Ground Mission

by Laylah Hunter

Simon Pollux and Adrian Lovasz are podmates, and a matched set Simon, the lethal scout, and Adrian, his willing and even more lethal combat specialist. In the midst of exploring an alien world, Simon is infected with an alien virus, and Adrian must decide to what lengths he'll go to ensure Simon's comfort.

(Word 16,900)

Genres: Science Fiction, M M Romance, Aliens, Erotica, Anthologies, Military Fiction

39 pages, Kindle Edition

First published August 9, 2013

About the author

Laylah Hunter is a third-gendered butch queer who writes true stories about imaginary people in worlds that never were. Most of hir work deals with queer characters, erotic themes, and the search for happy endings in unfavorable circumstances.

Hir mild-mannered alter ego lives in Seattle, at the mercy of the requisite cats and cultivating the requisite caffeine habit, and dreams of a day when telling stories will pay all the bills.

Reviews

[Sunny · Rating 4 out of 5]

Um, yeah...
*squirms*
That was...that was...really, really, really hot.

Oh, and it's an awesome story, too.

*goes back to read it again*

Later...
Loved the setting, characters, and world building. The only thing I'd change would be to slow down the ending, give more information about what happened with Simon.
Great story, though, and I'll be reading again :D


* part of the anthology, All Wrapped Up

[Elizabetta · Rating 4 out of 5]

4.5 stars

(This short is part of the anthology, All Wrapped Up)

Adrian Lovasz and Simon Pollux are posted on the starship Arbiter and make up landing team Beta Twenty-Two. They are mission Specialists, which in this world means they’ve had biological enhancements to their bodies and brains which assist in field maneuvers. They are also pod-mates and share pretty much everything… adjacent cryogenic pods during between-mission downtimes, and when they’re awake, they’re fuck buddies... so, all-round mates.

Adrian has been bio-enhanced for strength/combat, Simon for intel/field scouting. They’ve just been brought out of their cryo-sleep storage for a new mission-- to uncover the mysterious disappearance of all the colonists on an Earth-like planet. Both of them tough guys and seasoned operatives, they have a gruff, teasing manner with each other, but you sense a softness between them too.

It all seems like a regular mission until the two encounter some local fauna of the tentacled species. The creatures seem semi-sentient, they hunt in packs, at least. And are intent on getting to the two guys.

This is a great short story, suspenseful, with some clever world-building, and likable characters. The ending is satisfactory but I hope it will be expanded to a longer story. (I have to add that I wished Simon hadn’t recovered from his ‘mishap’ at the end. Then the story would have taken a really interesting turn. Read it and see if you agree.)

[Laylah Hunter]

In case you missed it as part of the anthology, here's my contribution as an individual ebook! Space marines fighting aliens and talking about feelings. They do one of these things much better than the other.

[blub · Rating 3 out of 5]

Has established couple Adrian Lovasz and Simon Pollux being woken from cryogenic sleep to go on a mission there on this strange planet they encounter the native creatures and Simon becomes infected with a peculiar virus.

Quite short and left me wanting more. More a slice of life read since reader's don't really get to know the characters all that well and the story is short and suffers because of this.

other note: some tentacle action.

[Kat · Rating 3 out of 5]

Read as part of the All Wrapped Up anthology.

[Thomaidha Papa · Rating 4 out of 5]

3.5 Hearts
Review written for MM good Book Reviews

Oh, my. What an interesting short story.

Ok! Imagine a big muscle man, all meat, and brawn and scientifically enhanced soldier with a gold, soft, sweet, loving heart. And then imagine a wiry, snippy, snarly, constantly irritated, and irritating Intel scout soldier. Don’t they make the perfect match? Hell yeah, you have no idea. This pair – along with others we don’t really care for, because they are not so much a big part of this story – travel the universe trying to find suitable planets for resources and relocation. When they are not on the ground securing, scouting, and/or anything that their work as soldiers requires, they spend the rest of their time in cryo-sleep aka unconscious. Their time to just be is limited and they are more often than not treated by their superiors as gear, another set of weapons, expensive yet replaceable ones. Not very good for morale so our perfect match has to do with the little in between fights time they have on their hands to relieve stress.

Yup, you got the main idea; there’s fast sex, there’s rough sex, and there’s no room for feelings, even if they simmer underneath their skin barely managing not to escape their mouths. So the entire read beside the action part, is quite tense with unconfessed feelings and their intimate encounters are HOT...

Read the entire review here.

Thommie

[Hollis Shiloh · Rating 5 out of 5]

Okay I loved this soooo much I think I have to read it again. I was just mad about these wonderful characters. It wasn't a long story, but the author got in everything I wanted somehow. Yes there were tentacles, but it wasn't icky. It was just a beautiful story about two men in a different sort of situation, very human and caring about each other very much, despite all the obstacles in their way. What a beautiful, beautiful read. <3

[Marlobo ♥ epilogues · Rating 4 out of 5]

Read as part of All Wrapped Up anthology (review there).

[Niquie · Rating 3 out of 5]

2.5

Enjoyable short read. Plus some tentacle sex.

[Viv Ross · Rating 3 out of 5]

It would have been four stars except the tentacles go away :(

[Tailtiu · Rating 4 out of 5]

Read in the All Wrapped Up Anthology

[Neyjour]

★★★ - Read in All Wrapped Up

[George · Rating 4 out of 5]

Read 1st October 2014
Reread April 2