The Cold Wind (Ch 11 - 14)
#9 of The Cold Wind 1
Chapter Eleven
Tainui and Andrej broke their embrace when the creature came storming through the door again, not bothering to close it while it approached them. Sharing an apprehensive look they could see it was clearly quite agitated from the less co-ordinated and jerky movements and the noises it was making. Hissing and rumbling, it hunkered down again a lot closer to them this time. Instead of the hand-held translation device, a small, black disk attached to one of its ears spoke instead - it must have gone and located an upgrade. Wide-eyed with fear, they both tried to shrink further back into the corner. "Humans love, correct?" the device asked in a clipped monotone. Confused, Tainui turned to Andrej, who just stared at the creature. Reaching for his hand, he squeezed it tightly and turned back to face the creature. "We've only just met. It's a bit too soon -" The creature spoke again, interrupting him. Rather than listening to him, it must have noticed him holding Andrej's hand and taken that into account instead. "Difficult love. Why?" This current line of questioning was nothing like the earlier interrogation. "It shouldn't be difficult, bro. Not when you willingly give a piece of your soul to the one that you love," Tainui responded in a subdued voice. Andrej gave him a brief questioning look then quickly returned his gaze to the creature. He suddenly realized that perhaps there was more depth to the attractive young Maori than he had given him credit for. The creature glanced at the readout on the translation, before looking back up at them. The only movement was the occasional blinking of its eyelids while it studied them silently. Finally, it snapped its jaws shut, puffing and hissing for a few moments before the translator responded. "Heart. Mind. Choose" "What the hell...?" Tainui looked to Andrej, but he appeared just as lost. "I dunno, man. It's talking about all this love stuff and I could be wrong, but it looks upset. Maybe its decided it likes us." "Huh? I don't think...oh. Oh! You mean as in likes us," Tainui said, placing specific emphasis on the 'likes'. "Maybe. Perhaps it's anal-probe time after all." Andrej just rolled his eyes at him before staring at the creature with a speculative expression on his face. "Tai, it mentioned all that stuff about love. I get the impression it might be asking our advice on whether to go with its gut instinct, or what it thinks is right. Makes sense, yeah?" Tainui blinked, momentarily taking his eyes off the creature and staring aghast at him. "This Vanguard alien lizard...thing is asking us about what we think it should do with its love life?" he asked, incredulously. "Bro, that is a pretty serious conclusion to leap to. We should be real careful what we say to it. We're prisoners here and I don't trust that fucking thing at all." "Its question seemed innocent enough -" "Andrej! It was probably giving you the choice of what you wanted it to eat first - your heart or your brain! Shrugging Andrej spoke slowly and clearly to the creature. "Heart." It appeared to accept this response without needing to get confirmation from its translator. With what sounded like a rumbling sigh, it got to its feet and lumbered toward the door, but hesitated briefly when it got there, turning around and looking back at them. It grunted and moaned in a guttural voice and the translator spoke one last time. "Events swiftly relocate. You prepare." With that enigmatic comment, it left, closing the door behind it. Shortly after it had departed another shadow fell across the frosted glass of the door. They saw it briefly pause when it lumbered past. This one was slightly larger and the silhouette clearly showed what appeared to be heavy-duty weapons in two of its hands. A muffled growl was heard, before the shadow departed. "What was that about?" Andrej asked in an uneasy voice. Tainui shook his head; he had no idea.
* * *
Looking around to make certain that he wasn't being observed, Tusker entered the shuttle hangar with the last load of long-term food storage units in a large sack slung over his broad shoulders. Awkwardly lumbering around the smaller shuttle they had used on their previous mission, he made his way over to the much larger cargo shuttle and stepped through its airlock to secure the supplies inside. There were also the four sacks full of human supplies that the engineer, Crater, had obtained while on the planet. Although he wasn't certain exactly what the plan was going to be once they abandoned the Victorious-Hunting, he figured it wouldn't hurt to have supplies for the humans also - just in case. So he'd purloined those, grabbing them from where they'd been abandoned next to the smaller shuttle and stowing them away along with their own supplies. Chuffing with hysterical laughter that wasn't far off from becoming a sob, he shook his head. Madness. They wouldn't be able to return home to Tau Ceti; they would be hunted down and exterminated before being allowed back. Coupled with that, although quite large and powerful, the cargo shuttle was not equipped with the sub-space breach drive that would allow them to traverse the long distances necessary before their supplies gave out. It was, however, equipped with high-capacity, long-range near-FTL flight capabilities. With the crew hibernation couches the shuttle was equipped with, they could attempt to locate something a little closer than Tau Ceti... maybe. 'Perhaps Two-Talon will know what to do,' he idly wondered while looking around the interior of the small vessel that was likely to be his home for the next few years. Perhaps they could seek asylum with the humans? He shuddered. Primitive species like these usually didn't take well to 'unexpected guests', especially when those 'guests' were harbingers of their impending destruction. Time to worry about that later...the supplies he'd taken from the mess were likely to be noticed shortly if someone went looking for a snack. Time to act. Securing the shuttle, he picked up the two heavy assault rifles that were leaning against the hull and departed from the hangar. Slash-To-Kill emerged from the shadows a few moments later, eyes narrowed into four deadly slits while he watched the young warrior depart, oblivious to his presence. Holstering his weapons his faced cracked into a crocodilian smile and he hissed softly. "Traitorrrrrrr..."
Chapter Twelve
Slash-To-Kill came striding onto the bridge and saw that Fleet-Of-Foot was already there. The warrior was standing beside Swift-Death, who was looking decidedly furious. Holstering his assault-rifles he approached the others and cast a quick glance around the rest of the bridge. Stares-Into-Space and Crater were busy at their various control consoles, keeping their heads low and avoiding eye contact. "You are going to confirm my suspicions, hrrr?" Slash-To-Kill snapped his jaw shut in affirmation and briefly met Fleet-Of-Foot's gaze; they both knew what was coming. "Detain the medic. If he resists then eliminate him. While I believe Tusker has been corrupted, the young one is probably not completely beyond re-education. Disarm him and confine him to quarters." So it came down to this... "Go now." Once the warriors had departed, he turned his attention to Stares-Into-Space standing beside the navigation console and looking extremely uncomfortable. "We are required to depart immediately. The repairs to our systems are complete, hrrr?" "I concur. Our position here has been well compromised. For several hours now I have detected increased radio telemetry being directed at our position by the humans. Repairs to the sub-space breach drive have been completed. However, I did not have enough time to -" "Spare me the tedious details, Ancestors curse you! The Elders in their wisdom have turned this vessel into a space-going zoo and I wish to unload our unwelcome cargo as rapidly as Vanguardly possible," the pack-leader interrupted with a roar. "This is important -" "Important to you, perhaps. Is this vessel operational or not, hrrr?" Swift-Death was only half-listening while he tapped away at the control console in front of his own personal work station. "Correct, it is operational," Stares-Into-Space sighed, resigned. "Very well. Plot a course to the nearest free-zone so we can depart from this Ancestor-forsaken planetary system." So-called 'free-zones' within planetary systems were areas of gravitational balance, where the influence from the star (or stars) was counteracted by a suitably large planetary object. While the sub-space breach drive could open a tear into subspace within the nearby unbalanced gravitational influence of a planetary body or star, the results could sometimes be unpredictable and the tear between realities unstable. More than a few vessels had been reduced to large amounts of exotic sub-atomic particles when the tears closed unexpectedly before the vessel had a chance to transition fully. They were literally crushed out of existence. "The nearest free-zone is sunward, on the far side of the human planet. Hrrr, I suggest we give this planet a wide berth -" "They are nothing more than primitive animals! By the Ancestors' grace, they have not even properly achieved interplanetary travel! I am not willing to spend a minute longer in this festering hole than I have to. A trajectory that bypasses their planet will take more time than I am willing to spare. A sling-shot maneuver will not expose us to undue risk given their level of technology." The pack-leader twisted his snout in a toothy sneer. "What are they going to do, spit on us, hrrr?" Stares-Into-Space pleaded with the pack-leader, holding out all four of her arms in a beseeching manner. "This vessel is a piece of floating garbage! Passing so close to the human's world is too risky! Our shield emitters are insufficiently powerful to withstand -" "Victorious-Hunting got here in one piece. It will likely survive a little longer," he interrupted again. When Stares-Into-Space hesitated, Swift-Death advanced on her snarling, his talons outstretched. "Do not try me, engineer. I will not hesitate to throw you out the nearest airlock if I believe it will make this floating dung-heap go any faster." Stares-Into-Space blanched, quickly slapping at the control console to initiate the singularity generator startup sequence. Once the singularity generators had spun up to operational velocity, she pushed the sub-light engines to maximum. "Revered Ancestors preserve us," she muttered darkly, once she thought Swift-Death was out of earshot. On one of her monitors she watched while the warriors squared off in the storage section of the ship. Glancing around to make certain that she wasn't noticed she let her talons dance over the engineering control console, quickly disabling the shuttle hangar external airlock overrides. She also remotely activated the power-up sequence on the cargo shuttle's singularity generators. With a grimace of amusement she shut down the various alert systems that would normally have activated on the pack-leader's own console from the actions she was taking. One of many small spanners in the works that she could blame on the shoddy refit before they embarked on this ridiculous mission. She couldn't do much to help the warrior in his horribly outmatched battle, but she could at least provide him and his lover a fighting chance to get off the ship if he managed against all the odds to succeed. Returning to her task of monitoring the ship's normal functions, she gave the Vanguard equivalent of a shrug. Why the two of them were willing to risk everything for the sake of a couple of weird, skinny little aliens was beyond her. But anything that put the wind up the Empire was something she was happy to support in her own subtle way. 'Go with the Ancestor's blessings, young ones,' she thought, smiling to herself.
* * *
Two-Talon was just wading out of his cleaning pool when Tusker came loping through the medical section hatch with both of his heavy assault rifles drawn. He halted when reached his bond-mate. "You must get dressed immediately, we are leaving and have very little time remaining. Gather whatever supplies and equipment you can carry and proceed to the cargo shuttle. The two humans will also arrive there shortly. Take some clothing for them. I will not be far behind. You must move swiftly!" Startled, but doing as he was instructed, Two-Talon slipped into his skinsuit and grabbed a large satchel and quickly began stuffing it with equipment and additional clothing for both himself and the humans. Casting an occasional nervous glance at the agitated young warrior, he finished packing and made for the hatch. Stopping beside it, he turned to face him. "What has occurred, hrrr? I was not aware that we were abandoning -" "We are in trouble. Serious trouble. Ancestors curse you, what have you done to me, my bond-mate hrrr?" Tusker reached out a hand and tenderly stroked the medic's face with an outstretched talon. "I have turned against my pack-leader and become a traitor to our entire race... Ancestors forgive me," he whispered, tears welling in his eyes while his two hearts beat quickly, readying him for the impending storm about to break on them. Dropping his hand he lumbered over to the hatchway and poked his head through, staring nervously down the corridor leading back to the bridge. There was no sign of alarm or pursuit yet, but it was only a matter of time. He knew the pack-leader would likely be suspicious and monitoring things. "Please hurry! Events have proceeded out of my control. The shuttle is prepared and waiting. Move!" When Two-Talon hesitated, Tusker swore and pushed the reluctant medic through the hatch and into the corridor. "If you love me, you will depart immediately!" he roared. Once the medic had gone Tusker took off towards the storage section at a fast sprint, not looking back. When he reached the room holding the humans he opened the hatch and strode into the room, speaking rapidly while hoping his translator-disk could keep up. "Abandon location. Corridor follow. Left. Right. Left. Blast door activate control. Inside wait this one for. Relocate immediately! Rapid relocation speed. Questions negative." He stepped aside, gesturing at the hesitant humans to move. Once they were both in the corridor, Tusker pushed them in the right direction then waited until they reached the end and turned off out of view. Stepping lightly on the balls of his feet he moved his way cautiously forward, stopping occasionally and cocking his ears to see if he could hear anything. A distant hum and slight swaying motion indicated that the Victorious-Hunting was now underway. Their pack-leader had most likely ordered them to return home sooner rather than later. He snapped his jaw shut gently, agreeing with the decision and attempting to figure out what was likely going through his pack-leader's head at that moment. With the captured humans, the pack-leader had obviously decided that there was little point in staying here. The exo-medics back at the Tau Ceti colony would be able to extract much more useful information from the humans using a mind-scan than could be obtained by long-range scans and observation of their planet. The only reason they hadn't departed earlier was the ongoing repairs to the sub-space breach drive that had been damaged on their entry into this planetary system. Repairs that had actually taken much less time than he had expected, given the severity of the damage; Swift-Death must have been riding the engineers hard.He only had a passing acquaintance with the chief engineer responsible for the repairs. She was a rather brusque and stand-offish individual who he'd caught making eyes at his bond-mate when she wasn't aware he was looking. His eyes narrowed slightly with jealousy at the memory, before he caught himself and chuffed with amusement. She was definitely out of luck in that department. The pack-leader's next priority would be to deal with him and Two-Talon once his actions were discovered which wouldn't take much longer if he hadn't already dispatched his underlings... Disobedience was a punishable offense; treason was an executable offense. Sure enough, when Tusker made it to the branching in the corridor leading from the bridge he heard the sound of movement. Footfalls approaching...two of them if he wasn't mistaken. The senior warrior, Slash-To-Kill considered him little more than a spawnling and almost beneath contempt. Never underestimating your opponents was something that was taught to all aspiring warriors as one of their first lessons. A lesson it appeared the senior warrior had forgotten. He listened for a few more moments to confirm only two pairs of feet. Given that there were only two, it was likely the pack-leader himself was not one of them which was a relief to him. The pack-leader was probably still on the bridge, overseeing their return and monitoring the hunt from his 'lofty perch'. He had little compunction at tackling the other two warriors but had balked at the thought of having to take on his pack-leader directly. What he was doing now was difficult enough. Perhaps the Revered Ancestors really were guiding his hands... Activating the power-packs on his assault rifles, he tried to figure out the best method of splitting the other two more experienced warriors up. He stood a chance against one alone, but two was one too many. A soft buzzing noise made him look up in alarm, alarm which quickly turned to astonishment when he watched the ubiquitous video surveillance unit built into the ceiling of the corridor short out and stop working. This was very fortuitous for him because it meant that the pack-leader and by extension the other warriors would now be blind in this section. It would hopefully slow them down and make them more cautious. The solid-state surveillance units were fairly robust and almost never failed. He was beginning to wonder if his bond-mate had something to do with it when a soft, whisper spoke into his ear, startling him and making him spin around, hearts thundering and expecting to see death staring him in the eye. The corridor behind him was empty. "I have disabled all of the video surveillance units which should slow your pursuers down. Anything further action on my part will raise suspicion and I must not have my mission compromised. May the Ancestors guide you, Tusker. Please keep Two-Talon safe." "Who are you?" he whispered back. Whoever it was had reactivated and tapped into the communications channel, overriding the translation function of the small, black disk he was wearing attached to his ear. "A friend. And I can have no further communication with you. Transmission terminated." Tusker blinked, surprised, before setting his resolve and creeping forward again. It appeared like there were some interesting politics happening on this mission beyond his own treason he realized. Listening carefully, he judged that the two warriors were just about at the junction. Taking careful aim he pulled the trigger on one of his heavy assault rifles for a second or two. The weapon hummed loudly and a stream of tiny metal darts moving at hypersonic speeds spat out from the muzzle. They impacted at a point that must have been uncomfortably close to the approaching warriors that were just out of sight up the corridor, judging from the startled roar that accompanied the massive shower of sparks and metal fragments from the disintegrating wall-plating. He stopped firing and ducked back. "Hrrr! Proceed no further! I have no desire to terminate you," he roared loudly, confident the two warriors could hear him without difficulty. "That is unfortunate, spawnling. Because I do desire your termination. My only regret being it will likely be a quick death," came the response from Slash-To-Kill who had withdrawn slightly after almost walking into the barrage. "Very well. May the Ancestors guide you on your final journey," Tusker barked out while backing swiftly down the corridor. He knew that the two warriors would likely be deterred for only a brief period of time. The senior warrior silently motioned for Fleet-Of-Foot to prepare to split up when they reached the junction. It would be more difficult for the young warrior to shoot at two separate moving targets. Slash-To-Kill planned to circle around behind the inexperienced young warrior while Fleet-Of-Foot kept him distracted from the front. He called out loudly to distract the young warrior, not realizing he had already withdrawn down the corridor. "Your medic bond-mate I plan to terminate slowly. I will eviscerate him with my bare hands, spawnling." When there was no answer, Slash-To-Kill motioned for them to rush the junction and split. Weapons drawn and powered, they sprinted around the corner and quickly split up as per plan but there was no response to their movement. He poked the barrel of his assault rifle around the corner to see if it was shot at but there was nothing. Hunkering down, he leaned over and popped his head around the corner briefly but the corridor was empty. Waving at Fleet-Of-Foot to continue he began creeping down the empty corridor with his assault rifles trained on the corner. In the other corridor Fleet-Of-Foot was doing much the same thing. He reached the hatchway to the room where the humans had been detained and pressed a free hand against the door activator. The hatch slid open and he sprinted inside the room at attack speed, assault rifles pointed in opposite directions and ready to fire, however the room was empty with no signs of the small aliens. With a hiss, the door closed again behind him, making him jump from the unexpected noise. He figured they must have already been taken to the shuttle hangar, which would further complicate events, no doubt. Turning around he lowered his rifles before pulling out his datapad from a skinsuit pocket, slightly annoyed with himself for being so jumpy. All this skulking around was very un-Vanguard-like; face to face, hand-to-hand-to-hand-to-hand fighting was much more honorable. Activating the intercom function on it he lumbered toward the hatchway. "The humans - « __H_ RRRK!»" Exploding from the cleaning pool in a massive spray of water Tusker fired his assault rifles into the other warrior's back, riddling it with fist-sized craters full of gore and shattered bony-plates when the tiny metal darts chewed through the jerking body and exploded out through the front of the unfortunate warrior's chest. Fleet-Of-Foot staggered forward and hit the bulkhead hard, the datapad flying from his hands along with his assault rifles. Twisting slightly as he slid to the deck, Fleet-Of-Foot saw through rapidly darkening vision while Tusker stood waist-deep in the sloshing water of the cleaning pool, with rivulets of water streaming over the bulging muscles on his chest. Tusker lowered his weapons and studied the dying warrior with narrowed eyes and an expression of grim satisfaction. His plan had worked better than expected he realized with a subdued feeling of pride while he sprung up and out of the pool, landing amidst the splattering of water on the metal deck. Walking over to the dying warrior, he kicked the discarded rifles further away and hunkered down next to him. Fleet-Of-Foot's desperate gasps were rapidly becoming weaker while he lay there in a spreading pool of his own viscous, black blood. He no longer appeared to be aware of his surroundings as his consciousness faded. Tusker snapped his jaw shut softly and reached out a single talon which he dipped in the blood before bringing it up to the end of his snout where he examined it closely. Licking the sticky black liquid from his talon he stood up and departed from the morbid scene. The first bitter taste of the blood of his compatriots... ...his fall from grace was now complete. Slash-To-Kill heard the weapons-fire and came sprinting but it was too late. He stood in the corridor looking at the spatters of black Vanguard blood dripping down the other side of the armored glass hatch. Looking at the deck he saw bloody foot-prints heading back up the corridor. He had heard the cut-off transmission from Fleet-Of-Foot and was under no illusions that it was the traitor that was dead. The pack-leader was not going to be happy about this. Fleet-Of-Foot was a seasoned warrior, there was no way he should have been taken out by a warrior a fraction of his age. Respect was a foreign emotion for Slash-To-Kill, so it took him a long moment to recognize the feeling. Once in a very long while a Vanguard came along who was a _true, natural warrior from birth, not just from extensive training they received. Was Tusker such a creature? Time would tell, but whatever the case he would no longer be underestimated. He followed the bloody footprints up the corridor until they faded out, checking around every corner and moving as silently as he could so he wouldn't be surprised or ambushed. He was just about at the corridor leading to the shuttle hangar when he heard a hatch slide open a few meters behind him. With a startled hiss he spun around, fingers already pulling down on the triggers of his dual assault rifles, the weapons bucking only slightly while they discharged their lethal spray of hypersonic metal darts. The unfortunate off-duty engineer's scream was very short lived when his head was almost literally severed from his torso by the stream of darts cutting a deep and gory trail of destruction across the top of his chest. Too late Slash-To-Kill realized his mistake and stopped firing, watching with appalled dismay while the now mutilated engineer made some horrid gurgling noises and slumped to the decking. Blood spray was now spattered in lurid, organic patterns all over the scarred and broken corridor bulkheads. The sound of the massive hatch that served dual purpose as an airlock and blast-door closing reached his ears. He cursed loudly and turned to sprint down the long corridor toward the closing hatch. The wily young warrior had managed to give him the slip. It was...it was inconceivable! Played for a fool by a mere spawnling! Even at a full hormone-enhanced sprint he was not able to reach the hatch in time. Skidding to a halt he reached it just when it finished closing with a definitive «clunk!», the large bolts inside the hatch's mechanism slamming home. "Noooooooooo!" he howled while hammering at the armored metal, his now forgotten heavy assault rifles clattering to the deck unheeded. "I am not to be denied!" The hatch vibrated under his hands when the the unmistakable sound of an assault rifle firing could be heard. The activation panel beside the hatch began flashing a bright blue as the controls were demolished from the inside. Pounding the door until the scales and skin on his fists were shredded and bloody, Slash-To-Kill slumped against the door, hardly feeling the coolness from the metal through the scales on his face. After a long, sulky moment he turned to the intercom by the door and mashed one of his bloody fists against it. "Slash-To-Kill. I demand! Requesting the shuttle hangar main hatch to be unlocked immediately," he snarled. " __Stares-Into-Space. I respond. _I am sorry, Slash-To-Kill. I cannot do that,"_ the tinny-sounding voice of the chief-engineer came back to him. " __That hatch has been disabled from the inside." "Well override it, hrrr!" he snapped back. " __Both internal and external hatch control overrides have malfunctioned due to the damage." For a few disturbing seconds that felt more like hours, Slash-To-Kill's vision actually went dark from the molten rage coursing through his veins. With a massive force of will, he calmed down enough to speak somewhat rationally. "Very well," he ground out between clenched teeth, "I will communicate with the pack-leader." There was what sounded almost like an awkward pause before he got an answer. " __The pack-leader is no longer on the bridge." There was another pause, shorter this time. When the senior engineer resumed speaking, she sounded confused and concerned. " __His destination was the shuttle hangar. Did he not pass by your position, hrrr?" A slowly spreading smile appeared on Slash-To-Kill's face and he deactivated the intercom before leaning down and grabbing his assault rifles from the deck. "Transmission terminated," he muttered. If Swift-Death was no longer on the bridge with everything going on it meant he could be in only one other place. The warrior gently patted the cool metal of the large hatch and slowly lumbered back toward the bridge.
* * *
'Wise move, young one. Not that it will save you,' Swift-Death thought, watching while Tusker opened fire on the internal shuttle hangar hatch controls, preventing the door from being opened by anyone on either side. The warrior then stepped past the two human aliens and embraced his bond-mate. When they separated, he waited until he had a clear line of sight on Tusker. Choosing his moment, he softly snapped his jaw shut. 'That will do.' Adjusting the fire-rate setting on one of his assault rifles to single-shot mode, he stepped out from behind the large chunk of concealing machinery, took aim... and fired.
Chapter Thirteen
Still unsure of exactly what was happening, Tainui had pulled Andrej to his feet and followed the terse instructions the creature had given them. Once they managed to locate the massive, armored hatch he hunted around for some sort of obvious door control. "This might be it," Andrej pointed to a large square backlit panel beside it, quickly figuring out what he was searching for. Tainui shrugged. "Worth a go," he muttered while pushing at the panel. There was a loud grating noise while the hatch slowly rose up into a recess in the ceiling. They nervously entered the cavernous space that was revealed and looked around. A small boxy looking vehicle sitting in a metal cradle sat next to a much larger vehicle that, although unfamiliar to them, was unmistakably some sort of spaceship resting in a much larger cradle. A bright square of light shone onto the deck from an open doorway in the side of the larger ship. "Okay; definitely aliens, then." "What?" Tainui stared at Andrej curiously. Andrej pointed at the two vessels and shrugged. "Spaceships. So the creatures must be aliens, right? Not demons, or men in funny suits." Tainui grabbed him and tousled his hair playfully. "Ya silly bugger. Think you're right. So. What now?" "We wait for that Vanguard thing to arrive, I guess. Man, I've gotta get me some pants," Andrej replied while cupping his junk and feeling awfully exposed. Looking around, he spotted movement and saw another one of the hulking creatures exit from the open hatch of the larger spaceship and lumber toward them. "Oh shit, there's another one!" he whispered, urgently pointing at the newcomer. Tainui, who had been examining the smaller shuttle spun around and saw the Vanguard approaching them. It stopped a few meters away when it saw Andrej rapidly back-peddling away from it. It remained motionless, staring back at them through its enigmatic black eyes. "It's not the same one, is it?" Andrej asked quietly, backing up against him.. Tainui shook his head. "Don't think so, bro. This one's dressed in blue, not black like the other one. Holy crap! Look at its hands!" The Vanguard they had been dealing with earlier had four roughly equally sized talons on each of its hands. This one had two longer, thinner and more lethal-appearing talons on each hand. The other digits looking more like normal fingers. The protruding teeth on the front of its snout were also smaller; not that either of them found it any less intimidating than the first one. If anything, this Vanguard was built even larger. A loud noise from behind made them both jump and they saw the original Vanguard sprint through the doorway. It quickly slapped at the activation pad beside the door which brought the massive plate of armored metal sliding down from its recess in the ceiling. It didn't take much more than about 10 or 15 seconds to close with a resounding «clunk!». A few more heavy mechanical noises issued from the door before the Vanguard made another one of the warbling hisses that sounded very much like a sigh. Taking a few steps back, it hoisted up its heavy weapon and proceeded to shoot the crap out of door activation panel. 'That's not gonna be opening again in a hurry,' Andrej thought to himself, worried. There was something very wrong with what was happening here and he couldn't quite put his finger on it... He caught himself and smiled slightly. Stranger than being abducted by demonic alien lizards from beyond the stars in the first place? By now, he had just about used up his reservoir of terror and was operating on little more than automatic pilot while a state of numb shock began to set in. Well used to putting on a brave front along with a completely different persona when he was performing with Custom Nightmare in front of a huge crowd at a concert, it was almost second nature to him. Although something told him that Tainui could see through his protective camouflage. The Maori was an extremely observant young man, it appeared. Suddenly, a dull hammering noise could be heard coming from the door, which made the original Vanguard growl and raise his weapon tentatively. After several moments it lowered the gun again, making a quiet huffing noise. It turned and lumbered over toward them. Andrej and Tainui quickly stepped aside, giving it plenty of room when it passed them by although it barely spared them a glance. Instead it stopped beside the other one and made a lot of soft growls and hisses, occasionally moving its arms around in obvious agitation while it discussed...something with the one in blue. After its lengthy conversation it crouched down, laying its weapons on the floor. Standing again, it stared at the one dressed in blue, obviously waiting for a response. The response was a little unexpected and made both Andrej and Tainui jump back, startled. The Vanguard in blue leaped at the other one and grabbed it in a four-armed embrace, making a very deep rumbling purr that appeared to have a calming effect on the other. Tainui stood resolutely beside Andrej, warily watching the two creatures' happy reunion. "Not sure if I should be disgusted, frightened or turned on," he muttered quietly, shaking his head. When the two large aliens eventually parted, the one in blue slowly approached the two of them and stopped when they began to uncomfortably back away from it. It appraised them for a few moments, then made its way back toward the door in the side of the larger spaceship, stopping beside it and looking back at them. Raising both of its left arms it made an unmistakable 'come here' gesture at them. Sharing a look, they cautiously approached it, giving the other one a wide berth while it fussed about with some sort of glowing keyboard thing attached to the large cradle holding the space-ship to the floor of the cavernous room. Andrej stepped inside the spaceship first and Tainui was about to follow when he thought he heard something. Something that sounded like a metallic clicking noise on the far side of the cavernous room beside some large chunk of unidentifiable machinery. He dismissed the noise and was about to turn away when he saw another one of the creatures emerge from the shadows behind the machinery. It raised one of its assault rifles and pointed it at their original Vanguard. "Hey, watch out, bro! There's another one with a gun!" he yelled reflexively, pointing at the newcomer when began to take aim with the weapon it held. The one in blue swung around following his pointing finger and bellowed loudly. The original Vanguard stepped away from the cradle controls and with surprising swiftness for something so large, dived for the weapons it had laid on the floor a couple of minutes earlier. Sweeping them up and then launching quickly back onto its feet it began to raise them toward the newcomer. Events then proceeded extremely quickly from Tainui's perspective. The first few shots from the newcomer had missed, sending plumes of dust and sparks flying up next to the creature in black when it grabbed for its own weapons. However, the next few projectiles found their mark. Gouts of dark blood sprayed from the creature's back when the projectiles smashed into its chest and punched all the way through its body. Staggering backwards the creature let out a choked cry and more of the dark blood sprayed from its mouth. It slowly dropped to its knees making a plaintive whine with the unfired weapons falling from its limp talons and clattering to the deck. It then collapsed forward onto the floor, unmoving and silent while a spreading pool of sticky looking black blood appeared from underneath it. As quickly as it began it was over. Tainui watched in shock when the Vanguard in blue sprinted swiftly over to its fallen comrade, keening softly while it turned the body gently onto its back. A loud, almost satisfied rumbling noise came from the newcomer when it calmly lumbered over to them. It pointed one weapon at Tainui's face, the other toward the kneeling Vanguard and began hissing and grunting at the one in blue but hesitated momentarily when Andrej poked his head out of the hatch. "What's going on? I thought I heard shouting..." Andrej's voice trailed off when he registered what was happening. "Oh shit." Swift-Death stopped beside Tusker's fallen body. "You know, that is some good shooting if I do say so myself. Do you not agree, hrrr? Unfortunate. It looks like he is beyond even your ability to heal, you traitorous filth. I was hoping to avoid killing him, truth be told. He was a very promising young warrior. However, his loyalty was in question and if he failed like this once, hrrr, he could fail again. That is a chance I was not willing to take." "He sacrificed everything for me..." Two-Talon whispered, not even properly registering the presence of the gloating pack-leader. Numb. All he felt was numb. This wasn't real... couldn't be. Continuing as if the medic hadn't spoken, Swift-Death glanced up at the cargo shuttle. "As for your little pets here..." He aimed one of the rifles at the human standing by the shuttle and smirked when the other human appeared at the hatch entrance. "They will be interrogated as intended and then be disposed of; they will probably die relatively quickly. You, however, will not. I am going to enjoy watching you suffer and die slowly, once we return. You remember how they deal with traitors do you not, medic?" Two-Talon stood up slowly, not taking his eyes off the body of his fallen bond-mate. He was aware that the pack-leader hadn't let down his guard at all; one of the assault rifles was still aimed squarely at his head. Even if he didn't have the weapon, Two-Talon realized he would be no match for the pack-leader in unarmed combat despite his slight size advantage so he knew he had to be quick. He had one chance and one chance only. "There are winds of change blowing..." Two-Talon rumbled sadly, quietly. Although Swift-Death was alert he didn't see the medic tense his talons slightly - long, razor-sharp talons used for making surgically precise incisions. He did, however, notice that Two-Talon's shoulders had slumped slightly and assumed it was a sign of defeat. Raising his head, he was about to make another gloating remark when there was a blur of motion in front of him. Suddenly he discovered he couldn't speak - all that came out was a horrid, gurgling noise. He was also dimly aware that something dark and sticky with a disturbingly familiar smell, was cascading down his chest and arms, splashing wetly onto the deck. Swift-Death's vision began to fade and he panicked, staggering backward a step or two before collapsing. 'This is not supposed to be happening! I am in charge here!' He struggled to look up and before the darkness claimed him, he saw the medic turn away, talons dripping with his precious bodily fluids. "...and those winds are blowing your kind away." Tainui and Andrej managed with a lot of difficulty to get the blood-soaked body of the original Vanguard into the spaceship, gently laying him down on the deck in the large, clear area just beyond the internal airlock hatch. Meanwhile, the one in blue finished tripping the docking-cradle release mechanism before it rejoined them. It hadn't said anything since ripping out the throat of the newcomer a few minutes earlier. Instead it just silently pointed at various things that needed to be moved, or turned on, which the boys did without speaking. They carefully remained far away from those terrible, bloody talons as was possible. Although they had seen the original Vanguard moving around rather quickly, that had been nothing compared to the one in blue when it virtually decapitated the newcomer. One moment the newcomer was standing there pointing weapons at them; the next it was lying on the ground in a spreading pool of its own thick, black blood. The head had been almost completely severed from its body. Tainui had been raised on a farm so he was used to animals being slaughtered. But he knew that Andrej was a different matter. He deliberately tried to keep the boy busy so he wouldn't lapse into shock from the recent events. The only problem he had was struggling not to completely freak out himself. "See if you can find some clothes, or something, in those lockers behind you," he suggested to Andrej, in order to keep him busy and his mind occupied with other things. He stood beside the Vanguard while it skillfully piloted the spaceship out of the cavernous hangar and into free space, his eyes growing wide when the enormity of their situation finally sank home. Floating serenely in front of them was the Earth in all its blue, brown and white glory, half in darkness while they sped toward the night-side of the planet. "Oh, wow," Andrej breathed softly, sharing the view. Without taking his eyes off the vista in front of him Tainui sought out Andrej's hand with his own, twining their fingers together tightly. He nodded to the Vanguard when it turned and stared at him briefly, lowering its head to study their joined hands. It gave them an unreadable look and returned its attention to the controls. The larger and somewhat decrepit looking ship they had escaped from was now little more than a dot, bright against the night-side of the planet. Suddenly, the dot was joined by several smaller dots, quickly closing in on it having seemingly appeared from nowhere. When the dot that was the ship brightened abruptly, the Vanguard stiffened. After the glare faded, there was nothing remaining but some tiny glowing specks rapidly falling toward the darkened Earth below. The Vanguard finished setting the controls and silently moved away, back to where the other one was lying. It lay down and curled up next to the body, its head resting on the chest of its fallen comrade and its tail twisted together with that of the other. When it began humming in a very deep, mournful tone Tainui was alarmed to see thin, black trails making their way down the sides of its craggy face. It took him a few moments to realize that the alien wasn't injured - it was crying. Andrej leaned his head on Tainui's shoulder, quietly watching the large alien sing to its dead mate. Despite everything that had happened, his heart went out to this creature; some things are universal, no matter which planet you call Home.
Chapter Fourteen
Standing quietly to one side of him, the humans watched while the smoke and flames of the pyre swept Tusker's ashes up into the frigid, starry night. Two-Talon continued to silently weep tears of blood while he contemplated the black emptiness that now took the place of his feelings. He wept for the bitter loss of innocence and for the part of himself that had also died in that brief battle. Although Tusker's chapter had come to an end, the story itself was far from over. Another couple of shooting stars sailed past overhead; the last of the wreckage of the Victorious-Hunting burning up as it plunged through the Earth's atmosphere. Swift-Death and Stares-Into-Space had completely misjudged the humans technological abilities. When the Victorious-Hunting had reached perigee, several hunter-killer missiles slammed into the shields. Originally designed to take out satellites belonging to other hostile super-powers, there were enough of the missiles launched to take care of the elderly vessel. Although built by a civilization far ahead in technological ability, the Victorious-Hunting's superstructure was never designed to cope with that sort of abuse. It was old, poorly maintained and nowhere near as well-built as a fast-attack frigate or battleship. After the shields had catastrophically failed in the attack the remaining missiles tore into the hull before detonating. With key systems demolished or failing, the out-of-control vessel began to break apart when it sank ever deeper into the Earth's gravity well. Unknown by the crew, one of the Elders had issued instructions before the expedition departed that the escape pods were to be disabled. So Slash-To-Kill discovered when he had frantically tried to jettison the escape pod he had murdered two other crew-members to get to. His desperate scream was instantly cut off when one of the sub-space breach drive singularity generators had a catastrophic containment system failure and imploded. There were no survivors. Two-Talon had no doubt that his old colony would send follow-up missions after they failed to report back. But for now, at least, the humans would be able to prepare. They would be in charge of their own destiny. There was a tale told. An old tale of a Vanguard colony settled by disillusioned young free-thinkers. It was a colony where reason and not rigid, outmoded tradition, prevailed. The journey would take several years in the cargo shuttle he now possessed, but it was a dream he thought worth following. Two-Talon felt he owed it to his bond-mate. Tusker had sacrificed himself to protect the one he loved. Tusker's tale would be told and would be honored.
* * *
Andrej and Tainui sat huddled by a smaller fire they had built, wrapped in a large blanket they had managed to locate inside the spaceship earlier, while a cold wind fitfully whipped the smoke and sparks into the air. They had withdrawn there after a while to leave the Vanguard alone to mourn beside the pyre they had constructed in an old, abandoned quarry not far from Tainui's ancestral home. The Maori had guided them there when the Vanguard had appeared at a loss for what to do or where to go. Equipped with much better shielding than the smaller vessel the Vanguard landing-party had used, the cargo shuttle reached the surface far quicker and was able to get through without being tracked on military radar. They were just beginning to nod off when the crunching of gravel alerted them to the return of the Vanguard. It stopped, facing them on the other side of the fire and regarded them with its four enigmatic black eyes. Hunkering down onto its haunches, it slowly lowered its head and stared into the flames. After a couple of minutes, it looked up at another shooting star skittering across the sky and made a low, haunted sounding moan from deep within its chest. "Goddamn it, I just can't stand it anymore," Andrej muttered, shedding the blanket and jumping to his feet. Tainui reached up and quickly grabbed his hand to stop him before he could move away. "What's wrong?" "That is," Andrej said while indicating the distraught Vanguard who had turned to stare at them with its enigmatic black eyes. Crouched in front of the fire with the firelight making its face look even more demonic as tiny flames reflected from its eyes, the Vanguard's expression was completely unreadable. It watched silently when Andrej brought Tainui's hand to his lips and kissed his fingers before releasing his hand. Andrej slowly and cautiously walked around the fire toward the creature, stopping when he was no more than a meter away from it. When it didn't react, he sat down beside it and tentatively reached up one hand and rested it on the Vanguard's knee. He was surprised to discover the fine covering of scales was actually quite warm; the creature felt like it was radiating a fair amount of heat. "You're a strange one, alright." He stared deep into the creature's featureless black eyes. 'Crazy white boy!' Tainui thought to himself while rolling his eyes and standing up with a grunt. 'I think the crazy must be catching,' he mentally kicked himself when he also cautiously approached the Vanguard but from the opposite side of Andrej. He leaned over and handed one end of the blanket to the boy, then stretched it over the creature's shoulders. There was just enough remaining to cover themselves, also. "If it eats us now I am so gonna kick your ass Andrej," Tanui warned him while he moved a large stone closer to sit on. When the Vanguard snapped its jaws shut at him Andrej flinched back. But the gesture didn't seem to be one of aggression. It turned its head and stared back into the fire and began rumbling and hissing softly. Both he and Tainui jumped when the artificial human voice spoke again. Neither of them had noticed it wearing the small, black translation disk on one of its ears. Andrej realized it must have taken the disk from the body of its friend before lighting the pyre. "Appreciate this one. Release you, bond-mate. Negative hazard. For present, however." "We do appreciate what you did. Not that we asked to be abducted in the first place," Andrej responded rather bitterly while attempting to figure out what it was actually saying. "Hrrr, this one incorrect meaning! This one thankful," the Vanguard stared at him with an expression that he almost took to be reproachful. "Oh. Uh, in that case you're welcome, Yoda," he smiled at his own little joke, which the Vanguard completely ignored, or more likely failed to understand much to his disappointment. "So, what will you do now?" Tainui raised his eyebrows questioningly while staring up at the creature. "Hrrr, unknown. New Home locate attempt." The Vanguard looked down at him, blinking. It slowly swung its head around and looked at Andrej when he spoke again. "I wouldn't go calling Earth your new home just yet. Don't think you'd be safe here." "Incorrect. New Home Earth negative," it said while pointing up into the night sky with one of its forward hands. "Oh, you mean you want to go back to your home planet," Andrej said, finally catching on or so he thought. "Incorrect. «guttural noise» hazard now. Hrrr..." The Vanguard obviously gave up attempting to explain things and lapsed into silence for a while. The unlikely trio sat there in awkward silence for several minutes with Tainui occasionally getting up to grab another few branches to heap onto the fire. After the events of the past few hours it felt almost strange to Andrej that things would be going back to 'normal' in the very near future. The world suddenly seemed like a much smaller place now that they knew what lay out there in the stars. He turned his head and watched Tainui from the corner of his eye while the Maori stared into the fire, occasionally stirring up the growing mound of embers with a pointy stick. What would become of their tentative relationship once the Vanguard left? One thing was for certain - Gary Fielding - their manager, would freak out something wicked. The dodgy old bastard would probably do something drastic to break them up and make sure that news of it was never made public. Stretching his arms to ease the sudden tension from the disturbing thoughts of what his manager would likely do, he abruptly realized that he was now no longer in charge of his own life. What made it worse was that he realized it had been this way for longer than he cared to remember. The sobering realization shocked him to his core. Fate had a perverse sense of humor it seemed, along with a perfect sense of timing. The rumbling and hissing noises made him look up with growing astonishment when the Vanguard asked a brief question of them. "New Home destination. Accompany this one? Protection this one, correct. However, possible hazard. Carefully consider, correct?" Andrej answered instinctively, before his brain even had enough time to digest the question properly. "Yes. Yes I will." "You what?!" Tainui snapped his head around so quickly he lost his balance and fell off the stone onto the dusty gravel. Andrej would have found it quite funny, if he wasn't in such a seriously determined mood. The Maori quickly scrambled to his feet, throwing off the tangled blanket and stepping around the Vanguard to confront him. "Have you gone completely mental?! We were just bloody abducted by these Taniwha and now you want to go riding off into the sunset with one of them?" Andrej looked deeply into his eyes and shook his head slowly. "It's not like I've got much of a life here to lose, Tai," he said quietly. "Bullshit! What about your friends? Family? Your band - hell, your whole career!" "That's just it," the bitterness in his voice undisguised. "My family doesn't give a rat's ass as long as the money keeps flowing. There's more to life than my fucking career, man!. And as for friends? I don't have any friends, or weren't you listening to me earlier? There is precisely one person - Liz - who would miss me if I left -" Dropping to his knees, Tainui reached out and laid his hands on Andrej's shoulders and looked up into his eyes, his own hidden in the shadows. "Two, bro." "Huh?" Tainui shrugged. "Two. Liz isn't the only one who would miss you." Andrej reached up with his own hands and laid them on top of the Maori's, squeezing them gently. "Then come with me," he pleaded "You've gotta be kidding me!" "Never been more serious," Andrej insisted, meaning every word. "There's absolutely no way I can talk you out of this insanity, is there?" When Andrej shook his head, Tainui's head slumped momentarily before he turned and looked up at the Vanguard, not taking his hands off Andrej's shoulders. "And you'll protect him, yeah?" he asked, resigned. The Vanguard, who had been intently watching the heated interchange between the two of them, closed his eyes in a long slow blink and snapped his jaw shut softly. "Correct." Turning his back on Andrej, Tainui got to his feet and went back to sit on his stone, pulling the blanket around his shoulders again. "What is it with you white boys? You're all completely fucked in the head, you know that? Just great. Fucking wonderful," he muttered sourly while burying his face in his hands and rubbing it wearily. "How do I transfer out of this chicken-shit outfit?" "Does...does that mean you'll come too?" Andrej leaned over to stare past the Vanguard at him with a hopeful expression lighting up his face. Tainui peered back at him through his fingers for several long moments before responding, his voice somewhat muffled. "Haven't got much a bloody choice, have I? Someone's gotta save you from yourself. Might as well be this mental bloody Hori."
* * *
Two-Talon watched bemused when the lighter colored human leaped on top of the startled darker one and tackled him to the ground, covering his face in affectionate if somewhat slobbery kisses. To his surprise he realized that he'd just acquired two unlikely new traveling companions against all his expectations. He stared back at the fire while the two humans continued to roll around in the gravel, his mood lightened just a little. Shivering slightly, he drew the blanket tighter around his shoulders when the cold wind blew...