Chapter 643: The Spoked Offensive (1/2)
Natraya accepted the outstretched hand, startled at the restrained strength she could feel in the heavy fingers and the musculature that pulled her easily to her feet. She looked up at the lemur, able to feel how massive, how dense, how... solid it was with more than just her eyes and the lingering phantom sensation of her hand in its hand.
”OK, sister, first thing's first, you have any combat training?” the lemur asked.
Natraya shook her head. ”No. I was a lady in waiting to a Lady Most High,” she said softly.
The lemur nodded. ”All right. That's fine,” it said. It frowned. ”Do you usually go clothed or is your fur enough for you, like some Pubvian nudist or a puffie?”
Natraya shook her head. ”The creatures, they ripped my clothing from me,” she said softly, hugging her self.
”Huh,” the lemur said. It reached down, grabbed the sleeve of one of the Dwellers, and yanked up, dumping the naked body on the floor and lifting up the robe. ”Too big,” it said. It eyed Natraya in such a way that she instinctively covered her privates and her mammaries. The lemur gave a chuckle before it lifted up the robe, bit part of it, then ripped it in half. Fat purple sparks jumped free from the cloth, dissolving in midair in sparkles.
”Ew, tastes like tinfoil on the back fillings,” the lemur said. It held out the robe. ”Here, sister, try this.”
”Why do you call me your female sibling?” Natraya asked, taking the robe and putting it on. The sleeves were too long and the lemur came back with one of the bladearms of a servitor and sawed off the excess.
”We're in this together, sister,” the lemur said. ”I don't know your name.”
”Natraya,” she said. ”Lady in waiting to Lady Most High A'ama'arya.”
”Huh. Weird name. Your lady's name sounds like a Tee-bug's name,” the lemur said. ”Are we doing name and titles?”
Natraya nodded. ”Please. It will help me understand you.”
The lemur laughed. ”All right, sister, I'm Staff Sergeant Eric Carter, Earth Defense Force, Third Republic Combined Military Forces Army, eleven bravo, 19th Infantry Battalion, 8th Infantry Division, part of the orbital insertion forces from the Defiance of Sol.”
”I have heard of 8th Infantry Division during the defense of the Telkan system,” Natraya said. ”I have seen video footage of you on the Tri-Vee.”
”Telkan System? Never heard of it. Pubvian or Tee-Bug?” the lemur, Carter, asked.
Natraya shook her head. ”Home system of the Telkan people, out near the Long Dark.”
The lemur shook his head. ”I've got a bad feeling I'm more than a little lost.”
Natraya nodded. ”We all are, lemur Carter.”
”Lemur? Like those little ferret things?” the lemur asked. ”I'm not a lemur, I'm a primate.”
Natraya made a motion of resignation. ”If you insist. Your people are classified as lemurs.”
The lemur snickered. ”Could be worse, I guess,” he looked down at Natraya. ”Better now that you're dressed?”
Natraya nodded. ”Yes. Thank you.”
The lemur handed her a severed bladearm, the end opposite of the point wrapped in cloth from the robe. ”Here you go, sister, one genuine makeshift 8th Infantry short sword. Don't stick it up your nose or any other bodily orifices.”
The lemur's good natured amusement felt wildly out of place but Natraya smiled as she took the bladearm, holding onto the makeshift handle.
The lemur moved to another cell and looked in as Natraya followed it out.
Inside was a Tukna'rn, sitting miserably on the floor.
”Hey, green dude, want out?” the lemur, Carter, asked.
The Tukna'rn looked up. ”I would.”
”Can you fight?” the lemur asked as it stepped back and took that odd stance again, swinging one arm out.
”Yes,” the Tukna'rn stood up. ”They murdered my friends and left me alive to mock.”
The lemur gave a sharp cry, like a bird of prey, and lashed out with one foot, impacting the rippling curtain of phasic energy. Natraya saw the lemur's eyes flash bright crimson.
The curtain exploded in a flash of purple and a shower of sparks.
”I thank you,” the Tukna'rn said. ”I am On'trak.”
”On track?” the lemur asked, moving over and picking up another bladearm. Natraya remembered that the servitor creature had not even had a chance to unfold its bladearms from close to its body before the lemur had killed it.
”Close enough,” the Tukna'rn said, watching as the lemur ripped away the bladearm the wrapped cloth around the end to make a handle.
”Here you go, brother,” the lemur said. It handed the Tukna'rn the bladearm. ”Another gen-you-iene 8th Infantry short sword. If we were cav it'd be a saber, but whatcha gonna do?”
The lemur laughed.
It looked around at the other cells. ”Well, let's see who's willing to fight and who'd rather stay in their cells.”
”And if nobody else joins us?” On'trak asked.
The lemur smiled, showing all the teeth again.
”Then we kill all these purple weirdos and their creepy looking Lovecraft nightmare buddies outselves.”
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Shandaar glided through the ship even as the lights flashed warning and the communal mind warned that the lemur had escaped confinement. Her, because she said she was a her, three eyes watched as other floated by, as servitors and slavespawn skittered by.
She could feel that the communal mind thought it could stop the lemur.
Shandaar knew better.
She had taken part in four battles for four different worlds. Had encountered the lemurs multiple times and escaped with her life. After the second battle she had been approached by the Cult of the Defiled One and inducted into its ranks.
She had stealthfully navigated to the Terran Tomb World, manage to fool its terrible robotic guardians, and entered one of the vast nine story treasure vaults. Inside she had ridden the Doom Train, riding in the rickety cart as the Doom Train clattered down the tracks, through loops and spirals, the g-forces punishing her body.
She had passed out due to the blood being pulled from her brain, and in her unconscious state she had achieved enlightenment as she had seen a vision. A vision of maddened lemurs ripping apart planets and suns with their bare teeth.
From there she had approached one of the crafty and intricate treasure vaults. A large upright device, the bottom solid metal with a pair of joysticks with a big red button between, the top clear macroplas. Inside were all manners of treasures. She had used tokens scavenged from the dead lemurs to use the joysticks to manipulate the grasping claw until she had managed to wrest a prize from the device.
A prize she still carried in her satchel.
She had also managed to fool the guardians into dressing her in finery, paying with multiple passcards and keycards until the robotic servitor was placated. She had then entered one of the vast vaults, with shelves full of treasure, and carefully selected various treasures that her psychic senses told her were valuable. From there, she had even entered the Great Tomb, full of replica lemur bones and skulls, until she found a skull of wisdom that would make up to a hundred different replies if it was asked a question and then shaken until the eyes glowed red.
After her journey to the Tomb World, she had been gifted with her own small colony of biting and stinging insects to allow her to reach enlightenment.
Shandaar had hidden her initial reaction of horror when she had discovered that the others had found a lemur aboard the ship they had attacked and had brought it onboard. The lemur was gravely injured, with a serious head wound. Its mind was a barbed and jagged piece of glass, a broken mirror of razor sharp fragments.
Shandaar had known that bringing the lemur aboard was a mistake.
She had sensed the psychic burst of phasic energy when the lemur had been struck with the psychic whips and breathed a sigh of relief to know that the lemur was dead.
Needless to say, she had been startled when she had gone down to collect its body and saw it alive.
Except...
...it wasn't the lemur they had brought aboard.
Sure, it looked the same. Its physical form was the same.
But Shandaar had known, just looking at it, that it was different. It wasn't a carefully guarded mind.
It was a screaming lunatic swinging a razor at anyone who came near.
Still, she had been ready. When the lemur had effortlessly disposed of the slavespawn and the servitors, easily slain the other Atrekna, she had been ready.