grew to monstrous proportions. His skin grew metallic spikes as his claws elongated. As his body stretched taller, growing over eight feet, a snout elongated from his face. Snarling, Penchant revealed multiple rows of razor sharp teeth. Howling into the illuminated street, the Lithid stood like a nightmare brought to life, snarling and frothing as it searched for another Terran to kill.
“Kill… kill that creature,” the Terran squad commander screamed into the microphone, the fear evident in his voice. Reaching to his waist, he fumbled with a device. Finally pulling it free, he held aloft a detonator, the red button on top glowing madly.
Keryn dropped into a crouch, pulling her rifle free and aiming through her scope toward the Terran holding the detonator. The sights danced as she tried to brace the rifle with hands that shook with both surprise and excitement.
Taking a deep breath, she squeezed the trigger. As the single gunshot echoed through the crowd, everyone turned to locate the shooter. The loudspeakers echoed the Terran’s scream as his hand disappeared in a spray of blood, the detonator falling harmlessly to the ground.
“Rise up my brothers!” Penchant yelled. “Rise up and bring down the Terran invaders!”
Throughout the crowd, screams exploded as the Lithids throughout the crowd turned and attacked their oppressors. The cries of pain and gurgling death cries rolled over the throngs of people in waves, spreading their infectious revolutionary attitudes. Within minutes, the thick snow was painted with strands and sprays of red blood and the crowd, fed both from the rise up of the Lithids and the excited yells of the revolutionaries positioned throughout, cheered wildly.
“Follow me,” Penchant howled as he pushed his way through the crowd. Others quickly joined his towering form, as fellow Lithids transformed into nightmarish beasts and moved to the front of the crowd. Turning, he raised his clawed fists into the air. “Death to the Terrans!”
The rest of the crowd picked up his war chant as they surged forward, the few smart enough to collect the fallen Terran weapons moving behind the Lithid monstrosities. The whole group stormed toward the fields and the Terran barracks beyond.
Keryn reached into her vest and removed her radio. “We’re moving; all units take your positions and prepare for battle.”
Adam placed his hand on her arm as she went to leave. “I wish I could be there with you, fighting on the front lines.”
She smiled and placed a hand over his. “I know you do. But you have your own mission to complete.” As she moved into position behind the crowd, she glanced over her shoulder. “That whole thing with Penchant is pretty crazy, huh?”
“I guess he got his blaze of glory and his famous last words after all,” he yelled back as he turned and disappeared onto the side streets.
The Lithids in the front of the mob made quick work of the few remaining Terran guards. Unprepared for such an assault, they fired only a couple of rounds and only a single Lithid was killed as the crowd pushed through the residential part of town and passed into the business district, with its skeletal towers still looming over the wide streets. Nearly two-dozen of the crowd broke off once they passed into the district and sprinted ahead, cutting onto side streets. From unassuming dumpsters and piles of rubble, the soldiers of the ambush team pulled weapons and explosives and took positions behind any available cover.
The Terran response to the uprising was both swift and terrifying. A small squadron of armored tanks moved across the rubble field, their inertial dampeners causing them to float effortlessly over the obstructions. The tanks’ turrets scanned the area ahead as they moved into the far side of the business district. Behind the tanks, Terran infantry followed, wearing their black body armor with identifying stripes. Bristling with their own arsenal, they moved, eager to put down the insignificant insurrection.
Within the Black Void, Terran Commander Lucience sat gloomily, shadows dancing across his face as he observed the display table before him. From his vantage, he watched as blue figures moved through the three- dimensional representation of Miller’s Glen. The blue forces, led by larger blocks that were representative of his small collection of tanks, advanced across the frozen rubble fields and flooded like ants into the business district.
The inside of the Void, once used as a bar, had been gutted following the invasion. The tables that once sat in the center of the room had all been removed, as had the raised bar that once accentuated the entire far wall. In its stead, Commander Lucience had insisted on placing a tall-backed chair, one salvaged from the raids on the local businesses. Sitting in the chair, Lucience felt almost regal, an approximation of what he hoped to one day attain. If he could maintain control of Othus during the Terran invasion of Interstellar Alliance space, the Terran Premier very possibly would knight him.
He turned the image on the table, the only other piece of furniture that furbished the now empty bar. His men had placed rugs and hung artwork on the walls to make it a more befitting throne room for the ruler of Othus, but he preferred the empty space to the clutter he had seen elsewhere in the Empire. Some rulers found it to be a requirement that all nobility flaunt their wealth with statues and ostentatious fountains, which made movement through their homes next to impossible. But practicality wasn’t the desired effect.
Lucience observed an overhead view of the city, marking with interest the clusters of red dots moving chaotically through the streets of the business district, on a collision course with his own troops. His two bodyguards watched from over his shoulder, their eyes sparkling with anticipation. Though the insurgents outnumbered his own men nearly five to one, Commander Lucience was hardly concerned. His men all wore body armor and carried an arsenal far more impressive than any mundane weapons the slaves could have gathered. There was little doubt in his mind that the uprising would be dealt with swiftly and harshly.
“Sir,” one of his bodyguards gestured toward the map, “aren’t those yellow dots the Lithids?”
Lucience arched an eyebrow as he drummed his fingers together. “So they are. I guess we’ll have to deal with them as well.”
The first two tanks rolled down the snow-covered street, followed by a wave of infantry who used the armor of the tank for cover against any potential attack. The streets were empty around the Terrans, but they could hear the din of distant voices crying out in unison. The survivors were marching to battle and the Terrans marched to meet them, bewildered that such a lightly armed force would dare rise up against the occupation.
The squadron commander for the Terran force sat within the turret of the left tank, scanning the area with his night vision goggles, searching for signs of the approaching enemies. “Still nothing on our front, sir,” he reported into the microphone projected from his helmet. “We are moving forward to…”
His words were cut short as the first round tore through his chest, shattering the body armor. Floundering in surprise, the squadron commander shook only once before collapsing across the turret, spilling his blood down the front of the tank. From all directions, gunfire erupted around the combined heavy and light squadron. Infantry ran for cover, only to discover awaiting Uligarts and Oterians firing bursts of fire from the alcoves and storefronts toward which they ran. The armor piercing rounds tore through the Terran defenses, slaughtering the infantry where they stood. Leaping from the shadows, Wyndgaarts wielding molecular blades sliced through armor, severing limbs and cutting heads from shoulders as they danced through the crowd of startled soldiers. Above, the Avalons of the ambush team opened fire from their sniper positions, killing Terrans indiscriminately.
The tanks reacted quicker than did the infantry. The first tank’s turret spun, the squadron commander’s body twisting with it, and it fired through the front display window of one of the nearby stores. Hiding within, the four revolutionaries had no time to flee before the ionized plasma round struck. Fireworks of blue and purple flared from the ground floor as windows shattered up and down the street. The concussion from the blast lifted Terrans and revolutionaries alike from their feet and threw them limply into the surrounding buildings. Many soldiers from both sides didn’t get up following the blast.
The second tank took aim at one of the sniper positions; high within the girders of the destroyed high rise buildings. Its blast decimated the upper floors of the building, lighting up the dark sky and raining flaming metal down on top of the exposed soldiers fighting in the streets. Breaking off their attacks, the infantry ran for cover as deadly debris crashed into the ground around them.
Sitting in one of the buildings nearby, the Avalon who had served as Alcent’s bodyguard shielded his eyes as
