Page 2 of The Dreamer and the Deep Space Warrior (Xaal Alien Romance #1)

The Kroid ships pulled up at the same time, their movements too synchronous as they now raced upward toward the stars. They could have been testing a new system, but Ved was certain something more was at play. The moment he shifted in pursuit, his general followed without hesitation .

“What do you think we’ll find?” Kravis asked as they sailed through the jade and violet of dusk.

“A Kroid Driver, perhaps,” Ved theorized. Where Kroids were, their mother ship was never far behind.

They broke through the atmosphere and orbit, entering the expanse to find—

Nothing.

Though they had been only seconds behind the small fleet, the vastness of space was all that surrounded them.

“ Nevskol ,” Kravis cursed. “Last time I checked, those ships didn’t have warp capabilities.”

“They don’t,” Ved rumbled.

Right then, his warning indicator went off, followed by the detection of something large advancing at breaking speeds. Ved immediately turned his shadowdrifter in a defensive maneuver, leaving him and Kravis positioned for a fight.

They could take down a Kroid Driver with just the two of them, but it would take perfect coordination—a challenge Ved looked forward to.

But what slammed into the expanse around them were not Kroid ships.

They were Xaal.

Their weapons locked onto Ved and Kravis.

An ambush.

Their vessels were unmarked, giving no indication of which clan they belonged to. Cowards. Instead of issuing a blood challenge, they used tricks and snares. Only a weaker warrior need take his opponent by surprise to ensure victory.

Ved snapped his jaws in aggression as his more lethal weapons powered up .

Exxo rattled off his reports. “ I detect auto-guided missiles on all vessels. The two flanks are armed with tows and grounders. There is an unidentifiable organic mass located in the right wing of the center ship. It is possible they are carrying a biological attack system. Probability of survival with confirmed weaponry is— ”

“Don’t,” Ved snarled at the AI as Kravis veered off, his cannons sending beams of deep red through the black. Ved went the other way, taking a shot to the underside of his ship as he did. One enemy ship homed in on Kravis while the other two followed him.

He spent the next crucial moments dodging some of the blasts while targeting the weak spots in their shields. More of their shots hit than missed, though. His shadowdrifter was strong, but even so, it was built to withstand only so much. Xaal were never meant for space assaults. And yet…

“ Armor is at amber ,” Exxo noted lazily. “ Despite my initial diagnostics, our shields were not fully powered or functional. Odds are looking grimmer with each passing moment. ”

That made no sense. Systems didn’t simply glitch and fool even Exxo’s rigorous inspection.

Ved had no time to contemplate the implications of this as the enemy craft closest to him deployed its grappling claw.

It clanked and scratched against the left wing, looking for purchase.

“Seems like their orders are to capture us alive if possible, or kill us if not,” he said over the comm line, and Kravis grunted in acknowledgment.

Ved was able to maneuver his shadowdrifter out of the claw’s grasp, only to take two more critical strikes as the other vessels closed in around him.

Flanked on either side, he was trapped between them.

There was an attempt to attach the grapple again, but he rammed into the offending ship, knocking it off course.

Alarms flashed with the impact. As Ved peeled away from them, his vessel shook with more hits.

Nevskol . He refused to die here.

“ Armor at black ,” Exxo reported, meaning in the next few hits, his ship would be nothing more than debris. “ I will not tell you the probability of survival at this point. I will, however, begin to back up my data, and if you like, I can sing the lament of my people in our final moments. ”

Ved growled, but before he could respond, a burst of light paired with Kravis’s battle cry echoing in his helmet told him his bruvya had just destroyed his target.

One down.

Ved let his shadowdrifter dip, barely dodging another blast. His opponent wasn’t so lucky.

Lining himself up, his cannon hit perfectly.

The enemy craft’s armor collapsed, the hull was breached, and two Xaal were pulled into the black.

One used his final moments to shoot at Ved’s ship with his phase rifle before succumbing to the dark reaper that was space.

Two down.

But it was the final ship, who had been cooking their blasters, that would end him.

As the deep violet shot came for him, the world seemed to slow.

Exxo said something, and Kravis was bellowing at him as he raced across the sea of black, but all Ved could think was how much of a waste it all was.

Every torturous moment he’d endured, every being he’d meticulously hunted, every battle he’d bled for, and every skull he’d collected to forge the might of Clan Cleave.

It had been for nothing.

He braced for impact .

Instead, his shadowdrifter was dragged backward violently. The ship before him was being pulled, too, even as its thrusters burned hot in a futile struggle.

Exxo was attempting to analyze the situation, but one thing was clear—some tear in the cosmos had been made behind him, and they were now caught in its gravitational pull.

Rips in space were deadly. Lifeform-created ones even more so.

There was no escaping it.

He wondered if Marlep had foreseen this. Even if she had, would he have heeded her warning?

This wasn’t the death he wanted. He deserved a Xaal’s death—covered in the blood of his enemies, his body finally broken. His name should have been carved into the Spire Stone, his skull placed among those in the sacred temple, his bone dust scattered across Cleave territory.

Instead, it was into nothingness he would go.

Two more enemy ships materialized from warp, targeting Kravis immediately. He wouldn’t make it out alive, either.

Ved raged as powerlessness rose up to choke him.

Weak.

His thrusters burned, lighting up the devouring void before dying altogether. Kravis roared his name and made violent vows in the old tongue.

And then Ved was sucked into the depthless chasm.