Chapter Twelve: The Battle Joined
Gui'Yata watched in stunned silence as the last of the leaves filtered down to the forest floor and what seemed to be a huge tendril slithered back into the growing gloom of the night. He registered the blue coldness from the long sleeve of metal fit onto the thing. It was fashioned in a long flat coil each section overlapping the next and nubs of metal spiraled down its length. The tip was fashioned with long blades to add bite to the whipping action of the attack, to ensure decimation of all it touched. He shook himself out after a moment, knowing that he knew what he had just seen but unable to believe the reality of it. He looked back to where the ancient tree had stood seeing the broken and jagged stump where one of his party members had been killed just moment's prior. He then looked back into the gloom trying to think of what creature on this planet was that large… he was suddenly drawing a blank. Slowly an image of a creature appeared in his mind, forming bit-by-bit, fitting the size and manner of the attack he had just witnessed.
The rumble started again, only this time there was a separation of seconds between each booming shake. Each one jolted the party anew and many of them stood at the ready yet looked worried because many were coming to the same conclusion as Gui'Yata already had. He began to issue an order into his mic but the sound was drowned out as the air filled with a thrumming roar. A head snaked into their view, and then drew back, its long sinuous neck sharply curving into an "s". The flat toothy snout opened wide as it roared angrily again its neck straightening horizontal to the ground still some forty feet from the ground. The long feathers framing it's muscular cheeks shook with the vibration causing them to flutter wildly adding an underlying hum to the din. He could see the entire creature now. It stood very tall at the shoulder with a cape of feathers longer than many of the drop ships that the Soua possessed standing out and away from its body like hackles. It lifted its long muscular legs clear of the muddy ground flashing the flat dagger clawed feet as it shifted its weight for another swipe. Gui'Yata noted the large bands about its legs covered in sharp cutting wires to prevent his party from attacking or climbing the creature to take control of it. It's sloping back was banded with muscles and its shorter back legs stood wide to balance him as his tail continued to cause devastation to Taysa's ranks. Gui'Yata's eyes narrowed as he took a look at the mature male Habade, for atop its flattened skull stood a small figure holding tightly to a set of reins. The reins ended in large barbed hooks that were firmly imbedded into the two closely set nostrils dead center in the creatures pug face. It was hard to make out in the growing dark and the constant movement of the creature's head. He noted that the figure was stooped over somewhat and seemed to be standing on the balls of its feet. Gui'Yata sucked a sharp breath through his mandibles… A Noa! How? How had the Noa tamed a bull Habade?
The animal handlers in his society considered the feat impossible. They were too unruly, to hard to handle and too large to try and subjugate. Yhi Queens were hard enough, a bull Habade was a nightmare. Killing them was no easy task, as it took thirty to forty hunters all with wide beamed plasma cannons to burn through to something vital. Habade were mean-tempered at all times and worse when they came into rut. How had the Noa accomplished it? He was not given the time to dwell on the subject, seeing that the creature's stance was setting up for another whipping tail attack.
Gui'Yata acted instinctively snatching up Gerard and bolting towards thicker cover as the creature finished shifting its mass. It drew that long whip like tail into position for another strike. The armored tail whistled through the air just missing his head, as it was he was nearly felled by the wind that it had disturbed. Gui'Yata stopped abruptly somersaulting backwards as the knives struck the ground just in front of him and plowed through a dozen or more Soua trying desperately to get out of its way. When Gui'Yata landed he twisted his body around and sprinted toward the creature trying to get clear of its range attack. Some ran back past the outer range of the creatures tail, but most did as Gui'Yata, coming inside the perimeter where an attack was less effective. As he ran he could hear a steadily increasing noise of clicks, not Sou but something similar. Hundreds of voices were speaking at once and the sounds blended until it was a thrumming almost as loud as the Habade's bellow. From behind the creature came a wave of Noa, surging over the ground en mass to dispose of Gui'Yata's party. They came uncovered this time, revealing themselves for what they were, for they were on their own territory and they knew that their ruse had been foiled.
Gui'Yata screeched to a halt many of his party doing likewise as they saw the onslaught of Noa bodies streaming past the attacking Bull. He grimaced when he saw the creature shift and several Noa were caught by the sudden move and crushed under one massive foot. He set Gerard on his feet ignoring the man's look of indignation for having been treated like a football over the past several minutes. They were now stuck between the range attack at the outer edges where the Habade could crush or slice them to bits and the oncoming Noa army racing across the swampy ground. They did not have much time before this lopsided battle would be joined. Gui'Yata reached up to his shoulder detaching the plasma cannon from its mechanized arm. He touched several studs nodding as a gun mounted sighting system materialized. Then he handed the weapon to Gerard. Gerard looked stunned a moment, and swallowed hard as he understood the implications of their predicament.
Gui'Yata pointed out a stud on one side of the weapon. "Touch the stud, and the sights will light your target, press it firmly to fire," he watched as Gerard nodded grimly taking the weapon and testing it's weight, "Also the range is not limited on it, but I would recommend that you take them closer. It is a very narrow beam, and a closer shot would give you a better chance of hitting them."
"I have used a weapon or two before," Gerard stated testily. Still he looked uncertain about this.
Gui'Yata raised an eyeridge at him, "Do not be timid about the killing, the pack is fresh and will last until at least the rise of Chai, the sun," Gui'Yata added.
"How long is that?" Gerard asked noting that suddenly he had no equivalent of that in hours.
Gui'Yata looked down a moment, activating his wrist mounted Yoysa and extending his Sraha, "About ten hours in human reckoning of time," he stated evenly.
"The fighting should be over by then right?"
Gui'Yata looked up at him smiling strangely, "If you say so."
They turned in unison to face the now fracturing group of Noa, each group cutting off the members of his party, in groups averaging three to ten times their own numbers. A group of a dozen had singled the two lone figures out as their personal battle. Gui'Yata started jogging toward the quickly closing group eager to fight sooner than later, and Gerard shadowed him more reluctant than his Soua companion, but also knowing that he would be dead quickly if he should get separated from the alien. Gui'Yata accelerated quickly until he looked like a striped freight train headed for a wall.
Panic within Gerard rose as the eyeless monstrosities closed on them, and he raised the weapon up still running and lit it. He was amazed at the lack of recoil in the weapon, and very much impressed with the result of his shot. He had not taken just the lead Noa as he had thought to do, he had taken out two and wounded two others badly. He watched in amazement as the four fell to the ground, and two lay unmoving. The lead lay with a large ugly cauterized hole in his chest, the second he had severed the left arm on, another the shot had hit in the head for he had been stooped over and the fourth had a deep burn on the right chest and abdomen. This he all took in, in a matter of seconds watching as a bright flare lit off from the wrist launcher of his alien companion. A second later, the middle of the Group of Noa exploded, scattering bodies everywhere. Gui'Yata was quick to dispatch any who still moved as they finally joined in a melee of moving bodies. It had seemed to take forever for their two parties to actually meet up, but it had all happened in a matter of seconds. Gerard fought without thought for the next half-hour, all of his excursions into the field before leaving the Organization suddenly flooding back into him, even when he had thought them forgotten. He twisted and ducked, slashing with a knife he had suddenly found in his free hand, swinging the plasma rifle like a bludgeon. He felt bones crack and flinched instinctively as blood sprayed over him. Bodies went down all around him. He started to grin, seeing just why the Soua enjoyed the hunt so much, understood why Courtney wanted to stay in this kind of life. He felt claws scratch against his skin, seeing eyeless toothy faces rush at him and try to latch onto his flesh, instinct and training were the only things that could save him now.
Gui'Yata had warned him on the trek over here, just how the Noa fight, having been involved in several skirmishes in the years between moving to Taysa and their trip back to Earth. He knew he would do well to keep the creatures far from him. Too close could mean the loss of flesh and not in any pleasant way.
When they next paused they had long since killed the first of the Noa who had assaulted them. Many others had followed in a fluctuating stream sometimes thirty sometimes three depending on how involved the Noa were with other things and other fights, but they always came to harry them to try and stop their slow but steady advance. They were doing well, a little too well, and panting a bit Gerard afforded himself a look around.
They had moved quite a distance from their original joining of the battle. They were getting very near the Habade that had surprised them upon arrival. He could see the tall shifting trunks that were the creatures legs just yards from where they stood, shifting this way and that as the remaining Soua harassed and harried the beast, confusing it and its rider in just where to attack. It was now bloody, several wide plasma burns were painted over its body, and it bellowed mournfully in its pain. The Noa guiding the creature drove it mercilessly, forcing it to continue the attack, when its nature would have made it retreat long before this moment. Unfortunately the Habade had done its intended job, scattering the Soua fighters and considerably thinning their ranks. They were down to ten, and no matter their thirty to one kill ratio there seemed to be no end to the numbers of Noa that were fighting.
At the edge of his vision barely lit by the burning Houta fed fires in the dank growth he could make out stilted huts interspersed amongst the shorter swamp trees. They were very much like those he had seen in the history books of certain tribes that raised their huts off the ground to keep larger predators at bay. They were wood and vine, with long leaves of trees woven together to make a wall, rougher leaves, larger than a palm were layered over the roof to keep the rain out. And though they had tried they could seem to get no closer to them to rescue Courtney.
Courtney looked out from between strands of matted hair, seeing her guards huddled throughout the dwelling. The five of them were hard to make out, their camouflage matching neatly the pattern of the lights and shadows behind them. It was only reinforced by the fact that they had hardly moved in the four days since she had been brought here. Their lack of movement was inversely proportional to their vocalizations; the constant raspy humming filled her existence, as they conversed, in their own fashion. It was beginning to dull her mind, much as her body was dulled by her incarceration and less than pristine treatment. The only time the creatures came to life was when HE was about to show up. She had come to dread the moment when those creatures stirred.
His visits were nothing short of brutal, and it always started out the same, with an inquisition about her time with the Soua. Courtney had yet to give in and her defiance seemed to arouse him. He turned to assaulting her sexually to get her to talk. Try as she might to discourage or prevent the events, they happened. Her face flushed red at the images that rolled through her mind at the thought of him. Her skin crawled at the unpleasant remembrance of his rough groping hands moving over her body, his hot breath on her face and the stink of his unwashed body as he forced himself upon her. And she had been powerless to stop it. She had of course tried, and she smiled crookedly at the memory of her knee connecting solidly with his crotch, doubling him over.
He had her chained about the ankles following the incident, pressing against her as he covered her lips with his mouth. She had leaned into it, trying to get distance between herself and the pole, and when he had yielded enough she had quickly drawn away and then snapped her head forward connecting with a resounding crack with his forehead. He had dropped like a rock as the blood from her split brow trickled into her eye. There was still a heavy bruise between his brows.
He was not deterred by her assaults on him, rage and lust mingled, and made him determined to break her. He had used whatever sway he had over the Noa to hold her down while he used her as his own personal sex toy. On his signal the Noa would come away from their stoic, statue like guard duty and pin her securely to prevent her from fighting him. She tried, Yanah, how she tried, but it had availed her nothing.
A wave of goose flesh washed over her as she hung there, with the loathing she felt at such treatment. She felt degraded and dirty, mad for being unable to protect herself from him, and madder still for allowing him to goad her into foolishness. She had lost her grasp of the entire situation; her focus had narrowed too much, concentrating on the Human who led the Noa. She had not assessed her surrounding as she had been taught so many times by Gui'. And that mistake had cost her freedom and the ability to get away with the information she had gathered from Thomas.
Her ex-husband was a saint compared with the abuse this man was capable of. That was the most stinging part of her situation, she had been through very similar events with her Ex, so similar it was chilling. Yet she had not let him get away with what he had done to her, she had brought her plight to the authorities and they had scared him straight. This was different, there was no friendly face, and nowhere to turn, and no recourse save to detach herself from what he did with her body on his visits.
Between his visits she was left hanging here like a piece of meat that had yet to cure properly. He ignored her totally unless he was in the mood for sex, seemingly more involved in what she felt was an action about to take place. There had been an odd thrumming series of booms occasionally the past several days. She had already heard the movement of many bodies both around the dwelling she was in and on the ground below her, seen as pale streaks moving under hole in the floor beneath her feet. She was certain that something big was about to happen.
Slowly her eyes shifted up without moving her head to regard her fingers to remind herself that there was still something up there. She wiggled them a little to see if they still functioned or were as lifeless as they felt. They had gone numb after twelve hours in her current position and now she could barely make them respond to her requests for movement. She tensed her muscles, feeling them protest when they were starved for nutrients and oxygen. With a grimace her body went slack again.
Suddenly the chatter in the room went silent, and the silence was deafening. Slowly she was able to pick up sounds from outside her immediate surroundings. She heard the crackling sound of plasma fire and a roar, so loud it shook even the stilted dwelling that she was in. When the sound had died again she was able to hear another sound…Soua voices. Her head whipped to one of the slatted areas to her right straining her tired eyes to focus beyond the broken view of the swamp beyond, her heart racing in excitement. They had come for her!
She strained against the chains holding her down trying desperately to see just what was going on outside. As her eyes adjusted she was able to see at least in part a huge beast wallowing through bodies that swarmed and regrouped, obviously engaged in battle. She could hear the whooshing sound as the creature's tail lashed through the air scattering bodies like so many toys under a child's angry hand. She grimaced again at the sight, hoping that the Soua were fairing better than it looked to her from this distance. She wondered if Gui'Yata was with the group, and if so was he alright?
Fires began to sprout in the middle of the swamp as the Noa resorted to using Houta against their enemy. She watched as shadows danced with death back and forth across the field. Her insides fell as she saw new waves of what was obviously Noa streak under her feet and away toward the battle.
"No," she whispered without thinking, beginning anew to struggle against her bonds.
She froze again as another sound reverberated through the air around her. It was familiar, she knew the whine she heard. It was a Ship, a Taya ship!