“You get your skinny ass back in one piece, you hear me, Half-Pint?” Wrath said in a menacing tone that only made me melt further.
“I always do,” I replied smugly. “But see that you remain in my psychic range, Scaly Head. You don’t get to die on me until I’ve gotten you to change a few diapers for my firstborn.”
He chuckled and nodded. “How could I resist such a wonderful prospect?”
Despite his teasing tone, I didn’t miss the warning glance he cast towards my mate, hinting that there will be hell to pay if Varnog allowed me to get hurt in any way. Silly males, always thinking they were the one protecting us when, in fact, it was the other way around.
“Be safe, brother,” Varnog said in the calmest, most serious tone devoid of any hint of sarcasm that I had ever heard from him. “See you on the other side.”
Wrath nodded and squeezed my man’s shoulder. To my surprise, Varnog and Reaper exchanged a manly hug before parting. I had known the Dragons and the Scelks to be close, but not that way, and not with Reaper.
We made our way to our vessel, joined shortly thereafter by Violet, the best marksman of the Vanguard. She would do most of the shooting while I piloted and Varnog messed with the Beetles’ minds. And then we waited for the signal that came a few minutes later.
Activating our stealth shield, Varnog, Violet, and I were the first ones out, quickly followed by nearly a hundred small ships from the three battlecruisers and five frigates that constituted the largest vessels of our fleet. As we began our descent towards the mountaintop, I watched on my radar the thirty or so Fireflies manned by the Queen’s Guard entering the crater.
Ayana had established a mental link with Hulax—their leader—to see how long she could maintain psychic contact with him. However, we couldn’t take her as a base reference since Ayana’s psychic range was infinite without disruptors. Therefore, even though we couldn’t catch the souls of the Soldiers, our Portals—who had a greater range for rescuing souls than Soulcatchers—would track the other Guards to see how far they could remain in contact.
“All right, Team Tiny,” Varnog said with his insufferable taunting tone. “Time to kick some butts.”
“Hey!” Violet exclaimed, glaring at him with false outrage. “Careful that I don’t miss aim once you get off this ship.”
“Have you forgotten that the best things always come in small packages?” I reminded him as I made my approach towards the first Beetles circling the crater’s edge.
Although a bit taller than me, Violet was also petite, with huge purple eyes and an adorable face that made her look like a doll. Looking at her, you’d never believe she had the deadliest aim this side of the galaxy.
“I most certainly have not,” Varnog said in a purring tone that made me squirm. “I mated you, didn’t I? Now focus, woman.”
I wanted so badly to smack him in the back of the head while Violet chuckled. But he was right: I needed to focus. And just like that, all hell broke loose.
I saw a Beetle coming out at the same time Varnog called it out. It freaked me out that it hadn’t been noted on the charts that the scouting drones had identified for us. Then again, the best laid plans always had a way of coming back and bitchslapping you when you least expected it. But how did it know we were here when we had our stealth cloaks activated?
The creature’s horns began to crackle with electricity while a sphere of light began to swell on its back. Seconds later, the lightning fizzled out and the Beetle dropped back onto all six of its legs from the odd sitting position they always took when aiming. I didn’t have to ask to know Varnog had mentally incapacitated it. A quick shot by Violet blew its head off then she was already firing at other targets with deadly accuracy.
The amount of psychic energy emanating from my mate had my short hair standing on end. The giant bugs started coming out of the woodwork, far more than we had realized, and in different breeds than just the Bombardier Beetles. I couldn’t focus on them, too busy avoiding the large number of electric missiles coming our way or just flying up in our path.
The last thing I had expected was one of the other creatures—that I couldn’t recognize because of all the electric flares around it—firing what looked like a lightning ribbon. It was drawn like magnets to the electric missiles coming at us. As soon as they touched one missile, the other end of the ribbon flew to another nearby missile, creating an electric wall. The damn thing bounced from one sphere to another, destroying any ship that happened to fly right through it, or frying their circuits.
My heart bled for whomever might have fallen and prayed that those ships had belonged to Warriors or Dragons that could be reborn. Simultaneously, the EMP rings began forming at an alarming speed. Avoiding and dodging incoming missiles and electric walls, I raced to be in close enough range of the largest ring so that Varnog could work his magic. Three of the Beetles closest to us became incapacitated, breaking the EMP circle. To my shock, the remaining creatures reformed it, skipping those that had been killed or mind-controlled, giving the circle an odd shape.
“All ships, get out of the EMP circle’s radius. They’re about to blast. Focus fire on the circle Beetles!” Tabitha’s voice said through the com.
I could have kissed her for that. My girl was always on the ball when it came to battle strategy. Four more ships joined us, circling their own section of the crater’s perimeter, the Scelk onboard each vessel interrupting as many creatures as they could reach within their psychic range. The EMP blasted off before we could get them all, but we had managed to reduce it to a very narrow triangle that failed to hit any of our large ships.
The giant bugs never got a chance to recharge.
With the EMP Beetles eliminated, the others became a breeze as they were clustered instead of being spread out over a large radius. A single Scelk could control up to twenty of them, making them sitting ducks while our weapons experts took them out.
By the time we were done clearing the mountain top, a number of Fireflies carrying our Warriors and Dragons had begun descending into the crater.
“Team Alpha, you’re diving in after the Warriors,” Tabitha said over the com. “Team Beta, remain on standby near the crater for orders. All other units, rescue survivors from the crashed ships then return to your respective vessels.”
She didn’t have to say it twice. It was a huge gamble as our Team Alpha had all of our best pilots. If we were walking into a trap, the blow to our troops might be beyond severe. However, we also had the greatest chance of surviving it with us at the helm. A quick glance at my companions indicated they were both eager and ready. My mate was bloodthirsty, I wanted to be in range of saving my Warrior if needed, and Violet wanted to be in range of her mate not only to soulcatch him but to shoot down any bastard that would threaten Rage.
“Status of the Queen’s Guard,” I asked Yumi, our assigned Operator and Shield, in our team mind-chat.
“We are tracking their vessels, and we still have psychic contact with them,” Yumi said. “They are progressing slowly through the maze. Although they are familiar with their homeworld’s landscape, they never flew through it like this. The Warriors and Dragons might catch up with them.”
“Share what you see with Varnog and Violet,” I said, as we approached the edge of the crater before diving in.