Harem Assassins : King Sekton's Harem Planet, Book 2: A Space Opera Harem Adventure Baron Sord (good books to read for adults .txt) 📖

Technomantic staff crackling with large arcs of deadly lightning that flickered from where he stood tall on his levitating disc. The lightning forked across Hade’s dais, scribing a deadly circle of electric energy bouncing around Hade’s titanium hooves. Sharp arcs snaked up Hade’s four centanoid legs.

Hade’s vicious Killhounds suddenly lost their furious courage and cowered away from Vok Nyfe, hunching low behind Hade where they whimpered and shivered fearfully, watching the lightning spread and arc up their own caninoid legs.

“You will pay,” Vok Nyfe said to Hade, his digital voice distorted and grating.

“I’m sure Baron Crewd will reimburse you!” Hade neighed, tossing his plasma tail in nervous circles. Hade would have danced in agitation, but his titanium hooves were locked down on the metal dais courtesy of Vok Nyfe’s electrical storm. Due to the substantial amount of iron permeating Hade’s cybernetic frame, his entire centanoid body was magnetized into place.

“You will,” Vok Nyfe insisted.

“We’ll figure something out!” Hade whinnied anxiously as the lightning climbed higher and circled his horse torso, then coiled slowly upward around his humanoid waist and chest.

“You. Will. Pay.”

“Okay!” Hade bleated when the lightning tickled his chin. “I’ll pay!”

Vok Nyfe powered down his electrical storm and his black cloak fell gently down to drape his skeletal form.

Awesome silence reigned over the bridge.

Nobody moved.

“What are you standing around for?!” Hade barked at his mutant crew. “Get to work!”

Kezz resumed giving orders to the rest of the men, but he now did so in quiet mutters, keeping one obsidian eye on Vok Nyfe at all times.

The crew muttered their replies to Kezz, also keeping their eyes on the terrifying Technomancer. After another minute, they went to work.

Hade grumbled to himself, “At least now we’ll see what that vaunted Technomantic Nullifier can do. Assuming it works.” Hade couldn’t resist the urge to flick a doubtful smirk at Vok Nyfe.

Vok Nyfe showed no sign of acknowledgement.

Hade continued his muttering monologue, “Assuming it arrives in time and doesn’t get obliterated along the way. Meteor storm,” he scowled dubiously. “Fuff. This scheme can’t possibly work.”

—: Chapter 99 :—

While flying above the dark jungle, I barely noticed the spectacular meteor shower sizzling across the purple night sky in brilliant streaks. It didn’t seem like Captain Theia or the Shock Knights noticed either, probably because they were too busy watching the jungle for signs of immediate danger.

If I hadn’t been so focused on finding Violet, I might have stopped to enjoy the meteors. If Violet had been here with me, I definitely would.

But she wasn’t.

Sighing, I opened my helmet visor and said, “Corporal Syx, are you sure the jungle tribes live out this way?”

I had insisted earlier that everyone use voice instead of our helmet loudspeakers or comm links. Reason being, I didn’t want any of our conversation about Violet and the Jungle Babes getting back to Colonel Sadys, Hydra, or any vindictive “Normals” like Lieutenant Dyna. They might not like the idea of me risking my neck out here looking for a tribe of exiled Zalaxian women, many of them “Monster” babes.

Although I believed Violet would have qualified as a Normal in her former life as a Royal Concubine, I couldn’t picture Violet ever acting like an ass-kissing Conk, even if you removed her tribal tattoos and put her in a V-cut uniform. She was too proud. Too regal.

Nor could I picture Violet getting along with Normals like Dyna or Colonel Sadys. I suspected she’d detest them. More importantly, I remembered much of Violet’s tribe of Jungle Babes were Monsters. Normals like Dyna would definitely not approve of the company Violet kept.

Hence, me hiding this mission objective from Control and the rest of the outpost. You never knew what little tidbit of news would set people off or turn them against you.

Corporal Syx opened her visor and said, “Nobody knows where the jungle tribes live.”

“Are they nomads?” I asked. “Always on the move?”

“Nobody knows for sure,” Syx answered. “I only know the general area where they show up when we’re on patrol.”

I nodded, “And we’re definitely flying in that general direction?”

“Yes.”

“Fair enough. Thank you, Corporal.”

Syx closed her helmet visor and I closed mine.

None of us had our helmet lights on. Everyone was using their armor’s built-in low-light capabilities to scan the jungle below for any signs of life.

As always, with the animal nightlife out and searching for food, that meant the carnivorous plants, shrubs, and trees were equally active. Their methods of vegetable locomotion were nearly endless. Some lumbered slowly, some skittered quickly. Some rolled, some hopped. Some flung themselves violently to and fro. However they moved, half the plant-life was constantly on the go, hunting for their next meal. Their prey included not just animals but other plants. It wasn’t just dog eat dog in the Zalaxian jungle, it was also dogwood eat dogwood. Pardon the botanist humor.

Add to that trillions of insects flitting, crawling, or slithering about, and the jungle was a buzzing hive of constant and random movement.

In sum, picking out Violet or her tribeswomen was nearly impossible.

I used my ring’s ability to color-code any given object to differentiate everything in my ring HUD. For anything below ambient air temperature, I assigned purple. Hopefully that encompassed all plant life, but there was no way of knowing which — if any — plants were warm blooded. That sounded crazy on the surface, but it was a safe assumption: the biology of any plant that could move around fast enough would entail exothermic molecular reactions that generated a significant amount of heat. The purple grouping probably also accounted for any cold-blooded reptiles or other similar beasties that weren’t Violet. For anything with a core temperature above the air, I assigned reds, oranges, or yellows depending on temperature. This schema probably wouldn’t differentiate between mammals, humanoids, or humans like Violet. I assumed she was human because she looked human, but who knew. Anyway, it was better than nothing. Thanks to the flexibility of my ring HUD, I was easily able to overlay these