Chapter 36 Callie #2
My animosity for them was more because I was stuck in a situation I couldn’t easily get out of. I couldn't tell Jack or Ohem that I wouldn’t fight with them. They’d saved my life. I owed them. So their enemies became mine.
It was one thing learning about atrocities committed second hand. It was entirely another thing to witness it first hand.
This was murder.
Most of the people in this city were unarmed, non combatants.
Now the Unity was my enemy, not just secondhand through people I cared about.
I dropped low when my HUD lit up with blinking indicators showing clusters of Unity soldiers marching through the streets.
Blue dots were engaging them here and there but it was more like guerilla warfare.
Quick and hard hits followed by rapid retreats further up the streets and into buildings.
Neldre wings were pretty useless when the air was so clogged with Insects.
They were having to do this the hard way.
I waited for a clear moment and strafed down a street, low enough to almost take off heads with my belly mounted coil gun.
Again, the ground pounders called in quick reinforcements and I had to weave in and out of the buildings to avoid laser fire.
I’d give the Unity pilots credit. They were good.
It took every ounce of my concentration and skill to out maneuver them.
Clan mate, Callie. Might we be of some assistance? A gruff German accented female voice asked over the nanolink and two Fangs dropped in on either side of us, their engines silent compared to the roar of our fusion reactor jets.
I breathed out a sigh of relief and answered her.
I am so happy to see you guys. Do me a favor and get these jokers off my ass would you? I’ve got a psychopath to save and if I don’t hurry she’ll save herself and ruin all the fun.
A full bellied laugh buzzed inside my head just before the cockpit of the Fang turned transparent to reveal a golden armored red furred Rijitera smiling at us. She waved. Copy that, Callie. We’ve got you. Good luck.
The Fang’s noses jerked up as they flared their wings to break, falling behind us and the enemy indicators on my HUD winked out one by one.
I grinned and punched it, the palace finally in view.
I circled upwards, hitting the belly jets to hover when we got to the right spot, but I couldn't see any activity below us. The greenhouse looked deserted. Most of the windows were shot out, and I could see bodies on the ground, but no Patty, and no Rema.
“Any idea where they went, Aga?”
It took him a second to answer.
“Yeah. They are inside the palace. Land over there on that grassy area and we can make our way down.”
I rotated my ship and had to bank sharply to avoid having my viewscreen crushed by a goddamned winged nightmare.
“Sonofabitch! What is that?” I yelled, steading the ship.
Whatever it was, it was at least twelve feet tall, four armed, and had six bright red wings moving separately to keep it stationary, and a huge plasma rifle pointed at us.
“That,” Rathal said, leaning forward, “is Immainthe, the Neldre Queen. And the smaller but no less lethal female that is behind us is her mate and consort Dhenea.”
Well she was in my way, nightmare or not.
I flicked on the external speakers.
“This is Callisto Ramirez of Clan Ramsey. Get your Queenly ass out of my airspace.”
She swooped close enough I could make out her features.
Oh fuck.
She had six eyes.
Creepy.
All six of them narrowed at us.
“Callisto Ramirez. Patty and Rema are under orders to clear the palace. You can not help them right now. Your skills are better put to use helping us clear the skies of the Unity fighters. Help us secure the city. You may retrieve Patty then.”
I glared right back at the creepy, bible accurate angel. “I don’t take orders from you, Your Majesty. The Rijitera are my people.”
“Then tell the Rijiteran’s we need you doing your job, not rescuing a female that does not need your assistance.”
I looked back over my shoulder at Aga and Rema. “Well? What do you two think?”
“Link Hella. She can decide,” Aga said, his glare lethal as he stared through the screen at the red winged queen.
I turned inward, finding Jack’s shiny beacon in the mental darkness and tapped at the proverbial door.
“Hey, patch me through to your mother. I don’t know how to reach her through the nanoLink.”
A beat of silence and then Jack’s voice spoke inside my head like she was standing right beside me.
“We heard. Drop Aga off to continue to Patty and then meet me in the city. There is a central garden—uh museum zoo thingy—land there. We will help secure the city and then we can have our happy family reunion. Mom’s eager to see Rathal anyways.”
“Copy that. See you in a few.”
I raised my brow at Aga. “You heard all that?”
“Yep. Land this heap so I can go find Patty before she blows the palace up. Rema is probably tired of reeling her stab happy ass in.”
“You’ve been hanging out with us humans for too long, Aga. You are starting to sound like one,” I said, grinning at him.
“You have better slang,” he answered, unstrapping from his seat.
I shifted in my seat to give the Queen her answer, but she was already gone. Creepy fucking lady.
“Are all aliens terrifying or is it just me?”
“Not all of them. There is this cute, tiny little species here that I think resembles Earth fairies,” Aga supplied helpfully.
Rathal cleared his throat. “They bite though. And a swarm of them can strip the flesh off your bones in under ten seconds.”
Wow.
“You two aren’t helping,” I grumbled, setting the ship down on the square of grass to the right of the greenhouse, blowing umbrellas and chairs off the small lawn with the belly jets heatwash.
Once the ship was down, I pressed the controls to lower the ramp.
Aga was already up and at the weapons rack that was built into the wall near the ramp. He jerked a plasma rifle out of its magnetic mounts.
“I’ll scout ahead. You two meet us at the rendezvous point in the palace’s Grand Hall once you’re done in the city.”
“Good luck,” I told him and the crocodile grinned and unsheathed his sword, the blue metal glowing.
“No luck needed,” he said and took off down the ramp.
I turned to Rathal with a raised brow. “And he calls you arrogant.”
My husband shrugged. “He is but a pale imitation, my love.”
Laughing, I throttled up, leaving Aga behind to head back into the city to see what kind of carnage Jack and her bloodthirsty family were up to.
Patty chose that moment to reach out via our links and nearly made me jump out of my skin.
Callie?
I grinned at the hopeful tentativeness to her tone. I’d fucking missed her. I answered in what was kind of becoming our group's catch phrase.
Surprise, bitch.
She squealed and I jerked away from the sound as if it wasn’t coming from inside my head.
You sneaky whore! I knew you’d be alright. Where the hell are you?
I was grinning like a lunatic and I didn't care.
Ground floor, the Grand Hall. Hurry the fuck up.
Well, I mean I wasn't there yet, but Aga would meet her there and then we’d be there after I mopped up the body parts and rivers of blood from the Rijiteran happy fun party that was probably going on throughout the city streets.
She didn’t say anything more but I could picture her dancing around Rema.
I looked at Rathal who was watching me with a soft expression.
“Find your friend?”
“Yeah,” I said, smiling so hard my cheeks ached.
The need to be back with all my friends was like a whip driving me. I reached over, flipping the switch to close the ramp and lifted off again, the belly jets screaming as I poured on the fuel.
Rathal grunted when I pitched the nose down and free fell down the cliff face before leveling off and pushing the throttle all the way forward towards the city.
I sucked in a breath, my eyes going wide.
Over the city white ships hovered like gliding condors.
There were six of them, all roughly the size of modern aircraft carriers.
The condor description fit well, as they were bird-like in shape though wider bodied with wings tilted forever in the downward sweep.
On the underside of each ship, running parallel on either side of a fixed proton canon were dropped protrusions that at first I thought might be where some kind of landing gear was tucked away, but a dozen fang shaped doors opened upwards along the sides of the dropped portion of the ship and gleaming figures stepped into the doorways.
Even from a distance their shape was unmistakable.
Tall, bulky, and wolflike.
Rijitera dropped from the ship twelve at a time. After each one stepped out of the ship, another one replaced them in the doorway and dropped a few seconds after them.
Each one was smiling.
“The Unity is so, so fucked,” I breathed under my breath as the ships banked away.
Rathal laughed just as I started descending into the city; the buildings smoking, burning ruins now. Ragged holes and scorch marks marred their once gleaming silver surfaces. The city streets below us were much the same. Burning debris, blackened holes, smoke, and bodies.
“Now that the Riljitera know how low the Unity is willing to go they will crush them into a bloody pulp so as not to take any chances this time around. Diplomacy is a dirty word now. There will be no quarter. There, darling. That is the place. Land before Hella kills everyone and takes all the fun for herself.”
I looked where he pointed over my shoulder.
It was a garden of sorts, with green walkways crisscrossing over waterways.
A huge building stood in the center. Two small white shuttles had landed at the base of the stairs and golden figures were watching our approach.
One of them towered over the others like a monolith to Rijiteran strength.