The dragon's harem

The wizards have finally managed to open the new rift, and it led straight to the mortal world. Untold trillions of billions of orcs had all waited for this very moment. They had suffered from hunger for far too long, and they could finally feast once more.

Their worlds, twelve worlds to be more accurate, were already colonized in their entirety. Each solar system had at least nine planets, each being more than six times the size of the mortal world’s planet, and yet, it wasn’t enough.

They just like humans, being born from an endless cycle of evolution and adaptations, and unlike most mortals, they only discovered magic in the past half a million years. They weren’t attuned to it for most of their history.

”Here, lunch.” A three-meters-tall orc wearing a tight, armored bodysuit approached the group of chatting orcs and threw them a handful of what looked like black toothpaste tubes. ”More ORC-paste? Don’t we have anything else?”

One of the orcs growled, and the larger one glared back at him. ”Even this is a luxury. Eat it.”

Omni-Ration-compound, or as it is called, ORC paste. It is the main food source of the ever-growing orc army, and it is made by grinding the corpses of their own kin and extracting all vitamins, minerals, and acids. In short, it has no taste, doesn’t need digesting, and it has all that the body of a fighting orc needs for a whole day.

The orcs took their rations, and they all sat around the electric flame, silently sucking their tubs and waiting for the signal for their team to advance.

The ground beneath their feet was cold rock, devoid of all organic materials, the flame they were sitting around was made through a high-voltage circuit, and their armor was made of woven carbon fibre. It was unnoticeable at first, but there wasn’t a single organic material in their belongings or in the land beneath their feet.

No wood, no plastic, no leather, nothing. Just woven metals, last-gen synthetic fabric, and reinforced hyper-volt machinery.

”It’s finally our turn... I’ve heard stories about the worlds beyond the gates.” One of the orcs spoke, watching the blinding electric flames without even blinking. ”A whole world made of food. You can just bite the ground and fill your belly.”

”You heard about it; I saw it.” Another spoke, ”The ground... it tastes very strange.” He reached down and took a scope of the cold, crushed stone beneath their feet. ”It has stones like this, but they are covered in this sweet, mushy paste... It’s even better than this tasteless paste we’ve just eaten. No disrespect to the dead, of course.”

Another laughed. ”Well, it’s not like they can hear you. They’re dead, gone. Their bodies are best used to support the lives of those still breathing this poisonous, unfiltered air.”

The orc smiled, ”But wait, the ground is the worst part you can eat there. There are those long, crunchy brown things growing out of the ground. The brown part tastes great, but up, you will find those... green things, they look like tiny scales of carbon fibre, just softer, weaker, and tastier.”

”Food literally grows out of the fucking ground...” Another orc sighed, ”That doesn’t even sound real.”

”It does, but it’s not where it ends.” As the orc smiled, the other paled. ”The aliens... I fucking hate eating them... they look so in pain.”

”But they taste good.” Another pointed out, ”Some walk on all four, some walk on two and wear food. They kill their kin who walk on all four, skin them, and instead of eating, they wear their skin like it is some kind of pride.”

”I doubt they are of the same kin... the ones who walk on two legs and those who walk on all four don’t look the same. I’ve even some that fly without machines.” Another one commented, and the first to speak growled.

”Food grows out of the fucking ground; it isn’t strange to have several types of aliens all thriving.” He stood, and growled, ”Just thinking about it makes me angry.” He glared at the empty tubes of ORC paste.

”Calm down, Arlo. We’ll be joining the strike team soon.” He stood, pulled a tablet from his metallic bag, and turned it on. ”Look, fresh images from that world.”

”You fucking had that all this time!?” Everyone jumped at him, and in a second, they were all glaring at the tablet as if their lives depended on it. What they saw was an endless desert of snow and biting cold.

”Is that? Water?!” One of them cried, ”All of that? It has to be worth enough credit for the entire planet.”

Another one looked closer... ”Is it really water? I’ve seen it frozen in the labs before... but this is just too much of it in one place.”

The one holding the tablet smiled. ”In just a few hours, when we jump there, you all can just pick it up with your hands. Those that returned said it is cold, sweet, and melts in your tongue.”

Arlo looked at them. ”I’ve saved for three months to get a finger-sized tube of filtered water, and it tasted like rust.”

”Yeah, brother. This is far better than that, and it’s free, all you can eat.” He then started shifting through several other images. ”Look, do you see those things that look like hair growing out of the frozen water?”

”Yeah... don’t tell me!” One cried.

”Yeah, those are the food that grows from the ground. You can eat those; they are crunchy and just taste amazing.”

As they talked, their commander growled. ”You’ll soon be there. But don’t lose your senses. The alien won’t just let us eat their food. They’ll come at us with everything they’ve got, so don’t just start slurping the ground like idiots.”

One of the orcs shrugged. ”Kill all aliens, collect their bodies, and establish a base to mine for food and resources. Once the area is depleted, we move to the next. I remember the courses.”

The commander stood, approached the orc, and punched him square in the nose, dropping him to the ground. ”You remember nothing! You fool! You won’t be going there to take food; you’re all going there to fight and die, doing your best to stall for time until the harvesting team does its job. Don’t underestimate those aliens; they are nasty, far worse than any gun or laser weapon we’ve got.”

After yelling for a second, he panted. ”First lesson: kill all aliens at sight. Second lesson, after you kill those aliens, tear or devour their bodies on the spot. Some can still stand back up and fight.” He then helped the orc stand. ”Third and last lesson: If you see a SUPER class alien, don’t engage and make informing the rest a priority.”

The soldier orcs paled, ”Code Black Ear... was a horrifying one.” The day the dark elf goddess tore through their ranks and killed billions was still engraved into their history, and it has been immortalized as the code name for the worst-case scenario... an alien that can kill billions of orcs.

”We got nukes. Can’t we just... wipe them off?” One asked, and everyone else stared at them. ”And burn all the food? You’re the kind of idiot who got us to this point; look what those nukes did to our land. We need them dead, but we need their food to stay edible.”

”SUPER class or not,” Arlo stared at them, ”We will take them down and feast upon their bodies.”

They all smiled, even the commander, ”Yeah, we got you with us. The Black Devil.”