Thrust into another world through cosmic teleportations never to be explained, the SNR student body lives a violent existence of constant warfare--between each other.
The social structures of their previous lives have created bitter rivalries. The dominant side in the struggle up until now are the Laxians, trained fighters equipped with the more advanced weapons. The other side, the Lethurians, are the rebels if you will, outcasts grouped together in the grit of combat, trying to earn respect no matter what the costs...
“I will be rewarded for this, won’t I?” said A11Scrub, bound to the bow of the foremost Laxian invasion glider; the tip of a knife resting on the back of his neck.
“Right now all we want is directions, so cut the bull shit!” said Parktaine, the savage Laxian officer, second in command only to Entelliton. He was only recently elected to his high ranking position; just a month earlier, Lasantin, the former vice-ruler, had been defeated by Jerome the Lethurian in a oneon one duel.
“Oh my! Such rude treatment for such a kind service I’m doing,” said A11. The Crapadroid wore a facade of indifference, but inside he felt like the lowest form of life surmiseable.
After being abducted from Cave Base 7 yesterday evening, A11’s captors had brought him before Entelliton. Threatened with bizarre forms of masochist torture, the Crapadroid’s will had broken immediately and he offered to tell the Laxians anything. Taking advantage of this hapless prisoner, Entelliton decreed a full scale invasion on the morrow.
“Is it coming up?” demanded Parktaine, breaking A11’s train ofthought.
“Yes, Cave Base 4 is in between those two ridges up ahead,” said A11Scrub meekly. At that moment, the Crapadroid made a silent vow to himself that somehow, some way, he would avenge the Lethurians and his own shattered honor by getting back at the Laxians, even if it meant resorting to something crude andchildish.
“Get ready to land. Create a complete circle around that valley!” barked Parktaine into the radio system connected with all the other gliders. “Fifteen to the open western flank, and as for the other nine gliders, stay in flight to hunt down and Lethbian runaways.”
I know just how to bite back, thought AllScrub, a smile creasing his metallic lips as the ground rose up to meet thedescending glider.
Deep inside Cave Base 4, the council members were once again gathered around the long black table. Those who had been on guard duty during the probe camera incident were under fierce interrogation, made to kneel down at the foot of the table while the leaders harangued them.
“Please sir,” whined Zaius, a black patch over his left eye socket. “I’ve only got one eye!”
“You lost your eye during the probe camera attack; moron,” said the scrutinous Dick.
“And what do you have to say for yourself?” said Dill, placing the larger of the two guards in the spotlight.
“Well, you--you--know, know I’ve tried my, well the best part is--I mean--oh...” stuttered Chubsies.
“Wait, who’s on guard duty right now?!” said Hadrian, rising to her feet with a start.
“Don’t worry,” said Dill. “Zaius and Chubsies are out there right...shit, who the hell is watching out for more probecameras?”
“There’s nothing to worry about; it’s still me and Chubsies shift!” said Zaius, proud of his job.
“You idjit,” said Chubsies to his comrade. “He’s trying say that you’re gonna be replaced and not me.”
This idiotic conversation might have continued endlessly, as was inevitable with such clever folk, had not Edgar, the Lethurian solider, intervened. He fell through the council room door, flesh torn to shreds by Laxian spears blades, leaving a trail of blood behind him.
Lifting his head up, he gasped: “They’re here.” And with that,he fell silent.
Rushing to his slain comrade, Dill held Edgar in his arms and shouted: “Nooooooo!!! I will avenge thee!”
“Sad, if only he could of had more of a part in this sorrowful tale,” said Von Gross, grimly.
“What say you we greet our visitors?” said Jerome, unsheathing his huge rapier, which was more like a broadsword. Dick pulled the switch that sounded the alarm throughout the whole base, but judging by the raucous coming from upstairs, fighting hadalready ensued.
When the five council members and a handful of Lethurians soldiers, weapons in hand, reached the vast entrance cavern of the base, all stepped back in trepidation, even brave Jerome. Close to forty Laxians, fully armed and armored, were hacking about a dozen Lethurian defenders to pieces, some of whom were helplessly paralyzed by energy balls. Cave Base 4’s gates were wide open, and to either side of the lofty room, down the windy corridors of the base, the screams and clangs of warfare shook the walls. It was complete pandemonium.
“There must be some kind of treachery involved in this!” saidDick.
“Lethurians!” screamed Jerome, about to charge forward when a hand on his shoulder stayed him. He reeled around angrily, expecting to see the always cautious Dick, but saw instead thatit was Von Gross.
“It would be suicide, even for you,” said Von Gross. “I have a better strategy. Wait here.”
Catching sight of Von Gross approaching, the organized Laxian strike force effortlessly shoved aside the last two Lethurian defenders and moved in to surround the diplomatic councilmember.
“Laxians, I come before you unarmed!” shouted Von Gross. The armored horde hesitated, and a brash Laxian Trooper used his spear to launch an energy ball at Von Gross. It struck him in the leg, throwing the Lethurian off balance. Falling to thefloor, he continued.
“This bloodshed is not necessary! We can resolve this social warfare like adults!” Another energy ball came flying, striking Von Gross in the chest, making it harder for him to speak. “Please, listen...to me...there can be peace if you only...”
“This man does not represent us!” proclaimed Dill, he and the other council members edging along the wall towards the concealing shadows of a cave passageway.
A stocky Laxian pushed through the throng of indecisive Troops; his face was concealed by a helmet but all could tell from the two gold stripes across the head gear that it was Parktaine. Von Gross, stunned by the energy balls, lifted up a hand weakly to ward off what was sure to come within the next few seconds.
“There will be no peace until every one of you rejects are dead!” said Parktaine, running his Laxian lance through Von Gross, who took the fatal blow silently, keeping his wrathful expression set in place; forever.
“After those five,” continued Parktaine. “Take their leaderalive!”
“Jerome, buy us some time,” said Dill, the Laxian Troopersmassing forward.
“I will stand with him until the end,” declared Hadrian, lifting her electric prod against the oncoming tide. With Jerome and Hadrian standing firm in place, Dill, Dick, Chubsies, Zaius, and a hefty Lethurian solider named Bull, took advantage of the diversion and sprinted down a dark corridor; one that would lead to a secret exit.
“Yuppa tuppa!” screamed Jerome, taking out two of the foremost Laxians with one swipe of his great rapier. Hadrian pierced another with her prod, sending the Trooper into convulsions. Within seconds, the two Lethurian rebels were hopelesslysurrounded.
A number of miles away, out on the desert flats, Moe rested on a rock, slowly dying. The fight with the probe cameras had been catastrophic beyond belief, leaving the ambidextrous swordsman filled up like a pin cushion with the heavily poisoned darts. There had just been too many of the insidious machines, survivors of the fight would for ever after say; close to a dozen of the probe cameras, attacking from all angles and perspectives. Luckily, each and every one of the waspy attackers had been destroyed, but not without dire loss. Lee Otto and Hosmosis, wounded themselves, leaned over the body ofMoe.
“Well, I reckon he’s passed on,” sniffled Lee Otto.
“I’m not dead yet,” said Moe.
“Hosmosis, he’s nearly dead!” said Lee Otto.
“I’m getting better.”
“You aint fooling no one,” said Lee Otto, matter of factly.
“I think I’ll go for a walk,” said Moe, trying to get to hisfeet.
“Narshoo dishnacough!” screamed Hosmosis, slamming Moe’s head into the rock. The swordsman let out a faint gasp, then wentstill.
“Hosmosis, you did the right thing,” said Lee Otto, patting the beast on the back. “I say we mount our llambooties and head on back--hey, where’s the llambooties!?”
“They ran away when the fight started,” said Hosmosis.
“Aw shit--wait a minute--you just talked and it wasn’t no funny talk!” said Lee Otto, stunned. “You’s been putting us on allthis time, aint ye?”
“Ih wana wanga?” said Hosmosis, as if Lee Otto were the crazyone.
“Damn, you crack me up,” said Lee Otto. “Now I can tell by those tracks that our llambooties ran off in a northern d’rection, across that big ole open stretch of sand, and I’ll bet you my dist’lation suit they’s been gobbled by worms.”
“Ho ho ho!” laughed Hosmosis, pointing at Lee Otto’s clothing. Probe camera darts had pierced and popped the distillation suit at all the key places; the unique textile, essential for surviving in the barren desert, was ruined.
“Shit damn cracker boob fart shit!” cursed Lee Otto. “No water, no ride, we’s dead! Is there anything we can do?”
In uncanny sequence with the tracker’s plea for help, there came the swift gushing sound of a Laxian glider flying overhead, probably patrolling the desert flats in the wake of the invasionforce.
“Nonishumna aviarum! Nonishumna aviarum!” shrieked Hosmosis,hysterically.
The glider, heading away from the two, jived sharply back in their direction upon Hosmosis’ shout and came in for a landing. It skidded to a stop on the ground several yards ahead of the rebels, spraying a cloud of sand, and two fully equipped Laxians hopped out of the air craft, ready to swat these Lethbians wandered so far from their protective caves.
“Only two of ‘em,” whispered Lee Otto to his comrade. “I’ll take the one on the right, you take the one on the left.”
Hosmosis let out a snarl and launched himself at the Laxian on the right. Before he had gone five feet, both of the Laxians had hurled their energy balls into the wild rebel, leaving him frozen in place. Taking advantage of the time it would take the Troopers to reload, Lee Otto, carrying his trusty hunting knife in his left hand and one of Moe’s rapiers in the other, faked to the right then surged to the left, plunging the knife deep into that Laxian’s throat. Taking a broad swing with the rapier, it but barely nicked the other Laxian’s helmet, causing no damage. Chuckling, the Trooper raked Lee Otto with the trident end of his Laxian spear, leaving three deep slashes across the tracers shoulder. Collapsing in pain, Lee Otto tried to negotiate while the Laxian Trooper poised his spear tostrike.
“Heh he, you got me real good, buddy,” said Lee Otto, clutching his shoulder, which was bleeding perfusidly. “Did I know you way back when at SNR?”
“No, and I’m gonna enjoy killing you, after what you did to my friend,” said the Trooper.
“Whoops, did I do that?” said Lee Otto, looking over at the knife he had thrust into the other Laxian’s throat.
“Yeah, you did, and I think I’ll finish you off with that very same blade,” said the Laxian, moving over to his fallen companion to retract the knife.
“Come on buddy, it was self defense! You don’t need to kill me!” pleaded Lee Otto.
Ignoring the tracker, the Laxian pulled forth the bloody knife, held it up into the light of the two suns, and was about to stab Lee Otto, backhanded, when a burly mass, screaming incoherently, slammed into the Trooper. It was Hosmosis, finally free of the energy balls’ hold. The Laxian dropped the knife, and for a split second, the weapon rested vertically on its hilt, the point of the blade pointing skyward; and in that split second, the Trooper fell forward, impaling himself upon the sharp knife. The impact was so quick and precise that the blade managed to find its way through the chest plate and into the Laxian’s vital organs.
“Nasty business, this stuff,” said Lee Otto, looking upon the two slain Laxians. A twinge of disgust worked its way through him: afterall, those two had once been his peers and classmates, and now they had died by his own hands. In self defense, he reminded himself. Lethurians, excluding hotheads like Dill or Jerome, never provoked a fight; the Laxians were the aggressors in this social civil war. The twinge of disgust was suddenly replaced by the burning pain in his shoulder, a wound, he realized, that would prove fatal if not treated.
“Hosmosis, can you bandage me up and carry me to that glider? Do you think ye can fly it, too?” whined Lee Otto, Hosmosis kneeling over the tracker to bind the three deep gashes with strips of his own distillation suit.
Minutes later, Lee Otto was safely resting in the back of the glider while Hosmosis worked furiously at the manual propeller peddles, the only way a glider of this sort could achieve aviation without use of a high dropoff. Once the craft was about 100 feet off the ground, Hosmosis left the arduous task of peddling, spread the wing span, grabbed the stick, and they wereoff.
“Good ole Hosmosis, taking us back home to Cave Base 4,” said Lee Otto, lying down half asleep in his loss of blood stupor.
If Lee Otto had been sharper at this moment, he would have realized that Hosmosis wasn’t stearing the glider west towards the besiged base, but east towards the Laxian strong hold.
“Before you kill me, just let me get my hands on that shit eating son of a bitch-rat!” said Dill, finally in the audience of A11Scrub the Crapadroid.
But of course, they weren’t alone. The escape from Cave Base 4 had been desperate and heart-stoppingly suspenseful. The Lethurians, pursued by Laxian Troopers at every crevice and fissure in the cave's tunnels, were lucky if they had gotten off on a brutal beaten and enslavement; Laxians rarely ever gave any quarter. By the time Dill reached the light of the suns and the dry fragrance of the open desert air, all his companions, including Dick and Zaius, were no where in sight. Everyone had been seperated from the Lethurian leader, leaving Dill to fendfor himself.
At that first breath of atmosphere, things hadn’t seemed so hopless; Cave Base 5 was just a half mile away from 4, a dash to safety Dill could have made in under ten minutes. Could have made, if not for those pesky gliders. Circling the base like vultures, high in the sky, the Laxian aircrafts had spotted the fleeing Lethurian right away, and all troops were immediately alerted. Energy balls had come flying from all directions when the grand chase began, like a muscle impedeing rain. What the Laxians didn’t know, was that only three or four energy balls had actually found their target.
“Please Dill, don’t be mad at me; I had no choice!” whinedA11Scrub.
The two Lethurian prisoners, one the traitor, the other the lion shorn of its mane, stood at the center of a sea of Laxians. Now that all Lethurians were killed, captured, or fugitives in the desert, the Laxian strike force busied itself at plundering Cave Base 4. Dill, down on his knees on the floor of the base's vast antechamber, the same room where Jerome and Hadrian had taken on the horde of Troopers and battled to the death, was surrounded by a semicircle of Laxian leaders, all helmets removed. There was Parktaine, second in command; Flaggot and Warchingwa, the former a skeletal faced, grinning adverssary, the latter the very same comander who had led the attack on Cave Base 7; Sachron, the pudgy one, and armless A11Scrub, standing off to the side, chagrinned.
For the moment, despite his harsh words, Dill wasn’t concerned with the Crapadroid's betrayal; he was scheming a daring assassination attempt that was more likely to end with his own death. The usurped Lethurian leader could feel the paralyzing bonds of the energy balls lifting; in seconds he would be free of their constraints, ready to whip out his rapier. The Laxians hadn't bothered to disarm Dill, or even tie him with ropes, assuming that he was incapable of moving. The only thing left to do was to wait for the coming of their ruler, Entelliton.
The Laxian officers, slouching and talking amongst themselves, ejaculated at the vague image of Entelliton in the foyer of the gate. No heralds had announced his coming; there had been an empty gateway, then unexpectedly a black figure under the base entrance appeared, standing with his back to the two bright suns, casting a shadow on the whole Laxian assembely. Entelliton.
“We finally meet again, little man,” said the dark complected, brawny Entelliton, pushing the always smirking Flaggot aside toconfront Dill.
“Always happy to see me down on my knees in front of you, aren’t you?” said Dill vehemently. Warchingwa stepped forward and cuffed Dill sharply with his gauntlet glove.
“Come on now, don’t be so mad at me; afterall, it's your friend A11 who led us to you.” The Crapadroid looked away, not daring to make eye contact with Dill. “I’m sorry to tell you this, Dill,” continued Entelliton, “but it just so happens that I won’t be able to combat your Jerome one on one afterall; Parktaine had the honor of finishing him off.” Parktaine beamed, then barbarically held up Jerome’s head on the end of his Laxian spear. Flaggot did likewise, grinning demonically, his weapon adorned by the head of Hadrian. “They died to save their friends, but you’re all cowards! First you freeze us with your damn balls then you gang up on us like the pussies that you are!” screamed Dill, tearing his gaze away from the heads of his comrades. Warchingwa had to be held back. “The point is, little man, that you Lethurians are weak, always have been, and are about to become extinct! Warchingwa, do the honors,” said Entelliton as he turned his back to the Lethurian leader, walking briskly from the antechamber. Warchingwa brandished his Laxian spear, and was about to bring it crashing down over Dill’s head when everything abruptly went haywire. Free at last of the energy ball bonds, Dill fell himself backwards and thrusted his leg into Warchingwa’s ankles, sending the belligerent Laxian sprawling. Before any Trooper could ready themselves, Dill was on his feet, unsheating the Lethurian rapier. He took a wild stroke with his blade at the ponderous Sachron, missed by an inch, and in that same fated slash, ran the rapier across Flaggot’s belly, who had been coming up fast from the side. Flaggot let out a howl of agony, the smirk disappearing forever. Letting out a ferral battle cry, Dill pushed past two more Laxians and charged after the departingform of Entelliton.
He’s coming for me! This is my deserved end, thought A11Scrub, in the midst of the melee. To the Crapadroids relief, Dill dashed by without a glance.
Entelliton, sensing the disturbance, reeled around to confront Dill. The Lethurian was 10 yards away from reaching his arch enemy when, finally organized, the Laxian Troopers picked up their spears and launched volley after volley of energy balls at the rebel. First came the feeling of having a foot asleep, then exhaustion, then a complete lack of nerves and cerebral control. Frozen in place, in actuality this time, Dill glared feebly upat Entelliton.
“Someday, one of us will kill you,” whispered Dill.
“Not likely,” said Entelliton, wresting the rapier from Dill’s stiff fingers. He surveyed the weapon momentarily, almost as if he fancied it. Then, gripping it firmly with both hands, the Laxian ruler swept the sharp rapier from one werekyote skin clad shoulder to the other, leaving the body of the once proud Lethurian leader headless; right there under the front door of Cave Base 4, in the dusk of the first sun. From inside, A11 let out a sickened moan. “This war is finished!” declared Entelliton, the invasion strike force of Laxians swarming around the decapitated body. “We’ll camp here a few days longer, just long enough to find the rest of the Lethbians, then we’ll head back to our women. Flaggot, where are you?” “He’s dead!” someone in the crowd shouted.
“Oh, Sachron then: take a couple men and a glider back to Laxantion; take the prisoners with you and make sure you tell the women that we won’t be back--”
“This war isn’t finished, Entellion,” said A11Scrub, steppingboldly forward.
“My name is Entelliton!” barked the leader. Parktaine and Warchingwa moved in cautiously to restrain the armlessCrapadroid.
“Whatever,” said A11. “There’s just one last thing I wanted to do before you finish me off like all the rest...” A11 bent over, unsheathed his garden shovel with his mouth, hunched over again, scooped something mushy out of a pouch on his utility belt, and catapulted a hunk of week old feces straight into Entelliton’s eyes; maggots and tape worms swarmed about the Laxian leader’sface.
“It burns! It burns!” screamed Entelliton. A few Troopers snickered, then a bunch, then the entire Laxian invasion forcewas in an uproar.
“I’m disappointed, A11,” said Entelliton, wiping the shit away. “I was going to give you new arms and a high place in the Laxian army for the service you did us, maybe even second in command.”
“What?!” said Parktaine.
“But now,” continued Entelliton, ignoring Parktaine, “you’ve blown it. Sachron, take him away with the rest of the prisoners. Make sure everything is secure at Laxantion.”
“Ai ai,” said Sachron, shoving A11Scrub into a glider.
Not so far away to the west, atop a rocky plateau where werekyotes gathered in packs that were more like herds, especially now at the setting of the second sun, a loan Lethurian watched all these events unfold down on Cave Base 4, via his built in telescopic vision. Werekyotes , the monstrous beasts, surrounded him; they were his pets and he was theirmaster.
The day of vengeance was close at hand.
TO BE
CONTINUED
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