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 cou
ldn’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 command 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.