Spears of Uu'kata

Chapter 3 - Prisoner of War

Ahnekk hated giving credit to his enemies but these humans were resilient and the one defending its fallen fellow warrior was skilled, vicious, and quick-thinking.

He was wondering what the human was doing with the other suit. Why it was tying them together? The suit suddenly opened and something spilled out, and got to its feet.

It was pale, lean, and covered with some kind of slime and his eyes widened when he realized he was looking at a human. An actual human. At the being instead of the metal they wore. This was a human!

The two connected suits flew up into the air and Ahnekk snarled in frustration. He'd wanted to get his hands on one of those metal suits.

"Take it alive!" he bellowed so his warriors could hear him. "Do not harm it!"

His heart pounded in excitement. A live human warrior. What a prize!

***

Charlotte considered running, but without her suit, she didn't have a chance at outpacing these creatures, especially weighed down as she was by the planet's gravity, and she knew it. So she stood her ground and felt the effects of the binding drugs fading from her system. Which meant that fear curled in her belly at the sight of the oncoming hoard. She'd never felt so alone in her life and yet she was glad no one was with her. She didn't want to see anyone else she cared for die.

Rage suddenly burst inside of her. She wanted to sink her teeth into her enemy's throats and rip them out. She wanted to taste their blood on her tongue and though she knew it was just a side effect of the drugs wearing off, she welcomed it.

The hoard drew in, their marbled skin glistening where it showed through their armor. Their faces were set in snarls of fury, metallic alien eyes wild with battle rage... and yet they didn't attack.

They encircled her and she could do nothing but watch as their massive bodies stood shoulder to shoulder, caging her in.

One massive Uu'k'asht with a mane of black dreadlocks and long, polished tusks protruding from his bottom lip paced just outside the circle, violent, hooded eyes locked on her, a frightful air of excitement about him.

They mean to take me alive, she realized.

The one pacing uttered a guttural word and one of those surrounding her stepped forward and made a grab for her. She jerked back and tripped over something. Her arms pinwheeled as she sprawled on her back on the corpse of the Uu'k'asht she'd killed.

The creatures laughed.

They. Laughed.

Charlotte felt her lips pull from her teeth in absolute rage.

She felt it every time she ejected, but she controlled it, pushed it away.

This time, she let it have her. It numbed out the pain in her side and knee. She didn't feel the biofluid freezing to her skin. What she did feel was the blue Uu'k'asht blood on her hands. And it felt good.

Crouching, she dipped her hands into the blood welling on the corpse's chest. Then she used it to wipe lines of war paint on her face and down her neck before snatching a blade from the downed Uu'k'asht. It was probably just a throwing knife to them but to her, it was the size of a machete.

Courage, gripping the blade.

"Come on!" she snarled through her teeth.

The Uu'k'asht huffed and grinned a devilish smile, made even more horrific by the tusks protruding from its wide mouth.