However the wounded sniper was greeted by a returned shot; the force of which smashed him into a ruined wall behind him, his bleeding ruin of a face lolled on his back, his neck snapped in two, he finally collapsed into the dirt with a sickeningly wet thud.
Now only Vargev and Michael remained, and the Krenarans were right on top of them, they both tried to bring their weapons to bear again; but the towering warriors simply swatted them aside, both heavy machine guns landed with a loud clatter on the ground.
They went to punch their Krenaran adversaries; the aliens caught their fists in a vice like grip, and hurled them both to the ground, letting out a dull roar as the humans fell; Michael gasped in pain as he felt a rib crack.
“That’s enough!” Roared another Krenaran approaching from a little way off, this one was visibly larger than the others; Michael thought he must be approaching ten feet tall. He was broader and more muscular than any of his comrades, and gave off an air of smug supremacy over the surrounding Krenarans.
Both Michael and Vargev were dumbfounded that the Krenaran spoke English; even more than they were in awe of his sheer size and power.
“Did you not think we had deciphered your language?” This huge Krenaran looked down on them with a sadistic grin.
Michael and Vargev simply nodded a no.
“Of course we did; we simply choose not to use it. Since the Krenaran language is naturally superior,” the Krenaran said laughing sarcastically.
The two men just stared; amazed that this huge being was even speaking English, especially since the translators were having such a hard time deciphering their language.
The Krenaran pointed a green reptilian finger at Michael. “You are a pilot, part of a landing team that touched down yesterday are you not?”
“Errr… yes,” Michael stammered.
“And you are Major Vargev; yes?”
Vargev simply nodded.
“Your reputation proceeds you Major; your raids have grown quite famous on this worthless lump of rock you call a planet,” the Krenaran hissed.
Vargev simply raised an eyebrow and smiled menacingly, “glad to be of service.”
After a brief pause, the huge Krenaran spoke again, “Where are my manners; my name is Axus, second in command of the Krenaran military. My orders are not to harm you but to present you as trophies for my master.”
“And who is your master?”
“Oh, you will find out soon enough,” Axus replied with a wicked smile.
The Krenaran waved to his closest comrades, “bring them.”
Axus strode out in front, while the other guards took up positions behind them, their weapons constantly trained on the two small human captives.
They all started walking; neither Michael nor Vargev had any clue as to where. Michael began favouring his rib as he walked, the pain built up until it was almost unbearable.
Eventually he let out a loud gasp of pain. Axus immediately spun on the spot; looking the little human up and down.
“What is wrong with you?”
“It’s my rib, I think it’s broken.”
“When did this happen?”
“When your guards threw us to the floor!” Vargev shouted.
Axus turned and viciously cuffed one of his guards sending the burly 8 foot tall warrior sprawling to the ground; a thin smear of white blood trickled from just above the warriors’ brow.
“Al orash mulv krel lok ev kriladeth!”
The injured Krenaran simply bowed his head, saying nothing. Axus pressed a small catch on his shining wrist armour and a small cover slid open, inside there was a small black box. The Krenaran opened it, and within was what resembled a small scanner, and some tiny medical instruments.
Michael was still favouring his ribs.
“Remove your hand,” Axus said as he passed the scanner over Michaels’ mid-riff. The Krenaran studied the results; before taking out another rather scary looking implement; Michael backed off slowly.
“It’s okay,” Axus said as softly as his booming voice would allow.
Nikolai nodded approvingly at Michael; however the Lieutenant was not so sure.
“This may hurt a little,” Axus said as he plunged the device deep into Michael’s ribs. He screamed aloud in absolute agony as his ribs were consumed in a searing pain; like fire coursing through each bone. Then suddenly there was nothing; no pain, no aches, nothing. Michael gingerly felt his ribs, none were broken.
Axus removed the bloodied implement from his body without any pain whatsoever; a very small laser at the end of one of the tips of the instrument cauterised the wound. The huge Krenaran wiped the blood soaked device down and placed it back into the small kit, before returning it to its previous hidey hole inside his wrist armour.
Michael stood dumbfounded, before managing “wha…what the hell was that thing?”
“It is a gulthrops, roughly translated it means, bone fixer.”
“I wish we had one of those, the closest thing we have is the laser scalpel.”
“You pitiful humans; you fly around with your huge, cumbersome, slow ships. You have your observatories and deep space telescopes probing the stars; yet you are still blind, and you still have much to learn about the universe. It is a shame that your people will never get the chance to learn it,” Axus replied laughing sarcastically once more.
“I will remind you of that, when your head is at the foot of my boot; comrade,” Vargev hissed back at Axus.
“I doubt it.”
The big Russian looked across at Michael shaking his head in dismay at his apparent girly screams, but said nothing.
They carried on walking for what seemed like twenty minutes; and then suddenly the party stopped in a wide open clearing.
Another Krenaran passed Axus a small black device, and he spoke into it. “Selden al ariath kan ularieth,” he said, then passed it back to the other Krenaran.
They waited for what seemed like another twenty minutes before a familiar black shape appeared on the horizon and quickly glided towards them.
The shape of one of the monstrous black and silver stealth ships slowly glided into view overhead, then hovered in mid-air, barely 100 feet directly above them.
Michael saw that up close the enemy ships seemed to be made of a non reflective alloy; underneath the vessel was a dizzying array of conduits which trailed out from a small half orb which was again made of the same alloy, this orb-like structure was located in the centre of the craft. Michael assumed that it must be the vessels main plasma drive system.
Slowly the vessel began to descend, throwing up huge clouds of dust into the air; both Michael and Vargev had to shield their eyes from the deluge. They coughed and spluttered, as they could hear the whirring of powerful hydraulic landing legs lowering into position, and then a deep thump as the vessel set down. There was a final dull drone as the vessel powered down its systems.
An almost invisible black hatch began to open, and a lit up boarding ramp extended to the ground in front of the party.
The other Krenarans gently pushed their human prey in the direction of the ramp; this time taking care not to damage their apparently precious human prisoners.
“You should feel lucky,” Axus exclaimed. “Not many Terrans get to see the inside of a Krenaran cruiser.”
“We call them stealth ships,” Michael corrected; almost stumbling as the other Krenarans pushed him on.
“Aptly named,” Axus replied with a smirk.
“Where are you taking us?” Vargev asked suspiciously, breaking his silence for the first time.
“To the holding area,” Axus answered matter of factly.
“So we are prisoners then?”
“Of course,” Axus laughed. “You don’t think we would give you free reign of the ship do you?”
“Of course?” Vargev smiled wanly. That’s all I need to know, he thought.
“What is to become of us, once we are delivered to your master?” Michael asked, suddenly with a bit more confidence in his voice.