Resolute Omnibus (The War for Terra) by James Prosser

Author:James Prosser [Prosser, James]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: James R. Prosser, Jr
Published: 2013-11-22T07:00:00+00:00

Resolute Stand

Book 2 of

The War for Terra

By

James R. Prosser, Jr.

For my Mother, whom I inherited a love of reading and adventure

And

For my Father

Who would’ve thought this was cool.

Prologue

Then

Ch’Tauk Home World

Primero Ki’Bara climbed the steps of the Winter Palace slowly, hoping to draw out the time and avoid the audience with the Empress Ch’Tauk. He despised these meetings and felt that they were a waste of his valuable time. The Empress, however, required all of the military Primero to join her at least once a growing cycle to report on their progress. As a first among equals, his responsibility was greatest.

The red fields of sheefa grass rippled under the cold wind blowing off of the Ch’Toma Sea. The winter winds whipped the black sash of authority that hung across his bronze armored chest, and caused his left knee to throb. He was an old soldier by his people’s standard, and he felt the weight of every battle in his joints. The fight he was about to face, however, may prove to be the most difficult, and most brutal, of his entire life.

The naked Centurions that guarded the palace doors pulled at the heavy handles, drawing aside the grand entrance and permitting the Primero entrance to the darkened interior foyer of the building. He blinked both sets of eyes to adjust to the pale red lighting and waited for a Royal Courtesan to retrieve him and enter him into the presence of Her Royal Brilliance, The Empress Ch’Tauk.

When the Courtesan entered, Ki’Bara was appalled by the small creature’s adornment. It was a eunuch, as all servants of the court voluntarily became, and it was almost half the height of the Primero. For the first time, Ki’Bara saw that the creature had been clothed in a short pair of bright green trousers and a brown blouse that reminded him of the clothing of the humans he had led the battle against. For the Primero, it was obscene that any Ch’Tauk, let alone one of the servants of the Empress herself, should be dressed so indecent in the palace.

“How dare you!” the Primero said to the creature. “What heresy is this?”

The Courtesan stared back at him, uncomprehending. Ki’Bara reached out and ripped the obscene blouse from the creature’s shoulders, tearing the thin fabric and shredding the clothing. The servant shrunk away from the Primero, holding the torn shirt to its skin and cowering.

“You have been away from Ch’Tauk too long, Ki’Bara,” said another voice in the foyer. “You are out of touch with the latest styles.”

Ki’Bara turned on the other man and snarled. He had come up through the ranks from Centurion to Quartero and then on through Tercero and Secundo to reach his current rank. The man he saw before him had inherited his rank after his own father was assassinated a few cycles ago. He was wearing a printed gold blouse and dark bronze trousers and exuding a pheromone of arrogance and condescension.

“Ki’Bontri” said Ki Bara, throwing the scrap of fabric at the floor and staring at the other man’s ridiculous attire.

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