Royce couldn't believe it, one second he was tackling a raider to the ground, the next, he was flying into a tree sideways so hard, he heard more than felt the sickening crunch as several of his ribs broke, and even as he looked up, never taking his eyes off the "enemy" so to speak, saw Izzy being stolen by what looked like non other than Mr. Black!
He heard Wave issue a command, and the cousins take off, following the Raiders who had the girls, then almost before his brain could catch up with his body, Sham was pulling him to his feet, even as a plasma bolt struck right where he had been a brief moment before. Grabbing another frying pan, back to back, he and Sham took up stance, even as the Raiders began to flee. Sham grabbed his arm, preventing him from following, even as Wave commanded everyone to stay put. He was not taking chances that this was a trap to prevent the rescue of the females. Unsure of what was going on, Royce looked to Sham for guidance.
"The cousins are following, they are good as gathering information, let them find out where the females are being taken, and we can then mount a rescue. Please, you are good at fighting, let cooler heads prevail." Sham whispered to Royce, even as he began to treat his wounds. The pause, now bringing Royce's ribs to his attention with a pain so fierce, he swayed slightly on his feet, wishing he had seen the incoming foot a lot sooner than he had.
Luckily for Izzy, the real Mr. Black had heard the fighting, and as he shook the fuzzies from his mind, wondering why he was back from the dead, saw the raiders run past his camp, followed by the cousins. Recognizing Izzy as the female he had punished for interfering in his fight with the human male brought to the preserve for hunting, his curiosity spiked, and he, along with his companions, quickly followed. None of them noticed the slight sparkling effect of a temporal cloak, as the figures of Shesh and Squeaky came into view.
"I hate blipping!" Squeaky muttered as he and Shesh uncloaked.
"You always hate blipping, it reminds you too much of that time you had to blip to avoid becoming a grease spot from that high rise the first time you started working for the agency." Shesh teased.
"Please don't remind me, I though I would never slow down fast enough to land!" Squeaky chuckled as he checked the coordinates on his wrist comp. "Looks like this is the Hunter camp from the intell." he added.
"Good, maybe we can solve several disappearances at once, but you still haven't told me how we're going to get your parents together long enough to...well, you know..." Shesh said.
"I'm still working on it. I can't believe my parent's are mixed up in this mess!"
"I can't believe your mother was once hunted prey." Shesh said.
"Neither can I, she always seemed to upstanding!"
"Goes to show, we don't always know what our parents were up to before we were born." Shesh said, carefully stepping over the body of an impaled human in combat fatigues and holding some rather nasty firearms.
"Yeah, makes you wonder what your offspring will be saying about you after your old and retired." Squeaky chuckled, scanning the area, and finding fresh prints heading away from camp. "I got a heat trail, prints are heading off in that direction."
With that, the duo headed out, following the trail left behind by Mr. Black and his companions as the trio took off following the Raiders.
It didn't take long before the cousins realized that the Raiders had come from Mat'tkt's old ship, and falling back, and cloaking, softly crept forward, slipping like ghosts through the trees, the trio of Hunters, led by Mr. Black, did the same thing, not wanting to alert the group following the group with the women, that the group was being followed by himself and his companions. The Raiders on the other hand, were having a little fun of their own with a few of the captive females, and wouldn't have noticed a bomb being dropped in the middle of camp.
The females, Izzy and Machiko, were unceremoniously dropped next to a Captive pole, and bound hand and foot with a strange silver rope. A guard, looking rather drunkenly, took up position with his back to the girls and some rather dense brush. This would soon work in their favor, since the pole itself was somewhat off to the side of the camp, out of the middle, where a ring had been set up, and some of the raiders were wagering as several combatants fought in the center.
Izzy soon woke up, her head splitting from the blow she had received. Looking over, she spied Machiko, who too was beginning to rouse. Izzies training as a soldier kicked in, and she began to glance around, taking account of the camp, and it's denizens. Machiko, whose only training had been Hunting, and some training in hand to hand on board Topknot's ship, did the best she could to assess her surroundings as well. Recognizing the type of rope used to bind them, she tried to get Izzy's attention, before she could set off any alarms the rope might have attached.
"Pssst, Izzy, don't move..." She whispered, hoping the guard didn't notice that they were awake.
Izzy looked at Machiko and nodded, as Machiko pointed at the ropes around their wrists with a finger, wondering what was so important about not moving the rope.
She soon got an answer, as one of the females previously captured was dragged out, and tied to a pole similar to theirs in the middle of camp. Struggling, she ropes only tightened around her wrists, and soon began to squeal, even as the female screamed, struggling against her bonds. This only made her captures laugh, and one of the men slapped her hard across the face with enough force to make Izzy wince in pain for the female's plight. She could also here the cries of another as several males took pleasure with her body.
"We have to escape..." she started to whisper, as her head was suddenly pushed down, and the sound of a neck snapping in front of her was heard, sending a chill up her spine, since she didn't even hear whoever it was that had walked up, pushed her head down, and took out the guard. Glancing up, she received an even bigger shock, as Mr. Black uncloaked, taking up the now empty position of the guard.
Glancing over at the girls, he turned back forward, slouched, and hand signed behind his back that they were to keep their heads down, even as the air rippled to either side of him, his companions spreading out into the camp. "spread out, stay cloaked and don't engage with the others." he commanded soflty as his partners began to move with a grace and silence, that even a more experienced warrior might have thought was merely the sun dappling through the trees. "Watch your steps." was his last caution.
Izzy thought her heart was going to stop, as she heard his words, not realizing that Ohni had placed Veil beads in her hair to make translations easier while the girls had made up each others hair for church. Glancing over at Machiko, she saw her motion for Izzy to lower her head slightly more, so that even though her head was properly down, she still could look around.
"Izzy..." Machiko whispered in Topknots clan dialect, only to have a low soft warning growl come from Mr. Black, right as a group of rather unsavories staggered up to oggle the new captures.
"Boss's gonna love this, those stupid idiots brought back a couple of Oomans!" one spoke
"Yeah, what's he gonna do with stupid animals anyway? Sell'm?" his companion sniggered.
"He'd be lucky to even get a pretty penny for them, Oomans are worthless, don't even make good slaves, always runn'n away, break'n stuff, and the females..." the third started, while looking the girls up and down in such a manner, that Izzy felt dirty just having him look at her.
"Enough, step away from the captives, before the Boss gets pissed that you fools ruined the merchandize." Mr. Black slurred, taking a menacing step forward.
"Easy brother, we ain't touching the merch until the Boss says we can." the first spoke up, waving his arms in a placating manner. "Side's, with Oomans, it wont be long before he gives'm to us any ways."
"Until then, mind your manners." Mr. Black spoke.
"Stuck up." one of the group muttered as the screams of the female tied to the pole caught the groups attention. "Let's go, he ain't gonna let us have some fun with'em, got his nose stuck up the
Boss's rear end." raucus laughter followed the group as they wandered off in look of better entertainment.
Mr. Black merely smiled an evil little smile behind his mask, if only they knew. He began to set his auto targeter for his shuriken to target the group members having entirely too much fun with a hapless she, who from her cries, was not consenting to her use. Let the fools test him, over these. Even though they were technically prey to him, the thought of forcing a female, irregardless of species disgusted him and his companions.
Shesh and Squeaky could only look at each other in surprise, having overheard what had transpired. The duo had just arrived at the camp in time to watch as the last group began to infiltrate, and the first took up different positions around the outside, it seemed that both had the intent of scouting out the camp. "Now what?" Shesh whispered, every nerve in him screaming to aid the female being used.
"Now we wait." Squeaky whispered, lightly touching his partner's arm, knowing how hard it was for Shesh to ignore the pleas of a female, having it ingrained since before he was hatched, that such crimes were forbidden.
By this time, Claw had caught up with Ohni's captures, and silently cursed as she was carried inside the small skiff. Sending a short message to Paya, he informed his cousin of what and where.
"Stay put, we're at the main camp, it's a lot larger than Mat'tkt originally thought. Observe, and if chance transpires..."
"Got it." Claw sent, this was going to take a bit, he thought, settling down to wait.
As soon as he could, Paya sent Wave the intel on the layout of the camp. The Raiders had landed several medium and small lander craft off the main ship, and the camp was sprawled out without any obvious signs of order. There must have been several hundred scattered around the forest. Finding the girls, and rescuing the other females, would be...well...finding a queen egg in a mature hive full of hard meat would be easier!
And as Royce was called to gather with the rest, it was Sham who counseled patience. Wave had decided, that although the lesser warriors had the experience to go up against the camp, it would be in the best interests of those needing rescue, if the more experienced ones actually entered the camp, with the less experienced ones taking up positions outside, creating the diversions so to speak, for getting into a Raider camp was a whole lot easier, than getting out alive.
Royce asked if he could help with the diversions outside, since scouting was his specialty on earth. Wave thought about it briefly, then nodded. "Remember, although the enemy is of a different species, treat this as you would any engagement with the enemy."
Royce nodded in understanding, knowing that if Wave had ordered him to remain behind as a liability, he would not have been able to logically argue his inclusion, and could possibly jeopardize Izzy's life if he went it alone. He might not like being relegated to the rear so to speak, but it was better than not being able to do anything at all.
Wave quickly broke everyone up into groups of two. He, Uhlsa, and Ahnk would enter at one end, Paya and Hawk at another point, Royce and Sham would take up points in a different area, with the brothers and Tav'ikt and Mat'tkt positioned somewhere inbetween. And while this might not cover the entire camp, it could concentrate the diversion in such an area, that hopefully, it would draw most of the camp away from the women. Topknot and Shorty would slip in, and scout inside after dark, being more warrior and less hunter in movements, the cover of darkness could hide any misstep that might be seen during the daylight hours. Wave agreed, and teamed Royce and Sham up with Topknot and Shorty, with Topknot in charge. It actually made logical sense, when Royce found out that Topknot used to train Hunters and Warriors, and was used to leading a group unfamiliar with each other.
At the appointed time, all left camp, Wave having informed Pearl and the girls to remain inside the ship, under cloak and shield, on lock down. Nothing in, nothing out. Just like he would do if the mother ship were under attack and the children would have to take shelter on board. Pearl nodded, giving his parent a brave smile, inside scared out of his mind, yet as he looked at the girls, he realized that just like the little ones he had been put in charge of during drills, they too were counting on him, and it made him feel a lot easier about being left alone.
"I will, Honored Parent." he said bowing.
Wave shook his shoulder, and turning strode off, joining the last group to leave. All who had it, were wearing full combat hive armour, while those who didn't, had been outfitted to the best of his ability. Royce's com unit had been patched into Sham's, and Topknot had given Royce a working rundown of how the armor, personal shield and weaponry worked together.
Topknot almost requested leaving Royce behind, since his familiarity was about as familiar as that of an unblood, yet Royce quickly caught on, much as Machiko had, and Topknot knew Royce could at least guard his back, much as the feisty little human female had done, shortly after he brought her onboard.
"Try not to shoot your own foot off." was his last instructions to Royce, given with an almost lopsided grin. "The targeting system was set for long blink, since you don't have tusks to tap the controls with."
Grinning, Royce agreed."Wouldn't want to fill out the paperwork on that one."
"No" Shorty smarmed, "The last time it was in triplet to the triplets."
Topknot groaned,"Don't remind me!"
Laughing soflty, Royce was beginning to have hope that maybe, getting Izzy back and getting off the planet, if not home, wasn't such an impossibility after all.
*********Thank you for reading this installment if the HishyQuinn Romance Series "Oomans!" and just in time for the holiday's, rather than post a new recipe, please find this Patience Project Ornament for the holidays instead. It is titled "A Starry Night" and can be found at deviantart under littleprincesstruckn***********
Thank You, And Happy Holidays! ^.^