At the same time, doing a fly by over the third Zebier, Reklig fired his blaster at his prey’s face—the most sensitive part of the beast aside from its underbelly—to distract and blind it. As soon as he came within range, my Scelk companion used the grappling hook attachment of his second armband. He shot it with deadly precision at the very small, vulnerable spot behind the nearly impenetrable, hardened scales covering the head of the Zebier, right at the base of the skull. Using it to reel himself in, and aided by the flapping of his wings, Reklig landed directly onto the back of the roaring creature. It reared, attempting to buck him off while simultaneously trying to wrap its tail around my companion. But Reklig used the long, razor-sharp blade of his own tail to stab the upper part of the Zebier’s tail to keep it away from his body. Using the sword Jessica had brought him, the Scelk stabbed twice at the weak spot at the base of the creature’s skull. On the second blow, the blade sank in deeply. The beast stiffened, its face taking on a surprised look. It shuddered, then collapsed to the ground.
While Doom was attacking the fourth Zebier, I turned around to look for more prey. My jaw dropped at the sight of Stran, leading the pack of mature modified Creckels. They had fanned around him, over a wide radius. Running on all fours, Stran weaved around the Zebiers. Avoiding their harpoon tongues and the savage swipes of their talon-like claws, he herded them into a tight area. The other Creckels circled around them, trapping them. Stran suddenly stopped, folding into a ball. The beasts pushed and shoved at each other to get to him, their attacks failing miserably against his impenetrable shell. Simultaneously, no doubt in response to a command from Stran, the other Creckels fired the bladed darts from their tails at the herd of Zebiers. So many darts were launched that, for a second, it looked as if a swarm of locusts had spawned from beneath the Creckels’ scales before burying itself into the flesh of the wild beasts.
The collective screeches of the creatures were deafening. They turned to face their aggressors only to be met by another barrage of darts. My hand unconsciously rubbed my chest, remembering atrocious pain of being thus impaled by countless darts when I’d first entered the underground base. I almost felt sorry for the Zebiers as they collapsed to the ground, writhing in agony. The Creckels closed in on them for the kill, using their claws and snapping necks with their powerful jaws.
“Okay. They’re impressive for rookies,” Doom said in a grumpy tone as he came to stand next to me, his eyes locked on the grisly spectacle. “But damn, they could share a little.”
Reklig and I burst out laughing.
“Now you know how we feel when you hog all the action,” I said mockingly before slapping the back of his shoulder.
He made a face at me before leading the way to the Creckels.
As soon as we confirmed all the Zebiers were dead, we dragged their carcasses closer to the ship and the entrance of the base. Janelle came rushing out of the vessel and threw herself in my arms, barely giving me enough time to morph back out of my battle form. The silly female could have seriously hurt herself on my defenses. Still, I welcomed the feel of her slender body against mine, and the clear expression of her concern and care for me. I had always envied the displays of affection my mated brothers of the Vanguard received from their women. But, until now, I hadn’t realized just how badly.
“I’m all bloody and gory,” I mumbled, even though my arms possessively closed around my mate.
“I don’t care. You’re safe,” she said, tightening her hold around me.
While pleased that she cared so much, I didn’t quite know how to feel about that specific comment. Granted, the modified Creckels had slaughtered me in a blink the first time we’d met, but I was hardly squishy. In fact, I took pride in being one of the best warriors of the Vanguard.
Janelle slightly pulled away to look up at me. “You were amazing!” she said with undisguised awe as if she’d heard the thoughts crossing my mind. “You truly are bad ass.”
I chuckled, both from amusement and to hide my embarrassment to be thus complimented. I had not heard Janelle use a single swear or slang word so far. And the way she repeated bad ass as if it were two separate words instead of one only hinted at all the ways life in the Vanguard would ‘corrupt’ her innocence.
“Glad you approve,” I said, puffing out my chest.
She opened her mouth to say something, but suddenly stopped, her head turning sideways to look at someone coming from behind me. I looked over my shoulder to see the modified Creckels, Brees in the lead, approaching the ramp. Janelle released me and went to stand in front of the female, fists on her hips, and a stern expression on her face. By the amount of psychic energy emanating from my woman and swirling around the Creckels, there was no question she was chastising them for putting themselves in harm’s way, and that they were giving their counterarguments.
“Yes, you were impressive, but you still scared me,” Janelle finally said out loud with a bit of a pout. “And now, you’re a complete mess.”
“And so are the rest of us,” Doom said with a smile. “Don’t be so hard on them. They did phenomenally well for their first time. Maybe we should recruit them all in the Vanguard.” All the Creckels’ heads jerked towards him, a stunned expression on their faces. “Let’s clean up. We have a lot of work left to do.”
He gently caressed Brees’s head, being careful not to cut himself on her horns, before heading inside the ship. We followed him in. After a quick shower and donning clean clothes to stop us strutting around naked, we split up to try and get as much work done as possible before our lunch break.
Madeline and Thanh focused on repairing the damage the ship had sustained and running full diagnostics to make sure we wouldn’t have any surprises once we took off, likely tomorrow.
Doom and my Soulcatcher Martha went inside the base to work on opening the way into the basement. Unlike the entrance that previously had loads of rubble and twisted metal to remove without causing a collapse, the basement’s access had already been cleared by the Creckels years ago—aside from the few boulders that had fallen in when we’d worked on the entrance. But two thick plates of metal had been welded on top of the elevator shaft to prevent the cabin going lower and blocking the only way down. Using the laser excavator, they went to work. It would take a few hours but, with luck, we might unseal it before nightfall.
Reklig, Stran, and I were responsible for butchering the Zebiers and handing over the meat for Jessica and Janelle to cut into more manageable sizes both for storage and consumption by the Creckels. There was way too much meat. We hadn’t planned on hunting that many Zebiers, but they hadn’t given us a choice. To my surprise, the modified Creckels joined our efforts. Half of them helping the women, slicing the meat with their sharp claws with the same dexterity Brees had displayed when she’d first cut the steaks I’d brought them inside the base. The other half, under the guidance of Stran, took care of peeling off the layers of scales so that Reklig and I could focus on butchering and deboning them.
By the time we stopped for lunch, we were barely a quarter of the way done.
As we entered the mess hall, Janelle cast a worried look at Jessica who burst out laughing. The automated buffet always provided a variety of foods from light to decadent. Jessica indicated all the dishes my woman could take from—steaks excluded. It was both hilarious and heartbreaking to see Janelle pile on a mix of everything permitted on her plate. She would never be able to eat it all, but after being deprived for so long, her reaction didn’t surprise me. But when she reached the desserts table, she froze, her eyes bulging and her nostrils flaring.