Page 23 of Warrior
The guard froze, an expression of horror flashing across his face—his last conscious movement. His hands clawed as his neck as the acid in the atmosphere burned into his skin andlungs. His mouth contorted in a scream, but only a faint keening sound hit the air before the Aljani slumped to the ground.
He wasn't the first male I killed… and certainly wouldn't be the last. As war chief of the Bardaga, taking life to protect my brethren and the weak was my duty. I knew the deficiency of every single species in the galaxy and how to exploit it. I trained the warriors under my command to kill swiftly and efficiently. In battle, it was kill or be killed. I’d always expected to meet my end in battle, finally succumbing to one more skilled than myself. The thought of death never bothered me… until now.
Daisy.
Now my heart had more to beat for than just blood and battle. She was something precious and sweet the Valana placed into my life path—a gift for which I possessed eternal gratitude, even if the only kiss I would ever share with her had passed.
I must protect her and the younglings, even if it meant pushing thoughts of her and my desire aside.
I concentrated on the Aljani guard at my feet. His weapons were a standard-issue laser blaster and blade, nothing fancy. I slid both weapons into my belt before grabbing the guard’s feet and dragging him into the shadows of the henge.
My skiff sat just a few kilometers away, hidden in the shadows of a larger henge. The presence of this guard was too coincidental this close to my ship.
Fuck!
The only good thing about Giezo’s acidic atmosphere was no wind, which meant the guard's footprints were easy to track. Only one set so far, leading away from my skiff, the pattern of his gait suggesting a scouting mission.
Staying low, where the shimmer of my enviro-suit reflected the red dust underfoot, I moved onward. I would fight the entire Aljani army to retrieve that medi-unit. Without it, Ewok would die, and Daisy's heart would break.
I could not withstand her heartbreak.
My mind centered on my mission. It took only minutes to traverse the miles to the second henge rising like a monolith from the moon's surface. These rocks were massive beasts. I barely spotted the gleam of my skiff's metal hull in the midst of the stones.
I didn't need to see the faces of the three guards to know they were Aljani. The weapons carried at their waist gave them away.
They'd set a border around my skiff, dim lights atop thin poles driven into the moon’s surface. A sloppy job that made me cringe and entirely indefensible. Granted, I was Vaktaire, stealth was in my DNA, but these three were too loud and sloppy in their movement to suggest any battle training. One strutted about, shoulders reared back and chin high, dust clouds kicking up beneath his boots, making him appear to hover on a red cloud. The larger of the three sat on the ground, his back against a stone—he might be asleep. The third one kept touching my skiff and suffering from the low charge travelling along the hull—a theft deterrent common on all Vaktaire ships.
It would be easy to attack—to kill them. So easy it seemed like a sin not to do it. Aljani were not known for their prowess in battle. Their military strength came from technology, which was lacking on the surface of Geizo due to the acidic air.
Even if they had the best Aljani weaponry available, battling these three would be easy—boring, even.
Why would Duke Ako, the reigning Aljani noble send such sloppy guards to oversee something as illegal and profitable as mumje mining? He should have used well-trained mercenaries, like Kerzak or Trogvyk. Species he could disavow if accused.
It wasn’t like Duke Ako to risk his reputation in a situation like this. An accusation of mumje mining would bedisastrous to his standing with the Alliance. Despite his fetishes with human women, Duke Ako was very respected in political circles. Maybe he didn’t care? The Duke ranked as the wealthiest being in the known universe, rich enough to buy a human, drugs or anything else to satisfy his urges.
Mining a drug like mumje meant you had only one thing in mind… conquest. Even with the Alliance guarantee that the drug was destroyed, most planets had built-in atmospheric defense against the drug. I could think of only one that didn't—Earth. The Alliance would never allow such an attack on a helpless planet like Earth—neither would the Vaktaire. To attempt such an onslaught would cause interplanetary war. From what I knew of Duke Ako, he favored spending his wealth in peace.
I kept to my crouched position near the base of the large stones, watching as the guards milled about. I should kill them for boring me to near death. Not to mention the repeated eyerolls their behaviors imparted was giving me a headache.
I needed to get the medi-unit back to Ewok, but the war chief in me knew this was too good an opportunity to pass up. The guards might know the plan for the mumje, and that knowledge was worth tarrying—at least a few minutes.
It would take little effort to subdue the guards. Yet I hesitated. Despite their lack of skill, Aljani were fiercely loyal to their Duke. The guards might not talk easily. Torture would make their tongues loosen—I knew that from experience. But torture would take time, a luxury I didn't possess.
There was one way to get the information quickly. I needed to let them capture me. Ego always loosens the tongue. Capturing a Vaktaire warrior, especially the war chief of the Bardaga, would be a tremendous ego boost to these three dumbasses.
No, Ewok was more important. There would be other guards, especially a scarred one I could take my time with and torture until secrets littered his screams. Shifting, I silently slid my axes into my hands.
The tall one, I’d nicknamed him Cocky, turned slightly as though he’d heard me. I knew better, but his movement allowed a better glimpse of the weapon at his belt.
Aside his laser blaster, the guard held a weapon with an elongated barrel that flared at the end. A mortar. One mis-aimed shot from the weapon could explode my ship. A risk I would take only after having the medi-unit in hand. Letting them capture me was the best plan. I could get to the skiff, then kill them at close range—quickly and efficiently.
I slid behind the stone and unsheathed my other axe, enjoying the weight of the weapons in my hands before sliding them into the shadows. Not even Aljani were dumb enough to think they got the drop on an armed Vaktaire warrior. I had to make this appear they got lucky—and I knew exactly which one would be easiest to fool.
Dumbass.
He earned that nickname again, placing a finger along the hull of my ship and yelping, apparently too stupid to realize all the outer panels of my skiff held an electric charge after getting zapped several times. Yeah, I would easily convince Dumbass he felled me in a fight. I just needed to get rid of the other two first.
Pulling several small stones from the ground. I crept to the edge of the stone closest to my skiff. The shadows were too deep for them to spot me as I tossed the first rock. It landed with a loud thwack far on the other side of the skiff.
