Alien General's Baby: BBW Human - Alien Surprise Pregnancy SciFi Romance (Brion Brides)

by Vi Voxley

  Naima shuddered, wondering what it would have been like to have her own body betray her like that, forced to kill itself without a choice.

  "You survived," she pointed out. "How?"

  Alona shrugged.

  "After the lifestone touched me, I reset a lot of things in my system. The Fearless didn't have time to break through all my defenses and the general was nearing. Its control over me slipped, but not before it did some damage. This body is almost done."

  Although she knew that replacing the shell was easy as a piece of cake, Naima couldn’t help but feel the very human emotion of sadness about that.

  Then the ship rumbled. The engine flared, looking like a giant pillar of light all of a sudden. Alona's eyes narrowed at Sinetha again.

  "She's destroying the ship," the android said. "We have to get out of here. Go, move!"

  Naima jumped up and ran to Sinetha, ripping her away from the machines. The trader fell hard, but didn't look too unhappy.

  "What did you do?" she demanded from the Chali.

  Sinetha only glared.

  "What I said I would," the trader shot back. "It's ending. The army is shutting down. I entered self-destruction codes. For the ship, too. We need to hurry now."

  "You couldn't have left us some time?" Naima snapped.

  The floor was coming apart under her legs.

  Great. This is what we were missing.

  "No time," Sinetha said. "It knows. It's coming."

  There was no need to ask what or who she meant. The Fearless' roar echoed even over the crashing, crumbling, rumbling of the ship.

  It has almost lost the army and the ship. It knows it's trapped here now, just like we are. No escape route, no allies. It's him or Braen.

  "Kerven!" Naima called.

  The warrior was already moving.

  He lifted Sinetha up with a look that could kill while Naima rushed back to Alona.

  If someone had told her a few months ago that she’d be risking her life to save a Chali android, Naima would have thought the person well and truly out of their mind. Yet here she was, offering a damn piggyback ride to an android of all things.

  "Climb on my back," she instructed.

  The android did, but not before losing some weight. Naima wasn't even shocked to see the casual ease with which the android ripped its own legs off and hoisted itself up on her back. It was a burden, but she could move. Perhaps even run.

  "Go!" Naima ordered and they rushed out of the engine room.

  "We need to get far away!" Alona called over the deafening noise. "The plasma engine will level everything nearby!"

  A thought occurred to Naima as she struggled to keep up with Kerven, who was clearly taking it slow on her account.

  "What about Braen?" she demanded.

  "Run!" Kerven ordered this time. "The general will have felt it too! He knows what this means!"

  Naima wasn't convinced. In the next moment she got her answer.

  An entire wall fell away and the Fearless appeared, the bloodshot eyes making it look insane.

  It only took one step towards her before Braen crashed into the monster from behind.

  The general’s armor was in shambles and she could see deep cuts underneath. The Fearless didn't look much better, its metallic skin torn and scratched.

  They rolled on the ground when Kerven caught her by the hand, hoisting Sinetha on his shoulder none too gently and dragged her along.

  "Braen!" Naima cried out, but the general disappeared behind a corner and the endless snow fields welcomed them.

  They kept running. It felt like a dream. Scratch that, a nightmare. Her limbs weren't her own and neither were the movements - jerky and robotic and clumsy. She almost fell a couple of times, but other warriors joined them and Naima felt Alona's weight lifted from her shoulders as she righted herself.

  Under her feet, the lifeless androids lay. Above her head, the two armies battled, a perfect image of a petty feud when the fate of the galaxy was at stake down on the planet's surface.

  Kerven led them to the nearest shuttle, but Naima's feet wouldn't take her there. She looked back at the mothership, creaking under the pressure of the overloading engine.

  The general was fast, but how fast was he? Who could outrun a blast like that?

  I could stop it.

  "I have to go back," she said.

  Kerven caught her arm again, the warrior's eyes wild and horrified.

  "I promised the general I would keep you safe," he said forcefully. "You can't help him. It's out of our hands, Miss Jones."

  No.

  "Let me go," Naima growled, ripping herself free. "You have to trust me! I know what I'm doing!"

  I'm risking my life by running towards an unstable plasma engine.

  "I would give my life for the general, but you must forgive me, Miss Jones," Kerven said solemnly. "I can't let you do that."

  Naima felt angry tears rolling down her cheeks, but she never got to tell Kerven what she thought of him at that moment.

  Alona still had the gun and the shot struck Kerven right in the back. The warrior went down, grunting. Naima knew it wouldn't keep him down for long, probably wouldn't even dent the armor, but the second was all she needed.

  She turned and ran, for her life and for Braen's.

  38

  Braen

  The lights were back on.

  Braen had only needed them to guard Naima and now that she was long gone, there was no need to make the battle even harder. Brions saw well in the dark, but the kind he'd summoned was difficult even for him and normal dusk wouldn't have done anything to disadvantage the Fearless.

  He was walking the edge of death now in broad daylight. It seeped in from the hole in the roof of the ship that the Fearless had punched when it jumped an impossible height to avoid Braen's killing blow.

  The general was very keenly aware of how close to the edge of oblivion he was. Every step, every move threatened to be his last. It was everything and nothing like fighting the unrelenting androids. They were as cold as the ice fields below their feet, while the Fearless was all rage now that it had to risk its real body.

  The planet seemed to come apart from its hinges beneath their feet, but Braen recognized an overloaded engine when he heard one. He grinned, seeing the Fearless realize the same thing. The beast roared so loudly it was hard to hear his own thoughts.

  Naima.

  She'd done it. His gesha had managed to disarm the android army and the ship like she was supposed to. Now it was all up to him.

  "No escape now," he growled to the enemy. "You thought to have it easy. Kill me, take Naima and take the Chali ship to the galaxy after slaying all the warriors who came to the surface, leaving the flagship empty.

  “Perhaps you even planned to take the Benevolent. You came very close the last time we met, after all. Now you will have to face me again and I know you remember how it ended for you before."

  The look in the Fearless' eyes told him he'd struck close to home. The enemy retreated from him and Braen let it go, needing a breather for the first time in a battle in his life. He held the spear loosely in his hands, ready to raise it up on guard when the beast moved again. His breaths were heavy, as were the Fearless’.

  The tall, powerful warrior before him looked nothing like the monster of nightmares that he'd killed, but it was no less dangerous for it. Quite on the contrary. The Fearless had chosen well, if Braen was going to admit it.

  The draconic beast had been slowed down by its bulk, although it was still inhumanly fast. And with a body that big, the general had had an abundance of places to hit, and hide behind. This new form was nothing like that. The same everlasting fire burned in the enemy's eyes, but it was powerful and lean, no longer the dragon of fables, equipped with limbs that helped it fight instead of providing targets.

  Braen stood, his intricate armor in shambles around his body. The Fearless had landed a blow on him more than once during their fight that had lasted without a pau
se for almost an hour. His shoulder guards were gone, as was much of his breastplate. Blood flowed down his body freely and he could taste it in his mouth. There was a large gash on his neck, the closest the enemy had come to killing him.

  It had taken several of his most treasure valor squares with it. They were lying on the ground now, broken and discarded, although one was still slowly blinking.

  One of the Fearless' swords was broken. There had been an insane, timeless moment when the beast had gotten too close, using the advantage of Braen not being able to swing the long spear at close range. He'd had no choice but to let go of his weapon and wrestle the beast to the ground with his strength alone, fighting away four arms by gripping one of them.

  That was where he'd lost most of his armor and cracked at least a few ribs that now made themselves known through sharp spikes of pain, far too much like last time. Still, he'd lived. And broken one of the Fearless’ swords in half on his knee.

  The Fearless had taken damage too. The metallic skin was exactly as tough as Braen had predicted, but nothing could be made indestructible that still lived. It looked torn now, cut in many places to release silvery blood to match the skin's tone.

  One of the arms was bent at an awkward angle. The Fearless knocked it back into place with an angry grunt.

  "You threaten me with my own plan," the monster said. "I wanted to fight you here or I would have left. I will still take your life and then I will take the girl, as well as the ship you boast."

  "Not anymore," Braen replied as calmly as he could, his voice roughened by the cut on his neck that had damaged his throat. "Do you hear that? The ship's about to be destroyed. In a few minutes, there will be nothing on this sad little world to take you away from here. Whether you win or lose, you're trapped here until the day you die.

  “The Benevolent will take great pleasure in blowing this planet out of existence and you along with it. Do you still feel the strength of the lifestone as you did before, Fearless? Will you be able to return so swiftly? I doubt it."

  It wouldn’t be ideal, but Braen would take the short reprieve of killing this incarnation if that was what was necessary, if he could not take care of the threat for good by himself. There were measures in place, the Benevolent had been primed with the knowledge that if he were to not return, then the planet and the Fearless could not remain.

  It had always been the direst fallback plan, as it assumed the death of him as well as his gesha. But he knew that the universe had to come before all else ultimately, if his gesha’s life could not be spared before it. At least then, he could give the next warrior a chance to truly win.

  The Fearless didn't answer this time. It stared at Braen with the purest form of repulsion he'd ever witnessed. If there was ever anyone in the galaxy who loathed everything about him, it was the monster whose very existence he threatened.

  In the next second, the monster smiled and dashed out of the room without a word, cackling laughter echoing behind it. Braen followed without hesitation, but he'd been a moment too late to stop it from fleeing. With its immense strength and skill, the Fearless was able to half-run and half-crash through the shaking ship faster than he could keep up.

  Braen knew where it was going and it made the general's heart boil. The remaining valor squares on his neck pulsed a furious battle tune, urging him on to do what he should have done already. Unfortunately, the Fearless knew to avoid the spear.

  Braen could hear Naima's startled cry when the Fearless bashed through a solid wall to get to her.

  Naima!

  He didn't waste a second in charging the enemy, bodily knocking it to the ground to save his gesha as a roar of anger tumbled over his lips. At that stage of the battle, the Fearless was desperately looking for ways to kill him. If it threw one of the swords, no one could dodge that, especially not Naima.

  They went down together, rolling on the breaking floor. Out of the corner of his eye, from between the blades that were coming for his eyes, Braen saw Kerven dragging Naima away. She didn't look scared and lost like she had during the first days of her being aboard his ship. There was savage determination in her eyes.

  “Braen!”

  She screamed his name and it echoed in the hall, mixed with the sounds of the engine going wild.

  Even recognizing that nearly cost him his life. The Fearless had twice the hands he did and they had caught on his throat. It was pressing down with savage glee and the strength of ages behind its bulging muscles.

  Braen gritted his teeth, grabbing a hold of his spear with two hands and pushing it up against the Fearless' chin. The other two hands dropped the swords to scratch and tear at his flesh, but pain was nothing compared to victory. He held on, stretching out his arms, trying to break the monster's neck and jawline.

  A hoarse grunt told him it was working. The Fearless was powerful and strong, but it wasn't invincible. He of all people knew that. They stayed locked together like that, refusing to give ground because every second brought the possibility of death closer to both. Blood pooled around them as the fight neared its conclusion.

  The Fearless fought for its life. Braen fought for the chance to see Naima again. Boundless hunger matched against eternal love.

  It was in that moment that Braen truly experienced the truth every Brion warrior knew, but few ever experienced. Flesh was weaker than the mind. His will to triumph over the Fearless was burning brighter than ever, but even he had his limits and the enemy was pushing him alarmingly close to them.

  He could see the same thing on the face of the Fearless. It had not expected to battle for so long, neither one of them had.

  Braen knew that war wasn't as glorious as other species sometimes seemed to think it was. Those who didn't live and breathe the turmoil of battle were bound to forget what it was really like. There were no victorious stances with shining armors, standing atop the corpses of your enemies. There was suffering and struggle and pain. It was never glamorous.

  The corridor they were in was littered with corpses, their stink floating in the air, sticking to Braen like an invisible cloak. Ragged, sharp edges of the broken walls and floors were digging painfully into his back.

  The ship itself was coming apart, bearing the possibility that the victor wouldn't survive long to celebrate, regardless of who it was. The immense damage they'd dealt to each other was showing. Flesh clawed away, revealing bone.

  The Fearless was moving slowly and jerkily, his four arms pulled out of their joints too often to be properly put back. Braen had taken full advantage of that, aiming his hits in certain locations, damaging the nerves and tissue in pressure points. The enemy looked like a broken doll, but it was no less deadly for it.

  Quite the opposite. As he lay there, hearing the Fearless' breath grow more rapid and struggled by the moment, Braen grinned, knowing that the hardest part still lay ahead. They were both broken.

  Now, the real battle was about to begin.

  Every Brion knew – only when death was an option did the warrior's true colors show.

  Every inch of him hurting, the general put his entire mass behind the last push and shoved the spear in his hands forward. The enemy's head snapped back with a nauseating crack, signaling a broken bone, but Braen didn't stay to savor the victory. The hands around his throat relaxed and Braen took the first breath he'd been allowed in long minutes.

  He kicked the Fearless off him just as the ship finally began to break down. The ceiling was cracking under pressure, thick sheets of metal peeling back to reveal the open sky and the spectacle of the battle in orbit.

  There was a dangerous charge in the air and then the tide of the battle changed. Like a wave breaking over the shore, the Fearless jumped on the wall and climbed up through the hole in the ship's hull. Braen saw it and followed suit, jumping from floor to floor until he reached the fleeing monster.

  He had a second to gain his balance on the icy roof of the Chali mothership. Judging by the way the massive vessel was shaking, twisting in its sno
w bed, they didn't have much time. Perhaps not even to escape, but the smile on Braen's lips dragged only wider.

  These were moments that he wasn’t even supposed to have. Naima had clearly slowed down the process somehow, buying him more time.

  To fight and prove himself was all he'd ever asked from life and the day offered the chances to him in droves. In part, he had his gesha to thank for that.

  "You will die here!" the Fearless howled to him. "The ship will claim your life."

  "Nothing is certain," Braen replied, taking the first steps in a charging run. "Only what we gain for ourselves with our own strength and blood. That is the Brion way."

  The Fearless had no choice but to stand and fight. So there, overlooking the battle field and the departing fighters and dropships, they decided their fate and that of the galaxy along with it.

  They clashed together, three swords and broken arms of the Fearless against the general and his spear.

  I will not break, Braen thought with savage glee. And neither will my spear.

  The ground beneath their feet turned red from blood as their weapons drained the life from each other. Braen caught the blows of the swords on the shaft of his spear, trying to strike back with the blade before the Fearless recovered.

  It was like a trapped animal. The hatred that had fueled it through all its long life was raging now, every bit of the malice aimed at him.

  There was no stopping, no mercy, no pause. Braen felt one of the shorter swords stab into his gut, a blow that should never have landed. The Fearless bellowed in delight, twisting the serrated blade in his chest.

  The general felt it go through him like a hot knife through snow, but it gave him his chance at the same time. Grabbing a hold of the Fearless' hand with his, Braen refused to let go, knowing that if the short blade came out now, there was nothing to stop him from bleeding to death.

  In surprise, the Fearless roared and the ship started to break inwards beneath their feet. Together, they lost their balance, but between the monster that didn't die and the warrior who had been prepared to meet his end in a violent way since birth, Braen kept a cooler head.