Moments earlier…

  “In we go!” yelled Jango as he lined up the street on which the Emperor was located.

  The copilot and Hendon clutched their safety gear as Jango dove straight in. The shield was designed to stop objects impacting the shield at high speed. Jango was sure that the shuttle hitting the objects at the same speed would get the same result. Probably. If Jango’s theory was wrong, he might be the first to land on Dirt without beaming down. Unfortunately that would be through the shuttle’s front screen. But on the bright side, then he wouldn’t need to worry about Hendon’s criticism.

  As the shield pushed aside everything in their path, the shuttle ended up within a few metres of the waiting PIGs protecting the Emperor.

  The Copilot looked in amazement at the destruction around them and the almost impenetrable dust cloud created by their entry and was surprised by Hendon’s calm voice, “Good job Jango. Perfect landing.”

  Jango smiled and thumped the Copilot on the arm, “Told you I was the best!”

  “How are we getting back up?” asked the Copilot.

  Jango looked over in surprise, and said quickly, “Good point! Quick. Reset the shield power and let’s move some of the wreckage blocking our shuttle!”

  They rushed out after Hendon and the A Team as they left to retrieve the Emperor. Clinton had stepped out and thrown the Silencer 2000 drone to kill local unguarded electronics.

  “Communications are back!” shouted Clinton.

  Harrick waited with the transmission bracelets and called the ‘Emperor 1’, “We are retrieving the Emperor and are asking for an extraction.”

  “Why is this the first we are hearing of this?” demanded the voice from the Emperor 1.

  Sergeant Timms stepped in to the shuttle holding the Emperor. Muffins and four guards joined him, providing security, watching for any reaction from the locals. As Harrick attached a transmission bracelet to each of them he replied, “Emperor 1. Are you ready? Beam them up now!”

  “I need authority from the Emperor or Lord Gubbins,” insisted the voice.

  “Tell me your name so we can hold you personally responsible if the Emperor is injured further,” demanded Harrick.

  A second later, Harrick demanded, “Now! Give me your name or beam up the Emperor!”

  The Emperor and guards all disappeared in a flicker of blue.

  Harrick smiled. Telling someone to accept responsibility worked very well, especially if the alternative was worse.

  Harrick stepped off the shuttle and saw the B Team assisting Jango and the Copilot remove everything in front of the shuttle to allow for a clear outwards flight. Harrick shook his head in approval and walked across to Captain Mapps, secure under the doorway cover. The shower of falling items had stopped in response to the sudden arrival of the shuttle and covering fire from the guards. Harrick looked over at Lord Gubbins still shooting at everything that moved among the surrounding buildings.

  “Battle Fever,” explained Captain Mapps.

  “Ah. I see,” said Harrick, “The Emperor has been beamed back aboard the Emperor 1. Communications are back up now. We used the Silencer 2000 to disrupt local electronics.”

  “Aha!” shouted Lord Gubbins, talking to his communicator, “Now you’re talking!”

  Lord Gubbins paused as the voice spoke to him. He looked around at Captain Mapps and Harrick and noticed the grounded HTI shuttle. “Did you rescue the Emperor?” he asked.

  Harrick said, “We assisted Captain Mapps with the retrieval. Just doing our job, my Lord.”

  “Captain Mapps. You can go! Go back to guarding the Emperor who is no longer here.”

  “What about you, my Lord?” asked Captain Mapps.

  “I don’t need you,” said Lord Gubbins, “I have my Protectors.”

  “Send them down!” said Lord Gubbins into the communicator.

  The Chancellor’s Head Office Protectors materialised in a blue shimmer. Kluny stepped towards Lord Gubbins and said, “Ready and eager, my Lord.”

  Lord Gubbins waved at Captain Mapps, “You can go now, Captain. WE will finish this little hunt!”

  The captain called his guards together and made a call on his communicator. In a few moments all the orange suited guards had disappeared.

  Harrick looked over at Lord Gubbins, and the thinly armoured CHOPs, “Do you want us to accompany you?”

  Lord Gubbins scoffed, “We don’t need any of your fancy Hunter Safety Team. Go. Let us show you how it is done!”

  Harrick bowed and gathered his team inside the shuttle.

  Hendon once more sat in the cabin and said to Jango, “Come on. Let’s get out of here.”

  Jango activated the shield which gently popped them up above the ground. He then activated the shuttle’s engines and they flew along Park Avenue just above the heads of Lord Gubbins and his Protectors.

  “Ready for a proper hunt?” Lord Gubbins asked.

  Kluny and the protectors raised their weapons and shouted in acknowledgement.

  ****

  Eric had the ComStop device open and was quickly replacing parts. He had heard of the little flying drone which sent out a signal destroying any working electronics nearby. It was really interesting and Eric wanted to build one like it. Knowing the ComStop would have to operate where one of those may be used, he had a replacement board in a special Faraday Cage bag.

  He had removed the fried circuit board and put it aside carefully for later inspection. He fiddled and plugged in the replacement board. It looked like the Faraday Cage bag had protected it from whatever signal was sent out. That was good to know.

  Unauthorized tale usage: if you spot this story on Amazon, report the violation.

  Closing up the box, Eric turned it on. Green! Yes!

  Creeping up to the edge next to Captain Paige he asked, “What did I miss?”

  “A lot,” said Captain Paige, “Once the drone shorted all nearby electronics, and the shock of the shuttle’s landing had silenced everyone, it was pretty quiet. The Hunter security guys calmly walked off that crash landed shuttle, went up to the orange aliens who were carrying the special alien that had been traveling on the hover thing and calmly went back to the shuttle and then flew off. Darnedest thing I ever saw.”

  Eric peeked over the edge until Captain Paige noticed him and pushed Eric back out of sight, “Then there was some discussion and these new rat like creatures returned to join the mad octopus and all the orange aliens gathered together and left. Then the Hunter security guys just waltzed back to their shuttle and flew off as if it was just another day at the office.”

  Captain Paige looked down at the map on his phone, “My guys are almost here. And the rest of ARRG will be here shortly after.”

  His phone buzzed, “Paige here.”

  Once more Eric was frustrated hearing only one side of the conversation. Ear buds were annoying if you wanted to eavesdrop.

  “Yes, Sir,” said the Captain, “We’ll take it from here.”

  Captain Paige sighed, “Thank goodness. The National Guard have decided it is best to leave it to us. We’re the experts with the aliens.”

  He looked down Park Avenue at the destroyed tanks and choppers, burning wreckage and destroyed buildings, “Wish they had listened to us before.”

  An ARRG trooper stepped out of the roof hatch and approached Captain Paige quietly.

  “Wayne, glad you could make it,” said the captain.

  After nodding to Eric, Wayne answered, “Had to change out of my pyjamas sir. Working from home and all that.”

  “Co-ordinate with the men. No direct assaults. We have all seen what that does,” Captain Paige said, “I want snipers and traps. Whittle them down. Send some into those buildings and get civilians out. That octopus guy shoots at everything. I get the feeling these new aliens won’t be the same as the orange aliens. I think they were professionals.”

  Wayne saluted and stepped back to communicate with his team.

  Eric said, “Their communicators are down. I think my range is still only one hundred feet or so.”

  “We’re close enough. I hope to bottle them up here. If we can keep their communications down, we may get a Wipe Out,” said Captain Paige with a grin. Wayne overheard and added his grin too.

  ****

  “How do you want to proceed, my Lord,” asked Kluny, watching his twenty protectors loiter around waiting for instructions.

  “The Dirtlings are cowards and have gone into hiding. When they surfaced they faced my wrath. Now we can root them out of their holes,” said Lord Gubbins with an evil glint in his eye.

  Kluny noticed the poor movement of some of Lord Gubbin’s tentacles, “Are you injured, my Lord?”

  “Bah!” said Lord Gubbins dismissively, “Minor war trophies. My hunt count is high, even higher than my son’s. This is glorious!” He raised his gun and fired into one of the buildings for effect as he laughed.

  Kluny directed two of his protectors to approach the building next to them, “Root out some Dirtlings. We’re going on a little hunt!”

  As the first protector entered a doorway, the head of the protector following him exploded and his body toppled to the ground.

  The remaining protectors turned and fired in all directions, destroying the few remaining windows and exploding walls all around them.

  Kluny sent two more protectors to follow the previous two. The quickly returned and said, “He’s dead.”

  “I know he’s dead,” said Kluny, “We saw his head explode!”

  “No,” they said, “Grondy. We stepped in the building and he was there with his head besides his body.”

  Lord Gubbins overheard and said, “This is how you solve the problem,” and after changing the dial on his laser rifle, fired into the doorway. The side of the building disintegrated in a huge ball of energy. The upper stories began to fall down towards the new hole in the wall and the entire building collapsed.

  “Where are the scurrying Dirtlings?” yelled Lord Gubbins as he looked amongst the destroyed levels of the building.

  Kluny looked at his remaining protectors who had all been watching the destruction. Looking again and counting he said, “Two of you are missing. Do a buddy check!”

  They all looked around and one at the rear called out, “Handly and Gorfingle are dead. Looks like they were killed while watching Lord Gubbins.”

  They all looked up as they heard a loud noise approaching, “That’s a flying vehicle!” yelled Lord Gubbins, “Take cover and be prepared to fire!”

  The noise stopped just around the corner and everything was silent.

  The protectors looked around and Kluny directed a team of four to move forward and investigate. This was a whole new experience for the protectors. Normally they dealt with unarmed and inexperienced civilians in The Capital that were easily intimidated. They remained confident as they believed in their marketing and had watched many hunting Tri-D entertainment shows.

  The four lead protectors leapt out and screamed “Got you!” as they were disintegrated by automatic projectile fire ripping through them. The flying vehicle noise restarted and flew away further into the warren of streets.

  Kluny raced to where his protectors lay in pieces in the middle of the intersection. No one was visible. The noisy vehicle was gone and he could see no targets for him to fire at. He raced back to Lord Gubbins. The twelve remaining protectors gathered around, nervously looking in all directions.

  Lord Gubbins tapped his communicator.

  He tapped it again.

  “Why is this flashing red, Kluny?” demanded Lord Gubbins.

  “It says ‘Communications Failure’, my Lord,” answered Kluny.

  “I can see that, you idiot,” said Lord Gubbins. He looked around and said, “We are not targets. We are hunters. Let’s hunt. Move!”

  He slithered on four of his undamaged tentacles and went quickly towards the corner of Park Avenue and 83rd Street. He stopped as he saw a group of disorganised people walking towards them.

  “What?” Lord Gubbins asked as he saw them holding placards and signs and chanting something, “Aliens are Welcome!” they shouted. When they saw Lord Gubbins and the protectors, they stopped and cheered.

  “Let’s hunt!” yelled Lord Gubbins and opened fire on the crowd, with the protectors joining in.

  “That’s more like it!” they shouted.

  ****

  “Oh my God!” cried out Captain Paige as he saw the stupid protestors marching up 83rd Street, chanting that “Aliens are friends” and other nonsense.

  “Didn’t they see what happened to the Mayor?” asked Eric, horrified at the images of the aliens firing into the crowd.

  “Not everyone wants to change their beliefs just because reality differs,” said Captain Paige.

  Determined, he picked up his phone and called his team, muttering, “No more mister nice guy.”

  ****

  As the Lord Gubbins and the protectors celebrated their slaughter, Kluny looked around and did a head count. He was down to eight protectors. Another four had disappeared while they revelled in their hunting.

  Lord Gubbins looked at his communicator still showing the red warning, shrugged and said,“Let’s do some more hunting!”

  They heard some loud engine noises coming quickly along the streets along all nearby intersections. The protectors turned to face different directions. They caught glimpses of Dirtling armoured vehicles racing across the intersections, firing towards the group from all directions. The Protectors and Lord Gubbins fired off many rounds of laser fire, hitting nothing. The engines stopped and they stood in silence. Kluny was injured and Lord Gubbins nursed another damaged tentacle. Only two remaining protectors stood with them, watching in all directions nervously, surrounded by their fallen comrades.

  “Work, you stupid thing!” shouted Lord Gubbins at his communicator which stubbornly kept flashing the red “Communication Failure” message. They heard the engines once more start and approach.

  “Charge!” yelled Lord Gubbins as they raced to one of the intersections.

  Turning the corner they faced a Bradley Armoured vehicle and felt the 20mm automatic shells rip through them. Laying on the ground, Lord Gubbins cursed, “You Dirtlings will pay! We only came for a little hunt and now you went and pulled this stunt!”

  Lord Gubbins coughed and then dropped to the ground dead. His communicator flashed green, “Communication Restored”.

  Too late.