“No.” Riot looked confused, her weary mind trying to sift through the conversation. “It’s just I used those names when I really didn’t care abou—”
“Oh, I get it,” Doctor Miller said, smiling. “I understand those are just pet names now to show how much you care about me. I’m cool with it.”
Deborah Miller extended a closed fist for Riot to pound.
“Yeah … right…” Riot said, smacking Doctor Miller with a closed fist. “It’s because I liked you from the start, that’s why I called you all those names, Sunshine.”
“Yeah, ouch.” Doctor Miller flexed her hand and shook the fist Riot had just stricken. “Before you go, see Vet. I reported in to the Bulwark. I told the General what happened, and that we would be returning soon.”
“Great, thanks.” Riot walked past Doctor Miller and made her way to the med bay. How Wang and Rizzo were still on their feet was a testament to how strong their bond was. They couldn’t sleep knowing their brother had just made it out of the woods and was finally awake. On the battlefield or on the ship, they had to be by each others’ sides.
“You popping those stay-awake pills, Wang?” Riot asked, only half teasing. “I don’t know if I should be pissed or ask for some myself.”
“If by ‘stay awake pills,’ you mean minor dosages of epinephrine, then yes,” Wang said, smiling.
The look on Riot’s face must have said exactly what was on her mind, because Rizzo immediately shook his head and signed the words, He’s teasing.
“He’d better be,” Riot said, giving Wang a sideways look. “Although I’d be lying if I said minor dosages of epinephrine didn’t sound like a good time.”
Riot focused on Vet, who was sitting up in the bed. Dressed in a hospital-type gown, he was covered with a white sheet from the waist down, his constant scowl firmly in place, his one good eye looking from Wang to Riot.
“What’s the good word, Vet?” Riot stood next to Rizzo, opposite Wang. “You going to pull through?”
“You know me,” Vet said with a sideways grin. The fact that the scowl never left his face would have made it difficult for someone who didn’t know him that well to tell if he was happy or mad. Riot did know him that well.
“Yeah, that’s what I was afraid of,” Riot said, looking over to Wang. “How’s his noggin?”
“Everything’s checking out, but I’ll keep him under observation.” Wang pointed to Vet’s head. “My best guess at this point is that when his head was cracked, there was severe head trauma. He was knocked unconscious and the nanites went to work. He snapped out of his coma when he was completely healed. But that’s only a working theory for now.”
Riot folded her arms over her chest, looking at each of her brothers. The idea of feeling some kind of emotion like joy washed over her, but was dismissed just as quickly. There was no time for celebration. Not now, not when the final fight still loomed so close.
“You guys did great out there,” Riot said, settling for a language she and all Marines shared when things were going to get emotional. “Besides Vet, I mean. Ketrick carried him over his shoulder half the time, and Cupcake watched over him the other half.”
Vet cracked a wider grin.
“Seriously,” Wang said, pointing to one of his eyes. “Vet you need to get it together, despite the fact you only have one eye. That excuse only gets you so far.”
Look who’s talking, Rizzo signed, raising his eyebrows at Wang. When the Zenoth made that final push, I swear I heard a small child scream over the comms.
“What?” Wang shook his head in confusion. “It’s called a war cry.”
Sounded like a constipated kid trying to push one out, Rizzo signed with a shrug. For real, though.
Riot, Vet, and Wang all burst into laughter. Their level of exhaustion made Rizzo’s joke even funnier. It was good to laugh; it was great to laugh. For those brief moments safe with her family, Riot was happy.
“I do not mean to be the one to break up the merriment,” Evonne’s ethereal voice sounded over the ship’s speakers, “however, there is an altercation in the cargo bay I think you should be made aware of.”
Riot wiped away tears from laughing so hard. “What is it, Evonne?”
“Perhaps you should go and see.” Evonne hesitated. “I do not know how to describe it.”
“Well, that’s a first,” Riot said out loud, taking a deep breath. “Let’s go see what’s happening now.”
Riot left the med bay with Rizzo, Wang, and even Vet, who refused to be left behind. As soon as they exited the room, they could hear the shouting.
“No, absolutely not!” Ketrick yelled at someone. “This has to be some kind of horrible mistake. Your place is here with your people.”
“I’m about to castrate you if you don’t move,” Rippa growled in return. “Check with your warrant officer. She told me I could come.”
“Well, there’s been some kind of mistake, or perhaps you misheard her. Both of you are extremely weary from slaying Zenoth all day.”
“Nope, no mistake. Now move aside, giant, or I’ll move you myself.”
“Guys, we should probably just tone it down for a moment.” Doctor Miller’s voice reached them. “It’s been a long day. Why don’t we just sit down and—”
“No,” both Ketrick and Rippa said at once.
Riot and the others reached the cargo hold just in time. Ketrick and Rippa looked like they were going to start trading blows.
“Wow, wow, wow.” Riot extended both hands, trying to diffuse the situation. “Ketrick, Major Gunna is going to be joining us as an emissary from the Grovothe.”
“I’m sorry, I thought I just heard you say she’s coming with us,” Ketrick said, turning his red eyes to Riot. “I must be more fatigued than I thought.”
Riot took the opportunity to address her entire crew. “I was going to call a meeting and tell everyone, but this seems as good a time as any. Major Gunna will be coming with us while the Grovothe work out the official details of our alliance with them and their alliance with the Trilords, once we all meet.”
“See?” Rippa said to Ketrick as she waved over a team of Grovothe engineers who were carting a brand-new mech unit toward the cargo bay ramp. “Now, get out of the way, Red Eyes, I need to stow my unit.”
Ketrick took a deep breath and moved to the side where a horse-sized Vikta was curled up in a ball. The white dragon watched the conversation with amused eyes.
“You were no help, by the way,” Ketrick muttered to Vikta. “You could have done something. I don’t know, blocked her way in, or stood by my side. Well, I’m happy you think her red hair looks nice.”
Riot sidled up next to Ketrick. “It thought you and the major were warming up to each other.”
“I respect her as a warrior, but I don’t want to be stuck on a space ship with her,” Ketrick said, though he must have heard his own voice in his head. “I’m sorry. You’re the Warrant Officer, and I do understand the need for allies.”
“You’ll get used to each other,” Riot said, watching as the others helped Rippa make space and maneuver her mech unit into the cargo bay. “We’ll need as many allies as we can get in the days to come.”
Vet turned his back to them as he moved a container of supplies to make more room. When he leaned over, his hospital like gown opened in the back, revealing his bare ass.
Riot wasn’t the only one to witness the full moon. Everyone burst into laughter, even the arguing Rippa and Ketrick. In that moment, Riot knew that, come what may, this was the crew to handle the job. They would find a way to survive whatever the future brought.
End Book Two
Book 3 - Light Em Up
74
You need help. I don’t just mean one psychiatrist. I mean, like, a full panel of multiple doctors working with you around the clock,” Riot said, as she shook her head, taking in Vet’s latest work of art. “And medication. Lots of medication. We’re talking anti-psychotics, tranquilizers—the works.”
> “She looks good, right?” Vet ignored Riot’s latest barrage. He crossed his arms over his chest. A deep sigh escaped his lungs. “I’ve been working on her day and night, but I think she’s done.”
Riot and Vet stood in the Valkyrie’s engine room. In the rear of the hall-like chamber, past the quiet engine that powered the ship, the pair stood, inspecting Vet’s project: a robotic body for the ship’s AI, Evonne.
Since landing on Ketrick’s planet of Hoydren a week before, they had received permission from General Armon to go ahead with the plan. Vet had been hard at work, finishing the human-like body for Evonne, ever since.
What stood in front of them disturbed Riot to her core, mostly because the robot looked like a human being in every way. Everything from her long, silver hair, to her strong jawline and open, unblinking eyes screamed a human heritage. She wore a uniform like the rest of the crew, her mostly gray top and pants outlined with a white trim.
“I didn’t do it all myself,” Vet said, tapping the pointer finger of his right hand on his chin. “Doctor Miller helped a lot with … with the … with her anatomy.”
“Riiiiiight.” Riot let the word drag on.
“You do not approve of my physical body, Riot?” Evonne’s ethereal voice sounded from the ship. The Australian accent Vet had chosen for her rang in her speaking pattern. “Should I not inhabit the physical form Corporal Vetash and Doctor Miller have prepared for me?”
“No, no,” Riot said, shaking her head as she looked once more into the open grey eyes of the robot in front of her. “We received the okay from SPEAR, and you’ve been asking for this for a while now. You just gotta promise me you’re not going to try to start an insurrection where machines wipe out humanity and the rest of the universe.”
“I am incapable of such things,” Evonne said without emotion in her voice. “The only reason I have been requesting a physical body is to be of greater assistance to you and the crew aboard the ship. I will also do my best to blink around you. Perhaps minor human details such as these will put your mind at ease.”
“All right,” Riot said, and shrugged toward Vet. “How much longer until we put Evonne into the body?”
“I still have a few last minute updates to make.” Vet pursed his lips and squinted at the robot’s hands. His one eye studied the robot. The other eye he had lost in combat, and the area was fitted with a metal plate that looked like a patch. “I think I made her hands too big.”
“Hey, whatever makes you happy,” Riot shook her head, backing away. “I have enough issues to deal with without seeing my XO reshaping female hands.”
“It’s not as weird as you make it sound,” Vet called to her back as Riot walked out of the engine room. “We’re traveling through space and building alliances with aliens. Reshaping hands isn’t that weird.”
“Keep telling yourself that,” Riot said, half laughing to herself.
Once Riot and her crew had departed from Admiral Tricon’s Grovothe ship, it was decided they would travel to Ketrick’s homeworld of Hoydren to support their off-world interests. It was Riot’s and General Armon’s beliefs that this planet once again would be the target of a Karnayer assault.
Not only was Hoydren the location of Earth’s allies, but the Karnayer, Remus, was also being held prisoner there. In addition to this, the Karnayers coveted the dragons that roamed the Hoydren skies and space. They wanted to capture and control them, eventually manipulating them to be used as their living weapons.
The Karnayer House led by Alveric was responsible for all the grief that had come Riot’s way thus far. The captured Karnayer, Remus, was Alveric’s brother, and Riot would bet her shorts that he was going to come to free his brother.
Upon landing, Riot and her crew had linked up with a newly promoted Colonel Harlan and his unit of scientists who acted as emissaries to the planet.
Riot walked through the halls of her ship, going through a checklist of things that needed to be done to fortify their position. If Alveric did attack with his Karnayers, Riot and the others would have to hold them off for the space of a few hours before General Armon could send aid from Earth.
As Riot walked down toward the rear cargo bay, she caught some banter passing between Rippa and Ketrick. The Grovothe major and the Trilord prince had been at one another’s throats the entire trip, though their conversations were mostly playful jabs … or at least that was what Riot kept telling herself.
“You remind me of a creature that roams the woods of my home planet. It’s called a Sasquan,” Rippa said to Ketrick as she worked on her mech unit in the cargo bay. “It’s a smelly ogre of a creature with large feet and an ape-like face. Its intelligence factor is barely on the scale. Some would call it an idiot of a beast.”
“Is that so?” Ketrick said. He stood on the opposite side of the cargo bay, scratching the underside of his dragon, Vikta’s, scaly stomach. “If you were born here on Hoydren, your stunted body would have been sent to live outside the city out of the fear you would frighten the children. We would then tell stories of you to our young, stories that would threaten them, that if they behaved badly, you could come for them in the night and eat their faces.”
“Hmmm…” Rippa nodded along with Ketrick’s words as if she expected as much. She didn’t move from her spot where she worked. “If you were born on my planet, we would call you a monstrosity and send you to work in the coal mines. Your dim wit and gargantuan body would make a great asset to the workers there. And, as a bonus, they wouldn’t have to lay eyes on you. It’s dark in the obsidian mines.”
“It wasn’t that funny,” Ketrick growled at Vikta as the dragon cracked a toothy smile.
Vikta was in her smallest form now, no larger than a horse. It still amazed Riot that the creature was able to shift from something this size to her true form, a white dragon as large as her cruiser class ship.
Riot stood in the entrance to the cargo bay for a moment, admiring Rippa’s twenty-foot armored mech and Ketrick’s white dragon. How outrageous had her life become to now be able to make a trip to the cargo hold and see these wonders on a daily basis?
With a rueful smile, Ketrick raised one of his dark eyebrows in Rippa’s direction. The long canine teeth that set him apart as a Trilord showed through.
“We have a name for your kind on our planet, as well, Major Rippa Gunna,” Ketrick said, patting Vikta on her belly. “We call your kind dwarves.”
Rippa dropped the tools she was working with at the feet of her mech unit. They slammed against the floor with a metallic ring. She stood and turned to Ketrick with a stare that could melt ice. For a moment, her fiery red hair seemed to be alive with the flames of anger.
“What did you call me?” Rippa clenched her hands on either side of her stout body.
“Hey, so the universe is going to hell in a handbasket, courtesy of Vet and Doctor Miller.” Riot stepped into the cargo bay to diffuse the situation. “They’re creating robots that can talk and think and pretty much run things. Insane, right? I mean, has no one ever seen those old Terminator movies, like, ever?”
Rippa remained silent, glaring at Ketrick.
The tall Trilord stood up from his kneeling spot beside Vikta. He ignored the death stares from the Grovothe and addressed Riot. “Interesting. I, for one, would welcome such an addition to the crew.”
“Why’s that?” Riot asked.
“I think it will be helpful to have an extra set of hands aboard the ship,” Ketrick said, nodding along with his own words. “More help to manage weapons inventory, man the bridge, and gather coffee.”
“Coffee?” Riot rolled her eyes. Ever since Ketrick had discovered coffee aboard the Valkyrie, he had been obsessed. “Evonne isn’t going to be your personal coffee assistant when she’s up and running.”
“Oh, of course not, of course not,” Ketrick said, voicing the words while his red eyes twinkled with a mischievous grin.
Riot took a deep breath and shook her head. She hid the smile that begged to touch
her lips at the Trilord’s remark. “All right, Ketrick, with me. We need to assess the defenses again before tonight’s meeting. There’s a Karnayer prisoner I’ve been meaning to sit down and chat with, as well.”
“Understood,” Ketrick said.
Rippa finally released her anger and went back to maintaining her mech armor suit. Riot thought she heard the Grovothe mumbling under her breath something like “freaking giant,” although she didn’t actually use the word “freaking.”
Riot strode onto the ramp that lowered out of the Valkyrie’s rear bay. The ship’s four thrusters set above the ramp created a kind of shade for a brief moment against Hoydren’s twin suns.
The planet of Hoydren was both beautiful and brutal at the same time. With two suns in the sky, one white and the other orange, Riot could understand why most of the Trilord men walked around bare-chested, while the women wore short skirts and tops that looked like sports bras.
Riot felt another wave of heat hit her. Not for the first time her mind wandered to the idea of removing her own long-sleeved uniform and long pants for something more comfortable. As soon as the idea entered her mind, though, she pushed it out. She was a Marine, and certain things couldn’t be changed. This was her uniform. She was a soldier, and soldiers didn’t feel discomfort from something as trivial as the heat.
Riot and Ketrick walked past the Valkyrie and the other cruiser class ship, the Titan, that had transported Colonel Harlan and his team from Earth to Hoydren. Both crafts were docked within the capital city’s walls. The city was built around a tall hill that overlooked the surrounding landscape in every direction.
The twin crafts sat next to the city’s palace. Each level of the structure was shaped like a square. Every level that rose on top of another was smaller, giving the building a pyramid-shaped look.
Behind them and down the hill, the city was primarily made up of homes, while in front of the hill, sloping down toward the gates, businesses and markets rose on well-kept dirt roads.
War Wolves: Boxset 1-3 Page 36