Seventeen
Deep in the forest, early the next morning
The fugitives stopped to take a short break near a small stream that trickled down a hillside. The alien transport (neither Mike nor Jenny had come up with a name for the thing yet) sat a few feet from the pair, floating a few inches above the needles that carpeted the forest floor. Mike leaned back against the bole of a huge tree with Jenny’s head on his shoulder.
“We should get back on the trail, baby,” he told her. She didn’t answer; she was staring intently at the flying contraption. “What is it?” Mike asked.
“See that?” she pointed. On the underside of the craft, a small yellow light was shining softly. “Did you notice that before?”
“No, but I couldn’t tell you if I looked under there before. Did you?”
Jenny shook her head. “You suppose they can track this thing?”
“Oh, shit,” Mike exclaimed. “I hadn’t thought of that.”
“Should we leave it here?”
“Speed or stealth? Let’s go for stealth. Leave it here.”
They had to find a place to lie up for the day, but it seemed prudent to put some distance between themselves and the suspect conveyance. Following the stream up the hill, they came to a narrow ravine near the top. At one point, a large rock had fallen across the top of the gorge, providing overhead cover. They crawled underneath, finding a fairly flat, dry spot alongside the trickle of water where they could both lay down comfortably. This time, Mike took first watch.
***
It was mid-morning when he heard the now-familiar buzzing sound. He crawled out the back of the rock overhang and leaned over the top of the flat boulder, poking the barrels of the Parks rifle out in front, he had an idea what was up.
Two aliens mounted on flying platforms circled the area twice appearing and disappearing in the trees. They finally raced in on the glen where they’d left the alien craft, now half a kilometer away from Mike’s perch. Mike followed them in with his gun barrels, but held his fire when they disappeared into the trees. Several faint shouts, angry-sounding, drifted up the hill, and then the two re-appeared, with the stolen platform tethered between theirs. They dragged their find off to the north, still arguing, with shouts and vigorous hand-gestures.
Mike dropped back down under the boulder to find Jenny sitting up, rubbing sleep from her eyes. “What was it?” she asked.
“You were right, baby; two of them just came and took our ride. They must have been following it. They beamed right in on where we left the thing. At least it bought us some time and distance.”
He couldn’t have been more wrong.
Fifteen thousand meters overhead, the Grugell scout ship had noted Mike’s brief appearance on top of the flat boulder. A message was sent, and three pairs of patrollers abandoned their scooters and set off for the spot, guided by the floating observers high above.
Jenny was on her watch when the faint swishing sounds distracted her. An animal? she wondered. The faint sounds came and went, came and went. Mike snored softly, laid against the rock wall under the boulder. Jenny poked her head out from under the flat rock’s lower edge.
Four of the aliens were approaching on foot, only twenty meters away. The rock walls of their hiding place had muffled the sounds of approach.
“Mike!” she hissed, ducking back under the rock.
A shout came up from their stalkers; she’d been seen. “Mike!” she shouted now, close to panic. Mike came surging awake, grabbing for the Parks, but it was too late.
Another pair of aliens had crept in from above them. Mike caught a flash of motion from the corner of his eye, looking up to see one of the rod-like weapons aimed directly at his face. The alien grinned viciously at him and fired. A green flash. Mike saw nothing more after that.
The Grugell base camp
“Sir!” Apportamattid burst into the command hut. “Sir, our foot patrol reports both creatures captured. They are stunned but unharmed.”
“Fine, fine. Excellent work. Pass on my compliments to the commander of the pursuit mission, and have the aliens brought here.” Clomonastik smiled contentedly. That loose end was nicely tied up now.
To see more of Animal’s writing, visit his page at Crimson Dragon Publishing or Amazon.
Oh no!
I was not expecting this turn of events.
Me neither. I would have thought Mike would figure they could track the scooter thing and use it to misdirect or set up an ambush.
My guess, assuming they have some translator device, is that the captives will play the captors off each other to encourage a mutiny and escape in the ensuing chaos.
After the biomedical scans, the Grugells will become fascinated with Mike’s enormous human genitals.
They haven’t encountered intelligent life before. A translator device seems…unlikely.
When do the anal probes start?
After happy hour.
As I try to find someone who makes an optic mount for a CZ97 I had to resort to going to CZ USA. While that wasn’t helpful it did lead me to discover an entertainingly silly CZ75 variant up for auction:
https://www.czfirearms.com/en-us/limited-editions/cz-75-raf
‘Cause there was a Czech pilot in the RAF.
+1 Dark Blue World
JFC. Eeeeeeeeeewwwwwwwwww!
I’ve seen much uglier trophy guns.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r3fMTuJHbGw
That thing looks hideous.
The thing that bothers me most is not the fake rivets, but the fact that finish isn’t offered. Unless it’s just Cerakote. I WANT a stainless S2, but I’ll take a Nickeled/Chromed/CrN’d one.
I can see why that would rankle.
I’m more a fan of black and rosewood, but if that were available only in the uber-special collecter’s edition, I’d be miffed too.
https://www.cnbc.com/2025/06/23/iran-qatar-missiles-us-doha.html
Iran attacks U.S. military base in Qatar with missiles
Qatar’s Defense Ministry said its air defense had successfully intercepted the missile attack on Al-Udeid Air Base, which resulted in no deaths or injuries.
The attack came two days after U.S. B-2 bombers and cruise missiles struck nuclear development facilities in Iran.
The price of crude oil fell in trading on Monday after news of the attack broke.
Crude oil fell ??
🤷♂️
Gas prices here are stable, which is surprising. I think the market was expecting something more dramatic from Iran.
Oh? Is that all they’re going to do – no worries then! /trading expectations being just a little weird
Gas is up 10¢ here.
I got to say Hi to my son-in-law via video chat just now. He says it’s business as usual today, thankfully.
That’s great! So glad he’s safe and able to communicate!
The captain said he’s keeping the wifi on as long as he can. That’s much appreciated here.
https://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2025/06/report-iran-coordinated-missile-attack-us-base-qatar/
All for show. Supposedly.
From the dedthred:
“As the United States faces possible retaliatory attacks from Iran, a “brain drain” in top Justice Department and FBI national security and counterterrorism units could reduce their ability to prevent potential terror and cyberattacks from Tehran”
I doubt the same people who said that conservative Catholics and misc. white supremacists were the greatest threat to our nation are the ones to run down Islamic terrorists. I mean, if they were, why are there all these terror cells (according to them now) loose in our country? Why weren’t these big brains shutting them down all along?
You forget – a leftist’s wakes up with a shiny, brand spanking new credibility every morning. Also, you aren’t allowed to call them out on stuff.
conservative Catholics and misc. white supremacists were the greatest threat to our nation
Have you seen what they made the left do? Only by eliminating those threats can peace return to our cities.
Markets seemed to have shrugged off Iran’s repartee.
Playing catch up. Still early in the ball game though.
Seen elsewhere:
Dutch always looks like some made-up crazy moon language.
It looks like the Swedish Chef sounds.
Ah, Dutch, the language of love.
♪♫ “The big bosomed lady with the Dutch accent
Who tried to change my point of view” ♪♫
Massie is winning the X war with Trump.
https://x.com/RepThomasMassie/status/1937216722387570763
I thought our goal with Iran was to end their nuclear capability. I’m told our air strikes did that.
The why am I suddenly hearing chatter about regime change, if we already accomplished our goal?
Mission creep – you can’t let one success go to waste, you need to keep going until you fail!
You may have been lied to by politicians.
Blame the Jews.
You are being upsold.
Most people already bought the negotiations breakdown bullshit (we never negotiated in good faith), many bought the nuclear sites bombing. Now you can get all that plus regime change!
https://x.com/HumanEvents/status/1937225219317674409
Here’s a hypothetical for you:
Say Congress actually dropped a testicle and voted on a resolution to declare war on Iran, and say the resolution didn’t pass.
What would that mean for any further attacks on Iran? On what grounds would the President have the authority to order them? Should the military brass refuse such orders?
The War Powers Act is still law. If Congress could limit authorization to immediate defensive acts then maybe.
I’m not versed on the details of the War Powers Act. I would think that a Congressional vote to not go to war would override it, though.
Say Congress actually dropped a testicle…
Lindsay Graham would swoop up into his mouth before anyone noticed.
Dude…
No kink shaming.
Expert analysis
Putting it all together, Trump and Republicans in Congress would make roughly the bottom third of Americans poorer in the short run and make the majority of Americans poorer in the longer run. And they would do so to partially fund tax cuts that give roughly twice as much to households already making over $1 million per year than to the entire bottom half of America combined. They would leave over 10,000 people to die each year due to loss of health coverage. And they would literally take food away from households with kids as young as 10 years old. If enacted, this bill would be the largest transfer of wealth from the poor to the rich in a single law in U.S. history. It’s no wonder that the more people learn about it, the more they hate it.
They steal from the poor to give to the rich.
… tax cuts that give roughly twice as much…
Not taking is giving.
Eliminate, not raise, the SALT deduction.
At one time, I was not a fan of a a gross revenue tax. I’m coming around, as it would get rid of 90% of the fuckery in our tax regime.
What RC says. Write a check on the appointed day or a sales tax. In either case a tax the voters pay directly out of their pockets.
Feel the pain then go vote.
That guy can fuck right off.
Not taking is giving.
We all deserve a fair share of our nation’s wealth. No hoarders!
Bezos isn’t spending everything he has. We will.
The Monopoly Game starts out with everyone equal in money.
In the game of life, though a little different at the beginning, some do better than others. It ain’t fair.
https://www.thedrive.com/news/vw-made-a-gti-thats-better-than-the-golf-r
What a fucking tease. 🙁
(Niche) market opportunity. Like Tom Cruise in Rain Man, only with VWs instead of Ferraris.
Tell me about it
I’d buy one of those in a heartbeat, but not for the likes of us.
Even worse, Volkswagen of America told us that “as it stands,” the Edition 50 won’t come out here.
Americans only want giant pickup trucks and SUVs.
#fakenews
People would buy it. Regulations make it economically impossible to produce a cool low-volume car for Europe AND American regs.