Page 3 of Fractured Souls

Alexis forced herself to breathe slowly as she crouched down behind an egg-shaped boulder. Heart pounding, she drew her bolt-gun and flicked the charge to max. Her other hand went into her pocket, where her fingers curled around a UV flashbang grenade.

Some dark-suited spook from Nonhuman Affairs had dropped by the Agency last week and distributed the frags to everyone working on the case. Apparently, UV light was harmful to bare Kordolian skin, and the techs at NA had found a certain wavelength on the spectrum that was particularly damaging.

How they’d figured that out, she had no idea.

It was a minuscule advantage, but she would take it.

Shhshh.

A harsh scuffle in the leaves made her jump. What was that? Footsteps? An attacker? Fingers trembling, she raised her gun, but then she realized it was just the night critters scuttling around on the woodland floor.

Alexis froze, almost forgetting to breathe as she listened carefully for signs of life.

She put a finger to her lips, shooting Del and Thomas a meaningful glance.

Voices drifted through the cold night air, crystal clear and speaking a language she’d never heard before in her life.

Kordolian?

Del raised his eyebrows. Thomas gave her a tense look.

The voices came again, deep and guttural, louder this time. Two of them. Male. One of them laughed; a cold, grating sound that chilled her to the bone.

She’d never heard anything so positively inhuman before.

“Unghh…”

Then she heard it; a soft, terrified whimper.

That voice was unmistakably human.

“Kachara!” one of the aliens snapped harshly. This was followed by the crunching of gravel and leaves; the sound of someone stumbling.

Alexis shifted her body slowly, silently, until she was able to peek around the side of the rock.

Four figures came into view. Two males, two females. Kordolians. Humans. Holy shit. Alexis went very still, her eyes drawn to the tall, otherworldly figures that flanked the women.

She’d seen the datafiles; she knew what Kordolians looked like, but this was her first time seeing the aliens in the flesh.

She knew they were silver and tall and imposing, but she wasn’t prepared for the way the night-vis accentuated their strange luminous skin, making their faces flash like beacons in the shadows. Their black combat armor was perfectly seamless, covering their lean, powerful bodies from neck to toe.

She counted at least six guns between them, and at least a dozen blades. The weapons were unlike anything she’d come across before; sleek, obsidian, organic looking, almost an extension of their lean, muscular bodies.

The way they moved--swift, silent, fluid—sent a shiver down her spine. There was no way they could be anything but alien.

Everything she’d heard about Kordolians suddenly materialized right before her very eyes.

Ruthless warrior-race? Check.

Advanced alien tech? Check.

History of enslaving other races? Check.

The latter was happening right now.

Alexis’s grip on her gun tightened as she observed the two women walking alongside the Kordolians. They walked quickly, but every now and then there would be a hitch in their steps—as if something was causing them pain. Although their hands and feet were unbound, they kept their eyes lowered to the ground.

They radiated pure terror.

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