Kaede tolerated the usual stares as he walked through the crowded market. Whenever he left the palisade, it never went unnoticed. Ayaa followed, her countenance dark. He didn’t speak to her or acknowledge her presence. He’d made it clear that he had no interest in mating with her or indulging in her company, not that it did anything to dissuade her. Ever since his mother dangled his wealth in front of the female as a mating incentive, she’d taken to passing portions of the early day hounding him. So far, his foul temper hadn’t rid him of her presence, so he’d moved straight to outright ignoring her.
As if he would ever deign to mate her. He might have once been persuaded by his mother just to fulfill his obligation to his house. As the cousin of the king of the Western Province, their alliance would be a good one for his standing in Agraak society. No doubt it was why his mother had pressed so hard for it. His mother, for as long as he could remember, had always been an ambitious female.
Ayaa simply had the natural greed, exorbitant tastes, and high-cost indulgences to be the perfect vehicle for Imasala’s ambition.
He wanted nothing to do with it.
Behind him, Ayaa hissed with displeasure.
“I cannot fathom why you are walking through the common lower market—and dressed like that. You could be mistaken for a worker in the bog fields. I pray that no one I know sees me. This is the highest level of humiliation.”
Her voice was thick with distaste and Kaede’s lips quirked with a restrained smirk.
“If you do not comm a flyer and return to the palisade, I will leave—right now.”
He continued his rapid pace without breaking stride when she squawked angrily. Out of the corner of his eye, he saw the whirl of her brightly colored lipini as she spun away from him, the numerous ornaments on her arms and ankles clinking loudly as she headed out of the market, her arm raised to activate her comm. Summoning a transport, no doubt, to take her back to the safety of the palisade. He continued to meander through the various stalls that lined that square, his eye watching carefully for any sign of his contact from the lower temple.
Alarms rang out through the street, making the populace freeze. Agraadax had never been attacked before in the living memory of their people. Not once had the alarms ever sounded. No one seemed to know how to react. Heads turned as if trying to determine the direction of the threat. It wasn’t in the Agraak nature to run in fear from an enemy once they went through their hormonal changes upon reaching adulthood.
Spines bristled, buzzing subtly with aggression and uncertainty.
Kaede kept his spines still and under his control rather than surrendering to the aggression that roiled through his gut at the hint of an oncoming attack. Revolutions of training his mind and body took hold. He was the master of his own being. A shout directed his attention upward and he watched through slitted eyes as a starship broke through the atmosphere heading directly for Aminae. Its long, sleek lines shaped like an extended drop of water and massive size were distinct from other ships that frequented Agraadax.
The Intergalactic Council had sent small teams to investigate over the past five revolutions, but never had they sent one of their warships. It descended on them like a massive predator, throwing its shadow over them as it dropped closer. Hints of orange and red that had flared around it disappeared as it slowed its approach, and a hot wind blasted over the market.
Kaede, squinting, could make out the landing mechanisms engaging.
“The Intergalactic forces are invading!” a voice shouted to his left and was followed by a nervous hum of conversation.
“The Imperial family and houses of the palisade are responsible for this,” hissed another to a male beside him. “They bring destruction upon Agraadax. What good are females that none but the wealthiest can enjoy? Females who are treated horrifically while many who’d care for them go without mates and young. Now they bring ruin to us.”
“Hush, idiot. You will know ruin if anyone catches you speaking such,” his friend snapped in a low voice.
A high whine came from the direction of the harbors beyond the palisade. The royal fleets were engaged, the flyers whistling as their sharp wings cut through the air at rapid speeds. They wouldn’t dare bring down a starship, but the warriors were coming, no doubt, to seize the invaders who stepped onto Agraadax soil.
The public comm over the market flared to life from the broadcast arrays atop the ancient spires that overlooked their city.
“Attention, citizens of Aminae! We are lowering shields as ordered by the authority of the Intergalactic Council to admit the Union aggressors. We advise our people to not panic or confront the invaders. Warriors are being sent to imprison those who dare to unlawfully enter our cities in direct violation of our planetary autonomy until which time we can return them to the Union. We encourage our citizens to disperse from the market square.”
Uncertainty swept through the crowd. Few left the market. The majority watched as the events unfolded before them. Most Agraak had been reared to view the Intergalactic Council as a benevolent power and a model of all that was just. Agraadax had been a loyal supporter and member of the Intergalactic Union for centuries. Only in recent generations had there been noticeable strain between the desires of the higher raniks and the laws of the Union that threw their relationship out of balance.
Enslaving the Arobi three generations ago had been a topic of concern since his grandfather’s time. People feared what it might mean if the council discovered their illegal capture and breeding of the sentient species from Agraadax’s sister planet. Still, despite grumbling from the lower raniks, they’d gotten away with it. It had been a carefully guarded secret that became public in one fell swoop when the Council gave sanctuary to the escaped human breeder and an Arobi pack who had successfully escaped their master.
Kaede watched as the dome-city’s forcefield glimmered and then dropped to admit the battlecruiser. Though he had no doubt the leading houses of the warrior ranik and the Imperial house wanted nothing more than to shoot the ship from the sky, he also knew that they were not entirely foolish. They would go the route that would make any action taken on the part of Agraadax easily explained away as wholly defensive. It was for this reason that they admitted the vessel. His eyes never left the ship as it lowered slowly, by intervals, until it finally set down in the large clearing vacated in the center of the square.
All conversation hushed and the market fell silent as the docking plank lowered from the cavity of the ship’s belly. The portal doors separated and slid away as heavily armed troops of various size and species descended the plank, blasters clutched firmly in rest position. They fanned out over the square, some of them almost near enough that it would have been little effort to extend an arm and touch their dull armor.
Kaede’s belly tightened as a scent drifted to him beneath the odor of masculine sweat. It was so faint that he could barely discern it, but it brought his attention to a squad to the right of him before his eyes were pulled away by a commanding figure stepping out from between the ranks.
The male was tall and lean with a long, tapered tail extending behind him. His double eyelids blinked at them from where his facial armor had pulled back to reveal his features. He held one hand up as he addressed the crowd over the increasing whine of the Imperial flyers steadily getting closer.
“Greetings, citizens of Agraadax and the Intergalactic Union. I am Commander Vish. I ask that you please stand down. We mean you no harm. At the behest of the Intergalactic Council, we have arrived to search for illegally held species classified human and Arobi due to proven violations against the Misconduct and Cruelty of Sentient Species Act. We ask only for your cooperation at this time that we might conclude our business swiftly and without incident.”
Kaede noted that though a large number of those gathered nodded their heads in agreement and retreated to go about their business, many individuals shifted in place, their spines quivering in a telltale sign of impending aggression.
Th
at did not bode well.
The Union troops pressed through the crowd regardless, taking little heed of the low-key threat around them. Kaede noted that a large number of the troops were Teril, judging by their massive frames. They were unlikely to be intimidated by hostile Agraaks, nor were the Itashvanda, who were recognizable by their peculiar wings. Those species made up the bulk of the Intergalactic force, so he was not surprised. Interspersed among them were the slighter builds of other species among which he recognized a scant handful of Edokas and Forads, whose vulnerable tails were covered with more of the retractable armor. Neither of those species were likely to retreat from conflict either. His attention landed on pair of VaDorok who towered above many of the others, their massive spears in hand.
If it came to armed conflict, it was going to get messy.
Another wave of the sweet scent drew his attention once more to the squad at his right. That group didn’t seem any different than the others, yet it had more of the smaller species among its number. His eyes narrowed in fascination on the smaller members in the foreground. He didn’t know of many species of that height and build. There are several species that possessed small builds, but their shape was nothing like those that he was looking at.
It struck a familiar chord within him. Were they human?
His curiosity aroused, he peered at them more intently. He wondered what a healthy, free human looked like. What their males looked like. He could look it up on the Intraweb, but it wasn’t the same thing as looking upon them in person.
And where was the addictive smell coming from? He was a male rarely moved by simple pleasures but even this was difficult for him to ignore or escape. He wanted to surround himself in it, yet every time he drew it within his lungs it seemed to escape him. He frustratingly couldn’t pinpoint its source.
A brush of fabric against his leg and the overpowering scent of her perfume signaled the return of Ayaa before she spoke a single word. Kaede crushed his annoyance. He wanted to push away from her and her offensive person so he could track the delectable smell. Instead, he glanced at her impatiently.
She didn’t look up at him, though she pressed closer much to his distaste, her eyes riveted on the troops. She sniffed irritably.
“Well, it is no wonder that I couldn’t hail a transport. All this fuss the Council is making over nothing, it is a complete interruption of my day. We should have gone to Night Bloom Club in the merchant district as I suggested. It would have been far less of a bore.”
Kaede gritted his teeth to keep from lashing out at her. This was hardly the time to settle their grievance when tempers were already high throughout the market.
He blinked and his head snapped to the side, all thoughts of Ayaa fleeing, when the air began to vibrate with mounting hostility. He’d been so fixated on his interests and dealing with Ayaa that his attention had slipped from what was going on around him. The warriors of the Western Province had landed on streets surrounding the market and pushed into the crowd. It was rare, but sometimes a brave male could be moved into the lower rungs of the warrior ranik if he sufficiently proved himself. It had made plenty of fools out of young Agraak males desperate to rise above their existence.
Kaede had no doubt that there would be more than plenty of such shows that day.
As if watching a prediction come true, Kaede watched a number of young males beset the offworlders, drawing the first blows. Agraak warriors immediately rushed in as the Intergalactic troops formed defensive positions.
Kaede stepped forward, attempting to thwart a young male when he felt Ayaa grip the back of his dupar.
“Kaede, don’t even think of leaving me here,” she spat angrily.
He rounded on her with fury, his spines rising and vibrating with hostility that had her eyes widening in unchecked fear. With a menacing growl, he tore himself free from her grip and stepped away.
Then chaos struck.
Chapter 6
Frankie stood with her squad, sweat trickling beneath her armor, gathering in the creases of her breasts beneath the binding tape and pooling around her lower back and crotch. It was hot as fuck. She wasn’t used to being planetside. Since enlisting, she’d been on more space stations, galactic traders and starships in cooperative missions than planetside. Even her trip to Vora, while hot, had been short.
Nothing had prepared her for Agraadax.
Emagul, as their squad lead, had tried to warn her, but really there was no way she could have guessed how bad it would be. It wasn’t just that it was hot. Frankie was from Albuquerque; she knew hot. It was that the wet heat was so sticky she felt like she was walking and breathing beneath a blanket. Her uniform and armor did nothing at all to help her despite being significantly more breathable than her old regiment armor given to her on Earth before her deployment into space.
It had also been two sizes too big. It hadn’t been a terrible trade-off. The medical officer who’d been a friend of her father’s risked a lot signing off on her paperwork as fit to enlist as part of an earth-based unit going into space. In doing so it had meant that he’d been forced to exaggerate her size to get armor that fit. It wasn’t until after she was assigned to Emagul’s squad that she’d been able to use the fabricator and get something that fit a bit more comfortably and allowed more airflow in its micro-pores.
Micro-pores weren’t doing a whole lot of good on Agraadax.
Frankie glanced warily at her team. The large Teril shifted on their feet, their massive bodies appearing like armored tanks covered as they were in metal from the bottom of their thick four-toed feet to the bony crests of horns that framed their heads. Borth and Grish swung their heads, muttering to each other as they looked over the crowd.
Despite the mass of unhappy Agraak they faced, more than one of the males had a peculiar frown on his face, his nostrils expanding as he scented the air. The Arobi pack just off their flank had turned their heads toward her, their strange eyes lit up with interest.
Although by default the pack functioned best as its own squad under the leadership of its pack alpha, Exeri, they had worked almost exclusively with Emagul’s squad since they came aboard. It was for that reason that they’d naturally taken flank of her squad, putting them in close proximity to her. Normally she would be comforted by that fact, but not now with the way the males around her were sniffing the air. With their superior sense of smell, every single one of them was fixated on her.
Fuck.
She shook it off, refusing to let it unnerve her. Even if her secret got out, she was on Agraadax now. She was close to finding her sister. She couldn’t allow herself to be distracted.
She tightened her hand around her weapon when, as if following some unspoken cue, the remaining crowd swelled in front of her. What should have been a peaceful entrance and quick search through the city dissolved into pandemonium. Agraak civilians lunged at them, attempting to bite. Their fangs dripped with saliva as they let out aggressive vocalizations preceding each attack.
Frankie moved into a defensive stance and gripped the hilt of her combat saber, listening for orders. She breathed through her anxiety, allowing her to feel the fear and then releasing it to flow out of her. She knew that it was natural for her to be afraid. The bites weren’t something to take lightly just because she wore armor. She’d read enough to know that their jaws could puncture their sharp teeth through armor. All it would take was one scrape of their teeth to deliver the venom pumping through their saliva and she would have only minutes to receive an antidote before she fell to the ground convulsing.
A sharp command rang through the ranks, echoed by Emagul with clear authority. In a flurry of movement, the units around her reacted, dropping blasters into holsters while melee weapons came to the fore to stave off bites with minimal force. The males who carried handheld weapons by their customs made easy work of driving off the juvenile Agraak clearly marked by the speckled pale pigment that ran across their faces and over their bodies.
Frankie unsheathed her
combat saber, careful not to turn on the laser that would extend from the thin core pole that extended above the handgrip. Slapping the pole defensively against the jaws of the Agraak, she knew it had just enough of an edge to deliver a sharp bite. It would only minimally cut their thick skin without causing significant damage.
Sweat dripped into her eyes as she continued to parry and swipe at the males rushing at her in a tide. She hadn’t noticed that Agraak warriors had entered the field until she heard Borth bellow a warning. Suddenly, she was no longer confronting relatively harmless juveniles, but adult males possessing far more bulk and strength.
A large Agraak warrior closest to her lifted his plasma rifle and fired. She barely got her wrist shield activated in time to block the shot as a thin barrier spread out in front of her. She panted out a breath in relief. As long as her shield was raised, they wouldn’t be able to get a damaging shot off in such close quarters. Over and over she braced herself behind her shield as shots fired, gradually driving her back. It was a stalemate. With her shield activated she wouldn’t be able to utilize her blaster, nor could they get through her shield. They’d have to damage the cuff manually and as of yet none of them had managed to get close enough.
Through it all, she was aware of the shouts creating a cacophony around her. She didn’t realize until that moment how far she was getting driven away from her squad. Their group was fragmenting under the onslaught of Agraak troops who’d surprisingly outnumbered them.
How had that even been possible? There hadn’t been any calculations that indicated the city had reserve troops at their disposal. Was it every dome-city, or just this one due to its close location to a resource they desperately wanted to protect? She licked her lips nervously behind her face shield. Her instinctive desire was to look around and search for her group, but she didn’t dare take her eyes off the males surrounding her.
Standing shy of seven feet tall, they were considerably larger than her average 5’9” frame. That was nothing unusual. She’d never felt petite until she went into space. The Agraak were hardly the largest among alien warriors, but they used minimal armor. A retractable breastplate suspended from a collar around their throats and a face shield covered their brow and nasal bridge, leaving their lower face and the lethal spines pushing out from the crown of their head free and dripping with toxins. Agraak skin, saliva, and spines weren’t always dangerous. Only when a male was in a frenzy did the hormonal release turn them into effective weapons. They had good reason not to cover them in combat.
Heart of the Agraak Page 4
