Angels of Eternity Read online

  Lord Tam spent three months on Trazalk in his attempt to find what he needed. The emperor was explicit on what he wanted him to bring from the prison planet. Tam tried to keep the nature of his mission quiet, but word soon spread among the security staff and inmates about a prefect from the imperial court assigned to Trazalk. Some of the watch felt the prefect was there because of irregularities in the way the money was spent. Others wondered if he was present to shut the prisons down and move them somewhere else.

  The real reason was very different from what everyone believed.

  Lord Tam was searching for warbrides.

  Most of the imperial troop levies were understaffed and didn’t operate at full capacity. Because of the long peace, the various emperors and dynasties saw no reason to increase the expenditure for the military. Most troops severed as an honor guards for the imperial capital. They also put down the rebellions, which happened with some regularity. Or they hunted for pirates. Some of the court notables sent their younger sons to train as officers and the poor of many planets saw the military as a way out of their wretched existence.

  The imperial army maintained a good reputation among the populace who viewed them as an interstellar force that keep the pirates and raiders under control. The empire hadn’t encountered a serious threat to its rule in over a thousand years. There was no need to worry it ever would. The planets existed in peace. New frontiers allowed for the relocation, sometimes not so gentle, of any social group which became a bother.

  Then the wasps showed up.

  Up until the past few months, it was assumed no other intelligent life existed in the universe besides humans. No one had ever discovered another life form that had the ability to solve problems and reason. No higher primates or similar creatures were ever found on any other world.

  The scout probe, which landed on Trazalk, changed all these notions.

  Contact was made with a new form of life, one which could reason and saw humanity as a rival an opportunity. Humanity was no longer alone in the universe. The pilot who survived the encounter continued to scream “wasps!” over and over until he died. The name took.

  This was the reason for the crashed scout probe on Trazalk. It meant the coming of the wasps once they learned how to fold space. The scientists on the emperor’s court assured him this was unlikely. However, it was best to determine the exact location of the wasp system and not inform the populace. It was a good plan and should have worked.

  Two months after the recovery of the pilot in the scout probe, contact was lost with one of the outer planetary systems. The military, knowing of the wasp existence and wishing to keep it secret for time being, sent a few destroyers to investigate. Three were sent, none ever returned.

  Two more planetary systems ceased responding months later. This time the empire sent ten entire combat legions. They retook the planet and found what remained of the inhabitants. It was a hollow victory and the legions suffered massive loses. Of the human settlers, there were no survivors.

  The first interstellar war against an alien species was underway.

  The empire needed every possible recruit it could find. The armed forces were staffed with career officers accustomed to handling small insurrections, not full invasions from an enemy who would give no quarter. The emperor prepared to address his nobles and let them know of the threat to humanity which awaited it. He needed an elite group that could be fielded at a moment’s notice and dedicated to the destruction of the enemy.

  At one end of the field, Shakti and her women assembled for the games. The stands and turf around them were thronged with spectators from among the prisoners and guards who traveled far to attend The Games. The images were broadcasted to all the major cities on Trazalk, but it everyone aspired to attend in person.

  Mangi stood at the edge of the field and took everything in with her senses. She watched the vendors set up booths on the dirt path next to the field. It was morning and the air was cool because the planetary weather control decided to allow a storm to pass by them today of all days. She still wore her plain tunic and lacked shoes, but this was all about to change. The predator tattoos ringed her upper arms in black colors against her brown skin. Then she heard her name called and walked back to the rest of the group she was with today.

  Since it was her idea, and because she was the most qualified, the other women at the dormitory appointed Shakti team captain. After finding sponsors for her group, which she called “Glorious Harmony”, Shakti set about training them. The intake center decided not to assign them any other tasks until they saw how her team did in the games. This would be the first year an all-woman team competed and everyone was eager to see the outcome.

  Shakti walked down the line of women who had their personal gear laid out on the ground. They were all from backgrounds that made them immune to pain and gave them combat skills. Someone once told her the best fighters came from the lowest levels of society. She looked at them and knew this group was at the very bottom, even in a prison. Each of the women with her had a unique and horrible backstory. Some had learned to punch customers who assumed too much, others were still had the feral eyes of the street.

  Shakti didn’t like to be touched casually, nor did any of the other women with her. One of the officials from the games made a mistake and patted little Bravi on the back when they were at the registration desk. It took Shakti and Kamala both to restrain her. She’d tried to smash his head with a chair.

  Her strategy involved the use of fast-motion tactics that would take her opponents by surprise. As she examined the images of previous year’s tournaments, Shakti observed little in the way of formation or movement. Ten men from various teams would collide and pull each other to the ground any way they could. When this happened, the largest men won. It took a lot of energy to ground a three hundred pound man who was over six feet in height. This was because the teams relied on size and brute force. Her women were much smaller in weight and height than the bruisers they would encounter. They could get the job done with teamwork and surprise their opponents.

  She tested out all manner of scenarios with the women until Shakti found the one that worked. From it, she devised other formations designed to bring the largest number of men down in the quickest manner. She had spies watch the other teams train. They told her the men all used their size and bulk to do the job.

  She remembered how Tara bounced back off Kamala when she taught her how to ground an opponent. Tara, small as she was, survived on the streets by evading anyone who chased after her. She’d only been caught once, she claimed, and this was why she was here. A direct assault wasn’t her preferred method. All of them had their worst tunics on that day and Tara ripped hers down the center. The uniforms and training weapons had yet to be delivered.

  “How am I supposed to fight like this?” she asked Shakti. Tara stood there with her breasts swaying in the air. She wasn’t that tall, but her nipples made up the difference. Of course, the intake center hadn’t issued them any undergarments.

  “Take it off,” Shakti told her. “All of you strip these damn rags off.” To show them she was series, Shakti took hers off too. The other women shrugged and stripped down. Dropping your clothes meant time to go to work for them, so it wasn’t a big deal.

  “Now follow me and rip them up!” she ordered. “Tear these apart, we have spares and it’s time we got better ones.” She began ripping up the cloth. Soon, the practice field echoed the sound of fabric torn apart.

  “Now wrap them around your breasts,” she showed them as Shakti took the cloth and tied her breasts back. The scar on her face flared. She wasn’t being funny.

  As soon as the group of women had wrapped their breasts, she showed them how to use the rags as breech clothes. From the distance, several men stopped what they were doing as they observed a group of women who tied rags around their waists. Several trucks almost collided.

  Lord Tam was on his way to the warden’s office when he saw the group of ten women strip
down on the edge of the field. He had his driver stop the car. He climbed out and watched. Tam stayed there until they’d turned their tunics into two-piece training garments. It dawned on him this might be the group he was supposed to find. He rubbed his baldhead and returned to the car.

  “We’ll train this way,” Shakti told them. “Now let’s get back to work.”

  It was tough, but she managed to create a fighting unit out of women who had little in common. The one thing they did know about was men. Each of them had spent most of their career learning how to cater to the pleasures and desires of men. Shakti felt this ability would be utilized on the playing field. It would allow them to anticipate their opponents and figure out what they had in mind.

  The women rose early on the day of The Games and travelled to the playing field, which wasn’t far from the dormitory where they stayed. Durga, who’d assumed the role of her sub-captain, found a truck that they could use to take their weapons and armor to the field. Another truck allowed the women to travel along in the rear.

  The arrived to a crowd of hooting men. They found it hilarious that women, who worked on their backs, would presume to challenge the best teams on the planet. The crowd was out of control with laughter. Even the guards found them a joke.

  “Just ignore those idiots,” Shakti told them. “Keep looking ahead. I know it’s hard for some of you to avoid eye contact, but these aren’t potential customers anymore.”

  The game organizers had them drop their equipment behind an area reserved for the players. They helped each other out of the truck; Kamala even picked up Tara and sat her down on the ground. Everyone found that to be funny, except Tara.

  They came close to causing a delay of the game when the ten women stripped off their tunics and began to put on their jackets and fighting armor. Other teams, almost all of them men, were assembled in the same space. They stopped what they were doing to watch the women become naked for a brief moment. Women were a distinct minority on the planet and the warden housed them in separate locations. Most of the men hadn’t seen much woman flesh in a long time. It led to some interesting confrontations.

  Chimata was on the edge of the field changing when the first man walked up from one of the other teams. He offered to help her. She politely refused. She did the same with the next one too. Just as she was pulling up her padded trousers, a third man approached her.

  “Look,” the petite woman snapped at him, with her brown eyes lowered. “I’m not your mother, sister or cousin, so please go back to where you came!” He scampered off and no one bothered her again.

  The women stood with Shakti and watched the first round. They took mental notes on techniques and practices of the other teams. As Shakti pointed out, few of them did anything in regards to tactics. Each side would collide and the battle would turn into a series of one-on-one fights until a clear winner was selected.

  The weather was cool that day and the sky turned overcast. The seasons on Trazalk were regulated by the planetary atmosphere control, but there was still a lot of instability. Today rain was in the air and Shakti felt it, as the ozone in possessed a distinct smell. She didn’t want to fight in a rainstorm, but would if they had to do so. Wet ground would change the dynamics of the battle. She turned and looked at the other women who’d found a place at the barricade to watch the opening rounds. It was obvious the game commission saved them for last.

  When Shakti’s team took the field, stillness went across the crowd who watched. They had been loud most of the time, cheering on the individual teams and rooting for the favorites. The crowd expected the women would be trounced in a hurry. As they assembled on their side of the field, the opposing team rallied to the other end. When each team was in position, the crowd had a better view of them and began to make comments on the size of each one. The physical size of the men’s team compared unfavorably to the women. Shakti’s team has some tall women, but none of them had the mass of their average opponent. Under normal circumstances, this would make a difference. However, Shakti’s team trained for speed, not size.

  The men on the other side stood in a line and leered at the other team. They were criminals condemned to the prison planet, most of them for life. Shakti watched their unshaven faces through the helms and heard them make lewd remarks at her team. She could smell them from his distance, testosterone oozing out of their pores.

  The first round began with the sound of a whistle and both teams went at each other. Shakti held her women back, relaying orders to Durga just in case she was out of range. Each one of her teammates was told to echo the order back in line and to talk to each another. Shakti allowed the opposing team to move within five paces, and then ordered hers to split into two units.

  Split into two different sections, the women engulfed the men’s team. The other team had seasoned players and expected to walk over the top of the smaller women in the first five seconds. It didn’t work out that way.

  Once each of her squads were on the opposite side of the men’s team, it was easy for them to walk down the line. Suddenly, each man on the end found himself confronting not one small woman, but a group of five working in precision. Two shields would slam hard, which tossed him off balance. It was followed by a blunt halberd that crashed into his helmet, sending him to the ground and out of the game. By the tune the final three men realized what happened, it was too late. They tried to move out of range and regroup, only to be struck from behind by more women in wait. The women defeated the men’s team in two minutes.

  They were united by Shakti’s organizational ability and their desire to win.

  The crowd stood there, unable to believe what it just witnessed. There was a two-second pause as the Marshal of The Games declared the women’s team a winner, then the crowd exploded in cheers. They’d witnessed something that never happened before in the history of The Games.

  The women’s team moved back to their side of the field and waited for their turn to be called again.

  “Is everyone okay?” Shakti asked as she walked down the line and checked them over. Durga did the same from the other end. Here and there, strapping needed to be fixed and armor rearranged. However, everyone was fine.

  Kamala being the one exception. “I think I have a bruise on my thigh,” she said. “But the man I hit has a bigger one.”

  The next engagement was quick and none of them suffered more than a scratch. The next men’s team walked off the field and looked back with a sense of disbelief and anger. Anger over the loss, in wonder at the women who did it. These were not the usual women sent to Trazalk.

  The prefect, Lord Tam, watched it all. He stood off to the side while it took place. He sat in the dignitary’s section. While a few of the inmates who worked in the kitchen waited on them, the warden conversed with the prefect. He asked him about the imperial court, if there was any important news and would his request for additional funds be approved. The prefect, in his eloquent robes and silks, told the warden that he was a minor functionary in the emperor’s court and was on Trazalk to do routine inspections. He didn’t tell the warden he was there to recruit some women for a special project.

  It was a pleasant day, they feasted on the best food and wine the prison planet had to offer. The prefect played the part of the genteel courtier. The warden acted the role of a generous host. They both knew it was all a façade, but neither cared.

  Shakti’s women accomplished everything they set out to do that day, advancing to the final rounds. When they were in the finals, an advanced team that held the title four times in the past figured out their tactics. They did their own strategic thinking before the fight. The team was able to maneuver around the women and isolate pockets of them. When Shakti’s team broke up into individual units, they were easy pray for the larger men. They went down hard and, in the end, the best of the teams could beat the Glorious Harmony women.

  Shakti was furious, but hid it from the other women. They’d lost in the final elimination round.

  By now, th
e prefect was sure whom he wanted to bring back to the emperor’s palace. These women were perfect for what he needed. The emperor would be pleased, he would get a promotion and human civilization might survive the wasp invasion.

  Shakti and her women marched off the field in formation. Since most of them came from Harmony, marching in formation was a thing they’d observed since little girls. The other inmates cheered at them and made offers of companionship for the night as they went past. Once off the field, they stripped off their body armor and waited for another truck or transport vehicle to return them to the dormitory.

  “Guess we’ll be sent somewhere else,” Durga told Shakti as they waited. “I guess we can always plan for next year, unless the warden breaks us up.”

  “I’ll not go to a pleasure house,” Dharma told them, as she spit blood on the ground. She took a nasty hit early in the last engagement, but it would heal in a day or two. It was a bone bruise that left a deep blue welling

  “I’ll work in a kitchen before I lay on my back for another man,” Dharma added.

  “Well done, Ladies!” a voice called to them from the edge of the field and they turned to look at the newcomer. It was a full prefect from the imperial court. All of them knew the signs of the personal staff of the emperor. They may not have seen one up close before, but the activities of the court were the subject of gossip.

  He was followed by a scribe and two bodyguards. This was a penal colony, after all. Mangi looked at the bodyguards and sized them up. She could take both of them out if it had to be done. But all of the women wanted to find out why someone so far up the imperial ladder would come and visit a bunch of former pleasure women. What did he want?

  “We lost,” Durga said to him. Like most of the women who kept their hair long, she’d braided it that day. It was still coiled around her head. “And we may never get off this planet. So why are you so impressed?”