| Lt. Bristol, on his off cycle, watches in fury as the damn Enemy missiles
shoot out of the wedge shaped ship. Oh, it wasn't like back on Mirror 359,
where the Enemy, in a fit of rage at being denied the planet, crashed an
asteroid into the surface, snuffing out all indigenous life. Oh no, nothing
like that. It wasn't like the suites back at the office really cared, despite
their PR talk. All they really wanted was the resources! This whole war
was over @$@$#@$ resources, it seems. And while he knows that his side
is fighting also to protect his home dimension from destruction, he shudders
at what he's seen done to some of the mirror worlds he's visited.
"It's not fair to the Pack," Bristol mutters. "They had nothing to do with us, but got caught up in it anyway." Now, the missile's detonation, when it goes, will crisp the animal men. But fate seems to smile upon the children of the moon, because . . .
. .
"I don't believe it." Bristol says, looking at the computer readouts.
The missile had gone in full throttle, jinking like mad to avoid anything
that could be thrown at it (as if there had been something set up for that).
The missile HAD destroyed the landing site, denying it's resources to all
those who would use it. However, it had impacted as a meteor would, creating
a large crater!
"You guys are SO lucky!" mutters Bristol as he straps into the acceleration
couch. "Maybe not as luck as you want with the Alliance . . . . ."
The Alliance ship slips out of this reality, onto yet another strange
side universe, adjacent but separate from his own.
-------------------------------------
Off in a forest well away from Landing Site 4
Scaly hands shake and point at something in horror. A look of stark
terror is on his face.
"What do you mean, you didn't get to Paradise?" whispers the officer deliriously. He then screams yet again . . . . A few grunts who haven't come down with . . . . whatever it is yet look
at each other and their superior officer nervously. Should they kill him
and be done with it? They had ran out of supplies and ammo a day ago, and
had seen the cloud . . . . . Something horrible had gone wrong, and they
seemed to be totally cut off. Nothing in their training said anything about
this . . . . .
-----------------------------------
"So nice to see the Pack settling in here at Panaras," Willian says,
looking at the bustle going about him, fingering the magic pendant that
had replaced the Golem's translator device (Carradene and Synizn were going
nuts trying to figure out how they worked). "That speech you gave them
really sold them on this place, and staying together."
"Well, they've gone through a LOT, and they know that it's a brave new
world out there," Fred shrugs, tail twitching. "They know that we need
to stay together for safety sake. We need to do so much, and though we've
set up our defenses and the wizards have set up defenses, there's still
Minestus to deal with."
"To find him, and force some answers out of the wyrm's guts before we
make him pay for what he did," Willian says. "And then. . . . . who knows
what."
"There's still my father to take care of." Fred literally growls in
anger as his ear roll flat on his head and his hackles raise. Will blinks
nervously. It's so . . . . unnerving to see Fred do that. It was strange,
period! At least he and Astra had gotten used to the Pack walking around
. . . . naked and their . . . . . things exposed to the world. If nothing
else, the death of Minestus should break the giese that prevented the Pack
from wearing clothing.
"Absolutely," Will says in a soothing voice. "Hey, is this all you came
here to do, dredge up bad memories?"
"No . . . . . actually," Fred says, fur smoothing out and ears rolling
forward again. "I . . . .think Alicia and I are ready . . . . ."
Fred smiles as Alicia comes up and nuzzles Fred's nose. So......
|
