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Trust Me
Trust Me

Trust Me

"Why are we going to this backwater planet?" Kivu turned to Arek in annoyance. The sight of Earth unnerved him.

"Just trust me." The Gulan arthropod named Arek replied, his multiple mandibles making that comforting clicking sound.

Arek was around two meters high when he "stood" or rather half of him when standing. Like sapient primate-types, Gulans learned to "stand" on their rear half, though they had eight legs to stabilize themselves with. To humans, he resembled a large shrimp or lobster, but his body was more compact, having evolved to stay on land and do away with extra long feelers and other features like spikes that would've gotten them caught in a terrestrial jungle.

Gulans possesed four "arms" with three claws. despite how they looked they were surprisingly handy enough to perform tasks other species take for granted with five fingers. Most of the time, the secondary pair of arms were naturally folded, an evolutionary hold over to keep them out of the way.

As an arthropod protected in an exoskeleton most of the "clothing" Gulans wore tended to be decorative and like everyone else, some kind of indicator of rank or status. Arek wore around his thorax a black sash of silk, woven from his broodmother's own threads.

But the planet Arek had stopped over was not a world inhabited by any sapient arthropod-like species, it wasn't even a space-faring civilization yet. And according to Kivu's research, he was afraid his friend was going to be gutted alive and turned into a barbaric raw dish. How'd he know? He saw one of their cuisines and it sickened him.

Also, Earth was part of the No-Go zone, just being in this sector already would earn them a few years in prison. Not only did Arek looked nothing like an Earthling, but neither did he. He was a Kavor; primate-based species sure, but there was no way he would pass off as a Human.

"What are we gonna do? Pass off as someobody's pet Uxla?" Kivu asked but Arek simply banked and zoomed into Earth's atmosphere, as they did so, their comms device immediately sounded off.

"Unknown aircraft you have entered United States Airspace..." the voice came, their translators immediately picked up and interpreted them immediately.

"Dammit! What do did you!? We got scanned, you idiot!" Kivu roared, beating his chest with a single fist.

"Trust me!" Arek said, he chirped in amusement and brought the ship faster, continuing to run circles.

"Unknown aircraft, if you do not... Oh... you guys."

"Arek Ixilo, 52-684-75 Cee Vee"

"Proceed to LZ Five-One, how copy?"

"LZ Five-One, copy."

The operator on the other end signed off and Arek's ship shot towards some direction. The brightly lit city behind them quickly faded as Arek zipped by towards darker expanses of land.

"So where are we going?" Kivu asked.

"You like spicy food?" Arek said as their craft hovered down a landing spot.

"Uhhh...yeah, sure." Kivu replied. They had landed in what looked like a desolate stretch of land and a few paved strips of road.

A human waving some kind of light sticks directed them to a nearby hangar.

"For business or pleasure, gentlemen?" The human greeted them asked.

Kivus' eyes squinted as his vision adjusted to the bright lights. He noticed the humans were wearing some kind of uniform, camouflauge type. He expected the humans to recoil in horror as they saw Arek skitter down the ramp of his ship but nobody reacted, except to wave and greet Arek. The leader of the human delegation reached his hand out and Arek reciprocated by holding his hand and shaking it.

"We uhhh...thought we could borrow some of your boys, for a clean up job." Arek chittered.

"Ooohhh" The human said chuckling slightly. "Is it that bad?"

"Well put it this way." The Gulan said, his mandible clicking. "We're talking about a distributor of illegal narcotics, and the higher-ups well you see..." Arek brought out his secondary arms and spread them to the sides, some kind of human gesture.

"...I'd like to...how you do say it... 'blow the whistle' but, chances are high if I do that, i'm probably just alerting another paid off bastard by those guys."

The human nodded thoughtfully. "Well buddy, you've come to the right place. Unfortunately, Captain Ramirez is currently busy on another job, What's your time schedule?"

Arek's exoskeleton shifted colors as he tried to think. "I would say... two months Earth's time, they're stockpiling them you see... if I blow the whistle now they'll get spooked."

"I think I know some boys and girls that might fit the bill. Not to brag but lately we've had quite a few nasty fights in the last few years and I think that's bred some really tough candidates for the job."

"That would be really helpful, thank you General."

At hearing the word General, Kivu suddenly slouched in deference. Being a Kavor it was disrespectful to puff your chest and straighten up against someone of higher standing.

"Anyway, this gorilla boy here, is Kivu, He and I have been working together trying to expose this King Pin, you could say he's got a vendetta against him too."

Gorilla boy? Kivu wondered. The General merely nodded at hearing this story.

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"Don't worry about, mister Kivu. We'll help you take care of this problem."

"With all due respect General." chose his words carefully "I am under the impression that Earth is not yet capable of Space Travel much less Faster-Than-Light, what sort of ships are you..."

"Kivu! What do you think happens if we send Galactic Patrol ships to those stockyard?s" Arek chittered. "They're not gonna find ANYTHING. I'm trusting my gut on this one, they got a mole there, what we need is an elite group of soldiers to discreetly get rid of some people...and their contraband too!"

"A kill squad? That was your plan?" Kivu asked.

"A kill squad that can't be traced to any known agency in the Galatic Council" The general cut in, "and a faction that has what we call here 'plausible deniability."

"Plausible Deniability?" the Kavor repeated

"It means, nobody will think that Earth is involved. How could they? They don't have FTL, the next planet costs too much resources for them to even go to." Arek explained "But when it comes to pure, raw talent and tactical skill... Earth is where you get things done."

The group made their way to another building. Some humans this time looked at Kivu and Arek in surprise but made none of the shrieks of horror or revulsion, and quickly resumed their duties.

Arek tapped Kivu on the shoulder "By the way Kivu...a word of advice, if you see any bugs, don't eat it."

"Are they poisonous?" Kivu frowned.

"No." Arek said "they think it's disgusting."

"Oh..."

The three of them had dinner in Mess Hall, partly because the General wanted to see if any possible candidates for Arek's mission showed up.

"So what's the plan, Arek?" The General said over their dinner of fast food.

"Every other day, Earth time, the StarCloud Syndicate stocks their narcotics on this planet." Arek had his datapad lying on the table and it showed a hologram of a distant planet.

"Atmospheric conditions are pretty similar to Earth..." It was only then that Kivu absentmindedly noticed he wasn't needing any breathing mask. "This is good because it allows the crew to blend in to a degree, so long as they hide their faces or something."

The Gulan then proceeded to point out various locations of storehouses, expected patrol routes, and so on. Most interestingly the General wasn't silent but actively joined the conversation, making adjustments and suggestions that Arek enthusiastically received.

The soldiers in the mess hall initially stared in wonder when they first saw the aliens but quickly resumed their routine. The General called a few of them over and after customary salutes and introducing themselves, the they joined the group at the table.

"This mesa over here" said Lieutenant Mark Walsh "if you say their scanner thingies focus only on these sides... we could climb this section, and infil."

Arek turned to Kivu and tapped his shoulder.

"What did I tell you? Only humans have the audacity to do that." Kivu grunted in assent.

"One problem is extraction" Lieutenant Abe Ellis interjected. "We should steal one of their transports and ride it to the LZ, might even get to blend in with the chaos long enough, is it possible we can get some kind of training for this kind of air...spacecraft, Arek sir?"

"What about weapons?" Sargeant Marie Florence pondered. "If they find spent casings it's possible they could link it back to us."

"Actually, it won't help the investigators at all, sargeant" Kivu replied. "Ballistic type firearms are still in use, as a matter of a fact an Uxiilian Y-27 and Kavor JA-10 have similar caliber to Earth's assault rifles, assuming my research was correct. And even if they don't exactly match, nobody's going to care since there's quite a lot of them in service, even in the underground."

The General, Brad Glen, nodded thoughfully. "Alright, shouldn't be too hard to commission some generic-looking unmarked shells."

"That should makes things easier then, from what I'm inferring, you want this op to sound like it was the work of a rival gang, is that correct?" Sargeant Tom Edwards asked.

"Yes, that's the idea." Arek nodded.

The next few hours Kivu got up and found Arek and some of the soldiers sprawled out in the living room. It turns out that Arek had not only paid for the services of human mercenaries but also lodging and provisions for their stay on Earth. He then realized how stupidly resilient humans were with alcoholic toxins.

Kivu had drunk himself to sleep, only a wake up an hour later and dragged himself to his room. Now back awake, he found that four hours had passed, it was 0200 hours in Earth's 24-hour day span, the sky was still dark and the rest of the world was sleeping.

Arek lay twitching the floor, the arthropod's usual reaction when it had drank itself to a stupor. Mark and Tom were still awake and chuckling.

"Dude...that shrimp looks like he's out of water!" said Tom was lost in a fit of chuckling.

"Oh hey, Kivu! Is Arek gonna be okay? I mean, I haven't seen him in water all night."

"He'll be fine." Kivu reassured them, opening the refrigerator to get water. "His species is completely terrestrial so prolonged exposure to water is actually bad for his shell, also, he'd drown."

"Roger that, Kivu" Mark sighed and belched. "But man... I swear this is going to be the most exciting drug bust I'm going to be in..."

Mark and Tom then related an assignment they took years ago. In another country far away, Mark and Tom were given a mission to assassinate a warlord who also peddled in unsavory goods. Mark and Tom's expressions steadily sobered as the story continued. The atrocities he heard committed by the warlord made Kivu's fur hackle in dread and digust.

"He did...what?" Kivu said in disbelief. What Mark said next sounded like things you'd only see in Mid-Grade GrindHouse Holo-movies, but hearing a seasoned veteran talk about it was quite another thing.

"That's just how they go, Kivu. Some little nobody comes over and crosses them and for some reason these guys, they just...they act like you killed and ate their own children or something. "

"So yeah, when the General said we're basically dealing with warlords in outer space I feel...a little elated because, now I don't think I'll lose sleep at night at having to be called a butcher when all I did was put a bullet into someone who actually butchers other people."

"I just learned about Gulans tonight and how as larvae they have to stay in water...so when Arek said that as a hatchling, his parents had to stuff him in was basically a plastic bag for hours and get him to somewhere safe was... goddamn man, that was pretty depressing."

"Agreed, man" Tom added. "At first I thought I wanted to just well, see space but, damn... hearing scum like that operating in our own star system... we got a saying here: 'not in my backyard, buddy!'" he finished by downing his beer. "can't be a bystander and let people like that do that here."

"I've only met Arek today but it really felt like, this man drank more than he usually has." Mark observed. Kivu nodded.

"Arek's a really responsible man, it's rare to see him passed out like this." Kivu stated, watching. He wondered if he should tell them that those clicking sounds he was making while sleeping were expressions of deep-seated sorrow but decided to give the man his privacy. "But... it's not like we got anything else to do here but sit until you guys are kitted out, Arek deserves to kick back and relax for a bit."

Later that morning Arek was his usual chipper self again, though a little embarrassed about being passed out. Kivu didn't bother to tell him that while he slept the humans placed a blanket on him.

"Oh don't tell me you're actually going out to the city!" Kivu cried in disbelief. "What are you gonna tell them? You're some kind construct?"

"Oh relax!" Arek said, pausing briefly to finish his "toast" bread. "Do you even know what part of the world we're in? It'll look so absurd nobody's going to think we're aliens!"

"Explain." Kivu frowned, narrowing his eyes in suspicion.

The soldiers laughed.

"You see...this place, it's called Area 51."

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