Nichang unclipped the COM POD from an exoskeletal pouch on his side. He shouted into the little pod, giving the order to evacuate the upper vaults. He’d dispatched three full units to oversee the exodus and to defend the citizens of the city state.
All three Shreevers in command of the evacuation units responded, relaying their intentions to carry out their orders. Nichang clipped his COM POD back into its pouch and kept his eyes on the gigantic cavern entrance. They would come any second. They would block out the light with their numbers, writhing bodies of hundreds of Voles crawling over each other to get at the Ice Beetles.
Nichang’s COM POD crackled to life. Chi, the Shreever Colonel over the First overground unit came in, his voice barely audible over the background noise of combat. “It was a bushwhack,” Chi shouted, his voice breaking in the strain. “We are surrounded.”
Nichang cursed. He looked up at the gigantic entrance to the chamber and cursed again. The Voles hadn’t come underground. The foul creatures were tearing his men apart with their nipping teeth and needle claws up in the jungles, in the open, with no ice walls for his Ice Beetles to put their backs to. “We’re on our way,” Nichang said into his COM POD. He dropped it back into his exoskeletal pouch and shrilled out the order to head to the surface.
Nichang’s army moved through what was left of the tunnels. Sporadic cave-ins caused them to stop, backtrack and find other tubes. They maneuvered around fallen debris, cutting slowly toward the surface. It wasn’t like the Voles to show prowess for strategy. Fighting them usually amounted to gutting it out, pincers against teeth, rakes against claws. How was it that the Voles had found the cognizance to invent a weapon of such magnitude and to arrange a bushwhack? The species must be evolving.
Nichang’s soldiers recklessly marched along a slanted corridor toward one of the main exits into the jungle, taking no thought for their rear flank. Nichang hadn’t seen even a single Vole in the ice caverns. No reason to think that his Beetles had been followed through the tunnels. Finally, they reached the exit into the jungle. Nichang sidestepped a fallen stalactite and scrambled out into the sun. Light blasted his eyes. He stood blind for a moment, his soldiers peeling out around him into the jungle. As he adjusted to the light, he beheld a scene that darkened his soul. Countless Voles attacked from every direction. All three of his units leaned into combat, pinching Vole bodies in half, shrugging off rodent attacks with the backs of their exoskeletons. But the Voles made headway. What they lacked in rake to rake combat technique and weapons, they made up for in numbers.
Voles grouped together and attacked en masse, picking up Ice Beetles and bashing them against trees. Overturning them onto their precarious backs and ripping at their more vulnerable bellies, tearing off their rakes with razor teeth and freshly sharpened claws. Even the average Ice Beetle soldier could stand against a half dozen Voles. But this battle was at least ten to one, tipped against Nichang’s forces.
Females, children, and the elderly hunched together in the eye of the combat hurricane, lying on their bellies, keeping their more vulnerable parts to the ground. But even with their hard shells, a small company of Voles, with a little time, could tear through any Ice Beetle’s exoskeleton. If Nichang’s four units couldn’t hold the line, it would be a blood bath.
Above all, Nichang knew that his combat forces needed hope. He searched his ranks for a chanter. Chanters were rare; one Ice Beetle in a hundred possessed such a blessing from Tyche the God of Ice. They were born with soft shells and limited strength. But what they lacked in physical fortitude, they made up for in the blessing.
Nichang spotted Goorn coming out of the mouth of the ice cavern. “Goorn, to me,” Nichang shouted over the cacophony of battle.
Goorn, her eyes still not adjusted to the sun, moved toward the source of Nichang’s voice, scrambling over ground brambles and fallen ice shards.
“I need you in the air, now,” Nichang said.
Goorn blinked and rubbed the gray from her eyes. As she took in the scene, a sense of sinking filled her guts. She’d never seen so many Voles. In the Ice Caverns, with limited space and close combat, the Ice Beetles had the advantage. But up here, overground, the rodents came from every direction, cutting, clawing, whistling out their disgusting shrills as they sliced through the ranks of Ice Beetle soldiers.
“Go,” Nichang said.
Goorn pushed off and took to the air, flitting her wings, rising above the battle. Compared to the average Ice Beetle, chanters were slight, which allowed them to fly higher and further than even the most powerful soldiers. She moved to the apex of her arch and bore down, releasing enzymes from the rare glands found only in chanters into her abdominal bulb. She felt the sting as enzymes reacted with other chemicals. The bottom half of her body lit up.
Hundreds of Ice Beetle soldiers looked up at her. They found encouragement in the soothing effect of her illumination. She drew a breath and offered her tocsin, a blessing from Tyche the God of Ice, a rhythmic tremble sound, high pitched and penetrating. Goorn closed her eyes and poured her soul into the tocsin, leaning her deepest expressions of enlightenment, empowerment, hope, and victory into its penetrating rhythm.
Someone buried in the protected core of Ice Beetles among the females, children, and elderly, rubbed its spicules together, giving off a grinding sound. Others took up the cause and the sound spread throughout the protected innocent and bolstered the wills of those fighting on the perimeter.
Goorn’s telepathic signal, carried by her tocsin, filled the Ice Beetle soldiers with a new will to fight.
Nichang and his now assembled First Unit watched the whole scene unfold. A wave of enabling energy spread across the other three units of fighting Beetles. They dug into their work afresh, clamping their pincers into the flesh of Voles and dividing them asunder, twisting rodent heads from bodies, flinging them over and splitting their bellies open. The Ice Beetles began to gain ground. They pushed back the droves of rodents, leaving their warm carcasses in the mud.
The Voles screamed under the heat of battle. They had organized a mighty front. The Ice Beetles were breaking that front, right here overground, out of their natural fighting habitat.
“Sir?” Gnasher, Nichang’s First Unit second in command asked, looking for orders.
Nichang broke out of his moment and looked over at Gnasher. He crunched up his expression into one of resolve. “Now,” Nichang shouted above the din of battle. “Hit them with everything we have.”
Gnasher turned to the First Unit and sounded his alarm. First unit Ice Beetles poured down the swell of the hill. They tore into combat, pincers open, tearing flesh, piercing vital organs, relishing in the screams of their enemies.
Chapter 4
Meanwhile, Somewhere on Planet Earth...
To Twana, the apartment felt empty and cold every morning. She got up, put on jeans and a black tee shirt, went downstairs and made herself a bowl of cereal.
Butch poked his head around the corner into the kitchen, his hair disheveled, his eyes puffy. He smiled. “Hey, sis.”
Twana granted him a snap of a glance. Butch took it as a welcoming gesture and ambled into the kitchen, wearing nothing but his boxer shorts. He poured himself a bowl of cereal and sat down across from her. He took a bite of his breakfast and got his first real good look at his sister for the day. He dropped his spoon