We waited for them to come again for about 20 cycles. They finally did come on the 66th cycle that we had been on their planet. This time, they came with machines of war, and we were not ready for them. We prepared ourselves for battle, myself at the head of our militia.

“Today we fight the fleshlings!” I screamed to my troops.

As soon as I finished speaking, cheers arose from my fellow warriors. We charged out of the gate, weapons raised high, ready to take on the fleshlings. They were standing their ground, a very dishonorable thing to do. A couple of fleshlings tried to surround me, but with a few swift swings of my longsword, they all lost their heads. I turned around to kill another fleshling but paused when I saw my father fall to the dagger blade of one of the fleshlings. To his right, I saw my best friend, Jim, being dragged off in a net. I was so overcome with rage that I slammed my fist into the approaching fleshling’s gut as hard as I could. I watched as he flew across the battlefield. I saw a fleshling in some sort of vehicle turn towards me. A long, cylindrical part of the vehicle was facing directly toward me as if they were aiming it at me. Metal pellets began launching at a speed faster than the other fleshling weapons. Most of them missed me, but one hit me in the calf as I launched myself towards the fast metal box. I landed on top of it and cut the man wielding the massive weapon in half. I pulled on the weapon with all my strength and ripped it off the top of the fleshling’s vehicle. I flung the odd thing at a nearby pack of fleshlings. Afterward, I flung myself through a hole on the right side of the vehicle and landed in a fancy saddle. The fleshing in the other saddle screamed out in surprise and I laughed. I stabbed my shortsword through his gut and realized that I had trapped myself inside the metal box. The box kept going as the male fleshling beside me screamed out in pain. The vehicle ended up crashing into our fortress and I was able to escape through the broken glass barrier.

Blood was leaking from my body in several places, I yelled out to our troops. “Warriors! Retreat before we are defeated!” I fell over back onto the fleshling’s vehicle, exhausted and severely wounded.

Unlawfully taken from Royal Road, this story should be reported if seen on Amazon.

The warriors ran back into our fortress, and I watched from the ruined vehicle as the fleshlings looted all the corpses for our weapons. I lay there for a long while before someone came and carried me into the healer’s hut. I then proceeded to pass out once the healer began his work.

I woke up that afternoon, rejuvenated, ready to take vengeance for Jim. I decided to wait until the second half of the cycle began to raid the fleshling’s base. I hopped on my Bunker Spider and began the journey to the base. It took about 2 hours, due to my mechanical modifications to my massive spider. When I made it to the fleshling’s base, I left the Bunker Spider a safe distance away. I walked the last mile or so until I finally reached the massive structure. It was a large rectangular building topped off with a dome, and at the top, there was a fast metal pellet launcher. Other machines on the roof looked like weapons, but I didn’t know what they did at the time, so I can’t tell you what they are now. The sky was filled with metal birds that shone light down on portions of the ground, so I made sure to avoid the lights. When I finished making my way through the gauntlet of lights, I climbed up the square walls until I reached the dome. I found something like a door, and I managed to get it open so I could climb down into the fleshling's base.

I managed to sneak through the small hallways without being caught by fleshlings, but there were some close encounters. I made my way to the prison area, checking every cell until I found the one with Jim. He was bloodied and bruised, but he didn’t look like he was dying, which was good. I ripped the door off his cell and slung Jim over my shoulder.

“I will make them pay,” I said to no one in particular.

I managed to make my way through the hallways without incident again, and I was able to escape through the same opening as before. The metal birds were still there, but instead of patrolling the grounds, they were moving toward something else.

“The camp!” I shouted. I rushed to my bunker spider with Jim still on my shoulder and rode home as fast as I could. I was too late. The female leader fleshling had brought her army to the camp and slaughtered almost everyone. They had burnt our camp to the ground. They had stolen our Atroxianite supply. I saw the female and I rushed towards her and killed all four of her guards. Before I could kill the female I felt electricity course through me very briefly. And again. And again. My vision blurred and I passed out, I failed my people, I am the issue…