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

I pretended I wasn’t ready to shit my pants. While it might be possible for us to survive down on the planetoid — if it came to that — I wasn’t looking forward to it. Something told me it would be a death struggle with the denizens of the tetrahedron. Assuming Theia and I could beat an army of space demons into submission, what kind of life would Theia and I have on this inhospitable planetoid in the middle of deep space? Although I had no doubt Theia would make excellent company, and I could probably use my rings to terraform the existing planetoid into something close to Earth normal, I didn’t want to curse her to such a lonely life with just me and a bunch of space demons.

“We need to get out of here,” I said solemnly over comms.

“I won’t leave until you do, my king!”

“Yes, thank you. I won’t leave without you either. Before we go back, we need to find a way to close the gate! Do me a favor?!”

“Anything, my king!”

“Can you tell me what’s holding the Fold Gate open? There has to be some sort of device somewhere keeping it open! Something projecting energy of some kind at the position of the gate! Maybe something on the planetoid?! Try the point of the pyramid facing the gate!”

“I’ll check!”

“Don’t get too close! Stay near the gate if you need to make a quick escape!”

“Yes, my king! I’ll be careful! Scanning the planetoid now, my king!”

While I waited for her, my fast orbit around the d4 Space Pyramid continued. It wasn’t that large — not compared to a planet like Earth or Zalaxia — and orbiting it wouldn’t take long.

The CyberKnights chasing me couldn’t keep up, not even on their transformable space skimmers, and their army of space demons trailed even farther behind.

This wasn’t my first time on a powered spacewalk, but that didn’t decrease my low-level fear of getting stuck here permanently. I tried to sweep it aside by focusing on my inherent curiosity. This strange, monochromatic 4-colored pyramid planet piqued my interest big time.

Who had made it?

Because there was effectively a zero-percent chance that a perfect d4-shaped planetoid had coalesced from spiraling cosmic dust and birthed castles and CyberKnights. Someone had constructed this place and populated it with space demons. Maybe the CyberKnights themselves had done the job, or hired someone to do it for them before they moved in.

But why?

If they hadn’t dropped in on the Zalaxian outpost with the obvious intent to kill me, I would have gladly invited them over for dinner so they could tell me their origin story. Sadly, their recent behavior suggested they would be less than polite dinner guests.

My reverie was interrupted by a dozen bright sparks suddenly appearing down on the red surface.

I tensed.

Had they just fired bolt cannons at me? Surface-to-air missiles? Flaming red boulders from red rail guns or magical space catapults?

Entirely possible.

In case they had done any of the above, I poured on the speed by increasing the length and diameter of my personal POSITION vector and went shooting forward even faster. I already knew from experience, at the rate any energy bolts or missiles would be traveling, I wouldn’t have time to extract their mass before they hit me.

Evasive maneuvering was my best option.

I started banking and diving unpredictably.

Ring! Show me any incoming projectiles on my HUD radar!

Sure enough, I saw a bunch of red X’s appear in my HUD, which was 3D and showed their positions relative to mine. They were quickly angling up from the surface toward me.

I intensified my evasive maneuvers.

In my radar, the red X’s did too.

Whatever was coming after me was guided.

This was going to be a close one…

I grit my teeth and pulled back hard, veering away from danger.

Not four seconds later—

WHOOSH!

Several medieval-looking red cruise missiles blasted past me. They were futuristic but needlessly spiked, and strapped with red iron bands and red iron bolts, giving them a medieval appeal. Their nose cones resembled carved red-stone gargoyles. The red gargoyle faces had burning red eyes and were frozen in a perpetual snarl. After passing me, the red missiles arced out in different directions, billowing thick clouds of red smoke, and slowly looping around, still tracking my position.

Not this again.

—: Chapter 38 :—

I’d gotten my fill of being run down by space cruise missiles back on the Artemis, when they’d chased me and the Bombshells between Earth’s moon and Mars, yet here I was again.

I grimaced in frustration.

The main difference between then and now?

I wasn’t limited by the maneuverability and speed of the Artemis. I increased my personal POSITION vector arrow and blew past the nearest missile so fast, it never had time to change course.

The other missiles all turned to reorient on my position, slowly arcing in new, curving vectors, but they weren’t fast enough. Compared to me, their course changes were sluggish. As long as I kept moving, they had no chance of hitting me.

I could do this all day if I had to.

No, I couldn’t.

Eventually, my ring fuel would run out. Floating in space, there was no convenient source of energy I could tap. Question was, when would these missiles run out of fuel? I didn’t have Cygna or Sirius or Bree here to tell me their specs. I knew from back on Earth that anti-aircraft SAMs — Surface to Air Missiles — could have ranges as short as a few kilometers (as was the case with MANPADS, or Man Portable Air Defense Systems like the FIM-92 Stinger), to tens or even hundreds of kilometers for medium-range portable platforms like the MIM-104 Patriot.

That told me nothing about these missiles, but it seemed likely their range was in the hundreds of kilometers at least, based on their altitude, speed, and elapsed flight time.

I continued with my evasive maneuvers, keeping an eye on every missile I could see directly or as red X’s in my HUD radar. Hopefully forcing them to constantly change course would