Chapter 25 - The Finch Flies(3) - Forgotten Last Stand(2)
The flare towered over the marine. From just one look at the heat signature, he could tell it was a Flare. From the lack of blue, the marine could tell it was an adolescent Flare. The marine felt the wall, metal. A sword would not slice through it easily. He shook his head, wide and tall enough for a Flare but not wide enough to swing a sword.
Zero sat down at the diner table. In front of him were countless dishes that he had never seen before. This person that called herself mother seemed to be creating new things every day. Each dish had some strange but oddly pleasant feel to it.
Tasting is a weird thing. Most of the workers in the habitats of Mars didn’t really care about the taste of their food because it all tasted the same. The only thing they had control over was the amount of salt they put into it.
Sitting at the table was his mother and the old man that had been teaching him the past few years. Zero looked at the food that was on the table today. It was a weirdly shaped grey mass that looked like a triangle.
“What’s this?”
Mother looked up from her food, “Ah, that’s the tail.”
“Tail?”
Zero stared at the thing that was sitting in front of him. What could it be? He thought for a moment, “Where’s the head?”
“Oh, I cut if off because I thought it would scare you.”
“Is it a fuhh- shhh?”
“You mean a fish?”
“Yes. A fish.”
The teacher looked at him, “Hey kid, you want to start learning more today?”
“History?”
“We have to get you ready for school.”
Zero stared at the man. Something was weird about his eyes.
“Did you get those brain tumors checked out? Didn’t the doc-”
The man winced, “What?”
Mother dropped her utensils on the table, “What!?”
Both boys stared at her in shock like startled dogs in the middle of a thunderstorm. Zero stabbed his fish with the weird silver pointy thing mother had called a fork.
“Pshh, don’t eat the skin. Continue what you were saying?”
Zero glanced at the man and saw his eyes filled with some gray tint. The blank stare also looked somewhat suspicious. He continued,
“Uh, the doctor said he had to come to Venus to get the brain tumors and other ones removed.”
Zero stared at the fish. The steam that came from it seemed to ripple from the gazes piercing his skin. He stole a quick glance at mother to see her giving a death stare to his teacher.
“Is what Zero said correct?”
“Zero? Who’s Zero?”
Mother gestured to Zero, “Oh my, I wonder who else is at this table. Maybe someone with a working brain that doesn’t have a crap ton of rampaging alien clumps of flesh digging through it daily.”
The teacher looked away from her and at Zero, “Uh, hello Zero. I’m Gaius.”
Mother stood up, “Are you ignoring me?”
“Hey.”
“Not one more word!”
“Wait. Ack!”
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Zero returned to his room with a few more books in hand. Mother beat the teacher, or rather, Gaius. Zero sighed, what was this whole school business? And why did he have to go to school? He stared at the ceiling while laying on his bed. He looked over at the book next to him.
“Memorize the whole book by the end of the week.”
“Hmm, it’ll be good for future studies. You’ve finally made at least one good decision.”
“I am capable of making good- AURGHHHHH! You’re gonna make me a eunuurrrrp.”
Mother shot that very wide smile towards Zero, “Go to your room now.”
Zero shot up the stairs faster than he could imagine. Mothers were scary creatures.
Chapter 1: Definition
Nowadays, the term Xeno is used to describe sentient bodies that are not of our structure. This definition is very vague and is hotly debated by many professionals in various fields. This book will sidestep all the controversy and simply state that a Xeno is a being that was not on our planet when man gained sentience. This creates many holes and issues but for the most part is generally correct.
Why does the definition matter?
There is a supposed distinction between Xeno and alien. Much like how the words wet and damp are synonyms, they have differing meaning. As language is an inherently flawed means of communication, a proper definition of high impact words is a necessity. The word Xeno has appeared often in nearly every setting. However, scholars cannot even figure a perfect definition to the word define so there is probably no hope. If you see a philosopher, run.
Zero skimmed the next few pages and came across an image of a scale.
This is a scale of a Zebak. A Zebak is a reptile like Xeno with very little known about them. No specimens have ever been studied. Zebak are split into races depending on their tribe of origin. Each tribe has a leader who is the oldest functioning surviving member of that tribe. Zebak are the most popular mercenaries as they have built a reputation for causing very little disturbance. A functioning member of Zebak society must either be tending to eggs or actively completing contracts. Zebak warriors are known to be some of the most flexible and specialized mercenaries with a squad of adult Zebak capable of killing a Baron in under a century.
The marine looked up at the Flare, “Cal, augment eyes.”
A reconstructed image of a flare appeared over the heat signature. The gray lines that were nearly invisible in the darkness down the hallway became a spear. The man shuddered, “An adolescent Flare warrior.”
The man clicked a button on his helmet, “Hey!”
The Flare continued lumber towards him from the end of the hallway.
Slowly, the marine walked towards the opening where the corridor widened, “Hey!”
The Flare stared back at him and roared. The Flare obviously didn’t have a speaking device.
The walls were too narrow for a sword, and he was out of repeater charges. Not that repeater charges would have worked in the first place. The marine looked behind him, he could run but then the Flare could get to the terminal.
Frowning, he spun the dark blue dagger in his hand. There was an inherent difference in strength between a human and a Zebak are immense. Because of differing muscle structures that are similar to that of hydraulics, a Zebak has lower explosive power but higher overall force compared to the average human. Because of this, most Zebak wield hammers.
This one was wielding a spear. That could only mean one thing, this Zebak was raised to kill humans and only humans. The marine looked over at the data terminal. The large numbers, “23%” shone on the screen.
The percentage increased too slowly. The Flare would rip out the terminal before it would finish destroying all the data.
He cursed, why didn’t he just delete the data normally? If he did that it would be done in nearly an instant. He sighed; he could have just deleted it then firebombed the physical servers. If he got to them.
The tip of the spear was meters away from him. The marine unclipped the hilt from his belt and held it in his right hand, parallel to the ground. With two of his fingers, he pinched the top of the hilt and pulled the blade out of the hilt.
With a flick of his wrist, he fully extended the rest of the blade and clicked a button on the hand guard to activate the sword.
The marine pointed the sword towards the spear.
“Hey!”
The Flare started inching forward, spear at its side.
He knelt and sprinted towards the Flare, “RAHHHHHHHH”
In an instant the flare put a limb forward and twisted the tip of the spear towards the incoming aggressor.
*Swish* *Clang*
The tip of the Flare’s spear bounced a few centimeters as the full force of the ether blade clashed into it. For normal metal, the ether blade would cleave right through it or rip out a large chunk. The marine stared at the spear. Not a scratch.
He knelt even lower and swung at the Flare’s joint.
*Zzz* *Swish* *Clang* *Zzz*
The sword bounced off the Flare’s skin while burning a black mark on its joint.
*GRAHHHHHHHHHH*
*Bang*
As the marine flew from the force of the spear, the ether blade fell out of his shaking hands. The marine looked down at the two black tracks of burnt metal and boot material that he had left on the ground, “Shit.”
The marine glanced up to see the Flare running towards him down the corridor. The marine drew his dagger. He looked down at his wrist and then back up at the Flare. Should he do it?
Yeah. Before thinking twice he yelled, “initiate Broadcast.”
“FOR THE EMPEROR!”
*Schhhck*
The spear ran right through the man’s stomach, but he pushed on down the Flare’s spear.
“Augh. Blaugh. *cough cough*”
*Roar*
*Sqlch* *Tschhh* *Tschh* *Tsch* *Splat*
The marine fell to his knees as the Flare fell backward, “Heh, bastard took four vaporization charges to the chest.”
He looked down and saw the shining red blood that covered the spear that protruded from his torso. The marine laughed, “Damn. I haven’t even gotten my yearly bonus yet. Shit.”
As he fell to his side he whispered into his helmet, “Cruiser class Lightning-X ‘Shadow of Zeus’ has been captured in orbit of Jupiter. Protocol 2 successful. A5. Out.”
