Kiel wanted to take a step back as the huge Pricolici suddenly stood in front of him, its eyes piercing yellow in the dim light, watching him like prey.
The two men next to Peter quickly started yanking components and fitting the Pricolici standing there impatiently waiting for them to get the suit on him.
Kiel watched as Peter’s men put on the armor. He turned to his Captain as if to say, “Even he gets the special armor!”
Peter started growling when another, deeper growl emanated from behind him. “Peterrr,” Nathan’s voice was deep and malevolent. Already in his form, he walked into the circle. In his jet black mech-suit with a paw print on his left breastplate he finished his threat, “Sttannnd or I willl make you stanndd.”
Peter stopped his growling as the last three pieces of armor were locked in place, and bent down for them to lock on his helmet.
Bethany Anne, helmet off, walked over with her team and Dan following behind. “Are my Yollin Mercenaries ready?” There was a sparkle of amusement in her eyes.
“No,” Captain Kael-ven said. “It seems we are having a bit of mech-suit envy here and their minds are not on the operation.”
Bethany Anne pursed her lips. “We finish this operation, and depending on how you perform in your suits, we will talk, Captain Kael-ven. Amaze me, and we will upgrade your suits.” She nodded to him and his people and then she and her team continued walking towards the large cave entrance.
Dan stopped next to Captain Kael-Ven as the Yollins followed Bethany Anne and the two Pricolici into the darkness.
Kael-ven looked down at Dan. “Did she just take my people’s heart?” he asked as he noticed his team standing a little straighter, listening perhaps a little more closely.
“Yup,” Dan answered, “welcome to my world, Kael-ven.”
—
Ztopik had never adjusted to the wake and sleep cycle of these humans. He might spend days awake on his research, only to go to sleep for the same amount of time when done.
His body required approximately a one in five ratio of sleep to wake time. For him, it wasn’t sleep so much as reducing his mental processes significantly to allow the rest it needed. He would dim the lights and choose a simple problem to consider as he spent the time rejuvenating the energy necessary for his brain to operate efficiently.
Helping the humans with the trap above had been a little challenging. He hadn’t worked with that type of science in a very long time. Unfortunately, he had to mix the chemicals. If he had tried to use the slaves to accomplish this, there was a good chance it would have destroyed a perfectly useable room within his level inside the base.
Then, he would have had to suffer additional humans in his domain and that was… distasteful.
They always created trouble and the last time some of them worked in level six it required an extermination event for both a quarter of his slaves and another sixty humans.
A waste of good slaves, not to be done again if he could help it.
Now, once this problem with the potential threat was overcome, he should consider replacing Patrick Brown and Eva Hocks.
Their effectiveness over the last few years had dropped, and this present situation with TQB was a prime example. Patrick hiding information that Ztopik needed to continue with his plans could not be allowed to continue.
Ztopik flipped the page over and finished writing his thoughts. A few moments later, he stopped writing and watched as the ink faded. The information was stored in the secondary crystal and could be reviewed now at any time.
He set down the writing instrument and started walking towards the exit. A few steps from the door, he heard a beep.
Ztopik turned slowly and his lips drew together.
There were alarms going off for the lower, not upper, levels.
CHAPTER FORTY-SEVEN
Half mile inside Entrance 3, Dulce Lake, New Mexico
“I’m telling you, I smell something.” Sadhi told Ken as the two of them worked their way left around a large outcropping, the rest of the team behind them. The minimal light their hats projected was all that was needed to help the two Wechselbalg see well in the dark.
Ken put up a hand and his group of six stopped. He breathed in deep a couple of times. He didn’t want to stop right now. After the ass chewing he and Sadhi received from Peter for their failure to recognize the Queen, he was really hoping to make a good impression on this operation.
Being cowards, jumping at every little sound or bad feeling wasn’t going to get them to the base ahead of them, either.
He pulled up his tablet and tapped the command to have a drone come to their area and confirm the next hundred yards.
Being dead wasn’t going to get them to the base at all. He gave them a hand signal, and they all took up positions looking out. Moments later, three of those in the group turned their heads when a tiny little insect went through them, heading up direction of their path.
The seconds seemed to crawl by for Ken, who was belittling his decision when his tablet vibrated. Looking down, the map showing his path updated. He and his team had been re-routed around their original path and the area ahead of them had been marked off with a skull and crossbones symbol.
He slid the tablet back into this pocket. “Sadhi!”
“Sir?” came back the response.
“You and your golden fucking nose get up front. You just saved all of our damned lives,” he told his friend. He spoke to the rest of the group, “Let’s keep going, but Sadhi is now smelling out ahead of us. There are explosives in front of us, people.”
—
Bethany Anne and her team jumped from location to location down their entrance. She had decided, over the objections of just about everyone, that she and the Bitches were going first. Dan sent multiple drones out ahead of her team and additional drones beside their group.
There was no way those in the base would be able to miss her arrival and that was her plan. If they had military resources, those in the mech-suits had the best chance to live through it.
“Kiel!” hissed Bo’cha’tien over their personal suit communications. “This woman is crazy!” She laughed as they jumped over a large pit. Their suit lights allowed for them to see the utterly dark cave as if it was twilight outside.
The two Yollins were the closest to the five humans in front of them. They were rushing through the cave system like Kolleens on Th’Reek crystals. The two Pricolicis were just ahead and to the side of them. They were, apparently, wave number two.
“Yes!” Kiel called back, exultation in his voice. “Peter said we would need to keep up and I thought him telling a small untruth!” Kiel looked at the path ahead. Just in front, the cave opened wider and had a much higher roof. He jacked up the power and boosted, easily clearing a seventy-foot section of the path and leapfrogged the two Pricolici who growled their annoyance at his sudden advance.
Bo’cha’tien laughed and yelled at him, “That is cheating!”
Kiel didn’t answer. Rather, he focused on keeping his speed up as they dashed around a corner. He trusted those in front of him to warn him about problems ahead.
Now was time to race!
“Prepare for war, Bo’cha’tien! For we rush to seize it in our crushing grip and strangle those who will not yield to us!” Kiel slipped on a rock, his suit bouncing hard off the wall. He straight-armed a pillar of rock on his left to get back on track, but now Peter had caught up.
“I tollldd youu, Kieellll!” the sinewy monster next to him laughed. “It is but for us to be warriors and race to do that which we were BORN TO DO!”
Every being in their mechanical suits heard Bethany Anne’s shout of joy as they all rushed through the caves, “Catch up to me, my people, for today we WILL KICK EVERY ASS WE SEE!”
—
“WHAT THE HELL IS COMING AT US?” Patrick yelled over the video connection in his operations room to Ztopik, who had never left his own.
“Your yelling, Lead Operations Patrick, will not supp
ort an effective method of leadership,” Ztopik replied tersely. He was watching those getting closer as the system registered their approximate position from seismic calculations and occasional snippets of video.
The lasers in the system were useless. They barely had time to fire one, maybe two shots before something took them out.
“Get your people to the bottom level, Lead Operations Patrick, or we will have no one protecting us from below,” Ztopik commanded.
“How the hell do they know the caves?” Patrick bitched, keeping himself from yelling in his frustration. “We would have seen any humans or…”
Patrick’s voice dropped off. Ztopik presumed Patrick had figured out a possibility. For Ztopik, the how didn’t matter at this point.
It just was.
One didn’t argue with reality, not when the proof was coming straight towards them.
“Should we bring back XJ-02?” Patrick asked.
“No,” Ztopik responded. “If we need support above us, they will be there for you. I doubt this group hasn’t planned for fighting the ships inside the caverns.”
Patrick hated asking Ztopik for help, but he had to admit he had been waging a silent fight with TQB for the past few years.
And his failure was staring him in his face as TQB raced through the cave system straight at him.
Ztopik sent out a mental command. “I will provide support, tell your people to not interfere with my Grays.”
Patrick nodded and Ztopik cut the connection.
—
“We have light ahead.” Bethany Anne said. “It’s time to fly, folks.”
Having made their best effort to spring any traps in their path, Bethany Anne and her team slowed to a stop in order to wait for the Pricolici and the Yollins to catch up. When they arrived, Bethany Anne spoke to Kiel, “Do you use this same tactic?”
“This leapfrogging?” Kiel asked. “No. Our suits are usually more advanced than those we fight, so we haven’t had to do this.”
“Well, we have an enemy of unknown ability and another alien somewhere in there.” Bethany Anne said. “So, I want it thinking.”
Bo’cha’tien smiled. “You want it thinking that Yollins are attacking?” The Yollin female’s eyes narrowed. She was liking the thought they would be the first in view.
“Hell yes. So, you’ll be dropping in first. Start making a mess and get their attention. When we get enough of their defense to show up, we’ll leapfrog you and drop in.”
“What do we do at that point?” Kiel asked.
“What we plannn to do allll night,” Peter answered, “Catch UUUp.”
Multiple round disks arrived above all of those in the suits. Each had two bars hanging from the bottom. As they lowered above those standing, they would reach up and grab the bars. The controls were simple.
Bethany Anne looked around. “Time to earn your money, DeathBringers!”
With a bone vibrating chittering, the six Yollins rose up in the air and headed towards the large flat area ahead of them.
“Ready, Bitches?” Bethany Anne asked looking around. Then added, “And Nathan.”
His guttural laughter reverberated off the rock walls as another seven bodies encased in armor rose into the cavern’s darkness.
—
Patrick’s face popped back up on Ztopik’s screen. “What are those, Ztopik?” His voice was half angry, half frustrated because the enemy had now come into view of their high powered video cameras.
And Patrick had no idea what the large and obviously not human mechanized suits were as they dropped down right outside the landing field.
There was no mistaking the opening conversation with the aliens. They unlimbered guns and started shooting into anything that looked like it was valuable.
They weren’t here to play nice.
“Those,” Ztopik answered, anger flooding his carefully cultured voice, “are Yollins!”
His mind racing, Ztopik could not figure out how Yollins could be, or even would be attacking them. They should have fifty ships up in orbit delivering an ultimatum.
Patrick spoke commands to another screen and Ztopik could now hear the crack of normal weapons fire from the men Patrick had hastily moved to the lower levels.
“Those guns are not going to accomplish anything against the Yollins,” Ztopik paused, sending mental commands to his slaves. “My Grays are arriving now, they will even up the fight,” he promised.
—
The constant pinging of projectile weapons hitting Kiel’s suit was annoying as hell, but the bullets didn’t present a danger to him or his people. Each time a face, leg, or arm showed itself, half a dozen bolts either blew it apart, or damaged the area it had just been in.
Bo’cha’tien spoke privately, “Why are we hiding?”
“Because our employer told us to, Bo’cha’tien.” he replied.
“Well, I think this is stupid,” she said to him. “It is obvious that these humans have nothing that can hurt us, watch!”
Kiel turned in time to see Bo’cha’tien jump out from behind her protection and start shooting randomly. She drew attention away from Kiel, and the heavy patter of the bullets lessened on his armor. His order for her to return to her protection was lost as she yelled over her loudspeaker.
“Eat Yollin Plasma and DIE MOTHERFUCKERS!”
—
Sam Bollard was pissed. Despite its heavier bullet his M14 wasn’t doing shit to these aliens. But, at the moment it was what he had. The alien bastards stayed behind the outcroppings just outside of the flattened landing area and their return fire had already killed three of his people.
Then, one of the aliens jumped out and started blasting heavy bolts of hot shit everywhere. It started chittering over a loudspeaker on its suit. No one could understand shit but the last two words at the end.
Greg yelled over to him, “Did that alien just say ‘die motherfuckers?’”
“Yeah!” Sam agreed. “Who the fuck is teaching them English?”
—
Goowek sent out the command, “Place all debilitation devices on max power. We are not acquiring specimens. We are commanded to kill these Yollins.”
The five other Grays with him all checked their weapons and set each of the three settings to max. While they had fewer shots...
They were powerful shots.
The elevator opened and Goowek stepped out. They emptied into a short hallway that would enter the landing cave. He could see two men were using their weapons from the exit outside. He and his people were not fast, but what they lacked in speed...
They made up in firepower.
He walked calmly towards the opening.
—
“HAHAHAHAHA… Kiss my Yollin ass you pink hairless bunnies!” Bo’cha’tien yelled, slamming two more shots towards the large rock two of the men were hiding behind.
Bethany Anne’s voice came over the system, “WE HAVE ALIENS, WE HAVE ALIENS!”
Kiel twisted around to look and saw a short Zeta Reticulan step up into view just inside one of the entrances. He was lifting his hand up, aiming.
“Bo’cha’tien look out!” Kiel shouted. He jacked up his power and shoved off the ground. Time seemed to stop as he jumped at Bo’cha’tien’s legs. He could see brightness to his left before his visor darkened.
—
Ztopik watched the view to see what was going on. He watched as the Yollin stood there, accepting the human weapons fire and playing with the humans. Then, he noticed another jump towards the one in the open.
Ztopik calculated the timing and wondered at the outcome.
—
“WE HAVE ALIENS, WE HAVE ALIENS!” came over Bo’cha’tien’s communicator. She looked around, surprised to hear Bethany Anne’s voice and then saw the Zeta Reticulan. It was a short Gray, its unblinking eye aiming a…
“Oh shit!”
Sometimes, humans had the best words for any situation. She had already used motherfucker, and now she had to cross off shit
, too.
Her desire to get out and prove herself had finally got her killed.
Fuck her life.
She started turning her gun, because who knew? Maybe they would miss, maybe they…
SLAM!
Her body violently rocketed to the side, having been smashed into by something from her left. That’s when her suits alarms all went to yellows and reds.
The Kurtherian Gambit Omnibus 05 - The Fans Version: My Ride is a Bitch - Don't Cross This Line - Never Submit Page 51