Chapter 34: Dark Star.
Shey gently closed the door and smiled both happily and sadly to herself, the sight of her best friend dancing with Mark had hit her like a sucker punch, she was both utterly happy for her friend but she was so utterly jealous that it burned her inside.
"Ahhh, jealousies bitter sting, burns like a bitch, don't it?" a voice said from behind her, and Shey spun to find Moodstone standing behind her, looking at her with a kinda amused look on her face, Shey snorted and looked away.
"I-I'm not jealous, I'm happy for her, for them," Shey said, and Moodstone laughed softly.
"Sure you're not, look, for what it's worth, I get it, it's hard for us scaly girls to get someone who really sees us and accepts us for who we are without judging us, my Tankie was the first one to ever truly see the real me and to give me as good as I gave, you just need to look for someone like that, someone who is going to look at you and really see you, and I do believe I may just have a lead on someone just like that for you," she said, and Shey snapped her head back up to look at her.
"What!? Really?" she exclaimed, and Moodstone smiled again.
"Thought that might cheer you up, I have it on a good authority that there is a black haired human running around the medical bay asking if anyone has seen a white scaled angel, you'll note that he said white 'scaled,' know anyone who has white scales and, to a frightened human, could possibly be mistaken for an angel what with her being in possession of a pair of wings?" Moodstone said, grinning now.
"Double L," Shey said to herself, smiling as she did.
"Ahh, so you do know him," Moodstone said, cocking a hip as she looked at her, and Shey nodded.
"He's the guy who went base jumping without a parachute that I caught on the way down," she said.
"Cute?" Moodstone asked, and Shey shook her head.
"Not cute, utterly gorgeous, waaaaaaay outta my league, we're talking human super model looks, the kinda human you see in one of those magazines that you sit there reading while you're tail does a happy dance, you know what I mean?" Shey said with a slightly bitter laugh, and suddenly Moodstone clapped a heavy hand on her shoulder, making her jump and look up at her.
"Well, your human super model is running around searching for his snow white angel, go find him, girl, and stop bloody moping," Moodstone said, spinning her around and actually pushing her towards the medical bay and Shey looked over her shoulder at her.
"B-B-But what if I scare him off!?" she exclaimed, and Moodstone turned her around again to look her hard in the eyes.
"Do you remember the talk we had? What my Tankie explained to you about what humans really want?" she asked, and Shey nodded as she remembered the conversation they'd had at great length regarding the human heart and how to cradle it and not try to grab it, "be gentle with him, he already knows how strong you are, now show him how gentle you can be," Moodstone said, and Shey was nervous but she nodded.
"Good, now go get him, tiger," she said, patting her on the shoulder before pushing her off towards the medical bay and melting back into the shadows, Shey drew herself up, took a deep breath, and then began to walk.
The medical bay was crammed and people were running around everywhere, in fact, she noticed the new Xenos that they had here were also helping out, it appeared that Zachee and Ice were teaching them to be nurses and they seemed to be quite taken by the jobs they'd been given, well, except for one, who was sat with a family and was protectively cradling a human child in his lap while what appeared to be his mother and sister held tightly to the young boy as he cried his heart out, funny, she never imagined Xenos to be that caring before, but they were actually rather tender and protective.
It made her think of what she'd actually wanted for her own life, all she'd ever really wanted was a love for herself, someone she could show the true and real person she was, rather than the mask she showed the world every day, Tank had explained that his experience with Scalathor girls showed that they while dominant and controlling actually had another side that was hard to pry out of them, a side that just wanted to be smothered in romance and love and tenderness, to have someone show them beauty willingly and happily, someone who would open their heart to them without a fight and would show them a gentle and soft love with little shows of romance and she'd realized instantly that he was describing her to a tee, all those thoughts and feelings that hid so well under her instincts, he'd pegged her right down in one.
He'd also spent a great deal of time describing to her the different types and classes of humans, everything from submissive to dominant to helpless romantics and a great many others and instantly she realized she didn't want either a sub or a dom, she didn't really want to control anyone, despite what her Draconian mind was telling her, her heart wanted something very different, she didn't want to be controlled either, but the hopeless romantic...yeah, that was the one she wanted, the one who just couldn't help but want to show her every day how much she mattered to him and would be utterly overjoyed when she did the exact same things for him.
Suddenly the crowd seemed to part in the makeshift medical bay and it was like one of those slow motion reveals in those human romance films she secretly adored watching when no one was around, there he was, standing in the middle of the crowd, a lost and confused look on his face, wringing his hands together at his midriff as he looked around himself, in her chest, Shey's heart lurched as his eyes came up to meet hers and his face utterly lit up into the most beautiful smile she had ever seen in her life and that's when her fear got one last kick in and before she knew she was doing it she was running, but not to him, away from him.
Shey stood with her back to one of the crates with her heart pounding in her chest, "Fucking stupid tail lifter!" she exclaimed, swearing at herself as she banged her fist against the empty crate, she was angry with herself for being such a bloody coward, she lifted her head just in time to see Grim Reaper walking by and he stopped to scan her momentarily before continuing on his never ending patrol, by the great tree, he creeped her the fuck out now that he was in that damn thing, it was like he was no longer human and was just a damn robot, then she suddenly became aware of a presence to her left and she turned, only to come face to face with Leon.
"There you are!" he exclaimed happily, his whole handsome face lighting up in a radiant smile that made her heart utterly hammer in her chest but at the same time made her shrink under the beauty of it, like it was something she was never meant to see.
"Y-Y-Yeah, here I am," she said as she swallowed hard.
"I've been looking all over for you, I really wanted to thank you for what you did for me, if it wasn't for you I'd be a pavement pizza, it's not every day you fall out of a window and are plucked out of certain death by an actual angel," he said, smiling, and Shey's heart started doing somersaults in her chest.
"I'm not an angel, just a Draconis in the right place at the right time," she said, and Leon's smile widened.
"If she looks like an angel, acts like an angel, is modest like an angel, then, for my mind, she's an angel," he said, and Shey actually felt her tail jumping about, this had never ever happened to her before, she was nervous, usually she was a bundle of energy and confidence, but right now her mind was struggling to even think of words to put into a coherent sentence, let alone being able to string it together.
"Ummm, thank you," she said, and he shook his head.
"No, thank you, miss Shey, you saved my life, umm, I know that this is, umm, probably not an ideal time to ask this and I'm probably going to get slapped or something right now but when you get plucked out of the air when falling to a certain death by a beautiful woman if the universe is not sending you a signal to man the fuck up and take a damn chance then what is it saying, right? Umm, yeah, so, umm, would you like to, umm, maybe kinda like to get a drink or some dinner with me, maybe, feel free to say no but I just thought that maybe you'd like to and I, err, felt I should ask you," he said, suddenly turning into a gibbering, nervous wreck and it was so insanely cute that her shaking heart actually melted in her chest.
"Yes," she said, and his face lit up.
"R-R-Really? You want to? With me?" he asked hopefully, and she smiled and nodded.
"Sure, I-I'd love to, but, umm, we don't exactly have a five star restaurant here," she said, trying to lighten this up with a little humor and it worked as he smiled at her brightly.
"While I agree you deserve to be pampered but I'd just be happy that I got to take you out for dinner because while my surroundings may be ugly but my company would be perfect," he said, and Shey couldn't help but laugh and swish her tail happily.
"That was utterly cheesy but sweet as hell," she said with a grin, and Leon blushed but smiled at her.
"I suck at talking to pretty girls, I, err, just, umm, get tongue tied and forget what I'm trying to say or it just sounds utterly perfect in my head but when it comes out of my mouth it just sounds stupid," he said, rubbing the back of his head and it drew her eyes to his black hair, oh boy, that hair was in some serious need of some horn winding and she had just the right horns for the job.
"You think I'm pretty?" she asked, feeling flattered deeply and he actually looked surprised.
"Are you kidding? You're a living, breathing angel, a scaly angel who flew down out of the sky to save my worthless arse, no one has ever done anything even remotely close to that for me before, if that wasn't a sign from the universe that I need to find this girl and pamper her in anyway I can because I owe her a debt I can never repay in full and she never asked me for a thing in return, that is the mark of a true hero, a real living breathing angel," he said, and Shey's heart began to beat faster in her chest.
"I'm not a hero, it's my job to protect people like you, Leon, you don't need to thank me for..." she began, but suddenly he just grabbed her hand in both of hers and startled her.
"No! You do deserve it! My life is the only thing I have left and the only thing of really any value that I have and you saved it, you have no idea what that means to me and anything I can do to prove to you that I'm serious about this I will do," he said, and Shey's tail swished like crazy.
"Alright, I accept, I'll have both dinner and drinks with you, but I warn you, I hope you're not planning on getting this Draconian drunk because I'll drink your human ass under the table and then I'll end up having to carry you off to bed and then we'll both wake up in the morning..." she said, before he suddenly interrupted her and actually surprised her with his words.
"God, I hope not, because a girl like you deserves so much more than a drunken one night stand, you deserve to be romanced and wooed, but hey, if that did happen, at least you wouldn't have to worry about me running out on you, I'd be sitting there trying to work out how the hell I got so lucky and scared shitless that you were going to wake up and regret the whole thing, plus, doing my very best to ensure that I remembered everything because, if that was destined to be a one off, you think for one second I'd want to forget it then your very mistaken," he said, and her mouth dropped open robbing her of her usual fiery wit.
"Wait...what?" she exclaimed, looking at him in utter surprise.
"Bagging a girl like you just doesn't happen to guys like me, Shey, I'm the guy that gets laughed at or passed over for the more muscly and hardcore friend, I'm the guy who sits quietly in the corner and watches as every single person in the room pairs off and even if there was a perfect ratio of boys to girls in the room somehow would still end up going home alone while one guy goes home with two girls, but if it takes a scaly angel swooping down out of the fucking sky and pulling me to safety for me to get up off my human ass and take a fucking chance for once then who better for me to take that chance on than the most beautiful woman I have ever seen in my life?" he said, and Shey roared with laughter before grinning broadly.
"I like you, kid, you got fire in your belly! Most of your kind are scared shitless of mine because they've heard all the stories about us being male eaters," she said, trying not to let her nerves shake her tail off and his face lit up into a beautiful smile.
"Oh, I've heard all the stories about Scalathor and before you get upset I know you're a Draconis and I know you're kind are supposed to be even worse, but I don't care, you're worth taking that kind of chance on," he said.
Shey had never felt so flattered in her life but somehow she still tried to sabotage it, "You don't even know me, LL," she said, and he shook his head.
"No, you're right, I don't, but I know you're worth taking a chance on, taking a chance that I'll get the chance to get to know you," he said, and she smiled even brighter but this time she didn't laugh because this was definitely the sweetest thing anyone had ever said to her ever.
"Well, alright then, LL, you got yourself a date with a Draconian, I hope you know what you're doing and what you're getting yourself into, because, if it turns out I like you, you know I'm never going to let go, right?" she said, trying to pass off a truthful statement as a jokey one and he laughed.
"God, here's hoping, followed around by my very own scaly angel for the rest of my life, where do I fucking sign?" he said, and now she burst out a full on belly laugh, oh, this kid did have fire in his belly, he just needed the right primer to let it out, looked like she was that primer and she pointed at him.
"Oh, I like you, kid, where the hell you been for the last ten years?" she asked, and he grinned kinda sheepishly.
"School, well, up until last year anyway, free and legal now though," he said, and again another laugh burst out of her as she suddenly remembered there was an age gap between them but if it didn't bother him then she wasn't going to let it bother her either.
"You got yourself a date, LL," she said, and he did a fist pump which made her smile, in fact, she was about to step in to give him a thank you hug when a very high pitched whine hit her ears, his too apparently as he began looking around.
"What the hell is that?" he asked, and suddenly a lead ball dropped right into the pit of Shey's stomach as she realise what she was hearing.
"Get down!" she roared and dove on Leon, knocking him to the floor a moment before the first mortar exploded only meters away, lifting them both off the floor like an invisible hand and throwing them both into the side of one of the shipping containers, causing the wind to get knocked out of her as his weight hit her and stars to burst into her vision as her head snapped back against the metal.
The world became a symphony of utter and pure chaos, Shey struggled to try to get to her feet despite the world spinning like a top and being blurry as hell, out of nowhere Grim Reaper appeared into the centre of the yard and appeared to be shooting down more incoming mortars before they hit the ground, looking down she saw that Leon wasn't moving and her heart froze in her chest.
"Leon! Oh, by the great tree, please, no!" she yelled, dropping to her knees again and checking his pulse on his neck, he was breathing and his pulse was there, he was just knocked out, fighting her own dizziness she dragged herself to her feet and hoisted him up and into her arms, "You are not fucking dying on me! I didn't wait ten years to find a perfect, kind, gentle human only to have him fucking stolen from me!" she bellowed as her anger flared into full on rage that fueled every single step she took towards the medical bay that now looked like an ant colony that someone had just poured water down, "Medic! I need a medic over here! Please save him! Please!" she yelled.
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"Critical threats to survival or priority protection targets Macha and Inferno as well as civilians detected, multiple heavy weapons platforms, count six M1400 main battle tanks, two multiple projectile launcher systems and multiple armed humanoids with a variety of small arms, all appears to be military grade," Grim Reaper said, analyzing the battlefield before him, what he was saying was being routed through the entire comms systems so everyone from the Queen Bee down to the cops got it, including Spike's team, who were still breaking into the anti air system.
"Fuck! They must have been using optical camo, that's why my systems didn't pick them up, and the high yield cannons are still down for recharging so you got no air support this time, guys," Queen Bee came over the comms.
"How the fuck did they get tanks!? And why the fuck are they using them on us?" Spike yelled into the comms.
"Because we kicked their fucking asses and stole their toys, they must have managed to get a message out somehow before we turned their tower into glass," Moodstone yelled, looking over the wall at the six tanks that were fanning out and covered in undead crawling all over them like angry ants, but they were utterly useless against a sealed tank that could survive a nuclear war.
Suddenly T'Shara turned and yelled, "They're firing, everyone down!" she bellowed, and as one everyone except Grim Reaper hit the deck as a volley of high explosive shells slammed into crates and concrete all around them and suddenly his railguns lifted and began firing at the mortars that were being fired up at them, he managed to take them all down before they even got close.
"We got nothing that can take down a fucking tank, let alone six!" Picasso yelled, lifting his head and shaking off the rubble that coated him and yelling over the screams of both fear and pain that were cascading around the compound.
"Detecting six more thermal signatures, tank count now twelve, odds of priority targets calculated at twelve percent, unacceptable odds, initiating last stand protocal survival of priority targets Macha and Inferno recalculated at seventy two percent, acceptable odds achieved, protocal active, playing pre-recorded message, "My two loves, there aren't words in this universe strong enough to convery how I feel about you both, you took my heart and showed me the truth of the universe, the truth of love, i know that you two are the only things in the universe that truly matter to me at this moment and I am sorry to put you through this, I just hope that if by some miracle I survive this that you can forgive me, but know this, no matter what happens, I will always always love you both, goodbye, my sweetest of all hearts, I'm sorry," he said in his own voice with the mechanical twang.
"Wait! What the pauk does that mean!?" T'Shara yelled, but before she could even blink Grim Reaper had turned and had vaulted over the wall.
"Aiden, NOOOOOOOOOO!" Macha screamed at the top of her lungs, echoing her pain through everyone's minds, the other Spirits suddenly realised what he was doing and they utterly dog piled both Macha and T'Shara to prevent them going over the wall after the man they loved and it took every one of them and some friends to pin them both down, "No! Let me go! He's out there all alone!" Macha roared.
"Let me go to him!" T'Shara roared from under Tank's bulk.
"Sorry, lassie, no can do, not losing you too, he's doing this for you and for all of us, ain't going to let you throw that away," he said, grunting at being repeatedly elbowed in the head, which his helmet took.
No sooner had he hit the ground than tank shells began to rain down on him as they realised that he'd come over the wall after them, out of the twelve shots only one scored a hit, punching him in the right shoulder like a giant fist and blowing off one of his rail guns, but he barely missed a step as he began to sprint forward at full tilt, the rail guns were not designed to be able to punch through the armour of main battle tanks but that didn't stop him from firing them into them, trying to hit sensitive targets like their sensor packs, after a huge jump he landed right on the roof of the closest tank and smashed both fists into the hatch after sweeping the undead away like ants.
The hatch tore out and the other tanks only hesitated for a moment before they resumed firing on him, scoring a few hits and damaging his armor, they appeared to have switched from high explosive rounds to AP to deal with him, jamming one hand into the now torn open hatch he extended the mini gun barrels and opened fire into the vehicle, turning the occupants into confetti before igniting the ammo battery which caused the whole thing to explode as he jumped clear and launched the tank's turret gun into fucking orbit.
In his display, Reaper saw multiple red markers on the armor as he took a full volley of AP rounds at nearly point blank range, his armor might be made from the hull of a starship but those things were designed to go through it, his right arm was utterly blown away, taking not only the mecha arm but his own cybernetic one inside it, but this didn't stop him even for a second and he charged full tilt into the side of the tank that fired the shot and with his remaining good arm he dug under it and flipped the seventy ton machine onto its roof.
Without skipping a beat he pulled his plasma scythe from his back with his one good arm and sent it spinning towards the next closest tank, burying right up to the bar in the armor and igniting the fuel cell inside, blowing the whole tank into orbit along with the turret of the first but as he paused to draw the next target the remaining tanks unleashed another volley on him and he lost his remaining rail guns and the lower part of his right leg, crippling him.
"Warning, Critical failure detected! Right arm detached, right leg damaged beyond repair, deploying vertical thrusters to compensate, rail guns destroyed," the damage control system said inside his head, Reaper kept pushing, in the darkness at the back of his mind where the human part of him lived now a cold fury was building and fighting with the logic processor for dominance, images of T'Shara and Macha smiling and happy kept flashing into the dark recesses and reaching him, "I will not fail you," the suit said in his voice.
Leaping onto the fourth tank, Reaper jammed his remaining arm into the gun barrel, sending the micro missiles on his forearm swarming down the barrel where they detonated the shell inside the breach and sent a blast wave up the barrel that sent him sprawling and rolling before he was able to leap back onto his foot and turn towards the next one just as a volley of fire came down on him, sending him sprawling backwards but firing his retros at just the right time, sending him spinning around back under the hover tank where, using his one good arm and remaining leg, he was able to flip it over, sending it crashing down on its turret, that's when the missile launchers got a lock on him.
The wall of explosive force sent him sprawling and rolling around and his warning systems lit up like a xmas tree in his HUD, "Left leg crippled, Servo system destroyed, thrusters offline, weapons offline, ejection system destroyed, power assist destroyed..." the list went on and on, it all spelled one thing, he was fucked, he was utterly done and as he sat prone, the armor sparking and smoking against the side of one of the overturned tanks he was just able to lift his head to see that they were now turning their attention back onto the compound, they were going to attack his beloved ones again.
"Unacceptable outcome detected, initiating self destruct protocol," Reaper said in his mechanical voice, "Warning, once this protocal is initiated it cannot be deactivated, pilot has only five minutes to clear blast zone," the system said, and, in the back of his mind where the human part of him still lived, Aiden began to laugh bitterly, images of his loved ones flashed back into his mind and in his helmet he could actually feel tears running down his cheeks, "I'll always love you both, live free, my loved ones, Initiate," he said.
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"Fuck! Reaper is down! I repeat Reaper is down and he's initiated the self destruct protocol on the GRIM," Queen Bee's voice came through the comms.
"Holy shit, that's going to take out everything in a one mile radius!" Spike replied.
"What!? Is he ok, is he out! Tell me he's out!" T'Shara yelled into the comms.
"His life signs are reading unstable, I-I-I think he's dying," Queen Bee said in such a quiet voice that it hit T'Shara like a hammer blow.
"We have to get him! We have to get him out of there! We can't just leave him out there to die alone! I won't leave the man I love to die alone!" she bellowed, fighting against the restraints of the others.
"Inferno, snap out of it! We need you here! There's nothing we can do for him now! We can't reach him and we need to protect the civilians, Reaper did this to protect you and Macha, running out there and fucking dying right in front of his fucking eyes would be a fucking piss poor way to repay the man's fucking final sacrifice for the ones he love! He did this for you two so you two are going to live through this if I have to tie you both to the fucking floor!" Whisper bellowed in a voice so fierce even Macha, who towered over her, backed in both surprise and fear of the small feline.
"Spike, where are we on the air defences? If we're going to fucking live through this we need those fucking things down like right fucking now!" Whisper yelled into her comms.
"We're going as fast as we can but they got security in here like you wouldn't believe! Add on top of that the place is full of undead and it's fucking slowing us down," he said.
"You have four and a half minutes," Queen Bee said in a very matter of fact voice.
"That's an oddly specific number," Spike said.
"That's how long is left on the countdown before the reactor in the GRIM goes nuclear and the whole place becomes a smoking pile of ash," she said with finality in her voice.
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"Fuck Fuck FUCK! COME ON, YOU STUPID PEICE OF SHIT!" Spike bellowed, slamming his fists into the computer, a large hand appeared on his shoulder and he looked up and found T'Kell looking down at him.
"Calm, my love, you can do this, we both know it, you are the best at what you do, you rebuilt my entire eye in less than five minutes, so if you can't do this, my heart's joy, then no one can," she said softly, and he clenched his hands.
"You're fucking right, my friends are counting on me!" Spike yelled, and he began typing faster than her eyes could actually track, sat at his keyboard, surrounded by a pile of bodies on all sides, looking oddly like a throne of death.
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T'Sall ducked as an explosion rocked one of the crates above him, nearly tipping it over and sending lethal shrapnel screeching out in every direction, he grabbed a screaming and terrified young Scalathor girl, hugging her tight against his armor as he dashed through burning rubble to the med bay, which, thanks to its central location and behind surrounded by multiple layers of storage crates, was untouched and being used as a fallout shelter now, he put her down inside where instantly her mother appeared and grabbed her, thanking T'Sall tearfully before melting into the terrified crowd.
He looked around and his mind cleared, he knew that he had no other choice, he had to do it or they were all going to die, him, his most beloved Whisper, the Spirit team who were actually on the ramparts, firing pointlessly at the tanks despite knowing it was fucking pointless and all of these innocent people were going to die.
"Queen Bee, please set this following message to be broadcast on all Guardian Core channels," T'Sall said.
"Ok, go, we're broadcasting," she said inside his comms.
"My name is T'Sall Jack Mason, Seeker first class, Dark Star, I say again, Dark Star, coordinates enclosed, message ends," he said, and, with that, he ran to join his beloved Whisper on the wall and to shoot at anything that fucking moved, right now that's all they could do.
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Twenty Two light years away in the Media Sector.
"Fuck Fuck Fuck, hit it! Fucking hit it!" a young female Yautja called L'Sen yelled, jumping from her seat and sprinting the full length of the large room full of communications officers who all looked at her like she'd gone crazy as she ran across the large room and fumbled like crazy for the set of keys around her neck, she yanked them free in a fit of frustration, snapping the chain they were on, she slapped a large flat key into a hole in the wall and a panel slid away and she slammed her palm against the reader that appeared, "L'Sen Mason, communications officer first class, authorisation coda zeta zeta six two three," she said.
"Voice print authorised," the panel said, and it slid upwards to reveal a large red button which she slammed hard with her palm, "Dark Star! I say again, Dark Star! This is not a drill, I say again, this is not a drill!" she yelled in a panicked voice into the panel, which sent the message facility wide and literally activated every recall beacon in range.
Literally five seconds after the alarms began blaring and the whole centre went absolutely crazy the door burst open and four figures swept in, silencing the whole place with their mere presence as they marched right towards her, L'Sen had never been so scared in her life as she found herself looking into the faces of living legends, to her they were blood and family, but that didn't make them any less legendary.
"Report, communications officer L'Sen," Jack Mason said in his voice that had melted a thousand Yaujta hearts but utterly captured one.
"We have a Dark Star call, Grand Patriarch, Seeker first class T'Sall Jack!" she said, saluting him and his eyes widened, showing off the brilliant blue flecked with both white and gold that made Yautja females simply melt to the core and gibber like love struck teens who'd just been snogged by their long term crush out of no where, L'Sen was glad she was related to the man or she herself would have been a gibbering pile of goo on the floor right now, which would have been doubly bad as the woman next to him would have torn her spine out of her arsehole and fed it to her.
Instantly he was utterly all business, "Everyone, hear this! I want everyone onstation right fucking now! Our brother seeker is in trouble and he's calling for our help and we will answer that call, and gods help any who have dared harm our beloved flesh and blood, Clan Mason NEVER leaves a brother or sister to die alone! If he is alive we will save him and all those he defends with his life and spirit, and if not we will hunt who ever has harmed him and taken his life and joy from us, they will not escape our fury and vengeance, no matter how far they run, no one harms a member of Clan Mason and lives to tell about it! I want every available Seeker and Hunter and the Battle Angels loaded and rolling in one fucking minute! We're leading this one personally," he said in a voice that carried such supreme authority every single Yautja in the room moved as one, hybrid and pure blood and at first a cheer and the ring of a salute of one hundred fists hitting breast plates as one filled the room.
Jack Mason turned to Tik Eleth and his two children Ryan and Sela, let's go get our great grandson back, my love," he said, stroking Tik's mandibles lovingly with his hand and she growled darkly.
"With you every step of the way, my heart's star," she growled, pressing her forehead to his and the four of them turned and marched out of the room, taking the breath of a hundred held breaths with them, oh boy, this was going to be something, the leaders of both the Hunters and the Seekers riding into battle together again, this is why some people traveled hundreds, if not thousands of light years to petition to join the clan, just to see these four legends in the flesh and to feel what those touched by the gods felt like, and take it from L'Sen who called them great Grandmother and Grandfather, it was utterly thrilling.
In the launch bay three large ships were surrounded by running people of all species, each obvious by their armor, Seekers wore white and silver, Hunters wore gold and white and the Battle Angels well, if you missed them in their seriously cute pink and white candy cane uniforms then you were blind, the leaders of each division stood before their ship, shouting orders as their ships filled to capacity and in the one minute that Jack had called all three ships were filled and ready to go, "I'll see you on the field, my loves," Jack called, getting a wave from both Sela and Ryan, as they headed into the ships he turned to Tik Eleth and, with a final kiss with Tik as was his battle ritual that the pair had observed before every single battle they had ever fought, the three ships closed up and all three took off from the planet.