Hey everyone!
Thanks for the comments and the new favs and follows! Much appreciated! Hopefully, you've all been digging the story this far... and soon we're gonna have even more familiar mice appearing on these virtual pages...
Well, I'm not going to chat any longer.
Please feel very encouraged to leave a review and let's get to it!
Peace.
-SpaceFlora
The Story of Rebellion and Hope
16.
"You called Stoker?"
"Ah did, yeah..."
"And…? What did he say?" Throttle asked while wiping his specs and then putting them back on.
"Well, not everythin' he said can be repeated in the presence of the ladies, never mind them not speakin' our language...but Ah think when cuttin' off the profanities and curses, he basically wanted to know why it took us this long to call him..." Modo rubbed his chin thoughtfully, but not looking too concerned over what Stoker had said.
"Well, we've been busy." Throttle answered.
"That too..." The grey giant nodded in agreement, his garnet-red eyes looking at the human huddled in one corner of the tent, in the kitchen area.
Throttle was to add something but heard his VidCom suddenly beeping and he took it from his leather belt and gave it a look.
"...well, Stoker won't be our biggest problem..."
"How so?"
"The Army's calling..."
Modo first looked confused but then a knowing smile appeared on his face.
"Girlfriend calling a goodnight call?" He asked.
"Somehow I doubt it..." Throttle sighed.
"Ya let her know about the aliens?"
"Yeah, Stoker made me inform her back in the base, not really sure why, he's not really one to share intel..." Throttle was still observing the flickering screen that showed the name Carbine on it.
"...so, ain't ya gonna answer?" Modo drawled, suddenly feeling a pang of envy go through him. Sure the Army had good signals but when trying to contact the Camp, all he'd gotten was static.
"You think I should?" Throttle asked, like not really sure whether this was a good time to take the call.
"Ah think it will be worse if you ain't..."
"Guess you're right." Throttle looked at the humans a little further away but cleared his throat, they won't know Martian anyway, so he hit the answer button and cleared his worried face, and even gathered a small smile for the live video call.
"Corporal Carbine…!"
"It's actually Second Lieutenant Carbine now, private." The dark-grey-furred female lifted her eyebrow on the screen and Throttle couldn't decide if it was a flirting look or just wanting to rub it in.
"So, what's the status?" The female got straight to the point like Throttle was already very used to.
"What...status…?" Throttle asked, like not immediately knowing what was Carbine referring to, and switched the VidCom's angle a little, to not be too obvious where he was at the moment. It was a bit tricky to have to deal with both sides…He was loyal to Stoker and the Fighters but still not too on board straight up lying to his girlfriend.
"Oh, please… With the aliens!" Carbine's strict voice demanded.
"Why?" Throttle lingered.
"Because the Army's heading that way. And we want to know what the situation is there. Are they armed? How many of them are we talking about here? And please stop answering questions with questions!"
Throttle heaved a sigh and gave Modo a glance over the small hand-sized portable VidCom but the grey Fighter only turned away and walked a little deeper into the tent, wanting to give his bro a little privacy even if the call did not turn out to be that private.
"How do you know where we are… I mean, where the aliens are?" Throttle asked, but this time actually curious and not just wanting to prolong the conversation.
"The Army has its' ways." Carbine snapped.
"Yeah, slow ways, that is..."
The dark gray-furred female snorted back and it was clear she was on a truck as she spoke, her figure moving with the truck's bumpy way of dealing with the roadless Martian deserts. A tress of her raven-black hair slipped to cover her eyes but she combed it back behind her ear.
"Anyway, wanting to let you know that we're on our way." The female soldier added while little static appeared on the screen.
"Why bother here? We could've just sent you the memo..." Throttle joked but Carbine wasn't amused.
"The Army handles the alien problems, you know that."
"Yes, we've seen how well you guys do that..."
"You want to start a fight?" Carbine switched her dark piercing look straight to Throttle and it was now Throttle that despite his dark specs could feel the burning stare digging through the dark lenses and into his skull. Luckily, he had been here many times and he happened to know the owner of this intimidating stare and he happened to love her very much.
"With a superior officer? No, sir." Throttle chuckled back and Carbine rolled her dark eyes but he could see the small humored twitch on her lips.
"Only thing I wonder is why Stoker wanted to tip us on the aliens..." Carbine wondered then, purposefully leaving out the whole part that it had been indeed the Fighters who had spotted the foreign craft landing on Mars in the first place.
"Maybe he was feeling generous." Throttle tried even if he knew it was far from the truth.
"Well, whatever brain damage might have caused his actions, when we come there, we'll take over the problem."
"You don't want to share?"
"We don't want to have any more problems, and with you guys… problems are the only things you have."
"Now, see, I'm joking but you're aiming to hurt..." Throttle let out a dry chuckle.
Carbine checked something a little off the camera and then came back to the VidCom.
"We'll be there in a few hours."
"Can't wait." Throttle muttered but cleared his throat.
"I mean, of course, it'll be great seeing you, girl!"
"And remember, when we get there…" Carbine sighed, looking now a little apologetic but quickly regained herself.
"This is a professional visit, and we'll act professionally. Okay?"
"Hey, we know what professional means..."
"I mean, I'm not to be called "girl" in front of my regiment."
"No, sir."
"I mean it. Try to act professional."
"Sure thing..." Throttle chuckled but then raised his eyebrow, lowering his voice into a guttural growl.
"So, what you wearing…?"
Carbine rolled her eyes again and ended the call. Throttle chuckled at this very unsurprising response and put the VidCom back in its' place to hang from his belt. He cleared his throat and turned around to see Modo leisurely walking around the tent, looking curiously around, his hands behind his back like he would be visiting a museum.
"The Army's gonna drop by?" The grey giant asked nonchalantly.
"Yeah… And the Army demanded us to act professional..."
"Easier said than done." Modo huffed.
"Compared to the Army we look like we just crawled from the gutters..."
"Hey, when you play hard you're bound to get a little dirty."
"A little dirty? Ah've no idea what color these rags used to be..." The grey male answered.
"I know, there are so many holes in these I think the only thing holding them together is the dried blood..." Throttle added but was interrupted.
"Excuse me…!"
Both of the tall big males turned their questioning looks on the humans and to Charley, particularly who had raised her voice but who now suddenly when meeting these two pairs of alien eyes...behind the specs or not... she looked like she was having second thoughts about her call for attention.
"Sorry, I just...I think I smell fire..." The auburn-haired engineer said carefully, her green eyes jumping back and forth between the two big aliens who shared glances.
"Fire?" The humans repeated and everyone started to smell the air, and in fact, there was a faint smell of something burning.
"Good. Maybe Vinnie got the fire started… Or maybe he got himself on fire… Better go check…" Modo mumbled and strolled to the door, leaving Throttle's side.
"Fire...Like real fire?" Lucas asked and Eve picked on it immediately.
"If there's a fire...it means...there must be oxygen!"
Throttle heaved a sigh. These humans. Man, this was like babysitting kindergarteners. But he wasn't up to giving them any school lectures so he just passed the question. If the Army wanted to be in charge then he gladly passed the role of a teacher to them as well. He did not have the time nor the interest to educate aliens. If the Army came here, it would mean that the Fighters' role would be quite minuscule anyway, not much they could do. If the Army wanted to deal with the humans, they could have them, and anyway, what would the Freedom Fighters do with nine humans? But maybe Stoker should be informed still, who knows what the Commander had on his sleeve… Nothing predictable anyway.
"So, I've got good news, bad news, and some more bad news…" His gruff voice started and the humans all set their eyes on him.
"Good news is that there's gonna be food in some near future…Although the bad news is it probably won't taste good."
"And the other bad news…?" Noah asked with a cautious tone.
"The other bad news is...The Army's gonna stay for the dinner too..."
"The...Army?" Jeremiah raised his eyebrow.
"I thought you were the Army…?"
Throttle cleared his throat and shook his index finger in the air in a fatherly manner.
"Now, see… If you wanna play it smart, I'd cut those jokes when the Army gets here… We're not on too friendly terms with them..."
"But...If you ain't the Army…" Noah started.
"Then who the hell are you?!" Zack continued, sounding more determined to know why the hell were these guys looking like they were to massacre the whole Universe if they weren't military.
Throttle silently pondered while looking at the humans through the dark glasses. Yeah, true, there hasn't been much of a meet-and-greet happening between them.
"We're the Resistance."
"The Resistance?" Charley asked when the others were still tasting the word.
"The Resistance of Mars." Throttle confirmed.
"So, that means you are..." Noah was already having an epiphany but Throttle cut his thoughts by giving the answer that was already clearing up in the Captain's mind.
"We are freedom fighters."
"Oh, shit…! That's wild!" The metal twins let out in unison, kind of in awe and Throttle nodded.
"Yup...Pretty wild..." The tan alien sighed while rubbing his forehead, already dreading a little what was to come as the Cave Mouse Army would arrive. That could turn out wild, indeed. Never mind the soldier boys but when his lady was there in charge...all bets were off. Carbine wasn't rising in the ranks for no reason. She would take no bullshit from anyone.
x
Harley and Vinnie had taken their bikes from the dune closer to the tent and the female mechanic was now tinkering with them, trying to figure out why the bikes weren't responding. Vinnie, after his glorious victory over starting the fire, was there to help her, although "helping" was a bit too strong of a word.
"Vinnie, please! Stop standing in front of the light! I can't see a damn thing!" Harley hissed and tried to hit the young Fighter but he quickly shifted in his place.
"Hey, careful with the swing arm, doll!"
"And for the last time! Stop calling me a doll! I ain't your babe, your doll or even your damn damsel in distress so ain't there any other place you could be right now besides hovering around my ass?"
Vinnie chuckled back and growled deeply.
"Whoa, girl here has some steam under her helmet…!"
Harley gritted her teeth while trying to focus on doing the magic tricks under the hood of Vinnie's bike. Not maybe even so much for the irritation towards the young Fighter but because the deep growl had woken up something deep inside her too and it wasn't even an unpleasant feeling that was threatening to coil lower, south from her naval area… It would be so much easier to work in some place where the males would be physically unattractive at least but no, it seems that in the ranks of the Fighters the males were seemingly exquisite examples of masculinity that could knock easier girls off their feet in one second. Luckily, Harley wasn't an easy girl. Well, she tried really hard not to be but damn if the young mouse now standing beside her wasn't smelling so awfully good… Harley tried to steer her thoughts somewhere else… She blamed her hormones for her dizzy head right now, and why not, all the males blamed the hormones as well anytime she even raised her voice a bit. Thinking that her mood turned from a slight feeling of euphoria to pissed-off again, those damn misogynous males. The next time the war comes, she would reform an all-female Fighter group. That would be the end of the disgusting reek of smelly feet during the night and the continuous concertos of burbs at the dinner table… Why on Deimos' name was she even drawn to these vile creatures… Yeah, hormones, they had a funny way...
"Just thought you'd need a hand..." Vinnie's voice got lower and deeper which resonated in Harley's chest and stomach in a tickling way and she looked from under the hood which only enabled her to see the waist of the white male and that tank top tightly hugging his every muscle on his abdomen area. Well, hormones were one thing but damn did these disgusting creatures have the looks…
"Hey, eyes up here, doll..." Vinnie snickered pointing his two fingers to his ruby-red eyes with an awfully smug smirk and Harley quickly shifted herself to get her eyes and hands back to work again.
"Stop bugging me!"
"Fine… But I wouldn't say no if after you're done looking under the hood of my bike you'll check under my..."
"Vinnie. Ya know what sound do Ah love?" Modo suddenly entered the conversation a little further away, keeping the fire alive, stirring it a little while knelt beside it.
"Oh, do tell..." Vinnie got immediately bored and a little irritated while interrupted.
"Silence." Modo answered. Harley started to laugh under the hood but Vinnie only shook his head clueless.
"What? Now silence ain't even a sound! That ain't makin' no sense!"
Modo gave him a meaningful glare back but Vinnie looked even more clueless.
"What? What?! Why are you ogling at me?! Well, I'm sooorryyy if I'm interrupting your cute little campfire moment there with my one-of-a-kind personality! I know it must suck to be you and see all this youthful glory shining brightly back at ya... but geez, go easy with the lamentations, bro...! Some of us are trying to have the time of our lives hereistModo let out a snort but shook his head. He then decided to change the conversation to...well anywhere else than what it would be Vin wanted Harley to check… He carefully got up and Vinnie clenched his fists already ready for a second round in the sand, nothing he was afraid of anyway but as Modo turned his big frame to him and flicked his big knife from his waist, pointing the sharp shining tip towards the young mouse, Vinnie took a hasty step back.
"We need to cut the meat." The grey giant rumbled before he walked over to the dead saber squid. Vinnie threw his hands up and down, looking after the big male and then giving Harley a look.
"...What's his damn problem?"
"You."
Vinnie huffed back.
"Right, if you ask me, he's the one with a problem, with all his "let 's build a fire and burn some meat" thing!"
"You mean with getting sustenance so we don't die? Yeah, you're right. That's not normal." Harley answered dryly.
"He's got some issues..." Vinnie folded his arms not hearing Harley's answer.
"Well, at this point, who doesn't..." Harley sighed and then gave Vinnie a look.
"Well, if you just gonna stand there being useless then go find me some motor oil from the tent!"
"What do you need that for?" Vinnie asked and Harley leaned against the red racer.
"I'm gonna strip naked and bathe in it, how's that?" She deadpanned.
"Hey, I ain't got problems with that..." A flirtatious smirk appeared on the white youngster's face and Harley felt her cheeks burning suddenly. Damn, she tricked herself into this.
"Just go find the oil!" She snapped getting herself back under the hood, just to hide her red cheeks.
"Well, no need to be rude..." Vinnie muttered while slouching towards the tent door.
"Well, no need to be so thick in the head either!" Harley shouted after him and then shook her head, still smelling the white Fighter's scent lingering around her.
"Damn... Ain't you ever gonna learn, girl, boys ain't nothing but trouble... And these Fighter boys are more trouble than the usual..." As she heard Vinnie entering the tent she leaned against the machine with both hands, shaking her head. This messed-up wartime and this damn endless desert weren't doing her any good, that's for sure. She sighed deeply and let her eyes wander over Modo who was there standing beside the big dead animal, and he had followed Vinnie with his look, too and he now turned his eyes on Harley, and the mechanic thought she saw him raising his eyebrow at her, questioning, and Harley couldn't really blame him, she started to question herself too. But the burly Fighter turned to the carcass, minding his own business, cutting the meat. Harley let out another sigh and got to her work too.
x
Sophia had taken her glasses away because they weren't doing much now that those had been broken in the terrible earthquake that had taken place on the plain where their tent had been raised. Well, one of the lenses had gotten into pieces and thus it felt weird to keep them. Luckily she wasn't too blind to see without them on but she still felt a little vulnerable. She had not been able to pay too much attention to the broken glasses though not since there had been other more urgent things to pay attention to. Mainly, the four alien individuals in their tent. She still had been absent-mindedly playing with the frames as her two dark eyes had been frantically jumping on the aliens in present, going back and forth in every one of them while being startled by every little move they've made that was threatening to come too close to her, meaning if they even moved their finger towards the humans her breath had hitched and the trembling of her body had started all over again. This was just too much. But even if being in the presence of aliens, all her brain was thinking was her two kids waiting for her at home. She felt her heart burning in her chest for the knowledge that she would never see her kids again. And even if her heart was still beating, she felt she was as good as dead. For without her kids, she wasn't even….
She took a deep sigh but felt a knot in her throat and it enabled her to even breathe properly. This was a big nightmare. A nightmare that would not end.
Her eyes were focused on the aliens currently in their tent. The white one had come back inside while the grey one had left. All of these aliens had gone in and out of the tent door numerous times but the tan-furred leader had stayed inside ever since he had stepped his combat boots into their space camp that had felt so safe just yesterday.
Luckily the aliens had stayed a little further away from the humans, staying in the background but Sophia could tell that the humans couldn't even move a finger without the aliens' ears twitching or them briefly landing their observing eyes on them. So, Sophia tried to sit very still on the floor. So still in fact that she could feel her bottom and legs become numb.
The red-haired woman took a deep breath but tried to do it as silently as she could while her eyes were on the aliens. If the creatures weren't having a chat with the humans they were talking in their own language to each other, so the humans didn't really know what was going on.
Sophia was glad that these males had stayed a little further away from the humans also because they reeked. And Sophia couldn't really tell what the smell was but it was not pleasant. Apparently, the creatures on Mars weren't wearing antiperspirants or any kind of cologne… These aliens smelled like they had never taken a shower in their life and whatever had gotten on their fur had stayed there since day one. Okay, well Sophia wanted to exaggerate things now, mainly because she was scared and she didn't want to feel any kind of sympathy for the aliens. No, there wouldn't be any kind of Stockholm syndrome happening on her part, no way.
She cleared her throat which felt like grinding sandpaper. Her throat was dry and she only now just realized just how dehydrated she was. They'd not been drinking anything ever since they'd gotten the message from their Captain from outside declaring they had company… She tried to gather saliva inside her mouth so she could at least swallow that but found out it was nearly impossible. Her mouth was as dry as the throat. And now that she had temporarily turned her focus on her body...She realized that she really needed to pee, too.
She quickly turned her eyes on Noah who caught her stare and narrowed his eyes while trying to figure out why was their physicist staring at him so hard. Sophia tried to swallow again but it was yet another poor try, so she opened her mouth and mimed "water" to Noah a couple of times in a row before Noah understood what she was trying to tell him and their Captain also cleared his throat that had so much more meaningfulness in it unlike in Sophia's attempt so it now got both, the white alien's and the tan one's attention who now turned their heads towards the space crew's captain.
"If I may ask...ehm, gentlemen… We could use some water here… It's been a long day..."
The white male gave the tan one a look, which stood there looking at Noah with those dark shades on but Noah could feel the stare on him again. Those damn glasses, Noah wondered in his mind. Why even bother using them inside?
"Yeah, we all could use some water..." The tan one rasped now in a language the humans could all understand again, although his answer was a little enigmatic. The white one continued his search for something and threw things around, things falling and flying with clattering noises that made everyone's, including the tan-furred alien's, ears twitch and their bodies startle.
Noah nodded slightly confused about the answer but he could feel his throat being dry as a desert around them now that he was concentrating on it.
"We have a water tank here in the kitchen… Maybe...You let me go get us all water?" Noah stated but his voice was partially drowned in the cacophony of rattling and clattering sounds in the tent right now.
"They brought water to Mars?" The white male asked loudly with great disbelief in his voice while stopping his noisy actions, giving the humans a look but the tan-furred male only made a small shrug back.
"I mean, they thought they were to starve here...so, guess it makes sense..." Throttle answered, pointing his words at his fellow Fighter even if the humans could understand their talk again.
"Sounds stupid if you ask me..." Vinnie stated before he began his tumultuous search for something around the tent again and everyone gritted their teeth while the loud noises started all over again and whatever had remained somewhat intact by the earthquake would now be broken anyway as the young Fighter threw things around like the tent would be his very own action park.
"We need water to survive. Of course, it makes sense to bring it here..." Eve talked under her breath, answering Throttle's statement and the tan male moved his eyes on her without her noticing it.
"Yeah, and because unbeknownst to you all... We have water here." Throttle concluded right before Vinnie haphazardly poured a big plastic container on the floor that let out a loud clashing sound of something fragile getting broken into billions of pieces. Throttle clenched his teeth together as he felt like someone stabbing him straight at the ear canals and he grabbed the young Fighter by his bandoliers and swung him around, to face him before quickly snagging something under one pile of trash and nearly throwing the three-liter canister of motor oil at Vinnie who got hold of it and gave the canister a curious look before his look turned sour.
"Now how was I supposed to know where these galoots keep their oils?" The white-furred Fighter muttered while dawdling towards the door again with the canister like it was the most obnoxious task ever.
"You've got water here?" Eve's voice was like shrinking with each syllable. Suddenly she felt incredibly dumb. Why the hell were they even here? There was a functioning civilization already apparently settled here...And here they were...dragging their asses all across the universe to look at some rocks and pebbles and see if they could make salad grow in these harsh environments even if there were apparently living breathing Martians already living and surviving here. Yes, she felt very dumb right now. She didn't know how Mars had their own share of life but suddenly she felt like the whole Universe knew the answer except for the little blue planet Earth.
"Well, not like in amount for grabs but...yes, there's water because why would we be even existing here if there was no water at all?" Throttle answered her.
"Right..." Eve sighed, feeling how the stupidity just grew inside her.
"Life requires water, right?" Throttle started again and the humans all nodded in agreement.
"And oxygen." Lucas announced.
"Right." The tan-furred alien only nodded back, not revealing from the facial expression whether he agreed or not.
"So...you got oxygen too?" Noah asked carefully like the question would trigger the alien to do something stupid, like shooting them.
"Let's not go into details..." Throttle suddenly cut this very interesting and from the humans' point of view, very world-shattering share of knowledge.
"Yes, let's not..." Eve sighed, looking at her feet. She felt like canceling her doctorate honor. Suddenly, it all felt very meaningless to her.
"So...What's for dinner?" Isaac, the other long-haired asked sounding like he was at his grandmother's house.
Throttle took in a long breath.
"It's best you don't know."
And all the humans agreed on that on some level. Yes, at this point, it was maybe best that they'd try to chew and digest all the new information they'd already gathered today without adding any more to the mix.
"So...How about that water?" Noah asked again and Throttle nodded, agreeing and shifting his weight while his tail lashed out, the tip of the tail tapping his leg holster with the impressive-looking gun tucked in it.
"I don't think I need to remind you to not try any shenanigans, right?"
The humans shook their heads again. Noah turned around to go get them all some water but stopped in his tracks when seeing Sophia's look again which looked a little suffering.
"I need to pee." Sophia whispered very quietly and Noah nodded and then turned around again to face Throttle who arguably had heard Sophia but waited for Noah to ask him nonetheless.
"She needs to...Well, I think we all need to use the bathroom, too..."
Throttle couldn't look more uninterested and only shrugged his broad shoulders on his tall frame.
"Then go use the bathroom."
x
x
x
And that's that!
I actually planned to write a longer chapter but decided that I wanted to give you guys something to read again, as it always takes me so long to update the story...
Well, a lot of chitchat in this one... But maybe you can guess that in the next chapter, the wheels start to roll... The Army's gonna get there and what would they want to do with the humans? Who knows at this point, we'll just have to wait and see! And maybe we'll find out whether humans could actually breathe on Mars? Maybe?
So, please feel free to leave a review like always and stay tuned and until next time, my friends!
-SpaceFlora