Revolutionary – Chapter 5 - Kinny

Kinthragor had spoken at length since introducing himself to Michael. The guy honestly wouldn’t shut up; that was okay with Michael.

Sure, Kinthagor wanted to kill Michael and his entire family, but other than that, he was a pretty pleasant guy. He spoke of honor and duty. He told Michael of his home planet and how he came to be on Earth. It had been a couple of days, and the two had shared war stories and personal stories one after the other.

“I don’t dislike you, human; I understand that you are doing what you must to fight your oppressors,” Kinthragor said in a low growl from the other side of the cell wall.

“Well, now I’ll be able to sleep better,” Michael chuckled as he lay on his dirty bed mat.

“Kinny, I know you are on an honor quest or something like that, but it seems to me that we are both in the same pile of shit here,” Michael said.

“I have told you not to call me that human. My name is Kinthragor; I have spoken your language out of respect for you, and due to the unfortunate circumstance of finding myself imprisoned next to one of the people, I came to this wretched planet to slay. I must insist that you use my proper name,” Kinthragor replied, agitation in his voice.

“Sure thing, Kinny, but for now, why don’t you just drop the whole vengeance thing? From what you have told me, your brother was not a very nice guy, and he kind of got what was coming to him,” Michael said.

“Nice? An Enforcer General’s duty is to maintain the balance of the dungeon. To do this, they must weed out any anomalies and ensure the integrity of the dungeon is intact. My brother had a duty to balance, a duty to the Council, and your brother dishonored him, then somehow found a way to take his life. I cannot ignore these facts, Michael,” Kinthragor ran his claws across the concrete floors as he spoke.

“From what you have told me, you have fought with honor and dignity, proving yourself to be a warrior and leader. In another life, we might have been allies. This does not change my responsibility as second born to avenge my brother's death. I will end the lineage of Andrew Dawes,” Kinthragor growled.

“If what you told me is true, then my little brother, who never managed to do anything remotely noteworthy with his life, managed to gain powers, captain a spaceship, defeat a much more powerful foe, and win this dungeon or whatever he was forced into. After that, he disappeared and is likely dead, so you decide that out of a fucked up sense of honor and duty, you're just gonna murder his entire family? So you fly down to earth, your ship crashes, and you are captured by the Lacertines and charged with trespassing on an empire-reaping operation. Does that about sum things up?” Michael asked.

“Yes…” Kinthragor replied sullenly.

“Kinny, it’s time to reassess the situation, buddy. You will be lucky to make it out of here alive, much less do any honor killings,” Michael chuckled.

“Perhaps you are right, human. My path has always been full of tribulation, and for that reason, I was not chosen to hold a position with the enforcers as many of my family and brethren were. I will, however, complete this task and honor my brother's memory if I am able,” Kinthragor said.

“Okay, buddy, best of luck to you then,” Michael said as he put his arms behind his head and closed his eyes.

BOOM, BOOM

Michael shot up; the room was clouded with grey dust as parts of the ceiling began to collapse.

BOOM

“What the hell is going on?!” Michael yelled, “Hey, someone get me out of here,” he banged on his cell door, trying to get someone's attention.

“Kinny, you there?” Michael asked, no answer in response.

BOOM

Michael put his hands over his head and knelt down as the explosions continued.

After a minute, they subsided, and Michael saw that part of the exterior of his cell wall had crumbled. He ran to the hole that was just big enough for him to squeeze through and looked outside.

The base was being fired on from somewhere above, possibly from orbit. Lacertine troops were running around chaotically as several drop ships hovered to a landing all around the base.

Michael couldn’t believe what he saw. Giant red-skinned creatures exited the drop ships. They were huge, six and a half to seven feet on average, with jagged teeth, black eyes, and black horns protruding from their heads.

“What the fuck?” Michael whispered as he watched the chaos unfold.

“Kinny, you there? Things are getting crazy out here,” Michael shouted to no reply.

Michael decided now was as good a time as any and squeezed through the broken wall. There was a Lacertine utility vehicle nearby; if he could just get to it, he may be able to get the hell out of there.

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As he squeezed through the opening in the wall, he looked toward Kinthragor's cell to see the entire exterior wall was broken and crumbled inward, two alien arms limply laying under the rubble.

“Just leave him and get to that UTV Michael, you don’t need the extra baggage,” Michael said to himself as he stared back and forth between the alien laying under the rubble and the UTV, “Well, shit. I guess I just can’t stay away from trouble,” he said as he rushed into the cell and began throwing chunks of rubble off the alien.

“Well, this isn’t how I pictured you Kinny,” Michael said as he stared at the alien laying on the ground in front of him.

The thing was big and ugly. It had four arms, an evil-looking mouth full of teeth, and no eyes and greyish skin. On top of that, the thing was big, like really big. Michael was just over 6 feet, and this thing was nearly a foot taller than him.

“Hey, Kinny, now would be a good time to wake up,” Michael shouted as he knelt down beside the alien.

No answer

He could see the alien was breathing, but there was a nasty wound on its left side where a piece of rebar was sticking out between the thing's two arms. Black blood was oozing out of the wound; it stank like iron and rot.

Michael turned and ran back out of the cell toward the UTV; he couldn’t drag the alien that far and had to get it closer to get him in the back. He would figure the rest out from there.

He ran to the UTV as explosions went off all around the base. Lacertines were fighting the newcomers and mostly dying, but nobody was worried about one measly human in the midst of all the chaos.

He quickly jumped into the UTV, flipped the switch to activate it then put it in reverse and backed up to Kinthragors cell.

“This is gonna hurt Kinny!” Michael shouted as he grabbed one of the alien's legs and dragged him through the rubble to the UTV. Once there, he pulled him into the bed of the vehicle by one foot, then rolled his body up to get him fully inside. He grabbed a tarp from the cab and threw it over the alien before jumping back into the cab and speeding away from the prison cell.

There was fighting all around him, but Michael managed to dodge the hotly contested areas and escape through a fire lane. After a few minutes, he saw a main highway leading away from the base and jumped on it. As he sped down the road, he looked back and saw a sign that read:

Welcome to Fort Bragg

“Holy shit, I’m in North Carolina,” Michael said as he sighed and shook his head.

It would be a long trip back to Louisiana, even longer with an injured alien that wanted to kill him and his entire family, but Michael was betting on Kinny’s bark being worse than his bite; his life depended on it.

*******************************************************

“Dad, Let me introduce you to my crew…my friends,” I said as I walked toward the Pup with my Dad.

“Daddy Dawes! What is up?” CJ said as he ran up and shook My dad’s hand, “I’m CJ; I’ve been with Andy here pretty much since the drop.”

“Nice to meet you CJ; thanks for watching out for my boy,” Dad said as he reached out and shook CJ’s hand.

“This is Matty and Jax. They are brothers from New York. We picked them up along with Loren and Red here a couple of months back. It’s a long story, but they were in a prison facility and had been captured by a representative of the Council,” I explained.

They all shook hands and exchanged pleasantries.

“Son…is that…. Is that an angel?” Dad asked as he saw Kaj walking out of the Pup.

“Well, it’s complicated, but no. Kaj is a Malakim, a race of aliens that look like angels, but believe me, he is no angel,” I laughed, patting Kaj on the back.

“Nice to meet you Kaj,” Dad held out his hand, “Mike Dawes.”

“It is my Honor to meet the father of the man who saved my life,” Kaj said as he stretched out his wings, obviously trying to impress the group of humans that stood awestruck behind my dad.

Elvis was across the street chopping a tree down for no apparent reason when I yelled, “Elvis, come meet my dad!”

Elvis turned and sprinted in my direction, “Hello, Dad, I am Elvis, Slayer of foes, protector of Captain Dawes, and wielder of this axe,” he said as he held the axe between himself and my dad.

“ugh, okay… nice to meet you, Elvis,” My dad said, holding out his hand toward Elvis.

“I would probably break it if I shook it; I struggle to contain my strength,” Elvis said, literally staring into the distance like he was contemplating the mortality of the mere human in front of him as he spoke.

“Simmer down there, Elvis, just shake his hand,” I said, shaking my head.

My dad quickly grabbed his hand and shook it as he pulled Elvis close to him, “Thanks for protecting my boy; it’s obvious that you are the fighter in this bunch,” Dad said.

Dad always knew how to read a room, and he immediately gained some brownie points with Elvis as his chest swelled and he shook my dad's hand back, smiling wildly.

“And who is this?” Dad asked as Tiff came walking down the ramp of the Pup.

I turned and smiled as I waved Tiff over, “Dad, this is Tiff. She is my guardian and the reason we are even here at all. She helped me get through all the craziness of the dungeon and helped keep me in line when things went sideways. She is also the XO on the Bloodhound,” I said.

“Son, what are you talking about? What is the dungeon, what is the Bloodhound, and what is the armor you are wearing? Nobody has seen or heard from you since the drop. We all thought you were dead, and now, all of a sudden, you show up in a spaceship wearing some kind of battle armor,” Dad looked down at the ground and shook his head solemnly.

“We thought you were dead, son, me and your mom, your brothers and sisters, we all grieved for you,” he said.

“Well, he isn’t dead, Mr. Dawes. As a matter of fact, he is the reason that a lot of bad people are dead. Your son is a hero,” Tiff reached out her hand toward my dad.

“Tiffantrimore Clarivox, nice to meet you, Mr. Dawes.

Dad shook her hand as we walked into the Pup,” you boys head back to the hill. I am gonna ride with Andrew, and I will see you there.

The group with Dad all complied and gathered their things disappearing into the forest soon after.

We all sat down inside the Pup and strapped in as Matty took the sticks again.

“Dad, I will explain everything. I just need you to know that we have a chance here. We can do something about what the Lacertine Empire is doing to Earth. I am going to make sure they pay for what they have done, but first, I need to know what happened to Michael,” I said.

“He got captured a few weeks ago; I don’t know what happened to him from there, Andrew,” he looked down, “It is likely not good though.”

“He is alive. I know they were keeping him for questioning; I am just now sure where. I will find him and bring him home, Dad,” I said.

“Excuse my Captain Andrew, I hate to interrupt but I had to jump the Bloodhound away from Earth orbit.

“What the hell, Natasha?” I asked.

“A group of five Rerek battle cruisers just entered Earth orbit and began a low-power bombardment. I jumped one light minute away and activated the Bloodhound's stealth mode to avoid detection.”

“What do they want?” I asked.

“Unknown, Captain Andrew," she said.

"Unfortunately, I will not be able to provide orbital support for the foreseeable future. You are on your own, Captain.”