THE PRIZE: BOOK TWO - RETRIBUTION by Rob Buckman Read Free Book Online Page B

ask the Silurians for help.” Ellis whispered in his ear as they lay beside each other one night.
    “Yeah, we couldn’t very well go ask the Thrakee, now could we? But what on earth makes you think the Silurians will help us?” Penn snuggled close to Ellis and kissed her neck.
    “Hummm…” She murmured shifting her head sideways so he could kiss more of her neck. “Well, we did help that nice couple we met inside the pyramid.” She said, running her fingers through his hair as he kissed lower.
    “That wasn’t under the best of circumstances, and they might just kill us as help us.” Penn laughed, kissing his way down between her cleavage.
    “Don’t say that. Tarl Regina and Rem Timor were grateful you saved their lives, and didn’t kill them when you had the chance.” Penn lifted his head and gave her a puzzled look.
    “There wasn’t any reason to kill them. They were no threat to us, and they probably died some horrible death before Michael transported them home.” Penn looked up at the ceiling. “You did transport them home, didn’t you Michael?” He didn’t need to look at the ceiling, as the entity known as ‘Michael’ could hear his question no matter where he looked. It was more a force of habit.
    “Yes Richard, I transported all of them back to the world they came from, healthy and uninjured and a little wiser.”
    “See, I’m sure they’d be very grateful and want to help us.” Penn replied sarcastically before he returned to kissing as much of her as he could. To him, the prospect of an alien force helping the people of Earth to get their own space navy seemed dubious at best.
    As far as the rest of the known galaxy was concerned, all humans were stark raving mad. That wasn’t far from the truth as far as the Tellurian Empire was concerned. The moment any human saw an Imperial soldier they’d start trying to kill him. You don’t come to Earth and wipe out four billion men, women and especially children without invoking a deep-seated homicidal rage to kill the perpetrators. As for surrendering, that was out of the question. With no governments remaining to order them to surrender, Human Beings all over the world devolved into fighting groups of one kind or another, all intent on inflicting as much pain, suffering, misery and death on the invaders as they could. With no organized army, navy, and air force remaining, the human race resorted to the one form of war they knew best, asymmetrical warfare. Every country on Earth had its group of ‘freedom fighters’ or ‘terrorists’ depending on your point of view. From the Vietcong to the Afghan Mujahedin, resistance groups sprung up like weeds. Now this was no longer a moral issue about humans killing humans. The Imperials were alien invaders and the world had become a free fire zone. Even the battle hardened Imperial troops were shocked and sickened by the inventive horrors humans inflicted on them. Even pulling back into their newly built, well-fortified bases didn’t help, as the ever so inventive humans came up with dozens of ways to get at them. From poisoned fruits, meat and vegetables, to smuggling in cans of fleas, lice and rats to drive them crazy. Venturing outside on foot, even in well armed groups was nothing more than an invitation to get themselves blown up, shot, stabbed, filled full of arrows, or getting a foot or hand mangled when they touched some innocent looking object. Flying wasn’t much safer, as the humans appeared to have an inexhaustible supply of ground to air missiles. Even guard duty on the walls of their fortresses had its hazards. One incautious moment of exposure invited a .50 caliber sniper round from over a mile away to meet with your head or other exposed part of your anatomy. Return artillery, or mortar bombardment had little effect on eliminating the sniper, as by the time they responded, he, or she was long gone.
    By now, little remained of any sizable town or village within the immediate vicinity