Prime Quarter Leader Conclek closed the comm and snorted, thinking back to what the Ixtali spy had told him when he was on Leath. “You should get your affairs in order,” the spy had said before exiting the meeting room.
Perhaps he would die, and perhaps he would not. So far this Baba Yaga had gone through three of his outposts, destroying each in turn. He had commanded the fourth to join him here at headquarters. This location had been dug into the ground, and the security doors were closed.
“Reminds me of China,” the black-faced, white-haired woman remarked. Her harsh voice suited her visage as the seven Etherians looked at the last concentration of Leath on the planet.
“It’s going to be a bit tough. Lots of places to get shot to hell,” John commented. “We need to blow the door and get some spies into the place to give us some idea of what we’re looking at. We don’t even know how many levels deep this sumbitch dives.”
“Well, we have some idea,” ADAM said through the speakers to everyone. “I’ve dropped some explosives and measured the shock waves. My best calculation is we are looking at a minimum of five hundred levels on the low side, upper limit two thousand. We know four hundred troops just arrived from the last location.”
“Shame we didn’t catch them in time,” Peter stated. “I’d have loved to get another piece of those assholes.”
Bethany Anne’s eyes narrowed. “And so you shall, my little Pricolici.” Her eyes started to glow red. “So you shall.”
The men turned to look at Peter. His eyes flashed yellow, and he had a predatory grin on his face.
“Send the first puck, ADAM,” Bethany Anne instructed.
Inside the base, those on the first and second floors covered their ears when the first BANG resounded.
“Knock, knock,” Baba Yaga whispered. “The Witch is here.”
Several pucks and a significant amount of time later the banging stopped, and those in the base wondered what the Etheric enemies were up to.
“You boys stay up here and pound away to make sure no one leaves. Watch all the spy drones to the best of your ability.” She looked at the map the spies had drawn, the infestation of the micro-sized drones having completed as much as the team needed to see. Baba Yaga turned to Peter. “Are you ready to finish this for your people?”
The seven-foot-tall Pricolici looked down at the woman with the white eyes who stared back at him and nodded. “Yesssss.”
The guys watched as Bethany Anne and Peter disappeared into the Etheric.
“Well, shit.” Stephen looked at the other guys. “There goes our fun. Anyone want to play poker?”
Darryl looked at Stephen with a smirk on his face. “Play poker with a mind reading vampire?”
Stephen put a hand to his heart. “You wound me, sir.”
“Not as much as you would wound my pocketbook,” Darryl replied.
“I’m in,” Scott said, stepping around the two arguing guys and walking over to where the cards were stashed.
“Hey!” Darryl called to Scott. “I didn’t say I wouldn’t play.”
Behind Darryl, Stephen winked at Scott, who shook his head and smiled.
Etheric Realm
Beside Bethany Anne, Peter was almost a statue as she sought the location of the main command center, chuckling evilly to herself the whole time.
Her method was to peek out of the Etheric, try to figure out where they were compared to the map in her head, and then pull Peter to another location and peek again.
It was their seventh time they had looked and Peter finally had to ask. “Whyyy arre youu laughinng?”
“Because,” she answered in her gravelly voice, “I’m thinking what is going to happen when I find the command center.”
“Whhat?”
Bethany Anne poked her head out one more time, but it stayed there a second longer than normal before she stood up, her eyes flaming red and her voice guttural. “You have ten seconds to get your pound of flesh before I arrive.”
Peter looked down and smiled, his teeth showing, “Morre thann enouughh timme to explainnn myy annoyyyance.”
Prime Quarter Leader Conclek watched the video take. They had tried fifteen different ways to shoot down the spaceship that was attacking them, but none of them had worked.
It was obviously a far more advanced ship than it seemed—which was not much more than a jumped-up merchant ship. Larger than normal, maybe, but its weapons were frustrating his defenses. He was pretty sure the Etherians were waiting until dark before they attacked. He had sent two detachments of troops to protect their energy generators and keep the lights on.
As well as making sure the appropriate teams had low-light gear.
They had set up locations to trap the enemy and blow the rooms on top of the attackers. They had pre-set multiple ways to block them in as well.
He and his people would take care of this Witch of the Empress and he would personally piss on those bodies, and he would be damned if he wouldn’t send that video to the newsgroups as well. He wouldn’t back down from a fight.
No way, no how.
The room, about thirty feet by twenty feet, was shared with his team’s other eight commanders. Conclek had turned to look at a video intake when the roar shook them out of their inner thoughts.
Conclek was reaching for a pistol at his side, when a massive hand gripped his throat and lifted his massive armored body off the floor, shaking him. “YOUUU!” it screamed at him.
Conclek wasn’t sure what the monster had said, but it knew who he was. His hand had just freed the pistol from its holster when the monster reached down, grabbed his pistol, and yanked it out of his hand. He was twisted in the air, and Conclek felt two slugs penetrate the back of his armor.
He tried to yell, but he was struggling with breathing just then. Next thing he knew, he had flown over a bank of video screens and crashed into someone behind him.
Bethany Anne pushed Peter into the command room and started counting to herself as she pulled in energy. “One Mississippi.” She pushed a button on her holster and her Etheric Sword hilt popped up. “Two Mississippi.” She grabbed the hilt and fed energy into the blade, causing it to light up. “Three Mississippi… WHOTHEFUCKAMIKIDDING? Ten Mississippi, here Baba Yaga comes!”
She stepped into the utter chaos of the command room.
“Wow,” was the first thing she said as she dodged the Leath Peter casually threw behind him. Bethany Anne slit the flying Leath open right through the chest armor as he flew past. “Pay attention to your surroundings!” she called.
Peter picked up a heavy desk and slammed it into a Leath who was trying to get to the command center’s exit.
Baba Yaga made a face. “I don’t think he’s going to make it.”
“Nonne wiilll maakke itt!” Peter growled. He heard Bethany Anne’s sword slashing in the background as he caught up with the commander. “Come back herrrre,” he snarled, and slapped a weapon out of the commander’s hand. Peter had no clue where he had gotten it from. “Iit’s nottt niccce tooo shoottt meee.” he told the commander conversationally as he grabbed his armored arm and raised it, then slammed it down on a desk. He did it once, twice, and on the third time it broke the desk.
“Dammmnn,” he remarked. “Theey maakke goood arrrmor.”
Three impacts caused rocks to shower the room, and Peter knew it was now just the two of them alive with this asshole.
Baba Yaga had finished those who had still been alive.
Peter picked up the commander by his armor’s neck and the Leath smashed a fist into his ribs, cracking two. “Bassstard!” Peter threw him across the room to land on a desk, and the commander slid across it and slammed into the wall beyond.
Conclek knew for certain he was going to die, but at least he had hurt the monster. That punch had to have done some damage, he thought, as he heard the crunch on the alien’s skeleton. He had rolled up and was steadying himself when a new face popped over the desk that had cushioned his fall somewhat.
She spoke a language he understood, at least well enough. “Let me introduce you to the Empress’ Prime Guardian,” she said as the monster joined her in looking down at him. “You are responsible for failing to teach your people to properly respect their enemies, and therefore you have sentenced all on the planet to death.”
Conclek glared at her, not willing to speak to the apparition.
“Keep him here,” she said as she turned her sword off and locked it back on her leg. She walked toward the computers and video monitors. “ADAM, what can we figure out about this technology?”
She flipped a couple of switches. “Nope.” She flipped a couple more, noticing a second steel door starting to close. “Still not the right choice, ADAM.” Her eyes turned to another console, and she walked over and punched a couple of buttons. “Good enough,” she commented and then hit one more.
This time Conclek was surprised to hear her speak in his language. “This is Baba Yaga, the Etheric Empress’ Witch. Pay attention as we kill your commander…” She walked away from the communications station.
ADAM, pass on to the guys that they are to move away, since we are going to puck the fuck out of this location.
>>No going from room to room for fun?”
Hell, no. This is a death trap for both sides. I think we will have to be content with killing this asshole and making this a gravesite.
>>They are informed, and are preparing for your return.<<
Bethany Anne thought about that for a moment. Preparing?
>>Cleaning up, is more like it.<<
She shook her head and then nodded when she heard the sounds from outside. First came aggravated snarls, then banging as those outside worked to get inside the command center.
She walked back to Peter and the commander. “Peter?”
Peter looked down, “I’dd liikke himmm to suffferrr, buutt wee caann’tt leett himmm looosse.”
“Oh, well. Then change,” she told him. He looked at her for confirmation, and seconds later he was back in his human form. She pulled her sword’s hilt back out, aiming it away from Peter and infusing the blade with energy. “I’d suggest,” she said as she handed it to him, “you don’t let that touch you. Take off his hands and it will cauterize…”
Before she could finish the statement, Peter had taken off both hands and a leg at what would be his knee on a human. The commander’s screams of pain reverberated through the room. “Ok, I guess that works, too.”
Conclek couldn’t believe how easily the energy blade had sliced through his armor, which was busy pumping him full of painkillers. He was just getting his focus back, even if it was a little fuzzy, when he looked up at the two standing above him. Where the one called Baba Yaga had been, there was now a different woman. A beautiful woman.
One he recognized, his eyes opening wide. She had a blue ball of energy in her hand.
“You!” he spat.
“Know the truth,” she said, her voice not quite as gravelly as before, but close enough, “and take it to your grave.” She hit him with the blue ball and his body spasmed. “That will keep you quiet.”
Bethany Anne, Empress of the Etheric Empire, reached out and took the sword from Peter. Shutting it off, she slotted it back into its compartment, allowing it to disappear behind the protection of the armor that closed over it. She reached out and took Peter’s hand. “ADAM, send the pucks,” she commanded as the two of them disappeared. The banging on the door continued while the commander convulsed on the floor, unable to move as rock from the ceiling started to fall.
24
QBBS Meredith Reynolds, the Open Court
Bethany Anne stood on the podium that had been built for her in the middle of the bottom floor of the Open Court, surrounded by her people—her Guardians and those who had passed the security checks. She looked out over those standing on this level, as well as turning her head to look up at the Etherians on the higher levels of the Court.
“Merrek is now free of Leath. The last thousand or two were entombed forever as a pointed reminder that you do not disrespect my warriors.” Her eyes glimmered red, sparking from time to time. “We have personal confirmation of their deaths, and have provided video of what happened to all news agencies which adhere to the truth.”
She turned to her left, then to her right.
“The Leath military treated our fallen in the most despicable way possible, and we have replied. We killed everyone responsible for committing the atrocities, and other Leath who had worked to subjugate Merrek to satisfy their own ambitions.”
Bethany Anne’s speech was being broadcast galaxy-wide as fast as the news agencies could send it to their relay sites and through the gates to continue beyond the Yollin system.
“However,” she continued, and then her visage changed, her eyes taking center stage as they glowed with power, “let me explain that my real fight is with the Kurtherians of the Phraim-’Eh clan, one of the Seven Kurtherian Clans. The Etheric Empire has declared war to the knife with that clan, not with the Leath who have been subjugated by these aliens, acting as their ‘gods’ for generations. To those Kurtherians I say: know that I am committing our complete focus to your eradication, to uprooting you and killing you one by one, however long it takes. Should you seek safety, I will attack your location until I find you and kill you.”
Her face crackled with energy, vehemence dripping from her words. “I have been granted a long life, and I will use that life to make sure you suffer for killing my people both on Earth and in space. Every member of your clan is now our enemy. You wanted to see if you were good enough to help a species? Well, you failed. Congratulations! You now have the attention of the Etheric Empire and the Queen Bitch.”
Her hair floated in the calm air as the cameras focused on her face. “Baba Yaga is coming,” she assured the galactic audience.
She turned and walked off the stage, the roaring of her people signaling their willingness to continue the fight.
Whole space systems learned an important lesson that day: that their people should never, never, disrespect the Etheric Empire’s warriors.
QBBS Asteroid R2D2, R&D
Bobcat looked down at his table, up at the images projected above it being discussed by Tina and Marcus, and back down at his tablet.
William was sitting on a stool shaking his head. “Sonofabitch.”
“It’s fucking genius,” Bobcat breathed. “Holy shit on a popsicle stick.”
“Ok, that’s just gross,” Tina told him, making a face.
“Yeah, but it has a nice cadence,” Bobcat pointed out. “Now focus. Why did you go this route?”
She pointed to the third set of figures. “This was where Marcus found my mistake, but it was also the area that just…just…” She stopped a moment.
“Felt right?” Bobcat asked. “Where your gut was saying you needed to look?”
She tilted her head and shoulders left and right just a little before shrugging, “Yes?”
“Good!” Bobcat smiled. “It’s fucking beer-thirty somewhere, motherfuckers.” He grinned and reached for the beer he hadn’t yet opened. “R2, I need Bethany Anne.”
“She asks if it is important. She is in the middle of something.”
“Yes, it is. Tell her it has to do with portable Eat-Shit-and-Die weapons.”
A microsecond later, the Empress’ voice was heard in their meeting area. “Bobcat, you better not be fucking with me.”
“No, my Empress,” Bobcat told her. “We absolutely are not shitting you.”
“Well done, then. Well done indeed!” she replied. “I’ll be there to discuss it in six hours. Bethany Anne out.”
There was silence in the team office as they each stood there thinking
their own thoughts, just drinking up their success at cracking the impossible once again.
“What’s wrong?” William asked Tina, who was wiping away a tear. Marcus stepped closer and put an arm around her, hugging her gently as she spoke. “I just realized I have now contributed in my own way to paying back those bastards on Merrek.”
“Well,” Bobcat spoke softly, “Baba Yaga did those jackasses well enough, but with this breakthrough we can create defense systems that will protect worlds for what are pennies on the dollar compared to what we have now.” He used his beer bottle to scratch his cheek. “What are we naming it? If we don’t do it ourselves, you know damned well Bethany Anne will call it something like Little ESD or Tiny ESD or something inane like that.”
Tina smiled and wiped away another tear. “BYPS.”
Marcus released his hug to look down at her and ask, “BIPS?
“No, BYPS.” She chuckled. “Baba Yaga Protection System. The Witch of the Night, the Darkness of Space.”
The men looked at each other and William pointed to the screens they had been reviewing. “R2, print the records from Tina and Marcus. Print everything out so we can bind it. Put Project ‘BYPS’ on the cover sheet.”
R2 replied, “Understood, William.”
Bobcat held up his beer. “To BYPS!”
Tina, Marcus, and William grabbed their drinks and raised them in honor of Bobcat’s toast.
“TO BYPS!” they agreed, Tina adding, “May she blow the shit out of unwanted Kurtherian assholes forevermore.”
FINIS
Author Notes - Michael Anderle
August 22nd, 2017
As always, I want to say THANK YOU for not only reading this book, but also reading through to these author notes, as well.
Kurtherian Gambit Boxed Set Three: Books 15-21, Never Submit, Never Surrender, Forever Defend, Might Makes Right, Ahead Full, Capture Death, Life Goes On (Kurtherian Gambit Boxed Sets Book 3) Page 93