Harem Assassins : King Sekton's Harem Planet, Book 2: A Space Opera Harem Adventure by Baron Sord (mobi ebook reader .TXT) 📕

Flying low, I led my impromptu squadron over the purple canopy of jungle trees, heading toward Violet’s last known position. I didn’t expect to find her in that exact location. It had been several hours since I had left her on the back of that walking slab of living land, Mrs. Mountainous.

When I reached what I believed was Violet’s last general location, I slowed to hover in my power armor and look around. As dark as it had been last night, I was guessing.

Ring, I thought, show me a wireframe diagram of the terrain down below and color code everything by temperature.

As always, my rings instantly complied.

In my purple ring HUD — as opposed to my power armor HUD, which was different and only functioned when I had my helmet visor down — I saw a 3D wireframe schematic of everything below the intervening leaves of the jungle canopy. It wasn’t like Predator vision. Because it was wireframe, it was more like looking at a 3D modeling program before everything gets textured.

The big surprise wasn’t the crazy, alien shapes of the vegetation, or the fact some were carnivorous. It was their movement. Some Zalaxian jungle plants liked to get up and go. Seeing the smaller ones skittering around, and the bigger ones lumbering was downright bizarre.

In practice, the movement of the jungle flora meant tracking Mrs. Mountainous would be nearly impossible. Back on Earth, she was so big, she would’ve left a trail of jungle destruction in her wake. But here, her path of destruction could easily have been minimized by the mobile plants simply moving out of her way, and the immobile ones that did get crushed could easily have been eaten or covered over by other plants moving in after Mrs. Mountainous passed through. And yes, some “carnivorous” Zalaxian plants were strictly vegetarian, eating only plants, both mobile and immobile. Others were in fact omnivorous, and still others were genuinely carnivorous, eating only animals. Violet had explained this to me on the day I’d met her.

Anyway, there was no sign of Mrs. Mountainous or Violet in the vicinity now.

“Great,” I grunted in frustration.

“What are we looking for, my king?” Captain Theia asked over comms, hovering near me in her golden power armor.

I must’ve triggered comms without realizing it. Pretty much everything about power armor functionality was controlled mentally.

Theia’s face appeared in a small window floating in the corner of my helmet visor’s HUD.

I was reluctant to tell Theia the truth about Violet. The less people who knew, the better. But it seemed Theia was completely loyal, and she was going to find out if we bumped into Violet anyway. So I said, “A woman.”

“From the outpost? A guardswoman or a technician?”

“Sure,” I lied.

“Is she lost?”

“Essentially.”

“Have you tried contacting her over comms, my king?”

“She, uh, her armor must be out of energy. I couldn’t reach her.” I knew Violet didn’t have armor or comms.

“That’s odd,” Theia frowned. “Not to worry, my king. Our armor has an emergency transponder with a separate, dedicated power supply. Even if she drained her armor to empty, the transponder would still transmit her location back to Control. Have you checked with Control?”

“Yeah,” I lied. “They can’t find her. Maybe she lost her armor. I don’t know.”

“That seems unlikely, my king, unless she lost her ring somehow? But any sane Zalaxian woman wouldn’t set foot in the jungle at night without a royal ring on her finger. It’s too dangerous.”

“She must be insane,” I smirked, not wanting to explain myself or the fact Violet had probably lost or surrendered her ring when the previous King Sekton had exiled her and branded her backside with an HP tattoo.

“With all due respect, if she’s insane, is finding her worth the risk to your Royal Person, my king?”

“Can we not—” I stopped myself in frustration. “Captain Theia, can we talk privately?” Having fifty other Shock Knights hovering around us above the jungle canopy made me feel like they were listening to everything I said. The fewer people who knew about Violet, the better. “Crown to Shock Knights, stay where you are for a minute while I speak privately with Captain Theia over there.” I hovered about 20 meters away from their position and stopped.

Captain Theia hovered over.

I retracted my helmet and visor.

The jungle humidity instantly misted my face and I felt the ever-present jungle heat. It wasn’t hot, but it was warm. Thankfully, the high volume of insect activity was minimal this early. I knew in a few hours, once the sun rose, alien insects of every size, shape, and color would be swarming everywhere.

For now, the air was still and the jungle below quiet.

Theia retracted her helmet and visor. With the lavender dawn starting to brighten, her refined features glowed warmly, enhancing her impossible beauty. Her green eyes shone with that captivating kryptonite glow that drilled through my mental defenses. I literally couldn’t speak, she was so stunning.

“Yes, my king?” she asked eventually.

“Look,” I said as quietly as I could while still being heard over the low hum of our armor thrusters. “I’m looking for my friend. She’s not from the outpost. She’s…” I didn’t want to say it.

“Is she an exile, my king?” Theia asked carefully. “Like your other four friends in Medical?” She meant the Bombshells.

“Yes. Theia, I need you— can I call you Theia?”

“Yes, my king.”

“Great. Theia, I need you to swear on your life you won’t tell anyone about this.”

“Sworn,” Theia said without hesitation.

“Good,” I nodded. “I saw how the other women treated my friends before I became king. I mean, acting king. They wanted my friends dead. If they find my other friend out here in the jungle, I’m not 100% confident they’ll treat her any better. I don’t want her getting hurt.”

“I see,” Theia said thoughtfully. “Permission to speak freely, my king?”

“Always.”

“Your will is my will, my king. If this woman is important to you, she is important to me.”

“Wow. Really?”

“Yes, my king. If you ask me to lay