“This sucks,” Herow whispered in disappointment as the tall, chesty, raven-haired beauty ran toward his hidden position. Of course, that was not the normal reaction that he would have had on any other day if this beauty had been running toward him. Her run was in desperation as she tried to outdistance a group of Mese that were after her.

She and her companions had put up a good fight against the Mese ambush they had rode into. One by one her companions had gone down until only she was left. Wisely, she had known it was time to leave as she took off in Herow’s direction. He was not disappointed because she would soon discover his hide position. It was more because she surely was not the tall, blonde-headed, scantly clad, big breasted, Amazon warrior that he had envisioned the women of this planet to be. Maybe this raven-haired beauty was the runt of the litter, he pondered as she stopped suddenly. Turning on the nearest Mese using speed more than strength she shoved her knife deep into his chest.

Not bad, Herow thought focusing in more on her heaving chest than her technique to take down her pursuer. He was thinking he would have to take another look at the big breasted angel when the sudden howl of pain from the dying Mese drew his attention back to business. Should he help, he asked himself as she pulled hard on her knife trying to retrieve it.

She suddenly stopped her labor, eyes going big as a horde of Mese headed her way in answer to their comrade’s scream of death. Letting go of the blade she paid no attention as the Mese staggered back clutching at her knife and buckling over. Pulling a revolver from her hip she fired at the first Mese to arrive. Who the hell uses revolvers any more, Herow asked as he watched the big Mese begin to fall.

The Mese she shot was in such a rush to get to her that he did not know that his face had been blow away. Unfortunately for her, his momentum carried his dead weigh on to bowl her over. Hitting the ground with a large splat and a moan from the dead Mese landed on top of her she gasped a few breaths trying to force air back into her lungs. During those few breaths she realized her predicament.

Desperately she began to push at the lifeless Mese draped over her lower body pinning her almost helpless to the ground. In panic, she looked toward the oncoming Mese swearing. She knew that she would never be able to get him off of her before what remained of his friends were upon her.

Cursing again in desperation, she fished her hand under the dead Mese. Triumphantly she smiled when she found her revolver until she remembered the charging Mese that were almost on her. Gritting her teeth she struggled to pull the gun from beneath her dead captor. Herow saw the fear in her eyes, or was it anger as she finally retrieved the revolver. Rising it to fire she could do nothing as she watching as it was kicked away.

Well, she would not have been cast as the leading lady in one of the old Amazon movies he had seen ages ago in his youth, although she was attractive enough. The trail of dead Mese behind her told him she could fight. Maybe she would even fall for the blow job regulation, he consoled himself as he silently stood to step up behind the gathered Mese that were encircling her. Herow lowered his rifle to pull his wakizashi blade from its carrier. His blade was not as old or as well made as the one his bodyguard Senior Chief Misaki Okada carried. It was a working blade though which had seen its share of action over its short life span. “That’s not the way to treat a lady,” Herow’s translator boomed toward the Mese in their native language.

As they turned toward him, he saw the markings of the Ocan clan on one of the Mese. His temper began to rise. “So, you rats not only kill babies and old ones, you gang up on trapped, defenseless women.” There was no word for rat in the Mese language so the translator picked the closest word that described a small, rodent like animal. The effect was better than what Herow was looking for because the noun that the translator substituted was even more of an insult for a Mese to be associated with than the one he had chosen.

The Mese that Herow had first seen the Ocan marking on began to growl a challenge. It was cut short as Herow stepped within range slashing out with the speed only his battlesuit could have given him to slice the Mese’s throat, almost severing the Mese’s head. The other Mese started their growls, cutting them off sharply as they looked beyond Herow. He shook his head knowing without looking or before his suit beeped to him that there were friendly personnel behind him.

“Did you forget about us?” Master Chief Yi asked as she stopped beside him.

“I hope you were not thinking about doing the blow job thing. You do know we are here to get these people to join us, don’t you?” Master Chief Pak scolded as she slid next to him on the other side.