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“Where did you find this mech, Pilot? I have seen nothing like this,” Typhon asked.

There are loads of toys hidden away. I can’t wait to show you all after this, Jace said. But let’s deal with the Khul first.

Jace, as Khoth was now going to think of as the mech, turned around towards where the Khul ship had landed. Khoth could see a thin trail of smoke rising up from one of the seed ships that had cut down into the city. He thought he heard faint screams and shuddered.

Staulis… will that be enough? Or has the Khul made inroads already?

Jace’s words flashed over the comms: Buckle up, boys. We’re going on a bug hunt!

Splitting Up

Jace was everywhere and nowhere. He was sitting in the control room of the Moturin Compound. He was also a mech piloting off of the top of the roof and flying towards the Khul. But he was also watching the battle through the thousands of cameras in the defense grid above Haseon, not to mention firing the BFG whenever Hives happened to get into range.

He was in other places, too. He was in the cameras and comms that filled the section of Haseon where the Khul had landed, noting whenever the Cetixes or Omulls showed themselves and tracking them.

He could hear himself communicating with Khoth and the others that held onto his mech-legs, Dr. Hayter, I’m going to let you off up high so you can pick off the Khul. They’re looking for ways past the Compound’s defenses and some of them are going to have to show their ugly faces. I want you to make them even uglier.

“Perfect, Pilot! I won’t let any Khul get past me!” Dr. Hayter responded with quite a bit of eagerness.

And to think that General Intoshkin had sold him to Jace and Khoth as just a linguist! The man was a miracle.

The mech’s large engines lifted its heavy-armored body--not to mention his passengers--up into the air with ease. He flew over to a building opposite the entrance to the Compound and landed on the roof.

Dr. Hayter jumped down and immediately hustled over to the edge. He crouched down and put his eye to the scope of his draagves. He began moving in a fluid fashion as he scanned the area below. Just as Jace was taking off again, he heard the whine of a powerful draagves shot. One of the Khul--a Cetix that had ambled a little far out from cover--was shot in the head and lay dead in the street. It’s acidic blood smoking.

“I told you he was a good sniper!” Davies laughed.

It was a dark, triumphant laugh. This was a man who had seen death, Jace realized, and he expected to see more of it. He wanted to cause it that day, too. Jace understood. The Khul being here was a complete affront.

“Humans are known to be violent,” Typhon remarked. “Your ability to kill with ease will not necessarily endear you to our people.”

“Oh, Justiciar, everyone loves a soldier when their homeworld’s being attacked. They might just think: hmmmm, those humans are violent, but maybe that’s just what we need,” Davies responded. “Let’s bring a few more on board.”

“A sniper is all about control, not violence,” Khoth retorted to Typhon. “If a Thaf’ell made that shot, it would be spoken of in the words of our poets.”

“You are right, Khoth. I just wish that our people could have seen the Pilot’s ability to fix things before they saw his ability to destroy,” Typhon answered almost sadly. “But sometimes fear is better than love.”

“Against the Khul, damned straight,” Davies said.

Jace was also sending a message to Thammah, Flight-Commander, the Khul are taking cover beneath bridges and inside buildings. Your ship can’t help anymore in this fight. I need you on the ground. Here’s a landing zone.

“I want in on this fight!” Thammah’s eyes narrowed. “Have they talked about pulling a Staulis?”

Gehenna piped in and explained, Staulis was a jewel of the Alliance. A planet of great peace, learning and lots of Altaeth tech. Certain Khul specimens were brought there for study. Unfortunately, there was a release that led to an unchecked chain of infection.

That doesn’t sound good. Jace frowned, mentally at least.

No, it wasn’t. In order to stop the chain, they walled off the main city where they believed all the infections were taking place and… oh, dear, they destroyed the City and all the people inside, Gehenna said and a stream of crying faces floated up before his mind’s eye.

Wait, was everyone infected in the city? Jace asked her, but he already knew the answer.

No, but, they couldn’t risk it. Yet, unfortunately, despite this terrible choice, the infection had already spread beyond the city’s borders, she continued. The Alliance ended up having to destroy all of Staulis and shoot down any ships that tried to leave. It’s considered a grave world now. Nothing and no one lives there.

They couldn’t risk the infection spreading, Jace realized. If even one ship with one infected person had gotten to another planet what happened on Staulis would have happened there.

Khoth had told him this before. But he hadn’t fully appreciated it. They had managed to protect Earth by overcoming the Khul there. Everyone had been quarantined and, once it was certain they had a clean bill of health, they had been allowed to leave and go home. But Sunrise was isolated. Staulis had been a city-world somewhat like Coruscant in Star Wars. So it had been impossible to even attempt such a similar program there as they had in Sunrise.

Ylore was somewhere between Staulis and Sunrise. Jace was grateful that the Moturin Compound was located in a mostly business district, near the courts, which were closed today as it was a day of rest for the Thaf’ell. A weekend. So the streets and buildings were mostly empty.