“How come they aren’t showing up on our heads-up displays, then?” Wang asked as he passed a canteen to Doctor Miller, who took off her helmet and accepted the water gratefully. “What are they waiting for?”
“If they are cold-blooded creatures, they may not appear in the heads-up display. If they are moving in the jungle around us, there would be no way for the technology to track movements it cannot see,” Evonne explained.
“Oh, they’re here,” Vet said, backing up to where the rest of the unit stood in a circle. “You’re right Riot. My spider sense is tingling.”
“Your what?” Doctor Miller rose and placed her helmet back on her head.
“It’s an old movie reference. I guess a comic book before that, or something,” Vet said, peering down the sight of his Destroyer T9. “It’s about a bug boy.”
“They were waiting for us to stop.” Riot clenched her jaw, readying her weary body for another fight. She peered into the jungle depths, knowing the alien predators were out there, but still not seeing anything. “We hold this point to fend off their initial attack, then move toward the city in a box formation. Vet in the lead, Wang on the right, Rizzo on the left, and myself in the rear. Evonne, you and Doctor Miller in the center.”
Everyone moved into position.
Something rushed through the jungle on their left. A twig snapped to their right.
“Here we go again!” Riot roared over the comms. “It’s time to go to work.”
“Oohrah!” her Marines answered back.
Then the monsters came.
88
In seconds, it was as if the jungle had come alive to kill them.
Creatures painted in the same green-and-purple of the jungle trees and bushes leaped out at them from all sides. Evonne was right in her description of the Osylots. They were large, feline-like creatures with short hair, just bigger than cheetahs. They ran on all fours, but if they stood on their back legs, they would be as tall as humans.
Their multicolored tails were long and swung wildly behind them. One of the most chilling features about the monsters was that even when they attacked, they remained quiet.
Riot and her Marines, on the other hand, made enough noise for the combatants on either side of the conflict.
BOOM! BOOM! BOOM! BOOM!
The War Wolves lit the jungle up with red blaster fire coming from their Villain Pulse Rifles, as well as the Destroyer T9 like shotguns Vet and Rizzo fired. Along with the sounds of discharging weapons came the crashing trees around them as rogue shots cracked trees and lit brush on fire.
In a fight that was taking place so close, Riot had to rely on her reflexes more so than her marksmanship. The Osylots were jumping from the brush on either side of them. Riot shot one of the creatures in the chest, one that would have crashed down onto her had she missed, and another in the face as it swiped at her legs with claws as sharp as knives.
A particularly large Osylot came at Wang from the side and bulldozed into him. A moment later, Wang’s red armor was completely covered by the creature’s bulk. Its chameleon-like shifting colors made it a beautiful and deadly sight all at once.
Before any of the Marines could move to help Wang, Evonne grabbed the creature with her bare hands, lifted it up over her head, and hurled it back into the jungle.
We should have given this chick a body a lot sooner, Riot thought.
With that show of strength, the oncoming Osylot attack paused for a moment. Bodies from more than a dozen feline creatures smoked at their feet. Riot could only imagine the smell they let off. If not for their helmets cycling clean air, Doctor Miller and Wang would probably be vomiting again.
“You all right?” Riot leaned down and helped Wang to his feet. “Did it puncture your armor?”
“I … I think I’m okay.” Wang looked down at himself, checking his legs and arms.
“Rizzo,” Doctor Miller said in a panicked voice. “Your face!”
Riot turned her attention to her pilot. One of the Osylots had gotten close enough to the Marine to swipe a claw against the left side of his helmet. Long scratches had etched their way into the metal, but as far as Riot could tell, had not punctured the helmet’s dome.
I’m good to go, Rizzo typed into the keyboard on the back of his left forearm.
“Let’s move before they regroup and come at us again,” Riot said. Her thoughts were already on the rest of the drop ships the Karnayers had flown to the planet. There could be hundreds, maybe thousands, of enemies in the jungle by now.
It was also possible the Osylots had been sent ahead to slow them down long enough for Karnayer soldiers to reach them.
Riot and her team traveled through the jungle in the box formation. All their senses were on overdrive as they swept the jungle for any signs of the enemies they knew to be there. But whether they had killed most of the Osylots or the alien felines had been called back, they did not attack again.
With another ten minutes of jogging, the Marines made it to the main road leading to the capital city of the Savage Trilords. The Trilords at the gate leveled blasters at them when they emerged from the jungle foliage.
“Hold your fire,” Queen Revna’s familiar voice ordered from the top of the wall. Despite her age, her voice carried the strength any general would envy. “It’s our allies. Open the gates!”
Riot was shocked to see the queen, Ketrick’s mother, out of the capitol while her city was under attack. She wore steel-and-leather armor over her dark skin. Her long, white hair was put into dreadlocks behind her head. She carried a thick staff with a blaster affixed to the top end.
The colossal double doors to the city opened as Riot and her Marines finally reached the supposed safety of the gates.
The queen traveled down from the top of the wall to embrace Riot.
Riot removed her helmet, extending her right hand to the queen. Revna brushed it aside and wrapped Riot into a hug. Growing up without a mother had made Riot more than awkward around elderly members of her same sex, especially when it came to hugs.
“It is so good to see you again, and safe,” Revna said as she pressed Riot harder. “One day you will understand what it is like to see young warriors return safely from combat.”
“Uh, yeah—” Riot raised her right hand around Revna’s large back and gave her a few quick taps with her palm. “It’s good to see you, too.”
Revna finally removed herself from the embrace. If she noticed Riot’s awkwardness around the hug, she didn’t show it.
“You all fought like a hundred in the sky,” Revna said to the rest of the Marines under Riot’s command. “You must be tired and hungry. Come with me.”
Revna moved swiftly through the city and up the hill where the capitol building stood. Two guards, with dragon tattoos marking them as the queen’s personal guard, moved with her.
“Should you be out here right now?” Riot said, taking a look at the signs of destruction around the city. “I mean, you need to stay safe in order to lead.”
“Would you hide from a fight?” The queen’s eyes sparkled with stores of wisdom. “Leaders lead from the front, Riot, you know that.”
Riot nodded along with the queen’s words. Despite her feelings to want to keep the queen safe, she understood exactly what Revna was talking about. Riot would never ask her crew to do something she wasn’t willing to do herself. As the queen of the Savage Trilords, Revna had the same philosophy, only on a much grander scale.
Despite their efforts to keep the city safe, bombed-out buildings dotted the town, along with rubble strewn on the ground. Smoke from fires only recently extinguished dotted the city. Trilord warriors moved tirelessly to make sure any warm embers had been completely put out.
From what Riot could see, a good quarter of the town had been razed. This fact hadn’t seemed to faze the queen. She walked boldly back to the pyramid that stood on the top of the hill, speaking words of encouragement to those she passed. What’s more, she seemed to know all of her warriors by nam
e.
“Get some rest, Sloan,” Revna said to a muscular, shaven-head Trilord who carried buckets of water in each of his hands down the city hill. “You’ve been at it all night.”
The Trilord bowed his head to his queen.
“Noe,” Revna said to another tall Trilord carting a load of weapons to the front gate. “Eat something, even if it’s a duckhole, before you fall down. That’s not a request.”
“Yes, my queen.” The Trilord nodded and continued on his way.
“The Trilords will run themselves into the ground before they stop fighting,” Revna said to Riot. “As I’m sure you would, as well.”
Riot blinked, trying to keep them open even as the queen made her statement.
“We’ll do what needs to be done to be the last one standing,” Riot said, looking past the city to her left where Ketrick still battled with the ships, keeping the Scarabs at bay. “Your son is holding them back, but they have troops in the jungle now. We need to be prepared for a ground assault at any moment.”
“Oh, I think we can expect a break in the fighting soon,” Revna said as they reached the top of the hill and the pyramid that stood sentry. The square stone pyramid separated in layers was battered and scorched.
More than a handful of pockmarks showered where the Scarabs had landed shots, and though the stone was strong enough to hold up against most of the fire, there was a spot on the south side about halfway up that had crumbled. A small crater stood out. Another spot near the top where Rippa’s mech unit stood showed signs of damage.
As they got closer, Rippa’s mech unit began to slide down the pyramid side, level by level.
Then, something Revna had said caught Riot’s attention. “Why do you think there will be a break in the fighting soon?”
“Because our allies have arrived,” Revna said in the matter-of-fact, faithful way Riot had heard Ketrick speak so many times before. “You, my son, every warrior human, Trilord, or other has done enough to stay the hand of destruction.”
Riot squinted through the bright morning light to try to catch any sign of the approaching Grovothe ships. There were no large vessels on the horizon, only the swooping, swirling fighting going on between the dragons and the Scarab ships.
Riot was about to open her mouth, when Rippa made the final descent down the pyramid wall in her mech. The ground shuddered as the machine came to a halt in front of them.
Unlike the pyramid, Rippa’s mech had not fared so well. The dark armor on her mech was dented, and sparks burst out of a spot around where the left leg of the mech connected to the rest of the body. The torso was caved in and the right arm of the unit looked like it was attached by only a few hoses.
The unit opened with a hiss. The pilot seat was stationed in the torso. As the hatch opened, a slender ladder rolled down. The red-haired Grovothe wasted no time in dismounting as she talked wildly.
“Riot, everyone, you guys made it!” Rippa jumped the last few feet to the floor. Bags hung under her eyes, but the fire of war shone bright. “I was just about to get you over the comms. They’re here. Admiral Tricon and the Dreadnaught are entering orbit. We did it!”
Riot couldn’t help her mouth falling open as she turned to Revna. The queen gave her a small smile and a wink.
“Look,” Vet said, shading his own good eye as he searched the skyline. “There, to the south, just past where the dragons are still fighting.”
All eyes followed Vet’s gaze as they, too, searched for the sign of hope they had so desperately been fighting to see.
Riot shaded her own view as her tired eyes fought the bright light of the twin Hoydren suns and tried to see what Vet was talking about. Then, like a steel angel descending from the heavens, the Dreadnaught started as a tiny black pinpoint. With each second, it grew in size, until the large ship was visible. Its steep lines and sheer bulk made it look just as intimidating as any Karnayer class destroyer.
The Scarab ships swirling around the dragons thought better of their position and retreated to the east, where the transport ships also lifted off the jungle floor and departed.
“Where’s Alveric and the Trilord destroyer we saw earlier?” Doctor Miller asked, a question everyone was thinking. “Why didn’t they try to intercept the Dreadnaught?”
There was a brief moment of silence before the queen answered.
“They have their troops on the ground now. This has all been a distraction to get their ground forces in a position to strike,” Revna said with steel in her voice. “One way or another, the next battle will be the last.”
89
The food that was sent to Riot’s room while she bathed tasted better than anything she had ever stuffed into her mouth before. Maybe it was the fact she was so hungry, or the idea that she was still alive and able to enjoy the food. Either way, the meat tasted glorious, and the warm bread stuff, like manna from Heaven.
Sleep was going to have to wait. Thanks to the temporary lapse in attacks by the Karnayers, Riot and the rest of the alliance had an opportunity to catch their breath. The idea now was for a strategy meeting to be held.
With Admiral Tricon landing his forces on Hoydren and Ketrick pulling his dragons back, a new plan of attack needed to be discussed. It was decided a war council would be held in the pyramid palace building in thirty minutes. That gave Riot thirty minutes to wash herself and feed her face.
Showers didn’t seem to be an option, but luxurious baths, on the other hand, were readily available. Riot soaked in the warm, ceramic tub, trying to ignore what was on her body. When she stripped off her armor, purple flakes of gore from the Devil’s Hand had come off with it. That, along with the smoke smell and her own sweat, had been enough for Riot to want to burn the armor. But she would need to don her gear at least one more time before all of this was over.
The room she sat in was one of the chambers facing the outside of the pyramid. In front of her, a slanted wall with a window showed a view of the open jungle spreading out to the south and east.
Next to her was a tray of food, and one with cleaning supplies like soap, something that looked like a long sponge, and three seashells Riot had no idea how to use.
Soon, the hot, clear water turned soapy and then to a grimy color as the filth left her body and was washed into the bathwater.
I just need an hour of sleep, Riot’s muddled mind thought as she was enticed to slumber by the warm water. Just an hour of sleep.
Riot’s eyes were closing of their own accord, when a harsh knock echoed into her room.
“I’m awake, I’m awake!” Riot’s eyes snapped open as she forgot where she was for a moment and jolted upright in the bath. “Who is it?”
“Only a lowly prince come to see the mighty warrior who stayed the main force of the Karnayer horde,” Ketrick’s voice echoed through the door. “I brought you some clean clothes, and I’m going to take your armor to be washed and repaired.”
“Just a minute,” Riot said, standing from her bath, grabbing a towel, and drying herself off. She was in the middle of wondering how Ketrick was so energetic when the answer struck her. “Ketrick, have you been drinking more coffee?”
“Can I come in?” Ketrick asked from the opposite side of the door.
“Yes.” Riot stepped out of the tub and wrapped the towel around her damp body.
Ketrick opened the door. It was clear that he had not taken the time to bathe. He stepped into the room still wearing the same gear he had charged the Devil’s Hand with. Black smoke marks smeared his face, slimy blue guck clinging to him. In his right hand, he carried a clean uniform, and in his left, a tall cup of steaming coffee.
“Colonel Harlan managed to land his craft, and his mess hall is still working.” Ketrick handed Riot the Marine uniform he had also taken from the ship. “Why didn’t you tell me there were so many kinds of coffee? Espresso, cappuccino, cocaine.”
“Hold on, take it easy there,” Riot said, accepting the clothes with a shake of her head. “Cocaine is not a kind of
coffee. Where did you even learn that word?”
“Brother Wang was talking about it like it was something to be used to stay awake,” Ketrick said with a shrug as Riot took another gulp of his coffee. “Anyway, I’m glad you made it back safely.”
“Yeah, you, too,” Riot said, exhaling. Feelings like she had never felt before were causing her to say words she had never said before. Instead of being sappy, though, she redirected the conversation. “How did you get the dragons to come help you? Were any injured when you fought the Scarabs?”
“The dragons, as you call them, love this planet just as much as we do. When they understood the threat, they agreed to send their best warriors to help. Vikta also played a large part in convincing them,” Ketrick said, grabbing Riot’s armor with his free hand. He lifted the gear like it was a toy. “We lost two today. Their hides are near impenetrable, but their eyes and certain parts of their wings where their skin is the thinnest are susceptible to injury.”
Riot noticed the downcast eyes, the slump in Ketrick’s shoulders as he said these words. For the first time, she saw past the false caffeinated front he was putting on and realized how weary he really was.
Riot went to him and lifted his face with her right hand so he would look into her eyes.
“They died protecting something they believed in, like you or I are willing to do, as well,” Riot said with a small smile. “They died a warrior’s death so we could live, maybe to one day do the same for others.”
“Careful.” Ketrick smiled his fangy grin. “You’re starting to sound like me.”
“I know,” Riot laughed, dropping her hand from his face. “I realized that while the words were coming out of my mouth. Who am I?”
“I’m going to give you a hug,” Ketrick said, and before Riot could move, the Trilord wrapped his massive, dirty, sweaty arms around her.
“I just took a bath!” Riot screamed and laughed at the same time. “I don’t even want to move. I’m just going to get even dirtier. What’s with you and your family giving hugs, anyway?”
War Wolves: Boxset 1-3 Page 45