Jupiter Fleet 1: Werewolves Don't Purr

by JS Rowan

  Evacuate to where? Leona mused. The ship’s computer system did not recognize her thought as musing and treated it as a question. The computer gave her the answer, with vivid pictures in full color. Leona was shown the image of a ship that had been in Jupiter orbit. It was on an intercept course with their ship.

  “I’ve got good news and really bad news,” Leona said.

  “Let me have the good news first, then the really bad news,” thought Thor.

  Leona summarized the situation for him, and then she contacted the Alpha wolf.

  “Are you in position?” she asked. She had a hard edge to her voice.

  “Where have you been? I have been trying to contact you,” countered the Alpha.

  “I had some communication problems. I’m in a new location and we should be secure for now.”

  “I am in position. What is the status of the troops near the Command Deck?”

  Even from far away, the force of the Alpha’s personality was apparent.

  “The system shows there are still about fifteen hundred wolves and five hundred Supes defending the Command Deck.”

  “Are the humans still trapped on Deck Five?”

  “Yes, and I have more bad news. There’s another ship on an intercept course with our vessel.”

  “That is not bad news, Leona. How did you expect me to get my own ship?” replied the Alpha, laughing. “I think you are going to have to attack from above. Free the humans so they can be brought into the fight. Also, look for storage areas that the Masters use to store their weapons—they were on Deck Five before I was locked up. Probably the weapons lockers are still there. If you can find some, several thousand armed humans would even up this fight.”

  Leona briefed Thor and Commander Gupta on what the Alpha had said.

  “That was a good idea, and I have a plan that might make it work,” commented Gupta, wagging his tail slowly.

  Captain O’Neil had divided the weapons among his men. Altogether, after distributing the stored weapons and those that were available for sale on Deck Four, he had eight hundred armed men. There were two hundred men at each stairwell. They were waiting for Leona’s signal to rush the stairs.

  Leona’s signal went off with a bang. The rebel werewolves had divided themselves in groups with the human fighters and furnished themselves with all the Earth grenades they had found. Pulling the pins with their teeth, the wolves lobbed grenades from the deck above down onto the laser auto-cannon turrets. For every grenade that went off, an auto-turret exploded, with much more force than the grenade itself. All the Masters near the stairwells died quickly.

  Captain O’Neil waited for the explosions to die down and then signaled his men to rush the stairs. At the same time, Leona’s wolves rushed down from the floor above. The Masters who were alive in the hallways were not prepared for such an onslaught of troops. However, the auto-turrets did not care. They engaged the humans and the rebel werewolves, with devastating effect. There was more bad news for the humans, in that the auto-turrets that survived were toward the outer areas of the ship.

  Captain O’Neil compared the chances of a hull breach against the slaughter of his men, and gave the order to engage the auto-cannons using .95-caliber rifles. The men using the rifles were excellent shots and the auto-cannon turrets were destroyed in a light show of electric sparks and explosions.

  After the auto-turrets were destroyed, there were less than two hundred Supes left on the deck. The fighting was intense but brief.

  The werewolves did most of the work by charging the Supes and killing them—often with just one swipe of their large clawed paws. This panicked the Supes and they ran blindly toward positions held by humans.

  The humans held their gunfire, for fear of hitting each other or the werewolves, and resorted to knives, swords, and even clubs to kill the Supes that came near them. It was exhausting and bloody work; however, the humans released all the rage they had been storing up for months and years in this battle.

  Leona came down the stairs near the end of the battle. She wanted to be part of it, having no shortage of rage herself, but Commander Gupta would not allow that. It seemed that she was to be relegated to the role of a general that commanded from the rear. Since that was not the usual method seen in adventure movies, she felt both left out and also vaguely guilty. She was letting everyone else take the brunt of the battle!

  Wanting to make a more significant contribution to the fight, Leona addressed Captain O’Neil.

  “If I remember the ship’s plan, that room right beside you should be one of the weapons storage lockers.”

  Leona looked around for a communication console, so that she could contact Isamu the sword-smith.

  “I wonder if Isamu has access codes to get those doors open. Otherwise, it’s going to take a while, and the doors might be booby-trapped,” she thought.

  To Leona’s surprise, Isamu replied to her telepathically.

  “I do indeed have access codes. I had to access the rooms as part of my duties for the aliens,” he replied.

  Leona quickly looked around to see where the communication was coming from, since she hadn’t been communicating through a console. There he was—the short Japanese was standing near another weapons locker about forty feet away.

  “That is excellent!” she thought, “You are a very handy person to know!”

  Isamu bowed slightly, and Leona smiled and waved.

  From the distance, Leona could not see that Isamu was blushing slightly. It was so long since he had received any praise or appreciation from anyone (other than the stark warrior’s lust for fine blades shown by the Alpha wolf) that he was out of practice at receiving compliments.

  Leona and Isamu started configuring the energy weapons to work for the humans. There was a lineup of human fighters that needed arming. Of the eighteen thousand people that had been held in the cells, most of them had been fighting the werewolves. (Some, especially the children, had been dependents of the captured military.) There was no shortage of fighters, only of weapons.

  Meanwhile, Commander Gupta and Captain O’Neal stood at a console that Ashley was controlling to allow them to communicate, planning what they were going to do with their now considerably larger army.

  Four did not know what to do. There were sounds of dying wolves all around him, but these were his dying wolves. He tried to communicate with Two, but apparently there was no line of sight between them.

  The Masters had cut him off. Twenty werewolves had died with the same tactic the Masters had used before. First, blast for confusion, and then hit with weapons. Now they had control of ten of his wolves and he could not spot the Masters responsible.

  “Wolves retreat,” Four broadcast to his group. His wolves started running for the nearest stairway. Another mind-blast hit the pack. As seven wolves stood stunned, the ten wolves that were being controlled attacked them. The stunned wolves never had a chance.

  “What should I do?” Four broadcast involuntarily.

  “You should charge the alcove in the wall, twenty-five feet to your right,” said a voice.

  “But…there is nothing there,” thought Four.

  “I am showing seven Masters standing in a group, and one auto-cannon,” said the same voice.

  “Who is this?” asked Four.

  “This is Ashley on Deck Four. I was checking on our fighters and I heard your message.”

  “How do I know you are a friend?”

  Ashley sent Four a mental image of Yellow Fang purring and being patted by Captain O’Neil. Four did not say anything, but immediately turned to charge the area Ashley told him about. His wolves thought he was crazy, but they followed him anyway.

  As soon as he got close to the alcove, the mental image of a blank wall disappeared, and he saw the Masters standing there. Rage overtook him as he attacked. The seven Masters didn’t stand a chance. He pounced into their midst, and killed two of the Masters with one swipe of his massive claws. Four was about to attack the rest of the Ma
sters when his pack arrived and finished the job.

  The auto-cannon turret had not been activated, so Ashley set about preparing to remotely activate it.

  “Werewolf, please get some help carrying that turret.”

  “Please? You humans really are different from the Masters.”

  “Working together, we can use those monsters’ own weapons against them.”

  “Ashley, I like how you think. You can call me Four.”

  Four called his wolves into position to carry the heavy weapon.

  “You: take the other side of this auto-turret, and you: pick up the back.”

  The werewolves picked up the auto-turret, careful not to be in front of the firing mechanism’s rotational path. Ashley then told Four about her plan.

  “There is a heavy concentration of Masters—we call them Supes—two hundred yards to your left after you get around the next corner.”

  The pack ran in the direction indicated by Ashley. As soon as they were around the corner, the auto-turret started firing at the Masters, killing them in quick succession. The effect was deadly. The group of Masters controlling the ten wolves (that had been trying to chivvy Four’s group from behind) broke discipline and started to run. The ten controlled wolves stopped, confused.

  Four let out an attack howl, and his wolves responded. They ran after the Masters, down the corridor. The Masters ran for the elevator, packing as many aboard as they could before the wolves arrived. The elevator doors closed and it moved away from the area.

  The Masters left outside the elevator tried a mind-blast, but the wolves ignored it. The werewolves were snarling, teeth bared. The Masters started firing rapidly with their blasters, and a few wolves went down. But the rest of Four’s group continued to charge. There was nothing more those Masters could do, so they died.

  Some of Four’s wolves wanted to stop and snack on the dead Masters, and Four’s nostrils twitched at the thought.

  “Um, Four, your wolves have to wait until the end of the battle to eat and get a good meal of kibble then. You can’t stop fighting now,” said Ashley’s voice. “There are about fifty Masters still left on that deck. I’ll show you the rooms they are hiding in. Please try not to kill them. We’ll need them alive to keep the Supes in the Control Room from venting the atmosphere on your deck.”

  “Ashley, you saved my life and the lives of my wolves. I think I’m in love,” thought Four.

  Ashley felt Four’s emotions—he was happy, grateful, and yes, feeling a little mischievous.

  “Oh, great, that’s what I need, puppy love!” she responded teasingly.

  Four laughed harder than he could remember laughing in his werewolf life, the adrenaline of the victory still coursing in his veins.

  “Thank you, Ashley, I really do owe you. If you ever need anything, I’m your wolf.”

  Ashley broke the connection and saw Captain O’Neil walking up to her.

  “Leona gave me a play-by-play of what you just did with wolf Four and his group. That was tactically brilliant. You took a group of wolves that were about to be routed and led them to victory!”

  “Why, thank you. Plus, I stopped them from snacking on the dead slavers, too.”

  Captain O’Neil gave her a long, admiring look. “You’re smart, pretty, have a smokin’ hot body, and you know how to fight with the best of them. If we get out of this alive I am going chase after your cute little ass.” The captain did a wolfish grin better than most of the werewolves.

  Ashley stuck her nose in the air and answered with her best offended voice. “Forget it, jarhead, I don’t go for the tall, blond, handsome, charming, heroic type.” She turned back to her console and ignored him.

  Charming? Handsome? Oh, I am so in with her! he thought.

  Ashley’s head snapped up and she said icily, “I don’t think so, bucko!”

  Oh crap! I forgot she could read minds when attached to that thing. Oh…OK…I’ll send her something to think about.

  O’Neil thought of racy images of them entwined in a romantic embrace. Ashley did not say anything more, but she was glowing crimson when he left.

  CHAPTER 7

  Would the Real Alpha Please Stand Up

  November 13, 2038, 7:25 a.m.

  On Board Alien Ship

  “I have to report that our diversion to clear the Command Deck is not working,” said Leona to all the strike team leaders, including the Alpha wolf.

  Ashley had found out how to rig the ship’s communication system to have a direct telepathic “conference call,” even with those people who weren’t telepathic. However, the non-telepathic participants had to be actually touching a communication console for it to work.

  “We have tried over the last twelve hours to assault Deck Thirty-five, Engineering Control, from Deck Thirty-four, Deck Thirty-six, the Main Drive Bay, and Deck Thirty-seven, the Docking Bay,” thought Commander Gupta.

  “Not only have we not been able to penetrate Deck Thirty-five, in the counterattack we were driven back from Deck Thirty-seven,” said Captain O’Neil.

  “I have two more bits of bad news,” said Leona. “One is that the other ship will dock with us in less than four hours. The other bad news is that none of the Supes’ forces have left Deck Seventy-five. That is the main thing we’ve been trying to accomplish.”

  “Actually, I have one more piece of bad news,” Ashley added. “I think—yup, uh-huh, it’s for sure—the new Alpha has discovered the location of our Alpha wolf. He is moving, along with some were-troops, in your direction.”

  “Two is coming here to assault me directly? That is very good news,” said their Alpha wolf.

  “I’m confused—who is Two?” thought Thor.

  “Two is my former second-in-command, the one who betrayed me to the Masters, the one who now calls himself Alpha,” thought their Alpha.

  “Uh,” interjected Leona, “that is the former Supes’ Two, not our Alpha wolf’s Two, who died in our recent battle. Just to keep the Twos straight.” Her eyes seemed slightly crossed by the duplicative numerical naming of the werewolves.

  “OK, still confused—why is that good news?” Thor’s mental voice sounded annoyed.

  “It is good news because if we meet, then I can challenge him for pack leadership. He cannot refuse me because none of his werewolves will follow him if he does.”

  “So to clarify,” thought Commander Gupta, sounding as bemused as Leona, “you are saying, the Mind-Breakers’ Two can challenge and fight you for the pack leadership, and if you win, then all the werewolves will follow you?”

  “That is correct,” thought their Alpha.

  “Not to rain on anyone’s parade, but…what happens if you lose?” asked Thor.

  “The pack swears allegiance to the new Alpha, and then they all follow his lead. Any wolf that doesn’t obey is killed by the other wolves,” replied the Alpha wolf.

  “That sounds a little risky! If you lose, we’ll have two thousand new enemies to deal with,” said Captain O’Neil.

  “Well, except for me and the ‘human’ werewolves,” thought Thor. “We’d be in a pretty bad pickle.”

  “I will not lose,” stated the Alpha with certainty.

  “Well, whatever you’re going to do, you’re gonna have to do it right now. The new ship’s Alpha…er…I mean the ship’s Two, is going to be right on top of you very soon,” said Ashley.

  Their Alpha wolf broke off communication, and pushed to open the wall that he and his wolves had rigged over the last day. He maneuvered himself out and moved until he was at the edge of the gravity field. He then dove down into gravity and signaled all his wolves to do the same, and to remove their thought-helmets.

  The Alpha wolf then took off all his sword and knife belts, and dropped them to the floor. After that, the twenty-foot-tall werewolf stood there and calmly waited for his former second-in-command to arrive. Briefly he considered all that he knew of Two’s fighting style, then he switched to monitoring his surroundings. Around him, his guard
wolves did the same, alert to prevent any possible interference from the dishonorable Masters.

  “I don’t know about you, but I think we need a backup plan,” said Captain O’Neil to Commander Gupta, still using Ashley’s comm link after the Alpha had left the conversation.

  “I could not agree with you more. That is why I have such a plan in mind,” replied Gupta.

  “OK, then—care to share with the class?”

  “The class? Oh, yes, one of your delightful expressions. Very well then: we will use the pack leader battle as the diversion that we have been trying to create against the Mind-Breakers. Then our forces, instead of being the diversion, become the main strike force.”

  “I like it! That will mean that the wolves working with us will be in the middle of the battle and won’t hear who won the fight.”

  “There is one wolf standing right here,” replied Gupta, his mental voice sounding miffed.

  “Sorry, I meant, you know, the other wolves. The ‘nonhuman’ ones,” said O’Neil, turning a little red.

  “I know what you meant. However, I do not think that most of ‘our’ werewolves will go back into the Mind-Breakers’ pack, after their much kinder treatment with us.”

  “Let’s just hope the Alpha—our Alpha—wins and we don’t have to find out,” said O’Neil bleakly.

  “Yes, quite true. On to another matter: how many humans were you able to equip with Mind-Breaker weapons?”

  “Mind-Breaker…oh, yes, the Supes. We found five thousand of their energy weapons in the lockups on Deck Five. It’s lucky for us that the weapons are new, and imprint on the first person who turns them on.”

  “That is very good indeed. Let us start to position troops immediately,” Commander Gupta thought, sounding businesslike and positive.

  “Ashley, have you found a way to block our troop movements from the Supe sensors?” asked Captain O’Neil, knowing that Ashley was still monitoring the call.