion Six, this is Aspen Six,” Colonel Reinhardt said.
“Go,” I replied.
“I have three thousand armed men. If we coordinate our aim, we should defeat those—oh, you named them squibbles already—that squibble army. Even help the fantastic-tits lady—aw, you renamed their race crixxi—if you are up for it. I bet those sleds contain all sorts of rare metals and we know what to do now. Concentrate fire at the middle point.”
“I can field five hundred at most. Mansion is moving out. ETA an hour at earliest.”
“See you on the field, Aspen out.”
Jevon leaped into action. He made the callouts over the command channel. I dialed into Mitchell directly.
“Are you able to help the damsel in distress?”
“Poor Paul, not a chance in hell he wouldn’t divert us to help. I will do what I can. Get me intel,” Mitchell said while closing the connection.
I assumed command of the small drone not far from the crixxi woman. The little drone buzzed close to the woman and I broadcast my voice. “What is attacking you? How is it defeated?”
“Rolling lava giants. A projectile round to the brain works best. Our electric spears are weak and nearly useless. Please hurry—”
Mitchell asked her to press the emergency override. “Lock the gate down, ma’am.”
She ran for the gate and slammed her hand to the button. All the other portals stopped shimmering their teal coloration. The bright construct converted into dark shadows on three edges.
Dedric rolled us forward to stay close to the truck in front of us. The Mansion army was on the move. The long snaking trail of vehicles jostled down the dirt road in a hurry. My eyes only darted off the screen briefly to wave to the guards we passed by.
Mitchell was racing with his dirt bike for the Xgate. Six others followed in his wake. They bounced over the rough terrain like the experts they were. I set the drone to look at the jungle portal. Peterson kept a separate eye in the sky now that the other portals were gray. I saw the rolling demon inside.
“Mitchell, there are a half dozen crixxi getting slaughtered as they keep the beast distracted. The attacker is thirty feet tall. Ball wheel under the torso. Large black horns on top of red lava skin. Orange tattoos flare around the body, so reduce brightness sensitivity to optics. There are two eye slots and a vulnerable neck ring of orange on the head,” I said. Knowing I was going to have to give them a name, I randomly thought of lurrol.
“Roger, shoot the eyes or neck. What is it using offensively?”
“Uh… Flamethrower, except the lurrol is spewing short bursts of lava. The area around the creature is spewing flames of fire.”
“Understood,” Mitchell's voice was grim. “Do not get close,” he said, closing the connection.
The man was racing to the fight with his two weapons. The fifty-caliber sniper rifle was bound to the side of his bike. He slung the nitrogen-ball–firing weapon over his back. When the motorcycle neared the portal he spun the bike to face south for a quick retreat. He swiftly placed the kickstand with a leg while his hands unbound the fifty-caliber sniper rifle.
The lurrol monster inside the portal was oblivious to everything besides the destruction of the crixxi. Those forest people were doing a great job of distracting the massive lurrol, but that was all they were accomplishing. I saw no damage to the rolling red fire golem.
Mitchell waited for the other teams to arrive with their .308s. They spread out and walked as one into the portal. When they shimmied across I held my breath. I could not hear them from this side, but they appeared to be shouting to get the beast to turn. I was mildly surprised the lurrol gave them its eyes when they succeeded in garnering its attention. The discharge of the weapons was evident by the kicks they applied against the soldiers’ shoulders.
Bullets crashed against its face, with the lurrol instinctively placing large three-fingered hands up defensively. The rolling monster may have turned, but the lurrol did not sit still. The creature rolled in a bellowing charge of spittle. The lurrol was insanely fast with its balled lower half. It rapidly closed the distance for Mitchell and his crew. They fired a few
more rounds before turning in a sprint. Only a few feet onto the jungle planet, they arrived back on Earth quickly.
Mitchell raced for his dirt bike with pumping legs and brief shoulder glances. He ordered his troops to disperse as they fled the massive monster.
“Release the gate! Grab on behind me!” Mitchell shouted to the crixxi woman.
The gate hovered into the air. The rolling rock monster tried to slow its approach to avoid the drop a lifted gate induced. I noticed a leaking orange goop seeping profusely from its neck region. A fifty-caliber sniper round tended to leave a mark. This one looked fatal with time.
The rolling lava beast tumbled onto Earth through the portal. The fall had been enough to cause damage to the already wounded monster. The lurrol weakly tried to raise its body after falling. The eyes looked with seething hatred at Mitchell, who had stopped. Mitchell sighted, then fired at the motionless target. The back of the lava creature's skull ballooned from the round; it did not explode as the exterior held the round in. Not that it mattered if it failed to explode out the cranium. The creature died in a collapsed heap.
Mitchell reloaded like the professional he was. No point in having a single round in a five-round magazine remaining. A second rolling lurrol monster followed behind the first, but paused at seeing its dead kin. I hoped this smaller lurrol would retreat. Nope. The second lurrol thudded upon its arrival on Earth from the drop. Mitchell held his ground. I think he had their movement down. The first round dove into the brain and the lava roller tumbled in death, causing Mitchell and his team to bounce from the impact.
A male crixxi hopped down into a somersault. If the ladies were babes, the men were super hunks. I heard Peterson purr from behind me. The crixxi man locked down the portal. He had a furry mane around his neck. Handsome features, over-the-top large muscles, and he even gave a winning smile to the drone.
“Damn, I thought I was pretty. I am super not gay but that lion dude makes Norm look plain,” Jevon said.
“It’s okay, Willow, you can think he’s attractive,” I said to her while she watched the video.
“I should, I mean, I really should. But I don’t… I look at him and I’m unaffected. I look at you and get wet. I think… because of the virum. Well—”
I cut her off. “Peterson, Bonnie, have you mated yet?”
“Bit personal, Cap, but no. I have been eyeing men like steak. I am trying to control the temptations,” Peterson said with a shy chin tuck. “But the hunka-hunka prime rib might make me lose control.”
“I want some big lion cock!” Bonnie blurted. She covered her mouth briefly. “Eek. Sorry. My mind has been in the gutter. I am normally a lesbian but I think the virum want me to breed. My wife and I have been eyeing men like candy. The thing is, I think the virum know my initial desire and are respecting it. I still see my wife as appealing.”
Nancy scoffed and said, “Yeah, Willow and I got kinky this morning. Woke poor Perci up. I agree, the virum approve if it is not competition, I think. Not sure. They do cohost and not dominate.”
“ETA is thirty-five minutes,” Dedric said, reading my mind’s desire to shift topics.
I scanned for Jevon. He was up top in the loft, relaxing.
“How is the convoy doing?” I said now that the situation was stabilizing.
“We have a few stragglers catching up. We are pushing hard to arrive at the same time as Aspen,” Jevon said while tapping on his Gpad. He frowned at his data. “If the squibbles spend all day in the water, then this adventure will be short lived. Unless you both decide to trail the gate.”
“They looked awfully excited for the water. Both planets had large swaths of what looked like oceans.”
“Prisoners or food is my guess,” Jevon said while pulling up a past video of the north portal. The video screen displayed the herds on the savannah landscape. They were roaming, grazing, sunbathing, and some little animals appeared to be playing. “See the animals on that savannah? Loads of them, far more than there should be. That tells me they must want ocean creatures, or to turn those freaky frog humanoids into slaves. They are not hurting for red meat.”
“Time to be a Viking. We go in, blast those animals, load up, and come home,” I said, looking at the video he broadcast for me. “Pass the word. Get opinions. I got the crixxi lady wanting to talk.”
“Well, at least she is no longer fantastic-tits lady.”
Willow laughed and said, “Fuck yes, she is. I wonder if they have single babies. Do they do litters? Can you ask that?” I glanced over my shoulder to see Willow with a tilted head and soft pouty lips pressed outward in thought.
“What!? No, now silence,” I ordered with a soft chuckle. My tone was far more playful than scolding.
“Is this working?” the woman with large owl ears on top of her head asked. The coloration was a light forest brown with a dark shade of red fur inside. The ears would blend into the forest. The lush fire-red hair with bright yellow eyes were anything but discreet. “Hello, I am hitting the button as you said, Hero Mitchell.”
“He thinks you are pretty like I do. Men struggle for words in front of gorgeous damsels in distress.”
“There is no distress. The gate is locked. No more can come to our world.”
“Excuse me, ma’am. Do you have a name? I mistakenly gave you one earlier.”
“Mitchell calls me Elifer, which works as it doesn’t directly translate to something sexual in my language. Your soldier will be rewarded. We said we would pay and we mean it. However, my tribe needs a place to hide or to hire you as mercenaries to defend our home. At least for the next blue rotation. Our worst nightmare arrived at our gate. The lurrol will torch our homes if we remain. There's a chance they will halt their destruction if they think the area is abandoned.”
“What do the lurrol seek?”
“We can only guess. We have heard of them but never encountered their kind. Recently, we lost our main home to a larger tribe of crixxi. We were forced to live in the most dangerous place, by the Xgate. We have a light data stream in our translators regarding the lurrol.” She pointed to the white device above where her plump, exposed breasts started. “This tells me the lurrols are here to terraform worlds one portal section at a time. They spray lava, go home, get more, come back, and spray more lava. Their home is overpopulated. This is how they spread their kind after they destroy the local defenders,” Elifer said. I finally clued into her name. Belly fur. I managed to contain my snicker.
“Surely your forest is vast and you can retreat further into it?” I asked.
“If you suddenly forced yourself on your neighbors, would they let you in?”
“Maybe, doesn’t hurt to ask. Oh, this is you asking, isn't it?” I said, putting it together.
“The crixxi are highly territorial. We raid each other for mates, food, and spoils. We tend to war a lot. Even through portals,” Elifer said with a defeated exhale and slumped shoulders. I didn’t think she was trying to tug at my heartstrings, but she was. Mitchell gave her a hug with a few soldiers snickering in the background.
“How do you sustain a population if you are always fighting? I lost three soldiers and one citizen in the last ten days with zero born.”
“We use virum— Wait, you know the name. Then you understand,” Elifer said with a “duh” expression.
“We are new to virum; it was not intentionally introduced to us. Well, not my tribe, anyway. Please explain,” I said, and she frowned.
“Like how we crixxi make our young. Well, I would remove my—”
Mitchell cut in and said, “We know how sex works. The babies. How do you have so many so quickly?”
Peterson mumbled in the background, “I would have listened to more sex talk.”
I rolled my eyes but did grin.
“We crixxi have amazing hearing. How is someone snoring at a time like this?” Elifer said, and I faintly heard Felix snoring from behind the bedroom door. “Hmm… I will still answer. The virum control our cycles. We used t
o have single babies before the virum. Now we have multiples. Up to four. Same gestation time. The babies are happy and grow up very healthy. I will mate after birth a few days after and I’ll have three or four more little ones six months later. I never age, I heal quickly from childbirth, and I almost instantly become pregnant again. Without the virum we crixxi would have perished. Hence our neighbors not having room for us. We would starve out their children. If you are on virum you either have extra food or plan on getting extra food soon, or else you would have rejected my asking for sanctuary right away.”
“Fuck me,” Willow blurted. “Four babies, then four more right away.”
“Nine months is a long time. And we can cure the virum next cycle,” I said to Willow.
“I am going to ask something: do you know how the cure of virum is performed?” Elifer asked.
Nancy slid into my lap to occupy the screen. “There is another invasive species that kills the virum. They go into the host body to hunt the virum. They cause damage, but when they are done they will return to a vial for reuse. Then I will have to use a melder with protein to fix up the human bodies.”
“Ah, so you do not know?”
“Know what?” Nancy asked, confused.
“You are sitting in your mate’s lap without desire. Am I correct?” Elifer asked, and Nancy nodded. “Then you are with child. Even in the tiniest of stages that child will have virum in them.”
The dots connected. Nancy groaned, then moaned. She was a woman of science. Yet she was also a miscarried mother. I held her tightly. Elifer put the point home even further.
“If one of your ladies declines the cure, then the rest will be re-infected with time. There is an offspring control we use for those mothers wanting a break. Even the virum understands this, we think, as it works better on mothers with more offspring born. Virum can destroy nails, bone, skin, muscles, but not solid rock. We place rocks in our ovaries. I think we have relatively similar internal bodies. We have fur, longer tongues, tails, extra ears, and more fangs, but structurally we are almost the same. In our bodies we place the stones in the ovaries. The virum accept them as growing young and then you stop getting pregnant. Not perfect; your desire will be in the middle of full lust and minimal yearning. New mothers of only a few rotations will painfully reject the stones at a one in ten rate. The pain fades, though, and you simply replace the stones. My mother has not had a child in over”—the translator was calculating time with two uncommon denominators—“four hundred years.”