Harem Assassins : King Sekton's Harem Planet, Book 2: A Space Opera Harem Adventure by Baron Sord (top inspirational books .txt) 📗

“A massive electromagnetic pulse that fried our rings.”

Theia nodded, “I thought that might be what you meant, my king. In answer to your question, not likely. Our rings and armor and rifles are heavily shielded and hardened against such conventional attacks. Your rings more so. At least, your True Ring is. I can’t speak to your other ring. But I’ve never seen anything that could neutralize the king’s True Ring.”

“Really?” I said rhetorically.

“Yes,” Theia said.

“If it wasn’t an EMP, what was it?”

“It must have been some other more exotic form of attack.”

“Any idea what kind?”

“Unfortunately no, my king.”

“Next question is, any idea who shot us? Er, wait. Could it have been some kind of attack from a carnivorous plant that creates its own electro-chemical energy and stores it?”

Corporal Syx snorted, “Not any plant I’ve ever seen. I’ve come across all kinds of strange plants out on patrol, but never one that could shut down our armor or rifles. Definitely not our rings. We were hit by advanced tech. A weapon of some kind.”

“Something the women of the jungle might have?” I asked, thinking of Violet’s badass Blackhole Blaster pistol that could disappear whatever she hit with it.

Syx said, “Not unless Crewd gave it to them.”

I considered the implications of her comment and sighed, “Are you saying that jungle women might have attacked us with whatever that weapon was, and they’re working with or for Crewd?”

“It was either them or Crewd’s pirates. Nobody else is likely to be out here with tech like that.”

Under the circumstances, I very much hoped Crewd’s pirates were to blame, and not Violet’s tribe. I said, “What do you think, Captain?”

Theia said, “Unless Crewd’s pirates have recently become incredibly stupid, I doubt they’d put such a powerful weapon in the hands of any Zalaxian women, exiles or otherwise. Crewd’s pirates use power armor and bolt rifles too. Both would be equally vulnerable to such an attack from any jungle exiles. No, I think his pirates are most likely to blame, my king.”

“So those nine bipeds who shot us down are pirates?”

“Most likely,” Theia nodded.

That was a huge relief. As far as Violet and her tribeswomen went, anyway. The last thing I wanted to do was go to war with her people too. Regardless, knowing who was responsible didn’t improve our current situation any.

I grumbled, “I’m getting more than a little sick of Crewd and his freaking pirates. How’d they get down here to the surface anyway? Isn’t the planet supposed to be protected by satellites that shoot down enemy ships? That’s what they did to my ship.” I was referring to the Artemis, which was technically the Bombshells’ ship, and if you wanted to be precise, the Artemis was Bree’s physical body, so it wasn’t anybody’s ship except hers. Poor Bree. I still hadn’t heard back from Colonel Sadys about recovering Bree from the crash site. I was starting to think they never would. Between Bree and Violet, that made two women I missed dearly and might never see again.

All around us, I noticed the squeaking, clicking, and crackling of night creatures and creepy crawlers going about their nightly business.

Something suddenly slapped my face.

I flailed my hands and heard loud fluttering as whatever it was continued assaulting my face. Something dusty went into my mouth. I spat it out in disgust.

“Hold still, my king!” Theia insisted quietly. “I’ll get it!”

“What is it?!” I grunted.

“A Bore Moth,” Syx said matter-of-factly.

“Get it off!” I spat, still flailing for it while it flapped furiously against me in the darkness.

“I’ll get it,” Theia said. “Hold still.”

I stopped moving my body, but couldn’t stop clawing away at my face and hair, trying to knock the moth off. Its wings had to be the size of large hands. They were flapping relentlessly and dustily against my mouth, nose, eyes, all of which were closed. Except my nose. When I smelled pungent dust, I blasted air out both nostrils.

“Please hold still, my king,” Theia said.

Finally, I relented.

“Got it,” Theia said a second later. The sound of her crushing the moth was a dry crackle. “That’s the last it will bother you, my king.”

“Thanks,” I grumbled. “What’s a Bore Moth, by the way?”

Amused, Syx said, “They bore a hole into soft tissue and plant their eggs. When they hatch, the larvae live under your skin and eat whatever tissue they can get. If they’re in your scalp, they usually burrow toward your brain.”

“Thaaaanks,” I said.

“If you have a thick skull, it should protect you,” Syx snickered.

“Ha ha,” I said sarcastically. If my rings worked, I’d do a scan for eggs and MASS extract them to oblivion. But my rings weren’t working. Concerned, I said, “Did the moth do any boring or lay any eggs?”

“Let me check,” Theia said, then went about inspecting my hair and face, feeling with her fingers but likely also looking with her lowlight green eyes.

I suddenly felt like I was being groomed by a doting mother. Aside from feeling Theia’s hands on my head, I could tell she was standing close to me based on her body heat. Interesting the things you noticed when you were blind. Theia brushed up against me a few times while checking for eggs — I believe twice with her nipples, which felt erect in the slightly chilly air — but I wasn’t in the mood for sex because I had Bore Moth eggs on the brain.

“I don’t see anything,” Theia said after two minutes of careful searching and combing through my hair. “We’ll have Major Akeso run a thorough scan on you when we get back to base.”

New rustling erupted from the shadows behind us, coming from the opposite direction of where the nine presumed pirates would likely be advancing. My first thought was Terrorsaurs. With us naked without power armor or functional bolt rifles, they would slaughter us.

We all tensed in anticipation of attack.

Too bad I still couldn’t see a damn thing.

—: Chapter 102 :—

“Captain?” a female voice whispered from the