Uriti Tamer Read online

  18 days later…

  Mexen-11899 was exhausted, as were the other three Wranglers that were also Neos, for they had been taunting Bulmuthal around the Ikerio System in Uriti Preserve #3 as long as they could, but when all of them had exhausted their Essence diversions the mad Uriti had returned to pursuing the 16 smaller Bahamuts, Namis, and Squiddys as they ran ahead of it. So far they’d avoided serious combat, but Bulmuthal had ignored every stand down order it had been given up until Mexen had the genius idea to order it to attack the minions on the third planet.

  That was an order it had accepted, diverting away from the faster Uriti and heading towards the targets that couldn’t get away from it. The Wardens had already been removed from the planet, along with everyone else that they could communicate with, and Mexen had deliberately targeted areas of the planet where there were no native lifeforms…but that short list was diminishing rapidly as Bulmuthal set in orbit and bombarded the planet where Mexen ordered him to.

  The minions were not alive, for they were Uriti minions and not Hadarak ones. The former were empty biological machines far less efficient than the original minions, but the Chixzon had not wanted living beings that could ignore orders, so Mexen wasn’t executing people with this diversion. What he was trying to do was get Bulmuthal used to following his override orders, but so far whenever he added one in to reposition away from the planet it was momentarily followed…then the door slammed on him and the Uriti returned to the bombardment.

  It felt like the Uriti was mentally jumping the track whenever he did so, which meant the override wasn’t working right, but he wasn’t entirely ignoring it. He shouldn’t have been able to at all, but somehow this messed up Uriti was managing it and Mexen had to get him under control. He speculated that his crazed state might be somehow allowing him to override the override, but this was new territory for Star Force, for up until now no Uriti had ever ignored an override order, and it was speculated that they could not. Though today had proven that assumption woefully wrong.

  Bulmuthal wasn’t talking to him, so all he had to go on was the status signals that had been hard programed into him to broadcast whenever prompted to do so. What Mexen was seeing was horrific. One piece of his net-like body was completely missing and the stumps where it had started to regrow looked like they had been chewed on. The Wrangler could understand how your mental state went whacky when you lost a limb, for he’d lost his left hand early in his life. It had been sheered right off as an aerial craft crashed on top of him during combat with the lizards.

  His mind had gone into a sort of shock mode where he barely felt it initially…or rather he didn’t realize he was feeling it. He had been focused on the moment and doing what was necessary, but once his mind had begun to slow down the pain kicked in…and it felt like Bulmuthal hadn’t yet slowed down. How the Zak’de’ron had managed to transport him was beyond Mexen, for the Uriti would literally not stand still and do nothing, with the only override orders being accepted were those that involved action.

  So Mexen tried something a little different. He gave bombardment orders against the minions…which looked a lot like the Hadarak ones it had been fighting recently…while simultaneously ordering Bulmuthal to move sideways around orbit. Thankfully that worked, and little by little he got Bulmuthal used to accepting his movement overrides so long as they came with firing orders.

  Before he ran out of barren wastelands to bombard, he tried a repositioning order to the 4th planet along with a bombardment order there. He felt major conflict within the Uriti, thinking it wouldn’t take it, but at the very last it ceased fire and accelerated at the maximum speed Bulmuthal could manage, jumping across the void of space towards the other planet.

  Mexen let out a sigh of relief as his command ship followed. He was starting to get control, but he was having to learn the rules as he went. Hopefully as the Uriti accepted more and more orders it liked it would diminish its ability to blind itself to the ones it did not. But there were only so many minions in the system, and Mexen did not want to bombard places where they cohabitated with primitive lifeforms. Those he could not order to evacuate, so he had to get Bulmuthal somewhere else that he could blast things apart, and the obvious choice was the obstacle courses.

  He didn’t dare try it yet. He let Bulmuthal destroy a lot of minions on the 4th planet before sending him out to the 5th. After he put him through a lot of minor modifications to the attack patterns and got no resistance to them, he finally tried a reposition order to the nearest obstacle course with an attack order on one of the targets.

  There were no minions there, so he felt considerable resistance, but an attack was an attack and Bulmuthal accepted it on the second command. When he did so he accepted it fully, and the internal conflict disappeared as he once again had something to shoot, and the time taken to get there seemed to not be an issue so long as he was straining his gravity drives for speed and then deceleration. He did not coast at all, and Mexen assumed that passivity would have been too much to handle, but at least there was no one to be killed in the obstacle course.

  Next came the hard part, and that was ordered a low level strike against the first target sphere. Bulmuthal did not fully comply, and after a few shots it was destroyed. Mexen sent him straight to another one, ignoring the pylons that he suspected Bulmuthal would not bother flying around, and he destroyed 4 more before finally reducing his firepower down enough to score a hit without overloading the shields.

  Mexen kept him there firing at it, then ordered him to assault it and a pylon at the same time. That seemed to help with the internal resistance, for it was doing more while forcing him to split focus. The pylon was destroyed in short order, then Mexen had him move further along the obstacle course and do more of the same, wrecking most of it, but teaching the Uriti as he moved to accept his commands and through that newfound synergy, calm down a little.

  It was also exhausting the Uriti, and after 6 days of constant moving or firing, Mexen saw a massive shift in Bulmuthal’s stats and the Wrangler gave him another stand down order, which he accepted and came to a stop…not firing or moving, merely drifting in space through another obstacle course and colliding with only a couple of pylons as his current heading would take him beyond it and into the void as he essentially sat breathing too heavily to think of anything else.

  Mexen stayed with him, and after a few hours the Uriti finally responded to his telepathic inquiries. It wasn’t much at first, but as the Uriti slowly recovered some strength, Mexen felt the fear and plea for help. Bulmuthal didn’t know what to do and needed guidance now that the Zak’de’ron were not here. The override orders occurred in a way that Bulmuthal had not experienced since before his long sleep, and he had come to depend on the mental connection to the Zak’de’ron…which Mexen gladly replaced with his own, bolstered by that of the other Wranglers, and the synergy between them all seemed to work even better, making Mexen think the Zak’de’ron used tandem telepathic connections.

  So they took turns, giving a few of the 238 Wranglers in the system breaks to sleep while the others worked together to maintain a chorus of mental activity to keep Bulmuthal distracted and passive. They talked and talked and talked, having to learn a lot of vocabulary as they went, but Bulmuthal was no longer holding back and eventually the Wranglers had one of the other Uriti join in the conversation.

  A quick reflex attack mode ensued, but the override held this time and Bulmuthal let it go, still too exhausted to make a significant effort of it, plus his ire was not so high after receiving several monster cubes of material to snack on, underscoring that the ships nearby were friendly rather than enemies.

  It was a tenuous hold, but Bulmuthal was stable and not throwing any temper tantrums at the moment. Time was finally an ally, and they had all the time in the galaxy to deal with this so long as Bulmuthal didn’t start shooting stuff again without permission.

  By the time word of the other two Uriti made it to the system, the smaller ones here wer
e actually on good terms with Bulmuthal and he was accepting of their presence, though still jittery and unsure what they were. He had only seen two other Uriti before, and they weren’t exactly like the Hadarak, but the Wranglers had convinced him that they were not, in fact, Hadarak. They obviously weren’t the same as him or the other two schooled by the Zak’de’ron, but they were ‘big people’ and they weren’t shooting at him, and that was something new enough to keep Bulmuthal in ‘wait and see’ mode.

  Through the other Uriti the Wranglers got their perspective on Bulmuthal’s state, in addition to what the Uriti was sharing directly. He was wounded physically, but his mind was also damaged, deliberately so, Mexen guessed, by the Zak’de’ron as some means of controlling him.

  That damage wasn’t going to be healed anytime soon, and even when Bahamut Zero eventually arrived 4 months later to work his magic on him, it was clear that Bulmuthal was broken inside. The other Uriti feared it was permanent, but the Mexen and the other Wranglers reminded them that they liked a challenge, and they would find a way to help fix Bulmuthal…whom they renamed Gridy after its net-like shape…though the Uriti itself had never known either name before.

  It was a slow process, but through training Gridy began to make progress where sitting and doing nothing would have just preserved the damage. Forcing him to adapt and grow was the key, and with the other Uriti around to help guide him through the training on the now repaired obstacle courses, Gridy had a mission he could pour his attention into as a way of avoiding the pain within.

  Mexen had done something similar after his hand had been regrown with a Kich’a’kat, but inside him he was still damaged for a long time. Training had let him have moments away from it, but it had taken him nearly 2 years before the trauma was completely gone.

  What had happened to Gridy, either from the Zak’de’ron, the combat with the Hadarak, or the sedation by the Ancients…or who knew what happened before that during the galactic war…it was all something he had to process through and not just numb up and conceal. Mexen knew this was going to be a long process, and they had to keep him moving and adapting. Sitting and thinking was not enough, and would actually be a detriment, because you couldn’t change the past by thinking. You had to get new memories to override the old, new experiences to consume your thoughts with, and gain a mission that replaced continually replaying past events over and over again in your mind.

  Mexen’s experience losing his hand helped greatly, and he was eventually tasked as Mexen’s primary handler given his unique insight…not so much because he had lost a limb, but because it had affected him so badly and he had to go through a long but successful recovery. Other Archons more badass than him had lost arms and legs and had been mentally fine about it after they were regrown. He envied them that, for he hadn’t been able to put it aside so fast, but the experience he’d gained from being a weak ass was actually helpful here, for Gridy was having to go through something similar, though vastly more complicated.

  And Mexen had pledged to stay with him through it, no matter how many years or centuries it took. Gridy was far older than him or any of the other Archons, and the only one of his kind. He was worth saving, even as a war for galactic survival raged on. And before it concluded, one way or another, Gridy would heal and Star Force would have yet another ally on their side.

  At least that was the plan. There were never any guarantees, and despite the fact that Mexen considered himself a weak ass for how slowly he adapted to his injury, he was in fact a badass as all the Archons were, and the Uriti were not, so this was probably going to take a longer time to get through than he realized. If at all. For healing was not always automatic. Sometimes it required bravery to break through the self-imposed barricades trying to protect you from further damage.

  And if Gridy couldn’t find that bravery on his own, Mexen was determined to use all the guile he had to trick him into it, for sometimes those with less will power needed a little kick in the ass to get the ball rolling…giant space monsters included.

  5

  July 25, 128483

  Ba’al System (Uriti Preserve #5)

  Low Stellar Orbit

  “What the hell?” Ryen-7117 said as the Zak’de’ron carrier opened up and deposited the Uriti known as Shunudrel into the system, then turned tail and ran in a hurry.

  “Is that what I think it is?” Ellie-999238 asked.

  “Has to be,” he told his apprentice/wrangler cadet as the Zak’de’ron ships quickly disappeared under cloak, including the massive transport ship, as Shunudrel drifted in place with a massive object sticking out of its X-shaped body that obviously wasn’t supposed to be there. “Why the hell didn’t they pull it out?”

  “Maybe it’s stuck,” Ellie offered, looking through her gauntlet interlink more than the holograms as she stood next to the veteran Wrangler inside their protective nook onboard the Star Force command ship.

  “Uh oh,” Ryen said as he tried to signal the Uriti to move position using the override…and it didn’t move at all. “He’s not responding to commands.”

  Ellie frowned. “Has that ever happened before?”

  “No, but the Zak’de’ron have been fighting with them, so I assume they used some sort of control mechanism. The question is what.”

  “Sonic is coming out.”

  Wait, Ryen told the Uriti as he was heading on a direct path to Shunudrel while the other smaller Uriti were less enthusiastic and crawling away from the star or the obstacle courses they were currently working. Something isn’t right.

  He is wounded, Sonic told the Wrangler in a mix of images and feelings rather than words. We must remove the Hadarak tentacle.

  He is not responding to commands. That shouldn’t be possible. I suspect some sort of tampering by the Zak’de’ron. Do not assume he will respond normally.

  The object must be removed, Sonic insisted.

  Can you do it, or do we need mooring beams?

  I can attach to it and pull it free.

  If he lets you. Be wary, he does not feel right.

  He is injured.

  I think it’s more than physical. His mind does not feel right to me. He isn’t shielding against my view, but something is wrong.

  He is injured, Sonic repeated as if Ryen was dense.

  Approach with caution, the Wrangler finally said rather than ordering him to stand down. I have a bad feeling about this.

  We will heal him, Sonic promised, but the more information Ryen got from the new Uriti the more he didn’t like this. The override was hard wired into their biology. He shouldn’t be able to ignore it, though it had always been theorized that the Uriti could learn to eventually. It made no sense for the Zak’de’ron to teach them to do that, and it was beginning to appear more likely that they broke this Uriti and just dumped it on them…meaning it could go hostile at any moment, especially if it mistook Sonic for a Hadarak.

  Unfortunately his worry proved true, for when Sonic was on approach, Shunudrel broke out of its stagnation and began to accelerate towards the other Uriti as the Star Force command ship and small fleet of other vessels paced it outside the weapons’ range the Ancients had indicated this Uriti possessed. But when Sonic crossed into that range a cascade of lightning began to swirl around Shunudrel, then a massive bolt shot out from between two of the X-prongs and smashed into the swirl of thick tentacles that was Sonic.

  And it wasn’t healing lightning, for he could feel the damage done to the Uriti…and it wasn’t light. Normally Uriti weaponry couldn’t do much damage to their own super-hard skin, but this one did and Ryen didn’t know why. Could this be an anti-Uriti Uriti? That made no sense from the Chixzon point of view, but whatever that weapon really was it did far more damage to the Yeg’gor type skin that Sonic possessed.

  Told you. Back out of range. You should be faster than him, Ryen said, but did not order with an override as he sensed confusion as well as pain within Sonic. The Uriti took a second hit as he lazily adjusted course and began
to climb away, but his speed wasn’t that much greater and it took time to get some more distance between them after negating their closing velocity.

  “We can’t do anything about that tentacle until he calms down,” Ellie pointed out. “And if that’s what’s pissing him off…what do we do?”

  “We figure it out,” Ryen said as he bit his lip. He was in mental contact with the bridge, and he’d already unnecessarily told them to stay out of weapons range, but they were going to have to get really close to use the mooring beams, and if Sonic couldn’t get near him then there was no way they were going to be able to, for Shunudrel had plenty of point defense weaponry that would shred a drone fleet.

  “It won’t dissolve in the star, will it?”

  “I assume he’s already been in a star, and based off the cauterization I’d say it’s melted all it’s going to.”

  “Yeah, I see that now. How do we get this guy to stop thinking Sonic is a Hadarak?”

  “Maybe he can talk him down. I’m still worried about his ability to ignore orders.”

  “Could that spread to the others?”

  “I’m not worried about that, but if one of the smaller ones take a hit from that weapon it could kill them. Do you see the holes in Sonic?”

  “Punched right through,” she agreed.

  “Not punched. Melted. Nothing in the Ancient database said this weapon was more potent than the others, so it may have a unique property against Yeg’gor.”

  “So why would the Zak’de’ron give him to us?”

  “Maybe he shot them.”

  “Then how did they get him here?”

  “Very good question. He’s not reading any sedation…it has to be mental. They figured out some way to mentally influence him, and they probably screwed up the override in the process.”