battle. I aim for the beast’s eyes, and he slows down a couple of times when my laser fire connects with his face. All I need is one carefully placed shot and his brain will explode in his skull.
Though I shouldn’t, I take another step or two towards him, and he’s covered about five hundred yards within seconds. It’s snarling something that sounds vaguely like growly speech. When he’s almost on top of me, I finally nail him through one of his three eyes. It takes another second or two, but he drops to the ground, kicking up dust in my face.
I don’t know what this thing is, but it’s covered in purple fur and half starved. I can tell because its ribs are clearly visible through his fur. Huge talons tip each digit of its paws, and canine teeth protrude from his mouth. Their curved shape makes them appear more like tusks. At this point he has two eyes where he once had three. The one on the far right is a bloody mess and appears to have brains leaking from the socket that once contained an eye. I now know the beast is a male because I can see his oversized genitals spilling out from under one leg. I tear my eyes away from the creature’s filthy, matted fur and turn back to the fight.
Borak and his sons are wrestling the last of the creatures to the ground. I watch as they put a stasis initiator on it, freezing the strange beast in place. The moment his task is over, Borak’s eyes search me out. His gaze flickers from my overheated laser pistols to the beast I killed. An expression of approval moves across his face so fast I can’t be certain it was actually there. He’s at my side in the blink of an eye, having used his enormous wings to cover the distance between us. Borak is impressive in some ways. He’s way too alien for my tastes, but I can see the appeal of Draconians for human women.
“What the hell are those things, Borak? They came at us out of the blue.”
His eyes fall to the creature lying at our feet. “If I were forced to speculate, I would say the Moltan have been experimenting on more than just humans.” Squatting, he wraps one hand around a protruding tusk and turns the head to examine it more closely. “It appears to have once been a Sonarian. They are a fierce species who keep to themselves. Their teeth are usually smaller and they only have two eyes, but there is no doubt to my mind this being is of that species. I have seen several, and the similarities are too obvious to be a mere coincidence.”
“Well, it looks like this one has been starved.”
Borak nods. “Perhaps we killed their handlers and it has taken them this long to escape.”
“If they were looking for food, we’d have probably fit the bill.” Staring down at the beast, a strange thought jumps into my head. “Do you think we missed a Moltan stronghold?”
“We scanned every sector of Earth three times over. I don’t see how we could have missed any Moltan bio-signatures.”
I gesture down with one hand. “We missed these creatures’ bio-signatures. Maybe they have an underground base or some kind of shielding that our scanners can’t penetrate.”
“We took one of their kind alive. He will tell us what we wish to know.”
“You speak their language?”
“It is in the translation chip we implanted inside your brainstem.”
I shake my head. Borak isn’t speaking English, but I understand every word he says. “The beast was growling something, but I couldn’t make out his words.”
“I could understand the one we brought down. He screamed at us to hold still and said food shouldn’t move around. I think he was delirious.”
Turning my back on the beast, I shout loud enough for the others to hear. “See to our wounded, burn these bodies and load up the one we took alive. It’ll be dark soon, and we need to get this show on the road.”
The warriors turn into a blur of movement. Borat calls his chain of command to give report, and I walk over to ensure the hibernation chambers are unscathed. The shifter apparently has the same inclination to check on his people. His head dips the way the warriors do to show respect. “You put your frail human body between my people and the enemy this day. It is a life debt