by Crystal Dawn
Modern Majuri Warriors series
Book 1
Subchief Ranni
By Crystal Dawn
Copyright 2016 by Crystal Dawn
Cover by Eagle Eye Covers
Editing by Eagle Editing
This is a work of fiction and characters are entirely a product of the author’s imagination. Any resemblance to a person living or dead is merely coincidental. Any places or events are not real or were used in a fictitious manner.
Prologue
The Marjuri warriors were unlike any race in the universe. They were caught in that place between bad and good, that grey area that other races couldn’t quite decide about. They were capable of great things, they had saved other races, but at what cost? They couldn’t or at least didn’t, mate with their own kind. It was an unusual thing, incomprehensible to other races. How could you not breed with the opposite sex of your own race? Some said it was a ruse to take over the known universe. If it was, it seemed to be working since the Marjuris slowly and insidiously spread out from their home world a little at a time.
Their traits were dominant and except for the rare throwback that statistics demanded, all the offspring were Marjuri. They were warlike, a necessity when you took the citizens of other empires to bind with your own people. It wasn’t just the males, the females too were strong warriors and mated only outside their own race. They just didn’t mate just anyone either, they searched for their bond mate but if they attained middle age without finding them, they mated the strongest, smartest or the most beautiful of the choices available.
Modern Marjuri Warriors
Subchief Ranni
Chapter 1
Purgatory
She used her spyglass which looked like something an ancient Earth pirate might use. Kasey saw the squad of Majuri warriors searching the building she and her siblings had stayed in several months ago. Her breathing was only now calming down from the scare she had just had and the energy expended to put as much distance as possible between her and them. Scavenging in an old cellar when she had picked up a transmission from the squad of warriors, she had been lucky to get away in time, since they were headed her way. She must had been spotted.
Kasey grabbed her backpack hoping to go out as she usually did, but she saw the guard in the alley she would have cut through. Luckily, she had come alone, so she headed the other way going to a previous residence then cut out the back way. They had tracked her, some said they had heightened senses and she believed it was true. The smoke bomb at the back door would interfere with those special senses causing them to lose track of her.
Watching as they milled around the alley, unsure of where to go next, she saw when he joined them. He was taller than most, broad enough to stand out, and she supposed handsome enough if you liked the military type. That man reminded her of the descriptions of a Viking from old Earth. Their leader was bare chested, his muscles gleaming from exertion and he wore a horned helmet with a metal band around the bottom and chains hanging from it.
A long braid of black hair hung down his back swinging from side to side when he moved quickly. She could imagine his startling grass green eyes, she had seen them before up close. They seemed to glow when he was angry, which he was every time he chased her, but failed to catch her. His black leather pants fit like a second skin and heaven help her, she wondered often what his body looked like under them.
Somehow he seemed to be heading directly to their night time residence. They stayed one place during the day, but another at night to make it harder for their enemy to trap them. This wasn’t good because it meant someone had snitched on them. There was no way he could have found it on his own. He stepped back letting his men proceed.
Good luck, assholes! Kasey thought as she ran to find a new shelter for herself and her two younger siblings. She’d left them a fine surprise when the got into the kitchen and fell over the trip wire. It wasn’t lethal, just a little fun house warming gift to the group that had stolen their home of the last six months. The trip wire was always there in front of the one door they never used.
Purgatory wasn’t much, but it was home. It was rumored to be a former penal colony of far distant and legendary Earth. It was said they had abandoned it when it was overloaded with prisoners. According to the tales that were never confirmed, anyone from a petty thief to a mass murderer could be dumped here in the effort to keep their planet clear of any criminal element. Trials weren’t always fair nor were those dumped here limited to those guilty of a crime. Anyone the government wanted to get rid of might go to sleep in their own comfortable bed and wakeup with their face in the mud of this planet. Those were the stories told to her since she was a child and Kasey believed them, but the Majuri said Earth was a fairytale.
Twenty-five generations or more later, Purgatory had become a wealthy well run planet exporting a wide array of products ranging from luxury agricultural goods like coffee and chocolate to the high tech products. Their top producing company, Mercury, originally developed communications of all types then branched out into other areas. Life had been good, Kasey worked for Mercury as one of their top researchers. That was all before the Grabbers came. That was a nickname because that was what they did, they came grabbed everything of value including the citizens if they had any talent, and they left the rest to starve.
Kasey, her sister Hel who was sixteen, and her brother Lane who was only ten, had made an art of hiding from the Grabbers. It was almost a year now since their parents had died in the initial attack on their planet. Now the Marjuri warriors were here trying to take anything the Grabbers hadn’t yet managed to take. They wouldn’t get them, and she would enjoy matching wits with the Marjuri who was chasing them. She pulled out her tablet to watch the show. Subchief Ranni had been chasing her and her siblings for about a week now. He had finally figured out where they were staying and he and his misfit crew were moving in for the kill. He stood back, tall and proud, obviously in charge as his men went through one room of the warehouse where one side had collapsed. They finally made it to the kitchen which appeared to be locked.
Kasey figured they assumed their prey had holed up in their making their last stand. She never stayed anywhere without a back way out and an alarm system that warned her when anyone got too close. They were confident in their ability to bring down any resistance that was clear to see. They didn’t even consider they were walking into a trap.
Hel and Lane who had joined her when they realized she was home, sat close leaning in to look at the notebook so they could enjoy the show. They could hear the loud thumps as Ranni’s men pounded into the door in their effort to knock it down. The door made a cracking sound, the next hit would surely splinter it and send them flying into the kitchen. They stepped back, this time they really put their shoulders into it. The door disintegrated under their weight, they flew into the room tripping the wire.
A loud boom sounded as the garbage bin blew discharging its contents in the direction of the interlopers. Foul smelling bits of fruit, vegetable and meat scraps spewed through the door not sparing a single soldier. Ranni, a very neat and perfect soldier took it with surprising calm. He was covered in apple peels just like the rest of his men, but he wasn’t trying to shake it off. Instead he was looking around until his eyes fell on the camera. The cold look in his eyes cut off the laughter Kasey was enjoying as she had watched the horror in his men’s eyes as they realized rotten trash was all over them.
He moved his wristband to his mouth and ordered the camera to be traced. Kasey immediately shut it down. She shivered as she looked at the last picture on the screen which was Ranni seeming to look directly at her.
The look on his face was intent and deliberate in a way that scared the hell out of her. She knew she was on the list, not just the Grabber’s were after her, but the Marjuri warriors wanted her too. She knew the Grabber’s wanted her for her job skills. Kasey had been Mercury’s fair haired girl designing all their recently popular products. She was a veritable electronics whiz kid, but instead of it making her life easier, it was making everyone out to get her. The Majuri claimed to be here to help them, but if that was true, why were they chasing down those who wanted nothing to do with them?
Kasey viewed the Grabber’s and the Marjuris more as competitors than enemies. They both took over worlds, the main difference between them being that the Grabbers were salvagers, the Marjuris were conquerors in the guise of saviors. She didn’t want to be captured or saved.
“He sure looked pissed off.” Lane observed.
“Watch your language Bubba.”
“You’re my sister, not my mom.” He replied getting more rebellious with each passing day. Some days it didn’t seem to pay to get up.
“We need to leave town. He ain’t gonna stop.” Hel advised. “Not that I would mind being chased by him.” At sixteen she was boy crazy and all her hormones seemed to be awake. She was a good girl and a big help with Lane but if the right warrior approached her, she would be his. Hel knew what she wanted and right now it was a man.
Kasey thought back a few years to when she was sixteen but she had been too focused on her career to notice guys. In all fairness, she noticed Ranni just fine. It was her sense of self-preservation that made her run, not a lack of interest. He was too perfect and he was a warrior who had no problem making the hard decisions that left collateral damage in his wake.
She often wondered if he’d not attacked the Grabbers when he had, would her parents still be alive? It was a question only someone with a time machine and the ability to stop the Majuri attack could ever answer for sure. Once the attack had concluded, the grabbers had run away to salvage another world, one without a Majuri battleship in orbit.
The question as to why the Marjuri didn’t just eliminate the Grabbers came up often. Kasey didn’t know why everyone couldn’t see the answer clear as day. Without the Grabbers coming in and abusing worlds like hers, what excuse would the Majuri have to come in and take over? This world wasn’t so torn up that it couldn’t be rebuilt easily. Majuri home worlds were over populated and this would give them a place to send their people. By blending the population, it would only be a couple generations before everyone here was Majuri too. Conquer, control, assimilate was the Majuri’s three rules for planets they assisted.
When the Grabbers were removed, Purgatory was conquered. They were still fighting to control small segments of the population, but they were already assimilating her people as mates and bringing their own people in to start rebuilding in the areas where they did have full control. Kasey knew it was a losing battle, but damn if she was just going to give in.
‘Where do we go now?” Lane asked.
“Hel is right. We need to get the hell out of town. Problem is first we need supplies.” Kasey agreed.
“Can I help?” Lane asked.
“Will you listen to what I say?” She asked.
“Yup. You know me, Sis.”
That was the problem, she did know him. He was ten going on thirty and wanted to be a general rather than a soldier. Their dad had been able to make Lane behave, but Kasey and Hel, short for Heloise, hadn’t had much luck. Mama had always said boys will be boys as if it explained everything. It was times like these she missed her parents more than anything.
Kasey checked some of the other cameras on her screen looking for the Majuri warriors. Dare she hope they’d gone back to their camp or maybe even their ship? Darn it, no. There they were searching every house on Main Street, but that’s not where they would find her and her siblings. Ranni hadn’t yet developed the ability to think outside the box that had made some of his predecessors famous.
All the school children in this galaxy studied the Majuri and those leaders that had stood out. Possibly the most famous leader of all time was Chief Radvar. He had brought even the most warmongering of his groups under control with an iron fist while still having empathy for the weaker people of his empire.
Kasey thought it was his ability to assist others and establish good relations without completely overrunning them that had made him a good leader. Five hundred years ago, he was on his best warship with the best warriors of his people. They and the head ship among their enemies had vanished never to be seen again. The only clue, was an anomaly caught on the radar at the nearest deep space station the Majuri had at the time.
Radvar was Ranni’s many times removed great Uncle. Some said he resembled him physically and in his fighting style. Somehow she suspected that Radvar wouldn’t have chased her and her siblings but if he had, he would have caught them by now.
Her father had taught her to fight, but his focus had been on how to evade the enemy. Her family was the descendants of a military family, too. Kasey’s last name wasn’t Haygood for nothing. They would fight until they had no more strength. Never surrender and never give in had been drilled into her all her life and she wasn’t changing her ways now.
In the early morning, before most people were up and around, they would raid the military camp for supplies. It was brilliant, if risky and the food would be better than they’d had since this whole thing had begun. If they succeeded, they would be legends. If they failed, they would be caught. Plans began to form in her mind and she giggled when she thought about how Ranni would react if she pulled this off. The man would be furious and heads would roll.
It was hard not to feel sorry for those unnamed and unknown warriors who would be punished. They would recover but if they were caught, she and her siblings would never be the same.
Chapter2
The Majuri Assistance
Ranni hated this lousy little planet. As he brushed rotten apple peels off his uniform, he thought of the female that was giving him such a hard time and he grew hard. He’d been after her for weeks now and it was becoming embarrassing that she kept evading him. With all the technology and well trained warriors on his side, a slip of a girl and two children shouldn’t be able to circumvent him and his soldiers this way.
He was frustrated more than anything but he also admired what she was able to do, even if it smelled to high heaven. “Send the males to clean up, Flander.” Flander was his second and while they were both still young, their rank was high. Ranni was on the path to being his father’s successor someday. He would be Chief of all Majuri when that happened.
It was early to find his mate, but that could be a good thing once she stopped making a fool of him and he captured her. Flander suspected, because there was no other reason to chase down a young woman caring for two children that clearly wanted nothing to do with them. They had no devious purpose in being here but she didn’t seem to believe that. He got a faraway look as he remembered the first time he had seen her.
Ranni was instructing his troops in how to disperse the rations and other aid they were here to give to the inhabitants of Purgatory. The Majuri had a bad reputation, but they were only here to chase off the Grabbers and help get the planet’s industries back on track. It wasn’t entirely for charitable reasons, this planet supplied them with some of the technology that helped push the Dramites back a hundred years ago and continued to sell them cutting edge tech.
The Majuri were warriors, not industry minded and while they wouldn’t oppose a treaty for protecting this rock; they really had no use for the place. The problem was anytime they had contact with other worlds like this, connections started to form. It was inevitable. Looking up, he saw a long line of locals coming into their aid station looking for supplies and bottled water.
He felt bad for these people and the others the Grabbers attacked simply because they were too weak to protect themselves. Looking down the long line of humans, his eye was drawn to one.
A compulsion hit him that made him stare at her and he couldn’t look away. It was impossible for him to move closer as she and the children grabbed supplies. She looked over her shoulder at him and she was nervous as she and the children hurried away.
Once she was out of sight he could finally move. There was no doubt what had happened. Ranni had come face to face with his fated mate. His fangs had dropped and filled with venom, but he had been frozen and unable to move. Once he’d found himself free, the hunt had been on but, she had managed to evade him and his warriors ever since.
It was hard to say if her success was a sign of her intelligence or a failure on the part of him and his warriors. Humans would say she had the home field advantage and she had used it successfully. His father would say it was shameful that he had allowed a mere human to make a fool of him. Maybe his father underestimated some of the humans. Ranni certainly had to admit he himself had underestimated one in particular.
Headed back to his tent, he stripped to take a shower, needing to get the nasty odor off of him. All his males were doing the same thing right now. Their senses were strong and that horrible smell overwhelmed them. He wondered what she was doing right now and assumed she was hiding out somewhere it would be hard for him to find.
The Majuri paid out several rewards to humans who had informed on her or they would have never managed to get as close as they had. His mate had a natural talent at evasion and he was torn between feeling pride and frustration over it. All he knew is he was driven to find her and determined to claim her. In the morning, he would start his search all over again.
Once he’d washed the smell and the nastiness off, he felt tired but was sure he wouldn’t find sleep easily. Before he’d come face to face with his mate, he would have found some anonymous female and sated his passions. Now that was impossible because only she would do. Lying on his cot, thoughts of her and what he would do to her once she was in his grasp floated around in his head.