by Terry Frost
After the short recess, the meeting began again where they had left off. The discussions went on for another hour then Admiral Allen dismissed everyone except Colonel Hammer. When everyone had left, Allen asked Jak to take a seat.
“I want to talk to you privately, Colonel. What I have in mind is an extremely dangerous mission but I’m confident you and Major Hoser would be up to the task.”
“I appreciate your confidence in me, sir. So, what do you need the Major and I to do, Admiral?”
“I totally understand Burseq Maalik’s desire to pound the Hive out of existence and to get started today. But that goal is not possible as it stands in the short-term. I need to inform you that I don’t take lightly what you have been willing to do while performing your duties, Colonel.
“You are probably one of the most important members of my staff and the Colossus can ill-afford to lose you.” Allen looked away from Jak for a couple seconds then looked at him again and continued saying what was in his worried mind.
“Being the Supreme Commander of Colossus is a daunting task and decisions have to be made by me that sometimes keep me up at night.”
“Excuse me, Admiral. I understand one-hundred percent and I’m sure it is a difficult position to be in. But I know of no other man that could have handled what the USC has intrusted you to do. Now, with that out of the way and with all due respect, Admiral, could you give me my orders and let’s get on with it?”
“Allen laughed and said, “I can see why Alias is such a fan of yours, Jak, and I believe I’ve just become one myself. So, get on with it I will. The mission I’m giving you and Major Hoser is to recon Planet Daak.
‘There is some vitally important information we need from the recon, beginning with Hive nest numbers still at or near the Daakie homeworld. Secondary and the most dangerous action of the mission is to find out if King Gaakin and Caid Tikit are still alive. Earlier in the day while debriefing Maalik, Prince Gorvik said he felt the moment his uncle perished.
“I’m no expert on the psychosis of the Daakie mind but maybe he was mistaken. It may be a fool's errand because they are probably dead. But if they're not and we can rescue them, I can only imagine how helpful it would be to the remaining Daakie’s mindset for their success for the challenges moving forward.”
“The two of you will take a designated jump capable hornet on the mission. I felt it important to keep any signatures of spacecraft the Hive might pick up on their scanners to be small, and in their minds, insignificant”
“Will anyone else know about our mission, Admiral?”
“Yes, General Dubois and Admiral Petrov. I will not bring Burseq Maalik in on the mission because if the news is bad, I for one don’t want to give him hope then have it crushed.”
Allen stood up as did Hammer and the admiral offered his hand to the colonel and said, “You have your orders. Find Hoser, and bring him up to speed. You will be leaving within the hour. Any questions?”
“None, Admiral.”
Hammer started to the door and hesitated when he heard his Admiral say, “Report only to me and do it often and get yourselves safely back here. Don’t muck this up, Colonel.”
Chapter 21
Admiral Allen suggested to Maalik that he should go back to his ship and take some time to gather his thoughts and emotions. Allen asked him to inform him when he was ready to come back to Colossus for some more mission planning.
Vice Admiral Petrov had given the command chair to Gordo McManus for an hour or so while he left the bridge to locate the admiral. He thought even with the current events that had taken place they still needed to decide, when and if, they were going to allow some Colossians to leave the ship for a day of exploring the new world below them. He had been told by Allen that Colossus would stay in orbit around the planet during any Hive missions, at least for a while.
Petrov decided to call Allen instead of walking around looking for him after all, Colossus was one big mother of a ship.
“Allen.”
“Petrov, sir. I wish to confer with you about our discussion a while back about allowing a select few Colossians to go planetside for some exploring. I can come to you if you would like.”
The Admiral and Dr. Stavens had just completed a private interrogation of each other’s bodies and he had just kissed the good doctor goodbye when Petrov called him.
“I’ve got to take this. I’ll catch-up with you at another time. I really appreciate you relieving some of my stress.”
“Glad to be of service, Admiral Allen,” Victoria said.
“Oh, don’t say it like that. You know I love you.”
Victoria grinned wide, winked and said, “I love you too. Now get, I’ve got other things to do today.
“Anatoli, meet me in my Ready Room. I’m in engineering so give me a minute to get there.” Damn, I hate lying to Anatoli.
****
“Could we board a ship and find a new home that takes us far away from the Hive creatures? We can’t go back to Daak, we would be killed and eaten,” Junal said.
“We should get betrothed before we do anything. Burseq Maalik can perform the ceremony on board his Zurgut. I know it is not the kind of ceremony we would have if we were joining as one in front of thousands of Daakie at the Palace, and I would be doing so as King Gorvik.”
“Junal’s heart wants a life with Gorvik. Junal does not think about Prince, King or what else. I love and want to be with you, Gorvik, not title.”
“I’m bound by honor to become King of Daakie. As long as the Daakie has a military, there will be a king. I cannot abandon my people, Junal. But that doesn’t mean we can’t be together throughout our lives. I must think on this a while longer.”
****
Allen and Petrov were having their meeting concerning the visit to the new perspective Human homeworld by some of the Colossians. They decided to allow forty people at a time to go down for no more than three hours. Then upon their return, another forty would go. Allen and Petrov agreed the explorations would need to be completed over an eight-hour period.
“I’ll designate one person to be responsible for recording each group’s visit. To keep the peace amongst those that aren’t picked for the trip it would help if everyone else could view the recordings,” Petrov said.
“Excellent idea, Anatoli. I suggested to Burseq Maalik that he take a few hours to rest his mind and body for a while before coming back on board for more discussions on Elimination Hive. He sure looked tired when last we saw him. So, there is no better time than the present to get the exploration trip underway.
“Once you have everything ready for them to go down, let me know. I wish to speak to the eighty before they put one foot on the shuttles. Make sure before I speak to them they have had time to read and fully understand our strict protocols regarding off ship excursions. While you are taking care of that, I have a mission for Commodore’s Moon and it concerns the elimination of a creature known by the Putu as the Evil Eater.”
“What the hell is an Evil Eater, Arvin?”
“I will bring you up to speed on it once both our immediate missions are underway.”
“I’m damn curious about the Evil Eater, Admiral. Thanks for allowing me to wonder what the hell that thing is until you can explain.”
Allen put his hand on his friend’s shoulder as he walked him to the door and said, “If it makes you feel any better, I don’t know what the hell the thing is either. That’s why I’m sending a team of Marines back to Commodore’s Moon supervised by Commodore Jeeves to find out.”
Chapter 22
Jeeves was elated when Admiral Allen informed him of his mission to locate, and if possible, eliminate the Evil Eater on Commodore’s Moon. He was assigned Sergeant Lick Givens and a squad of four Marines to assist him on his mission. Captain Slain and Lieutenant James Cargon were giving the task of delivering the Commodore, his Marines, and a Rover to a location near an area the alien Tinko had designated as the place the Evil Eater was known to live.
It was early morning on Commodore’s Moon when standing near the bay door of the Striker, was Sergeant Givens watching a corporal drive the Rover down the off-ramp. The squad of Marines was heavily armed which included small nuclear grenades. Givens thought it better to be safe than sorry for not bringing along enough firepower.
With the Rover off-loaded, Sergeant Givens walked down and climbed into the Rover. Commodore Jeeves, Captain Slain, and Lieutenant Cargon walked to the back of the Striker. Captain Slain spoke: “How long do you think it will take you to locate and eliminate the creature that has been eating your alien friend’s young?”
“They are called littles, Captain.”
“Littles, what are littles?”
“They're young. I will check back with you every hour or so to keep you updated. I can only approximate the time it might take to complete this endeavor but I don’t see it taking more than three to four hours.”
Jeeves walked down the ramp and got into the Rover and they headed down the Greatest Lake beach on a northerly heading. “Whatever that damn thing is I hope none of our people become its breakfast,” Slain commented.
The Striker would remain on the beach until the mission was complete. Unless it was required to bring a hell of a lot more firepower than the Sergeant and his men had on them. Captain Slain thought no one has any idea how big the Evil Eater is. It could be the size of a large cat, an elephant, or a T-Rex.
The Rover was only good for transporting the team to the area designated by Commodore Jeeves as the place to enter the forest. The rest of the trip would be on foot but should move along fairly quickly as they had no upper canopies to deal with. The monster was not a tree climber and was confined to the ground. The thing must have something with him that causes the small aliens to keep feeding him. If not, then all they had to do was keep themselves above the canopy and out of the Evil Eater’s reach.
Jeeves and his team finally reached the insertion point. He was the first to get out of the Rover followed by the rest of the team. Everyone one including the Commodore stared at the enormous trees for a few seconds.
“This way, gentlemen,” Jeeves said.
The team walked cautiously through the forest for several miles. The Marines held their quassrifles at the ready with the exception of Sergeant Givens. His preferred weapon was a nuclear grenade launcher attached to a rapid projectile firing machine gun.
With the exception of some strange looking rodents similar to squirrels without tails, very large rats, and a weird looking pig type animal with a ridge of sharp spines running the length of its back, most of the trip was quiet and uneventful.
After another mile of walking, a partial clearing came into view. The team walked slowly up to the beginning of the clearing and surveyed the area. An area of about two hundred yards long and twenty yards wide was completely devoid of trees.
Speaking quietly, Sergeant Givens said to Commodore Jeeves, “It looks like something crashed through here while taking a fairly good stand of trees with it.”
“I agree with your assessment, Sergeant. The event must have taken place some time ago as the floor has begun to replenish itself.”
The team stepped out into the open area and Givens pointed to the east saying, “Looks like whatever cleared the forest came down and in from the east. We should head west from here, and I’ll lay a bunch of credits we will run into the object in that direction.”
Jeeves and his team only had to walk down the cleared area only a quarter-mile when they stopped, moved quickly into the forest, and took a minute to digest what they saw lying near the entrance to a large cavern. What they were looking at was a spaceship, but nothing like they had ever seen before.
The spaceship was larger than the USC’s hornet and the nose of it was buried several feet deep into the ground. One wing had been sheared off and the midsection had two long black lines running down the side. It was obvious to Commodore Jeeves the alien’s ship had taken hits from another type of spaceship.
“Sergeant, let’s get closer to the ship but stay far enough away from the entrance to the cave. I feel it advisable to wait and see if what was flying that ship will show itself fairly soon,” Jeeves said.
“I damn sure don’t have a problem with that, Commodore. I’ve never feared a single damn thing in my military life but the sound of something called the Evil Eater does not appeal to me, nor my men, I would imagine.”
The team stayed on the edge of the left side of the forest until they were within forty yards from the ship and the cave. Sergeant Givens motioned for his Marines to kneel and wait, but stay in a firing position.
They were close enough to see a large mound of small animal bones just inside the cave’s entrance. Givens said, “I’m guessing those are the remains of your alien friend’s young.”
“Affirmative, Sergeant. And by the size of the pile, I would say the Evil Eater has been here for quite some time.”
“The thought of something eating anyone’s young irrigates the shit out of me. I’m ready to see what the fucker looks like, Commodore. I and my men are ready to kick the son-of-a-bitches ass.”
“You mean irritates you, don’t you, Sergeant?”
“That’s what I said ain’t it?”
Jeeves didn’t respond to the question. He knew Sergeant Lick Givens was a special breed of Human.
Chapter 23
They waited for a little over an hour and were starting to get restless. Everyone but the Commodore that is. Then Jeeves’s excellent hearing heard something stirring inside the cave’s entrance. As the creature drew closer to the opening, he could make out a strange clicking sound. To Jeeves, the noise mimicked the sound of bone hitting against bone. Suddenly it appeared at the entrance then stepped out into the morning sun.
Whispering, Givens said, “Look at the size of that sum bitch.”
The thing was at least eight-foot tall and had two large eyes on the side of its huge head that resembled that of a praying mantis. Unlike the mantis, it had two sets of curved mandibles that were rubbing against one another causing the sound Jeeves had heard.
It didn’t have the segmented body of a mantis. It had two strong legs and four muscled arms with grasping style hands with three-inch claws. Two arms were in the middle of its body and the other two were extended down from its shoulders. The Evil Eater opened its mouth and made a low rumbling sound and when open, its mouth was full of teeth that were serrated. Jeeves thought the Putu had named it properly as it does resemble something purely evil.
The thing was moving about near the cave entrance and the team noticed it must have been injured only recently. As it moved abou, they saw a sizable gash halfway up on one of its legs, and the upper arm on its right side didn’t move as the other three were moving. Instead, it just hung down by its side.
Then one of the Marines pointed at the half-eaten remains of an enormous cat-like predator. “I believe that to be what the Putu calls a Sabo. And it is probably the cause of the alien’s injuries,” Jeeves said.
“I think we’ve seen enough, Commodore. I’m ready to take the damn thing out and be done with it,” Givens said.
“Let’s test its strength first. Corporal, put a shot into the creatures non-injured leg. Everyone be ready to fire after we see its response,” Jeeves ordered.
The corporal did as ordered and sent a projectile which hit the Evil Eater’s left leg. The creature made a loud screeching noise so loud it permeated the surrounding forest. Everyone covered their ears, especially Jeeves as his ears aren’t impervious to high-pitched tones either.
The Evil Eater reached down with its left middle arm and pulled the projectile out, brought it up to its head and studied it for a second. Realizing it had been attacked he opened his large gaping mouth and out came one, two, three rapid-fire bright green streams of liquid that melted everything they hit.
“Holy shit, open up on the damn thing,” Givens ordered.
The Marines started shooting the thing and as e
ach shot hit, it began to stumble back and continued to make the ear-piercing sound until he managed to get back into the cave. Jeeves looked up into the bottom of the forest canopy about a hundred feet away and saw several Putu, one of them being, Tinko, pulling back leaves to see what was happening to the Evil Eater.
“Don’t give it time to recover Sergeant, hit it with a nuclear grenade,” Jeeves commanded.
Without hesitation, Givens sent a grenade into the cave opening and ordered everyone to take cover. There was a loud whoosh and a ball of fire shot out of the entrance, then everything went silent.
Everyone stayed down with the exception of Commodore Jeeves, and a few seconds later he heard all the Putu vocalizing and he could see the leaves moving which indicated they were jumping around celebrating. Then he heard the same kind of celebration coming from the opposite side of the forest and saw for the second time since his visit to the moon, a group of Bapi.
“Do you think the thing is dead, Sergeant Givens?” Jeeves asked.
“If that thing made it through one of our nukes he is one bad sum bitch, Commodore.”
“Everyone stay here. I’m going to find out if he has been terminated.”
“Hell with that. My men and I are coming along with you. Can’t be going in there alone, Commodore.”
“Suit yourself, Sergeant.”
As they entered the cave they saw only bits and pieces of the Evil Eater laying about. Two of the Marines pulled from their jackets a couple glow sticks and shook them, and the cave brightened. A few minutes of looking around in the cave produced an odd-looking device that Jeeves determined was some type of communications array.
“Have one of your men take that with them, Sergeant. I want to try and determine what it is. Let’s wrap this up and get started back to the Striker. I’ll contact Captain Slain and inform him we eliminated the Evil Eater and ask him to report that information to Admiral Allen.”