There were many worlds the Noel-ni could deport those who broke their laws to. W’ell had struck the child of a mid-grade bureaucrat, who had exerted enough pull to put him on a ship headed for their prison planet. He would not be a prisoner on arrival, but the jobs for an alien there were either going to kill W’ell or cause him to become something he had never been in his whole adult Yollin life to this point.
Humble.
At this moment, she was searching for her daughter in the crowds lining the streets. D’leck wasn’t sure what was happening here, but for the Noel-ni to be out like this it had to be something that tweaked their curiosity, or it was a major event in their history.
D’leck could barely keep up with the annual events; she didn’t track the holidays based across years.
She considered standing up on her back two legs to see across the tops of the Noel-ni, but if she were to accidentally hurt someone, it would go very badly for her and even worse for Sis’tael. They might allow her daughter to be deported with her, but if they couldn’t find her in time then D’leck would be exiled and her daughter would be here on her own.
Not the best situation for a Yollin teenager.
—
Sis’tael couldn’t see over the heads in front of her. She was careful every time she stepped, since her heavy feet would certainly hurt others and she didn’t want that to occur.
What she did want was to see the alien Empress whom her father had said ran them off their planet. While she had listened to her father when she was younger, her eyes had been opened over the years to his belief in his own superiority.
Frankly, her father was a jerk, and while she hadn’t wished him to go to a prison planet, she wasn’t missing him too much at the moment.
He had truly received punishment for his actions. Sis’tael had heard her mother and father argue many times over the years. Her mother had warned him, badgered him, pleaded with him, and finally told him to do what he needed to.
Two months later he was on a ship heading to the prison planet for striking a bureaucrat’s child. It wasn’t a fair punishment, but what could he expect? Noel-ni could be very touchy, and if there was an infraction it didn’t go well for the alien who committed it.
Ever.
—
Jhrex, son of a prominent businessman, looked at his friend and winked, a grin on his face. The Yollin in front of him was taking up too much space with her long body, and it was annoying him. His friend looked at him quizzically. Jhrex looked down and opened his hand enough that his friend saw the pin.
It was long enough that it would cause quite a bit of pain, and probably much distress. Jhrex heard the sirens whoop at that moment, and a sneaky smirk graced his face.
When his friend saw the look on Jhrex’s face, he started moving slowly away. He wasn’t sure exactly what Jhrex was going to do, but that look on his face was usually the first indication something was going to go dramatically wrong.
For both Jhrex and whoever was near him.
—
John and Darryl walked on the road in front of the low vehicle Bethany Anne was riding in while she sat and smiled at the crowds. Eric and Scott walked behind her. The guys had played a round of poker, and the last two to fold had won the front position.
No one expected anything to go wrong, but this was Bethany Anne’s first trip to this planet and it had been a bit of a circus so far. It seemed the Noel-ni had a strong militaristic core to their society. They had seen the videos of Bethany Anne fighting on Karillian, and wanted to see what she looked like without the video touch-ups.
John could hear the whispers as Bethany Anne came into view. Most were surprised to see she looked just like the videos, no special effects required to make her prettier.
Unless the Etheric Empire had technology that made someone look good to regular eyes?
John smiled at that. Here they were in yet another solar system so far removed from Earth he couldn’t figure out the distance, and Bethany Anne’s beauty was a point of consternation with the females. He didn’t think the males noticed as much.
“It’s all real, folks,” John muttered between his teeth as he looked around. More than a few people pointed to the Bitches. The four of them were in their armor, and John was singled out about half as often as Bethany Anne.
“Seems you have a fan club there, buddy,” Darryl remarked over the private channel. “I’ve got three on the right who seem to be taking multiple pictures of you. In fact—” Darryl dropped off the net for a moment.
John glanced around to see who he was talking about before quickly resuming his focus on his area. Darryl finally came back on the channel. “Ok, I’ve got some drones checking them out.”
“Problem?” Scott asked from behind them.
“Just being prepared,” Darryl answered. “We probably have some Intel weenies taking close-up shots of our armor.”
“Fucking good luck with figuring this armor out,” Scott replied. “I’ve stared at it for hours and still can’t figure out how the hell the interlocks work.”
“That’s because you suck at geometry,” Eric told him, keeping an eye on the three in the crowd as the car moved past them.
“New group on my side,” John interrupted. “Seems like we have new activity on extra-high bands to try and… Oh shit, they dropped their electronic devices, and someone is squalling like it hurt.”
“Bet it was BA,” Darryl commented. “Wow, I now count four groups that seem to be focused on themselves and their feet. Probably everyone dropped their devices like hot potatoes.”
“Nope,” Scott answered, “I got one guy causing a ruckus. From what I can tell, looks like he had it locked to his arm for ease of use.”
“Sucks to be him,” John said, listening on his private channel with Bethany Anne. “Yup, it was the boss. She did some hocus-pocus to their equipment. Ok, new trouble, guys, front and center.”
John and Darryl saw the commotion about fifty yards in front of them as six bodies fell into the street. It took them just a second to see that a fairly young four-legged Yollin was in the middle of the mess.
The bodies all seemed to be making a hash of themselves, probably hurting each other in the effort to get back up.
The group of Noel-ni jumped up quicker than the young Yollin could get back on her four legs, and they turned on her, kicking her for an unknown reason.
“Guys!” John called, but he was overridden on the command channel.
“I’ve got this,” Bethany Anne said. The four Bitches started running then when their Empress appeared ten feet above the fighting and the fireworks started in earnest.
—
Sis’tael felt a harsh pain in her hindquarter. Her body reacted by surging forward, trying to get away from whatever was stinging her.
The only problem was, there was nowhere to go except over those in front of her. She and a handful of Noel-ni surged into the street. She rolled to the side to make sure she didn’t land directly on an older mother Noel-ni.
Panicking, Sis’tael turned to look into the crowd to see if there was any reason for the pain.
Two of the Noel-ni started cursing her, and she realized she was in serious trouble.
The two yelling at her started kicking her, their feet slamming against her hard exoskeleton. She tried to curl on her side to protect herself from the kicks of the larger Noel-ni, but another person’s foot slammed into her head from the back and she screamed in pain.
—
D’leck’s head twisted to her left when she heard a scream of pain. It was Sis’tael. D’leck’s mandibles clacked in fear when she couldn’t see what was going on, and the crowd between her and the noise was impossible to get through.
She turned to see if there was any other way to get around the crowd without running them over—which she was probably capable of doing. If she could get Sis’tael out of this situation, there was a chance they could stay together. However, if D’leck ran over the Noel-ni in front of her,
she was surely going to be seeing her stupid-ass husband soon.
Another cry caught D’leck’s attention and she set her mandibles together. She was about to start through the crowd when a crack sounded, and just thirty paces away, floating above and looking down on the crowd, was the alien Empress.
It was the alien who had taken over her home planet.
The alien pointed down from where she was floating and looked at the crowd, who was pulling back.
The alien’s glowing red eyes found D’leck, and she pointed to her.
—
Sis’tael felt the third kick hit the arms she was using to protect her head. She cried out a second time as a deafening crack above her hurt her hearing.
The crowd surged back, and Sis’tael wasn’t being kicked anymore.
“John,” a voice said above her.
Sis’tael moved an arm and looked up, right into the flaming red eyes of the new Yollin Empress.
“Oh, bistok shit,” Sis’tael whispered, trying not to move. “Mom is going to kill me.”
The Empress pointed at Sis’tael. “Carry her. She was being kicked.”
Sis’tael turned to see another of the aliens, this one in dark red armor and a helmet, looking at her.
Sis’tael swallowed. She had watched enough videos to know this was the alien her father had said did the killing for the false Yollin leader.
She went limp as he knelt next to her.
“I…” Sis’tael started, as he gently moved his arms underneath her. “Can…do this…” She looked around when he picked her up easily, and kept her legs tight against her body.
—
Jhrex laughed his ass off as he watched the group in front of him collapse into the street. He started egging on the fallen Noel-ni as they regained their feet. “Kick the alien!” Others took up the chant, and the violence started.
He noticed their kicks hurt her, but not too badly due to the Yollin’s hard skin. He was about to yell again when a large crack sounded and not ten paces away, floating in the air above the Yollin, was the alien Empress.
Her eyes were glowing red, and her hair was floating loose around her head.
Seconds later Jhrex started when he felt a hand grab his arm. “C’mon!” his friend hissed, but suddenly his friend’s face showed fear and Jhrex turned to follow his friend’s focus back to the alien Empress. His heart sank.
The Empress was aiming a finger at him, and her finger was starting to glow blue.
—
Bethany Anne was multitasking as fast as she could think. She confirmed John had the young Yollin protected, then she searched out the Yollin cry of worry she had heard.
The girl’s mom was easy to find.
She pointed toward the mother, and the crowd parted where she was pointing.
Score one for having a bunch of videos about your badassery. “Come here!” she commanded the female Yollin.
>>To your right, we believe we have found out why the Yollin teen surged ahead.<<
What happened? she asked TOM and ADAM.
I read her thoughts, TOM answered. She felt a large sting and her body reacted, then the natural tendency of Noel-ni to hate aliens took over and someone, most likely the one ADAM is pointing out, instigated the attack from the sidelines.
Bethany Anne lifted her arm, her fingertip glowing blue as the crowd moved away. She spoke in the native tongue. “Come here!”
The Noel-ni had turned to flee, but Bethany Anne released the electrical charge and the one she was pointing at collapsed, spasming on the ground.
>>INCOMING!<< ADAM yelled a warning on all channels.
—
Police Protector Tellek was hot, tired, and annoyed.
He didn’t pull many of these official gigs, but when he did he made sure to inform his upper command how much he despised them.
This time it didn’t matter how much of a pain in the ass he was; since practically the whole damn force had been called to duty to help protect the foreign dignitary. He wasn’t exactly sure which one this was since they had two coming this month, and frankly, with this being his fifth shift in two days, he could care less.
When he heard the squawk on the radio that said there was a disturbance behind his position, he turned and started jogging in that direction. The least he could do was show up. He imagined others would do the hard part.
Which meant they got the paperwork, as well.
He was a block away when the alien just appeared above a group of his people and another alien.
One of her guards picked up the alien and started to carry her away. Tellek’s lips pressed together when the alien, still floating in the air, lifted her hand, which started glowing blue.
Tellek reached over his shoulder, grabbed the radar-guided explosive missile, and pulled it around.
“HALT!” he screamed. Whatever this alien was doing, it was something that looked like it would hurt his people.
She released the blue ball into the crowd, and the screaming started.
Tellek put the weapon to his shoulder, locked onto the alien, and hit the firing switch.
CHAPTER TEN
Minor Planet Howz, City of Chaht, Bar
“I’m sorry, but you want what, exactly?” Nathan asked the odd-looking alien across the table.
He and R’yhek were sitting in a dark, dingy bar where Nathan would have been concerned about taking off his boots. He was sure some insect would crawl onto his feet and infect him with God-knew-what.
While the darkness of the place didn’t hamper his eyesight, it might have bothered R’yhek if the Pod-doc hadn’t upgraded his low-light vision abilities to the best a Yollin could expect.
The alien, one Nathan would describe as a cross between an emaciated robot and a thrift store, leaned toward him. “I want you,” he struck the table with one finger, his one good eye glowing brightly in the gloom, “to provide me with a contract that grants me all your Straiphus output for the collin plants.”
R’yhek jumped into the conversation, “You want roots?” Nathan looked at his companion and smirked. The large Yollin continued, “You are trying to shake us down in this dingy place for some damned plants?”
Nathan turned to the Yollin. “You owe me. You lost the bet.”
Beethlock eyed the two in front of him. “I am not sure,” his sibilant tones seemed annoyed, “you understand the gravity of your position.”
Nathan turned back to the black-market businessman. “Oh, I’m pretty sure I know.” He leaned back in his chair. “You tried to go to Straiphus and get your own supply of the collin plant, but you can’t.”
“It doesn’t grow anywhere else like it does on Straiphus. Too expensive to cultivate,” R’yhek interjected.
“Then,” Nathan continued, “when regular business channels didn’t work, you tried to strong-arm a few people on the planet. Unfortunately,” Nathan’s eyes flashed yellow, “you never asked the criminal underground for permission, and they ran your ass out and killed some of your people as a warning.”
R’yhek shook his head. “Truly shouldn’t piss off the local criminals.”
“Finally, you reached out to us to set up a meeting, not realizing that same criminal organization might have let us know that someone was trying to strong-arm our farmers.” This time, Nathan tapped the table with his finger.
“Why would they tell you?” Beethlock asked, narrowing his good eye.
“Call it professional courtesy,” Nathan answered. “These negotiations are over. No one threatens us.”
Beethlock’s chuckle irritated Nathan. “I think not.”
“Yeah?” Nathan looked around the place. He could count about fifteen beings he didn’t know. “You and what army?”
“I’m glad you asked,” Beethlock told him. Nathan flinched as a high-pitched whistle emanated from the alien in front of him.
Four of those in the bar seemed to go from drunk to sober in seconds, and another eight entered the establishment from outside.
“Not bad,” R’yhek admitted. “Didn’t see the outside options coming in.”
“Last chance, Beethlock.” Nathan’s eyes glowed yellow.
“For what?” Beethlock asked, ignoring the warning.
“To accept that you don’t fuck over Bad Company, as opposed to learning it the hard way,” Nathan answered, but he wasn’t really listening to Beethlock anyway. He was confirming everyone’s location.
Nathan tapped R’yhek’s foot with his boot.
“Time’s up, asshole,” Nathan told Beethlock.
R’yhek turned in his chair and dove to his left.
“Arrgh, bistok shit!” R’yhek spat when he realized he was now halfway sticking to the gunk all over the floor.
Nathan roared, his body transforming as he grabbed the table in front of him. The nails of his clawed hands raked huge gouges in its top as he shoved it violently forward, crunching Beethlock against the wall. He then twisted to his left and tossed the table toward the larger group of Beethlock’s minions who had come in.
After the table had soared over his head, R’yhek jumped up from the floor and laughed. “Is that all you got, Beethlock?” he yelled as he saw Shi-tan’s green arm grab one of those who had been in the bar and throw him several feet. “We got an army in green!”
R’yhek heard some noise behind him and turned to see Nathan in Pricolici form ripping off Beethlock’s metal arm. “Oh, never mind. Looks like you’re busy with death-by-pissed-off-Pricolici.” He turned back around when he heard a woman yelling.
“Uncle R’yhek!” Christina shouted as she jumped on the bar and ran down its length, sidestepping all the glasses and plates in an amazing feat of dexterity until one of the people at the bar realized she was working for the other team.
The alien shoved the bar stool out of his way and turned to catch the speeding human, red in his eyes.
“Oh, for…” R’yhek almost closed his eyes, but Christina was on the alien, her clawed hands slicing from his head, behind his neck, under his arm and down his torso as she twisted around him like he was a pole. Then she jumped back onto the bar as the alien was left screaming, blood cascading down his flesh, eyes blinded.
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