Worldbuilding Prompt #582 - So Who Are The Monsters ? - Alex's Saga #12
Welcome to the next part of the Space Opera saga of Alex Deroma.
I'm continuing to use the excellent prompts in the Worldbuilding Community to determine which direction the story goes in. The one I'm using (and abusing) for this episode is;
Worldbuilding Prompt #582 - Monsters.
In the last episode, Alex and Garrad were captured by the Slavers after being betrayed by their supposed comrade Viard. In the process of getting free, Alex inadvertently triggered the slave revolt she had been trying without success to start.
Now, on with the story....
The Kerber army crested the rise at a steady jog, with the only two humans among them, Alex and Garrad, in the lead.
Image created by AI in Nightcafe Studio
Garrad still had his grey ASPsman's uniform, although it was looking distinctly tattered.
Alex had been stripped of hers while she was a prisoner. Now, she strutted in front of her army bare-breasted wearing an outlandish ensemble of a kilt cut from the hide of some red-furred local creature, a cloak formed from the flayed scaly skin of one of the reptilian Slavers, and armoured shoulder-pieces formed from Slaver rib bones. Her auburn hair was twined with feathers and strips of bright cloth taken from Slaver domes.
Garrad looked at her sideways and barked a laugh. "Damn, Alex, you look like one of Harshozni's barbarians from legend. You terrify me, and I'm on your side !"
Alex just grinned a feral smile back at him and raised her looted sword high.
Circling in the sky above her was Shade; the bird had reappeared quite nonchalantly after she'd escaped, as if nothing had happened. The Slavers found Shade to be a horrifying nightmare, and were deathly afraid of him. His penchant for jumping in a kind of short-range teleport and re-appearing in their midst enlarged to a ten foot tall screeching flurry of feathers, razor-sharp beak and massive claws might have something to do with it.
When the Kerber saw the sword raised, a guttural growl arose from two thousand throats. The scientists back on Home said that there was no such thing as telepathy. Alex no longer believed that.
Something had awakened in the friendly little creatures. Something atavistic, like a hive mind. They were no longer the docile race the Slavers had held in subjugation for so many millennia. The mere sight of their former overlords drove them into a berserk frenzy, and it seemed to affect all the Kerber nearby, even those still held as slaves.
Image created by AI in Nightcafe Studio
Now, there were Slavers below them, on the edge of the settlement.
They had thrown up barricades, but were few in number and mostly armed with neuro-whips, clubs and swords. Margal had been a backwater for so long that the Slavers ruling each settlement only had one or two energy or projectile weapons at most. They'd never needed them. Until now.
With a roar, the army launched itself into the charge, downhill at full pelt, screaming with insane rage and fury, straight at the Slavers with Alex at their head.
A few shots rang out, and Kerber fell. It didn't halt the charge's momentum, and Garrad saw with horror that those Kerber felled by the shots but not killed outright limped or crawled as rapidly as they could after their comrades, still howling, still desperate to share in the slaughter.
When the charge reached a hundred feet from the settlement, the Kerber from the huts within emerged. They too were caught up in the bloodlust, males and females alike, and even the young. They fell on the Slavers from the rear as the main army smashed into them from the front.
As with the previous dozen settlements they'd hit, the battle was one-sided and brief. In less than five minutes, the barricade was scattered, and the Slavers were nothing but a bloody smear.
The Kerbers' battle-fury slowly subsided, and Garrad saw that some of them were tossing Slaver body parts back and forth, or chewing on strips of enemy flesh. Toughened as he was by years of service, the sight still made him feel a little nauseous.
Then he caught sight of Alex. She was covered in dark blood, Shade sitting contentedly on her shoulder.
"I should have known, Garrad !" she called with mad laughter in her voice. "I was doing it all wrong, trying to teach them to fight like Imperials. This... this is how Kerber fight !"
When she grinned, he saw that her teeth were stained by Slaver blood.
By tomorrow, they would be at the next settlement, freeing it from the reptilian monsters holding the Kerber as slaves. Garrad was starting to think that it wasn't just the Slavers who were the monsters.
To be continued.....
Previous parts of Alex's Saga;
Part 1
Part 2
Part 3
Part 4
Part 5
Part 6
Part 7
Part 8
Part 9
Part 10
Part 11
Mira and the slaves first appeared in Worldbuilding Prompt #546 - The Hovels of Margal VI
The First Saga, the Tale of Fedric - Final Part - with links to all the previous parts.