First Immortals Ch 12

First up I would strongly suggest that if you haven't read the earlier chapters please do so before reading this one, it will explain a lot of things...

Now, enjoy. BB1212

*****

"Tilley, its Josh, are you there?"

"Josh, is it really you?" Tilley sounded excited to hear from me, and I thought that was a first.

Tilley was my 2IC, and professionally she absolutely deserved the role. She was a damn good leader, and her understanding of military strategy was second to none. Socially Tilley really didn't like me or my lifestyle, and she had spent her entire first interview telling me so. She was quite stunned when she was brought back for a second interview, and at that time I told her she needed to concentrate on the job, not the reputation of the person in command. We found out we could work together professionally, but I knew it still grated with her that I was fucking so many of the women on base.

"The one and only," I replied, and I grinned.

"How are you? Where are you? Damn it Josh, we thought you were dead."

"Slow down Tilley," I said, smiling. "How am I? Pretty darn good for a guy who has just entered the atmosphere in a flight suit. Where am I? Just over a day from Miami on a private yacht, and no, as far as I can tell I am not dead."

"Definitely not dead," Sammy muttered in the background.

"Tilley," I said quickly before she could think of more questions, "what's the situation with the YW's, and is there any word from Neale?"

"All of the YW's in our city have retreated to a shopping centre at the moment. We think there are about a hundred of them left. They have one aircraft there, but haven't used it for a couple of days. They are not attacking us at all any more, but will still kill in defence if they can. In other cities the situation is similar, except for the aircraft."

"Uh huh," I really wanted to hear how that had come about, but I knew I would catch up soon and I wanted to be able to ask questions that shouldn't be asked over a communicator, no matter how certain we were that the YW's weren't listening any more.

"There's been no word from Neale, but both of your missions were successful. We were really worried about both of you. Damn it Josh, it was a really stupid idea but it saved us." I was really worried about Neale too, but there would be time to do more about that later.

"What's next, and can it wait for me?" I asked, still not wanting to be too specific.

"Got some plans," Tilley said, "when can you get back?"

"How soon can you get a hoverjet out here?" I asked, and I gave her our coordinates, heading and speed.

"Sixty to ninety?" she said.

"Sounds good," I replied, "let me know when they are ten away and I'll dive and we will make it a sea pickup."

"OK Josh, and it really is good to have you back." Tilley disconnected.

"We've got what, an hour?" Sammy asked suggestively.

"I'm just going to the head," Wasme muttered with a wry grin, "I'll be quite a while."

"Thanks Wasme, for everything," I said, "and if ever you need a favour I owe you one." She nodded, raised an eyebrow suggestively at Sammy, smiled warmly at me and left. I liked Wasme. A lot.

The pickup by the hoverjet went as planned, and in less than three hours I was back at Hinchlet and in a dry uniform. There was absolutely no indication any more of how badly injured I had been just hours earlier.

"So," I said to Tilley as we sat at the meeting table in my office, "how did we get to where we are?"

"By accident really," Tilley said grinning wryly, "it was your friend Keisha."

"Keisha?" I was confused, even though she was living with me and we had talked seriously about it, she still hadn't re-joined the Intergalactic Navy. So she shouldn't have been involved at all.

"Yes Josh," Tilley said, "I know it's strange, but she went to talk to the first survivor, and he, er, recognised her.

"Oh damn." I said. Because my experience had been different I had just assumed the YW's had stopped using the Keisha experience on their captives. They obviously hadn't.

"Yes," Tilley agreed, "she was very upset and decided to do something about it. She went and bought a Freidrich Lightning from a military antique shop."

"You can still get them?" I asked in wonder. The Freidrich Lightning had been the American weapon of choice in the early stages of the third world war. It was the last mass production gunpowder and projectile combination before the invention of energy weapons, and it had been cutting edge back in the day.

"Yes, apparently all the re-enactment societies still want them, so there is quite a market. Anyway, there is no restriction on sale because the blockers on the general population mean they can't use them to cause harm to people."

"How did she know how to use it?" I asked, and Tilley grinned.

'Keisha told me there was simulator on the Mayflower," Tilley said, and a vague memory stirred. I had heard about it at the time, but I hadn't tried it myself. "Apparently, Keisha spent a lot time in it, and it was very realistic. She told me that the simulator weapons are exactly the same as using the real thing."

I nodded.

"So anyway, Keisha snapped and decided to try and take out a YW as personal revenge," Tilley continued. "She found a group of three and she winged one with her first shot. Because it was in pain the others were disabled and she took out all three before they could retaliate."

"Wow," I said, impressed, but also wondering why we hadn't thought to try that earlier. In our frantic hunt for new weapons we had totally ignored the potential of the old ones.

"Yes, so she got on to Bira straight away and told her. We commandeered every Freidrich Lightning we could find yesterday, and enlisted every person who could use one, and then we sent them all out hunting. Our people hit the streets just after you and Neale took out the mother ships, and all of the YW's were already dazed. The plan was immediately effective and it looks like they are on the run everywhere."

"Are they fighting back with anything?" I asked.

"They still kill anyone they find at close quarters, but there is no attempt at, er, sex any more. At the shopping centre here they have tried at least three times to get to the aircraft but Keisha and three others are covering that, and they have managed to keep them away so far." I remembered the tumbler.

"We absolutely have to stop them getting to that, those ships are well armed." I said.

"How bad is it though?" Tilley asked, "You took out a few of them with an unarmed Stellar didn't you?

"I was very lucky, their bombs are extremely dangerous, and on top of that we really need to get some of their technology to our scientists and see what we can learn."

"What next then boss?" Tilley asked.

"Get every gun you can, and all of the MS units too. We can set them up at every exit so we have a known range. We'll burn them out if we have to." Tilley nodded grimly, she had seen what the YW's were doing, she had heard what they had done, and she wasn't going to waste any sympathy on them.

I heard the chattering of the trapped YW's as I approached the shopping centre, first as a background murmur, and then as individual voices. They were getting more and more excited as I approached, but quietened down a bit when I stopped at my station.

I had originally decided I wouldn't be there at final strike, because I thought the YW's might still be able to track me, and then I had changed my mind and decided that I had to go because of my proficiency with the MS. We needed every good operator we had available. Then I had thought I would turn off my communicator so they couldn't detect me, but then how could I listen to what they were saying? I had only told a couple of my most senior officers that I could 'hear' telepathically now, and I had sworn them to secrecy, but in this situation, even though the YW's could still detect my presence, my understanding of their messages paid off immediately.

"Scabbard is at the south west corner, I need twenty volunteers..." There was a frantic clamouring.

"The rest of you stay here to storm the fighter as planned," was the next clear message.

"Four rifles and two more MS units to me immediately," I said into my communicator, "all other locations send half of your number to help defend the aircraft."

There was a general acknowledgement as our resources started to move.

"Scabbard has sent them to where we will attack Sir," a panicked telepathic thought called out.

"Attack in five," another frantic message said, "four..."

"Three seconds to action," I said, and I concentrated on the door facing me. There were only two of us there, me with the MS and an Ensign with a rifle. The reinforcements I had requested would be too late.

"Twenty of them coming out now Ensign," I said, and the door opened and YW's streamed out.

I hit the leading one with a perfect thought triggered shot, and it exploded spectacularly, the Ensign shot another and it fell down dead. My next shot maimed another, and this didn't slow their advance down at all. They must have realised that their sympathetic reaction was costing their lives and somehow disabled it.

We got another three, but then the nearest was too close for my range.

"You get the closest ones," I shouted, "I'll get as many as I can while they are in my range." The Ensign immediately complied, and from then we were very busy, but not really in a lot of danger.

In less than a minute there were twenty dead or dying YW's strewn in line from the door to almost hallway to our position, and about thirty seconds later our reinforcements arrived, just in time to miss out on all the action.

"Good work Ensign," I said, and she grinned.

"Just like the simulator Sir," she observed, "but noisier." I nodded. There was still the clatter of gunfire from the far side of the building where the aircraft was located, and I couldn't pick up any telepathic messages at all. I waited for another minute and it quietened down.

"Secure my location, no casualties" I reported, and within moments I got the message I wanted to hear.

"Secure main location, no casualties, prize intact."

All the other stations reported no contact.

It took us almost a week to clear out the last strongholds of YW's but eventually there were no more of the aliens left alive on Earth.

We lost almost eight thousand men and five hundred women and children during the YW invasion. About twelve hundred men had died in the breeding program, and there had been forty-three survivors. Once the YW's realised there were quite a lot of survivors they had started launching them into space instead of freeing them, and there were only eighteen 'new immortals', as they came to be known, still with us at the end of the war. Sadly we never heard from Neale again, and he was one of the losses we recorded in that brief but expensive action.

There is a holographic story statue of Neale at the front gate of the Intergalactic Navy headquarters, which was put there almost immediately after the war with the YW's and it has been upgraded every time that technology has advanced since then. All military personnel are required to salute it every time they pass it. It is some comfort that Neale's sacrifice was not forgotten in the tumultuous times that followed, and as far as I am concerned it is even better that he is still remembered and honoured today.

Our scientists pulled the captured YW craft totally apart, and in some areas of technology we advanced by many hundreds of years in a single step. Unfortunately some of the raw materials the YW's used just aren't available in our part of the galaxy, but we learned a lot about their methods, and were able to adapt some to our circumstances.

We were confused for some time with the YW's lack of mid range weapons. They had the tumblers for longer range and could kill by contact from short range, but we couldn't see anything in between. As it turned out there are only three races that have the ability to freeze movement, and that was their main weapon. As we know all too well it can be very lethal.

Of course Androger had me back on his show a number of times after the war ended. He would usually team me up with a thankful survivor who wanted to say how my message on previous shows had contributed to his survival, but once he had Keisha join me, and the sympathy generated for her by that show really helped her to get over her problem of her image being used by the YW's to kill so many men. Not long after the show she moved out of my apartment and married one of Androger's cameramen. I was a bit sad, but mostly happy that she could have a normal life with a normal person.

There were differences in the changes made to the men who survived sex with YW's on Earth too. They became longer living, but it seems that they all will eventually age and die, we lost another one only a decade or so ago, and that just leaves two. They didn't get the healing properties in their cum, but they did get exceptional sexual stamina and a strong level of self-healing. We put the differences down to something that was in the fruit which was our sole sustenance on the YW planet.

The changes to me had mostly become apparent already. My sexual prowess had increased dramatically, and every partner I have had since has gone into some form of sexual overload as the result of our coupling. In a world so free and easy with sex this unusual effect is a novelty, and I have always got plenty of choice when I want to exercise my libido. My cock grew quite a bit too and it does tend to scare the young ones, and the inexperienced older ones, at first. But I make sure I am careful, and as a result there have never been any issues. The other change that became apparent only after another fifty years had passed was an ability to 'read' the intentions of any creature in my vicinity. This gift can be quite specific, and I don't just know if people are being honest or not, somehow I know what their ultimate goal is, a skill that has proven to be exceptionally useful over the intervening time, and in a vast number of ways.

"You're Josh Scabbard," the girl said angrily. She looked very different now, but I could still recognise her.

"That's right Epsilon. I am. How are you?" I asked. Her face went from angry to furious.

"You destroyed my life you bastard," she screamed loudly. I was surprised, to say the least.

"I'm sorry..." I said, not following her meaning, but she kept on going.

"So you fucking well ought to be," she screamed, "you fucking well raped me while I was unconscious."

"Now hang on..." I said.

"Now I have been kicked out of the Church, none of my friends will talk to me and I can't even go to the fucking school any more. My life is over."

"It would have been if I hadn't helped you," I said, trying to keep my own rising anger at bay.

"Oh sure," Epsilon replied sarcastically, "you even managed to get mum kicked out of the church too, and the stupid bitch still believes that bullshit that you spun just to fuck a pure girl who couldn't defend herself." She stopped shouting for a moment, and stared angrily at me. I saw her hand drop and was ready when she pulled the knife out of her pocket. She pushed it toward me, but stopped mid swing as the blocker that prevented people from attacking other people kicked in. I just stood watching as she trembled in rage.

"I hate you," she howled, and then she pushed past me and ran away down the street. I sighed.

Moments later Anastacia appeared at the door.

"Josh," she said happily, "you came back."

"Yes," I said, "but it wasn't quite the greeting that I expected."

"I'm sorry about that," Anastacia replied. "Phil Maddon is the Shepherd for this area, and he has been really brutal with her." The Calvanians always called their ministers shepherds.

"Uh huh," I said, "Epsilon said you had been kicked out too."

"That's right. The YW's got Larry, he didn't come back, and for some reason Phil decided that he broke his vows by having sex with one of them. He invalidated him for that and we couldn't even have a memorial service. He invalidated Epsilon because she isn't pure anymore and he invalidated me because I let that happen."

Once a Calvanian was invalidated they became outcasts in their society, and they were not simply ignored by the rest of the congregation, they were actively vilified. It was brutal stuff.

"I'm so sorry," I said, but Anastacia wasn't having that.

"No way Josh," she said, "there's nothing to be sorry for. Five minutes after you left Epsilon was breathing better, and half an hour later she was conscious. You saved her life, and there is no price too high for that." I smiled.

"I wish Epsilon felt that way," I said, and Anastacia smiled ruefully.

"So do I Josh. But I'm sure she will come around when I get her away from here. Gorg, her now ex-boyfriend has been really vicious and she just can't handle it."

"How can I help?" I asked, and Anastacia smiled nervously.

"There is one thing..." she said shyly.

"Yes?"

"Well... er... I'm not married any more, and I'm out of the church now..." I smiled.

"You want to see what all of the fuss is about?" I asked, and Anastacia nodded nervously.

"Do you think we could do a... a threesome with Flipsy?" she asked.

"I'd love that," I said sincerely, "when?"

"On the weekend?" Anastacia asked nervously, "Epsilon is going away to look at new schools."

"It's a date," I agreed, "I'll pick you both up on Saturday night at seven. We'll have dinner, then we'll go to a club or do something else. Dress up a bit if you can. After that..."

I leaned in and planted a kiss on Anastacia's trembling lips. It lasted for quite a while.

"Wow," she whispered as I left, and I grinned. I wanted to make our Saturday night date really special for her, she deserved it after all she had been through.

Things were incredibly busy in the Intergalactic Navy after the YW war. When the Mayflower had returned to Earth the threat from aliens was remote, and had already been looked after, now it was real and people realised that it could easily happen again. This wasn't an academic issue best watched from the other side of a screen any more, it was a genuine threat that had affected almost everyone. There was a flood of new recruits, and we were flat out dealing with them.

The next morning I was in the middle of a meeting with my training team. We were discussing how many more recruits we could deal with efficiently, when I was suddenly taken to the Eriguons. The yellow warehouse was becoming familiar now, and this time I guessed there were about twenty of our senior politicians and military personnel present when I was taken there. Once again we were all frozen in place, and once again they walked around, looking at us, but this time I could hear their communications.

"Earth people, can you understand us?" one said.

"Don't bother," one replied, "they are too backward to communicate properly."

"I think we should just kill them all now and save time," another added. I was glad to be frozen this time, because my immediate anger at this attitude may have given me away otherwise.

"You know the rules Dawt," I heard, "all of the superior races get the chance to conquer them and claim their resources, but it is not our turn yet."

"You have made it too easy for the others to defeat them by convincing them that energy weapons are banned."

"I can't believe the fools actually believed you," another added. Again I could have given myself away if I had been able to move.

"From their media we know that many of them didn't, and their government was divided too."

"We will free them now, be watchful," one said, and I felt the hold on me relax. I steeled myself to act like I couldn't hear them.