by Korza, Jay
His ears were flat to his head so his enemies wouldn't have anything to grab in a fight. Although he could pop them out to gather more sound as needed, that wasn't their natural state of being.
He had three eyes, sort of. Two regular ones, set forward on his head like any other predator but he also had built-in tracks that allowed his eyes to move independently to either side of his head. Centuries before the purging, the scientists had tried adding eyes to the warriors but they could never get the brain to work as well, trying to decipher multiple views from different angles at the same time. Thousands upon thousands of known species could, but it seems only the universe and nature can achieve certain genetic wonders.
His third eye was more of a sensor than an eye. Though it seemed to be an actual eye, it was milky and dead looking. It was stationary, with no ocular muscles and a nictating membrane to keep it moist. It was sensitive to pressure, light, sound, and even some forms of radiation. It couldn't necessarily see in the dark but between its light and sound sensing ability, the warriors could get a fairly accurate idea of what was around them.
Because light is both a wave and a particle, the third eye could sense the particles hitting it and determine the surroundings based on negative space. As light was projected towards a warrior, if someone or something was between the warrior and the light source, the object would create a negative space in his field of view that he could see.
The same principle applied to sound as it bent around or was stopped by objects. The eye could also tell the difference between reflected and direct sound. So if sound was bouncing off an object in front of him or coming from the object, he would have a direct picture of the object. If sound was flowing around the object, he would have a negative space interpretation of the object.
The warrior's neck was fairly non-existent. With his eyes being able to move to the sides, there was no reason for him to turn his neck. With no reason to turn his neck, there was no reason to add the weakness of having a neck that could be broken in battle.
His spine was fairly similar to most bipedal species until it got below the upper quarter of his back. The spine then curved inward towards the center of his body and stayed there until it connected with his hips. The interior spine was more along the lines of ball and socket joints at each vertebrae. This allowed the interior spine to have a range of motion in three hundred and sixty degrees around the body. He could bend over backward and touch his heels just as easily as he could bend forward and touch his toes. This gave him “abdominal” muscles around the circumference of his torso.
On the top of his torso, he had large powerful arms that had almost the same range of motion that his back did. He could almost use his arms behind his body as well as he could in front of himself. Each hand had three fingers and an opposable thumb. The fingers were large and thick with beefed-up bone structure to keep them from breaking when the warrior struck something or someone. If it weren't for his second set of arms on the front of his torso, his front and back would almost look the same.
His second set of arms was smaller than the first but still strong. Their range of motion was much more limited than the upper arms because they came from the middle of the torso rather than the sides and therefore had very limited shoulder joints. They were mostly used for technical adaptations such as working electronics and control boards. They were also used extensively during feeding. While the upper arms were pushing the food into their mouths, their lower arms were controlling the still-live meals and breaking bones to prepare them to fit inside the mouth. During a fight, the lower arms also tended to wield small bladed instruments for hand-to-hand combat.
Moving down the torso, the warrior's hips and legs were fairly unremarkable other than their size and obvious power. The knees were jointed behind them to make them superb runners. The legs extended to oval feet with two toe-claws forward and one pointed backwards for stability. The one in the rear could be retracted upward to get them out of the way while they were running. They also had a large vestigial dew claw that was razor sharp but fairly non-functional. The scientist had opted to leave it in place because it was a fearsome-looking weapon and the placebo effect was just as useful in battle as it was in medicine.
The warrior was still admiring his form when he heard an announcement coming from a speaker inside his tube.
All newly awakened warriors, move to the transit station to receive your orders.
The warrior turned and saw the transit station and watched as his brothers began moving towards it. When he arrived, he got in line behind one of his identical brothers. As they approached the landing craft, each warrior was given a set of orders. Theoretically, they were all the same with the same training, so it didn't matter who went where.
He stepped up to the transport and received his orders from an elder warrior. He was being sent to a ship that was scheduled to launch as soon as he boarded. Apparently it needed one more crew member to replace a recently lost brother. The ship was being sent to a long-lost colony of the empire. The mission was to observe a group of beings who called themselves humans.
The humans were apparently digging up an old base that had been abandoned more than a thousand years ago. The warriors needed to know why the humans were doing this and also wanted to know what the humans would find. The rest was classified.
A sigh escaped his mouth and he noticed the elder warrior giving him a sideways glance. He quickly subdued his expression and moved into the transport. Although he thought it was too late to be turned to mush, it was never too late to be placed in a torture tube or the arena. Neither one was an appealing thought and he knew right then and there that although he could fight and die for the empire, he would never be able to just throw his life away if his death wouldn't serve some purpose.
The rumble of the transport turned his attention away from thinking and he settled in for the ride.
Chapter 7
Warrior Ship – Vengeance’s Pride
The captain looked at his view screen with disgust. What slugs these soft-fleshed creatures were. To be digging up the remains of his great ancestor’s colony, what audacity they had.
“Any word from Supreme Command?” the captain asked his communications officer.
“None, sir. I will notify you immediately of any change in status.” Although he could understand his captain’s growing level of anxiety, he wished that the CO would stop asking him the same question at every shift change. The communications officer was also tired of observing this outpost and desired to just annihilate it from orbit, as did his captain. Two months of watching these soft creatures was enough for anyone with half a brain to go crazy.
“Sir,” the first officer began, “maybe a small scouting mission would improve morale. We know that their sensors can easily be fooled; our presence in this space proves that. We have nothing to fear from these ingrates, even if we were detected.”
The captain was inclined to agree but disobeying orders meant a slow and agonizing death if he were caught. He should, by proper regulations, have his first officer put to death slowly for even suggesting such a thing. But the two warriors had served together for many decades and they had an unsaid agreement that either had no fear to speak his mind around the other.
That agreement, of course, was null and void if anyone else overheard their conversation. The captain would then have to perform his duty and torture his best friend to death just to save face, not to mention his own hide.
“You know that is not possible. We have been given orders to observe and that is all. The prisoners we received from the other bases have yielded no information that is of use to us. We have interrogated almost all of them and found nothing that we didn’t already know about this puny and insignificant Coalition.” He added with what would pass as a chuckle, “They don’t even taste good.”
The first officer had to agree with his captain. He had tried these humans served in many different ways, but not even his favorite dish appealed to him when serve
d with their weak meat. The Shirkas, on the other hand, were much more appealing: their flesh was strong, as a warrior’s should be, and tasted fantastic. He couldn’t wait until they had clearance to perform a scouting mission. Maybe the humans would taste better if he performed the kill himself. Only time would tell. Supreme Command felt they needed more time before ordering the full-scale invasion and conquest of this sector to take back what was rightfully theirs.
Although they didn’t speak aloud, both the captain and his first officer were wondering the same thing. Who had destroyed their outposts nearly a thousand years ago? It surely wasn’t these small humans. The records were clear that a plague forced the evacuation and quarantine of this sector a thousand years ago. There had never been any mention of an attack on the bases. And yet they received a fragmented distress signal that was sent almost a thousand years ago stating that the colonies were under attack. The distress signal they received didn’t say who was attacking or where they came from. It was a mystery to everyone back on the home world.
The captain surmised that Supreme Command was hoping that these humans would discover the fate of their lost colony for them. Why waste their precious time on research when someone else could do it for them? That’s how they always worked—let someone else do it. They stuck to conquest and war, and allowed everyone else to do the rest. Everyone was good at something, even if it wasn’t an important something, so why not let them do it? It was easier than trying to learn how to do it yourself. It had been that way for countless millennia. He suddenly remembered a phrase that had been written in one of the human’s textbooks that they had retrieved: “If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.” For a species that he felt was subpar to his, the captain thought that they at least agreed on one thing.
The energy sensor indicator light on the lower left of the captain’s command screen suddenly lit up. For a brief moment, he thought that an insubordinate had gotten twitchy during a firing drill and accidentally launched a torpedo to the surface. However, the captain knew better. No one on his ship would make that kind of error; if it had happened, it was purposeful and that meant death to the accused.
“What the hell was that energy signature!” the captain barked to his operations officer.
“We’re trying to figure that out now, sir. I can’t confirm it but I believe they found a weapons cache and the self-destruct module went into effect.”
“Ah, that’s why the energy signature is our own.” But nonetheless, the captain was still pulling up the ship’s weapons log to see whether any of his armament was missing. He found that he had a full inventory and was satisfied with his operations officer’s assessment. “Communications, send a message to Supreme Command notifying of this latest,”—what did the humans call it? Ah yes—”cluster fuck. And request further orders.”
At this rate, the captain thought disgustedly, there wouldn’t be anyone left for his crew to do battle with. Not that a fight with these humans would take very long, but it would improve morale. What slugs these creatures were.
Chapter 8
Dig Site One – Ooops
The explosion knocked Daria on her ass, which wouldn’t have been too bad if her ass hadn’t been pointed towards a two-meter deep excavation hole at the time. Although she constantly complained that her reflexes had become sluggish from this planetside duty, she was still out of the hole in a flash with her assault rifle in one hand and medical pack in the other. “What in the hell was that!” she yelled to Davies, who was already at her side with his weapon also at the ready.
“I don’t know. Where are we going, anyway? I don’t see a fire; I don’t even know where the explosion was. I just got knocked on my butt and then I heard it.”
They both stopped and Daria realized that he was right. They didn’t even know where they were going. Then, as though answering their question, Emily came up from behind in an air car.
“Get in! There was an explosion three kilometers away at the secondary excavation site!” As Daria got in, she tried to take control of the transport—it was just in her nature—but to her surprise, Emily gave her a dismissing wave to the co-pilot’s seat.
Daria was gaining more respect for this woman all the time. Emily was eight years her junior at the young age of twenty-four, but she never seemed to care. In fact, Emily never asked Daria how old she was.
“Three kilometers! What nuclear device went off and who launched it?!” Daria was pulling up the air car’s sensors to detect any radiation that might be harmful and was surprised when she found none. Not one single trace of abnormal radiation. What could have knocked her on her can at three kilometers and not be nuclear in nature?
At a hundred and fifty kilometers per hour, Emily was handling the car as though she were out on a Sunday drive. This girl could drive, Daria thought. At this speed, they would reach the site in less than two minutes. Thankfully, there was no nuclear signature, Daria thought, because if there had been they would have already been radiated to the teeth with how fast they had reached their destination.
Well, it couldn’t really be called a site anymore. It was gone. A five hundred meter-radius area had been completely wiped clean of all vegetation. A ring of boulders and smaller rocks encompassed the site at about two hundred meters. The rocks had been pushed back by the blast until the force wasn’t strong enough to push them any farther. The area immediately surrounding the newly formed crater was smooth rock that had been under the five meters or so of soil that was covering it just moments ago.
Daria put her medical pack and weapon down on the deck. She wouldn’t need either now. No one could have survived that blast and whoever initiated it wouldn’t be stupid enough to be close by when their weapon went off. Emily landed the air car near the mouth of the crater and checked a seismic sensor reading to be sure they were on stable ground before exiting the car.
“C’mon. Let’s see what happened.” Emily seemed to be the only one who could talk. Davies exited the car from the rear and took a handheld sensor array from the bed of the car. He took it to the edge of the crater and keyed his comlink to the operations center.
“Command center, this is Sergeant Davies from site one. I’m at site two with el-tee Riley and Petty Officer O’Connor. Did you register that explosion?” Of course they had and he knew it. But he had to be sure; maybe the REMF back at base was sleeping or jerking off to a magazine in the bathroom when he should’ve been at his sensor post. Of course, even then, he would’ve fallen into the toilet when that shockwave hit.
“Affirmative, Sergeant. We are sending out reinforcement troops to your position. Can you give an estimate of enemy origin and size of attacking force?” He seemed so cold and formal. Davies knew that whoever this guy was, he had never been in any battle other than on a video game. Anyone with field time would’ve at least seemed a little concerned for their comrades’ well-being.
“Negative, command. We don’t think that it was an attack. There is no sign of hostile forces present. Just a big, no, make that a huge hole where site two used to be. We need a full scan team out here ASAP to search for survivors and a clue as to what happened.” Davies looked at Daria and shrugged. “Hey, I know that no one could’ve survived this but I’d want them to look just in case if I had been here. Besides, Flusner was posted here.”
Daria’s shoulders slumped a little. Flusner had been a good friend for many years. She had patched him up more than once in a battle but she knew that even she couldn’t do anything for him this time.
Emily’s head cocked to the side as she received a message on her comlink. “Yes, I concur with Corporal Davies’ transmission. Get those teams out here now. And by the way, don’t ever question my people again! If you’d get off your ass once in a while and stopped staring at your console, you might learn something from these marines!” She hoped that the way she had said “marines” would let that operations puke know that she didn’t consider him a real marine.
Probably some lab geek, she thought. Going by
the book with no room for improvisation. When there was a senior ranking officer on site, they were supposed to get confirmation orders before following those of an enlisted man. What bull, she thought.
“Yes, ma’am! Right away!”
She gave Davies a little smile. “Those REMF’s—why can’t they just listen to us field operatives?”
“I don’t know, Lieutenant, but I don’t think he’ll make that mistake twice. You are becoming one hellava salty dog.” Davies had finished setting up his short-range scanner when he saw Daria getting repelling gear from the car. “Where do you think you’re going?”
“The sensors indicate no residual heat or radiation. The bottom is two kilometers down with updrafts that won’t allow any air vehicle to get down there. Besides, it’s a walk in the park.” Too easy, she thought. It worried her a little. The walls of the hole were rock, but smooth rock. It was almost as though it was prefabricated and the explosion just blew everything out of the man, or whatever, made hole.
She knew it wasn’t natural and her curiosity was getting the best of her. Her friend died in that hole and she wanted to know why.
“Wait a minute”, Emily warned. “I have a life sign, faint but there. Almost two kilometers in that direction.” She pointed towards the opposite side of the hole that they had come in on.
Well, curious or not, the hole would have to wait. Daria jumped back into the air car and the three soldiers began towards their fallen comrade. As they departed, the sensor team was arriving and Emily was giving them orders as to where and what she wanted scanned for first. Again with skill Daria had not seen the rival of, Emily got to the wounded soldier in less than a minute.