Liars and Cheats

Andrew and his new-found allies attempt an escape while Slosheey is introduced to the Arc's bio weapon.

Slosheey moved through the battlefield with his cloaking activated. He quickly moved through all the battles, watching as the Humans and Arc seemed to be equally matched. The Humans morale never ended. Even as Several fell in battle. Even so the Arc was losing a lot more soldiers then the Humans. Slosheey had thought that the Arc was too advanced to even allow humans to form a resistance. However at the moment Slosheey was attending to more pressing matters.

Slosheey arrived at the ships gravity lift. He stood in the center and it quickly lifted him up to the ship. Inside Payay was waiting for him.
"Good to see you again Slosheey!" Payay said in his high pitched voice.
"Nice to see you to Payay." 
"Are you here because your father called for you."
"Ha Ha" Slosheey laughed. It was an old joke that Slosheeys father constantly called for him when he and Payay were younger. "This time yes, he actually did."
"Well let's go."
Slosheey and Payay hurried to the front of the ship where the lab was. When they arrived Ratemeey was already waiting for them. 
"Hello boys" Ratemeey said turning to Slosheey "Come in I have to show you something."
Slosheey and Ratemeey began to move into the labs but Payay stayed where he was. Ratemeey turned to Payay, "Come on, you’re invited to." 
Payay quickly rushed to the side of Slosheey as the group entered the labs.

"As you well know the lab has created a lot of breakthroughs for the Arc" Ratemeey explained "We always come through for the Arc but now we have something even greater than our lightning weapons." Ratemeey began to open a door.
Inside was a huge, circular room. In the center was a single glass tube with what appeared to be a pure green plant inside. The Patriarch watched from beside the tube and Slosheey and Payay immediately bowed. 
"It is an honor to be in your presence" Both of them said at once. The Patriarch just chuckled "Stay calm boys you don't need to do that."
"Yes sir." 
"Now behold our greatest creation yet" the Patriarch said "Kirovium the recruiter of tomorrow."
"Kirovium sir?" Slosheey asked.
"Yes my boy, Kirovium. This powerful species is half plant, half animal. They will one day be able to convert any enemy soldier to the Arc but for now they are highly dangerous!"
"Why?" Payay asked.
"Because of what they do" the Patriarch said with his voice now more serious "Kirovium mutates the entire body controlling the mind and body. They make certain parts of the body stronger than others and, at the moment, they cannot be controlled. And all it requires to be controlled and taken over by the Kirovium is a single spore."
"How do you know?" asked Slosheey.
"Because if this" the Patriarch waved his hand toward a window covered by metal shutters. They slowly opened up revealing a whole landscape converted by Kirovium. Creatures moved throughout the environment and were obviously under influence of the infection.
"Isn't it incredible" The Patriarch said.
"Yes it is."

"Okay so our two squads will work together to get out of this" Andrew said.
"Agreed" said Rick.
"Well my friend Alex needs help and we have to get him to it."
Delta popped up "Andrew I do not believe we should trust Rick.
Rick looked at Delta funny. "Why not?" he asked.
"Because you and your squad are all registered as KIA. Killed In Action."
"Obviously it's a glitch in the program." Rick said.
"I do not believe so."
"Delta enough!" Andrew said.
"But Andrew..." Delta said with worry in his voice.
"Acknowledge last directive."
"Acknowledged."
Andrew then turned to the two squads “Michael and Nicole make a stretcher for Alex. Rick where is a first aid outpost."
"The underground of the school has been converted to a stronghold to defend against the invaders. We should head there. The only problem is that the in-school entrances are destroyed. We can only get in from outside." 
"That’s fine, Me, You, and Greg will defend Alex, Michael, and Nicole."
"Alright let's move out."

The group moved around the school. Andrew removed a large square screen from his pocket. The screen was blue and showed several Black and White images.
"What is that?" asked Rick.
"It is the feed from a security camera, and it's showing a lot of enemies around this corner."
"What do we do?"
"Get on the ground and crawl through the tall grass. Don't get caught."
The six of them got to the ground and slowly began to pull Alex through the grass. Andrew covered the group by watching the enemy. None of them seemed to notice the six kids crawling through the grass so slowly and quietly. 

Awhile later Andrew turned to see that the other five were a safe distance away. He pulled a pin out of a grenade and threw it at the aliens. Four small ones, two larger ones, and one monster. Andrew saw the grenade land in the middle of them all. One of the two seemingly captains turned to see the grenade. He seemed like he was about to shout an order when it exploded. Andrew rushed the group of Aliens. The explosion had killed all the Lackeys and one of the captains. Andrew fired on and killed the second one. He then turned his attention to the monster. It roared at him and charged its laser cannon. Andrew fired shot after shot into the creature but it wasn't stopped. It fired its cannon and Andrew dived to the ground. He ran towards it, firing its gun. It tried to smack him, but Andrew dodged. He then jumped up and stabbed the creature’s neck with his knife. It began to fall forward. It crashed to the ground and died.

Slosheey continued to watch as the shutters on the window closed, hiding away the Kirovium landscape. The Patriarch then spoke, "Now we have more pressing matters to attend to."
A large screen lowered into the room. It placed itself in front of the four. The Patriarch then spoke again, "These creatures we have found here, these humans, have an undying morale for whatever reason. They refuse to surrender and will not stop fighting even as the advantage starts to drift towards us. But thanks to Slosheey's efforts we may have discovered who exactly we need to kill in order to defeat this resistance."
The picture of a young boy flashed up onto the screen. He was about 11 years old. "What we know is that the boys name is Andrew, correct?"
"Yes" Slosheey said "He was injured during battle and I helped keep him alive, however he turned against me and without even knowing my mission attempted to kill me."
"Exactly" the Patriarch responded "He is a hero to these humans who are fighting. Which is exactly why he must die."
"Then I will kill him!" Ratemeey said, with determination in his voice.
"No, you will not. We already have someone ready to kill him it will just take time. If this person fails their mission, then you may kill Andrew. However not yet. Just not yet."

Slosheey and Payay walked back to the gravity lift. They re-armed and restocked on the way but did not stop to go into battle. They instead walked to the other side of the ship and entered a second lab where something equally important was being worked on. "How is she doing?" Slosheey asked as he walked through the doors. The Human A.I Delilah had materialized her Avatar on one of the work benches. "Why are you doing this to me?" She moaned.
"Because you possess vital information now reveal to us everything you know about this organization or we will be forced to continue administrating the electronic torture!" A scientist barked at her.
"Stay calm" Slosheey said "Now please explain to us what this organization is and maybe more of them will be more likely to live."
"I won't tell a thing!"
"Fine. Scientist's, continue your electronic torture." Slosheey then left the room. Delilah would be tortured until she revealed information on the organization these Humans fought for.

Slosheey then went back to the gravity lift with Payay. This time they did ride it down and they engaged the enemy the second they landed.

Andrew and Rick fought off the enemy as they moved toward a bunker entrance that lay outside the school. It was situated in the middle of a hill and Andrew, Rick, and the rest of their squad was moving down towards it. Since they had the higher ground they were fighting more effectively than the Aliens.
"Nice shot" Andrew said "What did you say these things are again?"
"They are soldiers for an alliance of alien races known as the Arc. They are very lethal, I just can't understand why they are here" Rick answered.
"They are here so we can kick their asses!" Andrew said, throwing a grenade downhill.

After awhile Andrew started to notice something. The different creatures were fighting one another. Not real, shoot out fighting, but punching and distracting from battle. 
"Hey what are they doing?" Andrew asked
"From what I could overhear earlier before we found you, the Arc lately has been involved in several civil wars. Although they have all ended with the Arc still intact, tension run high. They really need this win in order to settle their differences."
"Interesting..." Andrew said.

After several minutes neither side had been able to advance up or down the hill. "This isn't working" Andrew said.
"Yeah, No s#%$&" Rick responded.
Andrew then took out his knife and said "Cover me."
Andrew rushed forward, he threw the knife into one of the larger ones head, a Master as Andrew had begun referring to every one of the type that he saw, because they always seemed to be commanding the other soldiers around them. He then ran up, grabbed the knife and slashed the throat of a Lackey. Andrew proceeded to take out the whole squad using only the knife. When the coast was clear, Andrew and his squad moved towards the bunker.

As Andrew, Rick, Greg, Nicole, Michael, and Alex on a stretcher moved down the hallway of the bunker, they heard reinforcements approaching from behind them. The group of them ran down the hallway, but all the balls of lightning that missed and hit a wall caused a section to collapse. Andrew and Rick began to fire on the approaching reinforcements while Nicole and Michael pulled Alex through a gap in the collapse at the top left side. Once the three of them were through Greg went through. Rick clamed up to the hole. He looked down at Andrew and shouted "Grab my hand!"
As he lifted Andrew up, Rick cocked his pistol, held it up to Andrews’s chest, and fired.