by Vivian Venus
The Ezrokian high general spoke, his voice amplified throughout the gigantic amphitheater filled with hundreds of dignified guests from around the Galaxy. “It is with Doctor Cast and her team’s brilliant developments that we are now that much closer to landing a decisive blow against the Veldarian enemy. Doctor Cast, congratulations again. You deserve this highest honor, and more.”
Down on the opposite end of the stage stood a line of Ezrok Warriors all dressed in sharply pressed uniforms and standing stiffly at attention. Commander Grahf was at the head, with Reylar next to him. I saw him turn his eyes towards to me and give a quick wink, and I grinned.
After I had left the stage I waited at the side for Reylar to make his exit. The line of warriors turned in unison, and then marched off. The moment he stepped off I ran to him, leaping up into his arms and kissing him.
“Hey,” he said, smiling probably the biggest I’d ever seen him smile. “Is that okay for you to be doing? With the baby?” He set me down and put his hand on my swollen belly.
“She’ll be fine,” I said, smiling.
“Warrior,” a sharp voice called. Reylar stiffened up as the Ezrok high commander strode over.
“Sir!”
The high commander was even taller than Reylar, his uniform adorned with intricate tassels, beads, and other signs of rank, and had a huge scar running down his left eye.
“So you must be Ven Erz,” he said, looking him up and down. “I’ve heard a lot about you. Couldn’t believe some of things from your past came from the same warrior responsible for keeping Doctor Cast safe and taking out that Veldarian.”
Reylar looked like he was having trouble responding.
“Still. I’m impressed. Doctor Cast here is possibly the most important asset to this war effort. I understand you two have become mates?”
“Yes, sir,” we both said together. The high commander nodded.
“Warrior Ven Erz, I am promoting you to the rank of Warrior Agent and assigning you as a permanent guard to Doctor Cast. You will receive full compensation, full clearance, and your record as warrior will be expunged and replaced starting with your exploits foiling that Veldarian assassin. You’re starting fresh, Agent Ven Erz. Congratulations. And congratulations on the baby.”
He gave a brisk salute. “Thank you, sir,” Reylar said, shocked. He saluted, and the high commander strode off.
“I just got promoted,” he said, still sounded shocked. “A Warrior Agent… That means I’ll never have to leave your side, even off planet.” He grinned and hugged me. “I love you, Lily,” he said. It was the first time I had heard say the words out loud, expressing it in that way wasn’t something usual for Ezrok culture so I had understood, but hearing them said…it overwhelmed me. I laughed and kissed him deeply.
“I love you too, Warrior Agent Reylar Ven Erz.”
We left the auditorium to a warm Martian day. The sky was filled with the hovering shapes of Ezrok cruisers – ships come from the Ezrok home world packed with workers, researchers, supplies and new technology all meant to help usher in a new era for Mars.
It was a new era for all of us.
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WARRIOR’S FATE - TEASER
Grahf Ven Diel is a master warrior of the Ezrok, the alien race who conquered humanity, and his home is on the battlefield. When he is condemned to a reassignment to the backwater human colony on Mars, Grahf feels he is facing a sentence of misery…until he meets her.
He’s never desired a mate before in his life – his training prevents it – but this human girl is unlike any female he’s ever met.
Casey Pearce never asked for this. Ordered to quarter this tall and mysterious alien soldier at her farm, Casey is reluctant to trust Grahf. She knows the stories of the atrocities committed by the Ezrok during the war, but the more time she spends with him the more she finds herself helplessly enthralled by his presence.
A human and Ezrok shouldn’t be mated…so why do the bonds of fate draw them together?
Warrior’s Fate is the series prequel to Warrior’s Desire! Learn more about the Ezrok, Commander Grahf, and the Veldarian conflict! Buy it now!
Three honor badges for exceptional skill and bravery on the Veldarian front and this is where I find myself – stripped of two ranks and on my way to the Earthling’s newly seeded second home out with the farmers and the backwater traders, all because I refused an order. And what a ridiculous order it was – one completely without honor or sense. Yet, I suppose I should be thankful that I was not discharged, or worse.
The warship Kahran Prime exploded out of crossversal warp, the spiraling cloud of energy outside of the viewport window snapping away like a puff of smoke being sucked from an airlock, and I was greeted with the dreary rust colored surface of Mars. I was a little surprised at how much vegetation there actually was – I had seen images in the briefings, but seeing it in reality made it almost impressive. Light dustings of low growing trees in loosely packed forests that, from our altitude, made the surface look as if it were blotchy with faded moss. I saw the vast stretches of sath farmland, cross hatching through the red soil and interspersed with the occasional small lake or pond. Sol, the Terran System’s single sun, burned close to the horizon and the sky was going reddish pink with the sunset. It was beautiful, I had to admit. On the Veldarian front there were hardly any quiet moments to admire the beauty of anything except battle. And what glories battle could bring.
I donned the clean, crisp lines of my Ezrok official military uniform and reported down to the hangar bay where three other warriors were lined up for the mission to the surface. Like me, each of them had made trouble in some way, though none had been as decorated as I. Whether or not they were as skilled in combat, I did not know – but I highly doubted it. They were fresh, undisciplined. I shouldn’t be lined up with these soldiers, I should be leading them. I wasn’t sure what was a worse punishment – forced retirement and being sent back to Ezrok for reprogramming, or carrying out this pseudo-mission here on this shit rock. I took my place in the line.
“Heard we’re going to be quartered with humans,” Grenlok, a huge and hulking beast of an Ezrok said. “What shit luck.”
“I’m alright by it, if you ask me,” said Reylar. He had been transferred to the Kahran Prime shortly after I had. I had heard he had been caught with his commander’s daughter. Like I said – no discipline. “Have you ever seen a human female?”
“Never in real life,” Cayd chuckled. “I’ve been told that human women are the most beautiful creatures in the universe.” Cayd was the only warrior who I had known prior to my time on the Kahran Prime. I fought alongside him against the Veldarians a year ago – he was a capable warrior but ruthless and unwieldy. It was no surprise he ended up here.
Reylar grinned. “Fortune holds, I’ll be quartered with one of them. Maybe two.”
They laughed. I could no longer hold my tongue. “And just what do you think our purpose here is, warrior?” I bellowed, irritated. “To get your cock wet?”
They were surprised and stiffened up at first, a conditioned reaction to the tone of voice I had taken, but then slackened back down again. “What do you think we’re doing here? This is no mission of importance. We’re here because we fucked up, and they needed someone to do the job so better us than their very best.”
That stung. He was right of course – which made it all the more painful to me. Because I had defied orders, made an ethics judgement instead of obeying without question, I was no longer considered their very best.
“Attention,” the harsh voice of our commander croaked, and we all straightened up and stood at attention. The battle scarred elder commander’s boots cracked loudly against the metal floor as he entered the hangar. “Warriors. Welcome to the Terran system. I’m sure it’s a first time for mos
t of us being here and you’re probably wondering what kind of shit shoveling job was low enough to be assigned to a lot of your quality. We’ve got reports that Veldarian infiltrators may try to dig their claws into the Terran system while our focus is divided back on the main front. Now we can’t have this, Mars may be in the middle of nowhere but it’s still a prime source of sath crops. For them to sneak around the back end and take control of this system would mean a certain destabilization in our supplies.”
“So what do you expect us to do, sir?”
“Keep an eye out. You’ll be quartered with human civilians. Not ideal I know, but we’re not going to dedicate any additional resources to build an encampment out here for you losers. Plus you’ll be able to gather local intel.”
“So basically we’re going to be doing nothing.” There were groans. “You don’t need to sugarcoat it, sir.”
“You’re going to be keeping an eye out,” the commander said firmly. “You know how the Veldarians are. They can easily hide in plain sight. There’s a lot on the line here, warrior. You fuck up, and it could mean a turn in the war.”
“Yes, sir,” he said, with feigned enthusiasm.
I had to agree with him. If there was really any importance to this mission, they wouldn’t have sent these jokers to do the job.
“Enough fucking around,” the commander barked. “Get to your shuttles. You’re going rock side.”
We scattered and ran to the shuttles lined up in the hangar bay, one for each of us and all preprogrammed to take us down to the surface. The inside of my shuttle was loaded with standard supplies, including one standard issue beam staff, my weapon of choice, a pole arm which could shoot out a charge of destructive energy from one end. I was a master with the beam staff, and wouldn’t have felt complete without one, so I was thankful that they at least deemed to fully arm us for this mission. I sat down in the cockpit of the shuttle which hummed to life on its own, and I peeked out the viewport window at the grand hangar of the warship and felt a pang of sadness. I belonged on a warship charging into the thick of battle with hellfire raining down around me, a full battalion of ready warriors under my command and thousands of enemy Veldarian ready to meet my staff, not stuck sitting around on some planet waiting to see if the enemy might show up one day.
I thought back to the event that got me here, that mission on Ghent, the fourth planet in the Veldarian system. Was my defiance worth the punishment? I remembered the look in their eyes as my warriors leveled their weapons at them.
Yes, without a doubt.
The shuttles blasted out of the hangar bay and swung down towards the planet’s red surface, the viewport window flickering with the flames of atmospheric entry. I watched as the other shuttles separated from formation and zipped off to other parts far away from my destination, which looked like a big blanket of sath farmland below me. I wouldn’t be seeing any Ezrokians for a while. It would just be me, and the human who was unlucky enough to be selected to host me.
Humans.
Small, fragile creatures. I learned about them during my training, but not much more than their capabilities in war. Other knowledge was of no use to a warrior. Their males were born extremely weak, needing extensive training to reach even close to the physical prowess of the weakest Ezrokian male, their females the same. They were reasonably advanced in their technology, more than many of the other civilizations we Ezrok had conquered back in the prime days of the war. I had heard stories from aging generals who were old enough to have participated in the short war with the humans, they were fierce and persistent fighters with surprising resilience and ingenuity, and if not for their physical limitations they may had a chance at equaling us.
Still, they were a foolish lot. Their desires for conquest were as great as ours, however they had no concept of equivalent trade. They only took, never returned, and as such their home world became poisoned. If it weren’t for our rule and the gifts we bestowed to them once we had subdued them, they may have died out on their own.
“Warrior Grahf Vel Dien,” the computer announced. “Your mission files have been received. You will be posted at sath farm EX-145-B, owned by one Casey Pearce, female, human. Primary mission: Monitor sath crop growth. Secondary: Remain vigilant to possible Veldarian infiltration.”
I gritted my teeth. Sitting my ass on a farm watching crops? The mission was a joke. They surely had no expectation that any enemy would make their way out here. What a fucking waste of time.
The ship shuddered and I saw the shimmering waves of sath resolving below me, and the tiny glint of a farmhouse set on the border of the crops. Out in the distance I could make out another tiny farmhouse, and another even further beyond that one. All I could do was pray that the situation on the front got dire enough that they would need to recall me back, that they’d forgive my defiance. Otherwise I might be here for a very long time.
I tapped the screen and it shifted over to an image of a human female, with long brown hair and green eyes stared back at me, below it a name – “PEARCE, CASEY”. I sighed and turned off the display. A human female. After a moment I turned the screen back, pulled by an inexplicable desire to examine her image again. She had delicate features compared to the roughness of Ezrok females, but I could detect a hardiness in them, perhaps a bit of that human stubbornness I had learned about. It was the first time I had really looked at an individual human woman, one that wasn’t just some technical anatomical illustration as part of some briefing or training. I was greeted by an odd sensation in my chest. It had been a long time since I had taken a moment to look at any females, but I wasn’t so far gone to recognize that this one was quite beautiful. I shut off the monitor again.
A mission was no place for distraction, regardless of its importance. I was an Ezrokian warrior, battle hardened with a self-control unmatchable by any other creature alive. I would be strong and steady as the densest star, unwavering in my spirit, the reason why the Ezrok would never be defeated in war.
My shuttle touched red dirt, and the low roar of its engines died to a whine before shutting off completely. I pulled my supply pack from the rack, armed myself with my beam staff and then hit the exit ramp release button.
I was greeted by a warm breeze of Martian air, dry and dusty, and immediately my black uniform was tinted with a haze of red from the swirling dirt. Though dry, the air had the sweet smell of the sath crop on it, something that I hadn’t smelled since I was a young boy who hadn’t been taken away from home for warrior training. I was surprised at how quickly that smell took me back to my home on Ezrok, to my family who I never saw again. I quickly pushed away the feeling and walked down the ramp, my boots crunching down for the first time into the red Martian dirt.
The farm house was built in an old style that looked like it was right out of a history lesson. I had never seen such an old building before. I reached the front door and pressed the comm button, and I heard a chime sound inside the house, then just a few moments later the door swung open, and I found myself staring at the face I had seen in the photo. Her hair was damp, and she wore a loose shirt that hung long over a pair of shorts. She had a toned, healthy body with tanned skin, and I was surprised at how alluring she was. Again, I pushed the thoughts aside. She was much shorter than I was, and she looked up at me, her expression unenthusiastic. I had to admit, I was expecting a different welcome, a warrior’s welcome.
I gave her a curt bow of introduction. “Warrior Grahf Vel Dien,” I said. “Assigned to take quarter at your farm. My mission is—”
“Yeah, okay.” She held up a data pad and waved it. “I read the brief. What, they don’t think we can take care of our own crops?” She walked back into the house, leaving the door open. I frowned. That certainly was no way to greet an Ezrok warrior, but I held my tongue and followed her inside, shutting the door behind me. “And what’s this about Veldarian invasion? Things not going so well for your kind? I thought you were supposed to be strong?”
That was going too far.
“Hold your tongue or I'll—”
I was nearly hit in the face by a flying bundle of blankets before I caught it. “What? Cut it out?” She laughed. “Here, these are to make up your bed. Hey, Notch!”
An assistant bot buzzed out from one of the rooms and glared at me with a red sensor eye before turning to the woman, the light blinking to green. “Yes, Casey?”
“Show our guest his room, will you?”
“Sure thing.” It turned back to me. “Come on.”
She held out her hand in a traditional human greeting. I took it and she squeezed, her grip surprisingly strong and her skin as calloused as my own. “My name’s Casey Pearce. I’ve got no issue with the Ezrok sending one of their warriors down here, so long as your remember – my farm, my rules.” She strode off, and I found myself watching the way her legs elegantly moved and her ass shimmied as she walked.
“Come on,” the bot repeated with an impatient voice, and floated away.
I found myself smiling. This human…I liked her. Perhaps this mission wouldn’t be so boring after all.
Buy it now!
CHAPTER ONE
Her strokes were vibrant and strong, each one placed purposefully with a practiced hand that was perfectly in sync with her version of the vast and lonely desert landscape. Ryn Tilley dipped her brush into her jar of turpentine and strained the loosening oil paint from the bristles against the edge of the glass. The inside of the jar was murky and caked with the buildup of hundreds of hours of painting time, a mix of every color she had placed on her canvases within the past few weeks. When she glanced into the jar, she reminded herself to do it, probably for the tenth time that week.