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  Kiel chittered, this was going to be fun.

  CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO

  Shun waited, the calm, the eagerness, the awareness settling on his shoulders. Zhu to his left, Jian in front.

  It was time. The teams heard the blast on the other side of the door. Moments later, their door opened and the two teams entered. The growls of their Weres were in the lead, ringing off the bulkheads, then Jian snarled and leapt forward. Zhu and Shun kept their defensive postures as they followed the first group, then took a left, while the first group went straight.

  Two Yollins came around the corner, shocked at seeing a seven-foot long cat, eyes blazing green, roaring in front of them.

  The shots from the Jean Dukes’ rifles pulped their heads, their bodies dropping to the ground. Jian jumped over the mess and got ahead of them. Three Yollins tore open a door and filled the hallway, large swords in their hands, facing Shun and Zhu who stopped.

  Each Marine took three steps back.

  The Yollins knew they were in trouble when the black cat pounced on the last member of the party, its neck sliced open from Jian’s claws as he jumped off the body. He then stopped ten feet in front of them, turned around and stayed low to the ground.

  Next, Shun and Zhu opened up with their rifles, one more time.

  “Nice to have you back,” Zhu said as he kicked open the door and swept inside, “Clear!”

  “Nothing like having your team member outrun you,” Shun kicked open a door, “Clear!”

  Jian just snarled.

  “Yeah, don’t do it again.” Shun commanded.

  There was a growl behind Shun and he put up a hand to tell the new group behind them to hold. While having a large Wolf at his back didn’t appeal to him, he went all in when trusting the Queen, and therefore trusting the Queen’s leaders.

  He’d seen Peter in his Pricolici form snag Jian out of the air and toss him, so he didn’t worry about someone overriding Peter.

  It did, however, make Shun wonder what was going on at the front of the ship.

  —

  “What is that?” Captain G’yrlen grated out. His people were getting decimated. Worse, he had Yollins on his ship, fighting his people. That was against the rightness of the castes. Worse, they had better armor and weapons and his own mechanized team were losing people three to one. Often, their side might be out of the fight, but he wasn’t sure how many his people had actually killed.

  Then that big monster started tossing his people left and right and headed straight for the bridge.

  “Someone get my mechanized members to act like the fighters they are supposed to be,” he hissed, “or we are going to lose our damned ship!”

  Captain G’yrlen grimaced when the large creature made a horrible ‘he he heeeehhehh’ sound and his hand reached up, blocked a video camera, then the camera went black.

  Peter was having a fun time when he saw the guarded door to the bridge and his smile opened wider, his teeth reflecting the light.

  His glee turned to a snarl when the power dropped, orange lights flooding the passageways. He slammed his fist into the bulkhead, denting the area. Three Yollins had run around the corner, then grabbed their heads in pain as the monster ran his claws across the metal, the screeching painful to the three of them.

  “Nowwww, youu have maaddde meee looose myy bettt.” Peter said, his voice deathly calm, “I guesss therrre isss notthinnggg forrr meee, but too dessstroyyy nowww..”

  The Yollins grabbed for their pistols, one was able to shoot the Pricolici in the chest, knocking him over before he ground out as he stood back up to the surprise of the Yollin who shot him. “Punnny Weeaponsss!”

  This time, the fully armored Pricolici ran towards the group, dodging as many of the shots as possible, still getting hit and tossed around, but never enough to knock him down again. The three Yollins had taken three steps back when Peter grabbed one of the hands with a pistol and twisted it, bones cracking as he used it to point to the other Yollin next to him, shooting three holes into his buddy.

  Reaching forward, Peter grabbed the arm of the Yollin in back, yanking as hard as possible while he moved the Yollin on his right in front, meaning to have them smash together.

  Unfortunately for Peter’s plans, he successfully tossed the Yollin on his right into the left bulkhead, but was left holding a Yollin arm, with the bleeding, and screeching Yollin in front of him, trying to stem the flow of his own blood.

  Peter kicked out, catching the screeching Yollin in the chest, cracking his exo-skeleton and sending him crashing back into the door that led to the bridge. Now unconscious, the Yollin slid to the ground and fell over.

  —

  “Who knew?” Shun looked around, his hand on the large knob, the lights switching over to orange. “Guess that worked just fine.”

  “We got company!” Zhu pointed to five Yollins sticking their heads over the side of the walkway above them. Jian growled, jumped on a desk, leapt to a large cabinet looking object and then finally out of Zhu’s sight onto the walkway.

  Next, the two men heard snarls and mandibles clicking. Then Shun had to jump out of the way when a Yollin fell off the walkway above, to slam into the floor where Shun had been standing. Zhu shot the body in the head.

  You could never tell what a Yollin could walk away from.

  “COMING IN!” A voice shouted behind Shun and he turned. A large black wolf arrived with its Marines, as all three looked up where Jian was snarling.

  “Out ran his support, huh?” One of the Marines asked when another Yollin body screeched as it hit the floor. This time, Shun casually shot it in the head.

  “We have a cat,” he shrugged, “It makes us lazy.”

  The other Marine looked at their Wolf partner, “Hey Jefe! Why you not do that for us?” They all ducked as a third Yollin fell behind Shun, landing with a thump, near Zhu. He walked over and casually shot the comatose body, which had already suffered critical slashes through its neck.

  They could hear two sets of clicking feet leaving the area, Jian wasn’t fooling around up there.

  Moments later, the big cat came down and paced around his two friends before laying down, tail flicking.

  “Guess we won the bet, huh?” Zhu asked.

  Moments later, Kiel came over the ship’s speakers.

  Defense HQ - Yoll

  E’Kolorn was watching the reports and beginning to worry. He could tell that the ships had lost fleet cloaking, and were now engaged in ship to ship action. While some vessels could cloak and seek a new tactical advantage, once they fired their weapons, they would be uncovered.

  Those ships that could be seen, were ripped apart by ships weapons that seemed to overcome their shields. If it wasn’t their damned weapons, or their fighters that were dogging his own, it was attacks by kinetics. Now, something was attacking his ships from the rear, and the only indication of what it might be were tiny, almost infinitesimally small returns from their radar.

  That were hideously fast.

  Something had followed his fleet and were just now overtaking his ships and when they slammed into a ship, shields up or not, the massive amount of kinetic power they carried were overwhelming their shields. It was distasteful with the overbearing brute force effort. No Yollin would stoop so low to effectively be throwing rocks across space at each other.

  It was uncouth.

  Communications sent an incoming message for him to take. “Attention Yollin Command, this is the Etheric Empire, General Lance Reynolds speaking. Seeing how last time you gave us permission to cross your space, and then you treacherously attacked us, it is with great delight I would like to know what would you like us to do with the remains of your fleet?”

  Minister of Defense E’Kolorn clapped his mandibles together in agitation, “You won’t need to be concerning yourself when our ships crush that pitiful excuse for an armada within the next few turns of the sun.”

  “Yeah, good luck with that. Our calculations show this will be over in th
e next two turns. You are already in trouble, why bring on more? Especially when we announce our intention to challenge your king to a Battle for Lead of the High Kolin Caste,” the voice answered.

  E’Kolorn thought furiously before replying, “Such is not possible, alien. To challenge the King one must be a Yollin who requests such a battle.”

  “That is not true,” a third voice came on line. “My name is Captain Kael-ven T’chmon, most recently the Captain of the G’laxix Sphaea, Member of the Chloret Caste, Friend of the Mont and Shuk Castes and one-time acolyte of the Learnings Of Yollin.”

  Up on the QBBS Merideth Reynolds, Bethany Anne looked over at her father who shrugged back at her.

  ADAM?

  >>Yes, Bethany Anne?<<<br />
  How are you doing getting into the Yollin ship to ship communications network?

  >>Successful as of two minutes and twenty-seven seconds ago. This whole conversation is going out live. Since the teams attacking Yollin 21 were successful, I did not have to hack anything in their system. We are piggybacking on that ship’s network.<<<br />
  Well, I hope it is enough.

  Bethany Anne got her dad’s attention and mouthed ‘fleet wide,’ he smiled as they listened to Kael-ven.

  Down on Yoll, the Defense Minister’s mandibles were snapping together, “And what,” he replied, “do you believe the texts say?”

  “Anyone who studies the Holy Texts understands the right to challenge the King is not limited to any caste, to any people. It is only through manipulation of the Caste system, which holds down the lower caste Yollins, is our existing leadership supported. You think those of us in the lower castes do not have the same eyes to see, and ears to hear, and minds to understand those at the top are no smarter than those of us in the lower castes? No, those in the upper Castes are just provided more prestigious jobs than those in a lower. This perpetuates the perception of intelligence and changes the belief amongst the lower castes.”

  Lance looked over at Bethany Anne and Admiral Thomas and made a surprised face at the strength of Kael-ven’s argument. For those on the bridge, they all had the translation devices and could follow along as the two Yollins argued.

  “The King doesn’t bow down to the whims of an alien puppet!” E’Kolorn spat out, “Any more than I accept that our fleet is being destroyed!”

  A fourth voice came on line, this one was higher, the voice sounded natural, just not naturally a Yollin. “The is Queen Bethany Anne of the Etheric Empire. Are you suggesting the Great King of Yoll is a coward? I had heard the King is easily three times the size of Kael-ven, a member of the Chloret Caste. Is this not true? Kael-ven himself is taller than me, and yet your King is afraid?”

  “The King of Yoll is afraid of no one, alien!” E’Kolorn hissed, “Least of all a non-believing alien such as yourself. Who are we to accept that you understand the rules?”

  “What is so hard to learn about two walk in naked, one walks out alive? I’m pretty sure I can find a few of the Kiene Caste to help explain this to you if you are having trouble?”

  This alien Queen’s rudeness was irritating E’Kolorn, causing him to think furiously for an appropriate response to put her in her proper place when a fifth voice entered the conversation.

  “This is Yoll, King of the Yollins, the master of our race and the subjugator of worlds. Who are you to think yourself worthy of challenging me?”

  The alien Queen’s voice replied, “I’m the one who can drop a large enough rock on your head to destroy your Palace grounds and smash you between my rock and your foundation. If that threat isn’t good enough for you, I’m the one who can burn your space stations out of the sky for months, while you hear the pitiful screeches of children and mothers holding their babies. However, I am the one trying to settle this between rulers, as the Holy Text suggests, but if you would rather I destroy your people, than admit you are too scared to meet me?”

  “None would believe you, if you announce this.” he replied.

  “I don’t need to announce it, King Yoll, because our conversation is live across your ships. Every Yollin who has access to the signal, and is listening, knows that I have challenged you. If you choose to allow your people to suffer, then the truth that you are only worried about your own safety over the good of your people will be not only believable, but known.”

  E’Kolorn heard a buzzing, and looked around. His personal communication device was buzzing with a bright light.

  It was the King. He picked it up and looked at the message and answered by sending the reply, “Yes, it is true, this conversation is being spread amongst the fleet.”

  Moments later, the King came back on the line, “I am King Yoll, King of the Yollins, the mightiest race to rule worlds. I will not suffer this continued defamation of my character. You will meet me on the field of battle and suffer my wrath.”

  “King Yoll of the Yollins, I challenge for the throne of Yoll, you can call it whatever you want, but you better get this through the heads of those in the Kolin Caste. When you die, if they so much as chitter their mandibles in a way I don’t like, I’ll squash them flat. They are warned. I will be down in one turn.”

  The connection went dark and E’Kolorn wondered what that last comment was meant to be? Did this Alien expect to conquer Yoll?

  That thought was quickly followed by another. E’Kolorn turned to his communications officer, “B’ankzi, did the Fleet hear this communication?”

  His communication specialist nodded his head and E’Kolorn sat down heavily on a couch near him.

  At least he hadn’t lied to his King. But, if he had to have lied to stop the alien from bombing the space stations up above them, then he would have done so.

  His family was up there and he had seen the destruction of his ships, even as they talked. The Aliens were chewing up his fleet.

  It was fast becoming a slaughter.

  E’Kolorn sent the command to pull back away from the Aliens, hopefully they would consider the Challenge with the King enough.

  Within a few minutes, it was done. What was left of the Yollin Homeworld fleet was limping back away from the battles, and the Aliens were not pursuing.

  E’Kolorn commanded to his people, “Put all records we have for the battle, from pulling the fleet together to the order to retreat on the next message torps and send them through the gates to our other solar systems. Including internal records we can retrieve from the wounded ships, especially our Fleet Prime ship. If Fleet Prime’s archives have anything we can pull, make it so. Try to do this without the Aliens figuring out we are warning our brothers and sisters. Maybe they will come up with a solution to overcome these aliens.”

  He headed towards the door, “I must attend the King.”

  King’s Palace Grounds, Yoll

  E’Kolorn arrived by air car from the Headquarters of Defense. The vehicle was searched and the Minister was allowed to proceed into the Royal Palace on foot, a marked difference from when he was here just two turns previous.

  He had been smart enough to leave behind any weapons. Not only were they useless when around the King, but it allowed him to plead his case as strongly as he might.

  It took three more security checks by Palace Guards to get into the throne room of the King. As before, there were few that were allowed in his presence. Now, a challenge had been set up and agreed to for the first time in his life.

  E’Kolorn strode up to the Royal couch and knelt, head prostrated on the ground. He held that position through three more announcements from others, and three more conversations with others seeing him kneeling there until the King decided to talk with him.

  “What do you have for me, E’Kolorn? Other than destroyed ships, lousy troops, and poor security on our own communications systems?”

  Keeping his head down, E’Kolorn answered, “We have video which shows those that attacked Fleet Prime. I believe it will give you some indication of their martial skills.”

  “Tell me about them,” E’Kolorn was o
rdered.

  “Predominantly bi-pedal, with some able to change shapes to four-footed beasts.” E’Kolorn started when he was abruptly cut-off.

  “Change shapes?” the King asked.

  “Yes, Sire.”

  “Get up,” E’Kolorn was ordered.

  He stood up on his four legs, lifting his head to look up at the King, who was lost in thought.