Living Up To The Name

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A Zyldari wearing a large coat sat on a park bench surrounded by withered gray leaves. Ever attuned to the cries of the natural world, the plant-like humanoid held one in her hand and regarded the surrounding trees. They put on a brave face, but it was late-spring and they were still struggling to bloom. There was no heat wave, no drought, no natural phenomenon that could explain the issue.

There was no explanation for the sudden uptick in sightings and attacks from strange monsters on the outskirts of the city.

She lowered a hand to the thinning grass around her feet. To further prove her hypothesis, she walked to the edge of the once lush park she cultivated without stepping on a single blade.

She turned and looked up the road as grav vehicles zoomed past. Off in the distance loomed the experimental EnergIn power plant their colony invested in. She narrowed her dark eyes and held the withered leaf to her chest. After months of research and planning, it was time for action to save her new home.

Dashing through a gap in traffic, she ducked into an alley and entered a pass code to warehouse tucked behind some storefronts. Inside was abuzz with paramilitary troops suiting up, loading weapons, consulting operation plans, and prepping vehicles. The Zyldari smiled and breathed in the energy coursing through the staging area. They knew EnergIn was up to no good. But the colony leaders would only make a move if they came back with indisputable proof.

So they had one chance for a surgical strike to get what they needed. Unfortunately, the plan hinged on a group of mercenaries smuggling themselves onboard a shipment from orbit to bypass the plant’s steep security and disable the shield generator.

She put on her best brave face despite the stress making her eye twitch and marched into the operation’s command centre. The Zyldari flicked some loose leafy hair out of her face and contacted the mercenary’s handler. “Shepherd, is it? Doesn’t sound like any freelancers I know to liken themselves to livestock.”

A female voice with an accent from Iron Union space chuckled on the other side of the comms. “My team is, how you say… unorthodox. My title’s more of a joke about herding cats.”

Stone-faced, the Zyldari continued, “We’ll be ready to move soon. What’s the status on your team? We have one shot at this, so I hope your people can do surgical.”

The line went quiet. Shepherd cleared her throat and adjusted in her chair, thinking about how to massage the wording.

***

An EnergIn security officer dove behind a set of crates near the landing pad. Magnetically accelerated rifle rounds slammed into the plascrete wall behind him as he shouted into his comms. “We need backup! North pad by the generator!”

One attacker roared beyond his cover. Another guard tumbled over the crate, crashing on top of the officer. The person on the other side of the comms said, “Say again. What the hell’s going on over there?”

The officer’s voice cracked. “We heard a strange noise coming from the last shipment. Something got out and started tearing us apart. I think they’re cat girl—“

An exuberant female Ra’Shasi poked her head around the crate. “Peekaboo! Found you!” The youngest Nova’Si sister, Ilyana, covered in colourful gadgets, flashed the officer a big, snaggle-toothed grin, her two long pig-tailed braids streaked with magenta dye. The officer scrambled back on his elbows when he saw the dangerous light in her eyes. He particularly didn’t like the under-lighting she received from the sparks coming off the lightning blasters she held in each hand.

Her handmade weapons crackled as the lithe woman approached. “What’s the matter? Do you always run from fun girls? I just wanted to test my new invention.”

A guard appeared behind her and aimed his gun at her back. A spinning side kick launched him into the wall. The eldest Nova’Si, Zofiya, followed up with another kick that flung his weapon out of his grasp, continued the spin and grappled his head behind her knee. While choking him between her calf and the back of her thigh, she knelt and fired a shot over her little sister’s shoulder to drop another guard.

She reloaded her assault rifle, jury-rigged with electromagnetic rails, as the pinned guard struggled. She tossed her single long braid of dark hair decorated with beads, feathers, and talons over her shoulder and scowled at her sister. “Stop playing with your food, Ilyana. Bad enough you blew our cover before we reached the objective.” They often spoke in their native tongue when talking to each other.

Ilyana tutted. “Where’s your sense of adventure, big ears?” She lowered her goggles, then turned and aimed her right zapper at the officer cowering on the ground. There was a loud crack, but the two metal prongs at the end of the weapon fizzled. Ilyana cursed in her native tongue, then cranked the power coming from her backpack feeding into the left zapper and hit his back with a thunderous blast as he ran away.

Still kneeling, Zofiya surveyed the area and sniffed the air. "Focus. We have a job to do.”

Ilyana chuckled and gestured to the pinned guard. “At least one of us is having fun.”

Zofiya looked down and noticed the guard’s face. Pressed under her leg, he slipped into unconsciousness from lack of oxygen with a beatific smile on his face. She snarled and shot to her feet as Ilyana pointed and laughed.

Flustered and checking the map on her holopad, the eldest Nova’Si asked, “Where’s Ksandra?”

They both jumped back as a freight train of fur and muscle charged past them with a bestial roar. Tackling a guard half again her size into the plascrete wall of the power plant, the second Nova’Si sister brutalized her opponent with a flurry of punches, kicks, and slashes with her claws.

Breathing heavily as the other two glanced back at the trail of destruction their imposing musclebound sister left in her wake, Ksandra flicked out her thick mane of loose, wild hair and licked her fangs. “O’Ra! I’m liking this new gig more and more.” She grabbed her automatic shotgun and racked it. “Come on, let’s blow this place!”

Zofiya rolled her eyes as Ilyana doubled over, cackling. The youngest said, “Sounds like a blast, but we’re supposed to be sneaky sneaky and shut down the shield generator, meat for brains.”

Ksandra cracked her knuckles and readied herself, her tail swinging behind her. “Oh, really? Maybe we should tie this zippy loudmouth up then. Especially after you got us caught yelping because she saw a skaff rat in the box.”

Ilyana narrowly dodged Ksandra’s grab, parkoured on top of the crate, and hissed. “Vulstet! That was you!”

As the other two fought, Zofiya’s sensitive ear twitched as she heard the elevator off to the side approaching. She banged on the side of the crate to alert the others. When the doors opened and the second wave of security, now properly armed and armoured, fanned out across the landing pad. Surveying the devastation, the Torqun project coordinator, a four-eyed humanoid with a bony star-shaped face plate, stepped out behind her troops.

After a quick sweep, the second security officer spoke through his sealed helmet. “Pad seems clear, boss. Should get back inside, we’ll find who did this.”

The coordinator prodded one of the brutalized guards. “I doubt the locals have the spine for a play like this. Mayhaps we have some vicious beasts who penetrated our defences. Fascinating. Bring me them alive, will you? Or at least in one piece. I’m always on the lookout for new specimens before this place burns out.”

She walked back into the elevator and closed the door. Above, tails disappeared in a vent and clawed hands closed the grate.

***

A constant low rumble permeated EnergIn’s experimental power plant. The sound more pronounced the closer one got to the immense steaming pipes running throughout the facility. While the company holds its cards close to its chest, it explained the tech to buyers and investors as being a new fusion of geothermal and matter compression to provide abundant clean energy by tapping into a world’s natural processes. Executives cited special geological fissures only they could spot as the reason they were picky about where they located their sites.

Those rare experts in the ebb and flow of the Spirit Realm would note the sites lined up with a planet’s key spiritual ley lines.

Deep in the bowels of the facility where the pipes fed a good portion of the plant’s condensed energy, that low rumble thrummed between one’s ears. It rang louder in the coordinator’s ears as Ksandra smashed her head into the console.

The imposing Nova’Si sister spoke in her broken Galactic Common. “Where are shield controls?!”

The coordinator spat out a glob of blood and bared her sharp teeth. “Those are topside in the security substation, you overgrown, furry fool.”

Ksandra growled into her ear. “Well then, what in the Yaz’Kashijj is this place?!”

Already squatting in a chair and plugged into a holoterminal off to the side, Ilyana scrolled through a dizzying amount of data using the coordinator’s ID. “They’re drawing some kind of energy from the planet, condensing it, and funnelling whatever they don’t need to power the colony down here into these.” She gestured to a collection of large, murky tubes spread about the lab.

As Ksandra shouted about how she hated this place and the thrumming sound made her skin crawl, Zofiya approached the massive tube in the centre of the room and extended her keen senses. The fluid churning inside swirled faster as she put a hand on the thick glass. She closed her eyes and her ear flicked as the thrumming grew more colour and nuance.

Zofiya recoiled and her breath caught in her chest as something angry inside moved. “The planet… it’s screaming. They’ve been draining and twisting the planet’s life force!”

Ilyana cocked her head and ran through some quick calculations. “Yeah, that scans. No wonder that stern plant lady had a stick up her butt.”

Zofiya readied her rifle and marched over to Ilyana. “Turn it off. Turn it all off.” Her expression left no room for disagreement. The sisters knew all too well what it’s like being lab rats.

The coordinator fought under Ksandra’s iron grip. “No, you simpletons! You don’t understand!”

Ksandra pressed her down with her strong, scarred arm. “Don’t need to understand to stop it.”

Ilyana leaped over to the control panel, humming a tune to herself. “Let’s try… this one.”

A pipe feeding into the central tube hissed and shut off. The coordinator struggled even harder. “Stop! Not the sedative!”

The murky liquid inside the tube churned as whatever lay inside woke up. Something solid banged into the glass. Two more bangs caused it to crack. With a mighty roar, the beast flexed and shattered the tube, spilling the strange, glowing fluid across the grated floor.

After poking Ksandra in the face with her pointy face plate, the coordinator squeezed out of her grip and stepped forward. She stared in awe at her creation as it thrashed out of the tube.

Previously curled into a ball, the six-limbed chimera resembled a twisted amalgamation of the planet’s flora and fauna. Its clubbed tail smashed a console behind it. Its wide jaw, brimming with gnarled teeth, coughed up condensed glowing fluid. Rocky antlers growing from its skull pierced pipes above it, spilling more onto the floor.

The coordinator opened all four of her teary eyes to take it all in across multiple spectrums of light. “I did it. It worked. I’m a—”

The beast turned its furious, glowing reptilian eyes toward her. She learned it also took notes from a species of salamander who live near the planet’s volcanoes as it belched a massive gout of the glowing, pressurized, superheated fluid.

Ksandra got out of the way just in time, but it engulfed the coordinator. As the liquid sizzled on the cold metal floor, only the coordinator’s clothes remained.

Ilyana stifled a laugh. “What’s the expression? You are what you eat? You reap what you sow? Both?” The agile Ra’Shasi yelped and hit the deck as the beast annihilated the control console she was at with its clubbed tail.

Zofiya shouted, “It’s just raw pain and rage. Put it out of its misery!” She drew its attention with a spray of rifle rounds and dashed between cover as it sprayed more deadly fluid at the pesky cat.

Ksandra wiped some blood from her cheek, then ran it across her tongue. She pointed at her younger sister. “Hey, string bean! Figure out how to stop this thing if my plan doesn’t work.”

Ilyana flipped over another tail swipe and unleashed a torrent of electricity with her zappers into the beast’s back. “Plan? You?”

Ksandra dropped her automatic shotgun and reached behind her back. A handle extended from a wicked bearded axe as she flipped it out. Gritting her teeth as the fire of impending battle burned inside her heart, she flicked a switch, and the blade hissed, glowing bright red. The heat coming off it distorted the air around the axe.

Ilyana rolled her eyes as her sister charged in with a feral roar, leaped halfway across the room, and sunk the blade into the creature’s shoulder.

With the caustic, glowing fluid dripping from its maw, Ksandra and the beast swung and thrashed at each other, wrecking more and more of the lab. Her aggressive style seemed reckless, but it belied her focused fury that blended agility and power and honed warrior instinct. With every deep gash into the beast’s hide of sickly purple flesh and stone, a gout of pressurized fluid burst from the wound. The injury sealed shortly after each time.

As Ksandra’s assault waned, the beast batted her across the room, sending her axe flying from her grip. Even without her weapon, she forced herself back to her feet and readied tooth and claw against the charging monster. A torpedo named Zofiya pressed off wall and slammed the beast off course before it reached its target. Her blade, which extended into a spear, lead the way into its flank.

Ilyana fiddled with the controls of a surviving console, tied a piece of string around a lever, then picked up a heavy elastic pipe with a spike on the end. “Hold it down! Your hero has a crazy plan.”

Zofiya dodged the beast’s multiple flailing clawed limbs while trying to hold it down with her spear. “Do you have any other kind?”

Ksandra jumped behind its head and grappled its rocky antlers to the ground as best she could. While it roared and readied another gout of deadly fluid, Ilyana swung over and jammed the spiked pipe into the cybernetic inputs installed in the creature’s back. She locked it in, then yanked the string she held between her teeth to pull the lever on the console.

That thrumming sound charged into a growing high-pitched whine. The beast seized up and contorted as the condensed energy surged out of it, back into the system. Alarms flared and broken pipes across the room vented pressurized steam.

Still pinning the convulsing beast trapped in a silent scream, Zofiya looked at her younger sister. “How is this supposed to work?”

Ilyana flashed a big, snaggle-toothed grin. “Science is about experimenting. Knowing the answer already is boring.”

The beast evaporated into a glowing mist that faded back into the Spirit Realm as the facility called for a total evacuation due to a critical meltdown. The sisters waded through the growing flood of glowing liquid toward an emergency exit.

Zofiya wrenched open the door as Ksandra hung back to collect her axe. Poking her head out through the grimy, dark tunnel, Ilyana said, “Hey, who’s hungry? I think I smell some skaff rats down here.”

Ksandra held back for a moment, clutching her axe. Zofiya wrapped an arm around her middle sister and guided her into the tunnel as it filled with the cackles of their kooky younger sibling.

***

Back in the staging area, the Zyldari tapped her foot and crossed her arms. Someone observing the monitors held their breath and placed a fist over their mouth. Soon, everyone took notice and crowded around. The surveillance footage showed EnergIn personnel scurrying out of the facility in droves. They heard and felt the thump of distant explosions as the experimental power plant overloaded and tore itself apart.

Rushing outside, the Zyldari joined other bystanders to watch the fireworks as the traffic lights went dark. Clouds of glowing mist emerged from the rubble and dissipated back to the Spirit Realm.

After planning this delicate operation for months, the Zyldari set her jaw, pinched that withered leaf between her fingers, and put a hand to her comms. “Shepherd… You there?” Someone cleared their throat on the other end of the line, no doubt watching from orbit. She continued, “I can see why your squad is called Menace.”