by C. R Corbin
This was truly a fitting end for me, Miriam, the brilliant physicist and engineer that dedicated her life to her job only to be killed by it. I was nearly 30, I've never had a man, I was stuck here in the desert without any family to speak of and with my best achievement being some post on some distant colony.
This was hell ...at least that's what I thought until I heard the lasers firing and saw a flickering shape of what looked to be a corpse get tossed against a boulder in front of me with enough force to crack the rock.
My hands and feet scratch against the red sands as I slide back and rested my head against the stone. My boots scuttle against the red rocks as I see the flickering corpse get back up. The true shape of my assailant became more apparent the more time went on as that flickering shield around it became reduced to almost nothing. It was this green, almost black creature with bulging golden eyes and two rings instead of a mouth. Its head almost looked akin to an ant more than a human in fact. Its hands weren't like mine, it was more like a collection of prongs and hooks than fingers and it locked around a very specific series of triggers that looked to be designed for its use only. There were these two things on the back that looked like wings, but I suspected that it wasn't capable of fight otherwise it would have done that already. It looked more like it was for shielding than anything else, but one of them was cracked from the sheer force of the collision with the rock.
Which brought me to my next question.
Who the hell was the one who tossed him? Was this some human soldier that had caused this? What was it?
I soon got my answer as I watched this man lunge down and kneel next to the creature before grabbing its head and forcing it violently into the floor. The man was far larger than I, he must have stood at about 7 feet. To think that he could throw these things with such force made me think that his musculature must have been overwhelmingly impressive. I could see the veins on his neck bulging as his head shook and those long grey horns atop his head vibrated with the rage that he was feeling. There was a set of ridges on his neck that were bristling at the very sight of this creature and his hands tense around the strange monster's neck. The monster says something in its language before the hand of the mystery man is lifted back up before coming back down and beheading the insect-like creature in one fell swoop. There were claws on this man's hands, so he was an alien as well...What the hell was going on?!
His face was covered in green blood, but I didn't even really think about that. All that I could think about was how striking his features were, he was probably the only man that I have ever noticed in this vein and probably the only one that I ever would. Instantly I felt some strange pull toward him, some strange connection that was pulling us together despite my better judgment. He begins to speak, but I only backed away and looked at him in confusion as he did so. Not a single word was intelligible. As soon as the sounds of more approaching footsteps were heard he grimaced and glanced at me before whispering.
"Parak."
The leapt back to the top of the sand mound as I heard more people approaching. I hear some sort of electronic whirring before a deep rumbling consumes the area. A growl was heard and it was followed by several strange clicking noises that almost sounded like guns being tossed aside. There were the squeals of those creatures, that was the next thing I heard, the next thing I know is that a massive sand mound was piling on top of me as a result of an explosive. My head rumbled and I could barely hear due to the ringing that was running through my mind at the moment. I had heard something strike the mound and now I was stuck under it. My entire body ached under the weight of the sand and I felt myself suffocating already. My breaths were short and labored, I could barely move an inch.
Was I really going to die like this? Who was this man and what was he doing here?
God there were so many questions that wracked my mind and so little time to address all of them. All that I could do was curse as my eyes slowly shut and I drifted off into unconsciousness, my body quakes, my hands nestled against the sands while the blood trickled from my forehead.
Chapter Three
Jino
I stand at the top of the sand mound tracking them, they had been following the trail of the humans for days and I didn't know what to do or when to take action, but it was becoming clear to me that I would have to do it soon. There was word that there was an infestation of them here, the famed self-declared Melphian bandit king was in charge of this group and what he wanted with the humans...well I didn't know. It could have been a food source or it could have been wealth, to be honest, I didn't even want to think about it in fear of the answers that I may be getting once I found out.
I glanced at them as they moved amongst the dunes, their footsteps clash against the sands and to all they were invisible. Under twilight they were ghost-like, one moment their footsteps would be there and in the next, it would fade. I was especially adapted to fight them due to the fact that my sense of smell and hearing enabled me to echolocate them with enough effort. That way I was able to see them when they attacked, the humans didn't have such a luxury.
I had arrived too late it seems
I had only been able to catch up to their trail on the last day when I found the human base being fired on. There was no way I could interfere in the battle at hand considering the fact that it was basically a warzone down there. I had seen it from afar, there was a great spark in the distance and I watched the human base go up in flames. The Melphian were a resourceful bunch, their tech was unlike anything else I've ever seen in the galaxy and their anatomies did not exactly match up to either humans or Kanosians.
The fact that the humans had lasted this long on the planet was more a testament to the bandit king Yurian's incompetence and/or malice rather than the human's own ingenuity.
I tensed my hands around the blaster as I watched the horizon. I ran as fast as I could in the hopes that I may have caught some of them in the act, but I knew that I was too late, I should have been more diligent, but I made too many mistakes, got too sloppy.
Ah well, at least I could still kill Yurian and claim my reward, that was the only thing that mattered to me in the long run.
The planet of Juerin itself was covered in sand and rock, there were the occasional patches of trees and rivers every once in a while, but it was basically inhospitable for anyone that didn't know what they were doing. From what I had heard Yurian decided to settle here in the hopes of attacking another colony. He had only recently settled into the crust of the planet and established his hive before initiating the attack. The man's aims were unclear, although I did have one theory. He was attempting to gather some subjects for his twisted experiments. Yurian was an ex Melphian scientist, after all, a renowned biologist who’s funding was cut after a series of inexcusable experiments on prisoners of war came out. He retreated with his guards and was never seen again...until now.
What he was doing on this planet I didn't know. There was nothing to be had here except for the sands. Perhaps if he had the funds he could terraform it since no one else was willing, but considering the fact that most of the races already declined the opportunity since the place held no strategic importance at all. Maybe he just needed a base.
No, I was just contracted to hunt him, not to do anything else. If the Melphians wanted to do anything then that would be their problem, not mine.
I had seen the first bomb fall and ravage the human base, the human troops scattered amongst the sands while they were picked apart by the invisible army that was busy accosting them. They fell without even knowing what their enemy looked like. They quickly collapsed in rows and rows as mounds of rubble formed and became a haven for the scientists that were there. As I approached I quickly understood that there was little to no hope of human survival, I would need to simply kidnap one of the men and interrogate him if I wanted any more information, otherwise it was the wisest move to simply retreat and come back later to see if there was any intel I could gathe
r. To save the rest of these humans would be too costly, there was an overwhelming number of Melphians here and not enough that I could do to damage them.
So it was in my best interest to simply back off at the moment ...That is until I saw her.
I would have to presume she was one of the survivors and was fleeing, she got lucky enough to get away since the rest of her crew as dead or...worse. To say that she had an effect on me would be severely understating the importance that this woman had on me. When I saw her tucked against the rubble with her mask off in order to have some fresh air...I could see my future. In those brown locks of her's and in those soft green eyes I understood that she was the one, she was the mate that I would have to claim.
And I would be damned if I let the Melphians get to her before I did.
I first saw her grabbing a pistol and feebly firing when it was clear that the presence of the security forces that remained would not nearly be enough to hold back all of the Melphians. Bolt after bolt of laser fire hammers down on the rock, the humans have no clue on where to aim, the Melphians were much more precise and were taking down humans at will. It was becoming abundantly clear that they wouldn't be able to get close enough to finish off the survivors so several grenades were tossed amongst the rubble and the resulting explosion as enough to knock her into the air until she landed quite a ways away. She laid there for a few months before getting to her feet and sprinting away from the scene as fast as she could. I could watch her limp, her arm sagging, I knew that there was a ton of damage done to her body simply due to the explosion of those grenades, but she willed herself closer and closer to the sand mounds surrounding her base and ducked behind one of them.
I was still crouched down on my own post watching her, damning myself for not acting sooner. Had I known that I had a mate here I would have acted with the most haste that I could have mustered, but now she was in critical danger and I was supposed to be the one that saved her.
I could still remember approaching this planet on my craft, thinking that it would be enough to simply track them down and silently kill Yurian so I didn't alert his men and cause them to go on a wild hunt for me. That was the last thing I wanted or needed at the moment and I prayed that it wouldn't be the case this time. I had hoped that I would have been able to conduct this in a stealthier manner, but this was the only thing that was waiting for me, I had to choose between protecting my mate, the only one that I would ever have, or the integrity and ease of this mission.
I, of course, chose the former, it was quite obvious to me.
I lunged into battle as fast as I could and began to pursue them. My ship was damn near a day away while walking so I had to make this quick and get her the medical care that she so desperately needed. I had a number of supplies in my pack already so it wasn't like I had come empty-handed and she would die, but...I didn't want to risk anything. I watched her disappear in the distance while I trekked along the sands, hoping that I wouldn't be seen prematurely. My employers explicitly wanted me to kill Yurian and any forces that he may have had with him so I suppose that this was a good start. The credits that I would be getting from this would be enough to fund me for another few years, this was the biggest contract I had taken in a while and I was desperate to see it competed.
I curled up my fists as I sprung, I could already see the first of the Melphians in front of me. He turns, but I immediately seized his shoulder and tore into his torso with my claws before I watched him fall to the floor in a mess of green goo and bits of his own shell.
Now it was time to deal with the other Melphian that was pursuing her. He was almost on her, but I knew that I would make it on time and immediately began to sprint.
This girl was my teren, she was mine and I wouldn't let any of these bastards lay one of their slimy fingers on her.
I grabbed the Melphian as I appeared right behind him. He fires off a shot from his blaster, but I knocked it off to the side and I watched as it bounced off of his hand and rolled along the sands. I grabbed his neck and tossed him as far as I could before I heard a sickening crack. I tried to follow the track of where I had tossed him, I glanced over at the sight of his landing and saw that the rock that he was tossed against was cracked.
And then I saw her, my teren.
The red sands shifted below my feet as I walked up and leapt off of the sand mound that I was standing on. The land was dotted with trees, rivers, grasses, and red sands. It was a dry planet, but it was a bit wetter than some of the more severe worlds that I had been on. The filtered air was getting a bit dull so I decided to simply release my visor and my helmet to let them slide back onto my back. The air was safe to breathe, I checked that when I landed already.
That was only one reason, however, I wanted to see her as well.
I glanced at her and spotted every detail of her body, every curve. Her body was huddled amongst the sands while she caressed her limbs. Her orange suit curled up, it was clinging to her body and was incredibly fitting. Her curves melded together, those ample mounds of her's were pressed against her arms and her thighs were rubbing together. Even though she was wearing that suit I could still detect her scent, I could still detect the sweetness that was emanating off of her. I could only imagine what laid under that suit, an ample body of which every inch was incredibly attractive. That pretty face that was shrouded by a curtain of brown hair, her visor had already been tossed aside long ago and I was grateful to have seen her in such a manner.
And most of all the spots in between her legs, an overwhelmingly sweet scent of her was emanating out and I couldn't wait to discover her. By her own will, of course, I wasn't an animal.
But of course I was getting ahead of myself, I still had to deal with the sad sack of parak in front of me at the moment.
I stepped up to him and snarled as I grabbed his neck and began to squeeze before I beheaded him with my other hand. The rage at seeing her in danger, at seeing my Teren at risk, it drove me mad and I wanted to punish this bastard. He was cursing at me the entire time in that choked voice, but I didn't care, soon he would be dead, I made sure of that when my claws slipped into his neck.
A couple of moments later he stopped moving.
I could see her burying herself in the sands in an attempt to get away from me. I didn't have a translator on me, unfortunately, as almost all species were implanted with them at birth. The fact that she didn't understand me when I began to tell her to calm down was enough evidence to tell me that she wasn't going to understand a bit of what I was going to say.
That was going to be a problem for sure, at least until I got to the ship or at least until I found a translator that might be on one of these assailants.
And I quickly heard far more of them approaching.
I leapt back up to the top of the mound and let out a loud roar as my helmet and visor slid back into place. I began to dash towards the laser fire, swinging myself out of the way while they continued to rain down their shots. My claws slipped out and I growled while I rushed them. I should have been firing on them using my own blaster, but rage got the better of me and I wanted to make them pay for having the gall to harm my teren and to attempt to take her from me.
They needed to pay.
I snarled loudly as I run faster and faster, lifting my fists as I swing my arms in a wide arc to catch one of the Melphians as I passed by. I had managed to dodge all of their gunfire and all that I needed to do now was to slay the remainder, there were about four of them by my estimate. I could see the sand puffing upwards from where they were standing. I grabbed the corpse of the man that I had just slain and tossed him into one of the other men before ripping the rifle from his grasp and tossing it at the third. Now all there was, was the fourth one that was quite a ways away. He chucks a grenade, but it goes way over its intended mark and I hurled myself on top of him before ramming my fists into his face. The invisible shell around him completely collapses as soon as I strike him. I must have damaged the elec
tronics with the sheer force of my blows. I managed to strike him so hard that the rocks that he was standing on begin to crack before I finally peeled myself away.
I haven't felt anger like that in a while, I had to remind myself that this was just a job. I had to tell myself that the mate that I found might not even be compatible with me and thus she might not be a suitable choice no matter how attracted I was.
But there was another matter at hand now, the fact that the sand mound that she was lying near the foot of was now collapsed.
Chapter Four
Miriam
Where was I? The warm air made me feel like I was basking in the sun, nude and amongst the sands of this world or perhaps I was a babe in the grasp of her mother while the morning rays slid down on me.
But there was also the dull pain, an ache that was coming from my arms and legs, that was coming from my head.
I shivered in fear, my suit curling around me while I looked up and saw the man that was carrying me. He was dragging me onwards and I could only watch him for a little while before I fell back asleep.
In my dreams, it was a much different tale.
Evelyn smiles at me and beckons me over with that plate of cinnamon rolls sitting beside her on her nightstand, "You want one?" she asked.
I smile and nodded in affirmation before accepting the delicacy and biting into it. The gooey glaze on top, as well as the slight sting of the spice, consume me while she sighs and laid back.
"I got an offer today. They say that I get to ship back to Earth and sign up for a spot as a fellow at one of the universities, maybe it'll be at an Ivy league if i'm lucky." she suggested and I glanced at her incredulously. My eyes were widened and I was sighing in disbelief before a smile spread across my lips.
