by Voxley, Vi
Aria was an ambassador of the Galactic Union, but she couldn't help thinking that. It wasn't an uncommon thought among the council members. Those with four arms looked at her like she was weird. They kept asking the humanoid species how they ever got anything done.
So the Clayors were odd. They moved with serpentine grace that unnerved Aria. It made her think they could move much faster if they chose to and were holding back.
That was one paranoia that turned out to be founded, to her surprise. As soon as the Clayors saw Ryden, their expressions changed. They always had the most disturbing serene smiles that were impossible to trust, but at the sight of him they all frowned.
Like one. With one expression. Aria had never felt that stupid in her life. The hive mind, staring right at her with more than ten faces all reacting as one.
There was no doubt in her heart anymore, but the other ambassadors didn't share her faith. The councilmen stood and tried to step between Ryden and the Clayors.
"General," one of them actually tried to stop him. "They are guests here. They are under the protection of the council. We have assured them they have immunity while they are on Ilotra..."
"I made no such deals or promised anything of the sort," Ryden said, pushing past the man as though he wasn't even there. "And you are an idiot for letting Ilotra be breached like this."
His warriors followed in his wake, silent, with fury burning in their eyes.
"General Ryden," a high-ranking ambassador warned, coming to bar his way again.
Aria recognized Ambassador Klaen, the speaker for the council that term.
"You will stand down and not assault those under the protection of the council. That is an order."
Aria groaned inwardly. That was the worst choice of words Klaen could have picked. She wondered how the man couldn't have known that, having worked together with Brions before. Their temper was legendary. She took a few steps forward to explain and try to dissolve the tension, but Ryden reacted exactly as she'd thought he would.
"You do not order me," he said coldly. "I do not care about your ridiculous rules. When I see an enemy, I kill it."
The Clayors hissed in fury, backing away from him in a motion that could almost be called a slither.
"Is this how you rule, ambassadors?" one of them asked, his voice etched with anger. "We thought we could come to an agreement. We thought we could negotiate, but you let this killer murder us before your very eyes."
Oh boy, Aria thought. This is bad. This is so bad.
She tried to rush to Ryden's side, to reason with him, despite assuring Elik before that it was impossible. But people coming closer blocked her way. Ilotra's own security was running to meet the Brions, but Ryden had no match there.
Without further comment, he marched right up to the Clayors.
"Is that all you have to say?" he asked impassively.
Aria saw glimpses of the Clayors hissing at him, trying to back away even more, but they never made it far.
"Kill them," Ryden ordered.
After that, Aria only saw blades and blood, and only heard screaming and hissing. And before the very end, she thought she heard the hive mind laugh.
CHAPTER SIX
Ryden
The Clayor hive mind's plan didn't occur to Ryden before it was too late.
Problem was, he was unwilling to stop even if that was what the hive mind had wanted. Like all Brions, he always spoke the truth. There wasn't much point in lying when you were one of the most powerful men in the galaxy. The dreaded Brion general Faren was often quoted saying that the generals didn't have the luxury of being liars. It was their duty to do what was needed, even if that didn't bode well for them.
Watching the hundred or more guns trained on him and his warriors, Ryden regretted nothing. If there had been any doubt in his mind, it was gone the moment he heard the hive mind laugh through ten mouths, perfectly in sync.
He thought he heard the female ambassador scream something as they led him away. Under any other circumstances, Ryden wouldn't have allowed it, but even he couldn't match the impossibly precise laser rifles aiming at his heart. No prison Ilotra could devise would hold him, he knew that. Until then he saw little point in losing his warriors in a useless fight or risking a wound when it was obvious he was really needed there.
That, of course, had been the hive mind's plan. Ryden felt himself grinning as he let Ilotra's security patrol take him away from the Clayors' corpses. He had wondered what point there was to infiltrating Ilotra and simply getting caught so easily. But there the cause was, right before his eyes.
It was him. He had been the target. The hive mind was betting on him doing exactly what he'd done. Now the defender of Ilotra had discredited himself before the eyes of the council, proving the Brions' savage reputation once more. More disagreement, more confusion. That was all the hive mind had wished for, and Ryden had served himself up on a silver plate.
He appreciated it because he liked the challenge. An enemy like that, capable of coming up with elaborate plans like the one he just witnessed, was the only kind truly worth fighting. Death or glory, he'd wished.
The hive mind wasn't disappointing him in that.
Of course it was also bad, very bad. It meant people would start dying sooner rather than later and that the Clayors had found an easy target with the GU. While he was pleasantly surprised by the Clayors, Ryden's disappointment with Ilotra grew with each minute.
To begin with, they had to be joking with his cell. The security patrol thought it was enough to lead him into solitary confinement, but that was not nearly enough. Ryden didn't know if he should laugh or cry, for Ilotra was worse off than he'd imagined. The ambassador back in the atrium had already shown that the council knew nothing of Brions, but that was something on a whole new level.
Ryden waited patiently for the patrol to close the heavy door behind him. He could have killed all of them easily, even with his hands bound together with the magnetic cuffs. He had decided against it, not out of mercy, but out of necessity. Once he was done showing them exactly how weak their defenses were, he'd need the patrols to help fight off the real enemy.
Counting to thirty seemed enough. While he waited, standing in the middle of his prison cell, Ryden focused. The only possible explanation for their foolishness was that the GU ambassadors had never really shared the complicated and brutal training Brion warriors went through. Getting out of magnetic cuffs might have been impossible for other species, but they were far from ordinary.
He rolled his shoulders as well as he could and started pulling the cuffs apart. The magnetic field resisted, naturally, but Ryden had them off in a few seconds. It was a test applied at the lowest levels in the Brion military academy. Time wasn't an issue yet, but he couldn't have another warrior escape the cells before he did. What kind of an example would that set?
Despite his brewing frustration with the council, Ryden allowed himself a smirk. They thought to lock up his warriors, but Ryden knew each and every one of them took it as a challenge like he did. A game, rather. There was no if, only when. And if any of his warriors failed to escape, he'd see they were demoted to a position more fitting their skills.
Out of his cuffs, Ryden looked around, mulling over his options. Stepping into the room, he'd immediately seen five ways out of it.
He hadn't yet had the chance to pick one of them when surprisingly his door opened again.
"You have five minutes," Ryden heard a guard saying before the Terran ambassador stepped in, nodding.
Even before in the hangar, he hadn't been able to stop looking at her as she turned to him, the shock evident on her beautiful face. Ryden couldn't deny she was the most beautiful woman he'd ever seen. If the Brion gods saw fit to give him time alone with that woman, he would take her. His eyes traveled over her curvy form, taking in the body begging to be held in his hands.
The form-fitting official robe Aria wore left little to his imagination, making him grin in anticipation. Her ba
rely hidden interest in him was obvious as she looked at him from under the bangs of her sun-shaded hair.
Her eyes were light blue, calling and enticing like space. A man could have drowned in them easily and Ryden had no objection to that. He felt his cock stirring beneath his armor, aching to be thrust into her warm, wet pussy, wondering if it was just as inviting.
Ryden had to exert considerable self-control to not pull Aria into his arms right then. He would have to wait to have her. He wanted to be able to give a woman like that his full attention to that body of hers.
"Where are your cuffs?" Aria asked, perplexed.
The general pointed to the floor, where he'd dropped them. Aria picked them up, frowning.
"These are magnetic," she stated.
"Yes."
"It's not possible to just rip them off!" she protested.
Her temper amused him.
"I see," he said drily, smiling to her. "You should have mentioned this before. I wasn't aware."
Aria glared at him. Then she looked around, her eyes traveling over the room until they stopped on him again.
"You were telling the truth before?" she asked, her voice insistent. "They're a hive mind."
"I don't lie," Ryden said.
"Then we are all in great danger," Aria said hurriedly. "The ones you killed... I talked to my assistant. He said he was there when they arrived. By his count, at least ten remain. Maybe more. He wasn't sure."
That got Ryden's attention. He groaned, cursing the enemy. All his warriors detained, he himself included. The hive mind was free to wreak havoc on the moon.
"I think I know where they're going," Aria said.
That surprised Ryden. Predicting the hive mind was a treacherous path, but Ilotra was a huge complex. Even a guess was better than nothing.
"Speak," he ordered.
"But even if we knew where they were, you're still..." Aria started to protest.
"That is not an issue," Ryden assured her. "Now tell me what you think."
Aria looked at him suspiciously, but obeyed. "I'm sure you were told of all of our defenses," she said. "So you know what the bubble is."
Ryden nodded curtly. The bubble was Ilotra's main defense, a gargantuan energy shield that covered the whole moon and required enough power output to keep a star system running for a year. It was a last resort, a desperate measure, but he couldn't deny it might have a use in the upcoming fight.
Aria was talking quickly, her words coming like rapid fire. "Everything else on Ilotra is powered by the main generator, but since the bubble needs a feed of its own, it's located elsewhere. Of course the main generator is heavily guarded, but the other isn't. You could practically walk in there at any time."
Seeing the look on his face, Aria shrugged apologetically.
"I know," was all she said.
"The security of this moon is beneath joking about," Ryden said.
"I know," Aria repeated. "I keep telling them."
The general felt himself grinning. She was feisty, and smart. Beyond the desire, he gravitated toward her with a passion. But first things first.
Aria seemed to think the same, not that her quick looks his way went unnoticed.
"How are we going to get out of here?" she asked. "The hallway is packed with security. You can't kill them all. We're already in trouble."
"I won't," Ryden said. "Which way is the shield generator?"
Puzzled, Aria pointed. Ryden turned toward the wall she'd picked.
The battle spear was a wonder of technology, unparalleled across all the known galaxy. The blade was made of and reinforced with the strongest metals known, capable of cutting through almost anything. Certainly the walls of his presumed prison cell. Ryden took a firm hold of the spear and slammed it into the wall. The sound alerted the guards, but it was too late.
He cut two straight lines, already hearing surprised screams from the other side as well as a shocked gasp from Aria. Then he aimed at the center of the X he'd cut with the spear and it sent out a deafening shot.
To be honest, he hated doing it. If he had more time, he would have greatly preferred to simply fight his way through the guards, but he didn't have that luxury. Undoubtedly some of his warriors chose that path; he could hear the sounds of fighting coming from outside.
As for himself, in the cloud of dust, he stepped right through to the next room. The occupants had wisely made themselves scarce as the general entered, crouching to fit through the hole in the wall. He extended a hand to help Aria through too. She followed, her eyes wide. The room they'd ended up in seemed like a break room.
Everyone fled from him as they went, Aria leading the way. He went slower than he could have, but she knew the way and he didn't, yet. Brion warriors had excellent memories, but even they couldn't memorize an entire moon.
On their way, some of his warriors joined them, called by his spear's tracking device. They fell into a jog behind him. The pace was nothing to them, but Ryden could see Aria breathing very heavily. But she kept running. Alarms blared over their heads, signaling their escape. Funnily enough, no security unit seemed very keen to try to take on a Brion warband.
The shield generator was in another hangar. They entered, running. All eyes turned to them, staring. Aria stopped, out of breath.
"There," she pointed at the generator, panting. "It's fine. Thank God."
She had barely finished saying that when Ryden saw the Clayors come out of hiding. He charged at once, the warriors following him. The enemies hissed, breaking into groups. One headed to the generator while most of them tried to bar his way.
Aria was running past him, straight at the other Clayors. Ryden nearly dropped his guard before he cut through the enemy attacking him with a long, curved knife. The Clayor fell, his body cleaved in two, but others took his place without hesitation. He roared orders to protect Aria, switching to the battle tongue, hoping the hive mind wouldn't understand. Keeping her behind him was a risk since he couldn't take his eyes off the fight, but without protection she would have died in an instant.
They crowded him. Clearly Aria's assistant had been wrong. There were a lot of Clayors there, all of them throwing themselves at him and his warriors to buy their companions time. Out of the corner of his eye, Ryden saw Aria frantically typing something into a console on the wall. She seemed unharmed, because so far she didn't pose a threat. That was until the hive mind realized she'd been shutting the cover that separated the generator from the hangar.
It rose up from the floor, throwing the Clayors off their feet while Aria gave a victorious cry. Ryden saw the enemies turn at once, seeing the prize disappearing from their sights. Some of them tried to reach Aria while others leaped at the cover.
"Don't let them near it!" Ryden commanded. The cover kept rising and his warriors knocked off everyone who tried to get to it. Aria was running back toward him, her face pale, but she'd done it. She had managed to protect the generator.
In the next second, the explosion knocked them all off their feet.
CHAPTER SEVEN
Aria
Aria flew through the air, the terrible noise of the explosion ringing in her ears. She had always thought that her life would flash before her eyes when she died, but it didn't happen. All she saw were pieces of debris and metal falling all around her, and she caught glimpses of people trying to crawl away.
Maybe life didn't flash before her eyes because she wasn't dying. In fact, as much as she could gather, she wasn't even hurt.
Instead, she was in Ryden's arms, safe and sound hidden under his massive frame. She realized he was shielding her with his own body, protecting her from the debris still falling from the ceiling. There was a bright shield above them too, appearing from the device on the general's wrist. It had caught the brunt of the explosion, probably the only reason they were alive.
Through a headache, Aria thought how incredible the general's reflexes had been. All around them, bodies littered the ground, mostly those of the Clayors. E
ven a few Brions, elite warriors of the galaxy, lay dead on the cracked floor. Most of the live ones were covered by the same shields, but Aria saw them bleeding, hinting they weren't as fast as their commander.
The fact that she was alive was nothing short of a miracle.
"Are you hurt?" the general asked, his voice sounding distorted to Aria's ringing ears.
"No, no," she coughed as well as she could. "You saved my life..."
The general barely acknowledged that. All he said was:
"We are far from safe. I know how Clayors operate. We need to get away from the hangar right now."
Around them, the world was breaking to pieces. Aria had no idea why there was such a hurry, but the hangar didn't look stable to her either. With the cover up, the generator seemed luckily unharmed, but with the hangar around it unstable, it posed a tremendous problem. She fully agreed that the farther they were from it, the better. Rationally she knew the ones responsible for the explosion had to be close, but with Ryden... she irrationally felt safe.
Or possibly not so irrationally.
When he determined there were no more huge chunks of the ceiling threatening to fall down upon them, he let the shield detract and rose from the wreckage like a warrior god. Aria could only stare, her lips slightly parted in awe as he simply shook himself clean of the debris like a beast rising from the snow. Then he looked down at her and there was a glimpse of concern in his eyes, but it was gone so quickly Aria thought she could have imagined it.
Ryden gave her a hand to help her stand up, but his mind was clearly on the attack. He was already giving new orders to his men. Some of them ran off in different directions. Most gathered around him, looking as ready and serious as he did.
"Move out," the general ordered. "Keep an eye out for those treacherous fucks. Kill on sight."
Yes, he was very dreamy, being all hot and menacing like that, and—what?