WE HAVE CONTACT (The Kurtherian Gambit Book 12) (27 page)

Bethany Anne stepped to the side and held up her hand. A second later, she caught the sword John tossed to her.

“Die,
Bitch
!”

The slice took but a second, the body falling in two pieces with wet sodden sounds. The head rolled across the floor, stopping when it bumped up against her father’s dead body.

The end to a thousand years of planning the destruction of Earth’s freedom joined together in death.

Space Station One - L2

Kiel found he and his people in the middle of a fight. Fortunately, behind their armor and carapace exoskeleton, they weren’t in mortal danger.

But it HAD become a rollicking good fight.

The aliens were about a head shorter than most of his people. Even so, there were some that were muscular and a few more that were extremely strong.

Abnormally strong.

“Kiel, bring me back a sample of one of the aliens with superior strength,” Royleen’s voice cut into his focus as he was slowly backing up under the onslaught of an alien with a full body-sized pole. These types of weapons had not been used in over fifteen of his generations, and twice his armor had saved him from exo-skeleton cracking hits.

Kiel smiled savagely, THIS would be a story to talk about when they got back to Yoll.

“Easier said than done, Royleen!” Kiel spat back before taking his own offensive, “I can’t implement full armor support, or I risk breaking these simple walls which might be a bad solution for yours truly. This alien is a demon of speed and has practiced with this…OUCH,” he interrupted his conversation, “you soft-skinned slink bait!”

Kiel ignored the radio for a moment as he worked to attack. Finally, he was able to catch the damned stick in his grip and engage the servo-motors on his armor. The alien was stupid enough to hold on trying to keep his weapon. He bounced off of Kiel’s armor and laid out unconscious on the floor. Kiel looked up and saw two new figures.

“FEMALES!” Royleen yelled into his ear. “I want one of those, bring one, Kiel. They hold answers to the genetics for the species and will serve me very well for other research.”
 

One of his team members spoke over the comms, “Master Kiel, we have accomplished subjugating and grabbing a male of the species.”

—

Coach was watching John fight the monster in front of him. It had two legs, but the legs were articulated wrong like they were the back legs of a horse or some sort of large insect. John was trying to beat the crap out of it with the quarterstaff and Coach couldn’t get a swing in edgewise.

“Dammit!” John yelled, “Stay fucking still you maggot spewing alien asshole!” He brought his quarterstaff around to block a grab and then shot out the end directly into the alien’s chest. The metal tipped end cracked on some sort of metal, but the suit he was wearing looked more like a plastic derivative to him.

Unfortunately, it didn’t crack easily like plastic.

Then, John found himself busy blocking the alien’s attacks.

John could hear fighting going on all around him, but he could only focus on his own situation.

“Coach!” John yelled, “I’m going to open him up and go low, try to swing for the stands at the top when I…” John didn’t get anything else out. The alien was successful in grabbing his staff, and John held on tight, trying to keep it. All the way to when he was slammed into the aliens armored covered body and cracked his head on its chest. John bounced back down the hallway, and the lights grew dim.

Coach saw John go down right when he heard ReaLea behind him, “That’s my friend motherfucker!”
 

“Didn’t I tell you not to come down here?” Coach spit out, trying to figure out the best solution.

“Didn’t you know it was useless to stop an ex-cop from trying to help? What are you, a misogynist?”

“That’s a really big word for calling me a dick!” Coach yelled back.

“Well, if the name fits…What is it doing?” ReaLea and Bree noticed the alien turn towards them.

“Shit!” Coach spat out, “it found what it wanted.”

“What’s that?” ReaLea asked.

“FEMALES!” Coach yelled, moving between ReaLea and Bree and the alien. “I'm not a fucking misogynist, I'm practical. You are a glorified research bug at the moment, so get the fuck out of here!”

ReaLea could see the guys trying to get between her, Bree and the alien who had another of his kind coming up behind them.

“GO!” Coach yelled as he and now Adarsh went after the alien together.

ReaLea was biting her tongue, but had to agree with Coach, this time, she and Bree had quickly attracted the alien’s attention when they arrived in his field of view.

Making a decision, she turned and grabbed Bree’s arm, “Let’s go!” the two of them started running back down the hallway.

—

“They are getting away!” Royleen called out.

“Tell me something I am not aware of, Royleen.” Kiel snapped as he blocked a simple stick attack by the bigger alien. The one on his right slashed down with a knife, the blade catching a softer part of his suit. Kiel whipped his servo arm out and hit that alien, sending it bouncing off of the walls.

Kiel started walking towards the direction where the females had just left when the tip of the stick was used to hit him in his helmet. It didn’t break anything, but the loud crack was disconcerting.
 

Kiel looked down at the alien, anger coloring his eyes, “I’ve had enough!” Kiel kicked up the speed aspect. He would have to restrict his movements some, but now he was fighting faster.

—

Coach heard the two women’s steps as they left the battle area. He didn’t doubt the two had courage, but there was no reason to leave the tasty chocolate out to entice the uninvited guests. He grinned, maybe this would change how tight their body suits were? Can’t figure out who the females are if the suits hide the anatomical differences.

His batter-up effort didn’t do a damned thing. Adarsh had just scored a good hit with his knife. Well, good if one assumed the alien’s response pointed to his success. Adarsh was out of this fight. Coach saw John was getting up from behind the alien, his healing abilities helping him and three others were now causing a problem for the other alien.

Using the opportunity Adarsh created, Coach turned his quarterstaff weapon and jabbed it for all he was worth right at the shield over what he assumed was its face. The gold reflective coating scratched just a little.

But oh boy, he got the alien’s attention!

“Come here and let’s talk about this like civilized aliens…You fucking ground pounder!” Coach snarled.

—

John got his head turned in the right direction, which is to say eyes open and figuring out what was going on. He heard Coach yelling behind him and turned toward the back of the alien that had clocked him a good one. He could feel the blood along his scalp and in his hair.

The blood was going to suck to clean up.

—

“Penn, this is Gabrielle.” Gabrielle had moved to Bethany Anne’s chair on the Bridge of the ArchAngel. “We are taking two of our Pods and sending them out toward the unknown vessel. Do not try to override any programming on your side, it will just be wasted efforts.”

“Yes, ma’am,” Penn replied.

“What is your status?” she asked.

“Ma’am, we are fighting large bipedal creatures that are in armor. We don’t have decent weaponry up here that we can use without decompression worries that can do anything to them in armor. So, we are fighting with sticks, basically. The aliens are also fighting with similar weapons. I don’t know if that is because they worry about the walls getting holed, or we are just no challenge to them at the moment. All I can say is that the armored aliens are easily a match for our Wechselbalg with simple weapons.”

“Understood. Hold on SS1 - ArchAngel will be coming around the moon and visible in two minutes.”

“Kicking ass and taking names, ArchAngel, SS1 out.”

—-

Coach never saw the hand. He had turned when he saw John get up and start an attack from behind the alien he was trying to slow down. When he turned back, just that split second was enough to miss the alien’s mechanical enhanced attack that cracked through this helmet, and hit his skull hard enough to crush it.

—-

“Krghfth!” Kiel yanked his hand out of the alien’s helmet, organic matter splattered all over his hand. “Alien brains - disgusting.”
 

He was about to continue up the hallway when he was pushed forward by a sudden weight on his back, “Kiel, you have an alien on your back,” Malo hissed in laughter from behind him.

“No kidding, really? I hadn’t noticed.” Kiel replied.

—

“Captain!” Melorn called out, “We have an incoming vessel. Just arrived on sensors, Sir,” Melorn looked over to Captain T’chmon, “It is big.”

“Big? Show me.”

Melorn called up the specifications and shot them to the Captain’s data grids, “What is this,” he pointed to the information Melorn had provided, “Royleen? This is no ship we have seen before.”

Royleen looked at the information, “That ship is pushed by advanced gravitics, Captain T’chmon. I can’t be sure right this second, but that could be Kurtherian technology. Old, perhaps, but it is very possible.”

“Sheaght!” Captain T’chmon slammed his arm down and hit the communication button, “Kiel, recall your team. Grab what you can and pull back, we must leave and consider this new information. NOW!”

—

Kiel turned and pushed back into the wall squashing the alien on his back. He was satisfied with the abrupt, loud and irritated chittering from the alien. “Bet that hurt, you bug.” He was in the middle of upgrading his power efforts again when the Captain called them back. He twisted quickly, throwing the alien off his back to land about three body lengths away and called over his team’s comms. “This is Kiel, grab what you can, we are recalled back to the G’laxix Sphaea. I want this fast, I want this professional. Don’t let the little aliens see any mistakes.” He received a fair amount of the hissing laughter over the radios.

—

“Gott Verdammt praise the galactic overlords,” Penn breathed out, “they are leaving.”

“Sir!”

Penn stabbed a button, “This is Penn, Go.”

“Sir, this is Sergei of the Russian group, they took Ivan with them when they left.”

Penn’s lips compressed… “Dammit, ok, I will notify ArchAngel, Penn out.”

Another light came on, and Penn hit the receive button to hear, “Penn, this is John.”
 

Penn responded, “Penn here.”

“Penn, the aliens have bugged out. We lost one, we have one that needs medical attention and a few that need rest. We had two small leaks that have been patched temporarily, but need final repairs.”

“Who did we lose, John,” Penn asked, wondering who he wouldn’t wouldn't see in the halls anymore.

“Adarsh is hurt and,” John paused, his voice slightly cracking, “we lost Coach, Penn.”

Penn closed his eyes, “Understood, John. Keep the patches solid and get Adarsh to medical. Put Coach’s body in stasis, we’ll send him off right, John. Penn out.” Penn released the button.

He looked around his office, at the little things he knew Coach had helped him get working, or jury rigged to get working. He looked at the chair where he and Coach had talked, swapping stories of his time in the Navy and Penn’s time from England.

He shook his head, then screamed as he slammed his hand on his desk, “FUUUCK!”
 

It took a moment for the sound of his slap to fade away. He rubbed his stinging hand, thankful the pain helped get his emotions together.

He would have to remember Coach later, he had a space station full of people that needed his attention and a report for ArchAngel.

QBS ArchAngel’s Bridge

“ArchAngel, this is Bethany Anne, status?”

Gabrielle answered the call, “Bethany Anne, ArchAngel. The Space Station was attacked, one dead, multiple in ICU, many others need medical attention. We have one abducted by aliens.”

“What do we have around that will stop them?” Bethany Anne asked.

“ArchAngel can’t see them well at the moment. We have incoming information from SS1, and we have two empty pods that are near them. They have Ivan, from the Russian group.”

“Ram that ship with the pods Gabrielle, stop them, slow them down, something.” Bethany Anne called back.

Her voice was as cold as ice, “We don’t abandon our own,
EVER
.”

—

“Kiel, are your people on board?” Captain T’chmon asked over the comm system.

“Sir, we are. The captured alien is being transferred to Scientist Royleen’s lab.”

“SIR!” Melorn cried out, “We have incoming!”

“What?” he asked, surprised. They knew where the other ship was and had plenty of time. They were, in fact, already leaving.

The G’laxix Sphaea shook violently two times, moments apart. Those on the bridge were violently tossed around. The lower comms specialist was thrown from her seat. Alarms sounded throughout the ship. Captain Kael-ven T’chmon called out, “Get me damage reports! B’chai get us out of here, then confirm all cloaking is sound. I want us away from that ship! Weapons figure out how we just got hit!”

Lance looked around the inside of the container and nodded. Two Guardians shut the doors, and it slowly rose up into the air, taking off into the morning light. A few of the scientists bitched something horrible, and the wag about had a heart attack when Lance told him all the computer equipment was going in the other container. Nothing would be ‘floating around to hit someone upside their head’.
 

Unless, of course, the wag wanted to ride in the shipping container? Lance was turned down, pity that. The scientists and government people found their cries, whining, logical arguments and pleading crashed against the man and crumbled into dust. He was quite willing to let them stay in the desert with potential ISIS attacks arriving in just a few hours.