Chapter 7: Cultural Exchange.
Liam stood staring at the expectant smiling Serpentinus woman whose tongue was flickering at him rather rapidly, he thought he must have misheard her, "Wait, you want me to strip? Like, naked?" he exclaimed, and her smile widened and she nodded.
"Well, yes, as it's only fair, don't you think? You saw me naked and accidently or not I believe fair reparation would be for me to get the very same consideration, if you are worried that I will embarrass you in-front of your peers or of them reprimanding you for unprofessional conduct don't be, I will not mention a word of this to anyone as it is not my wish to embarrass you or to get you into trouble, only to be fairly compensated as I would be on my own world and as you assured me that your people believe in honor and fairness I would expect this of you," she said, her voice sounding silky and soft the entire time.
Liam swallowed hard, he felt very uncomfortable about this, granted technically it was true that yes he had seen her naked but it was not his fault, technically it was hers for yanking him off his feet and pulling him into the room, but as a Seeker and more so as a Soul Knight which was the unit of Jack Mason himself and he was the second in command of that unit, he prided himself on being a paragon of honor and as much as it right at this moment felt like that stance was biting him in the ass, he couldn't help but feel that she was right.
"Alright, fine, let it never be said that Seeker Liam Silver Mason doesn't honor the laws of other cultures," he said, feeling those butterflies going ape shit in his stomach again, a part of him was actually kinda excited about this, he knew that he didn't really have anything to be ashamed of body wise as he took the physical part of the Seeker physical requirement very seriously and was very good at long distance running and endurance training, he wasn't the biggest especially when compared to their Yautja companions, but he could out do just about every single one of them when it came to stamina, in fact, there were only three people who could out do him, Jack Mason himself, Tik eleth and Ryan.
So Liam was utterly solid and chiseled, he was proud of his body and rightly so, in keeping with Yautja traditions he kept the scars he'd earned in training and hunting, but he was of mixed opinion about this being compelled to show it off part, it just didn't sit right with him, especially as he knew if the shoe was on the other foot so to speak given that she had no feet he'd have never asked her to do this, but he very much did not want to be the reason behind her becoming offended by his refusal to respect her customs or refusing to make reparations for his slight on her person, after all, was it truly all that unreasonable to request to see someone naked who had seen you naked, because, as she had said, she wasn't demanding this as she knew she couldn't, she was requesting it.
Liam actually felt himself trembling and his hands shaking as he unbuttoned his uniform collar and unzipped it, which was a one piece overall over the top of an under shirt and boxers, Celia as soon as she realized he was complying with her request slithered closer and watched him intently as he pulled the overalls down to his waist, "Is it ok if I leave my boots on and simply pull it down rather than take it completely off, it is a major pain in the ass to take off and put those boots on again," Liam asked in a soft voice that made him feel more embarrassed as he heard it, how the hell had she managed to rob him of his confidence?
He was a full trained Seeker who had fought against Tik eleth and won, he had hunted some of the most dangerous predators on the planet alongside both Tik eleth herself and Jack Mason, he had been made the second in command of the Soul Knights and somehow this made him nervous, he tried in vain to quell the shaking in his hands.
"What are boots?" she asked curiously.
"These things on my feet," Liam said, shaking a foot at her, she looked down at them and cocked her head curiously then nodded, "As much as I would like to argue that you saw every inch of me I suppose you can see the vast majority of my tail section at all times as I don't have feet, so that is acceptable," she said, smiling and flicking her tongue at him.
Liam felt the trembling in his hands getting worse as he gripped the base of his under shirt and pulled it up over his head, revealing his bare chest, and he placed it down on the bed next to him, he felt his cheeks burning which was made infinitely worse by the fact that Celia did that whole utterly invade your personal space thing that she or maybe her whole race were so good at, loosely encircling him as she seemed to examine his whole upper body closely with obvious fascination and interest burning in her bright golden eyes.
He tongue was going ninety to the dozen and more than once he swore that it brushed his actual skin but it was so light he couldn't tell if it actually made contact with him or simply disturbed the air so closely that it felt like it.
"So you do have hair on your body as well, I did wonder," she said in a curious voice.
"Umm, yeah, my kind evolved from primates, a form of mammal on the distant original homeworld of my species," Liam said.
"Is it to keep you warm? Does it serve any purpose?" she asked curiously.
"Originally it would have and it was originally a lot thicker, covering our entire bodies, but given that my species obviously wears clothes now so we evolved to compensate for that and to prevent overheating, so it thinned and it's now more redundant than anything," Liam explained, oddly fascinated at her fascination but then remembered she'd never seen an evolved mammal before so this was all new to her.
Liam began to take a deep breaths as he prepared to expose himself fully to her, it was the first time other than medicals with the Battle Angels that any female would have seen him in all his glory, naked, vulnerable and exposed.
He saw her golden eyes fix on him and her gaze was utterly intense, her head actually began to sway side to side almost hypnotically as her eyes roamed down his naked torso, Liam was kinda hairy, his chest was covered in a matt of dark, curly hair that formed a T shape across his pectorals and running down his stomach to his groin.
Celia's tongue was going crazy, flicking in and out of her mouth almost constantly, looking like a small thin version of one of those blow whistle things that extended a long coil of colored plastic when you blew into them, a sudden loud shrilling noise made them both jump a mile and Liam realized that his communicator was bleeping, "I'd better get this," he said, grabbing at the small round device in his pocket, Celia looked annoyed at the interruption.
Liam fumbled the device out of his pocket and press the answer button, "Seeker Silver here, go ahead," he said.
"Liam, do you still have the Ambassador with you?" Tik eleth's voice came through the small device with such clarity that she could have been standing right next to them.
"Err, yes, Grand Matriarch, we're in her quarters, I was just preparing to take her on a further tour of the ship," Liam said, trying to cover the nerves in his voice and most likely failing, there were very few people who could pull the wool over the eyes of Tik eleth, she never missed a trick.
"Excellent, report to the bridge immediately, we have two things that need her attention, please do not delay," Tik said.
"Roger that, Grand Matriarch, we will be there immediately," Liam said, blowing out a huge held sigh of breath, it looks like fate had saved him.
"Good, Tik eleth out," she replied and closed that comms down, and immediately Liam grabbed his shirt and pulled it back on, making Celia's eyes go wide and rather angry or maybe frustrated, he hadn't learned their facial expressions fully yet.
"Sorry, Ambassador, we'll have to do this another time, it does not pay to keep the Grand Matriarch waiting," Liam said, feeling thankful to Paya or the Great Tree or whoever the hell had been looking over his shoulder this day for throwing him a lifeline.
Celia suddenly looked disappointed but then her face cracked into a smile, "Very well, Seeker Liam, I believe you to be a male of honor who would not give his word lightly, so I will simply accept your word to me that you will honor this debt when an opportunity presents itself to us in the future, so, do you give it?" she said, and Liam's heart froze, he'd just shot himself in the foot, trapped by his own code of honor.
"I do, Celia, I give you my word," he said, sounding as forlorn as he felt and she drew herself up and nodded, obviously pleased to have won this prize from him.
"Good, and I will hold you to it you can count on it, now, come, you'd better smarten yourself up, it would not do to present yourself before your superiors in a disheveled state or they may suspect that we have been up to no good," she said with an almost playful sounding note in her voice as she smiled at him, flicking her tongue at him as she did.
Liam redressed and straightened his uniform up and fixed his hair before opening the door and gesturing for the Ambassador to join him, she slithered out first as he held the door and then the pair began to head down the corridor heading for the bridge, he really couldn't get a read on this confusing woman, maybe it was their species or it was just her, on one hand she was a curious and fascinating and highly intelligent person, on the other she seemed to have a rather domineering and aggressive side which was both a bit scary and also kinda attractive, though why he would find that attractive he didn't really understand, maybe it was something to do with hanging about with Yautja girls all day and it was something that all of them seemed to have, they were not scared to go after what they wanted, to hunt it down and catch their prey no matter what.
He noticed that Celia kept glancing at him as they moved through the ship, "Something wrong, Ambassador?" he asked.
"Oh, it's just you haven't said a word since we left the room, I was just wondering if something is wrong?" she said.
There was that observant streak again, Liam decided to brush it off as he didn't want to upset or offend her, "No, I'm fine, just thinking is all," he said, and she nodded.
"Anything you care to share?" she asked.
Honestly he was worrying about the time she was going to pull in this marker that he now seemed to owe her and how he actually felt about it but he didn't want her to know that, though he found himself wondering if it was actually because he didn't want her to feel bad about it which was kinda an odd thought but there it was, "Oh, just about what my Grand Matriarch is calling us about and what happened on that ship, I didn't get a chance to perform a soul summoning so we're left with a mystery here and my kind really both hate and love mysteries, we hate having them and love to solve them, granted on one hand they were kidnappers and slavers so I know this sounds bad but I honestly don't mind those types of people getting a dose of karma and getting killed, but to die like that? That doesn't sit well with me," Liam said, falling into the train of thought that had been bugging him since the ship, so a lie in essence as that wasn't what was at the forefront of his mind right now, but also not quite a lie as in truth it had been in his mind.
She nodded thoughtfully then seemed to freeze, "What is a soul summoning?" she asked.
"It allows Soul Knight Dream Warriors like myself to speak to the dead, it's easier to do when the dead are recent and if the death was traumatic, it creates a huge psychic imprint which we can use to pull those souls to us," Liam explained, and Celia looked at him wide eyed and awe struck.
"You truly have that kind of power!?" she exclaimed, and she snapped around in front of him with wide eyes and her tongue going as if she was somehow trying to taste his power.
"Umm, yeah, Soul Knights specialise in the Spiritual realm, which means our connection to the Spirit realms or afterlife is much stronger than the other types of Dream Warriors, they call us God touched because deities tend to seek out Soul Knights because of our connections to their realms, same is true of lost or wandering spirits, they seek out Soul Knights in order to either just speak to us so we can help them or because they're lost and lonely and want our help to move on," Liam said, explaining.
Celia looked utterly amazed at this, "It is utterly amazing to me that beings like you actually exist and it makes me wonder of all the the stories, myths and folktales from the past of my people actually had truth to them now, our scholars have been debating their accuracy and truth, tale of people doing incredible things that seemed to bridge into the realm of magic, but now I wonder if they were actually based off the stories of possible Dream Warrior encounters among my people," she said thoughtfully.
"It's quite possible, granted we've only encountered two other races than the three we already know of and we haven't found any among the Xenos yet but that doesn't say that there aren't any, I simply believe we have more Yautja and Human Dream Warriors because most Xeno hives do not operate like the ones on our world and they aren't space faring, so they may very well have Dream Warriors among their number but they are just unknown to us," he said, and Celia looked thoughtful at this and nodded in agreement.
"When we reach my planet I would very much like to introduce you to some of our most note worthy scholars, two of which are among my pack, both are published scholars in their fields of study, the other member of my pack is a scientist who studies biology at the top university hospital in our city, I'm not sure exactly what it is she studies exactly, I'm not a scientist, but I know she's incredibly smart, all four of us answer directly to the leaders of our territory, my expertise is in politics and diplomatic studies, hence why I was made an ambassador to represent our people in negotiations with the other races like the Raptorians," she said, sounding very proud of her pack family's accomplishments and status within their social strata, though Liam did wonder whether she was telling him this because she was so proud of her pack that she felt the need to share their accomplishments or whether she was trying to impress him, or maybe a bit of both.
"Ummm, sure, I guess, I mean, obviously I don't know how our visit will go and if I will be needed elsewhere, the Seekers might be an order but we are still a military organization so we go where we're told, but if our Grand Patriarch allows it I'd be happy to meet with your pack," Liam said, making Celia smile and nod.
"Don't worry, I'll make sure it happens, I am most excited to introduce you to my pack, I'm sure they will be as impressed by you as I am," she said with a kind of odd smile.
Liam pressed the call button for the lift that would take them to the bridge and as the doors opened he gestured for Celia to enter first, she slithered in and as he stepped in behind her she loosely coiled her tail around him again, pretty much filling the lift, though Liam was pretty sure that she could have simply coiled herself up in the corner but she seemed to prefer to spread herself out while at the same time utterly invading his space, her species obviously had no concept of personal space but then given their size that wasn't that surprising.
The elevator moved quickly and as they reached the bridge the doors whooshed open and Celia unwound herself from him and slithered out onto the bridge, followed by Liam where they found Jack and Tik waiting for them, both of them seemed to be looking at him and Tik gave him a very odd smile before they turned their attention to Celia, "Ahh, Ambassador, good to see you, I hope Seeker Silver has been taking good care of you," Tik said, and Celia smiled and nodded.
"Oh, yes, your people are most gracious and fascinating, Tik eleth, Liam has been very accomodating," Celia said with a big, warm smile, and Tik nodded.
"Good, I'm glad to see my Seekers are representing us well, I would expect nothing less of the second in command of the Soul Knights," Jack said.
"So, what did you call us for, have you found something?" Celia asked, and both Jack and Tik nodded.
"We're still analysing the data from the ship logs but we've also been going through the star charts and we're thinking we've actually located your homeworld," Jack said, and Celia looked amazed.
"But I haven't even looked at the charts yet so how could that be possible?" she asked, and Jack smiled.
"Well, the Dreamer is equiped with state of the art sensors designed by a Xeno hive on our homeworld we all call the Hive mind because it's literally full of scientific and engineering geniuses, these are Xenos that literally built a completely cybernetic cat from scratch and designed a process that allowed our Battle Angels to transplant said dying cat's brain and spinal chord into this body along with all of its blood and boom, robo cat, they did it in two days, so, yeah, trust me when I say these girls and guys eat, sleep, and dream tech, they designed this entire ship from bow to stern, these sensors are so sensitive they can detect the movement of a grain of dust two light years away, so, yeah, powerful, well, we've been detecting encrypted transmissions from this sector and from what he have been able to decipher it's in the Serpentinus language," Jack said, bringing up a holo map of the solar system.
Celia looked at it and slithering around it to see it from a different angle she looked at the star system that had a pulsing glowing ring around it, she instantly nodded and looked highly impressed, "Yes, this is my homeworld, this here is the Raptorian system, this here is the Draconis system and this one the Scalathor," Celia said, drawing a box shape with her finger, pointing to four different star systems in turn, starting with her own.
Instantly the Xeno navigator who was sat at her console next to the holo map instantly ringed all four system and marked them up with the names of their species.
"Ok, at cruising speed we can get us there in only a couple of jumps, now that we know the frequencies your comms systems work on we can lock on to any relay satellites you have out there and broadcast any messages you wish to send home to inform them of your status and..." Tik began, but that's when the Yautja at the comms station suddenly jumped out of his seat and drew the attention of all four of them.
"Grand Patriarch and Matriarch forgive the interruption but we're detecting a huge increase in the volume of comms traffic from the Serpentinus region, we can't read the majority of it because it's encrypted but what we have managed to filter is talking about some kind of attack!" he said, and instantly both Jack and Tik's faces went instantly business like.
"Put in a call to HQ, I want as many ships as we can spare along with as many Guardians as we can spare without compromising defence, that's Hunters, Seekers, Saviors and Battle Angels, send them the coordinates," Jack said, and the comms officer saluted and ran back to his station to begin transmitting.
"Helmsman Kintar, set a course for the Serpentinus homeworld, maximimum speed, I want us there as fast as possible," Tik yelled, and the helmsman saluted and began plotting with the help of the Xeno navigator, minimizing the time it would take to get them there.
"Ambassador, are your species currently involved in any wars or battles that we need to know about?" Jack said, turning to the ambassador and she shook her head, looking both pale and very distressed.
"No! I swear to you I have no idea what's happening, what did your comms officer hear? Do you know what type of attacks they were or where they were? is anybody hurt?" she asked in a rapid fire panicked voice.
Liam stepped forwards and placed a hand on her shoulder and using his gifts he helped to calm her mind, "Just breathe, Celia, we're going to help, it's code of the Guardian Core to assist any and all who need us and to protect the innocent, whoever or wherever they may be, we'll get to the bottom of this and we'll do what we can, you have my word," he said, putting real emphasis on that last part as reference to their conversation earlier and it worked, she started taking deep breaths and looked at him and nodded.
"T-Thank you Liam, I-I'm sorry, I didn't mean to get hysterical," she said quietly, and he squeezed her big, solid shoulder reassuringly.
"Don't sweat it, Celia, it's a perfectly reasonable reaction to finding out your people have been attacked, but rest assured we will do everything we can to help," he said, and she gave a weak smile.
Both Tik and Jack nodded approvingly, both of them stepped forward and also gripped her shoulders, "Our Seeker Liam speaks the truth, Ambassador, don't worry, we'll get to the bottom of this and we'll do whatever we can to assist," Tik eleth said.
"Response from HQ, Grand Matriarch and Patriarch, they confirm that the Core is mobilizing the fleet and they will join us as soon as possible," the comms officer called out.
Jack pressed the internal comms button, "All stations, red alert, all personnel to battle stations, I want all Seekers, Hunters and Battle Angels in full battle gear and ready to go, this is not a drill, I repeat, this is not a drill!" he said, and instantly the whole ship was set into combat mode and everyone scrambled.
Liam turned to leave and instantly Celia grabbed his shoulder, "Where are you going!?" she exclaimed, her voice taking on that panicked note and he forgot that he'd been calming her mind for her.
"I have to gear up in my armor and get my weapons, Ambassador, the Seekers are first and foremost Special Forces soldiers and I will be needed at my station," he said, and Celia looked very unsure and unhappy about this, it was obvious that as her guide she was taking reassurance from his presence.
Tik placed a large hand on her shoulder, "Do not worry, Ambassador, you can remain on the bridge here with us, most likely we won't need to deploy our soldiers but this is just a precaution, Seeker Liam will be back in a moment," Tik said, and Celia nodded and followed her back across the bridge, taking a last glance at Liam as he stepped into the lift.
In the armory, Hunters, Seekers and Saviors were scrambling, getting geared up, the Battle Angels had their own separate area, Analise was there strapping on her armor and outfitting Zed with his, "What's happening?" she asked as soon as she saw Liam.
"Not sure exactly, but there's some sort of on-going attack on the Serpentinus homeworld, we're going in hot to assist," Liam said, and he was aware of a few of the others around him listening in as he clipped his plasma casters into place and checked their gimbals.
"Oh, great, two attacks in one day, well, you gotta give the Core this, it's never boring, fly to unknown parts of space, find space ships full of skinned alien corpses, meet huge snake girls and pretty dragon boys, escape exploding space ships and now we got planetary attacks, just another day in the Guardian Core," Analise said with a grin, and then she looked at Liam with a raised eyebrow.
"Why are you smiling at me like that?" she asked.
'"You called our new Draconis friend pretty, never had you pegged as a scalie, Ana," he said, and she blushed crimson.
"Well I, err, umm, well, you know, he's just so exotic and pretty and he's just so innocent and sweet, he's amazed by absolutely everything, plus, he's just utterly shocked that he doesn't actually have to do anything for me, he keeps trying to fetch food for me or to do chores for me and he seems utterly stunned when I do things for him, he's been abused and treated so badly, Liam, the things he's been through and seen, no one, no one should ever be treated that way, no one should ever have to experience what he has, so to see the look in those pretty eyes of his when he sees something as simple and beautiful as a plant, or the look of utter surprise and true joy when someone hands him a plate of food is utterly amazing and wonderful," Analise said thoughtfully, and a little sadly as she recounted some of what she'd learned about Kelmar.
"Poor guy has had it real rough," Liam said, and Analise shot him a look.
"You lose your favorite sword you have it rough, your ever loyal fire tiger pee's on the temple rugs for the third time forcing you to have to scrub it for four hours to get the bloody smell out you have it rough," she said, shooting a look at a guilty looking Zed.
"You stub your little toe on the corner of the bed you got it rough, what that poor boy has been through just because of what he is is horrendous, that boy deserves to have something good in his life, something to show him how to embrace his newfound freedom," Analise said.
"And maybe embrace a certain Tamer girl not so very far away while he's at it, huh?" Liam said teasingly, making her flush again, she punched him in the shoulder, making him laugh.
"Hey, if we wanna talk about embracing, how's the ambassador doing?" she asked, and Liam raised an eyebrow at her as they both finished clipping their weapons on and both turned to head to the bridge ready for deployment, as the second in command to their respective parts of the Seekers their place was at their commander's side to be ready.
"What made you think of her in relation to embracing?" Liam asked, and Analise gave him a sly smile.
"Seriously? She's a snake girl, how can you not look at her and wonder what it's like to get hugged by her? I mean, all those coils, damn, that's gotta be a lot of serious hugging potential," she said, and Liam shot her a sly smile.
"Well, I wasn't before but now I am, hmmm, snake girl hugging powerless and helpless human girl," Liam said thoughtfully, scratching the part of his helmet where his chin was, making Analise laugh then punch his shoulder again.
"You're bloody terrible, you know that?" she said, and he grinned at her.
"Alright, alright, I'll let you replace the snake girl with dragon boys for your own fantasy," he said, earning him yet another punch.
"God, you're awful violent, woman, I hope you're not like this when your cute, walking talking Welsh dragon tries to tell you his fantasies, poor boy won't know what's hit him," Liam joked, but something of a scowl crossed over Analise's face.
"Don't even joke about that, Liam, I would never hurt him, ever, all that boy has ever known is pain, suffering, degradation, indignity, humiliation and fear, pure fear, I'm swearing this before you and Paya right now, while I'm around he will never suffer those things ever again, I will protect him, I will be his Guardian," Analise said, and Liam looked stunned.
"Whoa, now, Analise, I know you feel strongly about this but are you sure you wanna do this? You know as well as I do our kind can't take back a promise to Paya, she'll take it as an insult and forbid you your place in the Eternal Hunt, I mean, what if he doesn't even think of you like that? What if he's not attracted to you?" Liam said, and Analise shot him a look.
"I don't have to be attracted to someone to guard them, Liam, if he is not then so be it, he is free to make every choice that guides his life now and I will make sure that he always is, we guard people every single day, that's why we're Dream Warriors and what's more, we are Guardians, and while I still draw breath I swear before Paya he is protected," Analise said.
Suddenly a silk soft voice slithered through their minds and undoubtably every other Seeker mind aboard, "So be it, child, promise made and accepted, I expect you to keep it," it said, and Liam shot her a look.
"Well, don't say I didn't warn you," he said, but Analise just looked surprised at first then determined.
The elevator opened onto the bridge and the pair stepped out and both Jack and Tik had now been joined by Shena, Sela eleth and Ryan all dressed in their armor and armed to the teeth, both jack and Tik had their quarters accessible from the bridge and their gear was stowed there so they'd slipped out and gotten changed as well, the only one with them not wearing gold or blue armor and armed to the teeth was Celia who was looking at the readouts nervously.
"So, which one of you made a promise to Paya?" Jack said, glancing at them and Liam side pointed across his body at Analise, Jack just nodded.
"Make sure you keep it, no matter what," he said, and she nodded.
"I will count on it," she said, and Ryan planted a large hand on her shoulder.
"I would expect nothing less from my second in command, do me proud, kid," he said, giving her shoulder a squeeze.
Celia seemed to notice the pair of Seekers now and slithered over to them and her face seemed to brighten as she saw Liam, "What will happen now?" she asked.
"Well, that all depends on what we find when we get to your homeworld, we're pushing our engines as hard as we can and our arrival shouldn't be long, we're a couple of hours out but we're going to do what we can no matter what," Jack said.
"All hands, man your battle stations, we're exiting hyperspace in one minute, I want every gun ready to fire and every fighter ready to launch, we're going to show whatever is on the other side of this jump why you don't pauk with Clan Mason and the Guardian Core!" Tik boomed into the ship comms, her voice booming through the whole vessel and through the whole ship, the answering roar of pride echoed from every surface as they answered her call to arms and made the ship ready.
The Dreamer snapped out of hyperspace and instantly everything went crazy, though the main view and the bridge window instantly the planet appeared, it was a mixture of lush greens and vast stretches of golden yellows, there were oceans of blue but they were far, far smaller than Earth or even Clan Mason's homeworld, Liam instantly found himself wondering if they had sea snake girls as well which was a seriously odd thought to pop into anyone's head right at that moment.
"Multiple contacts! I'm picking up four orbital defence platforms, all heavily damaged and out of commission, multiple life signs on all, all Serpentinus, picking up multiple damaged vessels, all frigate class in size, life signs are all Serpentinus, lots of debris indicating multiple destroyed ships, picking up both Scalathor and Serpentinus bodies in the wreckage, looks like the Serpentinus took out at least six large ships before they got overwhelmed," the sensor operator called.
"By the Great Tree! M-M-My home! I cannot believe the Scalathor would do this! Sure they've sabre rattled before, b-b-but those are innocent civilians down there!" Celia exclaimed in a stammering voice, looking at the scene of chaos and devastation outside.
"I'm picking up ground fighting, looks like commando units are engaged with Serpentinus in what appears to be the capital city, if my estimation is correct they seem to be trying to converge on a very heavily defended area in the centre of the city," the sensor operator called.
"The palace! They're going for the royal family! Please, you have to stop them! M-M-My pack is in there!" Celia almost screamed as the realisation hit her hard.
"Ambassador, please, get a hold of yourself, I'm going to need you to begin broadcasting to your people that help is coming and who we are so that we don't come under attack from friendlies down there, tell your people the Guardian Core is here to help," Jack said, and motioned to the comms officer, he led the obviously shaken and deeply worried Serpentinus woman over to the comms system where she began broadcasting in her native language to try and establish communications with her people.
"Helmsman, let's drive those fuckers out of orbit from above the city, I want their retreat and reinforcements cut off, gunners, blow those fucking ships out of the sky! Launch all fighters, we're going in, all Seeker, Hunter and Battle Angel teams to your drop pods, we're taking the express elevator down!" Jack called into the ship comms.
Immediately the Dreamers powerful forward battery of rail guns fired, sending huge tungsten slugs screaming towards the nearest of the two Scalathor heavy frigates, they'd angled the shots so that if they missed their targets they would speed harmlessly out into space and not hit the planet, potentially devastating the civilian populace below, the four huge front facing cannons sent the huge tungsten slugs screaming into space at incredible speed and all four impacted on the shields of the Scalathorian frigate, sending huge blue electric ripples around it, it was now that both ships seemed to notice the super heavy frigate bearing down on them and began returning fire, streaks of light tore towards them, most missing but one or two impacting on the Dreamers heavy shields.
"Three hits, minimal damage, they appear to be trying to use thermal weapons, some kind of high intensity lasers to try and overload our shields, shields are recharging!" the weapons officer yelled.
"Keep hitting them, use the plasma cannons and fire torpedoes tubes one through six!" Tik yelled as the Dreamer sped towards them, suddenly smaller ships in a series of formations streaked away from the Dreamer as the fighters and their primarily Xeno pilots sped towards their targets, the ships they were piloting were called Night Eagles, an interplanetary fighter specifically designed for both space and atmospheric combat, now their weapons wouldn't do much to the heavy shields of a frigate but the torpedo bombers that were mixed in among them most definitely would.
Xeno's ironically made excellent pilots, they're understanding over multi surface orientation due to the way they moved freely on any and all surfaces gave them an incredible advantage in space flight, being able to adapt to the rapidly shifting orientation of space flight and fighting, a fact that they proved when the frigates sent out fighters of their own and like a swarm of angry bees the Guardian Core pilots split up and hit them from every side at once, clearing a hole for the bombers to fly right through and unleash their deadly payload while the bigger, heavier torpedoes launched from the tubes aboard the Dreamer followed them through.
Out of the six torpedoes launched from the Dreamer three were destroyed by the anti fighter and torpedo weapons aboard the Scalathorian frigate but three made it through along with a great many from the torpedo bombers which were currently on their way back to rearm.
"All teams, report ready to drop, Hunter teams one through six are standing by, Seeker teams one and two are ready and Battle Angel teams one through six are ready, Grand Patriarch and Matriarch," the comms officer reported while Celia was still trying to raise her people.
"Roger that, helmsman get us into position!" Tik eleth said.
Suddenly the weapons officer yelled out, "The shields on the Scalathorian frigate over the capital are failing!" he yelled.
"Fire at will," Jack said coldly, and the forward batteries opened up again, this time scoring four direct hits and blowing four huge holes right through the ship like it was made of paper mashay.
"Secondary explosions detected, she's going critical!" the gunner yelled just as another series of shots impacted their shields from the second frigate, then with a bright flash and a soundless bubble of pure fire the frigate exploded into shrapnel, causing a cheer to go up on the bridge.
"Grand Matriarch, we're still taking fire from the other frigate, I'm reading twelve torpedoes on their way to us!" the weapons officer called.
"Tell the fighters to take out what they can, ready the anti air weapons!" Tik yelled.
"You got this, my love?" Jack said, and Tik grinned.
"Go, my love, I'll catch up when these fuckers are in the void being hunted by shadows," Tik snarled, stroking her husband's face with her mandibles, he nodded and kissed her deeply.
"Shena, take Hunter two, Hunter one will join me later," Tik said, and Shena saluted.
"Liam, Analise, Ryan, Sela you're with me, we're going in," Jack said, and there were four crisp salutes.
"Liam! Liam, please, wait!" Celia called in a panicked voice, and he turned from the elevator door to the scared and angry looking Serpentinus woman, "Please, be careful down there and find my pack, please, protect them!" she said desperately, and Liam nodded.
"Don't you worry, Celia, we'll save your people, just you watch," he said, and with that the elevator doors shut.
"Seeker team one, you are with me, Team two with Ryan, we are going to drop as close to the palace as we can, Hunter teams two through six will drop in behind the enemy and hit them in the arse, Battle Angel team one, you are with Seeker teams one and two, teams two through six, drop in behind the Hunters and do what you can for any wounded civilians and Serpentinus soldiers you find, stay on comms and report any and all troop movement you see, hopefully word is getting through to the Serpentinus troops that help's coming, remember, these guys we're facing are commando teams so that means they will be highly motivated and trained so do not underestimate them, most likely their intention is to assassinate the Serpentinus leadership, we are going to make sure that does not happen, let's move!" Jack said, and there was a loud roar of affirmation and everyone jumped into their drop pods and strapped in.
Liam pulled his pod canopy shut, he almost preferred orbital diving to orbital dropping, these things were bloody awful but boy did they get the job done, not built for comfort but fuck could they move.
"This is Seeker one, comms check, all call signs sign off," Jack's voice came through Liam's head set, now, because they were operating in different teams their call signs changed, "Seeker one two, ready to drop," Liam said, "Seeker one three, ready to drop," Rem, a female Yautja and another Soul Knight said, all Seeker team one's agents were Soul Knights.
"Seeker one four, ready to drop," Mav, a male Yautja said.
"Seeker Two one, ready to drop," Ryan said.
"Seeker two two and Zed, ready to drop," Analise said from her specially adapted pod, her's was the largest pod as it had Zed strapped in the back like a tiger shaped back pack.
"Seeker two three, ready to drop," Rita, a female human said.
"Seeker two four, ready to drop," Lavat, a male Yautja said.
The sound off went through all the Hunters next before finally reaching the Battle Angels and their mechanical comms voices called in one at a time, they also had special pods, theirs carried teams of four rather than individuals, their pods could also be opened mid flight to allow them to jump and glide to a target if need be.
"This is Dreamer command, all prep complete, drop in five...four...three...two...one...drop, drop, drop! Good hunting all!" Tik roared into the comms, and with a sharp jolt Liam and all the other pods shot out of the bottom of the Dreamer's special hanger bay and began rocketing towards the planet's surface and the Guardian Core's first official engagement on foreign soil as above them they watched the Dreamer firing a full broad side of rail guns at the remaining Scalathor frigate as the Guardian Core's flagship took it's position above the planet, this was not exactly how Liam had imagined his first first contact experience going, but all that was running through his head was that he was determined to do the Guardian Core proud and that he was going to find and protect Celia's pack, she was counting on him after all, and he was not going to let her down.