First Contact Fallout by Aer-ki Jyr (best non fiction books to read txt) 📕

“Possibly, if the equipment is intact. They may have destroyed it. And we can’t know if they abandon the facility without going there to check. If we do and they are there, they will find us. We cannot risk it.”

“Do we not have Zen’zat? I thought we had Zen’zat.”

“They fought while we escaped.”

“Did they all die?”

“I do not know.”

“Do they know where we have come?”

“Not specifically. But some know the location of the dead drops.”

“Will they search us out?”

“If they live. I do not know if any did.”

“Then we stay here. If they find us, we will use them to scout the Zor’do. If we cannot go back, we will survive here.”

“And if we’re followed? Shouldn’t we keep moving on? Maybe to another dead drop?”

“Can you do anything now to help with my mind? Keep me from malfunctioning again?”

“Some small things. Not enough, I’m afraid.”

“Then we stay here and I will rest. You will try to keep me functioning. We will wait for the Zen’zat.”

“If they don’t come, are we going to stay here forever?”

“We can decide then,” Tu’vac said, gesturing with his nose to the equipment. “Put up the tent. I cannot do it well with my claws.”

“Are you near to passing out?” Sol’an asked, already knowing the answer.

“My mind is watery.”

“We stay here then. Do not force your mind, go with the flow but remain on your feet. That should keep you from passing out entirely,” she said, telekinetically reaching for the tent and pulling it over to her…then there was a thud and she turned to see Mak’to’ran lying on his side on the ground.

She kept the tent floating beside her and moved to place her foot on his chest, making flesh contact that allowed her to get inside his mind better than her limited equipment would. Then she sighed with relief, realizing that he was merely asleep and not locked up. The sudden journey out here must have been more harrowing than she thought, and without the adrenaline of constant movement his fatigue had overcome him.

Sol’an went about deploying the tent, having to break some tree branches to make room, but being sure not to cut through the vertical canopy that was giving them visual cover. When she finished she had to drag him inside, for he would not wake up and he was far too large to fully lift with her Lachka, but she managed. Once he was inside she joined him, sealing up the tent but keeping watch with her Pefbar beyond as she used her limited equipment to monitor his mental fluctuations as much as possible.

She didn’t think he could go more than a day or two before locking up, but then again they were in new territory here. Maybe they would get lucky and some unknown factor present in this wilderness activity would be more applicable to his normal life than roaming around a Zor’do…but she doubted it. At least they were out of harm’s way for the moment, but they were operating on borrowed time now, and no matter how hard she tried, doom was knocking at their door. All her hard work over the previous years was about to be wasted because they had simply run out of time.

Sol’an would had traded her life in exchange for this mission being successful, but it looked like she was soon to lose both…and there was nothing she could do to stop either from occurring, which was the most maddening part about their current situation.

An Itaru transport flown by Zak’de’ron servants landed on the promenade inside the Zor’do, and out of the rear hatch came several dozen infantry along with one larger individual. It was a Pak’lem, similar in size to a Brat’mar but without the head plate and horns. Instead it had a very shallow ridge of psionic tissue along its back that bubbled up like a callous and was hard as stone. It was a gift from the Zak’de’ron to their race for their long service to the dragons, and it contained many different abilities.

Gon’zu walked off the transport and sniffed the air, smelling the residue of recent battle and blood…all of which felt wrong. This facility was supposed to have been abandoned months before, but a fierce, if not small fight had taken place, and not for no reason. Something about this Zor’do was important, and with the planet slowly being taken over by the V’kit’no’sat forces, of which the Pak’lem were now a major part of, there wasn’t much that mattered that wasn’t war related.

So what was here that could be? Gon’zu already had briefing reports updating to his cranial implants from the troops on site. They had not been relayed before, given the jamming operations the Era’tran employed whenever possible to interfere with the implants. They’d found a way to adjust their own communications into a range that the Zak’de’ron’s servants did not use, and had been effective at jamming medium to long range messages with malicious code rather than static. Enough to garble, if not disrupt those receiving, meaning Gon’zu had to rely on short range updates only.

There was a nearby comm tower transmitting the jamming, but inside the Zor’do it wasn’t strong enough to affect the local transmitters. They were powerful enough to be able to differentiate to the receiver, and so far Gon’zu had allowed that comm tower to stay up because he knew there was an Era’tran trap in it. What type he wasn’t sure, but it wasn’t too far beyond their patrol zones to receive support, and he got the feeling he’d lose a few more troops taking it…and any losses at this point were a massive failure given how few remained on both sides.

He’d take it down later once he got some larger units rotated in from