The Yississ War Read online

  Chapter 5

  “The Deserted Base”

  The battles across Telluria raged for weeks, the uncanny prowess of the monsters tearing into the vast numbers of mortal women. The Army of Four did its part, joining the fray wherever needed or making raids to cause the enemy trouble. The monsters of Yississ gradually withdrew, taking hundreds of plant fairies and thousands of Virgin Soldiers with them. The bodies of millions were strewn in their wake.

  General Drusilla was alone in her quarters at her private console. Her white hood was pulled back, as was that of an older Concubine facing her via the monitor. The faces of the bald heads with white eyes looked as if the faces of the same woman at different ages. Drusilla told Gwenya, High Priestess of the Many of One, “Yississ uses the bodies and materiel of our own against us. Her ranks grow as ours diminish.”

  “Little sister, I read the entirety of your report. You are authorized to act at your own discretion. We shall honor your alliance with Telluria.”

  “My report is not complete. Six million of us are dead or missing. Tens of thousands of us disappear daily, presumably to be conscripted against us. Hundreds of plant fairies have been abducted, undoubtedly to be made into monsters.”

  Gwenya assured, in a maternal tone, “Little sister, you were named ‘Wise’ by the Unheard Whisper. If there is a way you shall find it.”

  Drusilla insisted, “Our expedition needs reinforcements.”

  Gwenya shook her head, explaining, “Our enemies have noticed that we missed a Harvest this year. They suspect our numbers are stayed. Siphoning troops from our borders to join you would confirm their suspicions and encourage them to press us.”

  Drusilla suggested, “Conscript troops from the labor force. Many of them already have military training.”

  “Little sister, unfriendly eyes are watching. We must dispel the truth by acting as if all is well. Find a way to return our master to us!”

  “I shall try,” Drusilla promised, “but I must win this war to do so. Big sister, could you please ask the Phantoms to send forces to Telluria?”

  “No. Their army is already overextended defending our shared colonies. Little sister, please understand that the galaxy has become very uncertain since the loss of the Great Seen Unseen. We need him. Please find him. Return him to us or all is lost.”

  “I understand.”

  “Drusilla, my wise little sister, you have made an ally of Adam of Telluria. He is a man. You are a woman. As High Priestess of the Great Seen Unseen I urge you to exploit this dynamic for the good of us all.”

  Drusilla smirked. She answered her elder, “I shall do what I must.”

  “Of course.”

  Beetle-type entomopters escorted by locust-types landed on an airfield in Region 84. The tail ramps of the beetle-types lowered and Scouts, Sentinels and the Army of Four disembarked. A Girl in Purple was out on the airfield, standing at ease with her hands folded behind her back. Adam greeted the Concubine Priestess, “Hello, Arlene. What we didn’t kill slithered away so I hope you’re satisfied.”

  The Girl in Purple corrected, “I am not Arlene the Pragmatic.”

  “You look like her,” the man grinned as if telling a joke.

  The woman rolled her eyes behind the blackness of her goggles. She revealed, “I am Drusilla Purple the Wise of the Fortieth Harvest.”

  “Another Drusilla?”

  “I am one of many named ‘Drusilla’ but I am the only one who commands this expedition.”

  Adam’s mouth gaped and his eyes went wide. He realized, “You’re Drusilla!”

  “Yes.”

  “The real Drusilla.”

  “Yes, Adam, I am Drusilla.”

  “You’re not wearing your white cloak.”

  The Virgin Soldier explained, “I am attired in the standard garment of a military Priestess.”

  “Okay. Why?”

  “We’ve lost contact with a surveillance outpost. I shall be leading a team to investigate. Adam, would you and your soldiers please accompany me?”

  The man fretted, “You’re too important to be going out on missions.”

  “The sovereign of this world leads his troops into the fray but I am too important to lead my own?”

  “Yeah.”

  The woman assured, “Scouts are already there. They report that the garrison is missing yet the facility remains intact and in place. Nothing has been looted. We want to know why.”

  “Sounds like a trap.”

  “As I have told you: we have Scouts there right now. Neither they nor aerial reconnaissance detect any signs of a remaining enemy presence.”

  “Uh, in case you haven’t noticed: polymorphs are damn sneaky. Just because we don’t see them doesn’t mean they’re not around. If they are around it’s because they mean to do something nasty.”

  “Yes, Adam, I understand the possibilities. My investigation is meant to provide definitive answers. The Army of Four is most qualified for dealing with contingencies. Accompany me and I am certain I shall be safe.”

  “You shouldn’t go. Send one of your girls and we’ll protect her.”

  “Adam, I am going. Would you please accompany me?”

  “Yeah.”

  “Good. Our entomopter is prepped and awaits us to board. Please come with me.”

  “Yes, ma’am.” Adam waved for his troops to follow.

  A single flash of white light appeared and expanded in the sky over two mutually distant regions. Three beetle-type entomopters flew through the portal, traveling from one side of the planet to another as if merely flying in the same region. The aircraft skimmed over the leafy canopy of the forest below and towards the rolling hills beyond.

  As the entomopters circled, Drusilla pointed out a window, asking Adam, “Do you see it?”

  The man peered out the window but saw only wooded hills and a winding river. “See what?” he asked.

  “Our surveillance outposts are enshrouded within obscurity umbrellas that veil them from distant visual or active scans.”

  Flora understood, “A glamor conceals them.”

  Drusilla nodded, adding, “A technological glamor.”

  As the entomopter descended, Adam noticed what looked like a large dome of black, interconnected triangles surrounded by prefabricated structures, small towers and rows of covered pallets. “I see it all now,” he told Drusilla.

  “Of course: we’re too close not to.”

  The three entomopters landed. Two dozen Sentinels were the first to disembark, followed by Drusilla, a Keeper and the Army of Four. A Scout greeted the new arrivals. She reported to Drusilla, “Ma’am, everything is still functioning. We’re reviewing every record and find no record of what has happened.”

  “Take us to the control chamber.”

  “Yes, ma’am.”

  The control room was the top floor of a short, cylindrical tower. The four Girls in Blue plugged a device into a terminal and sat at consoles. Their fingers nimbly tapped keyboards and holographic displays. Adam wondered, “What are the rest of us going to do?”

  Drusilla answered, “We wait.”

  “For what?”

  “For the Keepers to do their duty. Our duty is to ensure that they may do theirs unmolested.”

  “How long is that going to take?”

  Drusilla shrugged, guessing, “Perhaps a day or two.”

  “What? We’re spending a night in this ghost town?”

  “Yes.”

  Adam felt uneasy, as if he was being watched. He advised, “We should all sleep in the same room; one we can easily escape from if we’re surrounded.”

  The woman stared at the man: he could faintly see her ghostly eyes behind her black goggles. Adam had no idea what Drusilla was thinking. She told him, “We shall heed your counsel.”

  “Good.”

  Scouts and Sentinels patrolled the grounds, all of them reporting, “All clear.”

  “Adam,” Flora whispered into his ear. “Let us patrol: just the two of us.�
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  Adam gulped, liking the idea as much as he was wary of it. The naked fairy giggled. Adam decided, “Flora and I are going to do our own patrol. Conjure and Hairy, you two stay with Drusilla.”

  The sasquatch and half-goblin looked at each other. They looked at Adam. Conjure swore, “We shall protect her with our lives.”

  “Okay.”

  As Adam moved to depart, Drusilla stepped in front of him. She insisted, “I would be safer if you stayed with me.”

  “You’ll be all right.” The woman pouted. The man stepped past her and into the elevator.

  Adam and Flora scoured the prefabricated structures and rows of covered pallets. The man asked the fairy, “Do you sense anything unusual?”

  “Yes. Drusilla wants you with her for her own ends.”

  “Me?”

  “You. She would rather I did not come along.”

  “She’s not planning to betray us, is she?”

  “Mortal man, you are a fool!”

  “What?”

  The naked, womanly fairy accused, “You do not see the obvious, though it would please you to do so.”

  “Hey, I’m not the psychic in our little army. If you have something to tell me, then tell me.”

  “You are a man. She is a woman.”

  “Yeah, I’ve noticed.”

  “You notice nothing!”

  The man grinned. He countered, “No, I notice everything… like that firm ass poking out of her swimsuit uniform. I notice her ‘seen unseen’ nipples and girlhood through that tight, elastic purple.”

  The fairy slammed the man against the covered freight of a pallet! She sneered, “You dare speak to me as if I am not female? You dare smirk and boast as if you are not my prey?” Flora pressed Adam to the ground and squirmed on top of him. Her green, tasty tongue poked into his mouth and licked him.

  Adam rolled on top of Flora, returning her passion with a deep kiss of his own. He stopped, just long enough to warn her, “I won’t stop.”

  Her wild, inhuman eyes gazed into his. She gasped, “Sow your seed within me!”

  “Damn, girl, I think you want to eat me.”

  “I do!” The carnivorous plant fairy laughed maniacally.

  “Whoa!” Adam was startled. “Enough is too much here! Sorry, but let’s get back to work.”

  Flora held the man, telling him, “You are enflamed! Desire has been swelling within you. My people and our dances arouse you. The wars arouse you. Mortal women arouse you. Alas, a fire must burn. It must consume.”

  Flora was not a woman but she was entirely female. Adam was a man. His masculinity was “aflame” with maddening passion. “Damn,” he surprised himself as he opened his trousers.

  Male and female consummated their mutual desire. The fairy shrieked as the man poured himself into her. Her arms and legs suddenly sprouted into vines… and whipped around the warm creature atop her. “What the…?” Adam struggled.

  The carnivorous plant fairy wailed in crazed delight, her vines trying to shove into the man! Adam rolled, squirmed and struggled. He pulled and slapped the poking tentacles! He pulled away from her face as it contorted into that of a ravenous monster! Adam punched the face. He pummeled it wet with green blood yet it grinned and snapped! The man struggled to his feet and flung the cluster of writhing vines against a covered pallet of crates.

  The carnivorous plant fairy dropped from the man and crawled away from him. It shrank and contorted until in the form of a naked woman with white, greenish skin and long, green, grassy hair. Flora cringed as Adam loomed over her. The man was panting and brandishing his minicarbine. “Forgive me,” the fairy smiled. “I was roused beyond my control.”

  “Yeah, you think?!”

  “Adam, you pleased me. Thank you.”

  The man lowered his weapon. He pulled his trousers back up and refastened them. He scolded, “You don’t eat the ones you love!”

  “Forgive me. My passions became mindless.”

  “So did mine.”

  Flora laughed. The man scowled.

  A patrolling Scout witnessed the strange altercation between Adam and the carnivorous plant fairy. She touched the side of her goggles-communicator, reporting, “Situation has returned to normal. It seems the struggle was actually some sort of aggressive sexual play.”

  “Acknowledged, Rebecca Green. Resume your patrol.”

  “Acknowledged.”

  Adam and Flora returned to the base command-and-control room. Drusilla was standing with her arms crossed over her chest. She seemed to be glaring at Adam through those black goggles of hers. “What?” the man wondered.

  “How was your patrol?” Adam shrugged. “Was it uneventful?”

  “I survived.”

  “Survived?”

  “Yeah.”

  Drusilla turned her back to the man. She leaned over the shoulder of a seated Keeper and stared at a monitor. Adam fidgeted. Flora smirked.

  Conjure the half-goblin asked, “Adam, may Hairy and I go on our own patrol?”

  “Are you bored?” Conjure nodded. “Yeah, you guys go on patrol. Don’t wander off the base.”

  “We shall stay on the grounds.” Adam nodded. Conjure and Hairy entered the elevator.

  A dozen Concubine Scouts patrolled the grounds of the deserted base… when snatched over the mouth and bitten in the neck! The shapeless assailants crawled and slithered into the forest, taking their squirming victims with them.

  A dozen Sentinels guarded the three entomopters… when snatched over the mouth, bitten in the neck and carried away!

  Conjure and Hairy wandered the deserted grounds of the Concubine base. The half-goblin rambled all the while. The sasquatch smiled and listened. “I knew the Priestess was Drusilla,” Conjure mentioned. “She felt like Drusilla. Arlene feels different. Adam cannot feel the difference. Why not? Adam can do anything.” Hairy grinned.

  Neither the sasquatch nor the half-goblin could feel themselves being watched: neither of them aware they were being stalked.

  Adam felt uneasy. Was it Drusilla’s apparent scowl that bothered him? Was it Flora’s predatory grin? No: something unseen was very wrong.

  “Ma’am,” a Girl in Blue addressed Drusilla. “The obscurity umbrella is changing and intensifying.”

  “What? Is it something we’re doing?”

  “I don’t know.” The Keeper stared at her monitor. She tapped keys and holographic icons. “Ma’am, I’m locked out of the system. An inaccessible program is running.”

  Another Girl in Blue reported, “An electromagnetic vortex is forming within the obscurity umbrella. We can no longer communicate or open portals beyond this installation.”

  All lights, monitors and holographic displays suddenly flickered… and went out. The only light in the room was the dim light of dusk coming through the windows.

  Adam turned to Flora, imploring, “Get Conjure and Hairy back here.” He told Drusilla, “Call your girls together.”

  The Concubine Priestess deduced, “We must secure the entomopters and make our immediate departure.”

  “First things first. Call your girls.” Drusilla nodded.

  Hairy and Conjure ran to the broad, cylindrical edifice that was the command tower for the base. The two Sentinels guarding its main entrance were missing. The doors would not open.

  Hairy was armed with a stormgun: the plasma arm equivalent of a heavy machinegun. The weapon itself held a thousand charges. The sasquatch wore a power-pack that replenished spent charges via a metal cable. He raised the fully loaded, high-powered gun and aimed it at the doors. “No!” Conjure stopped him. “We need the doors to keep things out.”

  Conjure was a conjuror. He also had the power to make things disappear. He placed his hands over the lock mechanism and muttered, “Into my pocket and out of sight. When we are through, return all right.” The lock disappeared. Conjure opened a door for Hairy then followed him inside. There was a click as the lock returned into being.

  Four Girls in Blue, t
hree Girls in Brown, six Girls in Red and one Girl in Purple were together with Adam and Flora in the dimly lit command-and-control room. A lamp was in the middle of the room, sitting on a terminal. Drusilla reported, “My sisters outside this room are not responding. We shall presume they are dead.”

  “Or worse,” Adam reminded.

  “Yes, that is a disturbing possibility.”

  Flora the plant fairy told the Sentinel guarding the spiral staircase that came into the room, “It is my companions who are ascending the steps.” The Concubine nodded, lowered her weapon and stepped back. Conjure and Hairy emerged from below. The half-goblin wondered, “What is happening?”

  Adam ignored Conjure’s question, instead asking one of his own, “Did you see anything out there?”

  The half-goblin shook his head. He mentioned, “The guards are missing.”

  “Yeah, we know.” Adam surmised aloud, “We’re dealing with polymorphs here. I don’t think they brought zombies and cyborgs along for this one.”

  Drusilla questioned, “Why do you believe this?”

  “Because your Scouts and surveillance didn’t spot a damn thing. We didn’t either. Polymorphs can’t be that sneaky with their lumbering cannon-fodder tagging along. I suspect we’re dealing with at least one Girl in Green polymorph and a brood of Blood Drinkers.”

  “What do we do?”

  “Polymorphs are more hunters than fighters. They prefer stalking and snatching to frontal assaults and combat. I say we stay right here and wait for morning. Tomorrow we stay close together and march out of this dampening field they have us in. We find a good spot, secure it and wait for your people to come get us.”

  Drusilla smirked, “The Army of Four is to flee? Alas, even you can be cowed.”

  Adam grinned, “I’m just pulling my foot back to give the enemy a swift kick in the googlies.”

  “What does that even mean?”

  “It means I’m running away to fight another day. Sometimes you’ve got to pull back to swing forward. You’ve got to squat down to spring up.”

  “Yes, I understand the physics of your crude analogies.”

  “Good. I knew you girls were smart.”

  Later that night: A Concubine Sentinel guarded the spiral staircase that came into the command-and-control room. Adam and Drusilla sat on the floor together keeping watch. Everyone else slept. “Thanks for sharing my shift,” Adam told Drusilla.

  She confided, “I wanted to talk to you.”

  “About what?”

  “About whatever comes to mind.”

  “Okay.”

  There was a long, quiet pause until Drusilla asked, “What is the nature of your relationship with the carnivorous plant fairy?”

  “Personal questions?”

  “If you don’t mind.”

  Adam blurted, “She tried to shove vines down my throat and up my ass. I think she tried to eat me.”

  “What?!”

  “Hey, a carnivorous plant fairy’s got to eat.”

  “Adam! Are you serious?”

  “Oh, yeah. So was she.”

  A tense lull followed. Adam eventually stated, “Flora is a good soldier, a loyal friend and a dangerous piece of hot ass. I love her dearly. I would die for her… but not because she’s hungry.”

  “I see.”

  “See what?”

  “You are sadomasochistic. You’re coupling with Flora is perverse but entirely understandable.”

  “What?! She tried to deep-throat me and shove her dick up my ass! I had to smash her face into mulch to get her off me! No, we are not a couple!”

  The sleepers groaned and stirred as they were awaken. A Sentinel roused from her slumber asked Drusilla, “”Ma’am, are you all right?”

  “Yes. Go back to sleep.”

  “Yes, ma’am.”

  Drusilla scolded Adam, “You must speak softer.”

  The man and woman waited for everyone to settle back to sleep. Drusilla remarked, “You are an interesting man.”

  “Is that a good thing?”

  Drusilla shrugged.

  Matildax the Cunning was once Matilda Green the Clever. She was now a polymorphic monster and the captain of a brood of Blood Drinkers. She was alone in the forest, sitting on the tentacles that were once her legs. She pressed her hands together, closed her eyes and bowed her head. Her mind reported to that of her sister Brendaxa, “Not all is according to plan. It was not Barbara the Resourceful who came but rather Drusilla the Wise. The Army of Four is with her.”

  “Are they aware of you?”

  “They are aware of danger but they are not aware of me. They have yet to see me or my warriors.”

  “Let them go. Return to the forest and evade being found.”

  “My sister, you do not wish me to snatch Drusilla? Shall I not stalk and kill the Army of Four? I have them alone and surrounded.”

  “Neither you nor your warriors are a match for the Army of Four. My sister, you are too precious to be squandered. Do as I command.”

  “Yes, my commanding general.”