Inherited War 3: Retaliation Read Online Free

Esii home world. His heart started hammering in his chest. He watched the outline of the box form around his feet. He couldn’t move. In his mind he was violently thrashing around, but in reality, he was motionless. The box extended itself up and out of the floor, stopping just short of chin level.
    Cole held his breath and waited. Moments later the door to the room opened and a Pyndigum entered, as only one of their kind could. He appeared to float smoothly across the floor. Cole looked at the monster as it hovered mere inches from his face.
    He was as disgusting as ever. Skin flayed off every inch of its body, except the face. The eyes and mouth were sewn shut with heavy gauge steel cable. A foul stench permeated the air—rot, viscera, and other foul things.
    “No,” Cole croaked out. “No, I killed you. All of you. You all died by my hands, and I escaped this place.” He was shrieking, fear taking control. He couldn’t be here, not again. He couldn’t do this again.
    The voice drove into his mind like a laser.
    “Dead?Us? I think not,” it said.
    “I killed you,” Cole sobbed, “with my mind.”
    “Amusing, yet untrue. You did nothing. You lived a fantasy. Created by us. You killed no one with your puny mind .” He unleashed a mental barrage that tore into Cole’s brain and set it on fire. “You, who can’t even keep me from hurting you, killed me who has trained in my arts for hundreds of years. You did exactly what we wanted you to do, no more.”
    “No,” Cole said. “I escaped. Split killed you and we escaped with Anastacia. This isn’t real.” Cole did the one thing he could; he squeezed his eyes shut tight.
    “Interesting. So you believe you killed me? Fought off an entire planet of my people and escaped. Did you kill some fanciful monster that doomed us all? Did you find more of your kind to help you out? Did you find a whole room full of everything you would need to survive on the surface? Did two spaceships arrive to take you away? I am amazed that you still believe all of that.”
    “No,” a whispered croak escaped Cole’s lips, “you lie.”
    “You never escaped, you broke under the strain. Your friends never came for you. In fact, they abandoned you to your fate. They took your ships and defended their homes from us with them. They were not, after all, your friends. But to no avail, you gave us what we wanted. You gave us the technology that your ancestors withheld from us. We go now to conquer the galaxy.” The Pyndingum shifted slightly and cleared Cole’s front. It held its arm out and pointed at the door. “We have finished with you and release you into our world. Go, my people eagerly await hunting you through the halls. And remember, before you die you will see those responsible for your woes.”
    The box dropped from around Cole and he fell forward from the sudden release of the pressure holding him in place. Stumbling to his knees, he scrambled to his feet and ran for the slowly closing door. He smashed into the guards on the outside of the room. They all went down in a tumble, and Cole came up with a pistol. He didn’t even look, he just ran. He careened down the hallway as fast as he could. He didn’t know where he was going; he just wanted to get away. He ran down empty halls and past locked doors. Finally, he rounded a corner and saw three Esii walking single file in front of him. The door they had just come from was still open. Cole ran up behind the one in back and fired at point blank range. The plasma bolt obliterated the creatures head and continued on through the two in front of it. All three headless bodies tumbled to the floor. Cole grabbed the door as it was sliding shut and with strength born of desperation, stopped it cold. He then put everything he had into opening it enough that he could squeeze through it.
    Breathing heavy, Cole turned and took in the room. There were Esii everywhere. Cole backed up against the door and raised his looted plasma pistol.