Chapter 165: (Nemta) (2/2)

The day gave way to night and eventually Nemta went back into his hut, curling up in his nest. He fitfully went to sleep, his dreams full of anxiety and fear, shifting from dream to dream rapidly without any sense of rhyme or reason.

A pain behind his eyes woke him up, making him hold his head and moan. He staggered out of his hut and looked around.

The little green mantid was bringing out objects the orb, setting them down. Nemta could identify some kind of micro-fusion reactor and other parts that it was putting inside the frame. There was another twinge and the little green mantid looked around, then went back to work.

His stomach rumbling, Nemta moved over to the rations, digging in the box until he found one rated for his species. It wasn't his favorite, but it would do. He moved over and sat down, breaking into the rations and adding water and thumbing the self-heat tab.

There was another twinge between his eyes, hard enough that he winced. The refugees left their huts and came out to look around, all of them holding their knives.

His meal was almost over when he heard a whirring sound coming from one of the dog-leg hallway entrances into the encampment. He looked over to see the green mantid 303 driving a child's toy.

It was a wealthy Lanaktallan's children's toy. A six wheeled cargo vehicle, light pastel blue with flowers on it, built for a young Lanaktallan. The wheels had been removed it was using mis-matched graviton generators taken from hoverbots, their different outputs making the vehicle bobble around like a soap bubble in a breeze.

In the back was something that made everyone stare.

A Telkan broodcarrier was in the back, huddled around three Telkan podlings, four Hamaroosa cuddles, five Shavashan hatchlings, and a pair of small Tnvaru children. They were covered with a length of superconductor cloth over soft aerogel pulled from inside winter jackets.

The broodcarrier saw Hilma'ata and scooped up the podlings, dropping on all four and flowing out of the back of the children's toy and into Hilma'ata's arms. The Tnvaru, Meklet, ran over and scooped up the pair of small children, who clutched onto her.

Nemta watched as the children were scooped up by males and females of the assorted races. Two additional Telkan podlings had peeked out from under the superconductor cloth that had been used to obviously cover the small children.

Nemta felt isolated, slightly, by the way so many of his fellow refugees were holding tight to the children while saying thankful prayers to the Mad Arch-Angel TerraSol.

Everyone went still as a large snake-like form, rusted battlesteel, blowing red eyes, massive jaws, rose up above the walls, looking down.

”There you are, little ones,” the snake said, staring down inside the walls. ”I knew that if I followed, you would be revealed to...”

Whatever the refugees would be revealed to was lost as a missile came shrieking in from slightly behind the snake, impacting the side of the snake's head and smashing the snake's head to the side.

”IT'S ME!” came Friend Terry's voice roared out.

The snake whipped around as two tiny missiles were fired from inside the compound, went hypersonic only a few meters from the snake, and blew craters in the snake's armor. That broke the spell over the encampment and the refugees all ran for their shelters.

Nemta backed away from the horror of the giant metal snake, that had reared up only a fifty feet. He glanced over and saw the two mantids running around the truck. One was facing the giant orb, which was still open, drawing things out with the tractor/pressor harness it was wearing. As Nemta stared, ignoring another explosion outside the walls, one of the mantids poured silvery metal on the child's toy, which was plastic. Another mantid slapped a battlesteel insert into the bed of the truck, then picked up and slapped down a tripod.

Nemta looked back over in time to see the snake rear back, seeing explosions wreath the battlesteel snake's head.

”YOU CANNOT PREVAIL!” the snake roared, driving Nemta to his knees, blood trickling from his nose, ears, and eyes.

”HERE COMES THE FREIGHT TRAIN!” Friend Terry roared back.

Nemta looked back in time to see that the little truck was covered with shining chrome-esque metal. The mantid by the front slammed the hood, where it had just installed the micro-fusion generator, then puffed out black dust. There was a spark from the other one and the black dust suddenly adhered to the chrome, covering it in a thick bumpy rough layer.

”GET OFF OF ME, PRIMATE!” the snake howled.

”MAKE ME!” Terry bellowed back. Nemta saw Friend Terry was climbing up the snake, ripping away handfulls of armor.

Nemta heard graviton generators start to whine and looked over as the mantid slammed the hood and jumped into the cab. The other mantid had a small quad-barrel, holding onto the handles at the back of it, the barrels starting to spin. One either side of the mantid were tiny four-pack missile launchers with orbs the size of a golfball at the back.

As Nemta watched, the child's toy, now riding low and blowing purplish sparks from underneath, wobbled before heading out of the encampment with the high pitched scream of stressed graviton generators.

Nemta turned and ran into his hut, looking out the window when he heard what sounded like tearing thunder.

Purple light was connected to the snake creature at an angle that suggested the weapon was on the ground and moving. It was bright, with a white core, eye watering and stinging to Nemta.

”MANTIDS! YOU DARE!” came the bellow.

Nemta saw that Friend Terry had almost climbed the snake, who suddenly slammed its own neck and head against trees, trying to dislodge the Terran ripping off chunks of armor and circuitry.

A handful of missiles flew up, hitting the metal serpent's head, even as the thick laser beam, powered by four barrels rotating so fast the bar appeared solid, kept slagging at the armor.

Finally Friend Terry managed to get up on the snake, ripping away a large section of armor and plunging his hand inside. He ripped something out of it and the snake reared up and back, crashing to the ground inside the campsite, Friend Terry jumping free to land on one knee with his fist against the ground and the other fist slightly raised up.

The snake gave a hissing noise as Friend Terry jumped up and then slammed down with both feet, crushing the snake's head.

As Nemta watched, horrified, Friend Terry tore open a section of armor and started ripping out segments of electronics, shoving them into his mouth and chewing on them, reddish organic superlubricant dripping down his chin.

Nemta realized with a chill that the Terran was staring right at him as the Terran grabbed another chunk of the mechanical snake's interior and shoved it into his mouth and started to chew.