Kreux

by C. R Corbin

  Kreux (Morelen Princes Book 3)

  by C.R Corbin

  Table of contents

  Chapter 1

  Chapter 2

  Chapter 3

  Chapter 4

  Chapter 5

  Chapter 6

  Chapter 7

  Chapter 8

  Chapter 9

  Chapter 10

  Chapter 11

  Chapter 12

  Chapter 13

  Chapter 14

  Chapter 15

  More from the Author

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  CHAPTER ONE

  Rebecca

  There was a fire in the sky all day today and it didn't seem to be letting up.

  I knew that this place was in the center of this little war between the two princes. Kreux was supposed to be invading today and steamrolling any attempt by Scoran to stop him. That's why all that I heard from outside of this room were the clashes of metal and lasers for quite a while. I could smell the ash in the air and the way it drifted over my nose made me want to quiver in fear. I told my younger sister to calm down while I gazed out the small peephole.

  This was not what someone my age should be doing

  A girl in her mid-twenties should be running around having the time of her life with her friends. I should be in school somewhere and spending the nights with handsome men, I shouldn't be stuck in a place like this, in the crossfire of a battle between two arrogant princes that don't know how to control themselves.

  This was not my fight.

  "Becca." Emily whines beneath me and I shook my head. I pressed a finger over her lips and told her to keep it down.

  I didn't know what Kreux's army was like but it was possible that they were vicious and would execute you on the spot if they felt like it. This has been Scoran's territory since the war started and I knew what they were like at least. Sure they dragged people out of their homes and gave them horrid beatings and sometimes even used them as meat shields but they aren't strangers, you know what you get. As long as you were well behaved the only ones that they would take were the rowdy middle-aged men...and occasionally the women if they felt like it.

  Fortunately, I was able to avoid such a fate. Some part of me was a bit hurt at the fact that I wasn't attractive enough but quickly dismissed the thought as childish.

  After all, this was war, survival was the essence of winning.

  I look down to the rest of the people trapped in the basement with me. My aunt, my uncle, some of the other people in the village including the various elders. I frowned as I spotted them shaking, their eyes filled with as much dread as there could be in a single human soul. Why has humanity forsaken us in this manner?

  When I first received news about the war I thought it was some sort of joke. Really? Two Morelen princes wanted our little moon because it was in between their two planets and would serve as a good checkpoint? I think they just wanted an excuse to claim the territory. Our moon was nice, I will admit that. There was plenty of arable land and water to go around here so that must have been why they wanted it. It was owned by humanity but the humans decided that it would be less costly to not interfere. I scowled at the thought, we had really been abandoned, left behind and forced to live like animals in this warzone.

  When Scoran arrived it became a living hell. When I was growing up, our village was a veritable paradise. I would wander into the woods surrounding my town and hike the mountains and eat various fruits that grew from the plants here. There were plenty of animals and sunshine year round so I never did have to worry about much except for playing with my friends. As I got older I had wanted to enroll in university here and I did. I got into school and got a degree in business of all things before everything burned up right in front of me.

  The war started a year before I was set to graduate and this little moon was taken over immediately.

  Just like that, all evidence of my progress was hacked and I was left a bitter husk of what I once was. No amount of sunshine here could pierce the clouds of smoke and ash that arose daily as a result of the combat and I quickly grew hateful towards our captors.

  "Sister?" Emily asked and I gave her a forced smile to keep her quiet and she seems to be satisfied as she turned back to converse with our aunt.

  Poor thing was 16. With any luck they wouldn't be taking her, they wouldn't be harming her. With any luck, this war would be over and we would only have to deal with one of them. Some nights I prayed that humanity grew some balls and reclaimed this place but I knew that it was a pipe dream ultimately.

  We were at the mercy of the wolves now.

  Scoran was a horrid man, spiteful, hedonistic, rage-filled. Rumor has it that he would collect as many concubines as he pleased from the people on his lands and his planets. Traditionally Morelens adhered to a rule of mating but he apparently didn't and found his pleasures wherever he could. He would routinely kill his own subjects for so much as insulting him. If a negative word about him was said openly then you would be sure that the person who said such things would be found in a horribly dismembered state in the morning. Their corpse would probably hang in the middle of town or their families would be taken and slain. Sometimes the person would just disappear for weeks before returning as a husk of themselves, unable to function, practically dead emotionally.

  And as for Kreux? He was a mystery.

  Ever since Scroan's rule started here there wasn't any new information about the prince that had just set up his kingdom on the nearby planet of Monowa. Monowa was, by all accounts, a lovely world with a variety of beaches and trees that sat upon a lively ocean. To have received such a planet for his service must have meant that Kreux was impressive and I could see that clearly from how he was taking care of the troops that were guarding this town. At times I wondered if there was any real difference between being at war and being ruled over by Scoran. Each time I thought about it I came to the same conclusion.

  There wasn't really, but I would probably take a quiet day under totalitarian rule over being bombed into submission.

  From my little spot I could see the jets flying overhead and the troops running around the town center. I was surprised that Scoran's men didn't just drag us out and finish us all to prevent Kreux from getting any real population to work with. The thought of dying here made me sick to my stomach, I couldn't bear watching my little sister and what was left of my family cry and shiver behind me.

  I had to be strong, I had seen enough of this war to know that it didn't matter. None of this mattered. There was only going to be pain from now on.

  Since Scoran took the area over, my mother and father have died as a result of his presence. I remember my father had fought in the militia against them, but was quickly killed, my mother made a smart remark at a guard one day and was promptly shot. I will never forget them and what they did I held the same hatred of Scranton in my heart and yet...I felt so powerless. I wanted to simply give in.

  And some part of me even thought Kreux might have been better. A foolish corner of my heart yearned for a new ruler, as strange as that sounded.

  I gripped the window sill and watched the boots run on by. I had to duck my head down when I saw too many of the soldier passing and I was quickly dragged from my spot by Emily who stared at me with eyes full of hurt. I could tell that she was worried as I was all that she had left. My father died when she was about 6 and my mother perished when she was about 10. I could be as suicidal as I wanted to be, but that didn't make it any more fair for her, I had to understand that.

  "Are you out of your mind?" my aunt chided me.

  "You could have bee
n spotted and killed." My uncle said.

  I only shot them a morose look in response.

  "Don't give me that face Rebecca." growled Emily as I glanced at her with an empty expression, it was all I had to...feel anymore.

  "You really think Kreux will be any better?" i asked and she shook her head.

  "That doesn't explain why you want to take a peek and expose us all. Are you nuts? They might think we're the enemy and raid this place." she said and I sighed. A part of me wanted to scoff at her claim since there were so many other spectators simply watching and the invading forces didn't do a damn thing about it but I simply apologized and left it at that.

  I didn't want to have to argue.

  I could hear the boots clamoring in the house above us as the soldiers took their spots. The door to the basement was tightly bound and locked to prevent anyone from coming in and slaughtering us. It would likely get us in hot water with Scoran but then again almost anything did. We just wanted to survive and judging by the reports it looked like Kreux was going to be taking over sooner rather than later

  In the last couple of days before this Scoran himself stopped by to see if he wanted anything from the town. Aside from a couple of women and some food he mostly left the place alone. I think he decided that we would be more trouble for Kreux to deal with and didn't bother transporting us out of here.

  My aunt was exhausted, between her daughter's abduction and the war, the once tough woman that I knew was fading. Those blue eyes of her's lost their lives and were now dull, her blond hair was growing greener by the day and her wrinkled cheeks seemed to sag with every expression. My uncle didn't fare that much better. Those brown eyes of his seem to have gotten blacker, his brown hair had fallen off and left him bald, there were liver spots at certain points, the two of them were supposed to only be about 50 and yet they looked elderly. Their daughter was a lovely girl, my cousin Francine, too bad she was blessed with such beauty because she was claimed soon after her 19th birthday when the prince came into town. I distinctly remember the tears running down her cheeks from those soft brown eyes of hers while that blond hair whipped about her back. Her wrist was tightly grabbed by Scoran as he dragged her aboard his craft before departing, her hands seem to quiver and I could see her once in pain as she as guided aboard, never to be seen again.

  For once I was blessed with my own hideousness. To be chosen by a Morelen prince could have been a blessing or a curse, too bad that in most cases it was the latter and not the former.

  My sister Emily was small and slender in contrast to my curvaceous body. She had the same brown hair as me but her eyes were green whereas mine were blue. We both share a tight bond due to the loss of our parents but I wasn't sure what else I could do for her at this point. I was running out of the will to go on for myself, let alone for the two of us.

  Just a little longer. Just a little longer. Perhaps Kreux would be better.

  No! What a ridiculous thought that was! Of course he wouldn't be better! All of these men are the same, they all hunger after one thing and that is po234, that is all that they shall ever hunger for.

  I grimaced and hugged my knees while the explosions continued. We were safe from any air attacks for the most part so I wasn't afraid. Hell, I don't even think I could be afraid of anything anymore considering the fact that our lives were probably going to end in mediocrity either way.

  My sister grabs my hand and I looked her in the eye to see if there was any real fear in those soft green orbs of hers. Her bottom lip quivers and I watched her hands shake as she holds me and begins to tremble from the fear wracking her system. I could hear the troops marching in and busting down the doors, it was only a matter of time before we were discovered.

  I hated Scoran, I hated Kreux, I hated them all. Why couldn't we have been left alone? If these warlords never had their way then I would still have my parents and an actual home.

  Now, all that I could do was wander around the town in fear and hide in my home like a recluse. This was not living! This was the antithesis of what I wanted to be doing. Some part of me wanted revenge, the other part wanted me to simply give in to the darkness and allow it to consume me. What is life without hope? It's hell.

  "Goddamnit goddamnit!" one of the young boys began to cry out while his mother shushed him. I would presume that his father was recruited for the war effort and had passed away since the war began.

  There was nothing here for us now...absolutely nothing.

  And then the door cracks open and I dared myself to look up at our intruders.

  They stand there with their swords, axes, and guns. They gaze down at us with their red and golden eyes while their grey and blue skin glimmered in the sunlight. Even the weather didn't agree that today would be dreadful, the sun kept on smiling at our destitute and damned home as if it was mocking us.

  The men began to shout things that we don't exactly understand but we do understand the gesture of their hands. They want us out of the basement. Who are we to disagree? I slowly trek up the stairs with a sigh, followed by the rest of my family and neighbors, we stumbled out of our clay homes and into the central courtyard. The brutalist architecture of this village was shattered at spots but mostly intact. In fact, it even looked somewhat pretty in an experimental sense. I find myself gazing at the burning piles of rubble and courses as we continued onward to the center. Scoran's men were laid on the sands and dirt, the trees flicker over their bodies as the men shut their eyes and fell into the grasp of death.

  This planet looked so much like Earth since it was terraformed from many of the same organisms...but it resembled Earth during its infancy more than it resembles the Earth of today. Battered, bloody, smoldering with the hatred of man.

  And as I kneel in the shadows of Kreux's troops I can only lament our fates.

  #

  Kreux

  "Drive the rest of them out of here! Head into the valley and chase them all down. I don't want a sign of any of their troops here by the time we leave today." I growled into my radio as I watched the jets whizz past the town in pursuit of the fleeing troops that were presumably running towards their airfields.

  I would have thought that our air support has taken care of most of their fleeing troops and their air support but some were managing to make it off. My men were already in hot pursuit on foot and in our ground cruisers so all that was left was to maintain our position at the town. The battle had been a success, we knew that Scoran would have tried to plant a trap for us in the town so we provided faulty information and attacked before he could acquire such preparations. Now that we had control of Durol and its towns, namely the one that we were in at the moment, Klosa, we had a vantage point to attack him as we wished. There would no longer be long trips from Monowa in pursuit of him, now we could actually have a foothold against his forces.

  It wasn't easy at first. Our invasion of Durol had been costly and it took nearly half a year in order for us to finally pierce his defenses. We raided a singular spot over and over again until we finally broke through the blockade that he had before we set foot on his planet. We fought from that tiny stretch of land that we had landed in and finally etched out our own territory. By now we had approximately half of the moon under our control. This town was just the next piece of the puzzle that would be our victory.

  "Sir! The townsfolk are ready for inspection." said a soldier that ran up behind me. I glanced back at him and nodded before glancing at the center of the town that we had just raided.

  It was small, more of a village that a town or a city. It was rather strange that such a village was emphasized as an objective but I supposed some towns simply didn't feel the need to expand into large cities. In this climate and this territory, it would have been better to have small towns and besides, it would be cheaper for colonists to settle in a place like this rather than a metropolis. There was plenty of room to go around in the galaxy so not every settlement had to be massive. There could be lower-inco
me places such as this that gave people memories of a more...distant time, more primordial.

  But I was getting carried away, it was no time to ponder the intricacies of interplanetary settlements when I had a town that I had to inspect and people that i had to watch. If I wasn't careful then one of them might be a sleeper agent for Scoran.

  We hop onto the hovercraft and slowly make our way towards the town. The roads here were made from gravel and rock, the need for actual paved roads was lost long ago once hovercrafts were invented. We float onwards and I looked towards my men that were all scouring the area. On instinct, they bowed as I passed, I smiled and waved at them although they couldn't see my grin due to the helm that I was wearing. The collection of dark green plates shone in the sunlight and my red visor glimmers as i continued onwards. Finally, we get to the outskirts of the village and I get a good look at it.

  It looked like a collection of black blocks placed on top of black boxes, there were about 20 homes and a couple of central buildings including a town hall, a library, and a school. There was little else besides that. I could already see the citizenry getting herded out of their homes and their basements to go towards the town hall. The town near here wasn't actually that far away, the communities must have been quite tight-knit.

  "Here we are sir." said my driver as I hopped off the hovercraft. My boots clash against its smooth white plating as I hopped onto the dirt road and walked forward. The ground here was made out of stone and was smooth as could be, I watched as the humans here observed me. In their eyes were varying levels of fear, anger, and hope.

  Hope?

  I had heard stories of what Scoran had done to this moon and its communities. Apparently, the largest city on this moon, Kewor, was completely devastated by forces. Over half of the population of that city was killed, imprisoned, or taken as hostages due to dissent or the fact that Scoran had wanted to use them for his own...pleasures.

  Ugh.

  What sort of self-respecting Morelen ruler did that to another living creature? He didn't have any shame and I knew this fact quite well but it didn't change the fact that he was scum and he would always be scum. I think that I was granted this planet by father after my service because the entire Morelen Empire wanted this stain on their legacy gone. He had a strong military and an indomitable will but I knew that I could defeat him.