H.E.R.O.: Summoned

By Kevin Rau

The Air Force finds themselves under assault in Metrocity as they unearth the crashed remains of the Dyar'thon, the Kurcet starship brought down in a starship battle a week before. Robots, aliens, and supervillains all descend on the area as they try to acquire or steal weapons and resources of value.

Borgz finds himself among the attackers. Ever opportunistic, the bodiless being acquires new and powerful weapons, gains allies, and then must contend with other supervillains as they attempt to wrest control of his ill-gotten gains from him.

All the while, an unknown force of powerful armed and armored figures assault the military, prison, and villains alike to take ... or recover ... aliens remaining in the city.

The heroes must find out who this force is and stop them before they abscond with one of their own, while also dealing with two sets of villains set on accomplishing their own goals.

H.E.R.O. - Summoned is the 18th book in the most extensive superhero novel series of the last decade. It is an action-packed, full-length written novel of over 102,000 words.

Here is the full lineup of novels in the H.E.R.O. saga:
H.E.R.O. – Metamorphosis (1)
H.E.R.O. - New Markets (2)
H.E.R.O. - Rise and Fall (3)
H.E.R.O. - Dark Research (4)
H.E.R.O. - Horde (5)
H.E.R.O. - Paragon (6)
H.E.R.O. - Illustrated Guide
H.E.R.O. Shorts – Gatecrasher (7)
H.E.R.O. Shorts – Silverlash (8)
H.E.R.O. - Gene Front (9)
H.E.R.O. - Incursion (10)
H.E.R.O. - Dolldrum (11)
H.E.R.O. - Malice (12)
H.E.R.O. - Dark Breach (13)
H.E.R.O. - Nightmonger (14)
H.E.R.O. - Battlefronts (15)
H.E.R.O. – Riftguard (16)
H.E.R.O. – Augments (17)
H.E.R.O. - Summoned (18)
H.E.R.O. - Bio-Organism (19) - coming soon!

• Language: English
• Publisher: Kevin Rau
• Release date: Jun 16, 2014
• ISBN: 9781311567413

Kevin Rau

Born in 1970, I've been interested in fantasy and science fiction since perhaps the age of 10. I believe my love of medieval knights came about when my father built a wooden shield and sword for me to use in elementary school for some event.Through my school years I read hundreds (or thousands? - it's hard to recall at this point) of fantasy and science fiction novels. Comic books and super heroes came a bit later, although I recall seeing the Christopher Reeve Superman movies at a very young age (and loving them). Since my later teens I believe I've watched nearly every major fantasy, science fiction, and super-hero movie that has come out.I still love reading fantasy and science fiction, although I wish there were more novels based on superheroes. This is something that drove me to create my own supers universe and heroes in written form. I love supers, but I've always wanted more character depth than a comic book can provide. (Not to mention the immense length of time it takes for a comic series to do a story is just plain too long to me.)Writing is a hobby for me, I'm a full-time computer programmer and systems administrator for a small company. Fortunately the skills I've learned allow me to work with 3D programs to render the characters (and covers) for my books. My hope is to put out a novel or two a year, time allowing. At this point I'd like to grow the H.E.R.O. Universe with more novels, as well as start a fantasy series at some point.

Book preview

H.E.R.O. – Summoned

Kevin Rau

Copyright © 2014 Kevin Gerald Rau

Published at Smashwords

This ebook is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. This ebook may not be re-sold or given away to other people. If you would like to share this book with another person, please purchase an additional copy for each person you share it with. If you're reading this book and did not purchase it, or it was not purchased for your use only, then you should return to the online store and purchase your own copy. Thank you for respecting the author's work.

Editors

Frankie Sutton

Kimi Johnson

All characters are original and fictional. Any likeness to real people is purely incidental. Cover created by Kevin Rau.

Also written by Kevin Rau - the H.E.R.O. series:

H.E.R.O. – Metamorphosis (1)

H.E.R.O. - New Markets (2)

H.E.R.O. - Rise and Fall (3)

H.E.R.O. - Dark Research (4)

H.E.R.O. - Horde (5)

H.E.R.O. - Paragon (6)

H.E.R.O. - Illustrated Guide

H.E.R.O. Shorts – Gatecrasher (7)

H.E.R.O. Shorts – Silverlash (8)

H.E.R.O. - Gene Front (9)

H.E.R.O. - Incursion (10)

H.E.R.O. - Dolldrum (11)

H.E.R.O. - Malice (12)

H.E.R.O. – Dark Breach (13)

H.E.R.O. – Nightmonger (14)

H.E.R.O. – Battlefronts (15)

H.E.R.O. – Riftguard (16)

H.E.R.O. – Augments (17)

H.E.R.O. – Summoned (18)

H.E.R.O. – Bio-Organism (19) – coming soon

Other Novels by Kevin Rau:

Necromancer’s Ascent (World of Dur)

Want more information on Kevin's books? http://www.kevinrau.com has information on the author's novels, as well as images of the H.E.R.O. superheroes and villains.

Feel free to like the author's page on Facebook, and to ask questions or make comments! http://www.facebook.com/herobooks

Chapter 1 – Winding Down

Psystar’s Viewpoint

Our group was fresh off the crazy day of dealing with the men who had discovered an alien gadget that rewrote their DNA and changed them into a facsimile of those same aliens. The day had also involved a new drug cartel in Metrocity, and a new friend, Dierdre, had been kidnapped by Nightmonger’s henchmen in a crazy attempt to force her to work for them. That hadn’t worked out so well for them, as she had grabbed Nightmonger’s right-hand man and flown at the speed of sound into a building.

It was currently the largest group we ever had in Razorwing’s penthouse, which he called the Overlook. My best friends were there, including Diva, Lance and Rael, as well as the new hero friends we had made in Rayna and Razorwing. Spectral Warden and Dierdre were both there, although they both were uncomfortable in the group they barely knew. The two alien women, Tiriffa and Serreka, were there, as well as Jim and Mike, the two computer programmers that had taken Razorwing up on his offer to work for the new hero.

Razorwing, Spectral Warden, Rael and Lance all left the command center of the Overlook to sit in the recreation room. The three heroes who were well known to me still wore costumes, while Spectral Warden allowed his psychic red-and-white armor to fade away, revealing his expensive, trendy clothes.

Razorwing and Lance’s outfits had many holes, due to the automatic weapons of the Guerreros del Toro group we took down on the north side of Metrocity. I had been fortunate in that Lance distracted the men as the rest of us entered, and that gave me time to use my pheromones on them, forcing them to cower in fear rather than shoot.

The boys looked unusual as a group. Lance towered over everyone at 7’ tall, but he also had twice the shoulder width of the others. My entire body would fit within one of his massive, over muscled arms.

Razorwing looked like a dark-gray demon, complete with solid-colored, glowing yellow eyes, six-inch horns on his forehead, a thin prehensile tail with a triangular tip, and a pair of giant wings that nearly scraped the ceiling of the tall penthouse. Each wing finger ended in a wickedly sharp black talon capable of cutting through steel. He tried to offset the evil appearance by wearing shiny titanium medieval armor parts and a white tabard with a black griffon on the front and back. It was a sharp outfit, but he still looked demonic.

Rael was excessively handsome, with a lithe, muscled body, long black hair, and green cat-like eyes that made it seem as though he was ready to pounce at any time … and he was, for I had heard and seen his thoughts over the last month quite often. He was my boyfriend, but he had a bad habit of studying any woman near him. I wished that he were more like Lance. The larger man was the most honorable person of whose mind I had seen and heard.

Spectral Warden, or Shane, as he was out of costume, was new to me. I had met the college football star only a few times, and that was only when he wore his psychic armor as a H.E.R.O. agent. He seemed to be a kindred spirit to Rael, as he liked being around the women in the room, but he didn’t have Rael’s combat instinct or dark side. It would be interesting to see if Razorwing brought him in to join our loosely operating group of heroes, or if Shane preferred to be alone.

Shane was also extremely handsome, with short, styled hair that had blond highlights, a chiseled jaw, and a nicely muscled body. He was a few inches taller than Rael, perhaps 6’3" tall, but didn’t have as much muscle. I gathered that it had something to do with him being a psychic, while Rael was a feral mutant, and had gained extra muscle in our recent change due to the virus in the last week.

Rayna stared after the boys for a few seconds as well. She wanted to hang out with Razorwing, or play video games with the boys, if they started one up, but decided to stay with Diva, Dierdre, Tiriffa and me. She was an odd duck, as she loved video games and monsters, while I had never had time for either due to my studying.

Rayna still held her little blue-furred dragon in her arms. The three-foot-long dragon had suffered several gunshot wounds from the cartel men, and Rayna absent-mindedly petted his head. Rak was awake due to the pain, and I ran my fingers down his wet tail to distract him for a moment. I wished that my pheromones would work on an animal, or any non-human, for that matter.

I didn’t count Serreka among our group, as she sat on the floor building a component of a shuttle, but the tall, thin alien had been living with Diva for the last week and a half, since her spacecraft was shot down and her evil masters captured or killed.

Dierdre sat at the row of computers along the west wall. She unhappily logged onto a dozen websites, from her bank to her social media sites, and changed her password on each of them. The blue-haired girl wondered if Lightbeam or anyone else working for Nightmonger, had accessed any of her accounts, and was relieved to see her bank account untampered with. I wondered how much was in my own account, and realized that I should get some checks to replace those destroyed by the Kurcet, and then pay my landlady to help replace her house.

Mike tried to sneak sidelong glances at the beautiful girl as he worked on a computer two seats to her left. Jim sat to the left of Mike, and had a game up on the screen. The computer to his right showed a local news station.

When Dierdre finished and shut down her web browser, I approached, squeezed her shoulder, and asked, Want to get out of that costume now?

She looked up at me with her strange blue eyes. As with most of the fae mutants, her irises and pupils matched the color of her hair, and it gave her an unusual, unfocused expression. She nodded and stood, and I led her back to the bedrooms on the north side of the penthouse.

Diva watched us leave the command center. She debated following, but didn’t want to leave Rayna by herself, as neither of the alien women were chatty.

Away from the others, I was able to sense Dierdre’s emotions clearly. She felt numb, and somewhat relieved about her accounts, although she was worried that Lightbeam might come after her again.

I pulled one of the soft, fluffy bathrobes from a closet and laid it on the bed for her. I said, Sorry you got caught up in all this stuff.

She pulled off the top and her upper lip curled as she looked at the spandex garment. She sat down to pull off the boots and replied, Not like you had anything to do with it, right?

I studied her tan skin. All signs of her injuries from her time with the villains were gone. It was amazing to think that she had just flown over Mach 1 into a building and not only lived to talk about it, but was fully healed within an hour or two. True, but it’s not fair, the criminals going after people.

She nodded, I wonder how many people they kidnap.

I think they got someone I used to know, but it’s hard to tell how many people Nightmonger has working for him. Did you see anyone other than Lightbeam?

She slipped off the bottoms and then pulled on the robe. As she tied it around her waist, she closed her eyes and sighed in relief as she hugged herself. I sat next to her and hugged her from the side. So glad to get that reminder of them off me. She looked up in the air, Hmm, I saw a big furry guy with black claws, like a wendigo. Let’s see, there was a girl with the same costume, but she had a mask. Lightbeam, of course. The boss wore a business suit, but from his bulk, I assume that he was built like Spartan out there. Otherwise, just Planetbuster. Did he escape, or did I get him?

I watched her mindview as she remembered crashing out the window and flew at high speed toward a building. She had intentionally tried to kill the villain. I couldn’t blame her, for I had destroyed years of memories in a few villains that had caused me trouble.

I said, I’m not sure. I know that Diva and Spectral Warden got some mercenaries, but Diva didn’t think about what happened to him. Shall we go ask her?

Dierdre nodded, her ponytail bobbing behind her head. We stood and returned to the computer center. Diva, Rayna and Tiriffa sat at the conference table, their chairs facing Serreka as the taller woman sat on the floor.

Diva mentally pictured the mutant with the sword arm from the warehouse. She said, I didn’t try to chop the big man’s arm off either. I never used a sword before.

Rayna replied, You used his entire arm. He was flopping around unconscious while you held him. I’m a little surprised that you didn’t tear off his arm.

Oh, I wouldn’t want to do that to him.

I know, but you’re so strong now, so I doubt it would take much.

Serreka looked up at Diva with her huge green eyes. The alien woman blinked her huge green eyes and said, I estimate that Diva is close to my own strength. I could easily remove the arm from a darkburned, if I chose.

Rayna asked, By just pulling it apart?

Certainly. It would take but a yank. As she spoke, the alabaster-skinned woman attached bolts to the machine she worked on. The ultra-strong woman didn’t bother using tools. It amazed me how much strength was in her thin frame, for she had thinner fingers, arms, and legs than I did, but every muscle was corded and visible through her alabaster skin.

Diva wrinkled her nose. "But I didn’t want to cut his arm off."

Rayna nodded, He was a brick, too, Serreka, not a mutant.

Serreka said, I understood the first time. I am simply stating that at Diva’s current strength, a fresh blade from a darkburned would make for a nearly unstoppable weapon.

I grabbed several bottles of soda from the machine for Dierdre and me, and we joined the women. I asked, A fresh blade? They become dull over time?

Yes, the Kurcet considered using body parts as weapons some time ago, but the need to replace the blade regularly made it annoying.

I asked, What dulls them?

I do not know, perhaps Tiriffa has more knowledge of that.

Everyone looked at Tiriffa, and she said, Darkburned cells retain their cutting power due to the dark energy they generate. Once they die, the energy ceases, and the weapons dull. The sharpness and strength of the weapons are a direct result of the energy flow.

I said, Well, I guess I won’t ask Rael if I can break off one of his talons.

Tiriffa replied, They would remain very sharp, but would dull with use, as it is the receptors that regenerate the edge and point.

I looked at Dierdre’s blue hair and said, I wonder why none of you have the black claws or teeth.

She blinked in surprise and said, None of whom?

Fae mutants. There are several at Spellbound, from my mom’s driver, Shinaro, Sharae, you, and I’ve seen a few others, but don’t recall their names. None of you have black claws.

She shrugged and looked at her painted fingernails. No, they’ve never been black. I don’t know much about other fae mutants, though. Your mom has a driver?

I nodded, Lady Rapture is my mom, or at least my birth mother. I didn’t even know she was alive until a few weeks ago.

Dierdre said, I don’t know her. Did you grow up in Great Britain?

I shook my head, No, she’s called Lady by the Goth mutants here in Metrocity. As far as I know, it’s not an official title.

Rayna said, Oh, it’s official, but she’s not European royalty is all. I think she’s like a queen in her little area, same as Lady Celeste.

Dierdre stared at Rak for a brief time, and then asked, "What happened to your, uh, dragon?’

Rayna scratched Rak’s head. He was shot.

Will he heal?

I think so. They are more resilient than they appear.

I said, Speaking of that … Diva, did you find out what happened to Planetbuster?

The tall woman nodded. He’s dead. Dierdre flew him through the whole building and squished him on a copier.

Dierdre asked, Are you sure?

Diva nodded again. He didn’t look good. I wish we got that good of a look at Lightbeam.

I saw her memory of her working with Spectral Warden as they bashed the light-based elemental into and through the street.

Dierdre’s jaw tightened and she said, Good. Emme gets her revenge, then.

I squeezed her shoulder, and then asked Diva, How did you guys get Lightbeam out?

Diva shrugged, We didn’t. Once he went through the pavement, we couldn’t figure out how to find him, and then we got interrupted by the soldiers going in after Planetbuster.

Wait a second … he’s still there?

She shrugged, I guess. We ran off after the men going into the building … and then I forgot about Lightbeam. I was thinking more about getting Dierdre licked and how to fly with you at the same time, since you were out cold way up in the air.

Dierdre said, What? What do you mean, licked?

Rayna smiled, One of my pets heals skin when he licks. He’s playing video games in the other room right now if you want to meet him.

I waved my hand and said, Guys, the important thing is that Lightbeam wasn’t brought in. I’ll grab Spectral Warden and see if we can get him.

Diva pouted, Why not me?

I smiled, Because his mace can hit Lightbeam, silly.

Oh. True. Want me to go with you?

Sure, you guys caught him once.

Only because you stunned him with your mind thingie.

I squeezed Dierdre’s arm, We’ll be back in a bit. Razorwing was ordering food as he walked down the hall, so stick around, okay?

She nodded, and I went to the rec room. Diva followed, and we entered the large room. Rael and Shane played a game on the right-hand television, while Razorwing sat and chatted with Lance. Rayna’s group of pets played a game together on the left-hand television.

I walked behind the two boys and said, Shane, is Lightbeam still under the street?

He swore, looked back at me, and a scream came from the television as his character died in the game. Yeah, I was busy with the gunmen, and then Agent Carrigan came over…

Let’s go see if he’s still there.

How will we know?

I should be able to get a mindview from him if he’s within forty feet of the street.

Diva nodded, I would think so.

Shane looked at Rael and said, Sorry, need to do this.

Rael looked back, Want help?

I doubt that anyone else can touch him. We need Diva for her flight and Shane for his mace. I’ll try to stun him again.

He sighed and nodded. The three of use went up to the rooftop, although Shane created his psychic armor before venturing out into the rain. Diva held him, and I flew alone over the city.

It only took us a minute to zip across the river to the east side of Metrocity. We were soaked within moments of taking flight, although my white costume only covered from my bust down to the bottom of the boy shorts, while Diva still wore the spandex workout costume she had worn since her last was ripped apart by her encounter with Toro Rojo and Psycom.

Shane, now in his armor as Spectral Warden, studied the city as we flew over the buildings. Diva and I had become familiar with flight, as we did it often at this point. He still didn’t have the hang of the fast flight, and he focused on the further buildings on the west side of the city, as we moved at speeds over Mach 1.

We slowed as we neared the building where Dierdre had crashed with Planetbuster. Spectral Warden pointed, and Diva led the way to the street. A police cruiser was parked at the location, its red-and-blue lights flashing. Diva bounced onto the asphalt, causing her tennis shoes to squeak, and I landed just behind her.

The officer in the car grabbed the handset for his radio and lifted it, but then realized that we were heroes, and he let out his breath and relaxed. He set it down, and got out of the car, while I looked at Spectral Warden and asked, Where did you knock Lightbeam?

The hero glanced around before pointing to a spot on the street. I walked over to it as the officer jogged to us.

The man adjusted his cap and said, Dispatch sent me here a while ago to watch for a guy made of light? I haven’t seen anyone that has a light, much less is made of the stuff.

Spectral Warden said, He was white light in the shape of a man. You couldn’t miss him if he went past.

Sorry, heroes, nothing like that.

Damn. We appreciate you watching the area for us, officer.

Sure, glad to help. Need me to stick around?

The new hero replied, A few minutes, sure. Give Psystar a chance to do a search.

I walked back and forth, watching for a mindview that would be blank. I had a dozen blocking bits of my view, though they were small, and hovered far enough away that I could see, as opposed to the first few weeks of having powers, where just six people nearby would completely blind me with the ‘viewscreens’ of their vision.

When no mindviews looked abnormal, I closed my eyes and listened to the audible thoughts of everyone within seventy or eighty feet of me. I listened in on the thoughts of people both inside the nearby buildings, as well as into those walking in the rain. The whispers and outright talking, plus occasional mental shouts, were audible to me every second of the day, but most of the time, I tried to ignore them as constant background noise. Again, I heard none that seemed suspicious.

I shook my head and looked at the others. I’m getting nothing. We either have the wrong spot, you guys knocked him more than forty feet into the ground, or he’s just not here any longer.

Spectral Warden said, Great, so Lightbeam is out there to kidnap another person.

I looked down and sighed as I squeezed my hair between my hands to squeegee out water. If I saw him flying in the city again, I would have to go after him and take measures that are more aggressive. If he had no memories, then he might not be the danger he currently was.

I looked at Spectral Warden, Do we need to verify that Planetbuster is dead?

He replied, No, he’s way dead. There was no breathing or heart beat.

At least he won’t be murdering anyone else.

Diva said, Come on, let’s get back.

I said, We need to have that guy arrested from the meat packing plant, and a crime scene unit check if anyone else was kept there.

Spectral Warden nodded, Good idea. If we take that manager in, he won’t be able to cover for a kidnapping ring.

I thanked the officer. He returned to his vehicle and turned off the flashing lights, and then drove off. Diva put her arm around Spectral Warden’s waist, and we took flight again.

The meat packing plant was on the east side, not too far from the river. We landed, but all cars were missing from the parking lot. The people fled after we interrogated the manager.

Diva broke open the door’s lock with a slight shove of her hand, and we entered the dark building. I put in a call to H.E.R.O., and officers were dispatched to the location.

There wasn’t anything for us to do, but I gave the name of the man to the police, so they could put out an all points on him and bring him in. The workers left in a hurry, and carving tools and meat sat out on the tables.

Assuming that the business was a front for Nightmonger, he had lost not just Planetbuster, but now another of his locations. He had to be feeling the pressure, or would soon.

Once we had the scene cleared, we decided to head back to the Overlook.

Chapter 2 – Alien Stuff

Borgz’ Viewpoint

After destroying the H.E.R.O. paddy wagon and fleeing into the night sky on Friday night, I flew my large, tungsten-alloy combat body back to the south of the city, where my captured starships were hidden in some woods.

I was glad that the idiot heroes hadn’t damaged my body much. I last saw Diva fighting with the body as I flew away, using the shuttlecraft as a body. She hadn’t even realized that the robot-like body no longer fought back.

None of the other mannequin bodies I shifted my consciousness between had the same sort of fighting ability as my combat body. The ultra-strong metal rods, steel cables, and tungsten-alloy armor plates made it heavy … and strong. It had some dents where bricks had bent the metal, but that didn’t matter much, so long as the joints still moved. The body had no power source, as something about my ghostly nature allowed me to move and give power to machinery and objects. The small turbines within the lower legs and rear chest cavity worked well to fly, though I was unable to fly in an agile manner.

The shuttle was mangle. It only worked because of that same power. The two heroines had destroyed most of the control console in the front, the door was bent and it wouldn’t close, and the front windshield cracked. The chairs had been snapped off their swivel stands. I still had the alien containment unit, and I pulled it out and carried it into the bay of the much larger former pirate ship.

That starship was also in bad shape, as the Gahranii had openly attacked the pirates and destroyed most of the weapon systems, some of the shield generators, and one of the engines. It had several holes in the hull. That wouldn’t stop me from flying it, but if I brought any living people with me, they would have to remain in the parts of the ship I could still pressurize.

The heroes had stolen the two energy rifles I had tied to the forearms of my combat body, but there were plenty of others inside the pirate ship. I found a pair and attached them with cables onto my combat body’s forearms. They made me look like a crude robot mecha.

I spent Friday night, Saturday, and the daylight hours of Sunday repairing the shuttle, though it rained most of the time. I hoped that the tungsten alloy was rustproof.

The alien tools were easy for me to work. They made equipment that did most of the work for the user, once I found the spare parts area that allowed their melding device to cause the new material to flow and connect with the existing metal. I hadn’t yet found a means to repair the crystalline glass for the large hole in the front viewscreen in the bridge.

Every now and then, I touched one of the alien computers and attempted to work them. I couldn’t figure out the language, and the interface seemed odd to me, so each time I gave up, frustrated.

One of the few things I succeeded in activating was the communications sensors on the Kurcet probe. I removed a small, redundant device from the probe and attached it inside my body. A small amount of searching allowed me to sweep through every communications band on the planet.

When I narrowed the band to Metrocity’s region only, I discovered a military channel, where the air force was beginning to remove the large equipment from the crash of the Kurcet ship a week before.

It sounded as though they had been delayed most of the week out of fear of the residual energy from Atomizer’s disintegration energy, and then after that out of concern that the severely gutted Kurcet ship contained dangerous weaponry or energy. Most of the ship had been disintegrated, leaving the skeleton-like bulkheads on the upper part of the ship. Some of the inner chambers remained, however.

Another part of the ship had completely broken away from the main starship, and had crashed separately at the far end of the car dealership’s parking lot. This section had been buried all the way until Sunday.

When they brought in some huge cranes and pulled the secondary part of the ship out of where it was buried, I heard the men mentioning that the section was mostly intact. It was late in the evening, the dim light in combination with the rain would work well for an attack, and I could use new parts or weaponry.

I jogged over to the second shuttle from the ship. It still had a working stealth-field generator, and I climbed in with my combat body, sat down, and shifted my mind into the ship itself. In a moment, I had the ship in stealth mode; engines powered up, and flew over the massive city toward the east side. I enjoyed using vehicles as a body, the shuttles in particular made me feel free.

At the crash zone at the edge of Metrocity, the military had four tanks, several smaller vehicles with guns on top, and a number of transports on hand. Two supers were obvious where they stood near the unearthed section of ship. One man had green hair, while the other was bulky, and far larger than any normal man was.

I flew the ship to a handy spot next to a building, where I wouldn’t have to run too far to reach it. I double-checked that the ship’s systems were operating, and landed. Some dust was kicked up by the landing, but the vehicle’s stealth mode kept the craft hidden from prying eyes.

I opened the door and left my combat body inside, while I shifted my mind into a tiny toy insect helicopter and flew low to the ground toward one of the tanks. I landed on the vehicle and shifted my mind into it. I immediately armed the main cannon, spun the turret toward the supers, and used the barrel as my eyes to aim. I fired just as the soldiers inside the tank touched the radio to put out a warning.

I hit the green-haired super in the chest with the shell, and it exploded. The military had been expecting more dangerous aliens, had hi-powered armaments loaded in the tank, and the resulting blast blew the man apart, threw the brick dozens of feet to the right, and killed a dozen normal men standing near the portion of the alien starship. I used the smaller weapons on top of the turret to fire at people standing near the tank on the ground.

I immediately armed another shell. The men inside the tank were becoming frantic, and I shut down the internal systems as they attempted to radio others that they weren’t at fault. They tried to reset the system, but the tank was under my control … it was my body … and the computer system was easy to keep powerless.

I spun the turret and blasted at one of the tanks on the other side of the Kurcet ship. It exploded and flew onto its side. I quickly looked inside the ship and pulled the plug on the computer system, and then shifted my mind back into the tiny toy insect.

I flew west from the tank toward the third tank just as its turret spun toward the one I had just inhabited. Foot soldiers rushed it, and a shell shot from the third tank and whizzed past me to blow up the suckers still trying to get their vehicle operational.

Men shouted and ran around firing their weapons toward the ruined tank, while I landed on the third tank and shifted my mind into it. The fourth tank was in the process of