First Contact

Chapter 647: The Spoked Offensive

"The Enemy Improved Himself Today, Did You?" - Combined Military Authority Inspirational Poster

"I told you yesterday, no!" - graffiti at the bottom of the poster.

"WE'RE ON AN EXPRESS ELEVATOR TO HELL!" - unknown, LV-426 Incident, Pre-Glassing

"I might not be able to win, I can make sure I don't lose." - Unknown

"A Terran only knows his true self during hardship and strife, all else is a mask he uses to pretend to be what he is not." - Treana'ad Proverb

"Your blows are as effective as your advertising." - Razor Wit Wendy, The Hamburger Wars.

There was a thick mist on the floor that came up to Natraya's knees as they moved down the hallway, the lemur grinning like he just invented sexual intercourse and was about to inform the galaxy of its methods. On'trak the Tukna'rn was behind her, dragging his thick metal girder that covered in clotted blood and gore.

"...go round and round," the lemur was singing. His voice had a harsh nasal buzz.

Probably because he had two purple crystals from a shard pistol jammed up his nose.

A door whooshed open and a spawn lunged from the other side. The lemur, without looking or breaking stride, popped its head off with a backfist just by lifting it's arm, bent at the elbow, and rotating the shoulder.

The spawn fell back and the door whooshed shut.

"The wipers on the bus go swish swish swish," the lemur kept singing, swinging his arms freely, his fists surrounded by faint misty blue nimbus. He had thin tendrils of blue electricity arcing along his musculature, up and down his spine, and the three red lights at the base of his skull burned defiantly.

Natraya knew she was smiling, a wide crazed smile. Her nose had stopped bleeding and her headache was gone, instead she felt like there was a steady buzzing inside her head. A warm, buzzing feeling that made her spine tingle and her fur feel like it was electrified as it stood on end. She no longer felt like a tiny fur covered live young bearing reptile in a world full of bigger beings that could hurt her whenever they wanted.

"...swish swish swish..."

She'd learned that she could make them die.

She held up the bladearm, which was chipped and scratched now, and licked the blade entirely down the serrated edge with her tongue.

The spark that jumped from between her tongue and the bladearm tasted like kegliberries.

"...horn on the bus goes honk honk honk..."

Natraya knew her eyes were wide, her vestigal inner eyelid somehow slid over her eyes, but did not care. She knew that others of her people would find her insane look to be something to fear and would run away to call the authorities in case she was a danger to others.

I am a danger to others, she thought, licking the blade again. They took her Ladyship from me, from the universe, from those who needed her.

"...honk honk honk..."

Another long lick on the blade, the tickle of thin threads of bluish energy along her tongue.

I'll make them die for that, she thought savagely.

Two doors whooshed open, revealing a Dweller on either side, leaning forward slightly and obviously preparing to fire those terrible conical psychic blasts.

"...go squeak squeak squeak," the lemur sang as it slammed both fists outward, into the facial tentacles of both.

The two Dwellers collapsed back into the room, their mouths stuffed full of their own tentacles, trembling hands reaching up to their faces, their eyelids pulled down from their eyes to expose the bottom edge of the sockets. They made muffled screams as they went backwards, blood spraying from the ruptured tentacles.

"...squeak squeak squeak..."

The doors closed before Natraya reached them.

On'trak merely nodded, holding up his left arm and practicing rotating his arm at the shoulder with his elbow bent at a ninety degree angle with his fist clenched. He could feel the power in the blow and marveled at the simplicity of it as he followed along, dragging the floor support with one hand and practicing the simple blow with the other.

It is indeed a fine blow, On'trak thought to himself. My father and clan would be proud of such a blow, should it be learned correctly.

"Come on, I'm bored," the lemur whined, stopping in front of a membrane covered door. It looked around, then up at the ceiling. "I swear to Christ, if I go in here and it's another pack of purple morons I'm going to find whoever you are, grab your ass cheeks, and rip you lengthwise."

Four chitin barriers slammed across the door, creating a four layer thick barrier over the membrane.

The lemur turned and grinned at Natraya and On'trak.

"Guess they're bringing in their A-team finally," he said. He flexed and again Natraya would swear the walls flexed outward with him. "Good. That means they're reactive and don't have anti-boarding measures."

"How do you know?" On'trak asked.

"Easy. Boarding actions go one of three ways. First ways is: they have everyone rush you at once, that's the most common with pirates and the like. Second way is: they stage it, one layer at a time, each layer stronger than the other, with the most powerful being in the engine room, engineering, and the command deck. That's common with paramilitary forces or low martial cultures. The last one is to escalate as the boarders are able to overcome threats, most common to paramilitaries or basic martial cultures," his grin somehow got wider. "If we were facing a military grade threat, it would have been response teams backed up by troops in heavier gear that could even damage the ship or station, moving as a coherent whole to cut off, isolate, and draw the boarders into a kill zone."

The Tukna'rn nodded. "And what are these?"

"A combination of two and three, meaning they're a basic martial culture. Since they show up with a lot of drone creatures and robotics, they have martial strategy, but not when it comes to personal attack and defense, which means their strategies are based on them always having the upper hand," the grin got even wider and Natraya wondered if the corners of his mouth were going to meet at the back of his head.

"When they can't must mash the win button, they don't know what to do," he said. He turned around and Natraya found out she was a little disappointed that the grin didn't go completely around his head. "They'll throw their A-team at us next."

"Then what happens?" On'trak asked.

"They kill us," the lemur said. He laughed. "Or, at least, they'll try to. From what I've seen so far, I'll kill them, then they'll panic."

"I want them all to die," Natraya said.

"Since they aren't obliged to just fall down dead, sister, I guess we'll have to help them fulfill your Make-a-Wish," the lemur chuckled.

"Why did you put those projectiles in your nose?" On'trak asked.

"Because it's funny," the lemur said. He stepped back, made the slow circular motions with his arms. "Let's sell some Amway."

Before Natraya could ask what that meant the lemur spun in place and kicked the door covering.

The first three layers shattered into large chunks that fell to the floor, the last layer, over the membrane, was crazed and cracked.

The lemur spun in place, lashing out with his bare foot again, the blue nimbus leaving behind a trail of glowing energy.

The chitin shattered and the door screamed as it dented in.

Natraya tightened her grip on the sword, licking the edge of the blade again in what had rapidly become a habit.

Another spinning kick and a chunk of the door flew free. He made a motion and Natraya and On'trak pushed themselves against the wall.

The lemur pushed his face into the whole.

"HEEEEEEEERE'S JOHNNY!" he yelled.

The lemur pulled back right before long thin crystals, plasma packets, and thick streaks of phasic energy screamed through the hole.

"More shard gun rounds, look like rifles, light plasma weapons in the fifteen watt range, and light phasic thrusts," the lemur said, watching the projectiles go by. He looked at Natraya and On'trak as he made a fist, curled his other hand around it, and squeezed, popping his knuckles. He repeated it, still grinning with the shard projectiles up his nose. "Dis gonna be goot."

The Tukna'rn nodded tightly.

Natraya just licked up the blade.

"Stay to the side until I draw off their fire, come in hard and don't stop till they're all dead," the lemur said.

The projectiles stopped and the lemur stepped in front of the door.

Natraya tightened her grip and On'trak gripped his girder with both hands.

The lemur kicked outward, the nimbus bright, and there was a bright bluish flash as the door crashed in, slamming down onto the floor.

"BOOM, BABY! KUZCO!" the lemur yelled, slamming the kicking foot down, twisting its body slightly to one side, and putting its hands down with the fingers spread.

The room was at least fifty paces long, twenty paces wide, ten meters high, the walls were glittering warsteel. Three doors on each side, with a large bay door at the far end.

In front of the door were a dozen Dweller's in blackish-purple phasic armor, crystals on the shoulders and forearms sparking and arcing, shard rifles in their hands. In front of them was a row of fifteen short combat robots on six legs. In front of them were two ranks of spawn, with a final barrier of over fifty of the small clacking robots with bluish crysteel domes.

Before anyone could react the lemur was moving, a blur that streaked toward one wall, showed a still image of the lemur, then streaked toward the other wall, repeating it as the lemur zig-zagged half the length of the room before anyone could react.

Natraya stayed pressed against the wall of the corridor, using the width of the doorjam as cover.

From the middle of the third streak a bluish-purple line suddenly connected the blurred line of the lemur's advance to the forehead of one of the crystal armored Dwellers. A hole appeared in the faceplate and the Dweller's face, right above the feeding tentacles, between the eyes.

Before Natraya could figure out what it was, the head exploded.

The two next to it turned to look at the one whose head had exploded.

Another bluish-purple streak connected the fifth streak with another Dweller.

Whose head exploded inside the crystalline helmet.

Natraya could see that the robots and some of the Dwellers were shooting at the lemur, the shots missing. Crystal rounds, light plasma packets, and bullets exploded against the warsteel walls.

They're shooting at where he is or where he was, not where he will be, she thought to herself, suddenly understanding how they were missing.

The lemur suddenly stopped, only five meters from the first line of small attack robots.

"BOOYAH!" the lemur yelled.

Natraya noticed that it didn't have crystals in its nostrils any more.

One of the large spawn made a horking noise, leaned back, then lunged forward.

The lemur already had one arm extended, moving his hand in a slow circle, that bluish glow around it again.

The spawn spit a thick ribbon of acid at the lemur.

Natraya expected the lemur to move out of the way.

Instead, the lemur took a half step to one side, making sure the acid passed over his open hand.

The thick line of acid curled around the lemur's hand, following the circular motion the lemur was making, and shot back toward the line of Dweller and spawn, completely coating one of the Dwellers.

It screamed as it pawed at its own armor, which started smoking.

"Oops," the lemur curled its little finger and put the other three fingers, fully extended, over its mouth. "Did I do that?" it asked in a high pitched voice.

The acid covered Dweller collapsed in a smoking pile, only twitching.

**KILL HIM** one of the Ancient Ones shrieked over the communal mind.

Shandaar felt contempt for the Ancient Ones directing the response to the Mad Lemur. She glanced at the other Ancient One and nudged him psychically. The Ancient One, a fellow member of the Cult of the Defiled One, gave a psychic nod that was sensed only by Shandaar.

On the psychic hologram the lemur had snatched up one of the larger combat robots and was smashing apart other robots with it, howling with laughter.

**the longer it fights the more maddened it becomes** the Ancient One whispered. **it is in a frenzy of battle an orgy of slaughter a maddened celebration of carnage**

**its ancient and bloody gods their eye sockets surrounded by gems and finery grin their fleshless grins at the antics of the Maddened Lemur of Terra** Shandaar answered.

On the hologram the lemur's hands were blur as it snatched crystals out of the air and threw them back with blue streaks.

**observe how the crystals are moving at three hundred feet per second yet the lemur is able to see them predict their trajectory snatch them from the air and throw them back** the Ancient One whispered. **the lemurs brain is capable of predictive analysis something other races must use computation devices for and our one strength**

**the Mad Lemurs of Terra have taken what was once solely ours and intertwined it into warfare** Shandaar mused. **look past the lemurs flesh look at its phasic channels see how they strengthen thicken and suffuse the body more and more as combat goes on**

**yes** the Ancient One answered. **most of our people's phasic abilities are manifested in external ways where the lemur manifests it entirely within its own body so far**

The lemur stepped between two robots and yelled "HA!" and slammed its hip against one, throwing it against the others. "WHOO!" it slammed its hips the other direction, sending the robot against a spawn, the guns on the robot, primed to fire at the lemur, ripping apart the spawn. "HURTSMEBAD!" the lemur spun in place and stuck its buttocks out, bending at the hips and knees and waist as its buttocks slammed against one of the Atrekna in armor.

The Atrekna slammed against the wall with enough force that the crystals on the shoulders shattered.

"INATENDERLOCATION!" the lemur shouted, straightening up and jumping forward, its hands forming a triangle just below its waist as it thrust its pelvis forward into the side of a slavespawn that had reared back slightly and was preparing to drive its two meter long bladearms into the lemur. The slavespawn spun, its pointed legs providing no traction on the warsteel floor.

The slavespawns bladearms came down on the Dweller that had been behind it, shattering armor and transfixing the Atrekna, whose dying shots from its plasma rifle blew apart armor and caught the ichor pouring from the wound on fire.

"YEAAAAH! WATCHOUTNAW! OWWW!" the lemur yelled as it danced, and Shandaar could see it as nothing more than a mocking dance. Every hip bump, every time it thrust out one hand with one finger pointed out, every kick, every step, something died.

Stomps crushed mini-harvesters. A pointed finger punched through the faceplate of an armored Atrekna and poked through the Atrekna's skull and into its brain. A spinning kick shattered one of the larger combat spawn.

**STOP DYING AND KILL HIM YOU INCOMPETENTS!** the Chief Defense Officer screamed over the communal mind, so enraged that it screeched out loud, its tentacles madly flailing and all three eyes open in rage.

**look how it moves** Shandaar whispered. **its movements are forcing our forces to move but the lemur knows how they will move because it is forcing our combatants to move in relation to his movements**

**NO! NO! DON'T LET HIM GRAB YOU!**

**it is striking at where they will be according to the movements it made entire seconds before** the Ancient One whispered back. **it is not chronomancy or temporal manipulation it is predictive analysis that it updates constantly**

**SHOOT THE LEMUR NOT EACH OTHER**

**its head is not big enough for the neural structures needed for predictive analysis** Shandaar said.

The Ancient One made the finger motions of negation. **it does not need chronotron evaluation and visualization neural pathways only the pathways to predict the movements of others based on the stimulation that the lemur offers them**

**HOW DID YOU MISS HE WAS RIGHT THERE!**

**should we withdraw** the Ancient One asked.

Shandaar wiggled her feeding tentacles in amusement. **not quite yet**

**why not** the Ancient One asked.

**I have a plan**

**DON'T LET HIM BEAT YOU TO DEATH WITH YOUR COMPANION!**

**I hope its better than the Chief Defense Officer**

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