“We could’ve gotten lucky, they might’ve sent their people to help defend their cities,” Loca commented.
“It could be, but the Vanar—the female guard—will remain,” Aileen added.
“Move inside,” Sahib said.
They entered the large building, and Sahib ordered his people to split up and secure the complex, and to find and disable the anti-air turrets.
Sahib’s team and the Sentinel moved deeper inside, towards where they believed the birthing chamber was supposed to be.
“Well, this isn’t creepy at all,” Loca said after a long stretch where they still hadn’t encountered anyone.
“Keep your eyes open, Ra’a’zani are tricky opponents,” Aileen said.
“Contact!” someone said over the comms.
“Report!” Sahib said.
“Found half a dozen of the bastards in a room that looks like some kind of a control hub,” the voice said. “Managed to take them all down. It looks like this is the anti-air control room.”
“Disable the defenses and call the fleet,” Sahib said, and they continued moving forward. They rounded a corner, and found themselves right in front of a squad of Ra’a’zani.
The Empire’s troops were the first to open fire, and bullets and plasma ripped two of the ten large aliens to pieces before they even managed to raise their weapons. The others started firing at his squad, who moved back behind the wall to take cover.
One of his teammates grabbed a fist-sized device in one hand and pressed a few buttons on it with the other, then threw it at the enemy. The device fell among them and activated. The area filled with gas, and a moment later, a high-powered laser’s photons knocked the electrons from the gas’s atoms and flash froze the enemy combatants. Sahib and his people left the cover and finished the enemy quickly. Behind them, they saw large closed doors, with ornamented handles and unique symbols painted on their surface.
“That it?” Sahib asked.
“Yes, if I am remembering the descriptions right,” Aileen answered.
“Not many people guarding it,” Sahib commented.
“They have been fighting a losing war against the Shara Daim for decades. Their best are already gone, and their world is under attack. Their soldiers must be elsewhere fighting against us.”
“Good point. Shall we?” Sahib said, and motioned for his team to open the door.
The massive door slid open and the team walked in. The room was vast, with multiple leveled platforms and stairs leading to them. Each one held large and elaborate golden-colored baskets, and in them were dark brown eggs the size of a small child.
“Secure the room, the shuttles and the retrieval teams should be here soon,” Sahib said, and no sooner had he finished than did a loud snarling noise rip through the room. A six-legged Ra’a’zani at least four meters tall stood to their left, and slowly started moving towards them. His team leveled their weapons, preparing to fire.
“Hold your fire!” Sentinel Aileen ordered. “We can’t risk the eggs.”
“Well, what do you suggest?” Sahib asked.
Aileen stepped forward and spoke in a guttural tongue, Sahib’s implant translating everything she said. “Step aside, Ra’a’zani. There is nothing you can do to save your race, and we will not harm your eggs. They are the only hope you have that something good will come out of your end,” Aileen said.
The large Ra’a’zani—obviously a female—looked at Aileen with her teeth bared and spoke in the same guttural tongue. “You will not touch my offspring, slave!” the Ra’a’zani said, and charged the Sentinel.
Sahib was about to order his teammates to fire when the Sentinel charged towards the Ra’a’zani, meeting her halfway. She jumped over her head, evading the arms that tried to catch her. And just as she was above the alien’s head, she twisted in mid-air so that her head was pointed towards the floor and the Ra’a’zani. She froze in the air as she pushed her hand down towards the alien beneath her.
The Ra’a’zani smashed into the floor and stayed there, held by invisible forces that the Sentinel commanded. The Ra’a’zani tried to move, but she didn’t have enough strength to separate herself from the floor. Sahib ran forward and smashed the butt of his rifle into the head of the alien.
A moment later, Aileen fell downward, twisting and landing with her feet on the floor. She walked to Sahib and slapped his shoulder. “Thanks.”
“I doubt that you needed my help,” Sahib said as she passed, and reached one of the eggs. Sahib followed and peered down at the brownish egg. He saw something moving inside.
“So, are we taking them all?” Sahib asked.
“Yes,” Aileen answered.
“That is a lot of eggs,” Sahib commented as he looked over the chamber; there were thousands of eggs inside it.
“They will birth a new race,” Aileen said simply.
Sahib nodded. His friendship with Adrian had also made him privy to the plan for these eggs. A new race indeed, he thought to himself. He motioned for his people to secure the room.
“What about her?” He nodded towards the unconscious form of the Ra’a’zani female.
Aileen tilted her head, the smooth plate of her helmet making the action look strange. “She wasn’t a part of the plan. Bind her; we’ll set her free before we leave,” she said.
Sahib relayed the order to his team.
Chapter Nine
One day later; Slave breeding camps
Aileen walked over the corpses of the Ra’a’zani slave masters; their broken and scorched bodies lined the hallways. Her Sentinel armor was deployed in its battle mode, and it was covered in Ra’a’zani blood and grime from fighting. She had led assaults on several slave camps, both human and Yunkari. But she had never stayed for the actual transport of slaves; there were still more camps on the planet to be taken. She reached the end of the corridor and the three soldiers waiting for her.
“Ma’am,” the leader said. “They are inside. The Ra’a’zani taskmaster got away and took a slave girl hostage. We could’ve taken him out, but that would’ve risked the girl, and we know your standing orders.”
“You did well, I’ll take care of it,” she said giving him her rifle, and entered the room.
Inside was only a small cot in one far corner, with a bucket-like object in the other. In the middle of the room stood the Ra’a’zani, holding a girl that was no more than sixteen years old. She was wearing nothing but rags. One of his clawed hands was pressed to her neck. The girl wasn’t even upset, and her eyes seemed bland; she no longer cared what happened to her.
Aileen knew that look. It had looked back at her in the mirror for far too long.
“I want safe passage from this camp. Only then will I release the slave,” the Ra’a’zani said in his native tongue. By his faded skin color and stature, she knew that he was old, at least three hundred years.
Aileen tilted her head and responded in Ra’a’zani, “Release the girl, and I will give you what you ask.”
“You don’t give orders here, slave,” the Ra’a’zani snarled, his claw biting into the girl’s neck, drawing blood. The girl barely even reacted.
With a command from her imp, Aileen retracted her armor, the black scales compressing back into the plates on her torso and legs. She looked at the girl and saw her eyes widen a bit when she saw Aileen. The poor girl probably didn’t even know what was happening, only that someone had attacked the Ra’a’zani and she was now being used as a bargaining chip for the Ra’a’zani’s life. It was the least of the crimes inflicted upon her.
Aileen didn’t take her eyes of the girl as she spoke in the Ra’a’zani tongue. “I know how you are feeling right now, but I promise you it will get better. One day you will be alright.”