The Visitors

Prince De Hyacintho Sanguis stepped into the makeshift interrogation room. He looked at the green blood which was prevalent on the floor and walls, and then at Sgt. Bondarek.

"I think I won't get Jackson pissed off anytime soon." He said to the grizzled veteran, who let out a small chuckle.

"Just don't grow a horn, two wings, and sprout front legs where your arms should be, and we'll get you out of his presence alive, your highness." Said the Sargent, who had insured the man in question was out of the room when he said it.

The prince nodded, and looked at the remains of a creature sitting before him. It was tied to a chair, and had had its horn cut off. But the worst part was its legs. They had been cut off with a knife, and it had taken several minutes for each leg. The stumps which had once been limbs twitched as the prince spoke, as though the thing was acknowledging the princes' presence.

It had been several hours sense first recon had returned to base with the creature, which had a gaping hole in its leg and a stump where it's horn had been cut off. All of the members of the squad, save for Sgt. Bondarek and Raven, had been giving Jackson more space then usual. Jackson had been covered in the green blood of the insect, but there seemed to be another reason for the extra space being given to the specialist.

Upon arrival at the base, Jackson had immediately gone to one of the still empty rooms by the barracks, and there had been screams which woke the entire base shortly after. Finally, after about thirty minutes, Jackson had walked out of the room and allowed the prince and the Sargent in. They had entered and balked at the sight before them. Only the wings and horn hd been removed, but there was evidence that the Changeling had been conscious  the entire time.

They had then left, and allowed the few actual interrogators who were with the battalion their chance to break the insect. It had taken another hour, but they had finally gotten some worth while information.

"Alright, Jackson. You can come in now." Said Sgt. Bondarek to the specialist, who had been waiting outside the chamber.

He entered and cast a questioning glance at his prince, who nodded back to him.

"Do it."

Jackson reluctantly stepped forward and removed the syringe from his belt. It contained a nanobot solution, nicknamed morphine, which could heal even normally fatal wounds if applied fast enough and in a large enough amount. Unfortunately, it required the subject to be awake the entire time, and took longer for larger wounds. The amount in the syringe was only enough to wake the changeling up, however, and Ben extended his arm and injected the solution intro one of the wounds on the neck.

"Remind me why we're doing this again, Sargent?" Asked the prince.

"We need an unfiltered trace on its mental activity," replied Bondarek. "and the nanobots will keep it from regaining consciousness until we can get a read on its species. The brain patterns, the pheromones it produces, and the energy pattern that the species uses to transform. That will let us kill that.........target.....we were discussing earlier."

"Alright."

The three men waited in science, and then the pile of blood and armor in front of them began to move.

"There, it's coming to. The morphine must be working." Said Bondarek.

"I bet your wondering why you can't drain us dry, huh?" Asked Jackson, his voice laced with anger. "Trying to turn us into uncaring, unfeeling husks, huh? So we can-"

"Jackson, shut it. We have what we need from it, so end it quickly." Said the Prince, turning to walk out of the room with Bondarek.

"Yes your highness." Replied Jackson, as the two others left the room. "Quickly, huh? Alright-"

The rest of the sentence was cut off, but the screams which followed a second later almost caused the prince to turn around.

"Well, he seems to have recovered admirably." Said Bondarek, shaking his head.

The prince turned and stared at him.

"You can't mean that he was worse at one point? He seemed to take an unhealthy joy in touring that thing."

"And why wouldn't he?" Asked the Sargent, who was careful to keep the hate from his voice. "Those things did kill his family."

The prince stopped short, as if he had been hit.

"What does that mean? I haven't even heard of those things, and I'm a fucking prince. How does Jackson know what they are?"

The Sargent sighed.

"That's a story for another time, if that's alright, your highness. I think we need to focus on the task at hand."

"Right. Lets get to work."

One week later............

The prince sat in the Outpost module which was serving as a command center, and watched the feeds from the helmet cameras and the recon drones which were spread around the city and, for the most part, hidden on the mountainside.

It had been decided to send, in addition to first and second recon, first through third squads from third platoon and four suits of heavy armor. The remainder of the platoon had been sent to the base of the mountain the city was built on, to hide in the nearby woods. They, and the other members of the company sized attack force (made up of the remainder of easy company, which consisted of the remaining two squads from first platoon, ten men, and the two squads from third platoon, twenty men, in addition to three more infantry platoons, made up of fifty men each) were poised to strike at the city if and when the shield fell. In the event that first recon managed to eliminate the infiltrator and could get out of the city in one piece, they would withdraw to the Citadel and try to stay unnoticed while they did it.

"First recon is launching......now." Came the voice of the drop ship flight leader, who was carrying the two recon squads.

The prince switched the view on his monitor and watched the squad fall through the shield in the gathering dawn.

"Beautiful morning, your highness." Came a voice, heavy with the Germanic accent of a Heller, from behind the prince.

"Yeah, but nothing beats home." Responded the prince, as he turned and greeted the Battalion commander, Major Heinreich.

The Heller smiled. "What I wouldn't give to view the lava fields of my home world again." Said the large man.

The planet Hell had twenty thousand square miles of stable ground. The rest of the world was a tectonically unstable lava field. Hence the name. It produced, despite a small population, about 15% of all Royal Guardsmen who became officers, and 12% of the total Royal Guard.

"Or the city ships that float on the oceans of Terra."

The two men looked at each other and chuckled. They had long sense grown used to their wildly different perceptions of home, and it had become a running challenge to see who could provide a memory of home that the other found oddest.

"Sir, I think you should see this." Said one of the technicians hesitantly.

"Yes?" Said the prince inquisitively, as he stood and walked across the crowded control module.

"I think that that confirms that the changelings look like the locals." Said Heinreich, looking over the techs shoulder.

"Their like little horses in armor...." Commented the prince.

"Those are ponies." Said the tech sheepishly.

The two men gave him questioning stares, and he shrugged.

"I grew up on New Anatolia, a farming world, and my family raised horses. Ponies are smaller and proportioned differently. From what I can see, those are ponies."

"An what's your name?" Asked the Major.

"Call me Arty, Sir. You probably couldn't pronounce my name anyway." Said the tech, smiling at his own little joke.

"Alright Arty, you just volunteered to be our lesion with these things, assuming their not hostile."

Arty's smile turned to a frown, and the two officers turned and walked away.

"Son of a bitch. I just want to get some R&R. Is that to much to ask?" He said, looking up towards the ceiling.

"Sucks for you, man. But it could be worse." Said the tech next to home. "Hey, did I ever tell you about the time when....."

"So then He says, 'that's not a law mower , that's my-"

The techs looked at the display, startled, as it emitted a loud, 'Beep.'

"Shit." Said the technician, looking at the screen which had been counting down the time until first recon began their attack. "Your highness, it's time."

"Lets see what happens next." Said the prince to the major, as they both turned to the screen projecting the helmet view from first recon.

'Jackson, do it.' Came the voice of Sgt. Bondarek over the comm.

The personnel in the command center watched as the squad broke through the floor and rushed the door to the great hall.

'This is it.' Thought the prince.

The squad broke through the door.

'Holy, shit. Mike?'

"Hello Ben. It's been a long time sense New Belfast."