Free Spacer Clans Adventure 2: Naero's Gambit by Mason Elliott

process.
    Then they could destroy all four enemy ships without exposing their presence or position, and figure out what to do next while they waited for help to arrive.
    The only problem being, that while they were in stealth mode, they couldn’t see their own cloaked flagship once they left it, or even each other. If they got into trouble somehow, they were each on their own.
    While Naero planted her mines and charges, she ran across two Ejjai Alphas laughing and chortling on a loading ramp below her.
    The sound of eerie Ejjai, gagging laughter was horrifying, multiplied and echoed among a victorious invading army of the monsters.
    She could only imagine what a terrible effect it had had on the poor beleaguered colonists, when they heard it descending upon them.
    The alphas tore bloody meat off the corpses being hauled into the meatship and gulped the awful t idbits down at random. They seemed ravenous.
    One alpha grinned its wide, toothy grin. “Yeah, we ’ll have the others for the meatships soon. Won’t be long now. Our girls are cracking those mountains open like eggs. We’d better finish up here and hurry over there quick– to get our share of the human young .”
    The other one chortled with laughter. “Yeah, we ’ve killed most of the fighting males and females. The rest will be easy prey. I can’t wait.”
    “Humans,” the first sneered and the n spat. “What species in their right mind lets their males do their fighting for them? No wonder we overwhelmed them so quickly.”
    The second rubbed her claws together in glee. “Next we separate and kill all of the remaining males and the old.”
    “Phaugh!” the first spat again. “Who in the hell wants old meat? Toss ‘em in the meatships. Why do these fools keep their old around anyway? Give me their young to gobble on while they’re still screaming.”
    “Then we cull out and kill all of the adult females. And next, any younglings old enough to resist.”
    Now the first imitated her cohort, working her clawed hands together in mouth-watering anticipation of the coming, horrific feast.
    “I ’m going to claim a female human swollen with child. First I’ll break her arms and legs. Then I’ll tear her belly open with my teeth and feast on the warm meat inside her…while she sings to me for my supper!”
    “Finally we ’ll be left with the very young to feast on, for a few days while we strip this place clean. You’ll enjoy how their little helpless eyes stare up at you before you tear into them.”
    The two creatures chortled again.
    “Yeah, I can’t wait.”
    Naero resisted the very strong urge to kill them both right there.
    She had fought Ejjai before and knew very well what brutal killers they were. No doubt in her mind what they were like, and what they would do. By their own words.
    When the enemy ships exploded, these two and the rest of the monsters would get theirs.
    The first leg of the ir mission only took half a standard hour to complete.
    They placed their charges, and all twelve troops returned safely to The Dagger.
    They moved on to the nearby mountains and the other two enemy ships. Another blood-red, cube-like meatship and another domeship, just like the others.
    The stealth team began planting their charges like before.
    Yet this time, explosions and sounds of intense fighting came from deep within the tunnels.
    Smoke poured out from several hidden vents. Even flames.
    Naero and her people shuddered, hearing the scream of thousands within.
    Then, even worse, things got quiet, and the Ejjai troops massed around the tunnel entrances.
    Finally a tremendous uproar of Ejjai cheering and twisted laughter rang throughout the valley in alien triumph.
    As the victorious invaders drove and dragged the captured civilians blinking and cringing into the sunlight by the hundreds. Very few men, mostly women, the old, and children. Lots of children.
    Naero couldn’t stand it any longer.
    She punched in orders on her com unit.
    Enough of