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On the edge of a forest, Sasha witnessed a firefight erupting right in front of her eyes…
Thumps from energy weapons counteracted the mechanical clanks of ballistic ones.
The self-declared Chief led other SAP squad members at the front and center. A heavy weapon similar to a machine gun suppressed enemy positions. Widget, Enigma, and Jape took potshots with long-range gauss weapons… picking off hegemonic warriors guarding the nuclear power plant. Even Siren joined in by unleashing automatic weapon fire. Stray sthara and umok ended up being easy prey to their surprise assault with projectiles striking down half a dozen or so with many others desperately trying to find cover.
{Scratch one!} exclaimed Jape before reloading his rifle with a few mechanical clicks.
His words blurted within Sasha’s headset as she took cover behind her stationary vehicle.
Meanwhile, the Chief’s machine gun practically roared with bursts of rapid weapons fire. {MOVE UP!}
The entire unit naturally arranged within an arrowhead formation advanced towards the station. However, a similar yet larger force of soldiers immediately caught Sasha’s attention as she looked to her left. With about a dozen or so warriors led by none other than a heavily armored zenari, they charged towards the ongoing fight alongside random stragglers scattered throughout the area. Sasha’s heart stopped for just a moment at the sight, just to quickly transition to pure fury as she clenched her fists and activated a small button on her headset.
“This is Sasha. You have about a dozen or so hostiles closing in on your position…”
She stopped speaking upon spotting a familiar figure. With battle-scarred armor and a physical form towering over even the largest of the aliens, Battlemaster Ishtar led the entire enemy unit. The tip of the spear. Stragglers slowly fell into formation, rallying the local defenders as they attempted to join the ongoing fray. As energy bolts and ballistic projectiles darted through the air, Sasha instinctively reached for her pistol, just to find the holster empty as old memories resurfaced in her mind’s eye.
{The human is correct.} suddenly interjected Umbra. {I can see an abundance of enemy forces moving towards your location. They will overwhelm you. A more favorable outcome could be achieved if we slowly fall back and engage the enemy as we move.}
Naturally, the Chief growled before she stopped firing her weapon. {What exactly do you mean by a favorable outcome, Umbra?}
Silence reigned supreme for several long seconds.
{They all die.} she replied.
Suddenly, a deafening bang echoed throughout the vicinity. A projectile ultimately bypassed Ishtar and ricocheted against the ground, rupturing the knee of an adjacent sthara soldier afterward. It suppressed the entire formation as they all collectively dived to the ground or kneeled. Still, others immediately began firing upon Umbra’s exposed position a short distance away before she disappeared back into the woodlands. The momentary distraction bought a brief window of time for the rest of the unit as they gradually pulled back, delivering some parting shots during the process.
Sasha herself hesitantly jumped back into her jeep…
“So fucking useless!” she shouted, slamming the door shut with a resounding thud. The vehicle’s engine soon erupted to life as she drove back the way she came, beneath the notice of the titanic alien soldiers turning her homeland into a playground of war.
~~~~~
A peculiar sight made Ishtar narrow her eyes. More precisely, a tiny human vehicle drove away until it vanished from her vision. She raised a clawed hand and stopped in place, prompting nearly everyone else nearby to do the same. Despite this, a few soldiers still advanced towards their dead or wounded comrades, including a few civilian scientists caught in the crossfire with some of their cries filling the air.
“Hold your positions!” she commanded, causing anyone else to stop in place. Ishtar scanned the vicinity, ignoring the pain pounding in her partially healed thigh. “The cowards are using hit and run tactics to attack soft targets while a sharpshooter stalks us from the treelines. DO NOT PURSUE THEM.”
“Affirmative!” chirped an umok.
“Loud and clear...” said a sthara.
“Just retrieve any of the wounded and prepare to move out!” continued Ishtar, snarling. “We are falling back to the deployment zone!”
And so, the entire unit continued its advance… albeit far more cautiously. A single sthara, barely conscious with a ruptured knee cap, got dragged back to the encampment of tents. Surviving scientists sprinted towards them with only their guards staying behind as they aimed their laser or plasma rifles left to right.
It was only a matter of time until they secured the power plant itself.
“Clear!” declared another zenari warrior acting as a pointman.
Some others checked the vitals of the fallen, most of which were researchers.
“Area clear.” announced another warrior through the comms. “Hostiles nowhere in sight. Three scientists and two of their bodyguards were killed in action. Four others were wounded.”
Ishtar placed a hand against her helmet’s visor, facepalming in all but name. “Perfect. Let us just clean up here before moving out as soon as possible...”
A zenari warrior nodded. “Understood, battlemaster!”
Like clockwork, the assembled warriors retrieved the wounded. Cold corpses were more or less left to rot. Soldiers formed a protective perimeter on high alert as they treated the entire powerplant and the general area surrounding the short skirmish like a hazard zone.
Ishtar herself returned to the encampment of tents, hissing and muttering to herself.
“Yes, let us split our forces between the deployment zone and the human power plant...” She tried activating a communication bound to her helmet, only to receive no signal once more. “Absolutely brilliant, Deimo. Especially with our comms repeatedly being knocked out. BAH!”
Other warriors looked at Ishtar with wide eyes while she talked to herself, stepping aside as she strolled past them. Ishtar’s tail also swayed side to side with every step she took, up until she stomped her way back to her own personal tent. Several warriors nearby were already frantically gathering their personal possessions or disassembling the encampment altogether. Ishtar ignored them in favor of focusing on opening the entrance to what might as well have been her home, closing her eyes and sighing once she finally entered her only source of solitude away from the planetary war.
Instinctively, Ishtar sealed the flap shortly after walking inside, granting herself some rare privacy once more.
The abnormal darkness within the tent upon opening her eyes sent a chill down her spine. Adrenaline, blood, and something more primal surged throughout Ishtar’s veins as two hearts still rapidly pumped within her cavernous chest from the recent skirmish. A similarly eerie silence made her take another deep breath as she turned around, finding another zenari woman sitting on a chair next to her desk.
“Greetings, Battlemaster!” said Andraste with a catlike smile.
Any floodlights next to the trailer were deactivated. The generator remained silent. Vasily sat at a relocated picnic table with a dead look in his eyes… right next to one of Andraste’s elbows.
“Specialist Andraste?!” exclaimed Ishtar with her jaw almost going agape. Her eyes rapidly scanned the room. “What are you doing in my personal quarters?” She took another step forward with her weapon in tow as it glowed bright orange. “WHY DID YOU ABANDON YOUR OWN UNIT?” A certain fire raged in her eyes as she slowly snarled. “WHERE IS SUKO?”
Andraste spread out the clawed fingers on one of her hands, revealing Suko bundled within a blanket on her open palm. “If by Suko you mean this other human, he is sleeping.”
Suko slowly arose from his slumber, rubbing his eyes and yawning.
“Was sleeping.” said Andraste afterward. “It was quite rude of you to barge in and shout like that.”
Ishtar stared at Andraste for several solid seconds with a stoic look on her face before aiming the plasma rifle at her.
This failed to faze Andraste as she hovered a clawed finger from her other hand dangerously close to Suko. “I would think carefully about doing that.”
“You would not.” said Ishtar as her pupils narrowed.
Andraste smiled and snickered a little “Think about it, battlemaster. We have already bombed their cities and invaded their homeworld, killing countless numbers of their little ones. You have already played a big role in it. What makes this human youngling so special to you, exactly?”
Ishtar trembled a bit as she bared her fangs. “Put. Him. Down.”
“How about you put that weapon down if you care about his well being?” asked Andraste, fluttering her glistening golden eyes a little.
Without saying a word in return, Ishtar threw her plasma rifle to the ground.
“And I just find it all so... hypocritical.” continued Andraste, crossing her legs. “You barged into my tent to find my little pet in order to have me discharged. On the contrary, you have been kidnapping humans to play mommy among other mentally ill antics, resulting in Deimo wanting you away from the battlefield. If anything, I should be the war pack leader here!”
“You have been disobeying MY orders.” said Ishtar, crossing her arms. “Running off by yourself to engage enemies like some sort of sociopath. Potentially abducting humans. Then you want to violate the privacy of my personal dwelling to lecture me about morality and how I mistreated you for these actions while abandoning your duties during a crisis?!”
“Unfortunately for you, Ishtar, singling me out and generally putting our unit in jeopardy had certain consequences.”
“Consequences?” said the battlemaster, sneering. “As if that statement is not going to apply to you when I either report you for your actions or rip out your spinal cord?!”
Andraste looked at Ishtar without blinking. “I have always lived by a certain mentality.” Her tail swayed a little behind her. “I treat people the way they treat me. Plenty of humans have met their end if they were stupid enough to attack me first…” She stuck out her serpentine tongue as she smiled. “So I felt nothing but pleasure whenever I returned the favor, one way or another.”
Ishtar glanced at Vasily, who remained motionless. “And your… pet?”
“The one in my tent?” asked Andraste, cocking her head. “He refrained from attacking me when we encountered each other. I am not sure why, but he did not resist when I picked him up before popping him in a pocket… plus he appeared to be a young male around my age… so… I decided to keep him!”
Whereas Andraste maintained a light and playful tone, Ishtar spoke in a far more heavy and stoic one with her blood running cold.
“Is there something wrong with Vasily?”
Andraste tilted her head to the side “The old man?” She glanced at the human in question. “Oh yeah. Him. I keep forgetting that you named them. He tried to prevent me from picking up the child by stabbing my finger with a tiny object, so I stabbed him with one of my other fingers in retaliation. It was quite ironic!”
Ishtar immediately focused on Vasily. He clutched onto his heavily bandaged midsection, slightly wobbling in place as he sat on the bench.
Andraste pressed a thumb against Suko’s back, making him gasp. “I suppose you can always get another one.”
Seeing Suko shiver a little and sniffling made Ishtar shutter. In one rare moment, two sides of the woman converged into one. Training from being a fearsome warrior on one side mingled with far more maternal instincts, creating a sick sort of synthesis in her lizard brain as she huffed and puffed with her vision becoming blurry…
Eventually, Andraste placed Suko on the picnic table with Vasily. “Regardless, if you refrain from trying to have me expelled from service, I will also-”
Within a split second, Ishtar’s fist collided with Andraste’s face. Metal gauntlets made it far more potent than it should have been… nearly knocking the specialist from her chair. Although Andraste managed to rapidly rise to her feet, Ishtar headbutted her while wearing a helmet, an especially effective maneuver against another zenari lacking one. Within her dazed state, Andraste attempted to defend herself, but Ishtar simply resumed striking the younger woman in the head and torso…
Again.
Again.
And again.
Suko started crying and wailing.
Andraste’s own retaliatory punches did little to harm Ishtar’s armor. They used anything from their clawed hands, feet, or tails to strike or counter one another. Ishtar’s sheer bulk from her armor and higher height provided a substantial advantage, quickly overpowering her opponent. It all culminated in Ishtar tackling Andraste, practically bursting out of the tent as it partially collapsed on itself, with several other soldiers recoiling and aiming their weapons.
Undeterred, Ishtar pinned Andraste to the ground. She grabbed her by the neck, clutching her throat with one hand. Ishtar’s other one formed a fist as she repeatedly pummeled the specialist, arousing screaming. A soft crunch marked the moment Ishtar broke her nose. Other parts of Andraste’s face swelled up as she squirmed, trying to claw and push Ishtar away, just for one powerful punch to knock her out cold.
This did little to stop Ishtar as she snarled and thrashed at her head. Teeth were knocked from their roots. Bruises formed. Purple body fluids oozed from a few areas nearly turned into bloody pulps.
Several frightened warriors spoke as they approached Ishtar from multiple directions.
“Hey… HEY!”
“You’re going to kill her!”
Two zenari grabbed Ishtar from behind. In response, the battlemaster practically roared before kicking Andraste’s limp legs as others dragged her away. Ishtar eventually elbowed the duo responsible upon standing back up, snarling as she shook her head and blinked several times. Others promptly moved in to protect Andraste’s unconscious body.
“What in the heavens are you doing, battlemaster?” asked one of them.
Ishtar’s nostrils flared as she took several heavy breaths. “She abandoned my war pack, waited for me in my own tent, then tried to kill me while everyone else prepared to evacuate!”
A sthara scratched the back of his head. “Should I get a medic?”
“NO!” nearly roared Ishtar, stomping away from them. “Leave her be. What she tried to do was nothing short of treason!”
Andraste made an odd gurgling sound as blood pooled within her open maw. Soft swallowing sounds accompanied the faint sound of her weak breathing. Bewildered warriors remained in place as they watched Ishtar return to a crying child within the heavily damaged tent.
An entire flap covered half of the desk. One of the support beams somehow toppled over during the brawl, collapsing a single tent corner before it fell onto everything below it. Ishtar removed the flap to reveal Suko cowering beneath the picnic table with Vasily joining him… clutching his lower chest with his teeth bared. The child resumed shaking and shivering. Ishtar nonchalantly wiped some purple blood from her fingertips before taking off her helmet with both hands… exposing her own spiked head.
She stuck out her tongue, forming a blep. “It is okay, little one. Mommy is here!”
Other warriors outside did a mix of checking Andraste’s vitals or giving Ishtar weird looks.
Ishtar herself gently slid the picnic table to the side to fully expose the two. Vasily slowly stood up, with Suko staying close by, stumbling a bit before resting a hand against the table surface.
“Vasily… what did she do to you?” asked Ishtar in a far colder tone.
He answered her question by lifting his hand. Improvised bandages alongside white rags covered a precise puncture in Vasily’s uniform with droplets of crimson red blood seeping through. He grabbed a green crayon resting on some of Suko’s drawings without any hesitation, then used it to circle several locations on a map. Several words escaped his lips as his face turned pale, prompting Ishtar to place her helmet back on her head before activating a translation device.
[How bad is it?] she asked again.
“I… I don’t know.” he muttered under his breath. “The map. There’s some villages to the south that could help… take care of Suko…”
Vasily wobbled in place, showing signs of dizziness as he leaned against the table. Suko’s face scrunched. For all of her might, Ishtar found herself powerless as she looked down at the blood on her hands… being a creature created to destroy other things rather than creating or preserving them.
A light hiss escaped her muzzle. [Is there something I can do to help you?]
The man chuckled before coughing several times, completely changing his facial expressions. “I already told you when we first met… I don’t care if I live or die. I tried to protect others from your kind.” Vasily silently stared in another direction for several long moments. “I’ve failed.”
As he spoke, Ishtar looked at the map. Augmented reality vision assisted her in that regard. Whereas the retreat back to Volgograd required going directly to the northeast, isolated and scattered Russian villages to the southeast were highlighted by the green circles. It only brought attention to rivers in the west, practically boxing them in among other geological features.
“Assuming I don’t bleed out…” said Vasily with a hint of disdain, “Someone at one of those settlements might be able to help me too. Unless you’re having second thoughts about keeping Suko.”
Ishtar removed a power core from one of her pockets, setting it aside. [Do you think you could allow me to pick the two of you up before placing you in one of my pockets?]
“I’ll live.” said Vasily with a grunt. “Probably.”
Naturally, Ishtar took off one of her gauntlets. Her bare and calloused hand rested against the table, creating a platform with an open palm. A few memories rattled around in her skull as she saw Suko slowly approaching her, much like when she first found him cold and alone. Vasily walked behind the child, who was still clutching a blanket, nudging him towards Ishtar by pushing on his back before they both sat in the center of Ishtar’s hand.
From there, Ishtar carefully wrapped her fingers around them. She then deposited them into the expansive pocket placed at the base of her tail. [Just sit tight until I figure out how to proceed from here...]
A simple snap of a clip sealed the insulated pocket tight. Ishtar spent some time making sure their new position didn’t cause any issues as she moved, soon retrieving her plasma rifle before exiting her ruptured tent. The same warriors as before awaited her as they gawked at the bizarre sight alongside, trying to assess Andraste’s current state with the woman fading in and out of consciousness.
“I don’t think she’ll die,” said a sthara medic, “But her teeth are knocked out and her nose is broken.”
A zenari warrior shrugged. “Teeth grow back. Odds are the specialist will make a full recovery!”
“We are leaving her.” abruptly announced Ishtar once she rejoined them.
An umok chirped. “Why were there humans…”
“The specialist kidnapped humans and stored them within her tent.” interrupted Ishtar. “It has been a recurring issue. I found a few yesterday and threatened to report her, hence why she attempted to assault me. I would suggest checking her tent for more before we return to the deployment zone.”
Instinctively, one zenari warrior strolled towards Andraste’s tent. “As you wish.”
The sthara medic raised a clawed finger. “So you’re suggesting that we just leave her for dead?”
“ANDRASTE ASSAULTED A SUPERIOR OFFICER!” snarled Ishtar, stomping against the dirt for emphasis. “She abandoned us during a skirmish, just to prepare for an ambush! I would finish her off, but I would rather not dishonor myself by sullying my hands with the blood of my own kin… just leave her for the joraxians to deal with.”
“Alright then.” said the sthara, blinking a few times.
“Tell everyone else to return to the deployment zone!” ordered Ishtar. “Make haste quickly. Try to re-establish communications. As for myself, I am going to attempt to find a missing patrol by myself before regrouping with everyone else at the deployment zone. Understood?”
“Yes, madame!” said a few soldiers at nearly the same time.
They didn’t even bother trying to tear down the rest of the tents. Instead, they grabbed anything not bolted to the ground, mainly in the form of supplies, before ferrying it to others or their remaining vehicles. Then the whole hegemonic unit began moving in one direction with other war pack members trying to re-organize the survivors; Ishtar set off into the Russian wilderness by herself… despite the clear dangers… and Andraste was left by her lonesome self at the abandoned campsite.
A fitting conclusion for a world falling apart.
First Chapter
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On the edge of a forest, Sasha witnessed a firefight erupting right in front of her eyes…
Thumps from energy weapons counteracted the mechanical clanks of ballistic ones.
The self-declared Chief led other SAP squad members at the front and center. A heavy weapon similar to a machine gun suppressed enemy positions. Widget, Enigma, and Jape took potshots with long-range gauss weapons… picking off hegemonic warriors guarding the nuclear power plant. Even Siren joined in by unleashing automatic weapon fire. Stray sthara and umok ended up being easy prey to their surprise assault with projectiles striking down half a dozen or so with many others desperately trying to find cover.
{Scratch one!} exclaimed Jape before reloading his rifle with a few mechanical clicks.
His words blurted within Sasha’s headset as she took cover behind her stationary vehicle.
Meanwhile, the Chief’s machine gun practically roared with bursts of rapid weapons fire. {MOVE UP!}
The entire unit naturally arranged within an arrowhead formation advanced towards the station. However, a similar yet larger force of soldiers immediately caught Sasha’s attention as she looked to her left. With about a dozen or so warriors led by none other than a heavily armored zenari, they charged towards the ongoing fight alongside random stragglers scattered throughout the area. Sasha’s heart stopped for just a moment at the sight, just to quickly transition to pure fury as she clenched her fists and activated a small button on her headset.
“This is Sasha. You have about a dozen or so hostiles closing in on your position…”
She stopped speaking upon spotting a familiar figure. With battle-scarred armor and a physical form towering over even the largest of the aliens, Battlemaster Ishtar led the entire enemy unit. The tip of the spear. Stragglers slowly fell into formation, rallying the local defenders as they attempted to join the ongoing fray. As energy bolts and ballistic projectiles darted through the air, Sasha instinctively reached for her pistol, just to find the holster empty as old memories resurfaced in her mind’s eye.
{The human is correct.} suddenly interjected Umbra. {I can see an abundance of enemy forces moving towards your location. They will overwhelm you. A more favorable outcome could be achieved if we slowly fall back and engage the enemy as we move.}
Naturally, the Chief growled before she stopped firing her weapon. {What exactly do you mean by a favorable outcome, Umbra?}
Silence reigned supreme for several long seconds.
{They all die.} she replied.
Suddenly, a deafening bang echoed throughout the vicinity. A projectile ultimately bypassed Ishtar and ricocheted against the ground, rupturing the knee of an adjacent sthara soldier afterward. It suppressed the entire formation as they all collectively dived to the ground or kneeled. Still, others immediately began firing upon Umbra’s exposed position a short distance away before she disappeared back into the woodlands. The momentary distraction bought a brief window of time for the rest of the unit as they gradually pulled back, delivering some parting shots during the process.
Sasha herself hesitantly jumped back into her jeep…
“So fucking useless!” she shouted, slamming the door shut with a resounding thud. The vehicle’s engine soon erupted to life as she drove back the way she came, beneath the notice of the titanic alien soldiers turning her homeland into a playground of war.
~~~~~
A peculiar sight made Ishtar narrow her eyes. More precisely, a tiny human vehicle drove away until it vanished from her vision. She raised a clawed hand and stopped in place, prompting nearly everyone else nearby to do the same. Despite this, a few soldiers still advanced towards their dead or wounded comrades, including a few civilian scientists caught in the crossfire with some of their cries filling the air.
“Hold your positions!” she commanded, causing anyone else to stop in place. Ishtar scanned the vicinity, ignoring the pain pounding in her partially healed thigh. “The cowards are using hit and run tactics to attack soft targets while a sharpshooter stalks us from the treelines. DO NOT PURSUE THEM.”
“Affirmative!” chirped an umok.
“Loud and clear...” said a sthara.
“Just retrieve any of the wounded and prepare to move out!” continued Ishtar, snarling. “We are falling back to the deployment zone!”
And so, the entire unit continued its advance… albeit far more cautiously. A single sthara, barely conscious with a ruptured knee cap, got dragged back to the encampment of tents. Surviving scientists sprinted towards them with only their guards staying behind as they aimed their laser or plasma rifles left to right.
It was only a matter of time until they secured the power plant itself.
“Clear!” declared another zenari warrior acting as a pointman.
Some others checked the vitals of the fallen, most of which were researchers.
“Area clear.” announced another warrior through the comms. “Hostiles nowhere in sight. Three scientists and two of their bodyguards were killed in action. Four others were wounded.”
Ishtar placed a hand against her helmet’s visor, facepalming in all but name. “Perfect. Let us just clean up here before moving out as soon as possible...”
A zenari warrior nodded. “Understood, battlemaster!”
Like clockwork, the assembled warriors retrieved the wounded. Cold corpses were more or less left to rot. Soldiers formed a protective perimeter on high alert as they treated the entire powerplant and the general area surrounding the short skirmish like a hazard zone.
Ishtar herself returned to the encampment of tents, hissing and muttering to herself.
“Yes, let us split our forces between the deployment zone and the human power plant...” She tried activating a communication bound to her helmet, only to receive no signal once more. “Absolutely brilliant, Deimo. Especially with our comms repeatedly being knocked out. BAH!”
Other warriors looked at Ishtar with wide eyes while she talked to herself, stepping aside as she strolled past them. Ishtar’s tail also swayed side to side with every step she took, up until she stomped her way back to her own personal tent. Several warriors nearby were already frantically gathering their personal possessions or disassembling the encampment altogether. Ishtar ignored them in favor of focusing on opening the entrance to what might as well have been her home, closing her eyes and sighing once she finally entered her only source of solitude away from the planetary war.
Instinctively, Ishtar sealed the flap shortly after walking inside, granting herself some rare privacy once more.
The abnormal darkness within the tent upon opening her eyes sent a chill down her spine. Adrenaline, blood, and something more primal surged throughout Ishtar’s veins as two hearts still rapidly pumped within her cavernous chest from the recent skirmish. A similarly eerie silence made her take another deep breath as she turned around, finding another zenari woman sitting on a chair next to her desk.
“Greetings, Battlemaster!” said Andraste with a catlike smile.
Any floodlights next to the trailer were deactivated. The generator remained silent. Vasily sat at a relocated picnic table with a dead look in his eyes… right next to one of Andraste’s elbows.
“Specialist Andraste?!” exclaimed Ishtar with her jaw almost going agape. Her eyes rapidly scanned the room. “What are you doing in my personal quarters?” She took another step forward with her weapon in tow as it glowed bright orange. “WHY DID YOU ABANDON YOUR OWN UNIT?” A certain fire raged in her eyes as she slowly snarled. “WHERE IS SUKO?”
Andraste spread out the clawed fingers on one of her hands, revealing Suko bundled within a blanket on her open palm. “If by Suko you mean this other human, he is sleeping.”
Suko slowly arose from his slumber, rubbing his eyes and yawning.
“Was sleeping.” said Andraste afterward. “It was quite rude of you to barge in and shout like that.”
Ishtar stared at Andraste for several solid seconds with a stoic look on her face before aiming the plasma rifle at her.
This failed to faze Andraste as she hovered a clawed finger from her other hand dangerously close to Suko. “I would think carefully about doing that.”
“You would not.” said Ishtar as her pupils narrowed.
Andraste smiled and snickered a little “Think about it, battlemaster. We have already bombed their cities and invaded their homeworld, killing countless numbers of their little ones. You have already played a big role in it. What makes this human youngling so special to you, exactly?”
Ishtar trembled a bit as she bared her fangs. “Put. Him. Down.”
“How about you put that weapon down if you care about his well being?” asked Andraste, fluttering her glistening golden eyes a little.
Without saying a word in return, Ishtar threw her plasma rifle to the ground.
“And I just find it all so... hypocritical.” continued Andraste, crossing her legs. “You barged into my tent to find my little pet in order to have me discharged. On the contrary, you have been kidnapping humans to play mommy among other mentally ill antics, resulting in Deimo wanting you away from the battlefield. If anything, I should be the war pack leader here!”
“You have been disobeying MY orders.” said Ishtar, crossing her arms. “Running off by yourself to engage enemies like some sort of sociopath. Potentially abducting humans. Then you want to violate the privacy of my personal dwelling to lecture me about morality and how I mistreated you for these actions while abandoning your duties during a crisis?!”
“Unfortunately for you, Ishtar, singling me out and generally putting our unit in jeopardy had certain consequences.”
“Consequences?” said the battlemaster, sneering. “As if that statement is not going to apply to you when I either report you for your actions or rip out your spinal cord?!”
Andraste looked at Ishtar without blinking. “I have always lived by a certain mentality.” Her tail swayed a little behind her. “I treat people the way they treat me. Plenty of humans have met their end if they were stupid enough to attack me first…” She stuck out her serpentine tongue as she smiled. “So I felt nothing but pleasure whenever I returned the favor, one way or another.”
Ishtar glanced at Vasily, who remained motionless. “And your… pet?”
“The one in my tent?” asked Andraste, cocking her head. “He refrained from attacking me when we encountered each other. I am not sure why, but he did not resist when I picked him up before popping him in a pocket… plus he appeared to be a young male around my age… so… I decided to keep him!”
Whereas Andraste maintained a light and playful tone, Ishtar spoke in a far more heavy and stoic one with her blood running cold.
“Is there something wrong with Vasily?”
Andraste tilted her head to the side “The old man?” She glanced at the human in question. “Oh yeah. Him. I keep forgetting that you named them. He tried to prevent me from picking up the child by stabbing my finger with a tiny object, so I stabbed him with one of my other fingers in retaliation. It was quite ironic!”
Ishtar immediately focused on Vasily. He clutched onto his heavily bandaged midsection, slightly wobbling in place as he sat on the bench.
Andraste pressed a thumb against Suko’s back, making him gasp. “I suppose you can always get another one.”
Seeing Suko shiver a little and sniffling made Ishtar shutter. In one rare moment, two sides of the woman converged into one. Training from being a fearsome warrior on one side mingled with far more maternal instincts, creating a sick sort of synthesis in her lizard brain as she huffed and puffed with her vision becoming blurry…
Eventually, Andraste placed Suko on the picnic table with Vasily. “Regardless, if you refrain from trying to have me expelled from service, I will also-”
Within a split second, Ishtar’s fist collided with Andraste’s face. Metal gauntlets made it far more potent than it should have been… nearly knocking the specialist from her chair. Although Andraste managed to rapidly rise to her feet, Ishtar headbutted her while wearing a helmet, an especially effective maneuver against another zenari lacking one. Within her dazed state, Andraste attempted to defend herself, but Ishtar simply resumed striking the younger woman in the head and torso…
Again.
Again.
And again.
Suko started crying and wailing.
Andraste’s own retaliatory punches did little to harm Ishtar’s armor. They used anything from their clawed hands, feet, or tails to strike or counter one another. Ishtar’s sheer bulk from her armor and higher height provided a substantial advantage, quickly overpowering her opponent. It all culminated in Ishtar tackling Andraste, practically bursting out of the tent as it partially collapsed on itself, with several other soldiers recoiling and aiming their weapons.
Undeterred, Ishtar pinned Andraste to the ground. She grabbed her by the neck, clutching her throat with one hand. Ishtar’s other one formed a fist as she repeatedly pummeled the specialist, arousing screaming. A soft crunch marked the moment Ishtar broke her nose. Other parts of Andraste’s face swelled up as she squirmed, trying to claw and push Ishtar away, just for one powerful punch to knock her out cold.
This did little to stop Ishtar as she snarled and thrashed at her head. Teeth were knocked from their roots. Bruises formed. Purple body fluids oozed from a few areas nearly turned into bloody pulps.
Several frightened warriors spoke as they approached Ishtar from multiple directions.
“Hey… HEY!”
“You’re going to kill her!”
Two zenari grabbed Ishtar from behind. In response, the battlemaster practically roared before kicking Andraste’s limp legs as others dragged her away. Ishtar eventually elbowed the duo responsible upon standing back up, snarling as she shook her head and blinked several times. Others promptly moved in to protect Andraste’s unconscious body.
“What in the heavens are you doing, battlemaster?” asked one of them.
Ishtar’s nostrils flared as she took several heavy breaths. “She abandoned my war pack, waited for me in my own tent, then tried to kill me while everyone else prepared to evacuate!”
A sthara scratched the back of his head. “Should I get a medic?”
“NO!” nearly roared Ishtar, stomping away from them. “Leave her be. What she tried to do was nothing short of treason!”
Andraste made an odd gurgling sound as blood pooled within her open maw. Soft swallowing sounds accompanied the faint sound of her weak breathing. Bewildered warriors remained in place as they watched Ishtar return to a crying child within the heavily damaged tent.
An entire flap covered half of the desk. One of the support beams somehow toppled over during the brawl, collapsing a single tent corner before it fell onto everything below it. Ishtar removed the flap to reveal Suko cowering beneath the picnic table with Vasily joining him… clutching his lower chest with his teeth bared. The child resumed shaking and shivering. Ishtar nonchalantly wiped some purple blood from her fingertips before taking off her helmet with both hands… exposing her own spiked head.
She stuck out her tongue, forming a blep. “It is okay, little one. Mommy is here!”
Other warriors outside did a mix of checking Andraste’s vitals or giving Ishtar weird looks.
Ishtar herself gently slid the picnic table to the side to fully expose the two. Vasily slowly stood up, with Suko staying close by, stumbling a bit before resting a hand against the table surface.
“Vasily… what did she do to you?” asked Ishtar in a far colder tone.
He answered her question by lifting his hand. Improvised bandages alongside white rags covered a precise puncture in Vasily’s uniform with droplets of crimson red blood seeping through. He grabbed a green crayon resting on some of Suko’s drawings without any hesitation, then used it to circle several locations on a map. Several words escaped his lips as his face turned pale, prompting Ishtar to place her helmet back on her head before activating a translation device.
[How bad is it?] she asked again.
“I… I don’t know.” he muttered under his breath. “The map. There’s some villages to the south that could help… take care of Suko…”
Vasily wobbled in place, showing signs of dizziness as he leaned against the table. Suko’s face scrunched. For all of her might, Ishtar found herself powerless as she looked down at the blood on her hands… being a creature created to destroy other things rather than creating or preserving them.
A light hiss escaped her muzzle. [Is there something I can do to help you?]
The man chuckled before coughing several times, completely changing his facial expressions. “I already told you when we first met… I don’t care if I live or die. I tried to protect others from your kind.” Vasily silently stared in another direction for several long moments. “I’ve failed.”
As he spoke, Ishtar looked at the map. Augmented reality vision assisted her in that regard. Whereas the retreat back to Volgograd required going directly to the northeast, isolated and scattered Russian villages to the southeast were highlighted by the green circles. It only brought attention to rivers in the west, practically boxing them in among other geological features.
“Assuming I don’t bleed out…” said Vasily with a hint of disdain, “Someone at one of those settlements might be able to help me too. Unless you’re having second thoughts about keeping Suko.”
Ishtar removed a power core from one of her pockets, setting it aside. [Do you think you could allow me to pick the two of you up before placing you in one of my pockets?]
“I’ll live.” said Vasily with a grunt. “Probably.”
Naturally, Ishtar took off one of her gauntlets. Her bare and calloused hand rested against the table, creating a platform with an open palm. A few memories rattled around in her skull as she saw Suko slowly approaching her, much like when she first found him cold and alone. Vasily walked behind the child, who was still clutching a blanket, nudging him towards Ishtar by pushing on his back before they both sat in the center of Ishtar’s hand.
From there, Ishtar carefully wrapped her fingers around them. She then deposited them into the expansive pocket placed at the base of her tail. [Just sit tight until I figure out how to proceed from here...]
A simple snap of a clip sealed the insulated pocket tight. Ishtar spent some time making sure their new position didn’t cause any issues as she moved, soon retrieving her plasma rifle before exiting her ruptured tent. The same warriors as before awaited her as they gawked at the bizarre sight alongside, trying to assess Andraste’s current state with the woman fading in and out of consciousness.
“I don’t think she’ll die,” said a sthara medic, “But her teeth are knocked out and her nose is broken.”
A zenari warrior shrugged. “Teeth grow back. Odds are the specialist will make a full recovery!”
“We are leaving her.” abruptly announced Ishtar once she rejoined them.
An umok chirped. “Why were there humans…”
“The specialist kidnapped humans and stored them within her tent.” interrupted Ishtar. “It has been a recurring issue. I found a few yesterday and threatened to report her, hence why she attempted to assault me. I would suggest checking her tent for more before we return to the deployment zone.”
Instinctively, one zenari warrior strolled towards Andraste’s tent. “As you wish.”
The sthara medic raised a clawed finger. “So you’re suggesting that we just leave her for dead?”
“ANDRASTE ASSAULTED A SUPERIOR OFFICER!” snarled Ishtar, stomping against the dirt for emphasis. “She abandoned us during a skirmish, just to prepare for an ambush! I would finish her off, but I would rather not dishonor myself by sullying my hands with the blood of my own kin… just leave her for the joraxians to deal with.”
“Alright then.” said the sthara, blinking a few times.
“Tell everyone else to return to the deployment zone!” ordered Ishtar. “Make haste quickly. Try to re-establish communications. As for myself, I am going to attempt to find a missing patrol by myself before regrouping with everyone else at the deployment zone. Understood?”
“Yes, madame!” said a few soldiers at nearly the same time.
They didn’t even bother trying to tear down the rest of the tents. Instead, they grabbed anything not bolted to the ground, mainly in the form of supplies, before ferrying it to others or their remaining vehicles. Then the whole hegemonic unit began moving in one direction with other war pack members trying to re-organize the survivors; Ishtar set off into the Russian wilderness by herself… despite the clear dangers… and Andraste was left by her lonesome self at the abandoned campsite.
A fitting conclusion for a world falling apart.
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Category Story / Macro / Micro
Species Unspecified / Any
Size 120 x 120px
File Size 95.5 kB
oh, well no prob bud. About that, you can just say is more convenient for the ones on the ground act friendly until they are away of the conflict zone... for the umoks on the ground rebelling and killing wont make wonders for their ticket out of earth and I doubt your little muse would like the SAP units treating them as friendlies outtanowhere... I know she likes the tragedy.
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