Chapter 223: (Hesstla)

Dambree left the house, through the window as one was want to do when avoiding a parental unit's notice, and snuck across the yard. She jumped over the short fence and hurried down the alley. She was dressed in soft cloth, a pair of soft pants made of blue cloth, a shirt of blue that had short sleeves and left her belly-furr exposed, and a pair of soft shoes. In the last year she had seen the Overseers flee the system and leave the entire world empty of their presence, then the hairless primates called "Terrans" showed up and wanted to do trade.

It had been an exciting, heady time, and she had loved every moment of it.

Over the summer she had met a male Hesstlin named Alkree, and despite her male parental unit's admonitions of 'no daughter of mine...' regards dating, she had still carried on through private chats and messages. Alkree was handsome, older, and had a ground vehicle and a job overseeing agricultural robots.

That's why Dambree was sneaking out to meet him even though her parental units would disapprove of her sneaking out at night, her bare midriff, and the fur dye she had on her cheeks and the tips of her ears.

She exited the alley and walked to the corner, waiting for Alkree just like they had agreed. She checked her datapad and saw that Alkree had left a message that he was on his way.

**I'm here** she sent back.

After a few minutes Alkree pulled up in his ground car. A black car with narrow headlights and a roomy passenger cabin. Alkree popped open the door and she slid into the car, looking at him. He was tall, lanky, with a stripe of shaved fur on the top of his head and down his neck. He had metal piercings in his ears and had dyed the tips of his ears, around his eyes, and the tip of his nose black. He leaned over and licked the side of her neck and face, making her giggle, then handed her a bottle. She opened it and sniffed at it. Uddlevent fruit liquor.

"Thank you," she said, sipping it lightly. She handed it back and he bumped noses with her before taking a long drink off the bottle.

"Where are we going?" she asked.

"How does Shalpeenea Bluff sound to you?" Alkree said, turning smoothly onto the side-road.

Dambree nodded, taking another sip of the alcohol and gulping. The Bluff overlooked the agricultural fields and the city both and was a well known spot for boyfriends to take their girlfriends. The thought made her fur prickle just to think about it.

Alkree put his hand on her thigh and she giggled as he rubbed the soft cloth up and down her leg. The car moved up the incline up to the bluff as she sipped at the sweet liquor, taking three or four sips for every drink that Alkree took.

She was feeling a little light headed and tingly across her ears and face when Alkree parked the car so that they could see the robotic tenders in the agricultural fields below and the lights of the city beyond.

The evening was giddy for Dambree, the attention that the older Alkree was paying to her, the lights of the city beyond and the robots moving through the fields, and the alcohol all combined to make her head swim.

She was looking up through the windshield when she saw the streaks of light in the sky. A few, then dozens, then hundreds. She moved her head, looking closer, as the streaks seemed to slice across the indigo night sky. Her arms were over her head, out the side window, and her shirt bunched up under her armpits and against her throat. Some of them were at weird angles, where the streak disappeared and only a slowly growing point of light was visible. Alkree took that time to pull her shirt off over her head, tossing it into the passenger seat beside him, and when she looked up even more shooting stars had started. There were bright sparks erupting to life in the sky that quickly went away, clusters of them, of all different colors.

"Shooting stars," she said, starting to sit up. Alkree moved his head, cursing, as she turned in place, shuffling her knees because her pants were down around them, and stuck her head out the open window. She laughed, feeling light headed, and opened the door, kicking out of her pants as she climbed out of the car and looked at the night sky.

HEAVY METAL INCOMING! roared out from every flat surface, every speaker. Many people winced, a few cried out in fear and confusion and pain.

Alkree mumbled something and followed her as she stared up at the sky.

She wasn't the only one. Several vehicles couples had gotten out, although most of them were fully dressed, all staring at the sky and pointing at the streaks, the twinkling of sparks in the sky, or the steadily growing bright dots that were seemingly dropping down.

"Get back in the car," Alkree said, pulling on her arm.

She pulled away, pointing at one of the bright dots. "What do you think it is?"

"Who cares?" Alkree said. He grabbed her arm and pulled at her again. "Come on."

One of the balls of light suddenly streaked forward, roaring over the cars, making all the Hesstlin duck and scream. It hit in the trees right behind, a ball of fire reaching up to the sky and the impact making the trees wave back and forth.

Hesstlin were yelling, wondering what it was, wondering where it came from, some wanted to run toward it, some wanted to leave right away.

Alkree adjusted his black vest and stepped toward the woods. "I'm going to go see who crashed a flitter," he said, looking over his shoulder. "Unless you can think of something better to do."

She shook her head, looking back up. She lifted the bottle to her mouth and took another sip of the liquor, the movement absent minded as she watched streaks pass straight over them. She looked back in time to see Alkree and some other males and females go into the woods. She sighed and looked up as she took another drink, flickering her ears nervously.

HEAVY METAL IS HERE! roared out over the speakers and from all around.

More bright flashes appeared up in the air. She squinted, trying to make them out. After a minute she looked down and saw her pants laying behind the car. Suddenly reminded she was outside in her underwear she moved over and bent over to grab her pants, laughing as she almost went headfirst into the ground.

There was a loud groaning noise that vibrated the air, so loud, deep bass she could feel vibrating her bones. It was followed by the snapping of wood and bright searchlights began to sweep the woods, casting shadows on the vehicles.

One male Hesstlin and his girlfriend got in their car and took off, leaving behind a cloud of dust.

There was a bright red light and screaming sounded from the woods.

She turned around in time to see several Hesstlin run from the woods, screaming. One was a female holding onto the stump of an arm. She got to the car, stumbling and whining, and the male helped her into the car.

Cars were starting up as Dambree looked around.

"Alkree?" she called out, suddenly nervous.

There was more bright red flashes and trees started cracking, falling to the side, and even more floodlights began to pan around the forest.

The male Hesstlin ran out of the woods, tripping and falling when he tried to jump the ditch and misjudged the distance. He scrambled up to her, his vest torn, a couple of his metal studs torn from his ears. His eyes were wild and it was obvious he was panicked.

Dambree looked up as a bright light suddenly shone down from the heavens in flash. She saw a spreading light in the sky that slowly went out, staring at it befuddily, wondering what it was.

Alkree grabbed her, pulling at her. "Get in car, you stupid pup," he shrieked.

Dambree yanked back, her eyes filling with tears from his tone and his words. There was a crashing of breaking wood behind her but she was staring at Alkree with her eyes wide with hurt.

Alkree's eyes somehow widened even further in horror. He stepped up to Dambree and grabbed her, backing up, holding her at arm's length, his hands tight enough around her upper arms that it made her cry out in pain.

"Not me! Not me!" Alkree screamed. A bright red line went up and down Alkree's face and Dambree could see it on the back of her arms.

Dambree's foot hit a rock and she cried out, crumpling as her leg collapsed. She looked up just in time to see it happen.

A long tentacle with five graspers around the end snaked over the top of her, the tentacles made of dark metal, ringed every handspan or so, and the end of the tentacle settled on Alkree's head. The graspers flipped down, holding his head securely.

Alkree screamed and there was a crunching sound that reminded Dambree of a food chopper trying to digest a large thick tuber. She stared as his screaming turned to gurgles and suddenly his eyes sucked into his head. The graspers let Alkree go and he fell silently to the ground.

She realized that the top of his head was gone, to reveal an empty skull slicked with blood.

She rolled over and looked up, her eyes widening.

The thing stood on six stilts, ringed metal legs with wide flat pads on the ground. It was a wide oval, three stilts per side, and had rough looking mechanical sections on top. There was a dozen glass or plasteel or crysteel bubbles on the top, machinery visible inside. Three of them were blue, lit up, and she could see what looked like brains with tubes and rods and wires stuck in them. One of the dark glass bubbles lit up with soft white light, revealing bubbling liquid, rods, crystals, wires, and other devices inside.

The big machine vibrated, the tentacle pulling back and retracting into the flat black oval at the base. Dambree scrambled backwards, over Alkree, not even noticing as a red light came on, flashing, and a red line went down her body.

The red line suddenly widened into a grid and she blinked as the red light in her eyes suddenly flashed.

HEAVY METAL IS HERE! Suddenly thundered from every surface, from every speaker.

The machine shuddered and Dambree saw a brain lifted up on a black metal rod as thick as her wrist. The tubes, wires, rods, and other things suddenly stuck into the brain and the machine shuddered again.

Her head hit the car door as the rod retracted from the bottom of the brain and the crysteel glass globe suddenly lit with a blue light.

She suddenly knew what was going to happen to her as she kicked her feet. Dambree turned, climbing into the car, sobbing to herself.

Around her every other Hesstlin was getting into their cars as four more of the stilted machines came out of the woods. Something larger, much larger, in the woods, let out the loud bass cry, making the metal and plastic of the vehicles vibrate.

The windshield shattered onto Dambree as she sat up in the driver's seat. The keys were still in so that the satellite music player could keep going. It was only giving out atonal shrieks, warbling up and down the scales in a random order. She started the car, put it in reverse, and hit the gas.

The tentacle, reaching for her, smashed the door off with the scream of tearing metal and the clatter of shattering plexglass and plasteel. The car hit the stilted machine, not budging, and she threw it in forward, hitting the accelerator.

The little car whirred, the batteries driving the electric motor, as she turned onto the road, her foot holding the accelerator to the floor. She looked behind her as lights shined in the back window. At least three ground-cars were behind her. She saw an aircar take off only to be destroyed by a bright streak that turned the aircar into debris falling from a ball of fire.

Someone slammed their car into the door-less driver's side of hers. A tentacle reached out, punched through the roof of the car that had just pushed hers to the side, and yanked the female passenger out, pulling her screaming into the darkness.

Dambree was weeping as she slammed the other car back, then, at the bottom of the incline, made a hard turn into the argicultural field, pushing the car through the stalks of mellitgrain. She looked behind her and saw at least four of the stilted machines chasing the cars that were still fleeing the bluff.

Panicked, she slapped off the lights, uncaring if she hit something in the dark. She couldn't see through the stalks anyway, they were slapping against the hood and vanishing under the body. The car was bouncing and jostling, alarms ringing from the dash, warning her she wasn't on a recognized road.

She looked behind her and saw it.

The big one.

It was at least six stories high, heaving itself up on hundreds of insect legs. It had segmented eyes that glowed purple, its jaws covered by mechanical tentacles that whipped around in a frenzy and bearded by more insectile legs. It had what looked like greasy looking blisters that, as she watched, two flying machines crawled from and fluttered their legs, drying the metal and crystal.

Whimpering, she looked forward, trying to ignore the immense bass roar from the huge machine.

YOU BELONG TO ME roared out in her head and she winced, crying out, as pain spiked through her head at the authoritative words.

Faintly, dimly, she heard another voice. This one raised in wrath and defiance.

EAT A DICK! she heard faintly.

She drove through the stalks, in the dark, whimpering, wiping blood from her nose, as she sped away from the site where only moments before she had been sighing and trembling as Alkree had made her body feel new things she'd never dreamed of.

Dambree saw the flask of alcohol rocking back and forth on the seat and reached out with one hand, pawing at it, until she managed to get it. She ripped the cap off with her teeth and took a drink.

Not a sip.

Three long swallows.

She wiped her mouth as the car bounced onto the road. She yanked the wheel, the wheels slid out, she overcorrected, then overcorrected again. The car spun in a circle and she managed to get it back onto the road before she drove too far half in the mellintgrain.

She kept the pedal to the floor, the wind, colder now, blasting in through the windshield, through the empty doorframe. The car kept beeping, warning her she was going too fast, as she pushed it almost to fifty miles an hour. She screamed and pounded on the dash when it slowed her back down to a safe thirty. She could see cars ahead of her, heading out of the city, out of the suburbs, and cars behind her, following her into the city.

The woodline of the Bluff was on fire.

HEAVY METAL IS HERE! sounded out again and sparks shot from the dash.

Dambree looked up from the dash just as a low flying aircraft shot by her. Lasers pulsed from the bottom, white with a red core, and the vehicles in front of her exploded.

Dambree hammered on the dash more and the car rewarded her by having the warning cut off with a squawk and the electric engine humming faster.

She was almost up to fifty miles an hour again when several more low flying aircraft roared overhead. These ones didn't shoot, instead the slowed down, turned around, and matched speed with the cars behind her. As she glanced behind her and looked, tentacles slammed through the roofs of the cars, pulling out the screaming occupants.

She could see blue flashes as crysteel globes on the top of the vehicle, mostly hidden by crude looking armor and mechanical parts, started lighting up with an interior blue glow.

Crying, she swerved onto her street. Two machines were tearing into houses, pulling the screaming Hesstlin from their hiding places. The screams stopping, the graspers opening, the bodies falling, and steam rising from their emptied skulls as the bodies crumpled onto the carefully manicured lawns.

She didn't bother with the driveway, driving right up on the lawn. She left the engine running as she jumped out, running to the house. The door was locked and she hammered on it.

Five houses behind her a machine started ripping into the roof.

"MOM! DAD! OPEN THE DOOR!" she screamed.

Someone screamed as they were dragged from inside the closet. A body pulled from beneath the bed was released.

Crying she moved to the middle of the lawn, ran forward, and threw herself, shoulder first, against the plas door. It shattered around her and she ran into the house.

"MOM! DAD!" she screamed again.

Her mother came out, peeking around the corner.

"We have to leave! Now! Come on!" Dambree screamed.

Her mother, her ears flat against her head and her eyes wide with horror, shook her head, her mouth moving with no sound.

Dambree ran forward, grabbing her mother's arm, and did something she would have never ever thought of, in all her long fourteen years of life, before this night.

She slapped her mother.

Hard.

"GET THE LITTLES!" Dambree screamed.

She didn't know she was mostly deaf.

Her mother scampered away, yanking over the bedroom door. Dambree followed her, seeing her little sister under the bed. She grabbed her sister by the hair when her sister tried to pull back, dragging her screaming sibling out from under the bed.

Her mother had her youngest sister and her little brother by their pajamas, standing in the middle of the room, staring at her daughter, who was only wearing her waist and groin modesty clothing.

"LET'S GO!" Dambree yelled, thinking she was speaking normally.

Her mother mouthed something, but Dambree was already running.

Two stilters across the street were tearing into a house only two down from Dambree's. Directly across the street two fliers were tearing apart the roof.

"DON'T LOOK!" Dambree yelled, physically throwing her little sister through the empty windowframe and into the back seat. She turned and grabbed her baby sister from her mother, repeating the action, then again for her little brother.

"GET ON THE FLOOR! COVER YOUR HEADS!" she yelled. She ran around to the driver's side and slid behind the wheel.

Her father stood on the grass, staring at her. His ears were pink with anger at seeing his daughter unclad.

"GET IN!" Dambree yelled.

Her father shook his head, mouthing words. Her mother was mouthing words, pointing at her own groin then at Dambree.

A tentacle came down, grabbing her father, lifting him up.

Dambree's mother jumped through the empty windowframe and into the vehicle.

Dambree hammered down the pedal, punching the car into forward, and sprayed grass as she pulled a sliding curve back onto the street.

A tentacle tore a hole in the roof but missed anything else.

More streaks were coming down from the sky, which was lit up with flashes and streaks of light. They punched through sky, burning their way to the ground.

Dambree didn't care, she just kept her foot on the accelerator.

YOU BELONG TO ME! rang out in her head.

Her siblings cried out in pain and fear. Her mother clutched her head and cried out.

Dambree screamed with the reply.

EAT A DICK!

The car sped into the night.