by V. K. Ludwig
Ash Planet Warriors
V. K. Ludwig
Ink Heart Publishing
Copyright © 2021 by V. K. Ludwig
www.vkludwig.com
Publisher: Ink Heart Publishing
Cover Art: Eerilyfair
Editing: Tami Stark
All rights reserved.
No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means, including information storage and retrieval systems, without written permission from the author, except for the use of brief quotations in a book review.
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This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are either the products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, businesses, events, locations, or any other element is entirely coincidental.
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Warning: This book contains explicit sexual content.
Contents
A word from the author
Want to see what this Jal’zar hides behind his loincloth?
1. Lia
2. Zerim
3. Zerim
4. Lia
5. Lia
6. Zerim
7. Lia
8. Zerim
9. Lia
10. Zerim
11. Lia
12. Zerim
13. Lia
Also by V. K. Ludwig
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A word from the author
Dear reader,
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this novella is part of my new Ash Planet Warriors series, introducing you to the culture of the Jal’zar and the harsh planet they inhabit. While it is a spin-off series to Garrison Earth, it can be enjoyed entirely on its own. Please note, the story of Zerim and Lia doesn’t stop here. We will see them again in book 3, because the goddess Mekara has a way of bringing those things together that belong.
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Vanessa
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One
Lia
Beep. Beep. Beep. Danger.
A distorted voice ripped me from sleep, and I startled against the harness restraining me in my white leather chair. My pulse quickened to the roar of fusion panels, and my heart matched each pounding bang against the stargazer’s hull.
Mom gave a pat on my knee before she stroked a tousled, blonde strand from my face. “Magnetic forcefields. It’s not like I didn’t warn your dad how nasty this could get if we cut along Solgad.”
“Saves fuel.” Dad sat across from us, not bothering to look up from his holo screen as he shouted, “By the Three Suns, shut that damn alarm off, will ya?”
The pilot pushed a bunch of buttons on the control panel, and only spoke when the blaring siren died away. “There’s a solar storm brewing less than a hundred paces southwest of our course. If the instruments fail, we’ll have no other choice but to initiate emergency landing on the Noja launch pad.”
Mom drew out her sigh as long as it took to straighten her brown hair updo. “You just couldn’t take the usual route to Odheim.”
“I’m on a tight schedule, Nancy.” Dad gave an annoyed huff, underlined by how he let the ice cubes of his whiskey clank against the glass he held clasped in his hand. “Rounding Solgad saves us time.”
“Not if we need to bother with an emergency landing. Ships from Earth aren’t even allowed in close-surface airspace. Imagine the bureaucracy if we have to land. Or even worse, shelter among those… savages.”
I unbuckled and strolled to the bullseye window, stretching limbs stiff from hours of travel. “Hardly savages, with their uniforms buttoned to their throats.”
I’d seen Jal’zar, the aliens native to Solgad, once or twice. They had long horns which emerged from above their temples and swayed back. Gray-skinned with a blueish sheen, their tails carried a deadly claw at the tip. Still, in the age of interstellar travel, those things hardly caused anyone to bat an eye anymore.
If anything, I found them fascinating.
“A monkey can button a shirt,” Mom said, stroking the wrinkles on her blue dress as if they wouldn’t reappear the moment she shifted on her lounger. “Mrs. Miller told me they do it with their horses, or whatever they ride.”
“Oh please…” I rolled my eyes and stared out the window.
The gray plains of Solgad stretched along the red-streaked horizon. Ridgelines weaved through the landscape in black, the purple foliage of what had to be massive trees offering rare color.
Ever since the last war between the Empire and the Jal’zar, ships from Earth weren’t allowed to land. From what the scholar stratum taught us during interstellar politics class, both nations currently discussed political marriages to ensure continued peace. Some things refused to go out of fashion, no matter how archaic.
“It’s an interesting planet.” In a dystopian kind of way. “Did you know that, each day, about thirty solar flares strike the planet? That’s why they live in nomadic tribes, and their shamans—”
“Shamans.” Mom underlined the word with a dismissive swat of her hand. “Smudging the air. Tossing runes into the dirt. Shivering whenever they have visions. I paid one of them a small fortune when we visited Odheim to tell me about my fate. Nothing but cheap—”
A deafening boom cut through the air.
The palathium floor shook underfoot, putting a tremble into my legs and a sway into my spine. When I sidestepped for balance, our ship bucked and tossed. Arms flailing, I crashed against the unforgiving frame of the window headfirst.
Pain exploded above my temple.
Something warm trickled over my cheek.
Dad grabbed my shoulders, his lips parting, shoving, the sharpness of whiskey on his breath nauseating. He said something, his eyes blue like mine but rimmed with panic. A long, subdued whistle rang through my brain, hummed in my ears.
Slowly, so slowly it faded away, making room for the jarring, beep-beep-beep, and a robotic voice saying, “Danger!”
“Amelia!” Dad shook me, once, twice. “Get into the emergency pod. Now!”
Mind dizzy, the cabin spun around me. “We’re landing?”
“Crashing!” That word barely registered against the backdrop of chaos, and even less against how his damp fingers dug into my skin, hauling me into the escape pod. “Get in there, and don’t open the seal until—”
The clear door closed with a hiss, blocking out his frantic instructions. A tune played overhead. Something soft pushed against my spine. It swept around me like a wave, oozed from between my legs, underneath my arms. Gray foam expanded all around me, and the turmoil from beyond the glass disappeared behind it as it covered my face.
“Scanning vitals,” a female voice came muffled. “Head wound. Non-emergency. Elevated heart rate. Non-emergency. Minor bruising across thorax. Non-emergency. You are in a state of shock. Please remain calm.”
My heart pumped liquid fear into my veins, and my fingers dampened, leaving behind an itch I couldn’t scratch with this damn foam encapsulating me. It disabled any and all movements, save for how my ears pricked at each squeak of a screw, each low rumble, each scratch so high-pitched and jarring it drove shudders across my body.
Not even the foam could hide the violent shaking of the emergency pod. There was a hard bump, which rattled straight into my brain, turning me dizzy. Gravity shifted around me. My body turned weightless. Only for a second, though, because the weight returned twofold.
Another, much harder bump. Somewhere above me, something cracked. Sudden heat expanded at su
ch speed, sweat tingled along my spine within seconds.
At the third bump, it all faded to black.
Two
Zerim
Something reached into my soul, drove its sharp claws into it, twisted it, and yanked it out through my lungs.
My breathing stopped.
Pure, undiluted terror seized my body.
The world around me melted, distorted. When it returned, it came back together all wrong, starting with that scent of blood which lingered on the breeze, like a rusty nail or a warm coin.
Seconds ago, nothing had surrounded me but the open plains of Solgad, its gray soil cracked from moons without rain. Now, pieces of metal lay scattered around a depression, most of them scratched and bent, some turning black with soot against the dance of purple flames.
How the fuck did I get here?
I spaced out from time to time, daydreaming, but never had it been this… realistic. Everything, from the hot lick of the fire, the grit chafing between my toes, and the escape pods humming, felt real. By Mekara, I even sensed something trickling down along my cheek. Sweat most likely, so I tried to wipe it away.
I couldn’t.
Because I had no hands.
That terror intensified, and perhaps I would have scrambled away from this scene, but I had no legs either. What was going on here? I needed to get away from this place, but how if—
“Smack him!” a voice came from everywhere and nowhere.
Pain flared across my cheek.
What had to be a shipwreck disappeared, and I stared at the night sky instead, with its blood red moon casting an ominous shimmer onto two familiar faces.
“By the Heat of Heliar,” Jerem cursed, his black braids tousling in the wind as he narrowed his golden eyes at me. “You’re such a weird creature, Zerim.”
Against the nausea roiling in my stomach, I dug my hand into the soil and pushed myself up to sit. Another odd thing considering I’d sat astride my yuleshi only a second ago. “What happened?”
“What happened?” Kenar grabbed my horn and yanked me onto my feet. “We were making good time, sprinting toward Noja when you just… I don’t know… fell off your yuleshi and hit the dirt.”
“You spaced out,” Jerem added. “Sort of. Like with your eyes open, but you totally didn’t see us. Wouldn’t react at all.”
Which explained that throbbing at the back of my head. But only that. “I saw something. Or more like… my mind went elsewhere. A physical place.”
They exchanged a quick glance before Jerem folded his arms in front of his chest, his voice tentative when he asked, “You, um, finally had a vision?”
Unlikely. The goddess had cursed me with the physical attributes of a shaman, save for one detail, but never blessed me with the gift of visions. Or beastsight. Or rune divination. Actually, I couldn’t even brew a tea without accidentally poisoning someone.
Kenar lifted a brow. “I’ve never heard of a shaman developing the gift of visions after their tenth sun cycle.”
“Yeah, well, neither has anybody heard of a shaman with a cock dangling between his legs, but there it hangs.” Jerem jutted toward that detail the goddess had gotten all wrong, tucked away behind my dusty loincloth. “What did you see?”
“A shipwreck.” Whatever white strands had fallen from my braid, I haphazardly pushed back before I turned for Uruz, my yuleshi. “Stargazer, most likely. It had that silver hull with the wired exoskeleton.”
Uruz stood as calm as ever, watching me from his purple eyes, which matched mine so perfectly. My saddle had shifted, so I repositioned it, all while stroking along his black, furless skin. He lifted a paw and scratched at the ground, claws whirling up a cloud of ash.
“So you’re saying an Empire ship crashed on Solgad?” Jerem’s eyes wandered up the layered rock walls, and let them follow along the cliffs surrounding this valley. “Too dark to see any smoke.”
I grabbed Uruz’ reins, and swung myself back into my woolen saddle. “I never said anything about Solgad. Come on, let’s head back to Noja before urizayo Razgar gives us shit about returning so late.”
Warlord Razgar had hated me from the moment he’d spotted the end of my clawless tail. Yet another of Mekara’s curses, immediately giving me away as what I was: a hybrid.
The only living one.
My mother was a Jal’zar shaman. My father, however, was Vetusian, the race which had invaded Earth over a decade ago — right after he’d waged war on Solgad, occupying our planet for many sun cycles. Not a bloodline that made easy friends among my kind even though, at the core of my soul, I was Jal’zar. Bred and raised right here on Solgad.
Both my friends swung back onto their yuleshi’s, but Jerem reined up next to me. “And what if it was a vision? What if someone crashed out there?”
“I’m not a shaman.” Just a clusterfuck of curses, no matter how my mother had insisted I became the apprentice of Razgar’s shimid, the shaman of his tribe.
But Jerem wouldn’t let it go, and grabbed for Uruz’ reins before I managed to kick him into a walk. “Just imagine for a moment there is a wreck out there, and you find it before our urizayo sends warriors. If something crashed, airspace control picked up on it. You could finally prove yourself and claim your place among the shimids.”
The thought twinged somewhere between my ribs. For another three sun cycles, I would be part of Razgar’s tribe, a Warlord who treated me as if I was some sort of abomination. If I didn’t find a wreck and we returned way after city curfew, he’d have my hide. But if I did, wouldn’t it prove that I am Jal’zar? Shimid? Part of the people?
My gaze trailed toward the three rock spires as if on instinct. “I wouldn’t even know in which direction to ride. If there’s a wreck, emphasis on if, it could be anywhere on Solgad.”
So why did my heart beat faster the longer I stared at those spires?
Kenar grunted. “Urizayo Razgar will send us to scrub the grain stores again. We’re late already.”
“We simply tell him it’s Zerim’s fault because he fell off his yuleshi,” Jerem said. “Problem solved. For us, at least.”
“You’re a true friend,” I snarled and, when he only offered a shrug, I pointed eastward. “Let’s try that way.”
Three
Zerim
It took less than twenty minutes before I regretted riding out here. Mostly because Jerem groaned each time I changed direction, as if he hadn’t been the one suggesting I prove myself.
Jerem’s twentieth groan resonated the night, loud enough and so full of misery it put the faint roaring of ushtis to shame. “Swear by Mekara, we’ve passed this mother tree three times already.”
“Uh-uh, this is a different one,” I said, faking as much conviction as my voice let me. “We’re close. I can sense it. Like an expansion of something empty beneath my ribs. A void.”
Kenar scoffed. “Great. He’s hungry.”
“Shut up.” At a whiff of something bitter, like burnt oil but with a pungent undercurrent, I brought Uruz to a stop with a single tug on the reins. “Smell that? Reminds me of fusion panels when they first start up.”
Of course they only exchanged a look of confusion. They’d never even gotten close to the launch pad, whereas I had traveled to Earth and Odheim a couple of times.
My ears twitched.
Was that fire?
I followed the crackling, and the stench of burnt oil intensified with each step. I reined Uruz around a formation of wind worn rock. Something else intensified as well. An ominous sweetness lingered on the breeze, and my cock jerked in response.
My spine snapped straight, and I turned awfully aware of how Jerem and Kenar smacked their tongues. They sampled the air, rubbed the sweetness against their gums, both already shifting nervously on their yuleshis. Nothing but instincts yet, for some reason, my hands curled into fists as if I wanted to punch them.
Kenar rolled his shoulders, his nostrils flaring. “This is… unexpected. Where the fuck is this coming from?”<
br />
The answer presented itself when we passed a massive boulder, and the plains once more opened up before us. I shuddered at a sight so identical to what I’d seen earlier. Strewn metal pieces, dying flames, four emergency pods… it was all there.
“This is bad,” Kenar murmured, slowly raking his fingers over his brown braid. “Should I ride for Noja? Make sure they caught the crash and bring them here?”
“Might be for the best,” I said, and the moment he nodded and rode off, I slipped off Uruz, then walked toward the first emergency pod. “We need to get them out of there before the temperature control fails.”
Staring at the grayish foam pressed against the inside of the glass, I hovered my hand over the control panel. A hologram lit up, displaying a bunch of information. Age. Gender. Luckily, no major injuries.
“This man is alive,” I said.
Jerem tapped against the glass of the emergency pod he kneeled beside. “Same here. Should I initiate release?”
I nodded and hurried over to the next pod, except, my steps slowed all on their own. Each one amplified that sweetness, reaching a concerning intensity when I leaned over the pod, flesh hardening behind my loincloth.
Air hissed from a small crack in the glass, and my pulse quickened. “There’s a female in here.”
“As if I haven’t figured that out already.”
My hands balled by my sides.
That urge to punch again…