Free Pray for the Prey by Saxon Andrew

decisions.”
    “I will be the one to do it.”
    Jillian looked sharply at Chris and said, “Chris, I don’t want to lose the man I love to this.”
    “I’ll be fine, Jilly. I have no doubt about this choice. I won’t find pleasure in it, but I won’t be scared by the experience.”
    “You’re not telling us something.”
    Chris just stared at her.
    “What are you hiding?”
    Chris sighed and said, “Every tenth year those beings collect a million hostages from the worlds they rule and transport them to their home world. Once they arrive, the hostages are divided up and sent to the cities for a festival where the populations are allowed to fire small capsules into them. The Capsule contains a local insect that begins eating the one it enters. The hostages are eaten alive by these pests that reproduce at a huge rate once they enter the hostage’s body. Those ships were excited about how the hostages took days to die in excruciating pain. Even the children fought among themselves to have the opportunity to shoot them. That festival ended a week ago when the last hostage died and was burned.”
    Arvolo said, “I believe three of the heavy strikers should do the job nicely. I would like to assist you in this surgery.”
    George said, “I will also take part.”
    Chris nodded and said, “First we have to remove that civilization’s fleets from the captive planets, so they won’t be held hostage against us.”
    The first elements of the Fleet began arriving and Arvolo got on the Jukebox’s communication circuits. He looked over at Chris, “Did you get a frequency on the ships you killed.”
    Chris flinched at the verb but nodded. Jillian sent the information to Arvolo’s console and he continued giving orders. Jillian came over and hugged Chris, “Are you sure about this?”
    “Please tell me another way. I don’t want to do this but I just see no way around it.”
    “Perhaps they will provide an answer.”
    “You think we should talk before we take action?”
    “I believe it can’t hurt anything.”
    Chris looked at Arvolo and he shrugged, “I was reluctant before, but this festival has convinced me. I’m one of those that are glad the Spanish Conquistadores wiped out the Aztecs and their human sacrifices. Once a society gets a blood lust, there’s no way to remove it.” Arvolo turned back to the communication console.
    Chris said, “Thank you. I need that reassurance.”
    Arvolo said over his shoulder, “No problem. I’ll be glad to take the burden on and leave you out of it.”
    Cyanna looked at RV with a frown. He saw her and said, “I’ve seen up close what a repressive government can do to innocent civilians. I have no problem dealing with this one.”
    Cyanna turned back to the display and remembered how his wife and brother were executed by the Communists. He did have a different perspective than hers. She didn’t doubt his strength and knew he meant what he said.
    After three hours RV received a message from Admiral Owens. He listened and said, “There are about a hundred thousand plus planets where two or more of those ships are located. I’m ordering the transport here with fifty thousand Needles and ten thousand attack craft. We now have three thousand battleships in the fleet along with twenty four thousand attack craft assigned to them. The Needles will be assigned one planet each and the battleships will go to two. The attack craft will be assigned the others. Our intent in making this happen without loss of life is to go in shooting and hopefully prevent a message from getting out about what we’re doing. So don’t take long to complete your assignment.”
    George said, “How are you going to assign the planets?”
    “The battleships will be given planets with twenty or more ships in orbit. Attack Craft will take those with between eight and nineteen. The Needles will take the others. Does that meet with your approval?”
    George nodded and said, “You’re saving the home