Chapter 646: The Spoked Offensive (2/2)

Well, ones that could fit through the corridors and have enough room in the chambers to effectively fight.

A few touched her with psychic power to try to get her attention but she rebuffed them, shoving back hard enough that a few of the Young Ones shuddered or made noises of distress.

**attend to your own duties feeble ones** she snapped at them, adding a stinging psychic slap to her thoughts. **the lemur is coming you should prepare**

They withdrew, chagrined, and Shadaar kept moving.

She had checked the escape buds, carefully engineered biomechanical escape craft that budded off from the main organism, preparing one of the larger ones, more comfortable, and with better range and even jumpspace organs.

If she was going to be forced to flee, she didn't see a reason to float around uncomfortable until someone felt like coming along and rescuing her.

Going over the escape bud, she had remembered something and now was headed to examine it.

At a motion the membrane covering the entrance to the large storage area near the 'mouth' of the organism moved aside and she drifted in.

The ship had been gathering wreckage from one of the fierce battles the lemurs had fought against the massive ancient autonomous war machines that had rebelled against all three sides of the ancient war that everyone had lost.

The room was large, the floor, made of Substance X, was covered with a thin layer of engineered biomatter. Multiple large blisters were scattered about, all covering recovered debris from the battle site, preventing them from emitting or receiving any phasic power.

It moved toward one of the larger ones that had the thickest membrane over it. Crystals had been put in place around the mound, all of them glimmering with phasic energy, each connected to the next by a thin line of psychic energy. When she got close she could feel it emanating from the contents.

Hatred.

Wrath.

Rage.

Promises of death and destruction.

She shuddered slightly before reaching into her satchel, opening a vial, and tipping a few of the Holy Insects onto her fingertip. She closed the vial, then dropped the insects down her back. They immediately bit, the pain lancing through her, clearing the grumbling, static-like rumble of hatred.

She drifted past the circle of energy beams and it hit her even harder.

Pain

Suffering

The taste of red wine that suddenly turned to the thick taste of blood.

She had a sudden vision of a bovine mammal floating upside down in a river of thick mud.

She reached out and used her power to split the thick membrane. It resisted for a moment, then collapsed as the fluid rushed out. She drifted backwards, avoiding the rushing thick fluid, and stared at the contents of the membrane.

It looked like a bird of prey. Folded wings still laden with a few explosive. Heavy black armor pitted and cracked by heavy weapons. Weapon blisters still containing weapons that whispered of death and destruction. Landing gear extended, lifting the craft up and preventing the tracks from touching the floor. Clear windows around the cockpit. On the front of the craft was painted a mostly naked lemur, clad only in circles of silver over her impressive mammary glands and her groin. She had a sword held in both hands, being pulled back over her head. Her hair was as bright as the blood splatter on her skin and the fan of blood from the blade.

i will kill every one of you the image whispered to her in the low throaty voice of a lemur female. It made her shiver, the sheer power and dominance put forth by a mere picture painted, lovingly, by lemur hands. For a moment she could taste desert dust, feel the hot breath of desert wind, smell the acrid tang of lemur blood, dried animal dung, lemur sweat, and steel.

Shandaar floated back, letting the waves of malevolence push her backwards. She closed her eyes, feeling the biting of the Holy Insects on the flesh on her back, the waves of almost-heat from the Substance-X armor of the vehicle, the prickling of the almost sentient growling of the dormant electronic warfare attack programs still loaded in targeting systems and electronic warfare equipment.

She just nudged herself to the left or right as she slowly drifted back, her main eyes closed, her third eye barely open as she stared at the vehicle and the bright aura of violence and destruction around it.

Again, she was reminded of the words of Dalvanak the Enlightened One.

Lemur rage and hatred almost instill life itself into their weapons and vehicles, the Substance-X responding to their emotions until the weapon or vehicle quivers with a life of its own that desires nothing more than the death and destruction of its enemies, Dalvanak whispered from within Shandaar's memories.

As she drifted through the door, the membrane opening, she lashed out with her power.

Three of the crystals surrounding the vehicle shattered.

DEATH TO ALL WHO OPPOSE ME! rang out clearly in her mind right before the membrane closed and an emergency phasic suppression membrane clicked into place over the doorway.

Satisfied with what she had done, she turned and glided back toward the command deck.

Another group of Young Ones ran by, these ones garbed in the crystalline body armor normally reserved for direct combat during a planetary assault. They exuded confidence and arrogance, a surety that all they had to do was let the lemur see them and the lemur would fall down dead. The crystal was doped with Substance-X making it a dark purple, there was thick phasic crystals jutting up from an efflorescence of crystalline foam on the shoulders and the forearms, and there was a thick aura of phasic battlescreens around each of the Young Ones who sped by.

They were sure that nothing the lemur could do would affect their armored and shielded personage.

I'm sure you'll fare majestically and the lemur will be quite impressed with you right before he beats you to death with his bare limbs, Shandaar scoffed, watching them bustle by.

-----

Natraya watched as the lemur grabbed a robot leaping at him, spun, and drove the robots legs into the chest of the last of the Dwellers before smashing the crystal globe with his hand and yanking out the brain with a sharp bird of prey cry.

The lemur stood there a moment, blood running from several scrapes and nicks on its torso, its pants torn in several places. Natraya noticed it was vibrating slightly, still holding the pose from when it had yanked out the brain from within the last robot.

The lemur dropped the brain and flexed his arms again by putting his fists down by his waist, bending his elbows, and curling his body slightly, making all of his muscles stand out. He held it for a moment then suddenly relaxed.

”Everyone all right?” the lemur asked.

”Uh-huh,” Natraya said.

”Affirmative,” On'trak said.

”Good,” the lemur said. It bent down and picked up one of the broken crystal globes. ”Huh, I wonder if you wore this as a hat if it would block their stupid psychic attacks?”

”I am unwilling to wear such a thing,” On'trak rumbled.

”What he said,” Natraya added.

”They definitely thought they were going to win,” the lemur said. It looked around. ”Huh, I probably should have asked one of them which way to the command center.”

One of the door frames glowed red.

”Not this one,” a cold sibilant voice hissed from midair.

The Ancient One slapped his forehead with an open palm as the lemur laughed and ran at the doorway, its eyes a bright burning red.

**idiot**