*
It was nearly two hours into the attack before they were discovered. Donny had been concentrating on a Yakkidimux, which looked vaguely like a huge cockroach with fat legs and fat round feet, wearing black flowing clothes. Fascinated, he missed the other one coming up on his right. It saw something or heard something and came over. Frantically, he emptied and reloaded and hit it with a red ball. It jumped as it got hit from another direction as well and looked away. Donny hit it with three more balls in quick succession. It keeled over and crashed down beside Donny. Its eyes were open. Donny watched it die. Other Aliens saw but did not approach it. He wondered if they thought it might be infectious. After several minutes, Donny restarted firing with the blue balls. He was badly shaking and in tears. He was still accurate enough.
Tasha was firing rapidly. She was an excellent shot. Reloading she ripped her last glove. She stopped firing. But she was surrounded by targets. She sat and thought about what she and the older kids had discussed in secret. Every one she got would be one less for the others to kill. It could save lives. Maybe her mother. It could even influence the outcome. She reloaded and restarted, touching the deadly blue toxin with her bare hands. The poison started to be absorbed through her skin and travelled to her arteries and her veins. It reached her heart and lungs and started to course through her body. She wondered how long it would be. She kept firing. It was a lot easier and faster to load without the home made gloves. She was getting more of them.
In the city designated City 37 by the Keulfyd, Harsha was also doing well. She was keeping count. She had hit 16 so far that she was sure of. Maybe more. Mathew would be pleased. They were now nearly two hours into the attack. They all knew that the more they killed before the attack started, the less of them would die in the actual attack. She lined up on a Yakkidimux. She hit it as it walked past. It turned around and saw her blowgun or heard the puff of the compressed gas. It came over! Frantically, she reloaded with a red ball but her father was watching her as Rani was watching Bella. Ali leaped up with a yell. The rest of the Terrans were seconds behind him as Kaz called out “Attack! Attack!” through the communicator as he leapt up, Stella a split second behind him and Kelly with her. The Yakkidimux was hit by multiple red balls and crashed to the ground.
Quickly, they formed their predetermined pattern. Ali was in front, to the right, Kaz covering him and Stella covering his rear. Kelly went out to the left with Sarah covering her rear. They headed for the armoury. Mahmoud and Tue took cover and watched for the Relogs or any one else who fought back.
Harsha knew at this stage to stay still and quiet as should Donny. She covered her eyes and tried to cover her ears as well. She did not want to know what was happening now. She was out of sight of Donny but knew he planned to go and fight. That would leave her all alone if they lost. She shivered, racked with guilt at being discovered. If they lost it would be all her fault!
Donny was not happy with being designated a child’s role. He was determined to stick with his plan, not Mathew’s. He loaded up with the red balls and ran carefully up the street determined to fight like an adult. It wasn’t fair. The others his age were fighting and Li was smaller than him and a girl!
The Cats split up, roughly half with each group but some were just creating chaos and general mayhem and thoroughly enjoying the payback. They were messy. They made a very thorough job of it. They didn’t understand the concept of prisoners or surrender.
Ali moved fast through the city. Finally someone started firing back. A Cat squalled as it was hit badly. Three other Cats promptly attacked the Relog responsible. It died a spectacular death; torn apart. The armoury was close by and guarded only by two Relogs. Both had come out to see what was happening and were promptly hit with the blowguns. Already sick, they collapsed. Everyone loaded up with field standard weapons with relief. Now they could fight properly! They dropped the blowguns and headed out leaving two Cats and Kelly as the guards. Kelly was not happy but Ali had insisted because they needed her as a pilot as well as a doctor. Kelly jammed the door closed and sat down to wait, fidgeting nervously. Waiting, was not her thing. She worried about Stella and Li. The Cats weren’t happy either. They knew Ali had picked on them to remain because they were injured. All three were grumpy, irritable and unhappy. Kelly moved over to treat their wounds.
Ali and the others dropped the guns off to Mahmoud and Tue, and to Donny who had come running up. Ali didn’t say anything to Donny. They needed him. As they turned to where the sentries quarters were they saw Relogs coming and dived into the dubious cover of doorways and several vehicles parked in the streets. They opened fire on the Relogs who promptly retaliated from the cover of some other vehicles. Ali signalled to Sarah, Stella and Kaz who were in the doorways, to get into the buildings and up. The three leapt up the ramps and across the corridor coming up behind and above the Relogs. Perfectly positioned, lying flat on the Avian landing pad, Stella and Kaz fired down. Ali signalled again that there were eight of them. Sarah, who was in a window, fired at the nearest, who jerked and dropped its’ weapon. Stella and Kaz took out another two but the rest of the Relogs must have got up into the buildings on the other side of the street as fire erupted from a window opposite narrowly missing Stella. Kaz and Stella leapt up and inside the building landing flat on the floor while Sarah fired back at the Relogs to keep their heads down.
“Wait here,” ordered Kaz and got up to get to a window.
“Not bloody likely,” muttered Stella and ran after him as several shots landed in her vicinity. She ducked and rolled behind Kaz who turned around, furious. She smiled mischievously up at him, leaned up and kissed him, then rolled under the window to the other side so she could fire out too.
He muttered, “They’re using field standard, but watch out for anything else. They could have grenades or incendiaries. They can’t use blasters, we’re too far away.”
Stella nodded. She’d noticed their stuffed jacket pockets. She sighed. Pity it wasn’t their lunch, she thought. Looking down, she squeezed off several more shots, pretty sure she’d got one. Aiming for another, she could see only its leg so aimed and fired there. But there were at least two Relogs firing from the building opposite and every time a bit of Stella or Kaz was exposed, shots were fired back. Meanwhile Sarah had moved. Stella didn’t know where until a Relog opposite got hit. Good idea. Stella rolled along the floor one way as Kaz rolled the other way both cursing the low windows and the Relogs above. Mathew had lectured them not to let the enemy get the high ground.
Down on the road, where Tue, Donny and Mahmoud had been, was an ominous silence but fire started again from yet another building aimed at the Relogs. Someone was still alive. And then Stella heard what must be Sarah firing. She must be firing, then moving. As Stella moved to fire again, she noticed there was no sound coming from the ground.
“Kaz,” she whispered, “either the Relogs on the ground have moved or they’re on their way here.”
Kaz looked up. He indicated for silence and they both listened carefully. All had gone quiet. Stella looked out and saw Ali moving cautiously along the street, moving from cover to cover. Something moved under a vehicle and he shot at it. Another shot was heard but it was from one of them, hitting yet another Relog that had moved. Sarah was proving bloody good at this, thought Stella.
“That’s all of them.” yelled Ali. “Stella, get down here fast.”
Not liking the sound of that, Stella went at a run assuming someone was hit bad. She was still cautious and had her weapon at the ready. Reaching Ali, she looked down. Tue was quiet, blood seeping from what looked like one wound in his chest and another in his thigh. She ripped out her dressing kit. Thankfully, he was unconscious. Donny and Mahmoud, who had hardly got off a shot before being pinned down, looked at each other in embarrassment and followed Ali, determined to do better. Separately, both now understood Mathew’s instructions to get to high ground when under fire.
“Stay with him,” ordered Ali to Stella and t
he rest re grouped and headed for their next objective, the headquarters building. Looking after them, Stella noticed several Cats coming out of the building the Relogs had been in. So that was what happened to the Relogs there. The Cats were bloody but were moving as if the blood wasn’t theirs. She had wondered where the Cats had gone. They must have circled around and entered the building from the rear. Clever. Funny how most Aliens she had seen bleeding so far had all pretty much the same coloured blood. Was it because they were all carbon based life forms? Did all blood have iron in it to colour it red? She realised part of her mind was ignoring what she was doing to Tue’s horrific wounds. But he had stopped bleeding. The blaster had cauterised the wound. He would need to be flown out. Stella finished bandaging him and looked at him. There was nothing else she could do. Carefully, she rolled him under a vehicle and propped him on his side. She removed his weapon so it couldn’t be used on him and ran after the others.