Page 4 of Reaper

Thanh sat down next to my Soulcatcher, which didn’t surprise me: our women always hung out together. Varnog, the Scelk leader, went to stand by Doom at the head of the table. At that moment, I noticed Stran’s presence, a Creckel and Doom’s lifelong battle companion. About the size of a Tibetan Mastiff, Stran’s body generally resembled that of a pangolin—although with slightly longer legs—and with the face of a dragon.

“Thank you, everyone, for gathering so quickly,” Doom said once everyone had taken a seat. “As you can guess, I’ve rounded you up for a mission. You’ll all remember that when we defeated the General, Varnog was able to get us the information on all of his secret bases still functioning or abandoned. The Coalition has been diligently dispatching units to clean up over there. But this one is special.”

Doom turned towards Varnog for him to speak.

“The base is located on the Moon of Melibos,” Varnog said.

We all slightly recoiled upon hearing those words. We had already been there and cleaned the place up during a prior mission.

“I know what you’re thinking,” the Scelk leader said with his usual taunting smile. “However, there was a second base on the other side of that moon that we’d been unaware of. What makes it so special, you ask? It was dedicated to experimenting on Creckels.”

We all gasped in almost perfect sync, our heads jerking towards Stran. The Creckel’s dark blue lizard eyes sparked with an intensity I hadn’t seen in a long time. I could only imagine how he was feeling right now. His species had been nearly decimated when the Kryptids had invaded his homeworld in an attempt to subdue his people and turn them into war weapons for General Khutu’s cause. His mate and offspring had perished in the attack. Ever since, he had dedicated his life to bringing down the Kryptid empire. Now that the war had ended, Stran had planned on going back home at long last and maybe finding himself a new mate to help repopulate his planet, Dreija.

“So, obviously, if anyone is going to see what remains of that base, it will be us with our loyal friend,” Doom said.

We all nodded and cast sympathetic looks towards Stran. He was a formidable war machine. Together with Doom, the pair was nearly unkillable. A few other Creckels had temporarily joined the war effort in the early days. Every single one but Stran had returned home over the thirty-five years it had lasted. What better parting gift to our teammate than to find more of his people alive?

But what if we only find corpses?

It was a dark possibility that we didn’t need to warn Stran about. He had seen enough to have realistic expectations.

“I would therefore like for us to leave first thing in the morning,” Doom said.

“Just be aware that there is no telling what you will find in that base,” Varnog warned in a cautious tone. “From what I’ve gathered from Khutu’s memories, the base was abandoned more than twenty years ago. The scientists were still inside, including the modified Creckels. There may or may not be any survivors. But if there are, after all this time, they may be hostile or even feral.”

“Why did he leave everyone inside? And why didn’t they leave?” I asked.

“They couldn’t leave because he had them sealed inside,” Varnog said in a grim tone. “It was common practice for him to simply discard those who ceased to be of any use to him. He considered the Creckels a failed experiment. From what little I read from him, they were not malleable enough for his purpose.”

Stran growled and pushed out his leathery chest with pride. He projected an image of Creckels standing on a pile of chains. Understanding his meaning took no effort this time. Creckels could never be chained, bound, or coerced into acting against their wills. Doom was the only one among us to fluently speak the Creckel’s image-based language. It wasn’t surprising after thirty-five years of partnership between them. I still struggled to correctly interpret the imagery he sent my way. Thankfully, Stran fully understood four different spoken languages, including Universal, which was the common language used by every planet of the Coalition when addressing foreigners.

“How so?” Madeline asked, a little taken aback. “I’ve had a look at the control chips Khutu has used on some of his own people. Wouldn’t such an implant have forced the Creckels into doing his bidding?”

Varnog shook his head. “The Creckels are too smart a species to be controlled or brainwashed. Their base IQ actually puts most species to shame. But more importantly, they are able to deliberately shut down specific functions to resist such invasions. They are truly phenomenal creatures. They fought the implants to the point it either fried its circuits or killed them. Either way, they could not be subdued.”

This time, despite the sadness in his eyes, Stran once more lifted his chin with pride for his people.

“So, as with all experiments he can’t control, he destroys them,” Reklig said bitterly. As a Scelk, his species was also the result of experiments by the General. “But I’m confused as to why he didn’t use their DNA to create other chimeras.”

“He wanted to,” Varnog said with a smirk. “The Creckels, both modified and still untouched, rebelled and killed the Kryptid Soldiers inside the base. So, Khutu had them gas the underground base, bomb it, and seal its only access.”

I whistled through my teeth in disbelief. “That bastard really didn’t like losing.”

It was odd using such a term in reference to my sire. However, I felt nothing but hatred for him. I couldn’t help that he had been the sperm donor that resulted in my birth.

“He definitely didn’t. Also, be aware that we will have some excavation work to do in a fairly hostile environment,” Doom said. “As the Coalition fleet has been reporting, the access to or exit from many of the abandoned bases is restricted by hordes of roaming feral beasts. It was the easiest and cheapest way to keep his captives trapped without having to leave Soldiers behind to prevent them from fleeing in their absence.”

A short Q&A followed, after which we all moved out to prepare for our departure at first light .

Being single with no prospect of a mate—at least not on Khepri—I was always ready for a mission. The one female to have ever touched my hearts had recently found her true mate in Varnog. My hearts still ached that I hadn’t been able to claim her when she had been infatuated with me for so long. But my Dragon blood didn’t allow me to be with any woman other than my soulmate.

I had been so convinced Linette was the one and yet, my mating glands had never activated for her. My hearts swelled with affection for her, and I longed for her presence. But my body reacted with revulsion at the mere thought of sexually touching Linette or of being touched by her. With more of my brothers finding their mates, witnessing their happiness only further poked at the wound of my loneliness. I genuinely rejoiced for them, but the envy I felt shamed me. Thankfully, missions always helped distract me.

The twelve-day trip to the Moon of Melibos dragged on painfully. I never cared much for extended travel and idle time. While a part of me hoped for blood-curdling action at our destination, another part hoped there wouldn’t be, for Stran’s sake.

Thanks to Varnog telepathically sharing images of what he had plucked out of the General’s head, we were fully prepared for what lay ahead. As we began our descent towards the secret base, we stared in awe at the swarm of Zebiers roaming in the area.

The mostly flat terrain had a few rock outcroppings, which served as natural camouflage for the entrance of the base. However, in this instance, traces of visible bombing lingered in the unnatural damage and darkening of the rocks. Patches of grass were scattered around the plain, with little skullberry bushes here and there. It had been clever of the Kryptids to plant those bushes in the area as the Zebiers ate the normally lethal yellow fruits to refill their venom sacs.

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