Operation: Marauder
Chapter 4

Rowan paced in front of the Marauder, which had been sitting in this hangar, collecting dust for the past year. Until a week ago. Maliki had made leaping strides in repairing the ship. It hadn't been what Rowan had asked him to do, fixing the hyperdrive was his priority, but he had to admit, being able to fly at all was better than being grounded. This morning was the first time they took the Marauder up with no alarms going off once they were ten feet off the ground. They went off when they reached atmo. But Maliki and Mave believe they had worked out the kinks to give it another go.

If only their liaison was here to supervise. Rowan had no plans on leaving this planet yet--they couldn't--he only wanted to feel a slither of hope that they would one day return home, but he didn't want to increase the tension in the already tense humans, so he had to wait for Jack to return from whatever stupid, unimportant meeting he had to attend before they could fire her up. It was apparently important enough for him to throw a fit and demanded they return back to base when he saw what time it was while they were flying through the mesosphere this morning.

The hangar doors opened. Jack came rushing across the smooth concrete floor. He had forgotten to change out of his civvies, still wearing jeans and a tee shirt; he didn't seem to care when Rowan brought it up either.

"Let's go again," was all he said, passing him straight for the ramp. Rowan recognized that look from anywhere; he knew exactly how Jack felt after his first time in space. He couldn't wait to do it all over again either. He doubted the novelty would ever wear thin for the human, though.

Rowan followed him inside the spacecraft, hitting the ramp button to retract it. It closed them in with a solid thunk.

The rest of the crew were already buckled up, just outside of the cockpit doors. Mave was in the cockpit, calling out the launch sequence through the speaker. Jack wiggled in his seat restlessly, like a kid who wanted the ride to start already.

Knox shook his head at him. "Calm down, man, or you're going to pass out before we reach atmo."

Jack paused in his wiggling to look at him. "Is that a thing?"

Knox shrugged. "Could be for a human."

"It's not a thing," Cas corrected, unimpressed with Knox's teasing. "We have environmental stabilizers in place to ensure a smooth ride for all species."

As soon as his words left his mouth, the ship left the ground, teetering from side to side. Jack clutched his seat, like he did the last time they had a rocky start. What could they expect, she had been grounded for a year, there was still a few things that needed greasing up and dusting off.

Once she was clear of the hangar, though, the ride smoothed out. When they reached the stratosphere and no alarms went off, Rowan ordered Mave to push her a little harder.

"Harder!" Knox cheered, grinning like a cheeky schoolboy.

He knew they had reached the exosphere when Mave opened up the cockpit and joined them in the main area. Jack was the first to unbuckle; he raced for the window in the cockpit.

"Oi! Don't touch anything!" Mave called to him.

Jack was too busy admiring Earth from below to listen. Trusting that Jack wouldn't meddle with the ship console, Rowan turned to his crew, pressing a button that summoned the navigation table from the floor. They took a quick scan of Earth this morning before they had to take her back to the hangar; Rowan brought up the 3D projection of the planet.

"Where did the escort ship land?"

Mave used his fingers to control the map, spinning it until he found what he was looking for and highlighted the coordinates. "It landed here."

"Hey," Jack growled, jumping down from the cockpit. "That's Russia. Don't start pointing at Russia."

"Why?"

"Because it means you're planning on going there and this is strictly a test flight. Run your diagnostics, see what's working, what isn't, then we go back to base."

Rowan wished the humans had left them with a dumber liaison. He wasn't as easily distracted by the wonders of space as he had hoped.

"Maliki, run a diagnostics test," Rowan ordered, matching Jack's sharp glare.

Maliki left for the engine room.

Jack broke eye contact first, stepping up to the holographic map of his world. Most humans would have been enthralled by the technology, and Rowan was sure on the inside he was, but Jack's eyes were hard set on the coordinates Mave had highlighted. "What's there?" he demanded.

Knox, Cas, and Mave glanced at their captain, giving away nothing.

"It's where your 'comet' landed," Rowan informed him coolly. He trusted Jack with Earth related missions, even with their livelihoods when it came to negotiations for equipment and supplies, but he also knew Jack had his own orders to follow and they didn't align with Rowan's goal.

"You mean the Wraythe escort ship you've been looking for," Jack corrected. "I told you, we can't go around flying in other countries. . ."

"What if we're cloaked?" Cas thought aloud, watching Jack's brow furrow as he considered it. "They'll never know we were there."

"You don't understand the threat," Knox pressed. "We need to eliminate the Wraythe. They'll kill us then your people."

"We'll just go to the crash site," Mave promised. "I can have us in and out within the hour. We only need their ship's hard drive to see if they've been in contact with anyone."

If the Wraythe called for backup, Rowan's crew wouldn't stand a chance then Earth would be left for the pickings. Admittedly, normally Rowan wouldn't care, there would be maybe a thousand human casualties, hardly a dent in their numbers, before the Wraythe moved on to a more rich supply. But then Rowan thought of Zoey in the clutches of a Wraythe, her lifeblood slowly being drained from her until she became an empty husk of what used to be Zoey.

Rowan would kill every last Wraythe in the universe before he'd let that happen to her.

"We've helped your country," Rowan reminded him with a tone that made Jack tear his gaze away from the map. "Now do something for us. I'm not asking you to set foot in another country, just let us do our thing."

Jack crossed his arms. "I am not letting you peruse around Russia. Alone. I'll come with you. I'll warn you, though, my Russian sucks, so we better not run into anyone."

That wouldn't be an issue. "Cas, go grab a UT."

The doctor looked at his captain as if he'd suddenly gone neon pink. When he was met with a hard glare, Cas nodded and left for the med bay.

"What's a UT?" Jack asked warily.

"Universal Translator. It has all of the languages logged in the Galactic Federation Database. You'll be able to understand and speak perfect Russian, Arthonian, and Zanpennazian. . . You get the picture, right?"

Jack stared, going a little pale. "How does it work?"

"Cas is going to inject a microchip behind your ear," Rowan explained, matter-of-fact. "It'll take a few minutes for the nanobots to fully integrate themselves into your brain, but then whatever the microchip picks up from your ears will be translated by the nanobots and you'll automatically be able to speak that language. It's quite simple."

Jack held his head, eyes bugging. "You're going to inject me with little machines? Is that even safe?"

"Earth is one of the few planets I have come across that doesn't inject their newborns with a UT. I think you'll be fine," he responded dryly.

Jack glanced at Knox, who was being an asshole doing his worst to hide his childish snickering, then back to Rowan. "Why did Cas give you that look, then?"

Rowan hesitated. He needed Jack to take the UT so they could continue with the mission--but he also deserved the truth. "It's never been tested on a human and, while it is unlikely it will kill you, there is a possibility. It's not compatible with everyone in the universe."

Cas came back with the UT, though it wasn't visible to the naked eye; it merely looked like Cas was holding a jet injector with a pale liquid inside.

"Cas, you're a doctor," Jack said, sounding like he was trying to reason with a bear about to maul him. "You've done numerous tests on humans, myself included. Is this safe?"

Cas gave him a dull look, syringe at the ready. "I wouldn't be doing this if it wasn't, but there is still a chance you are not compatible. Do you want to proceed?"

"We're proceeding," Rowan answered for him. He wasn't waiting around for Jack to replace his balls. "Mave, plot a course. Knox, grab him."

"Hey!"

Rowan took one arm while Knox took the other. With the strength of an Arthonian, one of them could easily hold him down, but Cas was going to need him to stay still or there would be complications.

Grunting, Cas tilted Jack's head while the others held him firmly in place. Then, before Jack could whine about it any further, the nanobots were blasted into his system. They released the human and let him curse his way to the nearest star and back and kick a few things of little importance. When the nanobots should have rewired his brain, Cas asked him how he was feeling in their language.

Jack rubbed the back of his head, still growling and glaring at them. "I'm fine--but that's not the point! You fucking pinned me down!"

"And now you're speaking Arthonian," Knox informed him, slapping his back. "You're welcome. You're now the only human that can communicate with nearly everyone in the universe."

Jack paused in the middle of his indignation and cocked an eyebrow at them. "I'm speaking Arthonian?"

"Yes."

"It doesn't feel like it."

"It doesn't feel like we speak English either, but we must do, otherwise you would never be able to understand us."

Taking a deep, calming breath, Jack nodded then sat down in the nearest chair, processing what they had done to him. "How many of those things do you have? They would be handy-"

"No," Rowan stopped him there. "I gave one to you because you are a member of my crew and I trust you. I don't trust them."

Jack seemed surprised and insulted at the same time. "You said you would share your technology."

"I said some of it. There are many secrets on this ship your people will never know about. Got it?"

He looked like he wanted to argue, but one of the reasons Rowan liked Jack was that he understood that they had to do certain things to survive on the planet and respected their decisions. Didn't abuse the fact that without the humans' help they would be drowning by now.

"Thank you," the human finally relented. "This--" he pointed at the nanobots in his head "--is something I never knew could exist. It's crazy to think that I can talk to anyone now." His mind seemed to wander elsewhere, a small smile on his face. Rowan was half-heartedly curious who he was thinking about. He knew what kind of person Jack was, what he would do for the sake of his country and to protect his new team, but he knew nothing about him, if he had a family, a lover, children of his own.

Maliki came back from the engine room with a tablet lit up with a full diagnostics test.

"How's she looking, Maliki?" Rowan asked. "Specifically cloaking." Now was better than already entering the atmosphere to replace out if they could actually enter Russia undetected.

The Arthonian raked a hand through his hair; he had the longest cut of all of them and the dark green strands stuck up like little horns. "Cloaking is solid, running at a hundred percent. Shields are a little worse for wear at fifty; we can't do much for them until we get more Terbium. Sensors are running better than expected."

"How far can we fly?"

The question earned Maliki a sharp inhale as he made the mental calculations. "Out of this solar system, for sure. I wouldn't risk going any further than that until I've done more work."

It was all Rowan needed. Back at the base they could track down nearby planets for Terbium deposits, maybe even replace a jumpgate, if they were lucky; it would take them a long time, but they could get home warping between jumpgates faster than Maliki could fix the hyperdrive.

Mave made the call for them to strap in.

The descent back to Earth was much smoother than their first one this morning. They landed in a forest on a large boulder hanging off the side of a narrow gorge.

Rowan was the first to move, lowering the ramp and taking in the fresh scent of spruce and other trees he hadn't learned the names of yet. The forest looked the same as Connaville's forest, but the air was different, cleaner, softer against his sensitive nose. His keen eyes caught insects buzzing from tree to tree, desperate to escape the harsh chill fast approaching.

Jack came up behind him and shivered. "I should have brought a jacket. Then again, I didn't know we were going to western Russia." He cut him a look Rowan was sure was designed to make him feel guilty for dragging him along. But he had given the human the choice to stay with the craft. Why should he feel guilty over his choice?

Cas dumped a Frost coat on Jack's shoulders. "This will keep you warm."

Rowan fought a smile as Jack adjusted and slipped into it. It was a coat designed to ward off the chill on frozen planets; it was also meant for the large frame of an Arthonian and it made Jack look like a kid trying on his big brother's clothes. It was excessive for this kind of weather, especially for the Arthonians, who ran at a hotter temperature than humans, but it was all they had.

Cracking a laugh, Knox slapped Jack's back, making him stumble forward, then leapt out into the open, inhaling as deeply as Rowan had. "We should have landed here, boys. It smells so good out here."

"We have the same trees," Jack grumbled, reluctantly following them off the craft. Mave locked up behind them, leaving the ship in cloak. Jack gaped at the near-invisible ship; if you knew what to look for, you could see the light warping against the cloaking field, but other than that, the untrained eye could walk straight into it.

Knox, not noticing Jack's reaction, went on about how much more he liked Russia, doddling through the trees--following the trail of scorched plants and overturned earth.

Judging by the massive dent in a nearby mountain, Rowan would have to say the Wraythe's landing wasn't as smooth as theirs had been. Not that he had any right to call their crash into Nash Lake smooth, and if Mave ever heard him use that term to describe what had happened, he would gladly shoot Rowan between the eyes. Apparently, if they had a proper co-pilot, the situation could have been turned into a "rough landing" --away from the lake.

They followed the trail down the rocky slope of the gorge and found the ship smack-dab in the middle of the river. At this time of year, the water level was high, especially with a ship damming it up. Getting to the ship and grabbing the hard drive meant someone was getting wet.

Rowan looked at Knox.

"No," Knox declined fiercely. "Who took one for the team last time? Yeah, it was me. Someone else can go waist deep in freezing cold water."

Grunting, Maliki stepped up. "I'll do it. I know what to look for, anyway." He striped out of his clothes, standing butt naked near the end of Fall, revealing his Arthonian markings to all the birds and deer of the forest.

While Maliki was freezing his balls off, Rowan ordered the team to spread out and search for any signs of where the Wraythe had gone off to.

Jack stuck with Rowan, hands shoved in his pockets as he scanned the forest with the keen vigilance of a soldier.

"What exactly are we looking for? It's been months, footprints would have worn away by now. I'll be surprised if they even survived that crash."

"They survived." Rowan was very confident in that. "They're much tougher than your average human."

"How about your average Arthonian?"

Rowan, crouched, paused examining a pile of bones that had once belonged to a deer, and looked up at him. "Depends if they had recently drank Arthonian blood. They like our blood because we can regenerate quickly, wounds that would kill a human would heal within hours for us. We also live longer. The Wraythe can absorb this ability from our blood. It makes killing them much harder and us a more likely target than anyone else in the galaxy."

Jack bit his lip in thought. "So if they were to drink my blood. . . they wouldn't get anything out of it?"

"Aside from basic nutrition? No. They like to hunt people with more. . . interesting blood." They had been hunting Rowan's people since the creation of both species. Ironically, the Wraythe were technically Arthonians too; they both originated from Arthos. They just developed on opposite ends of the planet and hadn't discovered each other until they began exploring.

Jack shivered at the thought. "Well, at least that means they won't be coming after Earth any time soon." He had that look about him again, as if he was thinking about someone.

Rowan hoped the Wraythe would leave Earth alone once they left. The humans had no way of dealing with them, and the thought of leaving Zoey here unprotected made the hair on his markings stand on end.

He was so lost in his thoughts, he hadn't noticed Jack had gone ahead without him. He was kneeling over something. Rowan hurried to his side-- then froze solid.

He had found a deer. Freshly drained of blood.

He reached for his comms, which was habitually behind his ear, but then let loose a mental curse that their comms weren't online yet and reached for the radio on his left shoulder.

He barely made the call when the Wraythe appeared. He dropped from the branches above and threw Jack into a tree. He hit the trunk with a sickening thud.

The Wraythe stood before him, looking like a starved animal with the hungry gleam in his black eyes. Wraythe were humanoid in nature, tall, slender. Their skin was pale, as white as paper, almost translucent, but he had fought enough of them not to assume it was thin; like Arthonian's, their skin was as hard as Mezamentainium steel--the strongest in the universe.

"On me!" Rowan shouted, knowing his brothers would be able to replace him. Then he drew out his claws and growled at the Wraythe. He hissed in return, his own set of claws extending out of his fingers; unlike Rowan's, his claws were meant for clean, precise cuts and were sharp enough to pierce the thick, hard skin of an Arthonian. Rowan's were meant for tearing things apart. Which was exactly what he planned to do.

He dove for the Wraythe. They rolled in a heaping mess of limbs, claws, and teeth. The Wraythe came out on top and sliced across his chest. The heat of his blood welled in his shirt; the Wraythe's nostrils flared at the scent of his decedent flesh.

Rowan took advantage of his distraction, threw him off, and rammed his claws into his gut. Crying out, the Wraythe sank his fangs into Rowan's throat. He managed to pull back, holding a hand to his wound.

The Wraythe went wild, licking his lips. "It's been too long since I've had an Arthonian. I almost forgot how delicious you were."

"Rowan!" Cas was the first to arrive.

Rowan held up a hand to him, halting him in his approach. "Take Jack back to the ship."

The Wraythe hissed at Cas, but didn't make a move for him, aware Rowan had his eyes on him. "You're taking my dessert."

Rowan hated that his people were only cattle to the Wraythe. Hated all the lives they had taken out of greed. He especially hated that one of his men was being referred to as dessert.

He saw red and threw himself at the Wraythe, forgetting that some of his blood had been taken. The wounds he had dealt earlier were healed. Rowan was back to square one.

Except Mave and Knox came hurtling into them, prying them apart. They forced the Wraythe down to his knees, hands behind his back. Rowan wanted to beat the living shit out of him for taking his blood.

He held himself back.

He needed answers.

"How many of you are there?" he demanded, clenching his fists at his sides to control his rage.

When all he got was an angry hiss, Rowan punched him. Hard. Blood ran down his face from his temple, and the monster licked the trail running past his mouth, a euphoric haze in his eyes as he did it.

"How. Many?"

Silence.

Rowan switched gears. "Where are they?"

"How should I know?" he spat. "They left me for dead. I was too injured to go with them, so they left. I had to feed off animals! I was about to go replace them and make them pay for abandoning me--but then I smelt you."

Rowan didn't like the delirious look on his face and smacked it off.

"Rowan," Mave warned, "we can't keep him prisoner; the ship doesn't have a brig and the humans won't have anything to contain him."

Rowan had far too many questions to give up now, but Mave was right, they didn't have the capacity to lock him up and their time was running too thin to interrogate an uncooperative target.

Rowan swiped his claws across his throat, making sure to dig deep. The Wraythe was dead before he hit the ground.

"Burn the body and the ship. No one can know what happened here."

Knox tossed the body onto his shoulder and ran back to the escort ship. Mave and Rowan made their way to their craft.

Cas was in the med bay with Jack; he was laying on the silver operating table, the blinding light made his skin as pale as a Wraythe's. A blue, semi-transparent gel had been applied to the gaping wound on the side of his head.

"How is he?"

"My head hurts!" Jack cried, holding his head in his hands. Cas swatted them away, pinning them down on the table.

"I told you to let the gel do its work," the doctor growled.

Jack let out a wail that would give a toddler a run for its money--then broke out into hysterical laughter.

Cas scratched the back of his head, glancing at them sheepishly. "I might have given him something to help with the pain. It usually doesn't have this effect on people. . . but then again I've never given this to a human."

"He'll be fine?" Rowan checked over Jack's hysteria.

Cas studied Jack, ignoring his excessive laughter. "Oh yeah. The gel will take care of the concussion. I'll clean up the rest of him once we're in atmo. No one will ever think he was thrown into a tree by the time we get back to base."

"Good." Rowan knew Jack wouldn't let him forget, but he could deal with Jack. He couldn't deal with a bunch of human generals demanding why their liaison was in rough shape.

"Do you need anything looked at?" Cas offered.

Rowan waved it off, turning back for the main deck; all his wounds had either closed or almost were. He just needed a shower to clean up the blood. Maliki was back with the harddrive in his hand, and Knox had soot smearing his cheek, letting Rowan know the escort ship was taken care of.

"All right, boys, let's move out."