Warrior Chronicles 4: Warrior's Wrath (10 page)

Dalek looked through the bars of his cage at the two apes who were watching him. “My Poppa is hewe. He’s gonna be mad at you.”

The two said nothing, just staring at the boy, with drool pooling beneath their chins. Their heads were turned to the right and the left side of their faces were drooping and limp. Before they became quiet, they had jammed the doors closed and piled furniture in front of them. There was pounding outside the doors, but the two had done the job well.

Outside the building where Dalek was being held, Che stood with his security team. Dozens of thin arms were trying to break into the building where the human prince was held, none able to figure out why they were held at bay by their allies. Miku was dead, and the planet was lost. He had been commanded to stall the invaders as long as possible.
Clearly they know the boy is here. We must have missed a tracker. I will have to make note of that in my reports. How do I stall them?

His line of thought was interrupted as the top of a great mechanical suit came into view. Three times as high as its companions, the suit stopped and was immediately surrounded by federation fighters. One stepped forward with beasts by its sides.
Addison? No, too small. This one is a female. The beasts.
Wolf?
Yes, they are called wolves. But the female. She will be easier to manipulate.

--

“Hold your fire!” Lex ordered. The Marines and H’uumans surrounded the building where Dalek was being held. “Safe your weapons and heel your wolves.”

As the wolves moved to stand beside their handlers, Kim took a step forward with Coke and Bane at her sides. Bane was barely controllable, and if a single H’uuman or Marine had moved, the wolf would have attacked the Tapon warriors. “You have my son,” Kim said.

Lex said, “Okay, Marines, blades only. No prisoners.” As one, the CONDORs drew their swords. Lex knew the wolves would not be held back, so he added, “Check your targets and cut high. The wolves will be in there with you.”

Che stepped forward and spoke, “We would like to discuss the terms of our surrender.”

Before Lex could speak, Kim said, “You are not going to be allowed to surrender. You are all going to die.”

“You must be General Addison’s mate. If we are to die, then so shall your son.”

Cort had been watching the exchange and commed Captain Munroe. After taking over the HAWC speakers, he said, “I don’t think so.”

Munroe stepped forward and walked to the one story structure while Cort spoke.

Kim looked sharply at the HAWC, then saw Cort’s image in his medical bed. When she realized what he had done, she turned back to Che.

She said, “My son is safe. You are not.”

Munroe’s HAWC stepped forward.

Che stared and listened as the giant crushed his comrades beneath its massive boots.

--

“I heaw Poppa, Bazal!” Dalek yelled happily.

To Cort, Bazal thought,
That was a good idea, Cortland.

I should have thought of it sooner. I can see him on Jane’s sensors. Tell him to move away from the back of the cage.

You thought of it when you needed to.
Then to Dalek, he thought,
Little Warrior, move to the front of the cage. Your Poppa is about to open the wall.

Dalek move to the door of the cage and turned to see the back wall crumble as the gauntlets of the HAWC opened a great rent in the building. He screamed “Poppa!” as the structure of the cage was lifted from around him by one large hand. He ran to the other fist as it opened and jumped into its palm. “I knew you wewe coming! Bazal told me!”

Jane lifted the boy gently and turned to walk back through the mass of dumbstruck Tapon fighters. As soon as she was behind the line of Marines and H’uumans, the
Kalashnikov
shuttle landed.  Coke joined both Kim and Dalek as they boarded and the Marines shouted, “Oohrah!” Bane remained on the planet. Once the shuttle was airborne, Cort spoke through Munroe’s comm one more time. “Kill them all.”

If the Marines and their wolves were merciless in their slaughter of the Tapons who had stolen a human child, the H’uumans were sadistic in their destruction. The Marines slaughtered wholesale, but the insects seemed to take pleasure in each limb they severed, and each drop of yellow Tapon blood they spilled fueled their fury.

Lex spoke to Cort saying, “They are unreal, sir. What you did to them on Government World was nothing compared to the brutality I am seeing here.”

“Good. I think the bastards could have taken Kim and I would have let them surrender. But not a child. Not my child.”

“No one doubts that, sir. Every single one of us, from both species, agree with you.”

“The CG is not going to be happy, but I’m going to ask H’uum to formally join us. Not as allies, as members of our federation.”

“They have earned it today, sir. And fuck the CG. Like you said, they aren’t here.”

--

Bazal, what did you do?

What do you mean, Cortland?

The two that were guarding Dalek. They were fucked up.

I had to be sure they were harmless.

But that isn’t your way, Bazal. They looked like they had suffered strokes.

And peace is not your way, God of War, yet you still strive for it. I protected Dalek. I made sure they would not harm him.

You know I appreciate that you did what you did, Bazal, I just don’t want you to change who you are.

You changed me long ago, Cortland. But do not worry, together we are bringing balance.

I must go, Speral is here. Thank you, Bazal.

Listen to her, I think her plan will work.

“Hello, Speral. Are you here to tell me that story?”

“In a sense, part of it, Cortland. Will you ask your doctors to join us?”

Once the doctors were in the room, Speral said, “I should have thought of this sooner, but my people have tried for ages to forget the part of our past that the Tapon occupied. I am here about my poison.”

“Your poison?” Cort asked.

“Yes. Our poison is adaptive, and its formula is passed on from generation to generation. Once we come into physical contact with a being, our system creates a poison that is fatal to that species.”

“Okay.” Cort was aware of the nature of Speral’s poison, but didn’t want to divulge that Bazal had told him about years before, so he let her tell the story in her own way.

The doctors around the bed listened intently to the evolutionary history of the Nill. When she finished, a young H’uuman doctor clicked, “After the attack on Solitude, won’t your poison kill General Addison?”

“That is possible, doctor. But if you do not try, will he not die anyway?” Speral replied.

Bryn Wales was an expert on veterinary disease. Since humans no longer suffered from even the once-common cold thanks to biosynthetic additives to their blood, epidemiology was considered a dead science for humans. But most animals still had to deal with ailments, so when General Addison was infected by the Tapon disease, she was called from her work as an animal scientist to try and save the man’s life.

“Wait a moment,” she said, “are you saying that if you touch something, you develop a way to kill it?”

“Yes, Doctor,” Speral said.

Bryn said, “I can easily filter out some of the infectious organism in the General’s blood so that you can touch it. How long would it take you to generate this poison of yours?”

“A few hours, perhaps.”

“If you can give me some of your poison, I can program the synthetics we are giving General Addison to resist the poison. I may even be able to counteract it. At the same time, I will separate some of the infection for you to touch.”

The others could see Doctor Wales’ mind working in overdrive. She said, “but I have to have some of your poison first, Speral. How can I get a sample?”

Speral handed the woman a water glass. A single spine on Speral’s back stood erect. When she flexed it, its barb began to drip. After they collected several milliliters of the clear, viscous, liquid, Bryn covered the glass and rushed from the room.

A little while later, Dalek partially opened Cort’s door, and poked his head through the opening. When he saw Cort, he slammed his hand against the wall, and the door fully opened.
 

“Poppa!” he screamed as he ran for his father’s bed and scrambled into a chair so he could climb onto his Cort’s chest. “Ewww! You awe stinky! Why awe you in bed?”

“I am tired and sweaty from chasing you, Buddy,” Cort lied as he wrapped his free arm around his son. He saw Kim in the door, and even though her eyes were bloodshot and red, she was clearly happy.

“Why is thewe a hose in that awm, Poppa?”

“The doctors are fixing me because I hurt myself. But tell me about what happened to you.”

“They gave me lots of fwuit. But I wanted bacon. And it was bowwing, but Bazal talked to me a lot. He was fun.”

“Bazal wanted to make sure that you weren’t lonely.”

--

“You look worse than me, Doctor Wales,” Cort said the next morning.

“I’ve, we’ve, Speral and I, have been up all night. It will work. She has produced enough poison to kill the infection, and I have been able to filter out the pathogens that would be fatal to you. You will probably be incredibly sick for a while, but you are going to be okay.”

Cort thought about what the doctor said. “Okay, get started. Will this immunize me against Speral’s poison?”

“Not just Speral’s, sir. That of her entire species. I plan on coding the synthetics for the poison after you are better.”

“Hold off on that. I want Speral to be able to defend herself against us. You know what happened on Solitude.”

“I had not considered that, sir.”

“Keep it between us for now, Doctor. Just you and me, alright?”

“Yes, sir. In the meantime, I will see what I can come up with for her.”

“That would be good. If you can somehow separate her poison from the other Nill, I’ll approve it.”

“Yes, sir. But even with just her spines, she will still be formidable. Did you see what she did with her back? She should be paralyzed!”

--

Two days after the planet had been sterilized and five after the battle began, the
Mare’s Leg
and the
Kalashnikov
arrived in orbit over Tapon. Addison and his family were transferred to the
Mare’s Leg
and
began the long journey back home. The other ship lifted the Marines and wolves from the planet and put techs on the surface to begin pouring over the computers and maps they found in the surviving buildings. They didn’t have a lot of work to do.

Solitude

“They have seven other planets, situated in the systems marked on the map, as well as various bases in those systems. According to messages we recovered from their computers, there is a new plan in place to recapture the Nill homeworld, but that plan was not shared with Tapon for operational security reasons. Once we arrived in system, they were ordered to delay us a much as possible by resisting us, and then dragging out negotiations to buy them time.”

Captain Kate Williams was a lieutenant when she first met Cortland Addison. Then, she had gone planetside during a sneak attack on a Cuplan world to retrieve intelligence for the war effort. She was now a Captain, well on her way to Major, and oversaw technical intelligence operations for the Marines. She continued, saying, “We also know that they cannot detect us anymore than we can detect them. Because of that, I have dispatched seven pairs of
Derringer
-class reconnaissance ships to their other systems to gather any information they can. The ships will alternate warping to a safe distance to transmit their intel.”

Cort asked, “Why do they have to warp? Why can’t they jump?”

Williams looked down, not wanting to embarrass Cort. JJ rescued the captain when she replied, “We’ve lost the Transition Core, sir.”

Cort sighed. The war inside his body, between drugs, synthetics, infectious weapons, and poisons, had taken their toll on his faculties. “Of course. I’m sorry, Captain.”

“You have been through a lot, sir. Frankly, if what I have heard about the infection is true, I am surprised you are in this meeting at all.”

Sighing again, Cort said, “Thank you for that, Captain. Can we use the H’uuman ships for intel gathering?”

Williams said, “As soon as I found out about you normalizing relations with them, I had some of my people start looking into how to take advantage of it. Unfortunately, the Tapons are able to detect the tachyon jump tech used by the H’uuman ships. So unless they jump outside the target system’s heliosphere, there will be a detectable gamma burst. I also expect the apes to figure that out and put listening posts at the extremes of their systems.”

JJ held her hand to her ear in a motion that everyone in the Ares Federation had come to recognize as an incoming comm. “Jones here.” A minute later she said, “Just a moment.” Looking to Addison, she added “Lap and Brbk are here, demanding to see you. Should I allow them to land?”

Cort held his hand up.
Bazal, Lap and Brbk are here. Do you want to be a part of this?

Yes. This is the beginning of the end for the Collaboration, Cortland.

They have to adapt, or it could be. Should we come there, or do you want to bring a flight here?

This area will be less combative. You should join me here.

Okay. We’ll be there as soon as we can.

Lowering his hand, Cort said, “Have their shuttle land at the Isthmus, and the three of us will meet them there. Who is the highest ranking H’uuman on planet right now?”

Williams said, “The secondary Weela is here, as well as a vagabond queen. Her name is Snirl, I believe.”

“Have them join us as well,” Cort said. Looking down at himself, he added, “I need to make myself presentable, so I’ll meet you at the flight pad. I want both of you there to keep me on my toes. Message my flexpad if I mess up. And we
do not
mention the Tapon plans to take the Nill homeworld unless I decide to. They don’t get to use our Marines when they need us and cast us to the side when they don’t think they do.”

“What about your promise to make the Tapon extinct, sir?” JJ asked.

“I am still going to do that. I just may delay it a bit.”

As JJ left the office, she thought about his words.
He said ‘I am still going to do that.’ It’s not a political decision. It is personal for him. I cannot argue his reasoning, and I will follow that man to the gates of hell, but it may be a slippery slope. I need to talk to Kim and Bazal.

The Isthmus

“Chairman Lap, how are you?” Cort asked.

“We must speak, General. You have overstepped your authority,” Lap answered.

“No niceties. Okay, we’ll get right to it, then.” After pointing them to the cabin, Cort turned to the centipod and said, “Do you feel the same, Brbk?”

The buzz of the centipod took longer for Cort’s earpiece to translate than the languages of most species did, but a second later, the humans heard, “My feelings are not relevant, General Addison. I am here on behalf of the Collaborative Government.”

“You are on my planet, Brbk. I would like to know your opinion.”

“Very well, Brbk buzzed. “I feel the Collaboration is overreacting. Your actions are in line with what we should expect of a lower species, especially a warrior race. It is unfortunate that the Nill have decided to leave the Collaboration, but as their Transition Core is no longer usable, their benefit to us is minimal at best. However, severing the necessary trade agreements will be costly and time consuming. But as I said previously, I am here on behalf of the Collaborative Government, and as such, our collective position is somewhat different than my own.”

As they entered the building, Bazal moved to greet the party. Lap clicked at him, “You have been missing from our council for too long, Bazal. You must return with us after the meeting.”

“I am needed here, Lap. I shall remain.”

Kim surprised Cort by entering the room with a tray of refreshments. “Would you like some sweetwater, Lap? It is from the honey we produce here on Solitude.”

“No, thank you. I must ask you to leave, as we have government matters to discuss, Kimberly.”

“She stays,” Cort said cooly.

“I apologize for Lap’s rudeness, Kimberly,” Brbk said.

Cort pointed at a chair and said, “Sit down, Lap.” Looking at his flex pad, he read, JADE JONES(loc:SOLITUDE): Take a deep breath, Cort.

As he sat down, Lap said, “General, allowing the Cuplans into an alliance with you is not acceptable, nor is nullifying the peace treaty you signed with them. You must remedy this at once.”

“The last time you had this attitude with me was the first day I landed on Government World, Lap. Your ego failed you then, and it will do so now. The Ares Federation is not a regular member of your collaborative. In fact, we cannot even enter in regular agreements with Collaborative species. Which means you have no authority over us whatsoever. I’m going to correct you on one additional point as well. There is not a single living being in this galaxy that is a Cuplan. My agreements are with the H’uuman race.”

Bazal said, “Lap, you may not pick and choose when we work with or against the Ares Federation.”

He is hiding something, Cortland. But because he knows of my abilities he is masking his thoughts.

Cort said, “There is no reason for this, Lap. And you do not have any leverage to influence my decisions.”

“If necessary, General, the Collaborative Government will cancel all trade agreements with the Ares Federation. You will not join with the Cuplans.”

“Lap! You were not authorized such action,” Brbk said.

Cort tapped a message onto his pad and said, “Lap, I am going to say this once. If you call them Cuplans again, I will have you escorted off of my planet.”

In response to Cort’s message, two H’uumans entered the room. Cort stood and said, “Everyone, I would like to present our allies, Species Secondary Weela and Vagabond Queen Snirl, of the H’uuman Empire. They are here to finalize our merger with them into the Ares Federation of Species.”

The other humans in the room, as well as Brbk, collectively thought some form of,
Oh fuck.
JJ and Kate began furiously typing on their flexpads. Cort turned his upside down on the table and stood. Kim knew he was about to blow. She also knew there was nothing she could do about it.

CALM HIM BAZAL!
Kim thought.

As Cort began to speak, Bazal replied,
It is too late, Kimberly.

Pointing to the H’uumans, Cort said, “Lap, three weeks ago, over a
million
of their people stood beside mine in battle to rescue my son, and nearly half of them died in the effort. And that was
after
their First Queen and thousands of others laid down their lives to protect Dalek. With the exception of Bazal, not a single member of your collaboration was even there. But you begged us for help when your species were targeted by the Cuplans. Well let me tell you something, you worthless son of a bitch, I would lay down my entire empire to defend a single one of them before I would lift one gods damned finger to help a single member of your worthless fucking government change a flat tire!”

Turning to JJ, he ordered, “Recall every ship, Marine or diplomat on every Collaborative planet, right fucking now!”

“General…” JJ started.

“
NOW Admiral!”

“Yes, sir.” JJ began tapping orders into her pad.

“Baby, settle down,” Kim said softly.

Looking at her, Cort finally took a deep breath. Turning back to Lap he calmly said, “Whether or not the trade agreements remain in place is up to you. But our military alliance is finished. Find another species to do your dirty work. And Lap, if a single human
or
H’uuman is harmed on any Collaborative planet, I will destroy that planet. Are we clear?”

“General, you cannot sever our agreements in favor of these monsters,” Lap protested.

Cort’s face was grim when he said, “I am the monster, Lap, not the H’uumans. My Marines will show you to your shuttle now.”

Lap strode toward the door as Brbk turned to Bazal and said, “We should go. Do you have things to gather?”

“I have already stated I am not leaving, Brbk. My place is here.”

Brbk’s voice was low when she replied, “Do you recall the day the General stood before us on Government World?”

“Yes,” Bazal replied.

“You said that day, as Speral’s ship took them back to their world, that he would forever change our Collaboration. Did you anticipate this?”

“Sadly, I did. I hoped to be wrong, though.”

Lap was out of the building when Bazal whispered, “What else, Brbk? What is Lap hiding?”

Brbk looked at the door, the humans, the other H’uumans, and then back to Bazal and Cort, who were together on one side of the table. Finally, she said, “General, please do not betray my trust. The Tapon have demanded compensation for the attack on their homeworld and are demanding the Nill turn over theirs. The Nill have left the Collaboration and are seeking a mercenary race to teach them to fight against anyone who invades their planet. My species remembers when the Nill knew how to make war, General, and we do not want to see that circumstance again.”

“If the Core is no longer operational and they contribute little else to the Collaborative Government, why do you care if the Tapons take it back?”

“I cannot answer why Lap wishes us to be involved, General. Nor can I determine what benefit the Tapon species would bring to the Collaboration.”

“Where do you fall in this, Brbk?” Cort asked.

“I do not know. My people are confused.”

“I appreciate your candor, and we will not betray your trust. Goodbye, Brbk,” Cort said.

“That could have gone much better, General,” JJ commented as the door closed behind the centipod.

“Lap is lucky it didn’t go way worse for him.” Turning to Bazal, Cort asked, “Was Brbk being truthful?”

“Yes. What are you going to do?”

“I’m going to kill the Tapon. Every last one of them. That part hasn’t changed.”

“Has anything changed, General?” Kate Williams asked.

Looking at the H’uumans, Cort said, “I meant every word I said, I want us to form a full and equal alliance.”

“I believe H’uum wishes the same, General,” Weela clicked.

Turning back to Williams, Cort said, “What has changed is the ‘when’. I may wipe the Tapons out now, or I may wait until they have attacked the Collaboration.”

Bazal said, “Either way, Cortland, the Collaboration is dead. It will fall apart now. Without me to calm and tie them, they cannot remain peaceful toward each other.”

“My instinct is to let them fight each other, then wipe out the Tapon. But I’m open to wiping the apes out now. I will let Dar and his people make that decision for me. But let me be clear, I am going wipe them out. Either now or later, their extinction is not optional.”

“Sir,” Williams began.

Cort said, “Yes, Captain?”

“What is a flat tire?”

--

Cort was back at Bergh Station with Dalek looking for a new companion wolf for the boy, while Kim stayed at the isthmus with Bazal and JJ.

JJ said, “Kim, please do not be angry with me. I cannot imagine what you have been through the last few weeks, but we all know that if you had not been there, it would have gone way worse than it did.”

“But I
was
there,” Kim replied

“I could not calm Cortland, Kimberly. My only way to help was to keep Lap in check. He wanted to suggest that Cort’s love for Dalek was clouding his judgement.”