by C. R Corbin
Their generals actually seemed to command respect over the men.
She shut her eyes in denial for a bit and neither of her compatriots said anything to her so they probably didn’t notice, otherwise they would have likely mocked her to no end.
“How does it feel to be on the losing side human whore?!” asked a particularly drunk soldier that had walked up to her. She opens her eyes to see him, there was a massive scar across the bridge of his nose and the natural fangs that the Rialans had were peeking out of his lips. His grey skin and matted black hair made him seem like a demon to her and gave her quite the scare until a force intervened in her favour.
A force that she was not expecting.
The king immediately grabbed the man and shoved him to the floor before eyeing his commanding officer who immediately came over to reprimand the man. She shoots the king a look and he only nods his head in acknowledgement of her before they continued onwards. The pair finally arrived at a large congregation of humans and she was led into the fenced off area and her binds were released.
She breathed a sigh of relief.
The king and his guard say nothing as they return to their tent. She settles down against a post as she observes the rest of the survivors, they were mostly human civilians, children and women that had been from the villages that had been raided. Some of them were surviving soldiers that had either defected or survived with little harm done to them.
She eyed the wound that was on her thigh and placed her hand up to it, wincing once she felt the dull sting of the shrapnel that was inside of her.
“Which platoon?” asked one of the men that was sitting off to the side, clutching his arm.
“CF5.”
He chuckled, “D3W”
“Any of your side make it out alive?” she asked him and he shook his head.
“Just me.”
“I can’t believe this.” Muttered a young woman that was clutching her child, “I can’t believe that we lost. Oh god how are we going to live under them, how are we ever going to survive?” she bemoaned.
The two soldiers only frowned at the woman’s wailing it was no secret how much of a toll this had all taken on the civilians, now they were probably going to be relocated to camps and forced to slave away under the control of the Rialans.
The savage, filthy Rialans.
“What’s your name?” he asked her, breaking her from her brief moment of rage.
She pauses, and then works her way out of that enraged stupor before answering “Saradi.”
He grins, “Kinu.”
She nods and noticed his arm, “Are you hurt?”
“A little.” He says as he shakes his head, “But they’ll probably give us some form of medical attention I would think.”
She scoffs.
Fat chance of that.
Saradi watches the two Rialans that had come for her, they were nearly invisible to the naked eye now. They had wandered far into the crowd but she could still see the gold tipped edge of the king’s helmet. If only she had been stronger, she could have gotten a shot on him, she could have done something to permanently cripple their forces but instead she was only able to lay back like a corpse.
She was ashamed of herself.
“Shouldn’t we try to escape?” she asked Kinu and he shook his head.
“In a camp this big? No way.”
She lets a pained growl sound at the back of her throat, “So what are we going to be?”
“Well at least we weren’t on the other side of the planet, they say that that Rialan is way worse than this one. With any luck we’re going to just be re-“
And then a loud pop sounded.
They looked to the end of the camp where it had sounded. It was from the east, Saradi clutches the fence and glances at the white pillar of smoke and hears the sounds of laughter amongst whomever had arrived. She felt hope that it was a human well up in her heart and apparently so did her fellow prisoners for they all clutched the fence and glanced up at the pillar.
“Jubak.” Cursed one of the rare Rialan prisoners, he was probably some sort of deserter judging by how harshly he had been beaten.
She raises an eyebrow, her translator didn’t process that word, “What was that?”
“Jubak.” He spits again, “He’s here.”
“Who?” asked Kinu.
She rolled her eyes and zoned out, she wasn’t going to listen to some Rialan. And so she simply set her eyes in the general direction of the plume and hoped that its source would appear soon. Simply sitting in this camp was going to get boring sooner or later.
But then she picked up on something that the Rialan had said just by chance.
“He’s far more ruthless, in fact if I had deserted under him then I would be dead.”
“Not much of a loss.” Saradi muttered under her breath. From his appearance the man was filthy and probably a degenerate anyways.
“And so….why is he here? Isn’t his place on the other side?” asked Kinu.
The Rialan shakes his head, “Sometimes he makes special appearances, mostly just to come to the prisoner camps to take people.”
“For what?” asked Saradi suddenly, her curiosity piqued.
“For his own pleasure, target practice, sex, I don’t really know. I think he was born with something wrong in the head so that’s why there’s such an issue with how he acts.”
Kinu scoffed, “And the king here simply allows it?”
The deserters eyes gained this intense look when Kinu had brought up the king, “If they were to fight then the war would destroy them both. They hate one another but still if they made a move then the world would surely be ruined.”
“Like you ruined ours?” Saradi jabbed back and walked over to him.
He laughs and looks up at her with his one working eye, “Don’t be so judgemental girl. I’m not a soldier, I didn’t even want to, I’m conscripted.”
Kinu raised an eyebrow, “Uhhh I’m pretty sure that your forces are composed of volunteers.”
“Doesn’t matter!” Yelled the Rialan, scaring the nearby civilians that were sitting next to him “I was a prisoner but they forced me to come fight for them, said that it would reduce my sentence anyway. What’s so bad about prison? I got free food and as much alone time as I wanted. The only thing that was lacking inside of there was the entertainment.” He said as he reclined against the bars.
The two soldiers pause to look at one another to see if this was actually real or if they were imagining it. They looked back at him to see him grinning, the grey-skinned and rather gangly looking Rialan grinned and rubbed the cut off base of his left horn as he looked them both over. In fact, he was not that much larger than either of the two, he must have been about 6 feet and 5 inches at most which paled in comparison to most Rialans who exceeded 7 feet quite regularly.
“Name’s Domon.”
The conversation was cut short by the appearance of a new set of voices. It was coming from the east side of the camp again and this time it appeared that the other king’s entourage was getting closer and closer. They could see the first edges of it along with a man that looked like he belonged to Koigo instead of…whomever this was.
“Lord Gulvan, your presence is quite appreciated.” Stated the servant as he stuttered and tripped over his own words, “But we are not quite yet prepared for your arrival. This comes at a great surprise you see.”
Gulvan was a tower of a Rialan, he might have even been bigger than Koigo now that Saradi thought about it. He was about 8 feet tall and on his back he carried this massive broadsword, it must have been quite heavy and unusable by anyone but him. He had dark green skin and walked with an aura of arrogance that she had never quite seen before. He wore no helmet but in his hands was one, it had a large ridge at the top of it as well as some smaller ridges on the temples. The face mask wasn’t anything special, just a metal plate with two eyeholes drilled into, the mask didn’t cover the nose or his mouth either. He wore armor that was gol
den in color, a collection of golden plates that washed over one another like waves, giving his suit an almost scaled appearance.
His eyes were the most ferocious shade of red that she had ever seen, they nearly burrowed into anything that he looked at and she could feel herself quivering when he looked in her general direction. His muscles bulged and looked like they could rip his armor off if they bulged enough.
And he was here to do what? To kill his brother? With the amount of soldiers that he had taken a long with him it certainly looked like that.
“No worries boy!” shouted the aforementioned lord as he finally appeared with nearly 20 troops surrounding them, all of them dressed in the garb of the Rialan royalty. Silver armor that wrapped around them like the knights or samurai of old. There were various ornate patterns on their chest pieces or their helmets that featured striking animal motifs, strange creatures that were likely a feature of their own homeworld of Limura.
“I just need to collect some things.” Muttered Gulvan as he eyed the cages and licked his lips, causing most of the prisoners to back up to the edge that was furthest away from him, even Saradi.
“Something about this guy, something about him just….fuck he’s terrifying.” Thought Saradi as she cowered near the mother and her child.
#
CHAPTER FOUR
Koigo sighed as he set his blade down, the elegant curved sword rests against his table as he grabs a jug of water from his desk and turns on the hologram.
He watches the reports pass by him and goes through all of them rather quickly. Yaki had already went back to the barracks after they had discussed their plans after today. Koigo would likely be having more meetings soon regarding what was to be done about Merim’s surface and its population of humans that were now in his camps.
He lifts his jug of water and drops some of it onto his own head in an attempt to cool down whilst taking off his armor. He rests the hardened metal plating and mail off to a stand on the side as he takes a walk to the back where the cleaning station was. Water droplets fall from his nose and onto the pool as he sighed and glanced at his own reflection in the grimed and bloodied water that was now collecting in the small basin that he had. He would have to bathe on his craft later, for now there was still some work to be done before he could retire for the night.
But another thought surfaced while he watched his own reflection.
Had the war really been that long?
He and his brother had taken it upon themselves to continue their father's legacy when they were barely graduating from boyhood, now they were fully grown men and the scars on his face and the tired look made him look far older than he really was.
He shook his head and walked back into his quarters, shifting his hand over the holograms as he glanced the graphs and reports over.
All of them were just as they had planned, they had won the battle and had control of human territory now. He just wished that he didn't have to share it with a man such as his brother.
He despised the man frankly. They had little in common as they had grown up, Koigo had always been far more fascinated with the cerebral aspect of warfare and paid special attention to the less militaristic aspects of rule rather than his brother. He looked to his books off to the side and sighed as he picked one up and flipped through his pages. The notes that had appeared on the pages as he flipped pass them were done by his father. Each of his annotated copies was bequeathed to him.
He imagined that Gulvan would have a bunch of dummies in his room that he could whack at any moment.
The reports that had come in from his spies regarding that side of the battlefield was harrowing. Bodies strung up on the few trees that were here, humans that were gutted and civilians that were enslaved.
Was there really anything that Koigo himself could do though?
Their armies were practically equal in might and they controlled the same amount of territory. Any differences in resources were negligible so what could really be done to quell his brother's bloodlust?
An assassination was what he had been planning but he suspected that a similar plan was in store for him as well.
He tired of this game soon after they had been coronated.
How had a man that his father and mother raised turn out to be so despicable? Had there been no honor in his heart? No thoughts to the old ways of their people nearly 2000 years ago when they had first sprung up as a civilization on the planet of Rial?
Were the rumors of his brother being born with abnormalities true?
He rests his eyes on his blade, the computer in front of him began to sound off the reports of casualties as well as the prisoner report to him. He made a mental note to add a number to the prisoner report that was featured on his computer.
And then his thoughts returned to the girl that he had found.
Despite her status in the army she was unlike any other human soldier that he had found. Most of them were rather afraid and perhaps hesitant. They weren't battle hardened warriors by any stretch of the imagination and as a result he quickly came to realize that the humans had been demoralized and their soldiers were undisciplined. It was no wonder that the war was won so quickly after, from what was reported to him at least, a quick succession of terrible rulers were instituted for humankind, resulting in their power quickly dwindling as a result of their rule.
The military's generals were replaced by bumbling fools, their equipment was degraded, all of it had gone downhill for humanity, for lack of a better term.
And here was this girl that was standing up to him, shouting him down and daring to attack him after it was clear that her side had lost the battle and that she was one of the only survivors. She was actually holding onto her anger and her hatred.
It was a tremendous surprise to him.
Moreover was her status as his mate....that was something that he would have to continue to contend with for quite a while.
He wasn't sure what he should have done in relation to it. If he were to take her in then that would risk the ire of his brother who would gladly use tradition to hunt him down and kill him. Their section of the galaxy's Rialans were one of the very few that clung to the beliefs that mixing the races was....not something to be encouraged. As such he risked the fury of his brother and the suffering of his people if he did take her in.
But not taking her in...that didn't really seem to be an option either in his mind.
She was a woman that was to bear his children and be his partner for a lifetime. If he had let her go now then he may never find another mate again, in fact it was quite rare to find more than one mate in a lifetime. The senses only went off once a specific person was found. If you got lucky it would happen again but rarely would that occur and if it did it was only once more.
He needed an heir, he knew that. He could give it to one of his lieutenants or generals or advisors but...there weren't that many candidates that were acceptable.
Of course he could also go through with his plan to slay his brother but that carried its own risks.
He shut his eyes and laid down on his bed after turning off the reports and responding to the messages that had been sent to him from the various parties involved in the campaign. While laying down he hears something erupt from outside of the camp and walks out to see a familiar white plume of smoke coming from the edges of the camp.
Of course his brother had come to engage in his antics. Why else would he be here?
Koigo had hoped that tonight would be rather relaxed but he supposed but that it was a foolish wish. He dons his armor and walks out of his tent with a robe on and brought his sword with him as well in case something were to happen. He never knew if his brother would try to kill him now or not but he bet that it was just another quest by Gulvan to take one of his prisoners.
Fool, he was lucky that he wasn't cut down immediately once Koigo saw him.
The soft black robe hugs his shoulders and suspends down both his back and his chest. It was a simple thing, m
ore like a large cape that could be draped over both sides of the body instead of an actual piece of clothing. It was embroidered with various lines and geometric shapes and he felt a bit embarrassed for wearing it but it was more of traditional garb than many of the garbs that people wore today. He walks forward and sighs as he hears the loud laughter in the distance, he has to purposefully avoid rolling his eyes as he does so.
"The selection is pretty enticing, I'll give him that." Stated Gulvan in the distance and suddenly Koigo' breath hitched.
He had left his mate in those chambers.
He had left her in that cell!
Damnit!
He begins to walk faster and faster, bobbing and weaving through various soldiers that all called his name and invited him for a drink. He merely smiled at them and shook his head as he ran in the general direction of the prison camp. His pace only quickens when he thought of what Gulvan could be doing.
He thought, as always, that Gulvan would show up to collect some girl or a man to use as target practice, every single time Koigo had arrived on time to stop his brother from doing...well from doing what he did but this was one time where Koigo did not want to risk it.
He had to make it on time now.
#
CHAPTER FIVE
The man was far more than just despicable or pathetic. He was...malevolence incarnate.
Through his cheery and hedonistic exterior Saradi could sense something far more sinister lurking within him and it was something that troubled her greatly. Just who was Gulvan? He seemed to be everything that the rumors had told her that he would be and she wanted to vomit. The thought of being taken away by this man would surely be hellish, in contrast king Koigo seemed practically perfect.
Where was the king anyway? Shouldn't he be here to greet his brother and ruler of half of the moon now?
"Let's start from the end! I want to take my time!" stated Gulvan with a wide grin on his face as they walked to the other end of the camp.
She lets out a breath that she didn't even know that she had been holding in when he had first arrived.
