Jack peeled away from the walker and continued on through the herd, sliding between a pair of smaller creatures and then under the long legs of another massive walking cannon. His skills in darting through traffic had been honed to a razor’s edge through years of navigating highway 101 at rush hour, and the comparatively sparse and evenly spaced vehicles in the Oikeyan herd posed little challenge.
The legion inspired awe and terror in the same breath, and for the life of him, Jack couldn’t imagine anything he could do about it. He was watching an avalanche roll down a mountain in slow motion.
He couldn’t stop the avalanche, but there was still a chance to warn the village in its path. They couldn’t fight it, but they might be able to get out of the way. Where could a couple hundred million refugees go, though? Where could they hide that the legion wouldn’t hunt them down and slaughter them?
Jack’s disembodied voice asked, “Do you know their game plan?”
“They’re still using my organization and tactics. Did you see the long-necked Yuon Kwon at the back of the pack?”
“With lots of legs?”
“Those are the ones. Constructors. They’ll build fortresses and gun emplacements in a wide circle around the Ark to isolate it. Then the siege cannons move into place and beat the enemy into dust. Power comes from a young city Yuon Kwon that will hang back away from the fight.”
“I don’t see it.”
“He won’t come until the battle lines are secured.”
Kai’s description generally agreed with what Jack had seen at Al Saif. There were deep indentations in the ground where the temporary fortifications had sat, and Al Saif itself looked to have been blasted from multiple directions at once.
Jack and Felix continued on through the pack, studying all the many new types of Yuon Kwon he’d never seen before. There were walkers in all shapes and sizes, covered in weapons both familiar and not. The vast majority of flyers were the cuttlefish type Jack had often seen since the invasion began, but there were also groups of heavier flyers weighted down with payloads of seed-shaped bombs.
Jack felt a strange kinship with the Yuon Kwon all around him, and he started to wonder what the long term effects of piloting Felix might be.
“So the young city… that’s the legion’s weak spot?”
“If it has a weak spot, then yes. The city is the lynch-pin of whole organization, but don’t think it’s defenseless. It’ll be bristling with weaponry and have a large population of Sey Chen covering it in defensive membranes.”
“Sey Chen?”
“You call them monks. They have peculiar abilities.”
“And the defensive membranes? You mean like force fields or something?”
“What’s a force field?”
“Never mind.”
The two jackrabbits said something in the common language, quickly and tensely. Whatever they were talking about was worrying them.
“Ferash and Niko said we’re picking up unwanted attention. If you’ve seen what you need to see, we should leave, Jack.”
Jack hadn’t seen what he wanted. He was hoping for the impossible; a weak underbelly that he could stab at to stop the attack before it started. He’d learned as much as he could, though, and he allowed himself to drift to the back of the pack. When he’d fallen sufficiently behind the Oikeyan legion, he pulled away and headed for the hills to rest and think about his next move.
Whatever that would be.
Chapter 46:
Homecoming
Farmland gave way to the wide Russian steppe as Jack and his alien companions headed toward the Ark. The nearly flat land went on and on, covered in short tufts of grass and little else. It was the most boring country Jack had ever laid eyes on, and he’d seen some pretty boring places in his time. This one took the boring cake and ate it with a boring glass of milk.
Worse yet, the sparse grass of the steppe made it more difficult to keep Felix well fed, and the small flyer couldn’t maintain top speed for as long as he could in sunnier, more abundant regions. Progress slowed to a crawl across that flat, uneventful countryside, and the only bright side was that the Oikeyan legion would undoubtedly be slowed as well.
The travelers camped under the stars and ate reheated alien field rations twice a day. The food was a version of the same multi-colored stuff Jack had eaten in prison, but more energy dense and flavorful. It was bitter and nearly unpalatable. While it provided all the nutrients he needed, his stomach constantly felt empty, and from the sour look on the rhino’s face, he felt the same way.
As they traveled, Kai took it upon himself to teach Jack the Oikeyan common language called Mirresh, which was used for interspecies communication. As Kai described it, every race had their own variety of ethnic groups, each with its own languages and dialects, but all Oikeyans knew Mirresh, and their public discourse and law were exclusively conducted in it.
Much to Jack’s surprise, it was easy to pick up. So easy that he was speaking Mirresh with a limited vocabulary within the first week. Prior to that, he’d believed himself incapable of learning a second language, let alone one from beyond the stars.
Once they could communicate, Jack got to know the three other aliens, despite his instincts otherwise. The rhino’s name was Dojer, and his race called themselves Rozom. He belonged to the worker caste, which entailed having a long-legged bug bonded to his blowhole as a child. It caused him to grow larger and stronger than the rest of his kind, and develop a hard, silicate armor. Surprisingly, the bug was also intelligent, but his species, known as Marakhya, were shy and preferred to let their Rozom do all the talking. Jack couldn’t even begin to pronounce the Marakhya’s name, and was glad it wasn’t too friendly.
Dojer however proved to be very talkative after a short warm-up. The hulking creature was full of stories that all ended with puzzling punch-lines and him belly laughing, but which left Jack confused. Rozom humor just wasn’t Jack’s cup of tea.
The two jackrabbits were a mated pair named Ferash and Niko, and their species called themselves Kitsu. If these two were any indication, the Kitsu were a playful and almost childlike race with boundless curiosity and a keen interest in machines. They hounded Jack for just a peek at his guns and other gadgets, and when he finally caved in, the pair took turns taking everything apart and putting it back together again. This would have infuriated him, but they did a better job cleaning and maintaining his gear than he ever had.
Jack got the impression that Ferash, the male of the pair, was a dreamer and maybe even an artist of some kind before he became a soldier. He often went off alone to stare at the horizon in deep thought. Niko, his mate, let him be during those stretches and instead spent the time avidly listening to Dojer’s weird stories.
Both Ferash and Niko yearned to raise children, but thought it a mistake to bring new lives into such a troubled world.
Much to Jack’s surprise and dismay, the Kitsu were affectionate. Their extended families shared close living quarters and often slept in communal rooms, which Jack discovered one morning when he awoke to find both Ferash and Niko cuddled up against him. He shooed them away the first few times but it became more effort than it was worth. Besides, they were warm.
At least Dojer didn’t want to cuddle. Jack didn’t think he could cope with that. Or survive it.
They reached the Ark after nearly three straight weeks of travel. Dojer, Ferash and Niko stayed with Felix, hidden in one of the few nearby copses, while Jack and Kai approached on foot. Soon, they were in the vast, sprawling village that had sprung up around the underground shelter. The place filled Jack with both hope and despair. It provided a clear example of what the human race had been reduced to, as well as their ability to plod on in the face of abject adversity.
