“Alright this is it, we only need to get through those guards.” Zhu said. His squad was standing behind a corner where the guards couldn’t see them.
“Let me try the freeze grenade.” Killgrave said.
“You do know that that is not its name?” Dson asked sarcastically.
“I’m not calling it that other name, freeze grenade is much cooler.” Killgrave responded smartly.
“Alright Anton.” Zhu said before they could get into a name debate, “The rest of you get ready, once the grenade goes off take them out.”
Killgrave stepped to the corner’s edge and retrieved a device from the back of his suit. It was a bit bulkier than an ordinary grenade, silver in color and barrel shaped. Killgrave pressed two buttons simultaneously and a small red light appeared. Then he pressed a few more buttons, stepped out of the cover and threw the grenade at the enemy position, and quickly moved back behind cover.
The Laser Induced Energy Removing Device or LIERD for short, bounced off the floor and rolled at the feet of the eight guards. Before it even stopped its roll the device started releasing high pressure gas filling the area, engulfing the guards in it. As soon as all of the gas was released the device opened up and a high powered wide band laser flashed out of it. In an instant the laser’s photons knocked the electrons out of the gas’s atoms, which made them lose energy and at the same time heat. The area around the guards froze. Their armored suits got encased in a small layer of ice while their weapons electronics became nonoperational at such extreme cold.
A second later bullets and lasers fired on the helpless guards cutting them down.
“That was so cool!” Kilgrave said, then he turned to his squad mates. “Cool? You get it right? Because it is—”
“We got it, we got it.” Dson interrupted.
Zhu walked up to the dead guards and to the big doors, he gestured for Red Fury to get started working on opening them.
“Alright guys our targets are most likely behind these door. So Killgrave, Laas’tra, and Dson, change your ammo to stun rounds. You will be going in first, if there is more of these “agents” inside move aside and let the rest of us deal with them. In the event we find our targets, first demand surrender by playing the recording prepared in Nel. Clear?”
Affirmatives came from the three and Zhu moved back, letting them stand in front of the door ready to jump in as soon as Fury manages to open it.
Anton “Killgrave” checked his rifle one more time. He has been waiting for the door to open for only a minute, but it felt longer to him. He was never very good at being still, especially not when he was amped up on adrenaline and performance drugs. Then just as he was about to ask what was taking so long, he heard Red Fury say that she got it, and the door started to raise upwards quickly. As soon as there was enough room, Anton crouched and entered keeping his weapon ready.
He stopped short a few steps into the room as he came face to face with three beings standing in the middle of the room. These aliens were slightly taller than him in the suit, they had three tentacle like legs, similar to those of the beings they had been fighting till now. But from their waist up they had something resembling a human torso, only much less muscled, and some kind of flap at the center of it.
They had two arms from shoulder like extension at the end of their torso, and one more arm on their back that reached above their head. After a short neck came the head that was elongated and widened towards the end in a bony crest. The thing had no mouth that he could see, and had something that looked like gills on the lower sides of their face. The eyes were small and full black. Their skin was in shades of dark turquoise.
Anton swallowed hard and then turned using his imp to broadcast the surrender demand in Nel over his external speakers. The Sowir had been a part of the Consortium for a long time, they must know the language.
As the speakers played the message the rest of the squad got inside, moving to the sides while they kept their weapons trained on the three individuals. The Sowir didn’t move nor acknowledged the message in any way. A few seconds after the recording finished, Anton tried to play it again when he felt a bit lightheaded. He suddenly got an urge to move his weapon to the side and fire it, and it seemed perfectly reasonable for him to do so. His rifle started to move off his target slowly. Then after it moved a few centimeters, and what seemed like hours later, he remembered his training. The endless drilling into his head about one thing. He wasn’t supposed to move his sights of an enemy.
Anton’s mind cleared and he turned the rifle back and squeezed the trigger. The stun slug hit the Sowir in the chest, sending an electrical charge through its body, and it collapsed on the ground twitching. As if a spell had been broken, Laas’tra and Dson fired their own weapons felling the other two Sowir. For a few seconds no one moved or said anything. Then Anton turned and looked around the room at his squad mates who were all standing there frozen looking at the aliens.
“Guys… I think that these aliens just tried to get inside my head.”
Chapter Twenty Four
Two days after the battle for Nelus
Sestar Nimuse of House Jar Tel sat in yet another council meeting in the last few days, listening to the Sestar Tavaar of House Nor Ral preach about the great victory for their people. It made her sick just listening to him as he took credit for the destruction of the Sowir. It had been a long time since Sestar Jusan of House Dai Ven defected to the human led Empire, and the things had only gotten worse in his absence. House Nor Ral ruled with an iron fist, enforcing curfews, limiting the already limited freedom of the people, all the while taking the power and wealth for himself.
Nimuse now older, and wiser, knew that things couldn’t keep going like this for long. And when she heard the last idiocy that Tavaar ordered she knew that the time was now. Tavaar had ordered the fleet ships in orbit of Nelus to join with their fleet and Nelat and drive the Empire’s ships out of their system. And with that Nimuse could no longer sit quietly. After the meeting ended, Nimuse used her family’s significant wealth and influence to set things in motion. She might not have the power to end the idiocy of the council on her own, but she had enough to light up the spark that would grow into a roaring flame to consume and burn away the filth that had grown at the heart of her world.
Four days after the battle for Nelus
Massar Erani sat on the bridge of his battleship, watching on his screens as the Nelus remaining ships sped from his home world towards the force garrisoned in the orbit of Nelat, the fifth planet in the Nelus system. The area in which the greatest Sowir fleet Erani had ever laid eyes upon was just destroyed by a much smaller number of ships.
Eran, like every other person on Nelus had watched the battle, and had seen their force retreat and leave the Empire ships to be slaughtered by the immense Sowir force. He knew why the commander did that. The council had sent an order and ordered them to pull back, and Eran didn’t oppose that order. Over his entire upbringing and adult life he had always obeyed the council, it didn’t even cross his mind to countermand the council orders even though the fleet would have followed his orders over those of the council.
And now he was ordered to meet up with that force and chase the Empire ships out of the system. How idiotic the council truly is if it believed that his ships were capable of doing that. Eran had seen what the Empire’s ships can do, and even outnumbered as they were his ships wouldn’t stand a chance. Not to mention it being wrong. The Empire had warned them about the Sowir, and then even sent ships to help them. And the council wanted to reward that help with insults and threats.