Conquered Read online

  A large oak rose beside me and I climbed as high as I could, about fifteen to twenty feet off the ground. I swung my leg over one of the sturdier branches and scooted forward, laying my body down against the firm wood.

  I quickly examined the little camera embedded in the tree bark and found it to be in perfect working order. So, the footage of the enemy was definitely real then. Hmmmmm.

  I was ready though. I’d planned for something like this some time ago and had already taken steps to set up traps meant to maim and kill intruders in our territory.

  With a small grin, I climbed down from the tree and moved off into an area that appeared to be protected by an impenetrable wall of brush. I wove through the dense shrubbery into a small cave that I had set up as a command station a long time ago. I had places like this set up all over the woods, all with the goal to keep a close eye on the forest around us.

  I hardly ever visited this location, but that didn’t stop me from planning for the worst. Since the takeover ten years ago, the Vakarrans had restored electricity in some areas so that the human male slaves could work to the best of their ability. I’d tapped into the local powerlines and used residual power surges to charge a few high-capacity batteries. The electrical pull was so low that it would be impossible for anyone to notice, but it was enough to keep them consistently fully charged for my purposes.

  Powering on the smallest one, I turned on a few of my computers. I had only been able to find some old-school systems in the back of our old library, but with some data wiping and finagling, I made them work for me.

  I had designed several traps over the years that were set to the off position because we hadn’t needed them. We’d been safe in our various forest hideouts and hadn’t had many intruders. I turned on the security system, so I could see the rest of the woods around me. Everything seemed to be still and quiet, for the time being at least.

  Chewing my lip, I studied the screens, seeing nothing. The only movement I noted was with the camera I had set up to view the gathering area where Alaina was meeting with the rest of our group of human refugees. Everyone had bags on their shoulders and was preparing to move out, deeper into the jungle and into the caves.

  With a few keystrokes, I turned on some of my outlying traps and sat back to wait and watch. With my people safely out of the way, I could focus on the Vakarrans encroaching onto our land, wherever they may be.

  I spent the next few hours staring at the computers until I felt like my eyes were glazing over, but shortly before sunrise, I spotted some movement close to the area that I had examined earlier for footprints. Three tall, massive forms moved into the camera’s focus and I narrowed my eyes. Instantly, I knew they weren’t human.

  They approached seven feet tall. Curling horns grew out of either side of their heads, shaped just like a ram’s, or in my mind, like a demon’s. They wore battle armor, sleek black outfits that hugged their lean, muscled bodies, and they carried various weapons around their waists. Each of them had short dark hair and a pair of protective goggles that covered their copper-colored, black-rimmed eyes. I’d seen Vakarran eyes once and didn’t want to see them again.

  The Vakarran crest, a purple circle emblazoned with a four-pointed star and surrounded by rings like those that circled Saturn, was woven onto their backs. Long fingers with sharp nails pointed to the ground, probably looking at a stray footprint I left behind.

  With a few clicks, I activated the trap closest to them and then waited. This one was my particular favorite and my lips curved up in a sort of sadistic smile. These Vakarrans didn’t know what they had coming for them now that they’d come into my territory.

  The aliens moved off the path, probably to search for me because of the footprint they’d found, but when they did, they triggered the first snare. A loud boom sounded, and a series of hydraulics triggered, activating the trap. Two huge frames shot forward, perpendicular to each other, crisscrossed with taut barbed wire that was filed to be as sharp as a knife.

  The aliens didn’t stand a chance.

  The wires tore through their bodies, slicing them into neat little squares of flesh that began to bleed after a fraction of a second. The look on their faces was sheer, unadulterated shock, punctuated by a short little scream. It was a long moment before their bodies slid apart into little pieces and collapsed to the ground. I flinched a little at the gruesomeness, but I quickly shook it off. The only good Vakarran was a dead one. That much was clear.

  The forest around me was silent, the only noise the gentle quiet whirr of my electronic equipment. I rose and dug into a trunk beside my desk, pulling out an old-school military meal that was ready to eat, an MRE it had once been called. I opened the package and squealed with delight at finding a honey barbeque chicken sandwich, complete with an additional packet of cornbread. I feasted in celebration, even if the MRE was a few years past its ‘best by’ date. I didn’t care. It was the best food I’d had in a long time.

  After all, one could only have so much raccoon, squirrel, and venison and actually enjoy it.

  Eating only a little of the sandwich and a quarter of the cornbread, I settled in for the rest of the day, setting a quiet but shrill alarm that would alert me upon any movement sensed on camera.

  Sitting back, I opened a paperback book I had sitting on the desk. I’d found it within a display at an old abandoned museum, in an exhibit featuring ancient relics. It was probably one of the few remaining physical books left in the world. It felt strange reading it sometimes, turning the pages instead of scrolling through data in cyber. I’d read it a million times, but it didn’t matter. It was all I had.

  Chapter Two

  Zaavyr

  Fucking idiots.

  I sat at my desk, watching as the captains of the fifth battalion were slaughtered in cold blood, caught up in yet another of Kira’s brilliantly hidden traps. I had told them not to underestimate her. They needed to take her seriously and especially not to assume that just because they were Vakarran, that they were smarter, stronger, or faster than her. She had proven that to be wrong before, many times. She had been under our watch, although intermittently, for some time. I knew she was not someone to misjudge. That would be a critical mistake, but those men hadn’t listened.

  Jax, Coltan, and Aedan all stood beside me and were shaking their heads, watching the satellite imagery of the three men getting torn to shreds by her trap. I pressed my lips together as I watched pieces of their flesh drop to the ground.

  There wasn’t any coming back from that, even with our advanced medical technology.

  Even before they had left on their doomed mission, we had tried to warn them, tried to tell those three cocky bastards that Kira was extremely intelligent and she wouldn’t allow herself to be taken without a fight. Even though she was a human, she deserved a certain amount of respect.

  They’d ignored everything I’d said. So, in a way, I guess they had it coming.

  I’d never liked those men anyhow. Unlike my team, the first battalion, those men hadn’t earned their rank, and had only been given their position by Commander Strohass because they were his friends, unlike us, who had fucking bled, conquered, and earned our places in the army. Those arrogant idiots never did anything to deserve their rank and now it was more obvious than ever. Killed by a human. How could you die in a manner more disgraceful than that? Strohass was going to lose it.

  Pressing my fingers to the bridge of my nose, I shook my head.

  “Don’t think about it, Zaavyr. We did what we could. It’s not our fault they were that stupid,” Coltan said softly, pressing his palm to my shoulder.

  “I honestly couldn’t care less about what happened to them. I just don’t want it to fall back on us. You know they probably told Strohass that we were afraid of a damn human or something equally dishonorable. There’s going to be some sort of repercussions from this. You know this,” I muttered.

  “It’s their own damn mistake for ignoring our advice. Sooner or later, central comma
nd will realize that they need to send a battalion like ours to handle a mess like this, someone who actually has experience in battle and can maneuver and counterstrike with an intelligent target like this one,” Aedan added, his voice short and angry. His copper eyes flashed with fury.

  “This is going to put Commander Strohass in a bad mood too. Those guys were his right-hand men. His favorites, his friends,” Jax sighed with annoyance. “Not that Strohass isn’t a prick all the time though.”

  “Shh, Jax. You know we can’t get caught saying things like that. They’ll strip our rank and give it to one of their friends or family members, just so they can strengthen their own power. You know how it works here,” I responded.

  He was right though. It wasn’t fair, but it was just a sad fact of life here. Ever since Commander Strohass had come into power on the ISS Starrider, it was becoming a normal part of everyday Vakarran culture. Recently, fewer and fewer men than ever were being promoted in the military based on merit. It was all about favoritism, who was your friend, whose dick you sucked, and who was stationed in the right place at the right time. The practice of nepotism used to be much less widely used, but things had changed over the last ten or twenty years. Strohass wasn’t even that high on the chain of command, but he reigned over our ship with an iron fist, which meant his friends did too.

  Which left me and my men in an incredibly awkward position. We weren’t friends with the right people. In fact, we hated most of them. A lot of conflict had arisen from that fact, but by Vakarran law, we had earned our places of power. For the most part, their hands were tied with our rank, but it wasn’t safe to give them any reason to get rid of us.

  “You know what’s going to happen now, right?” Coltan mused, the smirk at the corner of his lips growing by the second.

  I rolled my eyes.

  “I know. We’ll get the job of handling Kira now. Only thing now is to wait for Strohass to overreact and send the word that we have to take her ourselves. Then, we head to Earth’s surface and figure out how we’re going beat her at her own game,” I replied. Actually, the more I thought about it, the more I wanted to rise to the challenge. Kira wasn’t the usual sort of human we encountered, where if we just yelled at them, they submitted without question.

  Humans were an odd species. Somehow, some of them had gotten the idea in their heads that they could develop some sort of resistance and defeat us, the Vakarrans, and while most of them were just blowing smoke, I actually considered Kira to be the real deal.

  I pulled up a few files and read more about her. Her basic stats were posted. Brunette hair, waist length, and blue eyes. Small, lean frame. Only a few inches over five foot. For a human female, she was incredibly beautiful. Soft almond-shaped eyes, pretty pink lips, and curvy in all the right places.

  She had a history. She’d killed at least ten Vakarrans over the past few years, mostly in small groups like this one, that we knew of anyway. Our troops had captured her twice, but she’d always managed to escape. She was strong in hand-to-hand combat and was more than adequate at defending herself, that much was clear. Be it with a stray knife or a good ole knee to the balls, she always managed to outsmart those who managed to catch her.

  I knew the men who had tried to take her though. None of them were particularly worthy of her. Most of them were arrogant and not all that intelligent.

  But then again, central command had never sent anyone the likes of me or my men before. All of us were battle hardened and had been at the forefront of many conquests, including the initial defeat of our Earthen slaves. We’d earned our roles and we shed blood and sweat to do it. If anyone could catch Kira Stryke, my team and I would be the ones to do it.

  Kira’s picture was burned in my vision. I wondered what she’d look like completely naked and lashed to my bed. Would she have rosy colored nipples like I imagined? Would her ass and thighs mark with my belt when she inevitably pushed the boundaries and was punished?

  Just the thought of her naked and ashamed, waiting for me to punish her, had my dick turning to iron in my black slacks. She’d scream and plead for me to stop, but I’d know better. I’d know she was wet and ready for me, despite her protests. She’d beg me to fuck her.

  Holy fuck, get your mind back on track, Zaavyr. I shook my head and tried to push those distracting thoughts out of my head.

  By the looks in my officers’ eyes, they were thinking exactly what I had been thinking. It had been a good long time since any of us had the time to fuck a human woman and we all needed that kind of a break.

  “Let’s get out of here until the call comes. I was able to buy some of that human-prepared whiskey some time ago and I’ve been saving it for a special occasion,” Coltan said, and I nodded in agreement.

  The four of us logged out of our own personal command stations and got the hell out of there. None of us wanted to be there when Strohass found out about his dead friends.

  That whiskey was going to taste so fucking good. Especially when I didn’t have to listen to Strohass’ whiny voice while I drank it.

  Coltan walked ahead and I followed, Jax and Aedan beside me.

  We’d been through a lot together, but I trusted each of them with my life. I couldn’t ask for anything more from any one of them. However this future mission went down, I knew we’d accomplish it together.

  The walk through the steel corridors was brief before we reached Coltan’s chambers. His front room often doubled as our own personal bar, where we could discuss things in privacy. Just to be safe, we searched his room once a week for recording devices, but we’d never found any. Yet.

  Jax and Aedan relaxed in two of the four black leather armchairs while Coltan and I prepared glasses of whiskey for everyone. I added a ball of ice to mine and put one in Aedan’s, because I knew he preferred his drink cold.

  “This is good stuff, huh?” I ventured with a grin.

  “My sources say it’s twenty-five years old. Bottled in 2755, according to the original wax seal,” he said, and I chuckled.

  “That’s what I call a good buy then,” I responded, taking a sip from my chilled glass. “Fuck, that’s good.”

  “Come on, guys, share the booze!” Aedan exclaimed, and Coltan chuckled.

  “Get off your lazy asses and get some yourself,” Coltan teased, and I couldn’t help but laugh. He was always so great at lightening the mood, even in the darkest of times.

  The two of us wandered over to the seating area and I handed Aedan his chilled glass while Coltan gave Jax his.

  “So, what do we do, boys? We all know what’s going to happen come morning and we might as well figure it out now. How do we capture the infamous Kira?” I began.

  Jax appraised me with his cool and calculating eyes.

  “Well, the answer is simple, I think. We beat her at her own game. We build the trap and catch her when she’s least expecting it,” he replied, his copper irises darkening with anticipation. Jax always liked to study a situation, which made him a necessity and a valuable asset to my team. Without his ideas and feedback, we would have had to find some really creative ways out of a few battles in the past. I shuddered to think what could have happened.

  “What if we went traditional in our trap design, capture her in a web of rope, or hide a cage underground she’d have to fall into?” Aedan suggested as he swirled his drink in his glass.

  “I like the rope idea. Although we’d have to figure out how to lure her into the area in order to trip the trigger,” Jax said, staring at the floor in thought.

  We were all silent for some time, thinking over how we could ultimately take down this unusual human. Taking a sip of whiskey, I enjoyed the burning sensation as it cascaded down my throat. Sitting back, I pictured what Kira would look like, trapped in a web of rope, hanging up in the air, just like a captured animal.

  My cock jumped to attention at the thought of her eventual defeat.

  The real trick to the whole thing would be to not allow our guard to grow lax around her,
but with my team, that wasn’t a great concern. We weren’t like the other teams that had captured her before. The difference with us would be that not only would we seize her from her happy little world, we’d also conquer her.

  To the victor goes the spoils, right?

  I knew Strohass would call us into his office in the morning, fucking ungrateful bastard. He should have just sent us from the start. Asshole.

  “Don’t worry, Zaavyr. We’ll get her,” Coltan said confidently.

  I turned toward Coltan and grinned. He was always so perceptive, such a great right-hand man.

  “I know. She won’t see it coming and that will be the most delicious part,” I added with a smirk. Jax and Aedan chuckled with me.

  “That she won’t,” Jax said. “I’ve got an idea and it’s a doozy. One she definitely won’t be able to resist, not if I’ve read our little rebel right…”

  He lifted his eyes and met mine. His irises were so dark that they approached blackness. I couldn’t help but grin at his excitement.

  Kira thought she knew what to expect from a Vakarran, but she hadn’t met us yet.

  Chapter Three

  Kira

  After two full days of monitoring the surrounding forest, I finally concluded that there weren’t any more aliens in the area. With a small sense of relief, I decided to return to the caves with Alaina for a short time and come back to my command center every other day to make sure nothing suspicious came to the surface. I set the cameras to record any unusual movements and left a few of my traps turned on, just in case any wandering Vakarran would venture right into them. My humans would never venture out this far. They’d be safe.

  Alaina was thrilled to see me. I sat down with her and told her what I found and that we could inform the rest of our unit about what happened.