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

Hade’s marching armored contingent of pirates thud-thud-thudded to a halt and stood at attention, snapping their Stygian K177 rifles to port arms.

“SILENCE YOUR DOGS!” boomed a shadowed form on the far side of the deck. Rolling from the darkness came a massive, continuous-tracked cyborg. From the waist down, he was a spike-studded battle tank. From the waist up, he was a bulky, heavily armored, unliving cybernoid.

A cybernoid centank.

The centank’s tracks clanked across the slick metal deck as it approached Hade’s Killhounds. The agitated lunging and barking of the cyber dogs accelerated into overdrive as the much larger centank approached them.

“I SAID SILENCE THEM!” the centank roared. A much older model with unmuffled diesel engines, the centank revved his motors and surged suddenly toward the Killhounds. The open-pipes on his backside belched top-fuel flames and oily black clouds. The bone-rattling sound of thousands of horsepower shattered the still air.

The Killhounds squealed and shrieked, and suddenly trotted behind Hade to cower with their mechanical tails between their cybernetic legs. The Killhounds knew full well the centank could crush them under its treads.

“Father,” Hade said calmly, his voice emitting from behind the spiked grill of his knightly mask. He tipped his horned and helmeted head with a combination of deference and defiance.

“My creation,” laughed Hade’s centank father Boltus Maximus. The sound of Boltus’ laughter was clearly affectionate, but it was frighteningly reminiscent of un-oiled pistons grinding and clattering inside an aging engine block shortly before throwing a rod. Boltus spread his arms wide. “Bring it in, creation.”

“This isn’t a social visit, father,” Hade said with restrained rage.

“I’m trying to be nice.” Boltus backed up a meter, his tank treads clanking.

“Don’t bother, father.”

Furious but holding it in, Boltus ground the grill of his own knightly mask like a man grinding his jaw, all while knotting his big, cybernetic fists together. He said severely, “How many times must I tell you to call me your builder? I am not your father. I am your builder. I created you. I built you. You have no father. You can call your mother a mother, but not me. Understood?”

Hade’s helmed magnesium eyes smoked and burned white with rage.

“Understood?” Boltus pressed, and clanked forward on his tank treads until he loomed over Hade’s much smaller centaur form.

“Are you threatening me?” Hade seethed.

“Yes,” Boltus growled.

Twenty cyberquads rolled out of the shadows from behind Boltus. The four-wheeled cybernoids were smaller than Boltus, but they were fast and armed to their cybernetic teeth. Unlike Boltus, whose humanoid torso was mounted at the front of his tank-tread lower body, the cyberquads’ humanoid torsos were mounted in the center of their chassis like a turret. Their humanoid cyber arms aimed their bulky and boxy Pandemon bolt rifles at Vok Nyfe. Also from their chassis sprang all manner of missile pods and rolling bolt cannons that beamed laser tracking dots dead-steady on every power-armored pirate standing with Hade.

Erupting from the top of Vok Nyfe’s mechano-skeletal skull came a roaring, blue plasma geyser. Vok Nyfe’s skeletal slit eyes burned with blue plasma fury. He raised high his technomantic staff. It crackled with the gathering of an overwhelming EMP. In his distorted, grating, and robotic voice, Vok Nyfe said, “Proximate extermination shall commence in ten. Nine. Eight. Seven.”

Wanting to prevent all-out mayhem, Boltus laughed his rusty gearbox laugh. “I see you’re slumming with technomancers now, Hade.” His sneering, insulting bravado was a cover for his concern. Boltus knew a duel with an unliving technomancer of sufficient skill — one like Vok Nyfe — could result in instant disassembly for Boltus and his cyberquad guards.

“Six. Five. Four.” Vok Nyfe continued relentlessly.

“Stand down, Nyfe,” Hade muttered. Hade hated his father, but he needed his help. “We didn’t come here to fight.”

The plasma flames faded from the top of Vok Nyfe’s unliving skull and he lowered his staff. It darkened but continued its quiet mechanical transformations.

Boltus said, “Then why did you come, creation?”

Hade said, “I have need of your assistance.”

“I might have known,” Boltus chuckled disgustedly. “The prodigal scion returns with his hand out. What is it this time? Do you owe money? Have you spent every last ITAP credit I gave you once again?”

“No,” Hade lied.

“How many fortunes have you wasted, Hade? Fortunes I gave you again and again, only for you to spend them on your worthless schemes?”

Hade’s magnesium eyes raged, smoking bright white because every word his father said was true. Hade’s hooves carved the deck in frustration.

“Out with it!” Boltus commanded. “Stop dancing around and tell me why you’re here, creation.”

Hade snarled, “I have need of you conversion services.”

“My conversion services?” Boltus said with something approaching respect and amused interest. “What for?”

“To wage war.”

“Finally, you come to me with an honest investment. Who do you intend to fight? The Stygians? No, no, the Kurkullans. Yes! The Kurkullans! Please tell me you will soon overthrow Pandemon’s number one competitor in the weapons market! Is that it?!”

Hade was reluctant to answer. His plasma tail whipped fiercely.

“Out with it, creation.” Boltus chuckled a gearbox chuckle. “What planet do you wish to attack?”

“Zalaxia,” Hade muttered.

“ZALAXIA?!” Boltus wheezed a laugh, his tank treads clunking him slightly back and forth on the metal deck. “HAREM PLANET?!” Boltus laughed greasily for a long, long time before calming. “What could you possibly want with Harem Planet?”

Hade grumbled impotent rage.

“A bride?” Boltus pressed. “Is that it? I can build you a bride, Hade! I can build you thousands of brides here at my conversion factory! Brides better than any frail Zalaxian whores! You don’t need to steal a planet full of bio-women! Don’t be a rust bucket, creation.” Boltus clanked a mocking laugh. “The cost of building you a cybernoid harem to call your own is nothing compared to war. How many unliving brides would you like?”

“It’s not for me,” Hade growled.

“No?” Boltus said shrewdly.

Hade shook his horned helmet while shifting uneasily on his titanium hooves.

“Who then?” Boltus demanded, his tank treads squeaking slightly as he too shifted uneasily back and forth, sensing his creation’s