Gingerbread Man: 2109, Chapter 8, Prisoner of the Soriss
This story is meant for those 18 or more years of age.
8: Prisoner of the Soriss
Two Soriss soldiers patrolled the beach where the human had been captured less than half an hour earlier. They kept their distance from the half submerged body of their hated enemy and looked up and down the beach for any signs of movement; their sole duty was to provide an early warning against further incursions. The closest one to Feih's body, a female, became curious of the unusual way her tails bobbed up and down in the calm surf and violated established protocol and moved closer to see what caused such strange motions, but before she could discover the cause see she heard an unusual sound near where the head should be. She looked up and saw a few bubbles break the surface. She turned to call for her partner to ask for his opinion about this strange occurrence, bit only managed to get his name out before something thick and brown covered her mouth and face.
He had heard her call him but his attention was focused on what he saw through his binoculars on the far shore. When he answered and tried to warn her about what he had seen and received no reply he brought the unit down from his face and turned toward where she should be, but instead of the young rookie who he had begun to have feelings for, he saw a sight that chilled him to the bone even more than what he had just seen.
He looked up, much higher than he knew he should have to, and saw her fate. By the time he had brought his rifle to bear a very warm and humid darkness had enveloped him.
Corporal Matthew Thorn tried to gather as much intelligence as he could during the hour long trip and when he was pulled from his captor's armored personnel carrier and forced to walk towards one of the many prefabricated buildings in the Soriss outpost: he observed three fighters in an area made to station six, a fact that almost brought a smile to his face, two drop ships, another armored troop carrier, several buildings that he believed to be barracks, a small parade space and a deep space communications array. The moment they arrived to within the nearest building his guards stopped and forced him to his knees. The wait that followed allowed him a chance to think back to the incident that caused him to become a prisoner.
He could not believe that Feih was dead, but that the beam that had twice struck her was more than powerful enough to have taken out a heavy fighter, let alone a being of flesh and blood. He also could not think of a reason for why he was still alive, as neither side in this war had so far bothered to take any prisoners. Just as he finished that thought he felt an odd sensation in the back of his head; as if some outside source had attempted to access his communications implant for the information he had recently gathered on the disposition of the enemy camp, but before he could recognize the invader the door to the building opened and a female officer walked out.
Her blue and yellow uniform was emblazoned with what looked like medals and other symbols that signified her authority and rank. He also saw, as she approached him, that she would easily be considered attractive by any human standard, especially her jet black medium length hair and green cat-like green eyes. He looked into them and experienced a mixed sense of recognition and anger. He could not think of why he had these feelings or why he thought she looked familiar. Then the message he received a second message and he smiled. His smile increased when he saw how nervous the Soriss officer had become when she looked at him.
She regained her composure and adjusted an electronic device on her belt that turned out to be a translator, and questioned him as to his unit and mission; "I'm also interested in how you survived as long as you did the presence of one of those accursed creatures and persuaded her to carry you across the lake?"
Angered at her description of Feih he volunteered only his name rank and serial number. Her response came in the form of the backside of her gloved hand across his face.
She pulled out her side arm, placed its barrel against his head and identified herself as Commander Lasteri Hatelo; "As your recent experience should have taught you only a fool would trust a Dorzeli. That's why my superiors started the campaign to wipe their kind from the surface of this world." She pressed the gun into his temple. "Now you will tell me how you survived undetected in the presence of one of those vermin until we spotted you two on the lake."
Matt now realized why Feih had decided to transport him the way she did. "Her suit must've shielded me from their sensors!" Aloud he told her, "I don't know."
The Soriss commander showed him her feline dental heritage when she snarled, "I've lost too many personnel in the last few days to stand here and listen to your lies." She upped her gun's charge to its maximum. "You'll tell me what I want to know or you will die."
Matt received a second pulsed signal and cried, "All right, all right; I'll tell you." He bent his head down in apparent shame.
She pulled her gun away from his head, but continued to hold it on him while his three guards smiled at his compliance with her order.
Matt looked up at her and said, "But I must tell you something before I do."
He saw a look of suspicion come to her face before she said, "You may, but be brief."
"You're about to lose more of your precious personnel." Matt smiled.
The commander's puzzlement at what he said disappeared when, after a bright flash of light, she felt the concussions of three huge explosions from her right.
She turned toward their source and saw that the remaining three fighters and the vehicle tthat had brought Matt there were in flames. The second tried to lock onto the source. But before it could fire a Dorzeli-Ki the as two and a half times lager than any had seen before leapt from the trees and smashed it's turret with its large foot when it landed upon it. The female Dorzeli-Ki then breathed fire onto all who were near, picked up the damage transport and hurled it into the two spacecraft. A flame brighter than the sun struck the damaged vehicles and detonated their fuel supplies which caused an exponential increase in the chaos that had begun to spread throughout the camp. Those that manager to get off shots at her saw their beams dissipate and vanish when they got within a meter of her. All who had shot at her became the immediate victims of her wrath.
A commotion in front of Hatelo brought her attention back from the giant's rampage to her prisoner to se that two of the guards lying on the ground unconscious and the third, with his head in an unnatural position; Corporal Matthew Thorn, now unbound, stood to his rear.
Stunned by this sight, she hesitated just long enough to allow him to throught the dead soldier to the side and expertly round-kick the gun out of her hand. A follow-up blow to her mid-section sent her backwards, but she recovered quickly and blocked his follow up blows.
Matt backed away and assumed a well practiced fighting stance. She moved into one of her own as the chaos around them escalated.
Soldiers, surprised by the suddenness of the attack, rushed from their quarters in response but were either incinerated or crushed before they could reach their defensive positions. Those that tried to flee were chased down and impaled on Feih's claws or worse.
Matt realized that his fight with Hatelo would not be as easy as he had hoped; she had blocked every blow he had thrown at her. But thanks to his sister's martial arts training he was able to dodge or block her counter attacks.
Matt fought as hard and as he could, but had failed to land any effective blows on his opponent since their initial contact and what he had seen between blows and defensive maneuvers had not helped his concentration; Feih, already large to begin with, had somehow grown to more than two times her normal size and was dispatching Sorris soldiers at a horrifyingly fast pace.
Less than sixty seconds after she had started her attack the only signs of life left in the camp were herself and the two combatants. Fascinated by their sounds and movements she sat, licked her claws clean and observed them.
He had to refocused all of his attention on Hatelo when she had pressed her attack and dodged a high kick. This caused him to trip over one of his guard's dropped weapons and fall. Hatelo pounced upon him the instant he hit the ground, pulled out a hidden knife and drove it toward his chest
He caught her arm with the point of the blade less that a centimeter from his chest and tried to push it away with no success; she was much stronger than she looked. A second smile came to his face when a large shadow loomed over them and the knife was pulled away from his body; Feih, now normal sized, had hooked a single index finger around Hatelo's arm and had pulled it back.
.
The Soriss froze with horror when she turned her head and saw Feih's angry and blood splattered face staring down at her.
"Are you all right?" asked Feih with her eyes looked on Hatelo.
"I am now. Thanks." He rolled away, stood up and backed away to a safe distance.
Once she saw that he was clear Feih flipped Hatelo face up and pinned her to the ground just as she had done with Matt when they first met and growled, "You shouldn't have tried to kill my friend or called my people vermin."
Matt watched as she brought her other hand up into a position from which to strike at her, but was mystified when she lifted her other hand from the Soriss' body.
Hatelo barely had enough time to scramble away when Feih's brought her hand down and impaled the dirt where her intended victim was with her claws. She next tried to pin the officer down with her other hand, but again missed her mark. Each of her subsequent efforts led to the same result with the Soriss successfully escaping each time.
Matt watched in disbelief and thought, "She's like a cat playing with a mouse." That was when he saw, for the first time, that the top half of her suit was missing.
A cry of pain refocused his attention just in time to see the Soriss' knife land point first into the ground at his feet. He looked up and saw a grimace on Feih's face and that several drops of blood had dripped onto the ground beneath her clasped hands.
He looked down and saw that Hatelo slowly backing away from her then heard her shout; "I didn't mean to do it. You have to believe me!"
He did not have much time to ponder her words when he saw something that needed his immediate attention.
Feih looked up from her hands and hissed at the Soriss. Hatelo turned and ran toward the forest.
Feih started to pursue but stopped short when a thin stream of high-energy plasma shot in front of her head. She turned to face her attacker and snarled, "How dare you..." she stopped when she saw her assailant, one of Matt's former guards who he had knocked out., fall to the ground with the offending beam rifle in his hands and Hatelo's blade in the back his neck;
She looked to his rear and saw Matt pull his right arm back from a throwing position.
He looked up and saw that all of Feih's lost all of her anger and tried to speak, then turned and pursued Hatelo. He thought, as he walked over to the dead soldier and pick up the rifle, that she looked ashamed of what she was about to do then ran after her.
After a short run through the bush he found her with her opened mouth over the terrified Soriss' head who she had pinned against a tree.
Matt, knowing that the Alliance could use any information Hatelo might have, shouted, "Please, Feih, don't do it. We have to know why her people are so desperate trying to hold onto this planet." When she lowered her head toward the frightened Soriss he shouted, "We need her alive!"
He thought she was going to heed his plea when she hesitated, but was disappointed when she bit down on Hatelo's shoulder. Before she passed out Matt heard her say, "But you promised..."
He tried to think of a way to stop Feih when she released Hatelo and licked her lips. He looked down at the Soriss weapon in his hands. Just as he dismissed that option he found himself wrapped up by both of her tails for the second time in the past two days. She constricted them just enough so that he could not move, placed the unconscious officer on the ground and brought her full attention onto him.
He started to feel that his own life was in jeopardy until she released him smiled and kept her distance.
"I wasn't going to eat her. I only wanted to put her out so that we could safely take her with us." She then patted her slightly swollen abdomen and grinned. "I don't think I would've had enough room left for her anyway."
When she saw how he was staring at her she looked down at her suit's intact lower half and gave off a raspy chuckle, "This is, was, flexible armor that generated a bioelectric shield that gave me limited protection from their lighter weapons." She looked back up at him. "When I communicated my plan to you on the beach I didn't expect them to have such a powerful weapon stationed there. I was lucky that this suit's threshold just matched that cannon's power. Well, almost." She looked down at a dark spot just below her collarbone. "This stings a lot, but it'll disappear in a few days." When she looked back at him up and found that he was still staring at her she looked his body over and grinned.
Embarrassed, he turned away from her, "I'm sorry, Feih. I didn't mean to..."
Her voice was as soft as he had ever heard when she next spoke; "You don't have to apologize. It's been a long time since any unattached male has reacted to me in that way and I consider it a compliment that you find looking at me enjoyable."
He did enjoy looking at her. Hell, he had ever since they met, but with the upper half of her suit gone he felt that it was not right and tried to think of something to say to get her off the subject. A loud hiss of pain from her caused him to turn and find that she was again holding her hand where Hatelo had cut her and that the blood flow had resumed.
He dropped the Soriss weapon, took off his shirt and undershirt and ran over to her. "Here, let me help you with that."
She hesitated a moment then held out her injured finger to him. He found that the cut was not as deep or as he had first thought as he wrapped it.
He was almost finished dressing her wound when she leaned down and licked at his face and neck. Startled by her sudden unexpected show of affection, he tried to back away but was stopped when she slipped her right hand around his back to block his retreat, pulled him closer and licked over his entire exposed upper body.
Every point where she touched him he felt the now familiar sensations of joy and contentment return. He closed his eyes as they increased in intensity until he just wanted to reach out and...he stopped and tried to free himself from her grasp.
Feih pulled her head away from his body and looked at him with what he believed was deep affection. "You twice saved my life today, Matt, and I thank you." She brought her face next to his and gently nuzzled his left cheek. "And I'm sorry for thinking it was you who shot at me."
He replied, "You're welcome," and could not help but start to massage her snout in return, "But you saved me too, so I guess we're even."
She resumed licking him and he again tried to pull away from her, but her hold on him was unbreakable. In desperation he tried another strategy to get her to release him; "Please, Feih, I have to go back and get my pack."
Disappointed, she removed her hand from his back and sighed, "Alright."
Matt breathed a sigh of relief. If she not stopped when she did he would not have been able to resist the urges that had built up inside of him. He was reminded of this with every difficult step he took toward the camp. Feih followed him at a comfortable distance, with Hatelo's unconscious body in her hands.
When he arrived at its edge he stopped and surveyed the damage she had inflicted while he was fighting its former commander and was amazed at the amount of destruction she had caused in so short a time. The remains of over forty or more Soriss soldiers lay scattered across the area with all of their equipment either destroyed or burning, except for the communications array. The large footprints scattered across the area, along with the more than twenty missing Soriss soldiers he had seen alive when he arrived confirmed for him that it was not an illusion that she had doubled her size during the battle. It added another aspect of her heritage that he thought he had best confront her with before it became an issue later.
He turned back to her and asked, "You're part Dorzeli-Mu aren't you?"
She stopped and lowered her head. "He was my grandfather. He escaped the early Kroon purges and mated my grandmother before they exiled him and the others to this planet's only other continent. My size changing power increased the effective coverage of the remaining half of my suit: that is why none of their weapons affected me."
He saw tears in her eyes when she looked back up at him. "This power of mine is my family's most closely guarded secret. If the others families ever found out they'd kill me and any who came to my defense."
Matt rememberd much from he briefing on that sub-species which was the result of a failed experiment that left them wingless, larger than the Primes but with only a fraction of their power and that one of them was the ability to shrink down in size to that of a Dorzeli-Ki and that they were known to be cannibalistic, a fact which had doomed them to exile from the Kroon Empire.
He surveyed the devastated enemy camp. "That'd explain how fast you took this place out."
Instead of moving on him to ensure her secret was safe she kept her distance. "My people are very efficient warriors; but that no longer matters and I no longer care if they find out about me as long as you're...safe."
He speculated about the word she had wanted to use, then realized that he had understood every word she had said in her language without his helmet on. "How is it that we can understand each other without my translator and how were you able to contact me on the beach and a few minutes ago?"
She became nervous; "All of my people have implants similar to yours and when we...bonded yesterday they must've absorbed some of the data from each other." Before he could ask her what she meant by "being bonded", she changed the subject. "I think we'd better move on before their main base discovers what's happened here and send reinforcements." She looked up at the fires she had started and sighed. "I won't be able to do this again for at least another day."
He suspected that there was something else that she did not want to tell him and decided to hold off any further questions. "You're probably right." He retrieved his pack and helmet, kept the enemy weapon at his side and headed toward one of the intact buildings. "I'll be right back. I have to take of some personal matters."
Feih unsuccessfully tried not to laugh at his plight. "That was a good job of acting you did back on the beach. You almost had me convinced that you thought I was going to kill you."
He thought, "Who was acting?" as he started his search for a clean pair of pants.