Marauder Kain: Scifi Alien Invasion Romance (Mating Wars Book 5) (13 page)

“
Y
ou’ll all want
to sleep–need to sleep. We’re going up to 5g’s.”

“That’s too fast!” Eli says frantically.

“I’m going to have the couches wrap totally around you, and I’ll use my biosuit to dampen some of the inertia on you.”

“When are we going to turn around and start slowing down?” Felicia asks. “It seems like we’re burning all of our fuel to just reach max speed.”

“Correct,” I say. “I stole antimatter from Darkstar, and we’re using it to accelerate. We’re using all of it, even what’s in my biosuit. We won’t be turning around to slow down.”

“I’m not a physics expert,” Kara says, “but don’t we need to slow down if we’re going to land on Titan?”

“This is the riskiest part of my plan,” I say. “You probably don’t even want to know the details. Trusting me worked before, so trust me again now.”

I hit the button, and the couches completely close around all five humans. I shoot out tendrils and encircle all of the couches with biomatter to dampen the inertia.

I check the light signatures and see that a fleet of ships is indeed on our tail. It’s only accelerating at 2g’s, however–and toward Mars, not toward Titan.

Adus’s plan included feigning an attack on Mars...but what good is that when I can simply tell them it’s a fake attack? That the real attack will come on Titan?

I open the comms link to Titan and start my broadcast. We’re still far enough away from Titan that they won’t get my message for a few hours. I don’t have time to do any back and forth with them, so I have to make the initial message work.

“This is Peacekeeper Kain,” I say. “Badge number 603. This message is for immediate attention of Cygnus. I’m accelerating toward Titan at 5g’s, and I have no reaction mass available to slow down. The ships heading toward Mars are a feint, Darkstar is sending a sizeable fleet full of Seraphim soldiers to raid Titan….”

I finish the message quickly and hit ‘send.’

I doze in and out of sleep while I wait for a response. After a few hours, the message pops up. It’s Cygnus himself.

“Kain,” Cygnus says. “My nephew told me about you and your mission. I’m glad it was successful. We are scrambling our limited forces and preparing for battle on Titan. Mars doesn’t believe it’s a feint though, and not only are they not sending us any backup, they’re pulling all their fleet away from Jupiter and sending it back toward Mars. I believe you, for what it’s worth–my nephew and brother vouched for you–but Mars clearly doesn’t. We’ll have to fight with what we have here. It’s not a lot”

Cygnus twitches his ears and pauses....

“As for your braking issue, we’ll need to hit you with everything our big laser has got in just under 20 hours, so hold tight until then. Next time you get a message from me, deploy your light sail.”

If I were on Mars, I wouldn’t believe me either. I can’t blame them, but damn those bastards for falling for Adus’s plan. I collapse into my acceleration couch. I let it encircle me as it has encircled all the humans, and I sleep until I hear back from Cygnus.

* * *

T
he message beeps
, and the couch spits me back out.

“Deploy your sail,” Cygnus says. “We are firing the laser in five minutes, so the beam is already on its way to you. We’ll see you soon on Titan.”

I hit the button, and the huge lightsail spreads out. It’s only a few millimeters thin, but it is over 100 times wider than the ship itself.

I wait, and soon the console confirms that the laser is hitting us.

The energy from the laser disperses across the sail, and it begins slowing us down. All the extra travel time at 5g’s gave us a huge lead on the Seraphim dropships. We were able to use all of our fuel to accelerate as fast as possible, and we didn’t have to use any of it to slow down.

The dropships, on the other hand, will need to turn around halfway to Titan, and they will need to save half of their fuel to slow down.

They’ll likely need to slow down even earlier, as they will want to stop outside of Titan’s defense grid before going stealth.

I wait until we are down to 1.5 g’s, and then I wake up all the humans.

I wait until we are down to 1.5 g’s, and I wake up all the humans.

The couches open up, and everyone stands up and rubs the sleep out of their eyes. They stretch and yawn.

“God,” Kara says, “I never thought Darkstar gravity would feel this good.”

“You’re the strongest woman in the solar system now,” Andreas says.

Felicia scoffs. “What about me?”

“I hope you all slept well,” I say. “Now, I have good news, and bad new--”

Kara and Felicia groan.

“Hey, now!” Eli says. “Don’t be so catty. He said he has good news too.”

“Kain does that,” Kara says. “He thinks humans can’t handle ‘harsh truths,’ so he always makes up some ‘good news’ that is usually just a total given--”

“Hm,” I say, interrupting her. “I think humans are spoiled. You grow up in the sun’s light, and you take everything for granted.”

“What’s the good news, Kain,” Felicia asks, voice tired.

“Well,” I say, “To put some things into perspective. There was a real chance I was going to wake you all up and let you know that we had no way of stopping. That we’d just rocket out of the solar system at this speed, and eventually we’d die when we ran out of water, food, or oxygen--”

“Kain!” Kara snaps.

“The good news,” I say, “And something you shouldn't take for granted, is that we will not die in this way…”

I watch the men’s faces as I deliver the great news, and I see them all begin to deflate noticeably. They are truly spoiled.

“How are we gonna die then?” Thorsten asks. “I knew I should have just stayed on Darkstar!”

“The bad news is that the Martians have fallen for my brother’s feint attack. They have pulled the bulk of their forces back to defend Mars, and they have left a small skeleton crew to defend Titan. Cygnus has told me he has only around six Marauders capable of fighting, and a dozen or so humans.”

“How many dudes are they sending to attack?” Andreas asks. “Twenty?”

“Around 2,000 of the Seraphim that I personally trained to be vicious killers,” I say. “I remind you this is part of the bad news.”

Kara grabs my hand and hisses into my ear. “You are awful at this, stop talking!”

“Wait,” I whisper back to her. “The very good news is still coming.”

She looks up at me skeptically.

“It’s really good,” I say. “One last chance.”

“Fine,” She says, crossing her arms.

“These 2,000 Seraphim will be spread across ten dropships,” I say. “Around 200 for each dropship.”

“Ten dropships…” Thorsten whispers. “Nine bombs…”

“Yes,” I say. “Nine of those ships, 1800 Seraphim, are wired to blow.”

The miners all high five each other, but Felicia cuts in, “That’s still 200 Seraphim against Cygnus’s skeleton crew.”

“Yes…” I say. “And my Seraphim on the inside. I recruited a small squad of them--they’re the ones who planted the bombs.”

“You saw them plant the bombs?” Eli asks. “You know they’re there.”

“I trust my man,” I say.

The humans all groan.

I flick my ears at them. “You are all weak! And stop making that sound at me!”

Kara laughs and grabs my arm. “That was actually pretty good news, Kain.”

I smile at her and pull my ears back.

* * *

I
throw
Kara down on the bed in the captain’s quarters, and she laughs.

“What’s so funny?” I ask.

“It feels like we’re on Mars,” she says. “I’m so light!”

“You like Mars?” I ask.

“It’s the only planet I really have memories of,” she says. “I’m too young to remember Earth.”

“We will got to Mars together then.”

She smiles up at me. “I’d like that. It would be nice to go there for fun rather than to sell a bunch of rocks.”

“Cygnus will owe us,” I say, lying down beside her. “He will have to give us luxury treatment on his planet.”

“It’s not really his planet,” Kara says. “If it were, the fleet wouldn’t have pulled away…”

“No one owns Mars,” I say, “That’s true, but if you want to have a good time on Mars, Cygnus is the best Marauder to have owing you a favor.”

“Fair enough,” she says, running her hand along my face. “Did you worry we wouldn’t see each other again?”

“No,” I say honestly.

“No? Really? Not even a little bit?”

“I promised we’d see each other again. I had to make it so. There was room for doubt.”

She reaches down for my cock, but my biosuit is hardened, and the crotch plate is covering me. Before she can move her hand off of me, I liquify the biosuit and have it melt away into a small sphere.

Her hand falls through and lands on my cock.

She giggles. “Were biosuits designed for easy access to a Marauder’s cock?”

“Of course not,” I say. “They are the ultimate weapon in our arsenal.”

“But think about it,” she says, cupping my balls. As soon as her hand is on me, it’s hard to think of anything else.

“About...what?” I say, taking deep breaths as she strokes me.

“If you’re any indication,” she says, “Marauders think with their dicks. So maybe the guy who invented the biosuit was just tired of fiddling with his boxers, and he wanted to be able to instantly vaporize his clothes so he could fuck at a moment’s notice.”

“Intriguing theory,” I say. “I had to wear these ‘boxers’ on Venus. Most unpleasant. Though a human male had the idea to put a small hole in the front of the boxers...so maybe you are correct about the biosuit.”

“I think that hole is for peeing…” Kara says.

“No.” I shake my head. “If your dick becomes hard, it allows you space to grow. Otherwise I’d tear the boxers apart with my erection.”

She bursts out laughing. “Okay, for humans they are designed for peeing. I guess they have another use for Marauders. But what were you doing popping boners on Venus?”

She squeezes my cock, and grunt as I begin vibrating.

“You hadn’t met me yet,” Kara says, “So who was getting you hard?”

“I had base urges,” I say, “But I fought them. No one will ever get me hard again, now that I’ve met you.”

She smiles wide at me, and I shove her onto her back.

I look down at her grey prisoner jumpsuit. I grab hold of it with both hands, and I rip it apart, right down the middle. I pull until it splits down to Kara’s legs, and I pull the whole thing off and throw it to the ground.

“What the hell!” She says, laughing. “Was the really necessary?”

I dive between her legs and lick her wet juices. She moans loud.

“Yes,” I say, “Someone will need to invent a human biosuit.”

K
ain wakes
me up in time to see Jupiter.

“Jesus,” I say, looking out the window.

My chest feels full--ready to burst--as I look at the magnificent gas giant. The big red spot that the planet had been famous for for centuries has all been died off--it’s more like a little red pimple now. But the sheer size of the planet is beyond my comprehension. It’s over 300 times more massive than Earth--it looks like a giant marble floating through the void. I hold my pinky up to it, and I imagine Earth as the size of the nail on that little finger.

“It’s so big,” I say.

“Not now,” Kain says behind me. “Unless you want to go at it again.”

“Not your cock, idiot,” I say. “Jupiter.”

“Ah,” Kain says, “There are larger gas giants out there.”

“Not in
this
solar system,” I say, “Not that you’ve ever seen! Stop trying to act like it’s not amazing.”

He grabs hold of me and pulls me against him. “It’s amazing, truly beautiful.

He scoops me up and presses his lips to my neck. “But not as beautiful as you.”

It’s such a cheesy line, but it works on me. I grin wide and kiss him back.

Someone knocks on the door.

“What is it?” Kain grunts.

“The console thing is beeping,” Eli shouts.

Kain rolls his eyes and opens the door.

I walk out behind him, and I see Felicia too is glued to the window, along with Eli and Thorsten.

“You know,” Andreas says. “My habitat is actually at the Lagrange point--really close to here--we could--”

“No,” Kain rasps. “We go to Titan.”

Andreas huffs and sits down, not even looking at the window. “You all are like peasants. Who hasn’t seen Jupiter before?”

“Have you been to Titan?” I ask him.

“God, no,” he says. “Why would anyone ever want to go there.”

“We want to go there,” Kain says, sitting down at the pilot’s console. “To defend the solar system.”

Andreas rolls his eyes. The habitats like to think they are removed from all conflict. Safe and insulated. I don’t quite understand how he thinks they could be immune to Darkstar--as if Darkstar cares about human neutrality pacts. Or even Harmony...if Harmony is willing to blow up Earth, what happens to all the habitats in orbit around it?

“This is Kain,” he says.

Cygnus’s face fills the screen. His hair is grey at the temples, and his face is chiseled and weathered, but strong and solid as a mountain. He’s wearing a biosuit, and there are dozens of people behind him drawing up battle plans.

“How long do we have?” I ask.

“I don’t know,” Cygnus says. “They threw out a bunch of decoys around Darkstar to mask their acceleration. We won’t know where they are until they start their engines again to slow down. Anywhere between two and six days is our best guess based on all the decoys.”

I really want this to be over with. It kills me that we managed to escape, but only to escape
into
a battle where we are vastly outnumbered. I trust Kain, and I realize the importance of defending Titan...but a selfish part of me can’t help but ask:
why us? Why not someone else?

“Alright,” Kain says. “I forgot to mention that I”ll be adding the three strongest humans in the solar system to your existing numbers.”

Andreas jumps to his feet. “I’m not fighting!”

Eli stands up. “I will! I want to kick some Darkstar ass! Those bastards held us prisoner for over a year, man! As soon as our bones and hearts started giving out, they’d have recycled us into fucking gruel! Grow some balls, you habber shite!”

Andreas crosses his arms. “I choose to remain neutral.”

“Fuck it,” Thorsten says. “I’ll fight too.”

“Alright,” Kain says, “I’ve got the two strongest men in the solar system, and the strongest toilet scrubber.”

* * *

W
e land on Titan
, and the gravity is barely there. It’s a stark contrast to Darkstar. The moon looked like a flat orange ball of candy from orbit, but as we sunk through the atmosphere, I soon saw the rocky surface and the lakes of methane.

Cygnus’s base and the antimatter nanofactories are all on a peninsula jutting into the moon’s largest methane lake: Kraken Mare.

The hangar is located close to the coast, and I see thousands of pipes snaking out from the base and dipping into the lake. The hoses suck in the methane and convert it atom by atom into antimatter. It’s a slow process, but the factory has been running for decades, and they’ve built up huge stores of antimatter--enough to knock Titan out of orbit and send it sinking into Jupiter. Kain reminded us--bad news, of course--that this would be the worst possible outcome of the coming battle.

The hangar cycles in new air, and finally the door to our ship opens and the ramp goes down.

Cygnus, and his Seraph daughter Sara, are standing at the bottom of the ramp to welcome us.

He pulls Kain in and bear hugs him.

“Is she going to fight?” Sara asks, pointing at me. “And her?” She points at Felicia.

“I’ve, uh,” I mumble. “Never...
fought
. My sister and I always avoided fights. We’re miners.”

“Do you see the double-standard here?” Andreas says. “I’ve also always avoided fights, yet I’m made to be the toilet scrubber?”

“There’s no double standard,” Sara says. “These two--and you, toilet scrubber--are all going to do your part.”

Kain steps in front of me. “With respect, Sara, daughter of Cygnus, she is my mate, and Felicia is her sister.”

“So what?” Sara asks.

Sara steps forward and squeezes my arm. “Thick Darkstar muscle. She’s stronger than the human males here.”

Kain pulls me away. “I’ve given you a huge edge. You’ll not send my mate or her sister to the slaughter.”

Sara scoffs. “From my perspective, we blew three months’ of antimatter mining to slow your ship down with our laser, and
you
brought Darkstar close on your heels.”

Cygnus steps forward. “This attack would have happened either way. We would have fought ten dropships instead of nine.”

“Oh,” Sara snaps. “The bombs. I’ll believe that when I see it.”

Cygnus narrows his eyes at us. “I’m not as skeptical as my daughter, but we’re forced to plan around fighting only 200 Seraphim--”

“
Only
,” Sara cuts in sarcastically.”

“The bombs will work,” Kain says. “And my men will pull through. We’ll have backup on the ground.”

“Well,” Cygnus says. “This is what we’ve planned for, so if you’re wrong, we’re all dead. Your mate and her sister included.”

* * *

W
e’re brought
into a lobby to rest. There’s huge floor-to-ceiling windows overlooking the silvery lake of Kraken Mare.

“It looks so surreal and beautiful,” I say, holding Kain’s hand. “But do you think it smells like farts?”

“I will not allow them to make you fight,” Kain says, gripping my hand.

“Don’t worry,” I say. “I’ll do what I have to.”

“No,” Kain says. “You won’t.”

“What about drones?” I ask. “Surely they have drones here?”

“They’ve been decommissioned,” Kain says. “We had to kill all the A.I. driven weaponry to steel ourselves against Harmony.”

“Right,” I say. “But Felicia and I are both good pilots.”

“Oh,” Kain says. “I think Sara would agree to this.”