Chapter 250: (Hesstla) (2/2)
He settled the striker down with hardly a bump. The engines slowly unwound as he disconnected and got up. The mantid Ranger left while Mukstet was shutting the craft down.
--creepy creepy night mantid-- 973 said.
Mukstet just chuckled.
When it was shut down he went back to the crew compartment, jumping down in the slushy mud. He followed Jekib, who was carrying the box as they walked toward the tent where military intelligence was bunkered down. He dropped the dead cigarette butt into an empty can as he followed his striker.
One of the Terran infantry suddenly whirled around on Jekib, his hand dropping to his pistol. ”What did you just call my baby sister, fuzzy?” he growled. His eyes were burning red and the other four Terrans that were standing with him slowly turned to look at the Telkan, their eyes bright red.
Jekib stopped, his mouth working silently.
Mukstet stepped foward, pointing at the box. ”Psionic prisoner, soldier, don't fight its fight for it.”
The Terran growled low and suddenly moved, that preternatural snatching speed that was just so damned fast. He snatched the box away from Jekib and shook it.
”WHAT DID YOU SAY? WHAT? THINK IT'S FUCKING FUNNY NOW?” he trooper yelled shaking the box. ”NOT SUCH A FUCKING BIG MOUTH NOW, ARE YOU?”
”Yeah, fuck it up, Lieutenant!” one of the others cheered.
”AT EASE THAT SHIT!” Mukstet bellowed, using his suit's built in speaker to overwhelm the Terran's enraged bellow. He stared up at the red eyed Terran lieutenant. ”Hand my man back the box with the prisoner, soldier.”
He wanted to run, the last thing he wanted was to face off against an enraged Terran, but the thing in the box was important.
The lieutenant dropped the box on the ground, splashing slush, then spit on it before turning away. ”It ain't worth it,” he snarled.
Mukstet picked up the box and carried it into the armored tent. There were nearly thirty Treana'ad, Mantid, Rigellians, and Blevan military intelligence specialists inside.
There had been nearly a dozen human ones, but Mukstet had seen that they were outside, cleaning weapons, glaring over the wall, or pacing back and forth mumbling to themselves.
”Did it work?” a Treana'ad asked, moving up.
”Yes, sir. Frees isn't happy about being used as bait,” Mukstet said.
”The Captain can remind himself that this is more important than his pride,” the Treana'ad said, exhaling blue smoke.
”Spot me one?” Mukstet asked, his nerves still raw and jangled from facing down an angry Terran. The Treana'ad nodded, handing Mukstet a self-lighting one from the Treana'ad ration packs.
The box was put against a clear armaglass box with a spray-on smart-coating. The opened the box and the thing inside rushed and bounced off the far armaglass as the side was slid shut and the armored box pulled away.
Mukstet could finally get a good look it.
About three feet long, two foot wide oval, with six robotic spider legs. Clumpy and crude looking wires and glass tubes. It had a glass globe that was glowing softly blue, a pair of laser-wands on each side of the glass globe, and what looked like a micro-missile launcher on the back.
Inside the glass globe was a brain connected to wires, thin metal probes, glass tubes with fluid in them.
”It's a Hesstlan brain,” one of the technicians said.
The creature wavered and vanished.
”And there it is,” a Treana'ad said. ”Our Terran friends are right.”
The reptillian Blevan pressed a button and microwave current sliced through the box.
The thing inside gave a squeal as it appeared, jumping around for a moment, clattering its legs.
”And it's driving them feral,” a Rigellian said, leaning forward to get a better look at it. ”I think it's safe to say it uses psychic energy. Look at those readings.”
”Do you still need me, that thing gives me the creeps,” Mukstet said honestly, watching as the cybernetic horror tried its weaponry against the armaglass before throwing itself against it several times. It unfolded bladearms surrounded by a flowing nimbus of psychic energy and attacked the armaglass with that, not even scratching it.
”Sure. Thank your men for us, this is a vital clue,” a Rigellian said without turning away from the box. ”See those fluid filled tubes in the back, they're pumping that liquid into the cerebral tissue now that its using psychic energy on the bladearms,” she said to her compatriots as Mukstet left the tent, exhaling smoke into the snowy air.
Outside he found Jekib being lifted up into a hug by the Terran lieutenant who'd confronted him.
”I always liked you fuzzy guys,” The Terran said, setting Jekib down and patting him on the head hard enough to make the Telkan's knees buckle slightly. ”Good job snatching one of the goonygoogoos.”
”Thank you, sir,” Jekib said. ”Um, my striker leader is coming.”
”Carry on then, private,” the Terran officer said, turning back to his men. ”All right, let's coordinate and do this sweep.”
Jekib moved over by Mukstet. ”He was apologizing for thinking the voice in the box was me.”
”They can hear them,” Mukstet said softly. ”They can see them and hear them, but nobody else can. That has to be making them crazy.”
The Terrans that he could see all had red eyes.
He moved over and climbed up on a stack of empty ammo boxes, watching the mechanics go over his striker. After a few minutes he noticed that there were three groups of humans moving on the perimeter of the striker base, moving slowly, weapons held ready. There were three other groups moving in a circle counter to the perimeter group, a third group moving counter to the inner group, and a fourth group that was sitting around watching the interior.
”What are they doing?” Mukstet asked Jekib.
”I don't know,” the Marine answered honestly. ”There's Ralvex.”
”Ralvex,” Mukstet nodded as the one-armed Marine climbed up next to them. ”Know what the humans are doing?”
Ralvex nodded. ”They've been seeing things all morning. Claiming that there's something lurking around inside Striker Base Boop. Looks like a standard sweep pattern.”
”You think there's something in the base with us?” Jekib asked softly, looking around.
Ralvex shrugged. ”I don't know. Maybe it has to do with them going crazy?”
Mukstet shook his head. ”No. I think...”
”BANG OUT!” one of the Terrans roared, throwing a grenade over by a gap between cargo containers.
The grenade went off in mid-air and Mukstet knew the Terran had 'cooked it' by pulling the pin, loosening his grip on the lever so the striker hit the fuse, then throwing it after the fuse had burned a second or two.
The screaming was loud, echoing, and piercing. Mukstet, Ralvex, and Jekib all clamped their hands to their heads at the scream.
A tall figure, clad in an iridescent robe and hovering on a disk of bluish energy, reeled away from where it had been partially hidden by the cargo containers. It lost its footing on the disk, covering its large white eyes with its two hands, screaming.
Before it could recover there was a pair of Terrans on it, grabbing it.
THFWOOP! howled out and the Terrans roared in rage even as the air rippled around them with some unseen force. Three Terrans were knocked down, crates went flying, and a Terran wearing a power-loader frame turned and grabbed a crate of anti-armor missiles.
They had been trying to hold onto it, trying to pin it, but the second THFWOOP and they bellowed, wordless, meaningless audio aggression, and shifted their grips even as two more Terrans grabbed it. The second ripple made the Terran's flesh ripple even as their armor shattered and flew away. Blood flowed from the Terran's noses, out of grinning mouths, as they held onto the parts they had in their hands and tensed. One Terran grabbed the creature's facial tentacles, another sunk his hands into the top of its head from behind.
The third THFWOOP! sounded out just as all of the Terrans, grinning at each other, pulled in opposite directions. The arms and legs came off in a spray of purple gore, the tentacles tore off in the Terran's hand, revealing a cavernous mouth full of rings of sharp teeth, the one holding onto the top of the head tore the flesh from the skull.
It collapsed on the ground and Mukstet jumped up from where he'd fallen in the slush, running toward the Terrans as they roared in anger and began stomping on the corpse. The ones with the limbs throwing them on the body.
”STOP! STOP! WE NEED IT FOR INTEL!” Mukstet yelled out as two of them pulled out their pistols and started firing into the corpse, yelling that that was what the corpse got for being a sneak.
They stopped, turning to stare at him, and it felt like heat from a roaring fire rushed over him.
”We need to get intel from the body,” he said, pointing at the medical tent. ”Take it in there, two of you stand guard.”
Mukstet watched as the Terrans, still growling, picked up and carried the body into the medical tent.
Ralvex moved up beside him, cradling his cyberarm and rubbing the forearm.
”Looks like they were right,” Ralvex said. ”Guess someone was sneaking around.”
For a second Mukstet had an overwhelming urge to smack the Marine.