FREEFALLING

12

Ben and I had been left behind in the room with two guards as the leader himself went out to take care of this. As much as I wanted to leave due to the fear of my imminent death being outside a locked door.

Ben's hand slipped into mine, and I could feel the sweat. He was as nervous as I was, and I could only bear to look into his eyes. They were frightened but masked with a layer of strength.

"We're going to be okay, Fae." (A/N: No rhyme intended...)

"I know." I cringed at the way my voice squeaked at the end.

After a few long minutes of silence, the door was opened once more and the leader stepped in. I swallowed deeply, unsure of what my response to this should be. Two rifles that I assumed had been seized in a raid were chucked at us, and the look given signaled us to follow him.

Downstairs was a disaster. There was laser gunfire crossing the main concourse of the hovercraft, and I was mesmerized. Ben finally gripped my wrist and yanked me towards the barrier that had been built up. As I opened the gun, I saw unfamiliar bullets. My brow furrowed, the leader took note of this.

"They pierce their armor." he signaled towards the Mechs.

Ben and I loaded, popping up and down at incremented times as we took out 3, 7, 13. The number kept rising with the new aliens serving as the distraction. Finally, they receded through the hole born through the floor, and silence and smoke took their place.

We were taken back to the discussion room as the repairs had begun, and I was a bit shocked at their shortened recovery period. I suppose the 2nd Mass had learned to bounce back pretty quickly, but in a matter of seconds they had begun to clean up and repair, and put the guns away.

I sat down once more beside Ben, his fingers intertwined with mine.

"As you were saying?" Ben said, stiff.

"Our planets have been enemies far before my years, and when I became the leader decades ago, they had just killed my father only hours before. They had fleed from their own kind, but we are not like them. We do not try to destroy the innocent. We've been chasing them ever since, but they always get away before we arrive. They leave a path of destruction.

"When we finally did find them 20 years back, they invented the beams you saw pointing to the sky. We tried to enter the atmosphere, thinking of it as the easiest mission of my rule. Then the beams went off, and every ship that went in didn't make it back out. Thanks to your mistaken victory, we have been able to station here again."

"Why haven't you just killed them and left?" Ben asked. His jaw was tense, as was every other muscle in his body. My hand was clamped in his, but I made no effort to remove it.

"We're working to obtain their harnessing technology and find a reversal process for it." he said. "There's no need to worry. If they try to escape we'll shoot them out of the sky."

"What do you want to do with the de-harnessing technology?" I inquired softly.

"For one, to help the humans. They have done us a great service by allowing us to trap the enemy."

"What else?" I asked. These aliens may have seemed selfless and helpful, but everyone had their own selfish reasons for any plan they executed. That wasn't just a trait in humans, you know.

"The aliens you refer to as the 'Skitters', the ones that are harnessed biologically at birth, they are why we need the technology."

"I'm not following." I frowned.

"The Skitters are a strain of our species."

Well holy shit.