Page 108 of Alien Prince's Fake Bride
The door slides open and I climb out, weapon held casually across my chest. It should all be perfectly safe, but I still have a weird feeling about this ship. It doesn’t feel right through the Syntrix.
Sigise joins me while the pilot turns the gunship off.
“No welcome party,” she says, puzzled. “I would have expected some attention right now, with a princess and everything…”
The hangar is empty apart from our gunship. It’s much smaller than the one in theGladiux, which is natural since it’s a smaller ship. It smells the same, and it almost makes it feel like home.
“We’ll let them know we’re here,” I decide and walk towards the wide double doors at the end of the hangar.
When we’ve walked five steps, the door slides open and a group of people come out. They’re wearing uniforms, but they looksurprisingly thin for Khavgren soldiers. There’s also something weird about the way they walk.
The pilot climbs down behind us. “Looks like the Navy should feed their guys better?—”
There’s a white flash, a bang echoes through the hangar, and the pilot collapses to the ground.
“Get down!” Sigise draws her gun and pushes me to the metal floor, then starts shooting at the welcoming committee.
It takes me a split second to realize that they’re shooting at us, the muzzles of their guns flashing as they spread out. Sigise keeps firing at them, and I lift my gun, too. It’s awkward to aim it while lying on the floor, but I manage to get a few shots off. The gun makes an ugly, tearing sound, but it doesn’t kick against my shoulder, so it must be a pure energy weapon.
Still shooting, we both crawl backwards into cover behind the landing gear of our big gunship.
“Imperial Legionnaire!” Sigise yells to identify herself to these attackers. “Friendlyl Hold your fire!”
But I don’t think they’re friendly at all. I don’t even think they’re Khavgrens. They have a more fluid way of moving, and I don’t see any tendrils. They remind me more of Vyrpy.
“They’re Vyrpy,” Sigise says tightly while she adjusts the sights on her gun. “You took down two of them, but they’re still coming.”
I dare a quick look, sticking my head out from the landing gear. Sure enough, the hangar is filling up with Vyrpy. Only a couple of them are in Khavgren uniforms, the rest are the sleek gray of the Vyrpy I remember from the escape pod fight.
Getting back to safety, I put my gun out from behind cover and shoot a long salvo of energy beams. I hear some alien screams and grunts.
I quickly look around. The hangar doors are closed, and if we want to leave, we’d have to restart the gunship and hope to be able to shoot our way out. It’s obvious that the Vyrpy would overwhelm us before we could even get the engines started.
The Vyrpy are still flowing in like ants from an anthill, climbing the walls and running easily on the ceiling.
“Do you have a grenade?” I ask. “We’ll have to take them all out.”
“The only grenade I have would kill everyone in here, including us,” Sigise says as she shoots aimlessly into the mass of enemies. “And we’re not quite there yet.”
“We’re not?” I ask as I shoot at the nearest enemies. There must be a hundred of them now, and there’s no way we can escape this.
“They don’t want you dead,” the colonel says while shooting. “It goes against the rules of engagement to kill yourself if there’s a chance you’ll be captured. Unless blowing yourself up could save your buddies, which is not the case here. You’re more trouble to the enemy while alive.”
“Does that go for Imperial princesses, too?” I’m getting used to the gun, and I think I hit with every shot.
Two Vyrpy come dropping from the ceiling, landing on the floor with sickening splats.
“Very much so,” Sigise says, her voice strained. “It’s you they want. Make as much trouble for them as you can. We’ll soon be out of ammunition— yes. That’s all I had.”
The Vyrpy are completely surrounding us. They’ve stopped shooting, but I drop two more of them before my gun buzzes once and stops reacting to the trigger.
I put it down. “All right. They got us. Thanks, Sigise. You did your best.”
“They gave us the right password,” Sigise seethes as she puts her own gun down.
I consider using my knife gun to finish another few Vyrpy while I’m still able to, then decide against it. If they let me keep it, I may be able to use it for something better.
The Vyrpy in Khavgren uniforms are all down, but I don’t think it makes much of a difference. There are many left. They shoot several sticky nets on us and tighten them without speaking.
