Mated To The Cyborgs (Interstellar Brides: The Colony Book 2)

by Grace Goodwin

  Why was I the practical one in this? We hadn’t known the depth of Krael’s treachery, not until now. No, that was wrong. We knew someone was destroying the Colony, one warrior at a time. Preying on them, kidnapping them, converting them and making them into moles, into warriors for the Hive.

  “Fuck no. I trust Maxim with my life.”

  “What’s done is done. Brooks is dead. And the Colony will be destroyed if we don’t stop Krael. Yes, he got away once before, but we knew who to look for. And now he’s here. With us. We have to kill him.” I didn’t keep my voice down, I wanted Perro to hear us, hoped he’d be foolish enough to turn and lower the force field trapping us. He twitched, as if listening, but resumed pacing, ignoring us completely. He was gone.

  “Krael is one thing. No one is prepared for this.” Hunt waved his hand through the air indicating our current predicament, the secret base. All of it. “I don’t know if killing Krael will be enough.” This complex, the number of Hive walking around, was much more than we’d expected to find, and much more dangerous to everyone on the Colony.

  “I know.”

  We sat in silence and I welcome the quiet preparing myself for what was to come. I would not succumb to the Hive processing. I would fight to the death, take as many of them with me as I could. Hunt had to escape, warn the others, take care of Kristin.

  “I’m going to rip them to pieces, Hunt. When it starts, get the hell out of here. Take care of Kristin. Warn the others. This has to be stopped.”

  “There is no stopping us.” Krael appeared at the front of our rock cell, standing on the other side of the force field, just out of reach. We were on the floor, our backs resting against the cold, unforgiving rock. We’d stood and paced for a long time when we’d first arrived, but knew to conserve our energy for when it was time to fight back. We would have risen if the person facing us warranted respect, but Krael deserved none.

  More, we hoped our appearance of cooperation would entice them to lower the force field.

  Krael did no such thing, just stared down his pompous nose at us. “The Colony will be slowly infiltrated by the Hive. We will conquer this world and it will host a complete Hive battlegroup. We will be able to attack the closest member planets with ease from this location. After that, all of you veterans—” he spat out Queen Deston’s honorific for those that lived on the Colony as if it were foul, “—will be considered ruthless killers and destroyed on sight.”

  He was right. If the Colony was taken over by the Hive, the general population of all Coalition planets would think all returning warriors were tainted, regardless of whether they’d been integrated and escaped or not. Any hope of recovery from Hive implants and integration would be lost. Hatred and loathing would spread for us, already the most feared members of the interplanetary community. We’d destroy ourselves, be exterminated by our own peoples, and the Hive would ensure the job was complete.

  “Not going to happen,” Hunt growled, refusing to look up at the traitor.

  Krael had the audacity to grin. “Yes, it will. And by you. The two of you will mindlessly work for the Hive in destroying first this planet and the community you’ve worked so hard to create.” The horror that would follow he left unsaid. We all knew what would happen if the Colony fell under the Hive control. Earth was the closest, and least protected, planet. Humanity would fall first. Kirstin’s home. Her people.

  He was a worthless excuse for a Prillon. While he was as large and forbidding as Hunt and myself, he lacked honor. I had no idea when he’d switched allegiances, but he’d destroyed plenty already. At least what we knew about.

  He had no Hive integration that I could see. No new eye like Hunt. No bots in muscle like I had. What had the Hive done to him? Did he have integrations in his arms, torso? Or had they modified his brain? He spoke as himself, sounded cognizant of his choices, and that made me hate him. He wasn’t being controlled or manipulated, he betrayed us all for his own selfish ends. What those were, I neither knew nor cared. His motives were irrelevant. He was the enemy. First chance I had, I was going to rip him in half.

  The missing men who’d been taken recently were mindless Hive drones now. We’d seen them as we were brought here. While they looked like their former selves, they were a shell, a functioning unit controlled by the Hive. The portion of their brains that made them individuals was gone, disconnected.

  But Krael? He wasn’t mindless. No, he was too cunning, too ruthless. While he worked for the Hive, I had to wonder how he was controlled by them.

  He worked alone, at least as far as we could tell. It was unusual for a Prillon, most had a second, even if they had no mate, a trusted brother to keep the loneliness at bay. But Krael was a mystery, one we would solve if we could get out of the damn cell. He had no collar, no connection to anyone but the Hive.

  He grinned, but the expression was cold.

  “Your time is coming. Soon. But I’ll leave you here to wonder when.” He angled his head toward Captain Perro. “He’s been converted so nicely. He used to side with you, protect your back. Now he will shoot you there. At my command or at the Hive’s whim. He patted the now Hive controlled warrior on the shoulder, but Captain Perro didn’t even blink in response to the action. “With him, we put him under before we inserted the Hive processing unit in his prefrontal cortex. He can’t decide to take a piss without permission. But with you?” He shrugged. “We’ll see. The fun of what they are doing here is finding different ways to re-integrate. What was done to you before was simple experimentation in comparison.”

  He studied Hunt’s eye, squinting. “They’ll finish what they started with you, Hunt. The frontal eye fields will be fully integrated. You’ll be walking eyes for the Hive.”

  Hunt blinked, slowly, but refused to rise to the bait.

  My uninjured hand fisted. I wanted to kill Krael with a ferocity I’d never known before. But I contained it, controlled it, like I always did with my emotions. I had to bide my time. There would be a moment of opportunity, I just had to wait for it.

  He turned and left then, his footsteps heavy on the rock floor, leaving Captain Perro to remain as our guard, the once proud warrior now our constant reminder of Hive power and ultimately our own weakness.

  Hunt pushed to his feet, put a hand on the wall to steady himself. “We have to do something. We can’t just stay here, trapped, waiting to die.”

  I looked up at him. He was used to being in control, as was I. It was in our very cells, to lead, to dominate. Being trapped as we were was doubly hard for us. I was just as angry as Hunt, but I was always the cool headed one. At least in situations like this. In battle, I was ice cold. Precise.

  Hunt could lead, was a diplomat and a strategist. But now? Now he was seething with anger and it bubbled over. The darkness he never showed escaping, anger flaring with every glance at Captain Perro.

  “Krael will die for this. And slowly.”

  I didn’t say anything. I didn’t need to.

  After a few minutes of letting Hunt fume, I had to be analytical. To think clearly, logically and not be driven by the depth of our anger. “We can do nothing now. We must wait for the opportunity. It will come, but we must be ready. We must be strong. Rest. Your head must feel like a fucking boulder.”

  Hunt turned, sighed. He let his shoulders drop, let the tense angles settle, at least for now. He knew I was right, knew we needed to let it all go, at least for now. “It does. Shit.” He moved and dropped back to the floor beside me.

  To conserve our strength. To wait.

  * * *

  Tyran, Containment Cell, Hive Caves

  I must have slept. I had no idea how long, but the sound of boots woke me again. With my elbow, I nudged Hunt, who stirred. “It’s time.”

  Hunt’s eyes opened, then when he heard the footsteps, his jaw clenched. He stood slowly, a hand on the wall. Thank fuck for the collars, for I sensed while his head still hurt, it wouldn’t be too much. He needed a clear, focused head, not a concussed one. I ros
e to my feet as well. Waited. Side by side as always.

  Perro and a purely evil Hive Integration Unit stood on the other side of the energy field. The Hive moved to press some button and the continuous whirring sound stopped and I knew the energy field was off. My ears rang from the void.

  “You will come with us,” the Integration Unit said, his voice monotone and robotic. I glanced at him, then Perro. I thought of the Captain as he’d been before the Hive got to him. Again. When I looked at him, I could think of little else.

  Just a few days ago he’d been sitting across from Hunt, miserable, just like every new arrival to the Colony. He didn’t deserve this. He’d fought in the war, survived capture, made it to the promised safety of the Colony—and the Hive had found him here just days later. He’d been a loyal warrior and I was angry for the Prillon he’d been, even more disgusted that this had happened to him here on the supposedly safe planet, right under our noses.

  Hunt glanced at me, then went to stand beside the Hive unit. He didn’t have to say anything. I felt it all. Rage, frustration, resolve, determination. We were either getting out of this whole—or as whole as we were now—or we would die. I’d somehow kill Hunt myself before letting him get strapped onto a fucking torture table. He’d do the same for me.

  He walked down the long hallway, past a row of empty cells as I stepped in beside Perro. There had been nothing we could do from the containment cell. Now was the chance to find an escape, a way out of this. We needed to get free and get word to Base 3, to tell them where to find this underground hell and destroy it.

  I felt the nudge of an ion pistol against my side, pressed up beneath the top half in the space where there was no armor. I didn’t need a weapon jabbing me to force me to walk. I was already on my way to whatever fucked up shit they thought they were going to do to us. Perro pressed the gun again. I narrowed my eyes, looked down at the weapon, ready to tell him to fuck off. He might have been my ally once, but no longer.

  But the gun wasn’t pointed at me. No, Perro was pressing the hilt into my side. I raised my head in surprise, looked him in the eye, the one good eye he had left, and nearly stumbled. “Take it,” he breathed. I barely heard him and my eyes widened. Neither of us faltered in our steps, knowing what he was doing might be witnessed. “But you must kill me.”

  You must kill me. Yes, he knew his fate, knew that the glimmer of the warrior that was left in his body was no competition for whatever the fuck they’d done to his brain. How had a sliver of him remained? But if he was in there, then he could be saved.

  I took the weapon, settled it familiarly in my hand, my arm behind my back to keep it hidden from the Hive Unit in front of us.

  “We will take you with us,” I whispered. He was a good warrior, one of us. I would not leave him behind if there was a chance for him.

  He shook his head once. “I’m lucid now, but I’m done. It’s taking over, minute by minute. I’m fading, forgetting. There’s almost nothing left. Kill me.”

  I saw his head jerk, his clear eye going blank. His hand gripped my arm painfully. His steps became rigid, just like the Hive unit in front of him. From one instant to the next, he was no longer Captain Perro of the Coalition Fleet. There was nothing left of the Prillon warrior.

  I wasn’t sure if there was a glitch or if he wasn’t finished with his transition, but he’d been there, if only for a few seconds. Would he return again? Could I save him during a lucid moment?

  I had to test it, to see if he could be saved.

  “Perro, don’t let them do this,” I said, my voice loud. Hunt turned his head, looked at me, but I ignored him. He’d sensed the change in my emotions through the collar. While he might not know what had just transpired, he’d sense a hope that wasn’t there just a minute ago. A new resolve to get our fellow warrior out, too. “You’re a fucking Prillon, not a Hive.”

  Nothing. No response.

  I tried again. “Warrior, armor up.” I gave my best command voice, used the words that were always given by a commanding officer before going into battle.

  Perro’s head turned, met my gaze and I watched as his pupil dilated, his grip loosened but did not drop away. “Sir,” he replied, but the Hive Unit beside Hunt stopped and turned. He pressed a button on the comm unit on his wrist and Captain Perro’s body convulsed. He didn’t fall to the ground, but it was as if he’d been shocked, as if the Hive brain implant had been rebooted. When the Hive lifted his finger, Perro stilled. His hand fell, the eye black again. Empty. I knew then he was gone. For good? I couldn’t be sure, but he’d been right. There was nothing left. He didn’t deserve to be left this way. He deserved an honorable death, a warrior’s death, instead of being controlled by a comm unit.

  He’d given me the gun in one of his last moments of lucidity to save ourselves and perhaps some of the others. I would give him his final wish. I would set him free.

  Seemingly satisfied—I had no idea how a Hive unit could have feelings—the Hive who’d reset Perro turned and began walking again.

  My mind was processing everything so quickly it was hard to analyze. Perro had been cognizant enough to help, perhaps in his last moments as a Prillon, or he wanted to ensure I helped him escape. Perhaps he’d held on, fought the processing enough to get to us, to escape in the only way available to him. Death.

  But now we were free, at least out from behind the energy field. Out here, my strength couldn’t be contained. When I’d been captured by the Hive the first time, they’d made me powerful, strong. No, beyond strong. My bones, my muscles had been altered and I made an Atlan beast look like a small child. The Hive unit in front of me was no competition. I could rip the head from his body while maintaining mental clarity, unlike the beast. I could do it. I would do it. But I had to wait. Now was not the time to raise attention. We needed out of the brig and to see what was beyond. To see if there were others who needed rescuing as well. To discover if we faced a dozen Hive or a hundred.

  All I knew was that we were still on the Colony, that there was this secret base, built and being used by the Hive to destroy the new life Hunt and I, and every warrior on the Colony, was building. It must be destroyed. The warriors would need a plan, or at the very least, information.

  After I’d seen what I needed to see? Then all the technology the Hive had put in me would be used against them. They’d be destroyed by one of their own creations. They’d built a monster, and to get back to Kristin, I would unleash him.

  The Hive were fucked.

  Chapter Fourteen

  Kristin, Outside Hive Secret Base

  “How the hell did a secret Hive fortress get built on the Colony without anyone knowing?” I whispered. Kiel was beside me, both of us just peeking over the edge of a rock formation to see the entrance below. It was well fortified by rock, as if it had been built into a volcano or something. Guards manned the single wide door.

  “I’m new to this planet,” he said. “From what I understand, we arrived the same day.”

  The Everian was just as big as my mates, which was a surprise because they were downright huge. For someone of such large proportions, he was stealthy, his feet all but silent on the rocks as we’d followed the path he alone could see.

  It was as if he had infrared vision or could see invisible bread crumbs or something, because he hadn’t changed direction once since we’d left Krael’s quarters. Part bloodhound? I had no idea, but the man was a fucking genius at tracking. No one else on the planet knew about this base—at least the good guys—and he brought us right here. Well, it hadn’t been that easy. The trek had been long and there hadn’t been an actual path to follow. No, I felt as if I’d climbed more rocks than a mountaineer scaling Everest. There wasn’t a mountain—we hadn’t gone up anything steep—but more over undulating formations that were sharp and craggy. My armor was scratched in several places from bumping the rocks and my hands were sore from gripping the rough surface to keep my balance.

  But that was nothing. I knew beyond that en
trance was an actual hell.

  I looked to Kiel, the Hunter. I’d learned the Hunter was an actual title. Marz told me they were bounty hunters or police across the Coalition planets, depending on the occasion. Hunter was apt since he was so damned good at it. Everians were recruited by the Coalition, and assigned to elite assassination and recon units for just such a purpose. I hadn’t asked, but I wondered if that was how he’d been caught by the Hive. I doubted I’d ever know, but apparently they hadn’t done anything to weaken his abilities. Walking with him was strange, like walking with a psychic or something.

  He knew where my mates were. He just seemed to know.

  We were ahead of the others, scouts on this mission, as Rezzer and Marz watched our backs. Which was fine with me.

  I saw no path, no sign of two huge Prillons, let alone a bunch of Hive.

  “Since I wasn’t here, I don’t know how this place escaped their scans. There must be some kind of cloaking device.” He lifted his head, inspected the sheer rock faces around us. “Or magnetic interference from the rocks.”

  If I wasn’t involved in this, I’d think he was talking sci-fi mumbo jumbo. But he had to be right. How else could this place avoid detection?

  We remained still, watching as the guards were swapped out with replacements.

  Hive.

  I’d never seen them before. Ever.

  But yeah, I’d watched a couple Star Trek movies. These things were like Captain Picard’s borg, but bigger. Scarier. They weren’t little humans turned into cyborgs, they were seven and eight-foot tall monsters coated in silver. They traveled in groups of three, always three. I’d heard about them, but Earth media had done a good job of downplaying their seriousness.