by Marcus Sloss
Perci coughed and pulled me to a stop. She snuggled in close, fidgeted with my hand, and then looked up with luminous teary eyes. “I love you,” she said, “You will be a great Dad. That was unbelievably cute.”
“I am in agreement with my sister wife,” Everly nodded. “I was expecting you to be a bruiser of an alpha-male. Seeing that you have a softer side, that you like children—makes me wet with desire.” My cock twitched at her words and sultry tone. She snuck a hand down my pants and tried to grab my stiffening penis, only to have her hand slide through my body with the aggressive move. “Stupid grand market and its dumb rules,” she pouted.
I noticed a human display out of the corner of my eye, and left both the ladies standing there chatting to approach the interface.
The human was a male, with a great beard on his face. His eyes were inset with bags under them. Their skin had swirling blue lines ingrained into tanned skin. There were three variations up for auction. All varieties were blue-skinned, with one having a shortened thumb. I could not tell a difference between the other two variations. I pulled up the pricing list and found they were downright cheap. I could buy a hundred of these Humans for the price of a single Crixxi. The note indicated they were captured trying to raid. Good for protein, the note read. Ouch. I frowned. It seemed there were ways around the contracts. Hell, have a neighboring tribe raid, kill your servants, and you were not held at fault.
I left them to keep moving on down the line. I passed a few hundred aliens of all kinds until I found Earth Humans. I opened the price list. Hmm. They were cheap too. Fourteen were available in a buy-it-now deal. A man, five women, and eight children. The note said these had been purchased on a whim last golden cycle, but had become too depressed to amend their contracts. ‘Our loss is your gain,’ the note read. That was it. Fourteen. Billions of people and there were fourteen for sale. Were humans that loathed? I purchased the families with a sad click of a button. I would try to do my best to help them.
I trudged forward towards the Crixxi when my Gpad chimed an alert.
“Uh, Cap? I have a man, three mothers, two aunts, and eight children sobbing in my container.” - Felix.
“If Dalila is with you, get them to calm down and set them up in a hotel. Have an Aspen unit take them there.” - Cap
“Consider it done.” - Felix
“That's it?” Perci said, catching up and seeing the interface display and the line disappear, and the line condense over the open spot.
“I… we… we needed our purchases. Without them…” My shoulders slumped and I stared at the ground for a long moment before meeting Perci’s gaze. “I am making excuses. I could have saved so many last week,” I sighed, picking up the pace to a brisk walk. My feet felt like they were encased in concrete. I muttered, “Fourteen is better than none, I guess.”
CHAPTER 4
The Crixxi section had three variations. I noticed that slightly different ear placement, greater or leaner muscle mass, and then height—probably due to differences in gravity density—seemed to be the biggest differences between them. I turned the interface over to Everly so she could match up and show me which was which. I picked her up by the shoulders and moved her from image to image. My hmms, huhs, and frustrated chuffs seemed to delight her. She found my playful banter hilarious.
“I am obviously in this group,” Everly said, when I placed her before the middle Crixxi variation’s image. “We have the fluffiest fur, tallest height, and biggest breasts.” She gestured to the Crixxi image to her left, “See how this Crixxive is the smallest of the bunch, and its female is rather flat-chested? This variation reject the virum.” She nodded to the Crixxi image to her right, “the Crixxon adapt to virum, but their ears face backwards, which is akin to cheating in the jungle.” Everly gave a grunt of disdain. “You face a minor dilemma here. If you pick the variations to my left or right, you will have another Crixxi babe trying squeeze into our bed. I mean, I—”
“Ha! That makes this decision easy. Middle it is,” I said confidently, and Everly frowned.
“Eric Yang, you just got in trouble. Ohhhh,” Perci laughed, drawing out her statement.
“I will rationalize what is otherwise a poor decision,” Everly sniffed, “mainly because it will make my personal life infinitely less catty.”
“Please clarify,” I ordered.
“You are our tribe leader. As the boss, what is more important? Four thousand warriors on the field of battle in mecha suits and your bed gets a plus one, or your bed stays the same and we have only a thousand warriors in mecha suits, leaving expensive war machines vacant?” Everly said with a finger wag.
I shrugged. Maybe it made more sense militarily to expand my harem, but I didn’t care.
My reward was a tender kiss. “We are very happy, Eric. We even understand about Jill and Mary.” She smiled up at me, “I want to be happy. I dreamed of being a matriarch to a strong warrior and you make me proud. I will just have to work harder to make the most of our situation. The Crixxive and Crixxon are easier to capture, as their worlds have less jungle. Ours is all jungle.”
Perci stepped forward and looked over the sale sheets. There were only seven. Six of the available auctions were small orders of under a hundred Crixxi, with buy-it-now set prices. One with four males had already dropped its price twice.
“The Crixxi in the largest order are not infected with virum… That is almost unheard of and not good. Let me check the note,” Everly said, all but pushing Perci out of the way. “Sour milk… These are an offshoot. A colony ship that was captured by the overlords themselves. We would be buying from the gatekeepers’ automatons. Hmm…”
“I had wondered how they dealt with that. If they just returned them to a random planet or what,” I said, crossing my arms in thought. “How close is this auction to the other auctions we are tracking?”
“Well, I am watching a few, but the big ones are a half hour apart. I cannot see who the other bidders are, but a jungle Crixxi might not even be the best option for them. Human construction is more like our shipbuilding than jungle living,” Everly said, and I grunted.
“Okay,” I said, coming to a decision, “buy them all around the same time. If a few slip through on the buy-it-now, so be it.”
My hand went to my Gpadm, and I posted the following text on the command net.
“Who needs help the most? Our personnel shopping is set for now.” - Cap
“I need more funds.” - Torrez
“I need to get in the field to start running tank drills.” - Jevon
“I finished getting more weapons and shields. Jacky and I are taking longer than we thought on personal items. We need more shoppers. Running into lines at vendors, and vendors keep forcing us to pick a side in a stupid religious debate that we seem to never dance around well enough.” - Nancy
“I can help with the personal items, Nancy. Send me the list.” - Willow
“I was refused service due to not worshiping the Gate Gods at the first agricultural automation vendor. Almost to the second now.” - Daphne
“If Jevon heads out to the tank drills, who is there to manage supply outflow?” - Cap
“I am. I just relieved him after sorting out the New Zealanders. We are doing better now that the massive hovercraft is out the gate.” - Felix
Perci came over and rubbed my arm. “How about we window shop?”
“They are pretty squared away. Why is Torrez complaining about funds?” I asked Perci.
“Because he keeps overspending. Mclain is our last unknown. If he finds a shelled suit, I want one for all the warriors, even if they go inside a tank or whatever,” Perci said with a grimace. Everly kept browsing the other Crixxi variations while we talked. “Yeah, if we can rein in Torrez, we have plenty left over. If we give him free rein, we might run out and have no equipment for the new Crixxi troops.”
I called Torrez.
“Go for S4,” Torrez said.
My translator hummed and tingled. I rubbed
the spot over my chest. I had a message… through the translator. Odd.
“Go for S4,” Torres said again.
“Sorry, I was distracted. Did you get everything we needed?” I asked.
“Pretty much. There are dropships I want to buy, but I would need significantly more funds. Mr. T, the storage boss, told Jevon we were approaching our cap limit. He’d ordered concrete to be tossed in and converted into large cinder blocks,” Torrez said with a grumble. “I may have requested Jevon feed all the remaining trucks be converted for some dropships. He denied my request. Boss, these are beauts, and don’t tell Maria, but I’m in love.”
I grunted, “Maybe we can return there after all the other shopping is done. If we get everything else we need, and have enough funds left over to afford some, you can zero us out. If not, then we’ll have to wait until the next market rotation to go airborne,” I said, knowing he would not like that answer. “Everything is changing too rapidly. Don’t moan when your orders contradict your personal desires.” I heard Torrez groan. “After that hover carrier purchase, I am not putting a priority on additional air vehicles.”
“If that’s the case, I guess I’ll just be sitting in here on my thumb for nineteen more hours,” he grumbled. Ouch. “For the community, I guess… Oh, hey, you can tell Jasmine it's all your fault. Always wanted to call in that marker, Cap,” he chuckled, “Torrez out.” He closed the connection before I could respond that he was free to leave and come back in before the end of the market to make any last minute purchases.
I grumbled about covering for Torrez playing hooky to his strong-willed three-year-old. Perci chuckled. “You realize it’ll be okay? Now, give me your arm so we can walk around together. It’s been too long since I had you all to myself. Bye, Everly,” Perci said.
“Hold on. Before we do that… My translator went crazy for a moment.”
Perci, the wizard she was, whipped the translator into a humming vibration.
“I got it,” she fiddled with the display, “Roarson sent a message about the ferox? Oh, shit… Eric. Chickens!” Perci whooped.
I immediately busted out my happy dance, certain my gyrations and fist pumps were the absolute best, ever. Staring aliens, confused by my epic moves, were merely jealous.
“What is the significance of these chickens?” Everly asked, wandering back over from the Crixxi holograms.
“They are humans’ staple food.” I grinned, “Now we just need Daphne to hit a homerun with the rabbit-food automated production systems.”
Perci glared at me, hands on her hips, after reading the rest of the message.
“Aw,” I pulled her tight against my side in a one-armed hug, “why the frown?”
“He said the ferox wanted to see you again so badly, that he bought a few hundred chickens to entice you back to his booth. It is obvious he is up-selling the chickens and trying to get you to buy the massive cat,” Perci said with a huff.
“But the chickens,” I replied with bouncing eyebrows, arms held out wide.
“Will be overpriced,” she growled.
“But … the chickens!” I retorted, pouting with a sour, sad frown. I would win her over; her shield would crack. I knew it wouldn’t take much of my Eric the puppy dog face to wear her down. Her poker face shattered, and Perci smiled at my antics, wagging a finger at me to let me know she was onto my tricks.
“Can I come?” Everly asked, seeing our excitement, “There are no more auctions for hours.”
“Of course, I just need to scrounge up some more funds for Eric’s … chickens,” Perci said, and snorted.
I grumbled. The age-old dilemma—butter or bullets. There was one option left.
“Felix, this is Cap.” I spoke into my Gpad.
“Go for Felix,” my overworked Xgate supervisor replied.
“Belay making bricks. I want chickens and a Ferox and drop ships.” He groaned. “Since I have not been outside to see what progress you have made with what Torrez bought ... If we convert the remaining electric trucks into materials, can we still tow what we need to back to base?”
“Uh… Cap. We have four massive mecha units. Hundreds of eight-person tanks, a thousand-plus single-person tanks. There are hundreds of trailers of all sorts, plus when we tossed in trucks and had old trailers stay behind—” he paused.
“So, you are saying that transport of either personnel or equipment will not be degraded if I sacrifice the remaining trucks or trailers to raise more funds?” I asked for confirmation.
“I am only the deputy S4. Torrez already fought with Jevon over the rest of the fleet, and Jevon told him he to get your approval before he’d authorize such actions,” Felix said.
“Okay. We're converting the trucks with their trailers ... All of them or until we hit our conversion cap. There is too much we need to buy, and if we will not be using those trucks to loot Denver anymore, they really serve no purpose,” I explained.
“For the community,” Felix said.
“For the community,” I replied.
I watched my Gpad. I waited. Any moment now.
“You okay?” Perci asked, and I shushed her.
“Yes! Good call, Cap.” - Torrez
“Oh, yeah, makes sense. I am surprised—” Perci was interrupted by another beep.
“Not my truck. Please. A few other folks have also requested to keep their personal vehicles.” - Jevon
“Approved to withhold personal vehicles on a case-by-case basis. How is training going?” - Cap
“Amazing. We went from a few shields and clunky armor with trucks and RVs to a futuristic mechanized cavalry. The Octosuits are slower than I thought they would be, though. They will have to ride behind the tanks on sleds or something, or we risk our combined arms synergy as the tanks leave them in the dust. But if you can get them in a line … damn! They will unleash holy hell. I think we could have fought the Lurrol with these.” - Jevon
“Perfect. Buying more animals and some drop ships. Keep me updated. Out.” - Cap
“Mrs. Moore, Jevon’s mom, is going to be very happy about the chickens,” Perci remarked to Everly. “As happy as the two of us getting to see Roarson. Shopping at his livestock market was fun.” Perci turned back to me, “We should get more Slongers, if he has them, we love their milk.”
“Someone termed his species ‘Scary Bears’. Not sure who named his race. Probably some Canadian who shat himself when they charged out of an Xgate onto Earth,” I said with a grunt. “Not knocking Canadians, they have some good elite troops. And I bet ten-foot-tall bears with jetpacks on the offensive are the stuff of nightmares.”
I stepped towards the nearest exit and the translator notified my Gpad that our destination was a half-hour’s walk away.
“Everly, this sounds like a good time to tell you about Earth before the Xgates. Would you like to know more?” I asked with a smirk.
The trip to a side elevator went quickly. We shifted to a whole new section of the market and took another ten minutes to get to Roarson’s booth.
The ten-foot-tall upright bear gave a toothy, canine-revealing smile upon seeing us. His green fur was matted with a blend of brown and black stripes. Those red eyes might spook some, but I found them warm and friendly. Another Scary Bear who had been chatting with Roarson left, so we could conduct our business.
We clasped forearms in greeting, as if we were old friends.
“Good to see the Ramoth didn’t eat you,” Roarson chuckled in a deep rumble.
His booth displayed pictures of the wide variety of animals he had for sale. I had seen more of everything he had to offer at the last market.
“Not a chance. I was told by a powerful friend that a Ferox is a rare find. Unfortunately, I had not set aside the time or the finances on the off-chance we might bond. It was a he, right? I think I remember noticing he had balls,” I said with a chuckle.
“Aye, it’s a male,” Roarson nodded, “But be mindful the price has not changed. I still need—”
“Neils
par, I remember. Now, show me my new friend,” I said, and Roarson offered a bearish smirk. He seemed generally happy to see us. “Roarson,” I motioned my petite wife forward, “this is Perci. I believe you met her before.” I pulled my Crixxi vixen into my other arm, “and this is Everly, the latest addition to my family.”
“A strong pride breeds many cubs,” Roarson said with a nod. “Now, come into my storage shop. Right over here.”
We stepped over to the no-gravity transit disc. A moment later, we were sucked through the floor, into the void, and arrived in a large storage section filled with a veritable zoo of alien animals. A cacophony of noises combined with a host of musty smells to assault my senses. I clenched my fists and breathed through my mouth, getting past the worst of it.
“I thank you for the message, Roarson. I have always wanted to go to an animal shop. We have legends, in our histories, of the big cats and how they can swallow a being whole,” Everly said with a polite tone. Her sensitive nose twitched at the offensive odors, but she kept her displeasure to herself.
Roarson stepped off the transit disc for the corner stall the ferox lived in. Around us I saw a lot of electric fencing containing mostly flightless animals, shorter than my knee. This must be his egg-laying and milking section. We stepped past a variation of a pig that piqued my interest. Perci pulled me from my distraction as Roarson and Everly carried on without me.
“Just be happy they cannot eat you in here,” Roarson continued the conversation with Everly, ending with a long rumble and stern gaze. “Ferox get moody when they are without a bond. He tolerates me, for some reason. His price would be a hundred times higher if we didn’t stud him out on occasion, simply due to his upkeep.”
I paused to watch the long-furred Ramoths congregate at the side of a pen. Roarson walked to a freezer not far from the pen. He pried the lid open, yanked out an object with the smack of crackling ice, and tossed the limb of some large animal into the Ramoth pen. It must be feeding time. We passed the Ramoth after I watched how they managed to eat frozen meat. We had been defrosting ours; I guess we didn’t need to. A few electric fences later, the Ferox eagerly awaited us at its gate.
