A/N: I do not own nor do I profit from JE's works. All the characters belong to her except my brave little soldier and her squad. This is just a little ditty that was niggling in the back of my mind one day after I had talked to my youngest kidlet while he was playing some weird/stupid scifi video game. He mentioned, "Wouldn't it be cool if you could write something where the character was an alien in their own mind, but not really. You know?" Of course I stared at him as if HE were an alien and then realized, it was a pretty cool idea. So, this is my attempt. I hope you like it.
Tiff
The moment the tiny creatures realised they were still undetected, they knew they would be able to infiltrate the area, unimpeded. They rushed along an outer wall, their attentions drawn to anything that may hint of their invasion. Luckily, their presence was still undiscovered, mostly due to careful planning and execution. Their sole goal in this mission was to capture and extract their target with as little collateral damage as possible.
Their leader motioned with his hand that the first two in their squad, do a bit of recon and report back ASAP. With a quick salute, the two, dressed simply in all black clothing carefully picked their way forward, concealing themselves with whatever they had available. After a few minutes, the two were able to find a spot to hunker down in and observe the locals in their environment, watching and waiting for their target to reveal themself. It was only a matter of second when the larger of the two tapped the shoulder of the other, motioning to the area far off to the right, beyond a large group of locals. They then quickly extracted themselves from their current location and hoofed it back to their commander as quickly as they could manage without being detected.
Once their report was given, the leader sat back and carefully considered which plan they would use to acheive their goal that fastest and with as few casualties as possible. Glancing at his small squad, it was sadly the last option he had wanted, that became the most viable operational plan they had. He wiped one of his his uppermost appendage over his occular covers, giving a small sigh before pointing to their smallest, yet most powerful weapon in their arsennal. "It will be you."
The small soldier nodded before mentally preparing itself for the task that lay ahead. In a few moments, it was ready, giving the leader a nod in confirmation. The small soldier, flanked by two others, made their way to the entryway to where the locals were gathered. It was a diversionary plan. She was to make a scene and draw the local's attention away, so that the extraction team could do it's own job, securing the target. Once their watches reached the appropriate moment, it was time to act.
The small soldier afixed a waiflike pout to it's face, allowed a tear to fall from it's occular orb and carefully slid into the doorway. She slowly wound her way through the crowd, searching for her particular targets, to allow for the most effective distraction. Not seeing, the targets, she allowed the sound vibrations to exit the more important of her orifices. "Mommy?" A small and sleepy voice sounded, seemingly stilling the crowd gathered. All eyes turned upon the small soldier, giving the extraction team the moment needed to complete their mission. "Mommy?" A little stronger and a bit more pathetic. It nearly echoed around the silent room.
"Tara? Baby?" A local, female of the populous, worked her way through the throng of the males, reaching her upper appendages out to the small soldier. "What are you doing up? I thought I put you to bed hours ago. Does Tia Ella know you are awake?"
The small soldier shook her cranial enclosure as the female picked the soldier up, hugging her closely to her body. A faint pleasant odor, familiar to the soldier, wafted up the olefactory holes it her head, momentarily making the soldier want to forget the mission and allow the female to coddle and soothe the soldier into the slumber state that she requires every dark time.
A small shake of the soldier's cranium gave the larger female enough to know that she would have to leave the area and return the soldier to it's sleep chamber. "Alright Little One. It's time to put you back to bed, before your father finds out." The little soldier tried valiently not to flinch at that little bit of information, but the female was able to feel it through her outer body covering. "If we hurry, we'll miss him coming out of the bathroom."
The larger female made her way out to the door and slipped out of the room. The sound in the room returned as the locals began conversing once again. The female sighed before shifting her hold on the little soldier as an unexpected large male came into their space in the hallway.
"Carina? Why are you awake?" His smooth sound vibrations washed over the little soldier, begining to break through the carefully crafted control she had over herself. "Are you okay? Nightmare?"
Thinking quickly, she nodded and allowed her cranium to fall onto the female's shoulder, gaping her large orifice, exhaling and closing her occular orbs in a slow blink. He reached out and took the small soldier from the female and placed a soft kiss onto the female's cheek. "I'll take her Babe. Go back to the meeting, the guys won't continue without you." She nodded and turned on her heel after giving the small soldier a similar kiss onto the top of her cranium.
The large male reeked of the familiar scent that the small soldier had sensed on the larger female. It was soothing and she soon found herself nearly in a slumber state. Once they had entered into the vertical conveyance system headed to the 'seventh floor', the large male spoke, "So, you want to tell me how your brothers managed to talk you into distracting your mother?" She froze scarcely breathing for fear of spilling their carefully laid plans to the enemy. "Carina?"
The carefully crafted shield the small soldier had constructed around her heart and her resolve to protect her squad almost broke, were it not for the strong feeling of affection she had for them. He nodded in understanding., "You won't give them up. I know, Carina. I know. A good soldier holds on even against unsurmountable odds." This large male was good. He was very adept at aiming for what he knew to be her weak spot. "I hate to tell you this, Little One, but I knew about the plan to steal the platter of Tia Ella's cookies before you and your brother's did." He gave her a small smile. The soldier gave the large male a quick peek through the tiny hair guards lining her occular orbs. She decided to act as if she had never allowed the sound vibrations to enter her auditory orifices.
The two doors for the conveyance system slid open, giving a view of the solid cellulose based door. It opened as soon as the small button on the electronic fob the large male pressed with a thick phalange was pushed. He headed to the temperature controlled food storage center, retreiving a large oil based container of a white opaque fluid, known to the locals as 'cow's milk', before gathering a large collection of vessels locals use to contain their 'milk' for consumtion. He headed towards the slumber chambers the of my squad leader, currently being used as our base of our operation.
Upon entry, our little squad froze, seeing the large male carrying me in his upper appendages, as well as the 'milk'. "Papa?" My squad leader asked, clearly confused as to his presence.
"Carlito. You should know batter than to try and pull a fast one on me." He glanced around giving us all reproachful looks, his infuriating single 'eyebrow' raised. "You're lucky I knew about your little plan, or else this could have ended badly." One of the other soldiers in my squad gave me a menacing look, just as the large male spoke again. "And no, Tara did not give you up. She did a excelent job and kept silent like a good soldier does. BUT, you are all in a bit of trouble. Did you honestly think you could steal away an entire platter of Tia Ella's cookies and not be found out?" He set the 'milk' down and then the small soldier.
It was at the presence of tears falling from the small soldier's occular orbs that finally set their punishment in stone. With a small, near inperseptable sigh, the large male relented and allowed his children a small victory. "Look, if your mother finds out I allowed you all contrband, let alone contrband after bedtime, she'll have my head on that cookie platter. I'll make you all a deal, you don't tell her I ate a cookie and I won't tell her about your little operation. Deal?" He glanced around at his five boys and lone princess, to see grins splitting their cherub like faces.
In unison, they answered, "Si, Papa."
Little Tara was shocked to find that her father, Ricardo Carlos Manoso, was such a pushover when it came to his children. She grinned as she watched him down the fourth sugar laden cookie in less than a minute, tucking the little nugget of informatin away for a better time... like when it came time to tell him what she wanted for Christmas. Oh, yes. The large male would be forthgiving dispensing sweets, gifts and 'get out of grounding' cards. Oh, yes.
