Fiction:Galactic Eaters/One page story

Different Day
The hot winds of the desert surface on the planet Zino heated the armour of the Zazane soldiers, who were walking across the deserted valley of No Man's Sand. The Zazane were an ancient race and a war was something they didn't practiced a long time ago. The group of ten Zazane were on an exploration mission, right in the middle of the war zone.

All the warriors walked closely, looking at every single orange rock that appeared in their way. There were no places to hide and an ambush was not expected at all, since the enemy could be seen miles away. But indeed, who cares, better be careful than being nullified.

Zazck Rinn held his two big single-handed blasters tight. He was the last on the Zazane line and if the enemy were to ambush, he would be the first. He was still saddened by the news that his girlfriend, Neilos Gin, wsas killed in an attack. He was desperate to make friends, but he knew that if his mind wasn't on the job, he would be called useless. But most of all he was hungry, but the Zazane Law obligated all the warriors to obey and not eat until the officer in charge said so.

"I'm hungry" said Galis Xeem, one of the scouts.

"Me too" said Kaipos Rixx, another scout.

The officer in charge, Algoz Nax, was making no noise. He kept walking and his men knew it wasn't time to eat yet, but the Zazane soldiers were really desperate and could not avoid taking a rock or too for a snack. Certainly those who did it were the ones with most of their strength regained and ready for any fight. Zazck was not one of them and his stomach was empty. He was so hungry, he could even eat the ground itself, just like any other scout in the group.

Algoz tried to calm the group's appetite by telling stories about the Loron. This did not frighten the Zazane soldiers, but indeed it entertained them.

"How many here did encounter a Loron once?" asked Algoz, his voice strong and sounded slightly like a pirate.

Only Zazck raised his hand.

"Really soldier?" asked Algoz. There was a long pause before he approached Zazck, "How so, before or after the war started?"

"Before, I hated the Loron after that." answered Zazck.

"What did they do?"

"One of them invited me for a walk across a beautiful canyon..." the Zazane started grabbing rocks in order to eat, but everyone was still listening. "After a few hours of good talking and walking, we stopped for a snack and eventually..."

"Aaaaaah" said Pukuz Dain, another scout, enjoying the minerals passing through his esophagi and filling his stomach, replacing famine with energy. He then apologized and Zazck continued.

"...He realized he forgot his lunch. After a few moments he couldn't take any longer and bit my arm with his spiky mouth."

"That was a bit exaggerated soldier, Loron don't eat sentient creatures unless there is no food anywhere." said the Algoz.

"That was the point, I was enjoying my meal and that blasted creature tried to take it from me. When he failed, he attacked me!"

"Learn this men, don't accept any invitation of a Loron anymore. If you had a date once..."

The Zazane laughed, but not for long.

The good time was interrupted all of a sudden by an explosion, not far from there it seemed, all the team of Zazane soldiers stopped talking and laughing, even eating, they have forgotten they were on a war zone and the Loron could attack at any minute, Algoz raised his hand indicating that they will go in whatever was happening in there, everyone checked their equipment quickly, as earth military could do, and prepared to run over that peak that did not allowed them to see the apparent conflict on the other side.

"Be ready" said Algoz, Zazck felt a bit anxious, but he could determine if he was actually anxious or rather fearless, everyone sighted in almost perfect unison, as they walked through the devastated plains of Zino.

Smoke started coming out from the other side of the sand peak, which made the officer to ordering a fast walk, everyone obeyed.

They reached eventually the top of the peak, the group of scouts fell in the hot arena and continued their advance across it, in order to pass without being seen and could evaluate the situation.

In front of them there were a group of Loron, bigger than that of Zazck, and eventually heavily armed, they were raiding a supply convoy of the Zazane, everyone watched as the enemy started eating what was rightfully theirs.

"Not fair!" whispered Dain, "They are eating our food!"

"Quiet!" ordered Algoz, suddenly the bip of his communicator started the sound, Algoz closed his alien eyes expressing a tired officer, or better one that was thinking "We are screwed", he quickly took his communicator and stopped it of making that lousy noise (in times of war why not making vibrators?), too late, the closest Loron heard the noise and alerted the others.

"Yees?" said Algoz, putting some audio-phones in his head, "Sir we are on a delicate situation there... No sir there is only a group of them... Yes sir they are raiding our supplies... WHAT?!"

The Loron fired to the Zazane, the Zazane answered, both sides were highly covered and the loron would likely won by numbers.

"All right team, I received notice that an entire Loron army is making its way to gather out supplies, our army is coming in too, so we got to hold..." the voice of Algoz was interrupted by an explosion, the Loron army and the Zazane's had arrived, "It seems that they informed too late" though Zazck.

The two armies clashed across the large convoy, explosions everywhere, Zazane and Loron gatherers started to fight themselves for the food and drinks, the soldiers fired at will, it was a hell of a battle, ships started flying and fighting in an an amazing show of dogfight, just like old times.

Zazck and his team were still fighting that group of Loron, the crossfire have turned to be a melee battle, the Zazane drew beam swords, as well as the Loron allowed everyone to know their dual electrical axes, energy metals clashed, the battle roared across the whole plain.

Zazck found himself battling small, medium and big Loron, the biggest were the hardest, as usual, their large weapons were incredibly powerful, one of them got him harassed in a corned of a vehicle, there was no way to run, the enemy charged, holding his axe in the air, Zazck jumped to right, firing his beam laser to the right side of the loron, Kill shot, the Loron lay dead, but it was to early to celebrate, an explosion happened very close of our hero, and he found himself laying unconscious in the ground, his last hope was for his brethren to win this battle, because if they don't the Loron will take him in order to serve as delicious Zazane meat, his sight went dark, and his mind lay dormant.

Aftermath
Zazck opened his eyes thanks to the sound of a near explosion, fortunately, no Loron or explosion had eaten part of him, and so relaxed a little bit, the sound of a battle could be heard far away, just as if the fight was taken away from him, the Loron with the axe was a dead alien in front of him, Zazck looked for any snack in his bag, and for his luck, he found a big piece of aquatic meat.

After enjoying his meal, his mind turned to scan the surrounding, all was nothing but debris and corpses, as well as few medical teams that could be seen in the horizon tending the wounded, Zazck looked for any wounded body of his unit, after a few minutes he gave up, his hunger for eating something was bigger than anything.

"Hey!" he yelled to the medical teams, one of them seemed to be hearing, he repeated the yell, again and again.

"Use your radio soldier!" said a voice in his back pocket, he swore, as the noise made him jump.

"Acknowledged"

"You could have given our position to the Loron stupid, next time make sure you wear your radio or otherwise, I could put some charges in you for treason, ain't funny kid" said the medic talking to his radio, the two approached, Zazck could barely walk as a piece of metal flew over the battle and got his leg, "Now we can talk soldier, let me check that"

Zazck sat on the ground as the medic prepared his tools.

"What's the situation sir?"

"The battle grew and grew, this is a hell of a fight, ain't seen anything like this before, this Loron sure know how to give a war."

"They are too godamn many" Zazck commented, the medic nodded.

"Where was your platoon soldier"

"Let's just say we were a scout team when the battle came right into us"

"sunnova... and you are still alive?" said the medic, surprised, his accent wasn't familiar at all, "you are really lucky"

"What are the general orders medic?"

"I'm taking you to base sir"

"Very well, there is no time to waste then"

"Like you Zaz!" (as for human's "man") said the medic, "Can you stand up?"

"Yeah"

The two started walking away from the sound of battle, with their radios in all frequencies, Zazck and his new friend could hear anything happening.

Unit 34 move forward into the right flank, Unit 12 retreat, I repeat, retreat

500 casualties in unit 45 sir

''Bastards! they just keep coming!''

And other few more were heard, casualties, cursings, orders and a lot more.

"Hope this end soon" said Zazck.

"Yeah"

The two walked west, where their base resided, as the two suns of that system started to hide in the north.

Collaborators

 * The Valader -- Author, main editor.
 * Lucario of the Gods -- Creator of the Zazane, contributor.
 * '''Technobliterator -- Creator of the Loron, contributor.