Punished, Tana Stone [top reads .txt] 📗

in the open area. The imperial attack had started before we’d had a chance to get our weapons in place or away from stray laser fire.

Holly’s gold-skinned mate scooped her up and ran for the exit. “I’m getting her to safety.”

I waved at the supply cave as he passed me. “Head over there. The planet’s supply stores are cut into the rock. She’ll be safe inside.”

He nodded, not slowing his pace as the pregnant female jostled in his arms.

Instead of running, the Dothveks and Tori were busy shoving armed torpedos into launchers and swinging them toward the incoming fighters.

“Take this, you imperial fuckers!” Tori yelled, as she unleashed a torpedo into the air.

As Holly had promised, the torpedo flew with incredible speed, locking onto a gray fighter and turning it into a ball of flame.

Tori cheered at the explosion. “One down!”

Casting a lingering look at the cave dwellings and hoping Sienna was safe, I bolted back to help fire at the attackers. Vrax fed torpedos into the launcher Tori was operating, so I started doing the same for Kush.

“Thanks.” He grinned as I loaded a fresh torpedo for him, then spun the launcher into the sky, tracking an imperial ship before loosing the weapon. It arched high before darting toward the fleeing ship, and soon the sky was filled with another fireball as it found its target.

A rumble made us all swivel our attention to the bounty hunter ship lifting off the ground.

“Caro can’t resist a good sky battle,” Tori yelled over the sound of more laser fire.

We watched as the ship shot forward, flying low and blasting a pair of imperial fighters, before flipping over and coming back around for a second run.

“She’s good,” I said, loading another torpedo for Kush.

“She’s not just good,” Tori corrected me. “She’s fucking great!”

As the huge ship swooped and pivoted with the grace and agility of a much smaller ship, I had to agree with her. Two more imperial fighters blew up, but one spiraled to the ground in a fiery streak, crashing somewhere near the shallows. In the distance I heard screaming, no doubt from terrified villagers.

“Last one!” Kush said as his torpedo blew up the final gray Zagrath ship overhead.

I braced my hands on my knees to catch my breath. “Not bad for a few torpedo launchers and one ship.”

Before the others could agree with me, a swarm of imperial ships descended from above, all firing on the planet and on the bounty hunter ship. Vrax pulled Tori down as laser fire blew up the benches of the amphitheater, chunks of stone raining down around us.

The bounty hunter ship flew deftly, but there were too many fighters on her tail. Like a dart, she flew away from the village in a manic, evasive pattern, disappearing entirely from our view.

“Caro!” Tori jerked from her mate’s grasp and ran back to her launcher, her expression wild with rage as she aimed it at the gray ships that now filled the sky like a swarm of Zillian locusts.

When ships started to explode one after the other in quick succession, we all looked at Tori. But she hadn’t fired. She gaped at the fire in the sky with as much surprise as the rest of us, as imperial fighter after imperial fighter imploded.

Then the black Vandar horde ships dropped their invisibility shielding.

Chapter Thirty-Five

Ch 35

Corvak

I ran from the amphitheater as the Vandar transport ships descended from the larger horde ship. Most of the imperial fighters had been blasted from the sky, but a few had darted above the clouds and presumably back to the imperial battleship in orbit. Villagers who’d come from the square earlier to stare at the bounty hunter ship now took advantage of the break in laser fire to run back toward the village and the dwellings. A quick glance over my shoulder revealed a mass of bodies moving swiftly up the path.

My heart pounded as I dashed toward the trio of black ships touching down next to where the bounty hunter ship had been. I didn’t know if Raas Bron himself would be on one of the transports, but I was more than ready to bend my knee to him and show him my sincere contrition. Standing with my hands clasped behind my back and my tail only slightly twitching, I waited as patiently as I could while the ramps to the ships lowered to the hardpacked dirt.

When the Raas emerged, the metal on his studded leather arm braces glinting in the light, my mouth went dry. It was not Raas Bron, or any warlord of the Vandar I’d seen before. Since I’d laid eyes on all the current Raas’ but one, this had to be Raas Vassim. The one who patrolled the far outskirts of the galaxy, and rarely had any contact with other Vandar. The one who was whispered about in low tones and with furtive glances. The one they said was deranged.

Lunori Raas, he was called in hushed tones. The Deranged Warlord.

Raiders poured from the transports behind him, but all waited with their axes and shields in their hands as the warlord took long strides toward me, his kilt slapping against his muscular thighs and his tail swishing rapidly.

“Vandar,” he said, his shrewd gaze fixed on me. “It was you who called for aid?”

I clicked my heels together quickly. “It was, Raas. I am Corvak of the Vandar.”

More black leather cut into the flesh of his massive chest as it crossed from the top of his shoulder to his waist. Behind him, his tail snapped back and forth as if he was an animal readying itself to pounce. “But your horde is not here.”

I clenched my hands together and lifted my chin. “I am currently without a horde.”

He tilted his head at me. “I’m listening.”

“I was the battle chief for Raas Kratos, and then for his successor Raas Bron. When I believed the human female the Raas had claimed to be deceitful, I questioned her in